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It’s one of the ways we keep intruders—human, shifter, or otherwise—at bay.
“But I don’t want to find out right now,” I add, backing slowly down the trail the way we came. “I’ll come back and look around once you’re all safely inside.”
Casey backpedals beside me, moving faster as the sound comes again. “Maybe I should take Amy and Annabelle,” she says softly, clearly trying to remain calm for our daughter’s sake. “Just in case you need your hands free.”
“Good idea,” I say.
I’m about to hand over my precious cargo when the growl comes again—louder this time—and a hulking shadow emerges from behind the thick trunk of an ancient oak tree not twenty feet away. I have time to see heavily muscled shoulders, large back haunches, and a massive mouth filled with sharply pointed teeth before the creature launches itself down the path toward us.
Then, everything seems to happen at once.
Casey screams and reaches for Amy as the beast shoots from the woods like a bullet from a gun. I start to toss Annabelle to the ground behind me, hoping the move will give the tiny creature a head start, but she’s already leaping from my arms with a menacing growl of her own.
My stomach drops and my throat tightens. A part of me is already grieving the loss of the brave little beast who so eagerly sacrificed herself in a vain attempt to save her new family, but by the time Annabelle’s paws hit the ground, she isn’t so tiny anymore.
Casey and I both gasp as Annabelle metamorphosizes before our eyes, transforming from a teacup chihuahua into a monster nearly the size of the one charging our way in seconds flat.
Only, she isn’t a monster, and neither is the creature.
They’re both hellhounds, I realize now, just like the ones we discovered drugged into a sleepy stupor in the pit at the bottom of Sultan’s golden toilet earlier today. We left them there for now, deciding that relocating the beasts back to the demon dimension from whence they came would only alert our enemies that we were on to their plans.
But now I wonder if they might not already be on to us.
“Run,” I order Casey. “Take Amy to the main house and warn the others.”
Casey clasps a weeping Amy tight to her chest as she backs away. “Come with us. You can’t fight that thing with your bare hands. Annabelle is buying us time. She’d want you to run.”
“Go!” I shout, jabbing a finger toward the manor. “I’ll help her slow it down so you can get back to our people before it does.”
Casey’s eyes flash with defiance but before I can summon my gift to force her to obey me, a high-pitched yelp sounds from behind us. I spin back to see the larger hound galloping back into the woods, bleeding profusely from a wound at its neck.
Annabelle, still in her hellhound form, turns back to us, grinning with pride, a sight that would have been terrifying even if she didn’t currently have blood dripping from her front fangs.
As she trots back toward us, I fully expect Amy to cringe away in terror, but she sucks in a breath and claps her hands together. “Good puppy! Good, good puppy!”
“Very good,” Casey breathes, her wide eyes meeting mine over Amy’s head as she adds in a whisper, “Do we know if she’s safe like that? In her…new shape?”
“I think so,” I say, cutting a glance Annabelle’s way and saying, “Good job, Annabelle. That was very brave.”
“I didn’t know I had it in me,” the dog replies, still in her small, sweet voice. “Papa told me I couldn’t shift forms like the others. That I was broken, the runt of the litter, but look at me.”
She puffs up her massive chest, making me glad I don’t make a habit of being cruel to other beings simply because they’re smaller and more helpless than I am. As the universe has proven time and time again, you never know when the shoe will be on the other foot, and your status may suddenly be shifted from predator to prey.
“What did she say?” Casey hisses, a nervous smile on her lips.
“She said she didn’t know she could get big,” Amy jumps in before I can respond. “But she can! And she’s the best!”
“Oh, well, maybe you just needed a burst of adrenaline to bring it out of you,” Casey says, hugging Amy closer. “Tell her that we’re so thankful, Amy. That she’s our hero and we’re going to bring her all the dog treats before bed tonight.”
“Annabelle, my mommy says you’re a hero,” Amy translates soberly. “And that we love you and are going to give you lots of treats.”
Annabelle practically shimmies with pleasure. “Oh, sweet girl, it was my honor. And now that I see your horns, I know why you can understand me. We’re from the same realm, you and I. You may have an enhanced demon form someday, too. If you eat all your veggies and grow up big and strong.”
I turn to Amy to see her cat-ear sock cap has indeed fallen off sometime during the commotion and quickly translate for Casey.
Casey brushes the toddler’s hair from her forehead, tucking it around her tiny horns as she mutters, “Well, that’s something to ponder, isn’t it?” She hugs Amy closer with a nervous laugh. “But try not to grow up too fast, okay, bug? I like you little enough to carry home.”
Amy giggles. “I won’t, silly Mommy. You can’t grow fast. Growing is slow. That’s why we have to make a mark on the wall in the kitchen so we can see it.”
