As Love Shifts (8 page)

Liam shrugged, shaking his head. “I don’t know. You’re right. Any action we take will have some form of aftermath. All we can do is follow our heart and try to protect him as best we can. Fate may force us into a battle that we will lose
for
the good of all. It doesn’t matter who he is or how much we love him. The older and larger he gets, the more dangerous he will become. You know that as well as we do.”

“I know.” She gave him a small smile and then hugged him, leaning into the comforting feel of his chest. Her lips met his with soft reverence, her heart aching at the sound of Lash still banging against the crate. Liam kissed her back as if it might be the last kiss they ever shared and then pushed her gently back.

“We have to go.”

“I know. Get safe and settled. Claim a small corner for us and we will be there one way or another. Blessed be.”

Liam chuckled at the age-old witch wording. “I love you, my sweet wolfy witch.”

“Love you, too.”

Ever turned and knelt down, holding her arms out to the children. The three of them hurried to her, hugging and kissing her with childish vigor. She returned their emotions and then moved them to stand before her. “You three be good. Listen to Daddy Kris and Liam and to Daisy. We will have fun in the underground caves and when the storm is over, we will come out and see what is left. You all grabbed your favorite toys, and your snuggly blankets right?”

All three children nodded, their expressions so serious they were almost stoic. She tapped Avia on the tip of her nose. “Be good.”

“We will, Mommy. You are coming, too, right?”

“Yes. Demetri and I have to wait for a very important phone call that might help Lash and then we will join you.”

Seren nodded. He turned and held his hand out to Kris. Liam lifted Avia into his arms and Errant went to Daisy to be picked up. With a nod of acknowledgement, the six people walked to the door. Kris tugged it open and was instantly lashed by the pounding rain. He turned fearful eyes on Ever. “Don’t wait too long. I will make sure that someone stays with the door to open it for you.”

“We won’t.” Ever knew it was a lie. She and Demetri would wait for Giovanna to call back and hopefully it would be soon.

She shut the door and walked back into the kitchen. Demetri had filled a bottle with liquid and Lash lay drinking it through the holder in the crate. His eyes were closing, his body sprawled on the soft cushion. “Tea?”

He nodded and sat down, patting his lap
for her to sit
. “Should I try and call her back?”

“I don’t know, has it been a half hour yet?”

“Probably. I didn’t really look at the time.”

He opened his phone and pulled up his address book. The phone rang, startling them both and then making them laugh. He swiped the call to answer it. “Hey, did you find anything?”

“Yes, but this storm if freaking me out. Do we have to do this now?”

“Yes! We may not have later.”

“Okay. Then I will make this quick. I have found reference to the spell in the gray witches’ handbook, but the spell is marked as highly frowned upon because it is usually cast on infants or small children. It is, just as the spell indicates. It takes away the child’s free will to love and focuses their mind on only one person for the rest of their lives. I have no idea why you would want to do that, but I suppose some have their reasons. As far as how to break the spell, it simply has to be said in reverse, making the person of choice replace the one who initially induced the spell. From there, the child can then be taught to love others by the newly induced surrogate. He or she will initially be the only one the child pays attention to or loves, but that person does have the ability to introduce new people to the child, telling them how to feel about that person. Basically, once the spell has been cast, someone will be in control of that child’s heart for the rest of their lives.”

“You couldn’t find anything else, huh?”

“No, but it would be far more productive to have the child love its mother or father rather than Tella. I’m not sure of the entire circumstances, but it’s better than nothing.”

“Can the new surrogate set the child free to love who they want?”

“It wouldn’t hurt to try, but depending on their age, it might not be the best course of action right now. I’m sorry, Demetri, but I have to go. I just heard one of my upstairs windows smash and I’m scared shitless. Bye.”

Ever could hear the windows rattling and things hitting the roof. “Okay. Let’s try this. I will work on other versions later. If I can at least control him, then we can take him out of the cage.”

“Go for it.”

Ever blew out a calming breath and grabbed the ledger, suddenly unable to remember the wording. Her mind was racing almost as fast as her heart, every warning buzzer flaring in her brain for them to run and find shelter. “From this day forth, you are mine, my son, son of Kris and Liam and Demetri. You will respect us and listen to our words. You will find love in your heart as any normal child would do. You will lose the anger that now consumes you and take a place as a member of this family with your brothers and sisters. I lift treycan barrion heayal. As mothra who gave you birth and now frees you from foneats et onevar.”

Demetri was glaring at her with anger in his eyes. “Damn it, Ever. She said to reverse the spell, not change it. You have no idea if what you just said will work or not. You have no idea what effect it will have on him. I won’t fuck with a spell from the gray book and that is because they are dangerous.”

Ever got to her feet. She opened the crate and lifted Lash’s sleepy body from it. “Shut up and go get me the muzzle. I can hide it with a blanket. Then we need to get the hell out of here, fast.”

She could hear the sound of the wind battering the outside of the roof, the windows rattling in their panes. With an underlying fear in the growing urgency in her mind, she ran into the bedroom and wrapped Lash in the heavy quilt. She grabbed her purse, throwing it to Demetri. “You drive.” And then she headed to the door. It was all they could do to get the door open, the wind first stopping them and then changing direction and ripping it from Demetri’s hands to slam it against the wall. The water had already risen up onto the porch, small waves rushing over their feet and down the hall. Demetri braced the door with his back, allowing Ever to hurry through it and then releasing it to smash against the casing as they trudged through the now calf-high flood.

Ever was shaking as she tried to open the door and Demetri did it for her, helping her get in and then soundly slamming it behind her. A moment later, he was wresting the driver’s door to get in himself. The wind caught the metal, tearing it from its hinges and sending it sailing airborne like a flat, glimmering kite. He grunted and shoved the keys into the slot, starting the motor. Ever knew that they were going to have to drive very slowly so as not to flood the engine. Maybe once they got away from the house, the land would be higher and not offer them quite as much resistance. It was insanity that things had gone downhill so quickly and so completely.

Demetri inched along, the rain whipping him through the missing door. He swiped at his face, the windshield wipers barely making a dent in the onslaught of rain. The car was rocking back and forth, battered by the raging winds as he drove up onto slightly higher ground. The car moved faster, the trees to either side of the road violently thrashing from side to side. The sound of cracking branches was nerve rattling and Ever watched out the windows with eyes that felt too big for their sockets. She was tempted to suggest that they get out and walk, but at least in the car, they had some small amount of protection from falling branches.

A large limb snapped off, grazing the car as it hit the passenger’s side door. She had no idea how Demetri hadn’t swerved the wheel in response to the impact, but luckily he hadn’t. The road had only been cut wide enough for the equipment and to either side was a gully to allow the rain to drain off. Of course, the gully was unseen now, the rain making it look as if it was a solid piece of flat land to either side of them. Ever suddenly realized that Demetri was somehow keeping them in the center where they needed to be, without being able to see exactly what was safe to drive on.

“Fuck!” he muttered to himself and she focused her eyes on the road ahead. One of the large, ancient pine trees had fallen from the roots and the wide expanse of green needles was entirely cloaking the road. They had hit the end of the line for the SUV.

“I guess we walk from here.”

He nodded, driving directly up to the tree and stopping. He turned to look at her, his sodden hair clinging to his face. “The water in the ditches has to be at least three feet deep in places. “How the hell are we going to get through it?”

“Drive my car into it. We can use it as a bridge to get across.”

Demetri glared at her. “Seriously?
You're gonna wreck your SUV?
”

“Do you have a better idea? We are only a short distance from the shelter and I can’t think of any other way to get into the tree line to get around.”

He groaned, pushing his soggy hair from his face. “Okay, brace yourself.” Demetri backed the car up, and, releasing a long and heartfelt breath, he spun it slightly to the left, crawling forward. Then he backed up again, just as slowly. She had no idea how he was judging where the road was, but so far they were staying on it. This continued, a few inches at a time in a nerve-wracking fashion until the SUV was parallel to the fallen tree. He put it in park and then got out, opening the passenger’s door and leaning in to her. He gave her a very sexy kiss and then stroked her cheek, seeming to focus on her face for a moment as if he might never see it again. “I love you and the last eight months with you have been the most rewarding of my entire life.”

“I love you, too. We are going to make it, all three of us.”

“Lie and tell me that is a premonition.”

“I don’t have to lie.”

He swallowed visibly and got back into the driver’s seat. Demetri buckled his seat belt and in a sudden moment of inspiration, Ever opened the door, shoving it against the hinges and snapping it off.
They had to get to higher ground to get around the fallen tree.
She braced herself as best she could as Demetri gave it gas, the car jarring forward and careening into the embankment. It made it better than halfway across and then was consumed by the deep water, the motor dying as the car was flooded. Demetri scrambled to get his seat belt off and got out, climbing onto the roof. Ever slid the seat belt off, struggling to stay rooted to the car as she stood and shimmied her body around with Lash held tightly in her arms. She stood on the door casing as Demetri held out his arms. She had to think that he had locked his feet in the roof-racks so he could lean over. “Give him to me!” he commanded.

Ever handed the child up to him and then grabbed the rack herself, pulling herself up onto the roof. Demetri handed the now soaked bundle back to her and carefully slid to the hood. He helped her down, the raging water threatening to take the SUV downstream as they leapt toward the trees. The land was slightly elevated here, the water covering only their shoes as they made their way to higher ground and around the fallen tree.

The rain-soaked blanket was weighing her down and she stripped it off Lash, knowing that she was exposing the muzzle on his small wolfy face. It didn’t matter. She had no choice. If worse came to worst, she would remove it until she could get safely inside. “How strong did you make the tea?”

“Really strong. I figured that it would be better if he was asleep for a while.”

A loud crack resounded to their right and Demetri grabbed her, pushing her to the ground and falling over her. She felt his body jar as the sound of a heavy limb falling filled her ears. Demetri groaned loudly. “Oh fuck!” His voice was strained. “You are going to have to shift to my right and get this thing off of us or I’m trapped here.” She could feel his muscles straining as he fought to keep the full weight of the broken item from crushing her and Lash. Demetri used his arms and pushed upward with his body to give her leeway to shimmy out from beneath him. She put Lash down, removing her coat and throwing it over his tiny body.

A large portion of a tree had come down on top of Demetri and she assessed it with her eyes. Ever wasn’t sure that even with her werewolf strength, she could move it by herself. She walked past him, and then back from the tree.
Running
at it,
she
buil
t
speed and then leap
t
upward. With her upper body tilted back, she slammed her feet into the wood as a child would take a slide into home base. The branch cracked, shattering at the impact point and twisting away from her. With half the tree now separated, she picked herself up from the mud and went to push the rest off of Demetri’s body.

“Mommy?” a small voice filtered through the echo of the wind and rain, reaching her ears like a lightning bolt. Demetri was gone from her mind as she walked over to the coat and lifted it from Lash’s body. He smiled at her, his very human face filled with sweetness and innocence. Ever hadn’t seen him smile since he was a few weeks old and his expression filled her with a sense of joy that she had never experienced before.

“Lash.” The word came out as a gasping breath of air, tears welling down her cheeks. “Hey, baby.” Ever was terrified to touch him, afraid that he would turn and try to tear her throat out if she hugged him.

Demetri touched her arm. “Is he okay?”

She looked at him. “I don’t know. He called me Mommy. Oh god, Demetri, he called me Mommy.” The singular statement filled her with a sense of joy and Ever tentatively picked him up.

“I cold.” He was shivering, his tiny body trembling in her hands. Ever braced herself for the worst and pulled him to her chest, grabbing the coat and wrapping it around his tiny, naked body. Unlike the other three children, Lash had not grown and thrived and he was noticeably smaller than his siblings. He cuddled into her skin, tears dripping down her cheeks at the feel of her child. He was not growling and trying to bite her. He was hugging her, warm against her skin. She looked down at Demetri and finally noticed that he was still lying down.