Blade Song by J. C. Daniels

Author:J. C. Daniels
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Speculative Fiction
ISBN: 9781617507779
Publisher: Hydra Publications
Published: 2012-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

I trudged along behind him, swatting at mosquitoes, cursing the heat, still feeling too damned tired and wondering how long we’d be out here. We’d spent most of yesterday in the woods and had collapsed at a little roadside hotel only to get up at dawn and return.

He’d wanted to check out the northern part of the park, but my gut told me to go south. So here we were. And I was miserable.

Thirst nagged at me and I tugged the bottle from the pack I carried. I emptied it in three long drinks and added it to the small collection in my bag. Rummaging through the pack, I unearthed a granola bar, but before I could tear into it, I found myself trapped between Damon’s body and a bent, gnarled tree that felt rough against me, even through my T-shirt and the material of my vest.

Swearing, I jerked a look up at him. “L—”

A hand covered my mouth and he looked down at me, shaking his head.

Storm clouds swirled in his eyes and the pupils swirled. Flared. And as I watched, the bones in his face started to shift.

Swallowing, I nodded.

He backed away, lifting a finger to his mouth.

Yes, yes. I get the point.

He held out the pack he’d slung on his back. His hand was human when he started the motion, but furred, clawed by the time I caught the pack. The damn pack was more than twice the weight of my own. I shifted my balance and swung it onto my back. He pointed to the tree and mouthed, Stay.

At least that was what I thought he said.

Hard to say…because the bones around his mouth, the shape of it…everything was changing.

Slowly.

I decided it was easier to watch a shift in full speed rather than this. Muscles appeared in places where they didn’t belong and bones broke, realigned, formed, as fur spread and flowed along his body.

He stripped out of his clothes as he changed, the slow shift giving him the time to get of them without them falling to shreds around him. And it was all so completely silent. Completely eerie.

I still couldn’t hear whatever had caught his attention.

Even when he turned his back, standing on two massive legs, more than double the width they’d been only minutes earlier and prowled forward, I couldn’t hear anything.

Dark golden fur, almost the same gold as his skin, spread across his body. There were spots of deep, dark gray, nearly the same shade as his eyes, all across his arms, shoulders and legs.

He almost looked like a wereleopard I’d seen once, but that didn’t seen quite right.

Cat. I could only think cat.

As he disappeared into the trees, I dealt with the bags. I managed to shove them into the branches of the tree, hooking the straps around another branch to keep them from tumbling out of place. Out of the way, off the ground, and I didn’t have to worry about tripping over them.

That done, I gathered up his clothes and wedged them on top of the bags.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.