Without
an instant of hesitation, man and unicorn fused and focused.
The fight raged around them. Nikos shut it out and kept his horn lightly pressed to the center of Jen’s forehead. The unicorn’s healing power radiated through Jen’s still, shocked body, as Nikos poured his own strength into her. The dull, grayed lifelines that mapped through her being pulsed, at first dimly. Tentatively. Then slowly, slowly, they began to glow with life.
Suddenly she gave a gasp, her back arching, her eyes briefly opening as she gazed at the sky and beyond. Then she collapsed again, but this time she was breathing. Her mind lay far below the surface of consciousness as her body struggled to unite heartbeat and breath again.
Time wore on as his healing energy sought the deadened nerves that had been electrocuted by Keraunos’s lethal power. Her heart labored, and she bled sluggishly from the bites on her wrist. Her hands were swollen and whitish from cut-off circulation, though he noted briefly that someone had come up and cut those ties.
Nikos was aware of every point of pain Jen struggled against, but he dared not shift back to his human form.
Wait, hummed the unicorn. Wait—
On the mythic plane, the lifelines through her body—what in Eastern medicine were termed the meridians—shone with increasing vigor. Presently her entire body blazed like a small sun . . . and Jen shifted.
There before Nikos lay a golden phoenix, as rare as she was magnificent.
Nikos shifted to his human self. He tenderly, carefully lifted her head with trembling hands, and laid it gently on his knee. She was still deeply unconscious.
He raised his aching head and gave a quick scan of the environment. The battle had ended without him being aware. The only noise he heard was the cry of distant seabirds, and the hiss and crash of the sea below the cliffs.
His gaze caught on Joey Hu sitting cross-legged nearby, hands on his knees, eyes shut.
Nikos forced one word out: “Cang?”
“Stalemate,” Joey said. “He saw the oracle stone return to the ground, and flew off, leaving his minions. Keraunos slunk away.”
“Thank you,” Nikos said. “I saw you running defense.”
“I wish I’d gotten my jaws into him,” Joey said. “I would have left him far away from this world.” He smiled down at Jen. “You saved her. I didn’t think humans could survive Keraunos. But she’s not entirely human, is she. Did you know about that? She’s beautiful!”
“I didn’t. Her phoenix has been dormant for generations.”
“I wonder what happened to cause that,” Joey murmured. “The rarer shifter families are usually so careful to preserve their heritage.”
Nikos was too tired to speculate at that moment. He gave his head a single shake, and Joey said, “Ann followed Cang to see if she could track him to his lair.”
Nikos began to smile, then a thought occurred. He was so exhausted it seemed to come from far away. “She can’t shift into the mythic plane?”
“No,” Joey said with a sigh of regret. “But she might get a vector on his direction before he notices he’s being tailed.” He gave Nikos a serious look. “I watched you draining your life force. That’s one of the reasons why I’m here. No, don’t protest. I’m not about to argue with your decision. I would have done the same if it were my mate lying there. What I want to know is, have you ever forced a shift before?”
“Not forced,” Nikos said quickly. He would never force his mate to do anything.
“Right.” Joey raised a hand, palm out. “Wrong word. Not sure what’s the correct one. It’s so very rare to be able to bring out a dormant shifter trait, especially a mythic one, that we don’t really have a term, do we?”
“No. And no, I’ve never done it before.” Nikos drew in a long, tired breath. “Touch and go there,” he admitted, his voice hoarse. But I’d try it again in a heartbeat. Though he was incapable at this moment of doing much more than sitting there, he smiled down at Jen’s glorious new form. She resembled a large swan in shape, but with a sharper beak The long sweep of her wings and tail feathers shimmered ruddy red-gold in the fading starlight.
Joey said, “Her regeneration seems to have healed the bites Keraunos left on her, and her poor hands. Despite Cang’s best efforts.”
“He and I are going to have a talk about that,” Nikos promised in a growl. “Zip-ties might be involved.”
Joey laughed, then peered toward the pale blue light in the east. It was almost dawn, Nikos discovered: between pulling up the oracle stone and the healing, the night had passed.
Joey said, very tentatively, “You realize she might not be able to shift back.”
“I thought of that,” Nikos admitted. “My unicorn would probably want to know what would be so terrible about life as a golden phoenix.”
“He’d have a point.” Joey took a deep breath. “Though she didn’t ask for it. Another problem I feel I ought to raise. You might not be able to shift, depending on how much you depleted yourself.”