Hot Blooded

murder.
    The emotion dug into Grace like a spur, driving her to draw her gun and head
for the gate.
    She heard Lance roar, "Grace, dammit, wait!" And almost ran into his back as
he leaped ahead of her. Annoyance flashed through her as she stumbled through
behind him, gathering her breath to yell "Police!"
    Over the Magus's broad shoulder, she saw Childers whip around as they plunged
into the room. His gun tracked toward them…
    BUM
! The thunder of its rolling boom made her recoil. Lance fell
back against her.
    "Lancelot!" she screamed.
    "What the fuck?" Childers yelled. "Who the hell are… ? Where did you… ?"
    She was scarcely aware of his babbling voice as she fought to support Lance's
sagging weight. Looking down as she lowered him to the ground, she saw with
horror that his eyes were glazed with pain. There was a neat, dark hole squarely
in the center of his muscled chest, left bare by the shirt he hadn't bothered to
button before the jump. Blood was already pumping from the wound.
    "Knew that was going to happen," he husked.
    And she should have, too; it was a rookie's mistake, to surprise a man with a
gun in his hand. The 'Verse energies had distracted her.
    "I
said
," Childers snarled, shoving the gun against her head, "who
the fuck are you?" His eyes widened as she looked up, and she knew he'd seen the
Mageverse in her gaze.
    Grace's lips drew back in a snarl as she caught those primordial energies in
a web of her will, harnessed them tight in the space of a blink. "I'm the woman
who's going to kill you, you sick little bastard."
    Her spell smashed out, grabbed him, wrapped tight. The killer yelped, the cry
spiraling into a scream as the pressure increased viciously around his bony
torso. Grace ground her teeth, barely able to breathe herself from the energies
she was channeling.
    Yet even through all that, she could still feel Lance's agony like a spear
through her own chest. Fighting to breathe, she looked down to meet her lover's
eyes, ignoring Childers's whining gasps. "Hold on," she husked. "I can heal
you." And she knew she could, could feel the way to do it in the paths of
swirling energy.
    "Don't bother," Lance whispered. "I just have to Change."
    Of course. Changing would heal his injuries as the Mageverse reshaped his
body.
    In the next instant, she felt the 'Verse boil around them as his cells drew
on its dark energies, channeled them, used them. A white-hot light burst in her
face in a massive, silent detonation.
    When she could see again, she realized two things simultaneously; there was a
huge black timber wolf resting across her lap…
    And her distraction had broken the spell holding Childers.
    Stunned, disoriented, she looked up at the massive bore of his gun as the
killer pointed it dead center of her forehead. His eyes were wild with terror.
"Die, you fucking bitch!"
    As his finger tightened on the trigger, Grace reached desperately for the
Mageverse, knowing she'd never be able to shield herself in time.
    Wolf Lance catapulted from her lap in an explosion of fur and muscle,
slamming into Childers with such force he staggered back and fell. The gun went
off. The echo of its rolling boom competed with the killer's terrified screams.
Then the screams cut off as Lance's fanged jaws clamped on to his neck.
    Which was when Grace realized the link between her and Childers was still
fatally strong. To her horror, it seemed the wolf's teeth had sunk into her own
throat, cutting off her breathing, ripping her flesh. She tried to tear her mind
away from the killer's, knowing that to share his death in a deep link could
kill her. In the distance, she could hear Deborah Keller screaming in horror,
high and hopeless. Her mind echoed the sound…
    Â 
    Lancelot!
    The telepathic cry punched through Lance's killing rage. He lifted his bloody
wolf muzzle, knowing his victim would be dead in seconds anyway.
    Grace lay in a crumpled heap on the floor. He could hear the whistling wheeze
she made as she struggled to breathe.
    Oh, Merlin's Gift
, he thought, horrified.
She's still linked
with the bastard
.
    Lance leaped for her, changing back to human between one step and the next,
the pain of the process so hot and familiar he barely noticed it. "Let him go,
Grace! If you maintain that link while he dies…"
    Her panicked eyes met his. Though her throat was undamaged, her mind was
treating Childers's fatal injuries as her own. Curled in the