Master of Smoke

gesture of defiance. Unfortunately, the scent of her fear came to David’s nose as sharply as a scream.
    She was terrified, and he was hiding under this bush like a coward. Yet until he could transform, emerging would only put Eva in more danger, because she would try to defend him. It just wasn’t in her to do anything else, despite the odds, despite her fear. And her courage could get her killed.
    Sick with fear, he watched the werewolves move toward Eva in a slow stalk. “Smell that, boys?” the leader purred, making a show of inhaling. “She’s scared shitless.”
    “I like ’em scared.” This from a wolf whose muscles lay in thick slabs under his black fur. “Makes me horny.”
    The leader raised his voice. “Don’t you think you’d better come out, Cat? Otherwise, we’re gonna fuck up your scared little girlfriend. And then we’ll just track you down and tear you apart anyway. But if you grow a pair, we’ll let the girl go.”
    Eva spoke up in a surprisingly deep growl, glaring at the werewolves in contempt. “Bet you feel like real men, huh?” Her voice shook, but now there was as much rage as fear in her scent. “Four of you against one woman. You sure you don’t want to go find a few more friends to back you up? I might hurt you.”
    The leader glanced at her, anger sparking in his hot red eyes. “We can handle you just fine, bitch.”
    For God’s sake, Eva, shut up! David thought in despair.
    She curled her lip. “You want me, asshole? Come get me.” It was the same doomed defiance that had led her to tryaagroin punch on the werewolf who’d transformed her. She thought she was finished, and she wanted to spit in her enemies’ faces.
    But he couldn’t let her die. Wouldn’t. There had to be something he could do. Yet he’d fought all day to reach out to both Cat and Smoke with every ounce of his will. Nothing had worked.
    “You need to learn a little respect, bitch.” The werewolves’ leader lunged at Eva, swinging out with one clawed hand. She ducked, but not fast enough. Blood sprayed from the raking blow across her lovely breasts. Striking out in rage, Eva caught the leader across his muzzle with a hard, clawed swat.
    “Oh, that’s it! You’re done now, cunt!”
    They all jumped her at once, grabbing for her wrists as they dodged her snapping jaws. A fist hit her head with a meaty thump, and their combined weight forced her to the ground. She cried out.
    Anguish knifed through David’s chest, a searing psychic pain. Unable to suppress the sound, he snarled. At that, the leader’s gray-furred head came up. Yellow eyes speared through the sheltering leaves of the bush. And found his.
    FIFTEEN
    A universe away, a creature of pure energy swirled like smoke within the spell that caged it. For endless hours Smoke had battered at the cage, fighting to escape fighting to reach the powers Warlock had stolen.
    Nothing worked.
    Smoke had called for his spirit brothers out beyond the spell cage, begging them for help. He could feel himself eroding without the body and wills of his spirit brothers to give him form.
    Warlock was trying to transform the elemental into nothing more than a power source for his own magic, and Smoke knew he wouldn’t last much longer.
    So of course that was when the pain hit—a sheering agony that tore at his soul.
    The girl. They were killing the girl.
    Both Smoke’s spirit brothers cried out in ringing rage. In that instant, the elemental realized he could use their pain as both conduit and power source. With a cry of mingled victory and fury, the creature began to craft a spell to shunt his stolen magic back to his brothers. Perhaps he couldn’t escape Warlock’s cage, but once they had the power, the brothers could rescue themselves—and him.
    It was the only chance any of them had.
    At last the spell was complete. He could feel how weak it would leave him, how helpless, but he didn’t care. All that mattered was saving his brothers. And Eva, their precious Eva.
    So with the last of his strength, he cast his spell, ripping the energy from Warlock and sending it flying back to his brothers. The sorcerer’s psychic scream of fury made him smirk.
    There, you bastard. Reap what you’ve sown.

    The werewolf leader smirked through the leaves of the bush as he spotted the cat. “Well, what have we here? Is that you, Cat? No wonder you hid.”
    “Leave him alone, you bastard!” Eva shouted. A hand cracked hard against her head, and she