Master of Smoke

yelped.
    The werewolf pulled away from her, rising to his full seven and a half feet. Turning, he stalked toward the bush. Eva screamed and threw herself against the hands that gripped her arms and legs, but the wolves held her down easily.
    The leader bent down over the bush, grabbed David by the scruff, and hauled him out. Fanged jaws gaped in a grin. “So much for—”
    The magic hit David in a breath-stealing electric surge that convulsed his black-furred body. The wave was so powerful, its nimbus slapped the werewolf like a fist. He dropped the cat and staggered back to fall in a heap of stunned fur.
    David grew. Grew past man size, grew past the size of the big-cat form he’d so often assumed.
    Grew to nine feet of muscle and claws and fangs, his body given the shape of his rage by the power surge from Smoke.
    He leaped over the unconscious leader to grab Eva’s nearest captor by the mane, jerking him up and around. Claws flashed, and the werewolf howled, gutted. David grabbed the monster’s long muzzle in one hand and clamped the other over a brawny shoulder. He jerked in opposite directions. Crunch.
    The werewolf fell dead.
    With a howl of fury, the sable wolf flung himself off Eva and barreled into David’s powerful cat thighs. The two went down in a chorus of chain-saw snarls.
    Which was why David didn’t see the remaining were jump to his feet, fist buried in Eva’s dark mane as he hauled her up to use as a shield.

    David had turned into a furry Incredible Hulk—more than a head taller than any of the werewolves and half again as broad, his shoulders massive, his fangs like blades, big hands tipped in claws the length of a man’s fingers.
    And he was really, really pissed off.
    “Get him, David!” Eva screamed as he buried his fangs in the werewolf’s throat with a savage snarl.
    “Shut up, bitch!” the gray werewolf yelled in her ear as he dragged her backward. “You’re coming with me. And you’re gonna keep your fuckin’ boyfriend off my ass.”
    Oh, screw that, Eva thought, and used the move David had taught her for just this situation.
    Her clawed hand shot backward to grab the werewolf’s dick and balls, curling into a vicious fist. Testicles squirted like an overripe tomato.
    The werewolf howled, agony loosening his grip on her hair. She snapped around in the second part of the move, slamming her elbow into the creature’s sternum. He bent double with a wheeze, unable to breathe, much less scream.
    Eva promptly grabbed his muzzle in the third move of the sequence, and jerked his head up with all her considerable werewolf strength.
    There was that crunch again. When she let go, he fell, dead before he hit the ground.
    Her stomach twisted in nauseated triumph as Eva looked around just in time to see David rising from the body of the werewolf he’d just slain. Nearby lay another one who was just as dead.
    Which left the leader, still out cold from the blast that had transformed her lover.
    David grinned at her, distinctly smug. She flinched only a little at the sight of his bloody jaws. Then a sudden motion out of the corner of her eye made her whip her head around.
    The werewolf leader reeled to his feet, shaking his head, obviously still half-stunned.
    David snarled.
    “Oh, fuck,” the werewolf said, his eyes going wide as he realized every one of his men were dead. He whirled to run.
    Eva looked away, wincing as David shot after him. The two disappeared around the corner. She heard a yip, cut off by a rolling feline roar.
    From somewhere overhead came the sound of a glass door sliding open. “What the fuck is going on down there? Do I have to call the cops?”
    Shit. Eva dove into the concealment of the Building Five breezeway. “Sorry! My dogs just killed a coyote.”
    “Well, hold it the hell down!” The door slid closed again.
    “Eva?” A voice came out of the dark, a full octave deeper than normal, but unmistakable.
    “David?” she whispered.
    “Here.” He came around the corner of the building, an immense dark silhouette.
    She went into his arms hard enough to thump, her hands closing tightly around his waist. His body felt huge—and wet, but she wasn’t in the mood to quibble over a little blood. “Oh, God, oh, God, I thought we were dead! I thought they had us for sure.”
    “Yes, well, they didn’t.” He sounded grimly satisfied.
    “I did just what you told me to do,” she said, dimly aware she was babbling and not giving a damn.
    He pushed her back