Panther Curse: Shifters Bewitched #3 Read online

  Their houses were inevitably like this café, screaming out European casual, with bookcases everywhere, overflowing with dog-eared tomes. Even the assortment of lumpy cakes under the glass counter looked like something served at those potlucks.

  Declan was already sitting at our favorite table by the window. When he saw me coming, he shoved his book into his backpack and gave me a sexy half-smile.

  God, he really was hot. Tall and lean, with dark hair that shone copper in the afternoon light of the café.

  “Hey, Kendall,” he said.

  “Hey.” I sat across from him and gave him a half-smile back as I slipped off my gloves, feeling better already.

  “How was your day?” he asked.

  I loved that he always asked me that question. In my experience, guys always wanted to talk about themselves. But Declan was different.

  I felt a pang of guilt about my dream.

  “Not so good?” he guessed, reaching across the table to take my hands in his. Declan didn’t usually have the warmest hands, but they felt so nice after the cold of the mountain. Even my expensive gloves hadn’t been a match for that chill.

  “It’s just weird with my friends,” I said automatically, looking down at our hands together on the table.

  His index finger traced the silver bangle around my wrist. He had given it to me when we first started hanging out, and I always wore it, especially when I came to see him. It seemed to make him happy.

  “Any progress with Bella?” he asked.

  I had told him about getting the cold shoulder from her, even though I couldn’t really share all the details of what went on at the school.

  I shook my head. “Not really.”

  “She’ll come around,” he told me.

  It was nice, being able to be open and vulnerable like this. Normally I kept my worries to myself. Kendall Fletcher was a confident woman.

  But I liked hearing him say that things were going to be okay. Even if I couldn’t tell him the whole truth - that the other half of my worries had to do with the veil between worlds and the magic that could ruin us all if it came falling down.

  The owner of the café stopped at our table and set two cappuccinos in front of us.

  “Thanks,” I said, letting go of Declan’s hands to pull one of the big blue mugs close to me.

  If I had been at school, I would have started fooling around with the steam. I could form it into rings, or even send little steamy horses galloping at Cori. That used to crack her up.

  But I didn’t dare do that in front of Declan. As usual, I couldn’t really be my whole self around anyone.

  “You seem off today,” he said, his brow furrowed with concern.

  “It’s nothing,” I told him.

  “Wow,” he said, eyebrows lifting as he leaned back in his seat.

  “What?” I asked.

  “We’ve been hanging out for a long time,” he told me. “You’ve never cut me out like this. You know you can tell me anything, right?”

  “I know,” I admitted.

  “Good,” he said with a smile that made me relax a little. “Hey, did I tell you I’m going to be away again for a little while?”

  “Camping again?” I guessed, feeling a little down about the idea of Declan disappearing.

  He’d been away on family trips a few times since I’d known him. I had a hard time imagining enjoying voluntarily spending time out in the woods. I had an even harder time picturing doing it with my family. The thought of my mom in a tent made me smile, in spite of my dark mood.

  “Camping,” Declan confirmed, his blue eyes twinkling. “My dad loves it.”

  “How long are you guys going for?” I asked.

  “Two weeks,” he said. “I’m going to miss you, Kendall.”

  He reached for my hands again and I let go of my mug to let him take them.

  His hands were warmer after holding his mug, they felt good around mine. But I still didn’t feel the shock of need I got from the man in my dream.

  “Are you going to be okay?” he asked.

  “Sure, of course,” I told him, managing a little smile. “I just keep having this weird dream. I think it’s messing with my head.”

  “What weird dream?” he asked, looking amused. “Is it about me?”

  I shook my head. “It’s really dumb.”

  “Well, now I have to hear it,” he informed me playfully. “Come on, you’ll feel better as soon as you talk about it.”

  Maybe he was right. Maybe I would feel better getting it off my chest. I thought about the dream, trying to figure out a way to share as much as I could.

  “Well, it’s nighttime in the dream, and I’m at school, out in the courtyard,” I told him. “And there’s a full moon.”

  He leaned forward, his eyes sparkling with interest.

  “I’ve had the dream before,” I said, enjoying the attention. “Anyway, I’m out there, and someone is coming for me. I just know it.”

  “Who?” he asked.

  “An animal,” I said carefully. “Like a panther.”

  All the expression seemed to leave his face.

  “It’s just a dream,” I said quickly. “I’m not, like, actually being pursued by a big cat.”

  “Of course not,” he said tersely. “Then what happens?”

  “Well, normally I wake up,” I said. “He never comes.”

  “And last night?”

  I bit my lip, wondering how much I should share. I didn’t exactly want to tell my boyfriend I made out with another guy in a dream. There was honesty and then there was honesty.

  Plus, he was being kind of weird about what I’d told him so far.

  “He came this time,” I said simply. “In the dream, I could see a panther coming out of the woods behind the school. It was really scary.”

  I hadn’t been scared of the panther. Far from it. But it seemed a lot easier than trying to explain how it had actually made me feel.

  Declan nodded, his lips pressed together.

  “Then I woke up,” I said, leaning back in my chair.

  “That is a weird dream,” he told me, leaning back.

  He smiled at me, but his eyes weren’t twinkling anymore.

  “Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about actual panthers in Pennsylvania,” he teased. “Unless the Philadelphia Zoo had a breakout we didn’t hear about.”

  I laughed.

  He lifted one of my hands and pressed it to his lips, closing his eyes.

  So romantic. He really was the total package. I had no idea why I was still dreaming about a guardian when I had someone like Declan right in front of me.

  “I know this seems crazy, but do you want to go camping with us?” he asked. “It sounds like you could use a little time away.”

  Wow.

  As often as we’d been meeting, he’d never offered to introduce me to his family before. Let alone invited me to spend two weeks with them.

  “I have school,” I said sadly. “Maybe over my next break?”

  “I know,” he said with a chagrined smile. “I just couldn’t help asking. Hey, can we get together again tomorrow night? I just want to see you one more time before we go.”

  “Sure,” I said, smiling. “Meet you at five?”

  “At the park this time,” he said, with a little mischief in his eyes. “I’ll bring you a picnic dinner.”

  I considered.

  The last time we’d met at the park, we’d spent half the time making out on the picnic blanket.

  It had been super fun. It had also been a little panic-inducing.

  I never would have admitted it to my friends, but I was still a virgin. And I was so not going to have my first time be on some blanket in the middle of a public park.

  “I’ll bring gummy bears,” he offered.

  “Yeah, why not?” I grinned at him.

  Declan really did get me.

  It was about time someone did.

  7

  Kendall

  Th
e next day at lunch I found myself at Bella and Luke’s house in the forest, sitting around the dining room table.

  Bella, Cori, Anya and I all had the afternoon off, and it seemed like a good time to get the group together to talk about what the Order might be up to.

  “So, we stopped the spell,” Bella was saying. “But the veil was still torn open for a minute.”

  “Something’s still not right,” Anya said softly.

  “What’s not right?” Reed asked her, leaning forward.

  She shook her head. “I’m not sure.”

  We had all seen Anya practically fill up with light the night we fought back the Order of the Broken Blade’s attempt to bring the Raven King back across the veil from the fae realm. Her skin had turned translucent, and her hair swirled over her head like she was underwater.

  It was pretty intense.

  She looked like herself again now, but her eyes were still haunted.

  “Do we have any idea what the Order is up to now?” I asked, eager to take the heat off Anya.

  She gave me a grateful little smile and then we both turned to Luke and Reed.

  “No idea,” Luke said. “They’ve gone quiet. There’s no activity in the woods, no sign of hellhounds, nothing.”

  “Maybe they’ve given up?” Bella suggested hopefully.

  But we all knew better.

  There were three ways to get magic. The first was to be born into it, as the guardians were. Their ability to shift was in their blood.

  The second was to pay a price - either up front through study, or afterward. That’s what we were learning at Primrose, how to earn our magic and control it when it came. But when we used our magic without paying up front, the magic took its own price.

  Bella’s price affected her vision. If she used unplanned magic, she lost the colors from her sight. One time, she’d used so much that she almost went blind.

  Cori’s price was even rougher. Her magic took its toll on her memories. When she did small magic, she forgot things, like people’s names, or what she had for lunch. It was troubling, but they had always come back to her. Until they finally didn’t. She’d pushed herself so far on the night of the Order’s ceremony that she lost it all. When the dust cleared, she didn’t even know who she was. She basically hit the reset button on her life, and started over from scratch. Fortunately, she had her mate and her friends by her side to help her.

  My price was less dangerous, but way more embarrassing, and I tried not to talk about it in front of the others. They probably thought magic made me overheated and confused. The truth was that my price was lust. If I used to much unplanned magic, I was ready to throw myself at pretty much anyone with a pulse. Fortunately, I kept it under control and hadn’t acted on those urges with anyone. But I meditated a lot, and studied as hard as possible to make sure that I paid my price up front whenever I could.

  The final way to get magic was through stealing, like the Order did. They didn’t have magic of their own, so they took it by cruelty and force, from beings who had come by it honestly. They sucked it right out, like magical vampires. No, that was too romantic. Like magical leaches.

  And now they wanted to reopen the veil between our world and the realm of the fae. They thought if they brought back the Raven King, his magic would fill our world again, and they could channel it to their own greedy purposes.

  “Does their disappearance seem suspicious?” Anya asked Luke. “Have they ever gone this quiet before?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

  I bit my lip and studied Anya’s worried face. She had always been more sensitive to magic than the rest of us.

  But maybe she was feeling this way because of what happened that night. Maybe participating in that ceremony had changed her in some way that had nothing to do with the Order.

  “We’re continuing the double patrols,” Luke told us.

  “Do you have enough guardians for that?” Bella asked.

  He shrugged and I guessed the answer was no.

  I thought about the panther in my dream.

  “Are all the guardians wolves and bears?” I blurted before I could think better of it.

  “What do you mean?” Luke asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said, immediately regretting the question. “I was just curious. Like, are there other animals? Are there… panthers?”

  “No,” Reed said quickly, a stormy look on his face.

  “Sorry,” I muttered.

  Not only wasn’t there a panther, but now they thought I was annoying, maybe even offensive.

  Great job, Kendall. Way to make people like you.

  “Maybe we can do some patrols, too,” Anya suggested.

  I gave her a little smile. I guess I wasn’t the only one who could change the subject to help out a friend.

  “No,” Luke said quickly. “The witches protect the school. The guardians protect the castle.”

  “Rules are meant to be broken,” Bella told him teasingly.

  “Not that one,” he said. “Besides, we need you guys studying hard. If the Order is planning something, we’ll need every advantage we can get.”

  Bella frowned, but she nodded.

  He was right. We did need all the help we could get. I should be concentrating on my magic above everything.

  Maybe if I spent more time worrying about my water magic, the rest of my crazy life would fall into place.

  A timer went off, and Bella jumped up.

  “You guys want cookies?” she asked eagerly.

  “Yes,” Luke said enthusiastically.

  No one else answered right away.

  “Luke made them,” she told us.

  “Yes,” we all laughed.

  Though Bella liked to fool around in the kitchen, Luke was definitely the better cook.

  As the scent of fresh-baked cookies wafted into the room, I sat back in my chair and looked around.

  These guys were so much nicer and more interesting than the legacies. All the awkwardness and need to prove my loyalty was totally worth it.

  I was where I was supposed to be.

  For the first time in a long time, I relaxed.

  8

  Jared

  One hand behind my back, I muscled through my second set of push-ups for the morning.

  Before my captivity I never had to work out. My panther nature ensured that I was always fit and ready for action.

  But now that my animal side was slowly being drained away by my captors, I had to exercise to stay physically strong. It helped my frame of mind too.

  Sweat trickled down my back, and I focused my thoughts on my mate. I couldn’t see her in my dreams, but I was sure she was beautiful. No matter what her physical features were, she would be beautiful to me - the other half of my soul.

  I wondered if she could feel my absence the way I felt hers, like a gaping hole in her heart.

  For her sake, I hoped she was living her life happily, in complete ignorance that I was missing from it. I wouldn’t wish this pain on my worst enemy, let alone my destined partner.

  Especially when the coming full moon had my body in an agony of wanting for her.

  I switched arms, feeling the burn in my biceps. I was getting used to a little pain with my workouts. The panther had made all of this effortless before. No wonder humans didn’t look like guardians. This was hard work.

  But since there was literally nothing else to do, I didn’t mind.

  Besides, it kept me warm in the frigid cell. With the panther’s enchanted blood running through me, I had never really experienced true cold before. But now I felt it as acutely as any human. And I didn’t like it.

  Footsteps rang out on the hard stones, and I immediately dropped to a lounging position on the floor.

  I didn’t like my captors knowing I was exercising. Better for them to think my physical powers were fading along with my magic. If they underestimated me, it might give me a chance to escape. Although after two years of unsuccessful att
empts, I wasn’t exactly holding my breath.

  The one I thought of as Scarface approached my cell.

  “Here, kitty, kitty,” the guard taunted as he limped toward me with an evil smile on his marred face.

  Once he was sure he had my attention, he made a show of spitting in my food. I tried not to smile. My panther ate its prey whole, salivary glands and all. But if he thought a little spit was going to bother me, that was fine.

  “How’s the leg?” I asked him with a smirk.

  He scowled at me, which only served to highlight the scar on his jaw.

  Back when I first got here, and my panther was still strong, I broke his leg almost in half and gave him that scar, trying to escape the iron collar.

  I’d paid for that one. But he would never forget it.

  He could spit in my food all he wanted, but he wasn’t going to forget who had the upper hand first.

  The guard slid the metal bowl under the bars and limped away.

  At least he hadn’t taken my food altogether when I taunted him.

  The one thing they never did was deny me food, shitty as it might be. They wanted my powers strong so they could take as much form me as possible.

  Before I could look to see what disgusting breakfast he had brought, I heard more footsteps.

  My old friend Scarface was back with a tall skinny guard I thought of as Iowa because of the shock of cornfed blond hair on his head.

  They were lugging a mattress. Behind them a third guard carried a toolbox.

  In a million years I never would have suspected that they wanted to replace my moldy old mattress. But here they were.

  To my surprise, they moved past my cell to the empty one next to mine.

  All of the cells were empty besides mine.

  Scarface opened the cell and went back to help Iowa move the mattress into place.

  What the hell?

  The realization hit me like a punch. This wasn’t about me.

  They were getting ready to bring in another prisoner.

  I closed my eyes and thought about the Brotherhood of the Guardians. I couldn’t bear the idea of any of my brothers being brought here.