He froze as well, his magic swirling around him like someone had just kicked a hornet’s nest. He abruptly stopped panting, now holding his breath instead. His eyes locked on mine and I recognized the utter terror swimming within them.

“For the love of God, don’t latch on to that connection,” I said, using spirit to delicately feel each little prong that secured his soul. That material hadn’t changed, just the protective crust it was attached to. They would hold on if the change was quick enough. They would come loose if it wasn’t, and his spirit would escape. He’d die. I said as much.

“Don’t we want that?” Mordecai asked quietly, somehow cutting through the chaos around us.

“Fuck you, boy,” Will ground out, his whole body straining. His maniacal stare clung to Mordecai. “You look just like your pappy, do you know that? Just as stupidly useless as that limp dick. He was worse than weak. He was soft. Spineless. He was bankrupting our pack. He was leading us nowhere.” Drool escaped his mouth. “And don’t get me started on that whore of a mother of yours. She spread her legs all over town. She—”

A low growl was the only warning I got before a shove pushed me out of the way. Mordecai smashed his fist into Will’s face.

I staggered back, startled…and accidentally yanked Will’s soul with me.

“Uh-oh,” I said.

25

Kieran

Heart in his throat, Kieran took a chance and bolted through the last few rows of the shopping complex parking lot to get around to Alexis. Using the service entrance would’ve drawn too much notice. All of his Six, other than Henry, should already be there, Henry having been the farthest away and the hardest to extract.

They must have arrived in time to help Alexis. They must have, or he would’ve gotten a call. He would’ve felt it through the soul connection.

Just like he’d felt her drift away earlier. He’d already been on his way to the shopping complex, racing through the hidden passageway behind her house to get to the dual-society zone, when a strange loss had niggled his awareness. It had felt as though Alexis had disappeared from this world. As though she’d died. If the feeling hadn’t resolved quickly, he would have completely lost his composure.

Screams and yells sent cold trickles down his spine as he raced around the corner. The cloud that was Zorn drifted not far away and Thane stood idle a few steps beyond him. Disbelief ran through Kieran. What the hell were these guys doing so far from the fight?

In a moment, he understood.

Furry bodies rolled around on the concrete, whimpering or howling. Human forms thrashed on the ground or bent over, clutching their middles.

In the middle of it all, her hair blown by some unseen force, cloaked in glowing white, stood Alexis, facing off against a badass shifter. She looked like a rampaging angel claiming her vengeance on anyone foolish enough to threaten her brood.

She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever witnessed in his entire life.

He jogged to a stop next to Zorn, his fear for Alexis dissipated like rain drops on hot cement.

“What happened?” he asked as Zorn materialized next to him.

“She’s using her magic,” Zorn said quietly, his voice somber.

“Yes, she is.” Thane joined them, grinning. The glory of battle burned in his eyes. His Berserker side felt Alexis’s call to arms and yearned to join her. It spoke to his unbelievable control that he had not. “I have been fucking vindicated for my reaction to her the other day. Fucking vindicated. I might’ve changed, but at least I wasn’t reduced to this.”

“She has a shaky handle on the situation, at best,” Zorn said, his mind as quick and calculating as ever. “I have no doubt she can keep them down, but not long ago she asked what she should do next. If she releases her hold, more than half of them will take off running. There aren’t enough of us to snatch them up before they escape. We need an end game.”

Will Green spat a series of disgusting remarks about Mordecai’s family, and the boy launched forward, throwing a well-placed and powerful punch at the older alpha.

“The kid was exceptional in the thick of it, sir—”

Zorn cut off as Alexis flinched back.

“Uh-oh,” she said loudly.

Green collapsed. It wasn’t from the punch.

Through his soul connection with Alexis, Kieran saw what happened next.

Confused and disoriented, Green’s spirit form stood outside of his body, twice as muscular as his physical form and taller. Clearly he saw himself differently than he actually appeared.

Alexis had learned how to rip a soul out of a body, and she’d done it on accident.

“Sir—”

Zorn didn’t need to finish his sentence—Kieran was already on it. He sent a thick blast of power into the scene, swirling around Alexis and Mordecai and rolling over the enemy. Their agonized screams and shrieks turned into squeals and grunts of pain. She might be able to frighten to the point of hysteria, but he could inflict pain to the point of unconsciousness or death. This time he aimed for the former. He needed to figure out what to do with all these shifters, and death was the last option.

He lifted his hand and called the fog, bringing it down in thick, fluffy sheets, a fog bank settling inland. It wouldn’t be an abnormal occurrence out here.

Once visibility cut down, he wove air and dropped a thicker layer of fog beyond the small battle. That would keep people from wandering in and catching an eyeful, or worse, taking video.

If they hadn’t already.

Mordecai stepped away from the limp body of Green, his eyes huge. “Did I do that?”

“No. I did that,” Alexis said with a pale face. “I’m going to try and stuff him back in.”

Green’s spirit shook before reaching forward and grabbed an invisible line connecting him to Alexis. His spirit turned more translucent as he jutted toward her.

“Ew, no!” She waved her hands in the air before shivering. His spirit went flying, as though she’d flung him through the air. He landed on two wolves’ bodies before rolling to a stop.

“I said not to latch on to the connection!” she yelled after him, her face screwed up in disgust. “That was your fault, and now look. You’re all the way over there, wasting precious time.”

“What’s happening?” Mordecai and Thane asked at the same time.

“Growing pains,” Kieran said, and started forward. Bria was already moving.

“Did you rip his soul out of his body?” Bria unslung a camo backpack from her shoulder, tiptoed through the downed bodies, and knelt by Alexis’s side. “’Cause we can just shove him back in. Remember me teaching you that? No problem, remember?”

“Yeah, but will he come back to life as though nothing has happened?” Alexis blinked as she finally noticed the silence and lack of movement of those around her. Her expression fell. “Oh God, what did I do now?”

“It was me,” Kieran said quietly, nearly at her side. “I finished the job. We needed to get this cleaned up so we can get moving. They aren’t dead.”

She jumped and her head jerked up. A look of supreme relief crossed her face and a gorgeous smile curved her lips. “Hi,” she said, her voice breathy. “I didn’t notice you there.”

“Clearly,” he said teasingly. Fire started in his middle and rose through him. Reaching Alexis, he touched her back, his attention wholly focused on her, and on the place where their two souls met and entwined, becoming one. “You okay?”

She shrugged with one shoulder. “I am, but he’s not.”

Bria bent down next to her and dug into her bag. “Let’s see what’s happening. We can’t all see spirits.”

But Kieran could. Green’s spirit stood slowly, panic consuming his expression as his gaze lingered on his unmoving physical body. He walked to it, slowly, as though in a dream.

“I’ve accidentally broken the prongs in his spirit box,” Alexis said softly, watching him make his way back. “I can shove him back in, and I’m pretty sure I can figure out how to make his spirit box return to normal, but those prongs…” With no warning, her eyes lost focus, and her body went completely still.

Kieran felt that same strange blankness through the soul connection.

“She did this before.” Mordecai moved to her side. “Just went stalk still. Like she was in a trance. It seemed to help her, last time. We were under siege, and then everyone started dropping.”

“Here we go.” Bria rolled her thumb over the top of her lighter, then pressed the flame to a stub of incense. Red smoke curled up through the thick tendrils of fog. “The fog is not awesome.”

Kieran flicked his hand and sent the moisture higher, blanketing them but not invading their space.

“Better,” Bria said, looking around.

A strange absence could be seen in the gathering red smoke, like a person wearing black Spandex whose outline was fuzzy. It bent over Green’s body, and Kieran got the distinct impression its arm reached into Green’s chest.

“What in the holy fuck…” Bria’s voice drifted away, her eyes widening as she watched the shape. “What is that? I can’t feel a soul. Is it a weak spirit or something?”

“No.” Kieran shook his head. “At least, it’s not like any spirit I’ve ever seen. Though…that’s not really saying much.”

“Alexis?” Bria’s gaze flicked up, but if Alexis heard her, she didn’t acknowledge it.

He ran his hand down her back, comforted by her warmth. “Is it a deep trance?”

Bria shrugged, back to watching the figure bending over Green. Green’s spirit had nearly reached his body, his expression urgent, as though he knew time was running out. “Quite possibly. She figures out the most stuff when she lets herself hang around in a trance for a while.” Brow furrowed, Bria shook her head slowly. “I’ve never seen or felt anything like this. It’s like…a blank patch in reality.”