Jennifer Ashley - Shifter Made

"Eat your breakfast, love, and we’ll finish the sword. Whatever comes, we’ll make the best damn sword that ever was."

Alanna didn’t reach for the plate. "Let us finish now. I don’t need sustenance the same way Shifters and humans do."

"Eat the damn food, woman. You’re weak here, and with all this iron about, you’ll be getting weaker."

"Yes, dear." Alanna sat down, slanting him a demure glance. "Whatever you say, dear."

His eyes narrowed. "Your brother doesn’t know what a feisty witch he’s harboring, does he?"

She sent him a grin. "’Tis best that way, do you not think?"

"Vixen." Niall leaned down and kissed her. "To think, when you walked into my forge, I thought you cold and brittle."

"You warmed me, Niall."

"Aye, I wrapped that cloak around you."

"That is not what I meant."

Niall gave her another seductive kiss. "I know."

He grabbed bread and cheese, took a gulp of ale, and banged out of the cottage, sending chill air sweeping through the room. Alanna shivered again, but without the loathing she’d had last night. It was cold in this human place called Baile Icin, but with Niall to keep her warm, she thought she could weather it.

Whatever else Alanna’s magics did, they certainly sped up the forging process. Alanna chanted more spells, and Niall watched runes appear and disappear as he formed the tang, made the hilt, and ground the blade. Alanna closed her eyes for the last spell, sweat standing out on her brow as her musical voice pronounced the words.

The last set of fiery runes faded to be replaced by fine lines that etched themselves all over the sword and hilt. Those lines didn’t fade but joined in continuous, interlinked patterns, interwoven with runes, as though they bound the sword and hilt together. Even though Alanna ceased speaking, Niall thought he still heard her voice, soft whispers coming from the sword itself.

Niall raised the blade, finding the balance perfect, the edge sharp. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear he held a sword of the best, strongest Damascus steel. He made a few sweeps, amazed at what he’d wrought.

No, what they’d wrought.

"We make a good sword, you and me," he said. "Now, do you mind telling me what it’s for?"

Alanna hugged her chest. "Ceremonial purposes. For my brother."

"Aye, I guessed that. What kind of ceremonies will he be conducting?"

"I do not want to tell you that."

Niall brought the sword around until the tip was an inch from her throat. Alanna didn’t flinch, didn’t move, though he saw her draw a breath. "You had better tell me, love."

"If I do, you’ll try to kill Kieran, and he’ll destroy you, and your sons. Probably very slowly so that you will beg for their death. And yours. Please, do not make me watch that."

The anguish in her eyes was real, but Niall shook his head. "Sweeting, he will kill me anyway. I’d rather go out trying to take him with me."

"Niall." Alanna took one step closer, letting the tip of the sword nick her skin. A drop of Fae-blood, so dark red it was almost black, welled up from the cut and trickled across her throat.

Niall quickly withdrew the sword and wiped the blood from her skin with his thumb.

"I pledged myself as hostage to you," Alanna said. "I made a promise that I would get your sons released. I will fulfill that promise. But to do it, I must again ask you to trust me. Let me take the sword to my brother, let me finish my part of the bargain. Your sons will come home to you today. Please. "

"You’re daft, woman, do you know that? Are you planning to take this blade and stick it into your brother? Tell me you’re not going to try something so stupid."

Alanna shook her head. "It’s tempting, but no. He would expect me to do something like that. I imagine his bowmen would shoot me dead the moment I raised the sword."

"Good." Niall set the weapon down and pulled her close. "I’ll not have you throwing yourself away on vengeance. 'Tis not worth it."

"You were ready to kill me when I first came in here."

"That was instinct. You’re Fae, I’m Shifter."

"And now?"

Niall smoothed her hair, loving the satin feel of it. Even sleep-tousled and sooty, Alanna was beautiful. "Now I’m thinking you’ve made me feel something I’ve not felt in a very long time.

Can a Shifter love a Fae?"

"I don’t know. This Fae once loved a human. It might be possible for her to love a Shifter."

He cupped her cheek. "So what do we do about it?"

"Let me finish my task. Then if I am still alive, I will return to you, and we shall find out what happens between us."

Niall saw it then, her certainty she wouldn’t live through whatever her brother had in mind.

She knew she might have to sacrifice her life to save his children, and she was prepared to do it.

Niall drew her close. He vowed to himself, then and there, to protect her. He’d make himself trust her, whatever she was planning, because Alanna knew how to get his cubs free and he didn’t. But he wouldn’t let her pay with her life. Niall would protect her as a Shifter would his mate.

If they survived this, Niall would seek another clan leader and ask that leader to bless him and Alanna under the sun and the full moon, in the eyes of the God and the Goddess. Niall's own clan leader was long dead, which meant that Niall was, in fact, a clan leader--of the very small clan of himself and his sons, he thought with a grin. But he couldn’t do the mating ceremony himself.

One thing at a time.

"I’m not letting you go, yet, Alanna, love," Niall said softly. He kissed her lips. "Not quiet yet."

Alanna pulled him into a deeper kiss. Niall took the sword with him as he led her to the cottage and made love to her again in the light of the rising sun.

* * *

When Niall awoke in the bed later, Alanna was gone. Entirely gone--he didn’t catch her scent in the cottage at all. Her silken robes were no longer hanging on the peg next to his tunic, and the sword he’d laid next to the bed had vanished.

Niall rose, naked, and shifted into his Fae-cat form.

Several thousand years before, the Fae had taken the best of every wildcat in existence and bred the Fae-cat, larger and stronger than any natural beast. Fae-cats had the strength of lions, the ferocity of tigers, the speed of cheetahs, the stealth of panthers. Each Shifter clan tended more toward one wildcat species than others, and Niall's family had always had much lion in it.

As that lion-like Fae-cat, Niall bounded down from the loft and out into dense fog that had rolled in from the sea.

Alanna wasn’t in the forge. He picked up her scent on the path that led to the gently sloping mountain above the village, toward the circle of standing stones that even the most unbelieving of the villagers liked to avoid.

Mists rolled between the stones when Niall reached them, smelling all wrong. Instead of the salt and fish scent carried by the heavy fog over the village, these mists exuded an acrid smell, overlaid with the sharp scent of mint.

An entrance to Faerie. Niall regarded it with foreboding before he realized that Alanna’s scent was quickly fading. His sons were in there, and now Alanna.

Without further thought, Niall leapt into the mists between two of the stones and heard something snick closed behind him.

Alanna found her brother hunting, which wasn’t unusual. Kieran spent most of his time hunting, or rather, having his men chase animals to him so that he could shoot them.

Kieran was every inch a Fae prince as he stood in the fog-soaked clearing wearing a white kid tunic, soft boots, and a fur-trimmed cloak. His white-blond hair was held back by a diamond diadem. Two men at arms flanked him, one carrying his bow; the other, his quiver of arrows.

As Alanna approached, Kieran took the bow and nocked an arrow, sighting into the woods opposite her. A few seconds later a wolf charged out of the fog, streaking for the heavy undergrowth on Alanna’s side of the clearing. The wolf was larger than most, and its blue-white eyes held intelligence.

The wolf saw Alanna and veered at the last minute. Kieran’s arrow, which had left the bow, bounced off a boulder where the wolf had been a second before.

Kieran shoved his bow back at his armsman and growled. "Damn you, Alanna. I’ve been tracking that wolf all night."

More likely his trackers had found the wolf for him while Kieran had drunk wine and slept in his luxurious bed. "That wasn’t a natural wolf," Alanna said. "It was a Fae-wolf. A Shifter."

"He's a bloody animal. And any Shifter in my realm is fair game."

That was true. No Shifter would venture here on purpose, which meant the Lupine had been captured or lured in somehow. She didn’t know enough about Shifters to tell whether the Lupine was male or female, and she wondered if Kieran had stolen its cubs too. She hoped it found its way back to the standing stones and out.

Kieran’s hungry gaze went to the sword, the Lupine forgotten. He snapped his fingers at her.

Alanna walked to him, handing over the sword and giving him a little curtsy.

"Lovely." Kieran hefted the blade, testing its balance. "This is perfect."

"What is it for?" Alanna asked him.

"Simple, dear sister. To defeat Shifters."

Niall had accused Alanna of knowing what Kieran’s spells were for, and she did, but she hadn't understood exactly what Kieran had meant to do with them.

"Defeat them?" she asked. "It’s not a good weapon for killing, the Shifter said. Not sturdy enough, even with the spells."

Kieran kept his gaze on the etched blade. "You know that I am named for our grandfather, who was killed by a horde of Lupine Shifters, don't you? Demons in animal skins. I am the legacy of that ancient king called Kieran. With this sword, I shall avenge him."

Alanna felt cold. "How can you? The Shifters who killed him died long ago. Shifters are short-lived, you know; they last only three or four centuries at most. It would be complicated to find their descendants. Shifters have scattered over the human world by now."

Kieran gave her a pitying look. "You are simplistic, my sister. I don’t need to find the descendents, I have the Shifters themselves. I have their bones."

He waved his hand and mists lifted from the other side of the clearing. Low mounds, a dozen of them, lay side by side, overgrown with green.

Alanna’s eyes widened. "Where did those come from?"

"My loyal men tracked down the graves of the Lupines who slaughtered our grandfather. I had their remains brought here and reburied. I’ve been collecting them for a long time."

Alanna stared at him in shock. "Why?"

"For this day." Kieran raised the sword again. "Did you not understand the spells I gave you? You are a fine mage, my dear, the only one who wasn’t afraid to go to the human world and find the Shifter sword maker. Surely you will have worked it out."

Alanna swallowed. "You wanted to make a soul-stealer."

"Ah, so you have not lost every bit of your intelligence after all. No, I cannot kill the Shifters who murdered our grandfather. But, if I capture their souls and make them do my bidding, they will be miserable for eternity."

Alanna studied the mounds, which looked vulnerable and sad. "But the Shifters have been dead so long. Their souls will be gone--won’t they?"

"Not these Shifters. As he killed them, our grandfather cursed their souls to cleave to their dead bones. No going to the happy Summerland to chase rabbits for them."

Alanna hid her revulsion. Even Fae had souls that dissolved when they reached the end of their long lives. The Fae then drifted, content, free of the constrains of the body, which also dissolved. To tie a soul to a cold, dark grave seemed to her the height of barbarity.

"Aren’t they miserable already then?" she asked.

"Perhaps, perhaps not. But if I have their souls, then they will do my bidding, and they will become aware of their suffering. I will make certain of it."

Alanna shrugged, pretending not to care, even as she shivered deep inside herself. She had to make Kieran believe she sided with him, at least long enough for her purpose. He would kill her afterward, but her task would be complete.