Stone Cold Fox Read online

  “Ahh . . .” Fiona nodded. “And they accused you?”

  Jo took a sip of tea, remembering the awful scene. Bianca had been standing there, tall and stately as ever. She was over six feet and had long, black hair Jo was quite certain she dyed. Her eyes were faded emeralds in her wrinkled face, though Jo knew she used firming and tightening agents and potions on her skin constantly.

  Miranda used to say that Bianca was fighting the hands of time—she refused to age gracefully as the other Elders did and looked with jealousy on the younger sister-witches at Avalon.

  “You!” Bianca had thundered, staring down at Jo from her great height. “You have been practicing dark magic, Jocasta! How else could your hair be growing darker and your face younger?”

  “I’m not! I swear I’m not!” Jo had exclaimed. She had been aghast at the sudden accusation, though she supposed she ought to have expected something like it. Before Miranda had died, she had warned Jo to be wary of Bianca.

  “You have true power, child,” she’d said to Jo. “And you have beauty that defies time. Bianca will covet both—you must be mindful of crossing her.”

  Following her mentor’s warning, Jo had done nothing to upset the older witch—nothing on purpose, that was. Yet, before she knew it, Bianca had declared her in violation of the magical rules of Avalon and had gotten the other Elders to agree to expel her from the only home she’d known for the last twenty years.

  “That morning everything was normal, and by that night I was out in the cold with almost nothing to eat, not much to wear, and nowhere to go,” she explained to Fiona and Reese.

  “Bianca should pay for what she did to you—turning you out in the cold with nothing for no damn reason!” There was an angry growl in Reese’s voice that surprised Jo. Why would he get so upset at a woman he’d never met?

  “You’re surprised at Reese’s protectiveness?” Fiona said, speaking her thoughts aloud. “Why should you be, my dear? His Fox has already laid claim to you, as you may well know. He feels you are his to protect and to avenge if need be.”

  “Fiona . . .” Reese shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “We just met yesterday.”

  “The length of a relationship isn’t nearly as important as the intensity of it,” Fiona said tranquilly. “Anyway . . .” She made a “go on” motion at Jo with one hand. “Please, do continue. What happened next?”

  “Well . . .” Jo took another sip of tea, trying to put everything in order. “It was a full moon that night . . .”

  She told about the group of Shifters and how they’d started to attack her before their leader stopped them—or at least held them back.

  “Jase Saunders,” Fiona said and nodded. “He’s a good male—a powerful Alpha—I know him well. You’re lucky he had enough control over the other dire wolves in his pack to give you time to run.”

  “I needed all the head start I could get,” Jo admitted. “Because the minute the moonlight touched my skin I started having this horrible pain.” She shivered. “Like something was trying to rip me apart from the inside out.”

  “Oh, my dear,” Fiona put down her delicate china teacup and sat forward. “I see what happened now—you are one of the Unformed!”

  “The what?” Jo frowned. “I though you said I was a ‘Juvie’? And Reese seems to think I might be a Shifter like him. But I’m not,” she added quickly.

  “No, but you must become one if you want to live.” Fiona shook her head. “I don’t understand how you withstood your first full moon when you were in total Rejuvenation without a male to breed you and keep you from dying!”

  “I found a white ash tree that had been struck by lightning,” Jo said. “I rubbed the ashes on my skin to cover my scent so the, uh, dire wolves couldn’t find me.”

  “Ah . . .” Fiona nodded. “The ash is a holy tree. Its essence must have helped hold you together during what should have been your first Shift as well as masking your scent.”

  “So that was the gray stuff you had on you,” Reese remarked. “It covered your Juvie scent almost completely. I had no idea you had the Shifter Gene until after you took a bath and washed it off.”

  Jo frowned and put down her own teacup.

  “Please—don’t you start telling me I’m a Shifter again, because I’m not. I can’t turn into an animal and I don’t want to either. I’m a witch—that’s all I am.”

  “No, my dear—for you are doubly blessed,” Fiona said. “‘Twice brilliant, doubly blessed, rare as diamonds, Lady Moon’s best,’” she recited. “’The Goddess calls and gives at last, power to Shift and power to Cast.’ That’s a little rhyme my own mentor taught me, oh . . . so many years ago. For you see . . . I too was doubly blessed.”

  Reese frowned. “You were a Shifter, Fiona? I thought you were just . . . that you just stayed in Cougarville to look after us Shifters and make medicine.”

  “Indeed I do, my dear, because I feel for you. For I was one of you, for a single brilliant, blessed year.” Fiona sighed. “It’s not common, you know—to find a witch with true natural power who also has the Shifter Gene. I was one and I have never met another until now.” She nodded at Jo.

  “So what . . .” Jo frowned, not knowing if she believed this. “What kind of, uh, animal did you turn into?”

  “A Saiga Antelope—there aren’t many left, you know. And my mate—the male who claimed me—was one of the last.” Fiona’s large, dark eyes grew sad. “Only a year after we were mated, he was killed in a hunting accident—shot while he was in his Shifted form.”

  “I’m sorry, Fiona.” Reese reached forward and touched her arm gently. “I never knew.”

  “Oh my dear, it was long before your time—long before your father’s time as well,” she assured him. “After that, I brewed a potion to dampen the Shifter side of myself and concentrated on healing medicines instead.” She shook her head. “I knew I never wanted to be mated again, but I couldn’t live on as a Shifter without a mate to help me with my monthly cravings. So the potion was necessary.”

  “Wait—” Jo put up a hand to stop her. “So you’re saying that if you are, uh, ‘doubly blessed’ as you called it, you can get rid of the Shifter side just by drinking a potion?”

  Fiona frowned. “Not ‘get rid of’, only dampen so that you no longer need to Shift during the full moon or endure your monthly cravings. But the potion is only effective after you have had your first Shift. So it would be of no use to you now, my dear.”

  Jo shook her head. “I don’t know why I’m bothering to ask since I am absolutely not a Shifter.”

  “Well, well . . .” Fiona looked at her thoughtfully. “A skeptic, are you? I suppose we must work a little harder to try and convince you. Now listen, my dear . . .”

  She told Jo about the legend of how Lady Moon had made the first Shifters by consecrating a holy cave where brave warriors could come and draw the animal they desired to be on the wall. Then she spoke of the Shifter Gene which ensured that females who had it would rejuvenate back to youth at a certain time and how the Rejuvenation process brought on a state of extreme lust and hyper-fertility.

  Jo had listened with interest to the legend—as she had told Reese, she loved learning new lore. But the part about hyper-fertility and monthly lust cycles made her distinctly nervous. She couldn’t help feeling like the throbbing between her thighs was getting worse—almost in proportion to the dull ache which was growing stronger in her temples. And the way Fiona had explained that a Rejuvenating female would suddenly become twenty years younger seemed to fit her own situation a little too neatly.

  Still, she didn’t want to believe she could be a Shifter—that she might turn into an animal every full moon. It was a frightening prospect.

  At last, the older woman stopped speaking and stared at her. Jo stared back, her heart pounding and her mouth too dry to talk.

  “Do you see now?” Fiona asked at last, after a long moment of silence. “Your increasing powers—which are normal for a doubly blessed one at