In a couple of blinks, Caleb had metamorphosed into something twice his size and ten times as deadly. Jessica realized it was a large brown bear. The bear was so tall as to completely crush against the ceiling, which had to be at least twelve feet high.
But Kyle was transforming as well. Jessica felt faint. This was her Kyle. Kyle whom she held in her arms and made sweet love to. But he was turning into something exactly like his brother. It all took only a matter of seconds, but to Jessica, every one of those seconds was stretched to slow play clarity. She could almost see every hackle sprouting from Kyle’s arms, every one of his canines lengthen. And in the end, he was just as completely unrecognizable to her.
Both bears crouched beneath the ceiling and sprang at each other. Tables, paintings, objects, vases were all knocked off and down. This time, glass splintered, furniture everywhere broke and collapsed. The din dwarfed even that of the music coming from downstairs.
Jessica was afraid. Terribly afraid. She couldn’t even tell the two bears apart as they tussled and clubbed each other. They were both the same color and they both possessed the same ferocious charge. Someone was surely going to come up now. Maybe it might be Jericho, who was bound to be an even bigger and more ferocious bear.
How did she feel about the man she loved being a shapeshifter?
Her heart contracted painfully. Why was she even ruminating over this when the man she loved (loved!) was in danger of being murdered? She was now certain that she had been caught in some terrible shapeshifter web and Kyle was trying to prevent her from being hunted and killed by his family.
She couldn’t let him die because of it!
But which one was he? She couldn’t tell them apart, God help her.
She must do something.
She couldn’t be sure, but she thought she heard footsteps coming up. And whoever it was coming upstairs, he or she was bound to be able to tell the bears apart and come to Caleb’s aid. She couldn’t let them get Kyle.
But what could she do?
Instinct made her bolt to the nearest room. No, she wasn’t trying to run away. She needed something. But what could go against an oversized bear? The room she was in was large with several sections. She rifled through a chest of drawers for something sharp . . . like a knife maybe. But who would keep knives in a bedroom?
Then something caught her eye. It was the glint of metal.
A gun!
She realized she was probably in Jericho’s bedroom and this was his gun. She took it out. She didn’t know if it was loaded or not and she had never held a real gun in her entire life, let alone fired one. It felt sleek and smooth in her hand. Without thinking twice, she ran out of the bedroom just in time to see one bear on top of the other. The bear’s fist was raised to deliver a crushing blow to the other bear’s skull.
It would be a death blow.
Jessica raised the gun and aimed it at the bear with the advantage. This was one time when size did matter. The target was so huge that she couldn’t possibly miss.
Please don’t let it be Kyle.
She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. The gun went off.
THE TUNNEL
The bullet whistled in the air and struck the bear. He yowled and turned furiously.
Uh oh, Jessica thought.
A patch of red blood appeared on his side where she had shot him, but he did not seem to be worse for the wear. Instead, he got off the other bear. He was growling and very obviously angry. She backed away. How fast could a bear run? Could she outrun a bear?
She sensed she might not get the chance to find out because the wounded bear howled and started his charge towards her.
This was not Kyle, she knew. She had shot the correct bear and not a moment too soon. But now he was mad. He would tear her from limb to limb. Her hands shook as she pointed the gun again and pulled the trigger.
Click.
Oh no. The barrel was empty this time.
The bear which was Caleb lunged at her, growling. His massive shadow blackened the walls. She cringed against the wall and closed her eyes, preparing to be devoured. Maybe she could melt into the wall. There was a lot of snarling, which caused her eardrums to thrill harshly, and then a cry . . . cut off abruptly.
A heavy thud.
She still stood there. There was no pain.
She tentatively opened her eyes.
The other werebear stood over the inert body of Caleb.
Even as she watched, disbelieving, both of them transformed back to their human forms. Both were naked. Caleb lay there, bleeding from his side, and completely knocked out. Kyle bent over him and lifted his arm.
“He’ll live,” he said. His hair was tousled and a horrible bruise was starting to appear on his chest. There was a cut beneath his left eye, and blood was trickling out of his right ear.
Her heart went out to him. “You’re hurt,” she cried.