“Perhaps she is desperate?” Damien’s question had him glancing at Mark, and he didn’t fail to notice that every witch followed his gaze.
“I think it’s time we found out why she wants him. She…”
He had Kyle by the throat before he’d even finished the sentence. “What did you say?”
His voice roared in a rage-filled mind. The small, tiniest, rational part of him, unconsumed by the need to protect Mark, knew Kyle hadn’t meant to be so cavalier. But that part would never be in control when it came to Mark’s well-being.
“Caster!” His mother’s voice flooded that tiny rational section of a mind he was losing control of.
“Caster?” But it was Mark’s voice that drew him back from the edge of destruction. He glanced at his claws digging intoKyle’s neck, the scent of his blood, its warmth as it oozed past his wrist to stain the cuffs of his shirt, seeming so foreign. Kyle didn’t move. His face remained stoic, showing none of the overwhelming pain the injuries caused.
“Caster, stop.”
It was more Mark’s attempt to wedge himself between him and Kyle that had him releasing his long-time bodyguard.
The deafening silence persisted as Mark’s palm landed on his chest. “He didn’t mean anything by it.”
The roar of his anger simmered down to contentment as he floated back from its heights.
“He’s right, though.”
Caster started to shake his head—
“Until we know why she’s here, we have no hope of winning this fight.” Mark looked at Edie, keeping his body in front of Caster, his hand a distracting weight on his chest. “I’ve thought about it, but I don’t know what it could be.”
Will you stop? I love that you want to protect me, but you can’t. Not from this.
Mark’s voice floated through Caster’s mind, and he regained control.I’ll die before I stop protecting you.
Mark sighed his frustration, his hand on Caster’s chest falling away to rest on his forearm. He could understand Mark’s need to project strength, and he didn’t see him as anything but. Still, the witch was after him, and he hadn’t been bluffing when he said she’d have to go through him first.
“There has to be a reason.” His mother’s tone held the baresthint of the admonishment clouding her calm expression when she glanced his way.
“He transforms fast.” Kyle didn’t look at him as he said it. He’d been on the receiving end of Caster’s anger before, and he never fought back or held a grudge after. Still, he vowed to find a way to apologize to him later.
Mark shook his head. “I always could do that. My father said, I preferred my wolf-form as a child, so I had more practice than the others.”
The concern on Adella’s face or the sudden shift of Riley’s attention didn’t bode well.
“How fast does it happen?” Riley asked.
Mark glanced at him, and he nodded his encouragement. Still, the effort it took for him to confess a truth he hadn’t shared with others increased the tension in his body, a tension Caster could feel in the way he squeezed his arm. “I couldn’t do it after the witch’s attack ten years ago.”
The weight of his proclamation settled in the room, the only sound, Mikey’s sigh.
“How is that possible?” Riley’s voice was a whisper. He stepped closer to Mark, stopping short of touching him. “Your wolf is your lifeforce, if he wasn’t”—he turned to his mother— “right?”
Adella nodded.
“I could feel his presence. I just couldn’t transform.” Mark’s courage was unparalleled.
Edie moved closer to him and, unlike Riley, didn’t shy awayfrom touching his arm. “So, today when we saw you…”
Mark nodded. “It was the first time in ten years.”
Caster couldn’t miss the weight of his mother’s stare if he tried. She would have questions, but now was not the time. The way all three witches glanced his way was an indication that they too, had deciphered his role in that particular event.
Edie’s voice fell to a whisper. “OK. What did it feel like?”