XVI
MY GAZE swept down the slope to the drop‑off. The sea was a wan glimmer beyond. More of my wits came back. Maledicto had adroitly removed me from the scene, perhaps murdered me: if I were the untrained unspecial Homo sapiens he assumed. But I had a little more in reserve than he knew, such as witch‑sight. I mumbled the formula and felt the retinal changes. At once I could see for miles. The view was blurred, of course; the human eyeball can’t focus infrared wavelengths very well; but I could recognize landmarks. I set a general course and made for home.
With nightmare slowness. Maledicto had gone faster than human.
Nearly full, the moon broke over the hills.
The change was on me before I had overtly willed it. I didn’t stop to undress, bundle my clothes and carry them in my mouth. My wolf‑jaws ripped everything to rags except the elastic‑banded shorts, and I went shadow‑swift over the mountainside. If you think a giant bobtailed wolf in shorts is ridiculous, you’re probably right; but it didn’t occur to me just then.
I couldn’t see as far with lupine eyes. However, I could smell my own trail, in bruised vegetation, vivid as a cry. I found the path and drank another scent. Now I knew what the undertone of Maledicto’s odor had been.
Demon.
I’d never caught that exact whiff before, and my wolf brain wasn’t up to wondering about his species. Nor did it wonder what he desired of Ginny. There was only room in my narrow skull for hate, and for hurrying.
The lodge came into view. I sprang onto the patio. No one was about. But the master bedroom faced the sea, its window open to the moonbeams. I went through in a leap.
He had her in his arms. She was still pressing him away, resisting, but her eyes were closed and her strength faded. “No,” she whispered. “No, help, don’t, Amaris, Amaris, Amaris.” Her hands moved to his throat, slid to his neck, drew his face to hers. They swayed downward together in the gloom.
I howled, once, and sank my teeth in him.
His blood did not taste human. It was like liquor, it burned and sang within me. I dared not bite him again. Another such draught and I might lie doglike at his feet, begging him to stroke me. I willed myself human.
The flow of transformation took no longer than he needed to release Ginny and turn around. Despite his surprise, he didn’t snarl back at me. A shaft of moonlight caught his faerie visage, blazed gold in his eyes, and he was laughing.
My fist smashed forward with my weight behind it. Poor, slow man‑flesh, how shall it fight the quicksilver life of Air and Darkness? Maledicto flickered aside. He simply wasn’t there. I caromed into a wall and fell down, my knuckles one crumple of anguish.
His laughter belied above me. “And this puling thing should deserve as lively a wench as thee? Say but the word, Virginia, and I will whip him to his kennel.”
“Steve . . .” She huddled back in a corner, not coming to me. I reeled onto my feet. Maledicto grinned, put an arm about Ginny’s waist, drew her to him. She shuddered, again trying to pull away. He kissed her, and she made a broken sound and the motions of resistance started again to become motions of love. I charged. Maledicto shoved with his free hand. I went down, hard. He set a foot on my head and held me.
“I’d liefer not break thy bones,” he said, “but if thou’rt not so gentle as to respect the lady’s wishes‑”
“Wishes?” Ginny broke from him. “God in Heaven!” she wailed. “Get out!”
Maledicto chuckled. “I must needs flee the holy names, if a victim of mine invoke them in full sincerity,” he murmured. “And yet thou seest that I remain here. Thine inmost desire is to me, Virginia.”
She snatched a vase and hurled it at him. He fielded it expertly dropped it to shatter on me, and went to the window. “Oh, aye, this time the spell has been broken,” he said. “Have no fear, though. At a more propitious hour, I shall return.”