Tasha bit her lip. “It just looks like,”
“A jail cell, I know,” Henry said apologetically. “The pack calls this the dungeon for that very reason.” He smiled, but he knew that his little joke hadn’t eased her mind at all.
Jake took her by the hand. “It’ll be alright. I’ll stay right here.”
Tasha looked up at him, silently cursing the tear that slid down her face. “I’m scared,” she whispered.
Jake smiled down at her and wiped the tear with a gentle finger. “I know. I was too.”
Anna separated the two, taking her daughter by the hand. “It will be all right,” she said as she drew her daughter into the cell, casting a wary look over her shoulder. She did not know whether she trusted Jake or not.
On the floor, next to the opened iron door was a small, teakwood bowl and twelve small, plastic bags lined up behind it as well as a tiny metal box. A piece of parchment with a fae text lay next to the bowl.
Henry followed them into the cell. “Have you everything that you require to reverse this spell Anna?”
“Dah, I brought everything with me. I am ready.”
Henry laid a manicured hand on Tasha’s shoulder. “Natasha, you will be safe here, just try to relax. Wereleopards are different than werewolves in form only. The change is pretty universal among all were-creatures. Oddly enough, the more you relax, the easier it will be on you. Try not to fight it. It may take hours, though, and I regret to say that it will be more than uncomfortable. It will get easier in time, but the first change is always the hardest.”
Tasha took a deep, cleansing breath. “Okay, I’m ready,” she said as she steeled herself for the upcoming ordeal.
Henry crossed the cell and opened a door set inside of the cell. “Disrobe in here. You’ll find a blanket in the closet. Wrap that around you if you prefer. When you change back to human, you can return here and redress. Take a shower if you’d like. Everything you need has been provided.”
“Alright, here I go.” Tasha disappeared into the room, shutting herself off from the world.
Tasha removed her clothing, taking the time to fold and stack it neatly upon a shelf. She unwound the bandage from the hand that Dr. Reinhardt had previously sliced open; it was almost healed. She washed her face with cool water and as she dried it, she examined her face in the mirror, absently wondering what she would look like as a leopard. She noticed her eyes; the irises had turned almost completely white, with little sparks of silver radiating from her pupils. A dark silver ring ran round the edge of her iris. The sight took her aback, causing her to realize that, yes, this was really happening. She was not what she thought she was, and knew that there was more to the story. She put the towel away, snugged a lightweight but oh so soft blanket tight around her above her breast and resolutely opened the door.
Her resolution faltered slightly when she saw that not only were Jake and Henry still there, but also doctors Dietrich and Reinhardt had joined them as well as the Lady Maven.
Maven gracefully glided over to Tasha, encircled her shoulders with a slender arm, and gently guided Tasha towards the center of the room. “We will not stay to watch your transformation, dear, so rest easy. We just came down to wish you good luck.” Maven gave Tasha a little squeeze before she released her hug, then looked down at the much smaller Anna. “And hopefully, get an explanation as to what is keeping you from changing,” her lips quirked up in a half smile.
“Dah, I will tell you.” Anna sat before the little bowl, her legs crossed over each other. She sat up straight, inhaled, exhaled, her eyes closed. She opened her eyes and looked over at her daughter. “Natasha, there is much for me to tell you, but what you must know for this moment is this. You are more than wereleopard. You are also part song faery with a bit of human mixed in.”
“Why can’t I smell that she is leopard? No offense, ma’am, but I could sense what you were the moment you walked through the door.” Jake asked from the doorway. He was casually leaning against a wall, arms folded under his chest, but Tasha could see from where she stood the tenseness around his eyes and mouth.
“Dah, wolf boy, that is because of the magic from the fae blood.”
“Of course,” nodded Dr. Dietrich. “Some fae can, borrow the scent from what is around them in order to hide from predators. Her fae nature must have covered the scent of the leopard by utilizing the scent of her human nature.”
“Dah, this is correct. This is because of her father. He was the product of an evil experiment. The idea was to create the perfect assassin, one that would have the stealth of leopard, magic of the faery and scent of a human. But that can wait for later. Right now, we need to be getting on with it. I need some of your blood my darling.”
Tasha shuffled forward and knelt down in front of her mother. Maven made a move to leave, to give the two their privacy but the others lingered behind with a clinical curiosity.
Anna patted her daughter gently on the cheek and gazed lovingly into her eyes. “You are good girl. Sit here. Now, before we begin,” Anna stretched her neck to the right then the left, closed her eyes and began some inhale/exhale exercise. She opened her eyes and began to chant softly while at the same time she picked up first one small bag and then another, all filled with carefully measured ingredients that went into the bowl in a specific order. When all of the bags were emptied, she took up a small, black dagger and cut herself across the palm of one hand. She clenched her cut hand into a fist and squeezed. Droplets of blood splashed onto the ingredients all the while she chanted softly in a tongue that Tasha recognized, though at the time she did not realize that it was an ancient fae language.
Gently, Anna took Tasha’s hand into hers. As she reached the dagger towards Tasha’s hand to make the cut, she looked up at her daughter and tried to give her a reassuring smile, but, as she was chanting at the same time, the smiled looked almost like a grimace. Deftly, Anna sliced across Tasha’s palm, diagonal to the cut Dr. Reinhardt had made. She instructed Tasha to squeeze her hand over the ingredients as she had done. Once Tasha had complied, Ann took her daughter’s bloody hand in her own, rubbed their palms together and allowed their mingled blood to drip into the bowl.
Once Anna released Tasha’s hand, Dr. Reinhardt offered Anna a length of clean cloth, to which Anna gratefully accepted, and allowed the doctor to bind up her wound for her. Dr. Dietrich performed the same service for Tasha. When the first aid was complete, the two doctors stepped back out of the way.
“Now is time, Natasha. It is almost complete,” Anna said in satisfaction. She took up the very small, tin box. “Here we are.” She opened the box and removed an oversized capsule. “This is placenta from when you were born. This is the binding of the spell, and conversely, the unbinding as well.” She dropped the capsule into the bowl, took a flint and lit the piece of parchment that had a listing of all of the ingredients as well as the words of enchantment, applied the flaming parchment to the mixture in the bowl and sat back, chanting once again. The fire flared up brightly, a greenish blue that sparked bright yellow until the ingredients in the bowl were completely consumed. As the fired died to a single ember, Tasha heard a loud pop in her ear, causing her to give a little yelp of surprise.
Anna sighed deeply. “Dah, that is it.”
“That’s it? It’s done?” Tasha asked cautiously. “Now what?” Tasha asked breathlessly.
Anna shrugged. “We wait. You should start feeling pressure in your bones, and an aching in your joints and muscles very soon.”
Tasha worked her jaw, feeling a tenseness that had not previously been there. “I think it’s beginning.” She groaned softly as she continued to work her jaw. It had begun to ache in earnest.
Without uttering a word, Henry ushered everyone out of the cell but Anna, who was busily picking up the detritus of the spell, dumping them into the tote bag.
Jake was the next to the last to leave. He stood in the doorway and looked over at Tasha, giving her a reassuring smile and wave.
/> Tasha gulped giving him a halfhearted wave of her own, half wishing that he would stay. She sat with her back against the wall, arms wrapped about her, to wait.
Anna crouched down beside her, cupping Tasha’s face in her palm. “It is being all right now. I will sit here for a moment.”
Tasha nodded and looked over at the door to see that Jake was hovering just outside of the still open doorway. She closed her eyes and grit her teeth as the spasms became agonizing.
A wave of unyielding, unapologetic pain swept over Tasha. With a scream, Tasha brought her knees up to her chin before thrashing out, her entire body becoming straight and rigid. Another scream escaped her lips as yet another, more intense pain tore through her. But she did not appear to be changing.
Anna wailed in fear. “No!”
Anna’s cry of alarm was enough to cause Jake to leap through the doorway, taking Tasha in his arms and cooing soothing words, petting her hair.
“She should be transforming, but she is not!” Anna cried in alarm.
Jake stared at Tasha’s mother. “What do we do?”
Anna shook her head, her eyes large and troubled, liquid pooling and spilling over onto her cheeks. “I did everything correctly!”
Tasha screamed again, grasping at Jake’s arm and shoulder in her agony. “The bracelet,” Jake said when he grasped Tasha’s wrist to try to still her.
“Dah, the bracelet, quickly!” Anna said as she untied the silk that held the circlet onto Tasha’s wrist.
As soon as the bracelet was free from Tasha, she gave a heave and a kick and a scream. The violence of motion tossed both Anna and Jake free from Tasha. Jake crab crawled back from her but refused to leave until he noticed Tasha’s jaw begin to buldge grotesquely. “She’s changing,” he looked at Anna for confirmation.
Anna nodded and pulled back from Tasha who was thrashing and kicking out dangerously in her anguish. She tugged on Jake’s shirtsleeve and he followed her out of the cell, closing the iron grate door behind him.
####
The open area outside of the cell resembled a comfortable living room complete with large, comfortable looking chairs and sofas and flat screen television. Large, colorful rugs covered the cement floor and warm colored tapestries hung on the walls. This room had no resemblance whatsoever to a dungeon but more like a family room.
Maven was seated in a large, overstuffed chair, flipping through a magazine, apparently unaffected by the noises coming from Tasha’s cell. Henry also appeared relaxed, though Jake noticed that his pupils were dilated, the iris ice blue, the color they were when he was a wolf. His Alpha, apparently, was feeling the stress of Tasha’s change almost as acutely as Jake was. The doctors sat, but it was evident that they were impatient to ask Anna questions. Jake took up position at the edge of the room, feeling the need to stand, and pace, and fidget. Anna stood and watched through the iron door, monitoring her daughter’s progress. They all remained this way for a number of hours.
Only when Tasha’s screams ceased did any movement in the living room come to a sudden and breathless halt, all eyes turned to Anna, all filled with the same voiceless question.
Maven asked it. “Is it done then?”
Anna smiled as she turned and sagged against the wall of her daughter’s cell. “All is well.” Anna turned back to the iron door, gasping the rungs and leaning her head against her hand.
Jake came up behind her to peer inside. Tasha was no longer there. He did see a torn blanket, a discarded bloodied bandage and a long, lanky, white and black leopard lying in the center of the floor, her sides heaving as Tasha the leopard panted in exhaustion.
“She is beautiful, is she not?” Anna said to no one in particular.
Jake smiled and released a deep breath, “She certainly is.”
####
Anna straightened and turned to face Jake. “So,” she began, a hard look in her eyes and voice, “you are the werewolf.”
Jake tried not to smile. He could see where Tasha got her stern look. “Yes, ma’am. My name is Jake,” he said and lifted his hand to shake hers.
But she did not move to take his. Her eyes narrowed. “You knew she was not human?”
“I did.”
“Did you know she was wereleopard?”
“No.”
She continued to scrutinize him with her eyes. She pursed her lips. “And is there being any funny business going on with my daughter?”
Jake’s eyes widened and he choked. “Funny business? No, no ma’am.”
Anna slowly nodded her head. “Dah, I see you tell truth. Make sure it will be staying that way,”
“Yes ma’am.”
Anna abruptly turned on her heal and strode towards the open living space just beyond Tasha’s cell.
Chapter 19
Avery had been sent down with a tray of sandwiches. He offered Anna one before he took the tray around the room. Anna gratefully took a sandwich and enthusiastically bit into it. She chewed it contentedly, took another bite and chewed it down before she settled herself into a chair, the sandwich still in hand as if she were reluctant to let it out of her sight.
“I am ready to begin.” Anna said before taking another bite.
“Are you sure?” Henry asked. “We have many questions, but they can wait until you have eaten and even rested. By the looks of it, I would say that you have not slept in some time.”
Anna nodded while she swallowed. “Dah, this is truth, but I am owing explanation, and I will do that now.” She glanced back towards Tasha’s cell. “I can explain to Natasha later.”
Dr. Dietrich removed a small, pocket-sized digital recorder from the inside pocket of his sports coat and set it on a side table next to the chair were Anna had collapsed.
“Do you mind if I record this?” he asked her.
Anna eyed the device suspiciously before she nodded. “Dah, this will be fine.”
“Ms. Tereshkova,”
“Anna, please,”
“Anna,” Maven smiled warmly. “I am so happy that you arrived when you did, however, please, forgive my intrusiveness, but where have you been?”
Anna swallowed another bite of sandwich, took a pull from a bottle of water that had been handed to her and replied. “I am always being able to tell when my Natasha is in pain or danger. It is the magic. It has always bound us together. These last weeks I am feeling that there is something wrong, but when I call, my Natasha says, ‘no momma, I am fine.’ Eh, she is adult, she does not have to tell me. But it is like buzzing in the back of my head, so I know all is not fine. Then, one day, I feel like devil himself is chasing me. I look, but I see no one. Now, I am being first to admit that I am full of the paranoia, but this is different from everything I am experiencing before. I know my Natasha is very afraid. And that she is in great danger. So, I call, but no answer. ‘That is it,’ I say and I leave job and home in New Mexico and make my way here. But I feel the paranoia, so I must take longer than I am liking to, traveling many miles out of way, making the many transfer of the buses and the trains.”
“What are you afraid of, Anna,” Henry asked in his soft, reassuring voice.
“Many things. I will tell you about myself, and you will see that it is not all in vain.
“As you now know, my darling Natasha is being part human, part wereleopard and part fae. I know, is quite combination, but this is the way of things,” Anna shrugged.
“Not just unusual, but very much improbable,” Dr. Dietrich intoned, not impolitely. “There have always been human/fae hybrids, human/were-being hybrids. But your daughter…”
“My daughter is one of a kind. Well, almost one of a kind,” her mother sighed almost sadly, “but please, hear me.
“Now, where to begin. We go way back, back before my own time, to time of my great grandfather. You have heard of Ivan the Terrible? He is terrible because he kills many, many people. He thinks everyone is out to kill him, and maybe he was right. It is possible that ari
stocracy kill his wife. So, he kills aristocracy. He also kills others for treason, but it is not clear if for real treason or make believe. He forms special branch of military called oprichniki. These men wear the black and ride the black horses and have head of dog on stick. They use this as symbol to sniff out the treason. Let us say that merely the sight of them alone is deterrent. At any rate, they are silent and deadly and everyone fears them. My great grandfather, he is one of these oprichniki. He is young and is ready to serve the strong leader Ivan. He is honored above all others in the oprichniki, because he secretly uses his skill as wereleopard to find his quarry, makes him very effective at job. One day, the commander discovers his secret. This is a bad thing, to be found out, as you well know. He wishes for great grandfather to bring others like him, to make even more elite group, but great grandfather, he refuses. The commander, he takes Grandfather’s family hostage, and forces Grandfather make super elite, super secret fighting unit. Grandfather finally agrees in order to protect his father and mother, as well as his village. So he builds super elite force. They are respected by some, feared by others. Ivan’s own son, the first-born, respected the wereleopards. But he was killed when the Ivan went into rage, killed him accidently. His second son, he was worthless and weak. He had no interest in ruling Russia so he let others do it for him. These people feared the leopards and hunted them, to exterminate them. Many of my Grandfather’s people escaped to the mountain hideaways. Many were killed. Famine and plague in the land interrupted the hunting down of wereleopards and my people survived, but barely.
“Our kind does not propagate quickly. In good times, it may take fifty years for a youngling to be born. When times are bad, eh, even longer. The wereleopards were affected by famine as well as the humans during that time. Many years of hard famine make for many dead wereleopards and very few new babies.
“They lived in solitude, not trusting of the people so much. Rulers come and go, but there are too many troubles for humans, and that alone keeps the leopards far from their attention. Then came Peter the Great. He aspired to make Russia great, and did so. He was aggressive, but he was also being a man of science. He created a grand army, but he needed more to expand the Russian boarders. He put his most trusted and brilliant minds to work, and they come up with plan. Someone is remembering the wereleopards, and searched them out. This someone was promising riches and influence, but it was being his promise of protection and food that made my grandfather, who was by that time leader, alpha, whatever you may call it, give in to the Peter. He sent his leopards in, and they served the Czar well. But then Peter got a brilliant idea to his mind. He would make assassins of leopards. But, they had to pass the test of the fae and the wizards who served in many a court. The assasins had to be able to pass as completly human, undectable by them. He began doing experiments. Peter the Great is known for his torturing. He tortured the leopards, forcing matings between leopard and human. But, even if human and leopard mate, no matter what the outcome, the offspring still smell like leopard, and that is no good. Thus, this project of Peter’s, it ended badly. Peter, he killed many wereleopards in his anger. Again, we had to go into hiding. I was born into that time. It was a dark time, hiding, constantly on the move.