Nearly an hour had passed, but Dannie couldn’t reach that calm she needed to reach the otherness and find the answers she needed. Dannie got up and took out the pill bottle from under her bed. There was one left. Thank God, for that. She lit up and took a long hit. Calm, Dannie needed to be calm. She also needed a contingency plan. There is only one person she knew that would let her walk into a trap alone, yet she could still count on to have her back — Cass.

Dannie looked into the mirror, staring at her reflection. Despite getting her ass kicked, there wasn’t a broken bone, bruise, or cut to show for it. That wasn’t so much a problem as the eye color change was. Her once brown color had turned to a blue-lavender color. “What the hell,” Dannie breathed leaning in closer and wondered what else had changed since last night.She pulled back her lips to look at her teeth, remembering how they felt when she ‘shifted.’ A sigh of relief escaped her when she saw completely normal blunt human teeth. Next Dannie removed her shirt to be a hundred percent sure there was nothing else that had changed besides her eyes. She was about to remove her jeans as well when she saw it. In the center of her stomach was a tattoo - the symbol that was on the cover of the black book.It looked slightly faded as if she had it for years. With a trembling hand, Dannie reached down and touched the dark lines of the tattoo. She traced it with her fingertips, but nothing h

Balric and Cass walked towards the center of the yard and started warming up. Dannie couldn’t help but watch them for a moment. Balric, despite his size, moved with quick grace. There was something primally attractive about him. She couldn’t put her finger on exactly what it was, but it pushed all her buttons. Cass, Dannie had no doubts, could pull men in just as easily. Beautiful, quick, and strong, Cass was like poetry in motion. The two looked good together.

It hurt. It hurt like a son of a bitch, but it didn’t seem to take as long or hurt as much as the first time. Dannie heard Cass swear, fear in her voice and scent as she stood. Dannie opened and closed her clawed hands.“What-what is she?” Cass asked, again the fea

Balric walked in, pushed the rocking chair over to Dannie’s bed and sat in it. His forearms rested on his thighs. “I heard you don’t want to do your magic anymore.”“There a question in there somewhere or you just want me to confirm what you heard is right?”