Black Beast by Nenia Campbell Read Free Book Online Page A

into a cruel smile that had Graymalkin backing away from him.
     
    He had her exactly where he wanted her.
     

Chapter Three
     

     
    Catherine knew that smell.
     
    She knew it well, as did all shape-shifters. Because, for many, survival depended upon it. She had just never expected to sense it out here in the hills, and certainly not so strongly.
Witch.
     
    The hawk part of her consciousness surfaced. At the moment, it was the only animal in her head. That was another reason shape-shifters liked to Change; it calmed the voices. Catherine had so many talking to her all the time, every day, it was a relief to have to deal with one.
     
    Intruder
, it hissed, outraged.
     
    Red-tailed hawks were territorial. They would go after any bird of prey foolish enough to venture into their hunting grounds, even if the bird was bigger.
     
    Catherine sent the bird a picture of a witch. A generic, blurry image of a human surging with power.
     
    The hawk was unimpressed.
     
    This is mine. All mine. Two-legs will not take.
     
    The bird thought it could chase off the witch. Peck out its eyes if necessary. Eyeballs were tasty.
     
    Catherine sent the bird another image. A mangled bird carcass roasting on a spit. She felt the hawk bristle, its feathers ruffling indignantly. Finally, it understood.
     
    Danger
.
     
    Magic.
     
    Sometimes the two were synonymous. Witches did not like shape-shifters. They claimed they were too heathenish and uncivilized to garner any sort of real status. It was only by winning the last War that shape-shifters had gained recognition and admittance into the Council. But only very reluctantly on the witches' part.
     
    Of course, the Fourth Rule prevented the witches from acting as cruelly as they might want to, but since the Council mostly consisted of witches anyway, that wasn't saying much. Once, they had hunted her kind for sport.
     
    It was too easy to look the other way.
     
    Catherine circled the gully twice, scanning the hills and valleys. She saw nothing, for one simple reason; the witch did not want her to see.
     
    The scent was difficult to track. Birds did not have a very good smell, and the witch was downwind of her. She would have been better off in her human body, but even then, it might have been difficult.
     
    The hawk's eyesight was good compensation but she couldn't see anything in the silent trees. There was a field mouse a stone's throw away from where she had left her clothes but no trace of the witch. None.
     
    Catherine snapped her beak in irritation. Why was she being followed at all? She had done nothing wrong.
     
    She screeched, and the valleys echoed with her frustration. She lighted in the topmost branches of an evergreen, turning her head to scan the many ravines that stretched out below like gridwork.
     
    Was it the same witch she had scented before, on her way to the library? Was she being…
hunted
?
     
    As if in response, the tree she was sitting in suddenly caught fire. She smelled the smoke before she saw the flames. It was toxic, sour and smoky. It stung her eyes, making them water.
Shit shit shit shit shit.
     
    She screeched, flapping her wings frantically in an attempt to gain altitude. The wood was just dry enough for the fire to devour, which it did quickly.
     
    An insatiable beast, fire. Always wanting more.
     
    Catherine took off as the greedy flames climbed up towards her perch. With a crack like a gunshot, the branch she had landed on broke free and crashed to the ground, shedding burnt bark and glowing embers that were quickly put out by the falling rain.
     
    Luckily, she was already well away. She watched the tree as it succumbed to a fate that could have just as easily been hers. She didn't have to wonder how the fire had started. She knew. She could smell it.
Magic.
     
    The witch was here.
     
    Catherine swooped back down to earth and Changed into a human. Naked, shivering, she slipped into the shadows of the oak copse where she had hidden her