No Mere Zombie: Deathless Book 2 by Chris Fox Read Free Book Online

center of the ring.   He shifted as he moved, the change like breathing now. In the span of three spaces he gained two feet of fur and muscle, the silver mirrored in Bridget's coat as she shifted too.
    Then Blair was elsewhere. There was no ring, just a vast jungle. The Amazon this time. He hadn’t seen this level before, but he couldn’t waste time gawking. Bridget would already be studying the ring, learning the terrain. She’d find the best place to ambush him and then strike, when he least expected it. It always began this way. How could it not? He couldn’t hide from a female and she could effortlessly fool his senses. The only advantage he had was speed.
    Blair blurred to the top of a wide bowled tree with thick drooping fronds. He’d never seen it before, but then he’d also never been to the Amazon. The bark was leathery against his bare feet. It smelled bitter. There was flash of movement in the corner of his vision. He spun, leaping to another branch to get a look at the cause. A pair of squirrel-sized monkeys chittered quietly on a branch. Their black and white fur and drooping mustaches lent them a dignified air.
    Macaws shrieked from neighboring trees, a counterpoint to the intermittent drone of insects. In the distance a jaguar roared. The jungle flowed around him, unaware of the predators in its midst. Maintaining that advantage was critical. If the animals fell silent it would alert Bridget to his presence, whereas he’d get no such warning. The animals were simply incapable of detecting a shadow-dancing female.
    Blair blurred forward, grabbing a thick branch with both hands. He swung, using his momentum to carry him to a neighboring tree. He cushioned his landing as much as possible, but the monkeys in the neighboring tree still fell silent. Hopefully Bridget hadn’t heard that. He scanned the surrounding jungle, layers of shadow obscuring the jungle floor. Only a few rays of sun broke the canopy, isolated pools of light in a greater shadow.
    He released the limb, dropping silently onto a fern below. It cushioned his fall enough that the droning insects continued uninterrupted. He dropped into a crouch, back planted against the tree. There had to be a way to detect her. He couldn’t see or smell her and he couldn’t probe her mind, at least not effectively. Her defenses were too strong. So what were his options?
    Shaping had to be the key. It was his one advantage. The Mother wouldn’t have left an entire gender defenseless, so there must be a way to compensate for a female's stealth. Hmm. He couldn’t pierce Bridget’s mind when he probed her, but he could feel resistance when he tried. How could he use that? Maybe he could somehow broadcast his will in all directions like a sonar burst. A sort of ping.
    This is possible, Ka-Dun. Dispersing your will weakly in all directions. Ingenious. The beast rumbled. It spoke rarely these days, now that they'd joined fully.
    Disperse his will. He considered the problem for a moment, blurring to another tree trunk, then another so quickly that he hoped Bridget couldn’t follow. How could he do that? Visualization. That seemed to be how all their powers worked. Blair imagined his will as a giant balloon, slowly filling as he pushed harder. It grew larger and larger, bulging around him in a shimmering wave he suspected only he could see. He pushed harder, straining until it was as large as he could make it. Then still further. Finally it burst, spraying bits of his will in a blast around him. It washed harmlessly through the jungle in every spot. Except one.
    He met resistance in a neighboring tree, just a few feet behind him to the left. Blair blurred, diving into a roll as Bridget’s claws raked the space he’d just occupied. He flipped to his feet, spinning to face her as Bridget melted back into the shadows.
    “That’s the first time you’ve anticipated one of my attacks,” her disembodied voice came from the shadows. “What did you do