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

look and then turned back to Liz. “Of course. There’s still a lot you can teach me.”
    “Great. Cyntia, why don’t you help Blair get dinner started? We can spar later. Bridget and I need some time alone.”

Chapter 7- High School Bullshit

    Liz stepped across the glowing line into the circle, dropping her sports bra onto the stone outside, along with the rest of her clothes. She rolled her neck, unlimbering for the fight. Then she shifted, marveling in the miracle of it.
    The process still hurt. How could it not? Bones snapped and popped as her body re-arranged itself, limbs lengthening and muscles swelling. The worst part was definitely the muzzle splitting her face, and she teared up briefly in the same way she had when a girl had broken her nose back in the fifth grade.
    When the process was complete she'd gained over three feet in height, and a thick auburn pelt covered her nakedness. That had been a mercy when she first started, but constant combat and the burdens of leadership had burned the embarrassment out of her.
    She paused, turning to face the shorter woman. Bridget had dark wavy hair, beautiful eyes and a dazzling smile. There wasn’t a wasted ounce anywhere on that perfect body. She could see why Blair was interested, but it still stung. Liz felt frumpy beside her.  
    "I'll be the target," she said, walking to the middle of the ring. The lights began pulsing in time with her heartbeat.
    Bridget shifted as well, becoming a majestic silver just a few inches shorter than Liz. She stepped into the ring, but the scenery didn't change. That was a first.
    The ring senses purpose, Ka-Ken . Liz's beast rumbled. You seek a direct confrontation, a battle of strength. Trickery is not needed, and so the ring offers no distraction.
    Was she really picking a fight over a man? Maybe. It seemed like exactly the sort of thing she'd have chastised her brother for doing, a fistfight over a girl. Her desire to do exactly the same thing was testament to how much the virus had changed her.
    "So have you known Blair a long time?" she asked, turning to face Bridget as the smaller wolf wrapped the shadows about her. She was gone a heartbeat later, undetectable save for her disembodied voice.
    “Yes, for a long time now. We went to Stanford together. Him, Steve, Sheila and I,” Bridget's voice explained. It circled slowly around Liz as Bridget moved. “We dated for three years, most of it spent at school or later at a dig site in China.”
    There was a moment of silence and then a flash of silver as Bridget lunged from the right. Liz flowed into one of the combat forms the Mother had taught her, catching Bridget's neck with one hand and her right arm with the other. That left one of Bridget's arms free, and she raked Liz's chest in a spray of blood.
    Liz responded by slamming Bridget's face into the obsidian, then rolling away and disappearing into the shadows. Now it was her turn to attack from the shadows. They'd alternate until they grew tired, the idea being that they could practice both attacking and defending. Liz had taken to the exercises with a surprising fervor. She really enjoyed losing herself in the activity, the primal joy of combat. Usually she did, anyway.
    “But you broke up?” Liz asked, circling Bridget. Her opponent shifted slowly, ears twitching as she sought Liz.
    “A long time ago, yes,” Bridget said, dropping her gaze to the stone. If werewolves could have blushed, Liz had the feeling that Bridget would be. “Steve was his best friend, and Sheila was mine. Blair took a job heading up a dig and it took all of his time. He didn’t come to bed. Didn’t eat with me anymore. I didn’t see him for months. Steve…”
    A wellspring of rage bubbled up in Liz as she understood where Bridget was going with this. She lunged from the shadows behind Bridget, wrapping one arm around her to pin both arms while the other tore out Bridget's throat. Liz shoved Bridget to the stone and then rolled back into a