The Last Shifter (a Loki romance)

Chapter 41

As soon as I heard the threatening sound, I stopped protesting against Loki's actions and allowed him to numb my shoulder until I felt like it wasn't there.  Now the only sounds in the clearing were my occasional whimpers due to the wound in my leg and Loki's slightly more labored breathing as he worked with nothing but his hands to remove the bullet from my shoulder.

"Just use magic."

"I can't.  It's not a clean wound, which means I could easily cause more harm if I made one wrong move."

"Well I can't feel anything but I get the notion that you are causing more harm now that would've been caused if you had used magic."

"Then perhaps your skills are greater than mine.  Don't forget that I am using a constant charm to keep your pain away as well." The snarl came again.  Closer this time.

"Hurry!"

"I can't.  I have to be very careful."  I raised my head a couple inches, scanning what foliage I could see for any threats.

"What kind of big cats did you say they were?"

"I didn't.  We don't know.  We only find what they leave behind of our prey or hunters we send after them.  The only thing we know for certain is that they're pack hunters."

"Great.  So that snarl we just heard–"

"Means that there are probably about five converging on us right now."

"You sure they're cats?  Not, like, wolves or something?"

"Fairly certain, yeah."

"You sure that it wasn't just the dragons?"

"Pretty sure."

"Great."

"What?"

"That means that they could be finding in the trees."

"Well," I felt a twinge in my shoulder, "That's one." The bullet fell onto the grass beside me.

"Yeah, did I mention that now you're going to have to keep constant pressure on the wound to keep me from bleeding out?"

"No!  I thought that's what you had to be on your front for!"

"It'll help but now that there's a fresh flow–"

"–the cats will come faster."

"The cats....or worse."

"What could be worse?!"

"Kayerith's mate.  Even though I was pretty much her sister, I had to be very careful around her.  Dragons tend to...how to put this...go a little insane around blood.  Even more than any big cat or shark."

"Now you tell me."

"Sorry!"

"Well then, let's just hope that I can get this one done a lot faster." Loki straddled my upper back, positioned so that his left shin was on top of my shoulder.  My left leg numbed and he began again.  I could hear the snarls again.  Only this time, it sounded like there was more than one.  The animals were talking to each other.

"Loki!"

"You're going to have to be patient with me.  This one is significantly deeper."  I raised my head again and scanned the edge of the clearing.  At first, it looked like we were alone but then I spotted movement.  Both on the ground and up in the trees.  My heart stopped and my eyes slowly moved upwards to where a giant black cat was perched on one of the branches, watching us casually, it's yellow eyes full of hunger.  Not far off, I spied the amber beams of another jaguar crouched behind a large shrub.