Demons of Good and Evil by Kim Harrison

            “Begin!” he exclaimed, voice broken, and a cheer rose from the watchers, some eager, but most had an edge of fear. Nearly all alpha challenges were symbolic shifts of power as lives and needs changed, such as when I had stepped down from the Black Dandelions because I didn’t have the time or personality to attend to the growing pack. But everyone had seen alpha challenges gone wrong, when flesh was torn and neither would yield.

            Breath held, I watched Cassie’s expression become vacant as her mind fell deep within itself and she began to shift. Slumping to the pavement, she curled into a fetal position, trembling as she endured a bone-cracking pain to finish her transformation before Parker. Werefoxes were said to have sprung from witches, and seeing as Cassie could dump her extra mass into the ley line until she shifted back, it seemed to make sense. Weres were not able to do that, and though most Weres were small in their human shift, a two-hundred-pound wolf was enormous.

            My head snapped up at a wild cheer. Adrenaline slammed into me as Parker ran across the space between them, still in her human form. “Cassie! Look out!” I shouted, and Cassie’s eyes flashed open.

            “Not fair!” Jenks shouted, darting up. “Not fair!”

            But it was fair, and I stood, my toes edging the circle as Parker drew her leg back and, with the accumulated momentum of her run, slammed her foot into Cassie’s ribs. The crowd reacted, and beside me, David groaned, helpless as Cassie rolled, shocked out of her transformation.

            “Get up!” I shouted. “Cassie, get up!”

            But she couldn’t breathe, and I watched, horrified as Parker hammered on her with her cast, blows hitting her head and ears until Cassie found a handful of dirt and threw it at her.

            Pawing at her face, the woman stumbled, teeth clenched in outrage.

            Cassie rolled to her feet, panting and hunched, one arm protectively about her middle.

            “Yield!” Parker shouted, and Cassie laughed at her.

            “Slaughter her!” Jenks shouted as he hovered beside David, his belief in Cassie stemming from his confidence that need made one strong, not size. David clearly wasn’t so sure, his hands clenched and his face pale.

            Still grinning, the smaller woman flung herself at Parker, knocking her off-balance even as Cassie hit the ground in a controlled fall. Parker went down, too, and Cassie straddled her, gripping Parker’s hair and slamming her head into the pavers until Parker figured out what was going on and shoved her off.

            Cassie rolled easy, that smile still on her as she got to her feet, hunched and ready. “Come here, little puppy,” she goaded, and, howling, Parker went.

            And soon, the strength of Jenks’s confidence was laid bare. Even as a human, Cassie was markedly smaller, but she was practiced in the martial arts, and as Parker swung at her, Cassie jabbed the palm of her hand out, scoring on Parker’s chin, snapping her head back, and spinning out of the way.

            Parker jerked in shock, her focus wavering for a half second before finding Cassie behind her. Snarling, Parker backhanded Cassie, and the small woman went flying.

            “Cassie!” David shouted, reaching out as Cassie hit the ground and rolled. She kept rolling, but Parker had followed, coming down on her, elbow in her gut.

            The watching crowd ooohed in sympathy, and Jenks’s wings rasped harshly as Parker continued to hammer on Cassie, the woman having curled into a fetal position to try to escape.

            But then I realized that wasn’t what she was doing. “She’s shifting,” I whispered, grabbing onto David’s arm. “David, she’s shifting!”

            Parker suddenly realized it, too, as Cassie’s curly reddish-black hair became a smooth red and black. Snarling, Parker picked Cassie up and threw her across the cleared area. I gasped as Cassie’s misshapen, narrowing body rolled and stopped. Her limbs were too thin, and her head had become long. A muzzle was forming, and teeth. The crowd’s savage calls had dulled at her weird mix of fur and human, and, panting in obvious pain, Cassie tried to escape as Parker reached for her.

            “She’s going to be too small,” I whispered, and Jenks landed on my shoulder, safe from the fist-throwing, screaming watchers.

            “Nah,” the pixy said, his wings cool on my neck. “She’ll be just the right size. If she can finish her shift, there’s no way Parker is going to win.”