Afterlife

by Dannika Dark

  Blue thought about all the people she’d seen in the house. “Is everyone in your home from Africa?”

  “They’re all of African descent. Maybe that’s not how most Shifters invite members into their family, but we have formed a brotherhood from common experience. We have a duty to preserve our culture and keep our stories alive in our children. What can they learn from a lion who lived a privileged life in England? One who could only shift in the privacy of a large estate to protect themselves? They don’t know what it’s like to hunt in the open plains, following the thundering hoofbeats of gazelle with the hot sun on their backs. We could go anywhere—the land was ours. Now we are restricted to territories. My family shifts in the courtyard. So many roads. So many cars. So many camera phones.”

  Blue sympathized with him. “I guess you have problems I haven’t endured.”

  He flicked a glance at her feather earrings. “Owl?”

  She snorted. “They’re nosy little bastards. I’m a falcon.”

  “It must be nice to be free in the heavens.”

  “It is,” she admitted, turning her head toward a rogue breeze. “I guess I take my freedom for granted. Is that what happened to King? Did he wander off the territory?”

  Sambah lifted his glass and licked the sugar off the rim. Somewhere nearby, Blue heard drums and singing.

  “Apologies,” Niko said. “Did we disturb a ceremony?”

  Sambah gazed off to the west. “No. There’s a small tribe within our family who sings to the setting sun. There are many customs here, and we honor them all.”

  Joba returned with a colorful round tray. On it, a supremely large plate filled with many different foods. Blue arched her eyebrows, surprised by the feast.

  Joba chuckled and used a piece of flatbread to scoop up what looked like a mixture of cooked cabbage and onions. Then he took a bite. “Don’t let good food go to waste.”

  When he left, Blue reached for a folded-up piece of bread and used it to grab food on the tray. She wasn’t exactly sure what they were eating, but it smelled good.

  “Here,” she said, placing it in Niko’s hand. “Eat up.”

  Niko held it to his nose before taking a bite.

  It was rude to decline food offered in a Shifter home. Mainly because it was considered a show of trust by both parties. Leaders could poison enemies under the guise of hospitality, something Shifters once did. Sambah was testing them, and that was why she shoved food into Niko’s hands before he had the chance to decline.

  She looked at the doughy bread lining the plate. “This is all vegetables?”

  Sambah chuckled. “We lions have a bad reputation. Many of us prefer to eat meat only in animal form. This is bayenetu. Many options.”

  Blue tried some. “It’s delicious.”

  “So are enchiladas and candy bars. We eat all of those too. But if you come into my home as a guest, we will serve you our food.” He flicked his gaze to the tall trees. “You asked me how King died. It wasn’t from a territorial dispute. Gossip and speculation surrounded his death, but the truth is he fell down the stairs.”

  “Fell?” Blue asked, unable to mask the surprise in her voice.

  Sambah shook his head. “Great men die in battle. I cannot understand it myself. It happened after midnight, and I don’t know what he was doing up that late. It’s not unusual for our lions to stir in the late hours, but we keep the house quiet for the children. There has to be a schedule.”

  “Maybe he wanted a midnight snack, and it was dark,” Niko suggested.

  “The kitchen is closed after our last meal,” Sambah informed him. “And I installed a glass railing to keep the children from falling. They light up at night. Our worst nightmare is a home that is not safe for children. Young ones are so precious and fragile. But King was a man. He struck his head, and that is why he didn’t shift.”

  Blue swallowed her bite. “Do you think someone pushed him?”

  “I don’t know what to believe. I teach my children well. I have taught them to shift before they are injured. If you pushed me from a falling window, I would shift before my feet hit the ground. Our animals are less frail. I will never know. They found him on the stairs in the morning, and I cannot imagine how long he must have lain there. I have the power to force him to shift—I could have saved him if he’d still been alive. Even if I couldn’t, I could have held him in my arms. But that was not the will of the fates.”

  A black feeling enveloped Blue, one she tried to suppress.

  Niko touched her arm. He must have noticed her light change.

  Having lost her appetite, Blue lifted her glass and cleansed her palate. “Was he himself that day? Did anything about his mood or behavior seem off? Maybe he wasn’t feeling well, and that’s why he lost his balance.” She avoided allusion to the possibility of a virus.

  “I should remember all those last moments,” Sambah admitted, “but I don’t. They are gone from me. I remember him as we gathered for breakfast the previous morning. He was giving my brother an ulcer. We often joked that King could talk a ghost out of his grave.” Sambah reached for the plate. “My son was an insistent man. He got his way many times because I couldn’t win a debate with him.”

  Niko chuckled, and that pleased Sambah.

  “I could tell many stories,” he continued. “The living are memory keepers of the dead. It honors their spirit to remember them, but more importantly, those stories inspire younger generations. I’m afraid I have no conspiracy to report to the higher authority if that’s what they’re looking for. No murder under my roof. No cover-up. Just a tragic accident.”

  Blue stood. “I’m sorry if we wasted your time.”

  “Not at all.” After eating what was in his hand, he rose to his feet and rounded the table to escort them inside. “It is not often we get visitors from the outside—especially falcons. If you don’t mind my saying so, most of your kind avoid us.”

  Blue gave him a sideways glance. “Maybe it’s because some of you consider us dinner.”

  “That was many centuries ago. Food is plentiful now.” He stopped and turned to face her. “I promise not to eat you if you visit again.” Then he directed his gaze to Niko. “May I steal a minute alone with your partner?”

  Blue patted Niko’s shoulder. “The door is about seven steps ahead and it automatically opens. I’ll be right in.”

  Niko bowed. “Thank you for inviting us into your home, Mr. Freeman. It was a pleasure being your guest.”

  When he left, Sambah folded his arms. “I have many questions about your friend.”

  “Why didn’t you ask him?”

  “Because it is not he who intrigues me.”

  Blue tucked her hands in her pants pockets as the wind blew her shirt collar to the side. “I’m not available.”

  Sambah tossed back his head and laughed. “I am not a collector of mistresses. There is only one woman who has my heart.”

  Confused, she frowned. “Then what is it?”

  “Where are your people? Where is your tribe? Why do you walk alone?”

  “I’m not alone. I have Niko.”

  “But he is not one of us.”

  “No, but I chose my family. Not everyone is born to live in a big house and knit all day.”

  He squinted and looked deep into her eyes. “You’re not foolish enough to believe the women in my house are subservient, are you? We are evolved from the way our ancestors ran a home.”

  “Not everyone is as progressive as you are.”

  He gave a short nod as if she had answered a question. That annoyed Blue—it irritated her when people felt entitled to her privacy.

  “This is not a ruse, is it?” he asked, making her suddenly nervous. “Over the years, I’ve amassed a fortune. I know some envious immortals who would like nothing more than to disband my pride so they can make themselves rich.”

  “I promise that’s not what this is about. I would never be a part of something like that.”

  Sambah turned to
ward the setting sun, which Blue could see in the reflection of the tall windows. “In my homeland, there wasn’t always peace. We battled for land among other Shifters. Sometimes lions, other times hyenas or leopards. All warriors carried scars they chose not to heal. Scarification was practiced among human tribes, but with Shifters, those marks held a different meaning. They weren’t just symbols of courage but also of beauty. We call those marks fingerprints of the gods. We are not born warriors—we are chosen.”

  Blue realized her shirt had moved away from her shoulder, revealing some of the nasty scar that ran beneath her tank top. There was no point in buttoning up.

  “If your people cast you out because of your scars, they were foolish. It is a bad omen to turn away those touched by greatness,” he continued.

  “That’s not what happened. I left them a long time before.”

  “You carry pain inside you. It makes me wonder if anyone has told you how beautiful you are—how beautiful your scars must be. They’re a remembrance of pain, but if I were a single man, I would undress you and admire them.”

  Blue snorted. “Well, I’m glad you’re mated. And anyone who undresses me without permission gets his hands cut off. Don’t worry, Mr. Freeman. The pain I carry is old and has nothing to do with the marks on my body.”

  He suddenly turned and put his arm around her, leading her to the doors. “Good. Then I would very much like to introduce you to one of my brothers. He doesn’t live in my house anymore, but he has no issue with interbreeding. Though a goose once gave him grief.”

  “Until you cooked her?”

  Sambah laughed. “There is a sense of humor in there after all.”

  Chapter 13

  “What did he talk to you about?” Niko asked from the passenger seat.

  “He wanted to set me up with his brother.”

  The car was too dark to see if Niko was grinning, but she could feel it.

  Niko shifted in his seat. “And what did you say?”

  She steered onto another road. “I’d rather clip my wings than mate with a lion.”

  “Bad blood?”

  “Sambah’s a decent man—I can’t disagree with that. More than some of the families we’ve visited, especially the last one. Not everyone follows the old customs about feeding visitors, and he gave us a tour of his home. But it doesn’t erase the history between different animal races. It wasn’t uncommon to skin the hides of your enemies, and some probably still do it even though it’s a primitive custom. But there were a few who ate their enemies—roasted them on a spit. Lions were one, and I’ve also heard stories about leopards. It’s one thing if your animal consumes another, because we don’t have much control over what our animals do, but when you eat another Shifter while you’re in human form, it’s practically cannibalism.”

  “Even if the victim is in animal form?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” she said, tightening her grip on the wheel.

  Niko took out one of the peppermints she kept in the armrest. “Perhaps it’s time you let go of that stereotype. People change, and more importantly, newer generations phase out the old.”

  “I know. Like I said, I’ve got nothing against him. Nice guy, nice home, nice family. But I still wouldn’t mate a lion. Their ancestors might have eaten one of mine, and that would anger the spirits.”

  “Wyatt says most of the spirits go somewhere after death, and only a few linger.”

  “You’re talking about the same man who thinks Ding Dongs should have their own national holiday.”

  Blue swerved when something darted in front of her headlights. The car went careening off the road and took a few hard bumps before she slammed on the brakes.

  Niko unbuckled his seat belt. “My eyes were closed. What happened?”

  “You tell me.” Blue looked out the back window but couldn’t see anything, so she pulled onto the road and put the car in park. “I thought I saw a man. Do you think I hit him? Viktor will kill me if I ran over some poor human.”

  Niko opened his door. “Maybe we should check it out.”

  “I’m one step ahead of you, amigo.” Blue already had her door open, one foot out. The headlamps of her car lit up a thin veil of fog, but without the aid of streetlights, she couldn’t see the road behind them.

  “There’s a body,” Niko said. “Still alive.”

  “Thank the fates.”

  Blue hustled across the asphalt until she reached a dark shape on the ground. She knelt and rolled the man over and was searching for a pulse when he suddenly seized her wrist.

  She pulled back, but he didn’t let go. “Were you hit, sir? I can take you to a hospital.”

  “You’re the one who’s going to need a doctor.” The man rose to his feet, taking her with him. The red taillights on her car didn’t illuminate his features, but she could see he was tall.

  “Blue, there’s one more in the woods,” Niko said coolly.

  It was then she realized that this was a trap. Niko climbed onto the roof of her car, scanning the area. He could see what others couldn’t in the cloak of darkness.

  “I thought falcons were smarter than you,” the man said, jerking her wrist. “Walking around unarmed, especially in wolf territory?”

  Wolf. They weren’t in wolf territory. Wyatt had given her the specs of all the places she planned to visit, and outside of the Freeman pride was a whole bunch of unused land owned by the higher authority.

  She squinted, trying to make out his face. “Do I know you?”

  “You stupid cunt.” He grabbed a fistful of her hair and shoved her toward the vehicle. “Tell your blind friend to get back in the car.”

  Blind. Yep. This guy knew them. And as many cases as they’d worked together, there was no telling what the hell this was about. Every blue moon, they ran into a thug they’d busted or roughed up, and all these jerks wanted was revenge.

  Something moved within the tree line. Blue expected to see this guy’s buddy, but instead, a wolf trotted up to the car, sniffed, and barked. Not a ferocious bark she’d heard from Viktor on the attack, but one to call attention.

  “They’re alone,” Niko said. “What do you want to do?”

  “Give us what we came for,” the man gripping her hair snarled.

  She stopped short and gave him a steely glare over her shoulder. “An ass kicking?”

  Blue struck him in the chest with her elbow, then twisted around and punched him until her knuckles throbbed. Bloodied his nose, knocked out a tooth, and then she went for the windpipe. Despite her best efforts, he didn’t drop to the ground but swung his arms as he gasped to breathe. Hand-to-hand combat wasn’t her style. She could throw a mean punch, but this guy must have been twice her weight.

  Niko jumped off the car and hustled toward the wolf. With outstretched hands and webs of light dancing at his fingertips, he addressed the animal. “Leave us, and I won’t kill you.”

  Blue’s adversary simultaneously hacked out a cough and a laugh. “You blind motherfucker. You couldn’t kill an elephant. Get him!”

  The second the wolf lunged. Niko ran a step and somersaulted over him, his fighting techniques pure magic.

  Blue looked down when the man punched her in the leg. No, that was no punch. It took a second to feel the knife piercing bone, and she lost her balance, dropping to her knees.

  In that moment, Blue had what could only be called an out-of-body experience. She punched him in the groin with immense power and did it repeatedly until he crumpled to the ground, gasping as he clutched his testicles. Then she yanked the knife from her leg and crawled over him, her pain no longer existent. As she raised the knife, something tickled her memory, filling her with so much rage that she drove it straight through his heart.

  Again and again.

  “Blue, stop.” Niko grasped her hands, forcing the knife out.

  Blue mechanically rose to face him. By the car, the wolf lay motionless. “Are you okay?”

  He reached out until his hand found her temple. “I sh
ould ask you the same.”

  She limped toward the car. “What the hell do they think we have?”

  Niko touched the trunk lid and bent down low. “I didn’t sense it before. Open the trunk.”

  Unfortunately, she didn’t have a model with the button on the trunk lid itself, so Blue dragged her leg behind her as she reached inside the car and activated the trunk release.

  “Blue, quick!”

  Her leg dull with pain, she hobbled to the rear. The trunk light Shepherd had installed revealed a child curled up in a fetal position. She couldn’t have been more than ten or eleven.

  “Fates,” Blue whispered. “How long has she been in there?”

  “Her light is weak. Does she look familiar to you?”

  Blue reached in and swept back the girl’s long brown hair. “Yeah. The Donner pack.”

  “You mean the one from this afternoon?”

  Blue thought about how suspicious the men had behaved and how few women she’d seen. That in itself wasn’t unusual, but it was all the children that raised red flags—mostly girls. This one had been sitting inside the garage when they arrived. She had a hopeful look in her eyes when she saw Blue, but sometimes that was simple curiosity from packs cut off from the outside world.

  “She’s been in there for hours,” Blue said, a sinking feeling coming over her as she pulled the girl out. She set her on the ground and patted her cheek. “Wake up, honey. Can you hear me?”

  “I’ll get water.” Niko disappeared from sight.

  The girl’s eyelids fluttered before she looked up at Blue. “Please don’t send me back,” she rasped. “Please.”

  “Okay. Don’t you worry about all that.”