Fairplay Shifters Boxset

by Serena Meadows

  Melody gave him one of those looks he was coming to know so well: a look that said, I can take care of myself, so he put away the spell book and his computer and left the room without another word.

  When he came back from dinner, Melody was still working, showing no sign of taking a break, and he was glad he’d brought her a plate of food. “You have to stop for a few minutes and eat this food,” he ordered when he walked into the room.

  She looked up at him. “Will you leave me alone if I do?”

  “Well, I don’t know if I’ll leave you alone, but I’ll stop bugging you,” he said, with a smile.

  “Fine, you win. What’s for dinner?”

  Dalton handed her the plate. “Fried chicken and potato salad, the best I’ve ever had,” he said, lifting off the napkin he’d put over the food.

  Melody took a deep breath of the food, then said, “I guess I am a little hungry, but I can’t eat this in here.”

  “Then take a break,” he said with a big grin.

  ***Melody***

  Melody looked up from the computer, her eyes burning, and looked at the clock on the wall, then over at Dalton where he lay sleeping in the chair. It was almost two o’clock in the morning, and she knew that she’d been at this too long but couldn’t make herself stop.

  Dalton had tried for hours to get her to call it a day, but she’d stubbornly refused, determined to get her coding done before morning. When he’d finally fallen asleep in the chair, she’d been glad, but now she felt a little bit guilty. He was sleeping in an odd position and would surely be sore in the morning, but she still didn’t wake him.

  Confident that he was sound asleep, she took off her sunglasses and set them down on the desk, remembering now why she liked to work alone. Rubbing her eyes, she quietly got up and went to the kitchen and made a pot of coffee. After rummaging around in the cabinets, she found a box of doughnuts, filled a huge mug with coffee, and took it all back to the computer room.

  It was almost dawn when she was finally able to begin the trace on the phone calls and emails. Almost as soon as she began the trace, results began to pop up on her screen, the program she’d written doing exactly what it was supposed to do.

  When a name and address popped up on the screen, she let out a whoop of joy, jumped up from her chair and said, “Got you, sucker.”

  Dalton stirred in the chair, opened his eyes and said, “What happened?”

  Their eyes met briefly before she realized her sunglasses were off; grabbing them and quickly shoving them on her face, she said, “I found him already.”

  “What?” Dalton asked, sleepily.

  “I found the shifter; well, I found a name and address. That’s the first step; now all I have to do is input that information into the other program I wrote and we should have a lot more information.”

  “Have you been up all night?” Dalton asked.

  “Didn’t you hear me? I found the shifter.”

  “I heard you, but I’m more concerned that you stayed up all night. You look exhausted,” he said, getting to his feet and wincing when he stood up straight. “And you let me sleep in that chair all night.”

  Melody glared at him, “This is important.”

  “Yes, it is, but so is you getting some rest; this could have waited for today,” Dalton said, not backing down.

  Melody’s face softened a little. “It’s nice that you’re concerned, but this isn’t the first time I’ve stayed up all night. I’m a big girl, and I can take care of myself.”

  Dalton made a sound in his throat, then walked over to the desk, which was covered by empty coffee cups and evidence of all the sugar she’d eaten. “Doesn’t look like it to me,” he said, putting his hands on his hips. “I think you need something decent to eat and some sleep.”

  Melody sighed; she was tired, and her eyes were burning. “I just need a little while longer to finish.”

  Dalton came around behind the desk. “First you’re going to eat something and get some sleep,” he said, pulling her chair away from the computer. “I’m not going to let you win this time, so you might as well let me have my way.”

  Melody looked up into his eyes and knew that he wasn’t going to give up, “Okay fine, I’ll eat something, but then I’m getting back to work. I can sleep later.”

  Dalton nodded his head, “Okay, that’s a bargain.”

  Melody followed him to the kitchen, then headed straight for the coffee maker, thinking she’d have a little more. But Dalton blocked her. “You’ve had enough caffeine for one day I think. She walked away and sat down at the table and watched as he rummaged through the refrigerator. When he’d piled eggs, cheese, and vegetables on the counter, he made her a cup of tea and set it down in front of her. She took a sip and made a face.

  “What is that? It’s terrible,” she said, shoving the cup away.

  “It’s chamomile tea; it’ll relax you,” Dalton said, then handed her some honey. “Put some of this in there; it’ll taste better.”

  She watched him cooking, sipping the tea and smiling when she realized that he was humming under his breath as he worked. When he sat a steaming omelet down in front of her, she was a bit surprised.

  “This actually looks good; I wouldn’t have pegged you as one of those men who can cook,” she said, taking a big bite.

  “Hmm, now who’s stereotyping?” he asked, but then laughed.

  “I guess that’s fair,” she said, taking a huge bite of the omelet, not caring that he’d bested her again.

  Chapter 8

  ***Dalton***

  Dalton watched Melody eating, not feeling the least bit guilty that he’d put a sleeping spell on her food. It was a harmless spell usually used to cure insomnia, but it would work for this purpose as well. He was sure that she was past the point of exhaustion, past the point of knowing just how tired she was, so he’d intervened.

  Now he could see that she was getting sleepy, her body beginning to relax as the effects of all the coffee she’d drunk began to fade thanks to both the food and the spell. Soon she couldn’t stop yawning and declared that maybe she would take a little nap.

  “Wake me in a couple of hours. I don’t need much sleep,” she said, getting to her feet.

  When she staggered a little bit, he was at her side immediately. “Maybe I should help you to your room,” he said. “I told you that you needed sleep.”

  “Hmm, maybe that would be a good idea,” Melody said, leaning against the table, sure that she’d never felt this tired before in her entire life.

  When they got to the door to her room, she tried to push him away. “I can get it from here,” she said, pushing the door open.

  She staggered over to the bed, then let herself fall onto her back, her feet hanging off the side. “You can’t sleep like that,” Dalton said, stepping into the room. “You’ll be much more comfortable all the way in the bed.”

  “Just give me a minute. I’ll be fine. Thank you for the help and the food,” she said, wishing he’d go away so she could go to sleep.

  Dalton wasn’t about to leave her like that, so he crossed the room and removed her boots, then helped her scoot up on the bed. He reached for her sunglasses, but just as he was about to take them off, she grabbed his wrist and stopped him.

  He pulled his hand back and said, “I don’t know why you wear those things all the time; you have beautiful eyes.”

  Melody smiled up at him. “Yeah, I know and that’s the problem,” she said, then she reached up and pulled him down close to her face. “You have beautiful eyes too.”

  A thrill rushed through him, and for a second he thought about leaning farther down and kissing her but stopped himself. “I think you’d better get some sleep,” he said and stood up.

  Melody mumbled something under her breath, but he couldn’t understand what she’d said. When she began to snore quietly, he knew she was asleep, so he got a blanket out of the closet and covered her up. She would have been more comfortable out of her clothes, but
he wasn’t about to go there; that would be pure torture.

  ***Melody***

  The sun coming in through the window woke her later that morning; she’d been dreaming about Dalton and was reluctant to let go of the feeling. But the sunlight was shining in her eyes, and the feeling faded until it was only a memory. Sitting up in bed, she looked around trying to remember how she’d gotten here.

  Then she remembered Dalton putting her to bed and almost kissing her. A smile spread across her face, quickly followed by a frown; she wasn’t supposed to be thinking about him that way. But it was nearly impossible not to when he’d been so nice to her, cooking her breakfast and helping her to bed.

  She might have pushed herself too far yesterday, should have probably taken a break long before he’d made her. But as usual, she’d gotten so wrapped up in her computers that she’d lost sight of what was good for her. It had felt so good to have someone take care of her, something no one had done for a long time, but she didn’t want to get used to the feeling.

  Soon enough, the spell her eyes had cast over them would fade, and Dalton would lose interest; all she had to do was resist him until that happened and everything would be fine. Until then, she had to keep as much distance between them as possible, although so far that plan hadn’t worked, but she didn’t have a better one.

  Getting out of bed, she headed straight for the shower and some hot water. Fresh out of the shower, she realized that she felt pretty good considering she’d only slept for a few hours. Better, in fact, than she did sometimes after a full night’s sleep. Feeling her energy returning, she headed straight for the computer and her new program; it was time to put all that work she’d done to use.

  Relieved to find the house empty, she made a quick trip to the kitchen for some water and a healthy snack, then headed straight for the computer wondering why she’d felt such a sense of urgency last night. Today after a good night’s sleep, she realized that another day or even two wouldn’t make that much difference.

  Following that line of thinking, she took the time to run a full diagnostic on the computer system. It was a time-consuming process, but with a system this new, it could help her find any potential problems. Keying in the command, she sat back and waited as the first round of tests began and the computer began making beeping sounds as if it was talking to her.

  As she waited, her mind began to wander, and it wasn’t long before she was thinking about Dalton: about his broad shoulders, his blue eyes, and his voice. A voice that could make her shiver, a voice she’d been hearing in her dreams, saying things to her Dalton would never say in real life.

  Last night had been the worst, her dreams full of him, and although as most dreams do, they faded once she was awake, the feeling they’d given her was still there. Closing her eyes, she tried to remember the dreams, bring back that feeling of love and contentment she’d felt, but all that was left was just a tinkling of the feeling.

  She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t hear Dalton coming down the hallway, so when he said, “I thought you’d sleep all day,” she jumped up from her chair and screamed.

  When she saw him standing in the doorway, she put her hand on her chest and took a few deep breaths, then said, “You scared the hell out of me. I had my eyes closed and didn’t hear you coming.”

  Dalton looked at her for a second, then said, “Well, if you took those glasses off, I would have known.”

  Melody wasn’t about engage in a conversation about her sunglasses, wasn’t about to explain to him what her eyes did to men. She’d tried that before, and it hadn’t helped; either they didn’t believe her or swore that it wasn’t her eyes, it was her.

  “I’m doing a diagnostic on the computer, and then I’m going to run the program I wrote, and we’ll see what we can find out about our new friend, Demetri Kozlov,” she said, instead, knowing that she’d distract him.

  Dalton came into the room and sat down. “Is that his name? Who is he?” he asked.

  “Well, right now that’s all I have: a name and an address in Florida,” she said. “But soon we’ll have access to anything that’s stored on a computer anywhere in the world.”

  “That doesn’t sound quite legal,” Dalton said, “Are we going to get caught breaking into computers?”

  “It’s called hacking,” Melody said, laughing, then added, “I’ve got a smoke screen up that’s so thick no one will ever be able to find us.”

  Dalton sat back in his chair, clearly not planning on going anywhere, “This might take a while; don’t you want to work on your spellbook or something?”

  “No, I’m okay,” he said, getting more comfortable. “I’ll just sit here and wait, try to figure out my part in this thing.”

  Melody was dreading having to sit in the little room with Dalton while they waited, but she couldn’t exactly tell him to leave, and she couldn’t leave herself, so she was stuck. The room seemed far too small, the computer far too slow, and after only a few minutes, she found herself getting to her feet to pace around the small space.

  She walked over to the window and looked out, noticing that it was a beautiful day and that was when it hit her that she’d been home for days and hadn’t shifted. In fact, it had been weeks since she’d been able to get away and let her other side out, which might be part of the reason she was reacting to Dalton like she was.

  Turning away from the window, she paced back across the room, trying to think. Her entire life she’d heard the men in the family preaching about restless desire, something that happened to a shifter when they didn’t shift often enough. The energy that was part of the gift had to go somewhere, and it sometimes manifested itself as desire, often with disastrous results.

  Now that she understood what was happening to her, she felt calmer; it all made sense. Between the power of her eyes and the stored energy inside her, she was suffering from a huge case of restless desire. The solution was simple too; all she had to do was escape from Dalton at some point, most likely tonight, and let go of some of that energy.

  It had been too long since she’d shifted, and it was past time to fix that. Tonight, she’d get some freedom and let herself go, let herself run until her heart was pounding and her lungs were on fire. Just thinking about it, made her heart rate pick up and her muscles tense.

  But a beeping from the computer pulled her back to the present, and when she looked over at Dalton, he was staring at her, a curious look on his face. “What were you thinking about?” he asked, but she ignored him and went back behind the desk.

  “We’ve got him,” she said, sitting down in the chair and beginning to open files.

  Dalton got up and came around behind the desk and leaned over her shoulder. “What are all those?”

  “Each of those icons is a place where his name was found in a computer file,” she said, opening the first one. “See, this is the title to his house, and this one is his last utility bill. All we have to do is open all these files, and we’ll know more about Demetri than his mother does.”

  Dalton looked at her and then back at the computer, “You wrote the program that did all this?”

  Melody sighed, “I graduated from MIT; remember, I’m a pretty smart girl,” she said, then looked up at him and said, “Now sit down and stop hanging over my shoulder.”

  Dalton stood up, looked around the room then left; when he came back, he had a kitchen chair. He carried it behind the desk, set it down next to hers and sat down. “Okay, how’s this?” he asked, flashing her a big smile.

  “I guess that’s fine, but no breathing down my neck,” she said, then gestured to the space around her. “This is my space, and that’s yours.”

  Dalton grinned at her, “Yes, mam.”

  Melody wasn’t sure if he was teasing or mocking her, but she didn’t care; as they’d talked, several more files had downloaded. She started opening files, shifting and sorting them as they came in, and by the time they’d all come in, there were over three hundred.

  �
��Okay, I think that’s all we’re going to get for now. Some of the more protected files won’t come in for a while,” she said. “But this should give us a good idea who this guy is and maybe help us figure out how to get to him.”

  Chapter 9

  ***Dalton***

  For hours they scanned social media files, new paper articles, blog posts, and YouTube videos and discovered that on the surface, Demetri Kozlov looked like a fine upstanding citizen. He’d immigrated from Russia after the fall of the iron curtain, and through hard work made a fortune for himself, finally purchasing a security firm that specialized in protecting Russians in America.

  He gave to charity, donated his time to helping other Russians escape the terrible living conditions in his home country, and had even been giving an award for his efforts. But Dalton was sure that it was all too good to be true.

  “This doesn’t sound like the guy we’re looking for,” he said when they’d read the last file.

  “No, but I’m sure it’s him. I’m going to send Charlie a copy of these files and links to the videos; she’ll know for sure,” Melody said, not sure at all.

  “Well, as long as we have to wait for a positive identification, how about we go get some dinner? We’ve been working all day,” Dalton said, thinking it might be nice to see Melody out of the little room.

  “Oh, I don’t know, I mean there’s so much more we could do,” she said. “You could bring our dinner here.”

  “Nope, that’s not happening. We’re going to go over to the dining hall like normal people and eat a meal. In fact, I think we shouldn’t even talk about Demetri, computers, or the talisman for a few hours,” Dalton said, pulling her to her feet.

  He could tell that she wanted to protest but finally said, “Okay, you win. Let’s go pretend we’re normal people and have dinner.”