EUAN: Outback Shifters #3

by Chant, Zoe

  But… this doesn’t seem like blood…

  He lifted his hand and ran his fingers over the dark dampness on his shirt.

  Cold.

  And sticky.

  What –

  “It’s gelati!” The woman’s voice was high and frightened. “I’m sorry! I didn’t – I didn’t see you – I –”

  “Gelati?” Euan frowned, rubbing his fingers together, before lifting his hand to his nose to smell the stickiness that coated his fingers.

  Chocolate.

  All right, so it’s definitely gelati and not blood.

  But that didn’t change anything. She’d come hurtling out of an alley right after he’d heard someone screaming, and then blasted him with a bright white burst of light that had frozen his muscles and his brain. And she hadn’t answered any of his questions.

  “Who was screaming?” he asked again, reaching out for her shoulder. She jumped back.

  “That was me!” She was stuttering less now, and Euan could see that while there was still fear in her eyes, her jaw had taken on a determined set, her lips pressed together. “Don’t touch me, or I’ll scream again – I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I –”

  “You attacked me,” Euan pointed out. “And you were running. Were you running away from someone? Or something you’ve done?”

  Euan could hear the harshness in his own voice, but right now, the only thing he cared about was getting answers. The woman took another step away from him.

  “No, I – I can’t –” She shook her head, tilting her chin up defiantly. Now that his eyes were fully recovered from the blast of light, it suddenly struck Euan that she was beautiful: dark eyes, jet black hair, a round face and full, pink lips. Her eyes sparkled in the city lights, full of life and defiance, despite her fear – and despite the fact her fringe kept flopping over her forehead and covering them up, even after she pushed it back impatiently.

  “I don’t even know who you are,” she snapped at him, backing away. “And I have to call the police –”

  “The police?” Euan paused, surprised. She was a shifter, so why would she want the police? But then, she could have been trying to deceive him – or trying to blend in with human society.

  Since she won’t be able to sense I’m not a shifter anymore.

  Without his shifter powers, it wasn’t only that he couldn’t sense other shifters – they also weren’t able to sense him. To people who didn’t know who he was and what he’d lost, he was just a regular human.

  It made sense that a shifter, no matter whether they were criminal or not, would be trying to pretend to be human. To her, that was what he was.

  But then, why did she use her powers on me, whatever they were? Euan thought, frowning. An iron-clad rule of shifter society was to do everything possible to never reveal themselves to humans, unless it simply couldn’t be avoided. Bumping into someone as you fled from an alleyway definitely did not qualify as a reason to reveal your powers.

  “I need to – to call the police,” the woman repeated, though she sounded less certain of herself now. “There was – there was someone in that alley, but –”

  She broke off, looking down at her hands again.

  Euan glanced down the alley, but he could see nothing but darkness. He turned back to her, leaning down slightly to look into her eyes.

  “Is there someone down there? Are they hurt?” He licked his lips, and decided to take a chance. Maybe she was a shifter criminal who was trying to pull the innocent act. But looking into her beautiful black eyes, seeing the genuine fear and confusion in them, Euan found it hard to believe. And something had shaken her up enough to use her powers impulsively on someone she had every reason to believe was human.

  She’s frightened. I have to find out what’s going on. I have to –

  The words help her had begun to form in his mind, but he pushed them away. He didn’t know anything about her yet. It might be that she wasn’t the one who needed help.

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” the woman said, voice suddenly soft. “I’m not really sure I believe it myself. Maybe I just –” She broke off, biting her lip.

  “Who was in the alley? What happened?” Euan said, trying to keep his voice as gentle as possible. But it wasn’t something he had a lot of practice with. He’d been a field agent – it hadn’t been his job to calm down members of the public. Tracking down shifter criminals was what he’d been trained for; what he’d spent his career doing. He took a deep breath. “What do you think I wouldn’t believe?”

  The woman glanced up at him, eyes widening. She swallowed.

  “I don’t even know how to – to describe it,” she started, her voice soft and frightened, before she shook her head, blinking, as if trying to get her thoughts in order. “He just said… he said something about needing to find the Agency, but I have no idea what that even is –”

  Euan sucked in a quick, surprised breath.

  A shifter who hasn’t heard of the Agency?

  That didn’t seem possible. Maybe she was just confused by whatever had happened to her.

  “I’m with the Agency,” he said, keeping his voice low and – he hoped – calming. “So you can tell me if there’s something the Agency needs to know.” He hesitated as he realized that to her, he was human – why would she believe he was with the all-shifter Agency? “I know that might seem hard to believe, but if you’ll come with me, I can take you to someone you can talk to…”

  “The Agency?” she repeated, looking up into his face. “But what even is that?”

  Euan frowned. “You really don’t know?”

  She shook her head. “No!” A wild look came into her eyes as she stared at him. She lifted her arms, pressing them against the sides of her head. “What the hell is going on here? I feel like I’m going crazy!”

  Her voice contained a harsh, rising note of panic. Somehow, it seemed to pierce Euan’s chest – a cold, strange feeling he didn’t recall ever having felt before. He swallowed.

  Whatever else this woman might be, it was clear her distress and confusion were genuine – and like it or not, trained for it or not, it was his responsibility to try to comfort her, if only to find out the truth of what had happened.

  Raising his hands, Euan gently placed them on the sides of her arms. The woman jumped as if she’d been shocked, staring at him, but she didn’t pull away.

  “You’re not going crazy,” Euan said, voice low. “I don’t know what happened to you, but I can help you.” He frowned, trying to figure out what he ought to say next. “Did you see something? Or did you get mixed up with something? If you’re a shifter, then I can help you.”

  She just kept staring at him, before shaking her head slightly. “What are you talking about? What’s a shifter?”

  Euan paused, staring at her. Looking into her eyes, he could tell she wasn’t trying to hide anything – Euan could see only genuine bewilderment and confusion in her eyes.

  But that’s impossible.

  The powers she’d blasted him with – they could only have belonged to a shifter.

  Euan supposed it was possible she was something else, some other kind of non-human entity, though those kinds of creatures were unbelievably rare. But in that case, she would at least know was a shifter was.

  “You don’t –” he started to ask her, before breaking off. Maybe she’s suffering from some kind of amnesia? “Can you tell me exactly what happened in that alley?”

  The woman licked her lips. “… I could, but you’d tell me I’m crazy.” She shook her head. “Actually, the cops will just say I’m crazy too. All right, but at this point I’m pretty sure I’m crazy.”

  Euan kept his gaze steady on her deep, black eyes. “Try me.”

  The woman returned his stare, eyes wide for a long moment, before she let out a low, disbelieving laugh. “All right, sure. Why the hell not?” She shook her head. “I was – I was just enjoying my gelati –” her eyes flickered briefly down to wh
ere the gelati was now smeared liberally all over his chest “– and I thought I’d just take a shortcut down an alley. I know – stupid, right? But I’ve done it before and it’s always been okay. I heard a groan – like someone in pain. There was – there was a guy lying on the ground, and he was obviously hurt. I wanted to call an ambulance for him, but he said not to, and grabbed my hand.”

  Euan sucked in a breath, glancing down the alley. “An injured man? Is he still there?”

  “No – this is why you’re going to say I’m crazy,” the woman went on. “He just – he just started rambling about how I shouldn’t call the ambos, and that – that I needed to contact the Agency, whatever that is. And then – then –”

  “Then?” Euan prompted gently.

  “And then he just disappeared!” Her voice rose again. “Whoosh – in a cloud of glitter or something! He just – it was just – impossible. But it’s what I saw. I swear it.”

  She was speaking clearly and firmly now, eyes steady.

  And Euan believed her.

  He’d never heard of anything like it before, but he believed her.

  He’d seen enough crazy things while he’d been out in the field – heard enough crazy things from other agents – that he knew to listen when someone told him something. Even if it seemed impossible.

  “I don’t think you’re crazy,” he said. “I believe you.”

  She stared at him. “You do?”

  Euan nodded. “I do.”

  He still had a lot of questions for her, though. Like what she was, if not a shifter. What kind of powers she had. Who the man in the alley was, and if she’d ever seen him before.

  She said he just disappeared, in a cloud of glitter.

  He glanced into the darkness of the alley.

  Whatever the case, he needed to go look at the scene of the crime – if there’d been one – and make an assessment. Get the Agency’s forensics team down here. Try to find someone who knew how to ask the right questions to get this woman to tell them what they needed to know, and to comfort her after whatever had –

  The sound of her gasp drew Euan’s attention back to her. Her head was turned, her shoulders tensing.

  “What?” he asked. “What is it?”

  “There’s – there’s something down there –” She lifted an arm, pointing down the alley.

  Instinct honed by long years of training made Euan immediately send his shifter senses down into the darkness of the alley – or he would have, if only he hadn’t recalled a second too late that he no longer had any.

  Frustration boiled within him. His senses felt deadened. They were the only things that had been between life and death on so many of his missions, and now they were gone – lost, because he hadn’t been able to control himself. Because he hadn’t been strong enough to –

  “What is it?” he asked, pushing the painful memory from his mind and forcing himself to focus. “What’s down there?”

  “I don’t know,” the woman said, her voice trembling. “But it’s something – I just have this feeling –”

  She pressed her hand to her stomach. Euan knew what she was feeling. It was the same thing he’d felt on countless occasions during missions: the cold, sickening feeling in his gut that was his instincts warning him of danger.

  Only now, he felt nothing at all.

  He’d have to rely on her.

  If there really is something down there – something to frighten her this badly – then my first priority is to get her out of here.

  “If there’s something dangerous down there, then you need to come with me,” he said, keeping his voice calm and level. He knew she had no reason to trust him, but he had to convince her that she was safe with him.

  I can take her back to the Agency offices, and send someone out here to deal with the crime scene and whatever else is happening here. Without my shifter senses, there’s nothing I can do.

  Again, he felt frustration boiling within him at his uselessness, but now wasn’t the time for him to be overcome with emotion. He had to stay calm and be professional.

  “Come with you where?” the woman asked.

  “The man told you to find the Agency, right?” Euan said. “Well, you’ve found it. My name’s Euan Hawkins. I can get you to somewhere safe. I promise you.”

  The woman, her hand still pressed to her stomach, looked him up and down. Euan was willing to believe he didn’t look too impressive at the moment – sweaty from his run, wearing his old training track pants and t-shirt, which was now covered in gelati even if that wasn’t strictly his fault – but still, he saw a glimmer of trust in the woman’s eyes, before she set her jaw and nodded.

  “All right,” she said. “All right, I’ll come with you. But no funny business, okay? Or – I’ll do, uh, that again.”

  She wiggled her fingers at him in a way that was, Euan had to admit, less than threatening. But the memory of the white flash of light and his frozen muscles was enough for Euan.

  “No funny business,” he agreed. “Now – come on.” He reached out a hand. “And how about you tell me your name?”

  She hesitated, but then said, “Delilah. Delilah Park.”

  The name had a musical quality to it, Euan thought, soft and beautiful. But there was no time to think about it now.

  “Nice to meet you, Delilah. Now come on – let’s go.”

  The Agency’s offices weren’t far. Euan’s running route took him in a wide circle, and he’d been on his way back when he’d run into Delilah.

  Together, they hurried through the evening crowds – people on their way home from dinner, or just heading out for the night.

  If there’s something dangerous out there, I could be leading them right into the middle of all these people, Euan thought grimly. Right now, though, he didn’t have much choice. He had to trust that whatever Delilah had sensed, it wasn’t interested in ordinary humans.

  If that was what it wanted, it could have taken any opportunity – but instead, it had stuck to the dark shadows of the alley.

  As soon as I’m back, I’ll send some other agents out to apprehend whatever it is.

  Beside him, he heard Delilah’s sharp intake of breath, and he looked down at her.

  “Are you okay?” he asked her quietly.

  She glanced up at him for a moment, before looking back over her shoulder.

  “It’s back,” she said, voice strained. “Whatever it is, it’s following us.”

  Euan raised his head, following her gaze – and saw nothing. Felt nothing. But he believed her.

  “Come on,” he said, reaching out a hand to touch her shoulder, his fingers brushing over the material of her shirt before he remembered himself and drew them back. Who knew if she’d find a gesture like that comforting? “We’re almost there.”

  Delilah swallowed, nodding.

  The Agency’s Sydney office looked pretty much the same as any other mildly run-down office building in the city center – on the outside, at least. It was only once you got into the interior of the building that you realized that not everything was as it appeared.

  Euan was aware that to Delilah, he’d probably led her somewhere that didn’t inspire much confidence – well, probably there were a few places that might have seemed less likely, such as the bottom of Sydney Harbour or behind a Bankstown service station – but he’d just have to hope that she still trusted him.

  He grabbed his swipe card from the inner pocket of his track pants, pressing it briefly over the hidden panel on the wall.

  “Hurry.”

  Delilah’s voice was low and urgent, and, feeling something warm on his arm, Euan looked down in surprise to find her hand pressing against it, her fingers digging into his bicep. She didn’t seem to realize she was doing it, though – her head was turned to look over her shoulder, an expression of worry and fear on her face. Her hand had found his arm completely unconsciously. Her palm was warm against his skin, and Euan felt his heart speed up for a beat or two, before he swallow
ed heavily, shaking his head.

  “Come on,” he said quietly, touching her shoulder gently to urge her through the door as it slid open. “You’ll be safe in here. I promise you.”

  Chapter 3

  Delilah stared down at her hands where they rested on her knees.

  I must be going completely insane.

  It was the only explanation.

  How else could she rationalize all this, otherwise? A few hours ago she’d been at Jenny’s house, making fairy bread and chocolate crackles for Emma’s birthday. She’d been chatting with Rosie. She’d decided on the train home she’d like some gelati.

  And then…

  And then she’d gone to help that man in the alley. And then he’d disappeared into… into glittery air. And then she’d run. And then she’d bumped into someone, and something had made a bolt of lightning arc out of her hands and fill the air with pure white light.

  Or at least, that’s what she thought had happened.

  Delilah bit her lip. She wiggled her fingers.

  Nothing happened.

  Maybe I imagined the whole thing.

  Definitely, where – and with whom – she was now made a good case that in fact, she’d fallen asleep on the train and this was all a dream.

  She hadn’t just bumped into any old person when she’d fled from the alley. She’d bumped into a man who, if Jenny had ever actually asked her what her type was, she could have just pulled up his picture and said One of these to go, thanks.

  She glanced up at him. Delilah had felt like she was in a daze as he’d urged her into a sleek, silver lift. She hadn’t even been able to tell whether they were heading up or down, though she’d been jerked out of her haze when they’d stepped out of the doors and into a surprisingly high-tech looking office, given the outside of the building hadn’t looked like much at all.

  She’d looked around curiously as the man – Euan? Was that what he’d said his name was? – had called out words she hadn’t absorbed at all to some people who’d come over to meet them.

  She’d nodded vaguely when he’d asked her if she was all right, and then he’d brought her here.