Endangered

by Michelle Larkin

  Oscar turned to Tora. “I’m sure your security system is more than adequate, but I’d feel better if we posted some actual Shroud bodies in the tunnels.”

  “Good idea, Pop.” Aspen had been thinking the same.

  “We don’t want to spread ourselves too far or too thin,” he went on. “At the very least, we should implement a rotating post outside both entrances to chamber one.” He set eyes on the eight members of his wolf pack. “Four-hour shifts,” he announced, centering his attention on Derby and Rivera. “My men and I will assume that responsibility.”

  Without a word, Derby and Rivera stood from the table, carried their empty plates to the sink, and headed off to their respective posts.

  Mrs. B raised her hand. “How long until the newborns are ready to help us win this fight?”

  Mrs. B’s optimism put a smile on Aspen’s face. Some things never changed. That same optimism got Aspen through high school. When she was convinced she’d flunk the science final that would bar her graduation, Mrs. B bought her a cap and gown and gave them to her the day before her test. “Hopefully soon,” she replied with a reassuring smile.

  “What about you?” Tony set his fork down and pierced her with the same challenging gaze she remembered from her days at the academy. “Myriads come equipped with certain abilities, right? Do you have any superpowers that would give us an edge against the SEA?”

  She shook her head. “Nothing yet,” she said, not quite ready to share the details of her visions.

  There was a collective pause around the table as they all regarded her.

  “Does anyone know where SEA headquarters are located?” She was itching to find out.

  Gazes darted around the table as, one by one, they all shook their heads and shrugged. No one seemed to know. Not even Oscar.

  Tora finally answered in her no-nonsense tone, “Their headquarters are in Vermont.”

  “Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t we in Vermont?” Hank asked, scratching his head.

  Tora nodded. “They’re about an hour away.”

  Aspen couldn’t believe it. “Your father built this sanctuary right under their noses?”

  “They weren’t the SEA back then, but my father believed they were plenty dangerous. I advised him against building here, but he said this location made the most sense so he could—”

  “Keep an eye on them,” Aspen and Oscar finished in unison. She locked eyes with Oscar. Putting the sanctuary here was a brilliant idea. The SEA would never suspect any Shroud would be brazen enough to hide on their home turf.

  “And you never thought to mention this fact before now?” Hank asked, incredulous. “For instance, before all of us got our asses in the car and drove here?”

  “I didn’t want to scare anyone. I wanted all of you to feel safe here.”

  “Kind of impossible to feel safe with the SEA right on top of us.” Hank gazed up at the rock ceiling. “Now it feels like they’re walking on our grave.”

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Aspen realized being neighbors with the SEA had some downsides, sure. Like, they probably wouldn’t be knocking on the door to welcome them to the neighborhood with brownies anytime soon. There was also the so-minor-it-was-barely-worth-mentioning issue of the SEA having all their resources—weapons, soldiers, vehicles—at their disposal in such close proximity. They’d barely have to spend any money on gas getting here.

  Aspen stood, diverting the attention from Tora. “Actually, this works in our favor. They know where we are now, but that’s fine. They’re not familiar with the layout of this place like Tora is. You saw the maps,” she said, gesturing at everyone around the table. “You know how extensive this place is—miles of tunnels, hidden entry and exit points, secret passageways. We can use all of that to our advantage.”

  “You want us to play hide-and-seek with the enemy?” Liam grinned. “That actually sounds like fun.”

  She turned to Tora. “Can you control the lights in the tunnels?”

  Tora nodded, looking over at Michael. “Between the two of us, we can coordinate that.”

  “When soldiers breach the tunnels,” she said, thinking aloud now, “we can assume they’ll be on foot.”

  “Armed with weapons and night vision goggles,” Oscar added.

  She hadn’t thought about the night vision goggles, but he was probably right. “Our first objective is to strip them of their NVGs. Our second is to disarm them.”

  “And then kill them. Right?” Tony asked, clearly enthused about that last part.

  “No.” Aspen shook her head, adamant. “Only go for the kill if it’s absolutely necessary—if there’s no other viable option.”

  “You’re joking.” Tony shoved his plate aside, stood, and pounded his fist on the table. “They’re coming here to murder us—every last one of us—and you’re asking us to disarm them and send them on their merry way?”

  She’d never seen Tony lose his temper. It surprised her that he even had one. She clarified her position, her gaze unwavering. “I’m not asking,” she said. “That’s an order.”

  Oscar stood from the table. “Stand down, Tony.”

  She watched as Tony set his hands on his hips. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” he shouted. “You expect us to blindly follow her orders when she clearly doesn’t know what the hell she’s talking about?”

  “Stand down. Now.” Oscar’s voice rose to a level Aspen had never heard before.

  She sensed Tony was on the verge of losing control. There was an ominous sensation in the air that made her skin tingle. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Oscar shift into a wolf. A split second later, Tony shifted into a tiger. He locked golden predatory eyes on Aspen. Before she realized what was happening, the entire wolf pack had shifted and moved to her side. They growled and bared their teeth menacingly in Tony’s direction, standing guard like her own personal security detail.

  Tony turned away and paced the length of the kitchen for several minutes as the wolves eyed him. He was truly magnificent in this form. She had no doubt Tony could be dangerous in battle, but instinct told her it was never his intention to inflict harm—at least not on her. SEA soldiers were a different story. At the moment, however, he was just blowing off steam—the equivalent to slamming a door and storming out during an argument to take a walk around the neighborhood. Except Tony couldn’t do that here because they were all locked inside.

  Were her Shroud instincts telling her this, she wondered? Were they just now developing, or had they been there all along without her knowledge? She watched as Tony effortlessly shifted back to human form. Oscar and his pack did the same.

  “I can’t go down this road with you, Aspen,” Tony said from across the room. “Letting their soldiers go free is like signing another Shroud’s death warrant. They’ll just turn around and murder someone else.” He walked over to her and extended a hand in apology. “But I never should have lost my cool like that.” He shook her hand. “I’m sorry.”

  “Families argue. It happens.” She shrugged it off. “From now on, we settle all internal disputes with the time-honored tradition of thumb wrestling.”

  With his head hanging, Tony returned to his seat. Oscar also resumed his place at the table, nodding at his pack to do the same.

  She sighed, steeling herself against the inevitable onslaught of resistance. “It’s time someone steps up to be the bigger person here. That someone will never be our government.” She paused for effect. “So that leaves us. Shrouds. We need to lead by example and show those soldiers we’re not the monsters the government is saying we are.”

  “Way to go, Tony,” Hank joked. “Your furry tiger ass just proved we are the monsters they’re saying we are.”

  The tension finally broken, everyone laughed.

  Tony shook his head, clearly disappointed in himself. “My apologies to everyone here. It won’t happen again. Like Aspen said”—he held up both thumbs—“thumb wrestling from now on.”

  Still standing
at the head of the table, Aspen kept her focus as she met each Shroud’s gaze. “By making it obvious that we’re sparing the soldiers their lives, we’ll transform the way they think about us, even if it’s just one soldier at a time. It’ll be slow at first, but a strategy like this is bound to gain momentum. Word in the ranks will spread. Soldiers will start questioning the SEA’s mission of total annihilation. Sooner or later, the SEA will have a mutiny on their hands. Defectors will start looking to join us. That’s how we’ll win this war—chipping away at the SEA, making alliances with humans, mixing up the gene pool, and—”

  “Destroying their headquarters?” Hank asked, looking hopeful. “Please tell me at least we still have that.” He clapped Tony on the shoulder. “Poor Tony here needs to blow something up.”

  Satisfied she gave the pitch her all, Aspen sat down. “As long as we evacuate their facilities first, then yes, that can still be part of the plan.”

  Hank stood and started gathering empty dinner plates. “Can we leave just one person inside the place when it blows? Like, one really bad guy?”

  Oscar regarded Aspen, a new respect in his eyes. “That’s actually a stellar plan.”

  “Right?” Hank agreed, carrying their plates to the sink. “We can tie the bad guy to a chair or, even better, duct tape him to the wall. I’ve always wanted to do that.”

  “Fill us in on the rest of your plan.” Oscar leaned back in his chair. “There’s more.”

  He knew her all too well. “Some of us will stay behind to defend the sanctuary, and some of us will pay a visit to SEA headquarters. We’ll hit them back by taking one of theirs.”

  “You want us to abduct someone from the SEA?” Beckett asked, looking doubtful.

  “Not just anyone. I want the number one guy.” She turned to Tora. “Do you have any intel on who that might—”

  “Gaylord Cobbledick.”

  “Holy hell.” Hank returned to the table to gather more plates. “Capturing the poor bastard and putting him out of his misery would be an act of mercy.”

  “He’s the man in charge.” Tora met her gaze. “He’s the one who ordered the hit on my father.”

  The room fell silent. Aspen realized this battle with the SEA had just come full circle. A window of opportunity was opening for them: steal the SEA’s top guy, get as much information as they could from him, and get justice for Tora’s father—the man who’d dedicated his life to building this place for them. From the looks on everyone’s faces, they were all thinking the same.

  “Tell us everything you know,” Oscar said, handing his plate to Hank. “We’ll find a hole in their security and get this bastard.”

  Hank shook his head. “While we’re at it, we should consider adding his parents’ names to the list. What kind of parents would give their kid a name like that?”

  “I’ve been trying to get to Gaylord for two years,” Tora admitted. “It’s virtually impossible.”

  Aspen looked over at Tora. “You’re not running a solo operation anymore,” she said, as much for Tora’s benefit as for the group. “Now you’re part of a team. We’ll get him together.”

  * * *

  “I am not comfortable with this plan,” Tora whispered as she and Aspen made their way to the library. “Any number of things could go wrong. Every likely scenario ends with your death.”

  “Your pep talk really needs work.”

  They were on their way to the library to look up bird species native to Vermont. With a little luck, maybe she could shift into a convincing sparrow and get a bird’s eye view of SEA headquarters. She’d return to give Alpha Genesis a full report, and they’d go from there.

  Aspen wasn’t crazy about the idea of flying, but she was the only Shroud who had a shot at pulling this off without being noticed. Not only was Skye’s white owl too conspicuous, but allowing her to participate in such a dangerous mission was simply off the table.

  Approaching the library ahead of Tora, she entered the passcode and watched as the doors slid open. They stepped inside. The Tiffany lamps beside each armchair clicked on automatically, casting an ambient glow in all four corners of the room. This was, by far, her favorite room in the sanctuary. With books from floor to ceiling, this place felt magical. She envisioned curling up in one of the armchairs with a throw blanket and a good mystery for a leisurely afternoon of reading. If they were successful in their endeavor to protect this sanctuary—and each other—maybe, just maybe, she’d be able to do that someday.

  “It makes no sense that you should be the one to lead this mission,” Tora went on. “You just learned how to shapeshift, you hardly know anything about the SEA, and—”

  “Are lions native to Vermont?” Aspen turned in circles, wondering where in the hell she should begin her search.

  “No, but—”

  “What about cheetahs, rhinos, or tigers?”

  “Of course not.”

  “So that leaves Skye and the wolf pack. I’m sure you and I can both agree that Skye is too young and too valuable to send anywhere right now.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Which leaves the wolves—”

  “Who are all more than capable of executing this mission,” Tora said.

  “And you don’t think the SEA will take notice of a wolf skulking around their property, spying on them?” Aspen frowned. “Come on, Tora. We both know the wolves would be spotted in no time and probably shot on sight.”

  Tora opened her mouth to say something but wisely thought better of it.

  Aspen winked at her. “For the record, though, I think it’s cute.”

  “What’s cute?”

  “That you’re already invested enough in our relationship to start worrying about me.” They were surrounded by thousands upon thousands of books. Finding one little book on birds could take all night. Where was Google when you needed it? Tora had already explained providing internet access in the sanctuary would’ve given the government a way to trace their location. It was obviously a moot point now because the SEA knew exactly where they were. “I have an off-the-wall question.” She’d always wondered about this but had never been brave enough to ask Oscar.

  Tora stared at her, waiting.

  “Do Shrouds ever…eat people?”

  “God, no.” Tora wrinkled her nose in disgust. “How could you even think that?”

  “How could I not?” She hoped she hadn’t offended Tora beyond repair. “That’s what animals do in the wild.”

  Tora strode across the room and pushed the rolling ladder a few rows down. “Aspen, we’re more than just animals.” She climbed up, reached out, and plucked a single book from the top shelf with barely a sideways glance. “All Shrouds are vegetarians,” she said, climbing back down. “I assumed you already knew that, seeing as you’re one, too.”

  It was true. Aspen had been a vegetarian for as long as she could remember. When she’d moved in with Oscar as a teenager and discovered he was also a vegetarian, she thought it an odd coincidence but never connected the dots.

  Tora returned and handed her the book. “Shrouds have a natural aversion to meat.”

  Aspen looked down. It was a field guide to the birds of New Hampshire and Vermont. “How’d you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “You found this book without even looking for it. There must be thousands of books on these shelves—”

  “We have four hundred and sixty-five thousand items: books, maps, manuscripts, drawings, historical Shroud documents.” Tora smiled proudly. “We have something to suit even the pickiest Shroud reader.”

  “And you remember the location of every single book?” Impossible.

  Tora shrugged. “Most Shrouds have good recall.”

  This went way beyond good recall. It was a superpower—another clear advantage Shrouds had over humans. “I could’ve used some of that in high school,” she said sadly.

  “You’re just a late bloomer,” Tora assured her. “Give it time. It’ll come.”

  The
re was obviously a lot Aspen still needed to learn. What other tidbits had she missed out on over the course of her life? Playing catch-up might take longer than she’d initially thought.

  Tora led her to an armchair in one corner and sat on the adjacent ottoman. “Go ahead and ask.”

  “Ask what?”

  “Whatever questions are floating around in your mind right now. I promise not to take offense. Go ahead. You can ask me anything.”

  Perfect. She hadn’t had a chance to talk to Helga yet. “How do Shrouds have sex?”

  “Except that,” Tora said.

  “But you just said I could ask you anything.”

  “I meant anything except that.”

  “Is it really that hard to explain?”

  Tora sighed. “It would be a lot easier just to show you.”

  Aspen raised an eyebrow. If there was any more fitting moment in history to raise an eyebrow, she couldn’t think of one.

  “It was a figure of speech,” Tora said. “I didn’t mean that literally.”

  “It’s either you or Helga. One of you has to explain the birds and the bees to me.”

  “Helga?” Tora asked, frowning.

  Aspen nodded.

  “That’s not a conversation you want to have with the woman who’s sleeping with your father.”

  Aspen hadn’t thought of it that way. They were doing it? That was a sobering thought. A little sick to her stomach, she squeezed her eyes shut to stave off unwanted images. Now she knew how Oscar felt. Poor guy.

  Tora took a deep breath. “When you’re a Shroud, the first time you have sex—”

  “Make love,” she corrected. “When you and I make love. Go on.”

  “Will you just—will you let me finish, please?” Aspen watched as Tora’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment. “Things can get a little…out of control.”

  “Out of control how?”

  “It’s not the same for every Shroud, so I don’t know how to answer that. Put it this way…” Tora thought for a moment. “You’re never closer to your more primitive instincts than the first time you’re with someone.”