The Skin She's In

by Margo Bond Collins

  “You know,” Shane said from the doorway, “every last one of you is naked. You’re not going to be able to drive back to the hospital like that.”

  I glanced around. He was absolutely right. This was another issue I had not had a chance to talk to anyone about since I had become a foster parent: how was I supposed to keep Serena clothed—assuming I couldn’t keep her bound to her human form. And I was guessing that in this kind of circumstance, the answer to that question was simply “you can’t.”

  I was about to have to deal with a lot of brand-new stuff. I glanced down at the juvenile snake shifter in front of me and smiled.

  Yeah, it was gonna be a fun ride.

  Chapter 23

  FIVE HOURS LATER, WE sat on folding chairs scattered around the small Shifter Shield office—me, Kade, Eduardo, Jeremiah, and Shadow. Janice, the current leader of the shifter Council, had come to take our statements and left again.

  I pulled a slice of pizza from the box sitting atop the main desk and offered the slice to Kade, who held Serena in his uninjured arm. She had taken human form for him, happily snuggling into his arms and taking a bottle, though she had stayed in her serpent shape the entire time she had been with me. I wondered if that would be a pattern. I had refused to let her out of my sight since we saved her from the werewolves. I had even had Dr. Jimson come over here to examine her.

  I still didn’t have everything straight, though I was beginning to get a better picture of what exactly had happened during all the craziness.

  “Were you there when Janice and the Shields questioned the survivors from this morning’s attack in the parking lot?” I asked Jeremiah and Shadow as I pulled my own slice out of the pizza box. Shadow shook her head, as Jeremiah said, “I was. They didn’t get much information out of them, though apparently the plan to attack you was an escalated timeline from something else they had put in motion a while ago—the fact that Shadow and I came here to you seemed to the wolves to be serendipitous timing.”

  “None of them seemed, from what little I overheard, to have any knowledge of what the one I killed in the lead-in on the road from Georgia said to me.” Shadow shrugged.

  “It sounds like this was a one-off, then.” Kade bounced Serena in his arm.

  “What did you do at the house?” Shadow asked me. “I could only see part of it, but it looks like it left behind some kind of... wound in the world.”

  “Yes, we’re going to have to discuss that,” Eduardo said, back to being my mentor and instructor now that the crisis was over.

  I felt bad about what I had done to save Serena. There were two brand-new tears in reality, all because of me. I was beginning to wonder if that ability to rip the world had been part of why the shifters had originally wanted to take out lamias in the first place.

  I shrugged. “I think we need to see if we can figure out what these cracks are, anyway. I seem to be the only one who could create them, even if I’m not the only one who can use them. Is this a lamia ability, or a Lindi ability?” I put down my own uneaten half-slice of pizza, suddenly no longer hungry.

  “I agree,” Kade said. “It might be time for us to put some effort into determining the source of all those magical hotspots.”

  Everyone looked sober for a moment, reflecting on what that might entail.

  I expected none of us really knew.

  We were still engrossed in our individual thoughts when the door to the office swung open and two people rushed in and shut it behind them.

  They both had shiny dark hair, but whereas the woman was small and fair, with skin so pale I could almost see the blue veins running under it, the man was taller and darker—though he, too, had a blue sheen to his hair.

  They gazed around at all of us, their eyes wide and slightly crazed. The woman wore her arm bandaged. It must’ve been a really horrific wound because even from here I could smell the shifter on her—she should have been able to heal anything less than major trauma. He was a shifter, too, though of an entirely different sort. The air around her tasted of freedom, flight, and air, whereas he smelled of leafy, dark jungles. And cat.

  Whatever their specific shifter animals might be, they were at the very base a cat and a bird.

  Yet another odd shifter pairing.

  I seemed to be collecting those. Starting with my own.

  I wasn’t technically on duty, but the next Shield wasn’t supposed to check in until at least another hour had passed.

  “Can I help you?”

  “Yes, we are here in Dallas to meet with the lamia.” The man had a deep Hispanic accent.

  “Yes,” the woman added. “We need to speak to her as soon as we can.”

  A sense of déjà vu swept over me, making me dizzy and leaving me reeling toward the desk, where I sat down with a thump into the office chair.

  “That’s me,” I said. I finally decided there was no advantage to be had in hiding any longer. “I’m Lindi Parker, the lamia. What do you need?”

  “It’s werewolves. They’re coming to get you,” the man said.

  I sighed in relief, and the rest of the room seemed to exhale at once, as well. “The werewolves attacked this morning. We survived. Everything’s fine.” I interlaced my fingers and set my elbows on the desk, dropping my chin down into my hands. “Thanks for coming in, though.”

  But they were both shaking their heads. “Whatever you saw today,” the man said, “it wasn’t the werewolves we’re talking about. That was a small group.”

  “What’s coming next is an army,” the woman added.

  I shot my gaze toward Kade, who, along with everyone else in the room, seemed frozen in place. “Tell me what you know,” I finally said. “Tell me everything.”

  “We don’t have much information. But we know for sure that the werewolves are coming for you,” the woman said. “They’re determined to make sure the lamias are wiped out for good this time. And they’re building an army to do it.”

  Oh, hell.

  This wasn’t nearly as close to over as I had hoped.

  I glanced around the room, at the people who had joined me today to help me fight to protect Serena.

  If I had to go up against an army, this was exactly the group I’d choose.

  One by one, each one of them nodded, answering my unspoken question.

  “The werewolves are coming?” I asked, then answered without waiting for a response. “Let them.”

  One thing I knew for sure: their army would never expect what we’d have waiting for them when they got here.

  Chapter 24

  “I’M TOMÁS, AND THIS is Bronwyn,” the cat-shifter said.

  “Call me Bron,” the bird added.

  “I’m sorry we didn’t call,” Tomás said, “but I’m pretty sure your phones have all been tapped.”

  I blinked down at the phone on my desk, trying to remember everything I’d said on it in the last few days.

  “What do you mean, take out the lamias for good?” I asked.

  “I mean,” Tomás said, “they plan to kill you and the children.”

  “Kill the children? The babies? The lamia babies?”

  Tomás nodded. “As far as we can tell, that’s the plan.”

  My heart started to race, my eyes filling up with tears. “We can’t let that happen. We have to stop them.” I turned around and glanced at Kade, who was still holding Serena. “You need to get her out of here.”

  A sudden knock on the door sounded and everyone other than Tomás and Bron jumped, and Tomás added, “That will be Brian and Jeff. Brian drove us in from Shreveport. Jeff is...going to need some help.”

  He moved to the door and opened it wide enough to let another man, slightly younger than Tomás, slip through the door, supporting another older man around the waist.

  “No sign of anything yet,” the new arrival said, helping the other man to a chair. I couldn’t tell much about Brian—he was good-looking, in a bland sort of way.

  I could tell even less about Jeff, as he
had been beaten beyond easy recognition. He had salt-and-pepper hair and was about 5’10”. His eyes were swollen shut, his lips puffed and purple, most of his exposed skin crusted in blood, and one arm hung at an odd angle. He slumped down on a chair, either unconscious or in so much pain that he might as well have been.

  I was sure these two were also shifters, though I couldn’t tell what kind.

  Kade leaped out of his chair, handing off Serena to Eduardo so he could begin examining the man. Kade also waved Jeremiah out of his seat and pointed at the dark-haired female shifter to take it so he could look her over, too. “What happened?” he asked.

  She stared at him warily, but only for a few seconds before her bright, dark eyes flitted around the room, and she moved to sit.

  Definitely a bird.

  “Torture,” she said shortly. Her voice was deeper than I had anticipated, scratchier, almost.

  But not a songbird, as I first suspected.

  Tomás saw me watching them. “She’s a raven,” he said. “I’m a jaguar.” His voice was almost defiant as if daring me to comment on the oddness of their pairings.

  I gestured around the room, introducing everyone by their name and animal. “Dr. Nevala—that’s Kade right there—is a mongoose shifter. He’s my boyfriend.” The jaguar shifter blinked a couple of times but managed to keep his expression neutral otherwise.

  “Jeremiah over in the corner is a hyena—and his partner, Shadow? She’s a Hunter.” This time, Tomás did twitch. I glanced at Shadow out of the corner of my eye and found her grinning openly at me. I allowed myself a smile in return.

  “You’re not going to find any judgment here,” I said.

  Tomás nodded.

  In the meantime, Kade had finished a quick examination of Jeff and convinced Bron to let him check her wounds.

  “How many times have you shifted since this happened?” Kade asked.

  “Just the once.” She sounded tired, ragged. “We drove straight here—there wasn’t time for anything else.”

  “We didn’t know how far they were behind us,” Brian added. I realized that still, no one had told me what kind of shifter he was.

  “We’re hoping that blowing up part of the casino slowed them down,” Tomás interjected.

  “Pardon me,” Jeremiah said in his beautiful, lilting African accent. “But did you say you blew up a casino?”

  Tomás shrugged and nodded toward Bron. “They pissed me off.”

  Eduardo snorted aloud at that. Shadow nodded her approval.

  “Okay.” I tried to get my thoughts in order, but I was still tired from the battle we’d just fought. “I need to call Janice and get the Council in on this. I guess maybe retreat to some place more defensible?”

  I glanced around at the shifters crowded into the room with me.

  I don’t know how to fight a war.

  I had my tiny little ragtag army, but wolves were used to working together, fighting in packs. We would have to come up with a plan on the fly, exhausted, several of us hurt.

  Fear spun in my belly, making me dizzy.

  But I didn’t have time for anxiety.

  I glanced at Jeremiah. “Will the hyenas help us?”

  He turned one hand out in a kind of half shrug. “I do not know for certain. We are still fragile.” He shot a look at Shadow. “I’m uncertain what they will say. Keeya has not even made its final determination about whether she will accept Shadow. But I will ask if she will fight for you.”

  “Thanks. That’s all anyone could expect.”

  I shifted my attention to Eduardo.

  “You know the Shields have your back,” he said. “I will begin contacting them.”

  “I can call some people in, too,” Tomás said. His mouth slanted up in a slight grin. “Actually, I already have. My crew should hit the Dallas-Fort Worth area sometime in the next two hours or so.”

  “Your crew?” I asked.

  From her seat in the chair where Kade had put her, the raven shifter spoke up. “Tomás runs a security firm. He’s got all kinds of connections.”

  Eduardo spoke up for the first time. “Tomás Nahual?” When Tomás nodded, he continued, “I’ve heard of you. You and your guys do good work.”

  “I know you have no real reason to trust us,” Bron said. “But we want to help.” It was difficult for her to speak as Kade manipulated her arm, which I now saw was broken in at least two places. Her face was white and sweat beaded along her hairline. As Kade moved his hand down her arm a little further, I saw that it also had a horrible wound, loosely bandaged and still seeping, almost sullenly.

  “I need to take both Jeff and you into the hospital,” Kade announced.

  “Take Jeff,” Bron said, her voice still breathless with pain. “I’m fine.”

  “You have to go, too. I need to set this arm, get stitches into you, and run some antibiotics through your system.” Kade’s voice had taken on that brusque, authoritative tone he used when dealing with recalcitrant patients. “You need rest and you need to shift. Those are the only things that are going to fully heal this wing of yours.”

  “I don’t have time,” Bron said, the fist of her other hand tightening.

  “Do you want to be able to fly again?” Kade asked bluntly.

  Her face paled even further, if possible, and she turned stricken eyes up to him. “I want to. But I’ll deal with whatever comes.”

  Kade softened a bit at the panic in Bron’s voice. “You got the message to us here. You did what needed to be done. Now let me fix this for you.”

  Tomás stiffened at the shift in Kade’s tone, and his eyes narrowed as he watched the doctor.

  I leaned forward over my desk. “He’s a very good doctor. And he’s very loyal to me.” I couldn’t help the slight emphasis I put on the last two words, but they seemed to calm Tomás.

  “I’m going to get them over to the hospital,” Kade said. “Eduardo, stay here with Lindi and Serena?”

  The coyote shifter nodded once as Kade helped Bron stand up again.

  “I need to put in a call to Janice and get her over here,” I said, staring at my phone in dismay. “Is my cell phone okay?” I asked Tomás.

  He shook his head and handed me his phone. “Probably not. But mine’s clean.”

  I nodded and took it, then glanced around. “Will the rest of you stay with me in case the wolves arrive before she does?”

  Shadow reached into the corner and took out her battle ax, leaning on it and narrowing her eyes. “I wouldn’t agree to be anywhere else.”

  Jeremiah stepped up to stand just behind her—the appropriate place for a protective male in hyena culture. He didn’t have to say aloud that he wouldn’t leave her side under any circumstances.

  Tomás gave one quick, short nod. His phone rang, and I gave it back. The jaguar shifter held up one finger as he answered. “Hey, Louis. Good to hear from you. What’s the word?”

  I found myself tapping my foot anxiously as I waited to hear what news he’d gotten. I couldn’t tell anything more from his conversation, though, as it was mostly made up of sounds of encouragement.

  “What your ETA?” Silence. “Okay. See you then.” He disconnected the call and stood staring at his phone.

  “Well?” I asked when Tomás didn’t immediately start talking.

  Kade, in the midst of gathering up Jeff and Bron, had paused at the door, waiting to hear the answer, too.

  “At least one contingent of the wolves hit the outskirts of Dallas coming from the east on I-30 about fifteen minutes ago. Traffic is light, so we’re looking at a lead time of a little more than an hour.”

  I nodded. Suddenly all my uncertainty drained away. “Kade, get them out of here to the hospital. Go now.”

  I took Tomás’s phone back from him and began inputting Janice’s number as Kade left with his new patients.

  A phone rang at the other end and I began to worry that I wouldn’t be able to get in touch with Janice at all. She was the only one of us who ha
d any political savvy at all, much less political power. I was still too new to the wider world of shifters to have any real sense of everything at play.

  Janice, on the other hand, had been dealing with shifter politics for years. When she finally answered, I blew out a sigh of relief. “Thank God. I didn’t think I’d catch you.”

  “Lindi? What’s going on?”

  I gave her the brief synopsis—which really, was all I had to go on anyway.

  I expected her to agree to get to the Shield office as quickly as she could. “No,” Janice said calmly, instead. “That’s probably where the wolves are headed. Everyone apparently knows to find you in the Shifter Shield office. So that’s the last place you need to be. We need to meet somewhere they won’t find us—not yet, anyway.”

  I could hear her tapping on something, and imagined her blunt fingers drumming on the table in front of her or on the phone as she held it. “My house isn’t any good either—everyone knows where I live. I think our best bet might be the home of one of the Council members. That should let us get our strategy sorted out before anyone actually figures out where we are and shows up.”

  “Do you want me to wait here until my replacement shift shows up?” I asked.

  “Good Lord, no,” she said. “Y’all go ahead and get out of there. I need to make a couple phone calls, and then I’ll touch base with you. It might be best continue moving in the meantime.”

  “Agreed. Call me on this number when you have a plan. I’ll text if I think of anything in the meantime.”

  “Sounds good.”

  As we disconnected, I dropped into my office chair again. Laying my head down on the desk on my arms, I tried to slow the rapid beating of my heart.

  Inhaling deeply, I stood up and turned to Tomás. “Can you and Brian take us, keep us on the road until Janice calls back?”

  He nodded shortly, already heading out the door.

  I was terrified of what the wolves were coming to do—not because I couldn’t take them on, but because I was beginning to fear the kind of collateral damage I might cause in the process.