by Jaymin Eve
Jacob ran a hand through his hair. “Damn, you ruin all of our fun, Jessa babe. We haven’t killed anyone for ages.”
I punched him once for being a douchebucket. The five of us were relatively non-violent, supernaturals almost never died around us. The occasional rabbit on the other hand … well, that was fair game.
“Come on…” Tyson’s voice was relaxed. “We need to find some seats, I feel something of a serious nature is going down tonight.”
Wizards found power in nature and from the gods. Tyson heard pieces of information from the universe while he was casting spells. Well, either that or he had an oracle stashed somewhere, because he often produced little gems of inside information.
We elbowed and shoved each other, striving to be in front and dominant. In the end, Braxton sent Tyson and Jacob sprawling, and with growling laughter rumbling his chest scooped me up over his shoulder and charged through the crowd into the massive town hall. Faces turned toward us but quickly looked away again. When Braxton dropped me, I wiped a hand over my heated forehead. It was hot in this room. I was already sweating.
Tyson appeared right behind us. “You’re a dick, you know that, right?” His jab landed cleanly on Braxton’s biceps; the dragon shifter barely moved. “You better sleep with one eye open tonight.”
“I sleep with both eyes wide open. No one gets the drop on me.” Braxton was cocky. He called it confident. It was a bit of both.
The five of us found seats in the center of the room. We were some of the few that broke race grouping and sat together. Seated in a higher dais before us were the council leaders. Besides my father who led the shifters, and Kristoff of the magic users, there was also Julianna Medow, a six-feet-tall and stunning red-haired vampire; Galiani of the Greenlands – male fey – with long silky yellow hair, feline features, and a graceful stride that made me feel like an elephant shifter instead of a wolf; and the demi-fey leader, Torag of the Eastland trolls. He was four feet tall and the same width. His skin resembled a newly formed tree, a smattering of skin and hard ‘bark’. His nose was long and thin above beady eyes. He was a good troll. I’d grown up with him; he was a long-time friend of my father and had spent a lot of time in my home.
Wiggling to get comfortable in the padded chair, I kept my eyes locked on the leaders. They seemed to be discussing something serious amongst themselves. Jonathon caught my gaze and gave me a warm smile, but there was unease in his rigid posture. Was this just about my mother’s return? Why would that be influencing any of the other council members’ behavior? Unless they all hated her too. Wouldn’t surprise me.
And speaking of…
I stood and looked around the mostly-seated crowd. I didn’t remember Lienda. Funnily enough, no one I talked with really remembered anything specific about her, but I’d seen a photo of her once. I knew I could pick her in a crowd. We looked similar, but she had very blond hair. God knows where I got my hair color from.
It took no time for me to sight and scent that she wasn’t in the room, unless she was cloaking herself with the help of a magic user. I slumped into my chair, and suddenly I was crushed by Braxton and Maximus sandwiching me in. The brutes always stole my space, their long arms invading my territory. I was contemplating whether it was worth starting elbow wars when my stomach decided to make its presence known in the form of a loud rumble that echoed throughout the hall. I groaned, dropping my hands to my belly, which of course the boys took advantage of. Now they had much more of their person on my person, squishing the hell out of me.
Surely the meeting was due to start soon. The hall had been pretty full when I’d been looking for Lienda. It sat over two thousand, so about a third of the community attended. I glared up at the council again. Dammit, hurry up and start the meeting, I was freaking starving. I’d missed lunch because I was late for weapons class, and dinner was looking like it’d be too far away. The way my stomach was protesting, there was no hiding it in a room full of supernaturals.
And then the ribbing started.
Jacob the jackass was first. “Shit, batten down the hatches and guard your limbs, Jessa’s hungry – every man for himself.”
“Them there are fighting words, fey,” I said as I released my wolf a little and dived across Braxton. Jacob was going down.
Jacob held both hands up in mock distress. “Damn, she’s coming at me, Brax! Hand me the emergency snacks.” I let free a growl, followed by a solid thump to his chest – which probably hurt my hand more than his body – but I was semi-satisfied with my act of dominance.
My stomach growled again, louder than ever. At that point Braxton, Jacob, and Maximus were practically on the floor they were howling so loudly. Tyson had started flirting with the witch seated next to him and wasn’t paying attention anymore.
It’s safe to say I copped a fair amount of shit over my love of food. When it came to dinnertime I could hold my own with any one of these six feet plus men. What can I say, I love food. And I’m a shifter – we have a fast metabolism. I wasn’t fat at all, but I had plenty of curves and I liked having curves. I wanted them to stay exactly where they were, so I figured it was my duty to eat. The male supernaturals liked my curves too. I might not have many friends, but I was popular in some ways. What can I say, wolves are friendly.
The boys were still laughing their butts off so I decided to give back as good as I got. I rarely acted like a chick around them – sometimes I think if it wasn’t for the boobs they’d forget I wasn’t a man too – but right now some fake tears were in order.
“You guys are right,” I said in a subdued tone. I even lowered my eyes a little, which rankled my wolf, but she understood. “Maybe I could stand to eat less. You know … lose a few pounds.” Their laughter died instantly as they eyed me with something close to astonishment.
Braxton was the first to recover. “You’re fucking kidding me, right?” His eyes flashed as he straightened in his chair. “You do that and I’ll follow you around with a goddamn steak … day and night.” His voice lowered on the last of his threat.
“And ice cream,” Maximus added. They knew I loved dessert of any description. Sugar was my weakness. “You lose one inch off that delectable ass and we can’t be friends any longer.” He crossed his arms over his chest, which at least freed up some space on his side.
I internally rolled my eyes. Braxton and Maximus’ responses were not a surprise. The predator supes were pretty earthy and sexual.
I stared at the three Compasses. Their unwavering attention was locked on me, their faces scrunched-up and all of them frowning. The morons looked really worried. Then I couldn’t hold a straight face any longer. My lips curved up as laughter burst from me. I flipped them off.
“Like I would give up food for any man.” I followed the middle finger with another rude gesture that shifters were fond of.
Their retaliation was cut off as the council members stood, ready to start our meeting. Braxton leaned in closer to me. “Just for that, no sharing of my dessert tonight.”
Ouch, that was mean. He always got extra for me, I could never fit enough on my plate. I turned sad eyes on him, but he just shook his head. Damn, the girly-act wouldn’t work twice on him tonight. Problem was, it wasn’t really an act, I was genuinely sad without cake.
Kristoff was center stage, where he liked to be. “Quiet now,” he said, and the room fell silent. We all knew disobeying your council leaders was bad news, no matter your own personal power levels. “Thank you to all that take the time to attend our monthly meetings. We have much to discuss. You will remain patient until we finish explaining all the details to you. There is some news that you will find shocking, but rest assured you will understand … mostly everything.”
Yeah, everything they wanted us to understand. Our council operated the same way as all powerful groups. Control worked best when the rest of us were kept in the dark about things. Like where the prison was that we were supposed to be laying down our lives to guard. And speaking of the prison system, it seemed there w
as some news.
Julianna started us off with a bang. “Prisons in Romania, Greece, Japan and Scotland have been infiltrated in the last month.” Her beautiful face did not change expression despite the symphony of gasps that blasted through the hall. “There were numbers of prisoners broken out. The filtered down information we’re receiving seems to indicate this is a worldwide strike against our system.”
I shifted forward to the edge of my seat. There was an entire network of secret supernatural prisons around the world, at least one in every continent. Supernatural numbers were much less than humans, which is why despite the size of America we only needed one prison. And like Stratford’s hidden Vanguard, we knew very little about the different prisons. I had never heard of a mass break-out like this.
“Sounds like an inside job,” I heard Braxton mutter.
I turned and met his gaze, the fine skin around my eyes tightened as his words penetrated my brain. I agreed with him, and surely that would narrow the pool of suspects considerably.
Jonathon spoke then. “We don’t want you to panic, we’ve had no word that Vanguard is to be hit, and our hold is strong.” He sent out some calming vibes, which for an alpha of his power worked on everyone, even those not shifter. “We’ve tightened up security, and we urge no one to run by themselves in the forest for a little while.”
He leveled his warm gaze on me. I kept my expression calm, eyes wide as if I were innocent. Nothing escaped my father’s attention, he knew what the Compasses and I had been doing. He’d turned a blind eye but there was a subtle warning in his tone now. No more night runs searching for the prison, which would rankle the boys. Something about being denied their rights to view it really pissed them off.
Jonathon finished his speech. “We’ll keep you appraised of what happens. Our belief is that we’ll soon bring those involved to justice and they’ll join our prison system in a different manner.”
The next lot of news came from Galiani. “The body of one of my brethren was discovered on the edge of the forest this morning.”
Gasps and curses rang out again. Shit, they were hitting us with the serious news this afternoon. A dead fey. The element wielders were damn hard to kill, so what had happened? I glanced at Jacob. It was always terrible to lose a member of your supernatural race. I could see his chest vibrating, his anger palatable. He sat rigidly next to Braxton.
Galiani was still speaking. “At the moment we’re investigating, and it’s pretty clear that this was no natural death. We don’t take kindly to supernaturals killing each other. I suggest if you were involved, turn yourself in before we find you. If you have any explanation … well, the punishment might be a little less severe.”
I doubted that, the fey could be the most hard-assed. They had a cold, clinical sort of approach to many things. Which was something that separated them from the rest of us. Vampires, shifters and the demi-fey contingent were more animalistic, the magic users very earthy and grounded.
The council were still looking around the hall. Did they really think someone was going to jump up and say, ‘Yeah it was me, I killed your fey?’ I noticed they hadn’t named the victim. I wondered if they were keeping the identity a secret for a reason.
“Fine,” Galiani spat out after a few tense moments. “The magic users are working on it and there will be no place on Earth you can hide where we won’t find you.”
My father cleared his throat and I could see the apology in his eyes as he opened his mouth. Great, seemed we were ready to move onto my mother – I mean Lienda – I had no mother.
“We have welcomed the shifter wolf, Lienda Jackson, back to the community,” Jonathon said. “She has journeyed far and is resting now. She brings with her a daughter.” He turned his head to the side. “Come out, Mischa, and say hello to everyone.”
Wait, what?
My ears were buzzing and there was some sort of weird fuzziness descending over my eyes. What was happening? Was I having a breakdown or was this just shock? Had I heard him correctly?
Pain knocked the disorientation from me. I looked down to notice I’d half shifted my hands to claws and they were cutting into my palm, drawing blood. I heard Maximus grunt as the scent hit him. He’d told me on more than one occasion that my blood had a very distinct scent, one he’d never encountered from any other supernatural. Easy to recognize.
The black-haired female was hesitant, head down as she crossed the front stage. She looked small and nervous, shuffling across the floor to stand beside my father. As she lifted her face, I gasped. What the hell? She was a carbon copy of me, but instead of blue eyes hers were a light turquoise green.
Jonathon spoke over the murmurs from the crowd. “This is Mischa, my daughter and younger sister to Jessa.” As the second bomb was dropped on me I barely noticed the multitude of faces that had turned in my direction.
Holy hell, knock me over with a feather. How was this possible? This wasn’t just Lienda’s daughter, it was Jonathon’s also. I had a sister he’d never told me about. Her wide doe eyes scanned the crowd before landing on me. We stared at each other for an indefinable amount of time. Tearing myself from her gaze, I let out a howl and took off from the room.
Chapter 2
My wolf washed over me and I was shifted before I hit the edge of Stratford. I didn’t think, I just ran and ran, tearing through the fallen and decaying undergrowth. I was not big for a shifter; my wolf was the size of a large human dog. My coat was the same blue-black as my hair, and since the sun was setting I blended right into the dark of the forest – the forest which my father had just laid down the law about running alone in.
Good thing I didn’t care for his rules.
The canopy was thick in this wilderness. It was against our laws to tamper with our forest; it was allowed to grow free on its own. Though the magic users and fey often poured their energy into the land, which led to some unusual flora. As I dodged and darted through the dense undergrowth, the landscape was flashing in shades of black, gray, and green. In wolf form my senses were sharper, and I always relied heavily on scent and sound, sight was almost secondary. Before my very first shift I’d had fears of what it might be like to turn into an animal, but besides the fact I was guided by instinct more, it was still me. I didn’t lose Jessa to gain the wolf, we coexisted and were really the same being. Two sides of the same coin.
I’d been shifting for over six years and now didn’t even have to think about the process. It just happened when I called on the energy. My wolf stayed curled inside of me until I reached for her. On occasion she fought her cage but mostly we lived in harmony. But there was another small part deep inside that I didn’t touch, an energy which frankly scared the shit out of me.
I called it the demon. My wolf and I had lived with the demon my entire life. When I was seventeen I’d tried to explain this dark energy to my father. I’d hedged around the fact that it was a large, unknown power hidden deep below my wolf. He’d had no idea what I was talking about. Despite my fear of this unknown energy, I treated it like my wolf, although I kept it caged permanently. So now the three of us sort of coexisted.
Dysfunctional-Relationships-Are-Us.
For the first time in a long time, though, I was struggling. My shock and energy were fuel for the demon. It was beating at the cage. How could my father have kept this from me? The fact I had a sister out there. A more innocent looking pup I’d never seen. She’d been terrified in the hall. I could smell her fear and I wasn’t the only one. They were going to tear her apart. I wondered where she’d grown up. Had she known of her shifter abilities? Surely our bitch of a mother had at least clued her in. The first change was rough and if you didn’t know it was coming … well, it would probably feel a lot like dying.
In wolf form my thoughts and emotions were simpler, which meant I knew without any doubt that I hated Lienda and was pissed with my father. But I wasn’t sure how to feel about the sister, Mischa.
I needed more information.
A famil
iar scent flooded my nostrils, and even though I couldn’t see anything I knew he was out there. Vampire was distinct, sort of a mix of dark, rich spices. Tantalizing with a hint of danger. Then as I rounded the corner, there he was leaning casually against a tree.
Maximus Compass.
“You about done yet, Jessa babe?” His pose still looked relaxed, but tension was radiating off him.
I knew that with his vampire speed he’d have caught up to me immediately. He’d been letting me have my run.
He straightened. “Time to change back, Jess, you’re needed in town. We’re having a little trouble with Brax. You might have to stop him before he kills your parents and burns Stratford to the ground.”
Shit. Braxton didn’t lose it much, but when he did … well, things got messy fast.
I decided not to shift back yet; I was quicker in my wolf form. I circled around and took off the way I’d just run.
Maximus kept pace with me. “It’ll be faster if you let me carry you,” he said.
He was right, and the only reason he hadn’t just scooped me up was my wolf would have attacked him. Something he knew from experience. But it was okay if he gave me the choice. Without breaking stride I jumped into his arms. I decided not to shift back, no need to be naked. Sure, I wasn’t shy of my body – I was a damn shifter, we were always naked – but I didn’t need Maximus carting my naked butt around.
I closed my eyes as he took off, his speed fast enough to blur us to anyone watching. I always got a bit motion sick when travelling at vampire speed. The journey into the forest, which had taken me fifteen minutes, was over in seconds. Back in front of the town hall, Maximus dropped me to all fours, before turning his back – in deference to my own personal preference for privacy. I called on my energy and shifted back to human form. I stretched out my limbs and shook off the moment’s disorientation as colors and light flooded my vision.
I strode ten feet to reach one of the many clothes-bins that littered Stratford. Reaching in blindly I grabbed the first couple of things my hands touched, looking down I nodded. This would work. I shoved the white t-shirt over my head and pulled on denim cutoffs. They were a little big but I just rolled the band over once, exposing a line of tanned midriff.
