Shifter Wars Complete Series

by Sarah J. Stone

  I printed out the information and shoved the paper into my purse. After powering down my father's computer and fixing any clue that I'd been there, I hurried back down the stairs. I was shocked to see that Jack and my parents were now getting along famously- he must've been laying on the charm pretty thick.

  "Okay-nice-seeing-you-both-time-to-go," I said, grabbing Jack and pulling him off the couch.

  "Nadia!" my father said. "Don't be rude. Jack here was just telling us about what a bang-up job you've been doing so far."

  "That's right, Mr. Helmsley—Nadia's been a shining example to the rest of our newest trainees."

  Jack then flashed me a wide smile, as if wanting to make clear just how well he'd been getting along with my parents.

  "I just knew a smart girl like her would have no problems getting on," my father said. "I'd still rather have her back home and out of danger, but at least we know she's in good hands."

  Jack stood up and my father rose to join him and shake his hand. "Wonderful meeting you, Mr. Swift," my father said.

  Goodbyes were said all around, and I felt like I was going to explode. If my father found out that I'd been snooping around on his computer, well, let's just say that the congenial mood wouldn't last too much longer.

  "Don't let another month pass before you come see us, darling!" my mother called out as we made our way across the front lawn.

  Back in the car, Jack settled into the driver's seat.

  "Laying it on pretty thick, huh?" I said.

  "Hey," Jack said, an attractive, boyish smile forming on his lips "I'm good with parents. What can I say?" He turned his attention back to my bag. "You got the info?"

  "Yeah,” I said, fishing it out of my bag and handing it over.

  Jack unfolded the piece of paper and as soon as he did, the color drained out of his face.

  "This is the dragon?" he asked, an intensity to his voice. "You're sure about that?"

  "It said those spines are like fingerprints. You can tell with near certainty. Whoever killed Emmanuel is on the picture. And that's the same man I saw at Grand Central."

  Jack said nothing, instead folding the paper and shoving it into his pocket. He gunned the engine and pulled out onto the road so fast that for a moment I was terrified that we'd drive right into oncoming traffic.

  "What is it, Jack?" I asked.

  "It's that dragon," he said, his tone as grim as his expression. "He's the one who killed my clan."

  CHAPTER 12

  NADIA

  We stopped at a nearby bar on Court Street. Jack said that he needed a drink, and that was it. Sitting across from Jack in the bar as he sipped his whiskey, I wrapped my lips around the straw to my club soda and lime, wondering when he was going to finally start talking.

  "Um, so tell me about the dragon," I said, my voice small.

  "It's…" his voice trailed off as he rolled the whiskey around his glass. "I don't normally talk about shit like this. Especially with someone I barely know."

  "Well, um, I mean, we did…you know…"

  "You give your life story to everyone you sleep with?"

  I guess he had me there, though the list of people who fit that criterion was pretty damn small.

  "Well, how about this," I said, sitting up straight and doing my best to assert myself, "you and I are partners, whether you like it or not. And partners have to have a certain level of respect for one another if they're going to actually function as a team. So, I suggest you fill me in on what are clearly essential details, unless you want to drag along a partner who's in the dark."

  I crossed my arms over my chest and nodded my head. I felt pretty darn pleased with myself for showing assertiveness. Jack didn't seem too moved by it, however. He glanced off to the side, bringing his glass to his lips once again.

  "Anandrox," he said.

  "Huh?" I asked.

  "That's the dragon's name. That's the one you saw at Grand Central, the one who we heard in Emmanuel's apartment, and the one who was there when Emmanuel was killed. I'd suspected that his was a part of this—the eyes tipped me off—but I was hoping it wasn't the case."

  "And he's the one who killed your clan?"

  "Among others," he said, his tone hard.

  "But why?"

  Jack took a long, slow breath, as if trying to figure out just where to begin. "Way back when, I was a part of the clan that I was named for—the Swift Clan."

  I racked my brain for his clan, but couldn't remember hearing a single word about them. Whoever this Anandrox was, he must've done a real number to them.

  "We weren't a major clan in the bear shifter world, and that rubbed some of the members of my clan the wrong way. Bears are known for being hard-headed, and my father and his brothers all wanted us to move up in station, no matter what the cost. And they wouldn't be talked out of it. Bears aren't schemers like you foxes are, or the wolves, so all the skullduggery shit that's so common in the other societies just didn't have a place in ours. And my father figured out that this was our biggest advantage."

  "So, he got a dragon's help? How the hell did he pull that off? Dragons aren't really known for being easy to find…or especially accommodating for things like that."

  "You're right. But what my father had was a favor. See, a long time ago, his grandfather had gotten Anandrox out of a real jam. No one knows what happened, exactly, or just how a bear could help a dragon, but Anandrox told him that he could have one favor, and that the favor would pass from generation to generation until it was used. So, my father, the enterprising sort, figured that now was as good a time as any. After all, if a dragon could help our clan move to the top of bear society, then what greater thing favor could we ask for?"

  He paused for a moment, as if debating whether or not to continue. I said nothing, sitting in rapt attention. Jack opened his mouth to speak, but before a word could come out, he finished off his whiskey in a quick swig and ordered another one. He drummed his fingers on the table impatiently until the drink was placed before him. He took another sip of this, then began to speak again.

  "So, my father called in his favor and spoke with Anandrox. This is a pretty big deal, as it takes a hell of a thing for a common shifter to get in touch with royalty, so to speak. Anyway, Anandrox agreed to help my father with our request, and to help our clan ascend to power."

  "And how did he do that?"

  "That's where the story gets…bloody. See, my father made the greatest mistake that someone could make when working with a dragon—to think that they give a single damn about you. We may think that we're all bears, and wolves, and whatever, but to dragons, we're all the same species: ants. Ants that they can manipulate to their own ends. So, my father, being more trusting than I can imagine, figured that Anandrox would help him get to power in a way that was…diplomatic. Not so much.

  "Higher-ups in the bear society started dropping off the map. About a half-dozen clan elders were killed over the course of about a month. Some disappeared, some were found dead, all killed with a single stab to the throat, clean and quick, as if someone was dispassionately rubbing them out. Now, I'm not sure how fox society works, but us bears have what you'd call a ‘line of succession.' My father, being a clan leader, was somewhere in there. Pretty far down, but in there. Well, he figured out damn quick that Anandrox's way of ‘helping him rise to the top' was simply to off everyone in the line of succession above him until he was top dog. And it worked. After Anandrox took out enough bears my father was ready to become top elder, and our clan moved up the ranks."

  "That seems like it would, um, attraction attention."

  "You got it. Didn't take a wolf to figure out that something shady was going on. And my father was just knocked on his ass by this. He'd been thinking that Anandrox might just give him some of that famous dragon wealth, or even an endorsement, since a dragon vouching for a shifter clan is a pretty quick way for them to get serious prestige. A string of murders of clan elders who he'd known for years was the last thing he
wanted. Well, the other bears couldn't pin down my father for the murders and disappearances, but it was pretty goddamn obvious what had happened. So, let's just say that our clan wasn’t welcomed to the top with fanfare and celebration. And then there's another matter—just because you've gotten to the top of the heap doesn't mean that you're cut out to lead.

  "And that's what my father and the rest of our clan learned the hard way. With the suspicions of foul play in the air, my father could barely keep a handle on things. He couldn't keep the clans in line, and other up-and-comers started smelling blood in the water. It looked more and more like a civil war was in the works. And what's more, news of dissension in the ranks gained the attention of just about every other species out there. Even the lions were eying our joined borders with hungry eyes, wondering where they could take a piece of our turf for their own."

  "Eventually, one of the clans made a move to unseat us. As soon as that happened, the lions moved in. We Swifts were a clan of foot soldiers. We couldn't hope to handle a situation like this. Our numbers dropped by the day, and my father figured he had to do something, anything. So, his back against the wall, he called one last meeting with Anandrox."

  "I don't like where this is going," I said, my voice soft.

  "I don't, either. Against all odds, Anandrox accepted the meeting. Who knows why. Maybe Anandrox just wanted to see what he considered a lesser being squirm—never been able to figure that one out. Anyway, my father really takes him to task, tells the dragon that this isn't what he wanted, that now his species is in a position that they might not get out of—the works."

  My stomach tightened at this. I didn't know much about dragons, but something like this was like a peasant in Ancient Rome chiding the emperor- it just wasn't done.

  "Believe it or not, Anandrox let my father leave the meeting. You'll soon know why. He went back to the clan feeling pretty damn good about the whole thing, from what I hear. Stupid, stupid man. Anyway, my father calls an emergency meeting with the rest of the clan elders, figuring that he'd step down or something, anything to end the civil war. Then, just as everyone got comfortable, a single man entered in the meeting hall. Without saying a word, he walked to the front where my father and the rest of our clan sat presiding over the whole thing. Then he spoke in a voice as clear and loud as a church bell, telling the other clans that there's a price to pay for insolence. Then, he shifted."

  I said nothing.

  "Right then and there, he roasted my whole clan alive. Burnt them to cinders in front of all of the elders of the bear clans. Whole thing took about half a minute from what I hear. Then, he shifted back and walked out of the hall like nothing happened."

  "Needless to say, the rest of the bears got the hint pretty damn quick. The cobbled together a peace treaty, elected a new Three, and fought off the other species before they could make too far of inroads into our turf. Believe it not, the murder of my clan actually led to a pretty long period of peace in the bears; the rest of the clans were all too shaken by the sight of the Swifts getting roasted alive in front of them to get too many big ideas about power plays."

  "And you weren't there?"

  "Nope, just a baby. Clan left me with a wet nurse before the meeting. I was the only one not present. Got passed around from clan to clan, each of them figuring that I was some kind of bad luck charm, that once Anandrox learned he hadn't wiped the entire clan, he'd be back for me, and for whatever clan was stupid enough to take me in. Long story short, I joined the bear fighters as soon as I could, and the Sapiens not too long after. Plenty to complain about with the Sapiens, but they've never given a shit about me being a Ronin, a clanless shifter."

  I looked down and saw that he was already done with his whiskey. I didn't know what to say. After a while, I settled on, "And now…here you are facing this same dragon again, years later."

  "That's the long and short of it," he said, rolling the glass around by its circular base. "I had fantasies when I was younger about finding Anandrox and making him pay for what he did to my clan. But I realized pretty damn quick that even looking into taking out a dragon was an easy way to get yourself killed. The dragons have a way of making any ambitious shifters ‘disappear' before they start getting any big ideas. And all it takes is a few charred or skinned bodies to be found before the message gets through to the rest of the species."

  "This…is what makes this new development all the more interesting," he said, drumming his fingers on the table and looking away.

  "What are you talking about?"

  "That room at Emmanuel's. He was doing research on just how to kill a dragon."

  "Why would Emmanuel want to kill a dragon?"

  "Same reason that anyone else would, really—they're getting too big for their britches. Emmanuel is—er, was—the kind of guy who wasn't smart enough to know what a bad idea that was. But lucky for him, he was murdered via a relatively painless defenestration before Anandrox found out what he was getting up to in that little closet of his."

  I shuddered to think about what a dragon would do to someone who'd been caught planning to murder one of them. Jack was right—being thrown out of a sixty-sixth-floor window would be a kindness.

  "But here's the crazy thing," Jack said, leaning in close and speaking in a conspiratorial tone. "The research that Emmanuel was doing? It wasn't just bullshit. He had some real shit that he'd gotten ahold of.”

  I was shocked. I'd just assumed that whatever he'd had in there was nonsense, not worth using. "Does that mean…"

  "That's right," Jack said, his tone grave, "he'd found out how any shifter could kill a dragon. There was just one missing ingredient. And we have it."

  CHAPTER 13

  NADIA

  Jack's phone rang right as he finished his sentence. "Delahunt," he said as he answered.

  I sat back in my seat, wishing that I had something a little stronger in front of me.

  Killing dragons, war, murder—it was a lot for a newbie like me to take in. What started out as a simple stakeout was now a situation where lives were held in the balance. If we weren't able to get to the bottom of what happened to Emmanuel, then war between the tigers and the wolves would be an inevitability.

  "It's happening," Jack said, downing his drink and getting out of his seat.

  "What?" I demanded. "What's happening?"

  "War," he said, tossing some money on the bar as he sped toward the door.

  I followed him as well as I could, but I still had a hard time keeping up with his long strides. Soon, we reached his car and we were off. "Where are we going?" I demanded.

  "Back to Sapien HQ," he said, speeding out into traffic, cars whipping behind us in colorful blurs. "The first skirmish between the wolves and the tigers happened about a half hour ago."

  "What?" I asked. "Does that mean that the war is on?"

  "Looks that way to me. Delahunt didn't have many details, but she said to get back to HQ as fast as possible."

  I closed my mouth and we sat in silence for the rest of the drive. My stomach burned with anxiety. If there was a war between the tiger and wolves, who knows what the end result would be. Alliances between species were always shifting, and I didn't even know who the foxes, bears, and lions had pledged their allegiance to. There was a chance that this little skirmish, as Jack put it, would be the first fight in another great war. All we could do was prove that Anandrox had killed Emmanuel and get the information to the tiger and wolf elders. But how?

  Things were tense at HQ when we arrived. The TVs scattered arounf all showed reports from human news about a strange gang fight, as they were calling it, that happened early in the afternoon. Agents were glued to the screen, and the possible war seemed to be the talk of the place. I still couldn't believe that my first assignment was turning out to be such an event. I felt in over my head, and more than a little scared.

  Back in Ms. Delahunt's office, she demanded all the details. Once we filled her in, she grilled us on what our next big move was. "This is n
o small thing. You two've gotten in the middle of a dragon-instigated war, if what you both are saying is true."

  "So far, it just looks like Anandrox is working alone," Jack said.

  "That's how the dragons like to do things," Ms. Delahunt said. "They don't have the tight-knit societies that we do. A lot of their meddling among the societies is them working alone for their own ends."

  "They all want to be the big dragon on top," Jack said.

  "They're not so different from us, after all," I said.

  "And you two think you might have a way to kill the dragon behind all of this?" Ms. Delahunt asked, no shortage of skepticism to her voice.

  "Maybe," Jack said. "We still need to run this all by the lab, but if what Emmanuel discovered is true, then all he lacked was the final ingredient to the weapon."

  "The dragon spine," Ms. Delahunt said.

  Jack pulled the bag out of his pocket and dumped it into his hand, the stone-sized piece tumbling out. I looked at it carefully under the light. It was black, with strands of red weaved through it. It almost reminded me of some kind of brilliant, volcanic rock. It was familiar, but unlike anything I'd ever seen before.

  "Incredible," Ms. Delahunt said. "That needs to get to the lab as soon as possible—now."

  Jack and I didn't need to be told twice.

  "And good luck," Ms. Delahunt said as we stepped out of the office.

  "What's the plan if we can even get this…weapon up and running? We kill a dragon all by ourselves?"

  "If it comes to that, then that's what we have to do," Jack said, determination and purpose to his walk. "But I'm not going to stand around while more shifters die because of this…this dragon."

  I followed Jack until we reached a long, narrow hallway with steel double doors at the end. When we reached them, Jack typed in his information and the doors opened with a pneumatic hiss, revealing Sapien technology labs. The space was stark, nearly everything there, from the desks to the floors to the computers to the outfits of the dozens of tech agents who worked there were a harsh, bleach white. This was the department where my test scores had indicated I should work, and I knew that being cooped up in a place like this for ten hours a day wouldn't have worked for me at all.