The Shifter's Secret

by R. A. Boyd

  “It’s good to see you again, Audra,” he said, deep baritone lined with a low growl. “I’m really sorry we have to meet like this. But you’re the one who knows how dangerous we really are.”

  His tone was light as the breeze that ruffled the thick grass of the yard, and his stance held no apprehension. Only a serene calmness that completely evaded Emma’s senses.

  “No.” Audra held Emma’s hand close, walking them down the five steps that led them to the stone walkway. “We don’t have to be. What do you want, Samiyah?”

  His dark eyes cut to a yellow butterfly that gently glided over the fence. He took a deep breath and crossed his massive arms across his full chest. “You know what I did. What your brother did. You are all capable of it. Madness can come at any time. The Ghosts should be put down.”

  “Is that you talking, Ronin, or is it Samiyah? Insanity may have brushed against your mind before, but you would never hurt us. You would never want us dead.”

  He scoffed, the edge of his full lips turning down in a distasteful scowl. “Abominations. The lot of you.”

  The lot of you. Guess he didn’t include himself in that group.

  Audra’s fingers tightened around Emma’s, so much so that she had to say Audra’s name to get her to loosen up before she broke the bones in her fingers. That would hurt like hell.

  “So,” Audra said, loosening her grip. “Samiyah. I would say it was good to see you, but I’d be lying. You suck more balls than seasoned hookers. Let my brother go, and the Ghosts won’t exercise your ass to whatever hell dimension you belong in.”

  Pushing away from the fence, Ronin let out a sharp laugh and took a few steps toward them. The menace he threw off rose a panic in Emma’s chest. The closer he was to them, the closer he was to her father’s house where her daughter danced and played right this very minute.

  “Imagine if we all succumbed to the beast roaring inside us, Audra. The death that would overtake this planet would be immeasurable. How dare we toy with the lives of people the world over? Can’t you see it? The Ghosts don’t belong here. You were cast out to suffer. Not to be rewarded.”

  Audra took a step toward him, putting herself between him and Emma.

  “Ronin,” she said, voice imploring. “Samiyah. The Creator made a plan for us to prosper, and that’s what we’re doing. We were made a promise. Who the hell do you think you are to try and put us down when the Creator has brought us to the point where we are getting our grace back? Look, I get it. The woman you loved was killed by a madman. The same one you seem to be having a good time riding in. A human could have easily killed her as well.”

  “She could have protected herself from a lowly human,” he spat back at her.

  His intimidating eyes dimmed even more. A crackle of electricity filled the air as his anger soared. Emma had to stifle a gasp as a current crawled deep in her veins, causing goosebumps to dance along her skin.

  “So you blame all of us for her death?” Audra said, one hand out as if trying to calm the man visibly diminishing in front of them. The other hand hovered behind her, warding Emma off and reaching for the knife. “What would you have done if a mortal killed her? Waged war among them all? Or what if she died of natural causes? Would you have been so defiant that you would go after the Angel of Death to cool the meaningless anger within you? I can only imagine the ass-kicking Samael would have given you. She was human, Samiyah. They die. It pains me too, but they die.”

  “You,” he said, switching his cruel gaze to Emma. “You should understand how detrimental this is. You have a daughter. Do you want her to lose her mother to the madness that is the Ghost shifters? Angels who were punished for millennia for their blasphemous acts?”

  Emma shook her head. She had to take a few deep breaths before she could answer him, and even after that her voice croaked out as if she hadn’t spoken in years. “I don’t want that. But that’s not on the Ghosts. It’s on you. Please. They can help you.”

  “And what of your daughter, hmm?” If at all possible, the darkness that already lingered in his eyes grew darker, like a demon peeking up from the depths of Hell. “Do you want her to live like this? Die like this?”

  A vile loathing that she’d never experienced before in her entire life settled in her gut, instantly making her nauseas. “Don’t you fucking dare threaten my child. I give not a single shit about what happened to you or the woman you loved. We’ve all lost people. We all suffer for some reason or another. It’s life. But mention anything happening to my daughter again and I will sell my soul to the highest bidder to end you.”

  “Let’s test that,” he said, hand shooting up as his long fingers curled around Audra’s throat.

  He tried to pull her close, but Audra was immovable.

  Quick as lightning, she jerked the knife from behind her, hand moving faster than Emma could keep up with. The crisp, sickening sound of sharp metal gliding through flesh and muscle filled the air as Audra stabbed Ronin, and at the same time shoved Emma backward and away from the carnage. Still he held her throat, ire pure in his gaze. But his eyes faltered.

  Over and over, Emma could hear the blade connecting with the man who’d threatened her little girl. As horrible as she felt for hoping he died right there on the spot, Audra’s quick and blinding ferocity brought her a sense of satisfaction.

  Finally, he fell to the ground, arms holding on to his stomach and sides. Bile burned the back of Emma’s throat as she saw torn ribbons of flesh barely holding his intestines, and some other organ Emma couldn’t identify, inside his body.

  He coughed a few times, crying out in pain as he protectively held himself. When he looked up, the ominous madness that had taken up residence in his eyes had all but disappeared.

  To keep his body upright, he pressed one hand to the ground to keep him steady. The warm scent of iron filled the air as his blood oozed down the sides of his body, turning the bottom of his hunter green t-shirt black. “Audra. Sister,” he grunted, blood seeping from his mouth as he spoke. “Kill me. Do it now. Please.”

  Holy crap. He was there. Her brother was awake in there. But so was Samiyah.

  “Ronin,” Audra choked out. She fell to her knees in front of him and pushed her face close to his. “Oh, God. Ronin. Tell me how to help. What do we do?”

  Shaking his head, he coughed up frothy blood and grimaced. The horrible, rattling noise of his lungs filling with blood filled the air. “Just— just kill me. He’s not a demon you can exercise.” Hand trembling, he reached forward and took Audra’s hand that held the blood-stained butcher knife. He put it to his throat and nodded. “Do it quick. Take my heart and my head. End it.”

  No. It couldn’t end like this.

  Audra’s mind was fragile before, and killing her brother just might break her. Jace told her how Ronin had injured Audra and one of their brothers, and how not long after the fight she began a slow descent into lunacy. This, ending her brother’s life, might actually do it.

  Just as Audra looked up at her, brown eyes being taken over by the empty blackness of her pupils, Emma stepped protectively in front of her.

  “I’m really sorry,” Emma said. Setting her legs hip-width apart and bending her knees, she took one step backward. With every ounce of strength in her body, Emma launched her foot forward in a powerful kick, the ball of her foot hitting Ronin right in the chin.

  The quick motion spun his head to the side, and for a brief moment Emma was afraid she’d broken his neck. With his head oddly angled to the side, Ronin’s large body thumped unconscious on the beautifully lined stone walkway.

  Fuck it.

  It was his fault. He shouldn’t have brought this shit to her father’s house where her daughter was most comfortable.

  When Audra looked up at her, Emma said, “What can we do? Duct tape? Rope? Maybe Zeke and Willow can do something.” The words quickly flew out of her mouth as she rambled, trying to come up with a better plan.

  She didn’t have a plan. Knocking him ou
t cold was the first thing that popped into her mind, but no more bright ideas came rushing through after that. The only thing Emma knew was that she couldn’t let Audra kill her own brother. But if Audra didn’t come up with her own plan in three seconds, Emma was going to take the knife and cut off the man’s head herself.

  No. A butcher knife wouldn’t do it.

  Her dad had a sword collection in what used to be her bedroom. One of those would do it. She didn’t want to kill Ronin, but if it came down to him or Lily Pad’s life, there would be no hesitation. She would pay the price of killing him, both in this life and the next.

  Too slow for Emma’s comfort, clarity began to fill Audra’s gaze as she took in Emma’s words. “Umm… duct tape? Yeah, get some duct tape. We need to make sure he can’t speak to cast a spell or use his hands to weave any magic.”

  They were going to get through this and maybe be able to help their brother in the process. Best news she’d heard all day.

  Emma turned to run to the house but was stopped short by a feral growl that made the fine hairs along her arms stand on edge. Turning back around to see what was happening, she had to fight the urge to scream at the scene before her.

  Ronin, floating inches off the ground, skin and muscle knitting and healing as if someone had pressed rewind on a horror movie. His eyes glowed a pitch black that would haunt her dreams for the rest of her life.

  Like a tiger ready to pounce on its prey, Audra stood in front of him, arms defensively out at her sides as her nails began to split from beneath her nailbeds. “Emma,” she growled, voice more animal than human. “Run.”

  The sound of snapping and reshaping bones filled the air as Audra hunched over and let her beast take her body. With a force that shoved Emma backward and almost tumbled over, Audra’s small frame more than tripled in size. Brown and orange fur sprinkled with black spots covered her sinuous body. Long, white, sharp claws dug into the dirt beneath her, and holy crap. Two tusks that looked like murder in tangible form hung from her mouth, glistening with saliva.

  Emma wanted to run, knew she should be running, but she couldn’t. She was hypnotized by Audra’s shape and size. Audra was the stuff of legend; the animal that movies were centered around.

  “Brute force will do nothing to help you,” Samiyah said through Ronin’s lips.

  As he raised one hand and started to speak in a language Emma didn’t understand, Audra’s large mouth opened, caging Ronin within her fierce bite. Like a dog with a ragdoll, Audra shook her head back and forth, shaking her brother until his blood once again rained down on the grass and stone walkway. He screamed and grunted, making noises that had Emma fighting against the nervous laughter that threatened to bubble up her throat. This wasn’t funny. In fact, it scared the hell out of Emma. Audra didn’t stop until he was limp and quiet.

  Just as Audra grew tired of shaking his ass like a bloody, muscular maraca, she flicked her head to the right, sending Ronin soaring into the wooded area that sat behind her father’s house.

  Well, brute strength won out after all.

  Chapter 8

  Jace held Emma and Lily in his arms, breathing them in. Committing their scent to memory. Until this was over, he would not let them out of his sight. Not again. He’d left them to get the herbs for Willow’s potion to put a protective barrier around Emma’s’ dad’s house. Less than an hour away from them and all hell broke loose, and he knew that Ronin did it with purpose. He was following them. Waiting for them before he made his move.

  A low snarl rumbled in Jace’s chest, his beast wanting to be set free to hunt his brother.

  Unfazed by his growling and brooding, Lily grabbed his thumb and shook it to get his full attention. “Do we all get to eat dinner together tonight?” Lily asked, her missing tooth making her words lisp as she spoke. “I wanna eat dinner with everyone. And sleep in my bed by myself.” She whispered the last part, putting her small hand up to Jace’s ear to block her mouth so her mother wouldn’t hear her.

  Mission not accomplished.

  Hoping to not look like a weirdo and freak Lily out, he leaned over and put his nose to her hair, breathing in her scent. He would never forget it. What if she got lost and needed him to come find her? He would rip New Rose apart to find her.

  “Did you smell my hair?” she asked, brown eyes wide as she poked his nose.

  He nodded. “I did. Your brain smells smarter than it did an hour ago. You got smarter, didn’t you?”

  Lily erupted into a fit of giggles, clapping her hands and kicking his shin as her tiny bare feet moved wildly around. “I did! Now I can spell banana and binoculars. And apple and angel.”

  “That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day.”

  Jace had never had to hide his rage before, but being around Lily was teaching him a level of patience he never knew he had inside of him. The call of his beast to hunt down his brother made his insides ache. So many emotions surrounded him right now from the people in the room with him, and he fought every instinct attempting to force him to stalk Ronin.

  Deep inside, he knew it was Samiyah running the show. Somehow that didn’t matter. The threat to his mate and cub were real. They could have been hurt. Or worse.

  For now, he had to focus on Lily. It was the only thing keeping him sane. Lily was happy as the summer days are long, Shaun was staring at him from the across the room, a murderous haze visible around him like a mirage. And Emma was… There were no words that could describe the myriad emotions teaming within his mate.

  Fear, hatred, relief, hope, and a bit of bleakness tumbled from her. He could feel everything when it came to her. She sat there in his arms, elbow resting on the countertop as she chewed on her thumbnail. Every once in a while, she would reach over and tuck a lock of Lily’s hair behind her ear, or kiss Jace on the cheek. But her mind was somewhere else.

  Hell, if he had to endure all those emotions at once, he might actually be going after the rogues and killing them one by one.

  He could sense the emotions coming from everyone, but Emma was experiencing every single one of them all by herself. He’d experienced things like this with her a few times before. Emma wasn’t one to talk about her feelings. Sometimes, she would hold everything in until she erupted into a fit of anger, taking things out on the first person to cross her path. Was she still like that?

  “Come talk to me now,” Shaun said low, eyes still boring into Jace.

  He didn’t want to let go of Emma and Lily, but he needed to have this conversation with Shaun. Jace wouldn’t be selfish. He knew that every ounce of reprieve he’d given Shaun last night over the phone had quickly evaporated after having Ronin knock on his back door.

  Kissing Emma’s forehead, he said, “I’m going to talk to your dad. Are you okay?”

  Eyes blinking rapidly like she’d just noticed him for the first time, she absently smiled at him. “No. No, I’m not. I just want to go home and know that my dad will be safe sleeping here tonight. If not, he needs to come with us. But he’s stubborn. Even if you have to knock him out and put him in the bed of your truck, I need to know he’s safe.”

  Her tone was level, void of emotion. Other than being able to sense the turmoil roiling inside her, the only thing that showed her unease were her eyes. With constant vigilance, her walnut-brown gaze moved from Lily, to the front door, to the back door, down to her hands, and then back to Lily. She needed to burn off some of the adrenaline that refused to leave her body.

  Jace nodded, feeling lower than dirt for not protecting her. “He can come if he wants, but Willow is in the backyard getting the protection spell ready.”

  “Then why can’t she do it for all of New Rose? Why can’t she make a protective bubble that shields us all? She did it for the Ghosts community. Can’t she do something?” With each question, the octave of her voice rose higher.

  She was breaking in front of him, and damn-it, he couldn’t do a thing about it.

  “I thought of it,” Willow said. She stood at the
back door, grinding up dried herbs that gave off a savory smell. “Really, I have. But it would be too much. Getting a blood sample of every person in town, making sure only those who belonged here in New Rose were within its limits when the spell is cast, blocking the entire town of all passerby’s that the spell might deem a trespasser. It’s impossible.” Giving a weak smile, she came over and touched Emma on the shoulder. “Your father will be safe within his home. Lily will be virtually invisible to them after you give her the protection powder tonight. I wish I could fix everything, but these are only spot fixes. I’m sorry.”

  Emma took a deep breath, and when she let it out, Jace could feel the tension begin to unfurl from her body. “You’re right,” she said, shaking her head and then nodding. “I’m sorry. This isn’t your fault. None of it is. I just wish we could have gotten to him before he vanished.” She looked up at Jace, shame clouding her eyes.

  Why was she ashamed? She’d done nothing wrong. Yeah, she kicked his brother in the head, effectively knocking him out for a few minutes, but that was nothing to be ashamed of.

  Shifting to sit Lily closer to her mother, Jace stood to go and talk with Shaun. If the man pounced on him and tried to beat him unconscious, he would allow it. Shaun lost his wife. The thought of losing his daughter and grand-daughter worried him, giving him dark daydreams and horrid nightmares.

  As Jace sat down in the comfortable, brown and grey recliner across from Shaun, he held his breath and got ready.

  Shaun’s large brown hands had thick knuckles, a clear sign that he worked with his hands now in his retirement, flexed in front of him. From what he knew, Shaun was personally restoring a shiny blue, Pontiac GTO 72 series. He and a group of retired military folk from all over Maryland got together weekly to restore classic vehicles.

  He clasped his hands, probably to keep himself from choking Jace the hell out, and leaned forward from his resting place on the couch. “I can take them and leave. We’d disappear.” Worry laced through his clipped words as he spoke. “The people I know work fast. Emma and Lily will be far away from this shit by tonight. Would that help?” Even though frustration tinged his words, they were not at all what Jace expected.