Adira bites her lip, and Ulric's eyes touch on a hint of fang. That Adira hid her true nature—that she was turned successfully as Jim was, and right underneath their nose—chafes Ulric greatly.
Adira expertly drops in front of him.
And though she is in her half-form, gorillan, as his people refer to their partial shift, she is still tiny compared to him.
With the eyes of an Alpha female she glares up at him, arms folded across her narrow chest.
“Explain forced.” Ulric mimics her stance.
“I'm not listening to jack,” Jim says.
“Jim—silence.”
Jim moves to them, crossing his arms in clear irritation. “No, Ulric. She lured me out here. Then played damsel in distress while this pack of ape castaways tried to work me over. And she collaborated with Simon.”
Ulric gives Jim a swift look. “Simon?”
“A jerk. And he's not a colleague—he shot me.”
Ulric attempts a rough translation in his head and contextually grasps “colleague,” is someone who performs a similar task to the subject.
“He's a Traveler, that's bad news. Sent with me to help collect genetic samples—what a blatant lie that was. But his actual role was collecting paranormals for unsanctioned experimentation for the HC.”
Ulric does not like Adira being involved, nor does he understand, “HC.”
Adira inhales deeply. “He told me that if I turned the Fragment, and got Jim back to him—he'd get me home.” Adira gives Jim a pointed look. “He said you'd go back too. I knew you wanted that. You told me how much you hated it here.”
Even in his gorillan form, a dull flush sweeps over Jim's skin.
Tab grunts in the background, and Ulric remains silent, his gaze bouncing between Jim and Adira. He determines it wise that Adira not be enlightened about the biological absolute of protection over females, for the moment. She has not yet gained his trust.
He glances at Tab, trying to read his expression, and that of Jim.
Jim strides to Adira. He will not harm her, but him and Tab tense regardless.
She looks to Ulric. “Remember when I got dropped off at the woods?”
Ulric nods. Unforgettable.
Now that he reflects on her being found, he finds her appearance too orchestrated.
“Well the Fragment got to me first.”
The men are silent at this news, speculation like an incurable disease contaminating their thoughts.
“But, on my Earth, I'm called a Dimensional.”
Pathway traveler.
“That part's true. I got stuck here, and couldn't get back. Jim's team—Simon was the leader—he found me, and they were going to just use me.” She swipes at an escaped angry tear.
Her gorillan form shimmers with emotion, and Ulric knows her control is quite good if she can maintain gorillan during an onslaught of emotional turmoil of this magnitude.
Her chin juts out. “But I cut a deal. I told them about you guys. I'd seen you. I knew you were half-gorillas—” her eyes drill into his, “— vampire. We don't have anything like you back on our Earth, and it piqued their interest.”
Jim makes a sound of disdain in the back of his throat.
Adira scowls at Jim. “Don't you dare judge me, Jim. They were going to play with me like a toy, and discard me. I'm not a Kung Fu master—I'm not a man. There's no consequence for anyone here in the sphere world. So, I said I'd lure one of you guys out.”
Her eyes seek Ulric's and hold them. “Then Ulric made me.”
He jabs his fists at his hips. “You made us believe the effort was unsuccessful.”
Jim's face lights with an apparent epiphany. He grabs her arm, eyes bulging from his face. “You can change form!”
“Yeah,” she says, tearing her arm from his grip. “But when Simon found out that instead of luring one of the Tree Men to their camp, I had essentially become one—he wanted more. They liked my abilities, and thought they'd be better than human. More.”
“Yeah, it didn't work like ya wanted,” Ulric states, careful to speak in the slang of her language.
“No,” she admits quietly, her shame obvious. “I turned them all.” She shudders at the memory they cannot see, yet lines her face in sinking disgust. “But none of them were like you.”
“They cannot be. When a female turns a male, she but gifts him with a disease. She is both a carrier and recipient, that is true. But only when a male changes a female or male of his kind—an Alpha—is it a true turning.” Ulric looks at Jim as he says this.
“A completion, and complement of genetics,” Jim says in a thoughtful voice.
Ulric nods. “Yes.”
“So you turned them into these half-whatevers. With all kinds of stunted biology and mental slowness... and what did Simon think of that?” Jim asks Adira.
She throws her hands out in clear frustration. “Obviously, he wanted a pure sample to take back to Earth since the Fragment I'd turned were all mutations and not the real deal.”
“Nice.”
Adira pokes Jim in the sternum. “Not. My. Fault.”
He grabs her finger. “So blaming you.”
He drops her hand as though burnt, the directive neatly inserting itself in his emotional framework.
Ulric's lips flatten, and he still does not make them the wiser, but observes Jim's frustration at his stunted reactions in silence. “This Simon is dead?”
“Thank Jesus,” Jim mutters.
Ulric ignores him, continuing, “And we have made short work of the killing of these blasphemous creatures.” Ulric turns to the subjects, spreading his hands at the scattered dead. “All that remains is your explanation as to why you were not honest with me, and my people with the fact that you had successfully turned. There were those of the Fragment that would have you share in the taking of a clan member.”
Adira glowers. “It was Jim. I found Jim, and he's from my Earth and he wanted to go home. He was turned, he was an Earth guy and he didn't want to stay.”
“I think you're wrong, sweetheart,” Jim says.
Ulric cocks his eyebrow.
“I think shit's way more right here than it ever was where we're from. Simon's dead, and those creeper ape-mutants are history too. I am still going to be a scientist because that's what I am in here.” He beats his chest where his heart lays with a savage thunk.
“So you're going to stay here and be an ape, and never have another cheeseburger again, see your family—be normal,” Adira asks in a mocking voice that rings indignantly inside Ulric's ears.
Jim vigorously nods his head. “Yeah. I think I'm going to forgo Burger Queen forever. And for the record.” Jim looms over her, fright coating her face. “I might have to protect you—because that's just the way this shit is rolling, I guess—but I don't have to like you.”
Jim shows her his back as he crouches low then leaps into the bundle of vines she dropped from moments before.
He doesn't wait for Ulric, moving with fluid grace back the way he and Tabben had just traveled. Back to the clan.
Ulric jerks his chin toward the vines. “We will follow you.” He sweeps his arms toward the still-swinging vines of Jim's rapid departure.
It is clear from Adira's face that she understands Ulric is not giving her a choice, but a command.
Adira moves.
Ulric and Tab follow.
Chapter 27
Elise
Though spring has definitely arrived, and all traces of snow have departed, the teeth of the season gnaw at the edges of the warmer temperatures. Vapor from the hot spring rises against the still-chilly air as though in morbid warning.
Elise's eyes ping around anxiously.
Adahy and Philip lie in wait, the ruse of bathing a presumed clever one, though the broad back of Brom travels ahead of them, foiling their presumptions. Why was he honing weaponry in the height of the day while the rest of the clan slept? The four of them had hoped to slip away quietly while the majority of the Tr
ee Clan rested.
Ulric had explained that only the Alphas of his species could “shadow skip,” as he termed it.
Brom's wakefulness at this time of day gives Elise pause. Ulric must know that his daytime activities mean he might be more than Beta to Ulric's Alpha.
He might want more.
Elise self-soothes—Ulric trusts Brom—or he would not be overseeing the clan in Ulric's absence.
Calia's long strides take her beside Brom, and she speaks softly to him. Elise cannot hear their exchange.
After a few tense seconds, Brom spins on his heel, coming back the way they had just traveled. His strange eyes spin slowly as he passes her—the golden color of his beast.
Not Brom the male.
A rash of gooseflesh pours over Elise's skin, and she whirls to watch Brom's retreat. He does not look back or slow.
Nevertheless, Elise's heartbeat gallops like a freed horse.
“Calia,” Elise calls out in a low voice as Brom disappears around the bend.
“Aye?”
Elise jumps with her nearness, hand to heart.
Her gold eyes seem to glow in the soft darkness underneath the forest canopy. “I am sorry to startle you.”
Elise merely nods, hands falling to her sides. “Something is wrong.”
Calia's golden brows pull together. “Nothing is amiss. Our men are here.” Her voice is alight with promise and excitement, her eyes sharp and bright like a hawk.
They plan to travel west now. Back to the sphere, and mayhap a detour to the tribe for her and Adahy to relocate Chief Chasing Hawk.
However, her excitement is suffocated.
Like the pillows held over her face by the Fragment when they took what they did not own. Her hands flutter like escaped birds in front of a womb that might bear children in the future.
Calia's sharp eyes take in Elise's anxiety. “What is it?” That gaze that was so alight but moments before is now watchful.
The men soundlessly walk to their position. Calia signals to them for more silence and they pause, eyes automatically scanning the environment. The wood is silent.
Too silent.
Calia's eyes widen. “Have you the gift of precognition?”
Elise grabs Calia's hand. “I thought not. That healing is all I have been gifted.”
Calia roughly shakes her head. “No, my understanding is that gifts come in pairs.”
“When?” Elise breathes, feeling vaguely nauseated.
“Not together, one manifesting before the other.”
“Aye,” Philip agrees. “What is happening here?”
Elise cannot believe no one feels as she, anxiety has become a fear that chokes her. “We need to leave. Now.”
Adahy does not chastise her intuition. Instead, he crouches low, his eyes rising to the trees that reach for the fading afternoon sky. Elise has time to think that no one ever looks above.
She does so now.
Men of the Tree fall like treacherous leaves all around them.
Philip and Adahy put their backs to the females in protection, but Elise sways as helpless waves of dizziness roll through her.
Brom is last, swinging from a vine. His huge body is frightening in gorillan form.
Deadly.
“Were you planning to go somewhere?” His question is for Elise and Calia. Yet, his gaze pins the men in accusation.
“We go,” Adahy says, then switches to Iroquois. “I belong with my tribe—as does Elise. She is of the Red Men, and without a clan or tribe of her own.”
Philip moves protectively in front of Calia, and she makes a move as though to stand by his side. “Do not,” he says and Calia stills.
“And you—Philip of the Band. You think to squire away a female Select.”
Brom's lips curl around chunky teeth.
Elise shivers.
Philip's eyes narrow on Brom, throat slits flaring. “These are not the actions of Ulric.”
Elise's guts churn in a slick roil, her gorge rising. She covers her mouth with a hand.
Brom's smile widens, his teeth are very square. Except for two that arc outside his mouth.
Venom drips, hissing like acid as it touches the forest floor.
Elise slips her arms around Adahy's waist. His hands cover her own.
“Ulric is not here,” Brom says, though his speech is impeded by his fangs. Elise peeks from behind Adahy and Brom's eyes find hers. “He has left me as overseer in his stead,” he relays in the language most familiar to her.
“And when he returns?” Adahy asks in careful Iroquois.
Brom's face smoothes into solemn lines. “There can only be one Alpha.”
Their collective gasp is swallowed as Brom moves forward and the other gorillans of the clan follow suit.
Elise whimpers when she sees what they hold—bindings.
Four sets.
Chapter 28
Jim
Adira can shift.
But Jim is still an ape.
Jim slaps the next vine, making his way back through narrow corridors of woodland. Not by necessity, but for ease of travel. The moon shines with bleak, ambient light through the forest canopy. Jim likes riding the vines with some light rather than total cover of darkness.
He listens to the others behind him. The little bitch, Adira—Tabben of the other tree clan, and Ulric. They shatter the silence of the woods with their brash approach through twigs and large branches.
Jim grasps ahold of a branch almost too large to encircle with his dexterous, long-fingered hand. He swings wildly in the air, as his opposite arm flails for purchase on whatever vine is near. Some of the woven tendrils of vegetation are more fragile than others. Jim simply doesn't have the cool ape discernment of some of the born ape guys.
He shoots for the vine. Misses.
Hits another. It ruptures in his grasp, untwining fast and sending Jim to the ground in an out-of-control spin.
Fuck.
An arm plucks him from the air by his upraised arm. Jim's yanked to safety then hurtled toward another thick vine.
“Thanks!” Jim shouts behind him, “saved my ass!”
The partial grin on his face collapses when Adira replies, “Welcome, ingrate.”
God in heaven. She just pisses Jim off.
Jim flies smoothly the rest of the way back, hand over hand, grabbing the vines, spurred on by pure irritation.
Ulric catches up to him easily. “Have a little trouble back there Jim?” he asks without inflection.
Jim flips him the bird. Translate that.
Ulric's rounded lips purse, then his face takes on a cautious expression. Jim follows his gaze. What now?
Ulric gives a chirped command to Tab, pulling up the rear, and they halt, swaying on the clump of vines.
Adira looks around with big eyes.
Jim finds himself distracted by her. Unbelievable.
Being an ape sucks. It's only great when he can fight and feed. Speaking of which, Jim did pretty damn good back there bleeding out that phony ape Fragment.
Jim frowns. Too bad Simon couldn't be included.
Ulric and Tab expertly control the vines as they slowly spin to the forest floor.
Adira and Jim follow.
Jim doesn't give her the time of day—or night.
“What?” she asks, hands on hips.
Ulric gives a sharp chirp from deep in his throat. Jim is goaded into silence. Another thing he's ticked off about is the fact that Jim inherently understands the animal noises. He's not trying to interpret.
The chirped communication is easy to translate, shut the fuck up.
Jim's exhale is loud.
Adira moves beside him and Jim tenses. This tree dude thing is all about the instincts.
Jim swallows his instincts down like a ball of bile. He's not going down the protect the female path again. At least, that's the lie he's sticking to. Too bad the tree chicks lead the males around by their dicks.
Ulric and Tab confer with noises m
ade of clicking and chirps.
They sound like birds.
Jim screws his face into a scowl. So if they're gorillas, why does all the communication sound like bird music?
Oh. Sounding like birds doesn't alert others to their presence. Gotcha.
Jim does a quick perusal of their environment. They're near the hot spring where he was tranq'd by Simon.
At first, he sees nothing amiss.
Ulric and Tab were obviously part of the rescue party. And Jim's damn glad for that turn of events.
Jim flares his nostrils, checking his spidey senses.
He smells the females—Elise and Calia. And to a lesser extent, he scents Philip and Adahy. Philip smells vaguely like the Tree Men to Jim (not that he'd ever mention that small detail, oh-no). But Adahy is his own thing.
His nose wrinkles. Jim can also smell the utterly repugnant chemical remnant of whatever drug they shot him up with.
Ulric and Tab have sunk to their haunches at the exact spot where they loaded Jim with the drugs, then proceeded to beat the tar out of him.
His apeness had been no match for seven men from his earth. He'd put a hurt on half, but at the end of the day, he'd still got his drugged ass kicked.
Jim's expression sours at the memory as he walks toward the two.
Adira follows, uncharacteristically silent.
Jim's eyes run over the mess of footprints. Noting blood. Seeing where his knees had hit the spongy moss bordering mud at the shore of the spring.
Vapor from the heat of the water slides over the torn forest floor where Jim fought.
He closes his eyes. Using only his sense of smell. Men of the Tree were here. Brom—others.
His eyes snap open and meet Ulric's.
A long chirp sounds.
Jim feels his face tighten. He must have that signal wrong.
Then Tab echoes Ulric with an ominous sound of agreement.
Jim blanches, his eyes automatically hunting for Adira.
She's bled back to her human form. Jim reins in his temper at the ease of her ability to switch back and forth and concentrates on what he thinks he just scented. What Ulric and Tab have said through their strange gorilla language.
“What is it?” Adira asks. She doesn't deserve an answer. Jim gives her one anyway—though he doubts it's the one she wants. “Better stay in human form.”
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