by A. C. Arthur
In seconds Nick was in Rome’s office. “What the hell is going on?”
“Aidan says there’s a cougar in front of the police station,” Eli told them.
“Let’s get downstairs and see what the hell’s out front,” Rome said, moving past both of them.
Ezra stood to the rear of the elevator, Eli directly in front, blocking anyone else from boarding, while Nick and Rome stood side by side between them. They rode down in silence and walked out to utter pandemonium. There were people, other tenants of the building milling about, crowding the front foyer and blocking the view of the glass-fronted walls.
Nick yanked one of the security guards nearly off his feet, yelling into the man’s face, “Get them the hell out of here!”
The man whistled for his coworkers, who immediately began shuttling the people to the back of the floor, away from the doors.
“We locked the doors, sir. We didn’t want people rushing in from outside and we didn’t want that thing in here,” another guard said, looking back at the glass with disgust.
Rome barely acknowledged him but continued on to the glass doors, saying forcefully, “Unlock it.”
The guard didn’t move.
Then Rome yelled, “Now!”
The security guard’s body literally shook as he moved to the doors, going down on one knee to insert his key into the lock and disengaging it. The door opened and screams and sirens sounded from the outside. Rome stepped out first, Nick right on his heels. Eli and Ezra came through the adjoining door, both standing with their backs to the sidewalk as Rome and Nick bent down to look at what was lying on the sidewalk in front of their building.
“Dammit!” Rome cursed.
“What the fucking hell is this?” Nick added as he pulled back the rest of the tarp that the dead cat was lying in.
Blood marred the sidewalk, its acrid stench rising up and floating on the cool day’s breeze. Ezra cursed under his breath while Eli clenched his teeth. It was a shifter. Its head and claws had already changed to that of a jaguar while the rest of its human body, still garbed in the navy blue guard uniform, signified he was one of theirs.
“Who did this?” Nick was still yelling. “I want to know right now who left this here!”
Rome stood after pulling the tarp over the shifter. “Get a team in here to clean this up right away,” he told Ezra. “Eli, you get the truck and meet me in the garage in ten minutes. We’re going to see what other little presents have been left for us.”
By the time Rome and Nick climbed into the back of the SUV, Eli had more bad news.
“A tiger was left at the hospital. Papplin had it put in a body bag and taken to the morgue. He’s waiting for X to come and pick it up.”
Nick slammed a fist into the seat in front of him, while Rome remained silent.
“What else?” the Assembly Leader asked.
Eli replied, “They were each one of our guards.”
* * *
“This is a state-of-the-art facility,” Kalina said to Priya as she sat on the caramel-colored leather couch on the other side of Priya’s office.
“I know,” Priya replied, sitting back in the matching chair positioned to the right of where Kalina sat. “Your husband sure knows how to design a headquarters.”
They were at the brand-new Assembly Headquarters located in Prince George’s County, Maryland. It was a fifteen-story building constructed out of steel and glass, rising into the sky with its innovative design and slick contemporary décor. Priya’s office was a calm and soothing range of burgundy and beige, leather and marble. Everything that represented the confidence and unequivocal reign of the Stateside Assembly.
The fact that these two females were sitting with their feet up on the glass-topped coffee table having a relaxed conversation wasn’t exactly the type of business that was meant for this office, but she was the First Female; she could do whatever she wanted. And what she wanted most right now was to talk about becoming a mother.
Rubbing her hand over the belly that just five weeks ago was flat as a board but now sported a nice round bump, Kalina looked down and sighed. “I cannot believe I’m doing this,” she told Priya. “I never wanted to have children before.”
Priya looked over at her quizzically. “Really? I would have thought you and Rome were dying to start a family, what with the way you both dote on Shya.”
Kalina shook her head. “I was an orphan and I didn’t see myself having a committed relationship. I always knew I didn’t want to bring a child into this world without having something rock solid to offer him or her.”
“And now you’ve got that,” Priya said. “You’ve got it all, Mrs. Roman Reynolds. And I know plenty of women who would line up for the chance to walk in your shoes.”
She shrugged. “That’s because they don’t really know what it’s like. I’m a shape shifter about to give birth to her first child in about thirteen weeks. I have no idea how to be a mother to a little boy or girl, let alone a shifter girl or boy. And that’s not saying anything about the situation we find ourselves in now.” She looked over to Priya then and said honestly, “I don’t know how this is going to turn out for us. So why would I pick now to become pregnant? Why would I want to bring another life into this turmoil?”
Priya stood, going to sit beside Kalina on the couch, taking the First Female’s hands into hers. They hadn’t known each other that long, but Kalina had taken a quick liking to Priya Drake. It was most likely because Priya was just like Kalina used to be, career-focused and tenacious. Neither of them had thought they’d find love and certainly not with a shape shifter, but here they were.
“You and Rome are doing what is natural for humans or any other species. As for the timing, well, that’s never ideal and nobody could have foreseen Crowe’s hybrids or Boden’s plan of revenge,” Priya said. “Besides, I have complete faith that the Shadows will come out on top and dispel all the evil that’s currently swirling around you … us,” she corrected. “It’s all going to come to a head soon and blow over just as quickly.”
Kalina was about to agree, albeit still with her own inner misgivings, and hug Priya for her kindness when the door to Priya’s office was thrust open and Jax came running in.
“Rome wants you back at Havenway, now!” he told her, reaching for her to take his hand so he could help her up off the chair.
“What’s going on?” Priya asked instantly. “What happened?”
On the desk her cell phone rang. Jax looked at her. “Answer it and you’ll be filled in.”
He took Kalina’s hand as she stood up, staring at him. “Tell me, Jax.”
“Let’s get you to the truck and I’ll tell you what I know.”
She nodded, knowing better than to stand there wasting time arguing.
“Okay, let’s go,” she said, grabbing her purse.
Within fifteen minutes Kalina was whisked from the office on the sixth floor, down to the parking garage, and into the back of the black Suburban she always traveled in with Jax. She was snapping her seat belt when Jax climbed in from the other side, talking as he put on his seat belt. By the time he’d given her the rundown of what had been happening while she sat languishing in the gorgeous headquarters offices, she was speechless.
“He murdered shifters and left them out in the open for anyone to see,” she said quietly.
“He wrapped them up, but people on the street saw the heads and the blood, and news crews are all over the place. Traffic’s going to be rough getting out of the city, but Rome wants you safe so that’s what we’re going to do.”
“I was safe at headquarters. We could have just stayed there until things calmed down.” If things calmed down, she thought as she looked out the tinted window.
“No. He wants you home and I think that’s best too. Don’t worry, we’re going to get you there,” Jax told her.
But Kalina wasn’t so sure. She had a sour taste at the back of her throat and the baby that had been moving steadily inside of her
all day had ceased. Her hand was firmly planted on her stomach, moving of its own volition in an attempt to coax and help calm her young, but it wasn’t working, she knew. Her heart was beating faster with every movement of the SUV. Beside her she heard Jax taking a call and giving their coordinates. He would either be talking to Rome personally or to one of the guards at the command station at Havenway. They would be giving the best traffic options to get her home as soon as possible.
Home, she thought as they passed cars quickly. Their driver had taken the shoulder of the road and was passing the stalled traffic completely, the SUV going much faster than what she thought was the speed limit.
Sweat had begun to trickle down the back of her neck. She leaned forward to tap on the privacy divider to tell Marc, the driver, to turn up the air when out of the corner of her eye, she noticed another SUV coming up beside them. It was also black with tinted windows so she couldn’t see through them, but at that very moment the baby inside of her kicked so violently that Kalina slid off the seat, the belt tightening to painful proportions around her waist. Then there was a loud crash. The SUV was turning over and over and over and Kalina was holding her stomach. She prayed and whispered Rome’s name.
* * *
With confident strides Nivea walked past the two guards at the entrance to the holding cells where both of her parents were now being kept. It had been days since what she now called her “aha” moment—when she’d realized that both her parents were assholes and the man she loved was incapable of loving her in return. Each time she’d heard about that special moment on television or via online personalities, it had represented a turning point in one’s life, a new beginning or some other crap. For Nivea, it had just been a wake-up call. One which she’d answered and was now ready to put behind her.
“Five minutes,” Sal, the guard at the first door said to her, his bushy brows moving as he spoke.
He was a Croesteriia shifter—a cheetah—but nobody would have known it by the thick build of his body. When he shifted into the long, sleek cat, nothing gave him away except the speed he also maintained in his human form. That’s probably why he was placed at this door, just in case Michele Cannon tried to escape as her husband had the day before.
Sal and the other guards were still pissed as hell that Richard Cannon had been able to dig his way out of that concrete room. The fact that huge blocks of the wall had been cut away, as if someone with a circular saw had gone in and given the guy a helping hand, wasn’t sitting well with the guards or the Assembly Leader.
When they’d come to tell Nivea she’d been just returning from being in the field, once again searching for Agent Wilson with Caprise and her personal guard, Tobias. Nick had looked as if he wanted to accuse Nivea of helping her father escape, but Ezra—to her shock—had been the first to remind them that Nivea had been out all day. Caprise and Tobias had verified her alibi and the Lead Enforcer had no choice but to back down from accusing her. Nivea had been relieved because the last battle she felt like fighting at that moment was with the shifter leadership.
Instead, she’d quickly made her way down to the doubly secure room they were holding her mother in. She knew that should Michele try to escape, Sal and the other guards had been instructed to kill if necessary. She wasn’t going to overthink the fact that it didn’t evoke any emotion in her either way.
“That’s all I’ll need,” she told Sal and waited while he turned his back to her, punching in the code to unlock the door.
Of course they wouldn’t tell her the code, even though she’d sworn many times that she had never helped her parents do anything against the shifters and wasn’t about to start now.
When she walked into the room, Nivea took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her mother’s scent, familiar and slightly heartbreaking, filled the small area. There was a table in the corner with a lamp, but it was not switched on. In another corner there was a tray where Michele had received her lunch, but she had not touched it.
“Bitch.” The word was hissed through clenched teeth.
Flecks of spittle peppered the side of Nivea’s face as Michele stood right next to her to the left. Nivea didn’t even turn to face her, but walked deeper into the room, stopping just before meeting the wall on the opposite side.
“Maybe that’s what you should have named me since that is what you believe I am,” she said, now looking at the tall, frail woman.
She wore a white jumpsuit that was fitted with electrical fibers that would deliver instant shocks to her body should another escape be attempted. Around her neck was a solid lead necklace equipped with a GPS tracking system and steel-reinforced layers so that if Michele thought to shift into a jaguar, she would choke to death before the change was complete. Her hair was a wild halo around her mocha-brown face, hands fisting at her sides.
“You were always ungrateful no matter what we tried to do for you. I hate you!” she yelled vehemently.
“Do you hate me or yourself?” Nivea asked her. “Because of all those nights you had to lie in that big comfortable bed, in the lavish penthouse you liked to brag so often about, while your husband was down the hall doing heinous things to your youngest daughter? That ranks right up there with something to hate yourself for.
“Or maybe, it’s because you helped him transport hundreds of children and then watched as he facilitated their demise. You killed shifters, some probably from the same bloodline as your own. Again, that’s a heavy burden to bear and I can easily see how one would hate herself for participating in such acts.
“Or,” Nivea continued, her voice growing edgier with every word. “You could be hating yourself for being so gullible and eventually expendable. Did you know he escaped and left you here to rot, or to be killed, whichever comes first?”
“You think you’re so smart. Think you are so high and mighty but they don’t give a damn about you here either!” Michele spat, taking a step closer to Nivea. “Nobody cares about you, they just let you stay to do their dirty work. They knew all along who and what you were. A whore and a backstabber.”
Michele lunged at Nivea and she was ready. Stepping to the side, she let her mother tumble across the floor, falling into the wall. Before she could turn around she knew Michele would try again, so Nivea moved quickly, wrapping her arms around her mother’s neck, pulling her body back against hers as she squeezed. The brace around her neck was thick and Nivea felt it pressing into the inside of her arm as she continued to tighten her grip on her mother’s neck. In an instant the weight of a heavy realization hit her.
She could kill Michele Cannon. With all the distaste and disappointment for what she’d done and what she’d allowed over the years, Nivea could kill her and walk right out of this room as if she’d dispatched any other enemy. After all, that’s what she’d been trained to do.
With a quick motion she released her and Michele stumbled around, finally standing up straight to taunt her daughter once again.
“You can’t even do that right,” Michele said viciously. “Nothing you do will ever amount to anything. You will always be a complete failure. No man will want to touch you either because you’re disgusting to have wanted your own father in your bed.”
Nivea reacted instantly, her arm extending, fist landing against Michele’s jaw, the woman’s head snapping back from the assault.
“You are the bitch!” Nivea told her. “You never knew how to be a mother and instead of owning up to your faults, you tried to make us feel like the failure was ours. You’re no better than him, and believe me when I say both of you will rot in hell for what you’ve done.”
Michele made a move like she wanted to charge Nivea again, her sharp jaguar’s teeth and claws bared. Nivea simply shook her head at the pitiful sight.
“I didn’t kill you once,” Nivea said, her voice deadly calm. “But let’s be perfectly clear, that is the only chance you’ll ever get.”
Michele growled loudly, her arms lifting, claws bared just before her entire body trembl
ed with the bolts of electricity soaring through her. Nivea turned to look at the door that was still closed. Had someone been watching or had Michele’s actions activated something? The woman fell to the floor, still convulsing, but Nivea turned away.
She didn’t give a rat’s ass what was happening to her mother. But more so because there was a weird feeling assailing her at the same time. She walked to the door, opened it, and walked right past Sal without a word. Inside her cat was up, its eyes trained via Nivea’s human ones on something straight ahead. She was moving but she had no idea where she was going or why she needed to get there so quickly. All she knew for certain was the scent that filled her nostrils, the warmth that coated her body, and the warning that her cat was sending was loud and clear.
Something had happened to Eli.
Chapter 20
Eli had called her more than a dozen times. Since the moment he’d raced through the garage to get the SUV he’d been trying to get in contact with Nivea. She wasn’t responding.
There were three dead guards, all in uniform, all dumped at locations that either a human or a shifter were sure to find them. The thought that there would be more, that Nivea could be … he held the phone tightly in his hand, pressing the speed dial one more time. As it rang insistently in his ear, Eli closed his eyes. He tried to concentrate on his breathing, tried to focus on the smidgen of light he could see. It was shining amidst the dark and he knew what it was now, knew who it represented in his life. Each time he dialed her number he was reaching for that light and it was slowly diminishing, until the moment his chest constricted with the possibilities.
He could not see Nivea. No vision appeared and he wanted to curse whatever was inside him, whatever he was truly supposed to be. If it was a Seer, how come he couldn’t see the one thing he needed desperately to see right now? How come he couldn’t find her wherever she was in this world to ensure that she was safe?
Ezra was speeding down the highway, trying his damnedest to get them back to Havenway as soon as possible. There’d been reports of suspicious deaths interrupting the radio stations and Ezra had finally turned it off, while in the backseat Rome and Nick kept an angry silence.
