by A. C. Arthur
Gold stood, the chair beneath him creaking with the motion. “Nah, if there was someone else inside working with Mackey, wouldn’t they have told the Ruling Cabinet where Mackey was by now? Or better yet, wouldn’t he have tried to break Mackey out of the prison?”
Keller nodded in Gold’s direction. “He’s got a point there.”
Decan folded his arms over his chest. “Yeah. He does. So okay, say we go through with what we planned, there’s still Rome’s announcement to consider. How are we going to handle that?”
Keller thought on those words for a moment. He’d thought about them all last night because it had been one of the many points he and Shya had argued. He’d spent the night on the very uncomfortable sofa in his room while Shya slept in the bed. Following the exchange after the cop left, she’d gone to the room first and he’d gone to help Gold and the others. By the time he returned she’d showered and gotten into bed and he’d gone in the opposite direction, taking his place on the sofa. During which time he thought about how she’d defended Rome’s position and how her words had hurt him deeply because he’d taken them as her being against him.
“What if that works to our advantage?” he asked, his voice even as he still hadn’t quite convinced himself that this was a good idea. “If Rome’s plan is to work according to this treaty, then we can still bring the shifters back above ground. We can still fill the safe houses and aid in their transition back into the new world. That was always our goal anyway.”
“What about the no tolerance policy?” Gold asked. “That wasn’t our plan either. There was to be no negotiating with anyone when a shifter was wrongly hurt or killed. We were going to strike back like the predators we were born to be.”
“That component was never going to work,” Keller said. After speaking with the cop last night, he realized what would eventually happen. “If we kill everyone that we think is messing with a shifter, humans will stay on the offensive. We’ll all be living in a sort of limbo waiting for the next person to throw the first punch.” That painful discovery had also come in the middle of the night.
“We were going to revise that anyway,” Decan said. “We’re not killers, unless provoked. Our predatory nature doesn’t have to be violent. But that doesn’t mean we have to bow down and take their shit either. We just needed to come up with a better way of dealing with the specifics.”
“Like Rome did,” Keller said. The words were rough on his throat and he dropped his head back to groan after he’d said them.
“Fuck! She got to you didn’t she? What? Did she do all the things you like in bed to get you to agree with her and her precious uncle?” Gold’s question was barely out when Keller leapt across the room to wrap his hands around the jaguar’s throat.
“Hey, hold up! Back off, Kel!” Decan yelled as he struggled to break the two of them up. “Get a grip!”
Keller took a couple steps back after Decan manage to push them apart. Gold seethed, his sharp teeth pressing into his lips.
“Yeah, she got to you!” he spat.
“Don’t push the boundaries, Gold,” Decan warned. “You have no idea what beast you’re poking.”
“Keller’s no beast. He’s a cougar that’s always being led by his dick!” Gold continued.
Decan shook his and Keller sighed because he knew what the FL was about to say. “No, take a deep inhale, Gold. He’s now a cougar being led by the companheiro calor.”
Keller turned away from them. He yanked the door open and stalked out, hating like hell that Decan had picked up on what he’d only realized this morning as he’d watched Shya sleep.
He’d never wanted one, never needed to be with a person forever again, because forever was a very long time and inevitably, shit happened, and that time ended. It usually ended in excruciatingly painful ways that Keller hadn’t wanted to repeat. But telling himself that it wasn’t part of the plan or wishing he’d made smarter decisions wasn’t going to change the simple fact that somewhere along the way during his three month stay in Oasis and in these last few days with Shya in his arms, they’d mated.
The calor was all throughout the room, surrounding them even though they’d both sought distance last night. It covered them now and there was no running from it, no escaping its heated hold. The second he stepped into the elevator he roared loud and long with that thought, hating it and yet welcoming it at the same time.
Chapter 13
Shya clasped the blue pouch in her hand. She ran her fingers over the gold cord that held it closed and wondered why she hadn’t used the medicinal orbs at all since she’d been above ground. The thought had first occurred to her last night after she’d received the message from Nisa. How had she found her?
And how had that contact with the person she’d been closest to all her life, ended with a rush of memories that made her feel small and unseen all over again?
“I’m glad you responded to my message so quickly,” Nisa said now that she’d arrived in Miami.
She was sitting across from Shya, her elbows resting on the table, hair pulled back from her pretty face. Nisa’s hair had grown in the months they’d been separated, so the springy black curls that used to frame her face in a bush like Shya’s, was now to her shoulders in thick puffy waves. It was a more mature style to Shya’s way of thinking, the style of a joined shifter who was helping to govern a zone of their people.
“There was no use in hiding,” Shya replied. Her hands were wrapped around a mug still warm from the tea she’d fixed moments ago when she and Nisa came into the kitchen.
“But there was a point in running away?”
“Yes.” Shya lifted her chin as she answered. “Do you know how it feels to be overlooked, Nisa?”
“Come on, Shy. We grew up together as the first two children of the Assembly, only we were girls. Everyone expects boys to carry on the legacy, but our parents didn’t have that type of luck. Of course, I know how it feels.” Nisa sat back in her chair. She hadn’t wanted any tea but had a bottle of water that’d she’d already half finished.
Shya shook her head because as smart as Nisa was, there were still so many things she didn’t know. Perhaps because they didn’t directly affect her or what she’d always planned to do with her life.
“Other than being a girl, I was never like you,” Shya told her. “I was never like anyone at Oasis. And I don’t mean that to sound like I’m ungrateful or complaining because I’m not. It is what it is, and I came to terms with that a long time ago. But finding a place for myself wasn’t as easy for me as it was for you.”
Nisa’s eyes widened. “Easy? You call going against my father’s will and investigating a case he wanted nothing to do with easy? Or perhaps you think falling for the wrong shifter was my defining moment?”
“I think you made your defining moment,” Shya snapped back. “You followed your dream and when that moment came, you jumped up and grabbed it just like you’d always planned to do. Well, that’s what I’m doing now.”
“By stealing a board and coming above ground with a guy you’ve got the hots for?”
“How is it different from what you did?”
Nisa didn’t respond.
“How did you know I had the board?”
“Did you forget that your father and I created the Holodeck? Uncle Nick may have mapped out the structure for how security would be handled through technology in Oasis, but I was the one who looped in everything else—the shifter DNA database, bunker floor plans, passageways and inventory. I created the portion of the system that monitored all inventory coming in and going out of Oasis. So, when a board serial number mysteriously disappears from a listing, I take notice.”
“But you didn’t know I had it? Or you would have called me on it a long time ago.”
“Now that, you’re absolutely right about. And the reason I didn’t know it was you who had taken it was because that’s not something my best friend would do. Neither is leaving the safety of her home without even bothering to tell m
e. So, what’s going on with you, Shya? Why all this secrecy?”
She lifted the mug to her lips and took a slow sip. Keller had slept on the sofa last night and she’d missed his warmth in the bed. There seemed to be one startling moment after another for her lately. She had never thought of sleeping in a bed with Keller, just the sex. That’s all that had really consumed her mind about him in the past few months, but last night she’d felt something different on a couple levels.
“I’m sick again.” The words tumbled slowly from her lips the moment she set the mug down.
Worry immediately filled Nisa even though she didn’t speak. Shya picked up the scent and took a deep breath. This was exactly why she’d kept this to herself for so long. She didn’t want the people she loved to worry about her, not any more than they’d spent her entire life doing.
“It started to get bad about a year ago, the joint pain, fatigue, sometimes loss of appetite.” When she realized she was clenching the mug so tightly that her hands were beginning to shake, she released it and let her hands fall into her lap.
“The medicinal orbs still worked, I was just using them more frequently than before. Nobody noticed, which was great, because I needed to keep this to myself. If I was going to get sick and die this time, I didn’t want all of you worrying over it every day or going crazy trying to find a way to fix it.”
“You didn’t want us to do anything to try and save your life?” Nisa’s voice wavered on the last word and then she slammed a palm on the table. “How terrifically selfish of you, Shya! How dare you sit here now and tell me you’ve been sick for a year but that wasn’t something you thought you could’ve shared with me or anybody else before. Did it ever occur to you that it wasn’t your place to tell me what I could and could not worry about?”
“Did it ever occur to you that I had a right to my privacy? I had a right to keep this one thing to myself and deal with it in my own way. Because I’m an adult, you know. The same way you wanted your parents to see you as an adult and give you the respect and responsibility that they gave everyone else in Oasis.”
“This is not the same!”
“It’s exactly the same!”
They were both yelling now and Shya’s body trembled with the anger that had been on a low simmer for this last year, or perhaps all her life. But Nisa wasn’t the one she was angry with, it was herself. She should have taken this stand long ago and she hated that it had taken this renewed sickness and this man, to bring her to that conclusion.
Nisa lifted her hands to grip her neck. She tilted her head back and took a deep breath, releasing it loudly. Shya folded her arms across her chest and sat back in her chair.
“None of this was about you, Nisa. Keeping the secret about my sickness, taking the board and using it to find out things that nobody in Oasis would tell me, it had nothing to do with you, but everything to do with me. The me that nobody else sees because you’ve been too busy seeing the sick little girl that you wanted to protect.” She dropped her arms and stood, the cat inside needing the movement.
“I’m going with Keller and the others to this announcement today and when we return I’m staying here to help with the reunification because that’s something I want to do, something I can contribute. You don’t have to agree, and you don’t have to like it, but it’s what I’m going to do.”
Nisa sighed, stood from her chair and came to stand in front of Shya. “How could I not agree when I’m here to do the same thing?”
Paradise Center
Miami
4:45 p.m.
Shya and Nisa stood in the back of a packed auditorium. The four hundred and sixty-seven seats that the Paradise Center advertised were filled and there were people standing in the aisle. Jordin and Zion were on the other side of the room, standing in the back watching the same scene as they were. Keller and Gold were in a room adjacent to the audio room where they would move to the moment the rally began and Decan and Kyss were stationed at the door with two of the six guards he and Nisa had brought to Miami with them. The other four were outside watching the perimeter and ready to get the Tracers on command.
Shya had spent the thirty-minute ride thinking about the fact that Nisa and Decan had continued to work with Keller on this mission even after Rome ordered Decan to stand down on his private crusade for revenge. It seemed none of them were listening to the Assembly these days.
Nisa leaned over to speak into her ear. “We’re gonna stay back here and keep an eye on this side of the room.”
There was loud music playing, a rock song with lyrics that included something about being born in the U.S.A. Shya wondered if the people who had come to hear Tavarus Macombe speak about extinguishing an entire species knew that a good portion of the Shadow Shifters were born in the United States, namely her.
“Apparently we’re not the only ones expecting trouble,” she responded with a nod toward the visibly armed human guards at the door.
“That’s to be expected when you go around pissing off so many people, as Tavarus has done,” Nisa replied.
Their guards had guns, the Shadows had cats, if a battle broke out here tonight, it wasn’t going to be pretty. Her heart pounded with that thought but she was determined to see this through. It was important that they take a stand. Sure, Uncle Rome had done that yesterday, but today was going to be different, they were standing against the unethical and often unprovoked violence inflicted on the Shadows by the very group that was now stepping onto the stage.
The sound of applause boomed through the space, some people standing with signs held high. She was behind them so she couldn’t see what the signs said but knew it couldn’t be anything good or helpful. The house lights had been lowered so that only the stage was receiving full light now, two jumbo-trons on either side of it reflecting a close-up view of the men walking on the stage and standing in a straight line.
There were six of them, all dressed in dark suits, with white shirts and red ties. They ranged in age from mid-twenties to upper sixties and all stood with their hands clasped in front of them. But the one in the center, that’s where a spotlight shined, and he was the one already holding a microphone. He stepped forward giving that slight nod of his head that was meant to accept the applause and simultaneously signal it was time for them to stop and sit down so he could talk. Apparently, the people in the room had no more respect for rules and common sense than the guy did because the clapping, yelling and whistling went on for at least another ten minutes.
Nisa stood with her legs spread and her hands clasped behind her back, while Shya stood with her hands at her sides trying to recall all the things Keller had taught her in training the day before. Shya’s cat was very aware of the violence that could take place tonight and it was ready, probably more so than she was.
“Tonight, we’ve come to set some things straight and as the new leader of the Ruling Cabinet, I, Tavarus Macombe, vow to do just that.”
More applause came until the sound was a booming drone. A glance to her left showed Jordin leaning her head to the side just before her voice came through the tiny earpiece they’d all inserted as their way of communicating tonight.
“The bastard’s in range,” Jordin said.
“Stand down until further notice,” Decan’s voice followed.
“We’re in the booth,” Gold announced.
Shya shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Tonight, she wore an all gray outfit, cargo pants and long-sleeved shirt, steel-toed boots that came mid-calf were tied tight and her hair was pulled up tight into a top puff. Every Shadow wore the same outfit and if they were to be asked what group they were with, the answer was the New World Alliance, a name Decan had announced just as they were leaving the center.
“As you know, there was an announcement made yesterday by the very degenerate animals we seek to expunge from our nation.” Tavarus spoke and the crowd cheered.
Shya’s chest heaved as her cat pressed forward. She almost stumbled with the force but re
membered Keller’s words about control. “You maintain control at all times by thinking clearly. Never let your surroundings or anything that may be said or done distract you from staying in whatever form you wish to remain. You are the master of your shift.”
She recited those words again even as her fingers tingled, claws scraping just inches beneath her skin.
“They claim they’ve made some type of agreement with other humans. World leaders—or should I say cowards who have allowed these vermin to sneak into their spaces and brainwash them. Well, we’re stronger than that! We’re here tonight to say that we will not honor any Oasis Treaty. We will not respect any half-human, half-animal. We will rid our world of the dirt and disgust, the violence and strife that they’ve brought here and yes, if necessary, we’ll kill them all on sight!”
The cheers were so loud they felt like a physical assault and Shya gasped with the effort it was taking to keep her cat at bay. Nisa’s hand on her arm had Shya jerking toward her, teeth already bared.
“Breathe.” She could read Nisa’s lips because between the crowd and the loud beating of her heart, Shya couldn’t hear anything else.
“Take deep breaths and relax your stance,” Nisa continued. “Give the cat space, but keep it on a leash, Shya. You can do it.”
She could do it. Shya nodded and took that deep breath. She closed her eyes because she wasn’t certain, but she thought she’d felt the cat’s eyes appear. It felt like something like a contact lens had been inserted over her eyeball when it changed, but Keller told her that was just the newness of the change. Once she’d shifted a time or two more it would become more natural, so that the change in her eyes wouldn’t feel any different than a normal blink.
“And if there were any non-believers in this room,” Tavarus continued, this time with the aid of a video appearing on the jumbo-tron.
Shya gasped again as the new center Keller built appeared on the screens and those three dead human bodies that were on the sidewalk last night.
