Blackblood Bear (A Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (The Agency Book 2)

by Amelia Jade

  The stranger worked his jaw, red flashing across his cheeks for a brief moment.

  He didn’t think of that. Not too smart this one, is he? Yet obviously he’s somehow in charge. Perhaps by brute force?

  “Your father was…out on a mission for us,” he said after a short pause. “That mission, unfortunately, did not pan out as planned. But he is currently unaccounted for.”

  Shay cringed internally. “Is that code for…dead?” she asked nervously.

  The man smiled, the action taking his permanent leer and disfiguring it into something horrific, a grinning visage of death incarnate straight out of some deranged artist’s nightmare.

  “No, but if he doesn’t report soon, or if he fails us again, it is likely he will be terminated.”

  “Like, from the company?” she asked, immediately realizing how childish and blind she sounded.

  The man just grinned his grin.

  Right. I knew he meant kill.

  “Who the hell are you people?” she asked.

  The man pulled something from his pocket before he replied, but didn’t show it to her right away. “If this man is who I think he is, then you already know who we are.” He held up a picture, showing Justin in the lobby of her hotel.

  “How?” It was the only word she could get out.

  “We took the liberty of removing your things from your hotel room. Apparently your friend here did not take too kindly to that. Now, who is he?”

  Something clicked in Shay’s brain, lining everything up so that things made sense.

  “No,” she whispered, appalled at what her conclusion meant. “You’re the Agency?”

  The repulsive grin grew larger, threatening to rip his face in two, disfiguring him even more. “So he is who I thought. Excellent. Now I have a face.”

  But Shay was too overwhelmed to hear it. Another thought was pounding at her brain, making her sick to her stomach.

  Her father was working for them. For a group interested in wholesale genocide of an entire species.

  She turned to the side and dry heaved, unable to contain her disgust. The room spun around her, made worse as the man in the suit began to laugh. Shay was at her breaking point. Everything that she had thought was on an upward spiral had come crashing down in the space of a few hours. Most of it was because of her own stupidity, but there was no lamenting that now.

  Something inside of her creaked and groaned as it reached the limit of how far it could stretch. She either went over the edge and lost all control, or—

  Her head snapped up violently as she rounded on the bald man, whose laughter died abruptly. Shay wasn’t ready to break, not today. Inside she felt herself snap back, pulling away from the abyss that had threatened to swallow her. No, she had gotten herself into this mess, and she was the only one who could get herself out.

  There had to be a way, but to find it, Shay would have to remain alert and focused.

  “You have more spirit than I anticipated,” the man said, calmly meeting her glare and letting it wash over her.

  Still, Shay noticed a modicum of respect filter into his gaze as she didn’t back down this time.

  “But there are ways to deal with that,” he chortled.

  “I’ll never do anything to help you,” she spat.

  “Perhaps not for your own sake, no,” he said with a nod. “I will give you that. But what about for your father?” He paused. “Or your lover?”

  Shay’s eyes blazed with hatred, and right then she wished for the strength that Justin possessed so that she could leap across the distance between them and squeeze his neck until it collapsed.

  “So here’s what you’re going to do,” he said, as if unaware of the look she was giving him. “You will call your father, and tell him to come in. If he does, then I’ll let the two of you live.”

  “And if not?” she grated out, her jaw clenched tightly, knuckles white as they gripped the glass in her hand.

  “You aren’t stupid,” he said condescendingly. “You figure it out.” He rose to leave.

  “Why do you care about whether he comes in or not?” she asked suddenly, something not quite adding up.

  Mr. Gray contemplated that question for a moment before answering. “There are things that we aren’t ready for your little group to find out yet. Things your father may or may not know. It is a risk we cannot take.” He smiled happily. “I’m sure you understand.”

  “He’s going to come for me,” she said, trying to sound intimidating.

  “Good. My trap will be better this time,” her captor said. “Now, shall we make that phone call?”

  Shay just rolled her eyes. “You can’t kill me until you use me to bring him in or expose him. You can’t kill him until I get you in touch with him and get him to reveal himself. Either way, neither of us are in danger. Why the hell would I just give in?” she said, snorting in derision.

  The backhand came out of nowhere.

  Shay flew across the small room. The glass shattered as it hit the wall, having been flung from her hand. Shards peppered her face, opening a dozen cuts as she bounced off the wall and landed on the chair, the flimsy piece of furniture snapping apart under her. Parts of the plastic jabbed at her, gouging her more.

  Something in her shoulder throbbed with pain from where it had made contact with the wall first, and her fingers tingled in response.

  “Do not mistake my preference for manners as weakness,” he said, then kicked her solidly in the ribs, driving the air from her lungs.

  Shay tried to suck down huge gulps of air, but the muscles weren’t responding to her commands. Her eyes bulged in terror as she realized she couldn’t breathe, that nothing was getting to her screaming lungs. She curled up into a ball, trying desperately to recover.

  Then suddenly her muscles relaxed and sweet, cool air rushed into her body as her chest heaved with the exertion of replacing everything that had been driven from it.

  “When you change your mind,” he said, “just knock on the door three times.” He stepped out of the door and it began to close. “Don’t take too long,” he said sweetly, and then he was gone.

  I am in a world of shit.

  The thought echoed through her brain as she rocked back and forth on the floor, tears streaming down her face from the pain of his blows.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Justin

  His long legs took him from one side of the lobby to the other. There he paused, turned on the balls of his feet, and strode back across the marble floor to the other side. His eyes continually flicked to the long, dark brown counter where the front desk agent was animatedly talking on the phone for what seemed like the tenth time.

  Something was wrong. Shay was gone, and there was no trace of where she had disappeared to. A male with short-cut brown hair and dressed in black police-looking clothing had shown up at the front desk with her bags and checked out of the room. That was all he had been able to get out of the man at the front desk by being polite.

  Now the harried-looking middle-aged man was frantically talking to his boss, who he had finally gotten on the phone after a lengthy delay. Apparently his permission was needed to allow access to the security tapes. Justin didn’t care as long as they let him look at the tapes, and soon. Otherwise he would take matters into his own hands if he had to. Not that breaking down a door and intimidating a few annoying stuck-up humans wasn’t something that would bring a smile to his face, but he knew it wouldn’t necessarily get him any farther. So he was playing the polite game.

  For now.

  “Sir,” the employee said, waving his hand to get Justin’s attention.

  He walked smoothly, not stopping until he was directly in front of the man, with only the small counter between the two of them. Then he grinned, baring his teeth as much as he could.

  “Yes?” he asked with false politeness.

  “I-I, um,” he sputtered, forced to crane his neck way up as Justin drew himself up to his full height.

  “C
an I see the videos now?” he asked, taking pity on the man in hopes of hurrying things along.

  “Yes, yes of course,” he said, “right this way.”

  Justin had already located the security room during his pacing, and he walked there quickly, forcing the man to jog to keep up.

  “Martin?” the man said, opening the door with a swipe of his keycard.

  “Yes?” the bored, elderly man sitting behind a bank of video screens said.

  “I need you to show this man the video logs for today. From roughly 2:20 this afternoon in the lobby, to be more specific.”

  “Okay, boss,” the man said in his slow drawl, reaching forward and tapping a few keys.

  Justin noted that the man spoke slow and seemed unconcerned, but the confidence with which his fingers used the system indicated that he actually knew his job quite well. In a few seconds four different feeds had appeared on the centermost screens. Another few taps synced them up, and then he hit play.

  Justin watched the front desk intently, trying to spot his quarry. It was a busy hotel, and several men approached the counter as he watched, all of them in some form of black, whether a suit or a jacket.

  His phone buzzed.

  “There!” he said as a man walked to the counter, carrying several bags. Justin recognized the purple one. He had seen it in her room. “Can we backtrack him at all to get a better view of his face?”

  The security man, intrigued now, sat forward and tapped his keys. He rewound each tape until he located the man, and then followed him until he got the best shot of his face.

  “Sorry sir,” he said, still in his slow drawl. “Doesn’t seem to be much to go on. Appears he kept his head down most of the time.”

  “Shit,” he swore, swatting at his pocket as it buzzed again.

  This time it continued to buzz.

  Phone call.

  He pulled it from his pocket as he leaned in to look carefully at the screens, trying to pull any identifying features from the man, but all he got was short dark hair, medium-build, classic Agency black uniform.

  “What?” he snapped into the phone, about to ask the security guard to begin rewinding video to see if they could catch the guy entering the hotel.

  “Something important has come up,” Jared said into the phone.

  “I don’t have time—”

  “You had better make time.” The icy tone with which Jared used to interrupt him made Justin stand upright in the little room. Whatever it was, it was serious.

  “What is it?” he asked, stepping away from the guard.

  “We have an Agent in custody.”

  “What?!” he exclaimed in surprise. No Agent had ever been taken alive.

  “He showed up at one of our safe houses and asked to be taken in,” Jared said.

  Dumbfounded, Justin stared at the security guard, his jaw needing to be swept from the floor.

  “That’s…okay. I don’t want to know how they know of any of our new safe houses,” he said angrily. “But while that’s momentous, why do you need me?”

  “He said he’s only going to speak to you. Said he owes you his life, and now he needs your help to save hers.”

  Justin jerked upright, blood draining from his face.

  It was Shay’s father. It had to be.

  “Has he said anything else?” he asked, moving toward the door. He mouthed thanks to the guard, who only tipped his hat and then went back to watching his screens.

  As soon as he was out of the security room he made a mad dash across the lobby, scattering people left and right. The hotel had two flights of stairs leading up to it, with a big landing in the middle. Justin cleared each step in a single bound, ignoring the shouts and looks of surprise from those he passed.

  “No,” Jared said. “Keeps repeating that he wants to talk to you, and only you.” The Alpha paused for a moment. “Justin, who is this guy? Why did you save his life?”

  “Complicated story,” he huffed, running through the valet area to the parking lot beyond. “But turns out that Shay’s father got a job here in town.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Jared asked, confused.

  “He’s the guy you’re holding,” Justin explained.

  “WHAT?!” Jared’s voice boomed through the phone, blasting into his ear with painful levels of noise.

  “Yeah, exactly. He was one of the two guards I chased after at the warehouse.”

  “When were you planning on telling the rest of this?” Jared asked in a deceptively calm voice.

  “After I found Shay,” Justin said. “What safe house?” he asked, swinging one leg over the blue-and-white colored bike, his foot ready to kick it to life.

  “The condo on Edward Street.”

  “Got it, on my way,” he said, hanging up the phone and slamming his helmet over his head.

  He leaned forward, kicked the bike to life, and lifted the kickstand. The engine revved twice and then he gunned it from the parking lot in a cloud of smoke.

  Normally he would enjoy flying through the city at a breakneck pace, skirting in and out of traffic at speeds that would make most men white in the face. This wasn’t any normal day, however, and every minute that passed was a minute longer that Shay was at the mercy of the Agency.

  By the time he pulled up to the safe house, there were already several other trucks in the visitors’ parking that he recognized as belonging to the Underground.

  Jared and the others were already here. The condo building, located in the affluent portion of the downtown core, was one of the newest of the Underground’s safe houses. Using the enormous resources of Genesis Valley and several layers of fake, or “shell” corporations, they had purchased the condo and equipped it in case any of their members needed a place to lie low for an extended period of time.

  Justin hadn’t expected the Agency to know about it. He was fairly confident that there were no moles inside the Underground, but that meant they were still getting information from somewhere. Either they had spotted someone on the property, or there was a leak somewhere else.

  The theme of the building was blue. The glass was blue, the metal framing was another shade of blue, and turquoise and aquamarine blues colored the lobby and exterior. It should have been ugly. Hideous even. But it actually was quite soothing on the eyes.

  A doorman, clad in a navy-blue uniform, pushed a button as he approached and the double doors swung up with quick precision.

  “Hello, sir. How may I help you today?”

  So, security guard as well. The man was young, tall, obviously in good shape and unlikely to be intimidated by most of the people that came through the door. Justin, however, was not most people, and that was reflected in the man’s eyes.

  Yet even as he evaluated him, the guard wasn’t backing down. Something flashed in his eyes. Something Justin had seen before.

  Courage.

  This young man knew he was highly outclassed, but he was sending Justin a sign, letting him know that he would still do his job, even if it might end up costing him. Normally the shifter would put that down to arrogance, but not with this man.

  “I’m well,” he replied, deciding to treat him with the courtesy someone of his conviction deserved. “I am, to be blunt, in a bit of a rush. I believe the party upstairs is waiting for me. Seventeenth floor.”

  No surprise registered on the guard’s face. He was expecting that all along. Justin’s respect for the man went up another level.

  “Very well sir. Elevators are just to your right.”

  “Thank you,” he said, nodding his head respectfully in the guard’s direction before his long legs powered him quickly to the indicated bank of elevators.

  The guard was quickly put from his mind as an image of Shay replaced it, blueish-green eyes twinkling brightly as she laughed at one of his bad jokes, her cheeks dimpling as she did. He needed to find her, and soon.

  I need to tell her how I feel.

  How did he feel?

  Stro
ngly.

  He snorted aloud in the enclosed space, the noise helping offset the constant ding as the metal box he was in shot up into the building.

  That was an understatement. It might be too soon for him to say he was in love with Shay. But there was no doubt in Justin’s mind that he realized he was falling in love with her. It was too simple to say that they clicked, though it wasn’t an incorrect description, just incomplete. There was so much more to the bond that had formed between them over the past few days. More than he could put into words, even. It was just a gut feeling, that inner knowledge that his desire to be with her was right.

  You’re going to have to do better than that when you tell her in person.

  A part of him agreed, but another part of him knew that Shay would get it. He wasn’t sure how, or why, but she would. It would just make sense to her, because that’s how they were together.

  The final floor chime sounded and Justin snapped back to reality. A solid handful of seconds later the doors actually opened, much to his irritation. Sound the chime once you’re actually there! He hated that, the minute inconvenience making him agitated as he strode down the hallway to the left, stopping at the third door on the same side of the hallway as the elevator. His fist rapped on the door twice, then he paused, then three more times.

  He waited a half second then slammed an open palm on the door. “Let me in already,” he said as someone said something muffled back to him.

  The door clicked and opened a bit.

  Justin flexed his big arms and pushed. The door flew open. Kurtis, the human Underground operative who lived in the condo on a day-to-day basis stumbled back as he strode inside.

  “Where is he?” he growled.

  Kurtis’s eyes flicked toward the room on the right.

  Justin walked into the kitchen and the others parted wordlessly as he saw her father sitting on a chair by the table.

  A picture of Shay, tied up and at the mercy of the Agency appeared in his brain, and Justin’s bear went berserk.

  “Where is she?” he snarled, grabbing the man by the neck and slamming him into the wall. Drywall crumpled under the blow, leaving a human-sized imprint.