Rebirth (Rogues Shifter Series)

by Gayle Parness

  After playing cat and mouse for about thirty minutes, we were finally close enough to see and hear Kyle up ahead, still in leopard form, with a canvas bag. Ethan gestured for me to stay put and look out for Sinc while he snuck closer to Kyle. He quietly padded away, his thick tan coat blending perfectly with the dry brush.

  I sat, senses alert, and waited. After a few minutes, my thoughts began to wander. I mused over how Sinc had greeted Garrett and if that meant anything about their relationship. Maybe he was more than just her instructor? The thought made me cringe. I might actually be a tiny bit jealous. Ridiculous. A guy like that would never look at me twice.

  I was distracted again by the quick heartbeat and snuffling noises of a nearby raccoon. I imagined what the plump little guy might taste like, remembering that I hadn’t eaten anything since the Chinese food.

  Suddenly, there was movement in the tree above me. Sinc’s snow leopard struck, smashing me down to the ground and biting me deeply in my rear haunch, cutting easily through muscle with her razor sharp teeth. I snarled in pain and rage, my wound already bleeding steadily. Sinc’s blue eyes shone a defiant challenge into mine before she growled and ran off. In one short bite she’d incapacitated me, preventing me from catching her. All because I hadn't been paying attention. Kyle had hidden the canvas bag before Ethan had chased him off, so I watched unhappily as Sinc snatched it up with her mouth and ran back toward the campground where Garrett would be waiting, ready to praise her for winning this round. Crap.

  Should I stay here and wait for help? Screw that. I took off limping, pushing myself forward even though the bite was bleeding and the pain was intense. Feeling the sharp pulse of the ley lines beneath me, I concentrated on the power throbbing in my chest. My rage increased when I saw her up ahead, fueling my will to catch her. I was surprised to find that I could run a little more steadily now, the pain dismissed to the back of my brain and my focus on the view of her tail getting closer as I ran. Pushing myself harder, I visualized smashing her smug face into the dirt, snatching the bag roughly from her bloody mouth and then Garrett’s smile when I dropped the canvas bag at his feet.

  Before I knew it, I was leaping onto her back and we were rolling in the dirt, stopping our momentum in a tumble of dried leaves and pine needles. Furious, Sinc turned to bite me again, but couldn't without letting go of the bag. With a swipe of my paw, I slammed her head down hard to stun her and grabbed it, racing as quickly as I could into the large cabin where Garrett waited.

  I skidded to a halt, my claws scratching the wooden floor, panting from pain and exhaustion. Kyle and Ethan were there waiting for us. I dropped the bag at Garrett’s feet and sat licking the wound on my leg. Ethan loped over holding a medical kit and began cleaning it, telling me to stay in cheetah form until he finished. I hissed when he poured on the antiseptic. My wound was still bleeding slightly when Sinc strode in shaking dirt from her face and snarling at me. I growled back, showing some teeth. Unfortunately, Garrett did not look happy at all. Shit.

  He crouched down to take a look at my leg and then told Ethan to bandage it up. “Kyle, you and Ethan go out to hunt. I need to have a private talk with the girls.” The guys looked at each other and then left, stripping and shifting quickly to animal form. He pointed to a table. “Please transition and sit over there.” He walked outside to give us some privacy and we shifted and dressed quickly. I was happy to see that I'd mostly healed, a small red welt the only evidence of the bite. We sat obediently at the table, not speaking and refusing to look at each other until Garrett returned and sat next to me.

  “Sinc, Kyle told me that the plan was to jump Jackie and stun her, not bite her, especially so deeply that she could have been in real trouble.” My nervous stomach unclenched slightly, relieved that his icy blue stare wasn’t directed at me. Sinc was trembling just a little and that worried me too. Garrett wasn’t going to go all vamp on her was he? The bite had healed.

  I put my hand on his to get his attention away from her. “She was trying to win the game. I’m fine now.”

  He turned his stern expression toward me. “It’s not a game. There are killers out there; creatures you’ll have to face together as a team.” He turned back to Sinc and glared. “You disobeyed my direct order. Why?”

  Sinc lifted her chin defiantly, “She's much faster and I had to keep her from chasing me. I didn’t mean to bite her so deeply." She turned to me. "I’m sorry that I hurt you. I never thought that you might be in any real danger. I should have stayed with you to make sure.” She turned back to Garrett, still nervous. "Accomplishing the mission takes precedence." Even though my leg was still throbbing angrily, I was glad to see the scrape on her face healing quickly. I'd dropped my anger as soon as I'd made her eat a little dirt. No reason to hold a grudge.

  Garrett arched an eyebrow, still looking at Sinc. “What else?“

  She sighed and twisted her mouth into a frown. “All anyone has been talking about is the new cheetah and how she’s going to come in and magically save us all.” She lowered her head, looking a little ashamed.

  I laughed out loud. “Save you? I lost my focus when I should have been paying attention. I messed up.” I smiled at her, knowing that making an enemy of this woman would not make my life any easier. And I definitely did not want to be responsible for Garrett punishing her for disobeying him.

  “How do you feel, Jackie?” he asked.

  “It hardly hurts,” I started to lie and then remembered that he could probably tell. “Well, it still aches.” An understatement.

  “You’re not off the hook either,” he said frowning. “When you have a deep wound that’s bleeding badly, you should stay hidden, try to put pressure on it and wait for assistance. You run only if your life or the life of a teammate is in danger. Shifter or not, you can still bleed out.” Looking concerned, he reached across and pushed a strand of hair away from my eyes and tucked it behind my ear. I watched his perfect lips turn up into a gentle smile as I took in deep breaths to fill my nose with his scent. What the hell am I doing?

  I looked down, embarrassed, “Well, you know—the mission and all that. What she said.”

  Garrett grinned and looked at Sinc’s scraped up face, adding, “A little payback too, I think.”

  I tried not to smile. "Yeah, I guess."

  “You were incredibly fast, even injured. I couldn’t believe you caught me.” Sinc was staring at me with what appeared to be respect.

  “We’ll end this for now.” Garrett looked again at Sinc. “The plans for the rest of the night have changed.” His eyes met mine, still full of concern. “You’ll need a good night’s rest before you can continue to train in the field. Go and hunt together now, something small and easy to catch. Work out your differences, because I’m making the four of you into a team. Your survival will depend on how well you work together.”

  Sinc looked me over. "We can handle it."

  I watched him rise and walk to the door: a terrifying, seductive dichotomy. “I’ll meet you back here in an hour.” He was gone so fast, there was only a sweet breeze to mark his passing.

  “He’s probably hunting too. I hope there aren’t any humans around. He was really ticked off. Did you see his eyes?” The suddenly chatty Sinc looked at me with interest.

  I nodded and answered, “Yeah those silver streaks give me the chills. But he never takes human blood.”

  “Well, that’s what he says, anyway. He’s acting kind of protective toward you. It's weird.” Her eyes narrowed. “Why’d you stick up for me? I probably wouldn’t have done the same for you.” She crossed her legs and waited to hear how I’d answer.

  I could tell she was expecting me to get angry, but I wasn’t rising to the bait that easily. I decided to be honest. “Because if Garrett lays into you for hurting me, you’ll blame me and then working together will suck.”

  I saw the corners of her mouth start to twist up then quickly return to a neutral expression. “It might suck anyway.” She shrugged.

&n
bsp; “Yeah, well I’m starving and we only have an hour. Let’s go hunt.” We grinned, jumped up and left the empty hall, tossing our clothes about haphazardly as we left.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Garrett, Ethan and I pulled up to Carly’s little house and got out of the Saab feeling exhausted, but relieved. As the sky began to lighten, Mumbling goodnight to Garrett, Ethan stumbled through the door. He’d be snoring sometime in the next few minutes.

  Garrett leaned against his car looking like a model from a print ad for sports cars. His pale skin took on a pinkish glow in the early dawn light. “You all did well tonight, once we got past Sinc’s demonstration of what not to do during a training exercise."

  We’d spent two hours working out how best to utilize our different talents. Kyle was an amazing fighter and weapons expert: Sinc’s talents lay in her stealth as a hunter and her brilliant technical and scientific skills. As Garrett presented us with different possible scenarios, we all agreed that Ethan’s strength lay in working out successful strategies and communicating to us clearly how to approach solving each problem. Goofy Ethan was our natural team leader. Go figure. Plus he was as strong as a grizzly. My extra-acute senses were the best for tracking and my speed was perfect for running down a fleeing enemy or delivering a vital message if tech wasn’t available. Garrett didn’t mention my connection to the magic and so I decided to keep my mouth shut on that subject as well.

  I took a step closer to him and asked, “Will you give Sinc a pass on biting me? She made a mistake, she apologized. It’s over.” I held my breath waiting for his temper to erupt.

  He frowned and shook his head. “She disobeyed my order. Two inches deeper and you’d be in the hospital right now.” He folded his arms across his chest and I happily watched his muscles move under his shirt. “In the field it may be Ethan giving the orders. If she doesn’t obey me, why would she listen to Ethan?”

  “If you hurt her, she’ll follow your orders out of fear. If you let it go this time, she’ll be loyal to you and free to give 100% to the team.”

  “Sinc battles with her own personal stew of emotions and it’s taken us some time to get her to trust or interact with others at all. However, if I just let it go, she won’t learn anything.” He looked at me with curiosity. “How did you learn that particular lesson?” He pushed away from the car and stepped closer to me.

  I folded my arms and looked toward the woods. “I've lived with six different foster families. Most were fine, just average people. One foster father hit me when I didn’t fall in line. His son was worse.” A horrible memory suddenly popped into my head.

  "If you tell anyone, I'll kill you."

  I swallowed and shuddered. “I know what fear does to a person.”

  “Tell me their names.” Garrett’s voice had dropped an octave. I felt a tiny push encouraging me to answer, so I looked up. His eyes were streaked in silver.

  I stepped back and shook off his mental touch. “No. I’ve let it go. They can’t hurt me anymore.”

  Surprise flashed in his eyes. “I can find out."

  “They’re in jail, Garrett.” I turned away from him, feeling angry. “I’d like you to stay out of my mind. I know you’re trying to keep me safe, but I don’t like it.”

  After a few seconds, he spoke.“You’re right. I’m sorry.

  "And will you lay off of Sinc?"

  "What do you think I’ll do? Beat her? Or worse?”

  “I don’t know.” I stared down at the ground. “Your anger scared the crap out of me.”

  I felt his breath on my neck without ever hearing him move. His hand touched my shoulder so I turned around and looked up. It seemed I’d completely disarmed him.

  ”Am I that frightening? A monster like the men in your past? I’m never going to hurt any of you. You’re my students, not my enemies. Soon we'll be working together as a team to protect the community and each other. Sinc pissed me off royally and I’m going to give her a couple of extra training assignments, but no blood will be spilled, I swear.” He laughed suddenly and I was startled again by how young he looked. “Get some sleep. I’ll be back for our private lesson at 8:00 PM.”

  He gave my shoulder a squeeze and opened his car door. I looked up at the sky. “Aren’t you worried about the dawn coming?”

  “No, I fed well tonight.” Beaming like an angel, he got into his car and drove away. My shoulder felt empty.

  I dragged myself inside, locked the door, forced myself into the shower and then collapsed on the bed, happy to see that Ethan was on his side and not mine.

  Around noon, Carly and Samson arrived bearing groceries, fresh towels and sheets, a few board games, a portable DVD player and a few DVDs. She made us ham sandwiches with homemade salads which we gobbled down immediately, then gathered up the dirty laundry and left. Ethan announced that we should have a backgammon tournament, the loser relegated to washing all the dishes for the next three days.

  We settled in to play, sipping sodas and munching on popcorn. Ethan the master strategist had me chasing him most of the time and he managed to overcome my last ditch risky moves and won the tournament 7 games to 5. I got up and washed the dishes while he gloated. When he wasn’t looking I threw the wet sponge at him. That was followed by a knock-down-drag-out pillow fight which ended with us in a heap on the floor laughing and clutching at our sides.

  Sinc and Kyle arrived later with Italian food, and we enthusiastically dug into delicious meatball hero sandwiches and an enormous antipasto salad, talking amicably. Apparently, shifters had fast metabolisms and needed to eat more often than humans. At least that's what we all told each other as we gobbled down another big meal.

  Sinc was decked out in her usual ‘designer casual’, her dark hair pulled back off her face and her blue eyes glaring at Kyle after some sarcastic remark he’d made. Kyle was sporting his black jeans, graphic tee, spiky hair and huge grin. Because I was curious about them, I asked how they'd come to be a part of our strange quartet.

  Kyle spoke first, obviously feeling relaxed talking about himself. “I was adopted from Cambodia by a nice couple. I’m a crazy mixture of French, Cambodian and Irish, no joke. My adopted Dad taught martial arts which was cool 'cause I rocked at it. His brother was an ex-marine who loved to hunt. I learned a lot about weapons from him.

  "When I was around fifteen, I had these jittery episodes where my temper would flare up, and I’d feel like I had to punch something. I’d meditate or exercise, all my usual ways to relieve tension. Nothing worked. The worst was when I started getting horrible headaches. I finally ended up in the hospital having all kinds of tests and the doctors, all human of course, were even talking about exploratory surgery.

  "Rob and Garrett appeared in my room one night while I was sleeping. They talked to my parents and told them that they were from a special hospital and that they’d like to take over my case. Garrett did his spooky mind control thing on them and me and before I knew it, I was in the cabin on the island and Rob was telling me that physically I was fine, but I wasn't really human. I didn’t take it well at first. I loved my family and my life just the way it was. My parents think I’ve recovered but working overseas. I call them every week and stop by every couple of months or so and stay a few days. They don’t know I’m a shifter.”

  His expression turned angry. “I still have trouble working with Garrett. I hate that he went into my head like that. His power totally freaks me out, especially when he goes into vamp mode with his fangs out and his eyes all silver. I can't imagine how many people he's killed."

  “I saw him rip two men to pieces.“ I quietly told them about my attack and how Garrett showed me what had actually happened. “I was bleeding all over from stab wounds and he had me drink blood from his wrist to help me heal.”

  The room was suddenly as quiet as a morgue. Kyle spoke up. “Honey, you are so screwed. He’s gonna own you.”

  “Shut up Kyle!” Sinc jumped up fuming. ‘She was dying and he gave her his blood to save her li
fe. You’d better hope that he’d do the same for you if you’re ever in bad shape.”

  “Sure Sinclair, whatever you say. You’ve never been mind-controlled by him. Count yourself lucky.”

  Ethan and I looked at her curiously. “Yeah I know. It’s a stupid name, that’s why I go by Sinc. I was adopted by a family of werewolves. They were cool and they made sure to keep me safe during the full moon phases. They thought I was a human kid and they were going to make me a wolf if I decided that was what I wanted. You know the whole biting thing. Weres can’t have kids. They can’t carry a child because they have to change every month. Shifters can go the whole nine months without changing.” I hadn’t known anything about werewolves so this was all pretty fascinating.

  Sinc continued. “Anyway, I started getting those same symptoms like Kyle described when I was fifteen. It was awful. Then one night I shifted right there in the living room. It freaked everyone out. They locked me up and called Rob. He’s one of the only shifters my pack trusts. I think it’s that minty thing he does. Anyway, he came and picked me up and I haven’t seen them since. They bought me a house and a car and they send me money every month, but it was like I was excommunicated or something.”

  Even though she'd turned away to look out the window, we'd all seen the pain in her eyes. "I guess I was lucky that I didn’t change during the full moon because I probably would have been dinner.” She sat quietly, lost in her thoughts. None of us spoke for a few moments.

  Kyle broke the silence. “Sinc and I trained on the island together with Rob like you and Ethan did. You two seem to get along pretty well. We fought all the time. Thank god we heal fast, otherwise I’d be covered in snow leopard scars.”

  “You got in a few good ones yourself,” Sinc replied throwing a pillow. They laughed together sharing a private joke.

  Ethan, Kyle and Sinc left the house at 7:30 and headed to Carly’s house. Meanwhile, I had an appointment with a very hot, scary vampire.