by Bonds (epub)
Dr. Torres pulled Daisy backward. He literally picked her up off the landing and set her against the wall on the step below where he stood, and stepped between her and the two men up above.
He didn’t answer Kobayashi’s question.
All Daisy’s memories of Perth melded together. Images of a warehouse popped in and out of her mind. Of an office in the back corner. Barking dogs. Boxes and boxes and boxes of imported things and the sounds of seagulls outside and the salty decaying smell of the ocean wafting in.
When she was very little, her mom had always been happy. But as the years went by, the happy changed into a flat forgettableness much like the bruisers. And when they ran, it had become fear.
“What do you want?” she asked from behind Dr. Torres.
Kobayashi glanced down the hallway. “Your mom’s got a special variant calling scent ability. She ever tell you that? Explain what it is she can do?”
The doctor’s back hardened. Daisy knew why—he was probably thinking about the whole “tell or don’t tell the kid” question again. For a second, she wondered if he would just run down the stairs and out the door and leave her here so he could go home and scoop up his little girl and tell her everything.
But he didn’t. He didn’t say a word. He watched.
Kobayashi didn’t seem to care. He did, though, seem to like hearing his own voice. “Animals! Imagine that. An enthraller who can talk to the animals.” He whistled a little song Daisy sort of remembered, from some kid’s movie about a vet who talked to animals. Dr. Doolittle, if she remembered right.
Dr. Torres didn’t move. “That’s rare.”
Daisy stared around his big arm.
Kobayashi grinned again. “Damn straight, it’s rare.” He shrugged. “She’s not all that powerful.” He shrugged again. “Still, useful.”
The guard who left reappeared with another equally huge and equally forgettable guy who Daisy figured was Tony. “We should leave, boss,” he said.
Kobayashi frowned. “Why?”
The one closest to Kobayashi bent forward and whispered something into his boss’s ear.
Kobayashi stiffened and his eyes widened. He nodded and waved the bruisers toward the stairs.
Fates. It had to be Fates. What else could make them run away like scurrying rats? And her mom was alone in their apartment.
“Get out of my way!” Daisy tried to shove by the doctor but it didn’t do any good. He weighed too much.
“Hey!” Kobayashi threw his hands in the air and backed up a step. “Calm down, darling. We’re all friends here, right boys?”
The bruisers all nodded yes.
Dr. Torres stepped up to the landing, just as what Daisy could only call ‘don’t look at me’ flooded the space.
He was attempting to get them by without too much harassment.
Kobayashi winced. “You got skills, huh? Good for you.” His hand grabbed the doctor’s elbow.
Dr. Torres twisted with lightning speed. His hand circled Kobayashi’s neck and the little man flung straight up into the air and out over the steps, held in the bigger man’s grip. “You will allow me and this young woman to pass.” He shook Kobayashi. “Do you understand?”
The three bruisers nodded, once again, as one.
“Move down the stairs. Do not touch the young woman. Do it now.” The three pressed their backs against the railing and all three scooted by, down the step, as Daisy moved to the landing.
Kobayashi squeaked. “You and your mom need to come home where we can protect you. Educate you into the family.” His gaze dropped toward the stairs. “Keep you safe from Fates and your father.”
Dr. Torres dropped him. He hit hard, one ankle twisting on the top step, the other twisting on the next one down. Kobayashi staggered backward and would have fallen down the steps if one of his bruisers hadn’t caught him.
“She comes home and all will be forgiven.” He pointed at Daisy. “We’ll keep you safe. Fates are bad news, kiddo.” He threw the one arm not massaging his ankle into the air and leaned against the wall. “The Fates can have their bait. As long as I get your mother and you back.”
“We don’t belong to you!” Daisy gave him the finger.
“But you owe us.”
She tugged on the doctor’s arm. “We need to get Mom before the Fates show up!” They had to go.
Kobayashi jumped up like a kangaroo and smoothed his suit. “She can’t hide anymore. From us or your father.” His hand smoothed over his still-perfect, still-conservative hair. “What’s your mother going to do now, huh? Run to that son of a bitch and ask for clemency?”
Daisy yanked Dr. Torres through the door. Kobayashi could rant all he wanted. Her mom needed them.
“You two need to come home before the Russian figures out you’re alive!”
The door slammed behind Daisy as she and the doctor ran through, muffling Kobayashi’s words.
10
The door to Daisy’s apartment bounced against the inner wall and swung back so fast it almost smacked her in the face. But she straight-armed it and barreled over the threshold like a linebacker.
Their home was a mess. Smelled like Kobayashi’s goons, too. The bruiser named Tony must have trashed the place and rubbed his armpits all over the walls. It smelled sweaty and not-quite-male and moldy.
Did he take something? They said they didn’t want the “Fate bait” but it sure looked like the goons had been looking for something. It’s not like Daisy and her mom brought anything with them from Australia. Just a couple of suitcases of clothes and two of Daisy’s stuffed animals.
A kangaroo and a koala. The only bits of home she still had.
But her mom said they were Americans now, so she’d added a stuffed buffalo and a teddy bear to Daisy’s collection. And a little music box. The kangaroo and the koala had been pushed to the back of her closet.
Daisy burst into the tiny, frayed living room of the apartment she shared with her mother, kicking aside the couch cushions and the pages of her homework that now littered the floor. “Mom?”
Her mother had to be here among the piles of random trinkets and mismatched silverware. With all her mom’s cheap costume jewelry they couldn’t afford. With the boxes of random food.
Stuff that usually just appeared.
Sobs rolled down the short hallway that led to the bedrooms and the bathroom. Cecilia Reynolds must have hid.
Daisy ran the ten strides into her mom’s room. “Mom!”
All the bedding had been ripped off her mother’s cheap mattress. It lumped like quicksand between Daisy and her mom, a twisting, constraining trap laid by a group of Australian gangstas.
Who her mom stole from. And now Daisy wondered just exactly what Cecilia’s job skills were.
Her mom looked as disheveled as the bedding. She rocked back and forth, a pillow hugged to her chest, and blubbered like a baby. Which wasn’t helping anyone. Not her. Not Daisy. Not anyone, except maybe the men who’d just terrified her and tore up her life.
Daisy dropped onto the mattress next to her mom and pulled her close. Her mom still wore her cleaning uniform, so she must have walked in on the bruisers while they broke all their furniture and threw all their stuff on the floor. Big curls of black hair had escaped her ponytail and smeared makeup streaked her warm skin, making her already dark eyes look all the darker.
Daisy didn’t see any cuts or bruises on her mom, and she wasn’t screaming like she hurt. Only sobbing like the goons had given her a good scare.
A long exhale blew out between Daisy’s lips. No wounds. No broken bones. Her mom might be terrified, but she’d live.
Cecilia hiccupped. “I can’t believe that scumbag found us. I won’t go back. I won’t let him turn you into another of his lackeys.”
Shock and anger spread across Cecilia’s face when the doctor swung into
the room, and she held the pillow out in front of her chest. “Who are you?”
“He’s a doctor, mom. Let him look at you.” Just in case they did something that wasn’t visible, Daisy thought. But she didn’t say it. She didn’t need to scare her mom even more. “Then we need to leave.”
Her mom dropped the pillow and her mouth rounded in a way Daisy could only describe as awe. One of her hands came up to her mouth and the other gripped Daisy’s elbow.
“I know what he is, Mom.” Daisy nodded toward the doctor. “He saved me from—”
“He saved you?”
Her mom’s face looked more like Why the hell did you let a man save you? than You had to be saved? Daisy almost groaned.
“Mom! Calm down.” Nothing good would come from her mother freaking out. “He healed my leg after I got hit by a car.”
Her mom screeched. “Hit by a car? You got hit by a car?”
“I’m fine! Mom, stop screaming!” Daisy had left the apartment door wide open. Everyone in the building could probably hear her mom yelling.
Cecilia’s finger thrust at the doctor. “You told my daughter what you are?” Her mom grabbed the pillow again and whipped it at Dr. Torres. “The last thing she needs is to be involved in a fucking clan!”
“Clans?” The doctor hadn’t said anything to Daisy about clans. “Like the syndicates you told me about? Are all Shifters in gangs?”
Maybe being a Shifter wasn’t something Daisy wanted.
Dr. Torres fumbled the pillow before throwing it at her mom’s now-broken dresser. All the drawers had been yanked out and dumped. Her mom’s bras and granny-panties littered the cracked top, covering up her also-dumped jewelry and deodorant.
Daisy sniffed at her mom. She didn’t smell fear anymore. She smelled anger. So at least Cecilia wasn’t going to cower in the corner because of this. Her mom would fight.
But fighting the doctor probably wasn’t a good idea.
“I’m a healer, Ms. Reynolds.” The doctor walked in slowly, his hands out. “My name’s Sandro Torres. I found your daughter and helped her get away from a Burner.” He glanced at Daisy.
Daisy didn’t smell any calling scents. He wasn’t using that ability, not even to calm down her mom. He was being respectful.
And letting her mom scream. “A Burner? Oh my God that asshole Kobayashi set a Burner on you?”
Fear very suddenly flashed off Daisy’s mom in a wave that was part calling scent and part old-fashioned, wide-eyed terror.
“The Fate said—”
“Fates?” Her mom grabbed the other pillow and held it up between herself and the rest of the world, like it would actually protect her.
The panic rolling off her mother rolled right on across the bed and into Daisy’s chest. Her throat constricted and she blinked. And the only two words her brain would make were Oh shit Oh shit Oh shit.
“Everyone calm down.” Dr. Torres held up his hands. ‘Calm’ spread through the room, exhaled on the back of his words.
“You said you’re a healer!” Her mom sucked in her breath and held it, her cheeks puffing out like some silly chipmunk.
“I have some enthralling abilities. As, I suspect, your daughter will, once you activate her.” He pointed at Daisy.
Her mom exhaled sharply. “Absolutely not!” She slammed the pillow against her lap. “I left that all behind in Perth! All of it. I will not raise my daughter inside some God-awful syndicate. I won’t!”
“I understand, Ms. Reynolds. I do. But they found you, didn’t they? She needs to be able to protect herself. She needs—”
“Get out of my apartment!” Her mom screamed her words so loudly Daisy knew everyone in the building heard. Everyone.
Down the hall, their drug-dealing dumbass neighbor’s two German shepherds barked and woof woof woof filtered into the room.
“Mom! Stop yelling!” They didn’t need the cops, too. Or two vicious attack dogs stupidly named Dawnstar and Lonestar running at high speeds down the hallway.
But the dog’s distraction didn’t absolve her mom from withholding Daisy’s heritage from her. “Why can’t it be my choice? It’s my body!” Her mom never gave her any information at all. “What else have you not told me because you want to control what I do? Huh?”
Daisy pushed off the bed and paced between her mom and the doctor. “You dragged me to the States! You took away all my mates and everything I knew and you forced me to become an American for what? Because you don’t like what you are?” Daisy threw her hands into the air. “And I don’t even know what you are!”
“The short man with the goons said you enthrall animals.” The doctor didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t move at all. He stared at her mom.
Cecilia frowned. “My calling scents don’t work on people.” She shrugged. “I have some very minor morphing, as well. I can change the color of my eyes. That’s about it.”
Yet here her mom sat in her maid uniform. “That’s about it? You help animals! Why the hell did you sacrifice your work? Why didn’t you stay a vet when we got here? You’re always on about being strong but you’re cleaning toilets and cowering.”
Her mom’s angry, flat expression appeared. The one she used when Daisy did something wrong. “It’s not that simple.”
This time, it was “that simple.” Daisy stepped to the side, then back, like she’d been infected with the doctor’s hyperactivity. “You never tell me anything I need to know to figure out how to be strong! How to help. You activate me and I’m going to become a vet for sure!” She waved her hands at the doctor. “Right? You need to do well by the world if you want it to do well by you.”
Dr. Torres smiled. “I think you should listen to your daughter.”
“Get out of my apartment!” Her mom threw the other pillow. “Why the hell are you so interested in my seventeen-year-old daughter, anyway? You some kind of pervert?”
“Oh for God’s sake Mom, he healed my knee and hip after I got hit by that car because a Burner chased me into the street and a Fate told me to run!”
How the hell was Daisy supposed to convince her mom to stop being stupid? She acted like she’d hold her breath and pass out if she didn’t get her way.
More screeches ripped from her mother, these ones louder and more harsh. “Why were you talking to a Fate?”
From down the hall, Daisy heard the door of their drug-dealing neighbor’s apartment open. “Hey!” echoed into their trashed apartment. “Shut up down there!”
The barking grew louder. And louder.
“Come back here, you goddamned mutts!”
And suddenly all Daisy smelled was dog.
11
The doctor stepped to the side, out of the doorway to the bedroom, just as the first dog rounded the corner into their apartment’s short hallway. A loud, deep growl reverberated between the walls, mixing with the sound of the animal’s claws ripping at the apartment’s ratty and worn carpeting.
Daisy didn’t know which dog it was. Lonestar was the bigger of the two, the male, but Daisy didn’t pay close attention. As far as she was concerned, the two animals were identical. And mean. And dangerous.
Right now, the dog at the end of the hallway looked pretty damned big.
He barked, his teeth bare, and launched himself like a missile straight at Daisy.
Time froze. All Daisy saw was a snarling snout and white, deadly teeth. All she heard was the dog’s panting and his need to rip and tear. And all she smelled was her own fear.
The doctor stepped between her and the attack dog. The man’s big arm came up, his big biceps contracting. His forearm caught the dog mid-lunge. Lonestar rolled in the air, pulled sideways by the doctor, and his paws shot out parallel to the floor.
A surprised whimper cut off another growl. Four legs flailed. And the dog’s neck snapped.
Just like that. Dr.
Torres snapped the attacking dog’s neck.
The body dropped to the floor, twitching.
Daisy gasped. She’d been paralyzed by the sight of oncoming viciousness. She’d stopped breathing. That damned Burner hadn’t even scared her this much. But the teeth and the rage that had been flying for her head made her almost wet her pants.
“Oh my God!” Cecilia shot off the bed. She dropped next to the dead dog and gingerly touched his head. “I could have—”
Daisy’s mom moved to the dog, not to her. To the animal that just tried to kill her daughter.
What the hell was happening? “Mom!” Why was her mom acting this way? “We need to—”
Dawnstar rounded the corner. Unlike her male companion, she didn’t snarl. She didn’t bark or growl. She lowered her head, her teeth bare and her hackles up, and crouched like she wouldn’t miss. No big human male was going to stop her from her goal.
The fear paralysis returned and all of Daisy’s body locked up. Every muscle. Every tendon. Every sound her voice wanted to make and even her ability to see, feel, and smell the world. All her brain understood was the new threat about to lunge at her throat.
“Dawnstar!” Daisy’s mom yelled. “Heel!” She pointed at the floor. “Now!”
The dog shook, her attack rage suddenly leaving her sleek body. Daisy’s focus stayed confined to the dog, to the threat, and she picked up something she didn’t expect: The dog seemed to blink and say internally, What the hell, woman?
Daisy gasped again, her breathing starting up once more. What did her mom do?
“Fix him, you damned murderer!” Daisy’s mom swatted at the doctor’s legs. “How could you have broken his neck like that?”
“I know what dogs like that are capable of! He attacked your daughter.” Dr. Torres leaned over the dying dog.
Daisy’s mom slapped Dr. Torres. She reached up and slapped the big man right across the face. Slapped him hard. “You come in here and kill an innocent animal? And you expect me to let you near my daughter?”
Her mom was taking the side of the dog? “Mom! Lonestar would have ripped open my throat!”
