Celtic Dragons

by Dee Bridgnorth

  What shocked him more than Felicia’s reaction though, was Moira’s. Instead of grinning back at him, she was looking at him with fury in her green eyes.

  Chapter Thirty

  Moira

  The absolute rage and jealousy that Moira felt when she saw Grady talking with and touching Felicia was both shocking and completely undeniable. She had asked him to let her handle the situation, but his failure to do so wasn’t why she was upset. It was the familiar way he talked to the woman, almost as though he was seducing her with his words. The way that his hands enveloped hers. The way that she suddenly fell into him, only to have his arms wrap around her slight body.

  Felicia was beautiful, and Grady had wasted no time in bringing her under the spell of his charms. Was that what he was doing with her too? After all, they’d just discussed the possibility of an eventual marriage in the car, and she had felt hopeful for that possibility, despite the fact that the logical part of her mind clearly understood what a ridiculous concept that was, two weeks after meeting the man—two weeks mostly spent in a state of consternation, anxiety, and confusion.

  God. Did I just watch him do with Felicia what he’s been doing to me this whole time?

  The thought raced through her mind despite the fact that if she took a minute to be reasonable, she knew the two things were different. Of course Grady was trying to seduce the woman—not into his bed, but into alignment with them. He was strategizing. That was all.

  Logically, that made sense. Emotionally, she could have punched something.

  Now he was looking at her in confusion, clearly reading her emotions all over her face. She tried to clear her features of their twisted anger, but she knew she only half succeeded. Kean, oblivious to the emotional disturbance taking place, was looking at her askance, obviously also expecting her to be happy about what Grady had accomplished.

  Well, she was happy about it. She just didn’t like how he had done it, and she felt her wall going back up.

  Pushing that aside, she crossed to Grady and Felicia, nudging the still-sobbing woman from his arms. “Come on,” Moira said. “Have a seat and collect yourself. If you work with us, you’re going to be fine—just fine. Okay?”

  Felicia nodded, her hands covering her face as she let Moira lead her to the bed and guide her to sit down. “I never wanted to do it,” she managed, trying to catch her breath. “I hate him. I hate him so much. But what choice do I have? I have no one else—none of us do.”

  Moira sat down beside the girl, motioning for one of the men to get her tissues. “Who do you hate, Felicia? Darren?”

  “Yes,” the girl said, looking up through red, watery eyes that matched the state of her nose. “And Callum. We all whisper about it. Some more than others, of course. Vaughn …he’s more in line with how Darren and Callum run things. Or …ran things, I guess. Now that Callum is gone. But Cade, Nina, Alex, and I …” She shook her head, breaking off into sobs again. “I’ll never be taken back. Not now. They were my friends, those four. Darren will have me killed before he will let me near them again.”

  Moira glanced up at Grady as he approached with Kleenex, making eye contact with him for the first time since she had taken Felicia from his hold. She felt a flash of guilt, seeing the look on his face. He obviously didn’t know what he’d done wrong, and she had to admit that her furious response was born more out of jealousy and insecurity than any real complaint. But she didn’t like that thought, and she couldn’t deal with it at that moment under the circumstances. She gave him a brief smile, trying to communicate that things were fine, and took the box of tissues from him. “Thank you.”

  He nodded and sat down on the other side of Felicia. “We’re not going to let Darren hurt you, but you do have to tell us what we need to know to find him and deal with him, Felicia.”

  The small woman began to panic again. “I don’t know if I can do that. The group—it’s all I have. You don’t understand what it’s like to be a shifter. You don’t. There’s no way to fit in anywhere. When you’re younger, you can’t always control when you shift. You can’t go out. You can’t have friends who aren’t like you, because you never know when it’s going to happen. Sure, you eventually learn to control it, but by then it’s too late. You know nobody; you’ve done nothing. And did you know that I won’t live past forty? I’m already twenty-four. I’m more than middle-aged! Even if I found someone to have a relationship with who accepted that I was a shifter, how could I do that knowing that I would be old and sickly while he was in his prime? My only hope is to find shifters and stick with them—it’s all that any of us can do. Even if it’s not ideal, it’s what we know. What we have.”

  She stood up, agitated, her hands wringing together. “I’ve made a mistake. I can’t turn them in—I won’t. Darren isn’t a perfect man. In fact, he can be downright terrible. But the others …we need each other, and I won’t do it. No.” Felicia looked up at them, her face fierce again, despite the redness and tearstains that still betrayed her earlier emotion. “You’ll have to fight me.”

  In spite of everything, Moira felt her heart ache for the girl. She looked over at Kean and saw the same compassion on his face, too. All her other cares and concerns fled her mind, and Moira stood, drawing nearer to Felicia, but not near enough to set her off. “I know what that’s like,” Moira said quietly. “I know what it is to be different. To not fit in. To always be worried about exposure. To feel a sense of obligation to a group of people because they share your fundamentals—your DNA.”

  “So do I,” Kean said, leaning up against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. “We’re not shifters in the way that you are, but we live every day knowing that we’re different. And we need our community as much as you do. If we were on our own …”

  He trailed off, shaking his head, and Moira picked up his train of thought. “If we were on our own …we would be lost. Miserable. So we understand.”

  “Then you’ll leave us alone,” Felicia said, her throat tight. “Leave me alone and let me go.”

  “I can’t do that,” Moira said, and her regret was genuine. “Darren has it out for Grady. For me. He tried to kill Grady this morning, and you helped with that mission.”

  “I had no choice!” Felicia’s voice was high again. “Look, I’ll talk to Darren. I can get him to back off. Call a truce. You didn’t know you were killing Callum. He’ll see reason.”

  From behind her, Moira heard Grady sigh, then speak. “He won’t, Felicia, and you know it as well as we do. You don’t have to give up the others. Just Darren. Wouldn’t you all be better off without him? Under a different leader?”

  Felicia was torn again, and Moira could see her mind working overtime. She wanted to keep pressing the girl, but she forced herself to back off and let Felicia work through her own emotions. It was what she would want the opportunity to do. But at the same time, she didn’t take her eye off the girl for one moment. They were all under the assumption that she wasn’t able to shift yet, but with every minute that passed, her energy was recharging. If she suddenly disappeared, there would be nothing they could do about it.

  With that thought in mind, when Felicia suddenly took a step backward, Moira immediately rose from the bed, where she had taken a seat, to try to give the girl space.

  “I’m not shifting,” Felicia said, sounding tired. “I just wanted to lean against …” She gestured to the wall, then looked back at them. “I know you’re all worried about that, the way you’re staring at me and watching my every move. I won’t be able to shift for at least twenty-four hours, because I spent so much time in another human’s form today. Alternative human forms are the hardest to maintain. I could be, say, a fly for almost as long as I wanted to. The simpler the structure of the creature, the easier it is to become that. But even though we’re humans, taking on the form of another human is incredibly complex and it drains us quickly.”

  Moira didn’t know what the girl’s ultimate decision was going to be, but if she was willing
to give them information about the shifters in general, Moira would take that opportunity while she had it.

  “I have a question,” Moira said, sitting back down as Felicia leaned her back against the hotel’s grungy wall and stared blankly ahead. “When Grady …killed the cockroach. Callum. No body appeared. I would think that a shifter killed while in the form of something else would return to their human form as a corpse.”

  “Moira,” Grady protested. “That’s a bit …morbid, isn’t it?”

  “Maybe,” Moira agreed. “But we need to know. After all, we’re only taking Darren’s word for it that we killed someone named Callum—his brother. And Darren doesn’t seem that trustworthy.”

  Felicia shook her head. “Sorry to break it to you, but you did. It’s not that Callum’s death is such a tragedy. He was every bit as awful as Darren. The answer to your question is—some shifters do and some don’t. There are multiple breeds of shifters.” She smiled slightly, without amusement. “Similar to breeds of dogs, I guess. Though not as many. Mainly there are two kinds of shifters—those who, when they shift, retain their human personalities, thoughts, and strengths. Those shifters take on another form, yes, but stay who they are the whole time. The second kind of shifters, when they shift, take on the properties of the shape they’ve taken. Those shifters can’t take on other human forms—only animals. And they become animalistic.”

  Moira nodded, following along with interest. “I’m with you, but you must be the first kind. Because you took on Grady’s form. And because Darren maintained his own personality, thoughts, and intentions while becoming a cockroach to steal Grady’s money.”

  “Yes,” Felicia agreed. “We are.”

  “But it makes more sense that the shifters who are only taking on a form would revert to their own form in death and the shifters who actually become the animals could more reasonably maintain the animal’s shape after death,” Moira reasoned. “Right?”

  “Perhaps,” Felicia agreed, shrugging a shoulder. “But it’s the opposite. If I’m killed while transitioned, that form I’ve taken on becomes my form forever. Death cements the shift. But the second kind of shifter, if they’re killed while in the form of an animal, they do revert back. Perhaps it’s an effort to balance things. Because they were more truly the animal in life, they aren’t in death.” She waved a hand, as if dismissing the whole issue. “Is this really what you’re most interested in?”

  “No,” Grady said, leaning forward on the edge of the bed. “It’s not. You say that the others who are grouped with you and Darren don’t like him anymore than you do. What we want to talk about is how to get them out from under his control, take him out of the picture, and all go back to our normal lives.” He glanced around the room. “Well, semi-normal lives.”

  Kean nodded his agreement. “That’s what I want to talk about too. We need to know, Felicia. Are you in with us or out? We’ll help you and your friends, but we have to be able to trust you.”

  “I’m in,” Felicia said quietly. “But I have to warn you—you have no idea who you’re up against.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Grady

  Instinctively, Grady trusted Felicia when she promised to help them. He believed that she was miserable with Darren, and miserable people, when offered the chance to escape, usually took it—even if they were afraid. Felicia was definitely afraid, but he was good at helping people take risks. He did it every time he persuaded a company to go with a new, slightly-edgy ad campaign.

  Grady crossed to Felicia, but he didn’t touch her this time. He still didn’t understand why Moira had reacted the way she had, but in case she was the type who expected him not to so much as touch another woman, he refrained. They would have to have that discussion later. “Does anyone know where you are?” he asked Felicia. “Do they know you’re at a hotel?”

  She nodded. “Yes. I’m under instructions to be here. If I don’t report in soon with an update, he’ll get suspicious.”

  “But does he know exactly which hotel you’re in?” Grady asked. “Does he have the name? The address?”

  “No …” Felicia said, shaking her head. “Not that I know of. But the thing about shifters is that they can be anywhere anytime. For all we know, Darren is in the room right now, but too small for us to see. Or Vaughn could be here. Vaughn was the one in contact with me earlier, who told me that Darren wanted me to wait him out in a hotel.” She gestured to Kean. “I couldn’t shake you without putting us at risk, and I was running out of time to remain in Grady’s form.”

  For a moment, Grady was afraid that Darren really was in the room, but he allayed that with the realization that Darren would never have allowed things to go this far if he was really here. Then, out of nowhere, Grady was hit with how strange it was that Felicia was walking around, looking like him. She might as well be as familiar with his body as he was—its ridges, bulges, and lines. He wondered if she had the same twinge in her knee earlier, like he did from years of running too many miles.

  Moira jumped in while he was considering this. “You need to check in with him. Alleviate suspicion. Tell him that Kean has left, but that you’re going to wait a while longer just to be safe. Then ask him where to meet up with him.”

  Felicia frowned. “He wouldn’t understand the question. We’re based in a house outside of town. Asking him where to meet up would be a clear giveaway.”

  “Fine, then just allay suspicion,” Moira said. But before Felicia could respond, a cell phone rang.

  Immediately, everyone checked their pockets, and when they all looked up, having confirmed it wasn’t their phone, they saw Felicia with her cell phone in hand and a nervous look on her face.

  “It’s him,” she said quietly. “Like he knows we’re talking about him.”

  A chill ran through Grady. Was it possible that Darren did have a spy in the room? How much did he know about what was happening? They had no way to know for sure, and they couldn’t just not act because of the dark possibility that Darren would materialize at any moment. “Answer it,” Grady urged, his voice low. “Go on. You can do it.”

  Biting her lip, Felicia swiped to answer the call, lifting her phone to her ear and speaking as normally as could be expected. “Hi. I was just about to call you.”

  Darren’s voice was loud, echoing into the room through the phone’s speaker. “Well? What’s going on?”

  “The guy following me left just a few minutes ago. At least, I think he left. I can’t be sure yet. My plan is to stick it out here for a little while longer and make sure he’s not hanging around somewhere. Then I’ll leave.”

  “If you’re in a hotel room, how can you see him?” Darren asked, his voice rough. “Don’t fuck around with me, Felicia. Just give me answers that make sense. I’m not having a good day.”

  Felicia glanced up, and Grady nodded to her, urging her on. He couldn’t give her the answers she needed, but he trusted that she would find some explanation.

  “That’s why I said I assume he’s gone,” Felicia said. “He’s not very subtle. He keeps walking down the hall to check to see if I’ve opened the door. I’m watching through the peephole. He hasn’t come by in the last fifteen minutes, but he’s been passing by every five minutes for hours. So I’m thinking he’s left. But I can’t be sure.”

  “You’re damn right you can’t be sure,” Darren snapped. “That’s all you’re going on? I swear, Felicia, I can’t trust you to do any kind of job. Why didn’t you just shake him earlier? How hard is that to do?”

  “I’m sorry. I’m going to make sure he doesn’t see me. I promise. If I have to wait here all night, then I will.”

  “That’s right you will,” Darren told her. “You’re not to come home. Not tonight, and not tomorrow. If you still haven’t seen any sign of him by morning—and you’d better be up tonight, watching—then you can leave the room. Spend the day walking around Boston. Slip into bathrooms and take on different forms—anything to make it hard for someone to track you.
Then, if I decide I’m ready, I’ll tell you when you can come home tomorrow night.”

  Felicia glanced up at them, and Grady nodded to her again. Darren was making it easier for them than expected. If he wasn’t expecting Felicia home, then she had more time and freedom to help them. He was playing right into their hand—which meant that it was less likely that he was watching them.

  Though Grady wouldn’t rule it out completely.

  “I understand,” Felicia said. “I’ll handle it.”

  “You’d better. Guess what happened to Cade today.”

  “What?”

  Darren’s voice was cocky and remorseless. “He pushed me one inch too far. So I killed him. Given that he was my brother and I took him out, think what I’ll do to you if you screw this up for me.”

  Grady had to lurch forward to catch Felicia as her legs started to give way at the news. Kean grabbed her from the other side, and together, they propped the woman up, Grady pressing hard on her arm to urge her to do what she needed to do. She couldn’t react. Not now. She could fall apart in a minute, but only after she had convinced Darren that she was still in line.

  “Oh God,” Felicia whispered, unable to help herself. “Cade.”

  “Yeah,” Darren said. “Cade. Let that be a lesson to you. Don’t cross me, Felicia. Got it?”

  “Yes,” she said, gulping down her fear. “Yes, I understand.”

  “Good. Call me every hour with an update.”

  Grady couldn’t hear Darren hang up, but the phone slipped from Felicia’s hand, and he had to catch it before it hit the floor, barely able to hang onto her at the same time.

  “Hey,” he said, slipping her phone into his pocket and helping Kean lead her toward the bed again. “Hey, now. Take a breath. I know it’s a shock. Take a breath and get your bearings. It’s okay.”

  “Cade,” Felicia whispered, closing her eyes as she sank down onto the bed, turning over onto her stomach and gripping the covers. “God, Cade. He was so sweet. So kind. So unlike his brothers. He always tried to push back against Darren as much as he could. I can’t …oh God, Nina. Nina is going to be devastated.”