by Chant, Zoe
She saw her father’s knees sag as she spoke.
“Don’t give them anything, Ella,” he said, his voice still rough and harsh. “It’s not worth it – nothing is worth that.”
But they’ll kill you, she wanted to yell at him. She could feel the words bubbling up inside her, and ruthlessly, she swallowed them down. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the USB, holding it up.
“This is it, right? You can check it if you want.”
The man standing behind her father smiled coldly. His eyes – cold and beady, just like a bird’s – were trained eagerly on the USB in her hand. She could almost see his desire to snatch it from her in the air between them.
“Very good, very good,” he said, voice low and sinister.
Ella shivered. She knew that they had no idea what this guy’s second shifter form was – or if he even had one. Her fingers involuntarily tightened around the USB as she recalled the huge eagle he’d become – and thought about how easy it would be for him to simply transform and take the USB from her hand with his powerful talons. Her arm throbbed at the memory of the last time he’d slashed her with them.
“So, we have a deal then?” she asked. If she didn’t get this over and done with, Ella knew her fear would take her over. Already she could feel her knees beginning to wobble.
Instead of answering her, the man merely grinned.
“Ant, what do you think? Do we have a deal?”
Ant?
With a jolt, Ella realized he must be talking to the other man. She glanced around, feeling a prickling on the back of her neck, and started as she realized just how close he was standing behind her.
When did he get there? He moves as silently as… as a cat.
It made sense, she supposed. Perhaps shifters could take on some of the characteristics of their animal forms, even when they looked human.
I don’t like this. Something’s wrong here.
Ella’s instincts were on high alert now. Between Ant sneaking up behind her and the first man’s cruel grin, she knew this wasn’t going anywhere good.
She felt the patter of Brooke’s tiny feet on her skin, and knew it wasn’t just her.
Callan’s words to her echoed in her mind: If anything happens, you just run, okay?
“A deal, Jason? I don’t remember anything about a deal.”
Ella knew she should turn now, and run. Do her best to get away from here, right now. Whatever the two men she now knew were called Ant and Jason were going to do, it wasn’t honor their deal.
But glancing at her father – at the way his shoulders slumped, at the desperate expression in his eyes, and the way he seemed to have aged so much from the cold but vital man of her memories – she knew she couldn’t.
I have to try to get him out of here – to make sure he’s safe –
He might have hurt her, and he might have done terrible things for Hargreaves. But she knew she couldn’t be the kind of person who turned and ran when someone else was in danger, no matter who they were.
But a moment later, the decision was taken out of her hands anyway.
Jason, the man standing behind her father, suddenly clamped his hand down hard on his shoulder, yanking him back, and raised a gun to his head.
“No!”
Ella heard her own voice as she yelled out the word, at exactly the same time as she felt a bodily blow pushing her aside. Confused, Ella stumbled, thinking that Ant must have hit her – until she realized that Brooke had shifted back into her human form, leaping from her shoulder and turning from a tiny skink into the tall, strong woman Ella had met back at the surveillance van.
“Ella, run,” Brooke instructed her in a loud, clear voice, pointing toward the door of the warehouse. A moment later, she heard Ant’s angry shout, and she turned in time to see him, still human, launch himself at Brooke, only for Brooke to send him sprawling with a roundhouse kick that knocked him sideways.
Ella blinked, momentary awe at Brooke’s taekwondo skills overtaking her brain, before she realized that she really should follow her instructions and run. But she still couldn’t help herself from desperately glancing back at her father.
Jason still had the gun in his hand, but it wasn’t pressed against her father’s head anymore. Instead, he was holding it out straight, clearly wavering as he tried to get a clear shot at Brooke, who was still grappling with Ant.
Ella wanted to shout out a warning to Brooke – but the words caught in her throat as she saw the expression on Jason’s face. He didn’t look like a man who was frustrated that his plans were going awry, or worried that he might be about to get caught.
Instead, he was smiling.
It was the kind of cold, cruel smile that made Ella’s blood freeze in her veins.
Something’s going on here – something’s wrong –
But before she could think further, she heard the sound of shouts and running footsteps behind her, and then felt a hand on her shoulder, warm and huge.
Callan.
Ella already knew who the hand belonged to before she turned her head to look up into his warm brown eyes, filled with concern.
“Ella, are you all right?”
She nodded numbly, her mind still fixed on the expression she’d seen on Jason’s face, but not sure what it meant.
“Callan – something’s wrong – I don’t think –” she started to say, before she heard Trent’s voice shouting, telling Jason and Ant to lie down on the floor, and not to move.
Everything was happening too fast. Her mind was in a whirl. She couldn’t even really register it properly when Brooke arrived by her side. A moment later, Ella realized she was holding her father up by one arm, pulling him along after her. Ella could only stare at him as Brooke and Callan conversed briefly, their voices low and professionally snappy.
“Ella, you’ve got to listen to me.” Her father’s voice was thin and raspy, and so soft that Ella knew she was the only one who could make out his words. “You and these people – you have to get out of here. It’s a trap – it’s always been a –”
“Come on, Ella,” Brooke said, turning to her. “You and your father are coming with me while Callan and Trent clean this up.”
“No, wait,” Ella started to say, shaking her head. Her father’s words spun in her head. It’s a trap – I have to warn them. “You can’t stay here, Callan – it’s –”
But before she could get the words out, Brooke – who was even stronger than she looked – had grabbed her arm and was moving them toward the door, clearly not willing to have either of them in danger for even a moment longer.
“No! Listen to me –!” Ella shouted out the words, panic ripping through her chest, but the moment she heard Jason’s shout she realized it was too late. Whatever trap they had set had been sprung. She knew it with a sudden, cold certainty, that made an icy sweat break out over her skin in terror.
A moment later, she heard a loud, high-pitched hissing sound from somewhere above her. She looked up in time to see a bright green gas streaming from the pipes that ran through the cavernous overhead space of the warehouse.
Poison.
Had this been the plan all along, then? To lure her and the agents into the warehouse, and then poison them with gas?
Ella raised her arm, trying to cover as much of her nose and mouth as possible, and closed her eyes.
She glanced at Brooke, and found her doing the same, still supporting her father with her other hand. She gestured at Ella to keep moving, but Ella couldn’t do that. Instead, she turned her head, searching desperately for Callan in the swirling green gas that now filled the warehouse, totally obscuring her view.
Callan! Callan, where are you?!
She’d expected she might start to feel the effects of the gas and knew she had to get out, but to her surprise, Ella felt completely normal. She noticed her father wasn’t covering his nose or mouth, but didn’t seem to be succumbing to it at all.
Brooke, on the other hand, was swaying on he
r feet, her grip on her father’s arm faltering as she stumbled over her own feet.
“Ella – take your father and run –” Brooke’s voice was slurred, before she keeled over, collapsing onto the concrete floor. Ella stared in horror, kneeling by her side, wanting to help her but unsure how.
“It only affects shifters,” her father said, his voice still a low rasp. “Ella, you can still run. You can still get out of here. Please – do it for me –”
Ella shook her head, wild panic in her heart. “No – I can’t do that.”
I can’t leave Callan and the others.
If whatever this gas was only affected shifters, then she was the only one here who could help Callan. She could feel the wreath of golden light around her heart pulsing violently, as if trying to warn her of the danger.
But maybe it’s trying to tell me my mate is in danger, Ella thought, a flash of instinct telling her immediately that it was true. My mate is in danger, and I’m the only one who can help him.
Ella found at last that her panic was giving way to resolution. These bastards were not going to hurt Callan. Not when they’d only just found each other. And not after everything they’d already done to her and her family. She knew Callan would do anything to protect her, and that she couldn’t do anything less for him. She’d find a way.
She turned to her father.
“You get out of here,” she said, helping him to get fully to his feet. “Run away, if you want to. But I’m staying here. I won’t leave Callan and the others.”
Her father stared at her, his gray eyes wide. “Ella, no – you can’t stay here. Do you understand how dangerous these men are? I’m telling you to leave. Immediately.”
Looking at him now, Ella could start to recognize the father she’d once known in his face and the tone of his voice. She could see less of the old, stooping man he’d become, and more of the cold, remote presence she’d known when she was seven, his eyes clear, his voice commanding.
But it didn’t scare her anymore. She wasn’t a child anymore. He had no power over her.
“No,” she said. “I’ve told you, I’m staying here. I won’t abandon Callan. I won’t abandon any of them.”
“Then I’m coming with you,” her father said immediately. “I’ve failed you so many times – at least I can try to help you now.”
Ella pushed down the mixed feelings his words brought up in her. She couldn’t afford to let herself get distracted now. Part of her wanted to tell him to just go, but getting into an argument right at this moment didn’t exactly seem like it’d have a productive outcome.
Not when Ant and Jason are who knows where in this smoke, Ella thought.
Kneeling down swiftly, Ella pressed her fingers to Brooke’s neck, feeling for a pulse. To her relief, she felt one, strong and sure, and in the green haze, she could see her chest rising and falling.
“It won’t kill them,” her father said, kneeling beside her. “That’s not what they want.”
That, at least, was something of a relief, Ella decided. She assumed Jason and Ant had quickly put on some kind of gas mask before they’d set off the trap in order to protect themselves, since as shifters they would be just as affected by the gas as the agents.
So they won’t be able to shift, if they want to keep them on, Ella thought. Not unless there’s gas masks to fit lions and eagles now.
She thought that right up until the moment when the massive, four-legged form suddenly launched itself out of the haze at them, claws extended, mouth open in an enraged snarl.
“Look out!” Ella threw herself sideways, grabbing her father by the shoulder and dragging him after her.
She felt the massive creature’s slipstream rush by her as its claws missed her by inches. Heart pounding, Ella scrambled away. She could see the animal as it landed several feet away, turning, its tail lashing the air in its anger at having missed its target.
It was clearly some kind of big cat, but it was bigger than the marsupial lion, Ella thought, adrenaline surging through her. Bigger, and more heavily built. She had a feeling that they were very much about to find out what Jason’s second shifter form was.
Its shape was indistinct in the haze of the gas, but as it turned, Ella gasped, terror seizing her. She couldn’t make out much, but she could make out the two long, curving teeth that protruded from the animal’s mouth like – like –
Like sabers. That thing is clearly a saber-toothed tiger.
The creature’s low growl jerked Ella out of the almost-reverie she’d drifted into.
She watched as the saber-tooth lowered its shoulders, clearly readying itself to pounce again.
Why? Why can they still shift?!
But Ella knew she didn’t have time to ask herself that question.
The only thing she had time to do now was to turn and run.
Chapter 17
Stay awake. Don’t let go of consciousness. Ella needs us…
Callan could hear the thoughts in his own head, but it was almost as if they were just an echo, drifting to him from very far away.
His body felt heavy and sluggish, his limbs refusing to respond to his commands. He willed his arm to move, but all that happened was the slightest twitch of his finger. His skin felt numb – he could feel the press of concrete against his face, but it was a distant, low-level pressure. All he wanted to do was slip away, to give up and allow himself to drift into unconsciousness.
We can’t do that! We must help Ella! We must help our mate!
The word mate sent a jolt straight through Callan’s body. He still couldn’t move, but he could feel his heartbeat suddenly strengthen, pounding in fear and anger.
Who would dare to hurt our mate?!
His head was too clouded to figure that out right now – or to care. The only thing he knew was that if Ella was in danger, then he would protect her.
Pain tore through his body as he forced his arm to move, to push him up from the floor. His vision almost blacked out from the effort it took him to do even that, but then he felt another pound of his heart, the golden light that surrounded it surging through his body, giving him strength.
The bond. The mated bond.
He could feel it within him, renewing him.
But even so, he barely had enough strength to move his other arm, or to lift himself into a seated position. All around him was a strange green haze. Callan could barely remember what had happened – just that one moment, he and Trent had been dealing with the Hargreaves agent in front of them, and the next, he’d felt himself growing woozy, his eyesight failing.
And that was when I keeled over onto the floor.
The green haze in the air was clearly gas. The Hargreaves agents had led them right into a trap.
Blinking and glancing around, Callan could see a body a few feet in front of him, lying on its side with its back to him. Callan knew it was Trent without having to see his face, and slowly and painfully, he dragged himself over to his side, raising his hand to his neck to check his pulse.
He could feel it beating strongly beneath his fingertips, and Callan allowed himself to feel satisfied, for the moment, with that. Who knew what the effects of the gas were – but right now, he needed to focus on the fact that Trent was, at least, alive, and presumably Brooke was too.
I need to find Ella and make sure she’s safe.
He should shift. The diprotodon’s senses were sharper than his, and it could move faster. If Ella was conscious, it could move her to safety quicker than he could in his human form. And perhaps in his diprotodon form, he could shake off the sluggish weakness he felt. Allowing the animal side to take over, with its feral fury and its single-minded drive, might mean he could overcome the effects of the gas.
Callan reached out, calling to his diprotodon – and found nothing.
No, that wasn’t quite right. He could sense his diprotodon, but it was almost like a ghost of itself, a wisp slipping in and out of view. It wasn’t the solid presence he knew well – the a
nimal he could almost see inside himself, hear as clearly as his own thoughts.
Gritting his teeth, Callan reached out to it again, commanding it to come forward, to take over his mind and let him become the animal side of himself.
And again, it slipped away.
Callan knew Hector had talked about something like this during his encounter with Hargreaves – but in that case he’d had a handy alicorn foal around to heal him of his deadly wounds, and give him back his shifter form.
No such luck this time, Callan thought, forcing himself to stand on weak, shaky legs. How can I save Ella like this? I’m useless, just when she needs me most.
No, he told himself – that wasn’t true. He wasn’t useless. He could stand, and if he could stand, he could fight. Especially now that his mate needed him. There was nothing he wouldn’t do if it meant ensuring Ella’s safety.
His muscles felt weak and his knees almost buckled as he forced himself to stand up straight. His hands shook, and his mind felt like he was trying to think through an ocean of sticky black molasses. His eyesight blurred as he looked around, but he pushed all the pain and discomfort aside, trying to focus his senses on finding Ella.
Ella – Ella, where are you –
“Well. I guess I didn’t expect this.”
Callan turned, his vision swimming, at the voice behind him. Through the green mist and the pounding of his head, he could make out a short, muscular figure, shoulders hunched, fists clenched.
Even without his highly-tuned senses, he knew who he was looking at. He recognized the stance. It was the man he’d fought back at the shack, the one who could turn into an eagle and a marsupial lion.
Callan watched him carefully, trying to focus, looking for the same signs of sickness as he himself felt. But it was clear that, for whatever reason, the man was unaffected. His movements were as graceful and fluid as ever, despite his stocky build. When he darted to Callan’s right, faster than Callan could follow, it was obvious he hadn’t been slowed down at all.
“You’d do better to just lie down and accept it,” the man taunted, circling him. “We were told to bring you in alive if we could, but don’t think I won’t kill you if I have to.”
