Harvest: Dark Urban Fantasy (Shifter Chronicles Book 3)

by Melle Amade

  “There’s a wind coming up,” Cooper says. “It’s going to lift the pigeon just a little bit.

  “Got it,” I nod. “I need a physics diploma to make sense of it all.”

  “Just use your instincts,” Callum says. “You have good instincts. Think about when you’re a bird and you dive to attack someone. You always had that down pretty well.” He smiles.

  A flying raven flashes in my mind. It was so beautiful to fly. But, it feels so long ago. My body sags. It’s almost hard to remember, or perhaps painful to remember. I shove the thought away. I don’t want to think about flying, just want to kill the stupid pigeon.

  “Pull!” I shout. Squeezing the trigger when the target reaches its apex. A tiny piece of red flies off the discus, sending it careening straight to the ground, where it smashes into a thousand blood red pieces.

  “I got it! I got it!” I cry, the thrill of victory reverberating through my body.

  “Great job!” shouts Roman as Zan lets out a little howl. I press a kiss on Callum’s cheek and he pulls me in a tight hug.

  As we calm down, mild clapping drifts to us from the shrubbery by the trail. Jacqueline, stands there flanked by Hercules and the hulking twins, who I couldn’t tell apart to save my life. It’s Jacqueline who is applauding, slowly and methodically. I ignore the sarcasm in her stance and just smile. My goal is to get these people on our side.

  “I haven’t seen you guys up here,” Cooper says, walking towards them and holding his hand out to Hercules.

  Hercules smiles and grips it, his face is stern, but there’s nothing menacing in it. The same can’t be said for the twins, who look like they’d just as soon fight as shake hands.

  “Yeah, we don’t usually do target practice,” Jacqueline says. “But recently there’s been a breach up at our place, so we thought we’d get out the guns and have a little bit a practice ourselves.”

  Hercules’s head whips around and looks at her in surprise, as if that was the last thing he expected to come out of her mouth. It was most certainly the last thing I expected.

  “I didn’t see any ‘do not trespass’ signs up there, so I don’t know what you’re getting at.” I glare at her.

  “Who says I’m talking about you? Anyhow, it’s never a bad idea to keep our skills sharp,” Jacqueline says.

  “Oh, we saw your skills,” I said. “There’s a lot more than meets the eye.”

  Zan looks sideways at me. Callum shakes his head in warning, but I don’t care. I’m not afraid of her. Just because she can make the ground shake doesn’t mean I have to be scared. In fact, I still think she’s someone who can help us.

  “You need to forget you ever saw that,” Jacqueline says.

  “Saw what?” Zan asks.

  “Nothing,” Callum states pointedly. “We saw nothing.” Zan and Cooper are both peering at Callum, but neither pursues the conversation. They were at the rodeo, but they have no idea Jacqueline is the source of the earthquakes.

  “Why aren’t you guys shooting by your village?” Roman deftly shifts the conversation. It’s probably the least morose or annoyed thing I’ve heard him say all day.

  “Lydia doesn’t allow guns there,” Hercules says.

  “So, how are you going to use them?” I ask.

  “We’ll use them if or when we have to,” Jacqueline shrugs, moving next to me and putting her box of targets in my space. “As a matter of necessity.”

  “What have I ever done to you?” I push her box of targets away. Zan shoots me a warning look, but ice is crackling all over my insides. “All I ever tried to do was help Hercules little sister when I thought she was lost.”

  “You shouldn’t have been in our village.”

  “He and his sister invited us back!” I exclaim, “but every time I turn around and try to help or hang out or whatever, you’re always smacking us down or being nasty. What is wrong with you?”

  “Probably not a good idea,” Callum whispers, putting his arm protectively around my waist. I shove it off. Roman moves closer as Zan shoots me a look of complete confusion.

  Jacqueline steps right up to my face, her voice low and dangerous. “You don’t know anything about me.” The Pomo woman towers over me and, I can’t help it, I shrink back from her glare. She could flatten me in an instant, and we both know it. “Do you realize you are the first outsider my mother has ever let into our village? You and your friends. She thinks you’re going to help us, but I see you for what you are, a sixteen-year-old who wants to get out of her collar and save the world. A child who has no idea what she’s doing and who is going to bring death and danger to my people. You’ve got some big idea you’re going to go out and destroy the hunters and the Order. Did you ever stop for one minute and think you might, just possibly, be insane?”

  Her venom is palpable.

  But it’s her words that hit me in the gut. She’s completely right. Ever since Zaragoza was executed, I’ve only had a single focus; to destroy El Oso. It got me and all my friends into trouble before and it’s going to continue.

  “You think we hide up here because we’re afraid?”

  “I never said that,” I say.

  “There has been a battle going on since before time, before you, before me. It has been raging since the Kingdom of Six. It has been going on since shifters were born.”

  “You can’t really mean that,” I say.

  “You think I don’t mean that?” Jacqueline says. “Have you ever thought about what your life might be like if you were not a shifter?”

  “Most of my life I wasn’t,” I say. “Maybe that’s where we’re different. I fought to be a shifter. I chose to be a shifter, I lost everything to be a shifter. And you sit here with everything and don’t appreciate what you have.”

  Jacqueline’s eyes open wide and for a minute I think she might bring on an earth shake and blast me off the mountain. Her voice is dangerously low when she speaks. “I get you’re not a Van Arend and I understand you didn’t live in a manor at the top of the hill, you didn’t have private tutors or whatever it is they do up there to make it all make sense to them. But you can’t stand here, knowing nothing, and tell me I didn’t give anything up to be a shifter. Are you really that naïve? I never met a shifter alive who hasn’t sacrificed something. And as for you wanting to be a shifter fighting for freedom… I knew a girl like you once. You know where she is today? Dead.”

  Jacqueline doesn’t even wait for the word to finish coming out of her mouth. She turns and walks away, back down the trail, not even waiting to see if Hercules or the twins follow her. Dumbfounded, Callum looks over at me, his hand reaching out to soothe me, but I pull away.

  “Who is she talking about?” I ask Hercules. The twins have already ducked into the brush and he’s following, but stops.

  He hesitates, unsure, but then, with a sigh, he turns towards me. “Corinne looked nothing like you, but she was about your age and had the same attitude when she died. She was Jacqueline’s little sister.”

  My knees buckle and I grip Callum’s arm to stop from falling. It feels like the wind has been knocked out of me. Yet again.

  “Every shifter has a tragic story,” I mutter. “Do any of us get happy endings?”

  “Don’t you know it’s not about the ending? It’s about all the minutes before that. It’s all we have, really. Because I tell you what, I have never, ever seen a happy ending. Have you ever seen someone die? How many of them die with a smile on their face?”

  Callum and I exchange a look. The only person I’ve ever seen die was Zaragoza, and the look on his face will be etched in my memory forever. It certainly wasn’t a smile. It was more of a grimace of satisfaction. After all the years of suffering, losing his wife and trying to fight against the Order, well he had some hope his death would raise a revolution. But I can’t say that hope made him happy.

  “How did she die?” I ask.

  Hercules takes a deep breath as if he’s been holding it for a while. I guess they don’t come
into contact with people they’d tell this story to.

  “She was a couple years younger than Jacqueline, so I guess we were like eighteen at the time. Cory was supposed to be a basket weaver. That’s what her mother had decided, but Cory had different ideas. She had heard stories about the Hunters and they’d gotten in her head, so she started doing research on them. Deep research. That girl was so smart,” he gives a low whistle, “she could have been a scientist. But she didn’t want to weave baskets. She didn’t want to be a scientist. She wanted to be a hunter of Hunters.”

  “She built the training yard?” Callum raises his eyebrows.

  Hercules nodded. “That was small stuff to her. She wired the village up for the Internet and security and did all the research. Even the story I told you about the Kingdom of Six, that’s all stuff Cory discovered when she was only probably fourteen or fifteen. She believed in the adage ‘knowledge is power’ and she was hell bent on finding out as much as she could about the Hunters. She had a dream of finding their ‘nest,’ as she called it. It wasn’t just like the core of where they lived or the different pockets, because they have different capitals in every city. She wanted to find the Deponte’s kastela.”

  “Isn’t that on the Adriatic?” I ask.

  “Well, that’s the tourist attraction remnants of the original castle,” Hercules nods, “but the real castle where they live now, where the Allegiance operates from, no one knows where it is. Cory never found it before she died, and none of the rest of us are even looking. In many ways, we’re still recovering from her death. Even though it was seven years ago.”

  Callum nods. “Seven years isn’t a long time. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the death of my mom and brother.”

  Hercules’s dark eyes meet Callum’s and there’s an exchange of compassion and respect.

  “Cory made us all train to be warriors. Her mother, Lydia, hated it. She said we should be warriors of spirit, song and tradition, but we should never have to bathe in the blood of our enemies. The rest of us were young and dumb. We thought it would be fun to pretend we were superheroes, fighting for the rights of the people and all that.”

  My skin heats up. “That’s not dumb,” I say. “You should protect your family.”

  “We were foolish,” Hercules says. “No one was attacking us. We were living up here in comfort and seclusion, but Cory wanted more. I think, deep down, she was trying to figure out what it was all for. You know, like why do you keep the basket weaving, the storytelling and the firewalking. When other shifters are out there dying. Being hunted. Why do we just sit up here doing nothing about it? At least that’s what she used to say.”

  “So, what happened?” Callum asks.

  “She found a lead,”

  “On the Hunters?” I ask.

  Hercules nods. “Of course. She lived and breathed Hunters. She trained to be like one, she made us shift for her, so she could attack us. She wanted to be able to think like one. She thought she was ready, and she figured out there was a pack of Hunters, living in L.A. She went down there to kill them.” He shook his head. “She was only sixteen.”

  “She went alone?” My voice is incredulous.

  “Of course, she went alone. Nobody here would help her do that. Not a real trip to hunt real Hunters. She left clues to make us think she was in San Francisco. When we hadn’t heard from her in a week, we filed a missing person’s report and eventually the police called us when they found her body. Hunters had tortured her, undoubtedly trying to find information on where her clan was.”

  “Hunters tortured her?” I ask, remembering my dad’s story about Karin, and how her body had been found tortured. But Dad always thought it was the Order who did that. Could he have been wrong?

  “Yeah, but she didn’t tell them anything. There haven’t been any Hunters up this way in seven years. We still use the equipment Cory set up around our village to monitor hunter activity. To see if any of them reach our boundaries.”

  “Aren’t Hunters just human?” Roman asks.

  “Yeah, the worst kind of human there is,” Hercules says. “Self-righteous.”

  “So, what are you monitoring?” Zan leans forward curiously.

  “Cory found out every Hunter carries a blade made of meteoritic iron.”

  My finger trails against the collar on my neck. “Alien metal.”

  “So, the sensors pick up the metal as it comes in to the valley?” Zan asks. “You guys knew we were coming?

  “Actually, just as you enter our little valley here. That’s how we knew you were here the day you guys went tubing, when Callum and Shae came by, the sensors picked up the metal. Jacqueline was in town, but when her mom realized it was just an unfortunate shifter, she let you guys in.”

  “The guardians,” I murmur.

  Hercules nods. “It’s all Lydia. It’s her connection with the guardians that keeps out village safe. She channels the guardians to create a protective barrier for us all. So, look, Jacqueline isn’t used to outsiders. She’s just fiercely protective and she’s seen the worst of what the outside world can do.” His face is like a window, showing his suffering for her.

  “She’s grieving,” Callum nods.

  A look at frustration quivers across Hercules’ face. “I know. I keep telling myself that.” He extends his hand towards Callum. “We’ll get that sparring match going. For sure.”

  “Thank you for the information,” Callum says. “If you don’t mind, I would like to come up and check out those sensors at some point. We don’t have anything like that where I come from, and it might be a useful tool.”

  My gaze falls sharply on Callum. But I don’t say anything. He’s a Ravensgaard through and through.

  17

  After we blasted, dropped or flung all the targets into oblivion and my aim questionably improves, Cooper and Zan insist we go 4-wheel driving before we leave the mountain. But that’s the last thing on Roman’s to do list in this lifetime. I’m with him and happy to hang out on the side of the mountain and enjoy the view. Callum looks like he’ll stay with us, but I encourage him to join the short expedition. Cory’s story sits with me. Not just the horror of it, but the isolation of it. I’ve been so focused on myself and my mission, I haven’t really been working on the core of my life; my friends. It used to be what I lived for.

  As the jeep careens off down a trail I sit next to Roman, who is perched on a rock overlooking the pastoral valley below. Closest to the base of the mountain are broad, emerald green strips of pastures dotted with brown cattle. They look like ants from up here.

  “It’s almost like flying,” I smile as the wind lifts my hair.

  Roman grimaces. I don’t offer him any blind encouragement that we’ll get out of these things. I just sit quietly and let the wind drift over me.

  “You’ve got to tell her,” I say quietly.

  He frowns. “There’s nothing to say.”

  “Tell her you like her. That can’t be against the rules.”

  “You make it sound so high school.”

  “We should be in high school,” I say. “Instead we’re up in the mountains of some godforsaken place training to fight something we’ve never even seen because we shift into animals and probably shouldn’t exist. I mean, I know you guys grew up with this, but I had no idea. I think we should be going to class, having messy relationships, having sex for the first time. You know, all the stuff we’re supposed to be doing. And instead we’re trying to get out of these weird metal collars, you guys are all set up to get married and we’re trying to stay alive. I just…you know, these are supposed to be the ‘best years of our life’. They’re supposed to be frikkin’ fun.”

  Roman looks sideways at me and smiles. “This is exactly why we kept you around so long.”

  “Kept me around?” I’m faux offended.

  “Yeah. All those years, we were never supposed to hang out with you, but whenever you were around, things always seemed so simple. You kept it so real; down-to-earth. You
probably figured out the shifter world is not down to earth at all.”

  “Well, I’m a raven,” I smile. “Like, you know, the farthest thing from down-to-earth ever.”

  He smiles back and it’s warm and it’s nice, and for a moment I feel like we’re just a couple of kids hanging out in the country.

  “So, are you going to tell her?” I ask.

  “Nope,” Roman says. “Not a chance. And if you ever tell her, we won’t be friends anymore.”

  “You wouldn’t,” I say.

  “Try me.”

  After years of sneaking out and lying to my mother, I’m a pretty good judge of the truth. I stare at Roman long and hard and take a long slow breath, because there’s a big dose of truth in his threat.

  ***

  We collect at the gathering spot. Callum and I are the outsiders amongst the Pomos. Hercules glances at Jacqueline, who scowls, but still comes to greet us.

  “My mother will see you,” she says, her eyes are on me.

  After hearing Hercules’ story today about Jacqueline, I can’t look at her the same way anymore. No longer is she the belligerent magic shifter. Now she just seems the protective family member. I totally get that. If I thought someone would cause danger for Henry, I would never rest until they were out of my life. It’s clear she believes nothing good will come of us being in Potter Valley and most definitely not from being in her village. But she won’t go against her mother’s wishes. Not because her mother dictates law or anything crazy like that, but simply because she respects her.

  I respect my mother, too, but I’m not so sure I’d do everything she asked me to.

  I’m not sure how to address Jacqueline’s mom, Lydia, but Jacqueline brings us over, and without much flourish, waves her hand at us. “Here they are, Mother.”

  Lydia stands, tall and proud by the burning embers. She wears a long black skirt and a simple gray T-shirt with a guitar on it that says Johnny Cash across the top. Her short hair bounces upwards, almost defying gravity as her deep brown eyes kindly gaze over us. The way her eyes rest on me, makes it feel like she’s not just seeing my face and features, it is like she’s seeing inside me, as if she understands everything we are right now, but is willing to be let that change.