Blood Brothers (Turning Stone Chronicles Book 2)

by C. D. Hersh

  “Good. That’s what matters. You’re the good one. The one who deserves to live.”

  “You need to hang on. My people are coming, and we’ll get you to the hospital. It’s going to be all right.”

  “It is all right. I found you. You saved me.” He reached out a trembling arm and Rhys grasped it.

  “No, you saved me. That bullet was meant for me, Roc, and you took it.”

  “Promise me one thing, bro.”

  “Anything.”

  “Don’t let that miserable excuse of a father, Falhman, win. A man who would kill his own son doesn’t deserve to live.”

  Roc coughed again, and Rhys felt the shifter sensations from his brother lessen. His life was slipping away, along with a bit of his own soul. The battle noise around him receded as his blood pounded in his ears. Damn, but he wished he could reverse his life sucking powers and pour his own essence into his dying twin. But he couldn’t.

  “I won’t let him win,” he promised. “No matter how long it takes, I will get him for this. Even if it takes my own life.”

  Roc’s arm grew heavy in his grip and his mouth moved, but Rhys couldn’t hear him. He lowered his head toward Roc.

  “See you on the other side, if I get forgiveness because I saved you.”

  “Don’t go, Roc. Hang on. Please.”

  “I love you, bro,” Roc whispered. Then his eyes closed and his head rolled to the left.

  “No!” Rhys yelled into the bullet-laden night as he threw himself over his brother. “Not now!”

  At the sound of a feral scream, he looked from Roc’s bleeding body. A black panther stalked down between the railcars, teeth bared in what he could only describe as a wicked grin, its eyes glowing yellow. He reached for his gun, fumbling it in his bloody fingers. The weapon fell on the pavement as the animal screamed again and leapt toward him.

  Instinct took over and Rhys suddenly found himself airborne. Flailing his arms to stabilize himself, he rose higher and higher. His feet touched something hard and rough. The sound of scraping filled his head. He waved his arms again then settled them against his side.

  His arms felt weird.

  He felt weird.

  Straight ahead, the lighted city skyline was on eye level with him now. Focusing, he saw people inside the building windows as clearly as if they were standing in front of him. Extending his arms, he lowered his gaze and stared in horror as a long, feathered wing appeared, responding to his movements.

  He was a bird!

  How? He hadn’t shifted on purpose.

  Opening his mouth, he yelled. A piercing screech came out, but no words. He cocked his head sideways and peered down where his feet should have been. Sharp, black talons dug into the brick edging of a roof. Stunned, he gazed down from his perch.

  The panther circled Roc’s still body, shaking its head violently and roaring wildly as it glowered at Rhys. Suddenly, the cat changed, shifting into the sleek form of a fully clothed Sylvia. She threw herself over the body and screamed, a perfect match to the yowl of the angry cat she just transformed from.

  “It wasn’t supposed to be you. I’m sorry, Roc, I’m sorry. We could have ruled together if only you had listened to me. We could have had it all, including love.”

  She lay there on the body, sobbing for several minutes. Then as her cries subsided, she removed the Turning Stone ring from Roc’s finger and placed it on her own. Lifting herself off Roc’s still body, she reached for the gun Rhys left behind.

  “You have been nothing but trouble, Rhys Temple,” she yelled into the sky as she moved toward the building where he sat perched. “It’s too bad I didn’t get the chance to kill you when I killed Alexi.”

  Rhys screeched at her, rage filling his heart, desperately wanting the words to tell her what he would do to her when he figured out how to become a man again. But he knew a bird was no match for a bitter woman with a gun. She took aim. Talons clicking frantically, he clawed his way onto the flat roof. Out of sight.

  She cursed as he withdrew. The string of oaths mixed with a wild, Highland yell. Rhys heard the metallic ring of the gun hitting the pavement. He inched forward in time to see Sylvia shift back into the panther and race off down the street.

  Howling like a wild man, Eli rushed between the railcars, broadsword waving. Delaney, Harry, and Alexi, shifted as Garrett, followed with guns drawn. They circled around Roc’s body, backs to one another searching for danger.

  Seeing none, Garrett bent over the prone body.

  “Is it Rhys?” Delaney asked.

  “No. His clothes are wrong. This must be Roc,” she said.

  “He was telling the truth,” Delaney said in an awed voice.

  “Yes,” Alexi replied. She stood and searched the alley again. “Where is Rhys?”

  Rhys called to them repeatedly, his voice a raucous, desperate screech. Finally, they looked up. He scrambled sideways, flapping his wings in the full moonlight at their acknowledgement.

  Eli pointed. “He’s there, on the roof.”

  “That big bird?” Harry asked.

  “Aye,” Eli replied. “Not merely a bird, but a hawk. I can tell by the call. He’s reached the third level. Come down, laddie. ’Tis safe.”

  Rhys flapped his wings and rose a few feet, then crashed to the roof, nearly losing his balance and tumbling off his precarious perch.

  “He dinna know he can fly off,” Eli said. “We’ll haftae find a way tae get him down.”

  “I’ll go,” Alexi said.

  “How?” Harry asked. “It’s six stories high and there’s no ladder.”

  She smiled at him. “Brace yourself, Captain.” Then her form melted into a hawk, and she spread her wings and soared to the roof.

  “Holy crap!” he exclaimed. “The old ticker can’t take much more of this.”

  “By the Druid’s beard,” Eli said with a grin. “The lassie ’tis a hawk, too.” He turned to Delaney. “’Tis a verra guid sign. Two verra strong potential Promised Ones. Identical animal egos. Now all we need ’tis a bairn.”

  Alexi landed beside Rhys, who had moved to the flat of the roof, and changed to her human persona. “Hi, honey,” she said, as if finding her husband had become a hawk was an everyday affair. “This is a surprise, right?”

  Rhys screeched what he hoped was a positive answer.

  “Don’t know how to shift to yourself and can’t figure out how to fly?”

  Another affirmative screech. Frustration overwhelmed him. Can she understand me? He cocked his head sideways and made another sound. She held out her arm and he stepped on, careful not to dig his talons into her skin.

  “Remember how you mimic shifted and changed into your alter ego?”

  He bobbed his head.

  “It’s similar to that. You still have all your human knowledge crammed into your tiny bird brain.” She laughed. “Birdbrain. Bet you never thought I could call you that.”

  He screeched his displeasure at being described as a birdbrain.

  “Sorry. Wasn’t nice of me.” She stroked his feathers. “Hop off, and think about shifting into Rhys. Can you do that?”

  Drawing his head in and out of his shoulders he signaled a “yes,” then he sprang off onto the roof and settled a few feet away from her. Concentrating on the mental image of himself, he willed Rhys Temple back. Bones stretched and sinew and muscles twisted and groaned into human form. As the last change took place, he settled onto the roof and drew his knees to his chest, exhausted and relieved to be human again.

  “Better?” Alexi asked.

  He nodded. “That was scary.”

  “How did it happen?”

  “Not sure. Sylvia came at me as a panther, and I reacted.”

  “A panther? So she was the one who killed Dan
ny Shaw.”

  “Yes, and the one who tried to kill you. You were right all along. She let it slip before you all came charging in.”

  “We’ll never make that stick. But since we know it was her, maybe we can close the case, unofficially, and I can be resurrected.”

  “Maybe.” He peered over the roof edge. “How do we get down?”

  “Fly,” she said. “Simply spread your wings and soar. The wind currents will hold you aloft. Tuck your wings in when you get ready to land. It’s easier than you think.” Her human form melted into a hawk. She cocked her head at him and screeched. Then she opened her wings and took off, circling around him.

  Rhys willed himself into a hawk and tested his wings. After a couple of false starts, he rose, dipped to the right, and with a powerful flap, soared into the air. Together, the two hawks circled over the rooftop in the moonlight, and then glided down to the ground.

  Alexi changed to her human form as soon as her talons hit the pavement. Rhys hopped about for a couple of seconds, flapping his wings furiously, before he managed to regain his humanity.

  As Rhys stretched to his full height, Eli said, “Well done, laddie.”

  Ignoring Eli’s comment, Rhys went straight to his brother’s body and knelt beside him. “I want Roc’s body,” he said firmly.

  “We don’t usually keep the other side’s dead,” Delaney said. She tipped her head sideways and studied him. “The battle’s dying down. They’ll be coming soon to clean up.”

  The remnant of Eli’s contingent appeared at the edge of the railcars carrying their dead and wounded men.

  “I am taking his body if I have to carry it myself. He died saving me, and I won’t let them have him.” Rhys slipped his arms under Roc, determined to carry him home.

  Delaney knelt beside him. “What do you mean, he died saving you? I thought he betrayed you.”

  “He knocked me to the ground when the first shot was fired. The shot that was meant to take me down. He betrayed them. Not me. I won’t dishonor his memory by letting Falhman and Sylvia touch his body.”

  Waving her hand at the men gathered behind them, Delany stopped Rhys from picking up his brother. “We’ll take him to Larch’s as one of our own. I promise the rogues won’t get him.”

  He stared into her turquoise eyes and saw nothing but the truth.

  “Rhys,” she whispered. “I’m sorry I doubted you. Clearly, you were not the man involved with my daughter.” She glanced down at Roc. “And he, at least at the end of his life, was not the man I believed him to be either. Please forgive me.”

  Rhys rose as the men gathered around and lifted Roc from the ground. “We’ve all made mistakes here, Delaney. Kept secrets. Told lies. But we can’t function like that anymore. We have to be honest with one another if we plan to win this war against the rogues. And I do. I’ve a brother to avenge, and I won’t let Falhman go unpunished.”

  “We need tae hurry,” Eli said at his shoulder. “They’ll be here soon tae pick up their men.”

  Alexi stepped alongside Rhys and slipped her arm around his waist. “Come on. We’ll follow Eli’s men to the funeral home and make sure Roc is taken care of.”

  As they left the battleground, Rhys glanced over his shoulder where his brother had lain. The faint image of a hawk sat on the bloodied pavement. With a cock of its head it called to him.

  “Did you see that?” Rhys asked, pulling Alexi to a stop.

  “What?” She followed his gaze.

  “The bird,” Rhys replied.

  “There’s nothing there, Rhys.” She frowned at him. “We need to get you checked out to be sure you’re okay.”

  Rhys blinked, but the image did not disappear. The hawk rose skyward and called again. In the sound Rhys heard Roc’s last words.

  “I love you, too,” he whispered back.

  Chapter 45

  “Tell me how you keep the rest of us from knowing about your battles,” Harry said when they were back at the house.

  He’d called the precinct as soon as the battle was over, asking if anything was happening. When they told him all was quiet, he’d muttered under his breath, incredulously, the whole time they were driving to Alexi’s.

  For a second, Delaney thought about not telling him, but knew if she didn’t he’d never let up. “I have a friend in the FBI who knows about us. He’ll help cover up anything we need. Friends and shifters in prominent places go a long way. It’s one of the reasons we have such high profile and law enforcement type jobs. Sylvia and the rogues will do their part, too. Neither faction of the Turning Stone Society wants our existence known. Anything related to this battle will just disappear, as if it never happened. Just like all the rest of our skirmishes do.”

  “But all that gun noise-”

  “You mean the fireworks?”

  “And the dead and wounded?”

  “Remember, we have our own mortician.”

  “Doctors, too?”

  “Yep. Everything we need to keep our existence a secret, although we don’t usually chose such a public place to off each other. Falhman must have wanted Rhys gone very badly to act as foolishly as he did.”

  “Do you think they’ll try to get Roc back?” Harry asked.

  “Doesn’t matter. They won’t get him,” Rhys said fiercely.

  “And the hawk. Hawks, I should say.” Harry gave Rhys and Alexi an askance glance. “No offense, but I’ve got to get away from all this shifter business.”

  “None taken,” Delaney said, tucking her arm in his. She gave Harry a hopeful smile and looked around at the others gathered around the kitchen table warming up with cups of Eli’s steaming tea. “Guess now is as good a time as any to make my announcement. I’ve decided to give up my Turning Stone world for you, Harry. Eli has agreed, after I perform a few more duties, he will release me from the council and we can be together. If you still want to after discovering all my secrets, human and animal.”

  She held her breath. He just said he couldn’t handle the shifter stuff, but did that mean her, too?

  Harry beamed his approval. “As long as I don’t wake up in bed with a man or something besides the family pet, I’m game. And after that, we can go off into the sunset?”

  “And live happily-ever-after,” Delaney assured him. “But not until Eli’s performed the traditional handfasting. Are you okay with that, Harry?” Even though she was giving up the life for him, she still wanted to keep some parts of her traditions and her link to the people she loved and respected.

  “Of course. It was a bit odd, but beautiful in its own way.” Harry turned to Rhys. “Will you be my best man?”

  With a broad smile, Rhys replied, “I’d love to, Captain.”

  Delaney turned to Rhys and cast her eyes down, then shyly looked up at him. “I need someone to give me away. Would you?” When he didn’t answer right away, she hastened to add, “If you don’t want to, under the circumstances, I’d understand.”

  “I’m honored you asked, Delaney.” Rhys reached across the table and laid his hand over hers. “We shifters have to stick together.”

  “I need a matron of honor, Alexi.”

  Jumping up from her chair, Alexi ran around the table and hugged Delaney. “I’d love to.”

  A twinge struck her heart as Delaney thought of her daughter. She’d have liked Harry and the rest of the people surrounding the table.

  I did it, Lila. I let him in. I’m taking that chance on love.

  Epilogue

  Delaney and Harry stood at the door of their new home away from home, a forty-eight-foot RV parked in front of Rhys and Alexi’s house. Alexi, Rhys, and Eli showered them with birdseed to celebrate the traditional handfasting, done at most Turning Stone member unions, which Eli performed after they tied the knot at the Justice of the Peace.
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  Harry plucked a handful of seed from Delaney’s hair and held it in his open palm. “Anything significant about the birdseed you want to tell me? Do I need to save it in case we fall on hard times and you have to shift to survive?”

  “If you’re attempting to get me to reveal my animal side, you’ll have to wait for the honeymoon, mister.”