Hell Spawn: Shifter Squad 09

by J. C. Diem

  To my disappointment, Mark didn’t dismiss the offer. “That’s not a bad idea. We’ll need a large property to house this many people. Yours should be big enough to accommodate us all.”

  I didn’t particularly want to stay at the werelion’s house, but I didn’t argue with Mark’s decision. Our bases were huge, but Kurt Jorgen knew where they were. We didn’t want to make it easy for him to find us.

  “Do you think you’ll be able to transport all of us at once?” Mark asked me.

  I had no idea and shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out in a second.”

  We gathered into a large group and I motioned for them to shuffle closer until everyone was touching. Unused to being so close to rival shifters, they obeyed me uneasily. I was doubtful that I’d be able to move so many people at once, but it couldn’t hurt to try. Since he could follow me anywhere, Zeus didn’t join the huddle. Reaching out with my death magic, I encompassed everyone. Mentally crossing my fingers, we disappeared into the ground and came up in Oklahoma.

  It worked, I said to Reece in amazement.

  I never doubted you for a second. He winked and I knew he was telling me the truth. Lying was almost impossible with our bond.

  “Ugh,” someone muttered as a shudder ran through the entire group. “I don’t think I could ever get used to that.” They broke apart and moved into their packs. What was disturbing for them already felt as natural as breathing to me.

  I’d forgotten how impressive Cole’s mansion was. The main house and several more large buildings were painted a soft cream color with moss green trim. I was again surprised by the elegance when we stepped through the double doors into the mansion. Cream carpet covered the floors and tasteful paintings hung on the pale walls. The furniture was understated and blended in with the overall cream décor. A gigantic TV was mounted on the wall in the living room. Half a dozen chairs and couches were angled towards it. Two small coffee tables were placed strategically between the couches.

  Cole gestured at the kitchen that was just beyond the living room to our left. “I don’t have enough food for everyone. I’ll have to send someone for supplies.” His property was only minutes away from Lilydale where we’d wiped out the nest of ghouls.

  “Outta my way,” Kala ordered and shouldered her way past us all. Cole stepped aside and the look he sent her was just as wistful as the one she’d given my father. Flynn looked at me and rolled his eyes. We shared the same concern that they’d become embroiled in a love triangle that would end in disaster.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Seventeen

  A few of Cole’s werelions were delegated to drive to Lilydale for food and other essential items, but there was nowhere near enough room for us all in the living room. Rick, Ned, a werebear and one of Cole’s lions stayed outside with most of the shifters, presumably to watch over them. I was pretty sure the lion, who looked just like Cole and was probably his brother, was his second in charge. He’d never bothered to introduce us, so I couldn’t be sure. He seemed to play a nominal role in their pride. I didn’t know the werebear’s name and assumed he was Leanne’s second in charge.

  All of the alphas remained in the living room with one of their people for bodyguards. They’d know if the tension rose high enough for a fight to become imminent. It wasn’t necessary for them to be in sight of their packs to be able to control them. They just needed to be close enough to be able to sense them.

  Kala returned to the living room several minutes later with a tray full of coffee mugs. She’d made only enough for our group, leaving everyone else to fend for themselves. She put the tray down on a coffee table, grabbed a mug then sat next to Flynn and Sabine on the couch furthest away from Cole.

  Cole sat on an armchair with his harem sitting on the floor at his feet like he was a king, or possibly a god. The closest girls reached out to stroke a hand down his leg. My bile rose at their incessant need to please him. Cole barely even noticed her.

  Mark and Ava had taken the second couch while my father, Reece and I had claimed the third. Just as I was starting to worry about him, Zeus materialized at my feet. Glancing around the room, he saw little of interest and flopped down on the thick carpet.

  “He doesn’t seem like a normal zombie,” Aiden observed.

  “He’s not,” I replied. “I bound his soul inside his body. He’s pretty much the same as he was before he died.” The alphas shared disturbed looks as it became even more evident at how different I was to them.

  My dad’s attention returned to the display of worship from the werecats. “What’s wrong with them? They seem like they’re drugged.”

  “It’s worse than that,” Kala said. “Cole has taken over their minds so completely that they can barely think at all. They wouldn’t even remember to eat if he didn’t order them to.”

  That made his anger rise again. “No one should be subjected to that kind of treatment,” he said to the rex. “You need to give them back their ability to think for themselves.”

  Cole had the grace to look embarrassed. “I don’t know how to reverse it.”

  Sabine tilted her head to the side as she examined the besotted females. “Perhaps you can use them as a way to test whether you can use the other alphas to boost your power,” she said to Reece and me. “With assistance, you may be able to free their minds.”

  Leanne and Aiden were sitting on chairs that had been brought in from the dining room. Bruce stood behind Leanne. To my surprise, Patrick was behind Aiden. He was young, but he was intelligent and far steadier than the rest of the pack. He also had weapons training from being a soldier.

  Nina was the only alpha who hadn’t taken a seat. She stood on the fringes of the room with one of her wolves hovering next to her. I realized someone was missing. “Where is the Oracle?” I asked and received blank stares. “The werebird,” I explained.

  “She refused to enter the house,” Felix said languidly. He was sprawled on the floor, eyeing Nina’s guard like he was a tasty treat. The werewolf shifted uneasily when he sensed Felix’s desire for him. “Apparently, she is uncomfortable being around so many werecats.”

  “We’ll go to her then,” I decided and downed the rest of my coffee. The oracle had been attacked by a werecat a couple of decades ago, which was how she’d lost her eyes. Only another shifter, or silver, could cause damage that we couldn’t easily heal. I could understand why she didn’t want to be close to an entire pride of felines.

  Cole wasn’t thrilled with being told what to do in his own home, but he reluctantly heaved himself to his feet. Aiden and Leanne stood as well. Nina waited for us all to leave the room then brought up the rear.

  Knowing their master’s wishes, the harem of feline shifters followed in Cole’s wake. They clustered together as we walked down the long gravel drive before crossing the lawn to an oak tree. With Zeus trotting along at my side, our allies gave me a wide berth. Curious about what we were doing, everyone else gathered around as well.

  The oracle was crouched beneath the tree with her pet eagle perched on her shoulder. She watched through the bird’s eyes as we approached.

  “What is your name?” I asked when I reached her. I felt a bit rude for not asking earlier.

  “I haven’t used it in so long that it has no meaning for me anymore,” she replied. “Just call me Oracle. It’s as good a name as any.” That was what Aiden and his pack called her. He’d known her for at least a few years now and the name had stuck.

  “We’re going to try to break the felines free from Cole,” I told her just in case she hadn’t heard our plan. “Reece and I will try to link to the alphas so they can boost our power.”

  Her head tilted to the side in a very bird-like manner. With a sigh, she stood. The eagle launched itself into the air and landed on a branch above her. “So I heard,” she said, confirming that her hearing was just as good as ours. “Let’s get this done.”

  I held my hand out to Aiden and he took it. Previously, Reece would be jealous at my contact
with another male. Now that we were bonded again, he knew that my heart and soul belonged to him. Catching that thought, he smiled.

  Cole reluctantly took Aiden’s hand and then Nina’s. She held her hand out to Leanne, who offered hers to the oracle. The oracle took it and then slipped her hand into Reece’s. The moment his fingers clasped mine, the circle became complete and my power swelled.

  Breaths were sucked in by everyone as the power spread out to encompass the entire group. Staring into Cole’s wide blue eyes, I slid into his mind. With a bit of searching, I found the part of his brain that controlled his harem. I was tempted to switch it off permanently, but instead merely shorted it out for a few seconds. That was all the time that I needed to break the women free.

  Shaking their heads as if they were recovering from a deep sleep, they looked around in confusion. Kala knew what they’d been through and was sympathetic to their plight. She’d only been beneath Cole’s control for a single night, but some of these girls had been with him for years.

  “Where am I?” one of the women asked.

  Cole released Aiden’s and Nina’s hands and took a step towards them. “You are on my property near Lilydale in Oklahoma. I am the Rex of a pride of werelions. I made each of you members of my harem.” I was a bit surprised by his complete honesty. Maybe he really was ashamed of what he’d done to them and was trying to change his ways.

  “Harem? Are you some kind of royalty?” another of the girls asked. The rest stared at him uncomprehendingly. Their minds were free, but it was going to take some time to regain their ability to think for themselves.

  “No,” Kala said before Cole could respond. “He’s not royalty. He’s an alpha, which means he’s able to bend you to his will.”

  “Why would you do that?” the first girl asked. She was in her early twenties, but seemed younger and almost childlike.

  “It has always been our way,” Cole said. A faint hint of red stained his cheeks. I realized that it had taken a lot of guts for him to allow me to try this experiment in front of so many other shifters.

  “Things are going to change with the werelions,” I said firmly. “But first, we have a job to do.”

  “You’re right,” Mark agreed. “We now know you can use the other alphas to enhance your power. Now we just have to see whether it will work to break the prisoners free from the faery’s spell.” He turned to Ava. “Can you show us where the EERI facilities are?”

  “Who or what are EERI?” Leanne asked.

  “They’re the Extraordinary Entities Research Institute,” Mark said. “They’re a rival organization to the one my squad and I work for. We’ve just learned that Kurt Jorgen founded the institute. He’s been using it as a prison for shifters and other supernatural creatures.”

  He didn’t tell them that Jorgen also used the facilities to perform experiments on his prisoners. His scientists had turned Kala and Flynn into shifters by injecting them with the shifter virus. Flynn was the only wereconstrictor in existence. He and Kala were the only children who had ever survived the injections. I assumed Fate had had a hand in that.

  “I’ll bring the information up on my computer,” Ava said to Mark. We returned to the house and she took her laptop out of her backpack. Perched on the edge of the seat, she balanced her laptop on her knees and opened a file. Turning the computer around to face us, we saw a map of the US. “The red dots signify every location where I’ve sensed large groups of supernatural creatures.”

  Dozens of dots were scattered all across the country. Cole frowned when he saw a dot in Oklahoma and realized that it stood for his pride.

  “That map would be very dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands,” Aiden said. There wasn’t a red dot in Texas, probably because he moved his pack around so often. He was a restless soul and preferred to stay on the move.

  She nodded solemnly. “I am aware of that, which is why I’ve kept this information to myself.” She turned the computer around, switched to another map and turned the screen back to us. Only twenty dots were now shown. “I sense many types of shifters and other supernatural creatures in these areas. I believe these locations are where EERI is keeping their captives.”

  Sitting next to her, Mark shifted closer to study the map. She was slightly flustered by his close proximity. “I can send this information to your tablet, if you wish,” she offered.

  “You’d trust me with it?”

  “If I cannot trust an honorable man like you, then there is no hope for this world.” Their gazes locked and every shifter in the room became aware of their attraction to each other. Kala opened her mouth and Flynn elbowed her in the side before she could ruin the moment for the pair by making an inappropriate comment about them getting a room.

  “Thank you for your confidence in me,” Mark said at last. Remembering that they had an audience, he flushed slightly.

  We have to make sure they end up together, I thought to Reece. The more I saw them together, the more I knew they were supposed to be a couple.

  I don’t think we’ll need to worry about that, he thought back at me. I’m pretty sure they’re already madly in love.

  Kala and Flynn picked up on our conversation. Aww! I’m glad Mark’s finally found someone, Kala said.

  Flynn agreed with her. He deserves to be happy after everything he’s been through. He’d lost his first family, but Ava was an immortal just like him. As their adoptive father, they were determined that he would have a happy ending. First, we had to take down Kurt and his army.

  During our short, silent conversation, Mark had taken his tablet out of his jacket and Ava had sent the information to him. He brought the map up on the device and studied it in detail. He finally chose one of the dots and zoomed in on it. “We could choose any of these facilities, but this one is more isolated than the others.”

  “Where is it?” my father asked.

  “It’s in Arizona. It’s about a six hour drive from here.”

  I shook my head when Mark looked at me enquiringly. “I don’t think I’ve ever been there.”

  “Yes you have,” my father said. “We lived there for six months when you were two. Let me see if we’ve been to any of the other locations.” He held out his hand for the tablet. Mark zoomed the map out again and handed it over. My dad studied it for a while, looking slightly spooked. “We’ve lived near ten of these compounds.”

  Mark took the tablet back and everyone turned to stare at me. “Fate must be behind this,” I said with an inaudible sigh. “She’s an expert at putting me where I need to be.”

  Mark looked thoughtful. “She’s made sure we have an advantage in this war. We’ll wait for dark then move in and infiltrate the base.”

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Eighteen

  We had several hours to wait until nightfall and watched TV to kill the time. It was set to a news channel and coverage of the attacks was playing constantly. Experts had been called in to try to explain what was going on. They all agreed that evil was involved. A Catholic priest in ornate robes was currently being interviewed. He theorized that the devil had broken loose from hell and that he was on a rampage. It was disturbingly close to reality, except it was a half-faery rather than the devil who was to blame for the atrocities.

  “Only faith in God will be able to save us,” the priest said solemnly. “I urge you all to bow your heads and pray.”

  Kala rolled her eyes. “Like prayer is really going to help.” She turned to Mark. “Was Thomas Catholic?”

  “Who is Thomas?” Cole asked with a hint of jealousy in his tone.

  “He was a priest who founded our agency,” Mark replied. “He died four hundred years ago.”

  “Oh.” Cole was mollified that his competition was long gone.

  “He eventually married and had a family, so he can’t have been Catholic,” Mark said in answer to Kala’s question. “Why do you ask?”

  “I couldn’t imagine him wearing an outfit like that,” she said and gestured at the rob
ed priest. “Although he’d probably look hot in anything he wore.”

  “You’re lusting after a man who has been dead for four centuries?” Sabine asked.

  “You don’t know the legend of Thomas,” Kala insisted. “He was only a puny human, but he and his best friend, Harold, took on monsters of all kinds and kicked their butts. Thomas and Major Levine have a lot in common.”

  She sent my dad a saucy grin and he smiled. “I’ll take that as a compliment, despite the ‘puny human’ reference.”

  “You should,” I said before Kala could launch herself at him and tear his clothes off. Her crush was getting worse, despite her promise not to flirt with him. “Thomas is the type of agent that we all aspire to be.”

  “You’ve got a crush on him, too?” Cole said nastily. “He must have been quite a man.”

  “He was,” Mark said coolly. “Even humans can be worthy of admiration sometimes.”

  Cole was doubtful, but wisely kept his opinion to himself. Mark was still human, but he was immortal now. To me, he’d always been worthy of respect.

  Our tension grew as the sun finally began to fade from the sky. One of the werelions handed me a plate of food and I took it with a nod of thanks. I ate the meal quickly, barely tasting the fish and salad. Zeus lay at my feet, watching the strange shifters closely. He sensed the tension and was ready to defend me. Without Reece and me there to control the alphas, it was inevitable that a battle would have broken out.

  As if reading my mind, Mark spoke. “We should take a small group to infiltrate the EERI compound, but we’re going to need all seven alphas. Will the shifters be able to control themselves with their leaders gone?”