“You fucking cunt! You’re dead; you know that? Fucking dead,” he seethed.
The man’s eyes were an odd shade of amber, more golden than anything.
“You have the right to remain silent,” I reminded him. “You’d better use it.”
His gaze was fixed on me, more like he was attempting to visually bore a hole through me.
The sheriff didn’t answer his phone, so I left a quick voicemail detailing everything and my location. My only other option was to call Fred. No matter how much I loathed the idea, I was covering my own ass. I took my eyes off the man for the briefest moment to inspect the truck and check for any passengers. I didn’t see anyone else in the cab of the vehicle.
Shit. Where was Talon? Things still just felt wrong, but I couldn’t explain why.
I glanced back to where the man sat, however he was gone. The only sign he’d ever been there was the small patch of blood on the pavement near the rear tire of his truck.
Fuck!
I slipped into an active threat mode. He was unarmed, injured, and on the run. He probably wouldn’t be able to get very far on foot. I raised my weapon again. This time, I had it aimed at the truck as I quickly circled it. Still no signs of the man. He must have run into the forest that lined both sides of the road.
A thud followed by a deep groan emanated from the covered bed of the truck. My heart was racing as I moved closer. Luckily for me, the cover wasn’t one that had a working lock on it. With my gun in hand, I used my free hand to lift the cover, ready to shoot if I had to.
Talon was hogtied and squirming to free his hands. His eyes met mine, and I hurried to put the gun away.
“Talon? What happened?” I asked as I lowered the tailgate and climbed up to free the bindings.
“I…I…whoa,” he said, trying to sit up, yet failing because of the way he was tied.
I pulled my pocket knife from my pocket and sawed through the thin nylon rope. Talon’s hands popped free, and he pulled the restraints off him.
He was unsteady and brought his hand to his head like he wanted it to quit spinning.
“You okay? How about we start there,” I said.
“I think so, just a little dizzy, and my head feels like a bomb went off inside it.”
Then he sat up a little straighter, scooting to the edge of the gate like he suddenly remembered the danger.
“What happened? Where did he go?” Talon asked, stepping out of the truck.
“I don’t know. He’s injured and unarmed; I doubt he’ll go very far.”
Talon grunted, stretching out his extremities.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t count on that,” he grumbled, just loud enough for me to hear it.
I scanned the ground for blood droplets, hoping for some sort of trail that could at least give me a clue to where the guy went. I was having flashbacks and feelings of déjà vu the whole time as I remembered how the poacher had managed to slip away undetected twice before. Both times I’d been so close to capturing him; I could practically feel victory.
“What do you mean?” I asked, casting him a quick glance as he surveyed the surrounding trees.
“Just that it wouldn’t be wise to underestimate him.”
There was something about the way he said it that made me want to question him further, like there was something he wasn’t telling me.
I froze when I made it around to the front of my truck. There was a very real possibility of pissing my pants as I stared down the man I’d been searching for. Though, I’m not sure man was the right word to describe him. He was on his knees with his hands in the grass, a few feet into the trees. Sickening cracks sounded as his whole body moved into unnatural angles.
Talon was at my side in an instant, wrapping his arm around my middle and pushing me behind him.
“Get in the truck and go. Now!” he commanded.
I couldn’t conjure any words to respond, just stared at the man as hair began to thicken and cover his body. His form grew larger than it had been before, damn near the size of a brawler grizzly. My feet were rooted to the pavement. Talon nudged me lightly, trying to seize my attention, but my eyes were fixed on the changing man.
The poacher’s amber eyes glowed brightly and his leer was aimed directly at me.
“Gen, listen! You need to go, now!” Talon yelled, finally breaking my fear induced trance.
The man’s transition was almost complete, and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A tiger as white as snow with stripes as black as night was twisting itself out of the man. My brain finally made the connection with my feet, and I sprinted back around to the driver’s side of the truck. It was still running, the keys waiting in the ignition for me. Talon stayed in front of the truck like he was going to try to take on a freaking tiger.
“Come on! Get in!” I screamed at Talon, hoping he’d quit trying to be a damn hero.
“Go!” he hollered back, giving me a quick pleading glance.
His eyes were the same color as the man’s. Tiger’s? Tiger-man? I didn’t even know what to call him. Was Talon one of them?
I threw the car in reverse, backing away from them both. The tiger crouched low and moved toward Talon. He could pounce at any second, and Talon wouldn’t have a chance. The two circled each other, sizing up weaknesses. Talon had to be insane. He didn’t have a chance against the beast.
In what seemed like a blur, the tiger launched itself at Talon. In one smooth motion, Talon jumped high off the ground and out of the tiger’s reach. A quick series of pops echoed, and a massive bald eagle tore its way out of Talon. His clothes landed in tatters on the ground where he’d been standing just a moment before.
I slammed on the brakes, trying to riddle out whether or not I was hallucinating that my sort-of boyfriend had just turned into a fucking massive eagle of death. The bird’s wingspan was easily eight feet with a body the size of a Great Dane. His wings tore through the air with a grace I didn’t know was possible. His feathers were as dark as a moonless night with a head as white as fresh snow. It was a beautiful beast of a bird, until I remembered that bird was so much more than it seemed. He was Talon.
Talon climbed higher in the air, out of the tiger’s reach, but only barely. He circled the cat twice and then dove while the cat’s flank was exposed. His talons were outstretched and razor sharp as they sliced through the cat’s hide before climbing higher in the air once again. The cat took a quick swat at the eagle, but he wasn’t quite fast enough.
Blood stained the tiger’s white coat, however he wasn’t giving up yet. The cat crouched low, his belly scraping the pavement. He turned his head as though he was anticipating Talon’s next circle and leaving Talon the perfect opening. Apparently the eagle saw it too and came in for his attack.
Barely a foot from making contact with the tiger’s hide, the cat turned with a blurring swipe, knocking Talon out of the air. He hit the eagle hard enough to send him soaring almost twenty feet. The tiger launched itself toward him, not even giving Talon a second to recover. He was going to maul Talon right before my own eyes.
Without thinking, I threw the car into park and jumped out of the truck, pulling my gun from its holster as I went. I didn’t even think as I raised the gun and began firing round after round at the tiger. The first shot missed, but the second and third landed their mark. It wasn’t ideal, but it should’ve been enough to send the cat down. However, instead of going down, he turned toward me as if he’d just remembered I was even there. Just like that, the hunter became the prey.
“Oh fuck!” I exclaimed as the tiger broke into a sprint toward me.
I took aim and started squeezing the trigger until there was nothing more than empty clicks. Crimson weeped from several different spots on his fur. I think only one more bullet found him, but it was enough. He changed course and ran into the forest, ferns and dense vegetation, concealing him from view. I couldn’t tell if he was still close by or not.
I glanced to where the eagle lay on the ground. He hadn’t
gotten up yet. My breath caught in my throat, and my feet carried me of their own volition. The eagle’s wing was visibly broken and a deep gash ran across his chest. His chest moved up and down although it wasn’t much.
“Talon?” I asked, unsure what to do to help him or what to make of everything that had just happened.
The eagle began to change, not nearly as quickly as he’d done the first time. Bones broke and reformed. Feathers shrank and pulled back into his pores, leaving no indication that they were ever there in the first place.
Talon, the man, laid on the pavement before me. There was a gash across his ribs that was deep enough to see the bone peeking through. Surprisingly, it was barely bleeding.
“Talon? What do I do? Tell me what to do here,” I pleaded.
He groaned, “I’ll be fine. It’ll heal.”
“Huh?” I asked, not comprehending how he was so relaxed about something that could very well be a fatal injury. “Shouldn’t we get you to a hospital or something?”
Talon shook his head. “No, hospitals aren’t for people like me.”
There it was. The elephant in the room. His otherness had just been put on display for not only me but the man-tiger, too. My head swam with a dozen or more questions.
I glanced back down at the injury, and to my own astonishment, he was right. The skin was knitting itself back together before my very eyes. I couldn’t see it move with my naked eye, but it was already visibly smaller than it had first been. An angry pink scar was forming around the edges where it had already healed. I’d never seen or heard of anything like it before, at least not in real life. I was almost painfully aware of just how exposed he was. There wasn’t a stitch of clothing on the man, and I took care not to look directly at the one-eyed snake. I peeked but only a little. He was glorious even injured as he was.
“Talon? What are you?” I asked shakily as I rose to stand.
He struggled to a sitting position and then pushed himself up to stand and face me. Purplish bruises were beginning to take on a yellow hue. My eyes widened as I finally began to understand what everything meant. Werewolves? But instead of a wolf, he was an eagle, and the other man had been a tiger. It was the sort of thing that had been told as a nightmarish story around campfires to scare little kids. How had I not noticed something like that before this moment? My head was swimming.
“Just calm down,” he said, holding his hands out like I was a spooked horse.
“Calm down? Calm down! You want to try to pull that bull malarkey after I just witnessed the man I’ve been sleeping with turn into a massive fucking bird?”
My hands were shaking with anger at being lied to, along with shock and the adrenaline. I began to pace in front of him, not able to stand still. He followed every pass I made with his stare.
“Is that all this is to you? All I am to you? Just someone to sleep with until something better comes along?” he couldn’t hide the hurt that spilled into his words.
I couldn’t respond to him, not after everything I’d witnessed.
“You pick this moment of all times to talk about that?” I snapped.
“Why not now, Gen? This is me. This is who I am, what I am… Look, I didn’t tell you about this for this very reason. I care about you, and I didn’t want to burden you with this. Now…now you know. I wish I could say that I wasn’t at least a little relieved.”
“Was this something you were ever planning on telling me? Or were you just going to let me keep going on thinking that you were just like a normal guy?”
His jaw clenched, and he didn’t answer right away. That was when I knew the answer.
“I can’t do this,” I said, turning to get in the truck.
The pain of shattered hopes was shredding my insides and fueling an ever growing lump inside my throat. If I didn’t get out of there fast, Talon would see my tears, and that was a level of vulnerability I just wasn’t prepared for.
“Gen, wait!” he said, wrapping his solid fingers around my arm.
He limped until he stood in front of me. I couldn’t meet his eyes. A sob threatened to overtake me, so I tried to see everything except him. His hulking form took up so much room that I didn’t have much choice other than to settle for staring at his bare chest.
“Don’t go. Stay and see where this thing can lead,” he pleaded.
“I won’t tell anyone your secret, but being lied to? That’s not something I can accept.”
I knew his circumstances were different; I even recognized his necessity to keep his secret and lying to me in doing so. What I couldn’t accept was the shattered trust he’d built up during my time in Elk Springs.
“Please?” he pleaded, his hands falling limply at his sides.
“I’m sorry,” I said, pushing past him.
Walking stiffly to my truck, I bit my lip to keep in the oncoming sob. I climbed in and shut the door. Glancing up at him, I noted Talon hadn’t moved, but his eyes were glued to me. Anguish, that’s what I saw.
Shifting the truck into gear, I eased my foot on the gas, pulling past Talon and the abandoned truck. I didn’t look at him as I passed, but I couldn’t help one last look in the rear-view mirror. Talon stood there stark naked and watching the truck as I drove down the road. I had to force myself every second not to slam on the brakes and turn around. I watched him until he disappeared from my view. The tears came swiftly, and once that Pandora’s Box was open, there was no closing it. It would just have to run its course. When the tears became too much and I couldn’t see the road through them, I pulled over and let them take me. I fell apart on the side of the road, torn between my heart and my duties.
Something in me felt wrong. Missing somehow. The further I got from Talon, the deeper that rift felt. Maybe I was grieving the future I’d begun to dream about or maybe the loss of hope. Talon was the first guy in almost as long as I could remember that had been everything I’d hoped for. Aside from the fact that he turned into a massive bird of prey, he was everything I’d longed for. He listened to what I told him, didn’t think my choice of TV shows sucked, and don’t even get me started on what that man was capable of in the bedroom.
I considered myself a tough woman. Most men would even agree that once they’d seen my skills firsthand, I could hold my own in a fight or shootout. Not too much got under my skin, however somehow, in the short period I’d spent in Elk Springs, Talon had burrowed deep. He was the sort of man that left a mark.
There was going to be a mountain of paperwork to take care of, not to mention the wrecker I’d have to call for the abandoned truck. Talon’s secret was safe with me though I still wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to spin everything that had happened and make it sound plausible, given the evidence.
The rest of my drive into town was spent brainstorming different possible stories to explain all of it. In the end, I decided it would be best if I simply omitted Talon and his involvement altogether. I was going to take care of what I needed to, and then I was going home. Far away from this town where men turned into monsters and nothing was as it seemed.
The Sheriff was at the station by the time I arrived. His eyes were full of concern when I walked through the door. Fred was nowhere in sight. Thank God for small mercies.
“I just got your message. Are you okay? Where’s the suspect?” he asked looking over my head to the vacant space behind me.
“I’m fine, and honestly, I had it all wrong. The person on scene was just a passerby who happened upon a truck abandoned in the middle of the road before I got there. The truck is the suspect’s, but there was no sign of him. I’ll call a wrecker to pick up the truck, but I don’t think anyone will come to claim it. The owner is probably halfway to Canada by now.”
Sheriff Wilson nodded in agreement. “Well, I’m glad it wasn’t anything too serious. Do you need help getting a tow truck or any of the paperwork?”
I shook my head, “but I did want to let you know that there’s no evidence of the suspect still being in the area. I beli
eve they’ve moved on, and so should I.”
“Ah. I suspected it was only a matter of time. Don’t suppose there’s much I can say to change your mind is there?” he asked.
“I’m sorry, sir. I’m afraid not. It’s time for me to go home,” I replied, yet even as I said them, I knew my words were empty of their meaning.
Home.
Where was such a place anymore? My apartment? Even that didn’t hold the allure that it once had not so long ago.
“I understand. How much longer will you be with us?”
It was going to be like ripping the band aid off – do it quick and make it hurt all at once instead of dragging the pain out.
“I’ll get everything situated today and should be leaving tomorrow. I have a long drive home, and I don’t want to put it off any longer than I have to.”
Sheriff Wilson nodded. “That’s short notice, but it shouldn’t be a problem. I must say, Officer Mendoza, it’s been an honor to have you here with us in Elk Springs, and should you ever find yourself in need of a job ‘round these parts, I’d be happy to extend an offer.”
It was an offer that took me a little by surprise.
“I’ll keep that in mind, sir. The honor has been mine although I’m not too sure Fred would agree,” I said, peering at his vacant desk.
“Yeah, well, Fred’s an old fashioned sort of fellow. He’d be what some call a good ol’ boy. Don’t like to see the tides of change comin’ and certainly not when that change is a woman who upstages his entire career.”
I didn’t want to tell him that Fred had taken his resentment further than just being a grouchy asshole. He wasn’t going to be a thorn in my side anymore, so there wasn’t much point. Sheriff Wilson lifted a hand and placed it on my shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze before moving past me to disappear back into his office.
Fly Me Home (Rescue Squad Shifters Book 1) Page 12
