Through Storm and Night (The Shape Shifter Chronicles Book 2)

by Lauren Jankowski

  “Guardians I wish I had a gun!” Jade’s irritated voice came over the com. Alex reached the bar and caught Wylie’s attention. She moved over to the protector, still drying the glass mug she held.

  “It’s about time you showed up,” she shouted over the music.

  “Is that one of them?” Alex asked, nodding over her shoulder. Wylie glanced in the direction she indicated. She put the mug back under the bar and leaned forward, resting her hands on the bar.

  “They came in shortly after sunset,” she explained. “Been wandering around ever since.”

  “Are they armed?”

  Wylie shrugged. “Don’t know.”

  Alex glanced over at the man again. “Jade, I’ve got one in … wait. Where did he go?”

  Both Wylie and Alex straightened up, noticing the empty space where the suited man had stood. Alex moved around the people in the bar area until she reached the spot where the man had been standing. She looked out the open doorway toward the dance floor. She didn’t see the man anywhere. Alex moved out to the dance floor, glancing up at the open floors above. A small movement on the fifth floor got her attention. She gritted her teeth and swore as she began running down the hall.

  “Jade, you need to get to the fifth floor now!” Alex yelled as she tried to push her way through the crowd.

  “What? Why?”

  “I just saw Onyx!”

  *~*~*~*~*

  Jensen cautiously made his way down a dark hallway on the first floor. The few dim lights blinked from bright red to yellow to blue to green in the same repeating pattern. Jensen felt naked without a gun or blade on him. He kept glancing over his shoulder, unable to shake the feeling of being followed. He stepped around a pair of women dressed in matching white nurse costumes. Men who don’t have scents. That’s not going to be a pain in the ass at all, Jensen thought dryly as he continued down the endless hall. The rebels just had to set up base in a hotel.

  He ducked around a vine that was hanging from the ceiling, apparently entering the jungle section of the hotel, which was unexpectedly quiet. Odd, I wonder why the crowd hasn’t filtered in here, Jensen thought as he glanced around, keeping his guard up. He had just finished his thought when a solidly built man in a gray suit tackled him. The man slammed him into the wall and then threw him to the floor. Jensen felt all the air rush out of his body and stars burst in his vision when his head contacted with the floor. He forced himself to regain his bearings and kicked out at the man, hitting his knee. The man smiled and kicked him in the side. Jensen let out a gasp as pain ignited in his ribs. He should have gone down. Nobody could withstand a kick like that, he thought distantly as he tried to pull himself up, using the wall. The man smirked as he reached down and grabbed hold of Jensen’s throat, squeezing tightly as he slammed his head back to the floor.

  “Aldridge,” the man growled, squeezing even tighter. Jensen fought to break the grip, clawing at the man’s arm and kicking at whatever body part was reachable. It was as if the man were made of stone. He was completely unaffected by Jensen’s strikes. In desperation, Jensen attempted to gouge his eyes.

  “Hey!”

  The man looked up and was instantly struck in the face with a baton. The grip immediately vanished from Jensen’s throat and he greedily sucked in oxygen, coughing harshly as he rolled to the side. Jensen turned his head and watched as Isis landed an impressive amount of strikes and kicks on her suited opponent. She managed to evade and deflect most of his strikes. A cross punch went past her face and she brought her baton down on the elbow. He let out an angry growl and tried to backhand her, which she easily ducked under. She pushed off the wall and used the momentum to strike him hard in the face again. Isis brought her baton down on his knees and cracked him hard in the back of his head. He jumped to the side and suddenly, in a blur, was gone. Isis turned around a couple times, alert and ready.

  “Where did he go? Did you see where he went?” she asked, not looking at Jensen. He coughed in response and gestured vaguely in the opposite direction. Isis quickly went a short way down the hall, looking for the man.

  “He’s gone,” she said as she returned to Jensen’s side.

  “You don’t say,” he gasped out around a cough. Isis gave him a dry look and pressed the button on her earpiece.

  “Jensen got his ass kicked by one of the suited men,” Isis reported, as she looked him over for visible injuries.

  “Did not,” he managed to protest before coughing again. “Had him right where I wanted him.”

  “Strangling you to death on the floor?”

  “You lost him,” Jensen pointed out. Isis pressed down hard on his sore ribs and he let out a cry, curling in on himself.

  “That seems like it’s probably broken,” she observed. He narrowed his eyes at her.

  “What the hell were you doing?”

  Isis helped Jensen to his feet, allowing him to lean on her for support. “I noticed one of those guys watching you. I knew you’d follow me, so I managed to lose you and then followed you. I figured your secret admirer might tail you, so I just watched and waited.”

  Jensen stared at her. “You used me as bait?”

  “I was right here. You were never in any danger of serious, lasting harm. Well, unless he somehow managed to sneak in a gun or knife or something,” Isis responded as she helped him around a large crowd of people dressed in leather. Jensen tilted his head. It had been a decent plan, but he couldn’t help being a little offended at being used.

  They gradually emerged in the main dance area when a shot rang out over the loud music. Isis shoved Jensen to the floor when another shot rang out. Jensen grunted in pain when he hit the floor and he wondered if the night would ever end.

  “What the hell is going on in there?” Ajax’s worried voice came over the coms. “Was that a gunshot?”

  People screamed and started running in a panic. Jensen opened his eyes and pushed himself up to his knees, glancing over in Isis’ direction. She was pressed against the wall, clutching her upper arm. Blood was leaking out from between her fingers.

  “Stay down! Get behind that wall,” she shouted over to him. He pressed himself against the opposite wall, peering out at the dance floor. Jensen closed his eyes and turned away from the corner when another bullet slammed into the wall.

  “Jade, she’s up on the fifth floor,” Isis reported.

  “I know. Shae and Alex are meeting me up there. Devin and Malone are coming down to you. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. Go get her,” Isis yelled. Jensen went further down the hall into the darkness, crossing over to the side where Isis was. He approached her and tugged at her shirt. She glanced at him and he nodded over his shoulder, gesturing for her to come back into the shadows. Isis cautiously backed up into the safety of the dark, her eyes glued to the open halls above them.

  “Malone and Devin are going to try and reach us,” she mentioned, distracted. The bright overhead lights came on in the club and the music cut out abruptly.

  “Are you okay?” Jensen asked, attempting to see her arm. She looked over at him with a skeptical expression. She turned her attention back to the bright open floor, which was practically deserted.

  “Where’s the back exit?” Isis asked. “I need to get out there.”

  “Across the hall,” Jensen answered. “Would you please let me see your arm?”

  “I’m fine, Jensen. Would you please stop hover — OW! What the hell is wrong with you!?”

  She punched his arm when he pressed just above the wound. He grimaced in pain and glared at her.

  “If you just let me see your arm, I wouldn’t have to do that now would I?”

  Isis glared at him, but took her hand away from her arm. He hissed in sympathy as he looked at the bleeding wound.

  “It’s a graze. The guardian healers will be able to repair it in five minutes,” she said, watching down the hall. Jensen stared at her.

  “You do realize that you are susceptible to blood loss, right? Gua
rdians can heal many wounds, but you have to be alive in order for them to do so,” he said. “This needs to be wrapped.”

  “We lost her,” Alex’s voice came over their earpieces. “She must have gone out a window and blended into the crowd. Was anyone hit?”

  Isis ran her good hand over her face, wondering if protectors were capable of catching assassins. She looked over at Jensen, who was still examining her wounded arm. I just saved him twice. Guardians, I must be losing my damn mind, she thought.

  “Isis was grazed,” Jensen responded, glancing up when Malone and Devin appeared in the entrance of the hall.

  “Well, the men in suits seemed to have vanished as well,” Ajax’s voice came over the communications link. “I can’t find any trace of them on the security feeds, which cover a disturbing amount of the club by the way.”

  *~*~*~*~*

  Onyx was annoyed as hell. She separated from the rush of fleeing patrons, heading off toward where she had parked her car. Tucking the bag with the sniper rifle under one arm, she listened to her footsteps crunching in the snow.

  A sudden pinch in her back was followed by an impossibly strong current of electricity. Onyx let out a cry as she fell to the ground, paralyzed. Her entire body shook uncontrollably in the cold wet snow. She gasped as she tried to get her breathing under control.

  “Had a friend of mine toy with a regular Taser gun,” a nonchalant voice spoke from somewhere over her. A dark-haired woman emerged in her field of vision. She held the bulky Taser in her left hand, examining it.

  “My friend has a thing for electricity — just loves juicing things up. Did you know it’s not necessarily the volts that are dangerous? Amps, now that’s what you’ve got to watch out for,” Sly continued as she examined her gun. “Two amps can kill a human. I’m not sure how many can kill a shape shifter, but I just hit you with two and a half.”

  She looked at Onyx with disinterest. “You seem to be alive, so it obviously didn’t kill you. Lucky me.”

  Onyx attempted to say something, but found herself unable to form words. She couldn’t move her limbs and her body still trembled. Sly dropped a coil of rope from her shoulder and kicked Onyx onto her stomach.

  “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist taking a shot at the last Aldridge,” Sly continued as she began to hogtie Onyx. “What’s the price on that man’s head? Gotta be more than five million by now, right? Your leaders are such big spenders to the point of ridiculousness. I’ve always wondered though — who put the bounty on the Aldridges in the first place? I imagine that information is a little above your pay grade.”

  “What … want?” Onyx managed to sputter. Sly finished tying a knot, jerking it extra hard for good measure. Knew that stint as a dominatrix would come in handy one day, she thought as she crouched down by Onyx’s head, resting her wrist on her knee. Her lips began to curl up in a smile.

  “That’s a very good question, Onyx, one I’m glad you asked. You see, I was nearly run off the road by a group of men in suits. Scentless nondescript men in suits. In fact, I think they were here tonight. At first, I was planning to kill them, maybe torture a couple to send a message. However, this struck me as a little rash. After all, whoever sent them would probably just send more. So then I thought, ‘who’s usually behind the really fucked up shit that happens in this town?’ Which led me to you,” Sly explained, pressing her index finger in the back of Onyx’s head and shoving it down. She looked out across the field, watching as the last patrons vanished into the trees. “You have always been embarrassingly predictable and therefore easy to track. Now, I doubt you know as much as you think you do, but I have a feeling you at least know the name of the puppet-master. And that’s exactly what you’re going to tell me.”

  Onyx glared at her, her lips set in a thin straight line, and Sly smiled as she stood up again, holding a length of rope in one hand. She started forward, dragging her captive behind her.

  “Fine. We’ll do it the hard way.”

  *~*~*~*~*

  Blackjack sat in the Obsidian manor, lounging on Adara’s old seat when he heard the sharp click of heels on the stone floor. He glanced up at the petite figure that made her way down the long entrance hall. She looked professional in her long gray skirt and light pink top. Her short blonde hair was brushed to the side and her dark, intense eyes didn’t waver from him. The shoulder holsters were the only thing that looked out of place on her slender frame. A few feet behind her, two men in gray suits followed in lock step. She raised a hand and they stopped instantly, standing at attention.

  “We have a problem,” the woman stated as she stopped in front of his chair. Blackjack swung his leg down from where it rested on the chair’s arm.

  “Which would be?”

  “You gave my boss your assurance that you and your … associates could conduct yourself professionally if the price was right,” she responded, stepping up to the chair and running her fingers over the cold arm of it. “He has been more than generous in his payment.”

  “And I have kept my word. Onyx and I have stayed out of the way—”

  Her cell phone rang shrilly and she held up a finger, silencing him. A pleasant smile crept across her ageless face as she answered the small gray phone.

  “Hi, Steve. What’s up?” she said affectionately, her tone changing. The seriousness was gone and her voice raised a couple octaves. Gone was the subtle hint of an ancient accent and in its place was American vernacular.

  “I’m just at the office. Looks like I’ll be working a double again. Sorry, babe. I’ll see you tomorrow though, right? Okay. All right. You too. Yeah. Bye.”

  Tracy hung up and tucked the phone in her pocket again, turning her narrowed eyes back to Blackjack. He shifted uncomfortably under her scrutiny.

  “Mr. Blackjack, you have certainly not kept your word. We had set up a demonstration at the rebel Lair, a demonstration your female associate ruined by opening fire in a crowded club.”

  Blackjack’s jaw clenched. He had warned Onyx to stay out of it, but apparently the bounty on the last Aldridge was too tempting to resist. She has absolutely no self-control. If they don’t kill her, I’ll do it myself, Blackjack thought as he cracked his neck.

  “I apologize, Tracy. You have my word that—”

  “Don’t waste your breath,” Tracy cut him off, glancing around. “Where is she? I would like to have a word with her myself.”

  “I haven’t seen her since she left earlier today.”

  “Imbecile,” Tracy growled, twisting her body to look back at the men in suits. “Find the other assassin, bring her back here.”

  The men were gone in a blur and Blackjack tried to swallow the nervousness in his throat. Tracy smiled as she turned her attention back to him.

  “Do you like them? They do this thing called blinking. It’s a skill that allows them to move at speeds unmatched by man, animal, or machine. The Corporation used to use them to gather . . . wayward sheep, in a manner of speaking. Their eyes have some limited hypnotic ability, enough to freeze a living creature in their tracks. Once they do that, they simply pick them up and carry them wherever we desire. Of course, the quarry experiences some mild side effects. Disorientation, dizziness, mild nausea, memory loss. Your kind even experiences spans of missing time, anywhere from minutes to an entire day.”

  She leaned down over the chair, gripping the armrests. Her face was inches from his and he shrank back.

  “Those two? Mere reconnaissance. They don’t bite, don’t even carry weapons. Domesticated cats are more dangerous. They die after one use. That speed is very taxing on the system, so we only have a limited number of them left. However, most of our stock is a bit more … aggressive, shall we say. They are also much hardier. This territory remains yours because my master allows it. Make no mistake, you throw a wrench in our plans again, there will be consequences.”

  She straightened up again, smoothing her blouse. “I have other matters that require my attention. Clean up your mess.”

/>   Tracy strode down the steps and made her way back down the hall. Blackjack swallowed again and let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

  *~*~*~*~*

  “I believe I specified discretion. Instead what I get is a group of protectors stomping in here like a herd of goddamn elephants!”

  Isis watched Alpha storm around her bar, pouring herself a shot of whiskey. Jade, Shae, and Alex sat on nearby bar stools. Alex was flipping through the pages of a book Alpha had lent her — a collection of rebel legends. Malone and Devin were sitting on a vintage lounge off to the side. Jensen was standing near the bar, behind Isis. He had finished wrapping her arm earlier. She had lost track of Nero, but she assumed he had found some room in the hotel to his liking.

  “Well, you tell your leaders that they are going to reimburse me for all the business I lost tonight. And they are paying to fix my goddamn wall!”

  Alpha tilted her head back, drained the whiskey, and slammed the shot glass back on the bar. Wylie and Amber stood behind the bar as well, off to the side.

  “Alpha, Jet and Lilly couldn’t have known Onyx would show up,” Jade began calmly. Alpha let out a bark of laughter and gestured over at Jensen.

  “You bring that one along and you think an assassin isn’t going to show up? With the bounty on his head offered by the assassin leaders? Fuck, I was tempted to take a shot at him!”

  “I feel I should be offended by that,” Jensen mentioned, leaning against the bar. Isis turned her head.

  “How much is the bounty on you anyway?”

  “None of your business,” Jensen answered, sounding mildly indignant. Isis arched an eyebrow, grinning.

  “That much, huh?”

  “You never saw these men before?” Alex asked suddenly, not looking up from the book.

  “If scentless men that move faster than fucking Superman were regulars, I think I would have noticed,” Alpha responded.

  “These guys just show up out of nowhere and then do nothing? If they can move that fast, they could have easily taken us out. So why didn’t they?” Alex mused out loud, rubbing her forehead and looking over at the other three.