Spike has come to grips with being bait, but finding out that she is the last of her kind and a swan stands between her and extinction is a bit to swallow.
Spike has grown up as a hedgehog among rabbits. She works for the Shifter Council as professional bait to obtain information and lure wrongdoers into situations that are not in their best interests.
She has finished work for the day and is eager to spend time with her family and friends. The intrusion of a swan into their bunny-day celebrations is not welcome, but the Shifter Council has ordered it.
Hedgehog shifters have nearly been completely destroyed, and now, Spike is the last of her kind. She has never been part of an extinct species before.
Albert is her bodyguard, and he takes her to the safest place the Shifter Council could think of. The Crossroads.
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Spike’s Day Out
Copyright © 2014 Zenina Masters
ISBN: 978-1-77111-932-0
Cover art by Carmen Waters
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Spike’s Day Out
Shifting Crossroads Book 16
By
Zenina Masters
Chapter One
Sicily paced restlessly. The box she was in was far too small to shift out of, but then, holding her in her shifted form was what her captors had in mind.
Her small toes scrabbled around and she settled for hunching in the corner in her defensive posture. She tucked her head down and pulled her legs in, leaving nothing but a ball of spikes. They were coming back and she needed to be on her guard.
Her captors didn’t bother with delicacy. They gassed her and tumbled her out of the box and into a bag for transport.
Sicily remained in a ball, pretending to be unconscious. They swung the bag around and dropped her on a pile with several others. She could identify a skunk, a badger, a flamingo and a wolf by their energy traces on her spikes.
Her inner clock told her that it was a few minutes from the Shifter Council trackers bursting in. Sicily hoped that they were on time. She had a party to attend and she could only play the victim for so long before she got bitey.
She counted down in her mind and waited for the retrieval. Life as perpetual bait was tedious.
It was two hours later and she had to fake waking on the table they had her on. She snuffled, and when a hand touched her, she pulled in tight.
A chuckle came from a human voice and hands rolled her from one side of the table to the next. “You may as well come out, Jarok. We know who you are.”
She tensed even more when she heard them call her by the name of the only other hedgehog she had ever met. Unfortunately, James Jarok was dead.
He had died months earlier, his body found at the lion compound out in the desert. She had stood next to his wife and daughter during the belated funeral and offered them what comfort she could.
Attraction and repulsion were the hallmarks of a hedgehog. Other shifters couldn’t resist them and they were equipped with enough self-defence techniques to keep themselves safe under normal circumstances.
“Come on, Jarok, unfurl and things will go easier for you.”
Since her body was exposed and they could start poking at any moment, she unfurled and shifted to her human shape.
She looked at the two shifters in their human forms and raised her eyebrows, “My name isn’t Jarok.”
She sat on the bench as daintily as possible; her cascade of ash blonde hair draped over one shoulder.
The men stared at her and they looked at each other. “Who are you, miss?”
It was amazing how acting like a lady turned men into gentlemen, if only for a moment.
“Spike. My name is Spike. Why am I here?” She looked around at the dingy warehouse she was sitting in. “Where are we?”
The men were still stunned.
She sighed and prodded them. “Can I have a jacket or something? It is cold in here.”
She shivered and their gazes fixed on her exposed nipple as it tightened. To help her case, she broke the line of their gazes with crossed arms and shivered again. “Please?”
One of the men took his shirt off and draped it around her shoulders. She wrinkled her nose at the scent of bear. “Thank you.”
The shirt fell nearly to her knees, and as she stood to put it on properly, she was only even with both of the men’s chests.
“Why am I here? One moment I was talking to that nice transporter and the next I was in the crush box.”
They were still looking at her as if they didn’t know what to do with her. They looked at each other and finally made a decision. They lunged at her, she ducked and they collided.
After that, she punched, kicked, clawed and snapped her way through them until they were both out cold. She frisked the bare-chested fellow and snagged his phone, making a quick call.
“Hey, Toby. I need a site-to-site transport. I have two bears here who need containment.”
“Spike? Where the hell are you?”
“I have no idea. Let me open this warehouse and check.” Spike walked with the wall on her right until she found a door. She slid it open and looked around. “Holy snowballs. I am in Alaska.”
The fishing boats, mountains and cruise ships gave away her location.
Toby cursed. “No wonder we couldn’t find you. The others are all in Miami. How did you get to Alaska?”
“The nastiest transport I have ever had. Can you track me?”
“We have you now. We were using the wrong map. Can you get to your captors?”
“Yup. Give me a moment.” She scuttled back to the men who were just beginning to stir. “Time is a factor, Toby.”
“We have you. Bringing you in.”
Spike felt her skin prickle and she grabbed the hair of the men at her feet. Seconds later, they were in the auspices of the transporter offices at the Shifter Council Centre.
“You are a little more informally dressed than the last time I saw you, Spike.”
Sicily Markum unbuttoned the shirt and tossed it at the transporter on loan to the Shifter Council. “Zip it, Toby. Send them to holding and send me home. I have an Easter egg hunt to attend.”
He batted the fabric away, raised his brows and started the charm. “Your councillor is going to want to know about today’s events.”
“I will tell him. He is going to be at the egg hunt, too.”
Toby grinned. “Happy bunny day.”
She crossed her arms as she disappeared. “With my family, every day is bunny day.”
Sicily heard his laughter as she materialized. It hung in the air.
With quick movements, she took a shower, and then, she put on her Easter dress and low heels. Sicily grabbed her purse and keys and headed out.
It was
still before nine, so she had time. Her car moved easily down the country roads until she saw the gathering at the warren. She parked next to the other vehicles and left the keys and her purse in the car. No one came onto warren lands if they knew what was good for them. Parents and children were heading for the lake’s edge. Her father raised his hand and she walked over to stand with them while they all made the short walk to the water. The younger children began to hunt for chocolate eggs while the adults shucked their clothing and transformed.
Sicily took a seat on the grass and watched close to a hundred bunnies hopping around while the children squealed and cuddled them. This was the one day that no one minded.
A large brown rabbit hopped toward her, carrying a daffodil in his mouth. She smiled and blushed as he put the flower on her hand. “Thank you, Warren Master.”
He flicked his ears in irritation. He was always perturbed when she called him by his title rather than his name.
When she was younger and stupid, she had thought that they might have a chance at a life together, but when he became the prime buck in the warren, there was no way in hell that he could make his life with a random.
He cuddled up against her thighs, and against her better judgement, she stroked his fur. He was so very soft in comparison to her exterior in her animal form. Not cuddling him was an act of will.
The children suddenly squealed and clumped at the water’s edge.
Sicily dumped Roger to the side and walked to see what was so exciting.
In all its calm splendour, a white swan was cruising toward the shore. The gleam of awareness let Sicily know that this was a shifter and not a natural swan who had gotten lost. “Come on, kids. Back away.”
“But, Spike, it’s so pretty.”
“Come on, back to the hunt. I bet the proper Easter bunny left even more goodies under that raspberry bush.”
The dozen kids made a run for the bushes. The swan paddled into the shallows and shifted into a man with white-blonde hair and smiling amber eyes.
She had seen him around the council centre but never met him. “Yes?”
His lips curved. “From this angle, I can see right through your dress.”
She laughed and put her hands on her hips. “From this angle, I can see everything. The water must be very cold. State your business. You are distracting the kids from the egg hunt.”
He looked down and scowled before raising his head. “My business is rather involved, so I would rather speak to you privately.”
She looked around at the kids and the watchful bunnies hopping around. “This way. Into the forest.”
He rose out of the water like an ancient god and she beckoned him to follow her. She could feel Roger watching her, but he had to stay with the warren.
She walked a few meters into the woods, just far enough that the dappled shade covered them from casual observation.
“What is it?”
He straightened, completely at ease in his nudity. “Introductions first. My name is Albert Argent.”
“Alliteration. Nice. Sicily Markum, random hedgehog.”
He cleared his throat. “As of now, you are the only hedgehog. All other members of your kind have been assessed and they are all deceased. You are the only one currently alive.”
She reeled back and leaned against an oak. “I knew there weren’t many of us, but all dead?”
“Please understand, most were natural causes, but a few have gone missing, and when those men you took down woke, they were looking for Jarok as the last hedgehog. They still won’t say why.”
She continued to lean on the tree and gave him a dazed look. “Our hides can be used for benign attraction and distraction, as well as defence. We make good spies and our hides are valued if they can get them off us before we shift.”
“We don’t know why they want you and they won’t say, but you are going to have me as a bodyguard until they find out.”
“Did they clear it with the warren master?”
“I believe they are working on it now.”
“Well, he is that fluffy thing behind you, so you can check with him.” She smiled and jerked her head. “He can sort you out with some trousers as well. That falls within his purview. If you will excuse me, I have to tell the tale of the Easter bunny to the girls and boys too young to shift.” Sicily smiled and sashayed past him as Roger gained his feet.
The boys and girls were all hyper with chocolate, but she got them calmed down and settled while she sat and told them of the first Easter bunny, the bravest shifter of them all. A small body and a big heart marked their bloodline, and one day, the Easter bunny might hop again. If it did, the children needed to know what would be expected of them.
Sicily never got tired of telling the story, never stopped imagining another Easter bunny in the future with golden fur and a heart as big as all the open meadows in the warren.
Even for a hedgehog, it was something to dream about.
Chapter Two
Once the children got their stories and had their baskets organized, their parents and older siblings shifted back into their human forms and got dressed. The picnic was about to begin in earnest.
Sicily walked back to her car and grabbed the blanket from the back seat. Her parents placed their blanket next to hers and gave her a concerned look.
Her mother asked, “Sicily, who was that swan?”
“His name is Albert, Mom. Roger is checking his credentials, but he says that he is here at the request of the council. He gave me some bull about me being the last of my species.” She shrugged and smiled at the teen who handed her a plate loaded with fried chicken, potato salad and carrots.
Her father leaned around his wife. “What?”
“Keep your voice down, Dad. It is probably nothing.” She looked up the hill where Roger and Albert were approaching. Sadly, they were both fully clothed and each had a grim expression.
Casual nudity was one of the perks of being a shifter. You could take the measure of those around you simply by looking. Their inner animal disclosed their attitudes, so once you had shifted with someone, you had a good idea of their psyche.
The men stopped next to their blankets. Roger made the introductions. “Edgar and Verona Markum, this is Albert Argent from the Shifter Council. He is here to protect Sicily until something can be done to find another hedgehog. Officially, she is the last of her kind until we find someone else, and the council is looking.”
Verona and Edgar looked at each other. Edgar asked, “But, Sicily is a random. Won’t there be more?”
Roger ran his fingers through his tawny hair. “No one knows. You know as well as I do that the mechanism by which randoms occur is not understood. With the mythicals, of course, they always keep a steady population, but with standard creatures…I don’t know that this situation has ever occurred before.”
Albert smiled at Sicily and asked, “May I sit?”
She sighed and tried to be gracious. “Please.”
Roger hesitated, but she gave him a serious look through her lashes.
“Thank you, Warren Master, for confirming his credentials.”
He nodded shortly and headed over to the gathering of single females who were waiting for him.
When Sicily had been in high school, she had been one of those giggling girls. Even then, Roger’s ascension to warren master had been obvious. For a while, they had dated until she had gotten the first call from the Shifter Council. At that moment, their lives had split in two very different directions.
Albert took a seat next to her and leaned back on his hands. “This is a lovely prospect.”
One of the teens came toward him and handed him a plate with a shy smile. He thanked her and she blushed furiously before she scampered away.
“Are all the women around here so charming?” Albert settled in to eat.
Sicily looked at him with narrow eyes. “Yes, but we scratch and we bite when irritated.”
He nodded and took the soda that another
young woman handed him. “Fair enough.”
She sighed and picked at her meal. “What is your plan?”
“A safe house has been arranged for you where no one will expect it.” Albert smiled.
“Wonderful. That was not what I had in mind for the weekend.”
“It didn’t fit into my plans either, but unless the Goddess sees fit to put more hedgehogs in the world, you are in dire need of protection.”
“Why? Who is coming after me? ” she bit viciously at a carrot.
“There is still a consortium of elves who are interested in obtaining exotics. Their people are trying to weed them out, but it is a slow process. You have to be tucked away where they can’t get at you.”
Sicily ran through all the obvious locations in her mind as she mechanically worked through the meal. The kids started to play tag near the river under the watchful eyes of the tweens.
“This is a fairly large community.” Albert observed.
“It is. About one hundred and sixty people at any given time. Sometimes more, sometimes less.” Sicily knew that her parents were listening to every word. Rabbit ears weren’t just decorative.
Her mother leaned over. “Albert, was it? How large is your community?”
“Twenty-four pairs and sixteen cygnets. Ten cobs looking for mates.”
Her father asked, “Do you mingle with other flocks?”
“It’s a bevy, but yes.”
Verona asked, “What’s a cob?”
“Unattached males.” He finished his plate and handed it off to the young man who came to retrieve it. “Your people are well trained.”
Sicily had to smile. “It is payment for all the years hunting Easter eggs. Now that they are full shifters, they get to experience the hopping around during the event. It makes them adults in the eyes of our community.”
“Do they enjoy it?”
Sicily shrugged. “They get a voice in the warren’s elections, they enjoy the full rights of a citizen of our community and are allowed to begin experimenting with sex once they reach sixteen.”
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