Burning Transgressions (Shifter City Book 1)

by Liam Kingsley

  Logan nodded groggily. Made sense. Couldn’t stay in one place too long or someone would notice.

  “Your backpack’s fully loaded,” Hail said, handing him the bag. “Just in case.”

  Logan blinked blearily at him as he accepted the pack. “You aren’t coming?”

  Hail shook his head. “She doesn’t completely trust me,” he said ruefully. “Doesn’t think her mom would, either. I’ll be babysitting the van until you guys get back.”

  “Okay,” Logan said, rubbing his eyes and yawing. “Got water in here?”

  “Yep,” Hail said as he handed Logan a travel mug. “And iced coffee.”

  Logan glanced at the cup suspiciously, then took a sip. “Oh that’s good,” he groaned. “It’s almost like you know me or something.”

  Hail grinned. “One sip of that swill was enough to burn it in my mind forever. Better get going though, Mariella seemed impatient.”

  Logan nodded, yawned again, and stepped out of the van. He blinked up at the steep slope that he’d driven down and shook his head at himself. The fact that they had made it to the bottom intact was a miracle. He pulled out the map and looked it over, committing it to memory, then shoved it in his pocket as he started to climb. The afternoon sun was blisteringly hot, and he wished that Mariella had decided to do this at night.

  “Could have gotten more sleep that way, too,” he grumbled.

  He walked the quarter mile to the canyon, then checked his map again. If he hadn’t been so tired and out of sorts, he would have taken a moment to appreciate the oasis. Towering, sculpted spires reflected off of the deep blues and flirtatious greens of the water below. White waterfalls burst through the painted stone here and there, decorating the walls of the canyon with shimmering rainbows. Exotic, rare flowers teased his senses as he climbed down, hand over hand, feet shuffling as he stumbled over the small holds in the rock face. The smooth wall changed color under his hands, from red, to white, to orange, with purples and blues running through here and there. He jumped the last ten feet and landed with a thud, then checked his map again. It instructed him to walk half a mile until he came to a small opening in the rock where a stream sometimes trickled.

  “At least it’s cooler down here,” he sighed, and took a step.

  Gunfire echoed through the canyon, and Logan crouched and whirled. Another shot, then another. It sounded like it was coming from everywhere, and he didn’t know which way to run. A plume of purple smoke rose from behind a pointed rock across the stream, and he made a beeline for it. The water was colder than he expected, and knocked the wind out of him, but he hit his stride quickly and made it to the other side before the smoke had cleared entirely. He raced along the narrow bank, stopping just long enough to pull a gun out of his bag before darting around the rock barrel first.

  Shadows moved through the cloud of purple. Shots rang out every few seconds, and Logan ducked behind the rock once more. Ripping his pack open, he rifled through for the gas mask, and strapped it on his face. He checked that his gun was loaded. It was, with darts. A second gun in his bag carried bullets, and he pulled it out, loaded it, then charged into the fray. Gas masks made monsters out of the humans and shifters within the smoke. Logan didn’t know who to target, not at first. As the smoke began to clear the fight compressed, centering around a shifter who was locked in a vicious battle with something that Logan couldn’t identify at first. Fur covered it from head to toe, but it was only as tall as a man and its legs only bent the one way.

  The others noticed him, and suddenly he was surrounded. They didn’t wait for him to react, and his guns were rendered useless as he was dogpiled in seconds under slashing knives, kicking boots, and furious fists. He fired one shot into the air, but it did nothing to deter them. He struggled to shift under the crushing weight and furious blows, but even when he had, they didn’t stop. They were on a mission, and seemed utterly careless for their own safety. In beast form, Logan slashed at their legs and torsos, and though they bled, they didn’t stop. Like zombies or robots, they just kept coming, hacking at his flesh and pummeling him with blunt body parts.

  Every time he found his feet, they brought him down again. He used the tazer, to no avail. It didn’t even faze them. He slashed at them, trying to disable them, but they would not be disabled. He heard sniper fire from above, again and again, but none of the hunters around him fell. One lunged at his face and he dodged just in time to see a tranquilizer dart bury itself in the man’s neck. It didn’t even slow him down. Panicking for his life, Logan shut his human mind down entirely, freeing the beast. Claws and teeth, strength and speed. Survival.

  What happened next was something that he would never remember, and Hail, who was perched at the top of the canyon with the sniper rifle, would never forget. Logan’s claws tore through the hunters, two and three at a time. With brutal precision, he removed heads and hearts. It was over in seconds, with the hunters lying in pieces on the ground. Logan stood tall and howled. He looked around and saw Mariella, still locked in battle with the formless shifter. Logan raced over and slashed it across the back, ripping the fur-covered skin to shreds. It fell away as the person inside kept fighting. It was a man, George to be specific, dressed in the hide of a shifter. Mariella took this all in as it happened, and with a roar of furious rage, she plunged her claws deep into his newly-exposed chest.

  “What did you do,” she snarled as the light went out of his eyes. “What the fuck did you do?!”

  He died with a smirk on his face. She pulled away from him, her lip curling with disgust. She and Logan looked at each other, then the scene around them. Thirteen hunters in total, all dead. Hail at the top of the canyon.

  “What the hell happened?” Logan asked. “Did they follow us?”

  “Didn’t have to,” she said disgustedly. “Robert led them here.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Hell if I know. Loyalty? Money? Didn’t have a chance to ask before George came at me in that skin. You know this fucker was limping and moaning all the way here, telling me he was too hurt to go on, begging me to go back to the van for painkillers. I mean, it worked out for me, I was going to have to find a way to ditch him anyway, but then? But then. The second I walk away, this asshole starts strutting like he never felt better in his life. Scampered right down here with no problems. Met up with these bozos, and they start talking and laughing, and you know I’m listening.”

  “Duh.”

  “So they’re all like, ‘did they buy it?’ and he says, ‘like a girl at a bogo’. Whatever the hell that means. Then George says, ‘I knew the opium would work. Straight to the bloodstream. Didja have a good nap?’ And they all laughed some more. And then I fired a shot, they fired back, then they disappeared behind the rock. I threw the bomb. Lot of good that did.”

  “Where’s Robert?”

  “Robert,” she snarled, “is a traitor, a liar, and a thief.”

  “Harsh,” Logan said. “But where is he?”

  They searched the entire area. Hail came down from the canyon to help, but it was pointless. Robert had slipped off in the midst of battle, and he was nowhere to be found. Logan looked from Hail to Mariella as they searched.

  “Hold on,” he said. “Thought you were babysitting the van? Why are you…oh, hell no. You thought I was the leak? Me? Really. Really Mare?”

  “Sorry,” she shrugged, chagrined. “Had the good dicking stupids.”

  Logan narrowed his eyes at her for a long moment, then shrugged. “Reasonable,” he said.

  They returned to the battleground after an hour of fruitless searching, and stared at the mess before them.

  “You did good,” Logan said, nudging his friend. “So what do we do with this?”

  “Get them all in one spot,” Mariella said. “I’ll go get help.”

  “Woah, woah, help from who?” Hail said. “This is mass murder.”

  “Someone who doesn’t give two shits about human law,” Mariella said. “Get to work. I’ll be back.”<
br />
  “I didn’t think it was you,” Hail told him as they started working. “Not really. All the evidence was pointing to you, though.”

  “If the evidence was pointing to me, then you probably should have suspected me,” Logan pointed out dryly.

  “Yeah. I mean. I did, sort of. Following the logic of it and all, it did seem like the most reasonable conclusion.”

  “So why did you say you didn’t think so?”

  “Because I saw you yesterday. After the ambush. Watched your heart break when you couldn’t find enough baking soda. Watched your eyes fill with tears when Mariella passed out. For a second I saw you with your walls down, and you know what?”

  “What?”

  “It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

  Logan shifted uncomfortably and shrugged. “Just doing….”

  “Don’t do that,” Hail said, almost begging. “Because if you minimize it I’ll feel like an idiot, and if I feel like an idiot then I won’t say stuff like that anymore, and if I don’t say stuff like that anymore then the tips of your ears won’t go all red anymore and that would be a tragedy of epic proportions, so just don’t, okay? You cared, you did, so….” Logan cut him off with a crushing kiss.

  They broke apart after a few minutes and Hail smiled gently as his emerald eyes glittered in the afternoon sun. “Say it,” he whispered insistently.

  Logan hesitated for a moment, rolling the unfamiliar words through his mind and over his tongue. “I care,” he said finally.

  “About?” Hail prompted.

  “Don’t push it,” Logan said. “That’s as far as my give-a-shits go.”

  “For now,” Hail said, kissing Logan’s face.

  Logan’s mouth quirked with amusement. Hail’s utter dismissal of his misanthropic world view should have upset him, but it didn’t. It gave him hope, somehow, that Hail saw something in him that he couldn’t see in himself. Maybe it was possible for Logan to have the things he’d written off years ago. Those things that he’d dismissed as being for weaklings who couldn’t stand on their own. Friends. Family. Community. He realized, with a bit of shock, that he craved those things.

  Chapter Twenty- One

  They finished their gruesome task in an hour, then sat in the shade of a rippling, twisted stone. It had been physically, mentally, and emotionally draining, and they were happy to sit in silence for a while and just look out over the water. The water was peaceful, glittering in the sunlight, reflecting the wild landscape around it. Logan struck him the same way. Deep and powerful, ever-changing but always the same, reflecting the world around him without really being part of it. Hail squeezed Logan’s hand, wondering how much of that was his perception, and how much was his imagination. He wanted it to be true, and that clouded his ability to assess the reality. After a long stretch of silence, their pendants buzzed. Logan answered.

  “What’s up?”

  “Did you finish?” Mariella asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Alright. I found my mom, she’s fine. I’m bringing her and my brothers over there, we’ll handle disposal. You two need to go get my truck. My family’s coming back to base with us.”

  “You got it, boss.”

  “Thanks.” She sounded tired, and Hail felt for her. Being the boss wasn’t much fun when shit hit the fan.

  It took them a while to get the van out of the ditch, but they managed it in the end. The sun soaked the asphalt until it seemed to melt and slither before their eyes like a long, black snake. Hail couldn’t believe that he had actually lived through the last few days. It was hellish, but it had been an adventure. He’d always wanted to have an adventure. He grinned at Logan and squeezed his hand, happy to be alive. Logan sketched a smile back at him, but he was distracted.

  “You alright?” He asked.

  “Thinking,” Logan said shortly. “Something you said.”

  Hail winced, and a ball of anxiety curled in his chest.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  Logan looked startled. “For what?”

  “For suspecting you. That’s what you’re upset about, isn’t it?”

  “Dude, no,” Logan said with a small laugh. “No, I told you. If the evidence says I did it, follow the evidence. Logic and evidence. Don’t believe shit I say. I’ve told you all this.”

  “Yeah,” Hail said slowly. “So what are you upset about?”

  “Who says I’m upset?”

  “Your face.”

  “Your mother!”

  “Logan, be serious for one second. What’s on your mind?”

  Logan sighed and wriggled in his seat. He looked at Hail, then out at the horizon, then back to Hail.

  “A heavy, warm, buzzing feeling,” he said.

  “Your foot’s asleep?”

  “God, you’re an idiot.”

  “Well if you would quit talking in riddles for one second, maybe I could be less of an idiot.”

  “I think I’m pregnant. God that sounds weird. Last time I heard that a chick was saying it to me.”

  “You slept with women?”

  “Everybody’s gotta experiment sometime.”

  “Was she?”

  “Pregnant? No. She was psychotic. Me, I’m both. I think.”

  “You’re psychotic?”

  “Glad you noticed.”

  “You’re pregnant.”

  “Pretty sure. Assuming you described it accurately, I…Ow! What’s that for?” Hail had slapped his arm, hard.

  “You’re pregnant and you single-handedly fought a battle with a bunch of people who could actually kill you. Two! Two battles! You stayed awake for some ridiculous number of hours, then swam across an entire river, not to mention all the paralyzing smoke, oh, and, and, the caffeine, the cigarettes, the booze…!”

  “What’s your point? I’m essentially invincible. You said yourself that shifters are more protected in the, you know, uterus places and whatever.”

  “Still! You’re out here proving that you’re superman while you’re pregnant?”

  “Dude, it’s like two cells right now, max. Do you know how accurate something would have to be to kill two tiny little cells?”

  Hail opened his mouth and closed it again. Anxiety, panic, joy, fear and trepidation warred within him, and he was forced to pull over to let the excess spill out of his gut onto the hot, glittering sand.

  “With that reaction, I’d offer to abort, but apparently that isn’t a thing for us.”

  “Be glad it’s not,” Hail said, wiping his mouth. “If you did offer, I’d lose my shit.”

  “You? I doubt that.”

  “No, man, don’t. Two cells or two million cells, that’s my kid. Or…it will be. I would be livid.”

  “Livid is a good word,” Logan mused. “If you read it like a flip book, it looks like someone gesticulating angrily.”

  Frustration shot out of Hail’s eyes at Logan. How was he not taking this seriously?

  “After this mission, you’re staying home. We’ll set you up in a house if you don’t want to live with me, you’ll see me or Snow every week for a checkup, we’ll get you in the parenting classes and the prenatal yoga, talk to the dietitian, we’ll have to figure out your actual due date so we can set up a nursery, you will not be leaving Regis Thyme until….”

  “Woah, woah, woah! Pull up! Are you really telling me what to do right now? Is that what’s happening? Feels like that’s what’s happening. What in the fuck makes you think that you have the right to….”

  “It’s my baby, and you’re insane,” Hail interrupted.

  “Insane? Wow.”

  “Okay, maybe insane is a little strong, but….”

  “No, no, you said it, now own it.”

  “Fine,” Hail snapped. “Yeah, Logan, you have problems. Okay? If you spend the next year the same way you spent the last year, that kid’s gonna come out looking like Sylvester Stallone after three rounds with Mike Tyson in a rotating tube full of boulders over a pit full o
f lava and alligators.”

  “Alligators can’t live in….”

  “Special lava alligators!”

  “Yeah, I’m the insane one.”

  “Logan,” Hail sighed heavily. “Look, man. I like you. I like you a lot. Shit, I crave you, constantly. Your body, your wit, your mind, everything. And that heroic shit you pulled yesterday kind of sealed the deal for me. I’m really stuck on you. I had this whole plan, I was going to stick with you for a couple years, show you that there are some people worth trusting and opening up to, we would fall in love, get married, have a couple kids. But we skipped to the end and you’re still as self-destructive and out of control as when we met, and….”

  “Really?!” Logan exploded. “Really. Are you pissed at me right now that I killed those hunters? Newsflash, Hail, if I didn’t kill them they were gonna kill me! They were on beta blockers or some shit, they weren’t going to stop. What did you want me to do, roll over and let them gut me? Hell no, not in this lifetime.”

  “I didn’t say that,” Hail snapped. “But you did jump right into the middle of a huge battle, knowing that you were pregnant. The fact that you won was sheer luck. You could have died, and the baby would have died with you. You want me to give you an award for only killing in self-defense? Here it is, here’s your award. You didn’t steal any cars today, do you want a trophy? Or how bout a blue ribbon for not kicking kittens?”

  Logan was quiet for a long moment as Hail trembled with adrenaline. He ground his teeth to keep his mouth shut and focused on the road.

  “A blue ribbon couldn’t hurt,” Logan said with a small, almost timid smile.

  Hail did a double take, then laughed with surprise.

  “Fine,” he said. “When we get home, I promise, I will get you a blue ribbon on one condition.”

  “Isn’t not kicking kittens enough?” Logan asked plaintively.

  “The condition,” Hail continued, ignoring him. “Is that you stay inside the Regis Thyme walls and take full advantage of every healthy thing we have there until that baby is born.”