A Lion's Heart

by A. C. Arthur

  There, she’d said it.

  While Nisa had been chatting up Decan on their ride here, she’d also been rehearsing how she was going to let her dear Uncle Jace know that she was on to the real reason she’d been summoned here. Before leaving Assembly Headquarters she’d begun tracing the electronic footprints left on the Central Zone’s security system. Whoever had gotten into their system had also created a doorway so that these unlisted shifters could enter Oasis. And once the trio of cheetahs had stopped them in the tunnels with their information, Nisa presumed they were unlisted as well.

  Decan wasn’t saying a word, but she knew he was pissed. The first thing he was going to ask her when they were alone, was why hadn’t she told him this before now. Her reason would be, because telling him all she’d been able to find out wasn’t going to get her the job as Central Zone Faction Leader.

  Jace cursed and ran a hand down the back of his head, while Amelia sat back in her chair and attempted to hide a smile.

  “What I didn’t understand at first was why the files that were tampered with were such a big deal. They were just notes from someone named Blaze Trekas and most of them were written in another language. I didn’t have time to translate them, but I plan to.”

  “No,” Jace said as he sat down again. “You will not translate them and you will not do anymore research into Lial, the Ruling Cabinet or anything else. You are here to mimic your holodeck from the Assembly Headquarters to ours. That’s it. Fuck! Rome’s going to lose his mind when he finds out you’ve been digging into this. And then, he’s going to want your head and probably mine for not stopping her!”

  The last was said to Decan, who had just sat forward, letting his elbows rest on his thighs as he glared at Nisa.

  “She’s not going to research anymore about this topic,” Decan said slowly. “Not one more word.”

  Nisa ignored both of them. “I’m going to do whatever I can to protect us. If Lial is working with the Ruling Cabinet who has been killing Shadows for years, then I’m going to be a part of stopping him. So we might as well start with the gala. What are you planning? You’re sending someone up there aren’t you? Who is it?”

  There was silence and then Nisa’s gaze narrowed on Decan.

  “This is why you were here all along. You came so that he could brief you and you could go above ground and try to stop Lial. Was that also part of the information Kyss brought to you? She said she picked up Lial’s scent at the scene of Gillian Peterson’s murder. Were you wondering why he would kill the family members of the Ruling Cabinet if he was working for them?”

  She had so many pieces moving in her mind, some of which she’d put together, but others that were still dangling out in space. This morning when she’d gotten dressed she’d felt rejuvenated because she’d found so much information that had begun to make sense. Now that the information was out, she wasn’t sure she had it figured out after all.

  “I think it’s been a very long night,” Amelia began.

  When Nisa was ready to speak over her, Amelia simply nodded in Nisa’s direction and continued. “This discussion will come from clearer heads if we take this up tomorrow morning after breakfast. Now, Nisa, I will show you to your room.”

  As far as being handled went, it was one of the smoother scenarios Nisa had watched. Actually, it was along the lines of how her mother might have handled the situation. Jace was clearly irritated and Decan, well, Nisa could smell the waves of anger rolling off him and had to admit that she wasn’t looking forward to their confrontation. The one that would come tonight, the moment he guessed she was alone. So, in an effort to retain any allegiance with the two male shifters, Nisa stood. She looked to Jace and offered him all she could by way of an apology.

  “I can help,” she told him. “I know the role you and my father would like me to play in all this and I accept that, but only if I’m allowed to help in other ways as well. I’ve been trained for this and I know there will come a time in this investigation that you will need a skill that I possess. I’m just trying to speed up the process.”

  “Get some rest,” was Jace’s simple reply.

  Decan had not spoken another word before she left.

  “You’re a feisty one,” Amelia said as they boarded an elevator and went down to the floors where the sleeping rooms were located. “I should have guessed since Kalina is a very spirited jaguar and Rome, well, he’s Rome.”

  Nisa only smiled in response because she wasn’t certain what to say to that remark. She didn’t like when people presumed to know her or what type of shifter she was, solely based on her genetics. They had no idea how different her thoughts were from her parents, and she wasn’t about to tell this one either.

  “Listen, I’m sure you have some sort of plan formulated in your mind,” Amelia continued when they stepped off the elevator after traveling two floors down.

  “But allow me to offer a piece of advice.”

  Amelia stopped and turned to Nisa, blocking her path.

  “Don’t push your way in,” she told Nisa. “Male Shadow Shifters are genetically trained to protect the female. Whether the female believes it’s necessary or not. So if they think you’re in danger by getting involved in this investigation, they’ll do whatever is necessary to keep you away from it.”

  “I don’t need protection,” Nisa stated. “I’ve been training since I was four years old. I’m ready for whatever this investigation may bring.”

  “Are you Nisa?” Amelia asked. “Are you ready to stare down the barrel of a human’s gun and realize that your life is over in that instant? Or, are you ready to fight a rogue until one of you is left dead? Because that’s where this particular investigation is leading.”

  Her words were meant to make Nisa uncomfortable and possibly to frighten her. Nisa didn’t budge.

  “And that’s why my father didn’t want me involved because he doesn’t think I can handle myself?”

  Amelia shook her head. “I’m not even going to put myself on the line by daring to insinuate what the Assembly Leader is thinking. What I will say is he wouldn’t have sent you here, knowing what’s going on in the Central Zone, if he didn’t think you could help.”

  “And that’s what I plan to do,” Nisa countered. “I want to help.”

  “I was in the room during the last call between your father and Jace. Rome’s idea of help in this instance is you sitting behind that holodeck and working your magic there.”

  “That’s ridiculous when I can be of use in both places.”

  “But you can only stay alive in one,” Amelia said.

  Nisa sighed.

  “I won’t be kept in a corner. I know how to handle myself.” She raised a hand when Amelia was about to say something else.

  “And no, I’m not being stubborn and totally dismissing my father’s feelings for me. I respect and love him and Uncle Jace, too. I know they’re only looking out for my best interests. But this is my life. What good is it if I can’t live it the way I want? If I can’t live it to help my people?”

  To Nisa’s surprise Amelia smiled.

  “And that’s where my advice will help. Don’t push your way in. You have information, use it to show them you’re an asset. And then use it to hold over their heads if necessary.”

  When Nisa only stared quizzically at her, Amelia turned and continued walking down a long hallway. She stopped in front of a door and then turned to face Nisa again.

  “Get some rest and be ready to meet with them tomorrow. They’ll try to shut you down. Make sure you have something that stops them from doing so.”

  “Something like what?”

  “Something they don’t have. Leverage,” Amelia told her and then walked away.

  Nisa went into the room and immediately pulled her board from her bag. Amelia was working alongside Jace which in itself was a questionable feat. Every Shadow Shifter in the Assembly knew that Jace Maybon only slept with females. He didn’t work with them, nor did he commit to them in any
way. The mere fact that Amelia was—even under the executive assistant title—acting as Jace’s second in command, was big. It was very big and Nisa respected the female’s position, as well as her advice.

  So she was going to find that leverage and first thing tomorrow morning when she met with Jace and whoever else attended, she was going to be prepared to present them with an offer they could not refuse.

  Her life depended on it.

  “What did you tell her?” Jace asked the moment Nisa and Amelia were out of the room.

  “I didn’t have anything to tell her,” he replied, because that was the correct answer.

  All that Decan knew about the Ruling Cabinet and Lial Johansen, was information he’d obtained on his own and through working with Keller and Gold. He had never discussed any of this with the Assembly Leader. Nisa, on the other hand, could have overheard a conversation between her father and his FLs, because there was definitely truth to what she’d said. The things Decan hadn’t known were confirmed by the look on Jace’s face right now.

  “My assignment was to bring her here to help you with tech issues you were having in this region and to talk to you about a lead you have on the Cole Linden search,” Decan said, being careful to keep his voice level and his heart rate steady.

  Any one of these could give away the fact that he was lying. The FL would instantly pick up that scent and undoubtedly question him further. The ability to hide scents and restrain his cat was a hard won effort, which Decan had been extremely thankful for over the years. It was also the one that was going to allow him to finally put an end to the threat against all Shadows living above ground.

  Jace was now standing, rubbing a hand over the lightly trimmed beard at his chin. Shadows didn’t show the same signs of aging as humans, so even though the FL was approaching his early fifties, he had no gray hair and no wrinkles on his face. His body was still fit in gray slacks and white dress shirt. His skin tone was a little darker than Nisa’s, his hair cut low, eyes dark and assessing. Decan had done his research on this Shadow, just like he had on the other FLs, the rogues, and every member of the Ruling Cabinet. Jace Maybon could be fair. He could also be vicious.

  “I’d planned to talk to you about that tomorrow at breakfast,” Jace said as he turned to face Decan.

  The FL leaned back against a black lacquered table with two long rectangular shaped lamps on each end.

  “The murders surrounding the family of Ruling Cabinet members are concerning. Bas was planning to take one of his teams above ground to investigate in the upcoming weeks,” he told him.

  Decan only listened. In the first two years after the Unveiling, Rome’s plan for the Stateside Shadows was to continue to work amongst the humans and to prove to them that not all the Shadows were dangerous. He’d even proposed to then President of the United States, Wilson Reed, that Shadows who could not abide by the country’s laws, should be punished just as the human offenders. Albeit with some modifications because a man or woman who could shift into a three to four hundred pound cat wasn’t going to be easily contained in a cell with the general population. President Reed had gone along with Rome’s proposal, at least in the beginning. Then the President’s wife had been involved in a rogue attack at a museum. She’d died before he could get to her. The directive to kill all Shadows upon sight had come from Reed’s Vice-President because Reed was inconsolable. Reed’s Vice-President was Taggert Mackey, Ewen Mackey’s uncle.

  “Faction Leader Perry was going to investigate whether or not a Shadow was committing the murders?” Decan asked even though he thought he already knew the answer.

  Everyone thought a Shadow was killing those humans, Shadows and humans alike. Kyss’s announcement that she’d picked up Lial’s scent at the scene of the last murder added to that assumption. But Decan wasn’t convinced.

  “Yes,” Jace answered. “He and his team were going to question some of the Shadows still living above ground and then, because a few members of his team were younger and had no previous ties to a life above ground, they were going to attempt to get closer to the cabinet members to see what they could find out.”

  “And then what?” Decan asked because to his knowledge Rome and the Assembly hadn’t done enough to protect the Shadows above ground.

  They hadn’t done enough to fight for all of the Shadows’ right to live safely above ground. If he were to gain the FL position for the Central Zone, his first act would be to bring them up from the underground. They didn’t belong here. Not on a permanent basis.

  There were some Shadows still living up there, but the Assembly Leader openly chastised them for putting their families and the remaining Shadows in danger by tempting the humans. It wasn’t a stance Decan would have thought a leader like Roman Reynolds would ever take, but it’s precisely what he’d done for the last twenty years. Decan planned to put a stop to it, even though doing so would most definitely anger the Assembly Leader and those who faithfully followed him, including Decan’s father.

  “If it’s a Shadow committing the murders, than we will deal with him or her. It’s our place to punish our own. If it’s a human, then we make sure that information gets into the right hands and we walk away.”

  “What would be the right hands?” Decan pressed.

  Jace stared at him a moment. He was no doubt sizing him up, trying to see if Decan could actually be trusted. Decan let his palms rest on his thighs. He stayed seated in the chair he’d taken upon entering the room. Keeping eye contact with the FL, he focused on breathing evenly and thinking about his own plans for the Shadow Shifters’ future. Those were true and honest thoughts for Decan. So were the thoughts that always circled back to Nisa.

  In the months he’d spent at the Assembly Headquarters learning all that he could about Roman Reynolds and his motives for what he thought was the right thing to do for their people, Decan’s mind had betrayed him by focusing way too much on Nisa. He’d known it was a problem then and probably should have foreseen the situation he found himself in now, but again, he couldn’t tell the Assembly Leader that he would not accept this assignment. Especially since this assignment put him in the perfect position to claim his personal revenge.

  “There’s an FBI agent that we’ve known for a long time. We trust him and he trusts us. That was the new development I wanted to speak to you about,” Jace said. “He’ll be at the gala and he’ll be looking for you.”

  This was getting more interesting by the moment.

  “Why?” Decan asked.

  His cat was restless, pacing with irritation that Decan had just now accepted was because of the separation from Nisa. The cat needed to be near her, while the man still attempted to fight that entire scenario. Decan lifted an arm and let it rest on the table beside him because he needed to move, to take some type of stance against the beast that prowled inside. It was a simple movement, but one he hoped would be enough. The last thing he needed was for the FL to pick up on any agitation within him.

  “Because he’s been working with Blaez Trekas to find Cole,” Jace told him.

  The words seemed solemn and hefty in the silence of the room. Decan wasn’t certain how he should proceed.

  This seemed like a good place to start. “Who is Blaez Trekas?”

  “He’s a wolf shifter. They call them lycans. Cole sought help from Blaez and his pack not long after the Unveiling. Then there was a fire and Cole was gone again.”

  The one word brought man and cat in alignment. The lion woofed and the man sat forward in the chair. It recalled a fire, one that had killed many, humans and shifters.

  “And now the FBI agent and the lycan are working with you to find this Shadow. Why? What’s so important about him that he must be found and that the search for him brings so many from different sides?” Decan asked.

  From the moment Rome had mentioned this search for Cole, it had been the lowest issue on Decan’s list of priorities. This Shadow had been missing for twenty years. Either he couldn’t come back to the lif
e he knew or he didn’t want to. Either way, Decan had better things to do with his time and efforts than to spend it trying to find him. Still, these additional facts concerning the Shadow’s disappearance had him curious.

  “Cole was my closest friend. We fought alongside each other and governed together with Rome and Bas. I know he’s alive and I want him found. If the lycan and the FBI agent can help me do that, then that’s what will be done. Rome said you were the one to bridge the connection between those above ground and us. He said your extended time above ground and in the human military would work to our advantage should the time arise. Well,” Jace said with a nod. “The time has come.”

  That it had, Decan thought as he slowly stood to his feet. The time when he would have to decide whether his own personal goals outweighed a path that might assuage his father. He wanted to answer and to be clear on where he stood at the same time, but something stopped him.

  She was on the move.

  CHAPTER 8

  Nisa paused just before touching the control panel that would open the door leading above ground.

  “How is it that you know what I’m going to do and where I am?”

  She spoke quietly without turning to face him.

  “And why do I feel you when you’re near as if you are a part of me?”

  Decan didn’t want to answer either of those questions. Partly because he wasn’t totally sure himself and also because he might be afraid of the answer.

  “It is unlike anything that I’ve ever experienced before and as hard as I try to go back and recall any anomaly related to being a shifter that would possibly explain how this is possible when we’ve only known each other such a short time, I cannot come up with any.”