Nightshatter

by L. E. Horn

  That thought made her hesitate. Chris said as much, she offered. He’s planned for Garrett to stay with me if that becomes the case.

  I think I’ll need you.

  I know you need me, she said with a hint of smugness.

  Sam.

  Okay. Less ripping and tearing, more hiding and helping.

  Thank you.

  Lily walked ahead of us as I shuffled along the corridor. Chains clanked as we passed the rooms, and I saw eyes at the door slots—Danny’s green irises, Lucas’s, so dark they were almost black, and Reese’s disconcerting bicolor gaze.

  “They afraid of you, boss?” Travis asked when he eyed me.

  “Seems that way,” I commented, earning me a sharp glance from Lily. “Aren’t you bringing them with us?”

  “We’re piping your signal into their rooms. It’s the only way to keep them secure,” she said.

  “How can I teach them if I can’t see them?” I protested.

  “You’ll have a live feed, just like them.”

  Damn it. I’d hoped to push Lily into a situation where they had to make alternative, and therefore makeshift, arrangements. These guys didn’t rattle easily.

  It concerned Sam. Do you think you can break those manacles?

  Looking down at the steel encircling my wrist. I didn’t think an elephant could break them. I don’t know, I admitted, remembering Chris’s cage, and Peter raging in there.

  You are much stronger than Peter. You stopped a three-thousand-pound bull.

  I’m not sure what I’m capable of.

  It might be time to find out.

  We entered another room, and the sight almost stopped me cold. The center was occupied by a large metal chair fitted with cuffs at wrist and ankle height, and a band that would go around my waist. Claw marks on the arms indicated I wasn’t the first victim the chair had held. Above it hovered a helmet on a hydraulic arm, with sensors fastened over every surface. Some sensors appeared wireless, although two thick strands connected the headpiece to a bank of computers behind it.

  For an instant, the instinct to fight or flee was overwhelming. Adrenaline flooded me, and along with it came the wulf. I battled him for control.

  I sensed Sam’s anger and worry. We can’t help you, not yet.

  It’s okay. It’s too soon for the big bad wulf.

  Wallace regarded my reaction with obvious amusement. “We’ll monitor your brain activity while you work,” he said.

  The wulfleng moved to take hold of my arms, but I growled at them.

  “Call off your goons,” I said.

  Lily tilted her head to regard me before gesturing to the guards. They backed away as I shuffled to the chair. Once they had transferred my portable restraint system to the immobile one, Lily came forward and danced her claws over my thigh.

  Damn, I really wished I had some clothes. I did my best to ignore her as Wallace lowered the headpiece on its hydraulic piston. The thing must have weighed a couple hundred pounds. He inserted a small drill into sockets on the sides, then screws extended from the unit to penetrate the skin of my temples and scalp. Blood trickled down my neck. I closed my eyes and focused past the pain, and Sam joined with me until the worst of it was over.

  Sadistic bastard. I’ll castrate him, Sam growled in my head. I sensed she was on the move.

  I took a deep breath. Your castration skills are overrated. Garrett’s still got his.

  How do you know?

  Saw them. When Peter and Josh wulfed out, and again after the accident.

  I could ask why you were looking.

  Hard to miss.

  She laughed, as I had intended her to. I’ll tell him, I swear.

  Please don’t. He has a big enough ego.

  Lily hove into view. “Is this really necessary?” I asked her.

  “Wallace suggested. Daddy agreed.” She shrugged. “You’ll heal.”

  Wallace snorted as he busied himself inserting a catheter into a vein in my arm, and followed it with some kind of tiny probe that stung like hell as it went in. He finally ran around placing sensors all over my body, checking readings on his computer screen as he did so. I noticed the vial of sedative sitting on the counter, with a syringe nearby.

  The three wulfleng had retreated to stand by the door, watching me with no small amount of hostility. Like the ones on the island, they looked like normal humans, if a bit on the over-muscled side. I saw no sign of the madness infecting their brothers in the cells below.

  New and improved models, commented Sam. Their virus is under control.

  Maybe the new antiviral really does work.

  Looks promising so far.

  At some point in the lengthy preparation process, Lily stopped tracing patterns on me with her claws and pulled up a chair. The wulfleng moved to just outside in the hall, one tapped on his phone, the other two talked about the upcoming football season—mundane activities that seemed incongruous in such a Frankenstein-lab setting.

  Across from and facing me were five screens, each offering a view of a Nightshifter chained in his cell. Unlike me, they all wore sweats and tees, with their blue armbands wrapped around their biceps. Danny and Reese paced, Nate sat on the cot, and I swore he was still engaged in deep breathing. Knowing the chaos that existed within him, I had little doubt. Lucas and Travis had adopted matching cross-legged positions on their cots, despite not being able to see one another.

  So, they had only brought my core group to the resort. Until this moment, I hadn’t known for sure. Obviously, Lily had been watching us.

  If things devolved as I thought they might, the Nightshifters could end up out there in the dark, easily confused with the wulfleng guards. Sam. Tell the enforcers that my guys will be wearing blue armbands.

  I sensed her worry and doubt, and also the rush of the ground beneath her claws as she ran. It’ll be full dark by the time we get there. How can we see armbands while fighting?

  She was right, of course. I’ll tell them to shift through their clothes—you’ll see bits of gray sweats and tees. Thoughts of my guys being shot down by the enforcers made my blood run cold.

  I’ll tell them. But in the heat of battle, some guys may not care. I sensed her worry. Jason will have to step up.

  Wallace punched a few buttons. Almost as one, the Nightshifters looked up to the consoles mounted in the walls. My guys reacted with shock when they saw me, followed swiftly by anger.

  “I’m good,” I hastened to tell them, but when they didn’t respond, I rolled my eyes to Lily.

  “If you don’t want an eruption, get my audio up.”

  Her eyebrows twitched and she glared at Wallace, who hit a few more keys on his computer.

  “You’re up,” he said.

  Nate’s face was like thunder.

  I smiled into the tiny digital cameras piping my image to them. “Hey, I’m good, guys. They need to monitor me while we work. No biggie.”

  “You’re okay?” growled Nate. Danny frowned up at his screen, and Reese had risen to his feet, glaring.

  “Such loyalty,” murmured Lily. “I like the one with the pretty eyes.”

  He’d mince you into tiny pieces. I took a deep breath and addressed the guys. “I’m fine. Now, I need you to sit down. We’ll learn how to do these partial changes, but before we start, I have to warn you they can be”—I glanced at Lily—“really tiring. Your body will go through its resources quickly, so stop if you get tired. And you need to keep up your energy, so eat well. You don’t want to run out of fuel part way through a change.”

  Lily watched me as I spoke, and I realized I walked a fine line. Some of this I might have figured out on my own, but in reality, it was stuff Chris and Sam had taught me. I had an entire month of extra knowledge that Lily knew nothing about. She didn’t get where she was by being stupid, and I didn’t care for the calculation I saw in her eyes.

  No one would willingly become infected with that virus to infiltrate their operation, Sam repeated.

  That’s
the only thing stopping her from putting it all together. I think this is a pretty damned sheltered she-wulf.

  She’s an armchair-management type and hasn’t spent a lot of time in the trenches, agreed Sam with a pulse of disdain. Wants to be, though.

  Yeah. Explains some of her . . . pleasure at being here now. They really want these flashmorphs, and that’s the only reason why she’s present.

  They mentioned her coming from central, when you arrived.

  I dimly remembered that. In the time it took us to come from the island, she arrived here. Central can’t be far away.

  She’ll lead us there, once I have her screaming. We’re two hours from deployment. Can you hold on?

  I’ll do my best.

  25

  The men settled on their cots, and I stretched another hour as I guided them through a series of gradual flashmorphs. I started with the simplest that any wulfan could do—teeth and claws—and graduated to head, ears, jaws, neck, and finally, shoulder alterations. I morphed with them, demonstrating every step of the way. My experience as both an artist and a vet put me in a unique situation for visualizing the alterations. So it surprised me how easily they achieved the graduated changes. Maybe Chris was onto something.

  The ice eyes watched as I took them all back to human again. Wallace studied his data, making interested grunts, and tapping notes on his iPad.

  Lily’s phone buzzed. She listened then said, “Right,” and hung up.

  “Step it up,” she told me. “My father’s getting restless.”

  Just under an hour. We’re close, panted Sam.

  With the headgear, I couldn’t nod, but I decided to ramp things up. “Nate, do you remember how you altered your arm on the island?”

  The big man tilted his head up at me. “I was pretty mad,” he said, sounding reluctant.

  “You know how to channel that anger—do it now. Everyone else, visualize your hand morphing from human to wulf, and then extend the change up your arm. Try to stop it at your shoulder.”

  Nate’s arm changed before our eyes, and both Lucas and Travis made good progress, their forearms widening, the muscles twitching beneath their skin. Danny tried too hard, and I had to put him through a breathing exercise to relax him, then bring the emotion back in, and his arm morphed. Reese did nothing for about fifteen minutes and then suddenly his entire forearm changed to wulf.

  Lily sat on the edge of her seat, watching with a rapt expression on her face. It was all very peaceful, except deep in my mind I heard panting breath and the thump of claws on dirt as fifty enforcers raced ever closer to us.

  The click of heels announced Lily’s approach. She paused in front of me. Even though I sat, she didn’t have to bend much to run her nails along my chest.

  “Do more for me,” she said, and angled her head in for a kiss.

  This time, I kept my lips clamped, so her tongue only traced them and did not invade. But the surge of rage from a certain red-haired wulfan made all the fine hairs on my neck bristle.

  I jumped as the door to the lab slid open, revealing an enormous gray-haired wulfan with a thunderous expression. Lily pulled away and turned to face him, just as he grabbed a wulfleng by the arm.

  “Get the pilots to warm up the choppers,” he said. The man ran off.

  Lily stared at the newcomer with some consternation, and I realized he must be her father.

  “We’ve got trouble,” the man snarled. “Just got word that enforcers are heading our way from the north. An entire group. Jason must’ve cleaned out the whole damned country.”

  Crap. Even Sam’s mind voice panted as she ran. Someone ratted us out.

  I echoed her sentiments a little more forcefully, but silently. I thought it revealing that he knew Jason’s name.

  The wulfleng outside the door moved close, and Lily’s entire body had gone stiff. “Are you sure? How could they possibly know we’re here?”

  “I’ve no idea, but our contact said they’re coming straight for us. He got the info directly from an enforcer in the group. Maybe they got lucky because the helicopters are always a risk. Maybe we’ve got someone feeding them information.” He made a dismissing motion with his hands. “Too late to chase that down—they’re coming. I’ve sent the lab team out already. We’ve got to scrap the base, scrub the servers, but we need to buy time. We have Beta team, but they might not be enough. What’s the state of Alpha?” His tone was demanding. Lily looked uncertain—rattled—an unusual expression for her.

  “They’re still in rehab,” she said. “Some have responded to the new antiviral, but not all. We may lose—”

  “Point them and turn them loose,” he ordered. “Their special brand of violence may be just what we need.”

  My heart accelerated. I remembered the howls I’d heard in containment. An entire unit of Dillons turned loose on the enforcers. On Sam. From deep within came a tidal rush of rage, and I snarled.

  I will kill her, Sam said, more focused on the female wulfan than the possibility of mutant destruction. We can take them. We’ve done it before. Don’t worry.

  My wulf didn’t listen and neither did I. I was peripherally aware of the Nightshifters picking up on my anger, they’d heard the entire exchange over the live feed. I yanked against the restraints, blood running down my head and neck as I moved against the screws holding the helmet in place.

  “We have to go. Now,” her father said.

  Lily turned to trail one clawed hand down my cheek. “I’m taking him with me. We need to understand how these changes work.” She glanced at her father. “We can drug him.”

  The older wulfan nodded, glancing to the wulfleng in the hall. “Take him.”

  His wulfleng glanced between him and me, and uncertainty shuddered in their eyes as I stared them down. They both dropped their heads and looked away.

  Her father didn’t notice as he focused on Lily. “We can’t take them all, we’ll have to cut our losses. Gas the rest. I’m not leaving them for the enforcers.”

  Gas them? No.

  Dammit, Liam, we’re still twenty minutes out. Sam’s panic fed into me, and with it came power.

  I roared, hitting the restraints again, and for the first time, her father looked at me. As the wulfleng cowered away, his eyes widened.

  The screens showed the Nightshifters also going berserk, throwing themselves against their chains. I glanced up in time to see one of Nate’s chains snap, freeing his arm. Muscles in his back ripped through the tee as he bent to close huge hands around those fastened to his ankles.

  In my mind, feet pounded, but Sam sent me a surge of power.

  “His eyes—how long have they been like that?” The words returned my attention to Lily’s father, who stared intently at my face.

  Lily stood before me, watching me lunge against the restraints with a fascinated expression. “Like what?” She looked from her father to me as I pulled back and hit the steel again. They creaked under my onslaught.

  “Dammit. We’ve got to get that drug into him. How long have his eyes been changing color?” He paced to the counter and grabbed the syringe, jabbing the needle into the vial.

  My heart almost stopped at his words, as my brain finally supplied a vital bit of intel.

  My eyes were green. Sam—hers were silver.

  She frowned at me. “They always do that. I rather like it—”

  “You idiot.” Even I flinched at the venom in his voice. “He’s soulbonded. That’s how they knew where we were.”

  “Soulbonded?” Lily’s confusion was obvious. “He can’t be soulbonded. Wulfleng don’t bond. Besides he’s only been wulfleng for a month . . .” She trailed off as several anomalies clicked. “He knew how to train them. And he’s got scars all over him—dammit.” She turned on me, her face twisting into rage. “You’re working with them. The enforcers. You bastard. You played me.” She strode to me, her eyes turning iridescent with rage as she seized my face between her claws.

  “Tell your bitch you are mine,�
� she hissed.

  I will end her, promised Sam, flooding me with her rage.

  I snapped at Lily’s fingers, my teeth nearly catching her thumb.

  Sam battled me for control, wanting to rip out Lily’s throat.

  Her father snatched Lily away from my snapping jaws. “Are you crazy? Do you want shots for the rest of your life? He’s infected, Lily.” He moved behind me with the syringe. “He’ll have to be kept drugged and blind or he’ll keep sending info to the enforcers.” He grabbed my upper arm as I slammed my body against the restraints. “Grab him! Hold him still,” he ordered the wulfleng.

  “Stay back,” I commanded, staring into their eyes, and they didn’t move. Her father cursed and yanked on my arm.

  If that drug got into me, it was all over. I needed to get out of these damned restraints. Engage the brain, Liam. You can’t break these, but you can flashmorph, damn it.

  I thrust myself backward, popping sensors off flexing muscles and making the bolts holding the chair to the floor groan in protest. The move made Lily’s father hesitate. The snap of overstressed metal drew his eyes to the screens where Nate had broken another chain. He shot a quick comment to Wallace, who seemed frozen in fear. “Gas them, dammit!”

  Wallace flinched and tapped at his console. The screens scrolled through the menus.

  Over my dead body. I didn’t know if it was Sam or me speaking. As my face shifted, the teeth clicking into place, I finally got my brain engaged. I focused on my arms in the manacles, lengthening the bones from fingertips to elbows, drawing the muscles tight to them. The diameter of my forearms shrank while I spread my shoulders, pulling my elbows clear of the chair back. As Lily’s father shifted his grip on my arm to shove the needle into my bicep, I yanked my arms out of the manacles.

  I wasn’t quite fast enough. The needle plunged in, but only a small part of the drug injected before my elbow jabbed into something soft and squishy, and judging by his reaction, indescribably painful. The air whooshed out of his lungs, and the syringe spun away as he doubled over.

  Their leader moaning and clutching himself was the final straw. The wulfleng bolted.