Vowed

by N R Tucker

  He had exposed himself and his children during the dual full moons. By association, the Brazilian government identified most of his clan. He had two clan members and one unranked teenage shifter who could set a weak shield. Layered together, they had been able to protect his clan from attack for a short period. After his reveal, the entire clan took refuge in his home. A few hours later, alphas Ben and Serenity had arrived with a couple of local wizards. They created a more robust shield, and now only the strongest of his clan members lived away from his home. It was safer for most to remain at his house. The wizards made weekly trips to his estate to reinforce the shield. They did so in exchange for reduced tuition for their own children. So far, it had been well worth the lost revenue. Security was a beautiful thing.

  Rafael looked out the window and growled at the birds playing tag. After a minute he opened the window and whistled, waving the birds into his office. As the birds flew past he glared, “Why didn’t you call?” He didn’t need an answer. If Sage had called, he might have prepared for her arrival, and the alphas were sure he wished the sovereign ill. Rafael wasn’t so sure. He most definitely wanted Sage replaced, but she was young, and he felt no ill will toward her as a person. He had never harmed a child before, and regardless of her legal standing as an adult, she remained a child in his eyes.

  Sage, Raven, Ryan, and Kyan shifted as they landed. Kyan and Ryan took up defensive positions on either side of their sovereign. Ignoring the overprotectiveness, Sage turned to Rafael, “I wanted to make sure your clan is alright after their exposure.”

  Sarcasm coated his response. “How considerate. We are as well as can be expected. The wizards keep the shield stable. For that I am grateful.”

  “Is there anything I can do to help?” Sage asked

  Rafael glared at the young sovereign and started to make a snide remark about being too late but stopped himself. She hadn’t ignored him, as Tempest would. Nor did she order him, as Rayna had. She waited for his answer. Sage was either naïve or working an angle he didn’t understand. Only time would tell.

  “Your concern is appreciated but unnecessary, as are your guards.”

  Ryan crossed his arms in front of his chest and stared at Rafael, “The sovereign does not travel unescorted. Not with the current situation.”

  “What situation?”

  “They’re still working out the bugs, but humans can track earth side and dimensional gates.” Sage shrugged, “We knew it would happen sooner or later.”

  Rafael raised his eyebrows. That was a game changer. It was well known that Tempest traveled by gates frequently since the preternatural exposure. If she could be tracked, her effectiveness would be severely curtailed, and not just with humans. Now he needed to decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. “Why are you here?”

  “I’m making quick trips to visit certain prifs, one-on-one. Sometimes the teleconference screen warps my perception of the real issues.” Sage looked over at her guards, “Please wait in the hall. I wish a private word with Rafael.”

  Ryan bunched his muscles to the point Rafael braced for an attack from the young man, but it didn’t happen. Ryan turned and opened the door. Raven walked out, followed by Kyan. Ryan joined the others in the hallway, glaring at Rafael before closing the door.

  “You surprise me,” Rafael stared into the eyes of the young sovereign. She maintained eye contact offering him the chance for a dominance push, one that could change the shifter world. He didn’t bother. He could feel her power. She would win a dominance push. No. The only way anyone would replace the current sovereign would be to destroy the entire Alpha Clan. He dropped his eyes, “I mean you no harm sovereign, but this is a mistake.”

  Sage tilted her head, surprised he hadn’t even tried the dominance push. All other prifs she had visited, Dimitriy included, had tried and failed when she offered them the opportunity. “How so?”

  “You’re purposefully offering a prif the chance to challenge you for the position of sovereign, without other alphas in the room. That could be dangerous. While I have no doubt you are the dominant shifter, Tempest is your second after all, in hand to hand you are still young and inexperienced. Someone might kill you before your guards could return to protect you.”

  Hands on her hips, Sage faced off with Rafael, “If you think I need guards to protect me, you should kill me now.”

  “Defeating one realm lord does not make you blood proven. You incapacitated him, you didn’t kill him. You have no confirmed kills to your name,” Rafael explained. In truth, it was the reason he doubted her ability to lead. She might not have the stomach to kill. The Alpha Clan had attributed a few kills to Sage, but no one outside their clan had witnessed those kills.

  Sage didn’t bother to correct his assumption that she hadn’t killed. Her assurances would not change his mind. “My negotiation skills have not yet failed me, however, if they do I shall kill. I was trained by Tempest, and I think we can agree that, regardless of my age, I’m well trained.”

  “Well trained, but unproven,” Rafael replied, surprised that his voice held a tint of regret. He was beginning to like this young sovereign.’

  “Unfortunately, with the current unrest between humans and preternaturals, I’ll be blood proven sooner than anyone would wish. If your clan needs any assistance dealing with your government, please contact me.” She inclined her head before raising her voice, “We’re done.”

  Her bodyguards returned to the room. They shifted and flew out the window that had been left open, following their sovereign.

  Rafael closed the window and watched them fly high in the sky. He remained in that position long after he could no longer see them. His respect for Sage jumped up a few notches. Rayna had never spoken to him alone. Never.

  Chapter 5

  “Don’t do this! Not today,” Ryan muttered. He managed to pull his truck to the side of the road before it sputtered, coughed, and surrendered to whatever ailed it. Ryan sighed and pulled out his phone. No power. He dropped the useless thing back in his pocket.

  He looked around. Of course, his car dies on the day he decides to take a back road. After leaving the interstate, as expected, he hadn’t passed a single vehicle. Ryan had planned a pleasant country drive as the sun came up. Followed by another three-day shift at PAC HQ. It had been decided that opening a gate was only for emergencies now and he had driven up from North Carolina.

  Ryan grabbed his duffel and decided to open a gate. If he didn’t, he would be seriously late, and Serenity would not appreciate having to stay late to cover. He could open a gate to a field of trees in the park outside PAC HQ and walk the last half-mile or so into the office. Risky? Yes, since it could be tracked, but much better than being shot for opening a gate inside the facility without authorization.

  He exited the gate and immediately felt a pinch to his neck. He dropped his bag and touched his neck. Ryan pulled a dart from his neck. He looked at it, before falling to the ground, unconscious.

  Sometime later, Ryan woke to a blade of grass tickling his nose. He didn’t hear breathing or movement, so he opened his eyes, and found himself on the ground where he had fallen. Amazed that whoever drugged him didn’t move him, Ryan rolled over to one knee and stood up, promptly lost his balance, and fell back down onto the same knee. After his head quit spinning, Ryan tried again, pleased he achieved a standing position with only minimum swaying. He reached down to pick up his duffel, only to feel stiffness in his shoulder while his head resumed spinning. Ryan took another moment to be still, so his head could clear. As he left the clearing, Ryan passed a squad of armed wizards, presumably going to guard the tree-lined clearing. Too bad they hadn’t arrived a few minutes earlier.

  At the checkpoint, Ryan signaled the need for an escort. The protocols for notifying the preternatural guards that a preternatural needed assistance, pretending the telepaths who scanned everyone wouldn’t already know, were well documented. After clearing the checkpoint, he smiled with relief at the person who wait
ed on the other side of the door.

  “You’re late,” Tempe slapped Ryan on the back, “And you have grass stains on your khakis.”

  Ryan nodded and rubbed his shoulder. “Yeah, car trouble.”

  They walked into the shifter wing and back to medical. Two shifter guards followed them.

  As soon as they closed the door, Tempe moved him toward a gurney as the medical personnel closed in. Ryan hopped up on it and said, “My car broke down. My phone was dead. So, I opened a gate to the trees just outside PAC HQ. As soon as I arrived, I was shot in the neck with a dart. They didn’t move me, so I suspect they’ve implanted a tracker or something.”

  One of the med techs looked up from the scan he was performing, “Oh yeah, you’ve been tagged. The device is embedded in the left shoulder where you can’t reach it. Delivered by injection, just like the others.”

  “Others?” Ryan asked in confusion.

  “Yes, today’s the day humans made use of their ability to track gates.”

  A short time later, Ryan lay face down on the gurney, listening to an argument. Jeff Long, shifter, doctor, and father, argued procedure with Lea, alpha shifter, healer, and aunt.

  “Do you guys ever not argue? Dad, remove the tracker and let Lea heal the area. It’s not brain surgery.”

  “No, it’s not,” Jeff responded wryly, “But that solution has already been tried this morning. When fresh air touches the tracker, it releases a toxin that will leave you brain dead. We would like to remove the tracker and keep your brain functioning at its current level.”

  “Okay,” Ryan drew out the word. “Tempe can create a shield around the tracker. Then you, Dad, can remove the tracker and Lea can heal the area quickly.

  “A wizard died following a similar plan. Wizards think they have an answer. We’re waiting for them to finish testing.” Lea explained.

  “We’re done,” Murdoch, wizard of the high coven, walked in the room with Tempe.

  Ryan relaxed a little. Murdoch was a trusted friend. Or he was until Ryan turned his head and saw five other wizards crowding into the room. “What’s the plan?”

  Murdoch grinned, “Relax. We don’t think it will take this many to keep the device in the spelled shield, but why take chances? Congrats, you’ve been promoted to lab rat.”

  Ryan would have rolled his eyes, but it made sense. Many of the preternaturals at PAC HQ were civilians. He might be in his early twenties, young by shifter standards, but he was also a soldier, and a member of the Alpha Clan cyn. He was the one who should take the risk. He relaxed his shoulders as best he could. “Okay, let’s do this.”

  Tempe leaned down to look him in the eye. “Concentrate on keeping your personal shield down. The natural reflex will be for the shield to manifest when you feel the spell. For that reason, you have to remain conscious. Unconscious, your shield would manifest.” Tempe patted him on the shoulder without the tracker and then gripped his arm.

  Ryan sighed. She was preparing to block his shield from forming. He would have been insulted, but he suspected she might need to do that.

  “No local either. We’re afraid it could interfere with the spell. You will feel it when I slice into your shoulder,” Jeff explained.

  Surprised that his dad would do the cutting, Ryan almost said something, but then he understood. Even in pain, he would be less likely to hurt his father for cutting into him than anyone else. Ryan never considered it before, but as powerful as he was, regardless of his intent, Ryan could injure a lot of people.

  He felt his shoulder tingle as the spell formed under his skin, assumingly around the tracker. As usual, Tempe was right. It took all of his concentration to keep his shield down. Like anyone with the ability to create a personal shield, Ryan had been trained to use it if he felt magic near him. Fighting that training was hard.

  “Cutting now.” Jeff’s voice was calm.

  Ryan felt his dad cut into his shoulder and had another realization. He could ignore a knife cut in the heat of battle. Cut while lying on a medical table was completely different. Nothing to focus on, except keeping his freaking shield down. He gritted his teeth and focused on the no shield thing while trying to block the pain. Later he would ask Tempe for hints. Somehow, he suspected this wouldn’t be the last time he would have to deal with something of this nature.

  After what seemed like an hour, Ryan, covered in sweat, felt his father stitch up his shoulder. Stitches he understood, and the pain was manageable.

  Finally, Jeff stepped back. “All done. We can give you something for the pain now if you wish.”

  Ryan moved his shoulder and shrugged. “Should be fine now. Just a dull ache.”

  “If you change your mind, let me know.”

  “Thanks, guys.” Ryan waved to the wizards as they left.

  “No prob,” Murdoch said. Turning to Tempe, he added, “The instructions for this casting will be sent to you but call for wizards if you need numbers. It took all six of us to keep the shield steady around the device. That’s a lot of manpower considering how easy it is for the humans to embed the device.”

  *****

  “Non-preternaturals can do more than track gates.” Destin presented his findings to the Alpha Clan cyn and their tech advisors in the sovereign’s office in Calabozo. Some were in the conference room. Others were on the monitors. “The electrical impulses are easy to track once you know what to look for. The kicker is they can track from the point of origin to destination. Anyone tracking will know where you leave from and where you end up. The gates, regardless of species, send the same frequency range so at present they can’t identify who opened the way, just point of origin and destination. It took them a while to track without watching a specific location, but they can do it now.”

  After Kenley died, Destin had somehow become the go-to guy for the shifter’s tech research division. As a mostly human member of Tempe’s family, unable to shift but with the ability to set an active shield, Destin tried to hand off all the projects he had worked with Kenley, but the shifters decided he was one of their own and let him stay. Magic was just science with a kick and Destin excelled at finding patterns where others couldn’t. The things he had learned in under a year made a mockery of what he had learned in the previous thirty.

  “How can we mask it?” Gerbold, prif of a German clan, son of Bliss from the Alpha Cyn, asked from one of the teleconference screens.

  “That’s the point,” Destin ran his fingers through his hair. “You can’t, at least not yet. So far, every shield and spell we’ve tested to mask the signature has failed. There are still a few options being researched, but right now any preternatural who opens a gate will be tracked.”

  Gerbold looked down at the data, “Does it track locations outside of the Seen? Other dimensions?”

  “Yes, but without knowledge of those dimensions, you can’t pinpoint details. I can track throughout the Farseen, only because I was given the knowledge of the Farseen to make the comparison. So yes, eventually others will be able to do so.”

  “Are you saying you can track a dimensional gate if I open it from here to the Northern Realm, and you’ll know I’m in the Northern Realm?” Tempe leaned forward.

  “I’m saying if you open a gate to Saffron’s herb garden in the Northern Realm, or Lord Layton’s receiving room in the Western Realm, or the sand dunes of the Southern Realm, or anyplace else, I will be able to pinpoint to that level of detail.” Destin shrugged.

  “By the five realms, no one has ever been able to do that.” Tempe leaned back in her chair and chewed her bottom lip. A nervous response she had honed over thousands of years. At this point, she doubted she would ever lose it. “The magic could never be traced to that level of detail. Every realm will demand that knowledge. This could start another war between our dimensions.”

  “It’s not magic, it’s science, and it’s traceable. The good news is humans can’t arrive at the destination as fast as the gate transports you. If you don’t go to where they are, they
won’t meet you there. And teleports cannot be tracked, yet.”

  Ryan leaned back in his chair and absently rubbed the shoulder where the tracker had been embedded. “Isn’t that special?”

  Chapter 6

  “Brazil, here we come,” Serenity got comfortable in the private jet, surprised that she was looking forward to perhaps seeing Rafael. Still in Alaska, they had flown back as birds to Fairbanks, found a place to shift, and walked back to the hangar. Ryan, under cover of his veil, had shifted to his dragon form and flown back to Tennessee for another assignment. “It’s amazing how well Cole and Carl trained themselves without teachers.”

  “Not really,” Tempe opened up a granola bar and took a bite. “Cole was reading everyone’s mind when they still lived with the Alpha Clan. He learned to control his telepathy by reading my mind and yours. He didn’t think he should try to read Rayna’s mind.”

  “When did he tell you that?”

  Tempe smirked. “He didn’t. I read his mind. I figured turnabout was fair play.”

  “Apparently, our entire family needs to work on communication skills. He must be strong to read us without our knowing it. He should be on the hook for telepathy duty at PAC HQ.” Serenity leaned back and closed her eyes.

  “I already made a note in the report,” Tempe murmured. Anyone who could reduce the load of the telepaths verifying everyone who entered PAC HQ would be used. The work was grueling, and many telepaths left with a headache after a twelve-hour shift.

  Serenity woke as the plane made its final descent. “Same plan as before?”

  “Nope. New plan. I’m tired of playing nice.”

  The sisters exited the plane and proceeded through customs. As soon as they were cleared, they disappeared, leaving a lot of unhappy officials behind.