“Soon.” She smiled at her mother and mouthed a silent thank you when Elizabeth handed her a glass of water. “I’d like some answers first. Let’s start with why the front lawn had to be worked on.”
Jackson settled on the arm of the recliner, his hand capturing hers and holding it tight. Ellen and Elizabeth sat on the sofa. Mac waited, giving them the time they needed to gather their thoughts. The nine days had been harder on them in some ways than it had been on her. They’d been through so much because of the lycans, not to mention that bitch Wysocki and her husband. But it was over now. Hopefully, they’d have some peace for the next decade or two.
“You know most of it, Mac.” Jackson lifted her hand and held her palm against his cheek. “Jael got here within a minute or two of you being shot. She decided—and I agreed—that we couldn’t wait for an ambulance. You were bleeding so damned badly.” He stood and bent, lifting her. Then he took her place and held her in his lap. When he buried his face in the crook of her neck, she felt a long shudder run through him. Then he inhaled and relaxed. “Chelsea and Brandon were with Jael. Chelsea was going to drive them to school after dropping their mother off. After seeing how badly you were hurt, Jael told Chel to get the SUV out of the garage. She said she didn’t care what happened to the yard. Chelsea was to park as close to the front porch as she could.”
Mac winced at the thought of what the SUV would have done to the lawn and, quite possibly, her shrubs and front flower bed. “Did Diego do the repairs?”
Elizabeth nodded. “He had a team over as soon as Detective Tanaka said he could. The twins and Jael’s kids stayed here and helped. From what they said, Mr. Santiago was right there alongside his people, making sure everything was done right.”
“Your neighbors all pulled together to do whatever they could to help.” Ellen shook her head, a smile playing at her lips. “There’s enough food in your refrigerator and freezer to keep you for the next month or more.”
“It’s a good neighborhood.”
Mac grinned. It was a good neighborhood and she had a feeling it would be a safer one now. What happened to her put everyone on notice. But it was more than that. Elizabeth told her the day before that members of the pride, not to mention some under her command, were looking to move into the area. They’d been impressed with how everyone pulled together to do whatever they could to help during the investigation.
“We need to do something special for Diego and his family, Jackson.” She glanced up at her husband.
“For the entire block, love.” His almost silent laugh reverberated through his chest and she angled her head to look up at him. “I know Pat and Tanaka, not to mention the three of us, have told you how everyone banded together to keep the media away after the shooting.”
She nodded.
“It was more than just making sure the street was blocked off. They made sure everyone investigating what happened had food and drink whenever they were here. They manned the blockade with the cops, standing side-by-side with them. They turned deaf and mute around the reporters. I swear, you could almost see the media crying because no one would talk to them.” Jackson chuckled again. “But it was Mrs. Krakowski who really put them in their place.”
Mac looked from her husband to her mother and grandmother. She couldn’t imagine what her elderly neighbor might have done. Mrs. Krakowski and her granddaughter lived three houses up the street. The day Mac moved in, the woman appeared on her doorstep, a plate of homemade cookies in hand. She welcomed Mac to the neighborhood and told her if she ever needed anything, to let her know. From the amused expressions on her companions’ faces, she had a feeling the old woman had been anything but welcoming to the media.
“What did she do?”
“She saw a couple of them jump her back fence and start sneaking across the yard. After sending Becca to turn on the sprinkler system, she stepped outside, broom in hand. Both learned you do not mess with a retired teacher. The reporters met the business end of the broom and got a lecture that probably still has their ears ringing. Becca recorded it and uploaded it to the internet. I’ll pull it up for you to watch after you get some rest.”
Touched, and more than a little amused, Mac laughed softly. “It’s a great neighborhood.” She rested her cheek against Jackson’s chest. “Let’s send her and Becca some flowers and a goodie basket. We can send the same to the Santiagos.”
“I’ll take care of it,” he promised. “And let’s have everyone over for a barbeque. The neighbors, everyone who worked on the case, everyone we owe a thank you to.”
“Good. That’s good.” She sighed. There were other questions she needed to ask but didn’t want to. “Is it over?” She looked at her grandmother sitting on the sofa next to her mother.
She didn’t have to explain she meant more than the investigation into her shooting. They’d learned more than enough over the last few days to prove the lycans, under the direction of the Reed and a few others who had supported Cassandra Wilkinson, had decided it was time to make a move. Not only had they wanted to strike down the Tribunal, but they wanted to make their existence known to the world-at-large, discrediting the pures along the way. The question was had the Tribunal been able to act quickly enough to stop the coming of the war?
“General Flynn sent out your cousin’s unit as well as yours to find Reed and his supporters. Most of them are in custody. A few, including Reed, are still at-large,” Ellen said.
“Has the Tribunal decided what to do?”
“We’ve been trying to do just that.” Ellen smiled wearily and Mac realized for the first time how tired her grandmother looked. “Unfortunately, the situation is more complicated than you know.”
Worried, Mac glanced at her mother and then Jackson. When neither met her gaze, she cursed softly. They’d been keeping something from her. Damn it! What else had happened?
“Tell me.” She waited, praying it wasn’t as bad as she feared.
“Our lycans weren’t the only ones to try to cause problems, Mac,” Jackson finally said.
“What?” She prayed she’d heard wrong.
“The Tribunal received reports from around the country of other attacks. Most were quickly put down because of our warnings. However, there were deaths on our side and several humans were injured in the process. They are being monitored now to make sure they don’t turn,” Ellen said.
Mac swallowed hard. The only thing keeping her from panicking was the realization their secret was still safe. Still, the danger continued and would as long as Reed and those like her remained free. Worse, it would continue as long as lycans believed they were top of the food chain.
Before Mac could ask for more details, her grandmother’s cellphone buzzed. A moment later, so did Jackson’s. Mac slid off Jackson’s lap and took several steps away as she looked between her mate and her grandmother. A growing sense of uneasiness settled over her. Worried, she waited, knowing she wasn’t going to like what they had to say.
“What?” she asked the moment Ellen ended the call.
“Mother?” Elizabeth looked at Ellen in concern. “What is it?”
“Jackson, turn on the TV,” Ellen said instead on explaining. “There’s going to be a press conference in a few minutes we need to watch.”
Mac’s stomach did a slow roll and she swallowed hard. “Tell me.”
Even as she said it, she wondered if she really wanted to know.
“We told you the local pack wasn’t the only one to make a move that night, love.” Jackson blew out a breath and shook his head. “Others tried to prove their dominance over the next few days. At least half a dozen pride and pard leaders have contacted me about problems they’ve been forced to deal with.”
“Jackson’s right.” Ellen stood and paced the length of the room. “The Tribunal has received reports from around the country of a dozen attempts by the lycans to cause trouble. My guess is we’ll hear of international incidents as well before long.”
Mac’s mouth went dry. Th
is was her worst nightmare come true.
“We’ve been outed?” she asked softly.
“Not in the way you fear.” Ellen shook her head before Mac could say anything and Mac snapped her mouth shut. “You need to trust me on this, Mackenzie. You know we’ve been planning for this very moment for years now.”
Mackenzie not worry. We are alpha. We will survive, Cait told her.
Mac wished she shared her jaguar’s confidence. Her neighbors, those wonderful people who’d done everything they could to help her and Jackson, what would they think? Hell, what would her fellow cops think?
“Call Pat. Tell her she needs to get over here,” she said softly.
“She and Jael, as well as your brother and sister are on the way,” Elizabeth told her as she put down her cellphone.
Mac nodded and turned her attention to the television, swallowing hard as she watched first President Daniel Montford and then General Flynn appear onscreen. She listened as Montford thanked the media for attending and asked them to hold all questions until the end of the presser. Then he signaled to someone off-camera and a video began playing behind him. As it did, Mac knew her worst fears had just come true.
“No, no, no and oh hell no.”
Mac stared at the television, eyes wide, her head shaking from side to side. No matter what her grandmother said, this was a nightmare. Her worst fears had just come true and she could do nothing about it.
God, please don’t let this be real.
She leaned forward, as if closing the distance between her and the screen would show her something to prove it was a hoax. But it wasn’t. All she had to do was look at the expression on her grandmother’s face or see the tension in her husband as he sat on the arm of the recliner to know it was all too real.
Worse, the video clip was too close to what happened less than a week ago. Except then it had been her, in her jaguar form, chasing and then fighting to protect people she cared for from the lycans. She’d had the luxury of shifting without cameras being aimed at her. The few cameras that might have caught bits and pieces of what happened had already been checked and their video seized. Good things did come from such encounters happening in the dead of night.
But this. . .
She shook her head again as the video was replayed. A dozen men and women approached the schoolyard. Around them, children played. A couple of teachers watched their charges, ignorant of the danger about to happen. Everything looked so normal, so happy.
Mac narrowed her eyes as she studied the video. She saw the moment the young teacher noticed something out of the ordinary. Her head lifted and she sniffed the air. Mac recognized the movement. The young woman, and she couldn’t be more than twenty-three, scented something in the air that didn’t belong. Her green eyes narrowed, and she looked around. As she did, Mac had to give it to her. The young woman kept her calm as she visually searched for the source of danger.
A moment later, the brunette spotted the group entering the schoolyard. Her eyes narrowed again. This time they were a predator’s eyes. Mac recognized the look. The brunette considered the schoolyard her territory and the newcomers were trespassing.
The young woman turned and spoke to a male teacher about her age who stood at her side. Her head was turned just enough that Mac couldn’t make out what she said. But the man’s response said it all. He glanced at the group and then back to the brunette. Then he nodded before trotting in the direction of a group of playing children. As he did, the young woman turned toward the interlopers. Her hands fisted once at her side before relaxing. The she pulled all five-feet nothing of herself up and moved to stand between them and those under her care.
The next few minutes were the things of nightmares. Half of the men and women began stripping out of their clothes before dropping to hands and knees. Weapons appeared in the hands of the others before they raced to take cover. At the same time, the male teacher, now assisted by others, hurried the children inside the school. Pausing at the door, he turned and yelled for the brunette standing between the school and the apparent attackers to run, to get inside. She simply shook her head and held her ground.
“Keep the kids inside, keep them safe!” she yelled without taking her eyes from the newcomers. “No matter what happens to me, don’t let anyone inside.”
Mac watched as the video switched between different camera angles. An inset window on the screen showed President Montford and General Flynn standing behind a podium bearing the presidential seal, their attention on the video of what happened. Mac didn’t know whether to scream in frustration, and more than a little fear, or feel relief they controlled the narrative, at least for the moment. Then, even though she knew what happened next, she flinched as the video’s audio was enhanced, allowing the world to not only see but hear the events that took place on that Tacoma schoolyard.
“Step aside, little one, and we’ll let you live,” a man said as he stood in the center of the five currently in the process of shifting into their animal forms.
“That’s not going to happen.” She sounded young, younger than Mac knew she had to be. But there was a determination in her voice Mac respected. “Leave, now.”
“As you said, that’s not going to happen.” The lycan smiled and Mac shivered at the evil reflected in his eyes. “Go, my wolves, hunt. Enjoy yourselves.” He motioned for the humans to go with them as they raced toward the building. “I’ll deal with this foolish pure myself. She’ll make a nice toy for the pack.”
Mac doubted she remembered how to breathe the next few minutes as she watched the scene unfold. Even as the wolves, along with their human counterparts, attempted to find entry into the school—and thank all that was holy for increased school security—the lycan and the brunette faced off. The moment the man started to shift, the young woman responded. Without hesitation, she stripped out of most of her clothes and dropped to hands and knees. She threw her head back and a cry of pain escaped. Then her features blurred.
Her shift was quick, not as quick as some Mac had done but very quick for most of their kind. Whether the brunette had one of the stronger connections with her inner animal or if her need to protect the children spurred it, Mac didn’t know. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was she put the safety of the children ahead of everything else.
Well, that and the fact their secret was out.
The small bobcat the brunette shifted into stood its ground against the larger, heavier wolf. By the time help arrived, from the police and from the local pride, the fight had been brutal. Unable to get inside the school, the wolves rejoined their leader, doing their best to circle the bobcat and kill her. But, like any cat, she knew her strengths and went high. Unlike a treed cat, however, she didn’t stay there. She carefully chose her targets. Then she’d drop down on them, a whirling weapon of claws and teeth, before scrambling up another tree.
The video stopped, focused on a bloody and battered bobcat surrounded by the bodies of four wolves, including the man who led the attack. Another two wolves lived but would later succumb of their injuries, which included bullet wounds, before the day ended. The humans who’d accompanied them, those who hadn’t fled at the first sounds of sirens, were taken into custody.
But it was the sight of the children and teachers flooding out of the school that held Mac’s attention. They raced to where the bobcat lay in the shade of several trees, panting, bleeding. Several of the children dropped to their knees at her side. Small hands reached out and petted her, soothed her. The adults were a bit more cautious but, within a minute or two, they were easing the children aside so they could treat the shifter’s injuries. The male teacher who’d been with her kept repeating over and over again that she’d been so brave, that she was going to be all right. Another teacher, an older redhead with tears in her eyes, apologized before pressing a wadded up sweater against one of the wounds in the bobcat’s side.
The message was clear. They weren’t afraid of her or what she was. They were thankful of all she’d been
willing to sacrifice to keep them safe.
The schoolyard faded and the cameras now focused on President Montford and General Flynn. An almost uncanny silence filled the press room. Montford glanced over his shoulder at the video screen now displaying side-by-side images of the brunette’s school ID photo and one of her shifted after the fight.
“Ladies and gentlemen, what you’ve just witnessed is an act of bravery unlike any the public’s seen in a very long time. Gillian Edmonds risked her life to protect the children entrusted to her care. She could have taken cover inside the building. She could have hidden what she is from the world. But she chose to do what so many of her kind have for centuries: she chose to protect the innocent.
“Yes, for centuries.” He waited for the sudden buzz of conversation to end. “While those like Ms. Edmonds have kept to the shadows, members of our government have always known about them. Shapeshifters like Ms. Edmonds have been the first to step forward and volunteer to do whatever it took to keep our nation safe. They have been our first responders, our special forces members, our police officers and more. They aren’t monsters and they aren’t superheroes. They are our teachers and our healers. They are our neighbors, our relatives.
“And they are human. As you saw in that video, they bleed and they die. But the pures, shapeshifters like Ms. Edmonds, have never acted against our best interests. They have, as she did yesterday, put themselves in danger to protect normals, men and women without the gene that allows them to shift into an animal form. . ..”
Mac listened, her hand in Jackson’s, as the President continued speaking. He explained the difference between lycans and pures. He outlined how the government had known about the existence of pures since before the Revolutionary War. He laid out the legal protections and recognitions in place. He urged calm. He kept returning to the image of Gillian Edmonds, still in her shifted form, battered and bloody, surrounded by grateful children and parents after the battle.
Then Flynn took the mic. He explained how the government had been protecting not only the pures but the public-at-large. Without going into too much detail, he spoke about the special police and military units that specialized in dealing with issues involving shifters. Then he showed footage of a military mission to rescue international aid workers in Central America. The faces of the squad were carefully blurred to avoid revealing their identities, something Flynn explained as necessary since they were still active duty special forces members, but the message was clear. One member of the squad shifted into an ocelot. Another member carefully secured a camera onto the jungle cat’s collar. Then the cat trotted off into the trees, heading in the direction of their target.
Nocturnal Revelations Page 37