Capture the Night
Page 14
“That was different. I didn’t kill them on purpose. And if it had worked, they’d have power and strength beyond your imagining.”
“Who is he?” I asked, trying to hide my wince of pain from Brax. “Husband? Boyfriend?”
“My brother!” she wailed. “He’s my brother, and he has a rare genetic disease. I was trying to save him.”
My eyes met Brax’s in surprise. A shifter with a disease?
“Is he…human?” I probed, but she was shaking her head, tears mingling with snot and making a mess of her face.
“He’s a shifter. I told you. It’s rare. His shifter DNA is fighting with his human DNA. Killing him. There is no cure. It usually kills the host in infancy, but he survived. It was late presentation.”
“And you’ve had him on ice ever since while you tried to create a cure.” Brax nodded, strapping my shoulder, softly stroking his fingers across my cheek when he was done.
Her story pulled at my heartstrings, but then I remembered my daughter, and my heart hardened. “You had Ethan get me pregnant, purely for your experiment, didn’t you?” My voice was flat, devoid of emotion.
Her head whipped up, and in that instant, the reality of all she had done showed on her face. She wiped her nose on her sleeve, and her bloodshot eyes met mine. I didn’t say a word. Didn’t have to. She’d changed my life forever, had taken my child and the man I thought had loved me.
I watched as she touched the side of the cryo-chamber, closed her eyes briefly in farewell, then launched at Duke. Duke stepped back in surprise. He didn’t have a whole lot of skin in this game, and his instinct was to back away, not shoot her. Brax had no such qualms. Spinning, he snatched the gun from Duke, aimed, and fired. She jerked backward, red hair flying, then crashed to the floor, blood staining her white coat red.
“Sorry. I know you wanted her alive,” Brax muttered.
I shrugged. “She had no intention of being taken alive. You didn’t kill her. She committed suicide.”
The room settled into silence as we each digested what had happened.
“Ummm,” Duke broke the silence, “what do we do about this dude? Let him die or what?”
I stood and hobbled to the chamber, cupped my hands against the glass, and peered inside. “He was never meant to survive to begin with.” I sighed. It was sad. But it also felt wrong letting him die like this.
“I know, I know.” Brax holstered his weapon and began fiddling with the blown-apart controls. “Let’s try and get this working, temporarily at least. What happens to him isn’t our call. Katie, call your boss and see if he can arrange transport. Duke, go find Jordan. Between us, we can probably jerry-rig this to hold until help gets here.”
Then it dawned on me. “You didn’t shoot at that randomly, did you?” I pointed to where his pyre gun had fried the wires. “You did it knowing you had a reasonable chance of repairing it.”
“Katie Shelton, you think you’ve got me all worked out.” But the grin splitting his face gave him away. He’d shot the controls to put pressure on Ridgeway, not to be a cold and ruthless asshole.
The cavalry arrived. I’d called Nate, and he’d sent in a chopper to retrieve the cryo unit. Ridgeway's brother's fate was now in the hands of the SIA, although Nate said it would most likely be a decision the Council made.
Rae and Jordan were uploading data to the SIA servers and collecting any remaining pharmaceutical samples they could find.
Duke was chattering nonstop in my ear, and I finally turned to him with my hand in his face. “Ssh,” I said. “Give me a minute, okay? I have to find Brax; there’s something I need to tell him. Why don’t you go help Rae and Jordan.”
“Oh.” He looked at me intently, then winked. “Right.” Spinning on his heel, he left, and I went looking for Brax. I found him in the room where Ridgeway and Byers had died.
“I need to talk to you,” I said from the doorway.
He glanced up, smiling when he saw me, then frowning at my blood-soaked bandages. “You need to flame.”
“I’ll do it later. It’s fine.”
“Katie.”
I rushed to him and placed my finger over his lips. “I. Love. You.”
“I love you too—” Brax replied, but I cut him off.
“No! Just…I love you. I said I love you. Me. Katie Shelton. But…” I sighed. “You traumatized me. You came here, you made me feel again, you made me love you, and I can’t—I mean, I don’t want to. I can’t breathe!” I sucked in a gulp of air. “Without you.”
Gently he cupped my face in his hands. “You can do this, Katie. We can do this. All you have to do is meet me halfway. All you have to do is say yes.” He kissed me, achingly tender, then spun on his heel and walked away.
I let him go, jaw slack. I’d told him I loved him, and he’d walked away. Fury surged through me, and a spark shot out of my hand, igniting on the floor. Stamping it out, I stalked out of the room. He was right. I needed to flame. Limping down the corridor, I flung open doors until I found an empty room. Shutting the door, I removed my bandages, stripped, and then summoned my flame. It wasn’t as bright as before. Calling on it again so soon had depleted my strength, but my bullet wounds were healed, and all that remained were small pink scars on my flesh. I could live with that.
Pulling my blood-soaked clothes on again, I threw open the door, then stifled a scream. Brax was standing on the other side.
Grabbing his shirtfront in my fist, I hauled myself up to his face. “You changed my life. I don’t ever want to live without you.”
“Is that a yes?”
“Yes, it’s a yes,” I said, exasperated, then laughed when he scooped me up and spun me around in circles. And despite everything, despite all that I’d been through, the lies and secrets of my past, all the pain and joy, it had never felt so right as it did at this moment. He was mine, and I was his, and together we could have a happy life. My fire demon sighed in contented bliss.
THE END
Katie’s adventure might be over, but the work of the Enforcers is hardly over. If you haven’t already, are you prepared to find out how it all began?
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What’s Next?
When it takes everything you've got just to survive, failure is not an option.
Abandoned as a baby I grew up in an orphanage and a slew of foster homes, my strange magical abilities a magnet for trouble until the government plucked me up and turned me into a weapon working on their behalf. I was to hunt down others like me—paranormals who had gone rogue—and I had no choice but to comply.
For years they never cared about what I could do, they just needed me to get the job done. But now they're asking lots of questions, and I don't have any of the answers.
The truth is: nobody knows who or what I am. Not even me.
If I can't figure it out soon, I'll not only lose my job but possibly end up in prison... or the morgue.
BURN THE NIGHT is now available.
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Sneak Peek of BURN THE NIGHT
Boots splashing on the wet pavement, I rounded the corner, squinting through the rain. There, just ahead. Little weasel thought he could lose me, well, I've got news for him, and none of it good. With a burst of adrenaline, I picked up the pace, ignoring the cold, wet trickle down my back where my hair had soaked through my collar. I was gaining ground, legs pumping, lungs heaving. Ahead of me, he turned another corner. Stupid mistake. I knew this city like the back of my hand, and my friend ahead had just turned into a dead-end alley. Seconds later, I swung into the alley behind him, skidding to a halt when greeted with his growl.
He was cornered and not happy about it. His lips curled back in a snarl, revealing elongated canines. Yep, a werewolf. He beckoned me toward him.
"Bring it, bitch."
"Oh, come on," I chided. "Really?"
"Really."
I kept my stance loose, hand resting on my pyre-gun. I flicked my long trench coat open, making sure he could clearly see my SIA badge. Seems he wasn't impressed, judging by the sneer on his face.
"Supernatural Investigation Agency? Gotta be a fake 'cos you sure as hell aren't no paranormal." I could see his nose twitching as he sniffed the air, trying to identify my scent.
"I'd love to stand around and chat all night, but to be honest, it's pissing down, I'm cold and wet, and I've got better things to be doing. My shift ends in half an hour, and I fully intend to have you bagged, booked, and in a cell by then."
"You ain't no SIA agent, bitch." He lunged for me, claws going for my throat. I knew a slice from those mean babies would cut my throat open, maybe even remove my head. Holding up my right hand, I threw my power at him.
"Freeze!" I demanded. "You are under arrest." I almost laughed. I'd frozen him, literally, mid-change. He'd started to turn wolf as he'd leaped, but my interference had him suspended, part man, part wolf, unable to move.
"Oh, darlin', that's gotta sting." Approaching him with a grin, I reached for the cuffs on my belt. I read him his rights as I slapped the cuffs around his wrists. Keeping him frozen, I tapped the comms unit on my wrist.
"Black here. Got him. In the alley just off Main and Magnolia. Bring the collar."
"Roger that," my partner Carter responded. Another trickle of rain worked its way down my back, and I adjusted my collar in irritation.
Lights flashed, and I heard the steady grumble of our patrol SUV approach. Carter stopped at the end of the alley, headlights on, windscreen wipers flapping against the downpour. Leaving the engine running, he jumped out and jogged to where we were waiting.
Carter fixed the collar around the wolf's neck then stepped back. Pulling my energy back to myself, I released him. He fell to his knees, groaning.
"See, sugar, all that could have been avoided if you'd just stopped when I asked you to," I told him sweetly, patting him on the head. With the silver cuffs and collar, his transformation had receded, and he was back to his human form. Changing from man to wolf was painful: bones broke, organs rearranged themselves. To be frozen mid-change just prolonged the agony because when you were on the receiving end of my “gift,” you could feel and hear everything. You could still breathe and sometimes speak, you simply couldn't move. Not supernatural, my ass.
Carter dragged the wolf to the back of the van and shoved him inside. A custom-built cage in the back with reinforced silver bars kept our more violent supernaturals under control during transportation to SIA HQ. The SIA had been formed twelve years ago to manage rogue paranormals, those killing or harming humans in any way. For a while, the stubborn humans thought they could control us and wasted precious years tying themselves up in bureaucracy before admitting they were ill-equipped to deal with rogues. They barely managed to keep humans in check, let alone manage any supernatural element when the supernatural community came out twenty-five years ago.
I climbed into the passenger seat, dripping water all over the seat and floor. A rumble of thunder accompanied the slamming of the door, and I glanced up to catch a flash of lightning over the night sky. I loved storms but running around in this freezing rain was the pits. Cranking up the heater, I put my hands out, rubbing them together and trying to instill some warmth.
"Good tag." Carter grinned at me from the driver's seat.
"Thank you. You weren't so shabby yourself."
While I'd been chasing after the wolf, Carter had bagged his two mates. He'd called backup, and they'd already been loaded and were on their way to HQ.
"Fucking human hunt," he muttered, shaking his head as he reversed out of the alley and swung the car out into the street.
"Sick, isn't it? The humans don't stand a chance."
"Hey, we buy them fair and square!" our prisoner piped up. I turned in my seat to eyeball him.
"Fair and square? You idiot, you can't BUY humans."
"That's what you think."
I tried to grill him further, but he clammed up. I met Carter's gaze —someone was selling humans.
After dropping the wolf off at the holding cells, I slumped into my chair, wet coat and all. My hair hung around me in dripping strands. It had been a long night, and I was cold and tired. Carter shrugged out of his jacket and took the seat at the opposite desk to mine. We were four stories underground, I couldn't hear if the storm was easing, but the lights flickered, so I took that as a no. Mother Nature wasn’t done ranting yet.
"You look beat," Carter observed critically. No doubt noticing the dark shadows beneath my eyes. Given my pale skin, the slightest shadow or bruise showed up beautifully, like a grease mark on a white shirt.
"You know, candle both ends." I waved my hand around vaguely. "Don't start fussing. You know I don't like it."
"Well, someone has to. Honestly, you don't take very good care of yourself."
"Hey, I do so. I've been looking after myself almost since birth. If you don't count those years when I was learning to walk and talk and all that infant stuff." I'd been abandoned at a church as a newborn. The nuns had taken me in and named me Raven on account of my head of black hair. The human government had whisked me away, given me the surname of Black because they're imaginative like that. I'd grown up in a series of orphanages and foster homes until I ran away at fifteen, waiting out those last three years until I was eighteen and in charge of my own destiny on the streets. Carter worried about me because I had no family, no mom to fuss and tell me I looked tired. So he graciously stepped into that role, whether I asked for it or not.
"Raven," he sighed, rubbing a hand over his face.
"So, selling humans, eh?" I interrupted before he started one of his lectures. It worked. He dropped his hand and logged into his computer. I stayed slumped in my chair, content to let him do the work.
"Nothing’s coming up. We need to liaise with the Redmeadows PD and get a list of their missing persons."
Pulling myself together, I sat up and shrugged out of my coat, leaving it to fall inside out over the back of my chair. Logging in, I began searching our recent cases that involved humans turning up dead. If people were being sold, then there'd have to be some planning involved, time factors for buyers to be notified. Did they target a human first and take them, or simply steal some that suited their needs and offer them up for sale? How long would that take? A couple of days? A couple of weeks?
Any cases where the person had been reported missing within twenty-four hours of their death, I ignored. Unfortunately, in my line of business, once a human was missing, if it was a supernatural who'd taken them, then they were dead. Rogue supernaturals viewed humans as food, and it was our job at the SIA to put a stop to the rogues. I'd always thought the deaths were attributed to vampires because, obviously, they drank blood. But what if the wolves were playing their own hunting games? Maybe this went a whole lot deeper than anyone realized.
BURN THE NIGHT is now available.
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With all the nefarious deeds committed in darkness, it falls to the Enforcers to light up the night.
Burn the Night
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About Zahra
Aussie author Zahra Stone writes funny, sometimes snarky, but always action-packed, urban fantasy stories. Her characters are courageous and daring and afraid of nothing. Unlike Zahra, who is scared of moths, snakes, sharks, running out of coffee, and extended power outages.
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