Stolen Secret

by Piper Dow

  Stolen Secret

  Fighting in Shadows

  Piper Dow

  Copyright © 2021 Piper Dow. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author. This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  To Bob.

  Thank you for knowing who I am, and always supporting my dreams.

  I am a blessed woman.

  Contents

  Chapter one

  Chapter two

  Chapter three

  Chapter four

  Chapter five

  Chapter six

  Chapter seven

  Chapter eight

  Chapter nine

  Chapter ten

  Chapter eleven

  Chapter twelve

  Chapter thirteen

  Chapter fourteen

  Chapter fifteen

  Chapter sixteen

  Chapter seventeen

  Chapter eighteen

  Chapter nineteen

  Chapter twenty

  Chapter twenty-one

  Chapter twenty-two

  Chapter twenty-three

  Chapter twenty-four

  Chapter twenty-five

  Chapter twenty-six

  Chapter twenty-seven

  Chapter twenty-eight

  Chapter twenty-nine

  Chapter thirty

  Chapter thirty-one

  Chapter thirty-two

  Chapter thirty-three

  Chapter thirty-four

  Chapter thiry-five

  Chapter thirty-six

  Chapter thirty-seven

  Chapter thirty-eight

  Chapter thirty-nine

  Chapter forty

  Chapter forty-one

  Chapter forty-two

  Chapter forty-three

  Chapter forty-four

  Chapter forty-five

  Chapter forty-six

  Thank You!

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter one

  Kelly opened the front door, dropped her books onto the chair on her way through the living room, and headed for the kitchen. She scouted in the cupboards looking for something to snack on. Supper was over an hour away, but she was starving. She pulled out a bag of pretzels and tore the top open, grabbing a few before turning to the fridge. She poured a glass of milk, took a few cubes of cheese from the bag, and carried her snack back to the living room. She had squeaked by in her statistics class but she wanted to get another night of studying under her belt before she'd feel confident for the upcoming final. Her watch buzzed on her wrist and she glanced down at it. She tapped the notification of a text from David.

  "Chad is holding a meeting tonight, at 6. Do you have time? I can take you."

  Kelly stomach clenched and she put the cheese she had in her hand back on the plate. She glanced again at the watch and pulled out her phone, tapping in her answer and hitting send. She gathered her books to bring them to her room and get ready to go. She considered her plate of food and milk, then picked them up to bring with her, as well. She wasn't sure what would happen in the meeting.

  Chad was a Shade who ran a support group of sorts. David said the group had both Shades—those who could shapeshift, and Lights—people who were not shapeshifters, but knew about them and did not hate them. David said that most of the Lights had learned of shapeshifters through friendship with a Shade, but that there were also a couple of Lights who had come across the Shadows by crossing shapeshifters of an uglier variety, like Kelly had.

  Kelly wanted to learn more. She had so many questions about what her sister, Samantha, would be going through, and about what might happen to the rest of the family since Sam had been bitten. But at the same time, she was a little hesitant. She had told Sam that some Shades were good, and some were bad, and she believed that Sam would be good. That was true. But the one Shade Kelly had witnessed had scared the ever-living crap out of her. She tried to hide it at home, but she still woke up with nightmares of watching Mark, the werecoyote, change from a human into a coyote in front of her, lunging at her and laughing at her fear.

  When she had seen Mark shift she had thrown up, so she wasn't sure she wanted to eat before going to the meeting. But then again, she probably didn't want to go with an empty stomach, either.

  Kelly stacked her books on the desk in her room, glancing in the mirror over the dresser. Should she change? It wouldn't matter what she was wearing. She looked at her gray t-shirt and skinny jeans critically. On the other hand, it might help to feel confident going in. She quickly stripped off the T-shirt and pulled a tank top on, covering that with a flowing long sleeve jersey that belted at the waist. She appraised the look in the mirror. Attractive, confident, but not too over-the-top. Good. She ran a brush through her hair, then decided that lip gloss wouldn't hurt.

  "Hey, Kelly," Wayne called from the kitchen. "Mom asked if we could get a salad going for supper tonight. She's going to stop and just pick up a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store to go with it."

  Kelly headed to the kitchen. "Actually, I think that's all you tonight," she said, as she rounded the corner. "I just got a text for a meeting I have to go to tonight. I'm not going to be here for supper."

  "Does Mom know?" Wayne asked, putting a mug into the dishwasher.

  "No. I will call her before I leave, though." Kelly considered Wayne, but decided quickly not to explain the meeting. She would check it out first, before inviting him. Wayne knew about Shades, obviously, but he had never seen one shift. Kelly needed to see what happened in these meetings before she was willing to expose her brother to them.

  "So, Rachel has been talking about going to Winterfest," Wayne said. He was rummaging in the fridge, taking things out to make the salad with.

  Kelly open the cupboard to grab a box of croutons. "Yeah? Are you going to go?" She glanced at him.

  "I'm not sure," he said, slamming the head of iceberg lettuce on to the counter and pulling the stem piece out. "I'm not crazy about dancing, and Winterfest isn't just a regular dance. But on the other hand," he trailed away. He shredded the lettuce into a large bowl before continuing. "I guess I wouldn't mind going, but I don't feel like putting money towards clothes when I could be putting that money toward fixing my car."

  Wayne's car had been destroyed by the pack of werecoyotes that had attacked Sam. Wayne had worked on the car for months to get it personalized the way he had wanted it, and in one night they had destroyed the paint job, the stereo system, the upholstery, and slashed the tires. Insurance had covered some of the damage, but because it was an older car that he had fixed up, the official value didn't equal what he had put into it. He was saving towards a custom upholstery job now, but it was safe to drive, at least. Kelly's car had been damaged the same night, with less physically visible, but it had taken longer to make it street safe again. All of the wiring and hoses had had to be examined; many of them had to be replaced because of pinpricks and slices that weren't initially apparent.

  Kelly reached for a cutting board and started slicing up peppers for the salad. "Why do you have to spend money on clothes? You have nice clothes; just wear what you'd wear for church, like on Easter."

  Wayne considered this while putting some tomatoes next to the cutting board for Kelly to dice. "Well, Rachel is talking about dresses she's been looking at. She said it's semi-formal. I figured if she needed to buy a special dress, I probably needed something different?" His voice rose on the last word, turning it into a question.

  Kelly smiled. "Well, a girl can use any excuse to buy new clothes. And for a girl, yeah, a semi-formal dance is
probably going to take something besides what she'd wear to church. But guys luck out that way, because it's not like you're going to rent a tux to go to Winterfest, right? So, you can get away with just wearing a dress shirt and tie, or a jacket." She added the peppers and tomatoes to the bowl of lettuce. "Ask Mom and Dad, if you want, but I don't remember anyone wearing a full suit to any of my dances, and I went to quite a few of them."

  "Huh," Wayne grunted. "Good to know." He considered the salad they had put together, returned to the fridge and rummaged for a moment before coming back with a bag of bacon bits and a bag of dried fruit and nuts designed for salads. He tossed a handful of each onto the top of the salad and smiled. "Thanks. If you're lucky, we'll save you some." He grinned.

  Kelly swatted at him, glanced at the clock on the microwave, and nodded. "That'd be nice. I'll give Mom a call on my way to the library," she said over her shoulder as she returned to her room for a jacket before heading out to her car. Her phone call went to voicemail, so she hung up and sent a text to her mother's cell to let her know she was going to a meeting, and would be back after supper.

  Chapter two

  Kelly stood just inside the door of the library, looking out at the parking lot. She had told David she would meet him at the library, rather than have him pick her up at her house. She wasn't ready to answer her parents' questions, and she was sure they would have some. She stepped aside as a mother with a preschooler came through the door and headed downstairs to the children's section.

  "But, how do you know the trees are sleeping? They don't have eyes," the little boy said.

  Kelly could hear the mother's sigh from the stairwell, and smiled. She saw David's blue sedan pull up to the parking lot and went to meet him before he had time to drive into a spot.

  "Let me guess," David said as she opened the passenger door and slid into the seat. "You haven't told your parents you were going to attend?"

  Kelly gave him a rye smile and shook her head. "I just want to check it out first," she said.

  "Chad thought it would be better if I brought you, rather than having you just show up with no Shade connection," David said, changing the direction of the conversation. "I explained your experience with Shades, so he is aware, but what you share with the group will be up to you."

  Kelly was quiet, considering this. Was this going to be run like some kind of twelve-step group? Was she supposed to stand up and say, "Hi, I'm Kelly, and I'm a Light?"

  As though he could sense her misgivings, David smiled. "It'll be fine," he said. "They have these kinds of meetings in a lot of places, and they're all run a little bit differently, but along the same lines. I told you, I went to one while I was in college and found it really helpful."

  Kelly looked at him. "You told me one of your friends was a Shade?"

  "My best friends, brother and sister, were both Shades. Jessie and I met when we were twelve—her brother, Nathan, was a year ahead of us in school." He smiled. "I didn't know they were shapeshifters, though, not for years. Their parents were trying to protect me from something their dad had uncovered at work—he'd been run off the road and ended up in a wheelchair. He thought the family was in danger, and they didn't want me in danger, too, so they tried to say we couldn't be friends anymore." His sentences came out stiffly, and he flexed his fingers on the steering wheel. He put on his turn signal and took the corner before continuing. "Their parents hadn't really explained what was going on, so Nate and Jess thought it was just to protect me from Terats—people who hate Shades just on principle. Nathan decided to show me what they were." David's sudden grin and short laugh faded quickly. "I knew Nate—had known him for four years at that point. We'd slept over each others' houses, hung out after school; I practically lived at their house when my parents were busy with their careers. Seeing him shift scared the beejeezus out of me!"

  Kelly's smile didn't quite reach her eyes, she could tell. She understood that David was trying to calm her nerves, but she kept seeing flashes of Mark's face, lunging at her. "Where are they now? Do they work for the task force, too?"

  David was quiet. He followed the GPS command to take another turn before replying.

  "The trouble their dad had uncovered involved werewolves and a federal racketeering lawsuit. The werewolves tried to silence him by running him off the road, then came after the kids. It was Jessie's and my last day of school, and Nathan had picked us up. He was supposed to graduate the next week." His voice was hoarse, and he cleared his throat. "They killed him when they ran us off the road." He paused and swallowed again. "The rest of the family moved away, and I was sent to the academy as a sort of witness protection plan, to protect my family."

  Kelly absorbed the information in shock. "What—what happened to the werewolves?"

  David's face held no pleasure. "Mr. Bolduc continued with the investigation, and the werewolves were eventually brought to justice. Most of them are still in Silvergate Prison. A couple of them are dead." He paused again, and Kelly could tell he was trying to find words to explain something to her. "Some dark Shades, Shades who are criminals, are bad, but able to be in a regular prison with other people. Some, and werewolves are generally all in this category—if they're dark, they cannot be in a regular prison. Caging wild, predatory animals with people who cannot protect themselves is too much temptation for them. So, there are two prisons in this country specifically for Shades, Silvergate and Black Rock, but even that is not enough for some of them. It's a little like putting child molesters in with general population prisons—the other prisoners make sure the molesters don't make it out."

  He shook his head and turned the wheel to direct the car into the driveway of a long, low house. "Kelly, I don't want to scare you. I'm telling you what happened to me because I want you to understand that everyone's story is different. I told you before, there are decent shapeshifters and there are dark shapeshifters, same as any other category of people. The difference is that shapeshifters have an additional way to hide who or what they are, that's really all there is to it. I can't even say it makes them more dangerous, because I've met plenty of people whom I would consider more dangerous than most of the Shades I've met."

  Kelly let out a long breath and nodded. "That part, I understand—I told Sam that, too. She was worried about becoming a monster. I told her, she isn't evil, why would that change?" She looked at the building. It was a one-story ranch with neatly trimmed shrubs under the windows and a brick-red front door. A wooden snowman stood on the covered brick patio near the door, along with a sign that said,"Welcome, snowflakes!" There was a row of candy-canes stuck into the ground next to the walkway leading to the door. Three cars parked in the driveway along with David's, and she noticed taillights of another car parked on the street blink off as the occupant climbed out and walked up to the house. He knocked once, then let himself in and closed the door behind him.

  David looked at her, allowing her a moment. Finally, he said, "ready?"

  At Kelly's nod, he opened his door and led the way to the house.

  Chapter three

  Kelly curled her hands around the plastic cup of ginger ale and gazed out from the straight-backed chair she had claimed. Some of the attendees were making plates of food from a buffet of pizza and salad that was laid out in the kitchen. David was chatting with an older man near the coffee pot. Kelly had gotten a couple of glances from three of the women in the group, but let her eyes slide away before they interpreted her gaze as an invitation to talk. She could feel tightness in her shoulders and leaned back, trying to dispel the body language that would tell everyone how uncomfortable she was.

  "I'm not sure how, but next thing I knew, he'd gotten both feet in one pant leg and was falling over, trying to hop into the kitchen to show me," a dark-haired woman laughed, mimicking someone trying to walk with their legs stuck together.

  The women meandered back into the sitting area with their plates and glanced around. The living room had been set up for the meeting, with the couch and recline
r pushed against the walls and chairs from the kitchen placed around and in between to form a circle of sorts. A few folding tables were set up to hold plates and drinks, and a low coffee table held a combination bowl with some chips and dip. Kelly had chosen a seat between the television and the recliner. The dark-haired woman aimed for the seat on the recliner closest to Kelly.

  "Hi! I'm Janet," she said, placing her paper plate onto the folding table and sticking out a hand to shake. "This is Joanne and Diana." She gestured to the two other women, who looked enough alike to be sisters. The three sat on the couch, trying not to spill their plates while they got settled.

  "Kelly," Kelly said. She tried to smile, hoping it didn't look as forced as it felt.

  "I teach elementary school," Janet said. "First grade. Are you in college?"

  Kelly nodded. "I'm in Theater Arts at Yorke College right now, but I'm thinking about changing. I'm not sure." She trailed off.

  Janet nodded. "It's weird, right? I went through my first couple of years at school thinking I wanted to teach high school science, then fell in love with the little ones instead. What kind of theater? I've been to a couple of the plays at Yorke, they're pretty good."

  "I'm one of the behind-the-scenes players—I work on the costumes and make-up," Kelly said. "Which shows have you seen?"

  "I went to Cinderella a couple of years ago. That one had fantastic costumes!"

  "I saw that, too! That was before I was in the program, though. I helped out with the costumes for Music Man last month. We're going to be doing Into the Woods next semester, though, and the make-up for those costumes is going to be a lot of fun," Kelly grinned, anticipation warming her voice. "I'm really hoping to be able to make the mask for the witch, or the wolf." Her voice caught as she realized what she had just said. She glanced quickly at Janet's face, hoping she wasn't offended.

  Janet smiled. "I bet that will be fun," she said, taking a bite of salad.