by Chant, Zoe
“I wanted to come see you,” Rosie said, her voice low and thick. She was sitting so her hair was hanging down over her face, but she sounded as if she might have been crying. “But I couldn’t remember how to get to your house. But I meet you here all the time and I thought you might be working…”
Delilah shook her head, frustration in her eyes. But she took a deep breath before she spoke, clearly trying not to let it show in her voice. “Rosie, I get that, but you can’t just run off like this. Your mum is frantic. We need to call her right now.”
“I don’t want to call her,” Rosie said mulishly. “We had a fight. She said I didn’t spend enough time at Emma’s party. But it was so loud, and everyone there was a little kid. I just wanted to go be quiet in my room for a while. I don’t know why I had to spend all day there. No one was there for me anyway – it was for Emma. They wouldn’t have noticed.” She blinked, glancing up, and contrition crossed her face. “I’m sorry, Aunty Dela – I know I shouldn’t have done it. I just didn’t think Mum would listen to me.”
“Okay,” Delilah said, nodding. “We can talk a little more once we’re sitting down somewhere quiet inside. But I am going to text your mum right now, and she may want to come and pick you up immediately. So you’ll have to live with that and explain yourself to her if that’s what happens. Okay?”
Rosie lifted her tear-streaked face, nodding and sniffling. “Okay.”
They stood, and Delilah slid aside a small metal panel on the wall next to the gallery door, revealing a keypad. She punched in a combination and the lock beeped and whirred as it opened.
“All right, come in. I have some gelati in the work kitchen freezer, so we can share some of that and talk. But first, I’ll text your mum.”
Euan took a few moments to look around the gallery as Delilah texted rapidly on her phone, evidently picking her words pretty carefully, judging by the look of concentration on her face.
The gallery was the kind of place Euan had never really spent much time in – the façade outside was clearly historical, with arched windows and sandstone, but the inside was purely modern and swanky, with polished concrete floors and voguey industrial lighting strung across the ceiling. Paintings hung on the wide, white walls, most of them abstract pieces Euan could tell would be expensive, but which, beyond appreciating they were nice to look at, he wasn’t sure he understood. Maybe he’d have to get Delilah to explain it to him one of these days.
He glanced across at Delilah, who was looking up from her phone at last, her face clearing.
“Okay, Rosie – I’ve explained things to your mum, and she’s agreed you can spend a couple of hours with me, and then I can drop you home. You’re going to have a long talk with both your mother and your father when you get in though, just so you know. You frightened them half to death.”
Rosie looked like she was wishing the ground would open and swallow her up, but she nodded. “Okay.”
“Come on through to the kitchen.” Delilah waved them through.
Euan glanced at Rosie, not sure how much she’d like the fact that he was here, intruding on her time with her aunt. But she barely seemed to notice him – maybe she was too busy thinking about the trouble she was in to pay him much mind.
Delilah was busy at the kitchen freezer when they came in. “Seems like my co-workers have decided to help themselves to my secret store of I’ve had a bad day emergency gelati,” she grumbled. “I swear I used to have a couple more containers in here. But as it is, you have a choice of salted caramel and salted caramel.”
“It’s fine, Aunty Dela. I like salted caramel,” Rosie said softly.
“Good.” Delilah plonked the carton of gelati down on the table and stabbed three spoons into it. “Okay. Have one spoon of gelati. And then we’re going to have a little chat.”
Euan wished he could remove himself from the situation – he was sure that once Rosie had to start explaining herself, she’d wish he was elsewhere too. He eyed the gelati dubiously. Salted caramel did not sound like his cup of tea, but, he thought, remembering the unexpected pleasure of the honey joy yesterday, maybe he should give it a try before he found a way to be less intrusive while Rosie and Delilah talked.
Maybe I can go for a walk around the gallery, the thought as he scooped up some gelati with his spoon. He’d still be close by to Delilah and Rosie then, without actually having to listen in on their conversation. That’d probably make things a little less awkw – oh hey, this is pretty good. He blinked in surprise as he put the spoon of gelato in his mouth. He’d never considered salted caramel before – he’d always thought it was downright weird. But this was amazing.
He took another scoop.
Delilah was smirking at him as if she’d discovered one of his secrets. “It’s good, right?”
“Really good. I’m man enough to admit that.” He took another scoop, before setting his spoon aside. “But I should leave you two in peace to talk. I’ll just be around the corner, okay?”
Delilah gave him a grateful look, smiling. “Thanks.”
Euan gave her a quick nod before heading back out into the main section of the gallery. The walls were set up a little like a maze, twisting around each other, guiding visitors through the selection of paintings. Euan didn’t notice a price tag on any of them, but, given the size and scale of most of them, maybe it was one of those if you have to ask, you can’t afford it situations.
Round one twist though, he found himself in an open doorway, leading into what must be some kind of storeroom – there were artist’s easels, dust covers, and empty frames on tables and lining the walls, along with a workbench with scalpel-sharp exacto knives, hammers, and hanging wire. Euan took a brief look around and then turned away – but that was when he felt it.
It was something he hadn’t felt in months, but he recognized it right away – the cold shiver that ran straight up his spine, warning him of danger.
It was a shifter instinct, something he’d thought he’d lost when he’d suppressed his lion. But the sensation was unmistakable.
Euan glanced over his shoulder, scanning the room. Was it something in here? Or is it in some other part of the gallery?
Nothing stirred in the storeroom.
Delilah. Rosie.
Euan turned, running out of the storeroom and back toward the kitchen, the paintings a blur as he sprinted past them. But as he passed the main room of the gallery, the entrance, he paused. The feeling of danger in his gut intensified as he stared.
Two people stood outside, their faces obscured – all he could tell was that they were tall, though they were otherwise slight, almost willowy. One of them was pressing buttons on the combination lock by the door.
Is it some of Delilah’s co-workers? Euan wondered, eyes narrowing. It occurred to him briefly that perhaps, after having lain dormant for so long, his shifter senses might be overreacting now, but he dismissed the idea quickly. He might not have felt them in a long time – he might not even be sure they were returning for good – but he wasn’t about to start questioning them when there was even a chance Delilah and Rosie could be in danger.
He heard footsteps behind him, and he turned to see Delilah emerging from the kitchen. The look on her face quickly told him that the warning his shifter senses had given him had been true. Her face had gone pale, and her eyes were clearly saying Did you feel that too?
He nodded to her briefly. There was no point in pretending that he didn’t understand, or hadn’t felt it. Still, it pained him to see the fearful expression that flashed across her face.
I won’t let anything happen to you.
“Delilah,” Euan said quietly so that Rosie, still in the kitchen, wouldn’t hear. “Do you know those people?”
Delilah shook her head. “No. They shouldn’t be able to get in – the boss would never give the keycode to anyone other than an employee, and it changes weekly. They shouldn’t be able to –”
There was a beep, followed by the whir of the lock.
“Delilah, when I tell you to go, you go,” he said softly as the two people opened the door and came into the gallery. “Take Rosie and run as fast as you can to the Agency offices. Do you remember how to get there?”
“I – I think so,” Delilah said. “But –”
“No buts,” Euan said. “You get Rosie to safety.”
And yourself, he silently added, though he knew what was more likely to get Delilah to agree to what he asked. Sure enough, a moment later, Delilah nodded.
Euan’s jaw clenched as he looked at the two people now standing in the entryway of the gallery. They were a man and a woman, tall, narrow, and both with silvery hair and strangely bright green eyes.
Immediately, his sense of danger went into overdrive.
It’s them. They’re the danger.
“What do you want?” he growled out, his fists bunching by his sides. He wasn’t sure what he would do against them if they were shifters, but he did know that no matter what, he’d slow them down long enough for Delilah and Rosie to get to safety.
The woman cocked her head, seeming to regard him with amusement.
“Oh, come now,” she said. “Let’s not make this difficult.”
Euan narrowed his eyes. His shifter senses were fading in and out, still clearly unreliable. His lion still wasn’t anywhere he could find it. But the two people in front of him were… strange. His intermittent shifter senses were only telling him that they were different, and they were dangerous. He couldn’t tell if they were shifters – or if they were something else.
But one thing they definitely weren’t was human.
Euan wanted to glance back at Delilah, to tell her to take Rosie and go back to the office, but he didn’t dare take his eyes off the woman even for a moment. “What do you want?” he repeated.
The woman spread her hands wide. “Just to talk,” she said, a smile on her lips. “For now, anyway. We came to give you a perfectly civilized warning.”
Euan narrowed his eyes. “A warning?”
Every instinct he had was telling him to fight – fight to keep his mate and her family safe. But he knew he had to pick his next actions carefully. If these two… creatures were as dangerous as they seemed, he couldn’t risk doing something rash.
What are you?
“A warning,” the man said. He sounded indifferent – bored even. A moment later he took an apple from his pocket and took a huge bite out of it, chewing noisily.
“Lev,” the woman said, glancing at him. “Can’t that wait?”
The man – Lev, apparently – just shrugged. “I’m hungry, and I didn’t even want to do this. Let’s just get this over with, Alisa.”
Lev and Alisa, Euan thought. It didn’t sit well with him that they were so free with using each other’s names in front of him, or so unconcerned that he’d seen their faces.
Alisa rolled her green eyes. “Fine.”
Euan took the moment to glance over his shoulder at Delilah.
Go, he tried to signal to her with his eyes. Go now, and go fast.
Delilah hesitated for only a moment, before she began to move away.
“I wouldn’t take another step if I were you,” Alisa said, her voice as clear and cold as crystal. “What I have to say is mainly for you to hear.”
Adrenaline flooded Euan’s system. He knew he had to get Delilah out of here. Now.
“I wanted to tell you that it’s pointless,” Alisa said, her eyes trained past Euan’s shoulder and on Delilah. “Whatever you think you know, whatever that miserable little traitor told you – it doesn’t matter. Things are too far gone now. There’s nothing you can do to halt our progress. What is going to happen will happen.”
Euan stared at her, trying to piece this cryptic message together.
It’s pointless – that miserable traitor –
“You mean the man in the alley.” Delilah’s quiet voice broke into his thoughts. “He’s the one you’re calling a traitor.”
He realized immediately that Delilah must be right. He was the one who’d told her to find the Agency, after all – had tried to give them a warning. But a warning of what? What was the thing that was going to happen?
Alisa laughed, but her eyes were hard and angry. “We should have known better than to trust him. But it doesn’t matter now – everything he did means nothing. No matter what he told you, it doesn’t matter.”
Delilah had told Euan that the man in the alley had said very little, aside from telling her to find the Agency, and he believed her. But apparently Alisa thought he’d said more.
I can try to get to the bottom of all this, Euan thought desperately. If I can draw her out, maybe she’ll give me some clue as to what’s happening…
“He told us more than we need to know,” he said quietly, hoping he sounded convincing. “He told us about everything you’re doing.”
Lev shook his head before Euan could get another word out. “Well, you’ll know it’s hopeless then. Things have progressed too far, even if we wanted to stop them now. The date is set.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” Euan shot back. “There’s a way.”
Lev and Alisa stared at him, and Euan saw a glimmer of interest in their inhumanly green eyes.
Good, Euan thought. If I can keep their attention on me…
He moved a hand behind his back, waving for Delilah to slip away. After a moment, he sensed her move away from him, back toward the kitchen.
“I doubt that,” Alisa said coldly. “To be honest, I’m disappointed to hear you say that. As a shifter, you should want what we want. You should understand what we’re trying to do.”
Euan remained silent. If he let Alisa talk, she might reveal something.
“You can’t tell me you could possibly be happy, having to hide what you are.” Alisa’s voice had descended to a low hiss. “Having to live amongst humans like this. Not after everything humans have done to us.”
After everything…?
It was true, humans and shifters hadn’t always gotten along. And Euan knew there were some shifters who thought they should live more openly in the world, or even some who thought they should rule over humans as a superior species.
But are these people even shifters?
“Humans aren’t our enemy,” Euan said, his voice tight.
“No?” It was Lev who spoke up this time. He let out a low, short laugh. “Well. Even if that’s true, they’re extremely annoying. So if you think you’re going to mess up our plans, you have another think coming.”
“Not everyone in the Agency thinks like you do,” Alisa cut in. “Not everyone is content with things how they are. But if you really do think you’ve found a way to stop us… well. Perhaps we’ll have to make sure you don’t put it into action.”
Not everyone in the Agency –
Alisa’s words sent a shockwave through Euan’s brain.
Does that mean someone inside the Agency knows about these two? Knows something about what they’re up to?
But before he could think through the implications any further, Euan saw Alisa lifting her hand, and then his mind went strangely blank.
He didn’t remember walking back to the storeroom. He didn’t remember having thought that he should – why would he leave Alisa and Lev in the entrance and go back here? Why would –
“Ah, that’ll do nicely, I think.”
Alisa’s cold voice cut through the confused fog in his mind.
What’s going on? What’s happening?
Euan felt his own arm jerk into motion, though he hadn’t given it any command to move. It was as if it was being compelled by some completely outside force, totally beyond his own control. He struggled against it, feeling his hand shake as he resisted, but it did no good.
How is this –
He felt his fingers fumbling at the table where he’d seen the various art supplies and tools. They groped around, before they finally closed ar
ound the cold metal handle of an exacto knife.
“Can you hurry this up a little?” Lev’s voice sounded from somewhere behind him.
“I’m trying, but he’s fighting it.” Alisa sounded annoyed. “You could try helping – actually, don’t bother. You’d just make things worse.”
I have to fight back – I almost broke through just now –
Even through the haze of his brain, Euan had figured out that it was Alisa who was, somehow, controlling him. He’d never heard of a shifter that had powers like this before.
What is she? How is she doing this?
Euan focused all his concentration, but apparently Alisa had decided enough was enough. Try as he might, he couldn’t break through the hold she had over his mind and body. As if from very far away, he watched as his own hand turned the exacto knife toward himself, before slowly, shakily, raising it to the level of his throat.
Even if he’d had his shifter powers, Euan knew he wouldn’t survive having his throat cut.
And the only prints on the knife will be mine, he thought, as he struggled futilely against the actions of his own body. He could feel sweat dripping down his face, his breath heaving in his lungs as he tried to break out of the control Alisa had over him.
It was useless. The knife pressed against the skin above his carotid artery, but he only vaguely felt the sting as it broke through.
At least I gave Delilah enough time to escape, he thought. And at least she’s seen their faces – she can tell Robb and the others what happened –
“Euan!”
Euan gasped as he heard his name being called – no, screamed – in an all-too-familiar voice.
No – Delilah – you need to escape –
He felt Alisa’s control momentarily drop away, his body coming back under his own power. Immediately he wrenched the knife away from his throat, turning it around in his hand and whipping around, looking for a target before either Lev or Alisa could do anything to hurt Delilah – but before he could take a step in any direction, there was a blinding flash of pure, white light, and then everything went dark.
Chapter 12