EUAN: Outback Shifters #3

by Chant, Zoe

  “Euan!”

  The sound of Delilah’s voice yanked him into sudden alertness, though his headache didn’t subside in the slightest.

  “Delilah?” He whipped his head around, ignoring the pain, looking around for her desperately. Finally, his vision started to clear as he felt Delilah’s hands on his shoulders, her fingers digging into his muscles.

  “Euan, are you all right?” Delilah sounded frightened, and Euan didn’t blame her.

  “I’m… I’m okay,” he said, once he’d done a quick assessment of the rest of his body. He felt like he’d felt the one time in his life he’d gotten really, really drunk – which took a lot of alcohol, given his shifter metabolism – but he could tell there was no major damage to any part of his body. He blinked again to clear the last of his swimming vision, and Delilah’s face resolved itself in front of him.

  She looked pale, but she was clearly unhurt.

  “Are you all right?” Euan asked, sitting up and searching her clothes of any sign of blood even so. “What happened?”

  Memories were starting to filter back to him. They’d been on the Agency’s powerboat, speeding across the harbor – there’d been a giant yacht chasing after them – an alicorn –

  “It was Alisa,” Delilah said, her voice turning grim. “She… she did something. Like that flash of light I can emit from my fingers –” she wiggled them to demonstrate “– only about a hundred times more powerful, I think. It knocked us all out, but it seemed to work on me less than you guys. I woke up a while ago, but I played, uh, well, not dead, but…”

  “No, no, I understand. You did the right thing.” Euan squinted, looking around.

  What the hell kind of room is this?!

  As he became more and more aware of his surroundings, Euan realized just how ridiculous they were. They were in some kind of… bedroom? He supposed? There was a bed at least, a massive one about four times the size of his own, and covered in about five hundred pillows. Pillars that looked like they were made of carved marble spiraled up at each of its four corners, holding up a set of plush-looking curtains. Golden lamps sat on dark wood dressing tables on either side of the bed, and a gilt-edged hole cut in the ceiling let in light from outside. Through an arched doorway off to the side, Euan caught a glimpse of an opulent bathroom that seemed to be made entirely of dark-veined marble.

  What the hell?

  Despite the lavish surroundings – or, rather, because of them – Euan could feel a dreadful unease beginning to build in his stomach.

  “Where are the others?” he asked Delilah as he forced himself to stand up, his feet sinking into the plush carpeting.

  “I – I don’t know,” Delilah said. “They dragged you and me in here. I didn’t see where they took them.”

  “You said Alisa did this,” Euan said, trying to think through the pain in his skull. “So this must be… on the yacht?”

  On the few times he’d been on boats, they’d had extremely cramped, purely utilitarian interiors. This place looked more like a five-star hotel.

  “It is,” Delilah confirmed, nodding. “And I’m sure it was Alisa who knocked us out, using her, uh, flash-bomb powers.” She paused, biting her lip. “But she looked really sick afterwards – and I mean really sick. She was pale as a sheet, and she needed one of her henchmen to hold her up. She couldn’t even really walk.”

  Euan forced his brain to work, trying to figure out what that might mean. “Hector told me once it seemed like Ruby needed time to recharge her powers after she’d used them,” he said. “She could do something similar, but on a bit of a smaller scale – like a psychic blast. She did it a couple of times when she got scared, without intending to. Maybe it’s the same for all alicorns, though – if they use a power that takes up a lot of energy, they really feel it and need some time to recover. Maybe knocking out five people at once really pushed Alisa to her limit.”

  “That makes sense.” Delilah nodded. “I didn’t get much of a chance to see if she’d recovered by the time they brought us down here.”

  Euan took a deep breath. He could already feel the first sparks of anger and even panic kindling in his belly, but he knew that wouldn’t help him now. He needed to try to stay calm.

  I need to find the others. Delilah is safe, but what about –

  “Oh, so you’re awake then.”

  Euan and Delilah whipped around, Euan’s vision swimming momentarily as he did so, to see Alisa standing at the top of a gently curving set of marble stairs. The glare on her beautiful face was ferocious, but Delilah had been right about her looking sick – her face was almost as pale as her white-blonde hair. Her knuckles were white where her fingers gripped the gilt bannister of the stairs.

  Euan felt the anger sparking in his belly ignite into an open flame.

  “Where are the others?” he growled, taking a step toward her, his fists clenched by his side. He knew he had to be calm, but there were too many memories attached to this situation for him to pull himself back into the cold objectivity of a field Agent.

  This is too much like last time – too much like the last time I failed. Too much like the time when Sam –

  Euan shook his head. He couldn’t think about that right now. He had to believe right now that Hector, Rhys and Callan were still alive.

  “That’s none of your business,” Alisa snapped, her voice cold and cruel. “You’d do better to worry about yourself right now. Did you really think we’d allow you to mess up all our plans? That we wouldn’t know if you tried something like this?” An ugly snarl crossed her beautiful face. “You’re fools. It’s just as I told you – there’s nothing you can do to stop us now.”

  “If that’s really true, why go to all this trouble?” Delilah spoke up, her voice quiet but steady.

  Euan glanced at her, frowning. What does she mean?

  “If there’s really nothing we can do about this, then why chase us around the harbor in… in a pleasure yacht?” Delilah insisted, taking a step forward, her eyes trained on Alisa’s face. “Why not just let us drive uselessly around the harbor until whatever is going to happen just happens, since there’s apparently nothing we can do about it?”

  Fury flashed in Alisa’s eyes.

  “Shut up,” she snapped, before her knuckles turned even whiter around the bannister. “You’re nothing but a worthless human – what would you know? What can you even understand? Even if that filthy traitor explained everything to you, what would you know? You cannot even begin to fathom our plans.”

  The man in the alley again, Euan thought. Clearly, he’d risked a lot to try to get word to the Agency about what Lev and Alisa were trying to do.

  “Anyway,” Alisa continued after a moment, calming her voice with obvious effort, “even if he did tell you how to stop this, the only place that knowledge exists is inside your head.”

  Alisa’s other hand, the one not gripping the bannister, stirred at her side – and Euan’s blood ran cold as he saw her lifting a gun.

  Perhaps she really doesn’t have her powers, he thought desperately. Otherwise why wouldn’t she just mind-wipe Delilah of the knowledge?

  “Thankfully,” Alisa said, her snarl turning to a smirk, “that’s a very easy problem to solve.”

  Delilah froze, staring wide-eyed at the gun.

  No, Euan thought, feeling his anger burst into rage, the open flame within him turning into an unstoppable wildfire. No. I will not let this happen again. I will never, never allow anyone to hurt Delilah – to hurt anyone –

  Euan was moving, throwing himself toward Alisa, before he even felt it – or before he even realized what it was, burning inside him.

  We will never allow anyone to hurt our mate!!

  He heard his lion’s roar within him, reverberating through his chest with power and fury. He could feel its rage ripping through his mind, its fury at the idea that anyone would ever dare to point a gun at its mate – that anyone would ever dare to threaten her –

  Euan could feel t
he shift beginning, the sensation as familiar as it ever was, even after all these months. The change in his skeletal structure, his musculature. The way his vision flattened, but he gained sensitivity in so many other areas. His fingers and nails transforming into deadly sharp claws, his teeth becoming razor-sharp. His tail whipping out behind him as he pounced forward on his newly powerful hind legs –

  And the fury of the lion taking over my mind, he thought, as he felt his human mind receding, taken over by the animal.

  Sam had been his partner, his closest friend. But Delilah was his mate. The rage the lion felt at the thought of her being harmed outstripped anything Euan had ever felt before – and he realized that this time, he might not be able to suppress the lion again.

  But if I have to give up my humanity to keep Delilah safe, then it seems a small price to pay.

  He didn’t care what he had to do as long as Delilah was unharmed, Euan decided as he reached forward, claws outstretched, ready to tear into Alisa’s arm before she could shoot.

  But in the end, his claws struck nothing.

  Roaring in fury, Euan twisted in the air, only to see that Alisa had managed to shift at the last possible second, rearing back and dancing sideways, out of his reach. She tossed her head, screeching in anger.

  In the part of his mind that wasn’t pure animal rage, Euan wondered why she simply didn’t use her flash-bomb powers again – but as he watched the way the alicorn seemed to stumble on its feet, clumsy in a way Alisa had never been before, he knew she must truly be at her limits.

  He snarled, pacing back a few steps, getting used to the feeling of being on four feet again, and much lower to the ground than before. All his shifter senses were on high alert, the lion’s instincts racing. He could hear, smell, sense everything – every tiny shiver in the alicorn’s flank as it sidled away from him, horn dangerously lowered despite its fatigue, every shift in its potentially deadly hooves as it looked for a chance to trample him into the thick carpet of the yacht bedroom.

  No. Even if it costs us our lives, we will not allow this thing that has threatened our mate to walk away alive!

  The lion snarled again, drawing its mouth back over its razor-sharp teeth, and pounced.

  Perhaps Alisa had realized just how furious and determined the lion was, because instead of trying to fight him off with her horn or hooves, she instead turned and fled, clattering down the wide corridor leading out of the yacht. It was the worst decision she could have made, however – running only called to his lion’s instincts to chase down its prey, and, without thinking, Euan dashed after her.

  Even with all its spacious luxury, the yacht’s corridors were a tight fit for a horse-sized alicorn – not to mention her wings – and Alisa was clumsy as she clattered her way down it, clearly looking for an exit. If she made it outside, Euan knew she’d have the advantage – she could take flight, and pummel him with her hooves from the air. She darted around a corner, silvery tail flying behind her. Euan snarled, and followed.

  The powerful kick of the alicorn’s hind legs caught him in the side as he rounded the corner to follow her – pain ripped through Euan’s ribs as he flew back, crashing into a wall and sending a probably priceless vase smashing to the ground. Euan growled in pain, landing heavily on his shoulder amongst the shards of porcelain, his claws scrabbling against the polished wood of the floor, leaving deep furrows behind them.

  Alisa had clearly set up the ambush for him, running in a seeming panic before waiting for him, then hitting him with a devastating kick.

  Stop running in a blind fury, Euan tried to tell the lion, trying to regain at least a little control – but it was useless. The lion’s rage wouldn’t be denied. All it saw was the threat to its mate.

  Alisa had clearly led them to a larger room – some kind of gaming room from the looks of it, with dozens of chairs set up around long tables. She leapt up onto one of the tables, rearing up and letting out a furious whinny, her front legs churning the air in front of her.

  Whatever Euan’s lion thought of strategizing, it clearly remembered the pain those hooves had caused it, and it crouched warily, snarling, whiskers twitching as it looked for a path to attack.

  Alisa’s hooves danced on the table, her nostrils snorting, as she tossed her head, her sharp horn glinting. But the table was still small for a fully-grown alicorn to stand on.

  Euan darted forward, seeming as if he was about to launch an attack on her from below – but at the last minute he pulled back, turning the attack into a feint, and ducked low to run beneath the table.

  It fooled Alisa – she reared back, striking out with her front hooves. But in order to get enough space to attack, she’d stepped back too far. Too late she realized that her back legs were unbalanced, right on the edge of the table –

  With a furious scream, Alisa staggered back, trying to regain her footing. But Euan was waiting for her.

  He jumped up as she stumbled, his teeth closing around the lower part of her left hind leg. Alisa screeched again in equine fury, kicking madly, but once the marsupial lion’s jaws were locked, there was no opening them again. He pulled her down, her wings flapping uselessly. Once she was on the floor, Alisa kicked at him again, the hoof of her other hind leg finding his neck, his shoulder, and sending stabs of agony through his body every time it struck.

  But the lion’s instincts to hold onto its prey no matter what overrode anything, even pain. His dew claws hooked into her leg, holding her even tighter. It wasn’t until her hoof finally found the side of his face that he was forced to let go, knocked sideways by the power of the blow.

  Euan shook his head, trying to clear it. He’d injured Alisa’s leg – not very badly, but enough that it might slow her down. He looked around, senses on high alert.

  Find her – find the one that threatened our mate – find the one who would have killed our mate –

  The lion’s rage was like a throbbing heartbeat in his head. Euan tried to take hold of it, tried to think, but found himself rebuffed.

  Just like last time, he thought desperately. Just like when I had to suppress it…

  This time, he wasn’t sure that would work. Fury seemed to seethe in the lion’s veins. At this rate, he couldn’t see himself regaining control at all – and certainly not enough to suppress it.

  The lion snarled furiously as it looked around, searching for Alisa. Finally its eyes fell on her, where she’d pulled herself to the side of the room.

  She’s shifted back into her human form, Euan realized as the lion growled, lowering its head and preparing itself to attack.

  Her leg was injured, and her exhaustion was clear. The fight had obviously drained the very last of her resources. She couldn’t fight, and she couldn’t run.

  “Wait!” she cried out, as the lion stalked toward her. “Wait – I surrender! I can’t shift! I don’t have the energy to shift or heal!” She gestured helplessly to her leg, which was clearly bleeding.

  The lion took no notice.

  This is our chance – we have brought down our prey! All that’s left is the kill!

  No!! Euan told it desperately. He didn’t know if the lion would listen – it hadn’t last tine. It had been so overwhelmed by pain and fury and grief that it hadn’t cared what its human side had to say about anything. She says she surrenders! She can’t do anything now – stop this!

  The lion hesitated, paw raised.

  This is the one who threatened our mate, it insisted. She deserves to die.

  Maybe so, Euan said. But right now, she’s asking us for mercy. She’s telling us she surrenders. It wouldn’t be right. And we need to know what she knows about what these alicorns have been up to…

  He could sense that the lion didn’t care about any of these things. Fury still boiled in its blood. It readied itself to pounce, opening its mouth to bear its fangs.

  “No! I said I surrender!” Alisa said desperately, her terror clear in her eyes.

  Stop this! Euan repeated. He struggled,
trying to gain control. Stop!!!

  The lion’s muscles coiled – and it sprang.

  No! Euan cried out, battling the lion’s instincts –

  – And felt its leap fall short as he finally won out, pulling it back. The lion snarled, flexing its claws, but it was listening to him.

  You shouldn’t have stopped me, it said, clearly unhappy.

  I had to. She asked for mercy, Euan told it. For the first time in months – almost a year – he was together with his lion, equal partners, each of them listening to each other and working in harmony. The way it should be. The way it had always been in the past, until the time that Sam had been killed.

  The lion clearly wasn’t terribly impressed by the concept of mercy, but it only glowered at him, eyes glimmering.

  I was only trying to protect our mate, it insisted, and Euan nodded.

  I know, and I understand. But she’s no longer a threat. You can sense it – there’s no danger in her anymore.

  It was true – all the lion’s senses could pick up from Alisa was fear, her powerful alicorn presence now completely depleted.

  “I told you, I surrender,” she said again, with rising panic. She obviously wasn’t sure what was going on – she hadn’t been privy to the conversation between Euan and his lion, after all.

  Euan growled at her – just because he’d convinced the lion to spare her life didn’t mean she shouldn’t remain frightened.

  We can’t stay here, though, Euan told the lion. We need to get back to Delilah.

  Our mate! the lion roared. We must ensure she’s safe!!

  Euan knew he’d be able to sense it if Delilah were in any kind of trouble – or as safe as she could be, considering they were trapped on a giant pleasure yacht and surrounded by evil alicorns, who were intent on summoning some kind of water monster –

  “Euan!”

  Delilah sounded out of breath as she called out his name, and Euan turned to see her standing in the doorway, red-faced, having obviously chased them through the yacht.

  Euan stiffened. He wasn’t sure what Delilah would make of his shifted form – especially considering all she’d seen of it so far was it chasing down Alisa with deadly intent. She’d seen Trent’s giant kangaroo, but that had been different. The kangaroo was a kangaroo, no matter how huge it was.