Endangered

by Michelle Larkin

  The doctor shook her head, her amber-gold eyes focused solely on Aspen. “He set up a government fund to compensate humans for every successful execution.”

  Skye edged closer to Aspen. “Humans will get paid for killing us?”

  “Over my dead body.” Aspen draped her arm protectively around Skye as a red-hot rage boiled within.

  “There’s more.” Tora took a breath, her gaze penetrating and strong. “He created a new branch of military, the SEA—Shifter Eradication Agency. They’ll start rounding up Shrouds to begin the extermination process.”

  “When?” She needed to know how much time she had to come up with a plan and get Skye to safety.

  “They’ve already been deployed to every major city around the US. He said extermination troops are being released all over the world as we speak.”

  Aspen glanced down at Tora’s hand and realized she didn’t have the mark. But that didn’t make any sense. She saw Tora as a lion, clear as day. “You’re a Shroud, but you don’t have the mark.”

  “Neither do you,” Tora said, her gaze darting to Aspen’s hand.

  “I don’t have it because I’m human.”

  “Lie to humans all you want.” Tora stepped forward. “But don’t you dare lie to me.”

  “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” she shot back, confused. Was Tora under the impression that she was one of them? She thought back to something Skye had said on the roof. I’m an owl. You’re a panther. No way. Not possible. How could she be a Shroud her whole life and not know it? “First off, I don’t lie. Second, if I did, I could lie to anyone I wanted. You included.” Who the hell did this doctor think she was, anyway?

  Skye cleared her throat. “Neither of you has the mark, but I do.” She held up her hand. “If you get me to the roof, I can jump.”

  Aspen turned to the girl, pushing everything else from her mind. “I am not letting you jump off the roof, no matter how bad things get. I thought we already went over this.”

  Skye rolled her eyes. “Did you forget? I’m an owl. I can fly.”

  “Oh.” Aspen scratched the side of her head. “Well, when you put it that way, it sounds like a pretty good plan. I guess we’ll need access to the roof.” She pointed to the badge that was clipped to the pocket of Tora’s white lab coat. “Can I borrow that?” She knew from experience that the door to the hospital’s rooftop was locked.

  “No.”

  “No?” Aspen turned to Skye. “Did she just say no to an angry woman with a gun?”

  Skye’s eyes grew wide.

  “The badge stays with me,” Tora said firmly. “I’ll take you to the roof myself.”

  This was a piss-poor time for a power struggle over a stupid badge, but whatever. If Tora insisted on tagging along, that was fine with her as long as she stayed out of the way.

  “Take Skye to the elevator. Go to the fifth floor. I’ll meet you there. We’ll take the employee stairwell to the roof.”

  “Wait a minute.” Aspen grabbed Tora’s arm as she turned to leave. “Why can’t we all go together?”

  “SEA is already in the building. It’ll look suspicious.”

  “Copy that.” She set her hands over Skye’s shoulders. “You’re now my prisoner.”

  “I am? For real?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Good. Because you sounded pretty convincing.”

  They exited the exam room together and set out in opposite directions. She and Skye were making their way down a long corridor toward the elevator when two SEA soldiers rounded the corner, coming face to face with Skye. With neon orange SEA patches on each sleeve, their black and green fatigues were badass.

  The shorter of the two grabbed Skye by the wrist and held up her hand for inspection. “Got one!” he shouted, yanking the girl closer as he reached for the cuffs on his belt.

  Every muscle in Aspen’s body went on high alert. There was no way she was losing this kid. Not after what the girl had been through. “Lay off. She’s mine.” She held up her own hand. “Human,” she said before the other soldier could even think about putting hands on her. “I found her, and I intend to collect my money.”

  The soldiers exchanged a glance, but the tall one held firm to Skye’s arm.

  “C’mon, man,” she pleaded. “They pay Boston’s Finest shit wages. I need the extra cash.”

  “Fine. You can have her.” He released Skye with a vicious shove that sent her careening into the wall with an audible thump. “Just do us all a favor and throw a pair of cuffs on her before she does anything stupid.”

  It took every ounce of willpower not to draw her weapon and shoot the racist bastards in the face. “Will do,” Aspen said with a forced smile, reaching for her cuffs.

  “And be sure to do it in the garage. We have a cleanup crew on standby. No muss, no fuss,” he said, wiping his hands.

  “Copy that.” She slapped the metal cuffs around Skye’s slender wrists.

  “When you’re done with her, come back and find us,” the shorter of the two soldiers added. “We’ll give you a few more to fatten your paycheck. Adult males are worth the most. We’ll save them for you.”

  “That’d be great, guys. Thanks. I owe you one.” The elevator doors opened. Sick to her stomach, she led Skye inside and pushed the button for the fifth floor.

  “Ouch,” Skye said as soon as the doors slid shut.

  “Cuffs too tight?”

  “No.” Skye brought her hands out from behind her and handed the cuffs to Aspen. “You left them loose enough for an elephant to escape.” The girl winced as she rubbed the side of her head. “I have a huge goose egg, courtesy of soldier ass-face.”

  “Very observant. His face did resemble an ass, didn’t it?” He had one of those long chins with a sizable cleft in the center that made it look like a tiny butt.

  The doors parted on the fifth floor. Tora was already there waiting for them. She led them to an employee stairwell and unlocked the door with her beloved badge. They sandwiched the girl in an unspoken alliance to keep her safe. By the time they reached the tenth floor, they were all breathing heavily—Aspen guessed as much from fear as from physical exertion.

  A small window set high in the door looked onto a vast rooftop and then out to the city beyond. Tora swiped her badge and jiggled the handle. The door didn’t open. She inserted her badge a second time.

  Aspen sighed impatiently. “What’s taking so long?”

  “My badge isn’t working.”

  Had the SEA already put the hospital on lockdown?

  They all froze at the sound of a door banging open below them, followed by the distant echoing of heavy footsteps in the stairwell.

  If she wasn’t mistaken, it sounded like those boots were marching up the stairs, not down. She peered over the metal railing just as soldier ass-face did the same. The good news: he was on the second floor, eight stories below. The bad news: they were like sitting ducks up here.

  Aspen considered winding her way back through the hospital, but she didn’t want to risk getting ambushed. She also couldn’t, in all good conscience, risk the lives of hospital staff and patients if things got ugly. The safest bet was to get on the roof and let Skye escape—assuming she could really fly, of course. But this wasn’t the time for second-guessing. Now was the time to trust her instincts. They had never let her down in the past.

  Aspen couldn’t shoot the lock and risk the bullet ricocheting around the stairwell—too dangerous. She holstered her gun, withdrew her baton, and started striking the door’s lockbox again and again as hard as she could. The metal box didn’t budge. Not even a dent.

  They were trapped.

  “You keep working on the door,” the doctor said. “I’ll stall our friend below.”

  Aspen gave the box another hard blow. “And just how do you plan on doing that?” she asked, knowing she was the one with the gun. If anyone was going to confront him, it should be her. She hated the thought of leaving Skye’s side. But she would, if it c
ame to that.

  * * *

  Tora’s mind raced through likely scenarios as she contemplated shifting there in the stairwell. If she went through with this, she could never return to work here—or in any hospital, for that matter. From this day forward, she would forever be on the government’s radar.

  It took her a few heartbeats to wrap her mind around what she was giving up. Resuming her career as a physician would never be an option. Everything she had worked her whole life to achieve would be cast aside in the blink of an eye.

  Still, she didn’t flinch. Knowing there were other things much more important, she shifted into the lioness that felt more familiar to her than her human body. Now she was ready to wage war on anyone who posed a threat to Aspen.

  She knew it was her duty to keep Aspen safe, even though Aspen seemed oblivious to who and what she was. Did she really believe she was human? The smartass cop was about to get the biggest wake-up call of her life. Not only was she a Shroud, but she was also the most important Shroud alive right now—the one who could save them all. And it would be up to Tora to show her how.

  * * *

  When the doctor didn’t answer, Aspen turned to discover a formidable lioness standing in the stairwell behind her, tail flicking agitatedly from side to side. She dropped her baton, reached for her gun, and put an arm across Skye to push the girl behind her.

  The lioness turned and descended an entire set of stairs in one graceful leap to land silently on the floor below. She glanced up at Aspen with those amber-gold eyes before resuming her stealthy descent.

  “She’s beautiful,” Skye said, her eyes glued to the empty landing below.

  Aspen holstered her gun and let out a lungful of air. “If by beautiful you mean terrifying and dangerous, then…yes, she is,” she said, bending to retrieve the baton. “Pretty sure I peed my pants a little.”

  Skye set a hand over her mouth to stifle a case of the giggles.

  Blow by blow, she kept hammering at the lock. A deep, guttural roar reverberated through the stairwell, making Aspen work faster to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. A man’s bloodcurdling scream was cut short by a loud crunch. The sound made her feel sick to her stomach. Maybe she shouldn’t have eaten all that candy.

  The door behind them suddenly flew open as the second soldier from their earlier encounter rushed inside the stairwell. In desperation, Aspen gave the lockbox one final blow. It disintegrated in slivers on the floor at her feet. Chucking her baton at the soldier’s head, she reached for the handle, grabbed Skye, and shoved her through the doorway to the rooftop.

  She needed to buy the girl some time, so she held the door shut with all her might, digging her boots into the ground as the man pummeled it with his body from the other side.

  “Go!” she shouted.

  “What about you?” Skye cried.

  She didn’t know how much longer she’d be able to hold him back. Felt like there was an NFL defensive tackle on the other side. “I’ll be fine. Go!” The door finally gave way. She was knocked to the ground. The gun slipped from her grasp and skidded across the rooftop.

  Aspen scrambled along the ground and reached for her weapon as a shiny black boot stomped hard on the back of her hand, pinning her to the ground. She looked up to find a dart gun pointed at her face. In that moment, she knew she would die for the girl without giving it a second thought.

  “Where is she?” he asked.

  She didn’t like his tone. His mother had obviously neglected to teach him how to properly address an officer of the law. “There’s an angry lioness on her way up the stairs right now—”

  “Where’s the girl?” he asked through clenched teeth.

  Wincing as he crushed her hand harder under the sole of his combat boot, she decided to take the higher road and offer some friendly advice. “I’d seriously reevaluate my escape plan if I were you.” As those words fell from her lips, an enormous white owl swooped in on silent wings, wrapped long talons around the dart gun, and effortlessly plucked it right out of his hand.

  The lioness she had warned him about was now standing behind him. His face contorted into an expression of stark terror as he spun around. He opened his mouth to scream but didn’t have time as the lioness sprang up and clamped powerful jaws around his throat. Aspen turned away as the lioness finished him off. When she turned back, his lifeless eyes were staring into the dark night sky.

  The lioness collapsed near his body, drawing shallow, rapid breaths. An orange-tipped syringe protruded from the big cat’s thigh muscle.

  “You were hit,” she said, unsure if the lioness could understand her. The lioness stared her down with flattened ears as she reached over and carefully withdrew the syringe.

  An owl swooped in, landing beside them. Skye was back—not that she’d ever left, Aspen reminded herself. She watched in amazement as the owl shifted into a thirteen-year-old girl.

  Skye bent down to hold the big cat’s head and peer into her eyes. “Thanks for protecting us, Dr. Madigan.” She stood and turned to Aspen. “She can’t turn back into herself now because she was darted. I’ve heard about this happening to other Shrouds. We need to get her to a doctor, or she’ll die.”

  Aspen knew the girl was right. The BPD had recently added the dart guns to their arsenal against Shrouds. As of next month, they’d be standard issue for every cop on the street. “Can Tora understand us like this?”

  Skye nodded.

  “Okay. New plan.” Aspen retrieved her gun from the ground and stood guard by the door as she talked. “Are you strong enough to fly across town and find someone for me?”

  Skye nodded. “I could fly forever.”

  “His name is Oscar. He’s a wolf, and I trust him. You can trust him, too. Tell him what happened here tonight. Show him the necklace I gave you. Tell him you’re in danger, and you need his protection until I can get there. I’ll meet up with the two of you as soon as I can.”

  “Where are you going?” Skye asked, nervously rubbing the pendant around her neck.

  Aspen looked at the lioness. The lioness held her gaze. She couldn’t abandon the doctor. Not after the doctor had risked her life to help them. “I’ll be busy smuggling a three-hundred-pound ass-kicking predator out of the hospital.”

  Skye grinned. “Copy that.”

  She recited Oscar’s address and made the girl repeat it back to her. “Will you be able to find it?”

  “Duh, I’m an owl. We have a great sense of direction. Having me around is better than GPS.”

  “One more thing.” Aspen picked up the dart gun Skye had stolen. “Take this to Oscar. Tell him we need to have it analyzed ASAP. Maybe we can get an antidote to whatever’s inside this thing.”

  The girl ran over and gave her a long hug.

  “Just be careful,” Aspen said, determined not to get choked up. “And stay high so no one can track you from the ground.”

  “You can trust me, Aspen.” Without another word, the girl jogged along the roof, broke into a full sprint, and leaped high into the air. Her arms elongated into huge, gorgeous white wings as the rest of her body followed suit. She reminded Aspen of an angel. Her transformation was instantaneous and breathtaking to watch. Even the lioness seemed momentarily transfixed as Skye swooped back in to snatch the dart gun from Aspen’s hand as she held it aloft.

  Chapter Four

  With Skye en route to Oscar’s, she turned her attention to the lioness. “Thanks for your help tonight, Doc. We need to get out of here. Can you walk?”

  The lioness rose with great effort until she was standing on all four paws.

  “For obvious reasons, we’ll stick to the stairs.” Aspen held the rooftop door open. “I’d offer to carry you, but you outweigh me by at least two hundred pounds. No offense,” she added, on the heels of a disgruntled growl.

  Side by side, they began their slow descent. Aspen pinched herself repeatedly to make sure she was awake. She felt dwarfed by the lioness’s hulking form and suddenly
found herself wondering what it would feel like to shapeshift into such a powerful animal. If she really was a Shroud, why hadn’t she ever shifted?

  The lioness stopped abruptly in front of the door on the eighth-floor landing. Her amber-gold eyes were like laser beams as she peered intently back and forth between Aspen and the doorknob.

  “It’s subtle, but I’m getting the feeling you want me to open this door.” She could only imagine how frustrating it was to be stuck in this form without the ability to communicate. “I don’t think that’s such a hot idea, Doc.”

  The lioness growled deep in her throat.

  “Don’t you growl at me.”

  The lioness flattened her ears but stopped growling.

  “That’s better,” Aspen said. “A little respect goes a long way.”

  The lioness clamped her jaws over the doorknob and tugged, popping the metal doorknob off like a dandelion head. She spit out the doorknob, hooked one long, sharp claw from an enormous paw into the resultant hole, and pulled the door all the way open. She looked up at Aspen expectantly.

  The doctor obviously wasn’t taking no for an answer. “Fine, I’ll go first and see if the coast is clear.” She pointed her finger at the lioness. “Stay,” she ordered, grinning.

  The lioness peeled her lips back to expose four-inch canines.

  “Intimidation won’t work with me. Can’t you take a joke?”

  With another low growl, the lioness pushed past her into the eighth-floor corridor.

  * * *

  Despite her conviction to see this through, Tora now had doubts about her decision to put everything on the line for Aspen. She already couldn’t stand her. Joking when so much was at stake was irresponsible and just plain reckless. Humor in the midst of a crisis was akin to fingernails on a chalkboard.

  She thought back to the question Aspen had asked Skye on the rooftop—about whether or not Tora could understand their words while in lioness form. How could Aspen not have known the answer to that? Tora circled back to her earlier theory. Maybe Aspen really didn’t know what she was. If that rang true, then it was reasonable to assume Aspen had also never shapeshifted.