Endangered

by Michelle Larkin

  With substantial effort, Tora wrestled her hair into a makeshift bun before returning her gaze. “There,” she said, patting her head and checking for stragglers. “Better?”

  Aspen nodded.

  “How are you feeling this morning?”

  Aspen did a quick internal checkup. She felt well-rested. Strong. Famished. But what she was craving surprised her. She wanted oatmeal, scrambled eggs, and a toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese in the worst way. “Hungry,” she said finally. “But not for chocolate. I think I want…normal food?” She checked her own forehead for fever. “Something must be wrong.”

  “Remember what I said yesterday?” Tora turned on the bed to face her. “I suspected your sugar cravings had something to do with the vaccine you were given to thwart your shapeshifting abilities. Your cravings are bound to change now that you’re letting your body do what comes naturally.”

  Aspen frowned, unsure of how she felt about this change. She’d been eating that way for so long she couldn’t imagine anything different.

  Tora pressed two fingers against the inside of Aspen’s wrist and checked her watch, counting heartbeats. After a minute, she looked up. “Sixty beats. Perfect resting heart rate.” She climbed out of bed and went to the duffel bag in the corner. Toothbrush and workout clothes in hand, she headed to the bathroom. “Up for a quick run?”

  “As long as there’s an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet afterward.” Aspen stood from the bed and stretched, careful not to reopen the wounds on her shoulder and thigh. Surprisingly, she felt no pain and glanced down to realize her wounds were nearly healed.

  She was already dressed by the time Tora emerged from the bathroom. They made their way to the indoor track and set out for a leisurely five-mile run. With an unspoken truce, they ran together this time instead of against one another.

  “Why’d you decide to be a cop?” Tora asked.

  “Oscar,” Aspen said honestly. “He used to come home and tell me all about his days on the streets as a beat cop. I figured out pretty quickly that’s what I wanted to do. He worked the day shift, so we ate dinner together every night. I’d just sit there listening to everything he saw—all the different people and situations he encountered and how he handled them. He’d reflect on the mistakes he made, how he could’ve handled things differently, and what he could do better the next time around. Pretty soon, he was running me through all sorts of scenarios, asking me how I’d handle them if I were a cop. Some families play board games. We played cop scenarios.” Aspen laughed, remembering how she couldn’t get enough of it. It was still their favorite game to play over Sunday brunch at IHOP. They awarded each other extra points for creativity and had been keeping a running tally for seventeen years. Oscar was currently up by three points. Since there was an endless supply of what-ifs in the policing world, they never ran out of subject matter. “My training started long before I entered the police academy,” she went on. “Back then, Oscar was my hero. Still is. I would’ve done anything to be like him.”

  “He sounds like a good man,” Tora said with a smile.

  “What about you?” she asked, wondering if what she’d just shared made Tora think about her dad. “What made you want to be a doctor?”

  “The obvious answer would be my father because he was a doctor. But in reality, he had very little to do with it. He tutored me, encouraged me, and supported my choices along the way, but being a doctor—a world-renowned surgeon, as fate would have it—was never his passion.”

  Aspen couldn’t imagine doing something she didn’t feel passionate about. She believed everyone had a calling. It was up to each person to figure out what that calling was. Like her, some figured it out early in life. She’d met more than a few who never figured it out at all, and she always found that incredibly sad.

  “It was actually my mom who set me on the path to becoming a doctor.”

  Aspen was confused. “I thought you said she died during childbirth.”

  “She did. Identifying why Shroud mothers are dying during childbirth and how to prevent it is what inspired me to go into medicine.”

  A lofty and admirable goal. “Have you figured out why they’re dying?”

  “Shroud bodies release an anticoagulant enzyme during childbirth. In certain Shrouds, this enzyme is produced in excess, which leads to massive postpartum hemorrhaging.”

  Aspen knew little to nothing about medicine. “Can’t you just give them some kind of—I don’t know—clotting medication?”

  “A colleague of mine tried that already. Administering an antifibrinolytic before, during, or immediately after childbirth triggers the body to shapeshift and renders the patient permanently unable to shift back into human form.”

  An anti-what? Aspen shook her head, deciding she didn’t need to know the details. “But isn’t that better than dying?”

  “Not for a Shroud.”

  Aspen thought about how challenging it would be to remain in animal form for the rest of her life. “What about your dad?” she asked, changing the subject so she wouldn’t be tempted to share the details of her vision. “If he wasn’t passionate about medicine, why’d he become a doctor?”

  “His passion was building this sanctuary. He predicted this day would come—the day humans would decide they didn’t want us around anymore. He figured our people would need a safe haven sooner or later.” Tora laughed. “I’m pretty sure the only reason he became a doctor was to make lots of money. Almost every penny he made went into building this sanctuary. Getting this place up and running was his sole mission in life. He was in the process of recruiting an elite group of Shrouds to invest in building sanctuaries in other parts of the world when he was killed.”

  As much as Aspen admired his dedication to helping Shrouds, there had to be a more efficient way to address the problem. Turning the tables on the SEA and wiping them off the face of the earth might be a good place to start.

  “The investors bailed as soon as they learned of his death. They were convinced he was killed because the government caught wind of the sanctuary. It took me over a year to convince them my father was murdered simply because he was a Shroud. When they saw the sanctuary here was unharmed, they began to revisit the idea of investing in others.” Tora shook her head. “But it’s been a long road with them. They’re moving at a snail’s pace because they’re afraid for their lives.”

  Those same Shrouds were probably wishing they’d listened and invested a lot sooner—if they were still alive. Aspen shuddered to imagine what was going on at the surface.

  There was a long silence between them as they ran. She imagined they were both thinking about the Shrouds who were being massacred at this very moment.

  Tora slowed to a walk and set her hands on her hips, breathing hard. “Being tucked away down here while our people are being slaughtered”—she shook her head—“it’s a lot harder than I thought.”

  Aspen reached out to set a reassuring hand on Tora’s arm and was instantly rewarded with a vision. Something was trapped beneath Tora’s skin. A transmitter. When Tora was darted, a microscopic transmitter had been injected into her body, allowing the government to track her.

  Aspen got a quick glimpse into SEA headquarters. Top officials had gathered and were now calculating the dimensions of this underground facility. The faces sitting around the table were cold and detached. It was clear to her they thought of Shrouds as nothing more than cockroaches that needed to be exterminated, immediately and without remorse. They were trying to determine the best and most efficient way to eradicate the nest. She shuddered at the term.

  She took a deep breath and pulled her hand away. Time to alert the others. The SEA knew they were here.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Aspen and Tora took turns showering and then headed to the kitchen for breakfast. Oscar and Skye were sitting together at the table, engaged in a heated debate about pacifiers.

  “She doesn’t need a binky,” Oscar insisted.

  “But she lik
es the binky. It makes her feel calm.”

  He shook his head. “It’ll warp her teeth and keep her from talking.”

  “I had a binky when I was a baby, and I can talk just fine.”

  “What if they’re made from something toxic?” he asked.

  “They’re made from medical-grade silicone.” Skye held up the packaging. “Says right here on the box.”

  As Aspen got closer, she saw Hope nestled against Oscar’s chest in one of those baby carriers. Like a backpack worn in reverse, two straps fit snugly over his broad shoulders with a pouch in front for precious cargo. Hope’s head was up, her eyes wide open. She appeared to be listening to their conversation. The pacifier in question bobbled up and down as she sucked away contentedly.

  Aspen reached out to smooth the infant’s white-blond hair, which seemed to have quadrupled in quantity since yesterday. She also looked much larger than Aspen remembered.

  Tora came up alongside them and gasped. “What have you been feeding her?” she asked, her keen doctor’s eye noticing the increase in size right away.

  “Just the formula your nurses brought over.” Oscar stood, unhooked the pouch, and carefully withdrew the infant. “She’s growing faster than a normal baby,” he said, handing her over to Tora for inspection.

  “She’s almost doubled in size.” Tora sat in Oscar’s chair and set the baby in her lap. “And she’s holding her head up on her own. I’ve never seen head control like this in an infant so young.” Tora locked eyes with Aspen. “She weighed just six pounds, five ounces yesterday. Infants typically lose weight in the first few days after birth. I can’t say for sure without a scale, but I’m guessing she’s at least twelve pounds today. Developmentally, she’s more like a three-month-old than a newborn.”

  Hope reached her chubby arms out to Aspen, silently asking to be picked up. She obliged and turned to Oscar. “Wake the others. We need to have a meeting.”

  Oscar hurried off to round up the other Shrouds. With Hope in her arms, Aspen paced the kitchen, deep in thought. Her vision was unsettling, to say the least. She wasn’t looking forward to delivering this news.

  “Everyone’s awake,” Oscar announced as he stepped back into the kitchen. “They’re on their way.” He stationed himself at the coffeemaker, ready to take orders with a variety of flavored coffees from which to choose. Tora was busily stacking assorted bagels on a huge platter while Skye worked the toaster as their unlikely group filed into the kitchen and took their places in the food line.

  Aspen watched the process in wonder. Everyone was silent as the assembly line unfolded. They all worked together seamlessly. Would they work this well together if their lives were on the line in a battle against the SEA? She sure hoped so.

  Within minutes, everyone was seated at the table, passing around containers of cream cheese and commenting on Hope’s overnight growth. Oscar, Tora, and Skye sat nearby. They left the seat at the head of the table for her.

  Excited chatter abated as she approached with a giant mug of cinnamon-bun flavored coffee. Oscar had left it on the counter for her. The mug read: I Like Big Cups and I Cannot Lie. She stood at the head of the table and took a sip, trying to figure out how to break the news without inciting panic. “The SEA knows we’re here. They’re coming for us.”

  Everyone froze and stared at her.

  “That’s the bad news.” Aspen took another sip and calmly set the mug on the table. “The good news is they’re still trying to figure out how to destroy this place.”

  “Your definition of good news is seriously warped,” Liam said, his blue hair drooping lazily over one eye.

  “Yeah. What he said.” Hank returned his bagel to the plate without taking a bite and looked at her like she’d lost her mind.

  “Let’s hear her out.” Mrs. B adjusted her glasses. “I know that look. She has a plan up her sleeve.”

  “Is immediate evacuation and running for our lives included somewhere in that plan?” Tony asked, already on his second bagel.

  “It can be, if that’s what you want,” she said without explaining further.

  “Our chances on the surface might be better,” Tony went on, talking around a mouthful of food. “If you haven’t noticed, we’re kind of trapped down here.”

  “Not kind of,” Hank corrected him. “We are.”

  “What’s option B?” Beckett took a bite of his bagel with strawberry cream cheese and came away with a pink-tipped moustache.

  Aspen bit into her own bagel and chewed in thought. “We evacuate everyone in chamber two and get them someplace safe as soon as possible.”

  “Where?” Hank pressed. “No place is safe.”

  Tora interjected, “There’s an underground network of humans offering refuge to our people. Michael and the others are making the arrangements right now.”

  “What about us?” Liam asked, looking more than a little worried.

  “The rest of us stay.” Aspen popped the last bagel bite into her mouth nonchalantly.

  Olga scooted closer to Oscar. “And do what exactly?”

  “We wait.”

  “For a slow and painful death at the hands of the SEA?” Hank asked, removing his ball cap to scratch the top of his head.

  “We stay here as long as possible and wait for the newborns to mature. I have a feeling they’ll be strong enough to help us by the time the soldiers arrive.”

  They all looked at the infant inside Oscar’s pouch with skepticism.

  Derby, the quietest member of Oscar’s pack, spoke up. His sparkling blue eyes and big dimples made him a hot commodity with the ladies, who were all out of luck because Aspen knew he batted for the other team. “But they’re just babies,” he said, voicing what everyone else at the table was probably thinking. “We should be the ones protecting them.”

  “She’s stronger than she looks.” Oscar stood and nodded across the table at Skye.

  Skye took a few steps back as Oscar unclipped the pouch and held the baby aloft. “Go ahead, Hope. Show them what you can do,” he said, tossing her in the air.

  In a flash of skilled and magical shapeshifting, a white dove burst forth in place of the baby. Flapping small but powerful wings, she circled their table at great speed before perching gracefully on Oscar’s shoulder. It took a moment for Aspen to realize there was now a translucent bubble around them. It was barely discernible but definitely there.

  She reached out to run her fingers over the smooth surface. It was unlike anything she had ever touched before—warm and dry but cool and moist all at once. A steady vibration made her fingertips tingle.

  She watched as Skye withdrew several serrated knives from the wooden block on the counter and chucked them, hard, against the bubble’s outer surface. One after another, the knives bounced off and skidded violently across the kitchen floor, slamming against the rock wall on the opposite side of the room.

  “From what we can tell, it’s impenetrable,” Oscar explained. “But keep watching. It gets better.”

  Skye spoke from the other side, “Hope, can you put a shield around this?” She held up a spoon. “And me, too,” she added.

  In the blink of an eye, Hope dove from Oscar’s shoulder, circled both Skye and the spoon, and promptly returned to her perch. Oscar reached up as she hopped onto his finger. Safely in his hands, she shifted into the beautiful blue-eyed, blond-haired baby once again.

  Aspen watched, intrigued, as Skye handed the spoon to Oscar and then passed through the bubble to join them inside.

  “There are seven others like her?” Hank asked in disbelief.

  “Yes.” Aspen shifted her gaze from the baby to Hank. “But I believe she’s the most powerful.”

  Tony leaned back and crossed his arms. “Even if the newborns help us, what’s the point of staying here?”

  Aspen nodded. “I get it. You’ve all been taught to run from humans pretty much since the day you were born—always looking over your shoulder, keeping one eye open, ready to bolt at the first sign of dan
ger. Those instincts have kept each of you alive until now. But for the first time in over a century, Myriads are back. This changes everything. We have options now. We can afford to think outside the box.” She looked over at Tora, who returned her gaze with a mixture of confidence and curiosity.

  “Tora’s father spent his life dreaming about this place,” she went on. “He worked hard and sacrificed everything to build this sanctuary. He thought the day would come when humans would wage war on our people, and he wanted to do something to protect us. I never had the chance to meet him—he was murdered by a human two years ago—but I’m pretty sure he’d want us to start fighting back now that we have Myriads on our side. And I’d bet anything he’d want us to take our stand here, in the sanctuary he built for us. This place, his dream—it’s worth protecting. The SEA has their headquarters.” Aspen intended to find out where. “This will be ours. Who’s in?”

  With tears in her eyes, Tora was the first to stand.

  Skye stood from her chair and slipped her hand inside Tora’s. “Bet our headquarters are way cooler than theirs.”

  Pierre was next. He graciously bowed to Aspen. “Count me in as well, my friend.”

  “This is a no-brainer,” Mrs. B said, also standing. “I’ve been dying to stick my rhino horn up the government’s ass.”

  “Hope I’m there to see that.” Laughing, Tony got to his feet and set a hand on Mrs. B’s shoulder. “It’s time I put my teeth and claws to good use.”

  Hank stood beside Tony and removed his ball cap. “Can’t let you guys have all the fun without me.”

  “You got room for a cheetah?” Liam tucked his blue hair behind one ear and stood. “Speed is kinda my thing.”

  Beckett stood, playfully bumping shoulders with his son. “This old wolf can’t run as fast as a cheetah, but I’ve got me a mean bite.”

  Johnston stood beside Beckett. “Happy to donate my bite pressure to the cause.”

  Having already met his word quota for the day, Derby stood and simply nodded.