Turtleshift

by Linton Bowers

  "That would be perfect?," Izzy said. "If you can have them bring some additional weapons with them that would also be perfect."

  "I think I can do that, Izzy. I'll make sure we have them bring you something nice to go along with the new shoes."

  "We're going to get going is there anything else you guys need from us?" I asked

  "I think we’re good here," Andrea said.

  "Stay safe out there, Terry," Miranda said.

  "I'll try," I said. After rounds of goodbyes were said I hung up the phone and handed it back to Izzy.

  "Anywhere we go before we had Doubletree?" I asked.

  "I think I think we should focus more water bottles and maybe disguises," Scarlett said.

  "Water bottles are good idea, but I don't think we need to disguises," Izzy said. She shifted in her seat to look back at me with a frown on her face. "Anything you need before we head out?"

  "We definitely need the water, other than that I'm ready to go."

  "I am to soldier of the water and get going," Izzy said. She sighed and turned to face for for starting the vehicle. "I hope this works out the way we hope." She said before day before's drive driving down the road.

  Once again we were driving in silence and I got the impression that my two were still very upset with me. We stopped at a convenience store close to the Doubletree Hotel and load up on three cases of water. From there we drove to the hotel and parked in the parking lot but before Izzy shut the engine off she picked up the phone and dial another number.

  "What gives?" I asked knew.

  "Calling in a favor," Izzy said. "If we just go in there asking for answers than I give it to us, but if we go in there with what was working the desk knowing were coming and having given I am having been given the green light to tell us what we know there are getting a further lot faster."

  "Should I go energy guys want me to wait in year," Scarlett asked.

  "You come in Mexico bottles water and hang out near the back," Izzy said. "I'm thinking Terry should hang out in here until we find out what room his father is in and then we can come back and make a plan."

  "I don't think I like that very much," I said. "I'd rather be there in case something goes wrong you might need me."

  "We won't be that far away and if we need you we can contact you through our mental link and let you know it's going on," Izzy said Izzy said.

  "I guess, if you're sure."

  "I'm sure." Izzy open the door and left the vehicles limited her behind her. Scarlett jumped at the noise than rushed out and followed Izzy.

  I waited for five minutes before I saw a black SUV pull up in front of the hotel and three people exited the vehicle. I was already bored so watching them was about the most exciting thing I can I had going on at the time and that's how I saw my father step out of the vehicle and into the hotel. I didn't know if you knew what Izzy looked like and I was pretty sure that Scarlett was a unknown was an unknown quantity to him but I was not going to take any chances. I left the vehicle and ran up to the front of the hotel then stopped outside of the doors looking inside the glass to see where my father went.

  My father and his escort of three females didn't go near the front desk instead they took the state of the elevator waited for a few minutes for the doors open and climbed inside. Once they were out of sight I entered and watched as the elevator numbers rose until the number stopped the top floor. From there I looked around finding the staircase stairway entrance and briskly walked to it then entered will no option always looking. Running as fast as I could I made my way to the top in just a few short moments and stopped at the top landing to catch my breath. Once my breathing was under control I listened at the door to here to see if I could hear anything outside that might pose a problem. I heard nothing so I grabbed the handle and opened the door.

  Chapter 23

  The hallway was empty. I could see the elevator that my father and his entourage used to come up to the floor. There were two other doors in the hallway one of them had to be the room that he was in.

  I crept forward staying as quiet as I could and ready for anything. I glanced back to see the door closing on its own and I reached back, grabbing it before slam shut, and eased it closed. There was barely an audible click as the door locked in place, and I let out the breath I'd been holding. I turned back waiting and listened, after a few seconds when no one came out I realized I was clear. I stepped to the first door and press my ear against it, listening and heard nothing.

  I went to the next-door and listened hearing voices. I couldn’t make out of what they were saying through the thick door, but this had to be the room.

  "Well, you are a curious one aren't you?"

  I jumped out of my skin as I spun around to see who was talking. A woman with fiery orange hair stood in the door of the stairwell looking down at me with intense green eyes. She was just as gorgeous as any of my Tua which didn't surprise me considering how attractive Roo and Riley were. I figured my father was all about gathering as many attractive Tua as he could while he built his pack. "So, you must be Terry? We thought you might make it here eventually. That's why we stuck around. Did you come here seeking help against the forces allied to rally against you?"

  I faced the woman before answering. "No, that's not it at all. I figured out what my father is up to. You can walk away from this. All you have to do is turn around, go back downstairs, and act like you never saw me."

  "And if I decide to stay?"

  "If you decide to stay, I’ll take that act of aggression and I will act accordingly. I'm guessing you're going to stay and fight. That right?" I asked.

  "Call that a fair assumption. I’ll do you one better and let you see what I am before I stop you."

  The woman stepped in the hallway and as she did, she shifted. In just a few seconds she went from being a beautiful woman to being a tall creature covered in white and gray fur with large ram horns on her head. She stomped her hoof one time and bleated before charging at me. I pulled, taking 40% from my pack, which I figured was more than enough to deal with this.

  I grabbed her horns when she was in striking distance and planted my feet. We skidded to a stop at the end of the hall where a window was overlooking the parking lot. The woman was strong and even though I stopped our momentum she pressed my back against the glass. She let out a bleating cry then charged forward with everything she had causing the glass against my back to crack. I had to pull an additional 10% to keep from falling out the window, and then another 10% to push her back.

  My father didn't have the Wolf medallion so his Tua were not able to transform into a hybrid form, but they were still strong judging by this one. He did have both bracelets, and was able to advance the levels of his

  Tua make them stronger than average Lycans. But it wasn’t enough to help her.

  “One last chance," I said. "You can still walk away from this without being hurt. Turn around now and walk away like this never happened."

  The woman smiled as she tried yanking her head back but couldn’t get free of me. She rolled onto her back and kicked up with her legs sending me flying over and slamming to the floor behind her. The blow wasn’t too hard, but it was enough to knock the breath out of me. My grip loosened and she capitalized and jumped to her feet. She jumped up in the air and landed on my chest. Then she proceeded to do what she promised and started stomping on me.

  I was no stranger to pain, but that didn't mean I liked it. She stomped down cracking a rib causing fresh pain. Not only that, but as she stomped down the rage reared its ugly head.

  My vision narrowed until I saw only the woman. I pulled more going from 40% to 90%. Time slowed as a hoof descended toward my face. I was able to slap the leg away so that when it landed it missed me. I spun kicking her legs out from under and then flipped on to my front running forward on all fours. I crawled on top of her and began pummeling her with my fists.

  The noise drew attention from the room and the hotel door burst open. Two people left th
e room both were shifted in their Lycan forms. One of the newcomers was a tall menacing black wolf, the other was feline sporting the black and orange stripes of a tiger. Both moved at once the wolf howled and dashed while the tiger leapt and pounced. The wolf’s clawed foot met my chin with a vicious kick while claws dug into my back and the weight of a massive weretiger press down on me slamming me onto the woman below me. Claws raked my back as the wolf took up the goat’s job and began to stomp on me as if she wanted to make me into her own personal mud pit.

  Another door burst open, this one from the direction of stairs. Right after there was a scream, a gunshot, and the sound of something slicing through the air. Water fell on my back and the weight fell away. The stomps no longer descended in their attempts to grind me into oblivion.

  "Terry!" Scarlett shouted. "Oh God, Terry, are you okay." My Hydro-Mage shouted as she slid to a stop on her knees and began patting me down to see if she could find any obvious damage.

  Scarlett turned out to be really good at finding damage and causing fresh pain as each touch landed on a bruised muscle or broken bone and cause me to groan with pain. "Stop," I groaned. "I’ll be okay as long as you stop hitting my sore broken body."

  Scarlett pulled back. "I'm so sorry, Terry, I didn't realize I was hurting you. Are you going to be okay? Is anything I can do to help?"

  “I'll be …" Blood erupted from my mouth cutting off my words. The coughing continued for a good solid minute before I was able to speak. "I'll be fine," I said.

  “Enough!” My father shouted from the doorway of the room he was renting. “I’ll not have you hurt my Tua anymore. I traveled far and wide to collect them and I don’t want to lose another. Bad enough I have to go back to Australia to replace the Tua you poached from me.” He turned to walk back in the room, then stopped and stuck his head out far enough to see us. “Don’t lay around all night. Get up and get in here. We can discuss any slight you feel I committed like civilized people.”

  My turtle came to stand next to my right side opposite my Hydro-mage. She knelt while keeping her gun pointed toward the room the Lycans entered. “Should we follow him in?” She asked.

  “I think we should, but we need to be ready for anything. I’ll take a second to heal up then we go.”

  Closing my eyes, I pulled eighty percent from my pack while not sharing any of it with Izzy or Scarlett. My broken bones popped and slid back into place before fusing back together. My pulped muscles healed becoming stronger as a result of being torn and damaged then healing. In under a minute I was ready for round two.

  Izzy remained where she was ready for any threat to walk out and make a move. Scarlett grabbed my arm and helped me to my feet.

  Before going in I reduced my draw to sixty percent and split that. Fifteen percent I sent to Izzy and fifteen to Scarlet. The Hydro-Mage’s eyes took on a slight blue glow as a result of the power I shared. She smiled at me and twisted the top off of a bottle of water. That was a good as Izzy being locked and loaded.

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  The room was huge and decorated with modern expensive furniture. It was set off by white rugs and walls and black countertops and cabinets in the open kitchen just to the right of the entrance. It was a nicer place then the one Miranda rented for us after the serpent compound was destroyed.

  The vast space was not empty. Beautiful women occupied every piece of furniture and stood around in groups. I assumed they had been talking, but no one spoke. Every eye was on us except for the fiery red head from the hallway and two women with her. They nursed their wounds on a couch far from the door. My father sat in a recliner sipping on a dark liquid in a glass tumbler.

  A tall thin woman with a wide pleasant smile left a back room and came right at us. She had the exotic looks that would be at home on a fashion runway.

  “You must be, Terry,” She said. “I’m Antionette, the first of this group of troublemakers.”

  “Hey!” One of the women shouted at Antionette.

  “Don’t mind them. They don’t like when I reveal their flaws. Anyway, I’m glad you came. Please, follow me and we will get down to business.” She turned and walked to the Livingroom area where my father was seated. She dropped on his lap and kissed him.

  As we approached three women seated across the coffee table from Antionette and my father stood and walked across the room.

  Izzy, Scarlett and I took the vacant seats. We waited while Antionette whispered something to my father. Izzy kept her head in constant motion looking for an ambush. I didn’t blame her.

  “I have heard about Lassiter. I assume you are here because of the compound you called a home being destroyed?”

  Chapter 24

  For the first time in my life I had a sit down chat with my father, and I hated it. He smiled his smug little smile like nothing was wrong and I wanted to smash my fist into his face until he was too disfigured to smile.

  All of my Tua could hear the thoughts at the top of my mind which is why both Izzy and Scarlett placed a hand on my forearms. Their touch helped to soothe the anger in me. Of not for us being outnumber at least twenty to one, I would have made a move.

  “I understand your anger,” Antoinette said. “Your father is a difficult and stubborn man. As his first, I manage all affairs of his pack, and I can assure you that we did not arraigned the attack on your compound. Did you manage to find proof that we did?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact we did,” I growled.

  “May I see it, Terry?” Even though I was visibly upset this woman kept a smile on her gave and a pleasant tone in her voice.

  Izzy passed the three stapled together papers to Antoinette. “This was recovered from the office of Lassiter Security.”

  “Thank you,” Antoinette said while taking the forms.

  “What fo you mean by recovered from Lassiter Security?” My father asked.

  “We went there seeking answers and had to kill John Lassiter to get them,” Izzy said.

  The smug smile on his stupid face vanished. Fear flashed across his features for a split second and was replaced by rage. “We had contracts in place with them. Now I have to find another agency for my security needs.”

  “Not my problem,” I snapped.

  “It is unfortunate,” Antoinette said while placing her hand on my father’s arm. “But we will find the services we need. As for this form, there is a discrepancy. It has a signature close to your my Tuatha’s. Therein lies the problem. I am the one who signs all of the contracts with the entities we deal. No one else has the authority over the funds from your father’s companies.”

  “Then who would do this?” I asked.

  “We have many enemies, as do you. You don’t know it yet, but just being a Tuatha comes with the burden of being hated. I’m sorry for that, truly I am. As for who may have done this, I have my suspicions, but I can’t substantiate anything yet,” Antoinette said. She snapped her fingers and held the paper up. A dark skinned woman with an athletic build took the form and left the room.

  “Maybe you can explain to me why I should believe you,” I said.

  “We don’t owe you an explanation, or anything else,” my father snapped.

  “We will provide you with all the proof we can must. We,” she gave my father a mean glare, “feel that an alliance with you would be in both of our interests. Ah, here we are,” Antoinette said.

  The dark skinned woman returned carrying a manila folder which she handed to me.

  “You will find the documents you brought, along with copies of contracts we held with Lassiter Security. There are also a few documents that you gather had to sign so you can have the signatures analyzed.” Antoinette looked at Izzy. “I assume your police force connections would be willing?”

  “Probably,” Izzy replied. “How do you know I am no longer employed by the department?”

  “The life of a Tuatha doesn’t mesh well with our lives as. Most of us have to leave our employers for this to work. It harkens back to thi
s being a dangerous life we live. Simple deduction, we have not dug into your life, or that of your sister Tua.”

  “Don’t let me find out otherwise,” Izzy said. “I have no qualms about cutting a bitch.”

  Our hostess laughed and waved her hands in front of her face. “That is rich. My dearest, Izzy, I have no intention of putting you in a position to cut me. Quite the opposite. I propose an alliance to find the guilt party and make them pay.” Antoinette’s smile widened. “I can supply you with a few heavy hitting Lycans, and a few untamed Lycans for you to add to your pack, should you choose to. If not, hey will still fight for the cause.”

  “Why will they fight?” I asked. The idea of selling off Lycan’ didn’t sit right with me. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t part of some Lycan Trafficking scheme.

  “Probably not for the reasons you think. We have a powerful pack which has drawn a lot of attention. The Lycans I offer didn’t make the cut.” Antoinette raised her hand to keep anyone else from talking. “This doesn’t mean they are subpar, it simply means they would not be a good fit with our pack. Maybe they will with yours, and maybe they won’t. Either way, we are paying them a large sum to fight. Think of them as mercinarries with a possibility of making them Tua should you like them.”

  “That better be the case, or I will walk from this deal and take them with me,” I said.

  “Good, I would hate to think I was working with a man that could deal in Lycan flesh as if it were a commodity. I’m not one to brag about myself or feel the need to impress upon you the type of person I am, but this you should know about me. I love my kind, and i want to see us doing well as a species. Let the humans have welfare programs and homeless people while we live in high rises and have plenty.”

  “That’s great and all, but I don’t trust him.” I pointed to my father ensuring it was clear whom I meant. “So why should I trust you?”