Stone Bear: Phoenix (A Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance) (Stone Bears Book 2)

by Amelia Jade

  Uriel, I’m so sorry.

  She knew that wouldn’t be enough to make up for what she had done. Her revelation would keep him barred from any sort of duty with the Stone Bears, she knew that much. That was the one area where Uriel didn’t seem to be making any progress. He rarely mentioned it and she tried not to ask, but it was fairly obvious he hadn’t been able to shift since the incident. She didn’t know why—there seemed no logical reason behind it by this point. It must all be in his head.

  “I know that hurt you to admit, Doctor,” Gabriel said gently. “But that is a serious issue. If a shifter refuses to talk to their bear, it can drive the animal wild, until the insane beast overwhelms the human half and takes control. I have seen that happen before, although rarely, and it is never pretty.”

  She frowned angrily. “Why does everything with you people have to revolve around violence and hurting others? Or each other? How fucking hard is it to do things peacefully?”

  Sydney felt bad, lashing out at Gabriel. He didn’t deserve it. She was the one who deserved to be scorned, but lately it seemed every which way she turned there was another way for shifters to hurt people. She had taken up her profession to help heal people. She just couldn’t understand their obsession with violence.

  Gabriel smiled sadly. “Why does a dog lick its own ass?”

  “What?” she asked in disbelief, caught completely off-balance by the sudden change of topic.

  “Answer the question,” he pressed gently.

  “Because that’s what it does,” she answered after taking a moment to think about it.

  “Exactly. It’s in its nature.”

  He opened his mouth to continue speaking, but she held up a hand to stop him. “Wait, let me guess. Is this the part where you tell me,” she forced her voice to go deeper, “‘Sydney, we may look like humans, but we aren’t. Never forget that.’” She shook her head. “Uriel tells me that every other day!” she finished grumpily.

  The smile that blossomed on Gabriel’s face didn’t help her mood either. “Well, since you did such a great impersonation, I no longer feel the need to say it.”

  She rolled her eyes. The humor felt nice, though it didn’t help her forget what she had done to Uriel, and how it was likely to upset him.

  “I need to go,” Gabriel said. “I’m sorry it came to this, but I had to know. I have to protect those under my command, and do what is best for all of them, not just Uriel.”

  “I know,” she whispered unhappily. He was telling the truth and she recognized it, though she didn’t like it at all.

  What she liked even less was the thought that soon she would have to tell Uriel what she had done.

  He’s going to hate me…

  Chapter Eleven

  Uriel

  He leapt to his feet as Gabriel and Raphael came walking through the door from their offices. The other Sentinels he had been working with also stopped their various movements and focused on the sudden commotion.

  Gabriel whirled an arm around his head. “Second team, saddle up,” he ordered, and four of the dozen remaining trainees leapt for their gear, which was stowed neatly in racks nearby.

  Matching his stride, Uriel fell in step next to his boss. “Who is it today?” he asked, trying his best to keep the excitement out of his voice as their boots clacked across the hard composite floor of the cavern, making a beeline for the armored trucks.

  The eyes of his boss glanced over at him, then looked straight ahead for another few paces. Then abruptly Gabriel stopped and turned to face him. Uriel frowned, not liking the look he saw in his leader’s eyes.

  “Gabriel,” he began, but the other shifter shook his head.

  “I’m sorry Uriel, but I can’t let you come, not today.”

  “Why not?” he hissed, keeping his voice down so that the others wouldn’t overhear. It wouldn’t do for the trainees to see them arguing in public.

  “You lied to me.”

  “How?”

  “Can you shift?” Gabriel asked bluntly.

  Uriel snorted. “I told you, I can, but it’s difficult, and takes me a long time to focus on it to make it happen.” Deep down though, he realized what must have happened. Hoping against hope he waited for Gabriel to speak, to disavow him of the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

  “You can’t, Uriel. I had my suspicions, but when I asked Doctor Hightower for her recommendation, she said you still couldn’t shift. So are you lying to her, or to me?” Gabriel asked.

  He didn’t respond. Neither of them needed to hear him say it. Not after the realization that Sydney had spilled his secret. Anger welled up inside of him. How dare she betray his confidence like that? After all they had been through in the past week and a half, she couldn’t keep a secret for him?

  Snarling silently he turned and walked stiffly away from Gabriel’s vehicle as the leader vaulted up and into the cab.

  A thought came over him then. Gabriel hadn’t told anyone else what he knew. Especially none of the trainees. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that Gabriel was now focused on getting going. Due to the expectation of a delivery that day, the vehicles were parked in a single line, extending deep into the cavern, instead of three abreast.

  Ducking back into the equipment area, Uriel grabbed a bag he had prepared for himself for the next time the Stone Bears were called to the mines for a pickup. Walking slowly he ducked around the rearmost vehicle, which was his former ride. It was now occupied by two trainees.

  Coming up to the passenger door, he pulled it open. “Sorry Justin, you’re drawing phone duty today.”

  “Aw come on, Uriel,” he protested, but when Uriel jerked his head forcefully in reply, the other shifter unbuckled and hopped down out of the cab.

  “You can go next time,” he promised, swinging up into the truck and closing the door behind him. He settled the black duffel bag between his feet and nodded his greeting at Jared, who was driving.

  The other shifter glanced at him, but then returned his focus to driving the big vehicle as they began to move, rolling forward. He wanted to ask Jared where they were headed, but he knew that might give him away as not having been okayed to go. For now, he needed to keep his presence a secret from Gabriel.

  He hated doing it, but Uriel knew he needed to accompany them. Couldn’t his leader see? Something was going to happen any day now. The Valley had been way too quiet for far too long now. The enemy was ready to act again, he could feel it. Whatever the next stage of their plan was, they were prepared to execute it. Uriel only wished he knew what they were planning.

  The shifters had learned little about their enemy, besides the fact that they wanted access to the LMC and its corporate structure. Uriel had played around with the idea that it was a very real and literal version of a hostile takeover, where their shadowy nemesis wanted to be in command of the operations. They wanted the Dragon Stones for themselves, to sell them for the money.

  Although the idea bore some truth to it, nobody really believed it. There was more to it than that, but just how much more, he didn’t know. Uriel had a feeling it was part of something rather less simple than money alone.

  His thoughts occupied his mind the entire journey, distracting him much more thoroughly than he had planned. It wasn’t until they pulled into the large clearing near the Jade Crew mines that he realized they were there.

  At least if anything happened today, they would have the help of the Jade Crew. Tough and filled with problem shifters, the one thing Uriel would never doubt about the Jades were their reliability. He could trust them to side with the Stone Bears, despite any internal problems they may still be dealing with. In fact, he and Darren had become rather good friends after the incident with his mate Kierra.

  “Coming?” Jared asked as he hopped out of the cab.

  “No, I’ll stay here. Gabriel doesn’t want me down in the mines, just in case,” he said, shaking his empty shoulder socket for emphasis.

  The other shifter smiled and hea
ded off. This would be the part where Gabriel found out he had accompanied them. At least, he thought so, but Gabriel had already disappeared down the mine shaft before Jared got close.

  Perhaps I’ll come out of this unscathed.

  Uriel didn’t truly believe that, but stranger things had happened recently. One such thing decided to pop into his head at that moment. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that they were out on a pickup for a Dragon Stone that had triggered his memory. Regardless of the why, something in his brain was telling him this was something important.

  Earlier that morning, on his normal rounds of the parts of the complex that were under Stone Bear control, Uriel had visited the vault. The vault was quite possibly the most secure part of the entire facility. It was where they stored the Dragon Stones. Normally, the Dragon Council sent a truck every few months to remove a large number of the Stones. On his inspection today, however, Uriel had realized it had been over five months since the last truck had come by. The vault was almost completely full.

  If our opponents want access to the Dragon Stones, there is a huge pile of them just sitting there if they can break in.

  This was part of the reason the Stone Bears so desperately needed to find any spies still within the Sentinel trainees. Although they had no access to that area yet, the plan was to give it to them eventually. With things escalating the way they were, the Stone Bears just couldn’t be in enough places at once.

  But if there was a spy, a traitor in their midst, that person could open the vault, allowing the stones to be stolen.

  Something else about the situation was nipping at the edge of his brain, trying to tell him he was still missing something vital about the Stones there. Before he could realize what it was, however, movement caught his eye.

  Snapping his head around, Uriel felt his eyebrows raise in astonishment.

  “What the fuck…”

  There were a number of large shapes moving through the forest toward the mine. As they got closer, his sharp eyesight realized they were bears. Shifters.

  “Holy fuck,” he swore, scrambling for his phone. Looking through it he punched up the number for the Jade Crew emergency phone line. He had to be routed through the phones at the LMC head office however, and it was Justin who picked up the phone.

  “Justin, you need to connect me to the Jade Crew emergency mine phone, now!” he shouted, his voice firm and commanding, not inviting any questions.

  “On it,” the voice said without hesitation and abruptly the phone clicked and began to ring.

  “Garrett.” The voice came after several rings, sounding somewhat bewildered. Why would someone be calling the emergency line when they were there with the Stone Bears?

  “Garrett listen to me very carefully. There are more than fifteen shifters headed straight toward the mineshaft. I repeat, one-five enemy, headed your way. They look hot to trot. Get your ass moving up here! I’ll try to draw them off.”

  He hung up the phone and reached into the bag at his feet. He pulled out a shoulder sash full of little rectangular black cases. Then, reaching in again, he pulled out the remaining part of his kit. His new kit, he should say. Uriel knew he wouldn’t be able to be a huge help in a brawl with his bear ever again. So, he would have to adapt.

  Setting the object on the dash, he reached over and as quietly as possible opened the door. He slid out, reaching back up onto the dash before creeping slowly forward, trying to get as close as possible to the group of shifters before they noticed his presence.

  He hadn’t gotten too close before they shifted back into their human forms and made a beeline for the mineshaft.

  Holding up the object in his hand, Uriel looked through the glass circle on it, until he had located the closest shifter.

  Taking a deep breath, he steadied his hand, and his index finger tightened. There was a snap-hiss and the gun in his hand recoiled, sending an extremely powerful tranquilizer dart at his target. In rapid succession he fired three more times. Shifters were extremely resilient to any form of drug, but hit them with enough and they would go down. Each dart had enough concentrated tranquilizer in it to take down an adult African elephant.

  Three of his four darts hit the shifter. The unknown man had enough time to cry “Ow” before he flopped limply to the floor.

  That was the end of his surprise, however, and Uriel began to take aim and fire as quickly as possible, trying to hit and slow as many targets as he could.

  “Come on!” he yelled at them as most of the attackers continued on to the mine shaft. Only three turned to face him, clearly not considering him a threat.

  One of those running his way flopped down as Uriel loosed more darts his way, but the shifter was clearly not as handicapped as the first. He must have just been stunned by the dose. Still, Uriel knew that the dozen bears in the mine shaft would be headed for the surface at full bore. All he had to do was distract them long enough, hold them at bay, and allow them to join the attack.

  Pausing in his retreat he took careful aim again and launched a fusillade of darts at the group that had ignored him. The constant snap-hiss of his gun became familiar noise to his ears. He had been practicing in secret, and was quite pleased with his accuracy. Still, he knew more of his attempts were missing than finding the flesh of his targets.

  All of a sudden the gun clacked and refused to fire. He thumbed the release and the magazine dropped clear. Reloading was awkward, but that too was something else he had worked out ahead of time. Flipping the gun over he grabbed the stock of it with his lower three fingers, while lining the hole in the base of it with the magazine on his shoulder sash. The magazine protruded enough that he could slip an inch of it into the waiting well. Then his thumb and index finger pinched the magazine and pulled, removing it from his sash. A quick slam of the exposed magazine into his shoulder and the gun was ready to go as he flipped it back over.

  The whole process took no more than five seconds, and then he had another full twenty-dart clip at his command.

  A roar sounded from the mine opening and a horde of angry bears erupted from within the earth, slamming into the oncoming attackers. The battle was joined, and Uriel could do nothing more about it. He broke into a run, dancing around the three armored vehicles as he fired shot after shot into the shifters who chased him, using the added agility of his human form to his fullest advantage.

  One of the attackers screamed as a dart punctured his eye, but Uriel didn’t have time to stop and care. He simply fired two more shots into the agonized shifter’s hide and danced away. He noted the first bear he had hit was already woozily getting back to his feet, though the effects seemed to be fast fading.

  “A little help!” he called out, letting the bears involved in the brawl know that he couldn’t hold these folks off forever.

  Two bears broke free of the pack shortly thereafter and came to his aid. Quickly the three of them dispatched the bears that had threatened Uriel. He turned back to the massive fight that was still ongoing, but his attention was distracted by what he saw to his left. Two shifters back in human form were making a mad dash for the cover of the forest. At first Uriel thought they were fleeing, but then he noticed they were carrying something.

  “After them!” he yelled at the bears who had come to his aid, pointing at the running enemies. “They’ve got the Stone!”

  The case the two were carrying contained the Dragon Stone that the Stone Bears had been sent to retrieve. With matching growls the two bears took off at high speed, trying to pursue their targets. Another bear broke free of the fight and charged after his companions. The newcomer didn’t try to hurt them, he just bowled right into the side of the first, recovering as quickly as he could and tripping up the second.

  He was trying to delay them. Uriel knew then that he was the only shot they might have of getting the Stone back. The gun rose in front of him as he adopted a side-on profile, staring carefully through the attached scope as he took aim.

  A deep breath in steadied him.
He held the exhale and tightened his index finger. The gun snap-hissed and then rang back on empty again. Frantically he tried to reload while watching the targets. One of them stumbled, but regained his balance. His free hand reached back and pulled free the dart that had embedded itself in his shoulder.

  “Fuck!” Uriel shouted as they disappeared into the trees. One dart just wasn’t enough. Yet again he had accompanied the Stone Bears out, and he still couldn’t make himself useful.

  “Are you okay?”

  He turned at the source of the voice. It was Garrett, Alpha of the Jade Crew.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” he said angrily. “I let them fucking get away,” he snarled, pointing in the direction the others had gone. They would be long gone by now he knew.

  “Perhaps,” Gabriel said, coming up alongside them. “But you saved us,” he said. “If we had come up on our own, unawares and without Garrett and his crew by our side, we would have been overwhelmed before they could have reached us.”

  Uriel frowned, but didn’t say anything at first, glancing around the clearing. The fight was all but over now. As he watched, the Jade Crew ended the last few shifters who had escaped their initial attack. He wasn’t fazed by the violence. Part of him sneered, feeling like the attackers had it coming after their attempted ambush. The feeling didn’t last long though, and he felt vaguely sick with himself that he had even harbored such thoughts. By his count, none of the allied shifters had been lost in the fight.

  “I’m glad of that,” Uriel snapped. “But now they have the Stone!”

  Gabriel nodded. “True, and I don’t like what that implies either, but it could have been much worse without your actions, Uriel. Even if you weren’t supposed to be here,” he added.

  Uriel had the good graces to blush and look chagrined. “I’m glad I was though.”

  “So was I,” Darren said, joining them now, as did Russell. “Why would they go after the Stone?” he asked now.

  “Because they can put it to use,” Uriel said dully.

  “You don’t think it’s for the money?” Gabriel asked. He clearly didn’t believe it either, but someone had to play devil’s advocate.