We've left Kat with Ryker. She's exhausted and I hope she's going to be able to sleep a little. The rest of us are in my office, crammed into a room too small for this many people.
When I first moved in here, I found a whole stack of files waiting for me. Most of them were about important people in the town; a summary of their strengths and weaknesses along with any other information that might come in handy. I never found out whether Mystery Man created them himself or got them from someone else, but they sure came in handy several times. It saved me time and effort. Now, we've each got a pile of files in front of us, hunting for a woman who's working with the Pack. I've never looked at all the folders, but I know there are several documents about Pack members. I've mostly ignored them, not wanting to revisit the past. If you go against one member of the Pack, chances are that you'll have to fight them all, and until now, I've always wanted to avoid that.
Not anymore.
"Women are very much underrepresented in the criminal underworld," Bethany observes after leafing through half her stack.
"Not at Meow, we're an equal opportunities business," I quip. "Equal deaths for all."
But she's right. Most of the files I've looked at are about men. At least that makes it a lot quicker.
"Kat, do you remember the deer shifter?" Lennox suddenly asks.
I look up from my current folder. "Deer shifter?"
He nods. "It must have been shortly before you arrived at the Pack. She was a couple of years older than me. No idea where they found her, but they brought her to the headquarters and put a collar on her. First deer shifter they'd ever seen, I think, judging from how excited everyone was. She stayed in our dorm for one night while they were waiting for some special scientists to arrive. Didn't say a word, totally frightened. We never saw her again, but I remember when they came to collect her in the morning. There was a woman there, one I'd not seen before. She was tall, taller than most of the men with her, and she was wearing a white lab coat. I only remember her because she was the biggest woman I'd ever seen and I was wondering what kind of animal she was." He grimaces. "That was before I learned that not everyone has an animal inside of them."
"You actually thought that?" Bethany asks, quirking an eyebrow.
Lennox shrugs. "I grew up with wolves, and then with the Pack. I never knew any different. I only really entered human society when the Pack sent me on my first jobs."
"The people looking after you at the Pack, were they shifters too?" Gryphon asks. I forgot he was never part of it.
"No," I reply. "Some of them, but very few. I think only a handful of the top Pack members are shifters, and those weren't like the rest of us. They weren't living with the Pack because they'd been taken from their families. They'd joined as adults, voluntarily, because they wanted power. They didn't need to wear collars, and they treated us like scum. Worse than some of the humans, for some reason."
"I think some of the leaders weren't completely human," Lennox adds. "But I never found out what they were."
A muscle twitches near the bottom of the largest of Gryphon's scars, but he immediately manages to hide his reaction. Interesting. Maybe he thinks they might have been the same species as him?
"Do you remember how old the woman was back then?" I ask Lennox. "That would give us a hint on how old she is now. Just because Kat calls her 'grandma' doesn't mean that she's in her sixties or seventies. It could just be a title, or a joke even."
"No, she was quite old," Lennox says, his eyes unfocused as he tries to remember. "I was young back then so everyone seemed older than they were, but I'd guess she was in her fifties or older? I remember she had some grey hairs framing her face, but not all of it was grey. The rest was... brown, I think. Light brown."
"By now she'd be all grey," Bethany says. She playfully twirls one of her own strands of hair in her fingers. "Or white. I think brunettes usually turn more white than grey."
"Alright, we're looking for a very large woman with white hair," I summarise. "Who may be a scientist or researcher. I don't think I ever saw someone like that when I was at the Pack, so I assume she isn't local. I'll ask Ryker if any of his cats have seen her out and about, but I doubt she'll be walking around town a lot, not if she's that recognisable and important."
Lennox sighs. "I don't think there's any way around storming the Pack headquarters. The girl remembered handing the kittens to that doctor woman, and the streets she's described sound like they’re near the headquarters. There must be a building though that we don't know about, or maybe a hidden basement, something like that."
"When they did experiments on me, they always blindfolded me," I say, only remembering it when I say the words. "They didn't want me to see where they were taking me."
I shudder at the memory. I've tried to repress all that's happened at the Pack, but somehow, my walls are crumbling with every day that passes. I think it's got something to do with being surrounded by people who're trying to get past my barriers. Lennox in particular. He's dangerous and I've let him in far too deep. There's no repairing some of the damage he's wrought inside of me.
"We're not enough people," Bethany says, voicing my thoughts. "We can't just walk into the Pack headquarters, nor can we fight our way in and out. It's a suicide mission. Are we really going to do that for a bunch of kittens?"
I growl before I can stop myself. Beth lifts her hands in apology and my panther calms down.
"But you get what I mean, right?" she continues. "We don't have a chance in hell of making it out of there alive. If we had more information, we might be able to sneak in and somehow get the kittens, but we don't even know where they are, let alone why they were taken. We'd be going in blind and I don't think that's a good idea."
"Kat, a word." Gryphon's voice is serious, so serious in fact that I immediately follow him outside the room. He walks all the way down the hallway until we reach one of the spare guest rooms (not that we ever have guests). Just about far enough that Lennox won't be able to hear us. Clever.
He closes the door behind us and sits on the corner of a dust-covered bed. "I need to tell you something," he says quietly, not meeting my eyes.
I sigh. "Please tell me this is important."
"It is, trust me. Sit down, will you?"
Curious, I take a seat next to him. His heart beat is picking up and he's starting to sweat. What is he about to tell me? It has to be bad if he's getting this nervous. I've never seen Gryphon nervous, never.
"I know a few things about the Pack that might help us," he begins. "But you need to promise that you won't tell the others how you know. None of them. Nobody, ever."
He looks up and locks eyes with me. His gaze is intense, pleading with me. At the same time, there's a threat hidden in their green, promising revenge should I go back on my promise.
"Alright, I promise," I say, feeling like this is an important moment somehow.
"When we first met, you asked me what I was," he mutters, now looking back at the floor. He seems very uncomfortable.
"I did, and you've refused to tell me every single time I've asked."
"Yeah, well, there's a reason for that. In retrospective, it may not even have mattered, but I wanted you to trust me, needed you to trust me. Which is why I stayed quiet."
I sigh impatiently. "Out with it. What are you? Why would it make me distrust you?"
He echoes my sigh. "You promise?"
"I swear it on my life."
"I'm... I'm a siren."
Alright, I was not expecting that.
"A what?"
"A siren. Please tell me you've heard of us?"
I shake my head. "The only sirens I know of are mermaids, and you don't really look like that. No tail, no scales, no scallop shells on your boobs. Definitely not a mermaid."
My eyes linger on his chest, where his boobs would be if he had any. Instead, there's only hard muscle that presses against his tight shirt.
He laughs softly, but it's not a happy sound at all. "We're n
ot mermaids. We often get confused with them, but we don't live in water, only close to it, sometimes."
"But what do you do?" I ask in confusion. "What can sirens do?"
"We control people, mostly. That's our skill and our curse. We can influence human minds, steer them in directions they wouldn't usually venture. We can make a person fall in love with us, or make them kill themselves. If we tell someone to give us all their money, they will do so with a smile. We're manipulators, Kat. We control whoever we want to control, even shifters."
I jump up and fight against my panther who's trying to claw her way out of my body. She senses the fear that's running through me.
He holds up his hands with a smile so full of sadness that my fear instantly reduces.
"Not you, not any of you. I've renounced my family's ways. They revel in the power they have over others, while it's always scared me. I see it as a great responsibility, they see it as their right."
"Shifters..." I mutter. "The collars? That's the sirens' doing?"
He nods, anguish drawn across his face. "We can't influence shifters as easily as humans, so we had to find a way to amplify our power. No, not we. They. I was a part of it, yes, but only until I was old enough to realise what they were doing. I left as soon as I had a chance."
"Which is why you're not a doctor," I mutter, randomly remembering that fact.
"Yes, exactly. I didn't just leave the university before graduating, but I also left my family. I came to this town instead, hoping to escape their rule, but as soon as I arrived here, I realised that there's another siren clan controlling the city."
"The Pack," I whisper.
He nods grimly. "Lennox was right when he said that the Pack's leader aren't human. They're sirens, like me, and they've done the same thing here that my family did in the city I grew up in. It seems to be the curse of the sirens. Taking control, becoming the slavers of humans and shifters. We stay in the shadows, we pull the strings, but even though nobody knows it, it's us who're in charge."
My head hurts. He's deceived us. Lied to us. Lied to me. I was just about to trust him and now, I have no idea what to think.
"You're about to push me away," he says sadly. "And that's your right. But first, let me help."
I glare at him. "Kat's collar. You could have opened it. Instead, you let her suffer. She almost killed Benjamin because of it! How could you!"
I have a knife in my hands before he can even react. Anger flows through me, white burning rage that makes me want to stab him over and over again.
"No, you misunderstand," he protests. "I don't know how exactly the collars work. We didn't have collars where I'm from, they used implants that were inserted close to the shifters' hearts. I know what the collars do, how they bundle our powers, but not how exactly they function. With a bit of time, I could probably figure it out, but I could have hurt the little girl by doing so. Waiting for Lennox and the key was the safer option."
I don't want to hear his reasoning.
I thought I could trust him. I almost let him in. Almost thought he could be my friend. In dreams, even more than a friend.
I got it wrong.
So I stab him.
Chapter Sixteen
Alright, so I try to stab him, but he’s faster. If I’d really wanted to hurt him, I would have, but I let him deflect my attack. The blade grazes the skin on his forearm, drawing blood. It’s just a scratch though.
“I deserve that,” he mutters.
I nod. “You do. And more.”
He hangs his head, visibly ashamed of himself. That’s a good start at least. Stabbing him has made my anger evaporate.
“How can you help us?” I ask and he looks up at me in surprise.
“Didn’t you just tell me to leave?”
I shrug. “For now, you may be of use to us. If the people in charge are also sirens, we have an advantage if we have you on our side. Do they know you’re in town?”
He nods. “Yes, but I doubt they see me as a threat. None of them have approached me; maybe they think I’m on holiday here. They know that if I was here in an official capacity as a representative of my family, I would have contacted them.”
“I need to know more about sirens. How do I recognise them? What are your weaknesses? Can they exert control over me without a collar? And what about Benjamin and Bethany? They’re human, will it be safe for them to be there with us or could they be turned against us?”
“We look human, although the chances are that we’re prettier than most of them. Unless you’re mauled by a bear.” He points at the three long scars on his face. “We don’t heal as fast as shifters, so we scar quite easily. Physically, we’re weak, and many of my kind don’t see a reason why they should learn how to defend themselves when they can simply tell their enemies to leave them alone. I’m an exception, but I’ve always hated having those powers. So there won’t be many who can deflect a blade in the way I just did.”
“It was a pretty good move,” I admit.
"It's unlikely that many of the sirens in the Pack can defend themselves properly. But as you rightly said, the two humans will be easily susceptible. I don’t think it's a good idea to take them with us. There are ways to train your mind to withstand a siren's call, but we don't have time for that."
"So it's just Lennox, Ryker, you and me."
"The cat is coming too?"
I shrug. "He's always been of help, and he has a network of cats all across the city who might be able to give us information. Not that I can actually talk to him right now, but still, better to have him along. The kittens might be scared and confused when we find them."
"Okay, so it's the four of us. Not the best odds considering we're trying to not only break into their headquarters, but also leave with a bunch of kittens."
"It's what we have to do."
"Yeah, I get that. And trust me, I don't want anyone to suffer at the hands of my people. They - we've done enough damage already."
The sadness in his expression makes me lose all my remaining anger. He seems to be a victim of his upbringing. That he chose to leave is a sign that not all hope may be lost. Yes, he deceived me, but I do that a lot too. I frown. When did I become so tolerant? So nice? The old Kat would have probably killed him by now. Instead, I'm considering letting him stay once we've completed our mission.
"You asked whether they could affect you without a collar," he says hesitantly. "Normally, we have barely any power over shifters, but because you've worn a collar for most of your life, you may be more susceptible. The only way to find out is if you let me try it on you."
"You want to enchant me?"
He laughs humourlessly. "I guess you could call it that. It won't hurt, you won't even know that it's not your own free will."
"That's scary."
He nods. "But would knowing that you're being forced to do something be better? At least this way, you're happy and without the knowledge that there are enemies all around you."
I scoff. "Yes, it would be better. It would give me a reason to fight, not simply follow orders without realising how I'm actually a slave. At least with the collars, it was obvious. Hard not to notice that you're someone else's possession if you're wearing a collar around your neck."
His expression turns even more pained. "I'm sorry for what my people did to you. It's wrong and I'm going to do my best to make it right. I didn't have any allies in my own city, so I was never able to change things. Here, I'm not alone. We can do this, we can break their hold on shifters and set them free. Maybe not immediately, but we can work against them, weaken them, until we're ready to take off everyone's collar and make them rebel against their masters."
"Did you know there are some shifters who like wearing a collar?" I ask him and he looks genuinely surprised.
"Why would they like it?"
"It gives them a sense of purpose. Being part of something. Some see the Pack as their family. They may not be there voluntarily, but they get used to it and even grow to lik
e their lives. Stockholm syndrome, I suppose."
A kitten meows in the room upstairs and I remind myself that we better hurry up. We don't know why the Pack want the kittens, and they could be in danger. Or dead already.
"Try it," I say, meeting his eyes. "Do your siren thing."
"Alright. I'm going to make you do something that you wouldn't otherwise do, that way we know how well my powers work on you."
"Just don't make me kill someone important," I warn him, and he laughs.
"You like killing. That wouldn't prove anything. No, I think I've got an idea..."
"It works better if we're touching," Gryphon says. "Hold my hand."
I shake my head. "No, I doubt the Pack sirens are going to get a chance to touch me. I need to know if they can do it without physical touch."
Although... he holds out a hand and I look at it. Maybe I should do it after all. Just to see what it feels like. I reach out and entwine my fingers with his.
His skin is warm, his palms calloused from fighting. Just like my own. We're so similar. Made for each other. Lennox is my opposite, a canine. It was a mistake to even think I could be with him. Dogs and cats can't be together. But Gryphon... he's an assassin, he's clever, he's got a great sense of humour, he looks amazing. He's perfect.
I step closer and put a hand on his chest. The muscles there are just as hard as I imagined. He must be ripped underneath that shirt. I want to see it, so I let go of his hand and start unbuttoning his shirt. He doesn't say anything, but a smile begins to form on his lips. He wants this too, it's clear from the heat in his eyes, the way his mouth parts slightly, the drum beat of his heart. Undoing the buttons takes too long. I rip open his shirt, exposing his bare chest. He's gorgeous.
I run my hands over his pecs, admiring the taunt strength beneath his skin. He's a killer. Like me. I step even closer until my body almost touches his. He's so warm, so tempting. I want to lean against him and let go of my fears and concerns. Just a woman with a man. Unravelling in each other's arms.
But my conscience is too strong. We can't do this, not now anyway. We've got a job to do.
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