Yeah, he definitely wasn’t healing from that one.
Megan then stood up, facing off against the first wolf she had injured. The hybrid staying off to the side of the action, bellowed in pure rage and shifted, heading directly for Megan.
Scott was so taken aback with the events unfolding in front of him, he missed the fact that the hybrid he had just injured had healed and shifted. He didn’t realize it until it was too late.
The hybrid bit his thigh.
Then he ran off to avenge his downed comrade with the rest of the psychotic pack.
Megan had let her temper get the best of her.
She would be the first to admit it. The events of the last few days—the stress, frustration, and anger—had finally reached a boiling point. Killing the hybrid might have been a bit if an overkill, but it had felt good. It was what she had been made for. She was, after all, a highly trained assassin.
The wolf she kept chained up inside made herself known for a short time, somehow escaping her cage.
She was locked up tight again now.
Okay, so maybe it was time for her to come completely clean. Christoph Yves was not her biological father.
Don’t worry, the twisted bastard knew it. He had known it before she was born. Actually, his finding that news out was what sparked his idea to create a paranormal army for himself.
She wasn’t born human. She was a born member of the supernatural world. All the Infinitus serum had done was bond to what portion of her DNA allowed her to take human form. It blended with her natural born abilities.
Her biological father was a werewolf. The wolf was a part of who she was. She fought twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to keep the animal inside locked up. She was at risk of giving into the wolf’s more primal urges every second of every day.
Her biological father was where Christoph had gotten the wolf DNA to make his killer hybrids.
A superhuman bitten by a hybrid would turn the superhuman into a werewolf, but the transition was complicated and brutal. Most superhumans, the ones who weren't strong enough, died during their first transformation. The ones that survived—with the help of a special ingredient—maintained all prior abilities they had prior to the change.
They, in essence, became a new hybrid creature. A chemically made one.
Without a critical step in the transformation stage, the ones that survived ran a high risk of becoming insane. They generally turned feral—giving into their animalistic instincts, refusing to ever turn back into human form.
Christoph and his scientists had been running experiments to counteract this side effect for years, never being able to successfully stop a bitten superhuman from losing their minds.
They couldn’t accomplish this because they were missing one important ingredient in their serums.
Her blood.
Her blood, mixed with the toxin from the hybrid bite, allowed the change to continue to happen, but it also allowed the superhuman to control the wolf, keeping a better balance between instinct and humanity.
Now, if they were already off their rocker prior to getting bitten…well, it was anyone’s guess on the outcome.
By injecting her with the Infinitus serum, Christoph had created the ultimate killing machine.
The only thing that saved Megan from being the ultimate mindless killing machine was that she had been raised human. She thought like a human. She felt like a human.
She had a conscious.
Oh, yeah. Jay Beres? Yeah, so not a shifter. He was a half-blood like her. Half werewolf, half superhuman. That was a story for another time.
Okay, back to the action.
The injured wolf that had been stalking circles around Megan stopped, cocking his head to the side.
That’s when she felt it.
There was another hybrid in the room. One that hadn’t previously been a part of this.
Except the wolf hadn’t…
Oh, no…
Megan looked up, spotting Scott sitting in the middle of the room, holding a hand to his bleeding high. Blood gushed over his hand and pooled on the mats around him.
Son of a bitch.
The large black wolf barreling down on her with the force of a cruise missile had bitten him.
Megan backed up a few steps as the injured wolf joined his buddies in surrounding her. She had no choice now. The time had come for her last secret to come crashing out of the closet.
Closing her eyes, she dropped all the weapons on her person. Taking a deep breath, she let the wolf inside off its very short leash.
The wolf stretched, working out the kinks of being crammed down into a small, dark hidden corner of her subconscious. Megan felt the wolf’s power spread through her, canceling out the superhuman side of her.
She was now at the mercy of the animal. The wolf had complete control of her mind and body.
As she shifted into a massive gray wolf, she let out a high pitched howl that shattered the glass on the flat screen.
Derrick watched in shocked awe from the screens in The Deck as his girlfriend shifted into a massive gray wolf.
He had seen her shift right before the sleeping gas had been deployed at the farm, but that had been different. The wolf was the same as it had been at the farm, but bigger. With the hybrids circling her, she was no longer human.
He covered his ears as she let out a high pitched howl. His jaw dropped as the three wolves getting ready to attack froze. They then sat, laying down around her, keeping their eye adverted with high pitched whines.
Had she seriously just submitted a pack of psychotic hybrids with a howl?
Megan, in wolf form, padded over to the solid black wolf that had bitten Scott. She let out a low, menacing growl.
The black wolf shifted back into human form, standing fully nude on two feet.
Megan lunged, ripping into the flesh of his throat with her sharp teeth. She landed on all fours, the body hanging from her jaws like a rag doll. She shook her head, snapping the hybrids neck. She then dropped the carcass.
Her muzzle was covered in blood and there was a small river of it flowing on the mats. There was more red then blue on the mats between the two dead hybrids and Scott.
Megan shifted.
“Shift,” she ordered in a harsh tone, almost like a drill sergeant would issue a command to their charges. She padded naked to the row of lockers adjacent to the wall of weapons. She opened a random locker, pulling out a set of folded clothes.
As she dressed, the other two hybrids did as she commanded, following her lead and taking clothes out of the lockers.
After they were all blessedly dressed again, she pointed at the door to the room. “Out.”
The two men shuffled out of the room, heads down.
Megan then turned her attention to the wounded Scott. She kneeled down in front of him, cupping his chin in her hand, forcing his eyes to meet hers. “Do you trust me, Scott?” she asked softly.
Scott nodded, his face contorting in pain.
“I can’t take the pain away or stop the change from happening. I can, however, help you through the transition.”
“N-n-o-t-t superhuman,” he stuttered.
She shot him a sad smile. “You’re not the first member of The Guard to be bitten. We’ll discuss your lying to me later. Do you trust me to help you knowing that I’ve lied to you too?”
“D-do-i-it,” he mumbled around a scream of pain.
“I will,” she assured him, letting go of his chin and standing up. “I just have to take care of something first.”
Megan walked over to the weapons wall, pulling a pistol off the rack. Loading it, she tested its weight in her hands. She then aimed the business end of the weapon at the far corner of the room, near the ceiling and pulled the trigger.
The bullet took out the small black box attached to the wall.
Derrick nodded his approved up in The Deck. Smart girl. She had taken out the MP device.
She tossed the gun onto the tabl
e with the bottles of water, looking directly into one of the many hidden cameras throughout the room.
Flipping the camera off, she called up an energy ball.
The screens in The Deck went blank one by one. The Deck was officially blind.
“That little bitch!” Christoph yelled, slamming a fist down onto the nearest surface.
Whatever Megan was about to do, she didn’t want her father or anyone else watching to know what it was. Derrick smiled.
That’s my girl.
Now, what the crap had he just witnessed? And what was she hiding now?
CHAPTER 42
August 2015
Suffield, OH
Shanna stepped out into the cool night air, taking a deep breath as she relished in the brief taste of freedom. So far they had only gotten through her freshman year and part of her sophomore year without any bloodshed.
That was a good sign.
Unfortunately, as sad and horrible as those two years had been, things only went downhill from there.
The secrets and lies grew more complex.
She leaned back against the house. It was really embarrassing to air all of her dirty laundry in front of a room full of males, no matter how well she knew them or how close she was to them.
It didn’t matter if she loved them. If was related to them. It was still extremely hard to do.
By the end of this trip down the yellow brick road to Oz, she was going to look like the biggest bitch on the planet. She was okay with that, though. There was nothing she could do about it. She had made her choices and she stuck by most of them.
Plus, there was always next lifecycle to start completely over.
“You know, the truth is apparently a deep, hidden fear of yours.”
“That’s really rich coming from someone who makes their living deceiving people.”
“At least I’m forthcoming about being a liar.”
“Tiern, how many times do I have to tell you to fuck off before you get the hint?”
D grinned. “Until you get it through your thick, stubborn skull that you’re stuck with me until the day I die.”
Shanna wiped the back of her hand across her forehead, breathing a sigh of relief. “Phew. I’m safe then. As I recall, that day has already come and gone.”
“You love me.”
“I’d love to kill you. Does that count?”
D laughed. “Bigger men have tried and failed.”
She shot him a mischievous grin. “The secret to success is that I’m not a man, I’m a trained assassin, and they weren’t married to you.”
D broke out into a fit of laughter. “Thank God! None of them were really my type.”
Despite herself, she joined in on his laughter. At least he still had his sense of humor.
He stopped laughing. “I’m not going to like where this story is headed, am I?”
Shanna ran a hand through her hair. “There is no good way for this to end for any of us.”
“I was afraid of that.”
They turned and headed back into the house. Her cell phone rang the nanosecond she reentered the basement.
She pulled her cell out of her jeans pocket, raising an eyebrow at the unknown flashing across the screen.
“Hello?”
“How’s the shoulder?”
Shanna’s blood ran cold at the sound of the male voice at the other end of the line.
“No answer? Hmm. How about your side then?”
Ignoring her rapidly beating heart, she replied coolly, “Never better. Both are completely healed. What the hell do you want, Niva?”
A hush fell over the room at the mention of his name. Putting a finger to her lips, she signaled everyone to be quiet. She hit the speaker button, turning up the volume on the side of the phone so that his voice travelled over the now silent room.
“What? Can’t I simply call to inquire about my baby sister’s health?” the whole room heard the gruff voice ask.
“If it were up to you, you wouldn’t have a baby sister. Besides, you shooting at me twice within a forty-eight hour period, well, that kind of gives the impression you don’t like me much.”
“So I take it the bitch—I mean witch—is finally out of the closet? If you’re already healed, you would have had to play a game of show and tell. Have you transformed yet?”
“No and I don’t plan to. Now, state your business and leave me the hell alone.”
A rough, mean sounding laugh sounded over the line, making her involuntarily flinch. “Bitchy aren’t we? Are you sure Hyde is still on her chain?”
“That tends to happen when someone shoots at me. It has nothing to do with my inner demon.”
“And here I thought it was the perpetual state of your personality.”
“Only towards you.”
“Aw, now I feel all special and shit. Is Marquell there with you?”
“I’m here, Niva,” Marquell said from the back of the room.
“So the traitor lives. That’ll change soon enough. Now, is Tiern there with you?”
Shanna played dumb because she could. “Which one?”
“The one you’ve been fucking on and off for the last decade and a half. The one you would rather have dead then know your most recent dirty little secret.”
Shit.
Leave it up to Kai to rub in that fact that he knew more than D did when he knew D was listening in. Shanna glanced over at D. Kai wouldn’t give up his trump card this early…would he?
D’s eyes bored into hers. “Yeah, I’m here, but you knew that already Niva. Are you going to bait the hook you just dropped into the water or are you just talking out of your ass per usual?”
Shanna groaned closing her eyes. Why did D have to bait the man? Kai would have left it alone if D wouldn’t have gone for the cheese in the trap. Maybe. She hoped.
“I have something that Shan will want back, but, at the same time doesn’t want you to know exists.
Shanna’s eyes popped open. Oh, this wasn’t good.
Shanna’s phone beeped, letting them know she had received a text or picture message. She accessed the message as her heart dropped to her toes while she was still on the line with Kai. When the picture appeared on the screen, all the blood drained from her face.
She looked over at D. For someone of such a dark skin tone, he was incredibly pale himself.
Oh, shit.
“You’ve got seventy-two hours, sis. You know what to do. Hope you survive to get back what is rightfully yours.”
The line went dead.
Shanna stuffed the phone back into her pocket, swallowing hard as she backed slowly away from a murderous D.
EPILOGUE
August 2015
It had been Christoph’s plan all along.
He hadn’t wanted to kill Scott. Though, if Scott had happened to die in the process, Christoph wouldn’t have shed a tear or pitched a fit. He honestly probably would have rewarded the mutt that had killed Scott.
Yeah, welcome to Megan’s screwed up life.
Christoph knew if there was any one person she would risk revealing her ultimate secret to in a moment of utter panic, in order to save their life, it would be Scott.
Once again, the man that had raised her drastically underestimated her. He definitely underestimated her intelligence.
Yes, she was panicked. Yes, she was worried. And yes, she was beyond pissed.
No, she wasn’t stupid enough to save Scott in the middle of Christoph’s compound, with an entire observation deck full of witnesses.
The fact that he thought that she would shows how much of his mind he’d lost to insanity.
Once she had taken out the MP device and all the electronic monitoring equipment in the room, she ran back over to Scott. Grabbing a hold of his arm, she called up the void. She jumped, pulling him into the infinite nothingness with her.
They landed in a heap of arms and legs on the living room couch back at the farm house.
“Damn it, Megs!”
he exclaimed weakly, pushing her off him. Sweat was pouring down his face and he cried out in pain as a tremor rocked his body.
Megan rolled ungracefully onto the floor, staring up at the white popcorn ceiling, breathing hard. “Well, excuse me, if that wasn’t my most graceful landing! I was only trying to save both of our asses from the army of hybrids getting ready to hunt us down like we were on the menu for Thanksgiving. I was in a bit of a hurry.”
She pulled herself into a sitting position, grabbing his wrist. She chose to ignore the tattoo on the inside of his wrist. There was plenty of time to kick his ass for keeping that from her. His pulse was rapid under her fingers. Damn it. They were running out of time.
Megan pushed some unruly strands of his hair off of his forehead with her other hand. “Do you think you could handle one more jump? I have to get us somewhere safe. Somewhere there is help.”
Scott nodded, his eyes closing as another tremor racked his already weak body.
Megan adjusted her grip on his arm and pulled them both into the void.
This time they landed on a plush bed. She let go of his arm, rolling off the side of the bed. Once on her feet, she took the folded blanket at the end of the bed and covered him with it.
“You’ll be safe here. I need to go get the others and let them know I’m here. Stay put.”
With that cryptic explanation, she jumped again.
There was no place like home.
###
Look for Paranormal Assassins Book Two: Forgetting Yesterday coming soon.
Thank you for reading my book. If you enjoyed it, won’t you please take a moment to leave me a review at your favorite retailer?
Thanks!
Mande Chambers
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mande Chambers is a U.S. Navy veteran who lives in Arizona with her two children. She loves the outdoors, hanging out with her kids, reading, writing and movies.
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