Web Master (#8 Shifter Squad)

by J. C. Diem

  Suspicious moisture gathered in Mark’s eyes and he gruffly cleared his throat. “That’s true, I did feel an immediate connection to all four of you. You needed someone stable in your lives and I needed someone to care for again.” My heart clenched when he included me among the others.

  Kala rarely bothered to buckle herself in. Free from restraints, she lunged forward and wrapped her arms around him. She hugged him hard enough for his ribs to creak. “We love you, too, Mark.” She smacked a kiss on his cheek then slouched back in her seat again.

  Clearing his throat and straightening his tie to give himself a few seconds to regather his poise, he continued his story. “I was sent out of the room while they discussed my proposal. They called me back in a few minutes later and surprised me by agreeing to my plan. They said they would allow me to raise you and train you. Their only proviso was that I would have to destroy you if any of you turned rogue.”

  “That would never happen with you as our guardian,” Flynn scoffed.

  “They warned me to keep your true identities secret from the rest of the PIA,” Mark said. “As far as I know, only they, and Kurt Jorgen, know who and what you are.”

  Kurt was a half-faery who Reece and I had met during the mission to hunt down a succubus. He’d known instantly that we were shifters, just as we’d known that he wasn’t human. We’d all agreed to keep our true natures secret. I wasn’t sure why he’d bothered to ask us to keep his identity to ourselves. His glamour automatically wiped everyone’s memory of him. Everyone except me, that was. Maybe he got some kind of kick out of playacting.

  I wasn’t sure why I’d been able to remember him when no one else could. It probably had something to do with my innate death magic. It gave me an edge that few others had. At least I wasn’t alone in remembering him now. Laurylayne had lifted his glamour, enabling the rest of our team to recall every interaction that they’d had with him.

  I’d made a bargain with Kurt after he’d helped us to question Gareth Carter. He hadn’t collected on the debt that I owed him yet. Maybe he’d forgotten all about it. I hoped so, because dealing with the fae was supposedly a highly tricky business.

  “Why do they want to see all of us now?” Reece asked. “We only have level five clearance. Why would they allow us into HQ when they usually just called you in?”

  Mark’s lips pressed into a grim line. “I don’t know and that’s what worries me.” He always liked to plan ahead. Not knowing what we would be walking into had left him feeling helpless.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Three

  “We’re stopping to pick up Zeus along the way, aren’t we?” Kala asked as we neared the exit that would take us to our compound. I was touched at her concern for my guardian. She’d changed from barely tolerating him to caring about him almost as much as I did.

  “Of course,” Mark replied. “My superior said he wanted the whole team present. Zeus is one of us now.” He smiled at me and I felt a surge of affection for him. He’d become like a second father to me in the months that I’d known him.

  When we get married, he’ll technically be your father-in-law, Reece said.

  Is that a proposal, I asked dryly. The first time he’d suggested marriage, he’d turned as white as a ghost and I’d thought he was going to pass out.

  That was a stressful time and we barely knew each other, he reminded me archly. We know each other a lot better now and I know what I want.

  Really, I teased. What’s that?

  You to be bound to me in every possible way.

  I’m already bound to you.

  I want my ring on your finger so everyone knows that you belong to me.

  The thought wasn’t possessive, it was simply a fact. I felt the same way about him. He was mine and if another woman ever put her hands on him, I’d tear her face off. How about we save the world first? Then we can discuss marriage.

  Fine, he said with a mental sigh. But I will have my way eventually.

  I wasn’t sure if I was thrilled with the prospect of marriage, or terrified of it. I was only eighteen. I was way too young to take a step that big. It was stupid to worry about going through a formal ceremony when we were already tied together so tightly. I decided to put it out of my mind for now. There would be plenty of time to discuss nuptials if we survived whatever was coming.

  Reece took the exit that would take us to our base without bothering to indicate. He knew the road rules, but chose to disregard them most of the time. He sped along increasingly ill-kept roads until we reached our compound at the base of the Rocky Mountains.

  Sensing our arrival long before we came into sight, Zeus was waiting for us at the gate. He stood well clear of the deadly barrier and barked joyously when our SUV entered the property. He raced beside us as we zoomed along the mile-long distance to the two story building.

  Since we’d be leaving again in a few minutes, Reece parked outside rather than entering the garage. The instant I climbed out, Zeus leaped up to put his paws on my shoulders to greet me. We’d only been gone for a few hours, but his tongue lolled in a happy grin as if he hadn’t seen me in days.

  If I’d been human, I would have staggered backwards beneath his weight. Since I was far from just an ordinary girl, I withstood his bulk easily.

  Zeus gave me a lick that began at my jaw and ended at my hairline. “Thanks, fleabag,” I said wryly and Kala snorted out a laugh. At my mental urging, he dropped to the ground and loped over to her.

  Knowing what he intended to do, she sprinted to the door and slapped her hand on the scanner. The door unlocked and she darted inside before he could reach her. “Ha, ha! You missed me,” she crowed in triumph as she backed away from him.

  Taking that as a dare, he barged inside and dashed towards her. With a shriek of surprise, her feet tangled and she hit the ground. Before she could leap to her feet, the Rottweiler was on her. She made sounds of disgust and tried to fend him off as he slobbered all over her face.

  Flynn was laughing so hard that Mark had to help him over to the dining table. I doubled over in a laughing fit as well, striving to get my breath back and failing. Reece caught me by the arm when my legs threatened to buckle.

  Extremely pleased with himself, Zeus grinned at his victim. Sitting up, Kala wiped her face with her sleeve then sent him a poison-filled glare. She swept her gaze over us to see us in various states of amusement. “I hate you all,” she declared then climbed to her feet.

  Flynn thumped his fist on the table, laughing so hard that tears were rolling down his face. Reece managed to hold onto himself, but only just. Even Mark was struggling. They both manfully waited for Kala to reach the top of the stairs before their laughter exploded. She sent them both a dirty look then trudged to her bedroom.

  “I needed that,” Mark said when his laughter finally petered out. He checked his watch and motioned us towards the stairs. “We’d better hurry if we want to make it on time.” The jet would wait for us, but it wouldn’t be wise to keep our mysterious superiors waiting.

  Zeus waited for us downstairs while we raced up to our rooms to pack. I stopped at Kala’s door on my way back down the hall. She’d left it open a few inches, which hopefully meant it was safe for me to enter. “Come in,” she said at my knock.

  I pushed the door open to see she was more cheerful than I’d expected. She was wearing a grin rather than a scowl. “Sorry about Zeus. I’ll try to stop him from attacking you like that in the future.”

  “Nah, he’s just being affectionate,” she said. “I could have stopped him if I really wanted to,” she explained at my surprised expression. “Sometimes we need comic relief and I guess I’m it.”

  “You let him slobber all over you just to break the tension?”

  She nodded and finished stuffing clothes into a backpack. “I know everyone thinks I’m shallow and vain, and you’re not wrong.” The look she gave me was almost sad. “But I like to think there’s more to me than just a pretty face and a fabulous body.”
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br />   “There is,” I said and stepped forward to hug her. “You have a heart the size of Neptune.”

  Embarrassed, she hugged me back then pushed me away. “Just as long as it’s not the size of Uranus,” she joked.

  Settling both backpacks over one shoulder, I put my hand on my hip in mock anger. “Are you saying I have a big butt?”

  “Yeah,” she said and rolled her eyes. “If I squint real hard, I can almost make out a butt there somewhere.” Shading her eyes with her hand, she pretended to search for my backside.

  “Are you two girls coming?” Mark called from the hallway. His tone was bordering on impatient.

  “Yes, Mom!” Kala shouted. She showed no signs of anger that the sacrifice of her dignity had been ignored so completely. I was just beginning to realize there was far more to her than there seemed. She came across as being flighty and unpredictable, but she was deeper than I’d expected. She knew we’d needed a diversion from our troubles and she’d stepped up to the task.

  Stepping into the hall, we ran into Flynn. He knew what she’d done and he slung his arm around her shoulder. He kissed her on the cheek and she elbowed him in the side. This was the sort of camaraderie that I’d been missing out on my whole life.

  I was an only child and had never really made friends. Since joining the team, I’d gained more than just friendship. I had a second family now and they were more precious to me than I could ever describe.

  Fate had given me the daunting task of saving the world. While I didn’t want to see humanity destroyed, Reece, my father, the Shifter Squad and Zeus were my first priorities. I’d make sure they were safe before I would embark on the mission to save everyone else.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Four

  Thinking about my dad gave me a hollow feeling in my stomach. While Philip Levine had raised me, I’d recently learned that he wasn’t my biological parent. Viktor D’Ath was the one who had impregnated my mother.

  I’d only met Viktor a couple of times so far. The encounters had been brief, yet it was obvious that he was both dangerous and ambitious. I’d visited him in the PIA facility only minutes before he’d been broken out. He’d hinted that he had grandiose plans and that he wanted me to be a part of them. I had the sense that he was just as unstable as Katrina, in his own way. Reece wasn’t the only one with family issues. My parents were just as deranged as his.

  Learning that my real father was a necromancer answered a lot of questions. It explained why I’d always been different from everyone else and why I’d never really fitted in. I wondered if being a true born necromancer had helped me survive when my mother had bitten me as a baby. She’d nearly drained me to death and had infected me with vampirism. I was pretty sure the death magic that I’d been born with had kept me alive long enough to be given a blood transfusion. The transfusion had flushed out some of the vampirism, but not all of it.

  “I think you’re right about that,” Reece said as we exited through the kitchen door. Mark sent him a query and he relayed the gist of my unspoken thoughts.

  Mark’s hand twitched towards the tablet that he kept in an inner pocket of his jacket. “Go ahead,” I said with a sigh. “I’m sure you don’t get many opportunities to question necromancers.”

  “That’s because the PIA usually kills them on sight,” Kala said to me with false gravity.

  “Only the evil ones,” Flynn amended at my worried expression.

  “They’ve all been evil, according to the records,” she pointed out as she rounded to the back of the SUV and opened the door for Zeus.

  “Like you actually read through the archives,” he scoffed.

  “Mark!” she complained. “Aren’t all necromancers evil?”

  Caught in the middle, his eyes slid to me. He knew I’d know it if he lied, but he didn’t want to come right out and say it with me standing right there.

  “Lexi isn’t just a necromancer,” Reece pointed out. “She’s also part werewolf and part vampire.”

  Kala waited for Zeus to leap inside then dumped her bags next to him. She did some mental math. “So, she’s two parts evil, one part ravenous werewolf? That doesn’t exactly sound like very good odds to me.”

  “I didn’t lose my soul when I became part-vampire,” I reminded her. “The ritual Viktor performed didn’t get rid of my vampirism. Instead, it seems to have enabled my three natures to work together. I know I’m a freak, but I don’t feel all that much different from before all this happened.”

  Kala turned to Reece for clarification and he nodded. “I’m the same. Becoming part-vampire hasn’t turned us evil. Our personalities haven’t changed. We just have a few added perks that other shifters don’t have.”

  He didn’t state the obvious, that I had a perk that no other shifter or vampire could claim. It was one that most people wouldn’t want. My necromancer gave me the ability to raise and control zombies. Having that much power over death was insidious. If I gave into it, I’d come to crave the rush of raising minions more and more. Eventually, I’d become power mad. I’d turn as evil as every other corpse raiser that had ever existed.

  Everyone was relieved to hear the confirmation that Reece and I were essentially the same as we’d always been. Mark quickly made notes on his tablet before climbing into the front passenger seat. Zeus sat in the cargo area directly behind me. He was resigned to the idea of being trapped in the car during the two hour drive to the airfield.

  Without needing to be asked, Mark reached into the glove box for snacks. He tossed food over his shoulder and we each caught the chocolate bars that came our way. Zeus snagged a bag of peanuts out of the air. He tore it open, gobbled down the contents then spat out the plastic bag.

  Knowing how adept he was at stealing our food, Kala, Flynn and I hunched forward, staying out of his reach. Kala sent wary glances over her shoulder and chewed quickly. He licked his chops and eyed her chocolate. He knew it was forbidden for him to eat it, which made it all the more tempting.

  My hunger wasn’t as ferocious as it used to be, but I still had to eat frequently. Being part undead gave me access to greater speed when I needed it, but it came at a cost. Sprinting for all I was worth used up my energy. Blood was the quickest way to replenish it. A major plus was that I could now change into a werewolf at will. The best part was that doing so no longer felt like it was tearing me apart.

  They were the main changes that I’d noticed since I’d transformed into a hybrid. The only part of me that hadn’t yet reached its peak were my abilities as a necromancer. After I’d severed my bond to Reece, I’d lost my protection against the darkness that had been growing inside me. My necromancer had flexed her muscles and the urge to raise zombies had risen its ugly head for the first time.

  That need was lying dormant now, but I suspected it wasn’t gone forever. It could come back at any time. When it did, I hoped my renewed bond would be strong enough for me to resist the temptation of calling an army of undead minions forth to do my bidding.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Five

  We arrived at the airfield just as the jet was motoring to a stop. The pilot didn’t bother to disembark this time. He waited for us to file on board then took off almost before we were seated. It was further proof how urgently the Board wanted us to appear before them.

  Zeus hunkered in the aisle next to me. He wasn’t a fan of flying and dreaded the takeoff and landing. I held onto his collar so he wouldn’t slide to the back of the jet as it tilted backwards. Once we levelled out, he quickly forgot his fright and lay down for a nap.

  It wasn’t a particularly lengthy flight, but it was long enough for Kala to become bored. She sat in the window seat beside me with her eyes closed, nodding her head in time to the beat of the music she was listening to. Flynn sat across the aisle from me, also listening to tunes through his earphones. Their tastes varied wildly and the conflicting music bombarded me from both sides. Reece and Mark sat together near the front of the jet. They were talking quietly,
speculating about why the Board wanted to see all of us.

  After Reece had left me for Gloria, I thought my chances of ever being happy again had been destroyed. Now everything was back to normal, or as close to normal as we could get. He’d left his pack and was back with the Shifter Squad where he belonged. Best of all, we were now bonded more strongly than ever before.

  Reece turned, looked down the aisle and winked. He sent me a picture of what he wanted to do to me and red flooded my cheeks.

  “Do I even want to know what just made your heart speed up?” Kala asked without opening her eyes.

  “Nope,” I replied and scrunched down in my seat in discomfort. I sometimes forgot that I had a link to Kala and Flynn. It was different from my bond with Reece, but we were all connected.

  “As if we can’t both guess,” Flynn said. “We can feel what you’re feeling when you’re sitting so close to us.”

  “Do you want me to move to the back of the jet?” My tone was bordering on sarcastic.

  “Nah,” Kala replied. “Just don’t disappear with Reece into the restroom for a quickie.”

  That’s not a bad idea, the object of our conversation said into my mind.

  Wouldn’t it be a bit cramped in there?

  We could make it work.

  I grinned at his confident response and Kala cracked an eye open and glanced at me. I opened my ereader before she could comment at my surge of lust and immersed myself in a book.

  It was almost dark by the time we landed at one of the many private airfields that the PIA utilized. For all I knew, maybe they owned them. They seemed to have plenty of money.

  We weren’t the only team on their payroll. There were also the Obliteration Squad, the Containment Squad, the Mind Sweepers and the Cleanup Crew. Each team had a specific purpose. The O Squad were sent out to destroy EERI compounds. The Sweepers wiped the memories of people who’d accidentally learned about our world and couldn’t be allowed to remember. The Cleanup Crew were the people who erased any mess that we left behind. I hadn’t met anyone from the Containment Squad yet and knew little about them. I was fairly sure there were other teams that I didn’t even know about. That information was classified, of course.