The Shifting Storm (Book 4)

by Jeff Hale

  “So what the hell set her off?” Kris leveled a glare at me.

  “Wasn’t Darien’s fault, Kris,” Kat whispered so quietly I almost didn’t hear her. “Aerick and… and…”

  “Aerick’s back in town?” Kris asked, shocked.

  Alex and I both nodded.

  “Well, I can certainly see how that would upset her.” Kris laid her cheek against Kat’s and whispered, “Just remember, Darien’s here and he loves you, it’ll be okay, you’ll see.”

  Kat started to cry again, soft little noises, and Kris looked bewildered. Alex made a beckoning motion with a finger and Kris leaned forward while he whispered something in her ear.

  “That little skank!” Kris exclaimed through clenched teeth. “Just what do you men find so friggin’ appealing about her anyway?” She looked from Alex to me and I realized that she knew, that Kat had told her. “Never mind, I don’t want to know. Not that Aerick can’t sleep with whoever he wants since him and Kat aren’t together, but still, that had to hurt.” She took Kat’s hands in hers, gave a little tug. “I’m gonna go put her in the tub, talk with her, see if I can get her out of this funk. C’mon, sweetie, up you go, that’s it.”

  I watched with no little amazement as Kris coaxed Kat to her feet, then led her slowly toward the bathroom. “Oh, I guess the mirror pissed you off, too,” I heard Kris say as the bathroom door closed behind them.

  “So what are you going to do now?” Alex asked me, staring at the bathroom door.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, Aerick’s back…”

  “So?”

  “You aren’t worried?

  “Should I be? It wasn’t exactly Kat’s pants he got into, now was it?”

  “Yeah, because no one has sex with Nina against their better judgment, eh?”

  “Thanks for reminding me.” I scowled at him.

  “Just saying, you don’t know if he still feels anything for Katie. Not asking you to turn into a jealous asshole here, just be ready to accept it if she goes back to him.”

  I didn’t answer him. I didn’t have an answer because I wasn’t sure what I would do or how I would react if Kat left me for Aerick… again.

  Instead, I got up and unplugged the television, then lifted it out of the entertainment center. “Get the door for me, will you, I’m going to go toss this in the dumpster.”

  He did, following me out to open the gates that surrounded the dumpster as well. Unfortunately, he left the apartment door open and we had to spend another half hour corralling Angel because she escaped. When we went back into the apartment, irritated cat in hand, Kris and Kat were sitting at the dining room table, Kat with a can of soda in front of her and a bowl of chocolately cereal. I swear, she lived off cereal and soda.

  I set the cat on the couch and moved in behind Kat, wrapping my arms around her shoulders in a hug. “Better?”

  “Yeah, thanks.” She leaned her cheek against my arm. “Sorry about your computer. And the TV. And you.” She paused a few moments. “There’s something you should know.”

  “I already do.”

  “Huh?”

  “Your familiar, Talon? He showed up and explained that you have some sorcerer abilities, that you need to keep seeing this Ms. Haid to train you?”

  “That wasn’t what I meant… but, yeah, that too.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything to me?”

  She shrugged. “I thought I was some kind of freak, I guess.”

  I slid into the seat next to hers. “Not at all, you’re just one of those rare lucky shifters that get extra powers. It’s actually considered quite prestigious for a pack to have its own shaman.”

  “Shaman? That’s what Bianca thought too.” Her voice perked up and I nodded.

  “So what is this other thing you needed to tell me?”

  She sighed. “I don’t know if it’s anything important or not, but since our pack is what it is…. I went down to Henry’s warehouse this morning.”

  Worry stabbed through me. “What did he do? Why the hell did you go down there? I don’t want you to have anything to do with Henry. He’s obscene.”

  To the left of me Kris almost choked on a swallow of soda. “Obscene? Well that’s an eloquent way to describe him, I guess.”

  “He didn’t do anything… to me anyway, that’s why I was down there. Sayuri called and said Nina was down there, so I went to make sure Henry didn’t have her there against her will.”

  “And?” Even though I wanted to wring the little bitch’s neck myself, she was still under my protection and if Henry had violated his oath to me…

  “She was there for a changing ritual, said she wanted to get it done, she was tired of waiting, so she let Henry…” She stopped, shuddered.

  “Sex or violence?”

  “Sex, and there was lots of blood; if she’d been fully human I think he would have killed her doing that to her. She healed it up though, so I think it had already happened, the start of her change, maybe when her and Alex… I don’t know, but I think it was already too late even if she had changed her mind.”

  I shrugged. “Much as I hate to admit it, Kat, if Nina asked for it, there’s not a damn thing I can do. Her choice.”

  She shook her head. “But that wasn’t all. Aerick and Nina’s boyfriend, Dave, showed up, and I guess they thought Henry was hurting her, and Dave attacked Henry and Henry retaliated…”

  I could almost see where this was going already and I truly felt sorry that Dave had ended up dying because of that woman.

  “…so Aerick attacked Henry—”

  “What? Ah, hell, did he kill him? Did Aerick kill Henry?”

  “No, he just messed him up and incapacitated him, then told him pretty much the same thing you did, to stay from him and anyone he called friend or he’d come after them. And that’s not all, Henry’s got that tattoo back, the one the vamps had? So it looks like Baba Yaga’s got hold of them again.”

  “Again?” I asked, shocked. Kat had told me of Baba Yaga’s interest in her because of Aerick, but she hadn’t mentioned Henry’s pack being involved.

  “Yeah. When Henry tried to kill me, he and his pack all had those tattoos, Baba Yaga’s mark. But after you beat him and he surrendered the pack to you, they disappeared so I didn’t say anything. When I saw Henry earlier, though, he had the tattoo again,” Kat explained.

  Baba Yaga had Henry’s pack. I sighed. Not that I liked it, but Baba Yaga was a powerful witch and there wasn’t really anything I could do about it. If they had let Kat leave the place untouched, maybe they had given up on using her as a tool against Aerick. I would just have to make sure she was careful, and I would need to talk to my father about it, not that there wasn’t enough going on already. “Just stay away from them, okay? I don’t want to take any chances. Bad enough it sounds like they killed Aerick’s friend—”

  “Oh, Dave isn’t dead, he’s in the hospital I think, but he’s not dead. He got very, very lucky.”

  “Oh. Well and good then, I guess,” Alex said. He had finally settled into the remaining chair at the table, although he had heard the entire conversation. “Maybe that poor human will get lucky enough that Nina will find some other guy to torment.”

  “You maybe?” Kris asked, sticking her tongue out at him.

  “Bloody hell, no! I want nothing to do with that sheila anymore that isn’t shifter related. I’d just settle for some nice, sweet girl who thinks I hung the moon.” He laughed.

  “You know, if I can convince Celeste to dump that abusive ass she’s with, she seems to like you, Alex.” Kat winked at him, and I was glad to see that she was acting more like herself.

  He sighed. “Well, she’s human and all, but she is pretty, and sweet.”

  “I’ll keep working on her then.”

  “I hate to bring the mood back down, but there’s other possible problems afoot too,” I said, recalling my father’s email. “Grimm’s claimed the entirety of the Black Forest now, expanded his borders. He�
�s driven all the humans and other non-werewolf, non-fae out past its boundaries. The Council is pretty sure he’s not done with just the Forest either.”

  “What else do they think he wants?” Kat asked.

  “Germany, possibly all of Europe.”

  “And what happens if he gets it?” Kris asked softly.

  “If he tries to drive all the humans and other AEs out of Europe by force? What do you think will happen?”

  Her face paled and I nodded.

  “Exactly. War.”

  NINETEEN

  KATELYN

  The next couple weeks were torture for me… and probably Darien as well. Did I feel bad because I had broken down into a depressed little ball over Aerick? Did I feel bad because I had electrocuted my boyfriend?

  Yeah, I did, but it didn’t make me love Aerick any less.

  Darien, to give him credit, was being incredibly understanding over the whole thing, which I hadn’t expected. I didn’t know if he was afraid I’d get mad and leave him, if Alex had talked to him, or if he was just letting the natural process of dealing with seeing Aerick again heal itself.

  Not that I was sure it would ever heal.

  Every phone call made me jump, every text, every time I saw some guy with dark brown hair that was about Aerick’s build, my heart would speed up, I would feel that longing for it to be him, then that fear that it would be him. I was a mess, my school work was suffering, and I was constantly on edge. I couldn’t even concentrate for Bianca’s training sessions so I hadn’t bothered to schedule any more. There was so much adrenaline running through my system that I had to find ways to burn it off or lose control.

  So I enrolled in a kickboxing class. It let me get my aggressions out with only minimal extraneous damage, and as a byproduct, I noticed my lack of control over the magic becoming less.

  My friends had tried, had noticed that I seemed stressed. Kris had been spending more time at the apartment, although I wasn’t sure if that was to keep me company, or because she and Matt were still having issues. Maybe both.

  I had two entirely different invites to accompany people to one of the Vixens of Drakkan concerts that was being held one weekend, one from Celeste and another from Warren. I turned them both down. I liked the Vixens’ music, but I just wasn’t up for being mobbed in a mosh pit.

  “You should have gone to the concert with Celeste,” Kris said to me as we walked to the student lounge after class one day. Most days I just went home after class, but I had cheer practice on Thursdays so I usually met up with Celeste. Kris was keeping me company today because it gave her an excuse to avoid her apartment.

  “Maybe,” I said.

  “She had backstage passes and got to meet the band,” Kris informed me, lifting a brow. “You would have had fun, it would have taken your mind off of Aerick.”

  “Why didn’t you go with her?” I asked.

  “I wanted to, but Matt got upset over the idea, so I just didn’t go at all so I could avoid the argument. I probably should’ve just told him to fuck off and gone anyway, but too late now.”

  “Sorry.”

  She just shrugged. “Yeah, well, things aren’t getting any better between us, so we’ll just see.”

  I gave her a one-armed hug as we entered the lounge. I glanced around, looking for Celeste. She was sitting at a table with a guy that I recognized from class, Kent Dyson. Kent wasn’t horribly tall, maybe five eight or so, and had a decent build. His hair was a dark, sandy blonde, naturally curly, and I thought he might have a little bit of a crush on Celeste.

  They had books open on their side of the table, the Crypto text and another from the library, so I sat down on the opposite side and Kris sat down next to me. “Hey, Kent,” I greeted.

  Kent looked up from whatever it was he was pointing out to Celeste and he blinked at me for a moment before saying, “H-h-hi, Kat.”

  I gave him a smile and his face flushed and he ducked his head back to the book. To my knowledge, Kent didn’t normally stutter when he talked, but he always did whenever he talked to me. Not that we hung out; the only times I ever saw him were in class, and he sat clear on the opposite side of the room, and on Thursdays when I would meet up with Celeste.

  “Whatcha reading?” Kris asked.

  Kent turned the book so she could see it. “About manticores. I find them absolutely fascinating.”

  “Really?”

  I poked Kris with my foot under the table. She usually didn’t sit with us and had no clue that Kent had been going on about manticores for the last month.

  “Yeah. I’m doing my research project on them and I think I might have found—”

  “Aren’t they supposed to be really dangerous?” I asked him. Maybe I could steer him away from them. He was always going on about trying to find one. I didn’t think that he would succeed in his endeavor, and I wasn’t sure I wanted him to… for his own safety.

  “U-uh, y-yeah, I g-guess th-they are,” he answered me, not meeting my eyes. “B-but—”

  “A-any p-particular r-reason you’re sitting next to my girlfriend?” Travis asked from behind us, making fun of Kent. Kris and I turned in our seats and I was pretty sure all three of us girls gave Travis a nasty look as he took a few more steps so that he was standing looking down at Kent. “Move your ass before I move it for you.”

  Kent stood so fast his chair almost fell over behind him. He gathered up his books and I could see that he was holding back some remark that he wanted to make to Travis, probably something that would end up getting him punched by Travis if he voiced it. Travis slid into the vacated seat and glared at Kent where he stood on the other side of Celeste.

  “Travis, that what jus’ rude,” Celeste said disapprovingly. “Kent wasn’t doin’ anythin’ ‘cept sittin’ here talkin’ ta us.”

  “And looking down your shirt,” Travis added, his own eyes dipping to the small bit of cleavage Celeste had showing under the scoop neck of her t-shirt.

  “I wasn’t looking down her shirt, I swear it, Travis,” Kent defended. His grey eyes moved to Celeste. “I swear, I wasn’t, I wouldn’t.”

  “Why not?” Travis demanded angrily. “She ain’t got a good enough rack for you?”

  Kent just stood there, saying nothing for a moment, unsure how to answer, then began, “She—”

  “Don’t answer that, Kent. Travis, quit bein’ so mean,” Celeste said through clenched teeth.

  “Get the fuck out of here before I make you regret getting near her,” Travis ordered Kent, giving the other guy a deadly look. Kent made a hasty retreat from the lounge and Travis turned his attention to Celeste. “Don’t tell me what to do, Leste.” Travis’s voice held an almost dangerous quality and I saw Celeste pale a little.

  Great, that’s all Travis needs, another excuse to hit her. I reached out a hand and put it on Travis’s arm. “Hey, it’s okay, Travis, you know how Celeste is, too nice sometimes for her own good. Kent was probably getting tired of hearing her talk about you anyway,” I white lied. “Besides, Kent knows better than to hit on Celeste. She’s got you.” I could feel my stomach churning bile as I said the words, but I was doing my damnedest to mollify him so he wouldn’t take it out on her.

  “That’s right, she does,” Travis agreed, nodding. I could see him visibly relaxing and he quit glaring at Celeste. “So, you were talking about me?”

  Celeste just nodded.

  “What about?” he asked.

  “Oh, ya know,” Celeste said, trying to improvise. “Football, that kind of stuff.”

  Travis nodded again. “Yeah, that little worm actually thought about trying out for the football team last season.” He snorted derisively. “Hell, he can’t even function right around the cheerleaders, no way was he gonna make it on the team.”

  “Function right?” Kris asked.

  “Yeah. He stutters and can’t seem to concentrate on anything,” Travis answered.

  “Oh,” I said. So that was why he only stuttered when he talked to me. I wa
s a cheerleader. I stood up. “Well, speaking of cheerleaders, I gotta head to practice. I’ll see you all later.”

  I gave Celeste a smile as I left, noting that she returned it with a resigned one of her own. Maybe one of these days one of Kent’s manticores would eat Travis. One could only hope.

  __________________________________

  The weekend before my twentieth birthday, I did let Celeste con me into going down to Club Xtassy with her. Kris and I still hadn’t had any luck prying her loose from Travis, and we didn’t care much for hanging out with him, but at least we could keep an eye on her and step in if necessary. At one point during that evening I thought I saw Aerick, but I was always thinking I saw Aerick so I just chalked it up to one of those times.

  Two nights later I got an odd phone call from Celeste. Darien and Alex and I were actually gambling after a show at the MGM when my cell phone buzzed in my pocket. Celeste, Travis and the rest of their little entourage of Kevin, Tiffany and Erin had all gone down to Club Xtassy again. She said they had been out dancing when she had started feeling strange and she saw someone she thought might be a friend of mine. The strange feeling was coming from this girl and she was attracting a lot of attention, Celeste told me. I had her describe the person, already having an idea, and sure enough it fit Nina.

  “Celeste, you remember I told you what I am, right?” I had told Celeste about being a shifter, with the express condition that she didn’t tell anyone else.

  “Yeah,” she answered, before I heard her say, voice muffled, “Travis! Git yer hands offa me! Ya’ll know I don’t like it when ya try and touch me there! Sorry ‘bout that,” she continued to me.

  “This girl is going to be like me, sort of. I sure didn’t have the problems she’s having, but take my word for it, find some excuse, get yourself and the others out of there. If they won’t leave with you, then just make sure you get out. I’m not sure how much trouble she’ll cause but I’m on my way, okay?”

  “Sure thing, Kat, thanks.” She hung up.

  Darien was about to scoot chips into play for a bet at the roulette table we were at and I stopped him, shaking my head. “We need to go, Nina’s up to tricks again. Let’s find Alex.”