The Shifting Storm (Book 4)

by Jeff Hale

  “Yes,” Aerick replied without hesitation.

  “So, if Serena were to be possessed you would kill her?” I glanced at the other girl, wondering just how far Aerick would be willing to go.

  “Yes,” he said, again without hesitation

  “Hey!” Serena protested, glaring at him and pouting.

  “Sorry, darlin’, but I would.” He put his arm around her in an attempt to mollify her. “You have to understand, any demon getting a foothold of any sort on this world would spell disaster. Even a minor demon can cause all kinds of havoc. None of you are even remotely aware of what they’re capable of.” He sighed heavily.

  He was right, I wasn’t. Maybe I should reserve my judgment of his position on it until I had actually experienced it myself. But could I kill a loved one like he claimed he could? I didn’t think so. There would have to be a way, some way, to save them, even if I died trying.

  “Kat, listen.” Aerick gave me a look that suggested he had given up trying to convince me. “When the demons come, stay out of their way. It won’t be your fight anyway. Just lie low and let me, and any other Sentinel that happens to get the call, handle it. Okay? For your own good.”

  For my own good. I really hated that phrase. Who knew better than me what was for my own good? I scowled at him. “Why is it everyone seems to think they know what’s better for me than I do?”

  “I’m not saying I do. I just know what demons are capable of. It was a good chunk of my non-combat training that I received from Merlin. He didn’t teach me Aetheric Theory, or how to use my magic better. He taught me how to fight and he taught me about demons so I could fight them better,” he explained. “And well, you just wouldn’t be able to deal with one. Even a minor one. So just stay away from them.”

  “No, dear little kitty Kat, you should just stay away from me,” a voice spoke up from behind Aerick, and when I looked past Aerick’s shoulder, I could see the guy from Henry’s warehouse, the one with the penchant for the trench and fedora. This was the first time I had seen the man up close and there was something about him, something in his deep brown eyes, that made a cold, terrified shiver go down my spine.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing here, Malachai?” Aerick demanded as he vacated the booth and turned to face the intruder.

  Malachai gave Aerick a sly smile that sent another shiver of fear through me, but it was accompanied by something else, something I tried to ignore but couldn’t. It was an attraction of sorts, a dark one, to the danger and violence that seemed to ooze from the man. He was of a height with Aerick, his build almost the same. But Malachai’s dark-brown hair was short under the fedora, and his face, while handsome with sharp striking features, was marred by the malice that shaped it. “Oh, you know,” he drawled wickedly. “A little of this, a little of that. Hunting you down to fulfill my contract so that kitty Kat’s father doesn’t send someone after me. Or wait. That might be fun. Well, the Hag really wants you dead now.” His dark eyes narrowed and one long finger tapped his chin. “You and someone named Darien. But one thing at a time.” His hands fell to his sides and two blades sprang to life in them.

  I had seen Aerick’s blades enough times to realize the difference. One of Malachai’s weapons was made of a brightly gleaming, clear material, quartz or diamond, I wasn’t certain. The other was made of something that sent a strange sense of familiarity through me; lightning that surged and crackled. I could feel power, what Bianca called the Aether, roiling off of him in heavy waves.

  Aerick’s own blades flared into existence in answer. People around us gasped and whispered, scrambling to get as far away from our little group as possible. Aerick threw a quick glance over his shoulder to me and ordered, “Kat, get everyone to safety. Now.”

  “Oh. How cute. You’re all worried about the normal people.” Malachai’s gaze raked over me, Kris, Serena, and Dave before he stared at Aerick. “Well, three of them aren’t normal, but that doesn’t really matter. I’m not here to kill them, I’m here to kill you!” He lunged for Aerick.

  Three of them aren’t normal? What the hell did Malachai mean by that? I knew I wasn’t, but Serena, Kris, and Dave were entirely human. Maybe normal for Malachai was Aetherics. I was about to lead them out of the club when I felt the air around me wrench, and the next thing I knew, the four of us were standing in the parking garage.

  “What the fuck just happened?” Dave demanded in confusion as he caught his balance.

  “Dave!” Serena admonished.

  “Sorry, Rena.” He glanced around. “How did we get here? Where’s Aerick and that dude?”

  Kris was holding onto my shoulder, having a harder time for some reason in getting her bearings than the rest of us were. She shook her head and inhaled sharply. “What the fu—heck happened?” She echoed Dave’s question, giving Serena a wary glance.

  “I think Lucien did,” I suggested. It was the only thing that seemed reasonable. Unless Aerick was capable of a lot more than he was letting on or that I had seen.

  “We have ta get back in there ta make sure Rick is okay!” Serena began to head toward the elevator.

  I put a hand on her arm to stop her. “No. We got sent here to keep us safe. Rick would want us, you, safe. Lucien won’t let anything happen to him, not in his club.” Besides, I wanted to be nowhere around Malachai. He unsettled me way more than I cared for.

  “Yer sure?” Serena wasn’t convinced.

  “Yes, I’m sure. Lucien is… Lucien is pretty powerful. He’s got Aerick’s back.” I suddenly just wanted to go home. I was worried about Aerick too, but there wasn’t anything I could do, and I believed in my gut that Lucien would protect him. “Look, I think me and Kris are just going to go home. You two were here with Aerick, so just wait for him. Dave, give me a call to let me know he’s okay?”

  “Sure, Kat.”

  I gave him a resigned smile then began walking towards the elevators, Kris right behind me. My car was on the level below this one. The elevator seemed to move at an agonizingly slow speed.

  “So that was the guy your father hired to kill Aerick?” Kris asked as we waited for the doors to open to let us out.

  “Yes.” I felt that cold sensation go through me again and I shuddered. “Scary fuck. It’s the same guy that killed all the shifters too, the ones that they were trying to blame on Aerick.”

  “And he’s like Aerick? A Sentinel?”

  The doors slid open and we headed across the garage towards my car. I nodded. “Yup. Looks like there is more than one of them.”

  Kris tilted her head to one side, frowning a little. “Yeah, but that guy was evil. Aerick isn’t.”

  She was right. I didn’t even need to see Malachai’s face or hear him speak to know that. I just knew. My phone buzzed in my purse and I pulled it out to find a text from Dave.

  Rick is fine. You were right about Lucien. Say hi to Kris for me.

  Seriously? I bit back a snort. “Dave says hi,” I told Kris. “Oh, and Aerick is safe.”

  “That’s good.” She was blushing a little. “About Aerick, that is.” We came up next to my car and she looked at me across the top as I unlocked the doors. “Speaking of magic type stuff, are you still seeing Ms. Haid?”

  “No. I gave up, couldn’t focus. The kickboxing helps more, honestly.”

  Kris sighed, opened the door and got in, then gave me a reproving look as I started the vehicle. “But it’s magic, Kat. Think about if you could learn to use it better.”

  “Use it better?”

  “Yeah, like Aerick.”

  I almost choked. “You did not just say that. I’ll never have magic like Aerick’s. I’m a shifter, remember?”

  “I know, I know, but still, you could—”

  “I’m fine with just being a shifter, Kris, really,” I assured her truthfully.

  “Are you?”

  “Yes. Being a shifter is hard enough. I’d be better off without the magic at all. I mean, look what I did to Darien?” The magic scared
me, and maybe that was why I always felt like I needed to hide it. Part of me hoped that maybe if I ignored it, it would just go away.

  Another part of me knew, with a horrified certainty, that one day I would have to deal with the magic, whether I wanted to or not.

  TWENTY-NINE

  DARIEN

  Alex and I spent several days after Aerick’s trial working on the property. The house and the workshop had been in good condition when I bought it, but the barn and the corral needed some fixing up, having hardly been used by the previous owners. I planned on purchasing some horses and I would need space for them to run and safe housing for them at night.

  I didn’t see or hear from Kat at all during that time. I didn’t try to contact her, knowing she needed time to sort through all her jumbled emotions. I did get a call from Henry’s father saying that Henry had presented himself as decreed and that the Council Elders were working on what they thought would be the best form of rehabilitation for Henry, but otherwise everything was quiet, peaceful. Even Nina seemed to have dropped out of sight. A little less than a week after Kris’s accident, Matt showed up late in the evening, unsure of what to do.

  Kris had moved back in with Kat.

  I could have told him that I had seen it coming, that he had been putting way too much pressure on her to let him turn her, but he didn’t see anything wrong with it, didn’t understand why Kris was so reluctant if she loved him that much. When I had suggested to him that maybe she wasn’t ready for her soul to be stained with demon taint, he had dismissed the thought out of hand.

  So Alex and I just told him to let her have some space. He knew where she was, and Kat wouldn’t let her come to any harm if she could prevent it. Given time to think without Matt badgering her, she might come to the decision he wanted on her own.

  It was about week after that, on a Friday, when I got a call from Kris herself. But instead of it having to do with Matt, she was calling to say that Nina had called her to tell her that she thought something was wrong and needed us to come to her apartment. I wasn’t surprised when she told me that Kat refused to go along.

  Alex and I swung by Kat’s to pick Kris up and I was shocked to see that the girl showed no trace of injury, despite having multiple broken bones less than two weeks previous according to Kat’s description.

  When she saw both mine and Alex’s stunned looks, Kris just shrugged and told us that Matt had some special way with healing, the same way she had healed from her bullet wound so fast. I didn’t say anything, already knowing that Matt had been a doctor since before Kris’s grandparents had even been born. I knew vampires had some special abilities, but Matt was very secretive about what he could do.

  We showed up at Nina’s apartment sometime later. I could hear noise inside, like someone was in intense pain of some kind, and when Nina didn’t open the door, I kicked it in.

  The three of us hurried into the apartment to find Nina on the floor of her bedroom, her cell phone not far from her. The girl was on her back, which was arched at such an incredible angle that you would have thought her spine would snap. Her head was thrown back, a howl of pain coming from her throat, her fingers curled into her palms, blood pooling around them, her toes digging into the carpet. She was naked and covered in sweat.

  She was preparing to shift for the first time, and it was imminent, that much I could tell, but I had never seen a shifter in that much pain or discomfort over shifting, not the first time, not ever.

  Kris began to kneel next to her, but Alex pulled her back by the shoulder, shaking his head.

  “You don’t want to be that close when she shifts,” he said. “She might not recognize you.” He actually moved her so she was as far away from Nina as possible, before coming back over to me.

  I took my duster off, leaving it in a pile on the floor, and knelt next to the stricken girl, actually feeling pity for her as she writhed and mewled on the dark carpet. I put a hand on her shoulder, Alex doing the same, as I exerted just enough influence to get her attention, but not to calm her. If she was ready to shift, she needed to; putting it off would only harm her.

  Her eyes met mine, wild and dark, the pupils cat slit. If we had shown up even five minutes later than we had, it would have been too late.

  She began jerking as though she were having a seizure, legs and arms flailing, an inhuman noise coming from her, as bones shifted, flesh stretched, muscles moved, and coal black fur began to sprout from her skin. The noise she was making solidified into a snarling yowl as she rolled to all fours and Alex and I both jumped back as she shook herself and looked at us out of clear blue cat’s eyes.

  “What the bloody fuck?!” Alex exclaimed in a whisper next to me.

  I silently echoed his sentiment as I watched the animal prowl the room cautiously, a bare match for the posters on the walls.

  I had seen my fair share of shifters over the decades, had heard of just about every type of shifter there was, but I had never seen or heard of anyone turning into a sabretooth panther before. What did seem familiar to me was that she was giving off the same resonance now that Grimm’s sons had.

  She was a large cat, her shoulder coming almost to my hip, her black fur slick. But what made her really stand out were the six inch canines that jutted down from her top jaw and curved past her bottom lip. Her bottom canines were prominent as well, just much shorter.

  Her head came up, wide nostrils flaring as she caught movement through her bedroom door, saw Kris as she peeked over Alex’s shoulder. A growl emanated from Nina’s throat as she made her way toward the door.

  Alex stopped her, placing himself directly in the doorway, catching Nina’s attention by placing a hand on her muzzle. She stopped, sniffing him, then rubbed her head along his thigh, before growling again as she peered past him to Kris.

  I realized what Nina was doing. Kris was the only other female in the room and Nina was trying to establish her dominance in her possession of both myself and Alex as potential mates. Just as Nina was trying to push past Alex again, she shuddered, her head drooping, then she was a naked human female again on hands and knees. She fell onto her side, breathing heavily, blue eyes blinking as she tried to focus.

  “Alex?” she asked, voice a whisper.

  “Yeah, Nina, we got you, you’re going to be fine. Kris,” he called over his shoulder, “do me a favor and find her some clothes please?”

  While Kris found some clothes, Nina huddled against Alex’s legs. “What happened? I felt so, odd, earlier, so I called Kris… then everything started to hurt…”

  “You shifted for the first time. Do you remember?” I asked her.

  Her eyes fixed on me, almost hungrily, and I braced myself in case she reached out with the lust aura. So far she hadn’t. “A little, I think. I did change into a cat right?”

  I nodded.

  “What kind?”

  “Panther,” I said.

  A smile creased her face, even as she doubled up in pain again for a moment. “Panther, always liked panthers,” she panted.

  No shit. I glanced around the room, at the posters, figurines, drawings, of panthers and werepanthers. Even her bedding had the big cats on it.

  “A sabretooth panther to be more exact,” I added.

  She looked at me again, but I could see that her eyes were darkening again. “Sabretooth? Is that poss… oh, crap… what’s…?” The change was more fluid this time, and she came up on all fours just as Kris turned to her with a pair of sweats and a t-shirt.

  “Oh shit,” Kris muttered, clutching the clothes.

  Nina growled low in her throat, one paw reaching out to knock Kris’s legs out from under her. The blonde girl tumbled to her back, eyes wide as Nina moved forward to stand over top of her and stare down at her.

  “Guys, do something before she eats me?” Kris asked in a high voice.

  Nina’s ears twitched and she dropped her head to Kris’s chest, to the clothes that were still in Kris’s hands, smelling them, then she made a huffin
g noise and rubbed her face all over Kris’s, before turning and padding off as though Kris were no more concern.

  “Okay, so why didn’t she chomp me?” Kris asked, not moving yet, as Nina came over and curled up on the floor next to my feet.

  I shrugged. “I’m not exactly sure.” I pulled my foot out from under Nina’s side. “I think she just marked you as a submissive female, but don’t hold me to it.”

  “Great.” She stood up, clothes still in her hands. “I’ll just hold onto these why don’t I.”

  For the next few hours Nina shifted back and forth at random intervals, seemingly out of her control, something that should not have been happening.

  Alex and I finally came to the conclusion that, much as we didn’t like the idea, we were going to have to take her back out to the house where we could keep an eye on her better and I could help her keep her Aspect under control. Kris offered to come stay with us as well, if for nothing more than to make sure that Nina didn’t get her claws, metaphorically speaking, into me again since Kris seemed to have an uncanny ability to shake off our auras if she wanted to.

  I gave my mother a call that night, described the type of cat that Nina had shifted to, told her that Nina put me in mind of Grimm’s sons. She told me that there were old, very old, shifters out there that were closer to our origin roots. Grimm, or Fenris as they knew him better by, was one of them. Based on my description, her only suggestion was we contact Nina’s parents, who might better know what to do for her. I brought the idea to Nina, who refused. She didn’t want anything to do with her parents at the moment.

  After two days of uncontrolled shifting that only my Alpha aura could calm, Nina was still having problems but she found that if she listened to the radio it helped. She came out to the living room the second day, a bare hold on her Aspect, but a hopeful look on her face.