Beauty and the Brute [Werescape III]

by Skhye Moncrief

  “Bourbon?” Yale offered.

  Probably to Glover who just arrived.

  “There's been a change of plan,” Yale said. “We need to move up the placation date.”

  “Oh?” Glover replied enthusiastically.

  Why? And what's a placation date?

  “No. Can't we do something else, Cameron? It'll kill Jack.”

  What does Jack's father know that I don't?

  “I'm afraid not. They'll be happy with the girl.”

  “Lucky bastards,” Glover chuckled.

  Bastards? They'll? How many men get this girl?

  “I don't know. Don't want to know,” Yale growled. “Why in the hell do you?”

  Because he's a bastard like the aliens he envies. Jerk.

  “Cameron, please—”

  “Look, Frank, my hands are tied. They make demands. I mediate for us. There's nothing I can do. I warned you to prepare him for this day. I'm sorry. It's just come two years earlier than expected.”

  Two years earlier than expected? Yale was giving a girl to the aliens? But he was the epitome of an excellent leader. Nothing like Drake of New York.

  “After Titus puts her in her chamber, tell him I need to speak with him,” Yale said.

  Titus?

  Something squeezed my neck, downward, over my shoulders, down my arms.

  Numbing. Numb. I couldn't feel.

  Oh dear God. The girl. Glover's condescending term for me when he had to refer to me respectfully to Yale. No. Not me. It can't be. I clutched my shoes so tightly that the spiked heel dug into my chest.

  My heart. The merciful heel tried to impale me to end my misery.

  My stepfather was giving me to the aliens.

  A chill shook my soul.

  The hall's dark shadows whirled.

  I had to get out of here. Run away. Hide.

  Somehow I found myself stumbling through the closet, bumping into coats and bags full of things a woman might require at an affair such as Lord Yale's celebration. I collapsed against a wall.

  Celebration?

  My stomach flopped like a fish stranded on a bank.

  Facing death. Dear. God. Why? What had Yale said? Placation date? Planned all along? I

  needed to cry. Scream. Yell.

  My legs trembled so badly I couldn't lift myself off the wall.

  The only way I'd survive this night and the rest of my life as an alien possession was to escape. The city. Oh dear. God, how?

  My gut churned up a wave of searing heat.

  Bile. I shoved off the wall and dove at the cold black sink.

  Two older guests shoved the exit's door inward.

  So much for poise. I couldn't control my heaving and braced my palms against my knees where I leaned over.

  “Oh, dear. Lady Lorelei, should we call for assistance?” a woman asked.

  Shit. I can't talk to people right now. I gulped down air.

  My stomach finally calmed.

  I splashed cold water on my face. “No. No. I'm just a bit woozy. I think I've caught a bug. I'll just go to my room.”

  “Take care, my dear. Those little things can turn nasty. You should tell Lord Yale's doctor.”

  I spat cold water back into the sink and raised up to find the line from the black kohl stick still neatly in place where it traced the eyes of my reflection.

  A slim woman stepped close, studying my image in the mirror. “You look pale, milady. You should go to your room.”

  Lady. What a joke. I was no lady. I was a placation prize. But I could think more clearly in the privacy of my room. “I think that is best.” I grabbed my shoes from where I'd dropped them on the floor and headed for the door.

  Titus was there.

  As oblivious as I had been. Would he care if Yale handed me over to the aliens in a political exchange? I stepped into the merriment.

  Titus popped off the wall. “You look strange.” He eyed the wooden door beyond my back.

  “Did someone do something I should take care of?”

  “No. I just need to lie down.” Forget waiting for Titus's interrogation to continue. I headed for the stairs.

  Titus didn't miss one of my footsteps. He kept at my side in attentive fatherly mode.

  “Lorelei,” he whispered as we took the stairs, loud enough I could hear over the music, “Lord

  Yale will not be happy if you need a doctor.”

  I waved him off. “It's just a stomach bug. The doctor can't do anything. I promise to drink lots of water.”

  He snorted. “Why are you so argumentative?”

  When he learned after I was handed over, would he understand? Would he wish he had helped me? Was he even my friend? Did I have any friends? God, did they all know about the placation date and the girl?

  The obliging shadows shrouding the upper steps didn't alleviate my fears.

  How am I going to escape with Titus at every turn?

  * * * *

  After eating odds and ends scattered around the rooms on trays left in strategic places,

  Brutus descended into the basement to find Shifters with similar attitudes about the frenzied

  Normals and their celebration. Or something that could hold a man's interest beyond sleep.

  After the beauty retired to her room, there wasn't anything left to study upstairs anyway.

  She'd probably been as sickened by the night's events as I am.

  Not likely. But the thought was entertaining.

  “Welcome, Brutus,” Caesar shouted through the muted lamplight of a few strategically placed hurricane lamps.

  Over the faint noise a floor above us, muted by the thick floor, the lead Shifter's elevated voice tattled about how he'd had a few too many drinks. I nodded at the grinning clan head of New Pittsburgh's Shifters foolish to live their entire lives employed in Yale's service. His graying straight red hair hung long and loose to brush his muscled shoulders.

  Unshaven. His hair a symbol of his status as clan head.

  Caesar headed toward me from the large room ringed with folding chairs filled with his kin.

  He hoisted a mug of beer high and hooked me over with a finger. “Come. Join us. Tell us news of New York.”

  Something bothered me. “There's little news, Caesar.”

  Something deep down. In my wolf. Kept me roaming. And if everyone wanted to call it undiluted prejudice against Normals, they could go ahead. A man would be a fool to trust the people his parents trusted only to find their betrayal and death was at the hands of their

  Normal friends.

  Play, Wolf whined.

  For Beauty. Wolf would just have to suffer. If I didn't stay and ride back to New York with

  Lord Drake's nephews, I'd receive no payment. Money came easy for Shifters. Still, they had to provide a service before pocketing the coin. One would think when Caesar resembled my father, the red hair and pleasant expressions, I'd want to linger. To bond with something.

  Even a Shifter.

  Find her, Wolf growled.

  Damned dogmatic animal. Wolf needed to get control of his cock. A Shifter knew his inner beast would need to put a leash on his Wolf in that regard. Or he'd wind up with a mate he'd have to protect. That meant forget about roaming. I'd be settled. Mated. To a Normal most likely since only a few Cougars were known to exist. Time to get as far away from New

  Pittsburgh as I could. Tonight just wasn't in the cards.

  “Did Drake find his daughter Sylvie?” Caesar stepped to my side and asked.

  “No.” That woman would never be found after she mated a Shifter.

  “Come then. There's plenty of Yale's beer to go around.”

  All the Shifters eyed me now. I'd have to drink with them. Acknowledge we are all the same, shape shifters, members of an alien-induced brotherhood, despised by Normals who relied on us for protection.

  Still, the air felt hot, stifling. Made me itch to be outside under the full moon. Running in my wolf skin. I grabbed a cool mug nonetheless and settle
d in leaning against a supportive wall for an hour or two of bullshit.

  Gossip always panned out the same way. Fools running through the night in hopes of escaping the warlord's cities and being found tangled in the barbed wire surrounding city perimeters at dawn. Nothing good came of these stories. Normals bleeding to death. Sliced in the wrong places. Or dead, partially mauled by hungry Bounders kept outside the city by the barrier fencing. Not pretty thoughts. But a Shifter couldn't blame a Normal for attempting to escape the insanity of a city or its warlord, even when risking being killed by an alien demon starving for human flesh. Bounders were left to cull those Normals stupid enough to dare venturing out after sunset. Running for freedom. Those were the few Normal souls a Shifter could relate to

  in the end. However, all the tales just made my Wolf itch for fresh night air and claw the inside of my ribcage for acknowledgement.

  Well, Wolf did the clawing. For her. The whimpering mutt. I plopped my empty mug on a wooden bar and shoved off the wall. “I think I'll head upstairs.”

  Caesar's brow arched. “You? The last Shifter to seek time among Normals?”

  Hell. My actions looked insulting. “My Wolf wants to roam.”

  Caesar nodded knowingly. “Well, go then. You know where we are if you need another beer.”

  A shadowy hall led me deeper into Yale's subterranean world beneath his mansion, the type of underground twist of corridors and rooms where humans dwelled in order to avoid extraterrestrial extermination rays that obliterated living organisms with a touch, down to another Shifter standing in a doorway. One I'd spent many years working with when I left my father's clan at eighteen. Back when Shifters reaching the age of manhood could choose to travel in hopes of finding a mate and associated work among a different gene pool. Nero hadn't stayed away long though. I had nothing to return to. “Hello, Nero.”

  The tall smiling warrior shifted a black combat boot my direction, shoving off the doorframe.

  “Brutus! How many years has it been?”

  Not enough when having to work at Normal functions. “Too long.”

  The man's camouflage crept as if it were alive in the soft glow of the hurricane lamp mounted on the wall. He snatched me up in a bear hug.

  One I couldn't ignore. Hell, we'd seen some crazy shit together. I patted his shoulders.

  He shoved back a step. “Do you remember when we chased those wild dogs out of the chicken coop at Spinster Sally's?”

  “Who could forget all those good-citizen men running everywhere in their birthday suits, soft parts jigging, while all those naked whores chased after the chickens? It was raining feathers on that burning house of ill repute.”

  Nero bellowed really hard.

  Damn. I didn't want to draw a crowd. Even down here in the twists and turns of enormous labyrinth of Yale's basement.

  “I thought you'd moved up north. Taken up with one of The Wild clans?” Nero wheezed out a final laugh.

  “I came south to check on my cousin last spring. I wound up at Boston. Long story. Too late in the year to head northwest. So, I'll set out after winter.”

  Nero nodded. “Well, all the better for everyone down here. We could use a little help.

  There's a lot of tension between New York and New Pittsburgh.”

  The same old news. People needed to move around more. Keep ahead of trouble.

  “Hey,” he patted my shoulder. “Can you watch this corridor while I grab a bite to eat?”

  Hell. Like I wanted to pull guard duty when it wasn't my turn. Catch a few winks while you're at it. But down here, I avoided the crowds. “Sure.”

  “Thanks.” Nero disappeared almost instantly.

  “Don't take too long.” So I lurk in the warlord's crotch of underground corridors and rooms, leaving the Normals to themselves upstairs.

  Something scraped a scuffle of a noise.

  Down the corridor through the doorway.

  Wolf lunged into my eyes and scanned the darkness with his infrared vision.

  Nothing moved. Even beyond the dome of yellow illumination from the light cast by a hurricane lamp mounted on the wall halfway down the passageway.

  A red-orange heat form slammed from one side of the corridor into the opposing wall and fell into a lump at the wall's unyielding base.

  A slim person. Weak. Probably running from someone. Night vision wasn't good for more than basic information. Must change vision. I blinked my human vision back into play.

  The shadowy person shoved up onto hands and knees.

  Too slim. The long braid hanging from his shoulders tattled on him. He was a her. Rising with leverage from a palm pressed against the wall.

  Something metallic clattered on the floor.

  She slowly leaned down, as if pained or confused, and reached for the object.

  I stood behind her before she straightened and squared her shoulders.

  “Who's chasing you?” I asked.

  Wolf leapt back into my eyes. Protect.

  The Gods-be-damned dog had a problem tonight.

  She whirled to face me, her face a smear or orange and red heat.

  Her heart raced.

  Too fast. A flutter to Wolf's hearing. Some bastard Normal was after her. The morons had no respect for females. “Who's chasing you?”

  “You're him,” she whispered as if someone was nearby.

  The way she emphasized him meant I wasn't the one chasing her. Rather someone she knew about. What? I blinked to my night vision and studied her pinched brow.

  The beauty.

  Beauty stared back, absolutely horrified.

  Protect, Wolf snarled.

  Wolf didn't seem to mind she insulted me. “What do you mean?” I kept my voice low.

  “The Guardian who hates Normals.” She took a step rearward. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you.” She threw up a palm as if she could hide behind the small thing.

  “You didn't.” But why would a Normal fear any Shifter being paid to safeguard this event?

  Something happened here. Something. Wrong.

  Help her, Wolf snarled.

  Growled. Demanded to be released. Why? “Something's wrong. You will tell me what it is.

  Only then will I release you.”

  “You weren't sent to find me?” She dared another step away from me.

  What was she hiding? I grabbed her slim wrist.

  Frail in comparison to any male's.

  She yanked her arm.

  Futilely. “I don't want to hurt you.” Or her warm skin. Soft skin.

  Play, Wolf hummed.

  Not good. Not for a Normal. But her small body had a wealth of strength. And a small backpack. “Where are you going?”

  The strength in her body buckled. Her mask shifting from fear into panic. Her eyes rimming with tears. “Please. If you don't release me...” her words vanished as if she feared speaking them. Her mask grew serious in the faded light. “Yale plans to give me to the aliens.”

  Ludicrous. “What? I'm not going to hurt you.” She wasn't the type of woman a man dreamed of hurting. Who could with his inner Wolf in a tizzy? “That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Why would he give you away when he can get rid of that spoiled daughter of his?”

  Her head wagged, her eyes glistening with another deluge of panic. “I don't know. I

  overheard them. He told his brother and Glover that I was the girl, part of his placation plan.

  Please, let me go.” She gently tugged her arm again. “Please.”

  Help. Wolf clawed my ribs for freedom.

  Would it matter if I freed her? Would she even reach the barbed wire barrier by sunrise and find a way through the tangled bramble? And if I didn't let her go, Wolf would claim her.

  Probably mark her. The ass had never behaved like this before. Besides, what kind of Normal passed something like her onto the aliens? Yale is betraying his own kind on the brink of extinction. Beauty deserved a chance. “If you're lucky enough to make it to the barricade by sunrise,
where will you go?”

  Why did I ask? Damned wolf.

  “I can hide in the forest,” she blurted.

  Not good enough. “Guardians will be sent to find you if what you say is true of Yale's intentions.”

  “I don't plan on lingering nearby. Please!”

  She was destined for death one way or the other.

  Protect. Wolf growled.

  Damned beast. But this wisp of beauty had been given the ultimate death sentence by her

  Lord. For what? It made little sense. Other than the shit was hitting the fan. The Lord had to cough up some type of payment to keep the extraterrestrials appeased. And this meant his prized charge. A woman being betrayed by her own kind. The scum-sucking Normals. “Listen carefully.” I pulled her close until our noses almost touched. Until I could smell the metallic tinge of salt flowing beneath what had to be the softest skin known to humans.

  Wolf whimpered.

  Hell, she had to leave before Wolf forced me to shift. Before I succumbed to the promise of her blood. Before Wolf bit her. But she had to know what to expect first. How to survive. “Do not attempt to crawl through the barbed wire until sunrise. Or the Bounders will dine upon your flesh.”

  She nodded, her heart easing into a steady patter.

  So she realized I would release her. “And I will be sent with the others at sunrise to bring you back. If I catch you, I will have to return you to Yale. No questions asked.”

  Her heart hitched. “I understand. I will try to prevent that from happening.”

  Mark, Wolf whined.

  Gods-damn it. She was trouble. “Hurry.” I shoved her wrist down the dark corridor, the looming route to her unknowable future she seemed determined to follow.

  * * * *

  Brutus, the scourge of the Guardians, released me. Was letting me go. I stared into his unreadable eyes, the poker-face of his but steps away, Yale and Titus grumbled about when trying to decide how to get the best of Lord Drake and New York. But nothing but darkness swirled in the Shifter's dark orbs.

  They flicked golden with the dancing lamplight.

  Rather, his Shifter senses were heightened so he could focus with each of his senses.

  “Hurry. Nero returns.” He turned his back to me.

  Not a word from my gut.

  Nor a spark of a chill.