One Night With the Shifter

by Theresa Meyers

  Ty let out an earsplitting howl that rattled the glass in the casement windows. He pounded up the stairs. In his rage, Ty swept a lamp from the table. The force of his blow threw it across the room, where it smashed against the wall and fell into broken chunks of ceramic, wire and metal to the floor. He kicked one of the decapitated vampires.

  “Get Achilles here now!” he growled between labored breaths.

  Crawford tossed him an armful of clothing. “Get these on first.” The vampire closed his eyes and Achilles appeared in short order, first his boots, then the rest of him. He frowned and looked at the fingerprints of chaos smeared all over the Brierly residence. “What’s happened?”

  “They took her! She’s gone!” Ty bellowed.

  “Who took her?”

  “Her damn Thrall brother!” Crawford spat.

  Ty paced, stepping over and around the broken pieces of Jess’s home. “The sheriff we saw with Eris at the podium, that’s her eldest brother. He must have either turned or taken the other two, as well. None of them are here.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “All the cars are still here. Crawford was left here alone, along with this.”

  He handed the crumpled note to Achilles. He scanned it, scowled and threw it to the floor.

  Achilles spun on his heel and made his way to the kitchen. He yanked open the drawers until he found small sandwich bags. He went to a downed Thrall and scooped up some of the congealed blood into the bag and sealed it, then placed it in his hand and focused on it until the bag disappeared into nothing but a puff of black dust.

  “What the hell? I didn’t know you vampires could disintegrate stuff with a glare.”

  “Not disintegrate, transport. I sent it directly to Beck. It might be just what she needs to be able to decode the mix they are using on the Thrall and finish the antidote. We’re going to need it if we’re going to attack.”

  “How long will that take?”

  Achilles frowned. “These things are precise. I won’t know until the doc gives me an idea.”

  “That’s not going to work. They have Jess. They’ve already turned one of her brothers. It’s only a matter of time until they turn the others and her, too. I’m going in now.”

  Achilles grabbed him by the arm. “Can’t you see you’re walking into her trap? That’s exactly what they want you to do, go in alone and without the capability to defend yourself against their numbers.”

  Ty turned slowly, locking gazes with him. “What would you do to save the lives of your family?”

  Achilles’s green eyes turned to glacial ice. “Anything.”

  “Exactly. So I have no choice.”

  “But you’re turning your back on the plan. You’re risking the lives of everyone on one big gamble.”

  “Do you know what the one thing worse than losing everything, everyone you love is?”

  “No.”

  “Having to go through it again.”

  Achilles’s eyes softened with pain and determination. “I know what you mean.” He braced a hand on Ty’s shoulder. “If you’re going to do this foolish thing, then you won’t go in without backup.” He closed his eyes.

  Donovan and Raina appeared in a twist of dark particles, their hands laced together as they reformed into solid matter once more. “The Wenatchee Were Pack is in position and ready north and east of the bunker.”

  Achilles nodded. “Good. We attack their nest just after dawn.”

  Ty frowned. “Don’t we run the risk of that being draining on the vampires?”

  “Yes, both theirs and ours, which is precisely what we want,” Achilles answered. “That’s where the Weres will be our strength. You’re not hindered by the sensitivity to sunlight, as we are.”

  Achilles moved to the kitchen table and held out his hand. A large rolled set of papers appeared in his hands. He spread the rolled architectural plans out on the table. “According to these drawings and our recon, the structure goes deep underground. We vampires will go in first and flush the reivers and Thralls to the surface.”

  “Where we’ll be waiting to take them out,” Ty said.

  Achilles eyed him. “Those that make it out. The sun rises in less than an hour.”

  * * *

  Jess stumbled in the dark, using her hands to feel her way through the maze of cold concrete walls that abraded the skin of her bare hands. She didn’t know where the hell she was, only that she was cold and terrified.

  One moment Davis had been giving her a hug, the next all hell had broken loose downstairs. Crawford had gone berserk. There was yelling and shouting, things breaking. She’d peeked down the staircase and he’d been hacking, tearing and throwing people around her home.

  “What the hell is going on, Davis?” Her heart had been in her throat, pounding so hard she couldn’t breathe.

  “A home invasion. We need to get you safe.” Davis had barricaded her, Edgar and Paul into her bedroom. A twist of dark particles Jess recognized as a vampire transporting appeared in the corner of her room. She prayed it was one of the good kind. No such luck.

  The instant she saw the thing’s red eyes, she recognized him—the creep from the bar. “Very good, Davis. You’ve done an excellent job.” He stepped closer, his cold fingers caressing Jess’s cheek. “Your sister is very pretty. She’ll please the goddess enormously.”

  “Get away from her.” Paul came charging at the vampire. He grabbed Paul by the shirt and flung him across the room as though he was a plastic toy. Paul slid down the wall and lay in a crumpled heap. Edgar moved closer, stepping in front of her.

  His head kept twisting as his gaze darted between the vampire and Davis. “Davis! Davis, for God’s sake, don’t just stand there. Do something!”

  Davis turned and the sight drained all the blood from Jess’s head, making her dizzy. Davis’s eyes were just as red as the vampire’s. Ty had been right all along.

  Davis backhanded Edgar so hard the crack caused a spurt of bile in the back of Jess’s throat. Edgar fell to the floor, unconscious.

  Davis grabbed her, his hand manacling around her wrist in a painful grip. Jess tried to leverage her weight against his hold, her heels digging into the floor. “Davis! Davis, it’s me. Jess! I’m your sister. Let go of me!”

  His face was totally impassive.

  Jess struck out at him, kicking him in the leg, her fingernails digging and clawing at his hand until bloody scratches surfaced. Still no reaction. Panic overtook her. She thought about the last time she’d talked to Ty and now she understood his adamant behavior. Davis wasn’t Davis. He didn’t care if she or her brothers were harmed.

  Downstairs the battle still raged. The vampire in the long leather duster approached her and grabbed her face hard, giving her a disgusting wet kiss, his tongue invading her mouth. Jess bit him out of fury. The vampire chuckled. “She’ll be a perfect vessel for the goddess.”

  He grabbed hold of her upper arm in a painful grip and a sudden sucking pull yanked Jess backward by her belly button, her scream fading into nothing.

  She’d gone from darkness to more darkness and woken to find her chest pressed to a gritty, cold concrete floor. The air smelled of must and mold, like a dank basement. She put her hand out in front of her and couldn’t even see it.

  For a second she wondered if perhaps she’d gone blind. Jess didn’t trust her surroundings enough to call out. Her head hurt and her body ached. Slowly she stood and shuffled forward blindly until her hand had hit a solid wall.

  Where the hell was she? She listened intently. The sounds of voices talking were muffled, but she could hear them. Jess followed the sounds until her hand encountered another wall. She followed along that wall until her fingers dipped along a straight edge. A door!

  Fingers shaking, she searched until she found the doorknob
and turned it. Only to find it locked.

  * * *

  “You’re absolutely sure about this?” Ty said as he let Achilles grip his shoulder and prepared for the uncomfortable sensation of transporting.

  “Taking the battle to the reivers and their Thralls is the only acceptable option. There will be minimal casualties.”

  “How can you be so certain?”

  Achilles gazed at him, his eyes glacier cold. “The last battle the Cascade Clan fought against reivers in the streets of Seattle killed a number of mortals. The council has determined that our continued fragile relationship with the mortals in the area depends greatly on the outcome of this battle—and the minimizing of collateral damage.”

  That was fine with Ty. Having it out in the woods was his preferred method anyway. In the wild he was at the top of his game. It would be the reivers and Thralls who were at a disadvantage.

  He glanced at Riley beside him, his face bright with anticipation. “This is going to rock!”

  Ty didn’t bother to dissuade the kid. Going into battle with high energy was often a good determination of how one would fight, especially once they realized it was a messy, unpleasant business. “Just remember what I taught you and keep yourself alive. Your sister will have my head if you don’t make it back in one piece.”

  Crawford put his hand on Riley’s shoulder. “One Were pack transfer coming up.” He waited for the signal from Achilles and then they and the other vampires touching members of the Wenatchee Were Pack all evaporated into dark smoke.

  They all reformed in a field at the base of Striped Peak. With daylight just breaking, the reivers and their Thralls wouldn’t be expecting the attack. Ty glanced briefly at the faces of his family members, those of the tribe he’d known since he was young, but he didn’t have time to spare to greet them. Only one thing drove him—Jess.

  A sharing of glances passed through the ranks of the clan vampires. As one they all vanished in swirls of smoke, transporting directly into the bowels of the bunker.

  Ty glanced at Riley. “Stick with me, kid.” Riley nodded.

  Ty waited for the signal from Donovan and Raina. On three. Donovan’s words rang in Ty’s skull and those of all the Weres present.

  One.

  Two.

  Three.

  The sound of transformation of an entire pack was deafening. A few of the younger ones took longer, growling and whimpering as the change took them. As a unit they bounded up the slopes, leaping through the brush and scaling the rocks.

  They came to a stop on the edge of the clearing, surrounding the bunker on all sides. Down below people began to dart from the bunker, a few at first, their numbers swelling. Donovan tilted his head back and let out a bloodcurdling howl. Ty followed suit and all the others joined in, the combination of their voices deafening. For a moment it was easy to tell the reivers and Thralls from the Cascade vampires. The enemy paused to gaze in horror at the wolves that surrounded them.

  Now! Donovan shouted to them all with his mind. The Weres descended, Ty in the lead shoulder to shoulder with Donovan as they raced down into the fray.

  Ty tore into whatever he could lay his jaws on. He ripped limbs off vampires, but they still kept coming. Nothing short of shredding or decapitating them would do. The Thralls were easier to kill. They crushed like potato chips if he lunged on them. Achilles had said to avoid harming those he could, but rage turned Ty blind. They were all the same to him. Nothing and no one but Jess mattered.

  Chapter 17

  The light was nearly blinding when the door opened. Jess held up her hand to shield her face, blinking at the intensity.

  “Good. You’re awake.” The vampire in the black leather duster opened the door wider and held out a hand in invitation for her to leave the cold, dank storeroom. “I’ve got someone who’d like to meet you.”

  Jess wanted to dash out. But to run where? All around her the walls looked as if they were made of thick concrete. The room was like being in a prison, with no windows, no light. Only the candles and oil lamps lining the walls gave any illumination, making the vampire leading her down the hallway look that much more menacing, if that was even possible. The smells of unwashed bodies and sour urine kicked in her gag reflex. Jess slapped her hand to her mouth.

  They turned a corner and entered an enormous room. One wall was nothing but a plywood honeycomb of what looked like human-size sleeping berths, filled with sleeping bags and in some cases people. Hundreds of people milled about like cattle in a feedlot. They looked weird. Either they were high or psychologically malfunctioning. They parted as the vampire before her walked by, creating a pathway for them.

  Jess glanced over her shoulder as the path they’d caused closed up. She shuddered. “What’s wrong with them?”

  “They’re Thralls awaiting orders from the hive.” He waved a hand at the people, as if brushing them out of his way as he went. They looked more like zombies to Jess.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “To the heart of our nest. Our queen would like to meet you.”

  Queen? With the vampires, Werewolves and Thralls she’d encountered, Jess had just about had her fill of weird. She hoped the queen wasn’t some giant bee or something. Her confused mind stutter-stepped and she thought of something even more fearsome. Did he mean Eris? She shivered. The fetid air was not only cold but damp from the moisture of so many people breathing. It heightened the collective stench and Jess had to breathe through her mouth.

  The vampire opened another gray metal door, all of which looked alike to her, and led her through a maze of hallways and up and down a flight of stairs. Jess had to trot to keep up with him. “I don’t suppose your queen might have a bathroom?”

  The vampire gave her an indulgent smile, exposing the length of his fangs over his bottom lip. She shuddered. “You’ll be able to freshen up soon enough.”

  He opened another metal door and held it, waiting for Jess to enter ahead of him. At the far end of a room was the most out-of-place thing Jess had ever seen. The Hollywood-lavish living room, complete with gilt rococo furniture upholstered in white silk, enormous mirrors in elaborately carved golden frames and a plush polar-bear-skin rug were situated around the cheery glow of a marble-hearthed fireplace. A breathtaking woman with blond hair lay on the chaise lounge, her powder-blue leather bodysuit practically painted on her perfectly proportioned curves.

  Jess’s immediate gut instinct was to run like hell.

  A cold, flawless smile crossed the woman’s lips. “What have you brought me, Lucien?”

  The vampire bowed his head and went down to one knee, his fingers clamping down hard around Jess’s wrist. “Our tribute to you, my lady.”

  She swung her legs off the chaise and rose with such grace and poise Jess nearly glanced around looking for the movie cameras. It took a moment, but she managed to gather enough moisture in her mouth to speak. “Who are you?”

  The woman laughed, the sound mirthless and vile as she sauntered toward Jess. “Who am I?” She pressed a delicate white hand to her blue-leather-clad bosom. “I am Eris, goddess of chaos.” Eris’s gaze flicked to a spot at the back of the room over Jess’s shoulder. Jess didn’t dare take her eyes off the goddess for a second to see what was behind her. All things considered, she knew it wasn’t going to be good.

  “Lucien, prepare her.”

  The vampire rose from his bent knee, his fingers still gripping Jess’s wrist. He closed his eyes. With a brush of air against her skin, he changed everything she wore. The dirt-stained nightgown was gone. She now wore the cutest pair of little hiking boots, her soft faded jeans, a black long-sleeved shirt beneath a puffy magenta vest...Jess’s eyes narrowed. “What? I wasn’t dressed suitably for dinner?”

  The goddess chuckled. “She is full of fire, isn’t she, Lucien? No, my pet, I’m not go
ing to eat you. I’m going to do far worse.”

  Lucien yanked Jess back toward the wall. He forced her arms above her head and locked first her wrists and then her ankles into the iron manacles chained to the walls. He turned to Eris and bowed his head. “She is ready, my lady.”

  The goddess began walking toward her again, a crackle of blue electrical arcs dancing along her skin, lifting her hair. The crackle of energy around her grew until she looked as if she floated in the midst of a blue fireball of electricity. Ozone, sharp and pungent, filled the air. Her hair twisted and streamed about her head, dancing with the electric arcs. And her eyes—glowed blue.

  Jess struggled, yanking against the cuffs until her wrists bled. She didn’t know what she’d done to deserve this, any of this, but if she ever got the chance, she swore to herself she was just going to be boring and normal for the rest of her life. No monsters. No vampires. No weirdness. Just a steady, simple, boring schoolteacher and mom.

  “Rejoice, mortal.” The goddess’s voice vibrated, sounding as though it was going through some mechanical reverb machine so it multiplied by a hundred. “You have been chosen to be my vessel. Through you I shall win this day and bring the world into an era of glorious chaos.”

  The outer edge of the electrical mass reached Jess, making her clothing spark with static. It prickled her skin and painfully raised every hair away from her skin as if they were pulled upright. The goddess reached out and clasped Jess’s cheeks and pressed her lips to Jess’s. Icy cold invaded her mouth, the knifing sensation in her lungs stealing away her ability to breathe. Slowly her whole body grew cold, the stinging sensation of it penetrating every cell until she felt as though she were on icy fire. Finally, blessedly, she grew numb. She could hear and see, but she was useless to speak.

  Her body was not her own.

  Do not try to fight me, little one. It will only harm your offspring, or should I say, my offspring? The throaty, sinister laugh filled her head, echoing in her ears. Jess wanted to scratch her ears off her own head, but she could only endure. Eris had taken possession of her.