Defining Human (Only Human Book 4)

by Candace Blevins

  “Yes. I cooked Griffin’s dick and balls instead of his brain, though I doubt he’ll thank me for it. I have no idea where I am. A little bird thought I should call you, but I’d avoided pulling my phone out for fear the light would attract people to me.”

  “A legitimate concern for human adversaries, but probably not an issue when it comes to Griffin. He can find you through other means.”

  I sighed. “I’m walking down a road in a residential area, out in the open.”

  “Keep talking to me. We’re headed your way.”

  The vampire appeared in front of me, though I figured he ran to me and stopped instead of just appearing out of thin air, as it appeared.

  “Griffin. I trust you healed yourself?”

  “I did. You could’ve done that to my brain?”

  “That’s what the rumors say.”

  “Indeed. Perhaps I should formally introduce myself, like a gentleman.” He held his hand out. “I am Griffin. I’m pleased to make your acquaintance.”

  I looked at his hand, but my instincts told me not to shake it. “I’m Kirsten, and I don’t mean to be rude but I think I’ll keep my hands to myself. What do you want from me?”

  “A few meals and some fun, originally, but I find you intriguing.”

  Intriguing. Fuck me. I had to learn how to stop being so damned intriguing.

  It was dark, with no streetlights, but my eyes were used to the dark and I could make out most of his features. He was, as Tyson had said, ugly as sin. A horrid nose, bushy unibrow, head more square than round, and lips that looked like someone had pumped collagen into them. He had a huge mustache in the coin picture I’d seen online, and as ridiculous as it would look, anything that hid those lips would be preferred. Also, whoever had smoothed out his nose for the coin picture had done him an enormous favor, because in real life the man’s nose looked like a double ski jump.

  I’m a strong believer in looking at who a person is rather than what they look like, but this man reeked of evil. If anything, his aura was worse than his physical appearance.

  I realized he was holding my gaze, and it took me a few seconds to look away.

  I looked at his chin and focused on my shields. He hadn’t breached them, but there was a thick, oozy tar stuck to them. Looking for a weak spot. A crack. A thin spot.

  The latter came to me as if Griffin were thinking it, and I considered projecting thoughts to him as I could to Abbott, but worried it might give him a way in I wasn’t aware of.

  “Nice strategy,” I told him. “Try to get me to lower my defenses so you can get in. What will it take to get you to leave me alone?”

  “A small meal?”

  “Not going to happen.” I knew it was a bad idea, but if he convinced me nothing would make him leave me alone, he needed to die.

  Hami materialized beside me, as dark as the night around us, and likely naked but I didn’t look down.

  “The lady doesn’t want to be bothered.” Hami stepped behind me, rested his hands on my shoulders, and the black ooze floated away. I took a deep breath I hadn’t realized I needed, and made a mental note to thank Hami later.

  “Hawk.” Griffin said the word as if it were distasteful. “You were not invited to our conversation.”

  “He was here before you,” I pointed out. “You interrupted our discussion. Please, if you have a point to make, you should do so.”

  Headlights came at me from behind, and the next thing I knew, Griffin was gone. The car pulled up beside us and stopped, and Cora was at my side in an instant.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes. Let’s get out of here and then we can talk.”

  Ryan drove, Kane was in the backseat, and I didn’t see Tyson.

  “I’ll ride in the back with Kane and Hami,” said Cora. “You’re up front with Ryan.”

  I shook my head. “Hami did something to my shields. He helped me fight Griffin off — not physically, but metaphysically. I’m not sure I’m ready to lose the connection to him yet.”

  “I’ll move to the front,” said Kane. “Put Kirsten between the two of you.”

  “Fuck, it isn’t this big of a deal.” I climbed into the backseat. “Hami, with me. Cora, up front. Ryan, drive.”

  “Bossy,” Ryan said, but he drove without arguing. “Debrief. Every detail.”

  There weren’t many details, but I broke things down as much as possible. Ryan had turned the dash GoPro around, so I assumed we’d have a record.

  “You’ll stay inside at night,” Ryan said when I finished. “Hami will explain what he did later.”

  “He knows I can blow heads up,” I repeated. “This isn’t good.”

  “It was bound to get out eventually” said Kane. “Not the end of the world.”

  Why didn’t you kill him? Cora asked.

  It didn’t feel right. Not just because ya’ll seem terrified about what the Concilio might do if I kill another old one, but he’s been around forever, and who am I to end his life? I only know what Ryan’s told me about him. I didn’t think I had enough information.

  He kidnapped you! He said you’d be tasty!

  True. It still didn’t feel right. You can’t unkill someone.

  It’s probably best you didn’t kill him, but something tells me we’ll regret it later. He’s bad news, and you need to stop being so damned intriguing.

  She knew how I felt about that word, and I appreciated her trying to lighten my mood. However, I couldn’t argue with her about the probability I’d regret letting the asshole live, because I felt pretty much the same.

  Chapter 14

  I’ve learned to pick up the energy of shapeshifters, though I didn’t understand I only knew apex predator shapeshifters, and that was what I was sensing. Gazelles and deer feel completely different than wolves, bears, and lions.

  Hami’s energy is different than everyone — though still predatory, it didn’t feel as wild.

  The gazelles were…. flighty, timid, and yet steady, calm, and serene. Their energy was almost addicting. Not all gazelle shifters are vegetarian, but most are, so the convention designed main dishes around their preferences, with a few side selections containing various meats. Hami told me I probably liked their energy as a whole because of the vegetarian thing, and he pointed out the same thing many of my other shapeshifter friends have told me — I hit his senses as more prey than predator when he first met me.

  Ryan’s organization was stellar, and I merely had to be where he told me to be in order to do my job. I didn’t sense any issues, and neither did Hami. By the end of the second night, I thought this was a pretty easy job — if you didn’t figure in the air travel and the quick trip through the sky with a scary vampire. All I had to do was stand with my weapons and make the gazelles feel safe.

  One of Hami’s skills is shielding. It’s apparently a hawk thing, an inborn ability he’s honed. He gave me some pointers, and a few concepts I thought might help me shield, but I wouldn’t know until I was tested again. I hoped my experimenting could wait until I was with Mordecai, and wouldn’t happen again on this trip. I figured the ancient vampire would try for me again, but so far I seemed to be in the clear.

  However, around two in the morning on the second night, my skin crawled about the time Hami went on alert. Two seconds later, a door opened and four large men walked in, followed by a small female. I put sensors out and felt… something. Not human. Not mammal. I’d sensed it before, but wasn’t sure where.

  “Crocs.” Hami said the word as if it tasted bad, and my heart fell into my stomach. I quickly put my emotions to the side and stepped to the gatecrashers. “I’m sorry, this is a private event and I don’t see badges. If you have them, we’ll need to see them before you can enter.”

  “You know we don’t belong, girly.” The accent was sexy on Hami, but bloodcurdling coming from this man. “Your birdy already told you what we are, and we aren’t his secret to tell.”

  “I’m security. It’s a loophole,” I reminded th
em.

  “A tenuous one, since you’re human.”

  “Tell the Concilio if you’d like, but you’ll need to leave.”

  “Make us.”

  The five moved into formation as if they were dancers, and my skin crawled with goosebumps.

  I looked at the leader, “What’s your name?”

  He shook his head. “Not information you need.”

  “Jabali,” said Hami from just behind me. “The woman is Lakicia. The others are noble warriors but their names aren’t important at the moment.”

  I nodded and followed Ryan’s protocol. “Jabali, Lakicia, noble warriors. I don’t wish to create a disturbance, so I’ll ask you to leave once more.”

  “Lakicia,” Ryan’s voice was casual as he approached from behind the five crocodiles. “It’s been a while.”

  Lakicia was beauty personified until she heard Ryan’s voice, and her face twisted into vile hate. There was a history, but I had a feeling Ryan wouldn’t share.

  “Slayer.” She didn’t move to kill him, but I sensed she only stood still because whatever plan they followed dictated she wait. I was certain this plan promised her vengeance on Ryan.

  I also worried Hami was more of an alarm than a fighter. “Hami, can you get the gazelles out of this area, please?”

  “I’ll see to it and return.”

  Ryan touched his ear, and I heard him through the earpiece and in real life. “Keep civilians out of Zone D.”

  Five crocodiles against the slayer and me. This meant killing them, not injuring them until they ran.

  “What are your intentions?” I asked Jabali.

  The look in his eyes told me he wanted to play with me before he killed me. Or, before he took me to whoever wanted me. It was possible he’d been sent by Griffin. I sighed and settled into fight mode. I’d disable them if I could, but I wasn’t going to hesitate to level a killing shot.

  “Lakicia? Noble warriors? Anyone want to tell me your intention?”

  None said anything, but the look in their eyes told me they agreed with their leader. Alrighty then.

  I lifted my chin and tried to look confident. “Leave or fight. Decide.”

  “I keep waiting to see if you’ll fight,” said Jabali. “I have time to wait.”

  “I don’t,” said Ryan. He pulled his weapon and she turned into her half-form before he squeezed the first shot. The bullets bounced off her scales and clattered to the marble tile floor.

  The gazelles had been streaming out of the conference room behind me, and I heard them pick up their pace.

  I focused energy inside the head of the noble warrior closest to me, but in a staccato pattern so he couldn’t pull on my energy, if he had the ability. He tried to dodge and weave, but it made no difference. He shifted into his warrior form and I had to basically start over, but it shouldn’t have been a problem. It took me a good seven seconds after he changed before he screamed, and then went suddenly silent when his head exploded.

  I looked to another noble warrior, but Jabali ran at me in his warrior form — a horrible mix of human and reptile. He was all scales, crocodile teeth and eyes, human legs and feet, with vicious claws on the end of his deformed arms. I formed a quarterstaff with a knife on the end and stabbed at his throat.

  Ryan tossed the gun, grabbed another. A reverberating blast hurt my ears, but he blew Lakicia’s head off, then one of the noble warriors.

  Meanwhile, Jabali wasn’t going to give me time to burn through his scales with my quarterstaff. I’m pretty sure I’d have only needed a few seconds, but he moved away from my knife and swung at me. The quarterstaff disappeared when I dropped it, and I narrowly dodged the crocodile claws swiping towards my head.

  I understood the concept of fighting a crocodile in warrior form, but the reality was fast and surreal. I was in total defensive mode for about fifteen seconds before I could focus enough to do as I’d been taught. I went down, grabbed his knees, stood, and tossed. Crocodiles are top-heavy in warrior form, so it wasn’t too hard to slam him to the ground. I landed on him and ignored his claws digging into me — shapeshifters born of an egg usually can’t turn someone. I drove my knee into the general area of his private parts and hoped I was digging into his cloaca. It took every ounce of my upper body strength to press his lower jaw to the floor above his head so he couldn’t snap at me while I focused heat into the center of his brain.

  His head eventually exploded, but I still held his lower jaw. I have no idea why I didn’t toss it before I stood, but it’s good I didn’t because one of the noble warriors chomped at me and I wedged Jabali’s lower jaw between the back teeth of the noble warrior and flew away and into a back handspring. Ryan took another shot, and the last of the crocodiles fell to the floor, headless.

  “What. The. Ever-loving. Fuck.” I was soaked in blood. I thought most of it was crocodile blood, but figured I needed stitches from Jabali’s claws. “Are they dead for good?”

  “Yes.”

  “I am sorry I could not return sooner,” Hami said from behind us. “Kirsten is hurt.”

  I ignored my pain. I could still function okay. “We need to make sure it’s just those five.”

  Ryan touched his ear again. “Zone check in.”

  I listened as each zone checked in to let us know they were clear.

  “They were after me, not the gazelles.”

  “Probably,” said Ryan. “The lions are on the way to get you. They’ll walk you to your room and see to your injuries. I need Cora and Hami working.”

  “It’s okay. Kane can sew me up if I need it. I’ll get a shower, get patched up, and return as fast as I can.”

  “No. Stay in the room. We’ll handle the rest of this shift. You need lots of antibiotics. Kane will know what you need. Listen to him.”

  “Yeah,” said Kane. “You should listen to me.” I looked up to see both lions entering the room, and relief flooded my system. I’d grown to trust Hami, and it seemed Ryan wanted to keep me alive, but I trusted Kane and Tyson.

  “We can’t walk her through the hotel like that,” said Tyson.

  “Someone’s on the way with clothes, a hat, and baby wipes,” said Hami.

  I pulled my shirt off, it was soaked with blood and looked wet. My black sports bra was soaked, too, but I didn’t intend to take it off yet. “My pants should be fine, I just need another shirt. Let me see what I can do in the bathroom, it’ll be easier to wash the blood off with water.”

  Tyson followed me into the restroom, but I didn’t argue. I hadn’t been looking forward to being alone.

  “Your back’s in ribbons, and your left arm isn’t much better.”

  My arm looked bad in the mirror, but I ignored it. “Endorphins are still doing their job. We’ll get Tylenol, ibuprofen, and some whiskey in me once we hit the room.”

  “Kane can inject lidocaine before he stitches you up. He won’t agree with the whiskey.”

  Neither of us said anything while I splashed water on my face and rinsed blood away. I washed my hands and arms, and wondered what we’d do with my hair — it was soaked in blood and dripping.

  “I hear someone, sounds like your shirt and hat are here,” said Tyson.

  “I need something to put my hair up with. A ponytail holder would be great, but I can make do with a rubber band.”

  Ten minutes later, my hair was in a messy bun on top of my head, and a ballcap covered it. I wore no makeup but also had no visible blood showing, and I wore a large black cotton shirt over my blood-stained black pants. My left hand was inside my shirt, tucked against my stomach. I looked at the floor and met no one’s eyes between the conference area and our room. Tyson held my right arm, which was mostly free of damage, and I let him help support me enough to walk while the adrenaline wore off.

  I went straight to the shower, and no one came to get me while I got as clean as possible. The endorphins were gone and I probably should’ve taken something before getting in the shower, but the crocodile blood was getting to me
and I needed it off.

  No one was in the bathroom with me when I got out of the shower. I put on panties, shorts, and a loose shirt, but no bra. Shapeshifters don’t get hung up on nudity, but I didn’t want to walk out naked.

  I remember a sharp, pinching sensation at my neck when I stepped from the bathroom. I staggered the few steps to the bed and fell on it, knowing something was bad wrong, but unable to consider what might’ve happened.

  Chapter 15

  I awoke in a bed. A comfortable one. Ambient light showed me a room I didn’t recognize, so I lay still for a while, listening. The bed was five feet from a wall. A large conference-type table was about ten feet on the other side. I didn’t see any other furniture. I couldn’t make out the walls, but it felt like a basement. There were no windows, though I caught a bit of a shine on one wall and thought it might be a television or large computer monitor.

  When I was certain there was nothing to hear, I sat up. Lights came up slowly, and the television screen hanging on the wall came on.

  “Hello, Kirsten.” Griffin’s unpleasant face on the screen sent ice through my veins, but I tried not to let it show. “Sensors told me you awoke nearly four minutes ago. If you need to use the restroom, you’ll find a toilet behind the curtain in the corner. I’ll be able to see your heat signature when you’re behind the curtain, but I won’t be able to see you.”

  “Where am I?” I put feelers out but didn’t sense anyone close to me.

  “In a basement, underground, with no one close. I’m not sure of your range, but I trust you can’t hurt me if I’m miles and miles away.”

  I didn’t know if I could or not. I aimed heat into his head, but nothing happened. Instead of acknowledging my failure, I went to the curtain and found the little travel toilet.

  He waited for me to come out before continuing. “You’ll find baby wipes if you want to clean your hands. There’s bottled water, colas, cheese sandwiches, and boiled eggs in the refrigerator. You’ll also find some chips and other assorted snack foods.”