[The Shifters Committee 01.0] Time Shifters

by Rebecca Foxx

  Faine laughed an anxious little laugh.

  “Well, dawn is nearly upon us,” she said, “call it late or early, whatever you want.”

  Larc sighed.

  He walked up to Faine again. This time he embraced her onto his broad, warm chest. Faine folded her arms instinctively around Larc’s neck.

  “I wanted to thank you for letting this happen…”

  Faine would have blushed if such a thing was possible to happen with the cheeks of a vampire. Only inches separated their mouths, she heard Larc’s heartthrobs. She focused her sight onto one of the blueish veins protruding at the base of her boss’s neck.

  “I want to take you out for breakfast,” Larc added.

  Faine had to laugh.

  “That’s impossible,” she said.

  “Why is that so?”

  “I do not date my employers,” Faine replied. “It is the only rule in my professional conduct book.”

  Larc set her free from the embrace of his arms.

  “You know, sometimes I wonder how beautiful your eyes must be at daylight.”

  Larc got completely into Faine’s head. By then the last fractions of her doubts had evaporated like the body of a careless vampire under the first rays of a rising sun. Larc knew that she was a vampire for a fact. What she was not sure about was that how come that she had been still alive then.

  Faine grabbed one of Larc’s wrists.

  “Why are you playing with me like that?” she asked.

  But Larc did not answer. In fact he proved unable to meet her questioning sight.

  “Why are you doing this to me?” Faine whispered. She pressed her cold body hard against Larc’s. The werewolf trembled in pleasure. It was not simply the thing that had been lurking between the two of them since that first night they met in Larc’s office.

  Faine’s presence, her passionate whispering, and the feelings she provoked in Larc’s heart – all of these seemed to amplify the strength of the magical current Larc had found in the castle. Now it was less savage; now, instead of intoxicating his thoughts, it cleared his mind. Larc knew what he had to do by his heart.

  He folded his strong arms around Faine’s appealing hips.

  “I want you,” Larc admitted.

  “And I’m yours to take,” Faine whispered and closed her eyes.

  She felt Larc’s hungry mouth adjoining hers and then starting a passionate journey along her jaw before turning downwards to the delicate domain of her neck and fragile shoulders. Those hands around her hips did their part of the wonder – his touches reduced her body into a mere sum of rippling joy and burning desire.

  Faine did not want to disappoint Larc either. Her palms run under his shirt, tracing the lines of his bestial muscles everywhere they wandered.

  Finally Larc could not withhold himself any longer. She ripped Faine’s dress quite rudely open at the front.

  “What have you done?” Faine moaned. Larc held one of her plump breast up in his soft palm, breathing kisses over the protruding nipple. “What are you doing?” Faine protested as if she had anything to protest about.

  Larc peeled off the remaining scraps of the dress from her body in ecstasy.

  “Wait!” Faine exclaimed.

  It took him some serious effort but Larc obeyed her command. Leader of the pack, the first of the wolves Larc Anthony obeying a vampire. Faine never expected to experience anything like this in her life after death. But she had more pressing urges to satisfy than wondering over something as far as she knew was unprecedented.

  She popped Larc’s pants open with her trembling hands. His cock was hard as a log.

  “Beautiful,” Faine sighed and started to stroke that rod of meat back and forth with a careful palm. Larc lurched ahead in pleasure.

  Faine descended onto her knees.

  “Do not bite,” Larc murmured through his tightly closed lips.

  Faine kissed him where her kiss was the most appreciated. She heard the moaning. She knew that Larc was completely hers at the moment. If she wanted she could have put an end to this story right now and right then. Not even a pack of vicious werewolves could have saved their leader from her hands.

  But she did not care about the elders, about her heritage. Nothing of that seemed significant at the moment. The secret struggle between the vampires and werewolves felt like a pitiful, secondary matter.

  The only thing she knew for sure that she wanted that thing in her mouth inside herself, but somewhere else.

  When it finally happened on a thick carpet over the ice cold stone floor of the castle, she shrieked in her unprecedented pleasure.

  Chapter 4

  Faine was late and she knew it. The lobby of the Lunar Estate Agency was empty. She could hear a quiet and continuous rumbling of impatient voices from behind the double door of Larc’s room, though. Last thing she planned for tonight was to perform her little stunt inside a relatively small space teemed with angry werewolves.

  She was just about to turn around when Jayden exited Larc’s room and spotted her hesitating in front of the lift.

  “Finally,” Jayden said scornfully. “Come in and explains us what Larc is unable to explain himself.”

  Faine gulped. She did her best not to show fear, these beasts had a special sixth sense observing it. And such revelations only made them more aggressive.

  “Sure,” she nodded. “What seems to be the issue?” She flashed a smile at Jayden – less bloodthirstily than her heart suggested but less warm than what she was capable of. Playing friends would have been suspicious, not that it mattered any longer anyway.

  “Come,” Jayden waved a hand. Faine obeyed and entered the executive room.

  What waited for her inside was every vampire’s most feverish nightmare – a room full of angry werewolves seemingly on the brink of cracking up and turning against anything they had the slightest chance to brand as an enemy.

  Faine was certainly qualified for at least two good reasons to become that target.

  Larc stood in front of the other werewolves, listening to their pleads carefully.

  “I would never question my leader,” one of the other wolves said, “but what has been going on for the last couple of months is madness.”

  Larc patiently nodded.

  “What is exactly so mad about it?”

  His calm voice and the powerful impression he made standing there without as much as a slight tremble although a pack of vicious killers were questioning him mercilessly – that amount of balls and charisma caught the wolf off guard.

  For a second everybody went silent, the tension eased up by a measurable level. Faine focused her glistering eyes on Larc, her master, her savior, the man, dare she say so, she loved with her full heart.

  Then Jayden opened her mouth.

  “With all my respect,” she started, “it seems that you are putting everything we have built on the other side of the ocean at risk. You are investing heavily into worthless property. And top of that you are secretive as hell. You keep your own plans hidden from your closest allies. Your people. Your men.”

  The growling strengthened again in the room. Jayden seemed to be able to form those words that had been on every mind.

  Larc nodded again. It felt as if he failed to grasp the full scale of significance of this little protest. Faine started to fear not her own, but rather Larc’s life. The two of them could not challenge all these beasts.

  Jayden continued her little speech.

  “And instead of us, you trust a stranger!” she exclaimed and pointed at Faine.

  The ring of werewolves closed around Faine. They did not threaten her in any obvious way. They made sure of one thing – she could not escape if it came to that.

  “This woman might be something else than what she shows to us about herself. You must feel that scent. You must be thinking the same thing that I do,” Jayden went on. Her voice hit a higher pitch, she was balancing over the delicate line separating passionate speaking and plain screaming.
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  The werewolves got excited beyond any limit one could imagine. A couple of ferocious glances were flashed at Faine – she could not tell what kept them back from jumping at her.

  “Dare I say, she is a vampire who corrupted our leader’s heart and mind!” Jayden put her finale forward. Faine heard the howling. Some of the men present seemed to be unable to keep their human form any longer. They fell on their knees, struggling against the urge of turning into the beasts they really were right on the spot.

  Faine closed her eyes.

  “Enough of this!” she heard a rumbling voice with such commanding capacity that popped her eyes wide open. She saw Larc behind his desk transforming – not into a wolf, rather into the leader all the other wolves feared and obeyed by instinct.

  The most impressive were his pair of eyes emitting such pure and merciless power that everybody in the room suddenly calmed down.

  Larc took a couple of steps ahead towards Jayden and Faine. His ring of servants opened up a path for him. Faine saw fear and regret in those not so long ago ferocity blinded eyes.

  “Is this about the plan?” Larc asked, addressing Jayden, “or is this about Ms. Valentine?”

  Jayden shook her pretty head downwards.

  “I did not mean to oppose my leader,” Jayden mumbled helplessly.

  Larc placed a hand upon her shoulder. When he touched her, Jayden almost collapsed in her fear. She had lost this round.

  “Actually,” Larc said, “you did well. You always do well and that is why you have such a special space in our little society.”

  His voice was calm and collected. He sounded honest. Jayden eased up.

  Larc released her shoulder and turned to that table with the monopoly pieces set up on it. It still stood in the middle of the room and as far as Faine could tell it had been untouched since she saw it last time.

  “I did not want to tell all the details to anyone too early,” Larc explained. “This plan is crucial. Everything we have built on the other side of the ocean has been built for this day to come. This is the only way we can put an end to the war against the vampires without sacrificing ourselves in a battle fought by even foes.”

  Now all the werewolves started to sober up. These beasts lost their control over themselves so easily when passion and tension was in the air – Faine only had to think about how Larc behaved the other night. But now they were listening carefully to every word their leader uttered.

  “These castles might not have much of a commercial value. Or at least definitely not as high as I’m ready to pay for them,” Larc took a little pause.

  “So what are we buying them for, then?” Jayden asked.

  Larc nodded.

  “You always accuse vampires of being manipulative, even magical. That is their strength, that is what they use against us. Turning allies against each other, tearing our proud race apart.”

  The wolves started the growling again. But this time they had Larc’s back, the sound was supportive, celebrating, a sign of their appreciation and trust.

  “These castles are great sources of vampire magic. The past seventy years or so since the last great war devastating Europe and seeing our race to flee on the other side of the ocean, the vampires proved to be unable to harass the magic hidden inside these castles.

  We were not strong enough to operate far away from the home shores. They were not strong enough to invade Britain from the European mainland. I studied their magic and I knew for certain that in case we manage to put our hands first on the artifacts inside these castles, the vampires would be no match for us any longer.”

  Larc’s last words were received by a hollering crowd.

  “And this woman,” Larc pointed at Faine, “played a crucial role in acquiring our targets. Dare I say, our success depended almost solely on her skills and expertise?”

  The werewolves turned to Faine with honest admiration in their eyes. A couple of them stepped forward and hugged her. Others proved to be a notch shier and only shook her hand.

  “We have to continue our advance on the path I have chosen for us. Tomorrow we are going to take over another castle. From now on we must keep a close eye on the vampires. An attack is imminent as they must have already realized what is on stake here.”

  The werewolves started to leave in small groups through the entrance.

  Faine waited for her and Larc to be left alone. For a little disappointment Larc did not pay attention to her.

  “Wait,” he said to Jayden who was about to leave on her own as well.

  Jayden turned back. Something sinister shimmered in her sad eyes. Or maybe just tears – Faine had never seen a werewolf crying before.

  “Where are you going?” Larc asked Jayden.

  “To have some rest,” Jaden bowed her head. “I want to be of good use of my master tomorrow if a battle comes.”

  Larc nodded.

  Jayden left without another word.

  Faine turned to Larc. She wanted to kiss him, wanted to play the same, somewhat dirty game they played at that other night. But Larc remained untouched by Faine’s charms this time.

  The only reason kept Faine from getting sore was that she knew well that they had some serious planning to do tonight.

  Chapter 5

  The first thought flashing through Faine’s mind when she woke up in a coffin in the basement of her apartment the next night was that something was not right.

  She crawled out of the coffin carefully, trying her best not to make any noise.

  “What are you afraid of, my child?” she heard a voice saying inside her own head. The elders were in her basement.

  Faine fell down onto her knee.

  “Master,” she muttered.

  She could not quite tell where the elders were hiding in the heart of darkness occupying the whole room.

  “What are you afraid of, my child?” she heard the question again.

  Simultaneously Faine felt that a hand was placed upon her head. She did not even think of disobeying or running. Not just yet.

  “I was afraid that the wolves followed me yesterday and my chamber got compromised.”

  Faine heard the elder laugh a little wry laugh. What was so funny, she thought.

  “You cannot tell the difference between your own kind and the beasts?” the elder asked her.

  Faine trembled. Larc advised her not to come back. He was afraid that the elders might have lost their trust in her already after what happened between him and her.

  But Faine wanted to come back and to misinform them, wanted to keep on playing her game only this time serving Larc with all her might and heart. But unfortunately the werewolf must have been right. The elders suspected the change of her loyalty.

  “Why are you not answering, my child?” Faine heard the voice again. She had to press her lips together and focus hard. Her mind was dim and reluctant. She recalled the part of yesterday night that she spent in Larc’s arms.

  Her thought were answered by vicious screams uttered by the elders from the darkness. What blasphemy, Faine heard the voice shrieking in her head. But she was not afraid any longer. In fact, she managed to shock the elders with those impure thoughts and their control over her mind weakened. The time had arrived to make her move.

  She jumped up and pushed the hand of the elder aside. She stormed up on the stairs leading to the ground floor main hall of her apartment building. She saw a couple of shadows jumping in her direction from right and left, but she managed to fight them back and not losing her balance.

  She darted through the main entrance and found herself on the empty streets.

  A moment of deceptive serenity fell upon her.

  Faine shook her head left and right in an attempt of getting rid of the elders’ from her mind. She was far from being safe – Larc told her where she should find him if she had to escape.

  Faine tore the door of her car open. She found the keys in her pocket where she put them in preparation for a situation exactly like the present one.<
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  She started the engine of her car and stepped on the gas. Something heavy landed on the top of the vehicle. She stepped on the brake. A shadow fell forward and landed in front of her car. She stepped on the gas again and drove over the vampire.

  It could not kill it, she knew. But it must have slowed it down.

  Faine drove like a madman. The castle Larc acquired tonight was about three hours of driving away from Hackney. She had to made it and warn him that their plan failed and the vampires just might decide to go after the wolves immediately.