[The Shifters Committee 01.0] Time Shifters

by Rebecca Foxx

  "What happened to you?" Seth asked, his face a mixture of confusion and worry.

  I just sped past him and back into the room, going for Colten's throat. I had a pretty good feeling he knew what was going on with me.

  "What is happening to me?" I demanded, applying just enough pressure to his neck to make him believe I meant him harm.

  "Poison," he spat, looking me in the eye as if daring me to snap his neck and see if he cared.

  "How? When?"

  I tried to think of everywhere I had gone and everything I had since morning, the blonde boy. Was he in on it too? Was there something in his blood that I hadn't smelled or tasted?

  "When I shot you," he said breathlessly, and I loosened my grip on his neck when I noticed it bruising. "It was supposed to work instantly, I do not know why-"

  "It takes a lot to kill an old vampire like him," my brother supplied. “Where are you from and how did you get into the club? Who sent you?”

  I looked at Colten again who remained stubbornly silent, and saw the blood trickling from his nose. The foul smell filled the room and I quickly let him go, forgetting my situation for a bit. I was not worried, there were many poisons and just as many cures, and I would find one. But right now I wanted to know what was wrong with Colten and how to fix it.

  "Argh, that is really awful." Seth grimaced, "Viktor get rid of your garbage!"

  He left the room at super speed, leaving me with this strange human. I looked around for the towel I had used to clean him with earlier and handed it to him. He looked grateful for a quick second before he scowled and grabbed the towel roughly.

  "What ails you?" I asked, hoping he would be as forthcoming as he had been with his name.

  "Leukemia."

  I frowned, "Cancer?"

  "You are really a smart one aren't you?" he rolled his lovely eyes.

  I shook my head, "I say that because cancer does not make your blood...well, die."0

  "It does if a vampire gives it to you!" he shouted angrily, glaring as if I were the culprit vampire in discussion.

  That left me even more confused, "How and why would a vampire do this to you?"

  He sighed, looking exhausted all of a sudden, and sat on the bed. He ran his free hand through his hair before looking at me. His eyes looked tired and dull, and I wanted nothing more than to take that look away from his eyes.

  "A vampire bit me, and I don't know how yet but soon after I got really sick. They diagnosed me with cancer a few months ago."

  "What if you were already sick and the two incidences are not related?"

  "I'm not an idiot, okay! One of your filthy kind bit me one day and the next I was in advanced stages of cancer. No signs, no symptoms whatsoever beforehand!"

  I raised my hands to try and pacify him, "Alright, I believe you."

  "Hurray," he rolled his eyes in sarcasm again and I almost smiled at the endearing habit.

  "Do you mind if I have a bit of your blood?"

  "I thought I smelled foul."

  "You still do, but I want to see something."

  "I am not letting you bite me!" he frowned in disgust, making me shake my head.

  "I do not need to," I replied, pointing at the towel he still held to his nose.

  He grimaced as he looked at it and threw it at me, "You are disgusting!"

  I winked, "At least you are prettier than you smell."

  Colten looked away as I inhaled his blood closely, then licked a bit of it. I grimaced at the taste, it was disgustingly sweet, a contrast to how it smelt, and it felt as if a thousand needles just landed on my tongue. The sharp sweetness could only mean one thing, venom, which meant the boy's theory was indeed true. But vampires only released their venom at will, which meant the one who bit him had not meant to feed, he had meant to kill. An odd way to kill really, this had to be revenge. The hunter had to have killed family or friends and this was the vampire's payback.

  I looked up just as Colten slowly turned to face me again, "Well, what is it?"

  I raised a brow in amusement, "I thought you loathed my kind and wanted to kill me?"

  "I won't beg, vampire! Do you want to tell me or not?"

  I smirked, "I don't know, you sound very desperate to me."

  Colten growled and was on me with impressive speed, showing off his combat skills. I blocked him easily enough, even though my underestimating him resulted in a few blows landing in my stomach. I meant to stop the fight once and for all when I grabbed his neck, but he was far too lost in his anger to calm down. So I did the next best thing I could think of, I invaded his mind. I also meant to induce him into sleep, but next thing I knew, I wanted to just kiss his lips once before I did that.

  Four: Illusion

  Colten’s lips felt so soft against mine, and he tasted of cherries and mint. He seemed surprised at the turn of events but his eyes quickly closed as he got lost in my kiss. I took advantage of his moan and entered the warm cavern of his mouth, attacking his tongue with mine.

  It was the most sensual thing I had ever experienced, our tongues dancing in the way I now wanted our bodies to. His hot hand grabbed my neck as he took dominance of our kiss, and I let him have his way. His kiss was hot and passionate, and his strength was sexy as hell.

  I tore at his shirt and bit my lip when his lean, smooth torso was exposed. I needed a second to look at him, at his beautifully swollen lips and dilated pupils. His nipples were now erect, as well as another part of him I was dying to suck. I must have been looking for too long because he grabbed me and pushed me to the bed, working at taking my shirt off.

  I tore it off and now it was his turn to look at me. I watched his eyes glaze over with lust as he trailed kisses down my stomach to my throbbing erection. Colten tugged at my zipper impatiently, and I raised my hips off the bed to aid him in his pleasurable quest. My reward was a wet kiss on the tip of my cock, and I rewarded his efforts with a loud moan.

  The man was good at what he was doing, I had never felt anything like it! The hotness of his mouth around me was intense, and I groaned when he took me in deep to the tightness of his slick throat. His hand went to my heavy sac, squeezing gently as he tried to suck me dry.

  I grabbed his hair and arched my back off the bed when his finger trailed from my sac to my entrance, massaging softly. He teased me with his finger for a while before licking down my length and taking one of my balls into his mouth.

  “Colten!” I screamed his name as he pushed me toward the edge, loving everything he was doing to me.

  His tongue was dipping into my weeping tip when I felt myself drowning in the illusion and lost control of my power. Colten exhaled deeply and coughed as if someone had been holding him under water for long, meaning he had been mentally holding his breath as he sucked me.

  His eyes widened as he looked at me and he quickly pushed me away, his face turning red with anger. I had really screwed myself over now.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?! What the hell did you just do to me?!” He screamed and quickly checked to see if his clothes were still on. They were, of course, and so were mine; but his hardness was still apparent and pushing against his zipper. “Do you creatures have any regard at all for-?”

  “I’m sorry, I just wanted to-”

  “Get away from me!” His lovely eyes, once dark with lust were now blazing with hatred, and my still heart broke a little.

  I nodded and apologized again before leaving the room, all the while devising a plan to help him and myself as well. First with a cure to my current condition, then with his heart.

  My brother was leaning against the kitchen table and having a glass of wine when I got downstairs, and by the shaking of his head, I could tell he was not happy with me.

  “You have really done it this time, haven’t you?”

  I shrugged, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

  “Come on brother, I could hear the human moaning from miles away! You know you cannot be with him right?”

 
; I sighed, this was the last conversation I wanted to have right now. I placed the towel on the table, “Take this to Malcom and have him examine it. I need to know what is going on with Colten and how we can reverse it.”

  “There is no we in this, and I have no intention of saving a hunter.”

  “I ask this of you, brother, do not deny me.”

  Seth shook his head, “Wherever it is he came from, they are probably looking for him right now. Not to mention every vampire will have your head if they find out you helped him, and are still helping him! I tell you, this boy is more trouble than he is worth, and he will have you killed ten ways to Sunday.”

  I nodded, “Maybe so, but I am still here.”

  And as long as I was still alive, so would Colten remain.

  “I will kill him before anything happens to you, brother,” Seth said in a low voice as I made to exit the kitchen.

  I stopped and took a deep breath, “It will not come to that.”

  Not if I succeeded in winning his heart, consequences be damned.

  Five: Searching

  “They are looking for him you know? Hunters. Word on the street is they are planning something big. You need to leave for a while until things calm down,” Malcom said, putting on gloves and sliding his chair to his large microscope.

  I ignored the supposed hunter threat, I could take care of myself. “You are a vampire, you cannot catch an infection,” I frowned at his use of the gloves instead.

  “And your point is?”

  “The gloves,” I explained.

  “The gloves are not for my safety, but it’s to prevent me contaminating anything else. Imagine everything that leaves a residue on my hands.”

  I nodded and waited for him to tell me the verdict. He sighed and turned around to face me, “I have looked at the sample you gave me multiple times, and the result is still the same. Your boy’s cells are dying, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. The vampire venom in his blood is doing what it does best, feeding on human blood.”

  I had never heard of anything like that, vampire venom could either kill you instantly, or it turned you when strategically given in the right doses. This was something else altogether.

  “What if I turn him?”

  Malcom’s eyes widened, “You would make that sacrifice for him? Why?”

  I couldn’t explain it to him, except I felt I couldn’t let him die.

  “Not only did you just meet the man, but he’s a hunter! There are vampires already out for your blood and not to mention the hunters that will not kill you but torture you for all eternity. Turning one of their own is just a no go area man, don’t start a war.”

  “They started it when they came into my club and brought death with them. I have a code that my club lives by, we do not kill when we feed. Every human who comes in is not only taken care of and protected, but we heal and replenish what we take.”

  “So you think the hunters should give you a fucking award for your commendable work?” Malcom said dryly and I shook my head.

  “I do not think that, but if any of them come after me, I will tear their throats out with no remorse. As for the vampires, I will do as I please, I do not answer to them.”

  “We have rules, it keeps peace and order amongst us, Viktor. Even you are not above that.”

  He spoke the truth, sadly. Because I was very old, I was awarded a respect not afforded to the younger changelings. But that only took me so far, and saving, worse still turning a hunter, was a no go destination. They would kill him, the hunters would kill him twice and me for eternity.

  “And even if you tried, it wouldn’t work anyway.”

  “What do you mean?”

  The younger generation didn’t know a lot about turning a human, it was a very difficult process, way more complex than just injecting our venom into their bodies. Not only that, but it took a few years off our lives as well. Yes, we were immortal, but not in every sense of the word.

  We still aged, albeit very slowly and almost insignificant to the human eye. But when we gave our blood to a human, it added a few weeks to our bodies. And when we turned a human, it was years!

  “I mean your venom will only speed up the process; it is like adding fuel to afire.”

  ‘But there has to be a way to stop it, there is always a way.”

  “If there is, I promise I will find it old friend, but for now I think you should go, people will be coming in for work soon.”

  I nodded, “Thank you, Malcom, you are a true friend.”

  I sped out of the laboratory and went straight to my home where I had taken Colten, making sure to close the door softly in case he was sleeping. He wasn’t though, instead, he was hunched over the toilet and vomiting whatever meal he had last eaten. I quickly rushed to his side and supported him as he emptied his stomach until he was just retching.

  I wet a towel and wiped his face as he glared at me but I never let him go. I just waited for him to regain his strength as he sat leaning against me and when he was ready, I helped him stand up and walked him to his room after helping him rinse his mouth.

  He seemed grateful that I had not carried him, and I was quite happy that I had listened to my instincts. As much as I wanted to carry him and do everything to ease his pain, Colten was still a strong young man, maybe not in body but in mind and spirit. He was a soldier and to him, these were his battle scars. Some just hurt more than most, and it broke my heart to see him get the worst end of the deal.

  “Would you like something to drink?”

  He stared at me blankly and I continued, “To replace the fluids you lost. Some milk, juice, blood?”

  I threw in the last bit to get a rise out of him since he was looking so sad and lost, and to my pleasant surprise, he laughed. I smiled in surprise and just looked at him, his purple eyes brightening as he laughed a most beautiful laugh. His voice sounded deeper when he laughed, and I didn’t know if that was its natural cycle of if it was because he had been vomiting and his throat was hoarse. He finally shook his head and looked at me, really looked at me.

  “You are unbelievable,” he finally said.

  “And you are still here,” I smiled, speeding to the kitchen and returning with a bowl of bran flakes and a glass of pineapple juice.

  “That must be fun,” he said, accepting the food before looking at me questioningly, “vampires eat cereal?”

  “If you put some a negative in it, perhaps. But no, I got this for you when I went out.”

  “Oh,” was all he said, taken aback that I even bothered I thought. “How did you know-?”

  “I might have peeked into your head while you were sleeping,” I confessed and he glared.

  “That’s a terrible habit, how do you do that anyway?”

  “It’s difficult, and costs a few months, but when you have lived for more than a couple of centuries and studied all kinds of magic, you master the art.”

  “So why did you do it, just so you could see what I wanted for breakfast? That’s stupid.”

  I shrugged, I had just wanted to do something nice for him.

  “And you just left me alone, that’s even more stupid!”

  “And yet you are still here,” I pointed out amused.

  “It’s just because I was sleeping until I woke up almost choking on my own vomit a few minutes ago,” he rolled his eyes.

  “You are not my prisoner,” I said honestly, “even though you tried to kill me.”

  “You are still dying,” he reminded me.

  I just shook my head, I wasn’t worried about that. He was another issue altogether, he was the one dying.

  “I just want to help you,” I said honestly.

  “I’m not going to become your pet!”

  I laughed, “Funny you say that, my brother already thinks that you are. Although I doubt you can be tamed.”

  He remained quite at that, and I felt his arousal rise as his mind probably went back to last night. Oh he could be tamed alright, I had proved that mys
elf. We might be natural enemies but our bodies forgot to get that memo. The hunter wanted me on some level and I might have just found his weakness and way to make him mine. And yes, I wanted to keep him. Not as my pet but as my equal, it had been so long since I wanted anyone this way, and my instincts never let me down. It’s what made me a good predator, at the top of the food chain.