The Aberrants Box Set (Books 1-5)

by Sarah J. Stone

  Jaelle quickly realized that she couldn’t afford to stay flat on her back for long and struggled to get upright.

  Her whole body was very upset with her, and she could feel how low energy she was. She didn’t know what she expected after a diet that purely consisted of food in either bar form or from a gas station, but it wasn’t exactly the best time to evaluate her life choices.

  “So, this is going to be it?” Creed growled, eyeing her with a mix of disappointment and pure, unadulterated rage. “Two of the oldest Aberrants in existence, and one of us is going to end the other’s life.”

  “Looks that way.”

  “It’s a shame. Your death will be a huge loss to our kind.”

  At the very edge of her hearing, she recognized the faintest rumble of car engines as they raced forward. She didn’t fight the smirk that made its way onto her lips and leveled the killer with the most confident look she could muster. “Who says I’m the one that’s dying?”

  Her lack of fear obviously confused him, because Creed straightened, losing whatever animal form he had been about to slip into. He looked as if he was about to say something, but cut himself off as realization dawned across his face.

  There were few things more satisfying than the look of terror that reached his eyes before he could turn in terror and shift right back into the giant bird form he loved so much. He didn’t get far before the Hunter’s cars came rumbling past at top speed, all of them shooting by her at top speed except for one, which slowed just enough for her to leap through the open door.

  The back of the seat slammed into her and her body cashed against the front seat. She was definitely going to feel that tomorrow. But it would have to wait, along with everything else. They had and Aberrant to catch, after all.

  “Took you long enough!” Jaelle cried, recovering enough to find the words for a good jab.

  “What are you talking about?” Bradley replied from the front, shouting over the wind whipping through the newly canvas-less top half of the jeep. “You’re the one who took forever to give the signal.”

  “I wanted to be sure,” she objected, reaching down into the well of the backseat to find the supplies she had stashed there. Sure enough, her fingers wrapped around the thick, nylon strands and yanked them up before tying one end around her waist. “Couldn’t go firing off prematurely.”

  Despite the situation, a smile stretched across Bradley’s face. “I wouldn’t know a thing about that.”

  “Oh, really? That’s not what I heard.”

  “What do you m.. What exactly did you hear, and who from?”

  But she was already standing in the seat and clambering onto the frame of the jeep. The wind was truly vicious as it grated against her skin, and she didn’t want to think of what kind of bugs she was swallowing as they caught back up with the rest of the group. Instead, she focused on fastening the other end of the rope to the top of her frame. It was either going to be a lifeline that would save her from certain death, or potentially drag her to her death below the rapidly spinning wheels. Basically, a fifty-fifty shot.

  But the risk was worth it. They were closing in on the ostrich as it raced down the road. If there was one situation Jaelle never thought she would be in, it was chasing down a mass murderer in the middle of the night, on a single lane road in a forest while he was in the form of a long-legged bird and she was tied to a vehicle moving fast enough to decapitate either of them. It sounded like someone had decided to play Mad Libs with her life and had gotten particularly creative after one too many lagers.

  But unbelievable or not, it was what it was and she needed to focus on her task.

  Which only happened to be jumping off a Jeepmoving at eighty miles per hour onto a bird moving around fifty miles per hour.

  But it wasn’t time to get nervous now. She could do that later when she recalled the events with the incredulous tone that hindsight came with – assuming she survived.

  “Cut in closer!” she yelled to Bradley below, her eyes only on Creed.

  He did as she asked and they had almost closed the distance between them. Jaelle tensed, lowering herself into a crouch, then focused on the animal racing just ahead of her. Then, when the timing was right, she leapt for him.

  For a moment, she sailed through the air, almost weightless in the sudden shift from being on top of a moving vehicle to being suspended in the air above her target. But when she was rapidly hurtling down toward Creed’s still-moving back.

  She couldn’t afford to wait to make sure her trajectory was good. Instead, she just hoped her aim was true and forced her body right into its next shift.

  She felt the change instantly, her mass compressing itself rapidly while her form stretched out and grew colder. Much colder. Then, within seconds, her scaled belly hit feathers and the rest of her body finished its transition.

  One end of her long, noodle like body coiled around the rope that had once been tight against her waist, the other wrapped around the ostriches long, slender neck. It was all too easy to crush it, so she didn’t hold back as her muscles constricted its throat.

  Dammit, woman, what are you doing? Creed’s panicked shifter voice broke into her mind. She was pleased at how terrified he sounded. Good. Maybe it was finally time for him to feel the terror of having an Aberrant having the upper hand on him.

  Oh, you know, what boas generally do. Squeeze prey to death, absorb heat from other things. The usual.

  You think you’re hilarious but—

  His thoughts disappeared into just a series of noises as Bradley hit the brakes. It wasn’t an abrupt stop, because one too harsh would rip Jaelle’s thick, serpentine body in two. Instead, it was a gradual decline in speed that allowed her to keep Creed tethered to the Jeep as well. He tried to keep running, straining against her grip, but the form he chose just didn’t have enough pull so high above its center of gravity.

  Eventually, he had to give up, and slowed to a walk.

  The rest of the cars stopped as well, maneuvering themselves to form a corral around the two of us.

  You think you’re so clever, don’t you?

  Aww, what’s a matter, Creed? You don’t like being caught in someone else’s trap?

  No, I just hate the fact that you think this could possibly work.

  She wanted to call his bluff, but then she felt his form rapidly shifting under her. Jaelle tried to hold on, but remembered just in time that he didn’t have to return to human like she did. Just before it was too much, she let go, returning to her human body and rolling away before she could be trampled by the rhino now standing in the middle of the corral of vehicles.

  She didn’t have time to scream, or shout a warning, or even get up. She could only watch in horror as events seemed to unroll in slow motion.

  There was a chorus of roars from the Hunters as they slid into half shifts. Fangs, furrowed brows and pointed ears abounded along with their brightly glowing eyes. Creed whirled, surprisingly agile for such a massive creature, then charged forward, an unstoppable mass of hulking grey.

  Some sort of strangled sound punched its way out of her throat, but it was too late. Creed caught the jeep, and therefore Bradely, with a solid horn to the side of the vehicle. They both went flying, the car flipping over several times before coming to a still, smoking against a tree.

  The other Hunters dashed forwards, as if they could do something to stop Creed, but he just trampled into the woods, disappearing for a moment before a peregrine falcon took to the sky and zoomed off. He was gone. Just like that, he had escaped.

  It made Jaelle wonder, if they ever had a chance to catch him, anyways?

  But then the smell of burning cash reached her nose and reality came hurtling toward her.

  “Bradley!” she screamed, running toward the wreck. “Bradley!”

  She could smell him, but not see him, which was particularly infuriating considering the thick, coppering scent of fresh blood that was starting to stain the air. It was only just then that sh
e heard the faintest of rasps below the wreckage of the vehicle.

  “Bradley, hold on!”

  Suddenly, it didn’t matter how exhausted she was, or how her body felt like a balloon that had been stretched too far and was now just a lumpy, useless mess. She found herself shifting once again into the largest, grandest form she had.

  Her body didn’t so much explode outwards as it expanded like a bowl of spilled jelly. Nevertheless, she managed to get fully into the form of a bull elephant with – most importantly of all- gleaming tusks. But as she took a step toward the jeep, she wobbled a little, and she felt her body try to wriggle out of her grasp.

  No. She couldn’t lose it now. She had to hold on.

  Bearing down, she hooked her tusks under the frame of the Jeep then surged toward the road. Metal groaned and shrieked, but thankfully it moved, freeing Bradley from below.

  The moment he was uncovered, her body lost all ability to hold itself upright. She sank to her belly, rapidly condensing until she was just Jaelle again.

  Normal, human Jaelle.

  “You’re alive,” she breathed, looking at Bradley. His face was bloody and he did not look anywhere close to good, but he was alive.

  “Thanks to you,” he murmured before his eyes rolled back into his head.

  She tried to reach for him, tried to voice her concern, but then her own consciousness ran from her and she plummeted into darkness.

  Chapter Ten: Recovery

  Consciousness came to Jaelle in waves, each one bringing a set of memories and responsibilities that she didn’t want to have. But as much as she wanted to stay under in the blessed relief of unconsciousness, her body pushed her up and up until her eyes cracked open.

  Ugh, the light was far too harsh. She tried to groan, but her voice wouldn’t come out as anything more than the reediest of croaks.

  That wasn’t fair. She didn’t want to wake up, but her body was forcing her, but then it wouldn’t let her actually wake up and face the cruel world around her.

  That alone was enough to make her frustrated, and being frustrated gave her enough energy to fight past the last dredges of unconsciousness. Jaelle sat up, forcing her eyes open wide so she could finally take in her surroundings.

  “Whoa, whoa there,” a voice came to her.

  David? No. That wasn’t possible.

  Bradley? No, that was wrong, too.

  Finally, her eyes cleared, and she saw none other than Javi handing a cup of water to her.

  Her brain felt like it was moving through sludge as she took it from him. She pressed it to her lips like a zombie, cold, refreshing water filling her mouth and giving her the wherewithal to look around and observe her surroundings.

  She wasn’t in a hotel room, or even a sleazy motel either, but she was definitely in some sort of spare accommodations. The mattress under her was one of those thick, really meant business air mattresses and there looked to be at least two others in the room, all with mismatched bedding.

  “Where?” was all she could manage to murmur before her voice descended into just a croak.

  “The first town we ran into,” Dannon answered, prompting Jaelle to jerk and look toward the corner. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you. But after you passed out, you started to foam at the mouth, and Bradley’s eyes weren’t responsive to light. We would have just taken you to a hospital and do our best to avoid any compromising tests, but the GPS told us we were hours from the nearest one.”

  “Bad luck,” she murmured, looking to the window. She couldn’t see much through the glare of the afternoon sun, but she found herself almost wanting to know what was outside enough to stand up and actually find out.

  Almost being the key word.

  “Actually, I think it’s some pretty good luck,” Javi said, taking her cup away from her only to fill it again from a silver pitcher at her bedside. “Small town doctors usually have the ability to patch people up and help a Shifter heal nicely, but not all the technology at their disposal to find out who we really are.

  “Oh, speaking of which, we’re staying in the Doc’s house. He’s got you, me, an Dannon in this room, the rest of the guys in the living room, and Bradley in what he calls his ‘overflow patient’ room.”

  “That’s” – She swallowed down more water, and each gulp ran through her like a comforting wave of healing – “awfully nice of him.” Wait. Bradley! Last she had seen him he hadn’t exactly been in the best shape. “Is he okay?”

  “The doctor? Well, he’s certainly generous and seems to have a good bedside manner but—”

  “She means our fearless leader, you twit,” Dannon groused again from the corner. But everything about how he said it told Jaelle what she needed to know. He wasn’t dead, otherwise the blind man would be grieving. But he was still in terrible shape, hence the terse interruption by the oldest of the Hunters.

  “Oh, right!” Javi continued, saying exactly what Jaelle knew he would. “Not too great, to be honest. The Doc reset a couple of bones and helped released a compound fracture, but there’s a whole ton of internal damage that he’s gotta recover from. He hasn’t woken up yet, but ya know they say that people can hear things when they’re in those kind of states, so we’ve all been taking shifts keeping him company.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Jaelle murmured, pleased that her voice seemed to finally be making a comeback.

  But that was about the only thing she was pleased about. Everything else was pretty much shit. Bradley being hurt was shit. Bradley still not being awake was shit. And her being stupid enough to think she could hold down Creed for long with just a snake body was shit.

  She had wanted to believe so badly that he could be subdued, reasoned with, treated, anything. After all, as truly terrifying as he was, he was still the only other Aberrant she had ever met in her entire life. It was time she admitted that part of her, even if she knew that it was incredibly stupid, hoped that he could somehow end up on the right side.

  But now, as she remembered the crumpled Jeepand the sharp smell of Bradley’s blood filling the air, she knew that wasn’t possible. A line had been drawn in the sand and they were standing on either side of it. No matter which way she shook it, they were enemies now.

  Ugh. The thought of going up against a completely mad Aberrant was not an enticing one, and that was coming from another Aberrant. She had been constantly skirting the line of animosity, using the fact that he seemed to like her to ensure her survival, but that time was over.

  “How long has it been?”

  “Not long at all,” Javi answered. “Not even twenty-four hours.”

  “Well, that’s good.” She drained the cup once more, setting it down on the nightstand before wiping her chapped lips. “I want to see him.”

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea? You just woke up.”

  “Yeah, after I passed out from exhaustion. Usually those two things remedy each other.”

  “True, but you were asleep for almost eighteen hours. That would make me nervous, no matter what kind of Shifter you are.”

  “It’s fine, really.” She swung her leg over the sides of the bed, only for her whole body to complain in unison. All right, so maybe fine wasn’t the best word, but she’d been in much worst situations before. “Ugh, help me up, will you? My knees are killing me.”

  “Oh, yeah, sure.” Javi shuttled over to her and offered her a hand. She took it, and it allowed her to get to her feet, which, by the way, were swollen and hot, just like her ankles.

  Huh, that didn’t happen very often. It seemed all the delicate bones, muscles and joints in that area were a little upset at all of her shenanigans. Hopefully, it would go down soon. Although if it didn’t, she would fit into her borrowed boots a whole lot better.

  She took a step, wobbling a bit, but caught herself before her weight pitched one way or the other. “Whoa, you okay there?”

  “I’m fine.” She took a long, deep breath then steadied herself. “I’m fine,” she repeated, more for h
erself than the others. Once she was sure that she was set, she let go of Javi and headed toward the door.

  Her hand was shaking slightly as she turned the knob, but she managed to open it without assistance. Looking out into the hall, she saw it was the same as anything she might have found in Braywire. In fact, everything was reminding her of Braywire, from the smell in the air, to the light filtering through the window with that patented small-town haze, to the creak of the floorboard below her feet. She could tell just from the sounds it was making that the building was one of those old as dirt ones. Most likely had axe-marks on the wooden beams in the basement and an old-fashioned gas stove.

  It was like her life had come full circle without any resolution or meaningful accomplishment, which wasn’t comforting in the slightest. Well, she guessed she had learned that she wasn’t going to turn into a monster, and that there was a theory that Aberrancy was just a conditioned that could be treated, but that didn’t seem like a big enough of a change.

  No, she needed to defeat Creed, before he ruined things for their kind permanently.

  But that could wait until after she checked in on Bradley. She knew being injured was part of his job, and that he most likely had been hurt even worse before, but that didn’t make her feel any better. She didn’t like the idea of him in pain. She liked the idea of him being in pain because of her even less.

  Even if he was a grown man, and has made his choice willingly, she still felt responsible for the fact that he was lying in a bed while she was perfectly fine. She should have had a better plan for latching onto Creed. How could she have been so stupid? Or maybe if she was a half-decent fighter, she could face him one on one and not rely on the Hunters to pick up her slack.

  “Which door is his?”

  “All the way down and all the left. I can walk you there, if you like.”

  “No, no. I’ll manage.”

  “Right. Well bathroom’s to the right if you need it. Got one of those old-fashioned tubs that I figured you would go crazy for once you were up.”

  “I’ll have to check that out later.” For now, there was just Bradley.