But she couldn’t keep flying, either. Although her body was adapting to keeping such different animal bodies for much longer periods, she was really pressing her luck. She had been flying for somewhere around seven hours, and that was after almost two solid days of flying previously, only broken by a slight nap.
Taking to the ground, she walked around as a human for a bit before finding an empty cave. After a quick sniff and a listen turned up nothing, she chose a bear form and allowed herself to ripple.
It didn’t take long for her to end up on all fours, with thick layers of hair spreading along her body. Warmth instantly spread through her, encouraged by the thick layers of fat under her tough skin.
Sleepiness began to overtake her almost instantly. It seemed the creature in her knew that winter was on its way and wanted to conserve its energy if it wasn’t hunting. With a low rumble, she walked into the deepest part of the small cave and curled up. It didn’t take long for sleep to find her, and when it did, she dreamed of Bradley.
*
If Jaelle had kept her wits about her, she would have realized that she had no alarm and bears were renowned for their ability to sleep for entire months at a time. She jolted awake with a shot of panic, but was pleased to see that the sun was still just barely visible on the horizon. She might have been worried that it wasn’t the same day, except the cobwebs and other critters around her hadn’t progressed much and her belly was only slightly rumbling.
She was lucky. A foolish mistake like that could have caused her quite an issue. Maybe, for once, luck was on her side.
Jaelle lumbered out of the cave, shaking her massive head as she walked. Once she was clear of the cave, she took to her human form and walked for a bit.
The reprieve allowed her to clear her mind, and her muscles to grow less stiff after all that she’d put herself through over the last few days. But it didn’t matter if she arrived at the prison less than refreshed. Her plan would earn her at least a few days rest or sudden death without any options in between. Neither of those outcomes required her to be in tip-top shape, so she needn’t waste time trying to reserve her strength.
She allowed herself a simple, fifteen minute stroll before crouching down and calling back her bird form. Once more, she called upon her simple hawk form and fought to get up to the thermals that would aid her exploration that night.
She didn’t begin her search in earnest until night fully fell, coating the land in a thick coat of dark velvet. The stars glimmered nearly as brightly as they had in the wild, freezing wastes of Canada, winking at her that much more closely as Jaelle wheeled through the air.
Surprisingly, fatigue did not set in as it normally would. Perhaps she was getting used to the ridiculous demands she was making of her body. Or perhaps she just didn’t have enough spare thought to worry about something as simple as pain.
Like a woman possessed, she kept on and on, never setting down, until finally she saw a break in the thick tree line.
She banked once, allowing her to catch a vague outline of a wall and two high towers, before quickly diving down as if she had seen some sort of prey. She was nearly to the trees when she heard gunshots rend through the air.
For a moment, she thought she was going to have a heart attack, but the bullets went off somewhere else. She tucked her wings to her sides and fell as fast as she could.
It wasn’t until she was below the trees that she flared her wings out and allowed herself to slow her momentum. It seemed the prison guards were even more uptight than she had anticipated. She hadn’t been remotely close to them and they had still taken shots at her.
If she had to guess, they were probably going to be equally merciless to any other sort of wildlife that might come snooping around. She hated to think of how many rabbits, moles, or deer had made the mistake of wandering too close to the structure and paid for it with their lives.
Hopefully, the prison at least used them as rations and furs. If they were going to slaughter wild animals for the sake of security, they owed them at least honor in their deaths.
Jaelle shook her head, realizing she was getting sidetracked. While her mother had always taught her to respect any animal she hunted, and give them thanks for their sacrifice, she realized that many mainlanders were not taught the same. While that was certainly something she would like to change, she needed to focus on saving Aberrants first.
Tucking those thoughts away, she looked back to where she had dove through the foliage. Judging by what she had seen, she had maybe a mile, mile and a half to the prison. If she ran a good portion of that as a squirrel, she could probably get away with doing the second part as a human.
Then again, there was always the risk that they would shoot her in the head on sight. She would just have to hope that they were either soldiers who would follow the rules of law and not kill her on sight, or they were prisoners freed by Creed who would know better than to kill a dark-haired woman who showed up out of nowhere.
Jaelle was well-aware that it was inadvisable to rely on such a dangerous bet, but she was fairly confident. And if she was wrong, she guessed she wouldn’t even have a moment to regret it before the bullet took her out.
Shrinking down once more, she raced forward, sticking low enough to the earth that she wouldn’t get shot out of the sky, but high enough that she wouldn’t have to worry about crossing paths with a random bear, lynx or other predator. The only thing she really had to worry about in such a densely forested area was an owl seeing her and thinking she might be a tasty snack.
Thankfully, no owls swooped down from the sky and she made it to what she estimated was a halfway point to the prison. With no undue caution, she clambered back down to the ground and reclaimed her human form.
She allowed her body to comfortably roll back instead of the rush she often had to go through in battle. There were no joints popping, no bones cracking, just a nice, smooth transition.
Jaelle ran a hand through her hair and took a deep breath of the crisp night air. Steeling herself, she strode forward with confidence.
The sounds and smell of a prison began to drift to her on the breeze as she drew closer, but she waited until she was closer before raising her hands in the air. From then, it was only a short walk to the end of the tree line and to the final part of both her and Creed’s plan.
She took a single step out into the clearing before three little red dots appeared on her body. Sighting lights from rifles. It seemed that the guards here didn’t share Shifters’ normal distaste for firearms.
“How about we set those guns down and talk this out like grownups?” Jaelle called up to them.
“And who the fuck are you?” a raspy, guttural voice came down.
Okay, so probably not a guard.
“What, you don’t know me?” she asked with feigned hurt. “I would have thought that Creed would have told you all about me.”
There was silence for a moment and one of the red dots flicked off of her while the other two remained steady. Jaelle waited, the hairs on the back of her neck rising from having such powerful weapons trained on her, while something happened above that she couldn’t see.
Several minutes passed—way more than Jaelle thought would be necessary—before the remaining two dots disappeared from her. She heard the faintest of urgently hissed words before she was finally addressed again.
“Throw your weapons to the door and drop to the ground.” That same gravelly voice called back down to her, only a bit more breathless this time. She guessed that he had run to someone in charge who actually knew why a strange woman with dark curls would come to their gate.
“Don’t have any,” she answered back. “This is a full surrender. No tricks.”
“You can understand if we don’t believe you.”
“Why, because I’m an Aberrant?”
“No, because you’re a woman.”
Jaelle would have snorted in surprise if she didn’t think it might get her shot. But perhaps sexism wasn’t
as bad a speciesism? “Are you serious?” was what she said instead.
“Yeah. Now, do what I said and lay on the ground with your hands behind your back.”
“Whatever you want,” she retorted with a smirk, getting down onto her knees and then finally lowering herself flat onto the ground. She could hear a vague flurry of movement from up above and a few minutes later, the doors opened and several sets of footsteps approached her.
She didn’t say anything, nor did she offer any fight. Instead, she just lay there with the wetness of the ground soaking into her front as they latched three sets of cuffs around her wrists. Once those were secure, they hauled her up to her feet none too gently. Jaelle gave the largest holding her a look, letting her eyes shuttle up and down him in a way that said he wasn’t shit.
“Judging by the fact that you’re even out here apprehending me rather than shooting me dead in my tracks tells me that you know who I am,” Jaelle growled. “So if you know who I am, why the hell are you grabbing me like that? We both know these cuffs are for show.” He let go of her quickly, his hand dropping to the weapon at his side. Jaelle could only laugh as the escort crew moved her forward. “Much better. So, when did you all take over this place? Seems like you’re already used to your position, so it couldn’t have been recently.”
“A couple weeks, actually,” another guard answered. “Creed first came here a year ago, and would stop by every so often. We sprung our big switch right before he ran down to the west to cause a big enough distraction to let us get away with it.”
“He’s a smart sonofabitch, isn’t he?” she mused, shaking her head. “Granted, you all must know that firsthand.”
“That, we do.”
Jaelle tilted her head as they crossed through the entrance, observing the massive structure around her. The high walls were several feet thick. The outer sides were metal, but she couldn’t quite tell if it was the same material all the way through. Once they were fully inside, she saw that it was actually a massive complex of at least five different buildings, all multiple stories tall. So much for a football field’s length. It seemed the prison could hold several teams all playing simultaneous games beside each other. It would have taken her breath away if it didn’t make what she had to do that much more complicated.
“You lot seem much more prepared and civilized than the folks I met at the other location. Is there a reason for that, or are you all just exception among your peers?”
“The western prison is inherently different from this prison,” the first guard—or prisoner, rather—answered. “That location was for violent murderers, drunkards, drug addicts, gang-bangers and those with a taste for blood.”
“The dumb but powerful muscle,” another guard supplied. “They’re the kind who will rip you limb from limb a dozen different ways but can’t hold a simple conversation.”
“And you guys are nothing like that?”
“Not at all. You can look in our files if you don’t believe us.”
“Oh, yeah, because I absolutely have access to those, being an Aberrant and basically the scum of the society that put you here.”
“She has a point,” the final guard said, their voice much more nasal than Jaelle had expected. “There’s no way she could know.”
“Know what?”
“That this prison is for the much more dangerous criminal,” the original guard answered finally. “For serial killers who evaded authorities for years, for those who manage to grievously break the law while still managing to get away with it. Mercenaries, hit men, that sort. And of course, for anyone who violates Shifter law and potentially exposes us to humans en masse.”
“Really? So a big mouth could land one here?”
“It’s a bit more complicated. I mean more for those who might sell information, and most importantly, our secrets for the right price. Not to mention spies from different Shifter factions in other counties. If the other prison is the dumb muscle, we’re the psychotic brains. Psychotic was my therapist’s word, however, not mine. But you won’t find a more scholarly, intelligent group of criminals anywhere else.”
That didn’t ease her worries, but at least she wasn’t shot on sight. “Glad to hear I’m in good company.”
She let the conversation die at that, having gleaned plenty of information from them and not wanting to miss anything that might be offered up by her surroundings.
They were leader her straight to the center building, one with several stories and more solid looking walls. There were plenty of windows, but they were tinted so that she couldn’t see inside. Maybe… an administrative building? Why would they take her there?
Oh! Maybe that was where prisoners were normally processed? That would make sense. But she hoped they wouldn’t put her through that whole humiliating procedure. The last thing she needed was to be stripped naked by touch-starved men with felonies to their name.
They reached the front door and the original guard slid his card through the reader, then punched in a code. Jaelle tried to catch what it was, but he did a great job of blocking her with his body.
“So, uh, are you all still using the guards IDs, or did you print out new ones for each of you?”
The smallest of them snorted. “Could you imagine? Start our takeover of this state with a month’s worth of printing, laminating and programming security symptoms.”
“Sounds like a rousing revolution.”
He laughed, as did another one of the men. “I like her. She’s funny.”
Jaelle shot them a wan smile over her shoulder. “I try my best.”
“Don’t let her woo you,” the original guard snapped, the spoilsport. “She’s dangerous.”
“Really? That’s somewhat hard to believe.”
“Why, because I’m a woman?” Jaelle shot back, her smile morphing into a smirk.
“No. Because you could have put up quite a fight if you wanted and left us with no choice but to gun you down. You’re an Aberrant and you came here willingly. Whatever reasons caused you to surrender, I doubt that they are ones that will bring violence to us…yet.”
“Huh. You are the smart bunch, aren’t you? I’ve heard more multisyllable words in our short time together than my days at the other prison.”
“Days? Why were you there? Last I knew, they didn’t keep women there.”
“Uh, Creed and I had a… misunderstanding, so to say. We got off on the wrong foot and you can just imagine what that’s like.”
One of them shuddered. Yeah, they knew exactly what he was like. It was good to know they weren’t blindly devoted, although Jaelle was beginning to figure out that these men were too bright to be drawn in whole kit and caboodle by a madman like Creed.
The conversation went quiet again, and Jaelle returned her attention to the hall they were striding down. It was a fairly typical, office like passageway, with rooms on either side and doors with windows so one could look in as they passed. She spotted desks, computers and everything one might expect, but only one out of every five or so rooms was actually occupied by someone who was usually typing furiously.
The rooms ended abruptly and they moved from linoleum floors to concrete ones. Jaelle had learned enough from watching police procedurals to know that they were heading toward the holding cells.
Sure enough, she was roughly shoved into a room a few minutes later, and the original guard followed after to handcuff even another set of restraints on each of her wrists, connecting her to the back of the chair.
“Wait here,” he said, his voice low once again. “We’re lining the door with wolfbane. I’d advise you don’t try to escape.”
If Jaelle’s hands were freed, she would have made a shrugging sort of gesture. “Like I said, I’m surrendering. No escaping for me. I’ll just sit quietly until Creed comes to meet me. Off with you, minions.”
He looked surprised at her response, so she just batted her eyelashes at him. He seemed like he wanted to say something, or perhaps even strike her, but he just slam
med the door shut and left her alone.
Jaelle let a long breath and sagged into her bonds. Somehow, everything had gone according to her plan so far, which meant she was either a much better strategist than she had thought, or was just plain lucky.
Either way, she hoped her fortune wasn’t going to change anytime soon. After all, she still had to face down Creed, and the last time they had seen each other, they hadn’t exactly been on good terms.
Perhaps it had to do with the fact that she spit in his face.
Oh, well, nothing a little charm and flirting couldn’t get her out of. All she could do was hope that the man didn’t hold too bad of a grudge.
Chapter Four: Bold Face Lie
Creed took his time coming to greet her. Jaelle had anticipated that might be one of his possible reactions to news of her appearance, but that didn’t make the wait any less boring.
Hours ticked by and she couldn’t so much as scratch her nose. She tried to be patient, and stay in her bonds, she really did, but as hour four rolled around and her shoulders began to pinch insistently, she knew she couldn’t sit still a moment longer.
A quick jerk of her arms with her superior strength broke the links holding her to the chair. However, the other three binding her wrists together were too strong for her to rend in her human form. Concentrating on only her arms, Jaelle had them grow out rapidly, thick grey skin and muscles to match appeared so fast that heat was generated by how quickly the air around her limbs was displaced.
The cuffs broke loose almost instantly, the locks seeming to melt just a bit, and she returned to neutral with a grateful sigh. Rotating her shoulders around several times, she waited in a much more comfortable position for Creed to grace her with his presence.
It still took at least a couple more hours for him to arrive. It had to be past dawn when she finally heard his distinct footsteps coming down the hall. They weren’t quick, meaning the man was taking his time, but they didn’t have the cadence of someone cockily sauntering forward, either.
Did that mean he was uncertain? The idea of the madman being unsure about anything was almost impossible to wrap her mind around. Ever since Jaelle had met him, Creed had always been unerringly absolute about everything he ever uttered. Whether it was his plan for their kind, or what he would do to the Clan Leaders, or even her position in all of his schemes, he never once faltered.
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