Death's Dark Horse

by Ruby Loren

  The night air was even colder and darker than it had been the previous night. January felt her head clear as she walked out to put her bass guitar in the car. The band hadn’t been paid yet and the way things were going, she wasn’t sure if they ever would be. But hey, if the rest of the band were angry with her for upsetting the bar owner, she’d just throw money at them until they stopped. Or she’d leave the band. It had been a fun outlet and a way of making the move back to England more palatable, but she could definitely live without it. It would actually be nice to get away from Cherri, who seemed to think that January’s one mission in life was to usurp her as the star of the band. Lewis never seemed to be able to summon up a smile for her either, these days.

  She slid her bass into the back of the Lotus and then slipped into the driver’s seat. A firm pair of hands gripped her shoulders and pulled her out again.

  “Mr Bingley wants to see you.”

  January looked up at Ryan’s large frame and sighed. “So I’ve heard. However, if you went and checked with him, you’ll discover that I informed him I wasn’t available to chat.” She tried to move back towards her car, but Ryan’s hands were like rock.

  “He’s not going to let you run this time.”

  January looked up and saw that Ryan actually looked a little sorry. She’d assumed he was one with his boss in all matters. “Come on Ryan, can’t you just say I got away? I just want to go home and forget about tonight.”

  The big jaguar shifter shuffled his feet. “I can’t. Look, just do this talk and play along with whatever he says, just for tonight, and you’ll probably get out okay.”

  He’d meant his words to be encouraging advice, but there was something about the way he’d said it that clued her in to this being more than just a talk. Something big was going down, and it could mean she was in a lot of trouble.

  “Who are all the people? Why are they here?” She asked, realising that this was the right question.

  Apparently, it wasn’t one that Ryan was going to answer, because his sympathy vanished, and his features turned to stone once more. “Come on,” he gave her a push and January felt the extent of his strength and staggered.

  When she’d regained her balance she looked up and discovered Luke was standing in the doorway to the bar. So, that was why Ryan had suddenly turned back into the bad guy.

  She stood up straight and walked towards Luke of her own free will. Ryan stopped escorting. She glanced back at him when she re-entered the bar.

  “Make sure the others leave,” Luke said, and Ryan nodded mutely.

  January watched his face for any sign of unhappiness or spirit but could find none. She knew she hadn’t imagined what he’d said earlier. It gave her a little bit of hope that Luke’s empire was built on shakier foundations than he knew.

  Luke sat down behind a large oak desk that looked like it was a couple of hundred years old. January stared down at the chair, which had carved animals all over it – much like the one that Luke had sat on when they’d first been introduced two weeks ago.

  She sat, the unforgiving wood keeping her alert.

  Luke looked up from the piece of paper he’d briefly been studying and their eyes collided. It almost felt like a physical challenge. They were both sizing each other up.

  “Why won’t you join the pack?”

  Straight to the point then, January thought and was pleased that he’d finally got round to saying it. All of the hanging out in the tearoom had done nothing to answer that question.

  She figured it would be the decent thing to give him an equally direct answer. Probably not the sensible thing, but she was never one for walking on the sensible side of life. “I don’t want to be a part of any pack. I like being on my own. However, I am especially adverse to your ‘pack’.” That left no doubt as to what she thought about his strange collection. “It’s a bad idea keeping all of those animals together by force. Anyone can see that. The wolves had things right when they were in charge.”

  Luke’s smile glistened as he bared his teeth. “The wolves were weak and the lack of order was becoming a danger. Our secret could have been revealed at any time! I changed that.”

  “That’s why you took over? It was for the good of our kind?” She paused, for a fraction of a second. “Are you sure it wasn’t because Jack Harper had just become the leader of the Witchwood pack?”

  Luke’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Jack Harper?”

  January gave him a thin smile. She’d decided to play her ace. “He’s the man who you claimed was responsible for the death of your sister - or had you forgotten?”

  Luke’s face was blank, but there was an ashen tinge to it. It didn’t matter what he said, anyway. She’d done her research. It had been Luke’s grandiose claims of taking over the pack for the good of all shifter kind which had goaded her into using that information. Even in a tense situation like this one, she hadn’t wanted to stoop so low as to use it against him.

  Luke Bingley’s history had been hard to find. For one, he’d changed his name. It was only when she’d branched out and researched Jack Harper – currently filed as a missing person – that she’d discovered who Luke Bingley really was.

  It had been the first result on the local search for Jack Harper: Local man accused of murder. The local man was Jack Harper and the man who had been trying to bring charges was someone called Luke Marsh.

  That had snagged her interest.

  She’d delved deeper into the story and had discovered that Luke Marsh was the brother of Kayleigh Marsh, who’d been Harper’s fiancée. That year, Kayleigh had been diagnosed with various mental health disorders, including depression and anxiety. The police had said it was a suicide. Luke Marsh had accused Jack Harper of murdering his sister.

  While on the surface, it had seemed like a pretty cut and dry case, January knew full well that there was an unseen world, which hadn’t been written about. What pack politics had been going on at the time? Had the pack not accepted Kayleigh? January had pried even further and discovered that her family lived in Cornwall, which was several territories away from the South East based Witchwood pack. While she may never know what really happened to poor Kayleigh, it had been a eureka moment as far as Luke Marsh - AKA Luke Bingley - had been concerned.

  “I stand by what I said, but yes - it was a pleasure to challenge and kill that sneaking wolf. He should have been born a weasel.” The snarl was back in evidence.

  January held her hands up. “Okay, I can go with that. But there’s something more to you than just a fake name, isn’t there? How is it that you can talk in shifters’ heads and have this power over us? You made me change.” January maintained the intensity of the stare, desperate to know the answer to this.

  Luke sat back a little, a small frown on his face. “Trade secret. Perhaps I’ll tell you when you’ve proved yourself.”

  Curses. She thought she’d timed her moment right, but Luke was staying silent on the matter of his mysterious powers. That had been something her research hadn’t been able to shed any light on, but it was early days yet. She would just have to dig deeper. That was – if she managed to make it out of here alive.

  Luke sighed like she was boring him, but January suspected it was more likely that he was frustrated because his ‘chat’ wasn’t going the way he’d wanted it to.

  “Why are you associating with Gregory Drax? Are you trying to provoke my attention the same way your sister did?”

  January laughed and it came out a little hysterical. “Has it not crossed your mind that maybe I’ve been forced to associate with vampires because the leader of the shifters is completely unreasonable, and everyone else is banned from talking to me?”

  Luke was suddenly on his feet.

  She stood up too, so that he wouldn’t have the power advantage.

  “Did you sleep with him?” The blue irises of his eyes were growing larger with every passing moment.

  January knew that her own nostrils had started to flare. “That is no
ne of your business! You don’t own me. I am not a part of your pack, and I never will be. I don’t have to answer to you.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong.” The expensive suit tore into several pieces and the energy of the room was sucked towards him with such violent force, January felt like she was going to be swallowed up, too.

  He was definitely something more than your average shifter.

  The pale leopard jumped onto the oak desk. January stepped back instinctively as his mouth split into a ferocious snarl.

  CHANGE! CHANGE! CHANGE!

  The voice screamed in her head and for a moment, January felt like a deer caught in headlights. She thought of what Trace had said and realised what a bully Luke Bingley was. Whether she liked it or not, now she was invested. It was down to her to start the resistance.

  NO! She yelled back - only she hadn’t used her mouth to say it. She stomped her foot once with equine instinct, and then fled from the room - leaving the leopard with its jaw hanging open.

  January ran down the corridor after having the presence of mind to slam the door shut behind her. Special powers or not, she was willing to bet that without opposable thumbs, a leopard was going to find that door hard to open.

  She turned a corner and collided hard with Ryan Eridge. She rubbed her forehead and looked up at the immovable mass of muscles. He hadn’t even had to take a step backwards.

  She fully expected him to drag her straight back to the office - where she could hear Luke’s angry yowls - but he just looked surprised.

  “What happened in there?”

  January tried to smile but it felt all wobbly. “He told me to change and I said no,” she told him truthfully.

  Ryan turned aside to let her pass. She carried on walking away, but he followed her.

  “You said no?”

  “I did. He’s just a bully. No one should have to follow him. What I don’t understand is why no one has stood up to him before. Surely, if you all banded together…”

  Ryan shook his head. “It’s always been this way. He recruited us and made the first ever cat pack, but we didn’t know his plans. We just thought… I dunno… I guess we didn’t think. It seemed like a good idea to be part of something as organised as the wolves have going on. We were tired of being on our own and having no one to look out for us.”

  He rubbed a hand through his hair. “It didn’t take long for it to turn into something else. Luke brought us together in London but then he demanded we relocate here and challenge the pack.” Ryan sighed. “You probably already know, but in London there isn’t a single pack. There are hundreds, and then there are hundreds of singles out there, too. It works well. No one fights for territory. It’s hard enough being a shifter in London as it is – especially when you’re a more unusual sight.”

  January could have sworn he actually looked jealous of the ‘lesser animals’ - as cats would call them.

  They paused outside the door into the main bar room. She listened, but the leopard had gone quiet. That probably wasn’t a good sign.

  “Anyway, some of the new cat pack said they didn’t want to relocate to some rural pile of mud - no offence - so, they tried to leave. That was when Luke showed us all what he could really do…” He trailed off.

  January realised that he too had become aware of the silence. He looked back at her with faint desperation, his voice becoming barely audible. “If there’s something you can do to stop this, please do it. You’re the only one who seems to be able to resist his mind games. If you take a stand, you won’t be alone. I’ll be there. Others too, probably.”

  January looked at his sincere face, still unsure whether to believe him. “Ryan…”

  “I know. You don’t know if you can trust me. I understand.”

  “You could be playing for time right now,” January said, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. She reached out and pressed down on the handle of the door which led back into the main bar, wondering if anyone would try to stop her from getting out.

  “January, there’s something you have to know…” The urgency in Ryan’s voice just made her open the door faster. He was definitely trying to keep her there, wasn’t he?

  She blinked. The bright lights from the bar made it hard to see for a moment. Loud music was being pumped through speakers, but the audience weren’t dancing. They were all watching something. January followed their gaze and looked at the stage.

  She felt like she was going to be sick.

  There was a lion sitting there. A woman dressed in a barely-there outfit of gold sequins stroked its mane, apparently whispering something in its ear. Her olive skin shone under the bright lights and when she looked up at the crowd, her kohl outlined eyes were a startling amber colour.

  January flinched. She recognised this vibrant colour to be a sign of shifter inbreeding. Whatever she turned into, she must be from a very pure line indeed.

  It wasn’t a good thing.

  The lion pounced forwards to the edge of the stage, and the crowd reeled backwards when it roared. The music on the sound system changed to an exotic dance track. January was mesmerised with horror and amazement as the woman and the lion started to circle each other. It was a beautiful dance, blending muscle and grace, but it still made her feel sick to her stomach. This was a terrible way of making money. Luke was using everyone.

  A curtain of purple organza strips blew up from a space in the stage, screening the woman from view. The lion growled and paced, pretending to be mystified by her disappearance. A hush fell over the crowd. The curtain suddenly parted, when a magnificent tiger with bright amber eyes leapt through the strips of fabric. The room broke into enthusiastic applause at the ‘magic trick’.

  January couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She turned to get out of the bar. Her eyes found other ‘attractions’ around the room. The classy bar had been turned into some kind of shifter zoo, with birds of prey adorning the light fittings and… January suddenly felt so angry she almost changed. A pretty white pony was in the VIP area, prancing on demand, and even letting people ride on her back. January suspected it was one of her more distant relatives.

  She was about to go over there when a worried murmur broke out in the room. Back onstage, the two big cats were exchanging anxious glances. Something was supposed to happen, January realised, and had a feeling she knew who was missing.

  The audience started to back away from the cats, starting to fear the big animals now that there was no one perceived to be in charge.

  There was the sound of wood exploding. The shards of the door, which led onto the stage, scattered everywhere. The big cats jumped in such an un-catlike way, January thought they’d never looked more human. But her real problem was standing at the centre of the stage.

  The leopard yowled in fury, his blue eyes burning. It would have been comical to see the lion and tiger reel back in fear, had it not been so terrible. January was tempted to stand her ground and end this now, but the place was packed with humans. The secret of their kind was bigger than this disagreement - no matter how important it seemed.

  The crowd seemed to move as one when the leopard launched itself off the stage in pursuit of January. Close to a hundred people were all pushing to get out of the double door entrance and exit. Someone must have found a fire escape, because the alarm went off, adding to the panic. January used her muscle to barge through the mass of people and was one of the first through the door. The leopard would be close behind her.

  Her car keys were already in her hand, but she could see that driving out through the sea of panicking people would be impossible. She didn’t want to run anyone else over.

  Someone grabbed her from behind and she instinctively hit out, afraid that Luke had caught her off guard. A big hand caught her fist before it made contact.

  “Come with me,” a familiar voice said.

  January was half-dragged, moving against the current in the torrent of people. Ryan looked behind, with concern on his face, checking for any sign that L
uke had spotted the rescue.

  He led January to a door in the side of the building, which she’d never seen before. “This door can only be opened with a key. He won’t even consider it,” Ryan said, his voice as quiet as he could make it.

  January hesitated on the threshold, wondering if she was about to walk into a trap.

  Ryan glanced back down the alley, his face taut. “You’re going to have to trust me,” he said urgently, walking in first.

  January stepped after him and he shut the door.

  They were in a very small dark space. January could feel the wall against her back and felt that Ryan was only a few centimetres away. They were in a cupboard.

  “He’ll just follow the scent,” she whispered, trying to distract herself from just how close she was to the jaguar shifter.

  She felt Ryan shake his head. “He won’t be able to find it among the stench of the panic and the people. We’re safe, but stay quiet.”

  She knew he was right. Even hushed voices could be heard by cat ears.

  Come to me!

  Ryan flinched at the voice in his head.

  January gripped his arms in case he tried to answer the call. Fortunately, it was distant enough that it didn’t have the full effect of making them want to obey.

  His arms felt hot beneath her hands. January was starting to feel the heat in this cramped space, but it wasn’t just to do with their warm blood. She took her hands off his arms and felt her palms burn. She said a silent prayer of thanks that it was dark, so Ryan couldn’t see her blushes.

  “Should we risk it?” January whispered, approximately half an hour later.

  They hadn’t heard any noises for a long time.

  Ryan was silent and she thought she knew exactly what he was thinking. If this were a film, they’d open the door of the cupboard to find Luke waiting right outside.

  “I suppose we can’t stay here forever,” he said.

  She smelt the sour scent of his fear and wondered how bad it really was being in Luke’s pack. She hoped she never found out.

  She felt Ryan’s body tense when his hand pressed against the door handle. It swung outwards, and January felt eternally grateful to whoever maintained the hinges, because it moved without a sound.