“Well”—Katie grimaced as Dr. Jones removed the needle—”the sheriff called and asked me to come down and answer questions about the night at the truck stop.”
“And you went?” Jordan asked incredulously. “Without telling any of us?”
“You weren’t around,” Katie all but hissed back. She began swinging her bare legs back and forth under the table. “He asked me to meet him at the truck stop, so I went.”
“It wasn’t the sheriff?” Cara guessed, swaying a bit in exhaustion.
“No.” Katie frowned. “But I didn’t get a sense he was lying on the phone. I just don’t understand.” Dr. Jones placed a blood pressure cuff around her arm and began to pump.
“Then what?” Talen asked quietly, releasing Cara’s hand to pull her against his warmth.
“Well, when I got to the truck stop, I started to walk inside and this big white van pulled up, two Kurjans jumped out and grabbed me, and one stuck a needle in my arm before I could shift.” Katie’s voice rose in anxiety. “Whatever it was knocked me out, and I woke up in that room you saw.” She looked around, stretching her arm as the doctor removed the cuff. “How long was I gone?”
“Five hours,” Jordan snarled.
“Wow,” Katie murmured. “How did you find me so fast?”
“Doesn’t matter,” came the reply. “It’s just good that we did.”
Katie stilled. “I think it does matter. How, Jordan?”
The leader of the lions shrugged, his strong jaw set. He leaned to the side to read the chart Dr. Jones was filling out.
Realization dawned across Katie’s pale face. “You had a tracker on me?” She snapped her head up. “Where?”
“In your shoe,” Jordan retorted, focusing back on her. “We tracked you to the facility, but they threw your shoes out. Cara found you from that point.”
Katie bit her bottom lip until it turned white. “We’ll discuss that tracker later, Jordan.”
“You’re damn right we will.” His anger obviously outdid hers.
Katie ignored him and turned to Cara. “Thank you.”
Cara nodded—she’d known her friend would be pissed. “Of course. What happened then?”
Katie shrugged. “I’m not sure. They were waiting for a doctor to come and inject me with something.” Dr. Jones inserted a thermometer in her mouth and she shut her lips, her eyes still shooting sparks at Jordan.
“Dr. Jaylin,” Maggie spoke up, her light skin paling even more as all eyes turned toward her. “He was supposed to be back tonight.” The other doctor removed the cuff from her arm and moved to scribble notes in a file.
“Did they say anything about the injection?” Dage asked her quietly.
“No. Though I know I had several.” Maggie glanced at the bruises inside her left elbow. “I don’t know when, or how many times, either.”
“You don’t remember?” Cara asked, wondering if this was why she could only get a mild sense from the woman in front of her.
“No.” Maggie shook her head, her brown eyes desperate. “I don’t remember anything before yesterday. Dr. Jaylin said he’d explain it all, but I didn’t believe him.”
“He kept calling her Maggie, but we don’t know if that’s really her name,” Katie explained.
“Yeah, I feel more like a ‘Cassandra,’” Maggie said with a small grin.
“Or a Bernadette,” Katie joined in. “We spent quite some time imagining possible names.”
“Was Jaylin human?” Talen asked.
“No. White face, black eyes, really creepy,” Maggie said with a shudder. “Yesterday I saw two others like him.”
“Kurjans,” Cara muttered as Katie nodded. She closed her eyes and concentrated as hard as she could on Maggie. Whispers of thoughts and feelings rushed through her.
“Can you feel if she was a mate?” Talen asked.
“No. But there’s something there …” Cara focused again. “What?” Maggie asked, her eyes filling with tears.
Cara opened her eyes and shrugged. “I don’t know. There’s an energy about you, kind of like the one from Katie. But different somehow.”
“Maybe she’s a shifter,” Jordan spoke up.
“Maybe,” Cara agreed.
“Shifter?” Maggie asked after a moment.
“Long story. We’ll work on it after you recoup.” Katie patted Maggie’s hand. “Question. Why would the Kurjans want shifters? I thought they were after vampire mates.”
Nobody had an answer for her.
Vampire mates? The clamoring in Maggie’s head rose in volume. What the hell? Whispers of thought, spirals of color, hints of pain. Too much for one head, one skull to take.
Something pulsed through Maggie’s blood, something the Kurjans had injected into her. Or had it been there before? She tried to concentrate on her new friend, tried to focus on the energy, mostly male, swirling around the room. The coppery taste of blood filled her mouth, she’d bitten her tongue to keep from crying out. Blood hit her stomach, and it growled. She hungered.
Crossing her legs, she shifted on the cold table. The sweet scent of her own blood filled her nostrils, and she fought the growl rising up from her soul. Hunger. Blood. Need.
She opened her mouth to speak, and a pitching growl emerged. Dead silence fell over the room, and all eyes turned toward her. Talen shifted his weight across from her, partially shielding Cara. Ah, yes. The most dangerous predator in the room, the one with something to protect. Then she caught Jordan moving toward her out of the corner of her eye.
Maybe not.
She shook her head. What was she thinking? These were her friends—her saviors. She turned toward Katie to say something just as a lightning bolt of pain exploded behind her eyes. The high-pitched scream assaulting her ears came from her own throat. She stopped, panting, her eyes going wide on Katie’s frightened ones. Then as pain slashed through her skin, she opened her mouth to shriek again.
Her jaw kept opening with loud pops and sharp cracks, wider than humanly possible. The shriek emerging from her throat couldn’t be human. Bones snapped in her jaw, in her neck, shifting, morphing, hurting.
Talen grabbed Cara and leapt over some chairs to head for the door. His brother Dage reached for a knife in his vest. “Is it a full moon?”
“Yes,” Jordan said, grabbing Katie’s arm and yanking her off the table to stand directly behind him. “Get your people out of here.”
“But, wait,” Cara protested from Talen’s arms as they neared the door. “What about you?”
Jordan’s gaze stayed on Maggie as he ground out, “Her shifting energy won’t hurt us—we can absorb it.” He pushed Katie back toward the wall, grabbing his communicator out of his pocket and inserting it in his ear. “Block the door. I’ll call if we need backup.”
The door clanged shut with an audible boom as rock met rock. Only Jordan’s people and Maggie remained. She turned desperate eyes toward him. Eyes that now saw individual molecules in the air, a million more colors than she’d known existed. “What?” she growled out, nearly breathless from the pain.
He spoke low, calm. “I don’t know. But you’re going to be okay, Maggie.” He settled himself into a readied stance. “Katie, Baye, and Mac—you shift. Noah and I will stay in human form for now.”
Katie tried to move forward. “No, Jordan. I need to stay so she understands me.”
Jordan blurred as tears gathered in Maggie’s eyes.
“Shift or you’re leaving,” Jordan told Katie without moving his gaze a bit. His hands remained at his sides, not even inching toward the knife near his hip. Maggie could get to his hand, rip it off, taste that muscle and blood before he could move. Raw terror flushed through her at the very thought, even as her body craved the feeding.
An irritated sigh met his order before a shimmer of light surrounded Maggie’s new friend, and then—
Three cougars prowled where people had just been. Oh God. Was she going to turn into a cougar?
Against her will, the fing
ers of her hands straightened and spread out. Bones popped and her skin flayed open as if raw shards of glass replaced her red blood cells. Pain from inside those cells, from a basic molecular level, skewered through her nerve endings. “Make it stop.” Was that her voice? Low, guttural, inhuman?
“I can’t,” Jordan said, his tawny eyes sympathetic.
Her fingers curled, long yellow claws emerging. A coarse, rough sandy hair pierced through her skin, the bushels scraping and scratching on the way. A slight pain compared to the rest, yet the urge to cry nearly overwhelmed her.
“Fuck, she’s a were,” Noah said from his post near the door.
What the hell was a were? Werewolf? She was a werewolf? That didn’t feel right. Growling, she kept her gaze on her hands, even as the bones in her legs began to throb and crack.
Nearly blind from the pain, shock swept through her as the hair on her hands changed into a dark brown, into something soft. Something familiar.
Jordan moved closer. “What the hell?”
Raw, blistering pain swept through her again, and the hair changed back to the coarse version. Gasping, she fell off the table onto all fours, emitting a wild howl and lifting her head. The cold stone floor soothed her rippling nerves.
The tension rose even more in the room.
Her face ached as it elongated and the sandpaper hair slid through her skin. Then it softened and her face narrowed, before changing back into the longer version.
Jordan dropped to one knee, his gaze on her now blurred eyes. “Fight it, Maggie. Fight the pain, search for the wolf.”
Three cougars moved closer, flanking him, their intent to protect filling the air. The scent of cougar, of lion and earth teased her senses. Along with blood, flesh, and meat. Food. Friend. Foe.
Her spine straightened and she ripped out of the hospital gown, morphing into something hard, then something softer. Both wild, both crying to be free.
“Find the wolf, Maggie,” Jordan crooned, his eyes flicking into a catlike phase. “Fight for the wolf. She needs you.”
The wolf. The wolf needed her. Shutting her eyes, Maggie pushed against the pain. She wouldn’t accept it, she wouldn’t let it win. The wolf was there somewhere. The wolf needed her.
A jagged rip rent her heart, and she gave a piercing howl of agony. The shifters moved back. Where was the wolf? A whisper of thought, a voice. A plea. Find the wolf, lass. She’s mine, keep her safe for me.
The voice, concentrate on the voice. Such strength, such purpose. The voice. With a snarl of fury, Maggie shoved the pain to hell and found the wolf. A soothing thrum just under her heart. A beat of nature, a whisper of truth. Easing into her skin, into the soft fur, into smooth muscle and bone. Home.
Settling into the familiar form, she shook her head, letting the soft wolf fur spread out. She gave a short whine and surveyed the room. She was surrounded by cats.
Well, crap.
Chapter 26
The Earth had her own presence underneath the ground where she hummed and echoed all round, vibrating with ancient wisdom and purpose. Still in the Washington state facility, Cara sat back in the chair and surveyed the small conference room, her belly happy and full. Dage might be the King of the Realm, an ancient vampire, but the guy made a mean omelet. Breakfast had been delicious.
They’d spent the night and awaited the test results on Katie and Maggie. Cara had been relieved to find an e-mail from Emma saying she was just fine, reaching the end of her research, and that they’d be together soon. Cara had also spoken with Janie—she missed her child and needed to feel the little girl in her arms.
Her gaze landed on Maggie, who sat pale and quiet across the marble conference table. The speckled beige rock surrounding them on all sides cast a sandy pall over her face. Less than fifteen hours had passed since Talen spirited Cara out of the meeting room when Maggie had started to shift. “How are you?” Cara asked.
Maggie shrugged, her deep brown eyes showing a weariness that matched her slumping shoulders. “I don’t know. I mean, the wolf form felt right, it felt natural. Though I couldn’t shift back until dawn broke, and that felt weird.”
Jordan and Katie flanked Maggie at the table while Dage sat at the head.
Talen shifted his weight in his chair next to Cara, his hand warming hers under the table. He leaned forward. “So, let me get this straight. She changed into a wolf, into a were, and then back into a wolf?”
Jordan nodded. “Yeah, almost like the two forms fought each other to come out.”
The door opened, and they all turned as a short man with bushy white hair stumbled inside, his hands full of papers. The scent of rubbing alcohol filled the air. Glancing around, he gave a nod and sat at the foot of the table.
Dage cleared this throat. “This is Dr. Miller, our chief scientist.” Another human. Interesting that all three doctors were human.
The doctor nodded, spreading his papers on the hard surface. “Hi, er, yes hi.” Pushing black-rimmed glasses up his bulbous nose, he took a deep breath. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Miss, ah, Miss Maggie is a wolf-shifter with the requisite twenty-eight chromosomes. However, she apparently was infected with a virus that attacked the shifting chromosome.”
“Shifting chromosome?” Maggie asked, clasping her hands together on the table until they turned white.
“Er, yes. The twenty-seventh chromosomal pair marks shifters as type—canine, feline, or multi—much like the chromosome that determines eye color, you know, blue or brown,” the doctor said. “Oddly enough, we believe the twenty-seventh chromosome of vampire mates holds the key to the so-called mating allergy.” He yanked a handkerchief out of a breast pocket and blew loudly. “Some chromosomes are more powerful than others, and apparently the twenty-seventh is a doosie.”
A doosie? Cara’s mind reeled with the new information—man she wished Emma was here. “I see. And Maggie’s chromosomes?”
The doctor tucked the hankie back in his jacket, facing Maggie. “You’re a wolf shifter by nature, which is why the wolf came out last night.”
Jordan sat back in his chair. “That’s not all that came out last night.”
“Yes, yes, well.” The doctor’s thick glasses enlarged his grey eyes until he almost appeared to be a cartoon character. “Isn’t there a plant biologist here?”
Cara nodded. “I’m a plant physiologist.”
“Er, good. Well, you know how your people are injecting viruses into plants, into crops for better yield?”
“Sure.”
“Well, this is similar. The virus attacks the genetics of the shifter and mutates it.” He pulled a paper off the bottom of the pile. “Into a werewolf.”
Katie gasped and reached out to pat Maggie’s hand. “It’s okay, Maggie. We’ll figure this out.”
“Figure what out?” Maggie asked, tears filling her eyes. “It’s obvious. I was a wolf-shifter, and now I’m turning into a werewolf. For some reason I can’t remember, that’s a bad thing.”
Katie straightened. “You are a wolf-shifter. I saw your wolf form with my own eyes last night.”
Cara cleared her throat. “What’s the difference? I mean, between a wolf and a werewolf.”
Releasing her hand, Talen brushed her hair off one shoulder. “Werewolves are pure animal, no reason, no intelligence. They’re enslaved to a master with a simple spell, a master who has complete control over them.”
That sucked. Cara’s interest grew with the science involved. “But nobody triggered the change last night.”
Jordan nodded. “True. But there was a full moon, and all weres change during the full phase—whether they want to or not.”
This was unbelievable. “And when they’re in human form? Do they live normal lives?” She again wished Emma was here—her sister would understand the genetics involved much better.
“No. The human becomes scattered, confused. Then after the third full moon, or the third change, the were form is permanent,” Jordan said.
Wow. Urban
legend was so wrong. “How does one normally become a were?”
Talen wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “The movies have that one right, mainly. If a human is either bitten or scratched by a werewolf, they’ll change—then the spell, or curse, binds the beast to a master.”
“And the Kurjans want to be the masters,” Cara said. “So, not only are they using science to venture into the sun and steal mates, they are trying to make a slave class of werewolves from shifters.” She drummed her fingers on the table for a moment, biting her lip. “But, I don’t understand. If the Kurjans want a huge slave class, why not infect a bunch of humans? Why go to all the trouble of creating a virus to change shifters into werewolves?”
Jordan sat forward. “Because human werewolves live at the most one year. They’re just too fragile to survive in animal form.”
Wow, that did make sense. “So, changing shifters into werewolves might lead to longevity for a slave class,” Cara mused.
Dage nodded. “It makes an odd sense and creates a twofold advantage. First, they end up with an immortal frontline army to do the dirty work, and second, they take out many of our allies. That is, if this virus actually works, and the Kurjans finds a way to mass contaminate.” His silver gaze deepened, and he focused on the doctor. “Does the virus work? I mean, Maggie fought the change and shifted into a natural wolf form instead.”
The doctor nodded, sniffing loudly. “Yes. Er, well, yes. I’ve never seen this before, and we don’t know if the Kurjans perfected the process.”
“So what happens now?” Maggie asked, her voice full of defeat.
The doctor shrugged bony shoulders. “I have no idea. Either the virus will run its course and you’ll return to normal, or the virus will run its course and you’ll end up a werewolf.”
Geez. He could’ve sugarcoated that a bit more. Cara pursed her lips. “The curse or spell—how is it done?”
Talen rubbed gentle circles on her shoulder as he answered. “It’s an incantation the master gives while the were is shackled in chains of silver before him.”
“So they have to be in the same room?” Cara asked.
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