“Many rebels have fought in wars alongside humans,” Alex pointed out. Amber brushed some hair behind her ear and glanced over at Wylie. Isis noticed they seemed amused by the proceedings. She sat back, turning her eyes to the large window. The wind whipped up some snow, rattling it against the panes of glass.
“Of their own volition. No rebel has ever been ordered to go into battle and none ever shall be,” Alpha countered. “Do you have a point you’d like to make?”
“We’re essentially fighting for the same thing,” Jade stated. “Whatever is going on, the separatists have something to do with it.”
“Separatists don’t have the kind of power required to erase people,” Alpha said dismissively. “Even with the assassins, they don’t have the numbers or firepower to be a threat to anyone.”
“No, they don’t,” Jade agreed. “I didn’t say they were behind it. I said they were involved with it. Someone or something does have that kind of power, and chances are they are using the assassins and separatists. It would be beneficial for us to work together in order to get to the bottom of it.”
Alpha looked skeptical. She glanced over to Amber and Wylie. Wylie shrugged after a moment and Amber nodded. Alpha turned her attention back to the Four, pursing her lips.
“I’ll agree to this truce on a couple of conditions. The first being that Jet and Lilly are not allowed to interfere with rebel life. This truce is between them and me only. I do not lord it over the rebels. I can ask for their aid, but it remains up to them whether or not they give it,” Alpha stated.
“They would expect no less. They would only interfere if you asked them to,” Jade agreed. “They want this alliance to be a two-way street.”
“I’m sure Lilly does. Her husband, on the other hand? Well, I’m not entirely convinced,” Alpha said, nodding toward Isis. “I would also like to have a word alone with young Isis.”
Isis felt her eyes widen for a moment at the odd request. She turned her attention over to Jade, who looked hesitant.
“Oh relax, Jade. It’s just a little chat. I promise to return her to you in one piece,” Alpha scoffed. “This truce is off to a magnificent start.”
Jade turned her eyes to Isis, questioning. After a moment, Isis nodded once, indicating her acquiescence to the request.
“Fine,” Jade agreed, turning her eyes back to the rebel. “Is there anything else you can think of?”
“Not at the moment, but I reserve the right to request anything else I think of later,” Alpha answered. “The three of you are welcome to explore the Lair. Wylie and Amber mix a mean drink if you’re thirsty. Most of our drinks can be made virgin, if you’re abstaining for any reason. There are no maps, but somehow, patrons always find what they’re looking for.”
Jade removed a small business card from her pocket, pushing it toward Alpha. “Jet and Lilly’s personal number, should you need to contact them.”
Alpha glanced at it before pushing it off to the side. She motioned to Wylie and Amber.
“Give them whatever they like. It’s on me tonight,” she instructed. Jade, Shae, and Alex got up and followed Wylie and Amber to the door.
“I’ll be at the front desk,” Jade told Isis. Isis nodded and watched as her three teammates disappeared behind the large door. The blasting music invaded the room for a moment, then muted once the door closed again. Isis turned her attention back to Alpha, who still looked toward the door.
“Forced into the life of a protector,” Alpha snorted. “You have my sympathies.”
She got to her feet, calling over her shoulder. “Would you like a drink?”
“No, thank you,” Isis replied, watching as the woman walked over to a drinks cabinet. She opened it up, revealing a multitude of liquors and glasses. The sound of ice clinking against glass soon drifted through the office. Isis bit her bottom lip, wondering if she should speak first. The last thing she wanted to do was say the wrong thing and undo all the progress Jade had made. If her past was anything to go by, it was something Isis was more than capable of doing.
“Forgive me for asking, but are you old money too?” Isis mentioned, looking pointedly at the old pictures on the wall. Alpha glanced over her shoulder, following Isis’ gaze to the pictures, and then turned her attention back to the drink she was making.
“Most shape shifters are,” Alpha answered with a smile, reaching for a square bottle of expensive scotch. “Our kind seems to have a natural aptitude for finances. Most of the leaders of shape shifter factions come from old money. Jet’s lineage has close ties to the guardians, so that helps. Who knows how much money that man has to his name.”
Alpha poured her drink, screwing the top back into the bottle. She turned back to Isis, swirling the amber-colored liquid in the stout glass. Approaching the table again, she sat next to Isis in the seat Shae had been in. Sipping the scotch, Alpha studied the younger woman’s face.
“Is there anything in particular you wanted to talk to me about?” Isis asked when she realized Alpha wasn’t going to speak first. Alpha smiled as she twisted the chair slowly, side to side.
“I got the distinct impression that there was something you wanted to ask me,” Alpha answered. “Something you didn’t want to ask around your friends.”
“I don’t—”
Alpha stopped twisting and leaned forward so that they were inches apart. “Isis, I read people for a living, been doing so for longer than you’ve been alive. You have something you want to ask. Don’t insult me by denying it. Out with it.”
“I don’t know if I should,” Isis said, feeling a little uncomfortable. She didn’t know how much Jet and Lilly would want her revealing about the mysterious Coop. She hadn’t even told the other three what she had found out from Phil.
“Whatever you ask, it stays in this office. You have my word,” Alpha reassured her, leaning back in the chair again. Isis swallowed, trying to figure out how much to reveal to the strange woman.
“Have you ever encountered a patron who wore sunglasses inside, even in the dark, and displayed some kind of … superior strength? Even more than was normal for shape shifters?” she finally asked. Alpha stared at her, blinking a few times.
“Come again?”
“I’m looking for someone I met a long while back. He went by the name Coop. He was tall, brown hair, blue eyes, clean-shaven, and he always wore sunglasses. Even when it was dark out. I first met him in a club, which was dark, and he was wearing sunglasses then too,” she explained. Judging from the bewildered look Alpha was giving her, Isis could tell she hadn’t expected that particular question.
“Was he blind?” Alpha asked, sipping her scotch.
“No,” Isis responded, shaking her head. “There was another man similar to him who was also in the club. He went by the name Dane. I was wondering if anyone like them ever came to your club.”
Alpha was quiet as she continued studying Isis. She took a long sip of her scotch.
“You’re looking for this Coop?” Alpha asked, rattling the ice in her glass.
“You mentioned that we had a mysterious ally at the Obsidian Manor. That was him. He had superior healing capabilities. During the fight, he was shot, in the stomach and shoulder, and grazed as well but he healed almost instantly. My sister told me he was able to punch through guardian glass without breaking his hand,” Isis explained, pausing and frowning. “I think something was done to him, something that might be done to other shape shifters. He indicated there were others who needed his help. If that’s true, I want to help him.”
Alpha sipped her scotch again, a small smile dancing across her lips. “You’ve just found out about shape shifters and already you want to save them?”
Isis shrugged. “Isn’t that what the Four are supposed to do?”
“Yes, I suppose it is,” Alpha said quietly with a soft laugh, looking at her scotch. “I’m afraid I’ve never met this Coop. However, there were a couple shape shifters who came to the Lair wearing sunglasses who demonstrated some d
ifferent…traits than is normal for our kind. The rebels called them ghosts because they moved through the world like shades. We never saw where they came from or where they went. They would come sporadically and they were both very aloof. Neither was big on interaction; kind of lone wolves in a way. We never saw them together and they only came periodically, never a set schedule. One started appearing more than twenty years ago, haven’t seen him for at least a year. He had a very,” Alpha paused, furrowing her brow as she looked into her glass, “interesting ability.”
“Which was?”
Alpha looked up at Isis with a half-smile. “He could affect electricity. Sometimes, sparks shot off the top of his head.”
Isis looked at her skeptically. Alpha put her glass down on the table and rested her fingertips on the rim, slowly twisting the glass around.
“Wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. His unique abilities earned him a nickname among the rebels: Shocker. Not sure where he’s gone off to. He might turn up again eventually.”
“You said there was another one?”
“The other one has only started popping up more recently, within the last five years. We’ve only seen that one twice. Tall, dark hair, blended in a bit better than Shocker. No special abilities that I noticed, not like Shocker’s anyway. The only thing that made him stand out was he moved with an almost boneless grace.”
Alpha stood up. “Of course, that’s not counting the numerous stories that have passed down among rebels for centuries.”
“Stories?” Isis asked, twisting to watch Alpha. She nodded as she went to the window, sipping her scotch.
“There are six recognized shape shifter groups: protectors, rebels, seducers and seductresses, thieves, assassins, and vigilantes. Separatists have never been recognized as a group and were only recently lumped in with assassins,” she explained. “The rebels have long told stories of a seventh, known only as the glowing-eyes.”
“The glowing-eyes?” Isis asked.
“Named for their eyes, which are said to glow like fire in the night. We don’t know much about them, but they are different somehow. Something about the way they move, the way they act. They often turn up around the scenes where shape shifter bodies disappear, usually right before. If the stories are to be believed, they’ve been doing so since that mystery first popped up.”
Alpha walked over to her desk, opening a drawer and pulling out a newspaper. She flipped a few pages in, then folded the paper over, and approached Isis again. She pointed at a black and white picture.
“This is from the opening ceremony of the new bank in town, Grenich,” Alpha explained. “Look in the background, in the shade.”
Isis did, leaning closer and squinting as she tried to see what Alpha was showing her. She remembered that day. The new bank had gone all out for the big celebration in town and many citizens turned out. It was more like a festival than a bank opening, though the good press was probably priceless for Grenich, which Isis heard was doing excellent business.
“I don’t see anything,” she said. Alpha pointed at the paper, directing Isis’ gaze toward a thick oak tree. It took her a minute to see the strange woman, half-hidden behind the trunk. Her gaze was straight at the camera and even though the resolution was shoddy, there was something about her eyes that stood out.
“Could be an ordinary citizen, but some of the rebels are claiming she’s one of the glowing-eyes,” Alpha mused, her own eyes fixed on the picture. “A few rebels were there and claim to have seen her. According to them, she moved with an unnatural ease and no one seemed to notice her. It was as if she were invisible to human eyes. They also told me she had strangely luminous blue eyes, which she kept hidden for the most part. Unfortunately, none of them were able to track her. She was there and then she was gone, as if into thin air. I’d dismiss the story if not for the fact that it matches up with most of the other rebel tales of strange shape shifters.”
Alpha looked contemplative as she took a sip of her scotch and moved back to the towering window in her office. “You know how fairytales were like warnings for children?”
“Yeah.”
“I think our stories were meant to serve a similar purpose.”
Isis frowned. “So what do you think they were meant to warn about?”
Alpha sighed and looked down at her scotch. “About a threat we don’t see, one hiding in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity. The one that has been picking off shape shifters and erasing their existence for millennia. The one the Four is supposed to defeat.”
Isis swallowed, feeling more nervous than she had in a while. Alpha turned away from the window, approaching the table again. The windowpane rattled when a strong wind hit it, more snow splattering against the clean glass.
“Things are often more connected than we realize, Isis,” Alpha stated cryptically. “If you search for this living ghost, I warn you to be wary about what else you might find along the way. Your search will take you to dangerous places and you will be changed. In my experience, shape shifters don’t hide without good reason.”
“It sounds like you know a whole lot more than you’re letting on,” Isis observed. Alpha shrugged nonchalantly, sipping more of her scotch.
“I’m good at reading people, but I’m also very good at reading situations,” she said. “I can tell you’re not one to let questions go unanswered, no matter what the cost. A mystery as old as the vanishing bodies and shape shifters like ghosts … there is something sinister behind it, something ancient. The very worst kind. You probably think you can go at this alone. You can’t. Stay close with your team. You will need their help and they, in turn, will need yours.”
Isis nodded. “Is that all?”
Alpha looked at her. “Is it?”
“Well, thank you for your help,” Isis said, her brow creasing. Alpha grinned and nodded once.
“Do visit again, Isis. You may deny it, but you would make a great rebel,” Alpha mentioned. Isis snickered as she got to her feet.
“It was nice meeting you,” she said politely. “I’m sure Shae will drag me back in the future."
“There are quieter rooms where you can seek refuge,” Alpha reminded her, watching as Isis exited her office and closed the door behind her.
Alpha finished her scotch and went to her desk, dropping down in her chair and putting her feet up on the desk. She opened one of the top drawers, pulling out a small black cell phone. Dialing a number, Alpha pushed off the desk and wheeled over to the large window. As the phone rang, she watched the snowy landscape outside.
“Hello?” the voice of her tenant answered. He sounded tired, as he always did. Alpha watched snowflakes drift around in the dark winter’s night. She wondered how much snow would fall.
“The Four were here, negotiating on Jet and Lilly’s behalf,” Alpha said.
“Odd. I thought they would’ve sent Sly, given your relationship,” the man responded, coughing once. Alpha wondered if he had been sleeping.
“Sly’s taking a temporary leave from her informant duties,” Alpha said, pausing. “I met Isis. I fear for that one. She is still looking for Coop and she isn’t one to give up.”
“Didn’t you dissuade her?” the man asked.
“Tried to, but like I said: she’s not one to give up. Can’t tell whether that comes from her mother’s side or her father’s,” Alpha replied with a small smile, twisting her chair side-to-side. It was not in her nature to dissuade people from searching for answers. The man sighed and Alpha could practically hear him rubbing his face in irritation.
“Gotta say, doc, your plan isn’t going all that well,” she mentioned.
“They’ve got the fake Key and they’ve got Isis,” the man replied. “We just have to make sure it stays that way.”
“If you say so,” Alpha humored him, wheeling back to her desk. “I still don’t know how you plan to accomplish whatever you’re planning without Coop or Roan.”
“With some preparation and a
little luck,” the man responded. “Goodnight, Alpha.”
Alpha disconnected the call, holding her phone in both hands and resting it against her chin. She noticed four dark shapes exit the Lair and watched as they disappeared in the cluster of trees. Tilting back in her chair and turning her face to the ceiling, Alpha closed her eyes. The lights flickered once as the wind continued blowing outside.
*~*~*~*~*
The next night, a red Porsche pulled up the winding secret path leading to the mansion, followed closely by a silver Jaguar. Freshly fallen snow crunched softly under the wheels of the vehicles. The cars stopped at the gate. The window of the Porsche rolled down and a hand pulled open the box before pressing against the handprint scanner. The light traveled down the large hand, beeping as it changed from blue to green, and the gate started to swing open.
The cars eased up the winding driveway, only stopping when they reached the garage door. The passenger side door on the silver Jaguar opened as a shorter man with black hair and an attractive face exited. He hurried over to the door, quietly cursing the frigid winds that swept over the grounds, and searched for the security system box on the side of the door. He quickly found it and entered a code. Inside the garage, a light clicked on as the doors rolled open.
The man bounced from one foot to the other, hands jammed in his pockets as he watched the cars pull into the garage. He followed them in and closed the garage door from the inside. The cars parked side-by-side in two empty spots, the same ones they always parked in on the rare occasions they visited the mansion. Three men got out of the Porsche and the driver exited the Jaguar.
“Ajax, you drive like a geriatric human,” the man who had opened the garage door grumbled as he moved to help with the small amount of luggage the group had brought. Ajax glanced over at his younger brother.
“What are you going on about now, Nero?” Ajax asked pleasantly, straightening his coat. He bent over and reached into the small back seat of the Porsche, grabbing one of the bags.
“I’m freezing my fucking balls off in this damn cold and you snail crawl into the garage,” Nero groused, rubbing his hands together vigorously and blowing into them.
Through Storm and Night (The Shape Shifter Chronicles Book 2) Page 9