Shifting Darkness

by Kate Wendley

  “You trust them though?”

  “So far they’ve been highly detailed and highly accurate. And Echo has always had trustworthy visions. She agrees that something’s wrong with Penny tonight.”

  Suzanne looked ready to go bust some balls.

  “So what do we do?”

  **

  Anthony went back downstairs to ask Frederick if he wanted to join Suzanne and Vince to find Penny. Frederick was coyote and the pack should be there for each other. He heard movement in the bedroom and found Kaia just slipping back under the covers.

  “My sweet, you should be sleeping.”

  “I wanted some water. What’s wrong?”

  He sat down next to her and smirked. “How is it you can always tell when something’s wrong?”

  “Because I know you.”

  He helped tuck her back in again. “Vince’s girlfriend is missing. He’s going with Suzanne and Frederick and some others to try to find her.”

  Her eyes went wide. “You should go, too.”

  “This is shifter business. Vampires shouldn’t interfere with that.”

  “But Vince is your friend.”

  How he’d accumulated another friend, he wasn’t sure. Or if Vince even thought of him as one.

  “You don’t have to interfere, but you could go and make sure nothing bad happens to anyone, right?”

  He had a feeling he’d regret this, but he said, “For you.”

  “For your friends.”

  He smiled at her tenacity as she pushed him away. “Go. And call Benicio. Take him with.”

  “Why Benicio?”

  “They’re friends, too.”

  “How do you know so much?”

  With a coy smile she said, “I pay attention. Now go find her.” He chuckled when she patted him on the behind as he left her side.

  **

  Vince anxiously waited in front of the buildings where everyone was gathering. Zach, Sebastian, Torin, Suzanne, Ed, Penny’s parents, and others were here looking just as worried as he was.

  And up the driveway came Min-chul.

  “What the hell are you doing here?”

  He flicked a look at Ed before he said, “Zach and your mother both told me your girlfriend was missing. I was nearby for some business so I came as quickly as I could.”

  “You bastard! This has something to do with your family finding out about me?”

  Min-chul’s expression was terse. “I don’t know. I’m here to find out.”

  Vince was too worried about Penny to deal with his father right now, let alone thinking about him being here to actually help.

  Zach thankfully stepped between them. “We don’t know what’s going on, Vince. All we have are a couple premonitions, and no one able to find Penny.”

  When Benicio strode out the front door and headed for their group with a confused frown on his face, his worry only intensified.

  Anthony joined them moments later. “We should get going. It’s going to take some time to get there. We’ll talk on the road.”

  Zach said, “You’re sure she’s in Waleska?”

  “Echo confirmed it.”

  Penny’s mom sobbed, “What else did she confirm?”

  “That she’s alive, ma’am. We need to go. Now.”

  **

  Anthony gestured for Benicio to join him. “Ride with me please. We’ll meet the others there.”

  “Yes Master.”

  Anthony mentally sighed as he made his way through the garage to his car. He actually liked and respected Benicio as a person, so the master-servant routine bothered him. Once he saw his gleaming, imperial blue BMW M5, though, his mood perked up. He didn’t get a lot of opportunities to take it for a long drive. Now that he’d agreed to go, he was looking forward to getting out.

  Benicio gave him a strange look once they were settled inside, and Anthony realized he was smiling. “I enjoy driving. With my responsibilities, I don’t get a chance to go for a spin as often as I’d like.”

  Benicio inclined his head and sat back for the ride.

  Anthony said, “We’re going to help Vince and the others find Penny.”

  “Do you know what happened to her?”

  He gave him a look, then said, “I didn’t tell the others but Echo thinks Penny was kidnapped, and it has something to do with the shifters embezzling money.”

  Benicio got a knowing look on his face, and a troubling feeling settled in Anthony’s gut.

  “Do you know something about it?”

  Benicio held his gaze a little too long. “Nothing specific, Master. The wolves−”

  “Anthony.”

  “Sorry?”

  “Please call me Anthony. Master has never sat well with me when in the company of friends.”

  Benicio stared at him for a long time, then finally smiled. “Anthony it is.”

  “You were telling me about the wolves?”

  “Can I be honest with you, sir? I mean, Anthony?”

  He gave him a sideways glance. “I’d prefer if you were.”

  “I don’t presume to know what’s best for the family, but I think the situation with the shifters, or maybe just the wolves, is getting out of control.”

  He didn’t like the sound of this, and his tone betrayed his growing anger. “What do you mean?”

  Benicio shifted in his seat, looking unsure of his earlier welcome. Regardless, he continued. “If I can provide a somewhat similar comparison… I wasn’t in your family yet back when Echo and the others joined, but I heard about the time some shifters attacked you and Echo, in your own home. And then the aftermath of learning about the others who were also against having vampires in the family. I believe the rumors were that you kicked some shifters out for good.”

  Anthony clenched his jaw. He remembered that very well. They had religious zealots in the family and they took the opportunity to go after Echo and himself early one morning. Anthony protected Echo and got staked three times in the process. Luckily no one hit his heart, but that didn’t mean they didn’t do a lot of damage. The next night they rooted out even more shifters who basically hated what the family had become by accepting more and more vampires into the fold. They sent the bigoted shifters on their way because the family was for acceptance and refuge, no matter what your supernatural race was.

  “You think the vampires are in danger again?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know. What I do know is that there are a lot of shifters that don’t know how good they truly have it. I know some wolves were just fired from the wolf office, but there were already a lot of secret alliances and mistrust in the family. There’s always been a little bit of that, but in the last few months it’s exploded.”

  He stared at the road while that rolled around in his head. He’d discovered the embezzlement many months ago, but it was only when Torin and Sebastian finally made amends that he felt like he could pass the problem to them to deal with. Figuring out who was benefiting from the embezzlement was like opening a can of worms, and they were still trying to get to the bottom of it.

  But the vampires never wanted to be accused of interfering with wolf business. It was a delicate situation of needing to always seem neutral because they relied on shifters too much while they were vulnerable during the day. They couldn’t afford to get pulled into their petty squabbles, but this was bigger than a petty squabble.

  “You think we need to clean house again?” They’d fired many wolves from their well paid jobs, but they hadn’t gone so far as to kick them out of the family, which would hurt them in many, many ways. They’d effectively be loners, forced to fend for themselves if push came to shove, and push always came to shove with supernatural creatures. All that power was hard for many to keep contained.

  Benicio took his time answering, and when he did, he tiptoed around his thoughts. “I’d never presume to tell a Master how to run his family.”

  Anthony sighed irritably.

  Benicio more firmly said, “You need to clean hous
e, Anthony. People rely on you. Good, honest, hard-working people. Vampire and shifter both. They look to you to keep them safe and to let them live as normal of a life as they can. Right now we’ve got too many greedy people that are threatening the safety and security of our entire community.”

  “And you think it’s limited to the shifters?”

  “There are vampires that’d like to be their own master, but they weren’t involved in the wolf office embezzlement, at least not that I’ve heard. And the vampires that were involved with the attempt on your life recently are all being watched pretty carefully by the rest of us. They know they can go loner if they want, but we’re all smart enough to know that’s not a good idea. They might not like having to answer to a master, but they know things could be a lot worse on their own. In my opinion, you should focus on the shifters.”

  The rest of the drive wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as he’d been hoping for while the ramifications of ‘cleaning house’ ran through his head.

  Chapter 28

  Penny tried to keep calm, but her hands shook in anxiousness as she worked on configuring the security cameras for these crackpots. Darius and some wolves had already installed the cameras, but they couldn’t figure out how to get them to actually turn on, let alone record footage.

  She wished she’d figured out a way to escape on the drive here, but Darius had thought this kidnapping through. He pulled a gun on her, and it wasn’t hard to smell the silver bullets in it.

  “Try to take off and we’ll see how good I am at hitting a moving target in a live scenario. In class simulations, I never miss. Ever.” The creepy, no nonsense look in his eyes, and the fact that she’d been to some of those classes with him scared the crap out her. She’d seen how good a shot he was and knew she wasn’t in the kind of shape she’d need to be to outrun him.

  And now she was in the basement of a huge house full of people that didn’t care that she was here against her will. She had no idea how the hell she was going to get out of this mess.

  “What happens to me once I get your system up and running?”

  “You’ll be let go. Now get it working.”

  Right. She didn’t believe him, but she’d also never seen him be violent. Tonight was the closest she’d ever come to seeing him lose his temper, which was a damned creepy thing. He didn’t have a whole lot of emotions, and the ones he had were always… off.

  If only the bullets weren’t silver. She could probably live with getting shot. It’d hurt, but she was a shifter so she knew she’d heal. Silver was another story, though. That was like looking death in the face. One shot and who knew how long it’d take to die from it poisoning both her and her coyote. She didn’t understand what it was about silver and shifter magic, but it was no joke. In their hidden community they’d had fights, and occasionally torture or outright murder, but when silver was involved, it was always worse. It freaked everyone out because they were used to being powerful and able to heal from just about anything. They didn’t like to think about the one simple thing that could take them down without a fight.

  So she did what he asked, hoping she could figure something out eventually. She didn’t have high hopes, though. She hadn’t gotten much of a message to Suzanne before Darius threw her phone out the window, and this huge house looked like it was stocked for a siege.

  A chill crept up her spine. These people were doing this for real, as if the Armageddon was going to happen soon, and Darius seemed completely in his element. And when she’d been forced down to this basement, Darius’ thick necked friend waited for them at the bottom of the stairs with a smug, evil look on his face.

  She’d tried to play off her fear with a joke. “You know, they have tech support for this kind of thing. You don’t have to kidnap people to set up a security system.”

  “Shut up and move.”

  She mumbled, “I’m just saying.”

  His rock hard fist slammed into her face and sent her to the ground. She shook her head as stars screwed up her vision and took a second to clear. When she looked back up, the thick necked guy was standing over her sneering.

  “You’ll talk when we tell you to talk sweetheart. Got it?”

  A thousand comebacks came to mind, but she bit her tongue as her face throbbed. This guy was pure muscle and could royally fuck her up. And since Darius seemed to have gone off the deep end, and the other shifters here didn’t mind this jackass hitting her, she was on her own.

  She let them yank her to her feet and kept her mouth shut as she looked desperately around for anything that could help her out of this mess. When they shoved her into another room and towards a chair in front of a computer, the first light of hope popped into her head. If this thing was connected to the internet and she could get them to stop watching over her…

  She set to work configuring the cameras while she waited for her chance. Even though these guys knew how to be brutes, and shoot guns, and stock up with food and weapons, they didn’t seem extremely skilled at technology. Here was hoping she could sneak a message out when they weren’t so focused on her. Except they were entirely focused on her because they wanted this system up and running. Shit!

  She did her best trying to figure out where they’d ended up with their set up, and when a snowy image appeared on one of the monitors, she worried she still couldn’t figure it out until she realized it was actually snowing outside. Another monitor popped up with an image of light snow falling on a pile of cut wood, then several other images at different angles around the house popped up in tiles across the screen as well.

  “Make it record.”

  She almost bitched back at Darius and the thick necked wolf, but more wolves had joined them, and since she didn’t exactly like being punched, she kept her mouth shut. She poked around at the programming, going back and forth with the user manual, and finally got one of the cameras to start recording only to have another two go down. “Crap.”

  She got a smack upside the head from thick neck guy, who she’d learned was named Quinn. She glared at him and he sneered a creepy smile at her. “That was just because. Now fix it.”

  Darius seemed oblivious as he pecked away at his own computer, so trying to get his sympathy was a lost cause. He’d never been all there emotionally, anyway, and tonight looked like he could care less about something as silly as making sure she was kept safe and sound after doing what he’d brought her here for. Damn him… and damn her for getting into his car in the first place. Stupid stupid stupid. If only Vince and her hadn’t been fighting, she wouldn’t have even been out there.

  She flicked one more look at creepy Quinn, who seemed to be doing his best to undress her with his eyes, then bitterly focused back on her own computer. Feeling sorry for herself wasn’t going to get her out of this mess so she needed to keep her head together. Darius was so distracted right now… if only Quinn and the others would go away for just a few minutes. Just long enough to get a message out.

  It was over an hour later before everything seemed to be working right with the cameras and she still hadn’t been able to do anything to help herself. She was frustrated, angry, and knew she was on the losing end of whatever was happening out here. And anytime she strayed from what they asked her to do, Quinn was only too happy to remind her what his fist felt like.

  So she did was she was told to do. Darius controlled flood lights around the house through his computer, much to the delight of an old wolf named Miles, and she was able to get some bright images as he turned the lights on and off. Now they needed to run a few more tests to make sure the recording function was still working right.

  “Turn off the lights and see what we can make out.”

  Another hour went by as they recorded various shifters walking around to test the equipment. A quiet alarm eventually went off and everyone scrambled back into the house, a group converging around her and the monitors. She frantically wondered what was going on, then went still at the scene of the driveway that Quinn, Darius, and the others w
ere scowling over.

  Relief and renewed determination poured through her. Anthony, Zach, Suzanne, Sebastian and others were here. Thank God.

  **

  Vince lingered behind Anthony and the alphas as their whole group walked cautiously down the long driveway.

  Zach quietly said, “You sure she’s here?”

  Suzanne angrily snapped, “She’s here. I can feel her.”

  The gentle snowfall muffled sounds all around them, making the quiet night even quieter as they edged closer to the house. It was a two story brick home with plenty of room inside, from the looks of things.

  “What’s with all the crosses?”

  Large and wooden, they hung at regular intervals all along the front of the house. They traded some looks of confusion, but kept going.

  After a few more feet, Zach said in a hushed tone, “Oh God. And what’s that smell? Garlic?”

  A loud pop sounded and the front yard was awash in blinding lights. Benicio fell to his knees screaming as smoke quickly rose from his body.

  “UV lights!” Min-chul raced for a bed of rocks and started hurling them towards the industrial sized lamps, everyone frantically running around to help him. Vince was just about to grab Benicio to haul him away from the lights when he burst into flames, howling in horrific agony.

  “Benicio!”

  A floodlight exploded in a shower of sparks and went dim, but there were too many still blazing brightly all around them.

  “Someone help me!” Vince slipped out of his jacket and used it to slap at the flames consuming his friend. It didn’t seem to be doing much good because Benicio was completely engulfed by this point. Smoke burned at Vince’s eyes and the heat of the flames made his skin burn, but he couldn’t just stand by and watch him die like this.

  Another light exploded with a loud bang, bringing the artificial brightness down a notch. Benicio was still engulfed in flames, though, and Vince didn’t know what to do. He spared a desperate look around himself and froze at the sight of Anthony.

  He stood facing the house with his arms outstretched, smoke rising from his body, and electricity sparking from every one of his fingertips. Energy buzzed and snapped around him, and everyone in their group kept plenty of distance away from him.