20 Shades of Shifters: A Paranormal Romance Collection

by Demelza Carlton

  The GPS was telling me to go to Ellis Island.

  There was a bridge. I could see it through the trees; it was narrow, almost dangerously so, but mostly designed for vehicles with only one lane. The whole thing was awfully exposed. A metal barricade blocked the path, but the toll booth to the right of the bridge looked empty. If nobody was watching, I could easily hop that barricade.

  “Coming here is dumb,” cautioned Asmodeus, his tail lashing against my neck underneath my hoodie. “Ellis Island is a huge tourist trap. There are going to be people everywhere. Cameras. Guards. This is a not a good idea.”

  “Trying to kill the Morning Star was also not a good idea,” I said, taking a deep breath and steeling my nerves. “Apparently I’m full of them.”

  “You’re full of something,” muttered Asmodeus, but to his credit, he seemed to accept what was happening, albeit begrudgingly. “Best be quick. The infrastructure in New Jersey is pretty old…the cameras won’t see well in the dark, especially fast movement. So if you’re going to do this, you better do it quick.”

  A brief white flash on Ellis Island, followed by the distant crack of a gunshot, banished any hesitation. I burst forward, breaking into a run once more, drawing energy into my legs and leaping into the air.

  For a second I felt like I was floating. Drifting over the metal barricade and onto the narrow single-lane bridge across to Ellis Island.

  Then I realised I wasn’t straight. I was going to land in the water.

  I tried to focus, to bring out my wings, but I misjudged it; I came down hard on the railing, the metal beam knocking the wind out of me. Fortunately I hung on, dragging myself over the top and onto the other side, flopping down on the concrete like a stunned fish.

  Another crack from Ellis Island forced adrenaline into my system. I couldn’t wait here. I couldn’t just lay here while Gabe and the nephilim fought each other on the island. Groaning in pain, I dragged myself up to my feet, and I kicked off my shoes so I didn’t leave them behind. With that task complete I stumbled down the long bridge, keeping my eyes up and focused on the building at the other end. Some kind of tourist reception area…I couldn’t see it from this distance, but I made for it anyway.

  Another barrier stood in my way, this one a portable one made of concrete blocks and mesh fencing wire, but I—a lot more carefully this time—jumped that one too. My wings came fully out, once more ripping another perfectly good shirt to shreds, but having them there helped me land perfectly on the other side. Now I was in some kind of car park.

  The flash I’d seen hadn’t come from here, it had been further toward the rear. I sprinted left, following the water’s edge around past a pier on my left and buildings on my right, around and then swinging right again, down toward an open garden ringed in trees.

  Another white flash. Another crack. With a start I realised I wasn’t hearing gunshots. At the centre of the garden I could see people; and I could see the source of the noise, too.

  It was a whip, held in Juliet’s massive, oversized hand.

  Gabe was strapped to a cross, back exposed, and she was whipping him with the skill and precision of someone who had done it thousands of times before. She put her whole body into it, striking with her hips and shoulders. Each lash was met with a bright, painful looking flash.

  He didn’t yell. He didn’t cry. He just stood there, back exposed, teeth gritted, taking blow after blow after blow.

  “We shouldn’t be here,” whispered Asmodeus. “You cannot beat her. She will keep coming and coming. If you defeat her now, then what? A day later, a month, a year…she will find him again and keep going right where she left off, without pause. Whatever deal he has agreed to, you have to let him see it out.”

  I didn’t accept that. I wouldn’t accept that. I knew I might not be able to beat her, but I could delay her. “She can’t be killed, right?” I asked, grimacing as another crack went across Gabe’s back.

  “That’s right.”

  “But she can be, say…imprisoned, yes?”

  “Right,” said Asmodeus. “What, are you a sexy cop now?”

  “Not exactly,” I said, letting my eyes drift to the heavy steel railing. “I got a plan.”

  The Beatings Will Continue

  Until Morale Improves

  Ellis Island

  Jersey City

  New Jersey

  I stepped out into the open, out from the meagre cover of the trees and up a slight incline until I was exposed and in the open.

  “Well well well,” I said, reaching up and pulling back my hoodie. “Fancy seeing you here.”

  Juliet turned to face me, and for a brief moment, I swore I saw a flicker of anger cross her emotionless features. “Lady Grace,” she intoned, her shoulders turning to follow her eyes, followed by her whole body. I had her attention. “You are a wanted criminal.”

  “Glad to see one of you wants me,” I said, smirking just a tad. Couldn’t help myself. “

  “Your friend, Lord Gabriel, has come to make a sacrifice on your behalf.” Her grip on the whip tightened visibly. “I entrust you are not here to dishonour this sacrifice…nor renege on it on his behalf.”

  I dropped my hip slightly, tilting my head as though considering a greatly important matter. “Do you really care if I do?” I asked, whimsically. “I mean, Gabe didn’t consult me about any deal he might have made, and I certainly don’t remember signing anything, so…I’m pretty sure that the various forces at play here will consider whatever agreement you’ve made invalid.”

  “What the hell are you doing?” shouted Gabe, struggling for a moment against his bindings. “You’re ruining it all!”

  Oh, what a stupid, stupidly attractive, dumb celestial. I ignored him, smiling ever so sweetly at Juliet. “Tell me, friend, did you ever go peeling the banana with Gabe, back when you two were dating?”

  The question seemed to confuse her. “We…did not peel any bananas,” she intoned. “Nor were we dating. The situation was—”

  “Complex,” I finished for her. “Oh, I get it. Believe me.”

  Juliet’s expression seemed to harden. “This conversation is inane and serves no purpose.”

  “Just like yo mamma!” I beamed like that was the best joke in the world because it totally was. “Buuuurn.”

  “Burn?” asked Juliet, her hands suddenly crackling with white energy. “Is that what you want to do, demon?”

  “No, Grace!” shouted Gabe, kicking and fighting uselessly. “Don’t do it!”

  Oh, so melodramatic. I leaned forward a little, sliding my foot forward. “Hey Juliet,” I said. “Gabe told me you two used to do butt stuff! Is that true?”

  If looks could kill, Juliet’s glare would have burned a hole in my chest and blasted away half of Jersey City. “We were not dating,” she hissed, her tongue sparking with electrical power. “We—”

  “Arr, me hearties,” I called, putting on my best pirate voice. “Get yeself all lubed up and proper, ye scurvy land lubber, for the good ship USS Gabe be sailing into your harbour ready to plunder ye booty!”

  “I will enjoy destroying you,” said Juliet, snapping her whip and advancing toward me, the length of it crackling with power.

  “Just like Gabe’s angel dick destroyed your butthole?” I said, snickering quietly and taking a step backward, slapping my rump to empathise the point. Okay. I just needed to get her to chase me…

  It turns out I had probably overdone it. Maybe the taunting about her sexual escapades, alleged or otherwise, was too much. Juliet leapt forward like a hunting cat, sprinting right at me, her whip lashing around like an angry snake.

  Time to move. I ran back toward the tree line. It wasn’t enough to hide in, but I weaved in and out of the trees, dodging between them, and heading back toward the water’s edge. The snapping of Juliet’s whip followed me, her expressionless face showing only the faintest ghost of anger.

  I extended my wings, leaping over the water and taking flight, flapping up thirty or forty
feet, watching that bright line of Juliet’s whip drag across the ground. I knew she was going to leap. I was ready for it. Any second now…

  There it was. Predictable. Juliet leapt into the air, her legs elongating weirdly into fleshy springs, her lightning whip arching back, ready to strike.

  Unfortunately, without wings, she had no way of guiding herself. I moved out of the way, lazily drifting out away from her strike, waiting for her to fall past me and into the water. Such an easy trap.

  Juliet’s arm extended into a spring just like her legs had done, growing to an unnatural length, the whip reaching out for me, little tiny bolts of energy sparking from the tip. It grew and grew, far too quickly for me to avoid it.

  In retrospect I should have seen that coming.

  The whip lashed around my ankle, snapping against my skin and discharging a powerful bolt of lightning directly into my body. My wings, arms and legs spasmed wildly, flailing around like I was trying to dance to some unheard beat, and pain—searing waves of agony that truly felt like fire underneath my skin—leapt along my whole body, burning me right down to my bones in a way I’d never, ever felt before.

  I tilted toward the ocean and began to tumble.

  Mistakes Were Made

  Ellis Island

  Jersey City

  New Jersey

  That lightning whip hurt so damn much.

  I kicked my foot, trying to dislodge the thing. It was wrapped around me pretty tight and, despite instinctively beating my wings, I felt myself falling. Juliet dangled below me, swinging wildly around as she tried to bring me down with her, to crash into the water where I presumed nothing good was going to happen to me.

  Gritting my teeth through the pain, I brought my leg up and, with shaking fingers, grabbed hold of the whip’s tip. All I had to do was tear it off me, and—

  Juliet yanked downward, beginning to climb up the whip, her hands growing out like weird long tentacle things. She scrambled up the length of it, each pull dragging me back down. Dammit…I needed to get her off me. She was dragging me down.

  I hooked my fingers up under the whip and, with a roar, tore it free.

  Right as Juliet’s hand grabbed hold of mine.

  Another powerful jolt of energy jumped into me, but I was accustomed to the pain by now. I flapped my wings as hard as I could, violently shaking my arm from side to side, trying to throw her off. Her fingers wrapped around my hand, sealing the grip, and her legs curled around my waist, thick and rubbery, tying themselves around and around behind my back.

  Yeah, this was bad. Claws and horns slid out of my skin. I should have extended them earlier but I hadn’t anticipated this going this way. I’d gotten cocky, overconfident, and now I was paying the price.

  “What did you think you could do?” asked Juliet, hissing loudly in my face, her plastic robot-smile widening in triumph. “You thought you could fight me, that which scares the celestial realms, and win?”

  I head-butted her, driving my horns through her plastic face, cracking and breaking it. The damage didn’t even seem to bother her, even as her face splintered into dozens of broken shards, my horns stuck through her forehead.

  “Are you unaware,” said Juliet, her shattered face still somehow able to talk and move and form words, her lips barely an inch from mine, “of how many demons and celestials the Nephilim Establishment eliminates every century? Hundreds. One a year on average.” She shocked me again, pumping waves of burning energy into my body. “You are nothing to me but another statistics. Another victory for my belt. You will be destroyed, the mortal realm will be preserved, and you will no longer be a problem to mortals…or to anyone.”

  Dammit. I yanked my horns free, trashing and kicking and struggling, all to no avail. I couldn’t get Juliet off me. Try as I might, she was stuck to me like glue.

  And then she began to squeeze. To crush the air out of me, to strangle me. Every breath I took, she tightened her grip, giving me less room to inhale.

  “This,” I wheezed, digging my claws into her shoulders. “Is kind of…lewd.”

  “Die,” is all she said, giving me another shock.

  I waited for salvation. I waited for deliverance. I waited to be saved by some power.

  It didn’t happen. My vision swam, and dots danced in front of my eyes.

  With no strength left in my wings, I plummeted down and splashed into the water, into the cold and black.

  Water, Bad!

  Ellis Island

  Jersey City

  New Jersey

  The dark water engulfed me, drenching me to the bone with freezing, light-less cold. Juliet continued to crush me like some kind of humanoid snake, her limbs squeezing the life out of me, her weight dragging me down into the cold and the black.

  Demons were tough. Demons resisted cold and heat and injury, but we still breathed. We drowned. A fact I was acutely aware of. My wings made it hard to swim.

  Panic started to set in. I clawed madly at Juliet’s shoulders and forearms, trying to pry her off me, my razor sharp talons dragging deep gouges in her rubbery flesh. Deeper and deeper they worked, tearing through flesh and finding no bones. No structure beneath. Just rubber.

  In my half-drowned, panicked state, an idea flashed into my brain. Less of a concrete plan and more a wild impulse. If she had no bones, no structure, then…what was keeping her together?

  Nothing. That was what. She was flesh and blood and that was it. And that was something I could use.

  In a frenzy I arched my back and dug into her, wiggling my claws into her shoulder, and then I strained every muscle in my body and tore her arm straight off.

  Through the darkness I couldn’t see the black blood pour from the wound, but I smelt it, rich and pungent, as it flowed into my nose. I kicked and struggled, wiggling free of the injured—or was it damaged?—nephilim, letting her removed limb fall away to the bottom of the bay.

  Air.

  I needed air. Which way was up? I could barely see. I could barely think.

  Bubbles drifted up from my mouth and I followed them. Feebly, I struggled up to the surface, gasping out loud as my head broke clear. Out, in, out, in. I sucked down air, clearing the spots in front of my eyes and breathing air into my body and life into my limbs.

  A hand grabbed my foot, pulling me back under. I kicked at it instinctively and, fortunately, it came free. Fear empowered me once more. I surfaced again, gasping in a few more gulps of air, then swam toward Ellis Island as fast as I could, my arms powering through the water. With shaking hands I grabbed hold of the steel railing and tested it. It was loose.

  Perfect.

  I wiggled underneath it, careful not to put too much weight on the metal, and dragged myself up onto the surface. I crawled on the ground, my wings hanging limply beside me. I spat out a mouthful of water, sucking in air as fast as I could.

  Juliet rose from the water, blood pouring down her shoulder from the vicious wound I had inflicted upon her, her legs giant stilts and her left arm held comfortably in her right. She attached it back to her shoulder with casual nonchalance, the limb re-joining with a sickening slurp.

  “I told you that you could not defeat me,” she said, taking a slow step toward me, sloshing through the water. “What was your thinking? Did you think you could hold me under the water, drown me, vanquish me with such a mundane power?”

  “No,” I said, flopping onto my back and grinning up at her. “I just needed to keep you busy for a little while. Until Asmodeus could free Gabe.”

  Juliet’s eyes flicked to the cross, where she had left Gabe tied up. It was empty. Just as we’d planned.

  She turned back to me, snorting dismissively. “You think this is any kind of inconvenience to me?” She held out her hand, stretching it out and snatching up the whip that was floating in the water. The device light up with a bright white crackle the moment she touched it. “You will take his place on the wood, demon, and it will be your turn to be beaten.”

  “I thought you wer
e going to kill me,” I said, flicking my wet bangs out of my eyes. “Can’t imagine that’s any part of my…what did you call it? My sentence?”

  “It is a common misconception that the nephilim do not receive pleasure or enjoy things,” she said, standing on the edge of the water, looming over me like the damn Marshmallow Man from Ghost Busters. “Of course there is nothing in my duties that means I cannot enjoy hurting you before I dispatch you.” Her eyes narrowed ominously. “Believe me, demon, we are allowed to have fun.”

  “Oh, I’m sure,” I said, pushing myself up onto my elbows, coughing wetly. “That’s why you loved having Gabe knock on your back door, mmm?”

  The taunting was obviously having an effect. Her broken face split further. “You think this will help you in any way, demon? How? What does your taunting…do?”

  “Nothing,” I said, coughing again. “But it gives Gabe time to get his gun.”

  I waited. Juliet waited. Nothing happened. She just stood there, water dripping down from her body and elongated limbs, as the distant, faint sounds of New York and New Jersey drifted toward me through the cold, night air.

  “Obviously not,” I muttered.

  Juliet raised her massive fists, ready to crush me. I had no strength to fight, no endurance left to flee. So I waited for the end to come.

  Just Shoot Her!

  Ellis Island

  Jersey City

  New Jersey

  I waited to get crushed.

  Juliet’s fists loomed higher and higher, the moonlight reflecting off the water. Higher and higher. Oh, this was going to hurt…

  Crack. A golden ray of light slammed into Juliet’s chest as Gabe’s pistol opened up. A volley of shots splashed into her chest, blasting her down to her knees in the water. I knew she wouldn’t stay down, though, but hopefully Asmodeus had taken care of that.