Deep River Shifters 4 Book Box Set

by Lisa Daniels

  “No, you are not getting out of that bed again. Not unless you need to use the restroom…” His brow furrowed as he looked at her. “Actually, I’m not sure you are well enough to be in there by yourself. I don’t want things to get worse because you fall down in there. Most accidents—”

  “Happen in the bathroom. I know. I'm sure I will be fine, but if not, I give you full permission to assist while I need it.”

  Silas scratched his head. “Okay. I guess it wouldn’t be a first for me. I’ve been there for Cora while she was ill. I can’t imagine that you will be anything like as bad as that.”

  “I am human, you know.” It was something that Naomi had meant to say flippantly, but it was no sooner out of her mouth than she realized that it had a whole new meaning.

  Silas smiled at her uncertainly.

  Waving her hands in the air, Naomi tried to explain, “I mean, even shifters probably have rough days and illness. All people do. Cora can’t be that different from me.” She frowned. “Do you get sick?”

  “Of course. Just not the same kinds of things as humans.”

  “Soooo,” Naomi began to fidget, “a shifter, huh? Is that why you healed so quickly?”

  Silas forced a smile on his face.

  Naomi’s mouth hitched up in a half smile. “Now that must be useful. If I could do that, you wouldn’t have to fuss over me, and I wouldn’t have to feel embarrassed about being so fragile.”

  A sincerer smile spread across Silas’ face. “You are just fine the way you are. I wouldn’t change anything.”

  Naomi’s shoulders went up. It was the kind of thing Jamie used to say, but he always followed it up with a request for her to use her skills on his behalf. Silas didn't say anything else, and she wasn’t quite sure how to deal with it.

  Then her stomach growled.

  “Nausea or hunger?” He was smiling at her.

  “Hunger. I think.” She bit her lip. “Having trouble telling.”

  “Well, if I go get you food, that means leaving you alone. Will you be alright?”

  Naomi looked at him over her glasses. “Actually, if it isn’t too much trouble, would you mind carrying me down?” He looked surprised by the request. “I don’t think I feel comfortable here on my own.”

  “Sure.” He stood up and lifted her off of the bed. She leaned her head against his chest. “Sorry, did I pick you up a little too fast?”

  Naomi almost said no, but then she realized that he thought she must be feeling lightheaded. “It’s okay. You are quite comfortable.”

  She felt the rumble in his chest as he laughed. He chatted a bit as he carried her down the hallway. Naomi enjoyed listening to his voice as she pressed a little bit closer against his warmth.

  Chapter 8

  A Few Days of Peace

  The rest of that night went by with very little excitement. Considering how much had happened, Naomi felt entirely comfortable relaxing and recovering. Her head stopped hurting so much within a day. She helped Silas check her eyes for a mild concussion, which she seemed to have. He helped her with basics for the first day. By the second day, she almost felt normal.

  Silas had allowed her to check the wound. To her surprise, it still looked a lot like it had when she had first seen it.

  “Why isn’t it getting any better?”

  “I haven’t shifted. I can only recover quickly in the other form.”

  “Why haven’t you shifted so that you could get better then?”

  He frowned, then looked away. “I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

  “Do you not have control over yourself when you are a bear?”

  The question seemed to offend him. “I have as much control as a bear as when I look human.”

  She smiled, “Then how could you make me uncomfortable?”

  He looked a little taken aback by the response. “Well, it isn’t every day—humans don’t usually—”

  Finally, he just scratched his head. “You don’t mind having a huge polar bear lumbering around?”

  “I like this form better, but you are quite soft. For a polar bear.” Suddenly something from her first night at his place clicked. “Oh my God, I thought you had a huge stuffed polar bear!” She started to laugh out loud, “I was petting you, wasn’t I?” Suddenly she stopped as that sank in. “Oh my God! I am so sorry. I didn’t mean—” Her face flushed.

  She noticed that Silas’ cheeks turned a slight pink. “It’s okay. I figured you weren’t awake enough to know what you were doing. And trying to get you to stop would probably be pretty terrifying, especially since you were so drunk.”

  “Still, that was…” Naomi stopped herself before saying that it was intimate, thinking it would probably make the somewhat awkward conversation a little worse. Clearing her throat, she decided to change the subject. “So, you found a comm device, but you didn’t tell me what they said.”

  Silas folded his arms across his solid chest, and Naomi had a difficult time focusing on his words. Her mind began to imagine the way the muscles rippled under the fabric. As soon as she realized that he was answering her question, she snapped her gaze up to his face. “… so it will be another day or two before anyone can get here.”

  “Sorry, I must have spaced out. I thought that Alaric was going to be joining them while you were gone.”

  Silas gave her a worried look, “Do you feel alright? Maybe you should lie down.”

  Naomi shook her head a little too vigorously, “No, no, no, I just asked the question as part of a series of thoughts and my brain kept going instead of waiting for an answer.”

  He tilted his head to the side, but repeated what he had said. “Once my cover was blown, they would have known that Alaric wasn’t one of them either. When I didn’t come back, they knew that things had gone sideways, so they waited for me to check in before doing anything. They—”

  “Wait, what if you had been taken hostage or something? Shouldn't they have gone looking for you?”

  Silas looked at her for a moment, a pondering look on his face. “I'm a shifter. Either I was dead or I was in hiding. Either way, there wasn’t anything they could do. That’s the way we work.”

  “That’s terrible!” Naomi put her hand over her mouth, wondering what it must be like going into something knowing that if things went wrong, there was no backup to help.

  Silas smiled, “No, we do have backup, but when one of us doesn’t check in, that is a sign that something is wrong and it is safer to wait than to go running in and getting more of us killed. It is a risk we are all willing to take to get rid of these guys.”

  “Who are they?” The question was out before Silas could finish talking about their getting out of the building.

  “They are essentially poachers, for lack of a better word.”

  “That happens here?”

  “It happens everywhere, and shifters are constantly fighting them. Because there are still so many wild places here, people just haven’t noticed the poaching like in Africa where poachers have decimated populations. But at the current rate, they are going to do the same here within 100 years. Or 150, tops.”

  “You killed two of them.” The memory was a bit hazy because she had averted her eyes when Silas had pulled the triggers, but it was there, slowly eating away at her mind. He didn’t seem the type to kill, but there was no denying that Silas had killed the men. Unless. “Or do you have tranquilizer guns?” There was hope in her voice.

  Silas looked down at her, clearly trying to figure out how to answer what sounded like an accusation. “No, those were not darts. I killed them. And I do not feel bad about it at all. Would you feel bad about killing a rabid dog, or one that was trained to hurt people and attacked without provocation?”

  “Yeah, but dogs aren’t the same thing as people.”

  Silas raised an eyebrow, “And neither are shifters.”

  “Oh.” Suddenly the difference between her and Silas seemed a lot greater than it had up until a moment ago. “Do you see
us as dogs? Or like humans see dogs?”

  He shook his head, “Not at all. We don’t look down on any other animal, because we aren’t human. Nearly all animals have a purpose and their own type of intelligence. Except mosquitoes. Those are just blood-sucking bastards.” His brow furrowed for a moment. Then he continued talking as he rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, “There is no other species on the planet that does what humans do. They don’t invent, subjugate, or abuse like humans.” Naomi found herself nodding because she had thought that on a couple of different instances. “We don’t interfere when humans do that to each other, but we’ll be damned if we let humans do it to animals. We fight our war in the background, where humans don’t notice us. The poachers don’t have any idea about shifters. They are simply aware that there are some bears roaming the area who are definitely out of place. They chalk it up to us being lost.”

  Naomi nodded again. “Yeah, you never see polar bears this far south.”

  Silas nodded. Naomi had to focus on what he was saying as her mind tried to figure out what kind of bear Alaric was. And Ryland. No! Focus. The idea that a movie star was actually a shifter who fought poachers was very inviting, especially since it seemed like the kind of movie Ryland would be in. But far more interesting than those guys was Silas. While those two commanded the attention of any room they were in, Silas was more like a comforting presence, someone who made it easy to relax. Naomi spent far too much time tense and in a state of mental fight or flight. Being around Silas was the first time in more than a decade where she felt like she didn’t have to be tense. Again, she realized that she had missed something he had said, but she didn’t want to admit it. Tuning back in, she listened to him talk about their situation.

  “Since they know that we are safe for now, best for them to wait a couple days. The poachers will move on as soon as they find two of their own dead. Though it usually takes a bit for them to get everything together. We’ve been watching them for quite some time now, so we have a handle on their patterns and movements. It shouldn’t take too long to find them again, and then we will end it. They have killed hundreds of animals, most of them against even your human laws. But people rarely do anything about it.”

  “So you are going to kill them all? What about their families?”

  “Would you have us get humans involved in this? Do you think that they would be locked away for long?” He shook his head, “You humans don’t value any life that isn’t human life. There are exceptions, but your laws are incredibly discriminatory, and then more of us will have to risk our lives to bring them down again. There is no telling how many they will kill before that happens. But to answer your question, we do try to deliver them, incapacitated, to the police as often as possible. All of them have killed humans as well. All we have to do is provide the evidence and usually they are locked away for a very long time. With their personalities, many of them are killed in jail.”

  Naomi was about to point out that it wasn’t murder when it was animals, but she realized just as quickly that was exactly the point he was making. Killing animals was against the law, but very little was done about it.

  Silas watched her struggle with a new way of thinking. Finally she nodded, “I can see your point, but I don’t like that you kill.”

  “Are you a vegetarian?” His eyes shone as he looked at her, and Naomi felt like she was being judged.

  “No, you know I eat meat. But I don’t kill the animals.”

  “No, you have other humans do that for you. It makes it seem like it isn’t you, but you are the reason that animals are killed. It doesn’t matter that you didn’t do it, just as it wasn’t the fault of the average German that the Nazis killed so many in the concentration camps.”

  “Wait, you are comparing me to Nazis?” Naomi did not like the way the conversation was going.

  “No, I’m comparing you to the people in Germany who did nothing while the Nazis rose to power. You turn a blind eye because you don’t like what you see. However, you don’t feel that it is your fault or that there is anything you can do. I'm not trying to convince you to become a vegetarian, but you need to stop separating humans from everything else. Humans would become extinct without other animals. You guys definitely would not be where you are today without dogs. Yet, you guys believe you own them. They see themselves as part of your pack, not a part of your property.”

  Naomi stared at Silas, her mind going in many different directions.

  “Don’t worry.” His hand patted her shoulder. “I'm not telling you that you are a bad person. I’m certainly not trying to make you feel guilty. You just need to see the world for what it is instead of through the very narrow perspective that humans tend to have.”

  Naomi nodded. It certainly was a lot to think about, but she understood what Silas was saying. The fact that shifters lived among humans meant that they understood far more about human than humans understood about them. In fact, most people weren’t even aware that shifters were real. She certainly didn’t a few days ago.

  “Sorry, I will try to keep it a little lighter until they get here. With any luck, that will be tomorrow. I know that you never miss a day of school, and I would hate to be part of that happening on Monday.”

  Naomi cocked her head to the side, “Why are you so worried about that? We are trapped in a place with murderous people who are out there looking for us. I am not terribly concerned about missing school. At least not at the moment.”

  “I doubt they are still looking for us.”

  Naomi looked to the window. “I am fairly certain they are. There is something familiar about this situation.”

  Silas stepped close to her. Grabbing her shoulders, he caught her attention. Naomi looked up into his eyes as he asked, “Did you experience déjà vu? When?”

  “Not exactly. The night we went out drinking, I had a dream. This place was definitely in it. Those guys were insects, and they started coming in through the windows.”

  Silas immediately began looking around. “Shit. Sorry.” He looked back at her, “Sorry about the language. It's not your fault, but obviously, you have some unique human abilities.”

  “What are you talking about? It was just an alcohol-induced dream.”

  “Was I in the dream?” He looked at her.

  “No, it was just me, the insects, and a polar…” Suddenly her eyes went wide. “Oh my God! Are you saying that I can see the future?”

  “Yes, clearly you have some of those abilities. We don’t, but there are occasional humans who do. Very rare, but mostly because tellers have to be around shifters when they dream. Your abilities are dependent on our… essence.” It was obvious he was simplifying the concept, but at the moment Naomi was grateful for the simplification. She doubted she would be able to comprehend anything beyond the basics because it seemed entirely unbelievable. Silas started looking at her out of the corner of his eye. “Have you had any other strange dreams?”

  “If I have, I don’t remember them.”

  He nodded, “Okay, that’s a no. If you did, you would remember them.”

  “How can you be so certain?”

  “From the way it has been explained to me, when tellers experience a vision of the future, it imprints on their mind. You were pretty drunk, which would usually mean you wouldn’t remember your dream. The fact that you can still remember so much several days later…” He didn’t need to finish his sentence for her to understand what he was saying.

  “So what do we do now?” Her eyes began shifting to the windows.

  “For now, I think I should put the monitoring back on for the outside. If the security team sees guys with rifles wandering around outside, they will have a team here within an hour.”

  “What will they do about the two people inside?”

  “They will have their hands full with the military men who are out of control. It will take them a while to come into the home.”

  “And when they do?”

  He smiled, “They will make
themselves at home and we can slip out.”

  Naomi smiled at the way his eyes twinkled. “You look very pleased with yourself.”

  “Given what you’ve told me, I think that we will be able to get out of here a lot sooner than our rescuers estimated.”

  “Sounds good. But I do have one problem.”

  Silas’ eyebrows moved together, “What’s that?”

  “I don’t like the idea of you going outside to deal with the security system. Not if the guys are out there.”

  A smile spread across his face. “No need for concern. There are two in here, too.” Turning, he strode off toward the kitchen, Naomi following close behind him.

  Chapter 9

  A Tipping Point

  Silas typed furiously away at the keyboard, his fingers moving in swift motions that Naomi couldn’t follow.

  “Wow, it is either obvious that you are related to a master tech guy like Alaric, or your species is way faster than humans.”

  Looking at her sideways, Silas finished what he was doing. Turning his eyes back to the screen, he pushed the keyboard back in its place. “I’ll need to wipe that down. Stay here.”

  “What? Why?” Naomi watched as he walked past her.

  “Because.” It was all he said as he walked out of the room.

  Naomi looked around, then decided that there was no reason to stick around. She headed toward the hallway, planning to return to the bedroom. Silas almost bumped into her in the hallway. “Where are you going? I thought I said stay there.”

  “There was nothing to do and I didn’t know how long you would be gone.”

  “Come here. Let me show you something.” He passed her and went back to the computer. Naomi walked up beside him as Silas pulled the keyboard tray out. He typed a few things into it, and an image appeared on the monitor. “See that?”

  Naomi leaned in to see what he was pointing at. “I don’t see anything.”

  “Between those trees. Watch closely.” He wiped down the keyboard and other things he had touched around the system. “There is a vehicle driving past on the road that eventually leads up here. They have noticed this place and are now trying to figure out what to do. They may be here in a minute, or they may take another day or two. All depending on if they wait for official rules. My guess is they will wait, especially because they don’t know anything about this place. Those guys tend to exercise caution around places where people live because they don’t want to be found out. Still, there are a couple who are really careless, and I don’t want them breaking in and finding you alone.”