by J. C. Diem
Kala was making coffee in the kitchen as I took a seat on the couch. She carried two mugs into the living room, put them on the coffee table then sat beside me close enough for our shoulders to rub together. Reece and Flynn were sparring in the boxing ring, working off their excess energy caused by tension. All in all, the meeting had gone well. Everyone was still alive and they were still in possession of all of their limbs. I’d expected more bloodshed than just one small nosebleed.
Flicking a glance over her shoulder, the vivacious blonde leaned in to speak to me. “Now I get why you were asking me about what sex feels like,” she whispered just loudly enough for me to hear her.
“This is all so embarrassing,” I whispered back. I put my hands over my face in despair.
“There are no secrets in the Shifter Squad,” she replied. I could feel her studying me. Shifter Squad was our private name for the team and it was extremely apt. “Remember when you were asking about feeling heat during orgasm?”
My face glowed red and I dropped my hands and nodded. “As if I could forget.”
“I’m pretty sure that only happened because Garrett marked you.”
“The heat had already started before he bit me,” I argued.
“Oh.” Kala’s defeat only lasted for a second. “Then there can only be one explanation.”
Already wary about her theory, I lifted my eyebrow. “Do tell.”
“You two were meant for each other.”
Her tawny eyes all but sparkled with amusement and I groaned loudly enough for the guys to glance over at us. “That is so corny!” I complained. “You sound like something out of a paranormal romance book.”
“Do you read many of those?” she asked curiously.
“Sometimes,” I confessed and we shared a giggle.
Lost in thought, I stared at the TV without seeing it as Kala switched on a movie. I’d lied when I’d said that I didn’t sense Reece. I’d thought it was all in my mind when I’d first noticed a different set of emotions in the back of my head. It had started right after I’d woken up naked in the woods and now it was impossible to deny. Even without looking at him, I could point to wherever he was. Right now, I sensed that he was fluctuating between feeling self-loathing and the urge to run away. He thought it would help if we didn’t have to see each other every day, but he was wrong. We’d still be tied together, even if we moved far enough away that we couldn’t sense each other at all.
At least I’d regained my taste for coffee. Apparently, our sense of taste went wonky right before and after we changed. Most of the time, we could pass for normal. It was only when we moved too fast or revealed just how good our senses were that we were in danger of being noticed. I’d have to practice something I’d never had to think about before; being human.
₪₪₪
Chapter Four
My father’s impromptu vacation only lasted for three days before he was called back to work. Tensions had been running high in the compound. We were all relieved when his commanding officer had ordered him to return to his mission. I had no idea who he was hunting and knew better than to ask. My dad had seen that I was alive and physically well for himself and he’d come to the conclusion that there was nothing he could do to help me. His emotional support had been welcome and I was glad he’d managed to take the time off to see me.
We’d had several long talks and he felt slightly better about my situation now. My transformation into a monster wasn’t all bad. According to my new boss, I was now impervious to disease and illness. The obvious downside was that I turned into a ravenous beast for three nights out of a twenty-eight day cycle.
Mark had checked that no one had gone missing while I’d been in my beast form. If I’d eaten a human, he’d have had no choice but to execute me. Shape shifters were tolerated as long as they hadn’t taken a human life. Once they had, they sometimes developed a taste for killing humans and had to be destroyed. An extra enclosure was already being erected to contain me. It would be completed in time for me to be locked up when the moon became full again less than three weeks from now. I wasn’t happy about being held prisoner, but the enclosure was my best chance of remaining alive. Besides, I wouldn’t even remember being held captive.
“You’ll call me if you need me?” my dad asked for the fifth time as I pulled up out front of the airport. Once again, I’d made the trip without my team mates. They could be overprotective at times, but none had complained about my decision to go alone. They knew I needed time to acclimatize to my new status as a shifter. It would be nice to have a couple of hours to myself during the journey back to our base.
“You’ll be the first one I call if I need help,” I replied. Not that he could possibly reach me in time if I really did need him. He was going back to wherever he’d been deployed, and I wouldn’t see him for weeks or possibly even months. “I’ll be fine. You should go or you’ll miss your flight.”
He studied my face and I strove to appear calm and relaxed. He’d given me as much moral support as he could considering we were both still in shock at the changes that I’d undergone. We were both still coming to terms with me being a werewolf and also with me being bonded to the man who had turned me. “Take care of yourself, kiddo,” he said and leaned over to hug me.
“I promise I’ll try not to eat anyone,” I said mockingly and received a narrow-eyed stare in return. He climbed out, retrieved his suitcase from the backseat then saluted me and disappeared into the terminal.
Now that I was alone again, I waited for the tears to flow. Nothing happened and I started when a horn beeped as a car pulled up behind me, urging me to move. Putting the SUV into gear, I drove away from the airport.
Music played softly in the background and I contemplated my future as I drove back to the base. Now that I was a permanent member of the TAK Squad, Mark would probably want me to refine my skills. That meant I’d have to spend time with the entire team, which didn’t fill me with joy. Reece had barely spoken to me during the past few days and he couldn’t even look me in the eye most of the time.
Fresh shame and embarrassment swept through me. It was torture to be so close to him, knowing that he’d had to force himself to sleep with me twice. Okay, the first time it had happened, he’d definitely enjoyed himself. But he’d only touched me in the first place because he’d been compelled to. Since I couldn’t remember our second encounter, I wasn’t sure if he’d felt any pleasure or not.
Dull fury took over and I wished I could reanimate Lust’s corpse and kill her all over again. A smile slowly spread as I fantasized about blasting her rotting blonde corpse apart. I’d shoot off her arms first, then her legs, then I’d cut her in half and watch her pieces squirm. I’d finish her off by pumping a full clip into her liquefied brain.
It was weird to be having zombie fantasies, I mused when I entered the base and backed the SUV into the garage. I’d never spent much time thinking about the undead before. Then again, I’d never spent much time thinking about shape shifters before I’d become one. Now it seemed that paranormal creatures were all I could think about.
Mark was waiting for me in the living room when I opened the door. At first I thought he was going to offer me yet another apology, but his expression was serious rather than apologetic. “Pack your suitcase,” he ordered. “We’re heading to New Orleans.”
Well used to obeying commands without question, I sprinted for the stairs. I could move much faster now and was inside my room and gathering my clothes in seconds.
I stuffed all of my clothing into my suitcase, collected my toiletries from the bathroom and grabbed the black backpack that contained my sniper rifle and ammo from the closet. Despite my speed, I was the last one to arrive at the garage.
Flynn took my suitcase and crammed it in with the rest of the bags in the back. As always, I kept my backpack on my lap as I slid into the SUV beside Kala. I rarely let my sniper rifle out of my sight. It had cost far too much to allow anyone to steal it.
“Wha
t are we hunting this time?” I asked Kala.
“Zombies,” she replied with a straight face.
Reece met my eyes in the rearview mirror when my mouth dropped open. He gave me a knowing look before returning his attention to the winding track that would take us to the security gate. He’d felt my shock and recognition and I figured he knew I was lying about being unable to sense him. This went beyond merely feeling him in my head. It almost seemed as if we’d read each other’s minds.
Flynn flicked me a sideways glance when I shuddered. “Don’t worry, I hate zombies, too,” he said, misreading the reason for my distress.
“You’ve actually seen real live zombies?” I asked.
“You mean real dead zombies,” he laughed. “Just once and it’s something I’ll never forget.”
Kala smiled as she recalled their encounter with the walking dead. “You punched that thing so hard its head came clean off.”
“I had brains and rotting flesh all over me,” he said. “I could taste it in the back of my throat every time I breathed.”
“I thought he was going to puke,” she confided to me. “I’ve never seen him turn that white before.”
Flynn leaned forward to glare across me at her. “You can’t tell me you weren’t freaked out by it.”
“Of course I was freaked out,” she said with a shrug. “It’s not every day you see a corpse walking around.” Her golden eyes turned sly as she taunted him. “At least I didn’t almost throw up.”
“No,” Reece said and glanced in the mirror. “You were too busy trying to rip its arms off to worry about puking.”
“You were just as bad,” she accused. “As I recall, you did tear one of its arms off. Then you beat it into the ground with its own limb despite the fact that it was already dead by then.”
Mark turned to speak to me, but his words were far from reassuring. “It’s disconcerting for anyone to see a zombie for the first time, but shifters tend to react more strongly to them than humans do. I’m still not sure why.” His frown indicated that he wasn’t happy with his lack of knowledge when it came to our species.
“Is he serious?” I whispered to Kala.
“Yep. You’ll see what he’s talking about once you come face to face with one.”
“Unfortunately,” our boss went on, “you’re all going to have to get used to them. A voodoo priestess contacted our organization and advised that she saw several zombies in one of the cemeteries in New Orleans last night. I have no idea how she knew we existed or how she found our number.” He wasn’t ecstatic about the breach in security, but there was little he could do about it.
“How many zombies are we talking about?” Kala asked uneasily.
“Over a dozen,” he replied. “She believes that they were just practice and that whoever is behind this will shortly begin to raise more. They haven’t attacked anyone so far, but that could change at any time.”
Flynn clamped his hands around his upper arms and hugged himself unhappily. “Great. It sounds like we’ll soon be facing a zombie horde. Isn’t it a little early for Halloween?”
It was the last week of September and there were still five weeks before the spooky holiday would commence. I’d rarely bothered to celebrate Halloween, since I’d never had friends to go trick or treating with. To be honest, the idea of ghosts and ghouls had always given me the creeps.
“How can you kill something that is technically already dead?” I asked.
“Fire is the quickest and surest way,” Mark replied. “Beheading them is just as effective.”
“Pumping half a dozen rounds into their heads also does the trick,” Reece said without looking at me. The image of me blasting Lust’s face apart returned. It was disconcerting not to know if the picture came from me or from him.
₪₪₪
Chapter Five
We didn’t head to the international airport, but instead drove to the same private strip that we’d used when Mark and I had first landed near Denver over two months ago.
“Where will we be staying in New Orleans?” I asked Kala when she sat beside me on the small jet. There was enough room for everyone to have their own row, but she preferred to sit close to me. I didn’t mind the company and it would give me the opportunity to ask her questions.
“Our base in the Rocky Mountains is just one of many scattered around the country,” she replied. “We’ll be using a similar compound that is situated near New Orleans. It’s close enough to reach the city within forty-five minutes, but not too close. There’s always a chance that one of us will go on a rampage when the full moon rises again.”
It had only been just over a week since I’d changed into a werewolf and I still wasn’t at the stage where I could joke about my affliction. Soon, I’d be reduced to an uncontrollable beast again. It was distressing that I couldn’t remember what happened during those three nights. None of us could recall what we did or what we ate during this period. Maybe it was just as well. I wasn’t sure I’d want to remember chowing down on a deer and whatever other animals that I consumed.
Mark had been tasked by his superiors to keep us under control and had constructed our enclosures to keep us safely penned up. He’d arranged for all of the compounds to have another enclosure erected to contain me as well. I assumed he’d called ahead to speed up the construction of the new barrier in our base near New Orleans. There was no telling how long it would take us to hunt down the zombies and their creator and it was better to be safe than sorry.
It took almost three hours to fly from Denver to New Orleans and we landed on another private airstrip. We were carrying enough weapons to take down a small army and it made sense that we’d avoid touching down anywhere where we might be searched.
My stomach growled in complaint and Kala smirked and shot me a sideways look. Shifters burned up a lot of energy even when we were sitting still and we all had to eat frequently. There hadn’t been any food on the plane and I wasn’t the only one who was hungry. “Is there any chance we can stop for a meal?” she asked as we packed our gear into the back of a black SUV. It looked identical to the one that we’d left behind in Colorado. One thing I’d noticed about the PIA was that they tended to stick to the same make and model when it came to vehicles.
“We’ll grab something as soon as we reach the city,” Agent Steel promised. He didn’t require food as often as the rest of us, but even he had to be hungry by now.
As always, Reece drove. I wasn’t sure if he had severe control issues, or if it was Mark’s preference for his second in charge to drive. Shifters had far better reflexes than humans. Maybe he felt safer with a werewolf behind the wheel. I sure hadn’t felt safe with his driving skills at first, but I’d eventually become used to his reckless speed and aggressive techniques.
Mark punched our destination into the GPS and the SUV took off. We drove through a marshy area that quickly became a smelly swamp. It only took half an hour to reach the outskirts of New Orleans. I peered through the windows as we drove into the heart of the town. Hurricane Katrina had devastated much of the city years ago. Some of the population had fled with no intention of ever returning. Despite the threat that yet another natural disaster could strike during hurricane season, the city was still a popular tourist destination for much of the year.
We parked outside the restaurant that Mark had chosen and filed inside. It was well past the lunchtime rush and only a few people were sitting at the tables. The menu was in both English and French. The restaurant was small and cozy and we dragged two tables together so we could remain in a group. I sat as far from Reece as I could get. I still wasn’t used to the idea that we were bonded and that we now shared a psychic link. We’d reached a mutual decision to keep our distance without saying so out loud.
We ordered our meals and I chose a burger and fries. Kala had the same, but ordered her meat rare. I couldn’t bring myself to eat meat if it was still bleeding. I almost gagged when I thought about what I ate while I was in wolf form. For
all I knew, I’d been snacking on diseased rats.
Seeing me turn an alarming shade of green and guessing the reason why, Flynn nudged me with his elbow. “Try not to think about it,” he told me, accurately reading my expression. “It took me months to get used to the idea that I’d eat anything with a heartbeat. This one time, I woke up near the remains of what I think was a cat and puked for a whole hour.”
Horrified by the mental picture that his confession had conjured, I bolted out of my chair and darted into the ladies room. I bent over the sink, but my stomach was empty and I could only manage a dry heave. He might have been trying to help me, but he’d had the opposite effect.
The toilet behind me flushed and a woman with dark skin and hair in a multitude of braids looked at me in concern when she stepped out of the cubicle. “Are you alright, child?” Her accent was foreign and musical. Her dress was colorful and had elephants, giraffes and other African animals on it. It was easy to guess her heritage.
Turning on the tap, I nodded and splashed water on my face. “I’m okay. My stomach is just a bit upset.” Picturing yourself devouring a cat would do it every time.
Handing me a paper towel, the woman froze when she met my eyes. Whatever she saw in them frightened her badly. Backing away slowly, she hit the wall then turned and fled, looking over her shoulder to make sure I wasn’t following her.
“That was weird,” I said to my reflection as I dried my face and hands.
Feeling much better, I took my seat and waved away the concern from my team before they could bombard me with questions. “I’m fine. Did anyone see that lady who ran out of the bathroom?”
“I did,” Reece replied without looking up. “Something scared her off.”
“I’m pretty sure it was me,” I said glumly.