Whisper in the Dark

by Charlene Perry

  The Meadow

  The scent of roasted meat is the first thing that reaches me through the thick blanket of sedation. My stomach growls as I blink away the dopey haze to discover the smell is coming from a huge platter of steaming meat laid within my reach.

  I don’t question it, I just dive in.

  “Easy there, buddy.”

  Hope’s voice is close, but I don’t bother to glance her way. I’ve never been this hungry. Never tasted food this good. It’s gone too quickly, and I lick the platter and my lips until every bit of flavor is gone.

  I look up now to find Hope sitting cross-legged on the edge of the platform, with a cougar at her side. I push myself up onto my haunches, testing my strength and moving my head from side to side. Stitches pull, but it’s a minor pain. A surge of gratitude rises in my chest, and impulsively I move toward my rescuer.

  The cougar rises to its feet and growls a warning. I’m happy to respond in kind, making sure he knows that even in my current condition, I could take him easily.

  “Okay, that’s great. You’re both strong, vital, alpha-males who could easily take the other in a fair fight.”

  Hope rolls her eyes as she shoves a hand against the cougar’s shoulder. He responds by shifting into the dark-skinned form of the man I saw just before the sedative kicked in.

  Now there’s two of them that can take human form. This doesn’t make sense. I want answers, but I don’t know if I’ve recovered enough to shift, or if showing them what I can do is a wise idea.

  “You can go, Brom. He’s not dangerous.”

  “I don’t like leaving you alone with him... we don’t know anything about him.”

  “He’ll be more comfortable with only me here.”

  He narrows his dark eyes at me. Then he does as she told him to, backing out of the tent and leaving us alone. I have so many questions, and no voice in this form to ask them.

  “I know this must be more than a little confusing for you.” Hope reaches her hand out to rest her fingertips on my paw. The delicate contact commands my full attention. “I don’t know who or what did that to you, but luckily your Medic implant was still functional. It just needed a little repositioning. Your Link was exposed, but it didn’t have any visible damage, and your tracker was removed. I’d guess someone didn’t want your body found.”

  So not only am I clueless to find my way back to Whisp, but she has no way of finding me. I have to get back to her. I need to know where I am, and how to get out of this damn forest.

  I grit my teeth against the pain of tearing stitches and force my body to take its human form.

  “Holy shit!” Hope jumps to her feet, scrambling through a series of cupboards before rushing toward me with bandages and tape. “That was a dumb move! You’re not healed enough to...”

  She stops in her tracks, then drops down in front of me where I sit now in human form. Reaching over my shoulder, she presses a bandage against the back of my neck. Her violet eyes stay locked on mine.

  “This isn’t your first time taking human form.”

  “What is this place?”

  She pushes me to the side, moving to get better access to my back as she tapes the bandage in place. She smells like pine and mint. The heat of her small body against mine makes me ache for Whisper even more.

  “We call it the Meadow. It’s our home.” She finishes her work with the bandage and slides backward off the platform. “Walk with me, if you’re feeling up to it. I’ll tell you our story.”

  I stand with stiff knees. “Who are you?”

  She ignores my question and grabs my hand to pull me through the heavy flaps of the tent, out into the pale light of a cloudy morning. I wonder briefly how much time has passed since I last saw Whisper, but the days and nights have been slipping by in such a haze that it could be a week or a month.

  We’re in the midst of her village of tents, on a dirt path running between them. Cook fires are lit here and there, struggling to stay alight in the crisp breeze. They’re being tended by older women and men whose eyes scan me as we walk, a wariness there that makes me think strangers aren’t a welcome sight.

  Hope laces her fingers with mine, trapping me in a tight grip. “People are scared of you. Walk with me like this, so they see you’re a friend.”

  I do as she asks, relaxing my hand in hers. The contact feels good. Comfortable.

  “Who are you?” I ask again, because her very existence is impossible. There are no Shifter females. We are genetically modified animals, created and grown in BioSol Labs from off-world tech. They don’t make females. We have no language to communicate with each other. We can’t shift to human form. All of these facts are the truths I’ve known without question since the beginning of my memory.

  Yet here I am. And here she is.

  “First, tell me your name.”

  I think about the question long enough that she stops walking to stare at me, studying my face. Perhaps wondering if I’ve lost my memory. Maybe it would be better that way. If I’m supposed to be dead, announcing my name to anyone might not be the best way to stay alive. I expect her to push, but instead she takes a long breath and resumes walking.

  “My mother was born in the laboratory, same as you.” She digs into her jeans pocket, pulling out a tie to restrain her long hair. “They like to tell people female Shifters don’t exist, but really it just sounds better than ‘we euthanize them at birth’. Lucky for her, it was my father who had the job of incinerating the biological waste. He saw that she was still breathing and saved her life.”

  “Did he save you as well?”

  She lets out a quick laugh, squeezing my hand as she lifts it with hers to point. I look where she indicates to see a grizzly lumbering along the path ahead. A small boy rides high on its back, a warm blanket around his shoulders and a bowl full of berries in his hands.

  “I was born here, just like all the children you see. My parents founded this colony almost thirty years ago. Along with a few others who realized the truth.”

  “What truth?” I ask automatically, but I’m already starting to see.

  “That Shifters aren’t animals. We aren’t weapons or accessories. We’re our own species, able to live and love and raise families. That the only part of us that’s genetically modified is the part that makes us dependent on the bond. Without that, we grow as individuals, at a normal rate.”

  That information makes me pause, pulling my eyes away from the worn tents and occasional beast or human that comes and goes from view. “How old are you?”

  She smiles, understanding the weight of my question. “I’m twenty-four. I was born twenty-four years ago.”

  I let that sink in, and the heat of anger rises in my chest. I realize I’ve been cheated out of a life I never knew I was missing. I’ve never thought about it before, never questioned it. My first clear memory is of meeting Whisp. I have blurry memories of life in the lab before that, but nothing I can really grasp.

  “How old are you?”

  “I was born almost five years ago.”

  Just saying it out loud sounds absurd, as the image of that little boy riding the grizzly flashes behind my eyes.

  “You grew fast, until you reached the age of your bondmate. You used his experiences, education, and beliefs to form your adult self instead of having those things for yourself. It’s not natural. It’s not the way we were meant to live. You’re content, happy even, and you’ll live a long life... as long as your bondmate lives, of course. You’ll be dependent on him, compelled to obey and follow him anywhere, providing you stay in a lesser form.

  It’s why they tell you how dangerous it is, and why they’ve made it against their laws to try. Once you take human form, that bond begins to break down. It dissolves and you become your own person. They lose their control over you. They can’t use you anymore.”

  I take a few more steps and sit on the low stump of a tree, resting my elbows on my knees. Even though this is the first time I’ve heard most of th
is, I don’t feel surprised. Since I started taking this form, it’s only felt more right each time. In this body, with Whisper in my arms... but even she couldn’t really accept me as a man, as something more than just her Shifter.

  “They all just want us to be their pets.” The deep voice interrupts my thoughts, and I look up to see a man standing beside Hope.

  He’s tall and leanly muscled, wearing thin cloth pants held up by a drawstring tied around his waist. I stand up, rising to equal height. Something in his yellow-green eyes makes me brace myself. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t have a good feeling about this male.

  “Luke,” he states his name as he holds out a hand to shake. I ignore it.

  I’ve never paid much attention to other Shifters. We give each other a wide berth in passing, or just ignore each other if our Agents are working in close quarters. I never had a desire to attempt communication, not that we had any direct way of doing so. Whisper was always enough for me, and I assume the other Shifters felt the same about their bondmates.

  “Lucky for me, I started taking this form before my Agent got himself killed.” Luke seems unfazed by my refusal to shake his hand. “Figured I’d go crazy, or just keel over. When neither of those things happened, I realized the truth. I headed to BioSol Labs to show them what I thought about this little show they’ve got going. Ran into the right person, at the right time, and they brought me to the Meadow.”

  “How long since you started taking human form?” Hope squints at me as if she’s trying to work something out. She also sidesteps, putting a little more distance between herself and Luke.

  “A month, maybe two.” I think I know what she’s trying to determine. My bond with Whisper is broken. She could be hurt or killed, and I wouldn’t feel it. I wouldn’t know. “I need to go back.”

  Luke nearly chokes on a laugh. “His bond is broken, yet this pet’s still loyal to his master!”

  I step toward him, my lips peeling back in a snarl as the shift starts to ripple across my skin. Hope plants herself between us, putting her hands flat against my chest.

  “Ignore him.”

  Her bright eyes are pleading. I grab her hand and pull her behind me as I put some distance between myself and Luke. I can hear him laugh as we turn a corner.

  “I need to go back,” I repeat once we’re alone again.

  The wind is gaining strength, making the tents shudder and flap under a darkening sky.

  “Why?” She asks, her tone conveying only curiosity. Tendrils of hair are pulled lose, whipping around her face. She ignores them, watching my face, waiting for my answer.

  “Just point me in the direction of Moridian. Please.”

  “Why go back to living like someone’s property? You could stay here with your own kind and be free. Why go back to your Agent?”

  Her hand is on my arm as she looks so intently into my eyes that I almost think she can see my thoughts. There’s a deeper meaning to her question, something she’s trying to figure out for herself.

  “Because I love her.”

  Hope’s eyes go wide, and when she speaks again there’s a hitch in her voice. “North,” is all she says.

  It’s all the information I need. This place calls to me, answering questions I hadn’t even known to ask. But my Whisper calls to me even stronger. Not as my bondmate; as my mate.

  “It’ll take days through the forest in your cond-”

  Her words cut off as my wings extend. The thought of finding Whisper, the desperate need to know that she’s safe, it fills me with raw energy. I jump from the ground, the wind catching me as I set my eyes on the northern horizon.

  Presumed Dead

  The sound of arguing wakes me up from a restless sleep. I tiptoe out of the bedroom I share with the other girls, each of us with a single foam mattress on the floor.

  “What’s going on?” Laura’s voice sounds groggy in the darkness.

  “Nothing. Just their usual bickering.” I hope she’s tired enough to not question the fact that their ‘usual bickering’ doesn’t happen in the middle of the night. “I just have to pee.” I add, and she grunts a response that sounds agreeable.

  I close the door behind me, creeping up the hallway until I can make out the keeper’s words. After our little encounter, Chris avoided me for the remainder of the day. Not an easy task in such a small house. I have no doubt this midnight staff meeting is directly related, and I want a preview of the consequences I’m going to face tomorrow.

  “She needs to go, there’s no question about that.” Zephyr’s voice sounds emotionless and confident. He’s clearly done arguing and made up his mind about the topic.

  “I agree. She’s clearly trying to turn us against each other, or just get you fired. Who knows what she thinks she’ll accomplish.” Paul is on Zephyr’s side... that’s rare.

  “Or I give her what she wants, see if she thinks twice about causing shit after I’m done with her.” Chris’s vote. No surprise there.

  “Oh, no. What a sacrifice. You’re such a team player.” Zephyr’s voice is dripping with sarcasm, earning a caveman grunt from Chris. “How about we all just say fuck it and do whatever we want with them? I’m sure the company will forgive us, maybe give us a nice severance package instead of a severed head like they do to anyone else who breaks their contract.”

  I guess Horizon Zero treats their employees as well as they treat their products.

  “Fuck off, both of you.” Paul’s tone says the discussion is over. “I’ll deal with her. There’s a client on the special-order list who might be looking for something like her. I’ll contact head office, leave out the part about her trying to turn us against each other, and let them know we might have found a match. If you two keep your mouths shut, and you keep it in your pants, we’ll be rid of her by tomorrow night.”

  “Sounds good.” Zephyr’s voice.

  No response from Chris.

  I turn to slip back to my room, but then a thought enters my mind, bringing with it a rush of adrenaline. The three of them are there, off their guard and assuming we’re all asleep. I could take them out. I’ve been acting like a weak, defenseless child for so long I find myself believing it. But it’s still there; years of training and honed instinct. I could kill them all and set us free. Tonight. Right now.

  The thought is dizzying. I’ve had opportunities before, but none so clean. The other girls are safe in their beds, not floating around to potentially get caught in the struggle. The keepers are all together, not spread out around the house.

  I could be free of this, save some lives, draw attention to the organization and live to tell anyone who will listen... like I should have done after I burned the last house. But there was no evidence left that time, nothing concrete anyway, and Gideon hadn’t wanted any possible retaliation aimed at Cam.

  I could do it now. I wouldn’t have to face the consequences of my deception when Chris finds me tomorrow, or deal with the next phase of training. Getting to the client would be a bigger statement, but this could be big, too, if I do it loud enough.

  I start to turn back to the kitchen, but my feet don’t obey.

  No. No, I won’t take the easy way out. I can do better. I can save these girls and more. I just have to endure this a little longer. As long as it takes. I’ve got nothing to lose, save for my pride... and after losing Damon, pride doesn’t mean a whole hell of a lot to me anymore.

  I watch as the light of the morning sun grows slowly brighter, seeping through cracks in the heavy blinds. Sparks of light drift across the white walls and ceiling, slowly illuminating the small bedroom. I’d normally be asleep, like the three young women tucked into their meager beds around me. Not this morning.

  I couldn’t sleep after listening to the keeper’s conversation during the night. Not because I’m afraid or worried, well, maybe I am a little. I’m more awake and alive then I’ve been in weeks. Something is going to happen today, for better or worse.

  If I’m lucky, Paul will follow
through with contacting whoever’s in charge of making the decision to move me along to the next phase. I don’t know exactly what that will look like, but I do know it gets me one step closer to my end goal.

  If that doesn’t happen, if they’re told to keep me here, I’m not sure Chris will keep his anger to himself. I heard him stop outside our door before he went to bed, breathing with a rough edge that spoke of seething anger. I expect he will get his revenge, but he’s got his own safety to consider if he breaks the rules.

  When seven o’clock comes at last, I’m ready and eager to get the day started.

  Ann stirs first, a slender hand reaching out to turn off the chirping alarm. No one moans or complains about the day beginning. No one fights the urge to linger in the warmth of a comfortable bed. We all simply stretch out our stiff limbs and rise to go through the motions of another day.

  At the breakfast table, it’s business as usual. Zephyr’s on morning watch, ready and waiting at the head of the table when we arrive. His beady eyes give each of us a once-over, his thin lips pressing into a cocky grin as he starts giving out instructions for each task that needs to be completed before we sit to eat.

  When the others are busy with their simple tasks, he turns his attention to me. I can feel his eyes on me, though I keep my head bowed, eyes on the floor. I wait for my instructions.

  “Sit down, Whisper.”

  My blood runs cold at the sound of my name on his tongue. They weren’t supposed to figure out who I am. The temperature in the room seems to spike, and before I can wrap my mind around the possibilities of what’s happening, hands grip my arms from behind.

  “Sit.” Chris’s voice is in my ear, his breath cooling my neck.

  He pushes me roughly to obey, guiding my steps until he presses me down into the seat beside Zephyr. When he takes the empty seat to my right, I glance toward the kitchen. The other girls are gone, their tasks abandoned. I swallow past the lump in my throat.