Body Thief (34 page)
Authors: C.J. Barry
That’d be the day
. He wasn’t that far gone just yet. An old man still held some pride. Not much, but enough to get him up a damn ladder. Aristotle grabbed the rungs and mustered his strength. “Just keep up.”
. He wasn’t that far gone just yet. An old man still held some pride. Not much, but enough to get him up a damn ladder. Aristotle grabbed the rungs and mustered his strength. “Just keep up.”
The subway tunnel was dark, loud, and stifling hot at 7:50 A.M., and Cam suppressed a yawn. She was tired, and it wasn’t all from mind-blowing sex with Griffin. These crazy hours were wreaking havoc with her sleep pattern and her Shifter DNA. She couldn’t even remember what day it was as she stood next to Griffin and waited for the Shifters to show themselves.
Even when she did get sleep, she was haunted by dreams filled with uncertainties and doubts. And she guessed that she wasn’t alone based on Griffin’s nightmare. She would have asked him about it, but she feared it might have something to do with her. She’d already had enough disappointment for one day.
They both stood just inside a service tunnel that opened up to a narrow walkway running between the tunnel wall and three sets of tracks divided by concrete medians. A subway train squeezed by, moving the still air with a heated blast into the service tunnel. The subway slowed and stopped just out of sight at the station platform.
“I can’t hear a damn thing in here,” she told Griffin in a loud voice. The tunnels echoed relentlessly, making it impossible for her to use her focused hearing.
He aimed his flashlight down the tunnel. “Just watch for any activity.”
“So we’re going to get answers?” she asked.
Griffin didn’t reply, and she turned to him with a bad feeling in her gut. “Griffin?”
A corner of his mouth rose. “You won’t like it.”
She was going to kill him. “You didn’t ask them what this was about?”
He shrugged. “I doubt they’d invite us to a meeting just to kill us.”
“Like the setup last night?” she said. “What if this is another ambush?”
“It’s not. Remember the informant I met with a few days ago?” Griffin said. “He works with these guys, although I won’t be positive until I see his Shifter shadow.”
“Ah,” she said. “Obviously, he didn’t know about your special skills.”
Griffin looked away. “Right.”
She knew he hated those skills, but he used them to hunt shapeshifters. Like the woman he was sleeping with. Like the Shifters he was about to talk to, and perhaps even join forces with. Thus, the nightmares. “So which came first? The Shifter vision or the XCEL job?” she asked.
“The vision,” he said. “I noticed it while I was living in Arizona with Sani. And when XCEL’s operations were revealed to the public, I figured it’d be a good way to get the hell out of the desert and find some excitement.”
“Well, you did that, alright,” she admitted. “What do our Shifter shadows look like to you?”
He glanced at her. “You . . . shimmer different colors. Like a kaleidoscope mirage. Each with a unique pattern.”
“Huh,” she said, considering that. Shifters just looked like Shifters to each other. “What about in the dark?”
He nodded. “The shimmer stays.”
Interesting
. “And the freeze ray? When did you discover that?”
. “And the freeze ray? When did you discover that?”
“During a takedown,” he said. “A Shifter had me by the throat, and I thought I was a goner. But when I grabbed him back—” He hesitated. “It felt like electricity coming through my hands. And then he just stopped moving. Since then I’ve learned to control it better. Still have no idea where it comes from.”
She’d never heard of such a thing, and she bet that XCEL hadn’t either. “XCEL doesn’t know about that, do they?”
He kept his focus on the tunnels. “The only ones who know are the ones I’ve used it on.”
Including her. She’d almost forgotten about that. “So. Is it still exciting?”
He turned to her then, his gaze intense. “There’s only one exciting thing in my life right now.”
The way he said it went to her core. The temperature rose another degree or two. “And what about the job?”
His expression turned weary. “It lost its excitement after XCEL threw me in the detention center.”
“I still can’t believe they did that to you,” she said, angry on his behalf. “What the hell is the matter with them?”
“They’re scared. Fear changes people.”
No kidding. She’d seen that, what? A thousand times?
Then Griffin focused on something at the end of the tunnel. “We have company.”
Cam peered around the corner and saw two Shifters approaching. One was young, male, and moved with ease. That would be Griffin’s informant. The other was older. Very old, like her father. He walked slowly and deliberately, limping slightly. And he was familiar.
“I know him,” she said, stepping out of the service tunnel to greet them.
Griffin moved beside her. “The old man?”
She nodded, staring at him as he drew closer. He was her father’s friend, Alli. Relief flowed over her. She smiled at him and he smiled back, knowing she’d recognized him. Cam met him halfway on the platform, with Griffin beside her.
“Alli,” she said and took his outstretched hand in hers. “It’s wonderful to see you.”
He nodded, his white hair chaotic and his eyes bright. “Cala. How is your father?”
Her smile slipped. “Failing, I’m afraid.”
“I’m sorry.” Then he turned to the young man. “This is Red, my associate.”
Griffin shook his hand. “We’ve met.”
Red frowned deeply. “No, we haven’t.”
“You looked different then,” Griffin said and shook the old man’s hand. “Griffin Mercer.”
“They call me Aristotle here. You are a remarkable human.” He appeared impressed.
Cam laughed. “You have no idea. You may as well know that he can see Shifters.”
Red stared at Griffin. “But I have a new skin—”
“I know,” Griffin said.
“Holy crap,” Red replied, his mouth opened in surprise.
“Tell me about it,” Cam said. Then she focused on Aristotle. “We have a problem.”
“The same problem,” Aristotle replied. “A common enemy.”
“Or enemies,” Cam amended.
“True,” Aristotle admitted. “It would appear we need each other.”
She smiled. She didn’t know why. Maybe it was because of the opportunity to work with “her people.” Shifters were nothing if not loners. Few bothered with alliances. It was more like every man for himself.
Aristotle looked at them in turn. “Perhaps we should discuss—”
His words were shattered by a flood of bright lights and a bullhorn saying, “XCEL! You are under arrest. Raise your hands.”
XCEL agents poured out of two access shafts across the three sets of tracks. There must have been thirty agents all scrambling for cover, and all carrying heavy weapons and wearing night vision goggles.
They were trapped, a good fifty feet from the nearest tunnel on this side of the tracks. She shifted.
Red dots from laser light targets zipped over them and the walls around them. Griffin had his gun out, Red had shifted, but Aristotle was still in his human form. It occurred to her that he must not be able to shift anymore, much like her father.
Red moved to protect Aristotle, and she moved to cover Griffin. She yelled, “We need to get back to the exit!”
“Put your hands up!” the bullhorn blared.
“Go!” Red said to Aristotle.
A subway train approached, the sound deafening in the enclosed tunnels. The ground shook, and stones danced between the tracks. She heard the first shot ring out over the roar of the oncoming train. Bullets shattered the walls behind them as they ran. Griffin reached around her and fired back. She hardened her molecular structure so bullets, or worse, couldn’t penetrate her body or hit him.
Agents moved in, scaling the medians and firing from their left and front. Bullets pelted her hard shell, stinging from velocity. She saw Aristotle fall down ten feet in front of her, and Red immediately dropped to his knees, covering him with his own body.
The subway train entered view, and Cam hoped it would keep XCEL at bay for the brief time they needed to reach the tunnel.
Then she heard Griffin swear. His blood spattered across her skin. He’d been shot in the arm, but he gritted his teeth and kept firing his gun with both hands. One gun against all those agents? It was futile. They were still twenty feet from the relative safety of their exit.
She grabbed the gun from him. “Stay behind me,” she shouted to him. The gun felt clumsy in her Shifter hand, but she managed to get off a few shots until the gun was empty.
And now what?
Red had widened his form into a shield to protect Aristotle, and she did the same for Griffin, but XCEL was moving closer, step by step. Soon, they’d be within reach, and then Griffin’s protection would be gone.
The train rumbled and squealed by, trapping most of the agents on the other side of it. But half a dozen had managed to beat the train and kept firing, pinning her and Red in place. They weren’t going anywhere unless someone drew their fire.
She yelled to Red, “Take Mercer!”
Then she poofed—reappearing in front of two agents and slamming her fist into their faces. Bullets hit her as she reached another agent and took him out with a kick to his gut. In her peripheral vision, she saw Red trying to sidle down the narrow platform with Aristotle and Griffin behind him. Two agents had them trapped, and she poofed right between the two men. The look of surprise on their faces was short-lived as she chopped each of their throats with the edge of her hand.
A split second later, the train cleared, revealing a line of agents that rushed forward.
No,
she thought as her heart sunk.
Not enough time
.
she thought as her heart sunk.
Not enough time
.
Then a banshee yell echoed through the tunnel, and dozens of Shifters streamed out onto the tracks. They swamped the XCEL agents in a wave of claws and teeth. The gunshots ended, replaced by human screams and thuds. Cam jumped up on the platform to help Red. He was lifting Aristotle to his feet. He appeared unharmed.
“
Your
men?” she asked him.
Your
men?” she asked him.
Aristotle nodded. “Mine. And yours now.”
And thank God for that. She patted his arm and went to Griffin. He was sitting against the wall, grimacing as he held his bicep. Blood squeezed between his fingers.
Panic shot through her as she dropped in front of him. “How bad is it?”
Pain was heavy in his eyes. “Went through. Missed the artery.”
“That’s good, right?” she asked, troubled to find her hands shaking. What if he kept bleeding? What if he was wrong and the bullet was still in there?
“My lucky day,” he said and laid his head back against the concrete. He nodded behind her. “I like your cavalry better when I’m on your side.”
She turned. Every XCEL agent was down, along with two Shifters. Aristotle’s men were busy dragging the humans off the tracks and dumping them in a heap in the tunnels.
Cam reached out and put an arm around Griffin to lift him up. “I couldn’t help but notice that XCEL is getting pretty damn serious about killing us.”
Griffin got to his feet. “Harding’s running scared.”
“So am I,” she said, noting how his head hung in pain. He needed medical attention. She turned to Red and Aristotle, who were talking to a few other Shifters. “Do you have a medic?”
Aristotle walked over to them and checked Griffin’s arm. “We should be able to take care of that. You can’t go back out there.”
He was right about that. “We need a place to stay.”
Aristotle nodded. “You can stay with us, if that’s what you want.”
Cam checked with Griffin. After a moment, he nodded too.
She took a deep breath. “That’s what we want.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
G
riffin stood alone in the shadow of the cliff. Powerful winds blasted desert sand across his body. Black clouds rolled across the sky, heavy with rain and moving fast. The sun was losing its territory quickly, and danger filled the air.
riffin stood alone in the shadow of the cliff. Powerful winds blasted desert sand across his body. Black clouds rolled across the sky, heavy with rain and moving fast. The sun was losing its territory quickly, and danger filled the air.
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