Shifter In Ascent (Louisiana Shifters) (15 page)

himself, yet she could still bond with others easily; she’d only been here a matter of days and already had lifelong friends. It had taken Jace five years to bond with the loyal and respectable Rhett.

She was without a doubt one of the most intelligent women he’d met, but she wasn’t socially awkward. And she had what Jace lacked most; the ability, the capacity in her heart, to truly care about others. Jace simply didn’t have room in his life or heart for anyone but Maddie, and God knew it was hard enough to love her some days.

In many ways, it was unfortunate that he couldn’t offer Tessa more. Here was a fierce, smart, beautiful woman who seemed to genuinely like Jace as a person. As if that weren’t enough, she fit in well enough with his pack and his lifestyle. And not to mention the fact that she was smokin’ hot and kissed like a wicked wanton.

Jace ignored his quickly thickening arousal and closed his eyes. He had nothing to offer her, sure. But he had to think that if he ever took a mate, it would be someone just like Tessa. It couldn’t hurt him to admit that, at least.

Jace crouched to take cover beside the front porch of his family’s large ranch home. There was just a hint of a crisp chill in the air on that gorgeous Georgia night, and silence lay thick across the Den. Jace turned to his sister and put a finger to his lips. Maddie nodded, eyes wide. She had just turned eight, but she was smart enough to recognize danger when she saw it.

Snarls and startled shouts had woken Jace some hours before. Then sound surrounded him: gunshots, breaking glass, screams. A great crack rent the air as their front door was kicked down. Jace had jumped out of bed and flung open the door that adjoined his room to Maddie’s. He’d shushed Maddie and pulled her out of bed, then locked them in the room.

He heard his parents’raised voices and those of the intruders.
“Get on the floor!” boomed a strange male.
“Get behind me, Jacqueline!” Jace’s father shouted, panic thickening his Southern accent. “No, there is a mistake! We are to be spared,” came Jace’s mother’s voice, lightly accented

with French.
“Get on the damned floor and shut up!” the stranger commanded again, his voice rising
with anger.
“They promised!” his mother insisted.
“Jacqui, what are you talking about? You knew this was going to happen?” Jace’s father
asked, barely audible this time.
“I had to help. They said they’d save the children. I am sorry, my love,” Jacqueline replied
helplessly.
“Jacqui, my heart…”
Jace’s father started to reply, but three loud shots rang out before he could finish. Silence fell
over the house, chilling Jace to the bone.
“Clear the house, make sure no one is left,” came the stranger’s voice again, then the heavy “Clear the house, make sure no one is left,” came the stranger’s voice again, then the heavy

Jace hadn’t thought much past getting into Maddie’s room. He’d slid Maddie’s window open as quietly as possible, ignoring desperate sounds of pain coming from the living room. He’d grabbed Maddie and unceremoniously dumped her out the window before bending to squeeze his frame out the window. Sophomore year of high school had brought an immense growth spurt, so he was lacking in grace as he tumbled to the ground just outside and then slid the window closed behind them.

Jace gestured toward the storm cellar doors just a few feet away. Maddie pulled one of the rusting doors open and disappeared head first. There were still shouts and gunfire echoing throughout the Den. Jace jumped into the storm cellar before taking a quick look around. A lone figure stood in the flood lights of the mess hall not two hundred yards from where Jace hid.

Marcus Emberson. Jace could identify the Alpha from his height and proud stance alone. A loose ring of SWAT-suited gunmen was closing in on the wolf. Their bulletproof vests proclaimed “LEGION” in bold white lettering. The moved fast but not like Shifters. They must be humans.

One of the assailants was shouting at Marcus to get on the ground, but Marcus didn’t move. The gunmen advanced, closing their net. Jace’s heart was pounding, watching the strongest Shifter he knew realize that he was going to be defeated.

A shout and a flash of light came from around the corner of Jace’s house, so he dropped low and swung the other cellar door closed. He grabbed a piece of rebar lying next to the steps and slid it through the handles of the shed’s swinging doors.

Jace heard footsteps and scrambled back to the corner where Maddie was sitting, slipping his arms around her as her joined her on the floor. A flashlight swept over the door of the cellar, briefly throwing slivers of light into the darkness.

Jace tucked his head down and wrapped himself protectively around his sister. There was a shout, and the doors rattled once, and again. They were found out.
Just then there were four sharp staccato reports, and the footsteps stilled. A low howl rose for a moment, then two more reports.
Marcus. The alpha had drawn their attention somehow.
The footsteps moved away, probably heading toward the fallen Shifter.
Jace and Maddie sat huddled up like that for hours, hardly daring to breathe. Eventually they could hear engines roaring to life and leaving the Den, but they kept waiting just to be sure.
When cracks of dim early morning light crept in through the cracks in the doors, Jace finally rose and unbolted the door.
Things were much worse in the light. Signs of violence were everywhere. Jace had never seen the Den empty. The stillness shivered up his spine before he could push it back.
Jace could see the broken outlines of bodies here and there, left where they’d dropped. He blocked Maddie’s exit from the cellar while he took it all in, forcing himself to see his fill. He made Maddie promise not to open her eyes for anything.
Only then did he scoop his little sister up and cautiously begin to follow his favorite trail into the surrounding forest. The wind rose with the sun, warming the world around them. Jace never looked back as he carried his sister to their new life.

Jace woke from the dream feeling the weight of Maddie’s small form in his arms, as if he really had been carrying her for miles in the wilderness. More than the smell of smoke or the cries of familiar voices, the sensation of taking his sleeping sister from the Den was still the sharpest and most painful memory from that night.

Jace turned his head and drank in the sight of Tessa, who was curled up close to his side. Her blonde hair formed a fuzzy halo over her head, and her mouth was open just a tiny bit as if she were about to say something. The rest of her body was nestled deeply under the heavy quilt.

Jace reached out and brushed his hand against the pulse beating just under her jawline, but she slept on peacefully.
It was difficult to look at her like this and reconcile the image of the day before when she’d refused to speak to him in front of the mess hall. In sleep all the tension and anger had faded from her features and she looked very young.
Tessa also looked very human, in the way that their females always looked so fragile. As if one good blow would shatter their fine porcelain features. Though Jace could smell the Ascendant scent on her skin, he couldn’t imagine this softer version of Tessa making the change over to Shifter. The ritual itself was intense, and the first change painful for those who still resisted their new nature. Jace had never understood how Shifters could inflict that on their Ascendant mates.
Tessa did have a resilient streak, though. She had defended herself against Jasper, fearlessly introduced herself into close-knit pack of Shifters, and damn if that mouth of hers couldn’t flay the skin off her opponent in an argument. Jace pulled his hand back from Tessa’s warm skin and let out a huge breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
He needed guidance, needed to talk to his lifelong best friend. The only person he ever asked for opinions, even if the advice wasn’t always the best available.
Damn, but he was going to have to talk to Maddie.
With that thought, Jace closed his eyes and tried to let himself go back to sleep. Things were about to get a lot easier or a hell of a lot harder in the morning. He figured a good night of sleep could only help his chances in winning over his sister.

James hesitated for a long moment, gathering his nerve to knock on the door to his uncle’s office. The project with Tessa was proceeding much too slowly for the older man’s taste, and James had been on the receiving end of his uncle’s displeasure with increasing frequency since they’d released the girl.

James took a deep breath and rapped on the solid oak door, waiting for permission to enter. After a full minute, he turned to leave. Only then did his uncle respond.
“You may enter, Novitiate,” came the muffled answer.
Schooling his expression, James turned back and opened the door, letting himself into the office. His uncle sat behind his roughly-hewn oak desk, reading some correspondence. Papers and books were stacked all over the desk, contrasting with the neatness of the rest of the office. Obviously Monsignor Sunderland was a busy man today.
“Well, what is it?” his uncle said coolly, glancing up from his reading. “You knocked on my door, remember? I assume that means you wish to speak to me.”
James cleared his throat, embarrassed. His mind wandered quite a lot these days, thinking about the werewolf situation. And even more about the werewolf’s sister, the beguiling Camilla.
“Yes. I came to tell you that I’ve brought the… woman you asked for earlier,” he said, uncomfortable.
“The witches have arrived already?” his uncle asked, surprised. “I thought they were being transferred all the way from our facility in Quebec.”
“Apparently the Elder’s Council in Quebec was more than ready to part with them. They didn’t really say why,” James said calmly.
“Have you found some leverage on them, then?”
“Yes, sir. One of them has a child, a daughter. I don’t believe we’ll even have to lay hands on the child; a threat will be enough in this case, I should think,” James said, trying to ignore the fact that they were discussing harming a child. The Legion would never stoop so low as to hurt a human child, so James avidly hoped that the child would turn out to be more mundane than her sorcerous mother.
“I want the child brought in for testing, James. Seeing as you’re having trouble enough with your own duties right now, you may assign someone to procure the child,” his uncle said, his eyes dropping back down to the letter in his hand for a moment. James tried not to flinch at the mention of his lack of progress with the werewolves.
“Of course, Monsignor. There is only one problem, sir. They seem to be refusing to cooperate.” James asked, his distaste evident.
“Both of them? Have you started compliance treatments on them?”
“It’s just that they’re very slight, sir. I don’t know that either one could stand much treatment. They look half-dead as it is,” James explained quietly.
“Novitiate, did I ask for your opinion on whether or not the witches should be treated?” Monsignor Sunderland snapped.
“No, Monsignor.”
“Then stop wasting my time with this. I want the witches separated, and to reinforce their compliance I want you to tell them we already have the child,” Sunderland said, looking down at the papers in front of him again.
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, go on then. I want a demonstration of their powers as soon as possible. And whatever happens, make sure one of them remains intact. The Elders desire her for the eugenics program,” Sunderland said, leaning back in his chair.
“May I ask what that might be, sir?” James said, surprised. The Legion was staunchly antiparanormal, so the fact that his uncle wanted to keep the witch around was strange. Then again, perhaps not. They’d been collecting specimens recently, such as a seer and a true werewolf. All on his uncle’s orders, of course.
“I believe there is some potential to introduce one the witches into our newest program. If we can somehow cross a witch with the wolf demon, we could produce an unstoppable creature.”
“Why would we want to do that?” James asked, appalled.
“Don’t look down your nose at me, Novitiate. The forces of good are hard-pressed to fight against these monsters. They’re simply too powerful for us to take them all down easily. We need a new weapon to turn the tide.”
“I had no idea this was on the table, sir.”
“The Elders decided this some time ago. You should be honored, I offered you as a prime specimen for the program. The Elders want a full-blooded demon, though. I explained to them that you’ve never shown that kind of potential, and they decided you were better used in your current position.”
James kept his features carefully blank, masking the sudden rage and disgust that arose at his uncle’s words. James had served the Legion loyally his entire life, never once giving in to his baser demon impulses. And yet his uncle and the Council had discussed him as if he were some mistakenly-gelded plow horse, worthless and lacking in virility.
“Will there be anything else, or will you just stand there all day, Notiviate James?” his uncle snapped, perhaps sensing the malevolence in James’ thoughts.
“No, of course not. If you’ll excuse me, Monsignor,” James said hastily. Suddenly he couldn’t get himself out of that office soon enough. Once he stepped outside, he pondered his next task. He had a huge list of things to do today, mostly menial and mundane things that the other Novitiates couldn’t be bothered to do.
He set out to question the witch first, but instead he found himself in front of another cell. Quietly, he pressed a button near the door to open the observation panel. The white panel slid back, revealing a two foot by two foot two-way mirror that showed the patient in cell number four.
Right now she lay quietly, no doubt sleeping after the heavily-drugged noontime meal. Her dark curls were messy, spread out over the bed where her head rested. He admired her perfectly pale skin, her oh-so-lightly freckled nose, her sweetly heart-shaped face. The more he looked at her, the more he saw the resemblance to her sister.
And just like her sister, he had to keep Camilla sedated almost constantly; evidently the Anderson sisters were as like in their feisty temperaments as they were in looks.
James heard the sound of feet approaching, and quickly closed the observation panel. Camilla wasn’t actually his charge, so he didn’t have a viable reason to be checking in on her like this. And if he’d learned anything about the Legion in his twenty-plus years of service, it was that there were eyes everywhere. If you cherished anything, you had better damned well keep quiet about it, or it would be used against you in a heartbeat. James wasn’t about to make that mistake again, especially not when his position with the Legion was so tenuous.
Moving along the hall as if on the way to another task, James wished for the millionth time that his nameless Monsignor father and his demon-blooded mother had never met. If James had been born entirely human, his life would be a hell of a lot easier. And so far, the werewolf genes he supposedly carried hadn’t done him a single favor.
James paused, thinking. Perhaps there was a missing piece to this puzzle. Some kind of rite of passage, or ritual to bring forth the demon side. If James could invoke his werewolf form at will, he might truly be valuable to the Legion.
He imagined entering the Council’s stuffy meeting chambers while they were in session, and turning into a menacing, furred hulk with slavering teeth and incredible strength.
He laughed softly to himself, imagining them trying to dismiss him then. Imagining the look of disgust on his uncle’s face turn to one of complete awe. Imagining an end to his life of impotence and fear, of his worry that the Legion would simply tire of him one day and snuff him out in the name of good.
James knew what he needed to do now. He needed to get in contact with Tessa and find the missing puzzle piece. He suddenly knew, without question, that she would be able to fix his missing puzzle piece. He suddenly knew, without question, that she would be able to fix his