The Altered (10 page)

The man had
obviously timed it so Daniel’s floor was empty except for the two
of them. The silence Daniel usually found peaceful and comforting,
was now oppressive, and it made him want to talk to fill it up. He
smiled and called on his years of interacting with other altereds
to keep his breathing even and his heart beating in a steady
rhythm. To avoid appearing obvious, he made sure to keep eye
contact to a bare minimum. “Is there something I can help you
with?”

The man cocked
his head to the side, and Daniel felt his gaze boring into him as
he pretended to sort out a pile of books on his desk. “Maybe. I’m
not sure yet.” He leaned forward and rested one arm on the counter,
tapping out a rhythm with fingernails just a touch too pointed to
be human. It sounded overly loud in the quiet of the room, and
Daniel flinched before catching himself.

He wanted to
roll his eyes. The man obviously knew about him, and if this was
supposed to be a subtle attempt at intimidating him, then he needed
to work on his approach. Daniel watched the claws slowly lengthen,
the tapping getting louder and more forceful. He took a step back,
steeling himself to ask the guy to either say what he’d come to say
or leave. Voices from the stairwell filtered into the room,
catching Daniel’s attention, and when he looked back, the stranger
was gone.

Even for a
full shifter, that was fast. Daniel craned his neck, checking as
much of the area as he could, but the man had vanished. He had
visions of him hiding out between the stacks, ready to pounce later
on, and had to clench his fists to calm himself down.

The voices
he’d heard belonged to two men in suits, now loitering near the
entrance to Daniel’s section. One of them spoke rapidly into his
phone, while the other walked back and forth in front of one of the
stacks, idly running his fingers over the spines but not looking at
the titles.

Clearly
neither of them were after a book, and Daniel watched them out of
the corner of his eye. They weren’t altereds, but they weren’t
ordinary members of the public either—looking out of place with
their smart suits and suspicious behaviour.

For the first
time that morning, Daniel felt a trickle of fear snake down his
spine. Granted the shifter had startled him, but he would never
have tried anything in a public library.

These two men
had an air of authority, though, obviously used to getting their
way regardless of the consequences. Daniel had no idea who was
behind the disappearances of the altereds—either government or
private sector, it didn’t matter—but whoever it was, he would bet
good money that those two men were part of it.

He ignored
them as best he could, not wanting to draw their attention, and sat
back down at his computer to focus on inputting book orders again.
His palms were sweaty, and he surreptitiously wiped them on his
trousers, one at a time.

The urge to
get up and run was almost more than he could bear. Images of the
horror stories he’d heard over the years filled his head. Most were
probably made-up or exaggerated, but there were so many that at
least some of them had to be true. Seers were rare—one in every one
hundred thousand, according to the early reports—and sought after
by the authorities for obvious reasons.

Daniel didn’t
want to be used to track shifters, didn’t want to be forced to
expose his friends or innocent strangers to be studied and
investigated in some underground lab. He concentrated hard on the
keyboard, trying and failing to suppress a shiver every time he
heard a noise or noticed movement in his periphery. Swallowing
thickly and not trying to steady his heart rate—it wasn’t as though
they’d be able to hear it—he stood. A pile of four books sat on the
counter. Daniel picked them up and walked away from his desk toward
the stacks over to the far right. He kept his head down, not
looking in the direction the men had been, and tried not to think
about the strange shifter that had been in there before them. He
was long gone by now. Probably.

He’d be able
to hear the men if they followed him. Though he had no idea what
he’d do if they did. Run, was the option that sprung to mind, but
Daniel hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

One by one,
Daniel restacked the books. When he slid the last one into place,
he rested his forehead on the shelf in front of him and glanced
down to see his hands were shaking.

Fuck.

In all the
years since the change, he’d never come this close to being found,
and it hadn’t registered before how truly terrifying it would be.
He took a deep breath and forced himself to let it out slow and
steady. If they hadn’t approached him by now, maybe they weren’t
going to. He thought of the strange shifter’s hasty departure.
Maybe they weren’t here for Daniel at all?

Daniel took
several more deep breaths, his body relaxing with each second that
passed, until he eventually slumped against the shelves with a
soft, and possibly slightly hysterical, huff of laughter. Nothing
had happened. Daniel had more than likely had a near panic attack
due to his overactive imagination. He cursed his own paranoia and
rolled his shoulders, now stiff from the tension. “Jesus,
Daniel.”

“Talking to
yourself is never a good sign.”

Daniel whirled
around, heart pounding, to see Jordan walking toward him with a
soft smile. “Oh my God! You scared the shit out of me.”

Jordan stopped
about ten feet away, the smile slipping as his gaze darted around
the room. Daniel watched him take a deep breath, his curling lip
revealing the barest hint of teeth. Jordan looked back at Daniel,
glanced down at his chest, then back up to his face. Between one
blink and the next, Jordan had him pushed up against the books,
Jordan’s head pressed into the juncture between Daniel’s neck and
shoulder, and he gripped the top of Daniel’s arms tightly.

“Did he hurt
you?” Jordan whispered, smoothing his hands up and down.

His lips
brushed against Daniel’s skin, and Daniel shuddered. “Um,
what?”

Jordan had
barely an inch on him, but he felt so much bigger like this. The
heat from his body enveloped Daniel from chest to thigh, and Daniel
had a hard time focusing.

“The shifter?”
Jordan inched closer, sliding his hands down onto Daniel’s hips. “I
could smell a couple of them at the entrance downstairs, but I
thought maybe it was just coincidence. One of them was up here,
though, wasn’t he?”

He didn’t wait
for Daniel to answer, which was just as well because Jordan had
pushed his thumbs under Daniel’s shirt and was now tracing patterns
along Daniel’s bare stomach, and it was more than a little
distracting.

“Your heart’s
racing, and you were afraid.
Please
, Daniel, tell me what
happened.”

Jordan’s
breaths came quicker now, each gust of air hot against Daniel’s
neck, and Daniel instinctively tipped his head to the side.

“Fuck.” Jordan
gasped, and his whole body stilled for a second. “Daniel… I….”

Oh
yeah
, Daniel had forgotten what effect that had on full
altereds. Matt would piss himself laughing if he knew what Daniel
had just done.

Jordan nipped
at his skin, his teeth a little too sharp.

“Ahh,” Daniel
clutched at Jordan’s shoulders, torn between shoving him away and
pulling him closer.

“Sorry.”

Jordan soothed
the sore spot with his tongue, and Daniel closed his eyes, letting
his head rest against the books behind him.

He should put
a stop to this—he worked here, for God’s sake. If anyone discovered
them, it would mean a written warning at least. But that thought
slipped from his mind as Jordan brought his hands up to cup
Daniel’s face and drew him in for a kiss.

His lips were
soft against Daniel’s, and although it stayed relatively chaste, it
was the hottest thing Daniel had experienced in a long while. Then
Jordan pressed forward and
oh God
that was his cock nudging
against Daniel’s, hard and insistent.

Daniel
definitely needed to stop this, or he’d be looking at more than a
warning. “Hey,” he whispered, pulling back a little, surprised at
how rough his voice came out. “Jordan?”

“Mmm?” Jordan
moved his attention to Daniel’s neck again, trailing gentle kisses
all the way down to his collarbone.

Daniel made a
noise in the back of his throat, losing himself in the feel of
Jordan’s mouth on him. He wanted nothing more than to let Jordan
have his way. It had been too long since someone had touched Daniel
like this, and
fuck
, he’d missed it.

Jordan rolled
his hips, pushing Daniel back into the shelves. The books digging
into his spine brought him back to reality with a sudden jolt.

“Jordan,”
Daniel tried again, putting his hands on Jordan’s chest. “You need
to stop.”

He gave a
small shove. It didn’t move him, not that Daniel had expected it
to. Jordan was a solid wall of muscle, strength enhanced by the
pathogen.

But it did
make him stop and straighten up to meet Daniel’s gaze.

And that made
Daniel want to drag him home and lock him in his bedroom. He’d
never slept with a shifter before—never thought it was worth the
risk of revealing what he was to a casual hookup—and he wasn’t
prepared for the way Jordan’s altered form shimmered under the
surface, looking ready to shift any second. Daniel wondered if all
seers experienced that, or if it was just him.

Jordan’s eyes
were dark, the green now a deep jade framed by thick lashes. They
seemed to glow in the dull light of their corner of the room, and
Daniel had to force himself to break eye contact. Jordan’s parted
lips—red and swollen—didn’t quite hide the slightly elongated teeth
at the front of his mouth. Daniel fought the urge to lean forward
and run his tongue over their sharp edges, barely stopping himself
from leaning into Jordan’s embrace.

“I don’t want
to stop.” Jordan’s voice came out a little slurred through his
fangs, and it sent a pulse of heat straight to Daniel’s dick.

“Me neither,”
Daniel whispered back. “But I don’t want to get the sack, and
that’s where we’re headed.”

Jordan sighed
and closed his eyes. “Shit.” He took a deep breath and then
groaned, taking a step back and away from Daniel. “That didn’t
help.”

Daniel
frowned, and Jordan gestured down the length of Daniel’s body.

“You smell
really, really good right now.” Jordan bit his lip and took another
step back. “I need to go, or I won’t be able to leave you
alone.”

Daniel
automatically moved to follow him, but Jordan held up his hand, a
wry smile on his face.

“Unless you’re
into exhibitionism—which is fine with me, by the way—then you need
to stay right where you are.” He let his gaze wander down Daniel’s
body, lingering on the front of his trousers.

Daniel glanced
down and immediately blushed. His trousers were obscenely tight at
the front, the outline of his cock as clear as day under the taut
material. Jordan reached down to adjust himself, clearly not
bothered about being out in public with an obvious erection. That
in itself was hot.

Daniel eyed
the clock on the far wall near the doors—eleven forty-five. “I can
take an early lunch. Meet you out front in thirty minutes?” It’d be
the longest thirty minutes ever, and he’d still have an afternoon
of work to get through after that. But it would be worth it.

“Yeah, okay.
I’ll be waiting outside.” Jordan gave him one last heated look
before turning on his heel and walking out through the double
doors.

“Fuck me.”
Daniel ran a hand through his hair, still a little dazed and a lot
turned on, before trudging back over to his desk.

He sat down
heavily and groaned in frustration, managing to resist rubbing
himself through his trousers—just. He knew from experience how
possessive and protective Matt got around him, but he hadn’t
expected Jordan to be quite as affected. He should have known
better. The pathogen not only altered their bodies but also ramped
up their instincts and emotions—much more so for a full shifter.
Perhaps he should be more surprised that Jordan had managed to pull
back and walk away.

He closed his
eyes and willed his erection to calm down enough, so he could at
least pretend to work and not sit thinking about getting Jordan
naked. Maybe his first impression had been right, after all. Jordan
didn’t appear to be as much of an arsehole as he’d expected. Okay,
he’d still threatened him, and Daniel intended to talk to him about
that at some point, because if Jordan still thought that about him
then Daniel would walk away, no matter what stupid chemistry they
had between them.

He turned to
face his computer, wincing when the collar of his shirt rubbed
against the tender skin of his neck. It hurt when he pressed his
fingers on it, but in a good way, reminding him of how Jordan had
reacted.

Daniel thought
back to the ridiculous pamphlets they’d handed out at school when
the first altereds came to light:
Correct Behaviour When Dealing
With an Altered
. He and Matt had been too young to understand
most of it, but the school libraries had kept copies, and they were
curious. They’d spent many an afternoon reading the list of dos and
don’ts, laughing their heads off and thinking it was all a crock of
shit.

It turned out
that the government had got some things right, although Daniel
tried not to dwell on how they came by their information. Naturally
they’d based a lot of their theories on studies of wolves in the
wild, and according to the pamphlets, baring one’s throat was an
act of submission—an invitation to claim and take what was being
offered. In Daniel’s case that had clearly been sex, and for a full
shifter like Jordan, it would have been hard to resist if he’d been
interested.