CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Misty took the turn out of Shiftertown onto the quiet street that led to it. Not many people were out this late in the hot afternoon. The people who lived in or commuted to Las Vegas rarely came to this back corner of it.
A large pickup pulled abruptly in front of her, blocking her way. Misty slammed on the brakes. At the same time, another truck pulled up beside her on the passenger side. A man got out, opened her car door, and slid inside. He closed the door, the truck ahead of her moved, and he pointed.
“Drive that way.”
The man in her car was Eric Warden. Misty stared at him, making no move to obey. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Asking you to go that way.” Eric pointed down a side street.
Misty gripped the wheel. “This is kidnapping.”
“No it isn’t,” Eric said. “It’s having a chat. Now will you start driving?”
The two trucks roared off. Misty caught only a glimpse of who was in them, but she thought she recognized the bear Shifter Shane driving one, his brother Brody the other.
Misty pushed the accelerator and moved the car down the street Eric had indicated. “All right. You’ve kidnapped me. For a chat. What do you want?”
“Accept Graham’s mate-claim.”
Misty slammed on the brakes again. Eric braced himself on the dashboard, then grabbed the seat belt. “If you’re going to drive like that, I’ll buckle up.”
“Did Graham send you?” Misty demanded.
“Graham tried to stop me. I sent him off to take care of his Fae problem.”
“Good.” Misty started driving again, slowly. “Why do you want me to accept Graham’s mate-claim? I think it would be a bad thing for Graham if I do.”
“I don’t know. You’ll have to fight for acceptance, and he’ll have to kick a few asses before everyone calms down. But I’ve watched Graham now for almost a year. Trust me, I keep a close eye on him. When Graham’s around you, he’s at ease with himself. He’s a loud, arrogant, obnoxious shit—always has been, and will always be—but with you, he seems to find peace. A reason for living . . . besides his determination to be the biggest dickhead in the room.”
“He’s not a dickhead,” Misty said hotly. “If he wasn’t like he is, he’d have lost everybody in his life, more than he already has. He doesn’t say that out loud, but I know it. Dougal would have been killed in the wild a long time ago—I understand that now—and the Shifters in his Shiftertown wouldn’t have survived. Graham fought to keep them all alive.”
“You’re not telling me anything I don’t know,” Eric said. “He kept those Shifters together up in Elko, when all of them could have easily gone feral. One hell of a task. I commend him for it.”
“And so you want me to cause more trouble by staying with him?”
Eric leaned back in the seat and rested his arm along the window. “They’ll come around. Shifters are all about what’s for the good of the pack, or clan, or whatever community they’re in. Might not seem like it most of the time, but they are. The only reason Shiftertowns work is that we’ve dedicated ourselves to making them work. We want survival, and we want our cubs to grow up safe and happy. We took the Collars, instead of letting ourselves get wiped out, for the sake of the cubs. Graham’s Shifters will understand, in time, that Graham having you is the best thing that can happen for them. All the crap about hierarchy and Shifters breeding with Shifters for strength is bullshit.”
“I see.” Misty drove in silence for a time. She turned onto a main street, heading for her store. “You know, you’ve never once asked me what I wanted.”
Eric made a lazy gesture with the hand along the window. “I don’t have to. You want to mate with Graham.”
Misty shot him a look. “Excuse me?”
“I’ve been watching you too.” Eric leaned even farther back in the seat and rested one motorcycle-booted foot on the dashboard. “You’re a sweet young woman, and when you’re around Graham, you’re happier, stronger. More self-assured. And I see the way you look at him. Trust me, no one else in Shiftertown looks at Graham as though they want him to stay exactly the way he is.”
“Really? That’s kind of sad.”
“It means he needs you, and you need him. End of problem.”
Misty turned down another street, navigating heavier traffic. “Was it that simple when you were going after Iona?” She sent him a sweet smile. “Graham told me you looked like you’d been hit with an anvil.”
Eric didn’t take offense. “True, I denied my need to be with Iona for a long time. I’d been grieving my mate for so many years I didn’t know how to fall in love again. Iona taught me. Besides I had to save Iona from . . . other Shifters who considered her fair game.”
Misty’s smile widened. “Don’t worry, I know Graham tried to Challenge you for her, so you don’t have to spare my feelings. For a man who doesn’t like to talk about personal things, Graham has told me a lot. I met him the night you two fought, and you lost.”
“I didn’t lose,” Eric said indignantly. “I was incapacitated by something else. It was a draw.”
“Graham tried to claim it was a draw too. But you both lost, didn’t you?”
Eric sat up. “Hey, this is supposed to be your kidnapping. Me telling you what you should do.”
“I’ll think about it. Meanwhile, I need to return this car and make sure the rest of my life is all right. Including my brother.”
“Paul’s a good kid. He’ll be fine.”
“You have a lot of optimism, Eric.”
“I’ve been around a while,” Eric said. “It’s experience, not optimism.”
“Do you want me to drop you off somewhere?”
“No.” Eric laced his hands behind his head. “I should check up on what the Shifters are doing at your store. Shane can drive me back.”
? ? ?
"We’re doing this, with or without my dad,” Jace Warden said.
Jace, Eric’s son, stood straight and tall, looking much like his absent father with his dark hair and green eyes, but more alert, more present than Eric ever let himself seem. Since Jace’s mating—he’d recently taken a mate from the Austin Shiftertown—he’d stood even straighter, with more authority than ever.
Graham stood with Jace, facing the Shifters who were annoyed that Eric hadn’t showed yet. Eric wasn’t coming, Graham realized. He’d sent Jace to do this, letting his son take authority. Talking to Misty had been an excuse. Eric had made sure Graham was here to back up Jace if necessary. Cagey Feline.
The Shifters stood in an old airplane hanger forty miles from town, in remote desert, where a human called Marlo kept his planes. The former drug runner now made his money carrying Shifters where they wanted to go. Shifters couldn’t travel outside a state without special permission, but as usual, Shifters had learned how to get around the rules. Marlo did a brisk business hauling Shifters back and forth. He was discreet, reliable, and knew how to avoid problems.
The Fae-blood human who’d been captured sat in a straight-backed chair at the end of the hanger. He’d been bound in chains of silver, spelled, Graham guessed. Sean Morrissey stood with him, the Sword of the Guardian on his back, his father, Dylan Morrissey, at Sean’s side.
Couldn’t be easy for the Fae-blood, facing a roomful of grim-faced Shifters who’d figured out he’d helped screw them in more ways than one. Couldn’t be easy sitting in a room with Dylan either, one of the most formidable Shifters ever born. No one could predict what Dylan would do.
Bowman had come, as had Eoin from Montana. A couple of Shifters from Shiftertowns in Utah and New Mexico were also there, plus Liam and Sean—basically whoever had been able to get there on short notice.
“He won’t tell us his real name,” Liam said, starting without preamble. “Afraid this will give us unfair advantage.”
A rumble of laughter came from everyone but Dylan and Bowman.
“In the human world,” Dylan said, “he goes by Lorcan.”
The Fae flinched slightly. For the most part, he maintained his arrogance, even though he was outnumbered by angry Shifters ready to kill him. Technically Lorcan was employed by the human government, and Lorcan must have believed the humans would rush to his rescue. But if Liam and Dylan had been true to form, the humans wouldn’t even realize Lorcan had gone.
Lorcan’s father, a half Fae, had come up with the concept of the Collars for Shifters, convincing humans twenty years ago, when the existence of Shifters was revealed, that these were the best way to keep the wild and dangerous Shifters under control. Collars used a combination of technology and Fae magic to react to a Shifter’s adrenal system, giving them shocks when they became violent—in the Collar’s opinion.
Dylan’s rumbling voice silenced the Shifters. “Graham has recently discovered that the Fae in Faerie have created swords that can work in conjunction with the Collars—the swords set off the Collars at the will of the sword’s wielder. Is that correct?” Dylan bent to Lorcan, waiting for him to answer.
Lorcan moved in his seat, but his eyes remained haughty. “If a Fae told you that, that Fae is no longer one of us.”
“Huh,” Graham said. “He told me, because he thought he had total control over me. Thought I’d surrender right there and be his pet, then rush out and bring all my Shifter friends back with me to him.”
“You are Shifter,” Lorcan said to him, his arrogance still present. “You have always been a captive. I am not and never will be.”
“You are now, laddie.” Liam picked up one of the spelled chains binding Lorcan and shook it. “These don’t bother me, but they hold you pretty good. Why don’t you tell us what we want to know?”
“And then what? You kill me? If I am to die, then you can live ignorant.”
“We’re not going to kill you,” Dylan said. His tone was quietly calm, deadly. Graham, who didn’t intimidate easily, wanted to shiver. “You will go back to the Fae and tell them that their experiment failed.”
“Will I?” Lorcan asked, disdainful.
Lorcan, born of a human mother and a half-Fae father, looked human, even more so than most half Fae. He was slender, but his features were very human, his hair wheat brown instead of the severe pale fair of most Fae. His hair covered his ears, but Graham was pretty sure those ears weren’t pointy.
“You will,” Dylan said.
“We know what you’re up to, a*shole,” Graham said. “You and your dad made the Collars, and I’m willing to bet you made or helped make the Fae swords too. Now, what’s the master plan? Or did you just want to make Shifters more miserable? Fae are still pissed off that Shifters won the war against them all those years ago and took their freedom. Get over it, already.”
“This is a waste of time,” Bowman said impatiently. “Break some bones and get some answers. How many of these swords exist? Where are they? Why have the Fae waited to use them?”
“Let Dylan finish,” Jace said sternly.
The other Shifters looked at him, falling silent. Graham saw them adjust their thinking from viewing Jace as an older cub to Jace as Eric’s successor.
Air displaced next to Graham, and Reid was there. Graham had drawn back his fist, ready to punch, but checked himself at the last minute. “Damn it, Reid.”
The other Shifter leaders had started forward, a few of them half shifting. “What the f*ck?” Bowman asked. Not everyone had known Reid could teleport.
When Lorcan saw Reid, his assurance drained rapidly. “Dokk alfar.” He continued with a string of weird-sounding words.
“Ironmaster,” Reid said, in English. He held up his hand, which was clasped by a heavy black ring—iron—and advanced on Lorcan.
“What’s he afraid of?” Bowman asked, a growl in his throat. “Iron doesn’t affect mixed-breed Fae. And what the hell is he?” He pointed at Reid.
“A dark Fae,” Graham said. “A pain in the ass. But handy to have around.”
Reid didn’t appear to care whether iron was supposed to work on mixed-blood Fae or not. He held up his hand, light sliding on the dark ring, and brought his hand down and wrapped it around Lorcan’s throat.
Lorcan screamed. He tried to scramble away from Reid, the chains clinking, chair scraping. He yelled rapidly in Fae before settling down to English. “Make it stop! Make it stop! Please! Stop!”
The rest of the Shifter leaders watched in a mixture of surprise and unease. Who the hell is this? their body language said clearly. And do I have to worry he can do that to me?
Reid lifted his hand from Lorcan’s neck, took a step back, and nodded at Dylan. Dylan didn’t return the nod.
Graham went forward, tired of waiting. The Morrisseys could toy with Lorcan all day, like the cats they were, if they decided to. Wolves were more straightforward. “What is going on with the Collars and the swords?” he asked, pushing his face to Lorcan’s. “I want to know everything, including how to keep the Fae from activating them.”
Lorcan licked the side of his mouth, where blood had dripped. More blood dripped from his nose, thin streams of it. “It’s too late. The High Fae have been making swords to match the spells in the Collars for many years. They’re almost ready. My father and I were chosen to help prepare the way.”
“Because Fae want Shifters back under their power?” Graham asked. “Guess what? They’re not getting it.”
“Fae wish to walk the earth again, as they once did. Shifters will fight the humans for the Fae—Shifters can fight iron.”
“You mean Shifters kill all the humans, and the Fae pour out of their stone circles and rule the earth?” Graham leaned closer to Lorcan. “Do they realize how many humans are on this planet?”
“Fae aren’t that good at math,” Lorcan said, gray lips quirking to a little smile. “But there are many millions of Fae in Faerie. Only a handful of them ever lived on earth. It’s getting crowded in Faerie, and they want the human world back.”
“Using Shifters to get it?”
“The battle beasts, yes.”
Oison had called Graham a battle beast. “If Shifters get wiped out in this little war, the Fae won’t have their battle beasts anymore,” Graham said.
“They’ll make more,” Lorcan said. “You have many cubs now.”
Graham felt the blood drain from his face. Shifters started to growl, move.
Rage replaced Graham’s shock. He grabbed Lorcan by his shirt. “They touch the cubs, and we’ll rip off their heads, starting with yours.”
“I told them that,” Lorcan said desperately, more blood trickling from his nose and mouth. “I told them how protective you were of cubs. They don’t care.”
Reid said, “Sounds like typical hoch alfar. Cold and stupid.”
Dylan broke in, his quiet voice even more deadly. “Why did they wait twenty years? In the first years of the Collars, we were weaker, more vulnerable. There was chaos trying to settle into Shiftertowns and find our feet.”
“They wanted you stronger,” Lorcan answered. “Shifters started to live longer, be more healthy, have more cubs. Multiply.”
Graham shook Lorcan once, spraying blood. “So the Fae would have a bigger army.”
“Larger and stronger.”
“Shit.” Graham released him, and Lorcan thumped back into the seat.
“What is the secret of the swords?” Jace asked around Dylan. “How can we break their effect?”
Lorcan shook his head. “You can’t. The Fae made the swords to have the same technology as the Collars—they taught my dad how to make the Collars in the first place, and he taught me. The spells in the swords activate the Collars. They don’t have to actually touch the Collars, but touching makes the control stronger.”
“But swords and Collars have to be in proximity,” Dylan said.
“For now.”
The chill of those words worked their way through the Shifters. “How many?” Graham asked.
“Swords? As many now as there are Shifters.”
Silence descended in the hanger. Graham remembered the pain that had encased him when Oison had touched his sword to Graham’s Collar. Oison had been able to manipulate Graham’s gunshot wound, healing and unhealing it at will. The water spell had been a way to bring Graham close enough to Oison, he realized, through the dreams—Graham would never have voluntarily walked into Faerie on his own. The Fae spell, through the water, had taken Graham to Oison, so Oison could use the sword . . .
“Inside Faerie,” Graham finished his thought out loud. The other Shifters jerked attention to him. “Oison didn’t come outside Faerie, with the sword, to where I was dying in the desert. He coerced me through Misty into drinking the water, to get me under his thrall first. He couldn’t just come and get me with the sword—I already had to be weak and in his power. Which means the sword spells must not completely work yet.”
Lorcan looked nervous. “Oison is impatient. He thinks we should move now. The leaders say the plan hasn’t matured, but Oison wants to start immediately, before Shifters get too strong.”
And Shifters were now learning how to control the Collars and even to remove them. Graham wondered if Oison knew Shifters had discovered the secret of removing the Collars, but Graham wasn’t going to voice the thought to a man hand in glove with both the Fae and the human government.
“Oison jumped the gun, you mean,” Graham said. “He gave the game away. That’s what he gets for being a f*ckwad.”
“No, I gave the game away,” Lorcan said. “I’m doing it now. The Fae won’t let me live for telling you all this.”
Dylan almost smiled. “Then you’ll have to trust Shifters to keep you safe and alive.”
Liam grinned. “Ironic, isn’t it, lad?”
“Keep him safe?” Graham growled. “You mean I can’t tear him in half? Or watch Reid do the trick with the ring again?”
Liam shook his head. “We can’t risk the humans investigating us if Lorcan turns up dead and shredded, or cut in half by a Fae sword. So he’s now under our protection. Poor guy.”
Liam was laughing, looking positively gleeful. Graham wished he could be so happy. “How do we deactivate the swords?” Graham asked Lorcan. “All of them?”
“You don’t,” Lorcan said. “Not from here. You’d have to take that fight inside Faerie, or lure the Fae out.”
Bowman broke in. “So, there are as many Fae with the swords as there are Shifters with Collars? I could eat ten Fae and have room for dessert, but them controlling the Collars makes things different.”
Going into Faerie wasn’t an option, Graham knew. There weren’t enough Shifters in fighting form to win a fight inside Faerie, even without the Fae having the Collar-controlling swords. Plus, gates to Faerie were tricky—no guarantee a Shifter army could get in. On the other hand, enticing a boatload of Fae out of Faerie to fight didn’t appeal either . . . if they’d even come.
“What about Andrea’s father?” Graham asked. “What’s his name, Fionn? He’s a Fae. What does he know about all this?”
“Nothing,” Dylan said. “I already spoke with him, and what I told him made him very angry. Not all Fae see eye-to-eye. He fears those Fae who made the swords will not only want to walk the earth again, but rule all of Faerie. There are constant power struggles there. Fionn can help, but only if he can convince his clan it’s necessary. Fionn’s people might be happy to let the Fae use controlled Shifters to kill humans, good riddance to the humans.”
“Good riddance to Shifters too, you mean,” Graham said, and Dylan gave him a slow nod. “And then there’s Reid,” Graham said, turning to him. “Go tell your dark Fae to kick some ass.”
“I will,” Reid said. “Same problem though, getting my clan to agree about the threat. They might be happy to let the hoch alfar fight each other, or let them leave Faerie for the human world without protest. Dark Fae will shut the gates behind the hoch alfar and be glad. Dokk alfar are the original Fae, after all.” Reid’s black eyes glinted. “However, I might convince my people to keep the Fae busy while we figure out how to stop them.”
“I know how,” Graham said. “Without going to Faerie at all.”
He didn’t say it out loud. Lorcan might be under Dylan’s thumb now, but he still could turn around and text someone in the human government as soon as he got his hands free.
The solution was getting the Collars off Shifters. The Fae couldn’t manipulate what wasn’t there. Collars were already coming off the weaker Shifters, the ones who couldn’t take the pain and couldn’t learn the techniques for control. The thought that Matt and Kyle, and whatever cub Graham would have with Misty, wouldn’t have to wear true Collars made his heart sing.
“Is that enough information?” Dylan asked. “I’d like to get Lorcan back home before the humans miss him.”
Liam, hands in his sweat jacket pockets, nodded. “I’ll get Marlo, and we’ll go. Sean and Andrea will stay a while longer, Graham, to make sure Misty’s all right.” Graham gave Liam a nod of thanks.
“That’s it then,” Jace said.
The fact that the Shifters didn’t disperse until Jace gave the nod attested to his growing power. Without any more talk, Liam disappeared into the darkening desert, and Dylan, Bowman, and Sean carried Lorcan, silver chains, chair, and all, out. A plane’s engines started up, lights flashing, the lumbering bird waiting for its passengers.
The other Shifters started to walk away, off to board the airplane or find their own transportation home. No one said, Take care of yourself, or even Goddess go with you. Such words might mean they’d never see each other again.
“How’d you do that?” Graham asked Reid in a low voice as the building emptied. “With the ring? If mixed-blood Fae don’t have to worry about iron?”
“They still need to worry about it,” Reid said. “But they have enough human blood in them to dilute the effects. I used the ring to undilute the effects, going straight for the part of Lorcan that was true Fae.”
“Really?” Graham rubbed his jaw, feeling stiff bristles. “Good to know.”
Reid eyed him. “You couldn’t do it yourself. If you pushed this ring against Lorcan’s neck, he’d only feel a ring against his neck. Only I can make the iron work.”
“Because you’re Iron Man, I know.”
“Ironmaster,” Reid said. But he gave Graham a ghost of a smile, appreciating the humor. Then he walked away a few steps, and disappeared.
Graham couldn’t help his jump when the air around Reid displaced with a little pop. “Damn, I hate it when he does that.”
Jace waited to walk out with Graham. “We’ll start with you,” Jace said.
He meant taking off the Collars. Graham shook his head as he mounted his borrowed bike. “Dougal first. He’d never stand against Fae. Thank the Goddess it was me who got shot and water-spelled. Dougal would already be gone.”
“I agree,” Jace said. “But it’s not up to me.”
“Your dad thinks it’s up to him,” Graham said. “Your dad’s wrong.”
Without waiting for Jace’s answer, Graham started and revved the bike and took off across the desert. To the west, the sky was crimson, gold, and brilliant blue, black mountains in silhouette—a desert sunset in all its glory. A perfect backdrop, Graham thought. Too bad this movie wasn’t over.
? ? ?
Graham checked on the cubs when he reached Shiftertown, who were happy to continue hanging out with Andrea and Sean, who’d returned from the meeting. Sean and Andrea were looking after Dougal too, while pretending not to, to spare Dougal’s pride. They were good people, Graham conceded, for Felines and half-Fae Shifters.
Graham left them and headed south into the heart of Las Vegas to Misty’s store. He knew she’d gone back there in spite of Graham telling her not to, because that was the kind of lady Misty was.
Misty wasn’t at the store when Graham reached it, however. Some of Eric’s Shifters were, including Brody, cleaning up. Eric had arrived with Misty here, Brody said, then Xav had followed Misty home, and Shane had driven Eric back to Shiftertown.
Graham continued to Misty’s house. Her truck was in her driveway, along with a couple of black pickups and SUVs from DX Security. Graham told the man working on fixing Misty’s door to get out of the way and go home. The man stepped aside, but went back to his work on the door.
Graham ignored him, in too much of a hurry to be irritated. He let scent and voices guide him to the kitchen, where his mate was.
Except his mate leaned against Xav Escobar, Xav’s arms around her, Misty’s head on his shoulder. While Graham stood there for a stunned second, Xav stroked one hand through Misty’s hair.
Graham was across the room, his Collar sparking, a roar leaving his mouth. He wrapped his hand around Xav’s throat, and kept moving, heaving Xav up against the far wall before anyone could say a word.