Hotbloods (Hotbloods #1)

Navan’s breath hitched, and then he shook his friend, as if that could bring him back to life. “No, Ianthan,” he rasped, and I realized from the tears glistening in his eyes that, despite Ianthan’s involvement with Jethro’s betrayal, Navan still loved his friend, and would have, in time, forgiven him.

Navan seemed to channel his grief into fury as he turned on the creature next to Ianthan. The “shapeshifter” was still managing to hold out, though from the looks of it, it wouldn’t be for much longer. Blood dribbled from its mouth, its chest contracting erratically. Navan grabbed it by the back of the neck, and the second he did so, the shapeshifter’s body morphed, and to my shock, turned into the spitting image of the homeless man we’d seen the night before, who had taken refuge in Navan’s bunker. The vision flickered, and then changed again, to another human I didn’t recognize. It continued to flicker and blur, from another human form and then to that of a brown Alaskan bear, and then its ability to shift seemed to sputter out, and it resumed its original pale shape. A now dead shapeshifter.

“What just happened?” I breathed, my heart hammering against my ribcage.

Navan stepped backward, unsteady on his feet as he stared down at the two corpses before us. His answer came out disjointed, as though his brain was still trying to process it all. “It was him… this shifter. Somehow, for some reason, it had been waiting for us, back in my bunker, to see if anybody was going to come back. And then… followed us, once it found out our intent? It was sent by someone, perhaps, and has been trailing us on and off. They must have kept losing us and finding us again. Using Ianthan as its carrier.”

I stared at him. “What? How could it have followed us? Why?”

“Shapeshifters can adopt any form they like. They can camouflage themselves with the environment, which in effect makes them invisible. They can also impart that camouflage to others, via their touch. Somehow, it got Ianthan, which was why we couldn’t find him. I just… I didn’t know shapeshifters were prevalent on Earth. It makes no sense to me that they would work for the Fed, either, since as far as I’ve always understood, the two have a notoriously bad relationship, almost as bad as they have with coldbloods.” He shook his head. “None of this makes any sense.”

“Well, maybe the Fed made an exception in this case?” I had never witnessed anyone die right in front of me and, even if they weren’t exactly human, it was unsettling.

We didn’t have time to stand there, though, because a crowd had started to gather at the end of the alley.

I grabbed Navan’s arm, expecting him to spread his wings and lift us out of there, but his eyes had fixed on two tall, heavy-set dark figures in skin-tight black suits heading swiftly toward us through the crowd. Steel masks covered their faces, and they moved with a confidence that scared me. Thick belts with sheathed weapons fit securely around their waists.

“Here they come,” Navan breathed, and I felt his hand rest lightly on the small of my back in a protective gesture. “Lycans.”

I sucked in a breath. Our plan had gone horribly wrong. We were the ones who were supposed to have spotted the Fed so I could make the first approach.

I instinctively stepped in front of Navan and moved toward both men. The crowd on the other end, I realized, was staying in place, watching the two men approach us, perhaps mistaking them for off-duty policemen. I could make out the lycans’ eyes as they neared, vibrant shades of green and amber, and my heart was in my throat as they stopped three feet in front of us.

I held out my hands in what I hoped was a universal sign of peace, even as they eyed the two supernatural corpses behind me. Although the first question I wanted to ask was whether the shifter had been working for them, I had to be economical with my words, especially as they both reached for their belts and unhooked some kind of silver handgun.

“You’ve made more than a bit of a mess here, haven’t you?” one of them snarled, glaring at Navan. He pointed his weapon at Navan’s chest. “What’s a bloodsucker like you doing on Earth? Spit it out before I put a bullet in your brain.”

“Please,” I said, my gaze beseeching them to listen. I could see the question whirring behind their eyes as they looked at me: What’s this human doing with a coldblood? “I know what it looks like, but we’re not here to cause trouble. We pulled off a stunt back there only to get your attention—we have an urgent message for your chief, and you need to take us to see him. Human blood is currently in transit to Vysanthe.”

They stopped. It was impossible to tell if they believed it, as I couldn’t see their expressions behind their masks. But they went silent for a moment and glanced at each other, which I hoped was a sign that they were at least considering it.

Then one of them reached out and grabbed me by the arm. Navan immediately stepped forward, but the second lycan pointed the gun at him.

“Don’t move,” the officer growled.

My ears picked up on the sound of rotors, and I looked up to see a black chopper hovering thirty feet above us. Four more masked figures, clad in black suits, dropped from the aircraft, rappelling down on wires. They landed heavily, three of them instantly moving to Navan and grabbing him, roughly locking his arms behind his back.

The lycan who was holding me shoved me toward the fourth lycan attached to a wire. He gave Navan one last glare. “Oh, we’re taking you with us all right.”





Chapter Nineteen





The wires shot us into the night sky and pulled us into the belly of the waiting helicopter. The open hatch clamped shut after us, and Navan and I found ourselves standing within a small chamber lined with metal panels and long benches against the walls. Two lycans waited, in addition to the four who had escorted us up, and they grabbed us roughly by the wrists, fastening cold metal handcuffs around them. I wasn’t sure if Navan would be able to break out of them, but it was a moot point—we’d have to cooperate if we wanted a chance of meeting with the chief.

I shot a worried glance at Navan, who was standing a few feet away from me, and although I could sense nervousness behind his eyes, he was keeping his calm. He gave me a firm, reassuring look, and I tried to latch onto it, instill some of his calm into my racing heart.

One of the lycans led me to a bench and sat me down, and the others did the same with Navan, seating him next to me. A second later, black fabric was pulled over my head and I couldn’t see a thing.

“Is this necessary?” I asked nervously, but the lycans ignored me. It sounded like they were walking out, but I managed to make out one of them saying, “Sergis and Masta said they’ll deal with the cleanup job.”

I felt Navan’s warm hand touch my knee, as if to reassure me. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “They just don’t want us to see how to get to their headquarters.”