The Altered (2 page)

Daniel was
about to give up, before it could become obvious he was looking,
when the hairs on the back of his neck tingled—a sensation he
hadn’t felt in a long time—making him shiver. He wanted to turn
around, desperate to see what or
who
had caused him to react
that way, but years of forcing himself to hide what he was kept
Daniel firmly in place.

“Hey, Dan? You
okay?” Matt nudged him gently with his elbow.

They’d reached
their friends—two guys Matt worked with. Daniel smiled at them
while Matt’s gaze slid down to Daniel’s chest.

Shit.
His heart rate must have spiked. Daniel hoped the bar was loud
enough to cover it, because altereds, or shifters as the newspapers
called them, had exceptional hearing and everyone was suspicious
these days. The last thing they needed was to draw any curious
glances.

They ordered
their drinks. Only after chatting for at least five minutes did
Daniel allow himself to turn around, rest his back against the bar,
and have another scan around the room.

He sipped at
his pint, nodding along with the conversation while stealing
glances at those around him. The tingly feeling hadn’t come back,
but Daniel still felt off-kilter.

The two men at
the corner table sat there, drinking bottled beer and appearing
deep in conversation. Daniel didn’t think for one second they
weren’t aware of everything going on around them.

He laughed at
the joke Matt was in the middle of telling, chipping in for a bit
and teasing him, and then he felt it again, creeping up the back of
his spine like icy fingers. Daniel stayed perfectly still,
suppressing his body’s natural reaction, and carefully turned to
place his empty pint glass on the bar.

He let his
gaze wander along to the end of the bar, past the couple he’d
spotted earlier, and—

Bloody
Hell
.

He sucked in a
sharp breath before he could stop himself. Usually he got a flash
of images, depending on how much they’d been altered—claws, teeth,
and fur if they changed fully, but never anything like this. One
minute Daniel was looking at a tall dark-haired, really hot man,
and in the blink of an eye he’d changed into a huge black wolf,
fangs bared in a snarl—clearer than anything he’d seen before.

The image
vanished almost as soon as it appeared, and the noise from the bar
suddenly jarred Daniel back to his senses.

Fuck.

He could be in
serious trouble. His gasp had almost certainly been audible to
altered senses, and his heart had begun to race before he’d managed
to get himself under control. The whole thing lasted no more than a
few seconds at most, but long enough for every altered in the room
to notice if they were paying attention.

Matt stiffened
next to him. A quick squeeze on Daniel’s arm let him know Matt had
heard.

God
, he
hadn’t been that sloppy in years. Daniel had to fight the urge to
run out of the bar. The need to get away was almost too much to
contain, but if any of the five
had
noticed him, running
would only add to their suspicions.

Daniel didn’t
dare look at any of the altereds again, his fear of discovery
barely concealed as it was. But then Matt moved in close beside
him, ordered them both another pint, and quickly shook his
head.

None of the
others had reacted.

“You sure?” he
asked, pointing at Matt’s new pint.
Are you sure they didn’t
notice anything?

“Sort of.”

He wanted to
ask Matt what he meant by that, but with so many shifters around
that was out of the question.

Matt tapped at
his pint. “Last one, then we’ll make our excuses and go. I’m not
feeling it tonight.”

“Yeah, okay.”
Daniel took a big swallow of his beer and relaxed back against the
bar again as though he hadn’t just put his life—and possibly Matt’s
by association—in danger.

Half an hour
later, Daniel was zipping up his jacket as he stepped out of the
bar into the freezing night air. He hated winter—cold and dark when
he got up in the morning and the same when he arrived home at
night.

“Bollocks. I
left my coat inside.”

“Again?”
Daniel sighed. “I’ll wait here while you go and get it.” Matt
hesitated, clearly reluctant to leave Daniel on his own, but Daniel
shooed him back inside. It’d take Matt all of two minutes, and the
bouncer was right there. Nothing was going to happen. “Hurry up,
I’m getting cold.”

“Okay, but….”
He held up two fingers and shot a quick glance down the street.
Two shifters
.

“I’ll stay
right here.” Daniel nodded toward the bouncer. He might be a
shifter too, but as long as he thought Daniel was harmless, he’d
provide protection.

Probably
.

The door
opened seconds after Matt had gone through it. Daniel had the words
“What now?” on the tip of his tongue, convinced it was Matt coming
back out, but one of the bar staff poked his head out instead, and
the sounds of fighting filtered out into the street.

“You better
get in here.” The barman looked pissed off—and wet.

“Shit.”

The bouncer
rushed inside after him, leaving Daniel on his own.

He glanced up
and down the street, rubbing his hands together to keep warm and
subtly trying to see if the two shifters Matt had sensed were
anywhere near him. The whole thing felt off. The pub had seen
better days, and the clientele could be on the rough side, so
occasionally fights broke out. But this early on a Thursday night?
Surely no one was drunk enough for that yet?

And what was
taking Matt so long?

Daniel stepped
toward the door, figuring he’d rather take his chances inside than
out here on his own, but a heavy hand landed on his shoulder before
he had chance to open it.

“You’re coming
with us.”

Daniel didn’t
hesitate. The grip was too strong to be human, and he was sure
claws were pressing through his jacket and into his skin. He
grabbed hold of his attacker’s wrist and pulled, twisting his body
at the same time and catching them off guard. He hadn’t trained in
years, but the muscle memory was still there.

The guy
stumbled, cursing as he slammed into the wall behind Daniel. “What
the fuck?”

He might not
have enhanced speed and strength, but Daniel had studied tae kwon
do for eight years before his family had to move. He could take
care of himself.

Well, in a
fair fight, anyway.

The punch that
landed as Daniel tried to open the door to the bar was anything
but. It caught him squarely on the jaw, knocking his head to the
side and sending him flailing backwards to land on his arse on the
cold concrete.

“He’s just a
bloody
seer
, Jason. What the hell is wrong with you?”

Oh
hell
.

Daniel
struggled to his feet in time to see a bloke built like a rugby
player, pulling another one—
Jason
—roughly to his feet. They
both turned around, and before Daniel had got fully upright, they
had him pinned to the wall in the alleyway next to the bar.

His head spun
from being moved so quickly, but they didn’t give him chance to get
his bearings. The next punch hit him in the ribs, followed by sharp
claws raking down his side and tearing through his jacket and
T-shirt. Daniel collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.

He fingered at
the rips in his clothing, and winced. Sore but not bloody.

“What are you
doing here?” one of the men growled out. He kicked Daniel hard, his
boot connecting with Daniel’s already tender side and making Daniel
retch.

“Having… a
fucking… drink,” Daniel spat out, clutching at his bruised
ribs.

“
Funny
.” The rugby player—prop forward if Daniel was picking
positions—pulled Daniel up and pressed him hard against the wall,
his large hand wrapped loosely around Daniel’s throat.

“Look….”
Daniel stalled, the pain in his side making it difficult to think
clearly. He hadn’t been recognised once since they’d come to
London, and he was pissed off with himself for being so careless.
The guy tightened his grip, and Daniel struggled to get the words
out. “I don’t
work
for anyone. I’m not
looking
for
anyone. I’m just here with my mates, for a drink.”

Jason—the guy
not preoccupied with slowly suffocating Daniel—stiffened, and his
head whipped round to look back down the alley toward the road.
“We’ve got company.” He sniffed the air and growled, turning back
to glare at Daniel with his fangs fully extended. “Shifter,” he
muttered, the words slightly distorted by his lengthened teeth.
“Smells like
him
.”

As the
pressure disappeared from around his throat, Daniel gasped for air
and slumped back against the wall.

“Hey!” Matt’s
voice echoed off the sides of the alleyway. “What the hell is going
on?” He snarled, low and threatening, and the next moment he was
there, standing between Daniel and the other two shifters.

Matt was
hunched over, claws out.

Ready
.

“I believe I
asked you a fucking question.” His back and shoulders rippled with
tension. Matt was generally easy-going, loud, and friendly—until
you pissed him off enough to make him shift.

The other two
shifters had claws
and
fangs, more than enough to tear Matt
apart between them, but he held his ground.

Rugby Guy
laughed, and Daniel tensed. “What d’you think you’re gonna do?” He
gestured to Matt and then to himself and his friend. “You can’t
take us. And why the hell are you with
him
, anyway?” He
sneered as he nodded at Daniel. “Do you know what he is?”

“Yeah, I
know.”

“The
facilities still exist. They were never fucking shut down, and they
use people like him to pick us out of a crowd. And yet you still
protect him?” Rugby Guy scoffed.

Matt flexed
his hands, claws ready.
Shit
. The last thing they needed was
a fight when the odds were so obviously not in their favour. Daniel
reached out to place his hand in the small of Matt’s back.

As soon as
Daniel touched him, Matt shuddered and took a deep breath, his
shoulders relaxing as he slowly let it out… and said, “With my
life.”

Jordan edged
to the far end of the bar out of the way, with Keira and Charlie
right behind him. The fight broke out two seconds after the
shifter,
Matt
, he thought the others had called him, came
back inside the bar alone. Jordan had been watching the entrance,
fully aware of where Matt and his friend, Daniel, were ever since
he’d
felt
it. Listening in to other people’s conversations
wasn’t something he did often, but he hadn’t been able to help
himself.

Jordan’s spine
still thrummed with whatever that had been earlier, and he rolled
his shoulders in an attempt to get rid of it.

“Look,” Keira
hissed and nodded toward the corner.

Jordan knew a
lot of the shifters—or altereds, depending on who you were talking
to—in this area. The two who’d sat over in the corner were bad
news, and Jordan wasn’t the least bit surprised one of them had
started the fight. But that the other still sat at the table,
talking animatedly into his phone, was unusual, to say the
least.

Jordan glanced
at Keira, and she raised her eyebrow. Yeah, he wasn’t the only one
who found it odd. Shifters tended to stick together once they’d
forged a relationship.

They didn’t
run in “packs” as such—large groups were heavily discouraged by the
government in the early days—but they formed connections where
possible, using work or any other excuse they could find as a valid
explanation.

Of course
these days it didn’t matter much since they were hiding, anyway.
But that still begged the question, why was one of them doing
nothing to help when the other appeared to be getting his arse
kicked not six feet away inside this bar by a guy who had at least
three inches on him? He might not be an altered, but the tall guy
knew how to fight. The two shifters should be looking out for each
other. The one on the phone should have split this up and got them
both out of here by now.

It made the
hairs on the back of Jordan’s neck bristle, and he quickly glanced
around the bar. Something wasn’t right.

The fight had
escalated, and if someone didn’t break it up soon, Jordan felt
certain the altered would be on the verge of shifting. That would
be bad for everybody. He caught movement out of the corner of his
eye. Matt stood over with his human friends. He looked anxiously
toward the entrance, then cursed under his breath. Jordan felt the
tension running through Matt as he struggled to get past the ruckus
and back to the door. But his way was blocked by the rest of the
people in the bar watching the fight.

Jordan tensed,
his fingers twitching.
He
was outside.
Daniel
. Jordan
could still smell him, his scent lingering like a subtle tease to
Jordan’s senses.

Matt being in
here meant Daniel was likely on his own and unprotected. Jordan
fought the urge to push through the crowd and go out there
himself.

What the fuck
was wrong with him? This was none of his business. He’d overheard
their names in a bar, but they weren’t his friends. He didn’t owe
them anything.

Jordan shook
his head and turned back to Keira and Charlie, about to suggest
they get another drink while everyone else was otherwise occupied,
when he picked up voices outside.

“Bollocks!”

Jordan’s head
snapped around as Matt cursed loudly this time, and Jordan heard
Matt’s heart rate increase rapidly as Matt finally broke through
the crowd. The fight had almost broken up, both parties involved
now being held back and dragged away from each other, but even so,
it took Matt a few minutes to navigate his way through the
stragglers and get to the door. Jordan moved to follow him, his
body acting on instinct until Keira’s grip on his arm stopped
him.