Guardians Of The Shifters (13 page)

“So are you and Cora the only hybrid shifters out there?”

“No, there are more of us than what you’d think. Whoever gave Cora the line of shit about her being the only one is full of crap. There are more hiding in plain sight.” He paused. “I’d like to meet the person who told you.”

I laughed humorously. “That would be hard to do.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s dead…I killed him four months ago.”

“How unfortunate.” He said dryly.

I scowled at him, he has no right to judge me, he doesn’t even know me. Caden noticed the shift in my mood and spoke before I had a chance to say anything.

“How old are you?”

Kevin smirked. “Fifteen.” He paused. “Well, I look fifteen but I’m older than my years.” He chuckled at our confused expressions. “Let’s take a walk…its stifling in here.” He stood up leaving the bottle of water on the couch and headed for the door. I rolled my eyes and pushed myself off the wall. I didn’t have to look behind me to know that Caden was following closely. We followed Kevin out the door and to the elevators. I was kind of surprised to see that he knew his way around the hotel and I was also kind of shocked.

It made me wonder how long he really has been around. Sometimes when he talked he seemed way older. I don’t think he’s really fifteen, I think that it’s just a cover age so people showed sympathy for him. Who would turn away a fifteen year old kid? I also think that Kevin has a way of disguising his real features and chose a teenaged form, or my mind could be running wild with the impossible.

We were out of the hotel doors before I even realized it. I guess being lost in your own mind will do that to you. Kevin turned to our right and kept on walking, so of course we followed not knowing where we were going or if it was a trap. I stayed on alert the whole time, watching the people closely as we walked by.

Twenty minutes into our walk I felt it. I felt the familiar tingle race down my spine and lift the hairs on my neck. Someone was following us. I looked at both of the guys to see if they noticed. Kevin gave me a knowing look with those hazel eyes of his, he even smirked a little before he winked at me. I wanted to stick my tongue out at him like small children did to their parents, but I reframed from doing so.

Instead, I turned back to my surroundings and played dumb. My hand was on the hilt of one of my daggers hiding inside my light jacket. Kevin made a sharp turn to the left grabbing my arm as he did so. It almost made me want to punch him, up until I saw the look on his face. He bent down and whispered in my ear. “There are five of them.” I was ready for a fight and I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face.

I turned expecting to see Caden only to find that he wasn’t with us. I sharply looked back at Kevin. “Where is Caden?” The only response I got was a tilt of his head. My eyes followed the indication of his head. Caden was on the other side of the road standing flat against a building. How he got over there without me knowing, I had no freaking clue.

Kevin put his hand over my mouth to keep me from saying anything. Good thing he did because the five assassins were standing right in front of us but didn’t seem to be able to see us. What the hell? After a few more seconds they continued walking. Shortly after that we stepped back on the side walk. I looked at Kevin.

“How did they not see us?”

He shrugged like it was no big deal. “One of my many talents.”

Yeah I’ll bet. “What do we do now?”

He smiled down at me. “Now…we follow them.”

I liked where this was heading and I couldn’t help but to smile back. Caden joined us not long after that and we set out following after the group. They were maybe a couple blocks ahead of us. I tried not to walk ahead of Caden and Kevin as my excitement grew. Like I said…tried, being the key word. Caden had to pull me back a couple times and by the fourth time he just decided to lace his fingers through mine.

I hardly paid any attention, all my focus was on the group ahead of us. What I really wanted to do was knock Caden’s and Kevin’s heads together and take off. To me it felt like we were walking slowly and I didn’t want to lose the group. Caden and Kevin came to a stop and unfortunately so did I.

The group of assassins walked into a plain white house, there was nothing on the outside that indicated that anyone lived there. Caden let go of my hand and turned his attention to Kevin, it was a big mistake on his part. While they were talking about the best course of action on how to proceed, I was already quietly making my way towards the house. They didn’t seem to notice my absence until I was damn near to the door.

One of them whispered out my name while the other one cursed. When I got to the door I kicked it in and spoke. “Hello boys!” They all jumped up from their sitting positions with startled looks on their faces. When Kevin and Caden finally joined me, all hell broke loose.

                                             Chapter 7

I lunged at the one closest to me, catching him on the side of the face with my fist. His head knocked into the wall putting a whole in it, now that’s what I call thick headed. He shook himself out of the daze he was in and swung at me. His fist connected with the side of my head spinning me around, but un-lucky for him, I put a kick in with that spin, catching him in the leg. I heard a crack as he fell to the floor.

I didn’t give him time to recover, with speed he didn’t see coming, and I stuck my dagger in the side of his head. He convulsed a couple times around the blade before going still and falling over. I looked up just in time to see one of his buddies heading for me. We ended up dancing around each other until I puckered my lips and winked at him. That just seemed to piss him off.

He lunged at me with his fingers curled, almost like he was going to claw me. I used the wall for support as I brought my foot up causing him to run into it and stumble backwards. All around us were sounds of things breaking and possibly being thrown along with the sounds of grunts and groans. You could even hear sounds of flesh connecting with flesh. I didn’t bother checking on the guys because I’m sure that they can handle their own.

With each miss and hit from my opponent seemed to enrage him more. A deep scowl formed on his face and I couldn’t help but to wonder that if I hit him with a pan if his face would stay that way. I picked up an end table and threw it at him, he brought up his arm and blocked it before it could hit his face. The end table must not have been very durable because it broke and splintered off once it made contact. Damn the luck.

I heard one of the guys yell out in pain. I took my eyes off my opponent to see which one it was. Caden’s body shimmered and I watched in awe as he transformed into a panther. Hair sprouted out all over his body as he shrank to the floor. It was just as memorizing as the first time I saw the transformation. The panther let out a low growl and pounced, just like a kitty.

That little distraction cost me and I wasn’t fast enough. My opponents’ blade cut into my side a little under my rib cage. My eyes widened in surprise as I let out a startled gasp. The guy smiled in triumph and pushed his blade in deeper. He yanked it out roughly and pushed me. I didn’t even try to grab a hold of anything to keep myself from falling, I was too shocked.

I heard my name being frantically called but I just laid there staring at the bright white ceiling. I could feel the blood leaving my body but I also felt something else too. The hybrid part of me was slowly making its self-known. I could feel it start to mend my wound. The fire inside me licked its way to the surface surrounding me in a comfort of heat. The ceiling glowed amber as my eyes started to glow. I pushed myself to my feet.

The guy who smiled at me tried to back away. Placing my hand on his chest I briefly closed my eyes. When I opened them again the man was no longer recognizable, he was now burnt to a crisp and lying at my feet. I vaguely realized that there was no more fighting going on around me. I stood there watching the flames shadows dance along the walls. A noise to my right had me quickly turning, making the person pause. A voice that was like music to my ears spoke in a soft, comforting British tone.

“Come back to me love.”

I tipped my head to the side. “Caden?” My voice came out soft and sounded like it was being carried on the wind.

“Yes sweetheart…let it go and come back to me.”

I tightly closed my eyes in concentration, trying to rein the fire back in. I could start to feel it pull back. It took longer than it normally did for it to go back in its rightful place. Once it did I started to fall forward from exhaustion and Caden was right there to catch me. He sat on the floor with me in his lap and brushed the hair from my face. He looked up when Kevin spoke.

“We should get her back.”

Caden nodded and looked down at me. “Can you walk?”

I shook my head. “Don’t think so.”

Kevin helped me to stand on shaky legs while Caden stood from the floor, he let go of me and I started to teeter backwards. Caden scooped me up in his arms whispering in my ear. “I’ve got you love, I’ll always have you.” I knew when we were outside because I could feel the cool touch of the wind on my all too heated skin. I was only able to lift my eyelids open long enough to notice that it was almost dark out. How long we fought for I didn’t know, all I knew was, was that I could probably sleep for a year.

The movements of Caden’s steps lulled me into a half sleeping state although I seemed to be pretty out of it to the point that you would think that I was actually sleeping. Being gently laid on something soft had me opening my eyes a little. Caden was sitting next to me on the bed. “It’s okay, get some sleep.” The last thing I heard before sleep pulled me completely under was Kevin telling Caden that I would need lots of water and lots of sweets for when I woke up. After that, the darkness of sleep claimed me and pulled me under.

                             Chapter 8

I woke up the next morning with sunlight seeping into my room. My eyelids still felt heavy and I was more than happy to go back to sleep. The only problem was was that my mouth felt dry, like I ate some cotton and it soaked up all the saliva. My throat felt parched and hurt when I tried to swallow. I tried again to open my heavy eyelids. When they finally opened I had to squint my eyes because it was so bright in the room.

Caden was snoozing in a chair that he must have brought in from the kitchen. His head was resting on the back of the chair, well it was more like hanging half way off the back. His arms were crossed over his abdomen and his long muscular legs were stretched out and crossed at the ankle. I would have laughed at the sight of him, but he looked uncomfortable so I decided not to. My attention went to the bedroom door way.

Kevin was standing there with his shoulder propped against the frame and his arms were loosely crossed over his stomach. His hazel eyes were looking me over. After a while, a slow smile curved up his lips.

“Sleeping beauty finally wakes.”

“How?” I winced at the cracked sound of my voice and tried again. “How long have I been out?”

He shrugged like it was no big thing. “Three days, give or take.”

“What?!” My voice sounded horas and horrible.

“Calm down before you have a heart attack…before you try and talk more, you should drink some water and get some sweets in you. If you don’t, all the talking will make your throat raw and bleed…wouldn’t want that now would we?” He winked.

I shook my head and clumsily sat up so that my back was resting against the head of the bed. A couple bottles of water were sitting on the bedside table and I reached for one. The first drop on my tongue was like breathing air for the first time after being locked in a dark and dank basement for a few days. The cool liquid glided down my throat smoothly cooling down the burn. I could feel the coldness of the water trickling its way into my stomach and it felt like lines of ice weaving its way through. I could feel it replenishing me from the inside out and it felt wonderful.

After the second bottle was empty, I picked up a roll of chocolate chip cookies. The crinkling of the wrapper woke Caden from sleep. He sat up and rolled his neck on his shoulders to try and get the kink out of his neck. A warm smile lit his face when his green eyes landed on me. He stood up from the chair keeping his eyes on me as he stretched. The black t-shirt that he was wearing from three nights ago stretched across his chest and rode up a little to reveal a glimpse of hard flesh.