ROMANCE: SHIFTER: Shifter to the Max Collection (Dragon, Bear, Wolf and Panther Shifter Romances) (Paranormal Fantasy Romance Collection) (85 page)

part 1

Killian sauntered through the shadows
, gliding through the cool night air. His heightened senses were geared to the hunt, enabling him to hear every sound with excruciating clarity. He could hear the hum of the tiny hairs on the surrounding grasshoppers’ legs, as they bumped against each other, leaping through the tall dark grass. Several streets away, he could see the flickering of a streetlight that was on the verge of going out. The town was awash with a dull yellow light, emanating from the pale yellow moon overhead.

Killian could hear the whistle of a train, the barking of a dog, and the wind as it whirled wordlessly through the trees. Two blocks away, he could clearly see into a diner where an old man sat sipping his black coffee, while a young waitress talked on the phone with her adolescent son across town. Yet, all of these sounds quieted as he zeroed in on his prey. Now, he focused solely on the sound of the beating heart within the young boy he was stalking. He could see his pulse radiating in perfect rhythm against the child’s silky neck. The cadence of the boy’s shoes, the staccato of the concrete, and the low whistling coming from the boy’s lips all blended. The child was completely unaware of the lethal danger closing in on him.

The stalker could feel his body tingling with anticipation. He could smell the blood running through the young boy's body. In mere moments, his teeth would be wrapped around that perfect pulse, and that first salty, coppery taste of young blood would rush down his throat.

He loved the hunt, the fast adrenaline rush of his heightened senses, and the knowledge that he was superior to every human he stalked. Everything in him was focused on the boy - on the kill. Then suddenly, everything was gone. All he could feel was the sensation of being pulled upwards at an incredible speed, the rushing of air. Colors exploded everywhere, and he shielded his eyes. A great sound grew nearer. It was almost like the deadly cry of a tornado, followed by an immense and overwhelming darkness. As a creature of the night, darkness was never a problem, but this was more than just darkness. This was the absence of anything ever resembling light.

Killian Marshall awoke with a start, his dark brown hair matted to his head. “It was just a nightmare,” he told himself. He stood up and walked over to the small mirror trying to shake off the worrisome effects of the dream. That same dream had plagued his sleep enough times that Killian knew instinctively that it had been a glimpse of his former life.

His life before Department 99 was just a vague memory now. He didn’t even remember his old name. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had once been unspeakably predatory, and unspeakably evil.

Killian stared into the mirror for a few minutes, looking at the reflection of his grey eyes. They were the eyes of a killer. He opened his medicine cabinet and took out a bottle of small blue pills. He popped two of them into his mouth and swallowed.

The pills were a mandatory condition of his stay with Department 99. Killian collected rogue shifters for the department, and in-turn they provided him with pills to keep his own dangerous impulses at bay. After all, he was a vampire. As much as Killian might wish he were different, there was nothing that could cure him of his true nature. 



              As Killian gathered himself; he scanned the small steel room. The militaristic style of Department 99 was evident everywhere. Killian’s belongings included a cot with one blanket, one pillow, and a small steel toilet (which he never used). There was a tiny sink with a mirrored medicine cabinet, and small square desk. The only other object in Killian’s room was the small intercom system from which he received daily instructions. The intercom beeped. “Hey Marshall, get your ass down here. We have a rogue in sector 12.”

Killian laughed wryly as he threw on his clothes, and headed down to base. If it could be said that he had a friend, Jack would be it. The two of them had worked side by side in the same department for three years now, and had saved each other’s lives on more than one occasion. After all, their squadron was the muscle behind shifter relations, and capturing rogue shifters was not an easy task.

Karyn Rourke watched the monitor behind her, looking for any signs of distress. If the patient’s blood pressure or heart rate dropped, it would be her responsibility to alert the attending doctor. Karyn had worked exceptionally hard to become a surgical assistant RN, putting most of everything else in her life aside. She didn’t have any friends or hobbies, aside from late night re-runs on the Travel Channel. Last night they’d featured a special on travel to Bermuda. Karyn recalled the lush images of the sandy white beach and crystal clear water.
What a beautiful place.

Karyn had been on her own all of her life. As a toddler, she grew up in an orphanage. Then she was volleyed from foster home to foster home for a few years, before aging out of the Kansas City foster care system. In fact, the longest she had ever lived in one place was two years. That particular foster home had been wonderful, but by that time, she was well aware of how the system worked and hadn’t bothered to get her hopes up. Instead, she put all of her emotions and energy into school, and later into her work.

Six months ago, Karyn had finally moved up to RN first assistant. She was looking forward to continuing her education in order to, hopefully, one day become a doctor. A long shot perhaps, but certainly a dream she wasn’t willing to give up on
.

Karyn glanced down at the woman on the table mentally trying to guess what might have caused the woman’s injuries. It seemed to Karyn that lately, too many people were being rushed into trauma surgery with no clear cause of their injuries. Gunshots were normal, knifings were normal, car crashes, fires, and abuse injuries were normal (though always unfortunate).
What the hell had happened to this lady?

Karyn had seen the effects of a few natural disasters before. She looked again at the woman on the table. Huge slashes ran from the woman’s face all the way down her body. If she didn’t know any better, she would swear they were claw marks. But of course, Karyn did know better. There was nothing in the known universe that could make claw marks that big.

A couple of times, Karyn had dared to ask questions about what had happened to her patients. She had been told that it was none of her business. Dr. Unger could be a real prick sometimes. Karyn knew he resented her for refusing his offer for a date a couple of months ago. She didn’t want any problems at work, so she kept her questions to herself, and simply did her job.

The monitor in front of her suddenly flat-lined, and Karyn immediately kicked into high gear. Something didn’t feel right about this. Karyn’s heart pulsed like a runaway train.

Karyn’s heart jumped into her throat at the ominous and terrible sound of the flat-lining machine. Adrenaline pumped through her veins and her hands moved quickly toward the vial of epinephrine, even before the head surgeon had a chance to ask. Dr. Unger nodded in appreciation as he snatched the vial out of Karyn’s gloved hands and drew the liquid up into the syringe. He plunged the long needle into the woman’s heart as chaos ensued within the room. A second doctor demanded blood; the young woman had lost so much blood.

Karyn looked down at the hospital sheet beneath the young patient. It was drenched in bright red blood. Small droplets were collecting on the white shiny tile floor near Karyn’s nursing shoe.

“I need more blood!” The second doctor was frantic now. The other emergency personnel in the room were quickly moving about. A few surgical instruments clattered to the floor in all the excitement. There was a slight blip on the monitor. The young female patient was fighting for her life.
Come on kid, you can do it. Fight. Fight for yourself.

“Paddles,” Dr. Unger demanded, waking Karyn from a daze. “I need paddles damn-it, Karyn!” The words sliced through Karyn like an electric jolt, and suddenly she was reaching for the paddles, adjusting the voltage on the dial. “Clear!” Dr. Unger stated loudly, without emotion this time. Nothing. The heart monitor was flat again. Then slowly, another blip drifted across the screen.
Oh, thank god.
The heartbeat was faint, but it was there.

Dr. Unger smiled, and his shoulders and face relaxed. Someone in the back of the room cheered.

“Good work, Dr. Unger,” Karyn muttered feeling a tremendous weight lift from her shoulders. She had forgotten to breathe.

“We aren’t out of the woods just yet guys,” Dr. Unger sighed. His shiny white forehead was beaded with sweat.

Karyn looked down at what remained of the young woman’s pale face. She looked beautiful and strangely peaceful. Then, Karyn’s eyes drifted downward again to the horrible slash marks.
What the hell could have done that?

Suddenly, the young woman opened her eyes and began to make a horrible gasping sound. The patient sat up, looking much like a corpse that had just come back to life. Her arms reached out toward Karyn. “Help me!” The young patient screamed. As she spoke, blood splattered across Karyn’s face and into her eyes and mouth. Karyn winced, and instinctively used the back of her gloved hand to try to wipe the blood away. It was all over the inside of her mouth. Karyn could taste the sharp metallic flavor of the girl’s blood.

“Sedation! We have to sedate this patient!” Dr. Unger cried out. Yet, it was too late.

The young woman looked down, as if suddenly feeling the pain of her injuries for the first time. Her eyes rolled up in her head, and she crashed backwards onto the table with a horrible thump, somehow sending one of the IV poles to her left clattering to the floor. The machine flat-lined again. This time, the girl was dead.

Dr. Unger tried with all of his might to revive her, but nothing worked. She was gone for good. Dr. Unger threw his surgical head covering onto the floor as he stormed out of the operating room.

Later, Karyn sat in the nurses’ lounge trying to decompress. It was never easy to lose a patient. She knew that death was something she would have to harden herself to if she was going to be a successful doctor someday, but it still upset her every time. Maybe she could have done something better. Maybe, if she had just done a little bit more… reacted faster, fought harder… the young woman would still be alive. Why had she frozen like that? Then, Karyn’s mind drifted to the mandatory blood tests she would need to receive, after having made direct contact with the patient’s blood. She’d have to head to the pharmacy for antiviral medication in a few minutes, as was the standard protocol. Forms would have to be signed, reports would have to be written. 

Karyn sighed and reclined on the sofa. She must have closed her eyes without noticing, because the world around her suddenly looked different, like she had stepped into a dream. Karyn stood up to look around, trying desperately to convince herself that what she was seeing was not real. It was as if everything was hazy and moving at an incredibly slow speed. She saw people running down the hall, only they seemed to be in slow motion. She could hear voices yelling, but the sound seemed to be coming from a great distance. She wanted to move in to see what was happening nearby, but her feet felt heavy, and as if they were stuck in mud. Everything felt so dense.

In a flash, her normal vision returned. Karyn’s eyes glanced to the doorway where she thought she saw movement. There was nothing there. As she began to pull her eyes away, something once again caught her attention, and she glanced back to see what it was. She sighed with relief when a young boy peeked around the corner and then moved past the door. Karyn stepped out to follow the young child. She was about to call out to him, but something stopped her. There was something in the way the boy moved which felt wrong. He appeared to be stalking something, and every so often, he would sniff at the air like a dog. Karyn blinked her eyes again, trying to comprehend what she was seeing. Then, the boy turned toward her, bearing sharp and horrifying wolf-like teeth. He growled menacingly and darted off into the fire escape, slamming the door behind him, and setting off the alarm.

“Code blue! Code blue!” The intercom blared. There was no time to process what she had just seen, no time to question whether she had gone temporarily insane, no time for anything at all. A second patient was flying through the doors of the hospital, laying on a blood-soaked gurney. Karyn and a flood of other doctors and nurses quickly gathered around him, as they pushed him into a makeshift surgical room.

This time, the victim was a teenage boy. The boy screamed and cried out for his mother, while holding at his stomach. When Karyn looked down, she could actually see that the boy’s hand was the only thing holding his intestines in. He too had one of those huge and horrible claw marks drawn vertically across his lower stomach. His skin was so white it was almost translucent, and beads of cold sweat gathered on his small forehead.

Dr. Unger sprang into action. “I need him sedated and intubated.” The doctor yelled in the direction of his physician’s assistant Morris. Karyn rushed to help, holding the boy down as an IV line was plunged into his right arm.

“Honey, we’re trying to help you. Calm down, son.” Karyn spoke soothingly to the boy, as she used all of her strength to hold him down on the gurney. He thrashed around screaming, his intestines poking through the slit of flesh in his stomach. Someone else plunged a syringe into the boy’s bicep, a fast-acting sedative.

“No! You’re gonna kill me! You’re killing us! You’re…” The boy’s body relaxed, yet this time the heart beat on the monitor was steady. He was still alive, just drugged.