Shadow Bloodlines (Shadow Bloodlines #1) (8 page)

Darkness spread through the trees and headlights twinkled through the trees from the freeway. We needed to make our way back to the car, but my legs refused to budge until Amar answered my question about where my father was.

He shook his head, his gaze low. “If I knew where your father was, I would tell you.”

“You must know something. If you were hiding from these Blood creeps, where would you go?”

“It’s different for me. I’m a bird shifter, I w…” He lifted his head and faced me.

“What? What were you going to say?”

A warm breeze washed past, throwing my hair over my shoulders. The rustling of leaves created a cacophony of tunes around us.

“Since you are an octopus shifter, we can assume you got the ability from your father.” He smiled. “I would probably hide where I felt the most comfortable, the safest. Perhaps in the mountains or the woods…but with your dad being an octopus…”

“He would be near the ocean.” Before I thought about it, I rose on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek. His stubble tickled my lips. I wanted to press my mouth to his, to taste the desire I’d sensed earlier. Instead, my face heated, remembering his rebuff, and I stumbled backward. “Thanks,” I said when he steadied me and goosebumps pebbled across my skin. Why was my body reacting this way? He had made it clear earlier that I was only his duty.

“How did your mother meet him?” He started to stroll toward the car, and I trailed alongside him.

He didn’t mention my kiss, which I was grateful for, and mortified that he thought I had some weird love infatuation with him. Maybe I did.

At the car, we climbed in and I offered to drive, but Jacqui gave a not-in-this-lifetime will I let you drive my car at night look. She knew I drove at night while squinting to read the street signs or even find the white marker dividing the lanes.
If you drive this slow now,
she had said,
imagine what you’ll be like when you’re old and sixty?

She pulled out and drove to one of the few stores in the town, a Walmart. I didn’t think Jacqueline had ever even stepped inside a Walmart before. A cardinal sin, she often told me, was shopping less than designer. However, considering our lives were at risk, we couldn’t do much else.

“What did your dad say?” I asked.

“He said they were dangerous, but he thought it was a good idea to seek out your dad.” She flicked on her high beams to see the dark road ahead of us, then switched them off when two cars came into view.

“Why?”

She shrugged. “He said he’s only read bits and pieces about these creatures, but your dad has had firsthand knowledge, and escaped them.”

“How does he know this?” I didn’t even know. Then again, I knew little about my dad.

“When I told him you were an Octopus shifter, he said he’d heard rumors of a shifter that left his family.” She glanced over at me with an apology in her eyes. “He’s not sure if it is your dad, but it’s our best chance for now, and he doesn’t know of any other octopus shifters. My dad doesn’t want to abandon my mom or drag her into the middle of this. And I want them both safe. So we’ve just got to find your dad. Any ideas?”

“Guess my dad is our best bet, for now. If he’s the same shifter your dad heard about, then he knows about these creatures. Maybe how to defeat them. And he’s escaped their notice, as far as we know, for eighteen years.” I thought back to Amar’s question. Mom told me she’d met my dad when she was on vacation. She had just made paralegal at Smith & Thomas law firm and took her first-ever week long vacation. Before that, she had been a waitress to put herself through school.

“Florida!” I smacked a hand on my thigh.

Jacqui gasped and swerved the car back into our lane. “What the… don’t ever do that again! You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“We need to go to Florida! The Keys. That’s where Mom met my dad. He might be there.” And an island in the middle of the ocean, hell, I wanted to live there. “Do you want to come with or…”

“Of course I’m coming. A bird shifter who can’t hide his wings yet and a rookie?” She gave me a quick smile as she glanced at me. “How do you even know he’s still there?”

“It’s the only lead we have.” I tightened my seatbelt. “Besides, there’s nothing here for me now except those,” I waved my hand, “smoke things.”

“Guess it’s a good thing your dad never called or sent bday gifts then?” She turned on her blinker.

“Guess so.” I didn’t like the fact that he’d run out on me and my mom, but maybe there was more to the story. He’d already held back from my mom about him being a shifter. What else didn’t I know?

***

After we left Amar in the car, much to his grumbles, we bought enough clothes for each of us to have two sets in addition to the ones on us. Since Amar only had a loin cloth, I picked up an extra pair of boxers and shorts.
Was he a boxer or brief guy?
I settled on the boxers.
Better to have too much room than not enough.
I giggled at the thought and Jacqui looked at me like I was a young teen making fun of naked people in a magazine. A salesman nodded to me and it looked like he was about Amar’s size.

“May I help you?” He looked old enough to be a grandfather, but he was still in shape.

“Um… yes. My boyfriend,” those two words together sounded strange coming out of my mouth. I should have said brother, “he’s about your size. Would these fit?” I held out the package of boxers.

“Yes. And they’re pretty roomy, so if he’s a bit bigger than me, should still be fine.”

I thanked him and moved down the aisle with my clothing choices and found Jacqui. She was fingering silver necklaces.

“I can’t believe we are getting this much stuff for so little.” She brushed her blonde hair off her shoulder. “And we can stop at Laundromats on the way, so I don’t blow all the cash from my savings in one store.”

“Come on.” I grabbed her arm. “We can’t afford to give into either of your oh, so shiny shifter animals now.”

After we paid for our clothes, we drove for another three hours. The freeway erased into a dirt road. Grassy ditches lined both sides of the road. There were few cars on the road and I chalked it down to the late hour and area. Jacqui jerked the car to keep it from swerving into the ditch.

“Let’s stop and get some rest,” I suggested.

“Yeah. I can’t keep my eyes open.” She took the first exit and drove into a motel parking lot. Its blinking neon vacancy light made me squint. Only two cars in the lot; guess they had a lot of empty rooms.

Jacqui stumbled out of the car to stretch her legs while I climbed out to go pay for a room.

How much cash was in her savings account? This should be one of the few nights in a hotel. We’d sleep in the car the rest of the time. I worried we’d run out of money soon and have to do another withdrawal.

After I borrowed some cash from her, I jogged over to the office. Because of the late hour, the door was locked. Noise from a game echoed through the small shack. Behind the counter and window with a small hole for exchanging money and keys, a man with slicked back hair like he used too much grease widened his eyes when he saw me approach.

“How may I
help
you?” His words, though innocent enough, sounded like a child predator luring someone away.

“Just a room.” I rubbed my hand down my arms to fight off a chill even though it was as humid as a steam sauna. “Oh, with two beds please.” Glad I didn’t have to be inside the tiny office with him.

He squinted behind me toward Jacqui and then licked his thin lips, the action churning my stomach. “Just the two of you? How old are you?”

“Eighteen.” I dug out my license and the cash Jacqui had given me but kept my thumb over my name as best I could, then stuffed my license back in my wallet. “And our dad is with us. He’s in the backseat. Asleep, but he’s a light sleeper and big. He used to do amateur boxing until…” God, I was rambling.
Get the key and get out of there
.

His eyebrows rose and he snorted. I followed his gaze back to Jacqui. She stood a foot from the car. Thankfully, Amar shifted and the car bounced. From this distance, his wings weren’t visible.

“Oh, Dad’s waking up. He’ll be cranky that I don’t have a room yet.” I smiled what I hoped was my most friendly innocent grin. “So, can we have a room or do I have him come ask?”

The innkeeper’s lips twisted as he handed me a key and took my cash, then turned back to his small black and white TV.

I shuffled back to the car. “Room 4A, it’s just next door. But we’ll have to watch and make sure the guy in the office is busy while Amar gets out of the car and inside.”

“Leave it to me.” Jacqui winked.

I opened my mouth to argue with her, but she was a much better flirt than I was.

“When it’s clear, I’ll lean forward on the counter and you’ll see me tap my foot.”

“I’ll grab our stuff,” I said, then opened the car door. Amar looked between Jacqui and me. “Better go inside as soon as she gives us the signal, we don’t want to risk anyone seeing you. Those wings would give us away.”

“I should protect both of you. I don’t like this.” His hands were clenched. “If that man stares at either of you once more with those leering eyes of his…”

“I’m pretty sure he’s just human.” Jacqui interrupted, then sauntered towards the office.

While Jacqui spoke with the manager, I unlocked our hotel room door and tossed everything inside. We might only have seconds, so Amar would need to be quick. I dashed back outside and saw Jacqui flipping her hair, then leaned forward against the counter, only the pane of glass separating them. Soon.

Amar opened the car door, waiting. If the manager looked past Jacqui for just a moment, he’d see Amar’s wings.

My hands wouldn’t stop sweating, no matter how much I rubbed them down my gray knit shorts.

Then, Jacqui leaned forward even more and blocked my view of the guy. Amar placed a foot outside.

“Wait.” I hissed. She hadn’t tapped her foot yet.

Then, Jacqueline pulled back and laughed as if the guy had told her a wonderful joke. And her laugh sounded believable, not like my awkward one.

She moved forward again, this time running her hand or something back and forth along the counter. Her foot tapped.

“Now!”

Amar squeezed from the car and dashed inside. I leaned against the hotel door, panting. Such a short trip and here I was, winded already.

A few minutes later, Jacqui knocked and I let her in. She didn’t even say anything, but ran into the bathroom and locked the door behind her like it was a blue-light special in there.

Amar peeked through the blinds to see outside. I again thought of how lucky I was that he’d been there, frozen in stone until my blood released him.

“How are your wings? Do they hurt?”

He turned from the window and his stone-grey eyes seemed to pierce through me. The air in the hotel room smelled like cigarettes, mold, and musk. “They are fine. Shifters heal quickly. Perhaps in a few days, I’ll be able to conceal them inside as I used to do before they were encased in stone for thousands of years.”

What would he look like without his wings? It was hard to imagine seeing him as a human. I swayed on my feet. Must be from the lack of sleep and tons of stress. Having smoke people after you can put a damper on relaxing.

As he stood watching me, my mind exploded with confusion, fear, and uncertainty. Earlier, he had mentioned protecting me and Jacqui from the hotel manager. Was I reading into his actions towards me? Probably.

I plonked down on the bed and flipped on the TV to delete the silence between us.

The moment the TV flickered on, Amar jumped back, his obsidian blade out and ready to strike.

“It’s just a TV…uh… ” How do you explain television to an ancient being? “Um… it’s like a book, a scroll, that moves and talks instead of you reading it.” Lame. No wonder movies never have teenagers speaking with intelligent beings from outer space or anything.

He rolled his shoulders and perched on the edge of the bed, staring at the screen, paralyzed with interest. Then I changed the channels to find something interesting when a flash of fire across the screen caught my eye.

The news blared, “Again, interstate ninety is closed for fifty miles. No one can get in or out of the city.” My hand flew to my mouth at the anchor lady’s words. “All emergency personnel are asking for people to stay at home and not venture out.”

I hunched over my knees.

“If you are just tuning into us,” another anchorman picked up the story, “two chemical trucks have crashed on the interstate, closing down traffic in both directions. If you…”

“Hey, what’s up?” Jacqui interrupted coming out of the bath. Her hair was wet and she was dressed in a bath towel with her dirty clothes in her free hand.

“Shhh…” I told her.

“Stay tuned for more developments.”

“Is this because of those smoke spirits?” My hand twined with Amar’s.

“I’m not sure, but it sounds like something they might do.”