Shifter's Revenge (Alpha Lineage) (17 page)

“We would have been dead right now if I hadn’t left and found strength. I took action, Maddox.” Kera shook her head violently to stay the tears. “Andrew is still out there, Rayland and Luke are back to their lives and this thing that attacked us would have killed someone tonight if we hadn’t been exactly where we were with the knowledge I got from my mother.”

Maddox tilted his head and unclenched his jaw to speak, “Perhaps this bond isn’t working because you are so intent on being alone you won’t even consider another option. You went through a traumatic situation that left you so depressed you would barely speak after your father left. Life is changing and shit happens, Kera. If you can’t learn that we have to work together for this relationship to work then you will never fit into the pack.”

It wasn’t fair that he chose to throw her emotions at her as a sign of weakness. She felt alone except with him. At times after she had been captured she had felt alone with him, too. He acted alone or blocked her out of his efforts. They hadn’t spoken much about anything except her wellbeing for weeks. If he couldn’t figure out that she wasn’t the only one screwing up this relationship then maybe they needed a break.

She spun on her heels without saying a word. Her eyes stung with tears which she didn’t care to brush away. It was hard to realize that she was so close to him in some ways but so far away in others. Maybe what her mother told her in her teens was true. She should become friends with someone before something more physical. She hadn’t followed those principles with Maddox. Instead she had chased the physical and ran from the substance of a friendship. She had tried to tell him yesterday that she didn’t want to drag him down because that was what she could express at the time. Now she realized it wasn’t about her or him being good enough, it wasn’t working between them because they still had so many secrets.

The biggest ones were out, yes, but what about thoughts and reactions? What about feelings and desires for the future? What about expectations of one another and teamwork he so harshly threw in her face?

“Donavan,” Kera called out when she saw him standing with his back to her in deep conversation with a soldier in the hall.

He turned around in surprise. “Kera,” he clipped. “Care to explain what the hell happened out there tonight?”

She shook her head in frustration. “I don’t know what that
thing
was trying to do.” She spat. “He almost killed us.”

His eyes widened in shock. “Erickson, you are dismissed.” He motioned his head down toward the interrogation room she was first brought to.

Kera followed. She wrung her hands at the hem of Maddox’s shirt as he shut the door. “Tell me about Arizona.”

“No.” Donavan denied her. “I want to know….”

“It’s related.” Kera cut him off. “It was like a tornado just like you told me.”

Donavan’s dark skin seemed to lighten where his jaw clinched in frustration. His wide expansive shoulders rolled as he moved. His hands flattened on the shiny new silver table that had replaced the one she destroyed. “
The only thing out there my soldiers saw was you and your friends covered in blood in a field before you ran off. The wind was out of control but it didn’t destroy anything but the fields where the soldiers found you. I am finding it harder to believe that Arizona was an unknown suspect rather than one of the three supernatural beings who now reside with us.”

“I didn’t do it.” she bit out curtly.

“Then one of the others?”

Kera shook her head. “I’m the only one who may have the ability over the elements. I’m not originally a shifter. My mother was a
sorcerer.”

“Witch?”

“I don’t know.” Kera answered him. “I don’t know anything.”

“You know how to shift.”

“Yes.”

“And you suspect that you can control the elements.”

“I’ve done it before, but it was limited. A gust of wind…” she closed her eyes, “I’ve brought things to my hands from yards away. Like telekinesis. Then today I pushed something away, it was an energy ball of some sort. I had already been hit by one. I was almost killed instantly, and would have been if Maddox hadn’t healed me.”

“How?” Donavan demanded the answer with just a simple whispered word.

Kera looked into his brown eyes and smiled softly. “I don’t know how. I’m not sure of anything in this world. I have only known I wasn’t crazy for a few months. In that time I have been interrogated, manipulated, captured, tortured and interrogated again. I seem to trust you, Donavan. I think this arrangement is good for me. Good for the wolves. I want to help because it will help me fix wrongs in this world that people like your soldiers shouldn’t have to face alone. I know what it is like to be alone. To not be able to tell even my father that something is happening to me that I don’t understand. Even now he thinks I need to see a shrink.” Kera laughed bitterly. “I’m not the same as Maddox and Nick but we make a good team.”

Donavan eased his large frame into the chair on the other side of the table. “Then where are they?” He clasped his hands together and leaned forward, soaking up every word she spoke.

“In case you haven’t guessed, Maddox is my… boyfriend.” She answered unsurely. “We had an argument. I told you that I didn’t feel worthy of him but I think it may be more about us being from two different worlds. We aren’t sure how to mesh our lives together peacefully.”

Laughter bubbled up from his chest. “So supernatural beings have regular everyday problems?”

Kera felt her lips pull into a smile. “I’m not sure.” She sat back against the cool metal chair. “Is it normal to feel like you belong with someone but don’t know how to be with them?”

“Of course,” he snorted. “You think
anyone knows how to coexist with someone when they first meet them? I have failed relationships with women after two months and after two years. You can’t expect that kind of thing to be easy.”

“
Huh.” Kera shrugged. “I guess I just thought that I was emotionally stunted after everything I’ve been through.”

Donavan’s lips turned to a frown, “the torture?” He asked gently.

“No,” she sighed. “I hid who I was from my father and myself for almost five years before I found someone I could confide in. I was alive, but not really. I guess if you want to believe the therapist I visited after my mother’s death, you could say that I’ve been in a state of denial and depression for most of my adult life. Maddox made me face my fears even though his family was a large part of the reason I found out who I really was.”

“You shouldn’t get into a relationship just because someone helped you.” Donavan looked uncomfortable as he spoke, but he continued anyway. “Feeling indebted to someone and loving them for who they are is two different things.”

Kera crossed her arms in a defensive manner she knew only cemented his statement. “About this murderer from Arizona,” she deflected. “Did he shoot lightning balls from his hands?”

Donavan blanched. “It couldn’t be the same.”

Kera stood up and showed him the fragments of her shirt under the shirt Maddox lent her. “Why not? He blew a hole in my body with one of those little gems. I barely survived just one hit. If I were human I would have drowned in my own blood.”

“
If it is then we need to find out why he was here. He went underground for a long time. Almost three years to be exact. I have the case file in my office but our record room would be a lot more informative.” He shot to his feet. “Should we gather the others?”

Kera took this moment to decide to work as a team. “If by other’s you mean Maddox and Nick then yes. Otherwise we need to figure out what is going on before we frighten the soldiers more.”

Donavan took her suggestion in stride as he made his way to the door.

“Donavan?” She called out to him before he turned the knob. “Where is the book that we had in the warehouse?”

Confusion ran across his expression. “Jason took it with him when he left. He said it was his.”

Kera pursed her lips. “Not true.” She growled. “That book is mine.” She motioned him forward when he tried to question her. This was the last time the book left her hands. She would deal with the problem herself.

Maddox’s scent poured over her when Donavan opened the door. Kera saw his large form standing in the hall, leaning against the wall in a tense mass of muscle and frustration.

“Call your father and tell him to bring me my book.” Kera demanded from behind Donavan.

Maddox’s brows furrowed for a moment in confusion before his jaw clinched. “What do you need it for, Kera? You are a shifter.”

Kera rounded Donavan in the hall and pointed a finger at Maddox. “It’s mine.” she hissed. “I’ll do with it what I want because it’s mine. I don’t need to be limited now. We are going to go after the Arizona man and finish him for good. I need to understand what is inside my head and I can’t do it without the book.”

His face was blank for a few moments before he spoke through clenched teeth. “What is inside of your head, Kera?”

She looked him straight in the eye when she answered. “I’ve been feeding off some sort of library of spells since I healed you and Rayland in that warehouse. They’re getting louder and more confusion every time I close my eyes. I need to know more about the passage I read before I go insane.”

Maddox looked impassive for a moment before anger crept across his features. “Another secret? I should have guessed to take nothing for face value with you.” he laughed shortly. “I’ll call him but I won’t hold my breath.”

She wanted to return that short remark with one of her own but instead she caught Donavan’s smile and wondered if they, again, sounded normal. Instead of
driving his anger forward, Kera nodded. “Thank you.”

“Is that how you came out of the attack on top?” Nick asked as he strolled down the corridor. “I’ve been wondering how you could claim that we all would have been dead if it wasn’t for that book.”

“You were definitely not in any shape to fight after that thing shot a hole in your chest the size of my head.” Maddox grumbled.

Kera looked at him and saw the concern in his eyes. “If I had stayed where I was, you both would be gone. I have no delusions that I am anywhere close to as strong as you two but he wasn’t expecting magick to be thrown back at him. I could taste it in the air. If he isn’t like Luke or my mother then he is something close. I was able to deflect one of the
balls of fire and when it hit him it burned his hand to ash. When he left, he actually dissipated into a cloud of dirt or sand. You know, like the mummy.”

Nick shook his head, “Maybe the book would be better off in your hands, Kera.” He caught Maddox’s clenched jaw and his brows furrowed in question. “What is it your dad wants with it anyway?”

“I don’t know.” Maddox shifted his attention to Donavan. “Are you sure he has it?”

Donavan crossed his arms over his bulky chest, “I gave it to him myself. If I had known that you and he didn’t get along I would have kept it. From what I can tell, there is much discord between all of you. Jason took five men out of here in cuffs and his only explanation was that they were traitors.” He turned to Kera, “I take it that those men had something to do with your torture.”

Kera pursed her lips and nodded. “The two Maddox took out had been directly involved. There are two still out there.”

“One.” Maddox corrected her.

Kera shot him a look of surprise. “You found Andrew?” the hope and confusion in her voice caused his jaw to tighten.

“Markus
was there the night we found you.”Maddox explained.

“He saved my life.” Nick explained. “Markus was going to kill me.”

Kera felt her heart jump into her throat. He hadn’t told her that he had killed Markus. Just the other day she asked him if he was ok after killing two of his cousins, and he said he wasn’t sure. He had been dealing with being responsible for Markus’s death for much longer.

We need to talk later.
She whispered softly.

Maddox’s eyes narrowed,
we’ll see.

“Donavan is going to show us what they have on this guy so we can figure out how to stop him from showing up and attacking us again.” Kera said more for Nick’s benefit than anyone else’s.

With that she motioned Donavan to lead the way. He silently made his way down the hall, quietly absorbing everything they said and did. Kera wondered if there would be a report of this conversation in the file room just like the report of the attack in Arizona. Years later someone could be reading their words on the page of some file.

“The war you spoke of,” Donavan asked almost absently, “It’s between fourteen men?”

Kera shook her head. “To tell you the truth Donavan, I’m not sure it is a war.” She kept her eyes off Maddox as she spoke, knowing he wouldn’t like her next statement. “I thought the events I knew about were enough to entice one, but apparently I don’t know enough about the supernatural rules to make an assumption like that.”

“Damn it, Kera.” Maddox growled, he grabbed her arm and pulled her around to face him. “You know that I don’t like the way things are run any more than you do. I
left
to get away from that. Don’t judge me by my father’s actions.”

“I would hate to have someone do the same to me.” Nick came up beside Maddox. “Kera, you have no idea who our fathers are and what they have done or feel they must do to gain power. We are a very strong race. We are animals and we are men. What you see from your human perspective doesn’t paint the whole picture.”

Kera bristled and felt Fang growl in her mind at the rebuke. She pulled her arm free from Maddox’s grasp. “Just so we’re clear, I don’t appreciate being kept in the dark and then spoken to like a child because I don’t understand. I’ll learn quickly enough just by watching your pack’s reactions to what’s happened so far.”

Maddox shook his head in frustration. Kera
wasn’t in the mood to entertain her heart’s desire to mend their relationship this moment. It was time for answers and she wasn’t going to let up until she was no longer the weak one.

After they reached the room Kera was sure housed all the files, Donavan opened the door and pressed his hand against a large panel. After a light scanned his hand print, the other door opened and led them down a flight of stairs. The stairwell was brightly lit and wound down more than just one floor. To exit the stairwell, Donavan spoke into an intercom announcing each of them and pressed his hand to another scanner. When the door clicked open he pushed it wide enough for them to enter first. Inside of the room was enough equipment to launch a rocket into space. The walls were covered in screens and the expanse of the floor was filled with remotes and keyboards. Some were so advanced that she didn’t dare touch one button. Her eyes were wide in awe. This was not the dusty file room she was expecting.

“Rick,” Donavan clipped. “Protocol is to disable visual and audio on classified material when guests are present.”

“Sir,” a tall, rail thin man races quickly to a center panel and began to quickly turn off feeds from most of the screens. Kera noticed that a few to the left depicted the halls, cages and
rooms. Two of them were a snow screen but at the bottom of the screen she saw a microphone icon indicating that the audio was still active.