Page 59 of A Lion's Heart
“Shifters and rogues knew that Kalina was pregnant at the time of the Unveiling. You may have been born in Oasis, but news spread quickly of the Assembly Leader’s only child. You are his weakness and anyone wishing to harm him, will gladly go through you.”
“Are you saying there’ve been threats against my father? Why? He’s been hiding down here in the world he’s created to keep us all safe. How could that still put him in danger?” she asked.
The right side of his mouth lifted into a grin. “You never run out of questions, do you?”
He did not give her a moment to answer.
“Pack your clothes, Nisa. Go home.”
He’d turned and walked out of the room then and Nisa fell to her knees as a wave of sadness rushed over her with the force of a battering ram. She stayed there, hands flat on the floor, head down as she’d struggled to catch her breath. When she did, Nisa had quickly dressed. Then, she’d sat on the edge of the bed and waited.
That’s where she was now, but she knew the waiting was over. It was just after midnight and as she stared at the door Decan had closed on her, she suddenly saw straight through it. On the other side was a war zone, or what looked like one with fire licking cement walls, the stench of burning flesh piercing her senses until she cringed. He was there, lying on the ground, his face pressed into the dirt. Blood poured from the deep slashes over his back and she knew instinctively his front. Around him people were running and screaming, things were falling from the sky—steel poles, flying debris, body parts. It was sickening and frightening and Decan was just lying there not moving. Not shifting. Where was his lion and why hadn’t it appeared to help him move, to get away? Another question her subconscious thought, but one she answered quickly. He wouldn’t let it.
Just as he wouldn’t let her get any closer to him than sex, he was holding the beast inside at bay.
But this time, Nisa thought as she slowly stood from the bed, he wasn’t going to be successful.
The downpour was torrential on the night of the full moon.
Rain falling so quickly in thick drops that flooded streets, while winds blasted through at rates that threatened to knock a mere human off his feet. Good thing Decan was only half human. He was a Shadow Shifter and he knew that from tonight on not only would the shifters in Oasis know that, but every human would know and they would remember that he was the one who killed Ewen Mackey.
Hurricanes of this magnitude, along with raging forest fires, catastrophic blizzards and other amazing weather anomalies had plagued the planet in the last twenty years. His father had spoken of those who had predicted climate change due to global warming in the years of Decan’s youth. Now, he was sad to say that he’d witnessed the devastation and destruction of that very prediction.
Keller and Gold moved quietly beside them. The threesome making their way down the street where Mackey lived. This was where they’d learned he was having a private meeting with his top cabinet members. So they wouldn’t get them all, as they’d planned, but Decan had agreed with Keller that this opportunity was too good to pass up.
While they remained in human form, the eyes of their cat and the extra-sensory sight came in handy as seeing through the cloud of rain and wind would not have been possible without it. They came closer to the house at the end of the cul-de-sac. Most of the large homes in this part of town had been vacated by people who either could no longer afford the exorbitant payments Ewen and his crew exacted from them or had been killed. Because they were shifters. Decan planned to avenge them all.
“There will be six of them present,” Keller stated, the clicking sound of his claws breaking through his skin and the wind whistled around them. “After what happened the other night there will probably be armed guards at the door.”
“Armed rogue guards,” Gold added.
“Nobody lives,” Decan said, the prick of his elongated incisors against his lips going unnoticed. “But Mackey is mine.”
He was a killer. He’d been born with that natural instinct and the military, along with his shifter training, had perfected his skills. His father had never killed a man or a beast before. Decan had done both and was preparing to do so again. That wasn’t the type of mate Nisa deserved.
“We don’t have any back-up so let’s get in and get out,” Keller said.
His voice sounded off so Decan looked over at him to see that the cougar was straining to remain in human form. Water dripped from his hair down to the shoulders of his navy blue t-shirt and down his jeans. He was soaked and still, Decan could see the expanse of his shoulders increasing, the deep breathing that was steadily failing him. The claws and teeth were already visible and Keller’s usually cloudy green eyes were now a vibrant hue as he stared straight ahead. He would shift soon. They all would.
“In and out. Leave them dead. Go home,” Gold said as if he were struggling to read the words on a sign.
There was no fast fight for Gold. The rage this lion held within him came in bursts that ravaged for however long it took for the anger to subside. The Ruling Cabinet, the ones who had ordered the death of his parents all those years ago, was the proverbial thorn that would forever be in Gold’s side. That is, until he killed every single one of them.
While the storm ravaged the other houses, ripping shingles from the roof tops and breaking through windows, the house at the end stayed intact. Mackey would have used the best materials for his house, everything new and innovative that the top scientists and engineers could come up with was at his disposal. While others, such as Marlee and the six children she sold her body to support, lived in squalor.
“We’re going through the front door,” Decan announced. “Just like we’ve been invited.”
They were only about five feet away now and Keller had grown tired of waiting. The cougar took off charging through the wind and rain. Decan continued to hold his shift back, as did Gold. Keller’s hatred for the Ruling Cabinet had always been a bit obscure to Decan, but the anger that simmered beneath the surface of that beast was real and so Decan had never pushed for details. Now, he ran toward the house, toward the destiny the three of them shared in common.
The plan had been to catch them off guard but to let it be known that they were being beat by shifters for Mackey’s crimes against their kind, but the moment Keller crashed through that front window and sparks of electrical volts ripped through the air in glowing gold spikes, Decan knew the plan had been changed. Going for the door he used all the strength of his lion to kick the steel access off its hinges, watching as it indeed fell to the floor and bullets quickly flew in his direction. They seemed to have been prepared for the intrusion, but Decan didn’t have time to think about that at the moment.
He removed the enhanced pistol he’d tucked in the back of his pants and returned fire until he was able to take out two of the shooters and enter the house. He had the advantage of being able to see clearly through the storm that had blown into the house with just as much force as the shifters had used. Gold brushed past him in a whoosh of growls and roars but Decan kept moving. Mackey was in here. Hiding, as was expected of such a coward. Decan was determined to find him.
The wind whipped around him as he moved through the house, a wall collapsing in front of him just seconds before he stepped into that spot. But he had the scent. It had stuck with him all these years, since he’d been set free of the SIC by that fire which had been set by someone intent on freeing their kind. He took the stairs, not caring that they creaked and moaned as if they too were about to collapse. And then he was there, as if materializing through the fog, the man stood with Lial who was showing his cougar eyes at his side.
“You,” Mackey said the moment Decan stepped through the doorway into the dimly lit room.
There had to be a generator pumping power into this house because there were lamps lit all around this room while the rest of the house had been dark.
