Page 38 of A Cougar's Kiss
“Take deep breaths and relax your stance,” Nisa continued. “Give the cat space, but keep it on a leash, Shya. You can do it.”
She could do it.Shya nodded and took that deep breath. She closed her eyes because she wasn’t certain, but she thought she’d felt the cat’s eyes appear. It felt like something like a contact lens had been inserted over her eyeball when it changed, but Keller told her that was just the newness of the change. Once she’d shifted a time or two more it would become more natural, so that the change in her eyes wouldn’t feel any different than a normal blink.
“And if there were any non-believers in this room,” Tavarus continued, this time with the aid of a video appearing on the jumbo-tron.
Shya gasped again as the new center Keller built appeared on the screens and those three dead human bodies that were on the sidewalk last night.
People in the crowd cried out as Tavarus nodded.
“This is exactly what I’m talking about. No human hand or weapon could have done this damage. This had to come from one of those animals. These men had families, they had jobs and they contributed to this economy, they did not deserve to die! But these animals don’t care about us, they don’t care about peace. They’ve come here to take over our land, to kill us, the very people who built this country! They are despicable and must be demolished!”
The house lights flickered and the jumbo-tron went dark. Tavarus and the other men on the stage looked around in question.
“We…ah…might be having a bit of technical trouble,” Tavarus said probably in the hope of calming the crowd.
Shya didn’t think that was going to work, especially since just a second ago Gold announced through their earpieces, “It’s showtime!”
“We are the New World Alliance,” Keller’s voice was heard through the speakers situated around the room. “We come in peace.”
He wasn’t on board with the name Decan had given, but he was either too angry to argue or too tired to give a damn. Shya had sensed both as they’d gathered in the front room of the center just before leaving, the sting of him not arguing when Nisa suggested Shya ride with them to the Paradise Center, pricking her skin.
“I cannot say the same for Ewen Mackey, current leader of the Ruling Cabinet. These SIC camps were Ewen’s creation.”
Now pictures of the cages with Shadows in their human forms appeared on the screen.
“Can you tell who is a human and who is the animal?” Keller asked.
Another picture appeared, this one Shya wasn’t familiar with.
“This was an office building where forty-one thousand, eight hundred and fifty-seven people were employed. Thirty-one thousand, one hundred and seven of them were humans. As a result of Ewen Mackey’s pressure moves to buy this company, a rogue Shadow Shifter was brought into this building where it, along with Ewen’s armed team, incited mass hysteria which resulted in five deaths and numerous injuries. One of the deceased was this woman.”
The picture on the screen shifted to a family portrait of a black man holding his bi-racial son on his lap and his white wife sitting beside him, her stomach protruding with their second child. Their smiles were genuine and bright, the love shared between the three of them all but bursting from the screen. Shya’s chest tightened and her eyes watered at what she suspected Keller was about to say.
“Janet Lynn Matias was trampled to death in that building, on that day that Ewen Mackey decided he was done negotiating. The baby—a little girl whose name Janet’s husband announced at her funeral was going to be Talisa—was also killed.”
The room had gone to almost complete silence, but for a few murmurs and gasps.
“That company was destroyed and all of those who lived were left without jobs because of Ewen Mackey. So, the Alliance has come tonight to announce that we will not sit idly by while the Shadow Shifters are slaughtered for no cause, but the fear fed into your minds by a ruthless band of killers. We will fight to disband the Ruling Cabinet, first by legal means, but then, if not successful, by any means necessary.”
Shya was shaking with the force of Keller’s words, tears streaming down her face as for the first time she realized just how personal this fight was for him. While he spoke about this woman…Janet Lynn Matias…she recalled his outburst concerning his parents. His tone had been the same, the pain in his voice the same and she ached for him and the stark violence she’d never experienced personally.
“The Shadow Shifters killed Ewen Mackey!” a voice yelled from the crowd and Shya’s head snapped to the side of the room it had come from.
“They slaughtered him in their underground facility, and I’ve got the pictures to prove it!”
“Bring them up here!” Tavarus yelled. “And find out where that voice is coming from!”
The human guards at the doors pulled their guns just as people began either chanting or hurrying to get out of their seats.
“Move in toward the stage,” Decan directed. “We’re opening the doors out here, but we don’t want the cabinet members slipping out.”
Shya moved before she looked to see which direction Nisa would go in. She pushed through the crowd trying to appear like one of them, only she was going in a different direction. She didn’t stop to think about that, just kept easing her way down that aisle. That’s when she heard the first gunshot.
“Go!” Nisa yelled from behind her and Shya broke into a run toward the stage.
The members of the Ruling Cabinet had already begun to scramble but they couldn’t get down the steps because a crowd of people had gathered there, yelling at them for an explanation. Shya saw Zion and Jordin jump onto the stage from the opposite direction.
“It’s them! The animals are here!” someone from the crowd cried out.
