Page 24 of A Cougar's Kiss
Chapter 9
Shya woke up coughing. Something was in her throat, stopping her next breath and she sat up in the bed, coughing until her eyes watered in an attempt to remove it. She flattened a palm to her chest, the other hand lifting to her throat as a sharp painful sound ripped free. The cat stood aside, pacing, while the heaviness of its worry added to the panic that was slowly slipping through her veins like an injection.
Water usually helped. Tossing the comforter and sheet away from her legs she climbed out of the bed, running the short distance from the bed and around the corner into the bathroom. The tiled floor was cool to her bare feet, but she ignored that and went straight to the sink, lifting the silver handle on the faucet to turn the water on. She dipped her head into the sink, her lips breaking through the flow of water as she sucked it in and swallowed. It was cool moving past whatever had been choking her. After a few seconds of drinking, she pulled back from the sink, her palms slapping onto the marble top as her chin dropped to her chest.
With her eyes closed she heaved painful breaths without coughing. Her arms began to shake, and she pushed away from the sink to relieve the pressure in her shoulders. Standing there she lifted her head, her eyes opening slowly until she could see the figure staring back at her.
Medium height, naked, bony shoulders slumping slightly, tawny-hued skin, dark hair atop her head and at her apex, slim fingers shaking. Tears streamed down her cheeks, again.
Her sickness was her weakness, always had been and despite all that everyone had done, it always would be. A sob broke free and she wrapped her arms around her chest when a chill followed. She let the tears flow, there was no use in trying to stop them. They were cleansing to an extent as she always felt depleted when they were gone. Empty and prepared to start again, that’s how she’d looked at it each time and it normally worked.
Shya had no idea how long she stood there, but her entire body was chilled now, and her hips had also begun to ache. The water was still running in the sink and she stepped closer, dropping her hands beneath the spray before bringing them up to splash some of the cool moisture onto her face. There was a bar of soap and she grabbed that too, rubbing it between her hands to build a lather, Shya washed her face, inhaling the fresh scent now sifting through her nostrils. She bent down and rinsed her face, grabbing a towel from the pole beside the sink and dabbing it against her skin.
With a start she realized she wasn’t at Oasis. She dropped the towel and stood up straight turning around to see the gray tiled walls and floor, pale pink and blue towels, glass shower door, large soaker tub, none of this was hers. On shaky legs she walked back out to stop and stare at the bed. It was too big to be hers and too messy. Shya always slept on the right side and rarely ever rolled to the other side of her queen-size bed at Oasis, so in the morning it still looked perfectly made. These sheets were all over the place because…she and Keller had been all over this much larger bed last night and early this morning.
Her pulse thumped, and she swallowed slowly. She was above ground with Keller, in this place that he’d built for the shifters. Well, this space Shya had decided, Keller had built for himself. But he wasn’t here. She didn’t need to cross the space to the sitting room on the other side of another wall because he wasn’t there. How she knew that, she wasn’t sure, but there was no doubt in her mind and she started to walk to the door to go and find him. Just as she reached out for the knob she realized her lack of attire and sighed before running back across the room to dig through her bag and find the short robe she’d packed.
She tied the belt of the robe around her waist and walked quickly toward the door again, not sure why she was in such a hurry to find him. But when she touched the knob this time, the quick patter of her heart stopped. The knob didn’t move. She lifted her hand, running her trembling fingers over the space up and down the side of the door in search of some hidden control panel, but there was nothing there.
A gasp tore from her chest and Shya turned around, slamming her back against the locked door. She looked at the windows, to the dim glaze of light on the other side of the tint and ran toward it, slamming into the glass and flattening her palms over it. Now she screamed. A gut-wrenching sound that she’d never heard before and pulled her hands back before pounding them against the window. On the other side was a world she didn’t know, but it was also a freedom she could taste in the back of her throat. If she could only get out.
Panic soared through her system like lightening and she moved to the sitting area where there was a glass table with five chairs around it. Shya picked up one of the chairs and threw it across the room until it bounced off the window. As rage tore through her body she picked up another chair and did the same thing, getting the same result. Another chair went to the door and the last one, her now clawed hands tore to pieces.
Sharp teeth pressed into her lip until she tasted blood and she turned the glass table over watching as it shattered. She whirled around, and the room was spinning, her shoulders and hips burning with pain. Suddenly hot, sweating, she ripped the robe from her body and tossed her head back to let loose a roar that seemed to shake the entire building. She didn’t care, it was too late to stop.
Shya fell to her knees, the pain from her human bones meeting the floor with such force it ricocheted through her body and she yelled out again. Tears stung her eyes seconds before she blinked them away and opened new eyes—cat’s eyes. Sharp teeth filled her mouth, her cheekbones spread, hair sprouting from the pores of her skin. She fell forward with a gasp, dropping her head down as human hands morphed into golden brown paws. Her back arched as bones curved and cracked. Power filled every part of her that had previously been in pain, warmth blanketed the chilled skin as the coat of golden brown and black spots covered her from head to tail.
With one long languid stretch the jaguar stepped up onto the bed and roared with every part of its body and every inch of its soul.
* * *
After he’d awakened and showered an hour ago, Keller stepped out of his private apartment and called Decan.
“We’re here,” he said the moment the FL answered.
“Good. I trust you had an uneventful journey since I didn’t hear any calls that said otherwise.”
“It was fine.” And there was no need to tell Decan about the extra guest that had accompanied them. His mate was Shya’s best friend, if Shya wanted Nisa to know where she was, Keller had no doubt she would tell her. Besides, he wasn’t ready to answer questions about why he’d brought her along anyway. “On my way to brief the team now. When are you getting here?”
“Thursday morning. We’ve been handling changes within the Holodeck and coordinating new tactical teams, plus also assisting the Mountain and Pacific zones since Bas and Jace have been at Headquarters with Rome.”
“Yeah, they all want to stick close to Cole Linden.”
“You think he’s gonna wake up?” Decan asked.
Keller didn’t answer right away. The comatose FL had spoken to him four times and opened his eyes three of those times. Never once did he sit up or speak more than four or five sentences, which was part of the reason Keller had never told anyone about it. The other part was that he’d wanted to keep what Cole said to himself until he figured out what to do about it, but now Shya knew, at least part of it.
“I’m not a healer,” he eventually replied.
“Well, you weren’t a babysitter either, but you did that job pretty well.”
“Not funny.” That was said with a straight face as he stepped into the elevator. “Look, once we link into the live feed and play all the atrocities that took place in the SIC camps in the last twenty years, Gold’s gonna re-route the audio and I’ll start speaking.”
“You know what you’re gonna say?”
“I’m gonna tell the world that Ewen Mackey and his band of idiots have been committing the mass murder of shifters for long enough. And then I’m gonna tell them that it stops now, that when a shifter is unlawfully approached or attacked, we’re fighting back.” The elevator door opened at that point and Keller stalked off, turning to walk toward the room that would eventually be the lobby of this facility. A quick thought had gone to how Shya might think this space should be decorated.
Decan’s reply cut the thought short.
