Rebirth (Rogues Shifter Series) (12 page)

Garrett leaned against his car looking like a
model from a print ad for sports cars. His pale skin took on a pinkish glow in the early dawn light. “You all did well tonight, once we got past Sinc’s demonstration of what not to do during a training exercise."

We’d spent two hours working out
how best to utilize our different talents. Kyle was an amazing fighter and weapons expert: Sinc’s talents lay in her stealth as a hunter and her brilliant technical and scientific skills. As Garrett presented us with different possible scenarios, we all agreed that Ethan’s strength lay in working out successful strategies and communicating to us clearly how to approach solving each problem. Goofy Ethan was our natural team leader. Go figure. Plus he was as strong as a grizzly. My extra-acute senses were the best for tracking and my speed was perfect for running down a fleeing enemy or delivering a vital message if tech wasn’t available. Garrett didn’t mention my connection to the magic and so I decided to keep my mouth shut on that subject as well.

I took a step clos
er to him and asked, “Will you give Sinc a pass on biting me? She made a mistake, she apologized. It’s over.” I held my breath waiting for his temper to erupt.

He frowned and shook his head. “She disobeyed my order. Two inches deeper and you’d be in the hospital right now.” He folded his arms across his chest and
I happily watched his muscles move under his shirt. “In the field it may be Ethan giving the orders. If she doesn’t obey me, why would she listen to Ethan?”

“If you hurt her, she’ll follow your ord
ers out of fear. If you let it go this time, she’ll be loyal to you and free to give 100% to the team.”

“Sinc battles with her own personal stew of emotions and it’s taken us some time to get her to trust or in
teract with others at all. However, if I just let it go, she won’t learn anything.” He looked at me with curiosity. “How did you learn that particular lesson?” He pushed away from the car and stepped closer to me.

I folded my arms and looked toward the woods.
“I've lived with six different foster families. Most were fine, just average people. One foster father hit me when I didn’t fall in line. His son was worse.” A horrible memory suddenly popped into my head.

"If you tell anyone, I'll kill you."

I swallowed and shuddered. “I know what fear does to a person.”

“Tell me their names.
” Garrett’s voice had dropped an octave. I felt a tiny push encouraging me to answer, so I looked up. His eyes were streaked in silver.

I stepped back
and shook off his mental touch. “No. I’ve let it go. They can’t hurt me anymore.”

Surprise flashed in his eyes. “I can find out."

“They’re in jail, Garrett.” I turned away from him, feeling angry. “I’d like you to stay out of my mind. I know you’re trying to keep me safe, but I don’t like it.”

After a few seconds, he spoke.
“You’re right. I’m sorry.

"And will you lay off of Sinc?"

"What do you think I’ll do? Beat her? Or worse?”

“I don’t know.
” I stared down at the ground. “Your anger scared the crap out of me.”

I felt his breath on my neck without ever hearing him move. His hand touched my shoulder so I turned around and looked up. It seemed I’d completely disarmed him.

”Am I that frightening? A monster like the men in your past? I’m never going to hurt any of you. You’re my students, not my enemies. Soon we'll be working together as a team to protect the community and each other. Sinc pissed me off royally and I’m going to give her a couple of extra training assignments, but no blood will be spilled, I swear.” He laughed suddenly and I was startled again by how young he looked. “Get some sleep. I’ll be back for our private lesson at 8:00 PM.”

He gave my shoulder a squeeze and opened his car door.
I looked up at the sky. “Aren’t you worried about the dawn coming?”

“No, I fed well tonight.” Beaming like an angel, he got into his car and drove away.
My shoulder felt empty.

I dragged myself inside, locked the door, forced myself into the shower and
then collapsed on the bed, happy to see that Ethan was on his side and not mine.

Around noon, Carly and Samson arrived bearing groceries, fresh towels and sheets, a few board games, a portable DVD player and a few DVDs. She ma
de us ham sandwiches with homemade salads which we gobbled down immediately, then gathered up the dirty laundry and left. Ethan announced that we should have a backgammon tournament, the loser relegated to washing all the dishes for the next three days.

We settled in to play
, sipping sodas and munching on popcorn. Ethan the master strategist had me chasing him most of the time and he managed to overcome my last ditch risky moves and won the tournament 7 games to 5. I got up and washed the dishes while he gloated. When he wasn’t looking I threw the wet sponge at him. That was followed by a knock-down-drag-out pillow fight which ended with us in a heap on the floor laughing and clutching at our sides.

Sinc and Kyle arrived later
with Italian food, and we enthusiastically dug into delicious meatball hero sandwiches and an enormous antipasto salad, talking amicably. Apparently, shifters had fast metabolisms and needed to eat more often than humans. At least that's what we all told each other as we gobbled down another big meal.

Sinc was decked out in her us
ual ‘designer casual’, her dark hair pulled back off her face and her blue eyes glaring at Kyle after some sarcastic remark he’d made. Kyle was sporting his black jeans, graphic tee, spiky hair and huge grin. Because I was curious about them, I asked how they'd come to be a part of our strange quartet.

Kyle spoke first, obviously feeling relaxed talking about himself. “I was adopted from Cambodia by a nice couple. I’m a crazy mixture of French, Cambodian and Irish, no joke. My adopted Dad taught martial arts which was cool 'cause I rocked at it. His brother was an ex-marine who loved to hunt. I learne
d a lot about weapons from him.

"When I was around fifteen
, I had these jittery episodes where my temper would flare up, and I’d feel like I had to punch something. I’d meditate or exercise, all my usual ways to relieve tension. Nothing worked. The worst was when I started getting horrible headaches. I finally ended up in the hospital having all kinds of tests and the doctors, all human of course, were even talking about exploratory surgery.

"
Rob and Garrett appeared in my room one night while I was sleeping. They talked to my parents and told them that they were from a
special hospital
and that they’d like to take over my case. Garrett did his spooky mind control thing on them and me and before I knew it, I was in the cabin on the island and Rob was telling me that physically I was fine, but I wasn't really human. I didn’t take it well at first. I loved my family and my life just the way it was. My parents think I’ve recovered but working overseas. I call them every week and stop by every couple of months or so and stay a few days. They don’t know I’m a shifter.”

His expres
sion turned angry. “I still have trouble working with Garrett. I hate that he went into my head like that. His power totally freaks me out, especially when he goes into vamp mode with his fangs out and his eyes all silver. I can't imagine how many people he's killed."

“I sa
w him rip two men to pieces.“ I quietly told them about my attack and how Garrett showed me what had actually happened. “I was bleeding all over from stab wounds and he had me drink blood from his wrist to help me heal.”

The room was suddenly as quiet as a morgue. Kyle spoke up. “Honey
, you are so screwed. He’s gonna own you.”

“Shut up Kyle!” Sinc jumped up fuming. ‘She was dying and he gave her his blood to save her li
fe. You’d better hope that he’d do the same for you if you’re ever in bad shape.”

“Sure Sinclair,
whatever you say. You’ve never been mind-controlled by him. Count yourself lucky.”

Ethan and I looked at her
curiously. “Yeah I know. It’s a stupid name, that’s why I go by Sinc. I was adopted by a family of werewolves. They were cool and they made sure to keep me safe during the full moon phases. They thought I was a human kid and they were going to make me a wolf if I decided that was what I wanted. You know the whole biting thing. Weres can’t have kids. They can’t carry a child because they have to change every month. Shifters can go the whole nine months without changing.” I hadn’t known anything about werewolves so this was all pretty fascinating.

Sinc continued. “Anyway, I started getting those same symptoms
like Kyle described when I was fifteen. It was awful. Then one night I shifted right there in the living room. It freaked everyone out. They locked me up and called Rob. He’s one of the only shifters my pack trusts. I think it’s that minty thing he does. Anyway, he came and picked me up and I haven’t seen them since. They bought me a house and a car and they send me money every month, but it was like I was excommunicated or something.”

Even though she'd turned away to look out the window, we'd all seen the pain in her eyes. "I guess I was lucky that I didn’t change during the full moon because I probably would have been dinner.” She sat qui
etly, lost in her thoughts. None of us spoke for a few moments.

Kyle broke the silence. “Sinc and I trained on the island together with Rob like you and Ethan did. You two seem to get along pretty well. We fought all the time. Thank god we heal fas
t, otherwise I’d be covered in snow leopard scars.”

“You got in a few good ones yourself,” Sinc replied throwing a pillow. They laughed together sharing a private joke.

Ethan, Kyle and Sinc left the house at 7:30 and headed to Carly’s house. Meanwhile, I had an appointment with a very hot, scary vampire.

Chapter Sixteen

After cleaning up the remains of our dinner, I walked outside into the back yard of the little house, feeling nervous with anticipation. I had the necklace in my pocket instead of
around my neck. I was trying to get used to feeling the magic, kind of toughen myself up. The night was cool so I pulled up the hood of my sweatshirt and waited, taking a few minutes to stare up at the stars surrounding the hazy half-moon.

A large raven sat on the edge of the low brick wall that bordered the yard, watching me, ruffling its feathers and cawing once. Blue eyes stared at me from its pointed black face, causing me to gasp and take a sta
rtled step backward. Magical energy suddenly crackled around me, biting into my chest and making me shut my eyes in pain. When I smelled a familiar scent, I opened them again.

Garrett sat where the raven once had, his thick hair mussed, with several strands hanging over his eyes, still managing to look amazing. Noticing my stunned expression, his lips parted in a smile. “Before I was made vampire I was a shifter and could use the ley lines as you will soon. In this
present state I’ve lost my ability to transition into my original form, but on occasion I can pull a change. Did you like it?” His expression was boyish with excitement, a kid showing off for his friend.

Sensing my mouth was still hanging open I shut it with an aud
ible snap. I guess that explained why he wants to help shifters. “Umm…that was cool, Garrett. Why a raven?”

“No, a raven is the easiest form for me to take as a vampire. It’s a harbinger of death,” he joked, using a spook
y voice. When I didn't respond, he shrugged. “It’s a good form for a fast escape and has come in handy more than once.”

I narrowed my eyes in irritation. “How is it that you’re
dressed after you change back?“ This was a trick I wanted to learn, although I wouldn’t have minded at all if he’d ended up naked the way the rest of us did. I tried to keep my lips from curling up as I felt my face grow hot.

“It’s not magic. I can just put on my clothes faster than you can notice.” He stood and walked toward me running his fingers through his messy hair. He was dressed in jeans and an unbuttoned black silk shirt showing off his perfect skin and hard abs.

As he gracefully strode toward me, I noticed that he wasn’t breathing. “Why do you breathe at all, if you don’t have to?”

“I need to breathe in order to pick up scents. Humans tend to notice if you never take a breath, so I breathe when I’m around them.” He’d finished buttoning his shirt
as he came to a halt a few feet in front of me. We locked eyes as Garrett made a point of breathing in deeply, “And your scent is unique.”

I couldn’t resist
taking in a quiet breath of my own. He'd moved to the chair to pick up his jacket which he’d left draped over the back and then bent to pick up his shoes on the ground nearby. I had to swallow hard as I felt my heart beating faster, my eyes taking in his every motion.

Why was I drawn to this guy in such an intense way? Yeah he was incredibly hot, but I’d always been able to keep my head around men. I had no illusions when it came to happily-ever-after and all that crap. Most men saw something they wanted and went after it. When they’d gotten their fill they moved on. I knew that love was out there, having seen it with Justin and Maggie and a couple of other foster families, just probably not for me.