The Change: Episode one (34 page)

I took a plate from the stack and slapped a
few rolls on it, vaguely wondering which one of them could bake. I
hoped they didn’t send him in, even though the bread was good.
Someone gentle enough to make crust this flaky had no business
trying to infiltrate the Network.

D

When Candice sent me that glare, all the
fear from before rose up… and vanished. It was a simple correction.
I was able to tell the difference after being so close to danger.
When I studied them for a moment, I realized she wasn’t putting off
those furious waves of need.

“
You’re lucky…
strong.”

I let my head lift a bit at that. I’d never
been looked up to, and it was a heady feeling. “She makes me this
way.”

And she did. I’d been a massive coward
before Candice had come for me, and it had only taken her a couple
weeks to change it. What could she do for these males in a few
months, or a year?

A lot
, I thought,
and I would be by her
side for all of it.
We wouldn’t be
separated now. I’d known it as soon as she pulled me close right
before we stepped through the door… and hugged me. Candice!
Hugging!

I had no illusions about who was in charge,
but when it came to helping her control that rage, I was the lead.
In return, we would all be influenced by this incredibly hard
woman. Maybe, just maybe, she could set my kind free and deliver
the cure to the rest of the world.

What a way to live! No fear of each other,
no death or pain. It was an existence that even our ancestors
hadn’t known… but they hadn’t had my mate to teach them. I was sure
her idea of training and Baker’s would be completely different and
was looking forward to watching them clash over it now. My life had
gotten so much better. There were only two things - other than my
missing children - that still bothered me. One was the feelings I
still thought she might be carrying for Baker. I hoped they would
fade in time. The other was sitting in the corner by herself with a
look of absolute dejection that subdued my happiness.

Angelica was just like Candice, only burning
hotter. I’d seen them come and go at the Network, and it was almost
always the ones with that melting glaze over their words and tones
who snapped and hurt one of us. For me, it had been while I was
still in the care of the Ring.

That took my thoughts to an ugly place, and
I moved toward the corner, battling it in my head. I didn’t think
of my slavery in terms of the pain very often. I’d learned to
ignore it and let it emerge in my nightmares so I could face the
day. Watching Angelica and how hard she fought to control it made
me feel sorry for her, and even a little for the woman who’d raped
me at the age of twelve. I was supposed to be unbroken when brought
in, but I had been changed forever in one session of pain and
humiliation. A year after that, I was already enrolled in the
Network’s breeding program and selling my favors outside of it to
survive.

“
What?”

Angelica’s snarl was on the edge. We needed
to get her out of here soon, give her a break from all of our
scents and needs. With the stories of me and Candice circling the
males, the looks being cast toward Angelica were enough to bring an
attack from an average Changeling, though it was clear she was more
than that.

“
Can we talk?”

Angelica latched onto the distraction as I’d
hoped she would.

“
Sit down.”

Her cruel tone, however, made me pause - I
wasn’t stupid.

She looked up at me with pink eyes and pale
cheeks.

“
When you stand over me,
it’s like I’m…”

I quickly sat down. “Burning?”

She nodded, closing her eyes as I
accidentally brushed her leg with mine. “Careful…”

She leaned slightly away from me and I made
sure my voice wasn’t any louder than it had to be. “Do they know
yet?”

She flinched, drawing attention, and I did
what usually got me in trouble. I reacted without thinking and
patted her hand in comfort.

“
Get… back!” Angelica’s
voice was a razor.

To everyone’s surprise, I didn’t move. I had
a plan, though the outcome was unknown. “Look at me.”

It was the same tone of command I’d used
with Candice last night, and it had Angelica snapping open
blood-red orbs. Her body trembled as she fought to control herself,
and I pushed my luck, tightening my grip on her hand.

“
They need you to be
yourself. That’s all they really want.”

“
Daniel…”

Candice wasn’t sure either, but I was, and I
leaned closer. “They’ll love you back, whichever one you pick.”

Angelica struggled to talk. “You… you’re
sure?”

A tear splashed from her Changeling eye, and
I opened my arms as those red orbs flooded with flat black misery.
“Yes, Angel. I am. You’re special, too. They’ll sense it.”

C

I watched in complete shock as my brutal
little cousin collapse into Daniel’s arms. I‘d known she was
planning something - entering the Games eventually was what I’d
assumed - but clearly, she’d already signed up, and Daniel
knew!

He’d been aware of her true fear of not
being wanted, had risked her rage to offer the comfort he knew no
one else could. And he thought he was honored! I had a mate filled
with courage and warmth that didn’t stop with his needs, or even
mine. He would enrich all our lives.

I couldn’t love him more
than I do right now.
I started to move
towards them, eager to let him see how thrilled I was… and then the
floor rumbled under my feet.

It swayed, dipping with a violent tremor and
we froze, our worst fears suddenly happening. We would be buried! I
took off toward my family… saw Daniel lunging towards me…

BBoooommmmmm….

Behind the harsh, ear-splitting crash of
grinding rock and shattering stone, the mountain started to
collapse.

D

“
Candice!”

“
Again!”

Her voice drowned out the other shouts and
screams, and I drew in a thick lungful of gritty air. “Candy!”

She grabbed my arm long seconds later, and I
clutched at her in the darkness. “Candy…”

I was so glad she was alive that the panic
around us seemed to recede, and I shoved my mouth against hers in
desperation. I’d almost lost her! She returned my emotion with the
same fierceness, and I could feel her terror, too, her relief. She
ended the kiss abruptly and turned around, but kept a tight grip on
my hand as we moved through what remained of the rebel base.

The blast had hit the mountain right over
us. If not for the naturally formed strength of the main room, we
would be dead right now. As it was, half the ceiling had cracked,
sending giant slabs down to crush people. The blood had stained the
neutral stone, and I looked away from the sight of Eric’s now
forever-closed eyes.

Candice pulled me through the debris,
heading for the corner where I’d been sitting with Angelica… I
suddenly understood her hurry and tried to help move us faster
through the death and destruction.

The males were stunned. Their faces were
covered in grit, but their eyes were shining with tears and hatred.
We all knew who was responsible. The Network had found us.

“
Angel!”

She was lying face down, curled over the top
of someone we couldn’t identify yet, but I was already sure who
she’d tried to save, and it made me hurry to the rocks and debris
covering her. She had been willing to give her life for Baker’s. I
wasn’t the only one who’d felt something special just from being
around him for two days.

Candice and I started clearing the mess as
fast as we could, listening to the others gather around to watch.
Above us, there was another grinding sound, but it wasn’t as
loud.

Crackkkkk…

A thick chunk of the ceiling broke away
across the room and covered Eric’s body.

“
Angel!”

“
Stop yellin,
already!”

Angelica’s snap made us move faster and the
males closest - Hulk and Animal-man - began to help. I gave them a
nod, and more men joined in.

“
You okay?” Candice was
keeping her cousin talking, but I thought she was worrying over
little at this point. If Angelica could growl like that, she wasn’t
near death’s door.

“
Peachy.” Angelica’s hand
shot up through the gaps in the debris, and the sight of those
bloody fingers had the rest of the males stepping forward. I
watched in surprise as they crowded Candice back and took over the
rescue.

C

I didn’t care about their motives, or their
lack of fear around me. I only needed Angelica freed, and I let
them move me back with careful shoulders and hands. Their bodies
were much more suited to this task, and the debris pile quickly
vanished.

“
Step back.”

That was Hulk and I did as he said, hearing
his furious undertone. I realized I had misjudged them on my first
impression. I hadn’t thought they had any courage, but I’d been
wrong. It showed itself in their actions to save their fallen
friends and to help me dig Angelica out, but as they worked, their
growing rage was unmistakable.

Fury was rising amid these shattered walls,
and it wasn’t coming from Changelings. The Network had gone too far
this time. These men wouldn’t stand for anymore.

The sight of Angelica standing to help pull
Baker from the floor made me shove my way through and grab her for
a fierce hug.

“
Damn it!”

I jerked back to see her
arm hanging at an ugly angle and ran my eyes over her for other
injuries. Broken or maybe only dislocated arm, heavily-bleeding
gash down her hip, blood running from her forehead. There was still
that Changeling fury in her blood red orbs, but we all knew her
anger was aimed at our assassins this time, and none of the males
flinched back. The
change
had little to do with this awful sense of being
betrayed.

“
How did they know where we
were?”

It was the question I didn’t want Daniel to
hear the answer to yet, and I turned to Baker to assess his
injuries.

“
I’m good.”

The convict knew, too, and I gave him a nod.
“I’ll handle it.”

Baker turned to Angelica. “Close your
eyes.”

Angelica snarled back at him. “Just do
it!”

The rebel leader hesitated… “I can’t with
your eyes like that!”

Even the convict was scared of her, and she
snapped her lids shut in frustration.

Baker’s rough touch put Angelica’s arm back
in place, sending a scream through the stone wreckage that chilled
the males watching. They had never seen a man cause a woman pain,
for any reason, and they didn’t like it.

I watched Baker swing
Angelica into his arms and carry her toward the tunnel.
I was way beyond any of the previous rage I had
felt, except maybe for the moment I’d lost Daniel. Angelica’s blood
was on my hands, and the feel of it was enough to make me near the
edge of snapping. She’d been hurt over and over by the Network and
their brutal leadership. We all had.

My heart filled with that cold ice that
always came before I battled. It wouldn’t be allowed anymore.

None of the other rooms
were accessible, but we all knew the fate of those inside by the
lack of sounds. Bangs on the stone drew groans, but only from the
wounded mountain, and the rebels stopped quickly.
Due to the round construction of this room, the
outer walls collapsing had held it together with the force. If it
had been anything but a direct hit, we would have been buried
too.

Baker tended Angelica’s injuries like he
knew what he was doing, and I was glad to know they were minor. It
could have been worse…

“
Candy…”

She was furious, needing an outlet, and I
intended to give her one, but not yet… not here.

“
Now pull it back in!” I
barked.

She did it with almost no visible effort,
eyes flipping from solid red to that familiar black, and I
delivered what she needed – my approval of her decision. “Remember
this moment when you’re at the Games. Use it to feed and control
your rage, and you’ll come out with one of your own.”

She sagged against Baker’s hip, and he
tugged her gently closer, impressing me. They were already learning
from my brave mate.

“
How?” Daniel hadn’t been
distracted, I realized. He’d just known to wait.

I sighed, understanding I couldn’t protect
him from this. The fact that it wasn’t his fault wouldn’t matter to
his own guilt.

“
They probably have a
tracker in you. I didn’t check. I was… distracted.”

I would take as much of the blame as I
could, but I heard his steps freeze.

“
They followed
me?”

I turned to comfort him, and to make sure
the others didn’t hurt him in their grief, but my timid mate
surprised me again. He slid his knife free and held it out to
me.

“
Get it out of me -
now!”

I shook my head. “As soon as I do that, they
lose the signal and send in the guards. Right now, they can’t be
sure how many of us survived because even dead bodies put off heat
for a while, and satellites are unreliable through quartz.”

“
If his beacon suddenly
disappears, they’ll know we’ve figured it out,” Greg murmured,
clearly the brains of Baker’s outfit.

“
You have to go to the Safe
Zone now,” I confirmed.