SHIFT HUNTER EXCERPT
“Maybe I should go in with you.”
Rat’s words were confident enough, but the terror was plain
in his eyes. Caelyn suppressed an impulse to laugh. The
diminutive male Shift had no real backbone for this type of
mission, and she allowed him to come this far only because he
was a whiz at reprogramming G’s gadgets. But that’s as far as
she was willing to go. Rat would be underfoot seconds after
gaining entrance to the glass and steel monstrosity before her.
Not to mention he would set off the scanners just by existing.
She shook her head. “No, Rat. You can’t come, and I’m sure
that just breaks your heart.”
His smile was more of a grimace, and he settled down inside
the Jeep, half-hidden behind a wall of weeping willows. Cae
hopped over the welded door of the vehicle and headed toward the
building. As she strode, she glanced around to be sure she was
unobserved and then allowed her features to melt and reform into
the plain-Jane looks of one of the clerks. No one at Gorman
Industries would suspect she was not who she appeared to be.
Confidence suffused her as the loose skirt she wore became snug
and her long black hair snapped like a window shade until it was
a cute bob of dull brown curls.
She paused just inside the lobby entrance, eyeing the line of
Shift scanners and the stern-faced guards who were taking their
positions much too seriously. She moved forward to the closest
contraption and slid through. The alarm went off, a blare made
to alert officials in the next state.
She crouched, ready to fight off or dodge anyone who might be
about to attack, but the guard was not looking at her. His
attention was on the woman passing through the next scanner. A
Shift. It was not obvious by her small human eyes and porous
skin, but the scanners never lied.
Cae watched as the guards pulled the woman to the side,
demanding to know her identity and what she thought she was
doing disguised inside a G-linked corporation. Cae clenched her
hands into fists, eyeing each of the guards involved and
promising herself they would pay as soon as she returned from
her mission.
Gorman’s CEO was housed on the fifth floor, and she wasted no
time getting there. The anger inside her boiled at seeing a
fellow Shift treated like trash. She could not get to the man
fast enough to take out her feelings on his sorry person.
With the small, brown wren-like appearance, she slipped
inside the man’s office. The moment she clicked the door closed,
her features changed again. This time, she was the sultry
temptress. Where the clerk was petite and plump, this new
persona was tall and thin, very close to her own appearance. She
willed her breasts to fill out more and her rear to round before
hiking the already short skirt higher.
It took less than ten seconds for Gorman to sense her
presence and glance up from his study of the papers littering
his desk. His reaction to her appearance satisfied her, as she
expected it would. Human men were all the same—not one of them
could keep his brain out of his pants.
She crossed the room with a few steps and planted herself on
the edge of his desk, resting one heel on the arm of his chair.
His small eyes followed the movement, lighting at the sight of
her bare leg. She swallowed away disgust at his wide forehead
with its receding hairline. The pores there were huge as if he
had gotten hair plugs recently.
Human skin had always turned her off with its endless holes.
Granted, she was half-human, but she had taken on almost all of
her Shift mother’s features. And poreless skin was perfection in
her opinion.
After allowing him to have his fill of looking her over, she
leaned toward him. “Mr. Gorman, isn’t it?” she asked, letting
the warmth of her breath to brush his face, knowing the effect
it would have.
“Y-yes, I am. Who are you?”
He reached out to touch her, and she tried not to smack his
hand away. “That’s not important, baby. What’s important is that
I’m here now for you.”
The man looked like Christmas had come early, and he was
fast-forwarded to the nice list. Her eyes twitched at the
thought. Shit! He backed away, terror rippling across his face.
Secret’s out.
“You’re a Shift. How did you get past the scanners? I’ll call
security.” The babbling was annoying.
She was herself instantly, “So much for well-laid plans of
seduction. Here’s what you’re going to do, Gorman.” She shoved a
foot into his chest, pinning him in his chair. “You’re going to
quit using your money to get G to pass tougher laws against
Shifts. You’re going to start helping us to regain what you and
they have taken from us. Our rights and our freedom.”
“And why should I do that?” he sneered.
She pressed harder, her toes biting into his air supply. His
gasps had no effect on her conscious. “You’ll do it, or I will
personally bring down this glass box, with you in it.”
His eyes widened and glazed over. And then like a camera
snapping a picture, she saw the guards running along the hall
near the elevators in her mind. Somehow this piece of dirt had
figured out a way to set off the silent alarm.
She released him and glanced toward the door. They’d be on
her soon. “Remember what I told you, Gorman. You have one week
to turn things around.” She held up a finger before his
trembling face. “One week.”
* * * *
“You didn’t follow the plan, Cae,” her superior said. “You
were to seduce him into giving you the information we need.”
“I know what the plan was.” Caelyn dropped the last of her
clothes onto the floor in front of Bella, unashamed of her naked
figure. “His skin—”
“Don’t start on that again. Everyone knows how much you hate
human skin. It’s absurd. They’re not so much different from us.
Besides, you’re one of them. How can you be against your own
kind?”
With any other person, she would have extracted revenge for
such an insult, but not on Bella. She needed the woman, and she
hated needing anyone. “I’m not one of them. I’m a Shift.”
“Partly,” she insisted. “You’re a half-breed.”
Cae turned away, moving to stash her clothes in the bin for a
male to wash later. “Nobody ever lets me forget that, do they?
I’ve proven my loyalty again and again, but it doesn’t matter.”
Bella touched her shoulder. “Being a half-breed is not a big
deal. There are more every day nowadays. Humans mixing with
Shifts and making babies. It’s become a fad.”
Cae shook herself free. “No it’s not. It’s a stigma for the
child. Have sex with the other species but don’t get them
pregnant, or it’s a one-way ticket to persecution. Humans don’t
accept you and neither do Shifts. You choose a side and spend
the rest of your life defending that choice—to both groups.”
“I know you can take it. You’re tough. Now suck it up.”
Cae narrowed silver eyes at her friend, annoyed at the
callous dismissal of all she had to deal with. She did not want
sympathy, exactly. Some concern would be nice but that was not
Bella. It was always business. Cae had broken the cardinal rule
again. Follow Bella’s instructions to the letter or suffer the
consequences.
“So,” she crossed her arms, “what happened?”
“My eyes.”
The word that flew from the caramel lips was very unladylike.
“It wasn’t your eyes, Cae. It was your anger, your hatred. You
have so much talent, so much ability, but your feelings toward
humans get in the way. I wonder if you were the best choice for
this assignment.”
“What does that mean? I’m the best you have. The very best. I
have—”
Bella held up a hand. “No, spare me the rundown of how
superior you are to us all. As good as you are, you have a
problem with anger. And as soon as you get too angry, you lose
control of your eyes. It’s a waste, Cae. A real waste.”
“I fixed it.”
“You didn’t fix anything,” Bella roared, slamming her fist on
the tabletop. “You threatened to blow up Gorman Industries, you
nearly killed half a dozen guards, and you didn’t get one shred
of information we needed. Instead, you put your face on the news
again as America’s most wanted criminal. Congratulations, you’re
number one.”
Cae was silent. She knew Bella was right. She had blown the
assignment. How many times had she begged for an assignment that
did not require her to be the Amazon woman beating up all the
little men. She liked who she was, even enjoyed being strong
enough and talented enough to take down human men. But
sometimes, she wanted to be feminine, a little more like the
human women. She wanted to wear the silky lingerie, the fluffy
slippers, and be alluring. Then her anger toward her people’s
treatment would surface, and she would find herself back in
warrior mode. She had to protect their rights, at any cost, and
that meant suppressing the urgings she blamed her human father
for. She would have to become fully Shift. It would take more
practice, but soon she would not even remember these weak
longings of her human DNA.
* * * *
“Mommie, you don’t understand,” Caelyn bellowed. She was so
through with having this discussion with her mother every time
she visited. It was the main reason why she came so seldom.
Her mother sighed and paused in folding Cae’s father’s
boxers. “Sweetie, I do understand. Trust me. I was in your
position. I was a young woman once with barely two nickels to
rub together because of the unfair treatment of Shifts.”
Cae scoffed. “Give me a break, Mommie. In your day, there
were scanners in banks, maybe a few other exclusive companies.
Now, they’re everywhere. A Shift is supposed to give up her
ability to be whoever she wants to be. Shifting is against the
law. Not registering for their database is against the law.
Everything we do is questioned. We’re treated as second-class
citizens. And if you happen to be like me—”
“No one is like you, baby.”
“Mommie, please. I’m thirty-two.”
“Yet, you still call me Mommie.” Her mother grinned and Cae
turned away.
Why her mother criticized her, she did not understand. She
never criticized Kyle this way. Her parents bragged constantly
about everything her brother did. It was another thing to keep
her away. “Look, you don’t know what it’s like out there any
more. You aren’t touched with hardship, unable to get a job
because of your species. You’ve become lazy and spoiled by
Daddy’s money.”
Even as she said it, Cae knew she was crossing the line. She
might view her mother as weak, having become more interested in
domestic matters than political unrest, but she was still her
mother. She was still a hot-blooded Shift.
The pearl black eyes, almost twice the size of a human’s,
flared. Cae saw the image of her mother’s hand coming up to
smack her face an instant before it happened, but she did not
duck away. She deserved it for such disrespect.
“How dare you judge me, Caelyn Stevens? You don’t know what I
dealt with. You don’t know how I had to dance for lecherous old
men and fight off their advances to protect you. And you don’t
know the times I didn’t have enough food, but I still had Uncle
Coltech to provide for.”
“Mommie—”
“No!” Her mother bunched a once-crisp shirt in her hands.
“You stand there high and mighty, Cae, judging the world like
you’re the only one suffering. Like poor me, no one understands
me. Well, I have news for you, my daughter, others are hurting
too.”
“I know that. That’s why I’m—”
She continued as if Cae had not spoken. “Look at your father.
He had to fly halfway around the world to help your brother.
He’s in some kind of trouble at his university because of his
skin. Humans don’t care about the differences between themselves
any more. Now they’ve focused their hate on our brown skin.”
“Mommie, it’s not the color that they hate.”
“Regardless, Cae, if you weren’t busy threatening to blow up
important men like Sam Gorman, then you’d know the troubles of
your own family.”
Cae went still. How had her mother found out so quickly?
Bella had debriefed her just hours ago. Word seemed to travel
faster than she did on her motorcycle on the way over here. “How
did you know about that, Mommie?” she asked, wondering if there
was a leak in the rebel organization.
Her mother returned to folding, her gaze dropping to the pile
of laundry before her. The tightening of her lips told Cae she
would not rat out the culprit. And ‘rat’ was the operative word.
“Rat!” Cae said. “That sneak! Is he my partner or a spy, for
goodness sake?”
She marched over to her backpack and rifled through it until
she found her tiny two-inch by two-inch cell phone. She strapped
the device to her ear. A rapid blink of her eyes once was the
only indication she allowed herself when the auto transponder
dug into the flesh behind her ear.
Seconds later, with only a mental thought, her phone dialed
Rat. She tapped a booted heel on the walnut-colored ceramic tile
of her mother’s kitchen floor and waited. He would have some
serious explaining to do, and if she did not like what he said,
well . . . she could replace him. There was more than one Shift
male waiting to take Rat’s place. Until now, she had been unable
to achieve the famed “bonding” her mother taught her about long
ago, but that did not mean she could not find another male to
share her bed. It had probably been a mistake anyway to mix
business with pleasure.
Soon Rat answered in a harassed tone. “Cae, you finally
call!”
Her eyebrows shot toward her hairline. “Excuse me?” she asked
with a frown, her eyes focused on nothing in particular in front
of her. “In Mommie’s time, males were much more subservient and
knew their place!”
It took a moment for him to respond. God, this must be the
day for her to offend everyone. She bit her lip, refusing to
apologize. She would wait him out. Just as she suspected, not a
moment passed before her supposed life assistant was all
apologies.
“I’m sorry, Cae. I was worried when you didn’t answer your
phone, and then Bella called and—”
“What do you mean Bella called? I just spoke with her a few
hours ago at the debriefing.”
“She wants you to come in. Says it’s urgent. You didn’t
answer your phone and I thought—”
“What’s happening, Rat? Why would she want to see me again so
soon? And my phone didn’t ring. I think the stupid thing is on
the fritz. It’s hurting more than before, when I attach it.”
“I’ll meet you at HQ and take a look at it. Meanwhile, Bella
says to come immediately.”
His voice held the urgency she knew Bella had impressed upon
him. Rat was terrified of their rebel leader. There was a
vicious rumor going around that she had an insatiable appetite
for males of all shapes and sizes. She did not allow herself to
bond with any of the ones she kept in her penthouse apartment
but demanded they all be ready at any time to satisfy her needs.
Cae was sure her own sexual desires rivaled her boss, but the
difference was she ached for something more, something she hated
for its human origins.
Battles without and battles within, she thought with a sigh.
Always she had to walk in disguise, twenty-four hours a day,
unless she was in the presence of someone who accepted her as
she was. It was against the law to walk into a public place in
disguise, but if a Shift strode in as herself, she was destined
for ridicule and prejudice. Cae had it worse, no matter what her
mother claimed. She had to disguise herself. Her eyes always
gave away the fact that she was a half-breed. As much as she
loved her father, she resented that his eyes were the only part
of his chromosomes to rear their head in her body makeup.
Instead of the oversized, black shape-shifter eyes, she was
stuck with oversized silver. If she didn’t shift, she would
still stick out in the crowd.
“Cae, are you there?” Rat had been waiting for her reply.
She nodded, though he could not see it. “Yes, I’m here. And
I’ll be there soon. Did you make the gaipee?”
“Yes.” He chuckled into the phone. “Always, you prefer the
traditional Shift food though you grew up on the human stuff.”
“I’m a Shift,” she told him. “What else would I eat?”
She soon ended the connection before he could disrespect her
again, forcing her to choose whether or not she wanted to
replace him. Sometimes she wondered if the humans were right
that mixing one species with the other was a bad idea. Shift men
were getting out of hand. Rat joining the resistance might be an
indication of the future. Who knew what civil strife they would
have to deal with if the men decided to go the route of human
women and demand rights of their own. She shook herself to
dislodge the thought. It was too insane to fathom.
Forty-five minutes later, she strode into the headquarters of
the Shift rebellion for the second time that day. That was,
after she had been given a hard time by the muscled Cessie, who
guarded the secluded entrance. Cae gritted her teeth and bided
her time. It would not be long before she could put that
masculine Shift in her place, and that place was beneath her
boot heel. Nothing would please her more than to go head-to-head
with the main person who found it a daily pleasure to goad the
others into riding Cae’s back about her mixed blood.
These thoughts—her unresolved argument with her mother and
her indecision about replacing Rat—roiled through her unsettled
mind until she reached the briefing room. The others were there
ahead of her, and she stood in the doorway, assessing the mood.
No one she had met in the hallway coming down to this hole
beneath an abandoned subway station had given her a clue as to
what the emergency was about. She did suspect it had something
to do with herself. More than one of them had given her
significant looks.
Even jacking one of them up by his collar had given her no
satisfaction. Cessie had put an end to that interrogation too.
Cae was not in a position to rock the boat, being out of grace
with Bella right now. It was better to lie low. Unfortunately,
her foul mood was not making lying low easy.
“Cae, I’m glad you decided to join us,” Bella called from the
front of the room. “Grab a seat and I’ll brief everyone.”
A few snickers followed her progress down the narrow aisle,
the room set up somewhat like a tiny movie theater, with ten
rows of five chairs each, half of which were covered with “out
of order” signs. The dull brown carpet in the aisle was
threadbare. She recalled the lavish office of the CEO of Gorman
Industries and clenched her jaw tighter. He probably never held
a meeting underground in a place that stank of piss and mildew.
She found a seat near the front, squeezing past two younger
Shifts who thought it was funny to transform their eyes to match
hers and then make looks of horror at each other. She rolled her
eyes and shoved past them before flopping down in the chair,
hoping the creaking springs would not choose that moment to give
way.
“Now,” Bella began. She nodded her head toward the back of
the room. “This, ladies, is Anthony ‘Tony’ Maddox. He is better
known as Shift Hunter.”
Amidst loud catcalls, something Cae was not beyond doing
herself at the look of the man on the screen, she stared at his
handsome face. The hard, uncompromising expression that
tightened his lips and set his jaw did not lessen the impact of
his sea-green eyes. Those eyes knew her, she admitted to
herself. Although he was just a man in a slide, stepping out
into the sunlight from a cigar store, he knew what she longed
for. She was sure of it.
Her abilities had never extended beyond knowing what was
coming upon her or into her life. She did not read minds or any
of those other spooky parlor tricks. But she had a feeling he
knew more about her human side than she did, and that scared
her.
She continued to study him. Thick, silky curls as dark as
midnight covered his head. Burgundy and black camouflage was his
clothing, finished with standard issue army boots. The sheer
breadth of his shoulders and the dwarfing of the two men
standing next to him told her he was big—very big. Her jaw
dropped slightly, and she let out the breath she had been
holding.
When the slide changed to a close up, the tingle of desire
that had been growing inside her at the sight of him, was
doused. Pores. Of course, a Shift could transform to give the
appearance of having pores, but she was not holding out for that
being the case here. This man was human.
“Shift Hunter is notorious all over the world as being the
person to hire should you have a special need,” Bella continued.
“I have a need,” someone yelled out in a sultry voice, and
the others laughed.
“Settle down!” Bella commanded. No one dared disobey. “If you
haven’t gotten it yet, he’s called Shift Hunter for a reason. He
hunts Shifts. He has hunted literally hundreds and he has never
failed to capture his prey. Ever.”
Silence reigned.
“G has hired him, flying him in, all expenses paid, from
Belgium, the site of his last job. And he has one person on his
list.”
All eyes turned to Cae, and she froze. Bella could not be
serious. The eyes. . . this man was coming to America to hunt
her down? Then she remembered Bella’s words from earlier,
Congratulations, you’re the number one, most wanted person in
America. Her stomach tightened. She tried to look nonchalant, to
hide how it affected her to know that this person had been
turned loose on her. Then she remembered her abilities.
“Bella, please be serious,” she laughed. “No man, no matter
what he’s called, has ever bested me. And certainly no human can
match me. I don’t know why you’ve called a special meeting for
this loser, but it’s unnecessary.” She stood and made to leave.
“Sit down, Cae.”
She sank back down into her seat, ignoring the titters.
“You may not be worried, and more the fool you are for it.
But I am.” Bella shuffled through papers on her podium. “I
checked into his background, not wanting to depend on hearsay. I
have stacks upon stacks of evidence—pictures, film, you name
it—about what this man has been involved in. He gets his woman.
Every time.”
Cae tried again. “But they weren’t me.”
“Yeah,” someone called from the back, “didn’t you hear,
Bella? She’s superwoman, the first Shift that can fly.”
She clenched her hands, recognizing Cessie’s voice. The
others laughed out loud, and the noise level jumped several
decibels as the women debated on who would win in the battle
between Cae and the Hunter. She waited for Bella to command
silence again when she realized the consensus was against her,
but their leader remained silent. She glanced up at Bella,
wondering if she too had little faith that Cae could stay ahead
of this man or even defeat him. By her doubtful expression, Cae
could see Bella did not hold out much hope.
“Cae,” Bella shouted, and the room quieted again. “I know you
have fighting skills that the others of us cannot come close to.
The fighting masters your father hired to train you have
prepared you well.”
Did she detect a note of bitterness there? She could not help
her background. When would she live it down? She had even used
it herself against her mother earlier. Now she was being repaid
for that meanness.
“I know. We all know you are good. Better than all of us. Be
quiet, Cessie! But this man has also been trained. Remember no
matter how skilled you are, you are still a female, and many of
the human men are physically stronger than we are.”
“But my abilities,” she started.
“You can’t always depend on knowing what your opponent will
do next, Cae. At any time, that special gift could desert you.
It is not something from our society. It is not in your father’s
family. It’s a fluke, and as quickly as it has come into your
life, it can go.”
“I was born with it. I’ve always had it,” she insisted.
“Regardless, I’m sending you away. Tonight. Your plane takes
off at midnight.”
Cae stood. “What? I have a life. I have obligations. My
family—”
“You barely visit your family. You saw your mother today and
your father and brother are out of the country anyway. My mind
is made up. You and two other Shifts, who will act as your
guards, will leave in a few hours. Get your things in order. End
of discussion.”
.
