Faye

 

“You have not won, Lilian Frost,” I said louder, and Frost whipped her head around to me.

I tightened my arm around Keon, who was leaning on me, his face bruised but grinning for all that. He'd come through in the clutch and I wanted to kiss him for it.

Trust Andrei to find a diamond of a genius in this boy.

Behind us, I could hear footsteps as family members of the Shifters of Anubis came out onto the dais and around it. Soraya, along with Keon and I, had freed them. Many of them were holding up broken collars. Cries of relief and joy echoed around as parents ran forward to find children, family found family, and lovers embraced.

“What is this?” Frost hissed, her posture changing from one of triumph to confusion.

“You tried to break us, Frost, but we are the Shifters of Anubis! We’re family!” I shouted.

"When you kidnapped Keon, he was able to analyze your disgusting collars and find a way to send a pulse out to interrupt the signal,” Soraya said. “Not unlike the one you sent out in Boston.”

“I invented it just in case,” Keon said with a grin. “Always kept it with me.”

Frost’s jaw dropped and a flicker of something human went across her face. I suddenly found myself stirred with pity for this friendless, angry woman who’d been treated like a failed experiment by her mother and never knew a kind word from all accounts.

She spun around, but shifters had closed ranks, surrounding her.

Directly across from me, standing near Roy and Kesari was Andrei. Relief and pride were on his face as he smiled and winked at me. I winked back.

A growl ripped from Frost’s throat and she began to attack blindly, trying to break the circle. But most of the shifters dodged her and some landed well-placed blows. She was slower and less certain, and she shook her head, then pawed at her eyes.

Cracks appeared in her skin, like fault lines in the earth and her movements slowed. A whine issued from her mouth as she tottered from side to side. Gasping, she fell to her knees and clutched at her chest, scrabbling and moaning.

“She’s made herself an Electi! But her form isn’t stable,” Kesari shouted, trying to run forward, but Roy stopped her. “She’s unraveling and fast…”

It was Piper who walked forward. Piper, who’d spent years trying to take down the TLO. She alone probably knew their atrocities better than anyone. Isla’s parents. Faye’s parents. Kai’s kidnapping and subsequent hell. Isla’s attempted kidnapping. Balt’s family held in their sway. Kesari’s name on their hit list. Her twins being spirited away by her family and the possibility of never seeing them again.

Yet there was compassion in Piper’s gaze as she knelt down and touched Frost’s forehead.

White eyes opened and I shouted, moving forward, seeing Balt and Andrei do so as well.

But it was Kai who was there, moving so fast that Frost’s hand merely slammed into the earth. Kai had swung his sister out of harm’s way and Piper hugged her brother tightly.

Frost sneered at them, laughing as blood dripped from her teeth. But her eyes swung around, white and sightless. Horror and revulsion rose up in me, along with pity. And I saw that mirrored in the faces around the circle.

“She’s blind,” Soraya said softly.

I leaped down off the dais and cautiously walked forward. A few agents held out their hands as though to stop me, while others crouched, ready to spring into action. I shook my head.

“You are blind and dying,” I said in an urgent voice, passing Kai and Piper. Kai reached out a hand, stopping me and I gave him a reassuring smile. “Let us help you, Lilian. Let us cure you.”

Her blind eyes swept around for me, reaching for me and I saw Andrei go to move forward, but I easily dodged her and shook my head at him.

“Ha!” Frost said, her body shaking now and voice rasping. “You would use me as an example! As my own mother did. She wanted me to be able to join your ranks, but none of her experiments worked. And so, since I couldn’t become a shifter, I became something better.”

“You are consumed with so much hate and anger, but you can find peace,” I said, trying to think of the words my mother would use to calm down her patients. She’d been a psychiatrist and that was why she’d been chosen to investigate the TLO. My father was there to protect her.

My eyes burned. I hadn’t thought about that in years.

“Faye Knight, the perfect shifter, the lovable orphan,” Frost sneered, trying to snap out her limbs to seize me again. All eyes were on us. “You should thank me – I’m the one who killed your parents and made you so damn sympathetic.”

Lips parting, I stared down at Frost, a seething mass of limbs and teeth. For a moment, anger and hatred flashed through me and I wanted nothing more than to see that hellish light snuffed out. Every cell in my body screamed in rage and grief. Every cell wanted revenge.

Then I saw my parents in my mind’s eye, smiling and patient. Wise and compassionate.

My body relaxed and I let out a shaky breath. I am your daughter. I will honor your legacy.

Eyes swimming with tears, I cleared my throat and said, “I forgive you.”

“What?” Frost asked, recoiling. For the first time, I saw fear on her face. “What?”

“Let us heal you,” I said, my voice straining. “Start anew.”

“This is a trick,” Frost said, quivering and shaking her head. “You-you couldn’t… No!” Her form began to heave and writhe, veins running black and a terrible sound tore from her throat. “I would rather die. You will all die. You will all bow to me – my mind is superior. I created a predator of the Shifters of Anubis! I created the Electi! The Elite kind! And now…” She stood up, then fell to her knees. “Now I win.”

“Yes, Lilian, you’ve won,” I said, my voice filled with wry pity.

Before any of us could do anything, Frost suddenly slumped onto the ground and a terrible stillness came over her. Piper moved past me, Kai close at her heels and I came over as my friend laid a hand on Frost’s white neck.

“Dead,” Piper said grimly.

“Probably the stress and the injections,” Kesari said, coming over, white-faced and terrified.

“No this is the price she has paid for her actions,” Kai said, looking ill. “And a terrible one it is.”

Shifters moved forward, then. A few bears banded together, lifting Frost’s body and carrying it away. In the wake was a shocked silence and a hum of anticipation.

“Now what?” Roy asked in a loud whisper, voicing what everyone was thinking.

“Now we rest,” Andrei said and I turned to him. “We recuperate and rebuild.” He gave me a grin, then abruptly sank into a seated position, breathing hard and holding his side.

“Andrei!” I cried, falling to my knees and catching him against me as he passed out.

“He’ll be fine,” Piper said. “Just a little blood loss.”

“A little blood loss?” I cried.

“Ey, love, need a hand?” asked a lilting voice and I looked up to see Finni beaming at me. Dara and Obi were standing beside him, both of them beaming at me. “Let Zima sleep and let the rest of us celebrate our old foe dying and you back from the dead, eh?”

Roy laughed as I made a face. “He’d want you to, Faye,” he said, extending his hand and pulling me to my feet.

Leaving Andrei to Roy, Finni, and Kesari, I went and walked among friends. Greeting them, checking on them and then I came face to face with Drax.

“You did good, kid,” he said, wincing as he cradled an arm.

“Should you get that looked at?” I asked, alarmed.

“I will,” Drax said. “Listen, love. I knew your parents and they would have been mighty proud of what you did here today. Rallying the Shifters of Anubis, putting Frost in her place and reminding us why we fight so hard in the first place.” He ruffled my hair. “You’re one of the good ones, Knight.”

“You knew my parents?” I asked slowly.

“Aye, we were good friends,” Drax said. “I’m sorry I didn’t talk much to you after they passed. Knew you wouldn’t want favors from a grumpy old Wolf.”

“That’s okay, Drax,” I said, smiling at him. “What can I do now? Do you need help–?”

“Ugh!” Drax interrupted. “You and Zima, a match made in heaven, one I would have never expected – I think you can probably do better than him, girl.” I smothered a laugh. “But you can do me one favor.”

I waited expectantly and Drax shook his head. “What?” I asked.

“Take some time off. Get away from the madness for a spell.” His voice became gruff, but was filled with sympathy. “You’ve been through enough.”

“I’ll say,” said Lhambo, coming up next to Drax and opening his arms wide for a hug. Stalissa and several others were in his wake, all hugging me as well.

When I escaped, Drax was gone, but his words were still ringing in my ears.

And I couldn’t help but think of Andrei’s lovely house in Canada, wishing I was there.

 

Cleanup took over a week. Even with Frost gone and the TLO dismantled, they’d done a good job of wreaking havoc in HQ. The Electi had been healed to a certain extent so that their altered genes wouldn't cause them undue stress and aggressiveness. The shadow creature was almost friendly now, responding well to treatments in the lab and that bolstered hope among the Order for the days ahead.

All of the traitors had been rounded up and imprisoned. Some of them had been tricked, but others, like Ivan, had been after power. It made the Heads rethink how they were teaching us.

“Maybe we need to modernize our lessons,” Drax grunted.

Svetlana had gone home to Tulila, while Elias and the Lafis had come home with the twins. All the shifter families were reunited and safe. But new measures were being put in place, Drax at the forefront of them, instituting new checks and balances for Heads and agents alike. Never again could we allow inanis members of shifter families to be put into danger.

Altair Kazan was caught trying to get Parasite out of jail and instead landed himself in a cell next to him. The sublevels below the prison were sealed off, new security cameras and measures were in place under Keon, who now oversaw all of that.

Yet there seemed to be an endless list of things to do.

Finding out if Frost had any more labs where innocent people might have been held. There were collars to account for and shifters who might not know what their gifts meant.

I had been worried, too, that in the aftermath of everything that had happened, there would be unease and distrust. But instead, the opposite happened. People were eager to help each other and strengthen the Order. Everyone was volunteering to chip in.

In trying to destroy it, Frost had made it stronger and breathed new life into our old rules. Never had the world of shifters been safer.

And finally, the day came when Andrei was released from the hospital to everyone's relief, especially Alvie, who said he did nothing but gripe. Alvie had threatened to throw him back into prison several times and Andrei had merely asked which sublevel.

Piper, Soraya, and I had been sitting on a beach towel at sunset, pretending for a moment we were teenagers again. Piper wasn’t a mother, Soraya didn’t have to go back to San Francisco in the morning, and I wasn’t trying to figure out how I fit into the Order. Or if I wanted to retire.

We were friends, laughing about boys and sharing secrets on the warm sand.

“Oh, looks who's coming,” Soraya said, nudging me with her elbow. Piper and I both looked back to see Dez, Balt, and Andrei coming towards us.

“We got some good-looking fellas,” Piper said, her face lighting up at Balt’s smile.

“Mmhm,” Soraya said, standing up and stretching, her hands reaching towards Dez.

My heart was beating fast as Andrei approached. I’d been confiding to Piper and Soraya that I was going to tell him that I understood if he had to choose the Order over me. I would support him, no matter what. Even though I knew, deep down, spy work and love didn't mix.

Both of them had been unusually quiet at this pronouncement. In fact, Soraya had barely said one criticism of Andrei and I’d been unnerved. Now I wished they’d given me something to help settle the anxiety spiraling up through my stomach.

“Ladies,” Andrei said, nodding at us, but his green eyes were on me. “May I borrow Faye?”

Soraya had thrown her arms around Dez and grinned over at us. “You can have her.”

“Take all the time you need,” Piper said with a sly wink from Balt’s arms.

Andrei held out his hand and I stared up at him, then hastily took it and scrambled to my feet. We walked away from the others, hand in hand. Hoots followed us and I flushed. Then catcalls joined in and I looked up to see Kai, Isla, Roy, and Kesari waving from the deck.

Roy yelled out, “Hey, cuz! Now you can tell her yourself!”

“What is he talking about?” I asked, bemused.

“Family,” Andrei muttered, not answering my question.

My heart was pounding in my throat as we walked and vanished out of sight of the Lafi house. Andrei seemed in no rush, content to inhale the air, smile over at me or study the sky. But with each minute, my courage shrank and I finally forced myself to blurt it out.

“I understand if you have to leave again. If you have to leave without telling me,” I said and Andrei stopped, looking down at me. “The Order is stronger in our hearts, but our walls are weakened. It’s going to take time to rebuild and they’ll need someone like you. You’ll be busy and that’s fine, Andrei. I’m not going to ask you to sacrifice anything for me.”

His rough, callused fingertips slid across my cheek and his smile became soft. I couldn’t think straight and I knew I had more to say, but I couldn’t find the words.

“You should ask,” he said in a gruff voice. “You can ask me anything.”

“No, I shouldn’t be selfish,” I said, trying to ignore how I was breaking my own heart.

“Hm, I see.” Andrei nodded, looking serious. “Well, I do have to tell you something.” He paused. “And then I do also have to ask you something…”

My heart sank but I pinned the smile on my face in place and nodded. “Sure. What?”