Kesari

 

For a “war-room,” I expected more people. Yet there were only nine of us in total. It was strange to sit down across from Piper, who was glaring at a computer and typing furiously. Or Balt, who looked haggard, glancing at his pregnant fiancée, clearly in duress about her, wondering if she should be here.

Everyone was silent and grim. I was still reeling and dazed from what had happened, images flashing through my head. It was ghastly.

But then, Roy’s fingers brushed mine and my heart leaped and twirled. Glancing over, I met his eyes and my breath was taken. It was such an open look of love and affection. I wanted to kiss him right then and there. From the slight smirk on his face suddenly, he knew it, too.

Beyond them was Mirois, a man named Lhambo whose face was solemn and sad, Elias, Piper and Kai’s father, Dr. Hakedo, and then a blonde woman who caused Roy to start.

“Mom?” he asked, staring at her as she sat down.

“Hello, son.” Her eyes landed on me and a nervous smile spread across my face as I pushed back into the chair, wishing I didn’t look quite so horrible and tired. But her smile was warm and sweet. “Dr. Iyer, it is so nice to meet you, even under these circumstances. I’m Minna Weslark.” Her gaze became amused as she glanced back at Roy, who was rubbing the back of his neck and wincing. “We’ll have to get dinner when this is all over,” she whispered and Roy hunched down in his seat.

Mirios cleared her throat and we all looked at the woman, who was pinching the bridge of her nose and looking distinctly ill. “SOA has not been in this much danger since it was first formed.” She sat back and stared at us. “Nor has the world of shifters. I called for this meeting over a week ago – little did I know we’d be together on this dreadful night.

“White Tiger has confirmed more than one traitor in our midst.” Everyone tensed, Piper snapping the laptop shut and her eyes flashing. “He managed to get a few names.”

“Have they been detained?” Piper demanded. “Or are we waiting so we don’t tip our hand?”

“That is what we are here to discuss – that and the hybrid problem.” Mirois shook her head. “Right now, we have the fifty residents of Little Meadow who have been poisoned by Frost – all of them have been quarantined and sedated. But at least ten are missing, with our people combing the wreckage for them. And while we can keep up the appearance of a sudden virulent and serious bug spreading through town for now – it is only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose.”

“They did it, then,” I breathed and all eyes focused on me. Noisily I reached down and grabbed the bag at my feet, setting it on the table and pulling out what I found. The syringes, the paperwork and so forth. Suddenly I let out a soft sound of frustration. “Kai and the others have the rest.” Then I gasped. “Has anyone seen Dez?”

“Yes,” Piper said gently. “He’s fine.”

Elias looked up, then, “And we got everything else, Dr. Iyer. Dara collected them as they surfaced. Don’t worry, Dr. Iyer. Everything you found is here.”

“Oh,” I said, marveling at the efficiency of SOA. Roy was also pulling out what he had, but in a far quieter and less obtrusive way. He winked at me as I looked at him. “Um, well, you can see that TLO has a list of cities they wanted to hit. It seems the hybridization was the point, I think.”

“I can attest to that,” Roy said. “But it’s far more insidious than we think.” He handed out papers with lists of names. None of them made sense to me, but other people were letting out angry sounds of shock. “If anyone was doubting there was a traitor,” he added dryly.

“Little Meadow had a family of shifters, once,” Roy’s mother said softly. “The Frosts.”

“They settled there, out of sight and mind, plotting this destruction,” Elias said. “First they took the Kazans, then the Knights, my own son and Penelope – I mean, Isla. Who next?” He shook his head. “We have to step out of the shadows and warn the world of shifters. We must rally.”

"Only the Tribunal in whole can decide that Elias," Lhambo said tiredly, rubbing his eyes.

“And we don’t know who we can trust," Mirois said. "How neatly she has tied our hands. Right now, our only hope is the two of them." Her dark gray eyes landed on me and Roy. "Can you reverse this damage – or at the very least save their lives? Stop this outbreak in Bear Valley?”

“Um, I think so,” I said, wishing the Cantina hadn’t been destroyed. “I’ll need a few things–”

“Name it and you’ll have it,” Mirois said.

“Well, if Roy could help and my science kids – my team, I mean,” I said, flustered.

“Of course,” Lhambo said gently. “We’re bringing them here. When they arrive, you’ll get to work. But there is more to discuss. Kesari, you’re in the crosshairs of this. Piper has told us that Roy has requested he continue to work with you and protect you. Is that something you’d agree to? Leave Berlin and come to San Francisco? Be a part of Shifters of Anubis?”

I gaped at him. “Don’t I need training? To do survival and wrestle bears?”

A few snorts of laughter went around the table and Roy grinned at me. “No, we have all different kinds of Shifters of Anubis agents,” Lhambo said, sounding amused.

“Yes,” I said, looking at Roy. “We’re a team and we work best together.”

Roy took my hand under the table and squeezed it. “Whatever Kesari wants, I’ll do.”

“There’s something you should know, though,” I said, my voice shaking. “I wasn’t able to shift tonight – I think something happened to me…”

“What?” Piper gasped, all but standing up and Balt pulled her down gently. “Stand back and try to do it now. Now! If Frost has managed… Oh my God…”

I slowly stood and stepped back. Frowning, I was able to shift, but it was difficult and Roy stood up, staring. “I feel it, too. Something…” His eyes landed on the black case on the table. “It’s that. Whatever is in there, it’s somehow breaking the ability to shift.”

Lhambo got to his feet and barked out an order into the hall. In another moment, a nervous and young agent walked in and stared around at us. An inanis.

“We need you to look inside of this case, Dalson,” Lhambo said.

I was startled and about to speak, but Roy pulled me gently back. Dalson squared her shoulders and unzipped it, frowning as something flat and metal fell onto the table. A rearing, carved snake, glowing like a light off an animal’s eye.

“Oh my God,” Dr. Hakedo breathed. “They found serpens leporem.”

“It was on Frost,” I said. “We stole it from her.”

“Is that all, sir?” Dalson asked, backing away.

“No, please put it back, Daslon,” Lhambo said and she quickly did so. “I need you to take this and put it in the underground safe. Tell no one.”

She nodded and vanished from the room. It was only then I felt a curious weight lift from me and I was able to shift easily.

“If Frost makes that into some kind of serum – one that even temporarily disables shifters…” Mirios was pressing her hands into the table and white-faced. “That would be the end.”

“Every shifter has to be armed from now on,” Balt said in a hard voice. “Guns and tranquilizers.”

“It goes against tradition,” Dr. Hakedo said, white to the lips. “Our connection is one that we are supposed to use to the animal within us as a spiritual guidance to understand we are all equal, all one. No one is less or no more. This is a perversion of the highest of forms!”

“TLO is seeking to corrupt our ties – to mock us as shifters,” Piper said, glaring at Mirios and Lhambo. “I told you! The sacred and the profane circle they shoved Kai into! And going after the Kazans, after Balt and the Leonis Capitis! It was more than revenge – it was a power play and a brilliant one at that. We barely won that night and they got away. Now they’ve destroyed months of research and our people are missing, maybe dead…”

“What?” I gasped and Piper blanched, looking at me.

“Who?” Roy demanded. “Piper, please, who?”

“We can’t tell you that,” Mirois said. “Not yet.” She let out a shaky breath. “Their families have to be notified.”

A knock came at the door. “Ma’am, the scientists from the TLO base are here.”

“Kesari, Roy, we are counting on you,” Lhambo said. “Leave the rest of this messy business to us. And thank you, thank you for everything you’ve done.”

We walked out and Roy pulled me to him, his body shaking. I held on tightly, my eyes hot and burning. I should have taken out Frost when I had the chance.

“No, we need to bring her in and question her,” Roy murmured and I realized I’d spoken out loud. “That isn’t you. Now, come on,” he said with a stern nod. “We have work to do.”