****
When he woke, he opened his eyes immediately, then slammed his lids shut when he saw they were still underground. Charlie had slid onto the floor, but Ali hadn’t bothered to tie him up, and his heart raced briefly in celebration. As his pulse sped, his system cleared away the rest of the drug, and he twitched and curled one finger experimentally; then he heard Ali’s voice, and he focused on quieting his heart to hear more clearly. He could vaguely see her figure pacing around in front of the open steel door, with a newly healed Natalie glaring at her in chains from the floor. Ali must have found a way to hear her without letting her shift. He wondered if she was drugged too.
“…Think we wouldn’t find a way to bug your stupid houses,” she was saying gleefully. “God, you were so wrong there. You think steel can stop the kind of tech we use? Brainless. Anyway, it doesn’t matter that little Theodore hasn’t shown up; I can kill your baby myself, and I’ll kill your husband as well. I can’t figure out which of you is the source of power, so I’ll have to off you both. Usually the prides we find have clear signs—one mate is clairvoyant or has super speed or can manipulate an element, like fire. Ariel seems to be able to manipulate earth and mineral. I’m going to get creative with her.” Her nonchalance was chilling.
Charlie’s mind raced, and he debated whether or not he should try to get up. Ali would almost certainly hear him crossing the plastic, and that would put Natalie in harm’s way after she dispatched of him. If he could find a way to distract her, he could buy time to launch himself twenty feet and take her out, but with her fully aware, it wasn’t a sure enough move.
“You don’t see that I’m doing our kind a favor,” Ali was saying, and she seemed to be stalling in case whoever Theodore was showed up. Charlie assumed it was the short blonde man from the tail and the airport. “You attaining these powers is a sign that we’re reaching a ceiling of sorts. Shifters used to be gods, golden idols who looked down on every other being on Earth.” Her voice was dripping with admiration, and Charlie was revolted at her worshipful tone. “They were perfect, so the other gods destroyed them for it. It ended an era, and shifters had to crawl back up again from the bowels of mankind.” Ari stopped pacing and peered down at Natalie’s face, and her words were spiteful and bitter. “I won’t be made to writhe on my belly like a worm or bitch in heat. I won’t have our kind set back just when we are starting to become diverse and unstoppable again!” Ari reached behind her and pulled out a breathtakingly sharp knife about as long as her forearm, and she cast a final look toward the door.
It’s now or never, Charlie realized. How will I do this?
Then he remembered Ali’s words—shifters were showing signs of new powers in the targeted prides. Hadn’t something baffling happened earlier, something that shouldn’t have been possible at all? Charlie held his eyes wide and looked at Natalie, who was looking daggers at Ali from her place on her knees. He focused all of his strength and energy into regaining the link between him and his wife, and desperately thought as hard as he could.
Nat, I’m awake, and I need you to distract this bitch so I can take her out!
Her brown eyes widened ever so slightly, but she didn’t move. He was gathering energy to shout again when her voice sounded in his head, clear as day and as irresistible as any order he’d ever been given.
Why don’t YOU distract her for ME, tough guy?
He drew a deep breath and rose at the same time, and he saw Ali shift her weight and move toward the sudden noise behind her. Time seemed to slow dramatically; he saw each movement dragged out over space as he ran, so that by the time she locked eyes with him and moved to raise her knife, he had covered ten feet of space between them. Charlie raised his right hand, feeling the red haze of his beast swell in his body as he shifted a deep brown paw bigger than Ali’s human head and sent it toward her neck with his black claws outstretched. He saw the confusion register in her face the moment before Natalie’s paw burst through her chest from behind, shattering her ribcage and taking out a chunk of her beating heart while Ali’s mouth was still open in shock. Charlie closed the space and closed his shifted paw around the flesh of her throat, crushing her vertebrae between the pads of his fingers as her body crumpled to the floor.
Her body lay in a ruined mess between them, a scarlet pool rapidly growing around her broken form. Charlie kept looking from her head—nearly completely separated from her body—and her chest, which was mostly dripping from Natalie’s hand. He felt numb, but Natalie’s shoulders were beginning to shake. He stepped over Ali’s body and unshifted his hand, reaching for her to pull her into his arms.
When he locked his arms around her, he finally realized she was laughing.
“What’s so funny?” he asked uncertainly. All he could feel was an impossible mixture of panic and relief.
“Nothing,” Natalie admitted, and he felt tears soak through the fabric of his shirt. “I just…love you so much.” He had a feeling she wanted to say more, but it was lost in her uncontrollable giggling.
Charlie smiled and gingerly kissed the top of her blood-soaked head. I love you, too.