Dez

 

The last thing I’d expected tonight was to get a piggy-back ride from Max Finnick.

Yet here we were, traipsing through the streets, me on Finni’s back and trying to ignore the stabs of fear every-time I looked over at Andrei carrying an unconscious Soraya.

“Good thing she’s knocked out,” Dara Seng commented, her dark eyes flashing with concern as she tried to smile. “Otherwise she’d knock you out, Drei.”

Obi Manzul, black and graceful, was keeping the rear-guard. “I cannot believe she took on the Valspar siblings single-handed. I knew the Lafis were reckless. I didn’t know they were suicidal.”

“I can’t believe those three are out,” Finni grunted, in his thick brogue. “You okay, Dez?”

“Just fine,” I replied, trying to sound casual.

Once inside the building, I was carefully set down on a chair, while Dara spread out a sheet on a table and Andrei put Soraya on it. Her jaw and knuckles were blooming with bruises, her side bloody and her clothing ripped. Rage pulsed through me.

Those three are going to pay.

“Hello again, Dez,” said a voice I knew, and I looked up to see Alvar Tomich or Alvie, a well-respected healer smiling gently down at me. “You have a knife in your leg.”

“Take care of her first,” I said quickly. “I’m fine.”

Andrei appeared next to him and said something in Russian to Alvie, who raised his eyebrows. “Very well.”

“Something for the pain,” Andrei said, shoving a glass at me.

“Not this vile stuff again,” I muttered.

“It’s not liquor, it’s medicine,” Andrei said.

“It is a good thing she is unconscious,” Alvie said grimly and my head flew up. “This is going to be painful – Dara, Obi – here help me take her shirt off.”

“Drink, Dez,” Andrei ordered.

Grimacing, I downed the stuff as I watched Obi gently hold up Soraya as Dara peeled off her shirt. A noise escaped me at the sight of her abs crisscrossed with gashes and purple swelling.

The cup in my hand crumpled and Andrei let out a yelp. “That was a good cup!”

“Sorry,” I muttered. Dizziness was rising up in me and I shook my head. “Can I help?”

Finni was there and he cocked an eyebrow at me. “Yeah, you can go to sleep.”

“What?” I asked, blinking up at him and then I realized what they’d done. “You bastards!”

But it was too late, sleep was rushing up on me and I knew no more.

 

“Soraya!” I shouted, sitting straight up and staring around.

“Kakogo cherta!” exclaimed a voice next to me and I looked around to see Alvie blinking over at me from under his thick black eyebrows. “Desmond, you gave me a heart attack,” he muttered, rubbing his chest. “How are you feeling?”

“Where’s Soraya? How is she?” I demanded, struggling to get out of bed.

Andrei appeared out of nowhere and pushed me back down. I was so weak, I all but crumpled onto the pillows and let out a few choice curses on his behalf.

“Told you so,” Andrei said, giving Alvie a long-suffering look.

“Soraya is sleeping off her injuries and healing in the other room,” Alvie said in a soothing voice and I glanced around. I was in some bedroom, light filtering in from behind a heavy blind. “You need rest, too, Desmond. That blade went deep and was serrated. A nasty wound.”

“You’re lucky it wasn’t poisoned,” Andrei grunted.

“Ha! Getting fond of me?” I asked, lying back on the pillows.

“I have no interest in being Soraya’s next meal,” Andrei said. “Go back to sleep.”

I watched as he left and looked over at Alvie. “Why do I feel so sluggish?”

“Ah. You have been in a healer-induced slumber to quicken the recovery. Usually, shifters don't awaken from them, but you seemed to force yourself awake. You were tossing and turning for a while there. That's why I was in here. I was concerned.”

I looked at Alvie and swallowed. “Am I…?”

Alvie gave me a piercing look. “Things have changed since I saw you in Bear Valley. Now you are a shifter. A King Cheetah – a kind not seen in fifty years.”

“Frost attacked me in the Foundry,” I admitted. “Hit me with a syringe of her own design, some prototype to speed up the inanis-shifter transformation. Bypass all the metaphysical stuff, so Parasite claims. But I was also dosed with a serum Kesari Iyer had been working on, that Beni Torres and I advanced…” I trailed off. “Between the two, Parasite says I’m a chimera.”

He snorted. “That monster would. No, you are a shifter, but the circle isn’t closed, more or less,” Alvie said, frowning. “It was difficult to heal you.” He shook his head. “It is beyond me – I think it is a matter for the young doctor.”

“The light isn’t there either,” I muttered.

“Ah, the sanctus ignis,” Alvie said. “I would take that to mean something is missing.”

“What, though?” I asked and he shook his head.

“I believe that is only something you can figure out, Desmond,” he replied. “Now, put that out of your mind. For now, you are healed, safe and among friends. Soraya sleeps close by.” He gave me a soft smile. “If she wakes, I will wake you, I promise.”

“She hates me,” I muttered into a pillow.

“No,” Alvie said as my eyelids drooped closed. “She hates fear and she is afraid of how much she cares for you. Trust me, I have known her and the Lafis a long time…”

Alvie began to tell me an old story, but I couldn’t quite hear the words, only the rhythm, rocking me back and forth, until I slipped into a deep and dreamless sleep.

 

When I woke again, the room was empty and the light had faded. Getting out of bed slowly, my leg tingling and back stiff, I hobbled over to the window and pulled it back. Below was a quiet street, almost suburban. Glancing around, I realized I could see the city's skyline in the distance. Judging from the arrangement of buildings, I knew we had to be somewhere northwest of it. Turning, I eyed the bed, the blankets and pillows urging me to lay back down.

But I gritted my teeth and made my way to the bathroom. Someone had laid out fresh clothes and I wanted nothing more than to change.

A half-hour later, the stiffness had gone and my leg wasn't hurting as much. Dressing swiftly, I poked my head out and saw a light at the end of the hall.

Obi and Finni were playing cards at a large table, one scattered over with pizza boxes and take-out cartons. They grinned and waved me over.

“Want me to deal you in, brother?” Obi asked. “I’ll warn you though, Finni is a lousy loser.”

“No thanks,” I said, sitting down with a groan. My stomach was grumbling and Finni got up.

“I’ll get you food,” he said. When I went to protest, he shook his head. “No, you took a blade to the leg to save Soraya’s life and fought a Valspar brother. It’s the least I could do.”

“You're making it sound a lot more heroic than it was,” I said, rubbing my forehead. “Where is that girl anyway? She leave?”

“She’s still asleep,” Obi said, giving me a strange look. “Did Alvie not tell you?”

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and saw Finni waving and shaking his head at Obi, who winced and swore under his breath.

My chest was constricting rapidly. “Tell me…?”

“She’s in bad shape,” Finni said gently. “Alvie is in there now.”

“I knew that,” I said. “Is there more?”

Obi clapped me on the shoulder. “No, because you got her back just in time.”

“She had a lot of broken ribs,” said Dara from behind me and I turned to see her come in the kitchen. Going over to the sink, she washed her hands and I realized it was blood. “They’re mostly healed now, but she’s going to need a few days to recover. And she’s not going to like that.”

I nodded, still feeling like I wasn’t being told something. But all of them were tight-lipped and I acknowledged I wasn’t actually a member of Shifters of Anubis. Technically, they should have me in cuffs.

Changing the subject, I asked, “What is this place?”

Finni’s shoulders relaxed. “An old barracks for the Order. We’re lucky Andrei knew an agent in Boston who we could trust. No one knows we’re here.”

“Yet,” Obi muttered. “To think I have lived to see the day where we can’t trust our own.”

“Has Andrei–” I started to ask.

“No, Dez,” Dara said firmly and Finni came over with a mountain of pizza. “No shop talk.”

“Tomorrow, friend,” Finni said. “Eat up. Play poker with us.”

Dara sat down and tapped the table with an impatient red-tipped nail. “Deal me in, Obi.”

With no other choice, I sat there and played cards. It was nice and I suddenly realized how much I’d missed my friends. I’d met these three at Bear Valley and had been impressed by their seamless teamwork and loyalty to Roy. I recalled the way Dara would tease Roy, or Obi would easily throw an arm around his shoulder, or Finni would play pranks. It was because of them I began to suspect Roy wasn’t as much of a frigid jackass as he would have the world believe.

This is why shifters don’t work alone, I thought as Finni and Dara began to bicker over a hand like two siblings. We’re stronger together.

And it was also why this betrayal was so monstrous and painful for them.

We played late into the night, their antics making me laugh in spite of the swirl of fear and worry in my gut. At last, around midnight, we all went yawning to bed.

I was woken up by Alvie at dawn.

“She’s awake,” he said and I sat straight up. “She wants to see you.”