Connor
“What the hell is going on?”
The question hit him the moment he opened the door after a slightly longer shower than was necessary to get him clean. The few extra minutes had helped him to relax and clear his head, however, and that was just as important as washing the stench from him.
“What?” he mumbled as he pulled a new shirt over his body to go with the clean pair of pants he had taken into the bathroom with him.
“Who are you, who are those men, why are they after my father, and now me? What the fuck is this all about?”
“Well, that’s blunt and to the point,” he said dryly, flopping onto the couch. He was positive they hadn’t been tailed, which meant they could rest the night in the safe house, before he contacted others for help.
“My name is Connor,” he began. “I’m part of a team. Our job is to extract shifters in danger from King City, and get them to safety.
Maddy nodded. “I’ve picked up on that much. But why are they in danger? Who are they in danger from? What kind of safety can be found from—from that?” she said with an angry shake of her hands, indicating the outside world.
“We don’t know what they call themselves. We call them the Agency. It’s an organization started in secret by a rogue group of dragon shifters who called themselves the Order. This was their backup plan, in case something happened to them. As it turns out, the Agency is a hell of a lot more successful than the Order ever was.”
“Was?” she asked, not batting an eye at the mention of dragon shifters, he noted. Perhaps she wasn’t as naïve as many half-blood shifter children were. Most of them thought dragon shifters were a myth.
“The Order was dealt with internally, by other dragons,” he said, explaining the basics of it, not really wanting to get into detail. Not that Connor had much more than that anyway. The dragon who had handled the Order was notoriously private and a man of few words.
“So why is this ‘Agency’ still around then?” she asked, frowning in confusion.
Connor shrugged. “We assume that they were set up to operate independently. However it was done, they seem to have deep pockets and almost inexhaustible manpower. No matter how many we kill, they always have more men. It’s rather aggravating,” he admitted.
“Okay, so this Agency is run by humans, and they’re killing shifters in King City? Why?”
He grimaced uncomfortably. “Killing would be an... inappropriate word. Perhaps, try harvesting until they’re dry,” he gritted out, his teeth clenched in anger as he thought about what the Agency was up to.
“Um, what?” she squeaked, her voice suddenly very small. “Harvesting of what? Organs?”
No,” he said, shaking his head. “Blood.”
“Even better.” Madison frowned. “Why?”
Connor sighed. He probably shouldn’t be telling her this information. Actually, he definitely shouldn’t be telling her. But it was too late now; she was involved, and the more she knew what they were up against, perhaps it would be for the better.
“Somehow the Agency has found a way to derive a serum from our blood that can give certain people the abilities a shifter possesses.”
“Holy shit,” she said slowly, the implications of what he had just revealed slowly processing. “That would mean—”
“We would be unnecessary,” he finished. “Which, considering they need approximately all of the blood from one shifter to distill one vial of this serum, is already kind of the case.”
Madison shook her head. “That serum must be worth a fortune. No wonder they’re well-funded and have unlimited manpower. The government would be crazy not to ensure their success!”
Connor felt his eyebrows raise. She was quick on the uptake. It took most people several more minutes to contemplate that aspect of the Agency. He reminded himself not to underestimate her smarts in the future.
“We’re fairly positive they aren’t government funded,” he told her. “At least not directly. The government surely buys the serum, which keeps them afloat, but I don’t think they directly receive funding.”
She was nodding along with him. “Of course, that makes sense. This way they can sell to all the governments, not just one.”
He looked at her sharply.
“More profit that way,” she said with a shrug.
“Yes, that’s it exactly,” he said, raising his opinion of her even more.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
He blinked. “Like what?”
“Like you didn’t expect me to be able to see the ramifications of something like this. I’m not six,” she finished.
Connor dipped his head in apology. “Sorry, it’s just that most people take a few minutes longer to truly understand the possibilities that this serum poses.”
“So why my father?”
He worked his jaw for a moment. “You may not be aware of this—and I may get in trouble for telling you—but your dad is actually quite active in his position, advocating for equal rights for shifters.”
Madison frowned. “But you have equal rights,” she said slowly, trying to figure out what she wasn’t understanding.
“On paper, perhaps,” he agreed. “Not in reality. It’s why most shifters don’t admit to being one, unless they must. There is plenty of shifter bias, in the workplace, on the streets. Humans know they can get away with treating us like crap, because if we hurt them, it’s basically a death sentence. So they abuse us, hit us, all kinds of things. The police don’t care either,” he said bitterly. “They’re afraid of us, just like everyone else is.”
Madison sat back. He watched as she pushed her hair back out of her face, the still-damp locks sticking to the sides of her face, framing those beautiful brown eyes once more.
Stop it, he commanded. She’s looking to you for protection right now. Do not take advantage of that. Yes, she’s beautiful, but you can’t let her beauty distract you from the job at hand.
He shook his head, forcing himself to focus on present events, not daydreams destined never to come true.
“So, why me then? Why do they care about me?”
Connor paused. Did he tell her the truth? Or did he lie to put her at ease?
“The truth,” Madison said firmly, those big brown orbs focused intently on him, as if she could read his mind.
He relented with a sigh. “We aren’t sure if the Agency knows this yet or not. But the serum will only take on a certain type of person.”
Madison sat upright at that. Her eyes flicked back and forth as she thought furiously.
“Half-bloods,” she said at last. “Like me. Born to a shifter parent, but not a shifter.”
Connor nodded slowly, confirming her suspicion.
“That’s what that man was you fought tonight. The one who I—” She broke off sharply, and he could see her memories coming back. “I hit that man,” she whispered softly. Tears sprang to her eyes as she looked up at him. “He was bleeding so badly. Do you think he…you know?”
He could see the desperation in her eyes, searching for some sort of penance. Connor thought about lying, then decided to tell the truth this time as well. She needed to hear it.
“I doubt your hit killed him,” he said. “It probably knocked him unconscious, but if it did kill him, so what?” he asked, his voice harsh and as unyielding as steel. “He chose to join an organization that hunts down innocents, takes their blood, and burns the body. That is what they would have done to me, if they caught me. They would have done it to your father, if they caught him. These men are bad people,” he said firmly. “I don’t want you to be involved in it, and it is my desperate hope that we will get you to safety tomorrow. Your biggest issue will be starting a new life, not worrying about whether you killed someone.”
Whether it was his words, or the passion with which he spoke them, they seemed to affect her a little.
“Safety?” she asked with a soft sniffle, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “Where is it safe from them? From the Agency?”
“My home,” he told her. “Have you ever heard of Genesis Valley?”
Madison nodded. “Sure, any child of a shifter has. Supposed to be a haven for bad shifters and those rejected by society…” She trailed off as she realized what she was saying. “Oh Connor!” she said apologetically. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that.”
He smiled. “Yes, you did,” he told her, holding up a hand to forestall her protests. “It’s okay.”
“It is?” she asked nervously.
“Of course. After all, you’re not wrong.”
“I’m not?” She seemed completely bewildered now.
“No, you just have incomplete information.”
“I do?”
He smiled at their back and forth.
“Genesis Valley takes those of us who come from less, shall we say, happy, walks of life, and helps rehabilitate us.” He shrugged. “Knowing that once we’re there it’s our last chance for a real life is a big help. But the people there are wonderful. There are plenty of shifters who aren’t bad people—but just simply don’t like the world at large—that go to live there. That’s not to say there aren’t any bad apples,” he admitted. “But they tend not to last very long at all.”
Connor watched the way she devoured that information, thinking it over, and changing her perception.
“So how come you’re here then, if Genesis Valley is home?” she asked.
“That,” he said, “is a bit of a longer story. The head of our organization was put in touch with the men back home who own the valley, so to speak, and they formed a partnership. The Shifter Underground, as we call ourselves if we feel the need to be fancy, needed some muscle, some men with training to fight the Extremis Agents.”
“Wait, the what?” she asked, throwing up a hand to stop him.
“The serum is called the Extremis Serum. The men that the Agency have found and been able to not only convert to their cause, but also successfully inject with the serum, are called Extremis Agents. Like the one from tonight.”
“Do they have many of those?”
Connor smiled. “Thankfully, no. They had more, but one of my guys dealt with many of him by himself. Since he killed a full team of them, they’ve been rather reluctant to commit them. I’m surprised there was one there today,” he admitted to her, frowning over that fact.
“By himself? He must be a very powerful shifter then,” Madison said.
Connor furrowed his brows at the reference to him struggling with the Extremis Agent earlier. “He is, of that there is no doubt. Not to pump myself up, but the rest of the team and I are all highly trained and skilled. No,” he said, “there was something different about the shifter tonight. He was fast, even for an Extremis Agent, and much stronger than the ones I’ve fought before. He was something different.”
“Could they have modified the serum?” Madison suggested.
His eyes narrowed. “That is a very good question. It’s possible. We don’t know though.”
“What do you know about the Agency? They seem rather mysterious.”
Connor laughed. “Yes, and oddly enough, they seem to like it that way. We’ve had absolutely zero luck infiltrating them, and we’ve lost three people trying. My friend, Ajax, who was the first of us from Genesis Valley to stumble upon what was going on in King City, managed to break into their local command center here back when they were first setting it up. But even he couldn’t come up with much beyond a name of their leader.”
“What’s his name?” she asked eagerly.
He grunted. “Well, more of an initial,” he admitted sheepishly. “He goes by J. That’s all we know.
“That’s…not much.”
“Tell me about it,” he grumped. “It’s like we’re fighting a never-ending battle against them. Ever since Ajax stirred up the hornet’s nest here, they’ve been moving into the city in force. It’s like a warzone out there.”
Across from him, Madison yawned, her eyes fluttering with a mixture of embarrassment and exhaustion.
He brushed aside her apologies. “I know you don’t mean to seem disinterested,” he said gently, picking her up and carrying her over to the couch. “But you’re exhausted. Let’s get some sleep, and we’ll get you out of the city tomorrow.”
I hope.
“What about the cot?” she asked, pointing to the folded metal apparatus in the corner.
“This is much comfier, trust me,” he said, rising to fetch a blanket and pillow for her.
“Thank you,” she said, reaching to take them from him.
Their hands brushed. Electricity shot through his system. Connor had to focus hard to prevent his eyes from widening in surprise at his body’s reaction to her touch.
“Night,” Madison said, seemingly impervious to whatever it was he had just felt.
“Night,” he said, rising from his crouch.
“Where will you sleep?” she asked blurrily, already half asleep.
“I’ll take the floor,” he said.
Soft, even breaths greeted him in reply as she fell asleep instantly.
I’ll be right here. Between you and the door, he promised silently.