Madison
He led her down a set of stairs behind the building. The door opened into the basement, revealing about a dozen faces. There were more than she expected.
“Why are so many of you here?” Connor asked, obviously thinking the same thing. To her knowledge, the Underground only had roughly two dozen or so people who knew any sort of detail about it. That meant with the addition of her and Connor, and given the fact that the rest of his team wasn’t due back yet, there was over half the people present.
“The Agency knew of our safehouses,” a familiar looking woman said, stepping forward. “Even mine,” she said, unhappy with herself. “I only shared it with one person. I thought it was safe.”
“Flint,” Maddy said.
The woman nodded.
“Maddy, this is Deanna. You probably saw her around the club. She was Flint’s de facto number two.”
The two exchanged greetings.
“Now that you’re here, Connor, I can tell what I was telling the others,” Deanna said.
Maddy frowned at her voice. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good news.
“What did you say?” Connor asked, his hand gripping hers a little tighter. He had heard it too.
“I told them about Flint.”
Maddy nodded. They deserved to know.
“Then I told them that we should all head for Genesis Valley.”
Maddy’s head came upright.
“No,” she said aloud, firmly, over the top of Connor’s agreement.
The entire room turned to stare at her.
“We have to go,” Deanna said. “The Agency knows who we are. For those of us who have families, they know who those are.”
Maddy shook her head. “Tell your families to get to Genesis Valley. To leave tonight. I doubt the Agency cares, as none of them are shifters. The local authorities can get away with a lot when it comes to shifters, due to the prejudices so many still have against you.”
She frowned. “I guess I have to say ‘against us’ now, don’t I?” she said, looking up at Connor.
The big man smiled, squeezing her hand to let her know he was there to support her. They needed to talk about how the hell she had managed to manifest a bear, but right then, it didn’t matter. They had to look after the safety of others.
She had to look after them. Everyone was looking at her now. Maddy gathered her courage, and continued speaking. “Regardless of what the authorities can do to shifters, they can’t let the wholesale disappearance of human families go unnoticed. Too many questions would be asked, and I bet that government agencies not bought off by them would look into the sudden disappearance of dozens of normal humans. So, tell your families to leave, but I would not worry. The Agency just wants shifters for what we contain inside of us. Nothing more.”
Maddy gazed out and across the crowd. “We were dealt a big blow today,” she said, noticing how she had used the word we without meaning to. But it was true; she was a part of them now. There was no escaping that fact. “Our leader, as it turns out, was actually an Agent all along. He formed us from the ground up as a tool for the Agency.”
She pulled her lips back in a snarl. “Well, today that tool turned on its owner, and now we are free. Free to act how we wish, and more importantly, how we need to. No longer will our actions benefit the Agency. They will benefit those who need us. The innocent shifters of King City.”
“You want us to go back to doing what we were doing?” Deanna asked incredulously.
“No,” she said firmly, standing tall. “I want us to start new. Start fresh.” She smiled. “Start better. I firmly believe that with the knowledge that all of you have, and with the backing of the shifters in Genesis Valley, that we can build this up into something more. Something that no longer jumps whenever the Agency is mentioned. I say we are done sneaking around. I say we take the fight to them!”
She knew her cheeks were burning, inflamed by the passionate speech that she had just delivered. A speech she was still trying to convince herself she had delivered.
To her absolute shock, the people cheered. Even Deanna was looking at her strangely.
“Who will lead us?” From the back of the room, Andre stepped forward.
Maddy gasped. “What happened to you?” she said.
He was badly beaten, and had a large gash on his arm that was stitched together, though it still leaked blood.
“Flint,” he spat. “He knew as soon as Milos and I got back. We managed to escape him, but we ran into a hit team at our safe house. Barely got out with our lives.” He shook his head. “That new gunk they put on their knives is going to be a game changer.”
“This is why we need to fight back,” Maddy said, seizing on the moment. “These two would be strung up somewhere right now, their blood pumping for as long as the Agency could make it, just so they can turn it into a vial of million-dollar serum.”
Angry rumbles sounded throughout the room.
“Let Maddy lead us,” a voice said from the back of the room.
Bodies parted, revealing a man lying on a couch, swathed in bandages and missing an eye. It took Maddy a handful of seconds to recognize him.
“Milos,” she whispered, appalled at the damage that had been done.
Then his words sunk in.
“No,” she said, shaking her head.
But Deanna nodded. “Yes, that is a great idea. I’m no leader,” she said. “I’ll help you as I did Flint, but I couldn’t do your job. You have the fire, the passion, the inner strength—and now somehow the outer strength—to do this.” She smiled wryly as Maddy acknowledged the last point.
Her? Lead the Underground?
“I—” she began, then fell silent as Connor squeezed her hand.
She looked up at him, meeting his gaze.
How did I ever think that he looked creepy with those blue eyes? I could look into them for hours. Forever.
He smiled at her, and dipped his head ever so slightly. It wasn’t much, but she knew that it meant he believed she could do it.
“Maddy!” Someone else in the crowd shouted, and as if the spell was broken, the group broke apart. Some went to make phone calls, others came up to her to congratulate her, offering whatever kind of help they could.
After half an hour, she finally managed to extricate herself from them.
“What did I just do?” she asked, resting her head on Connor’s chest, listening to his heartbeat, clear as day with her newfound hearing.
“You just made yourself our leader,” he chuckled, her head bouncing up and down slightly with the movement.
She looked around, suddenly feeling overwhelmed.
“Hey,” Connor said, the bass of his voice rumbling through her.
She looked up at him.
“You can do this,” he said. “I know it. Deep down, I think you know it too.” He smiled. “This is where you belong.”
Maddy shivered at hearing those words. She did belong. This is where she fit, the place she had been looking for, for a long time.
“I belong,” she whispered.