Body Thief (14 page)
Authors: C.J. Barry
They exited the bar onto the street, and Griffin spied their foursome heading north. A warm rain cast a mirror of lights across the streets. Cars and taxis splashed through puddles and across wet asphalt.
The rain felt cool on his face and body after holding Cam. It had been a stupid move on his part, letting her seduce him into a place he knew better than to go.
A pedestrian ran into him, and he forced his attention back to the mission at hand. Together, they followed the suspect and the other three Shifters across intersections and blocks. Griffin kept far enough behind so they wouldn’t be spotted. He didn’t want to spook the Shifters. Then again, that was one of the reasons he had Cam with him. She gave him some credibility with other Shifters. At least so he could get close enough to talk to them. After that, all bets were off.
At the end of the block, the four Shifters halted on the corner and parted ways—three heading east and one continuing north—their man. It was about damn time they got lucky.
He turned to Cam, and she nodded. “Let’s get him.”
Griffin hoped his luck held out as they followed John Smith and closed in on him in the middle of the next block. They were right behind him when he ducked into a narrow alley between two stores.
Now things would get interesting.
Griffin pulled his gun, ran to the alley, and peered around the corner. Cardboard boxes lined the sides of the alley. Random spotlights gave the alleyway an orange glow as their suspect walked down the center.
Cam whispered, “He’s not going to like the gun.”
Griffin replied, “I like the gun.”
“Suit yourself. I’m impervious.”
When John Smith disappeared around the end of the alley, they ran to catch up. They turned the corner and came face-to-face with John Smith—in full Primary Shifter form.
Their luck just ran out.
John Smith took the first swing at him, knocking the Glock out of his hand and against the cinder block wall. Griffin avoided the second blow, but not the third. It caught him in the side of the head, sending stars across the dark alley.
That’s when he decided that he’d had enough. When the next punch entered his line of vision, he twisted and grabbed Smith’s arm with his bare hand. Energy pumped through his hand, and Smith froze. All fight went out of him as he stumbled back against a building, slid down the wall, and stared at Griffin.
Cam walked up beside Griffin to stand in front of the Shifter. “Sucks, doesn’t it?”
“Thanks for the help,” Griffin said to her. She hadn’t even shifted.
She crossed her arms and eyed him. “I know how sensitive you are about me fighting your battles.”
He was still seeing stars, and his head hurt like hell. “Okay, fine. You can help whenever you want.”
Cam smiled. “I don’t know. It’s kinda fun watching you get knocked around.”
Jesus. “We’re partners.”
“We are?” she said, feigning surprise. She was loving this.
“Heeeyyy!” John Smith said, his words slurred heavily. “What-dafuck?”
Griffin stood in front of the Shifter. “Sorry. We just want to ask you a few questions. Not looking for trouble.”
Smith spat. “Widagun?”
Cam said, “I told you.”
Smith’s head banged against the building as he tried to focus on her. “Wh-youhere?”
“I won’t hurt you. Just need your scent signature.” She kneeled in front of him and then turned to Griffin and shook her head. “No match.”
All that for nothing. “You can go.”
The Shifter blinked. “Gowhaw? Whadda dodo me?”
Griffin retrieved his Glock and slid it into his underarm holster. “The effects will wear off in a few hours. Sorry.”
Smith blinked a few times. “Sowy? Sowy?”
Griffin took Cam’s arm. “Let’s go before he can kill me.”
He led her back to where he’d parked the car. They were done for the night. Screw Harding. These were his leads, and they all sucked.
Griffin tried to find some consolation about wasting the entire night. They could have checked a few more sites. Maybe confirm Cam’s list so far. Or even pick up a few new ones. But no. Now he had to go back to his small apartment with a woman he shouldn’t touch and couldn’t get out of his head.
Griffin was lost in thought when Cam said, “Does it hurt when you do that?”
He eyed her. “Do what?”
“Use your freeze ray?” she asked.
“No,” he said. “I don’t feel a thing. Did it hurt you?”
Cam shook her head. “No. I just felt numb all over.”
He nodded. “That’s good.”
She turned to him. “I’m surprised you care what we feel.”
Maybe he did. Or maybe it was just her he cared about. He was still feeling the aftershocks of “handling” her in the bar, and he doubted he’d ever shake her easily. “Wouldn’t want an injured partner.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her smile.
CHAPTER EIGHT
G
riffin stuck his head under the showerhead again, turned the lever to cold, and let the water pound away. When he came up for air, she was still there in his mind. The hard workout on the Bowflex, a few hours of restless sleep, and the spray of the shower did nothing to relieve the tension in his body this morning.
riffin stuck his head under the showerhead again, turned the lever to cold, and let the water pound away. When he came up for air, she was still there in his mind. The hard workout on the Bowflex, a few hours of restless sleep, and the spray of the shower did nothing to relieve the tension in his body this morning.
He had Cam to blame for that.
Her smell, her heat, the way her lips parted when he caressed her. He knew she was hot from the beginning. He knew that she was perfect from head to toe. But he never could have guessed how that would affect him. She was a Shifter, for Christ’s sake.
So how could he have fallen under her spell so easily and so quickly? He’d already been burned once.
Sleep deprivation was also to blame, and as soon as this mission was over with, he was buying a more comfortable couch. He shut off the water and grabbed a towel to dry down. On the other side of the bathroom door, he heard the answering machine click to accept a new message.
Probably another collection agency. They were vultures. Then his grandfather’s voice came on. Griffin tied the towel around his hips and walked out to listen.
“Grandson, this is your grandfather, Sani.”
Griffin walked over to pull open the drapes. The day beamed brightly, flooding the room with light. The street was lined with parked cars and an occasional tree. But mostly it was all concrete.
“I had a dream last night about you and the Eagle.”
Griffin turned to look at the answering machine while Sani continued.
“The Eagle called out to her people in the sky. They circled the sun, looking for food. They did not want to listen to her.”
His bedroom door opened, and Cam stood just inside. Her expression was curious. Her hair was wild and fiery in the sunlight. Legs, long and lean under his T-shirt. She was perfect to his sleep-deprived brain. He needed to rent a hotel room or something.
“The Eagle asked you to help tell her story to the others. She spread her wings to show her true colors. She danced. She sang.”
Both of them stared at each other, listening, caught up in Sani’s story.
“But you would not listen. You did not see her tears. Without your help, she knew she would fail.”
Cam’s eyes held a certain sadness, a weariness that belied her toughness. What would she be sad about? Her father?
Sani said, “I cannot tell you what this dream means. Or what you should do.”
Griffin watched Cam walk toward him, slowly and deliberately. With every step closer, he remembered last night. He shouldn’t have touched her, shouldn’t have crossed that line.
“But seek the truth with your heart. Do not let your mind stand in your way.”
Cam stopped in front of him, the answering machine sitting between them.
“Hágoónee.”
The call ended, and the answering machine made a loud click that broke the spell.
The call ended, and the answering machine made a loud click that broke the spell.
Cam’s expression turned to accusation. “He was just on the phone. Why didn’t you pick it up?”
And last night vanished in a flash. He didn’t want to explain himself to her, not about this. His relationship with his grandfather was hard to explain. He wasn’t even sure he understood it. “We have an understanding.”
“He calls, and you ignore him?” she said, sounding more upset by the moment. “How can you do that to him? He loves you.”
Griffin felt her disappointment, and his guilt. Neither of which he needed this morning. He stepped around her toward the kitchen. “It’s complicated.”
Cam followed on his heels. “Love is not complicated.”
He poured cold water into the coffeepot, debating what he could say to get her off his scent. She wouldn’t be happy unless he told her something that she could understand. “I can’t talk to him until I fix things.”
She planted herself on the stool on the other side of the island. So much for getting her off his trail.
“Fix what? Your credit? Your job? I doubt he cares about any of that.”
Griffin shoved the carafe in the coffeemaker and punched the On button, feeling trapped. She didn’t know him, didn’t understand what he’d been through. “It’s more than that.”
“I don’t—”
“Stop!” He rounded on her, and all his self-control evaporated. The words rushed out. “It’s none of your goddamned business. Just because we’re partners doesn’t mean you get to know everything about me.” He pointed to the answering machine. “You can’t have that. You can’t steal it. That’s mine.”
Cam’s initial shock quickly turned to anger. She slid off the stool and tapped her chest. “I didn’t ask to be born this way. I didn’t ask to be dumped here on your pithy little planet with its pithy little people. You all think you’re so special. Well, let me tell you, you’re not. You’re not even average.”
Her words bounced off him. He wasn’t backing down. The floodgate had opened, and he had no idea how to close it. “Then why the hell do you steal our identities? Our lives? Why can’t you just be who you’re supposed to be?”
Cam’s eyes glowed iridescent, and the color rose in her face. “We tried that on the last world. And they came after us. Into our homes and into our schools. They murdered our children in their beds. They tracked down our men and enslaved them. And they killed my mother.”
Her voice broke on the last word, and her body shook. Beads of sweat covered her forehead, and her hands were white from being clenched so hard. And in her eyes, he saw it—not sadness. Grief and pain. And now he knew why. Gone was his wisecracking partner. Gone was the human whose form she’d taken. This was Cam, right to her raw, tortured core.
His anger dissipated as quickly as it had overcome him. Shit. He braced himself on the island. “Look—”
“Shut up, Mercer. You said what you had to,” she snapped, and glared at him with eyes that shone with tears. “We’re not partners. We’ll never be partners. So stop using it when it’s convenient for you. As far as I’m concerned, you can take your self-righteous bullshit and shove it.”
Then she turned, walked into his bedroom, and slammed the door. Griffin ran his hands through his hair. He’d managed to piss off the one person who could help him get his life back. It was beginning to occur to him that maybe all his problems were his own damn fault.
They’d killed her mother. Hell, it never crossed his mind to ask Cam anything about herself. He only cared about the parts that could help him. He glanced at the answering machine and could almost see Sani shaking his head at him.
The cell phone that Ernest gave him rang on the counter, and Griffin picked it up. “Yeah.”
“We got a live one,” Ernest said on the other end. “You and Cam should come into the Maplewood detention center. Right now.”
Griffin glanced at his bedroom door and marveled at his shitty timing. “Will do.”
“Oh, and you didn’t find out from me,” Ernest added before he hung up.
“We caught him trying to steal a truck from a transportation center in White Plains,” one of the XCEL agents said as he took them to an interrogation room in yet another highly secure facility. Cam wondered how many more of these XCEL owned and operated. And how many Shifters were locked up inside them.
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