Body Thief (26 page)

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Authors: C.J. Barry

BOOK: Body Thief
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“Cam—”
“Don’t touch me,” she said, ashamed and not knowing why.
His hand cupped her shoulder. “How do you feel?”
She shook off his hand and curled into herself. “Leave me alone, I need to heal.”
He didn’t move for a long time, and part of her wanted him to stay. The other part, however, was injured and fierce. Angry for feeling shame. Angry for her people. Angry for a perfect world that she would never have.
Then she felt his weight move off the bed behind her. He walked to the door and paused. “If you need anything, I’ll be right here.”
She closed her eyes and wished she could cry. But Shifters didn’t have tears. They simply hurt.
 
Lyle sat on the couch across from Griffin and propped his legs up on the coffee table. It was dark out, and Lyle should be tending bar, but he’d brought up a bottle of good Scotch instead. “So, she kicked you out? What did you do to her?”
Griffin watched the ice cubes melt in his fourth scotch. He was feeling no pain. No pleasure either. In fact, pretty much nothing. It was the way he liked it. “No idea.”
Lyle chuckled low into his drink. “Right.”
“I didn’t do a thing,” he insisted. Although that wasn’t entirely true. He’d held her while she shuddered in his arms. He’d heard her cries. He’d hurt along with her.
“When I checked last, you were in bed with her,” Lyle said.
“She was cold, shaking. I thought she needed to be warmer,” he said. “Get your mind out of the gutter. Nothing happened.”
“But she’s still in Shifter form,” Lyle noted.
He frowned at his friend. “Yes. So?”
Lyle shrugged. “Wouldn’t expect you to touch her in that form. It’s some sorta taboo thing with you.”
Ah, so that was it. “Don’t even go there, Lyle. I’m not in the mood for a lecture on whether or not Shifters belong here.”
He laughed. “Not a matter of
if
. They
are
here. It’s a matter of
how
they belong.” He hesitated and then asked, “Was it that bad? Holding her in her native form?”
Griffin frowned. He needed more booze for this conversation. “No. Happy?”
Lyle shrugged. “It’s a start.”
“So why did she kick me out?” Griffin asked, half to himself.
“Maybe she’s just not that into you,” Lyle offered with a big grin.
“If you didn’t let me live here for free and bring me good booze, I’d drop you as a friend,” Griffin said and grinned back.
Lyle laughed, and Griffin joined him. It felt good to laugh. To forget and float in that semivegetative, relaxed state he’d discovered via booze. When he drank, the past didn’t feel as bad. Unfortunately, when he drank, the future didn’t look so bright either. Sucked that you couldn’t have both.
“Did it ever occur to you that she might not like who she is?” Lyle said when the laughter was done.
Griffin tried to wrap his head around that logic. The alcohol made it a little more challenging. “Why wouldn’t she like who she is? She’s . . . beautiful.”
Lyle eyed him in disbelief. “Are you kiddin’ me? You’re the one hunting Shifters. You’re the one trying to get rid of them.”
Mercer frowned. “I’m not trying to get rid of them. I just don’t want them around me.”
Lyle gave a groan of frustration. “Exactly. They are welcome here as long as they don’t bother you or anyone else.”
That wasn’t even possible, Griffin realized. “No.”
“Then what do you want?” Lyle pressed.
Griffin gritted his teeth. “I don’t know.”
“Then how is she supposed to know where she stands if you don’t know?” Lyle said.
Lyle was starting to be a pain in the ass. He was also right. Griffin had played games with Cam, pushing her away and then pulling her back. No wonder she didn’t trust him, didn’t want him around. He didn’t want him around either. That’s why he drank scotch.
“I’ve known you a long time,” Lyle said soberly. “We’ve seen the world hand you some bad times. Seen some good times too. But I’ve never seen you like this. You gotta decide what you want, what you
really
want in this life. And then you gotta fight for it with everything you got. You have to work and suffer and make it happen, because no one’s going to help you.”
Lyle’s words sunk in slowly, one by one, terrible in their truth. Griffin thought he knew what he wanted—his old life back. The life that was stolen from him. But now he wasn’t so sure that life was worth fighting for. He wasn’t even sure it was possible. Even worse, he wasn’t sure if that was the life he
ever
wanted. He’d spent so much time hunting Shifters and calling them the enemy that he didn’t really think about what he was doing or why.
Lyle raised his glass to Griffin. “To life, as it should be.”
“Whatever the hell that is,” Griffin added, and downed the rest of his scotch.
“I’m cutting myself off,” Lyle said. He braced both his hands on the coffee table and stood up, a little wobbly. “Man, I know I’m going to regret this in the morning. I’ll blame you then.” He gave Griffin a wave and then wandered out the door and closed it behind him.
The apartment returned to its deafening silence, worse than ever before, and he’d felt some pretty crappy silence. He hated it, hated what it represented. He just didn’t know how to fix it.
Griffin glanced over and noticed the flashing light on his answering machine. Might as well finish off his day with a bang. He hit the Play button and closed his eyes to listen to the asshole collections agencies try to squeeze money from a stone.
“Hello, this is your grandfather, Sani.”
Crap,
Griffin thought. He was not in any state of mind to figure out one of Sani’s cryptic messages.
“I know you are torn. I feel the struggle in your heart. You are restless. You look for answers.”
Griffin frowned at the machine. He understood all of that. He must be drunker than he thought. Maybe that was the key to understanding Sani.
“This is a world of lies. Things are not what they appear. They are not the truth. There is only one place to find the truth.”
Griffin sat up in his chair and stared at the machine waiting for the answer.
“Truth can always be found in the heart. The heart sees things for what they are. It feels when it is supposed to. It hurts when it is supposed to. It knows right and wrong. It guides the body and the mind.”
Griffin closed his eyes. He didn’t want to feel with his heart. He’d done that. It was too hard when everything went to hell.
“The heart loves quickly and heals slowly,” Sani continued. “Without this love and pain, life is nothing but endless desert. You can walk the desert from end to end and find the same thing.”
Griffin smiled. There was the Sani he knew and loved.
“These things I know,” Sani said.
“Hágoónee.”
The machine clicked off. No more messages played. Griffin sat in the silence and thought about what Lyle had said.
Life as it should be.
He had a feeling that was a tall order to fill. He glanced at his closed bedroom and debated checking on Cam. But since he valued his life, or something like it, he stretched out on the couch to sleep off the hangover he deserved.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
 
C
am wandered out into the living room looking for food. What she found was Mercer asleep on the couch, a couple of empty glasses, and half a bottle of Scotch.
Her belly was still tender and the residual pain just a wrong movement away under one of Mercer’s T-shirts. But she’d Shifted back to human form, and that was something. It had weakened her, though, and food was high on her priority list.
She paused just long enough to cover Mercer up with a blanket. The day was far too bright as it slipped through the blinds. She walked over and was about to close them when she noticed their Shifter watching the place again.
What the hell was going on? When had they become the hunted? She closed the blinds tightly and went to the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator door and peered inside. Leftover pasta appeared to be the easiest food available. Cam took out the dish and slid it into the microwave.
Five minutes? Fifteen? She had no idea, but she was famished so she opted for five. The microwave hummed to life. She drank four tall glasses of water waiting for it to heat up.The buzzer went off, and she removed the pasta. The bowl was warm. That was a good sign.
“Thought you said you couldn’t cook?”
Cam nearly dropped the dish on the counter at Mercer’s voice. She set it down carefully and turned to him. “Don’t sneak up on me like that. You almost had pasta a la counter.”
Then she stopped talking. Mercer leaned against the doorway looking rumpled, sleepy, and really sexy. Rough stubble hugged his face. His jeans were from yesterday, last night. Still covered in blood, probably hers. And he was shirtless. She liked his skin. It was bronze and smooth over hard muscle. Touchable.
But his eyes. His eyes were what shut her up.
“Are you okay?” he asked softly.
She mustered a smile. “Yes. Thank you.”
His eyes stayed on her a long time. This kitchen was small; she hadn’t realized it until now. “You took the bullets out.” Well, duh. They were sitting in a bowl next to the bed. “Hungry?”
“A little,” he said.
She avoided those eyes while she retrieved two plates and started piling up pasta on them. It wasn’t exactly hot, but there was enough heat in this kitchen to more than make up for it.
She handed him a plate, and they ate pasta for breakfast in silence. Mercer watched her like he was making sure she ate. He needn’t worry; she was starving and she didn’t care if she was stuffing her face.
He cleaned his plate in the sink and turned around to face her. She had a mouthful of food when she noticed his eyes focused on her with singular intensity and something else. Something that was real. Not a game. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she remembered him talking to her last night. What had he said?
I know what I want
?
He said, “They used the new beta Salt Round on you.”
She blinked a few times, because her mind was busy elsewhere. She swallowed her pasta. “I figured that.”
“They had access to XCEL weapons.”
She put down the fork, still a little foggy and not quite keeping up with him. “You think they stole it?”
Mercer pursed his lips. “I think they were
given
it.”
The fog lifted, and she followed the logic, as awful as it was. “Are you saying that hit last night was sponsored by XCEL?”
“I’m saying it’s possible,” he said.
She should have expected this, should have seen it coming. Should have known that this was all some sick, stupid game that XCEL was playing on them. Her body tightened, and her belly clenched. She grabbed the counter for support. “Crap.”
Mercer was around her in a second. “Don’t move.”
He picked her up in his arms and carried her into the bedroom. She clung to him, not wanting to let go once he deposited her on the bed. She laid her head back on the pillow. “I don’t believe this. This is Harding, isn’t it?”
Mercer sat down on the edge of the bed. “I don’t know. But I smell a rat, and he’s the biggest one there is.”
“I knew I should have gotten my deal in writing,” she said. All this time, she’d held out a thread of hope that Harding would keep his word. What the hell was she thinking, cutting deals with humans? The odds were always stacked against her.
“What do you need?” Mercer asked as she curled up.
A gun for Harding and a cure for her father
.
Damn,
she thought. Her father. “Don’t suppose you’d be in the mood to spring my father from a highly secure detention center?”
Mercer eyed her. “
You
are not in any shape to spring anyone. Harding won’t touch your father. We have time. You need rest and sleep. And you should be in Shifter form. You’ll heal faster that way.”

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