Forbidden Call (New Breed Novels, Book 1) (10 page)

What the…

He pulled the chain up and over the shifter’s head and took a closer look. What the hell use would an empty vial be to a Toltec shifter?
Finders keepers
. He slid the chain around his neck, pulled the body behind a dumpster, and dematerialized.

CHAPTER TEN

SE knocked lightly on the door jamb of the study and poked his head in.

“Hey, boss. Got a sec?”

Reyn looked up from his work. “Sure. But unless losing a limb is on your bucket list, I wouldn’t use that word again.”

“Sorry.”

“What’s up?”

SE sat down across the desk from the HSIC. “I think Toltec’s got something brewing. I’m not sure if it’s just a new fighting strategy or what, but tonight Pax and I found a Toltec shifter out with one
hellion
. I know I’m new, but isn’t that way off from their usual protocol?”

“It is. Shifters are their most valued commodity.
Hellions
are just pawns. Maybe they somehow got separated from their crew?”

SE slipped the chain off his neck and laid the vial on the desk. “I also found this around the neck of the shifter.”

Reyn looked down at the vial. “Fuck. Me.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much what I thought.”

“You mind if I hang on to this? I want to get Richard’s take. Either they all got new chemistry sets for Christmas or we’re fucked.”

SE nodded.
Unless I can figure out that phone conversation.
’Course there was always the possibility that Ana really did want to feed his soul to a mutant. Christ knew he deserved it. He was only halfway to the main foyer when he stopped. Pax was standing next to the staircase and clutching antique banister so hard his knuckles were white.

“Pax?”

Just then, X turned out of the rec room, took in the sitch, and held his arm out to stop SE from moving closer.

“Step back, dude.”

“Jesus, X, we gotta help him!”

“We can’t. It’s not safe. He’s phasing, and I don’t mean into his
nagual
. Pax can take on human forms. It’s excruciating, and he doesn’t have it totally under control yet. He almost took Reyn out the first time it happened. He doesn’t know where he is. If we touch him, he’ll panic. Dig?”

SE watched in horror as the brother thrashed, his howls of pain causing a visceral reaction in the other two males. The only thing keeping him in place was X. The transition looked almost totally physical, which made no sense in SE’s mind. When shifters phased into their
naguals
, it was spiritual and all but instantaneous. But Pax was obviously suffering. There was visible movement under his skin as it stretched, trying to find its new form. Droplets of sweat ran down the male’s face.

All at once, everything went silent. Pax stood up and SE realized he was staring at an exact replica of himself.

Troy passed them on his way up the stairs. “Don’t worry. You’re not really part of the Order till Pax has cloned every pore on your goddamn body.”

“Shut your hole!” SE heard his voice yell out of Pax’s mouth.

Holy hell.
SE didn’t even like looking at himself in the mirror these days, never mind facing a whole second him. He shook his head.
Like that’s something the world needs.
He turned to X. “How long does this last?”

“Not long. He hasn’t learned how to maintain the form for more than thirty minutes or so.”

When Pax wobbled and suddenly made like he was about to sit on the stairs, X grabbed him under an arm and SE quickly followed suit.

“Let’s get him to a guest room,” X said. “He can sleep it off up there.”

Once they had him on the bed, Pax passed out almost immediately. SE took one last look at his clone and closed the door behind them.

“Christ, X. That’s supposed to be a fucking
gift?
”

“Depends on who you ask. Pax looks at it as more of a curse though.”

“Why’d he phase into me? Because I was right there?”

X shook his head. “I don’t think so. We’ve each only been replicated by him once. It’s almost like his body is memorizing our forms.”

“Like Troy said on the stairs.”

“Yeah. You were just the newest thing around.”

SE leaned back against the wall. “You know, I wonder. If Pax could learn to focus on someone specifically, maybe he could get better control over it.”

“The dude’s in a lot of pain. I don’t know if he could keep his shit together long enough.”

SE started down the hallway toward the back wing. “I’ve got an idea. I’ll check you later, X.” As he swung around the corner, he hesitated. Dimitri had combined two sets of rooms to accommodate Richard’s growing family. That meant they now had two doors to the hall. He really didn’t want to wake Adriana at this late hour. He went with his gut and quietly knocked on the first one.

A moment later, Richard opened the door. “Hey, SE.”

“Hey. Could I talk to you for a sec?”

“Yeah, sure. Come on in.”

SE walked into a room that had been converted to a large sitting room. “So, I just witnessed Pax’s, uh…”

“Gift?”

Somehow that still didn’t sound quite right. “Er, yeah. Listen. I have an idea about how we might be able to help the brother. What if I lent him my
nagual
to help keep his pain under control long enough for you to use your telepathy? You think you could help him focus?”

Richard rubbed his forehead. “Possibly. If he doesn’t kill us first.”

“We’ll get X and Diesel to hold him. Come on, Richard. We’ve gotta do something. The brother’s in pain.”

“You’re right. I’ll talk to him about it tomorrow.”

SE smiled. “Thanks.” He turned to leave, and suddenly stopped. There on the bookshelf sat a photo in a carved wooden frame. It was a picture of the four of them: Adriana, Richard, Gabriela and himself. He walked over and picked it up. He remembered that day on the beach in Baja like it just happened. He could smell the ocean as the waves crashed down on the hot sand. The sunlight was shining on Gabi’s long, light brown hair as she played in the waves. She looked just like…an angel.

“Oh, SE,” Adriana was standing in the doorway to the bedroom, her hand over her mouth. “Oh, God. I should have taken that down.” She walked over and reached for the photo. “That was so insensitive of me. I’m so sorry.”

Instead of handing it to her, SE gently set it back on the shelf. “No, don’t do that. It’s fine, really. She should be…remembered.”
Remembered.
She was gone and she was never coming back. Eight years of being
permaphased
hadn’t changed that.

And he couldn’t change it now.

He couldn’t change that he’d left Cesar. All he could try to be was the male she was proud of. He reached out and put his hand on Adriana’s shoulder to reassure her, but she backed up immediately.

“No, SE—”

The roar he heard behind him sounded like some kind of jungle cat. Before he could react, Richard’s weight was on him and the two males were falling to the floor as Adriana’s screams echoed around the room. Then, as Richard’s fist connected with his jaw, SE gleamed out and materialized behind the male, putting him in a quick hammerlock.

Just as fast as the protective instinct had been awakened, it faded. Richard went limp in his SE’s arms. Still panting, the two males stood up.

“I’m so sorry, SE. I don’t know what came over me.”

“No. It’s my fault, bro. I knew your situation. I didn’t think.”

“Troy?” Adriana called, as she looked out into the hallway.

SE turned around, but there was no one there. “You saw Troy just now?”

“Yes, he was right there.”

Richard looked down at the floor. “SE, I…”

SE clapped him on the back. “No worries. I’m not made of glass. Listen, I’ll see you guys later.” SE walked out of the room and rounded the corner. There was no one down the entire length of the main hall, but he heard a door close. Man, the brother sure had that exit strategy thing down.

Soaring Eagle went down to his own room, disarmed, and sat on the edge of the bed.
Fuck.
His head was starting to ache just slightly again at the temples. The headaches were coming back, but the physical pain was the least of it. The goddamn voice in his head was making him feel like he was having some kind of psychotic break. He wished. A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts.

“Adriana.”

“Hi,” she said. “I just…I thought you might want to have this. I know all your personal stuff is up in the attic somewhere, so…”

SE looked at the photo that had somehow landed in his hand. It was the one from the bookshelf. He was so touched by the gesture he almost couldn’t speak. “Adri—” He cleared his throat. “That’s very thoughtful of you, Adriana. Thank you.”

Knowing better, he didn’t hug her or try to touch her in any way. Instead, he placed his fist over his own heart. “
In lak'ech,
” he said, bowing his head in deep reverence.

The female smiled and returned the gesture. “
Ala k'in
.”

SE walked into his room and sat back down on the bed. He looked at the picture for a few moments, letting Gabi’s image sink in.

“I love you, Gabriela,” he said to the photo as if she could hear him. “And I’m sorry for not being there for our son. I promise you…from now on I’m going to be the male you mated.” Tears rose in his eyes, and her face became blurry. “I’ll always love you, Gabi. But you’re just not coming back.” He rubbed the wet from his eyes with his arm, got up, and carefully placed the picture in the drawer of his bedside table.

Ana materialized at the entrance of an alley next to a liquor store in Brookline. Up ahead she could see another Toltec shifter and a
hellion
following a civilian. What was the deal with civilians and alleys? Didn’t they ever learn?

She gleamed halfway down the alley, then up on to a fire escape. She leaned over the edge so she could see as the Toltec shifter stood watch and the mutant did its thing. The
hellion
took the shifter civilian by the sides of his face and looked deep into his eyes. As the male shook with fear, a faintly luminous essence began to flow from his eyes to the mutant’s. This was nothing new. She’d seen
hellions
steal
k’ul
hundreds of times, but that wasn’t what she was there for. At last, as the final remnants of the civilian’s life essence left him, two delicate translucent orbs arose from his body. One was opalescent, like a moonstone, the other, incandescent.

As the first sphere floated away into the darkness and vanished, Ana focused on the brightly glowing form. It was almost like behind the light was…
oh, God.
She could see the civilian’s
nagual
and just make out the faint impression of a snowy owl inside the light. Before the orb could get very far, the shifter opened his vial and held it out to the light, which shimmered for a moment, as if struggling against the pull of the little bottle. And then it was suddenly trapped. The vessel now glowed with the owl’s essence. The shifter slid the vial back around his neck, and ran to the open street, the
hellion
not far behind.

Ana gleamed to the alley below and walked over to the civilian’s lifeless body. She kneeled down next to him and gently turned his head so she could see his mark. Tears streaming down her face, she lightly traced the owl’s impression on his neck.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

SE sat up, his body glued to the sheets with sweat, his lungs working hard. As he leapt out of bed, he blinked in the darkness, searching frantically for a pen. He opened the little antique desk, his large hands fumbling clumsily in the small space until he found a marker. SE walked over to the window and held his hand up in the moonlight, then carefully wrote the letters he had seen in his dream. When he had finished, he stared at his palm.

aj k’o’ol

What the fuck?

It was definitely Mayan, possibly one word, but it wasn’t common.
Holy hell
. Did he remember it wrong? He didn’t think so. He looked over at the clock. Christ, it was barely five in the morning. No wonder it was still dark out. Well, he wasn’t going to find that shit on Wikipedia. He needed X.

Now.

SE pulled on his jeans and headed out of his room. He crossed to the hall and headed down the back wing on the opposite side. He opened the door to the small upstairs sitting room, where he pushed aside a heavy bookcase full of books on the back wall. Pulling it closed behind him, he launched himself down the hidden stairway.

Stopping outside X’s room, he pounded on the door. When he didn’t get an answer, he pounded harder and heard some obvious swearing on the other side of the door before it finally swung open. X was standing in the doorway. Six feet seven of
what the fuck do you think you’re doing
glaring down at SE like he was about to take a piece out of him.

“Before you say anything, I need help with something. It’s important.”

X’s huge form came slightly closer. “If you say the treadmill, so help me, I will kick your ass.”

“I’m serious, X.” SE shoved his hand in the brother’s face. Maybe he could have been more polite. Given the guy’s size and mood, it was probably advisable.

“You need help with some shit you wrote on your hand? Sorry, I don’t teach penmanship. Dig?” X moved to close the door, but SE put his arm in the way and followed him in.

“Look,” he said, “I wrote it down after I dreamt it. I do that sometimes.”

“What? Sleep?”

“No, I have dreams about things. It’s very rare, but it’s usually important. Like there’s urgency to it.”

After Xavier pulled on some sweats, the two started toward the tech room. When they walked in, SE immediately found a pencil and a piece of paper and rewrote the letters on it.

X rubbed his goatee. “All right, let’s have a look. Hmm. Definitely Mayan. I’m not as familiar with the Old Language as some shifters. We may need to look it up in the library.”

“Do you think we can find it online somewhere? If we need to use books, it’ll take too long.” If his hunch was right, this was the answer to the meaning of the vial and Ana’s phone message.