Ordinaries: Shifters Book II (Shifters series 2) (5 page)

Chapter 7

The Coop Train and an Armored Rat

–TANNER–

I am stunned. I am sitting here staring at a grainy screen that a few seconds ago was showing me a fuzzy picture of Devon. My Devon. I’m confused. I’m angry. I’m desperate. I don’t even know what to think. I look around, and everyone is silent. Everyone is staring at me.

Why didn’t they show this to us before? Why did they wait for Ryland and Kai to be gone? Wouldn’t they want to see this?

I look up at each of them for some kind of a clue. Then I get it.

“You knew she wouldn’t wait,” I say, letting out a sigh.

Marcus shifts his eyes to Alena, then back to me. “We need time,” he says flatly.

He’s right. I don’t want to believe it. I want to do what Ryland would do, and I know Kai wants to act now. He was willing to die to take out Marques in the White House.

I want to go now, to save Devon. I want to, but he’s right. If they capture or kill us, we can’t help anybody. We can’t help Devon, much less, take down the Shifters.

I’m torn.

I look Marcus in the eye and ask, “Will you train me?”

At that Marcus smiles and grabs my shoulder firmly. “I thought you’d never ask.”

A collective breath is released, as if the entire room has been waiting to see if I would blow or something. I’m not sure if they are relieved or disappointed. Anyway, I know I have to be smart and fight my natural instinct to run to her.

Sol
é
gets a huge smile on her face as she clutches Kyle’s hand. “Us too?” she asks Marcus hopefully. She lets go of her boyfriend’s hand and holds her dainty fists up in a terribly awkward boxer stance and throws several girly air punches at Kyle. “What do you think?” she asks, throwing several more clumsy swings. “You think you can take me?”

Kyle easily grabs her wrists and wraps them behind his back, causing her to laugh and hug him. “Babe . . . you terrify me,” he says as they smile and kiss. “They’ll never know what hit ‘em.”

I roll my eyes at their PDA. Truthfully, seeing them having fun and kissing makes me miss Devon even more.

“When do we start?” I ask Marcus.

“The circle is assembling right now,” he says, motioning toward the door.

“Oh, yeah,” some kid says as he and several others quickly walk out.

Sol
é
beams and claps her hands together like she’s going on a shopping spree or something. Kyle can’t help but smile at her eagerness.

We all follow Marcus and Alena out of the bunker. It’s just starting to get dark. Several lights have come on like a high school football game is about to start. Young people are gathered around where all of the lights are focused.

I stop one of the kids and ask, “What’s going on?”

“It’s the circle,” he says like I’m supposed to know what that means.

He starts to hurry past when I ask, “What’s the circle?”

He looks confused and says, “Don’t you know?” When he sees my confusion, he says, “It’s like king of the mountain. You know, like to see who’s best or if you’re getting better.” He looks at me and says, “You should sit on the left,” as he heads to the right.

There are several hundred people sitting on the ground in a circle around the edge of the illuminated area. I walk through a pathway toward the middle as several in the crowd shush each other and stare at me.

To my right, I recognize some of the kids as the Tyros that fought in Washington, DC. I scan the crowd and sitting with them I see Jon and Rick, right next to Heather and her friends, Wendy and Sammy Dangerous—I truly need to get their real names sometime.

I also see someone that I will never forget. I don’t know his name, but I remember seeing him scream out “Kensi!” as his sister fell to the ground. Kensi. The first casualty of the DC battle with the Shifter force. This boy’s twin sister. He looks fierce, although I know he is probably broken inside. I remember how I felt when I thought my own sister was killed by that bus.

I remember how I felt when I watched Peanut . . . I force my gaze away.

I look to the left and see a group of kids ranging from about eleven to eighteen. Some of the boys look too young. Like children, so much smaller than the Tyros, so much younger than the girls. This is so unfair. Why do girls get the grow-up-fast gene?

These kids hold the future in their hands. The weight of the entire planet is on their small shoulders, the weight of the entire universe. A couple of months ago, I looked just like them. Some of them must not have even shifted yet.

Marcus is in the middle of the circle. He points to me as I stand here like a total idiot with no idea of what to do with all of this attention. “I trust you all know Mr. Ascunse?”

The crowd’s murmur is a low rumble. I hear my name coming from several directions.

“Yes . . . yes . . . this is Tanner,” he says to the crowd quieting them. Clearly, he is in charge of this group. “Take a seat, my boy, and we’ll get started.”

“No,” I say to him, raising my hand. “I’ll start.”

Did that come out of me? I totally don’t even recognize my voice. I don’t even know what they are about to do. Seriously stupid!

The crowd gets louder. Marcus raises his hands palm down above the ground, and the crowd quiets. “How about if we show you what we do here first?” Marcus says, like to a child.

“No,” I say again. “I’ll start!”

Did that come out of me again? What am I doing? I don’t know how to fight!

“Very well,” Marcus concedes as he motions me forward toward the center of the light.

I step closer to him and look at the crowd of teenagers. I seriously don’t know what I am doing here.

“Cooper? Would you be so kind as to show Tanner what we do here?” Marcus says to the group on the left.

I hear several
oohs
and
ahs
, and some snickers from the group.

“Coop’s gonna flatten him.”

“This’ll be good.”

I follow Marcus’s eyes and see a young girl stand. She’s at least six inches shorter than me with skintight black pants and a perfectly form-fitted shirt that clearly shows her slight girly figure. Her dark hair is tightly pulled into a long ponytail high on the back of her head, making her look even more childlike.

I turn to Marcus and say, “I can’t fight her. She looks so small and fragile. I don’t want to hurt her.”

Marcus walks out of the circle and nods. I look at the small girl. She laughs slightly, takes a practiced fighting stance . . . and vanishes right in front of me.

Pain erupts throughout my chest as I realize I have no room in my lungs for anything, not even a breath. I look up, feeling completely disoriented, and directly in front of me, I see this girl smirking with the light directly behind her. For a few seconds, I can’t place where I am. I realize I am on my back and the lights are coming from the poles.

She reaches her hand out to help me up as the group erupts in cheers. This timid little creature helping me up just laid me out in less than a second.

“Sorry, Tanner,” she says, giving me an apologetic look. “He told me not to hold back.”

I struggle to my feet, trying to catch my breath. I try to say something, but I can’t get enough air.

Sol
é
is holding her hands over her face like she’s trying to cover a smirk.

Trying to be cool—and failing miserably—I choke out, “It’s cool. I’m good.”

The little girl helps me to the sideline next to Sol
é
and Kyle, who is totally
not
trying to hide his amusement.

“Now,” Marcus says, motioning for Cooper to enter the center of the circle. “Let’s educate our leader.”

One by one, this little girl takes on both Tyro and Shifter challengers. I am in absolute awe at her skills. I feel slightly better knowing that she may be the best fighter here.

–RYLAND–

So, as we emerge from this essentially sewer tunnel access system-type thing, Clay holds out his hand to pull me up. Kai is off huffing and puffing and blowing the proverbial house down, which in this case really meant that he was off kicking weeds in frustration. Our total failure as diplomats has not affected Clay as much as Kai and me.

The forest in which we emerge is a cacophony of birds, crickets, and rustling breezes. Kai’s tantrum seemed small and childlike in comparison. Our failure seems insignificant here. Were we here on any other enterprise, I would probably shrug it off and try to find a fox or rabbit or any such creature so I could be a Disney princess or something. I know I’m not normally that girly and weird, but these woods are serene and beautiful.

Clay is smiling down at me with his easy grin and perfectly tan Australian-esque features. It is hard not to feel like a princess, you know, except for the impending alien invasion due to our complete and utter failure to take the fight to the evil overlords of the universe.

“Why are you smiling?” I ask in irritation. Clay just keeps grinning. Everywhere we go, no matter what craziness is happening, there is that smile.

“Why not?” he shrugs. “Life’s too short. Besides, Vik will come around.”

“Yeah, somehow I doubt that,” I snap.

He reaches forward easily and takes my hand as though this is something that has happened a thousand times before. I shoot a nervous glance in Kai’s direction, but he has wandered off into the woods, muttering to himself.

“Come on,” Clay says. “Let me tell you a story.”

He leads me to a creek bed not thirty feet away from the mole man’s tunnel and places his hoodie on the ground, motioning for me to sit. I blush at the chivalrous gesture and sit awkwardly next to him, trying to keep a respectful distance. He doesn’t seem to notice or care.

I do not get this guy. Is he like this with everyone? He hasn’t been holding Kai’s hand.

“It’s a story about my mom,” he says softly. When I look at him, the smile is gone and, with it, every trace of joy. He stares blankly at the flowing water as though it’s all the happiness in the world, rushing past, moving on without him.

“I was three years old when the order was announced.”

I know without asking from the deadness in his voice what order he means. He means the attempted extermination of the Shifter Young. He means
my
extermination.

“I don’t remember much of it myself,” he says, “much of her . . .” his voice trails off as he is lost in what little memory remains.

“She was beautiful, I know. From the pictures. She was smart, too. And strong.” He finally turns to me, his eyes pleading with me to believe him, as if there were any doubt.

“What happened?” I ask softly.

He turns away before continuing. “When the order came on over the broadcast, my father knew immediately what he would do. He believed the right thing would be to save as many as he could. He always used to say that it could have been me . . .”

I stare, perplexed for a moment before I realize. His mother was a Shifter. His mother was a Shifter, and they could have killed him, too. Should have. Just in case.

“He went directly to the hangar, to the ships, but he was worried. His best friend, Viktor, was a recluse. He was an incredible pilot, but he would never dare venture out.”

I still don’t understand what he is trying to tell me, why Viktor will help us.

“The one person he would have done anything for, walked on water for, was my mother.”

I know now. I know what happened to her and why Viktor will do what we ask. “He was in love with her?” I ask quietly, trying not to disturb the moment, his memory.

He nods softly, almost imperceptibly. “My father never minded, not really.” He shrugs. “He loved Viktor.”

“Your mom went back for him?”

Tears stream silently down Clay’s face for a long moment before he answers. “She had to. They couldn’t leave Viktor there unprotected. He would have been sent to a mining colony for not reporting to work.”

I slide over to let myself rest my head on Clay’s shoulder, hoping that my presence will be a comfort to him.

“When she got there, it was so late. There was chaos. Peace patrolmen were trying to break down the door. They would have killed Viktor simply for not answering, for wasting their time, but my mom . . . she fought them.”

He doesn’t finish the story, but I know that his mom died trying to protect Viktor. She died trying to protect a man who loved her, not because she loved him in return, but because it was the right thing to do.

I don’t know if I will ever be that strong, that brave.

We stay there, sitting in silence for what feels like a long, long time.

Suddenly there is a loud metallic clanging coming from the clearing. We both jump up to see the mole man is standing in the sunlight, blinking like a rat. He is dressed in armor, but wearing some sort of
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
helmet as though it will protect him from the dangerous air on the surface.

When he finally sees us, he stammers, “I-I-I’m coming.”

I turn to look at Clay, whose smile has returned. He looks down at me and nods his head slightly to the left. It is only then that I notice the small black camera pointed at our exact location.

Mole Man has been watching us.

Clay knew it the whole time.

I don’t know which surprises me more.

Chapter 8

She Totally Hits Like a Girl—Like a Russian Kickboxing Girl!

–TANNER–

Sorry that I haven’t told you what is going on for a few days. I have been kind of busy. Ryland called and told me they have a pilot now. I guess that’s good.

I don’t know how they’re doing it. Clay must be a good negotiator. I’m sure Kai would just be threatening to punch him or something. Ryland doesn’t do so well if they don’t fall for her little-girl-type pleading. She tends to get pouty, not really a master negotiating technique.

Anyway, Cooper volunteered to train with me, which is totally cool since she’s amazing. I don’t mean that in an I-like-her-kind-of-way. I mean that she’s just a good sparring partner. No one could compare with Devon.

Besides, Marcus and Greg are usually here too. And I can tell that she’s into Greg. Oh . . . in case you don’t remember, Greg is Kensi’s twin . . . from the DC battle.

“It’s a combination,” Greg says as he eyes Cooper in her fighting stance.

Greg is holding a wooden branch carved like a makeshift sword. He stares at Cooper’s eyes as he talks. “Their eyes will try to lie—”

Cooper vanishes as Greg whips to the left with a low body blow.

She reappears with the wooden sword across her stomach. She gasps and gives Greg a dirty look saying, “You can pull your swings. That hurts.”

“But, where the stomach goes, the body goes,” Greg tells me as he straightens.

She also straightens and shoots me a slight smile. Greg is thrown to the ground, and Cooper is over him with her knee on his chest. She smiles and asks, “Did you watch my stomach that time?”

“That’s enough, you two,” Marcus says with a laugh. “Come on. Mrs. Langley should have lunch ready by now.”

Cooper smiles and helps Greg up. He fakes a face punch and pats her on the back.

“You distracted me,” he tells her.

“Yeah, right,” she says. “Maybe you’re not as good as you think.” She starts to run toward the house yelling, “Last in gets leftovers!”

“You’re making great progress, Tanner,” Marcus says, throwing a small towel across my shoulder.

I take it and wipe the dirt and sweat off my face and say, “It doesn’t feel like it.”

“You really are,” Greg tells me as we walk toward the house.

“How did you do that? I mean, she shifted,” I ask Greg.

“Like I said,” he starts to explain. “Mostly they think that just because they’re fast, they can outthink us.”

“So how did you know where she would be?” I ask.

“It’s half guessing and half body language.”

“Okay,” I nod.

“Just before she shifted, her stomach twitched slightly to the right. So . . . I guessed left.”

We hear a commotion in the house so we all start running. I reach the door first, and all of the kids are pushing toward the front room. I force myself through the crowd, squeezing between bodies until I finally reach the living room.

There’s a man with his back to us talking to someone outside the front door. Clearly, a scene outside has his attention. He is tall with jet-black hair. I don’t know what to think as Alena comes in from the front porch and wraps her arms around him.

Marcus steps up, and the room quiets, “Well, I’ll be. Gale Halverson.”

I’m not sure what it is, but something is familiar about this guy. The guy spins around to reveal perfectly chiseled features and dark bronze skin.

“Marcus,” he says turning and spreading his arms. “Come here, you ole dog.”

As the man, Gale—weird name for a guy—walks away from the door, I see someone else through the opening. Then I remember where I know this guy: I saw him on television once.

The girl standing inside the doorway peers in, and her look changes from unsure into a huge grin. She runs right to me.

“Alice!” I say as she wraps her arms around me. I swear she is going to squeeze all of the air out of my lungs while smothering me in a total bear hug.

I’m stunned! Is this really Alice? It’s been so long since I’ve seen her. I mean . . . she used to be at our house practically every day. We used to be pretty good friends, but that was before Ryland became Miss Popular, and I turned into the school dork.

That’s when Melinda and Alice started to pretend they didn’t know me. Now she’s acting like she really cares. This must be an alternative reality dream or something. “Okay,” I think to myself. “Time to wake up now.”

The group of teenagers starts making whooping noises, and I realize this isn’t a dream.

She pulls away from me and excitedly says, “I didn’t know if you were okay.” She squeezes me again and buries her face in my shoulder saying, “I’m so glad you’re okay. I was so worried.” She pulls away, looks at me and asks, “Is Ryland here? Where’s Melinda?”

She looks over my body slightly—which is kind of embarrassing—and I realize that the last time I saw her she was taller than me. I’m actually surprised how young she looks. She’s still pretty, but more in a little sister kind of way.

“Somebody’s grown up,” she says smiling. “So where’s Ry?” she asks, looking around the group of strangers. She looks disappointed and asks, “Tanner?”

“She’s okay,” I quickly tell her. “She’s on a mission. With Kai. She’ll be back soon.”

“Okay. Cool,” she says turning back to me. “Is Melinda here? I want to tell her about my dad.”

“Oh . . . well,” I start to say.

“Where is she, Tanner?” she says, sounding serious.

“We . . . left her at the White House,” I tell her, trying to look as sorry as I can.

“You left her!” she screams.

I totally don’t expect it as her fist slams into my jaw, and I spin to the ground.

–RYLAND–

So, I’ll skip back to the house in just a moment because not much happens on the way other than Mole Man’s nervous paranoia being completely obnoxious and making me want to punch him. I do, however, have to tell you about crossing the border back into America.

It isn’t frightening or anything like I thought it might be entering another country. Canada is in many ways a lot like America. Plus the border is pretty low-key.

The problem was that we snuck into Canada because it was a pretty poorly planned vacation on the part of Marcus and Alena, our new “guardians” for the time being. By the time being, I mean the remainder of the war. I’m not letting my parents get involved in this mess.

So on the way back, Kai is forced to let Clay drive. I suggested that perhaps it would be a better idea to let the adult drive across the border so as not to look suspect, but of course Mole Man doesn’t have a license. Or know how to drive what he refers to as an “inferior bah-bah-bah-bloody death contraption.”

So, Mole Man hides in the backseat of the Jeep, burying himself in mounds of papers and books that he absolutely demanded we bring, muttering to himself in another language.

I turn to Clay and mouth, “Is he speaking Alien?”

Clay laughs, nearly swerving into the next lane.

Mole Man lets out a squeal that could deafen—well, moles. Moles are deaf, right? I don’t know.

Kai mutters something under his breath about being a better driver.

“No, he’s speaking Russian,” Clay says after reining the death contraption in.

“He’s Russian?” I ask, confused.

Clay shrugs.

We pull up to the border at this point.

“Umm . . .” I say, looking at Clay with wide eyes. “Do we have passports?”

Clay shrugs again. “I do.”

“How are we supposed to cross the border without US passports?” I snap as I watch an agent sauntering over to our car.

“Border?” Mole Man shrieks as he jerks upright in the back.

Kai has to restrain himself from knocking out the overenthusiastic mammal. “Yes, we’re going to America.”

Mole Man resumes his squealing, a deafening high pitch noise that makes me cover my ears like a child. This is the second time today I have been forced to resort to this demeaning pose because of an overgrown rodent. “What are you doing?” I scream.

The border guard is now running toward us, panicking. His hand slides to his gun. I feel my stomach drop. We cannot afford extra attention right here.

“Sir!” the officer is trying to shout.

All traffic is stopped as the other officers converge in our direction.

Clay is smiling casually as though nothing is wrong and we are simply out for a Sunday afternoon drive.

“Officer, I apologize for my uncle. He has a panic disorder. Agoraphobia, you know.” Clay somehow manages to say this casually despite the scream in which he has to speak to be heard.

“How do we make it stop?” one of the officers is shouting.

“We need to get him down to the hospital.” Clay blushes with embarrassment. “Sorry.”

“Just let them through, Albert,” the officer snaps.

Albert, the officer at our car, is scowling. “Fine, just go!” he says, waving us through.

Once we are past the border, Viktor stops his screeching.

“What was that?” Kai snaps.

Viktor blinks his tiny eyes. “I am not allowed into this country.”

“Ummm . . . why?” I ask sarcastically.

“Apparently, here it is no good to order weapons-grade pl-pl-plutonium,” Viktor states absentmindedly before diving back into his papers.

As I said before, the rest of the drive was awful, and I will spare you the boring details. Onto the house . . .

We burst through the front door to find Tanner sitting there eating potato chips. Seriously, wasn’t he supposed to be locating a ship or something? Why did I get stuck with Mole Man while Tanner is sitting around with . . .

“Alice!” I shriek when I see her and jump forward to throw my arms around my best friend.

“Ryland!” she screams, and then I feel her body shaking as she sobs into my hair.

What the heck is going on here?

Tanner looks up guiltily, and I’m going to scream.

“What did you do?” I shout at him.

He opens his mouth to answer, letting me see the mushy yellow-brown mash in his mouth, but doesn’t have time to answer before Viktor begins squealing yet again.

“What is it now?” Kai snaps.

Viktor turns to stare at Kai, blinking again. “Wah-wah-we need to lah-lah-leave.”

“Why?” I snap, stroking Alice’s silky black hair.

“I have lo-lo-located the first v-vessel.” Mole Man smiles. At least I think he’s smiling. It’s a sort of creepy-looking bucktoothed grimace.

“Where is it?” Clay asks, getting excited.

“Siberia.”