ROMANCE: SHIFTER: Shifter to the Max Collection (Dragon, Bear, Wolf and Panther Shifter Romances) (Paranormal Fantasy Romance Collection) (90 page)

“I will now share a little about the world you thought you lived in. Most people go through their whole lives and see nothing except what they choose to believe. What happened at the hospital was not a one-time occurrence, and yet you have never heard of anything like it before. About 300 years ago we tried to make the world see the truth. It was called project sight and we tested it in localized areas around the world. We put a serum into the air that literally made people see the truth of the world they were living in. It was a disaster, to say the least. Most people went insane, suicides ran rampant, and mass riots ensued. The few people who did survive those test fled. Shadow walkers are descendants of those people. Some have the ability and never use it, some have the ability and deny it, and some embrace it and use their abilities to help others. When things happen in the world like what happened at the hospital, it is necessary for us to lie to people so that they can live out their lives in relative peace.  Do you believe it is right for us to do so?”

Karyn was not a person who hid from the truth. Ever. She was constantly amazed at the lengths in which people would run or hide from something that was right there in front of their faces. Many times she had told someone the truth and they would find ways to convince themselves of their own truth. Karyn wished, more than anything, that the world she knew was ready to accept truth in any form, but she knew that it was not so.  Karyn pressed the black button.

“The last thing I am going to share with you is going to cause you a great deal of pain I’m afraid. I am going to answer the question you’ve been asking for as long as you can remember.”

Karyn jumped up from the table and stood shaking. It was impossible. They couldn’t know. Yet, somehow she knew that they did know and she braced herself for the impact.

Ben’s voice came to her as if she was in a dream. “Your mother’s name was Susan and your father’s name was John. They worked for Department 99 in the research and development department. They were working on a way to thicken the fabric of time and space, so to speak. They were trying to find a way to get everyone back to their own worlds. Some thought that the prospect of fixing things was a very bad idea, and your parents were murdered to end their research. Department 99 could not find the person or people behind their deaths and had you placed in an orphanage for your own safety. Your parents research was never found, and any hope of separating our worlds died with them. Your final question for this phase is, what would you give to find your parents murderer?”

Karyn nails dug into the palms of her hands to the point that she was drawing blood but she did not even feel it. All her life she had wanted nothing more than to know who she was and where she came from, and to find out now, after all this time, in a place like this, how was she supposed to react to this? The answer to Bens question, she knew already, was the same as it had always been. She would do anything, no matter the cost. Karyn hit the black button.

Karyn was so angry she did not immediately register that the room had begun to smell strangely. It was not until she began to feel dizzy and disoriented that she picked up on it, and by then it was too late. Within seconds she had passed out.

Ben unlocked the door and pulled Karyn’s limp form out, carrying her into the simulation room. Even though he knew how important realignment was, it was always hard to see them have to go through it. He left her alone in the room and went back to the terminal behind the see-through steel. He was surprised to see Killian in the room.

Killian saw Ben and immediately put his hands in the air. “I don’t want any trouble, Ben. I just wanted to see how she was doing.”

Ben took a long look at the vampire who had bashed his face in not three hours earlier. “I should call for security, you freak, but I guess that would be you anyway, huh.?

Killian grunted. “You’ll be happy to know I’ve been out on phone duty for a while due to my anger issues. Come on man, I just want to know if she’s ok.”

Ben sighed, “She passed with flying colors and we’re setting her up for phase two right now. You might be interested to know that she thought about you for at least an hour; she seems to really like your eyes.”

Killian couldn’t help but smile, and then caught himself and cleared his throat. “How many others made it so far?”

Ben looked at his screen. “It looks like four have been taken to the asylum, two are still testing, two have moved on and one has been terminated.”

Killian nodded his head went to the door. “Hey, I’m sorry about earlier, and I owe you one.”

Ben nodded, “Yes, you do. For what it’s worth, man, she’s tough. I hope she makes it. I’ll let you know if anything changes.”

“Thanks,” Killian said and then he closed the door behind him.

Karyn was awoken by the sounds of far off screams. She sat up and searched for the source of the screams.  She had no idea where she was, but she seemed to be outside somewhere with a lot of trees.  She began walking towards the sounds, being as quiet as possible. She heard a rumbling growl and then a rush of footsteps.

A red-haired woman darted past, “Run!” She screamed to Karyn. Before Karyn had time to react, a giant creature with blades growing from the base of its fingers grew near. A yellow bile-looking substance dripped from the corners of its crusty brown mouth. Karyn didn’t know what the creature was, and there was no time to try and figure it out. Karyn screamed. The monster lurched. It brought one huge claw down upon the woman with the red hair. The woman brought both hands up in front of her face defensively, but it was too late. The monster bore down, the blades in his fingers cut into her face, gouging her cheeks and eyeballs.  Karyn thought it was over, but the woman didn’t die. She kicked at the monsters face and groin area screaming obscenities. The monster continued its ascent. The more she kicked, the more it sliced.  Karyn felt helpless; she had to do something. She couldn’t just let the woman die.

“Get off of me!” Yellow bile dripped from the monster’s mouth down onto the woman’s face. When the substance made contact with her skin it instantly smoked, the skin burning down to the bone. The woman howled in pain.

“What should I do?  What can I do to help you?” Karyn screamed. The woman was too busy fighting off the monster’s advance to answer. Karyn looked around. What could she use to save this woman’s life? 

“Hey, over here!  Yeah, over here!”  Karyn tried to draw the attention of the monster, but it didn’t work. It was too fixated on the woman. Again, for a moment Karyn considered running away. She could save her life, but that just wasn’t who she was.

Karyn drew in a deep breath. Without hesitation, she jumped onto the monster’s back.  Still, the creature didn’t even seem phased. Karyn’s maneuver gave the woman a little time. The woman began to crawl backwards out of the monster’s reach.  Now the razor sharp claws were directed towards Karyn. Before the claws could scrape her skin, Karyn jumped Down from the monster’s back. She landed with a hard thump, and rolled over to a nearby log.  Karyn reached for the log with one shaking hand, and lifted the heavy piece of wood above her head. She brought the wood down directly in the middle of the monster’s face. The monster stumbled backwards. Karyn looked down at the woman with the red hair. Her face was shredded, yet she seemed to be filled with a violent rage.

“I think I had that under control,” the woman gurgled as blood poured out of her deep wounds.  Karyn simply nodded respectfully and helped the woman to her feet.

“I’m Karyn. Who are you?”

“My names Jenna.”

“Are you a shadow walker too?” Karyn asked.

“Ha!” Jenna laughed. “You don’t actually believe that nonsense, do you? It’s all just some government conspiracy to kill us off. Well, they won’t get me that easily.” The woman looked around furtively picked up a large rock and took off running into the woods again.

Karyn began to have some serious doubts at this point. Before she could even consider whether to run after Jenna she heard something else coming out of the woods and turned to face it brandishing her makeshift club.  What came out of the woods this time was Killian. Karyn immediately put down her club and ran to him. He wrapped her in his arms and she shivered at his cold perfect touch.

“Come on,” he said to her, “We need to get you back inside. It’s not safe out here at night. How did you get out here anyway?’

Karyn shook her head, “I’m not sure. I just woke up out here. There’s another woman out here too. Jenna. She’s hurt.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Killian said, “Other teams have been dispatched. They’ll find her”

Karyn sighed deeply against him. “Killian, I want to go home, to my home.”

Killian rubbed her arms. “Sure,” he said, “let’s just go get your things and then I’ll drive you wherever you want to go.”

Karyn felt relief for the first time in what seemed like a very long time. As they entered the doors to Department 99, Karyn heard a sound that she instantly recognized. She turned around quickly and there was the werewolf from the hospital being drug in by several muscular men.

“Why isn’t he contained?” Killian yelled.

“We don’t know,” one of the guys yelled. “Someone must have put a spell on him or something. We can’t change him back.”

The werewolf suddenly lunged and broke free from the muscled men. The wolf was bearing down on Karyn fast and she had let her weapon go. She was glad that Killian was there. Karyn turned towards him just to discover that he was gone and it was just her and the wolf. With no other options left to her, she did the only thing she could think of. She ran towards the wolf as fast as she could. As the wolf came within reach of her she quickly dropped down and slid underneath his big hairy mass.

The werewolf, with too much momentum to stop, charged onward crashing through the wall of Department 99 and heading towards the city. There was a rush of people and creatures of all kinds running towards the hole the wolf had left in the building.

With Karyn’s shadow walking abilities, it was a jumbled mess trying to figure out good from bad. In frustration, she ran towards a desk where she thought she saw a weapon. When she got there, she stopped dead in her tracks. Killian was sitting at the desk talking on the phone.

“What are you doing?” she screamed at him. “We have to go after that werewolf again.”

“Sorry, I can’t. I’m relegated to working the phones. If I disobey orders, there’s no telling what they will do to me. Here, take my gun,” he said, handing her his pistol.

There was no time to argue with him. She grabbed the gun and looked him dead in the eye. “I thought you were better than this,” she said. Then she took off after the wolf. Just as she reached the hole in the wall, she heard the same loud buzzing sound as before accompanied by a violent flash of light. Suddenly, the hole in front of her vanished, as did everything else around her. She was standing alone in a room.

She turned in circles confused for several moments, and then she saw a door open and a blond haired man with green eyes came in.

“Hi, I’m Ben,” he said. “Congratulations, you passed the simulation phase, and you did so quite well, actually. How do you feel?”

Karyn’s eyes hardened. “Like I’ve just been lied to,” she said. Karyn took a step towards Ben and he backed up.

“Now hold on, I brought someone else to see you before you go on to the last phase.” Karyn looked past Ben and saw Killian standing in the doorway. She wanted nothing more than to run to him, but she hesitated wondering if this too was some kind of simulation. Maybe she would reach for him and he would just be an illusion.

Killian came into the room and reached for her. she tentatively stretched out her hand and he pulled her in to him wrapping his arms around her.

“Was any of it real?” she asked.

Killian stroked her hair. “We don’t really know, actually. The technology was developed a long time ago and the people who made it left us no clues as to how it works. We know how to start it and how to stop it, but we can’t control what happens when you are inside.”

“That girl, Jenna, was she another shadow walker like me, or was she just an illusion?”

Killian sighed deeply. “She was real. There were three of you left when the simulation started. You are the only one who made it out. I knew you would be.”

Karyn wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She wanted to hit things and throw things. Instead she just looked into Killian eyes. “What now?” she asked him.

“Well, he replied, that’s entirely up to you. You could stay here and become a member of the department, or you can go home, back to your job and your friends and your life. But, you will never again see the world the same way. You are a true shadow walker, Karyn, and that is a rare thing indeed.”

“Can I take a few days to think it over?” she asked.

“Sure,” Killian said, “Come on, I’ll take you home.”

Karyn stopped dead in her tracks. “That’s what you said before.”

Killian looked confused. “What do you mean before? When?”

“In the simulation,” she said. “That’s what you told me right before the werewolf attacked. You said it just like that.”

Killian pulled away. “Wait a second. I was in your simulation?”

Karyn shuddered. “Yes, and you wouldn’t help. You were just put on the phones. You said that you were in trouble and couldn’t disobey anymore. You gave me your gun to go chase the werewolf alone.”