Shadow Shifters: Shifter's Claim Part 23

He hadn't come back, Priya thought two days later when she was still confined to the hospital bed. Jewel had brought her bag, purse, and laptop from Bas's suite, a sign that he was truly finished with her. A sign that she'd swallowed without so much as a sigh. This was what she did, what she'd had to do all her life-she took the good with the bad and was blessed to live another day regardless.

She'd spoken to Lolo, who wanted to board a plane and head out west to see that she was all right. Smiling into the phone as he'd spoken with such compa.s.sion and concern for her safety and welfare, Priya had wondered why she couldn't fall in love with this guy. Why was she so adamant about choosing the wrong one? Her e-mail box had been almost full with messages from Agent Wilson and Maury, who somewhere within those many messages had fired and then rehired her.

After about forty minutes dedicated to sipping on the bland apple juice the nurse had brought to her and cleaning out her e-mail box, there was a knock at the door. She didn't have to give permission to come inside, the two guards Bas had stationed in the hallway would do that for her. The only reason she knew they were out there was because Paolo had come inside to talk to her, to apologize for not protecting her the morning of the press conference. She liked Paolo, thought he was an honest guy, except for his Shadow s.h.i.+fter secret. Syfon was a little more reserved, but he too had come inside to check on her periodically. It seemed strange, but Priya knew she was going to miss these guys when she went back to D.C. Especially Jacques, who only came when he thought she was asleep, talking quietly to the doctors, giving orders to the nurses, and otherwise making sure she had everything she needed.

The only male s.h.i.+fter she hadn't seen was Bas.

"Hi, honey," a soft voice whispered and Priya had to blink twice to make sure she was seeing who she thought she was seeing.

"Mama?" Priya whispered as she watched Karen Drake enter her hospital room. "What are you doing here?"

That question died without an answer as following behind Karen came Malik. He was five foot eleven, his slim frame garbed in jeans and an oversized plaid s.h.i.+rt, sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

"Hey, peanut," he said in his raspy voice.

Priya sat up in the bed, closing her laptop and pus.h.i.+ng it down beside her. "Malik," she whispered about two seconds before her older brother had crossed the floor, grabbing her in a hug that caused pain to shoot through her shoulder and down to her fingers. She didn't care, she wasn't letting him go and dared him to release her.

"I'm so happy to see you, so happy you're okay," she was saying into his ear.

"I'm glad you sent someone to get me. You're always looking out for me," he said when she finally released her hold on him and he drew back to look into her eyes.

Priya stared up at him, feeling all kinds of uncomfortable to see the sheen of tears glistening in his eyes.

"I'd be dead by now if it wasn't for you," he told her. "All those rehabs and bail outs from jail and now this." Malik shook his head. "I'm gonna do better, peanut. I promise you I'm gonna do better this time."

Priya cupped his cheek where his beard had begun to grow in. The hair made him look older, more mature. The slight slump in his shoulders and the way he reached up a hand to tweak the end of her nose, made her believe his words like she never had before.

"Thank you, baby," her mother said, leaning in to hug Priya when Malik had moved out of the way. "You promised to bring him home and you did."

Priya hugged her mother but didn't really know what to say. She had promised her that she would bring Malik home safely, but she hadn't really believed herself then. In fact, it wouldn't be possible now if it weren't for ...

"How did you get here? How did you know where I was?" she asked them.

"Those people that came to get me, they took me to the hospital and waited while I got fixed up," Malik told her. "Then they took me back to Mama's house and told me a nurse would come by to check on me and give me more pain pills if I needed them. You know the hospital wouldn't give me a prescription."

Priya nodded her agreement with the hospital's decision. The last thing Malik needed was to become addicted to another drug.

"Then last night that nice girl came back with these plane tickets. She said you'd been hurt and that we should come and see you, to make you feel better," Karen finished.

Priya's hands shook as she listened to them, nodding. "That was very nice of them," she said. "Very nice indeed."

"The guy, I think his name is Eli, he said he might have a job for me at one of his barbershops. You know, as soon as I get myself cleaned up."

Priya didn't know who Eli was, but she presumed he was a shadow and that he too, was acting on Bas's command. A part of her wanted to pick up the phone and call him to thank him once more. There was also the hope that the call would lead to a visit from Bas, and maybe, just maybe ... No, it was foolish and she wouldn't put herself through that again. This was the way Bas wanted things and she had to respect that, no matter how much it hurt.

"That would be great, Malik," she told her brother.

"He'll get cleaned up," Karen began, reaching out a hand to take Malik's in hers, then threading her fingers through Priya's. "He's going to get that job and you're going to get better and come home and we'll be just like we were before."

Malik smiled, bending down to kiss his mother's weathered cheek. Priya smiled also, reveling in the joy of having her family here and safe. Her life would be as it was before, only improved because Malik would be better and Karen would be happier. As for Priya, she would be just fine, she would have her job and her friend Lolo, just as she'd had before she'd met Bas. Before she'd known about Shadow s.h.i.+fters and their secret society.

"So, what, are you like her personal Santa Claus now?" Rome asked from behind.

Bas stood at the hospital room door, looking through the narrow window at the reunion between Priya and her family. He'd called Nivea the day he left Priya in the hospital and asked her to check on Karen and Malik Drake. Sending the airline tickets was an afterthought, a consolation to Priya for all the unnecessary pain he'd caused her.

And none of it had soothed his guilt. Not until she hugged her brother and closed her eyes to the emotion of having him safe in her arms. Then Bas had felt satisfied, and almost happy himself.

"She deserves it after all she's been through," he said without turning to face his longtime friend.

"Eli told me about her brother and where they found him."

Bas nodded. Eli had called him the morning after he and Nivea had found Malik Drake and given him more news he didn't want to hear. "I was going to call a meeting before you left to go back home."

"I can understand that things have been a little unsteady out here," Rome said. "But I have to admit I'm trying like h.e.l.l not to be bent out of shape with all your secrecy. Why didn't you just tell me why she was hunting down the story? I could've helped sooner."

At that Bas did turn. He walked past Rome to the waiting room down the hall from Priya's room, stopping in front of a row of empty chairs.

"The moment she came here she became my problem. I needed to deal with her on my own," he told Rome, who was already shaking his head in disagreement.

"To be quite honest, she's been your problem since day one at that hotel," Rome told him. "You've been protecting her ever since."

Bas didn't argue with that fact. "I knew she wasn't going to stop until she got hurt. I couldn't let that happen," he said then pinched the bridge of his nose. "Rather, I didn't want to let that happen. I guess in the end I couldn't really stop it."

"You couldn't stop falling in love with her or claiming her as your companheiro?"

No, Bas thought. He was not going there, especially not with Rome, not here and definitely not now.

"Eli told you about the rogues and the owner of the house where he found Malik?" he asked, changing the subject.

Rome gave a slight smile, then nodded as if agreeing not to push Bas any further than he wanted to go. "Yeah, he told me. Bianca Adani is listed as the property owner."

Bas nodded. "Which begs the question of why rogues were forcing Priya to expose us. All they had to do was s.h.i.+ft in public and the task would be done."

"That wouldn't prove I was a s.h.i.+fter or that more existed and were trying to form a democracy here. Whoever was behind this wanted Priya to expose everything about the tribes, not just one side. And they definitely wanted me and my reputation to come cras.h.i.+ng down with the story."

"So this is all about you?" Bas asked. "And they call me the conceited one."

Rome chuckled then, soliciting a grin from Bas.

"It's about all of us and everything we stand for. Somebody doesn't like it and doesn't want us to succeed," Rome told Bas.

After a few moments of silence Bas looked to Rome again. "He's dead, Rome," he said slowly.

Rome slipped his hands into his front pants pockets, shrugging as he said, "We have no proof of that."

And they didn't, which meant there was a good chance the rumor wasn't true. And if that was the case, the situation with the shadows and the humans had just gotten ten times worse.

Chapter 30.

Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.

Four weeks later The latest s.h.i.+pment of guns had been late, but the savior drug was pulling in ma.s.sive amounts of money each week. Enough so that Darel not only had a house in S.E. that they used for their headquarters, but he'd also purchased his own personal condo for times when he needed to get away from the day job. A month ago he'd been at full staff, in two locations. Now, he was only working one, not sure he should trust anyone to start again on the West Coast.

He'd sent one of his best fighters out there with Palermo and both of them had ended up dead. In fact, the entire crew out there had been wiped out, no doubt by those meddling shadows. But that was okay, Darel planned to keep right on building up his clientele on the East Coast. When it was time to venture out he would know, but for now, it was time to simply enjoy his money and the power he was gaining on the streets by keeping his workers armed sufficiently.

Darel paused the moment he walked through the door of his condo. Something wasn't right. All of his furniture was where it should be, the entertainment center covering one wall in the living room with the couch and love seat facing that way, and the desk that ran along a side wall with the picture of Mount Rushmore hanging above it. Darel didn't give a d.a.m.n about the national monument, it was for humans, not him. But the picture was large enough to cover the hole in the wall that afforded him an unfettered view into his bedroom on the other side. The bedroom where he could hear someone.

Only three people knew about this place and one of them Darel didn't trust as far as he could spit. Bianca had come into his life months ago with a haze of suspicion hovering around her. Seducing Sabar had been a part of a bigger plan for her, Darel had sensed that the moment he saw her. And he'd tried to warn Sabar, who, unfortunately, was too d.a.m.ned arrogant to heed the advice. That was when Darel decided to take matters into his own hands and now, as he came to a stop in the doorway of his bedroom, he would deal with the repercussions of that decision.

"What the h.e.l.l do you think you're doing?"

Bianca turned quickly, almost falling out of the swiveling desk chair where she'd been sitting.

"You're back," she said, bringing a fluttering hand to her neck. "I was just waiting for you."

Darel wasn't buying that for one hot minute. "You always wait for me fully dressed, at my computer, doing what?" He looked around her because she'd regained her balance in the chair and had eased over so her body would cover the computer screen.

"Sending an e-mail?" he questioned but didn't really expect an honest answer from her. So instead he grabbed her by the shoulders, moving her and the chair to the side so that he now had an unfettered view.

Then he chuckled, turning slowly to see Bianca twirling the edges of her dark hair. Even guilty as h.e.l.l she was f.u.c.king gorgeous. The most perfect and delectable female s.h.i.+fter Darel had ever laid eyes on. Five feet eight inches tall, legs longer than the best o.r.g.a.s.m, b.r.e.a.s.t.s high, perky, and 100 percent real, a willing and skilled mouth always painted with the most exceptionally shaded gloss, and ice-blue eyes that could pierce through a man's soul if he let them.

In a flash Darel had his hands around her neck, pulling her from the chair and tossing her onto the bed. She gasped for breath as he climbed on top of her, shaking her head as his fingers tightened, cutting off her air supply.

"You're not as smart as you think you are, Bianca." He spoke in a deceptively calm voice. "I knew somebody had to be tipping them off. I knew it was no mistake that they kept hitting my drops."

She grabbed his wrists, smacking at them futilely as her beautiful blue eyes bulged. In moments she would s.h.i.+ft into a sleek and gorgeous white Bengal tiger.

"You've been a bad, bad, girl, Bianca."

She tried to talk, tried to explain, he figured, but Darel simply tightened his grip. "What else did you tell those shadows?"

Her head moved from side to side, the tips of her earlobes turning red. She kicked wildly, her knees slapping him in the back and Darel's d.i.c.k hardened. A nuisance distraction, this arousal that came whenever he got physical with Bianca, even if that physicality was going to result in her death.

"What did you tell them, you little s.l.u.t!" he yelled, his composure slipping as surely as his focus. "What did you tell them?"

In the next instant Darel was airborne, flying through the air to bounce off his bedroom wall and slide to the floor. Inside his cat roared as he rolled over and attempted to stand, only to be kicked in the face and subsequently knocked back against the wall. Blood filled his mouth as his eyes rolled back in his head. He was just opening his eyes, attempting to take a deep breath when his d.i.c.k was grabbed in a grip so tight it brought tears to his eyes. They were open now, wide and focused-even if the focus was growing a bit blurry. And he stared into a face he'd hoped to never see again, not in this lifetime or any other lifetime, to be exact.

"Boden," he whispered hoa.r.s.ely.

There was nothing here, Dorian Wilson thought grimly. He'd searched Priya Drake's apartment from top to bottom and there was nothing. Not one shred of information about her trip to Sedona or what she may have found there.

It was over a month ago that Ms. Drake had e-mailed him asking for his help finding her brother. He'd immediately remembered Malik Drake as one of the addicts he'd tried desperately to flip in one of their major drug investigations. That was the first thing about the e-mail that had caught his attention. The second, and by far the most important, was her reference to "cat people" and Roman Reynolds. For over a year now Reynolds had been on Dorian's radar. The failed attempt at catching the criminal masked as a litigation attorney had been thwarted by one of their own, Kalina Harper, falling for the man. But Dorian was sure there was something going on with Reynolds and his friends, something illegal that he wanted to bring down desperately. So he'd replied to Priya Drake more than a dozen times, only to be ignored.

It hadn't taken much investigating on his part to find that Ms. Drake, although she lived here in D.C., had been staying in Sedona for a while. He recalled seeing a picture of Reynolds and his friends from the president's fund-raiser in the paper and Dorian immediately linked Sebastian Perry of Perryville Resorts in Sedona, Arizona, to the missing reporter.

Days after Priya's departure, Reynolds and his two sidekicks headed out west as well. The next thing Dorian knew the media was in a frenzy over an incident with reported animal involvement. Everyone was up in arms, from the animal rights groups to the land conservationists and straight back here to the president, who immediately returned the funds contributed to his campaign by Reynolds and Delgado, LLC.

Then Priya had been injured and returned to D.C. with her family only a day before Reynolds and his wife returned. As far as news went, since then it had been quiet in Sedona, as well as here in D.C., a fact which concerned Dorian even more. That concern was what brought Dorian to Priya Drake's home today and had him breaking the very law he'd sworn to uphold as he illegally entered her apartment and searched for information he wasn't totally convinced existed.

But there had to be something, he thought, standing in the middle of her living room looking around. She had to know something.

The sunlight from the only window in the room caught something on the top shelf of a bookcase and Dorian moved in to see what it was. He frowned when he realized it was just two key chains bound together. One was from Perryville Resorts and the other from a spa. "The Alma spa," he said, reading the key chain that boasted a very relaxing-looking pool and the name in bold orange letters. The thought of a vacation flitted through his mind quickly, leaving the same way as something else caught his eye.

It was out the window and was just a movement. He shouldn't have been concerned but, h.e.l.l, he was an FBI agent, so everything concerned him. Dorian walked to the window, still holding the key chains and expecting to see nothing but someone getting out of a car, maybe to come into this building or another one on this street. He hadn't really expected to see her, not again.

Female, coffee-brown complexion, shoulder-length black hair, and athletic build. Today she wore sungla.s.ses, to cover her eyes he suspected, from him. A few months ago he'd seen her sitting outside his apartment, or rather he'd seen her eyes. Freaked the living daylights out of him. The second time he'd seen her had been after work one evening. He'd come out and walked to the parking lot as he usually did, knowing that she was waiting in her car across the street from the office to follow him. He'd driven for hours until finally deciding to book a room at the Hilton Alexandria in Old Town. The next morning she'd been gone and he'd returned to work to run the tags from her car. They'd belonged to a rental agency and their records indicated the car had been rented by a Mrs. Marjorie Jane, a woman who'd died more than ten years ago. He hadn't seen her again until today.

With disappointment a bitter tinge in the back of his throat, Dorian stuffed the key chains into his pocket and hurried out of the apartment. He was going to find out who this woman was and what she wanted with him once and for all.

Dorian took the steps two at a time and pushed through the double doors on the first floor. Running down the front steps he stopped only when he saw a long black limousine pull up. Just as the limo arrived, the blue compact car his snooping little female was driving pulled out. Cursing, he ran a hand down the back of his head and wondered again about taking that vacation. Turning down the street he walked toward the corner where he'd parked his gray, nondescript, department-issued vehicle. He never looked behind him to see who stepped out of that limousine or which apartment building that person went into.

Priya was still stunned.

"I'd like to offer you a job," Roman Reynolds had said to her as she sat across from him in his office. To his right, Kalina stood draping an arm over the back of his chair. She looked as flawless as ever with her chin-length bob, an orange and bronze color that fit her b.u.t.tery complexion perfectly. Her dress was simple, long-sleeved gray cashmere that hugged her tightly, but not vulgarly. Black leather boots that reached her knees gave her an edgy appearance and that bling-tastic rock on her left ring finger gave Priya an instant migraine.

"Are you serious?" she'd asked when the words had settled over her mind for a second or so.

Rome nodded. "I am deadly serious."

And since that little sentence was spoken in a matching tone to be followed up by that chilling stare that she'd only seen on one other man in her entire life, Priya was inclined to believe him.

"What kind of job would you offer me?" Another question which reminded her of someone who'd told her she had an insatiable need to know everything. With a deep inhale she quashed that thought, he'd been banished from her daily thinking, or at least during the daylight hours he had. At night, she was a victim of the broken-heart syndrome. She ached for Bas, for his serious looks and hesitation to laugh, his scorching kisses and overprotective gestures that foolishly made her feel like a princess.

"We'd like you to be the public relations liaison for the Stateside a.s.sembly. You would supervise and administer all of our official statements, maintaining a working dialogue between us and the humans," Kalina told her.

Priya swallowed then looked at the woman whom she'd spent quite a bit of time with over the last few weeks. After she'd returned from Sedona and when she thought she'd never see or hear from any of the ones she now knew as Shadow s.h.i.+fters again, Kalina had called two days later and invited her to lunch. From that little outing there'd come an invitation to dinner where Kalina had brought along Ary and Caprise. After that the foursome enjoyed a couple of happy hours, at Priya's suggestion and Caprise's overjoyed reaction. Still, a job offer had been the furthest thing from Priya's mind.

"But I didn't write the story. I didn't tell anyone who you really are," she insisted.

"We know you didn't and we'll be forever grateful to you for making that decision," Rome stated. "But since we've been back there's been one story after another, all speculation of course, but the questions are mounting. I've been having my secretary take messages from local reporters and international tabloids. The same goes for Nick and X. We want to say something, to issue a blanket statement that will cover us completely, but none of us are experts in that area."

Kalina spoke up next. "You are, Priya. You can write press releases and you can deliver statements. You know who we are and what we stand for, you can defend us as the unknown to the people you know so well."

Priya shook her head. "Let me get this straight, you want me to come and work for you? But I'm not a Shadow s.h.i.+fter. In fact, I'm one of the very species you don't want to reveal yourselves to."

"You're one of us," Kalina continued. "You're Bas's ma-" she started, only to be cut off by Rome clearing his throat loudly.