Body Master (26 page)

With humans like that, who needs Shifter enemies,
Max thought.

Seneca tapped her fingers on the table. “But you don’t know your sponsor’s name?”

Dr. Franklin shrugged. “I don’t care.”

Max heard a ring, and Seneca pulled out her cell phone, read it, and frowned. Then she looked at him through the glass, and he knew something bad had happened.

She stood and Dr. Franklin jumped to his feet as she walked toward the door. He said to her, “Is that it? What about my lab? My research notes? Those belong to me.”

Seneca stopped and turned to face him. “Oh, yes. There is one more thing.” Then she punched Dr. Franklin in the mouth. He grabbed his face with a scream and dropped like a brick. She leaned over him, and said, “That was for the
people
you killed, you monster.”

Then she walked out.

Carl looked at Max in utter shock and respect. “Remind me not to piss her off.”

Max smiled for the first time all day. Now
that
was the woman he knew and loved.

“You really care about her,” Carl added.

Too much.
“She’s my partner.”

Carl’s eyebrows rose. “I think she’s a little more than that.”

Much more.
Max turned for the door to meet up with her. “She can’t be.”

“Are you sure this is the place Bart wanted to meet?” Dempsey asked her. He was standing next to her in the shadows of abandoned factory buildings in Red Hook.

It was late again—dark, stinky, and bitter cold with the breeze off the bay. Why was it always that way? One of these days, she’d like to try a nine-to-five job with HVAC and donuts. Like normal people.

“This is the address he texted me from his phone,” she told him.

Dempsey studied the cluster of dark buildings surrounding them. He was in human form, but his eyes flashed iridescent as he used his Shifter vision. “Does he always text you?”

“Sometimes. Depends how much he’s had to drink and how coordinated his fingers are. But—”

Dempsey turned and looked at her, and Seneca’s heart beat just a little faster. She liked the way he did that—all intense and serious, and with just enough smolder to let her know he was thinking about her—probably naked.

“But what?” Dempsey asked, his voice soft.

She said, “I’ve been trying to call him back for two hours. No answer, no reply.”

Dempsey shrugged. “Maybe he passed out somewhere.”

“Maybe,” Seneca said, but it didn’t ease the free- floating anxiety she was battling. Something didn’t feel right. Bart was ten minutes late. He was
never
late.

Dempsey turned his gaze to the night sky. “Nice way to deck Dr. Franklin.”

She bit her lip. It was very unprofessional, and MacGregor would have kicked her butt for doing it. But she’d been so furious and sickened with his psychotic babble. And then when he had the nerve to ask about his research papers . . . “I didn’t have a gun with me.”

Dempsey smiled at that. “You realize that the Shifters he was working on were criminals that XCEL had caught.”

She hadn’t forgotten that part, or the fact that she’d joined XCEL to rid her planet of Shifters. Or that if they got rid of the Shifters, that would include Dempsey. She was purposely trying not to go down that road.

“They still deserved better.” She checked her phone again. “Bart is fifteen minutes late. I don’t like this.”

“Neither do I.” His voice was raw and thick. He’d shifted. “We have company.”

Seneca reached for her guns as shadows burst from the buildings all around them.

“What the hell!” she said as she fired into them.

“Follow me!” Dempsey roared. Five Shifters moved in as she ran with Dempsey, getting off shots when she could. She had both her Glocks, the tranq gun, and a protective vest, but no night vision.

Dempsey lunged at the Shifter standing between them and the closest building and knocked him out of the way. Seneca sprinted past him toward the nearest door. She kicked the warehouse door and its hinges broke. She pushed her way inside and hid behind the doorjamb. That was when she noticed that Dempsey wasn’t with her. She peered out to find him fighting off the five attackers single-handedly. Loud grunts and screams echoed between the buildings.

He tells me to take cover, and then he plays hero.
She was going to kill him. She stepped outside. “Hey, dickheads. Aren’t you forgetting someone?”

For a moment, none of them paid any attention to her.

“Hello!” she hollered and waved her guns over her head. “Wanted woman here.”

Then two of them peeled off and came after her. That left Dempsey with three and a fighting chance. She turned and ran back into the building and through the littered rooms. Without night vision, she had to rely on the ambient city light filtering through grimy windows. She tripped over uneven floorboards and skirted rusted machinery. A set of stairs appeared up ahead. The stairwell was partially blocked by fallen beams, but she managed to squeeze between them.

The Shifters were right behind her, and she heard their voices when they reached the bottom and realized they couldn’t fit. They’d have to shift back to human, which would give her time. She raced up the stairs, feeling pretty good until she heard wood creak and splinter.

Or
they could just use their superhuman strength to clear the beams. Damn Shifters. She moved her ass, heavy footsteps behind her. The trick was keeping them interested but not too close. When Dempsey was done outside, he’d come after these guys.

She hoped.

Moonlight illuminated the soaring second-floor space. Long conveyor belts stretched the length of the open area and catwalks crisscrossed the ceiling three stories up, linking steel storage tanks. Thick chains hung down like nooses. The Shifters were closing in behind her. She holstered one of her guns, jumped up on a conveyor belt, and ran as fast as she could over the busted track, tossing everything she got her hand on behind her to slow them down.

A catwalk ladder was dead ahead and Seneca sped up, hit the end of the track, and leaped onto the ladder. It gave a groan as she slammed into it and prayed it held together, at least until she got to the top. The catwalk was just within reach when they wrenched the ladder hard to the right and she nearly lost her grip. The Shifters shook it again, and her feet slipped off, leaving her hanging by one hand. She fired at them and scrambled to regain her footing.

With one mighty lunge, she reached for the catwalk and pulled herself up through the small opening in the grating. One of the Shifters was climbing the ladder right behind her. She crawled on her hands and knees out of reach as he poked through and made a grab for her. He grunted as he tried to push himself up farther, but his shoulders were stuck.

“Today is not your day, buddy.” She gripped his head with one hand, concentrated, and said, “Shift.”

His eyes widened, and his body fought the terrible transformation without success. He stared at her as the contortions consumed him. Seconds later, he dropped and landed headfirst on the floor. The other Shifter stood over him as he flailed in agony. Then he looked up at her.

“Surprise,” she said, pulling herself to her feet.

The Shifter growled and ascended the ladder. She waited, knowing she was out of reach.
This is going to be a lot easier than I planned,
she thought. Right up until he got to the top, climbed over the railing, and dropped onto the catwalk in front of her.

Shit
. She pulled out the tranq gun and shot at his chest. The cartridge passed through him and hit the wall. His face split into a big grin.

“Right,” she said, tossed the gun over the railing, and ran.

The metal structure shook as the Shifter chased her. She heard bolts snap and metal whine. The maze of catwalks bounced and flexed with every step. A few of the grates were missing and she leapt over those with the Shifter close behind her.

Seneca turned a corner and realized that it dead-ended at a massive steel tank. She stopped and glanced through the grates—at least three stories down. The Shifter had her trapped.

He chuckled as she turned to face him and backed up. They moved in unison—him advancing, her retreating. She looked down again, searching for Dempsey. All quiet below. She pulled out her Glocks, knowing they were useless at this point.

Then a grate popped several screws when she stepped on it and gave under her weight. A plan formed as she lifted her foot off the bad grate and took a giant step back.

“You think you can beat us,” he hissed, enjoying his advantage. “You pathetic piece of flesh. I could slice you in half.”

She countered, “Maybe. But I have something you don’t.”

“Your little guns?” he said.

She just smiled. “Come any closer, and I’ll show you.”

He stepped on the loose grate and reached for her. She aimed and shot at the few remaining screws holding the grate up. He threw his head back and laughed. Then he was gone, crashing through the metal and hitting the concrete with a bone-crunching thud.

“I have brains.” She leaned back against the tank to calm her pounding pulse and closed her eyes for a moment. That was too close. How many lives did she have left?

Then she pushed off the tank and made her way back down. She’d just reached the bottom when Dempsey came running in, still in Shifter form. She scanned his formidable Shifter body. No injuries that she could see, and for that she was grateful. He looked powerful, and for the first time, she realized there was beauty in his Primary form. She’d been too busy hunting them to notice.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She reloaded her guns. “You know, I’m getting damned sick of being ambushed. I assume the others are dead or gone.”

“Both.” Dempsey checked the fallen Shifter. “He’s dead. Where’s the other one?”

“I shifted him and he fell three stories on his head. He’s a goner.”

Dempsey stood up and shifted back to human. “And I have a feeling Bart isn’t doing too well either. They used his cell phone to set us up.”

She’d tried to come up with another explanation, but now foreboding loomed. Bart was in serious jeopardy, she was sure of it. “Let’s check his place. Maybe his phone was lost or stolen.”

Dempsey gave her a dubious look. “Your optimism is sweet.”

She walked by him, guns at the ready. “There’s nothing sweet about me.”

Bart’s place could be described in three words: tiny, dirty, and orange. Max scanned the disaster that stretched from the corner kitchen to the living room to the bathroom. “I can’t even tell if it’s been ransacked.”

Seneca was wading through piles of clothes, empty bottles, and pizza boxes toward the kitchen area. “I can’t believe anyone
lives
like this.”

Max headed to the bathroom, which was the only other room in the apartment. If Bart had left anything behind, it’d be here, somewhere in this sea of garbage. He stopped, catching a faint scent. “Shifters.”

Seneca had her guns out in a flash. “Here? Now?”

“It’s been a few days. One, maybe two Shifters,” Max said. “It’s a little hard to separate the scents in here.”

She holstered the weapons. “I can imagine. This is one place I wouldn’t want super olfactory powers. Picking up anything else?”

Max followed the scent to the couch. “Yes. At least one of them was female.”

Seneca stared at him. “A female Shifter? I thought you said they were wiped out.”

“All the children were lost, but a few women survived.”

“Enough of them to save your people?” she asked.

It was his turn to stare.
To save his people?
He wasn’t used to hearing that or even having anyone care enough to think about it. “Probably not. Our race is destined to die out here.”

Seneca pursed her lips, her expression pensive. What was she thinking? He didn’t know anymore. The way she looked at him now was so different. She’d given herself to him. She’d defended the Shifters as her own to Dr. Franklin. She’d changed.