Body Master (30 page)

Puck winced. “He’s smarter than I am. Always has been.”

She smiled. “Smarter doesn’t mean right. Right is what’s in your heart. Think with your heart, Puck.”

“My brother doesn’t like it when I think.” Puck moved to a small table against the wall and picked up a syringe full of something she was sure was meant for her. Seneca’s pulse sped up. She didn’t have much time left. He was going to drug her again. “You’re right, you know. I won’t join you.”

Puck came to her, syringe in hand. “My brother always gets what he wants.”

“I’d rather die than betray my people. I’d rather fight your brother than do what I know in my heart is wrong.”

Puck held the needle inches away as he stared at her.
Please,
she thought.
Please listen.

“We aren’t different from you,” she whispered, fear lacing her voice. She couldn’t win this alone. She needed help. “We’re all related, Puck. We all love.”

Puck’s face reddened as he jabbed the needle into her shoulder. “I am sorry.”

UVC light flooded Max’s tiny cell. His head was cloudy thanks to the aftereffects of the tranquilizers. He’d been stripped down to his jeans. And Seneca was nowhere to be seen, which worried him, a lot. It occurred to him about five minutes after he woke up here that Hager didn’t need him. If he had Carl, then he knew all about XCEL and the Committee, and probably a whole lot more than Max could ever give him. And Hager knew Max would never agree to work for him.

Which left only one conclusion: Hager had wanted Seneca all along. And the only reason he would want her was if he had discovered her ability to identify and force-shift Shifters.

“Shit,” Max said under his breath. He should have realized that the first time they tried to grab her in the parking garage, but he thought it was for the XCEL agent contract. He’d missed a vital clue.

Which led him to the next question: Why was
he
still alive? An excellent question, and one he’d been thinking about for the past hour. The only reason he could come up with was as incentive—to force Seneca to work for Hager. She would do it for him. He knew that without a doubt.

Max laid his head back against the cold concrete wall. He’d trusted Carl with his life and Seneca’s. How could he have not seen that betrayal? And now Seneca would be at Hager’s beck and call, and Max would be her motivation. He clenched his fists tightly at the thought of Seneca bound and broken. He’d rather die than reduce her to that.

He studied the cell again. Four solid concrete walls. One small door bolted shut. UVC light overhead, ten feet up and protected by thick glass. He’d already tried to smash the door in his human form with no success. The light was too high to reach and there was no way to destroy the UVC bulb. If only he could shift, he was certain he’d be able to get through the door.

But if he shifted under the UVC light, he could die right here and Hager would live on. He’d never attempted to shift in the UV rays of daylight. On the other hand, Shifters had an uncanny way of adapting to their changing environments. Maybe he’d be the lucky one. Besides, he only needed to be alive long enough to save Seneca.

Max looked up at the light. He had two choices: Take his chances to shift and save Seneca, or sit here and be used to control her.

Max got to his feet and felt something in his pocket. He reached in and found Ell’s necklace. It spun on the chain, its inner light brilliant. Ell had always believed in hope, blindly and without reservation. A crazy faith that he never understood. And she always had faith in him, even when he didn’t.

Noko’s words echoed in his mind.
You have a purpose here. Listen carefully, and you will find it.

He clenched the necklace in his fist. He’d found it.

Max closed his eyes and concentrated on every cell of his being. He thought how it would feel to fly, high above like an eagle, seeing a perfect Earth. He dredged up tiny scraps of hope from the people he cared about. He prayed to a god he didn’t have.

And made his choice.

S
eneca awoke in the center of a low, underground chamber. She lifted her heavy head. Through the drug-induced fog, she saw a half dozen Shifters lining the walls and chatting among themselves.

Straight ahead was a distinguished forty-something man in a gray suit sitting in a leather chair with his legs crossed, watching her.
Hager.
Behind him was Puck, quietly staring at the floor.

She looked around for Max but didn’t see him. The fog dissipated a little more, and she took a split-second inventory of herself. Rope bound her hands on her lap, and each of her feet was tied to a chair leg. Aside from the drug hangover, she appeared injury-free. So far.

She was still underground, in a low-arched wine cellar about thirty feet wide and longer than she could see. Racks of wine hugged the walls and created partitions down the length of the wide tunnel. No windows and no doors in sight. She couldn’t turn her head to see anything behind her because it felt like it would fall off.

“Welcome back to the living,” the man in the gray suit said. The room became noticeably quieter as every head turned to him. He stood and approached her. “The name is Hager. Welcome to my humble abode.”

“Fuck you,” she whispered, her throat raw.

One eyebrow cocked. “How eloquent.”

“Okay, try this. Fuck you, you miserable piece of shit. Better?”

He laughed. “You are exactly how I imagined. I have an offer for you.”

Go to hell, dickhead,
she thought as she tried the ropes, but they were nice and tight. Her limbs felt tired and sluggish. If she had better control, she’d rush Hager, taking the chair with her. Then she’d force-shift his ass, maybe a few times. She’d never attempted that, but who knew? It might even kill him. That’d be worth the price of admission alone. Right now, though, she needed more time to recover.

Hager continued. “As you may be aware, we are creating a consortium of Shifters to protect ourselves.”

“That’s bullshit. You’re building an army.”

He ignored her and waved to the others. “These are my borough lords.”

She scanned the group of men, who stared stoically at her. All Shifters. All looking perfectly human and normal. “And here I thought you guys just wanted world peace.”

“Peace takes too long on your planet. So we’ve decided to do it our own way,” Hager answered. “And we could use someone with your talents to make this transition of power a more painless process.”

“Transition of power. Wow, you make it sound so easy.”

“I’m giving you a wonderful opportunity,” he said. “And of course, you would have special privileges.”

She shook her head slowly. “What could you possibly give me to make me even think about working for you?”

“Max Dempsey. He’s here. And he’s alive. For now.”

The blood froze in her veins, clearing her head with remarkable speed.

“On the other hand, if you refuse,” Hager continued, “then we would have no choice but to terminate him.”

It shouldn’t have surprised her that he’d use Max to force her to work for him. She cast a look at Puck, but he just pressed his lips together and looked down at the ground. “And what would we be doing in your organization?”

Hager smiled. “Max would be protecting you. I wouldn’t want to take any chances with your precious gift.”

Her gift. Ah, all her brain cells clicked in unison. And that explained why she was alive and why he wanted her to join him.

Hager crossed his arms over his chest. “You can force Shifters to shift against their will.”

There was a collective gasp from the Shifters lining the walls. So Hager hadn’t told them.
What else hasn’t he told them?
she wondered. It might be worth finding out.

She laughed lightly. “That’s impossible. No one can do that.”

“You can.”

Seneca looked at the closest borough lord, a handsome, thirty-something guy with short brown hair and a deep chin dimple. He looked like a stockbroker. “Sounds crazy to me. Do you believe him?”

The dimple guy gave her a cocky smirk. “He’s the boss.”

“Yes, he is,” she said. “After all, he got you this far, right? You
all
owe him. He saved your asses when he found a ship to leave Govan. He crashed the ship on this perfect planet with the perfect race to replicate. I mean, talk about lucky.”

She watched Hager’s eye twitch as she continued. “Because none of this would have happened if the Shifters weren’t betrayed on Govan. You could have stayed there with your families, happy and lazy. Mowing your lawns on the weekends, working those day jobs to buy ponies and pizzas. But then there was the traitor, the one who turned in your wives and your kids to the government. Who fed the genocide.”

Seneca sensed the change in the room as the Shifters began to frown. She leaned toward dimple guy. “Who’d you lose?”

“That’s enough,” Hager said tightly.

The Shifter squinted back at her. “What are you saying?”

She rolled her shoulders. The fog from the drug was wearing off nicely, which was good because things were about to get really interesting. “I’m just pointing out the odds, that’s all. Now you have a chance to start over again, with Hager here as your king.” Then she smiled at him. “Maybe Hager is the lucky one.”

The Shifters were all staring at Hager, thinking. Thinking was good. It took time, and time was what she needed. Seneca placed her feet firmly on the hard floor. Hager stood six feet from her. If only she could get him to move one or two steps closer.

Hager glared at her. “Don’t listen to her. She’s just trying to save herself.”

“You should know,” she said with a smile. “That’s what you do best. Right, Puck?”

Every Shifter turned to Puck, who was watching her and frowning deep in thought. Then Hager stepped in and blocked out his brother. His face flushed with fury. “He’s an imbecile.”

One more step and he’d be within reach. “Tell them the truth, Puck. They deserve to know what happened to their families. Who betrayed them to the Govan government. Who orchestrated their escape. Who stranded them here with no options but to work for him?”

Hager pulled out a gun. “Your services are no longer required.”

Hager aimed the gun at her head. Time was up.

A small voice arose, laced with a thick Irish accent. “Hager did it.”

Her relief was shattered by a flash of light, and Seneca closed her eyes, bracing for the bullet. Suddenly, she was yanked by her shoulder and hurtled against the wall, chair and all—amid a chaotic roar of yells and destruction. It took her a moment to realize that she wasn’t dead, only that the lights had been knocked out.

The chair had broken in half, and she struggled to kick loose of it. She managed to free herself and rolled to her knees to find mass pandemonium, furniture splintering and bottles smashing. Shifter shadows collided—some slashing, some running. One shadow looked familiar, and her chest tightened when she realized it was Max.

Then gunshots filled the air. She hit the floor as bullets ricocheted around her and voices yelled, “XCEL!”

XCEL agents flooded in behind Max, following his lead as they rushed the room. He hadn’t expected to find Carl leading them here to wage war against Hager. They weren’t even upset to see him in Shifter form. All he cared about was that they were here. Amid the bedlam, he tried to reach Hager, but there were too many Shifters in the way. Max slashed at a Shifter’s face and he dropped in his tracks.

Max looked up and saw Hager escape down the tunnel. He cast a quick look at Seneca. She looked dazed but safe, and XCEL would protect her. He pushed past the remaining Shifters and followed Hager through the tunnel. Hager disappeared through a doorway up ahead and Max raced through it, taking the stairs three at a time to the top. It opened to a small, decrepit office with one door that led to a shipyard—and daylight. Hager was running across the deserted yard.