Body Master (5 page)

Max flicked on the lights in his empty apartment. Not that he needed to. His night vision was extraordinary—one of the few Shifter senses he could keep in this human form. But blending in with the indigenous population meant doing a lot of unnecessary things like turning on lights in the dark when he didn’t need them. Wearing clothes in a culture that had more naked bodies on the Internet than real live people. Eating dead animals but refusing to wear their fur. This planet was more screwed up than the last one was. The longer he was here, the more amazed he was that the population hadn’t already destroyed itself.

He slipped off his jacket and stood in front of the window. New York City bustled four stories down, oblivious to the number of Shifters in their midst. Although some were dangerous, most were war refugees who simply wanted to live in peace. They were the ones who lived in fear of building new lives and then having their identities discovered. The rest, well, the rest knew how to exploit a new world.

He walked into the compact kitchen to get a glass of water. Ell’s necklace hung on a hook over the sink, impossible to miss. As he drank the water, he stared at it. He’d given it to her on their wedding night on a world far from here. It was the only thing she wore the rest of the night.

Then there was the night they both had fled the persecution and genocide of the Shifter race on their last planet in a ship, only to crash here and find the same crap. He remembered how excited Ell had been when the captain announced they’d found a planet,
this
planet that their dying ship could land on. She believed there was hope here for them to have an actual life, a home, and peace. Then they crash- landed and he found her murdered, and it didn’t matter anymore. Every person on this planet could disappear for all he cared.

He touched the blue stone and felt only lifeless rock. It reminded him every single, crappy day why he pushed through this life. It was the only reason he put up with the likes of MacGregor and Seneca and the assholes running XCEL.

He dumped the rest of the water down the sink and set the glass back in the cupboard next to the only other one he owned. There was a quick knock on the door, and Max stilled, listening. Then he walked slowly to the door and sniffed the air.
Friend.

He opened the door to let in his neighbor. Apollo entered and headed straight for the kitchen. “How did the first day go?”

Max followed. “It sucked.”

Apollo didn’t appear a bit surprised as he scoured the contents of Max’s fridge. He could eat
anything
. While Max had opted for a rugged, lethal body type that would serve him well in the field, Apollo had pilfered DNA from a bodybuilder with the kind of looks Earth women were sure to fall over. Blond hair, blue eyes, square jaw, and muscular physique. Today, he was wearing a tight T-shirt and worn jeans.

Apollo pulled out a beer and popped the cap off. “More than usual, huh?”

Max took a seat at the island. “I’m working for a man who can’t stand me in an office with a bunch of agents who don’t know they hate me yet. My best moment was when my new female partner resisted the urge to shoot me on sight.”

“A female?”

Max crossed his arms. “She’d kick your ass.”

Apollo grinned. “You know how I love a challenge.”

A strange possessiveness surprised Max, and he shook it off. “Not this one. I need her.”

“Be careful talking like that. You might actually get yourself a woman.”

Max ignored Apollo’s challenge. “I had a woman. That’s enough for one lifetime.”

Apollo shook his head. “It’s been two years, Max. I don’t think Ell would agree with that. I think she’d want you to move on. In fact, I know it. She was the considerate one.”

His chest tightened. Even though Ell rarely left his thoughts, he hadn’t heard her name in so long, would never utter it himself. Just the sound of it hurt. “She never had to deal with humans.”

Apollo shrugged. “They aren’t all bad. Me? I like the women.”

Max shook his head. Spoken like a man who’d never had his heart broken. “Doesn’t matter anyway. This agent won’t accept us. She’s lost too many close friends to Shifters.”

“So if she hates you so much, why did you pick her? Is she hot?”

Max rubbed his fingers where the memory of her heat was imprinted. “I just need her skills.”

Apollo grinned. “We’re still talking hot women here.”

Max said, “Not those kinds of skills. She’s the best agent XCEL has. I don’t know why, but she’s taken down a lot of Shifters. It’s not just her weapons or the way she runs her ops. She’s different from the rest of them. Better. And I need the best if I’m going to find who killed Ell.”

Apollo slammed his bottle on the island and raised his hands. “Are you serious? I thought you were taking this job to finally start over again. Christ, you haven’t changed at all in two years.”

“My hair is longer,” Max noted.

Apollo ignored him. “You dragged me off that ship and halfway across the country tracking this guy—”

“Did you have somewhere else to go?” Max asked.

“We’ve covered every inch of Manhattan looking for him,” Apollo continued.

“Apparently not
every
inch,” Max muttered.

“Wasted God knows how much time and how much money—”

Max narrowed his eyes at his best friend. “He killed Ell, remember?”

“When are you going to let this guy go?”

“When I find him and kill him.”

Apollo placed both his hands on the island. “And what if you don’t?”

“I will. I have help now. I have Seneca. I have XCEL—all their resources and intelligence,” Max said. “The killer is still here, in this city, and sooner or later he’ll show up on XCEL’s radar.”

Apollo leaned forward and pointed a finger at Max. “Listen to me. Ell was in the wrong place at the wrong time and ran into someone who wanted to keep her quiet permanently. Maybe it was the bastard who betrayed us back on Govan—”

“It’s him. She left the mark of traitor in her own blood,” Max said, feeling the anger rise despite the fact that Apollo was his best friend. “She knew we’d understand. Hell, she practically ID’d him for us.”

“With what? We don’t have a name. We don’t have a description.”

“I have his scent. That’s all we need.”

Apollo shook his head. “You keep saying this ‘we’ stuff. There is no ‘we.’ I’m done.”

“I’m not asking for your help,” Max said.

“Oh, right,” Apollo said. “You have a new partner to help you out. Does she know that this guy practically wiped out our entire race by betraying us to the government? Does she know that he killed Ell because she discovered who he was? Does she know that she’s next in line if you two get close to him?”

“Nope.” Max had no intention of Seneca ever getting that close. The traitor was
his
. He was the only one who could find him. The only one with the traitor’s scent permanently ingrained in his memory.

“You are playing with fire, my friend. If she’s that good, she’ll figure it out. Just imagine how pleased she’s going to be when she finds out you’re using her for your own nefarious needs.”

“She won’t,” Max said. At least, not from him.

“Hey, it’s your funeral.” Apollo drained the beer and opened the fridge for another. “You sure you don’t want one?”

Max waved him off. “I have to go back to work tonight and I don’t need a reason for my partner to turn me in.”

Apollo popped open a fresh beer. “Doing anything interesting?”

“Going Shifter hunting.”

Apollo’s eyebrows rose. “Good luck with that.”

Max eased off the chair and rolled his tight shoulders. “Shifter hunting is easy. It’s the friendly fire that worries me.”

B
y 11:00 P.M. Seneca was standing in the middle of Dave’s Bar & Grill. There was blood everywhere. It covered the floor and walls, was spattered across the mirrors and neon signs, and had dried in a crusty layer over the bar.

This was what it looked like when six people were slaughtered. She closed her eyes and let the ghosts whisper to her. In her mind’s eye, she envisioned the fight, heard the screams, and watched the blood flow. And she saw Dillinger—slashing, roaring, and smiling. Anger welled up in her core, feeding a fire that would never die. Noko was right. She couldn’t quit. Who would watch over the good people?

“Find anything?”

Wrenched from deep within herself, she jumped at the voice and spun around to find Dempsey standing behind her. She hadn’t even heard him come in. In the doorway, he was part shadow, part man, and all trouble.

Noko’s words came to her.
You have a shape within you as well.

No, I don’t,
Seneca thought. She had a destiny that she didn’t ask for, didn’t want. Her grandmother could believe whatever she wanted to. The biggest concern Seneca had at the moment was keeping Dempsey from learning too much about her.

“Nothing that wasn’t in the report,” she said.

His eyes shone iridescent for a moment, and she caught a flash of suspicion.
Too bad, big boy.
Max Dempsey may be working for XCEL but he was on a need-to-know basis with her.

She watched him move around the room, surveying the gruesome arena until he came to the pool table in the center. He pressed a finger to the stained felt, and blood oozed up through the fabric. The memory of Jack and his bloody claw resurfaced, and her hand was on her gun before she realized it.

Dempsey swore softly, and she froze. She took a deep breath and let her hand drop, surprised by the sudden emotional overload. What was wrong with her? As much as she hated Shifters, she wouldn’t kill them for no good reason . . . She stopped right there, realizing that might not be entirely true.

“Something wrong?” Dempsey was standing in front of her, a curious look on his face.

The last thing she needed was for him to suspect she was any more than a typical shapeshifter hunter. “No. I’m fine.” She wasn’t. Too many death scenes, too little sleep, too far from hope. “Are you picking anything up?”

His gaze lingered on her for a few moments, and then he shook his head. “I can recognize Shifters on sight, but I don’t get any residual impressions. Just his scent, which is strong, and not in a good way. He smelled like he spent some time in the gutters.” Then he looked at her. “How about you?”

Did he know? Impossible. “Don’t look at me. I’m not a freak.”

A flicker of resentment darkened his eyes at her insinuation.
A freak like you.

He said, “I know you aren’t used to working with a Shifter without shooting first, but I’d appreciate it if you’d cool the hostility act. I want this guy as much as you do, and we’re both going to lose him if we don’t cooperate.”

“So you can write the report that’s going to put us out of business?” Seneca knew she shouldn’t go there, but she couldn’t help herself. This was
wrong
.

Dempsey eyed her. “That’s not the point of this exercise.”

“Then what is the point? To prove that you are the superior species? Maybe replace us completely?”

He squinted at her. “You’ve put a lot of thought into this, haven’t you?”

“It’s my life,” she muttered. “You take over here and then what? A Shifter president? A Shifter Supreme Court judge? Or better yet, just steal their DNA, kill them off, and step into their shoes.”

His anger showed for the first time. “Considering how this country runs, that might not be a bad idea.”

She gritted her teeth. “It might be a screwed up country, but it’s
my
screwed up country. You have no right to it. You weren’t invited.”

He took a step toward her, bringing his shadow closer. It reached out as if to swallow her up. His voice was raspy and raw, his eyes locked on her. “We had no choice. Big difference. I don’t want to be here any more than you want me here. And if
your
people spent as much time on technology as they do on building weapons to blow each other up, then we big, bad Shifters would be gone by now.”

Jerk. “If your people hadn’t pissed off the last planet you were on, you wouldn’t have had to leave it.” She knew as soon as she’d said it that she’d made a mistake.

The shadow around him pulsed brightly, a shape of a demon itching to be freed. It turned a deep, dark crimson as he moved closer to her. She fought the urge to step back and put her hand back on her gun.

“We didn’t piss them off. We simply tried to live there.”

She really wanted to push him over the edge. Maybe he’d do something stupid like kill her and then the Committee would know that they were wrong to trust Shifters. On the other hand, that would require that she die. It was a difficult decision, but finally she opted for righteous silence.

Then Dempsey turned his back to her, tension filling his body as he took a few deep breaths. The shadow had stilled and faded by the time he faced her again.

“I don’t care what you think of me, Seneca Thomas. I don’t care what you think of Shifters. And I don’t care if you think it’s not fair,” he said, his tone under careful control. “I want this bastard, and you’re going to help me get him.”