The Last Warrior (Shifters Unbound #13) - Jennifer Ashley Page 0,66
took her from the park and across the lake, blue and vast.
Beneath her came Ben’s voice. “Fuck, fuck, fuck. If you drop me now, I can’t swim. Fuck!”
Rhianne circled and headed landward, feeling a call to the place from which she’d departed. They flew over the dark blue waters that reflected the clouds and the endless sky and toward the green of the park beyond.
The park and its trees flashed beneath them. The fissure in the earth had filled in as though, deprived of its meal, it had decided to close its mouth and sulk.
Rhianne spied her clothes scattered across the grass, and the tree under which Millie had stood, though Millie was long gone.
She also saw plenty of people watching, gaping as she brought Ben to the ground. She released him when his feet touched down, then she furled her wings and landed beside him with a gentle bump.
The watchers held up phones like Millie’s, peering at them as though they held the wisdom of the universe.
Ben, shaking, brushed himself off. His shirt was shredded, and blood streaked his skin, but by their scent, Rhianne could tell the wounds weren’t deep.
Ben took in the gawkers and all the phones pointed toward him and Rhianne.
“Shit,” he muttered. “Now we’re going to have Shifter Bureau on us.”
Chapter Sixteen
Ben was amazed how quickly Shifter Bureau responded. Not two minutes after Rhianne had finished rescuing him from the hungry earth, sirens sounded.
It wasn’t unusual to hear sirens in this city, but police vehicles hurtling straight into the park as far as the paved roads let them was rarer. When they could approach no closer, at least two dozen patrolmen slammed out of cars and SUVs and headed for Ben and Rhianne.
Any other time Ben would have been amused at the number of New Orleans residents who suddenly turned and melted into the shadows at the sight of the cops. Under the circumstances, Ben wanted to join them, but he doubted he’d evade the police while rushing off with a giant eagle.
Rhianne fluffed out her feathers, indifferent to the mob flowing toward them. She rubbed her beak against one wing as though polishing off the dirt she’d acquired as she’d rescued Ben.
“Better change back,” Ben said to her.
Rhianne cocked her head, beautiful golden red feathers ruffling in the breeze, and fixed a very intelligent, brown-black eye on him.
“Seriously,” Ben said. “They’ll have tranqs.”
Rhianne only gazed at him, then she studied the sky as though contemplating launching herself into it and getting the hell out of here. Ben wouldn’t blame her if she did.
The police surrounded them, guns drawn.
Ben, no stranger to this routine, lifted his hands. “Take it easy. Don’t scare her.” He deliberately stepped in front of Rhianne.
He wasn’t sure what good his gallant gesture would do, because any bullet would go right through him and into her.
The police didn’t move. Ben and Rhianne didn’t move. Ben wondered how long they could keep this up. A few minutes? Half an hour? Maybe a day before somebody decided they were bored and started to shoot?
One of the men, of course, brought up a tranq gun.
“There’s no need for that,” Ben said. “She’s perfectly tame.”
Rhianne bent her head to Ben, her lethal beak open. Ben sensed Rhianne somewhere behind her dark eyes, the beautiful woman he was falling in love with. Mostly what he saw was the wildness of a creature containing itself so it wouldn’t hurt him.
“Change back,” he whispered.
Rhianne scrutinized him a moment as though trying to figure out where she knew him from.
Ben thought he wasn’t getting through, but then the air seemed to glisten. The eagle’s feathers shrank, its arms came down, and the bird vanished, leaving Rhianne standing in its place.
Her glorious hair flowed around her, covering her body from the lurid stares of the watchers and the police.
A black van had joined the police vehicles. Four men in suits emerged from it, two carrying tranq rifles.
“Get ready,” Ben said. “Here they come.”
“Who comes?” Rhianne’s voice was a touch hoarse as though she had trouble transitioning from the eagle’s cries to human speech.
“Shifter Bureau. They’re a big network that regulates Shifters in this country and all over the world.”
“Regulates?” Rhianne repeated.
“You know, oppresses them, keeps them under lock and key so they don’t hurt anybody.”
“I wasn’t going to hurt anybody,” Rhianne said, puzzled.
“Yeah, well, they usually don’t believe that. Plus, you’re not wearing a Collar. Crap. I should have asked Dimitri to send me a fake one on the QT.”