Blaze of Glory - Liberty Parker Page 0,26

as I point at his ear.

He hesitantly looks over at me before stating, “I’ll give you an earpiece, but not a mic. Blaze cannot afford to hear your voice right now. It’ll break his concentration. Deal?”

“Whatever, as long as I can hear his voice, my animal and I will settle down,” I admit.

He leans over and pulls open a drawer. Disabling the microphone, he hands it over to me. “It’s already Bluetoothed in, you’ll be able to hear everything I do.” I nod my head then reach over and grab the earpiece from his outstretched hand. Slipping the tiny piece inside of my ear, I listen to the activity as I watch it stream live, in real time in front of me.

I silently watch as each car is stopped, and victim after victim is hauled away in an unmarked van. There’s also a van that’s taking the cuffed drivers and bidders away. Then, as if my life is flashing in front of my eyes, bullets begin peppering at our men as the sniper Decoder warned Blaze about begins targeting them.

“No,” I stammer out, throwing my hands over my eyes. I can hear everything happening, but I feel as if I’m not watching it, it’s not really happening.

Unfortunately, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Blaze

“Take cover!” I yell out, we can recover from a nick, but no one can come back from a fatal wound… not even shifters.

We can die just like most humans… car wrecks, knife stabs, falling off a cliff. It’s all a possibility in the realm of things; we can shift and heal bruises, scrapes and broken bones, but we aren’t exceptions to all. Most of the time shifters feel invincible, so we have to keep in mind that we are sometimes vulnerable as well.

As a bullet whizzes by the top of my head, my leopard begins to shed my skin. My hands and arms begin sprouting fur. When I’m in mortal danger, it’s his job to come out and protect me. Knowing all the humans are busy protecting their lives and not watching me, I allow him to take control. As my bones break and reform, I give myself wholly over to my leopard. My claws begin to form and I hunch over as my clothes begin to shred. Looking down, my hands are now that of paws. My leopard is as white as the driven snow with pale black and grey splotches. My eyes sharpen and my ears perk up; taking in all of the noises surrounding me.

“Shift, it’s time to take out the trash,” I order my men through our mental link. “Just don’t let the humans see you doing it.”

“They’re all hiding and can’t see us,” Bolt responds to me.

“Let’s take them out, I’m tired of fucking around with these pussies,” Kane hisses through the link. All of my men agree and I can feel the power surging around me as we all take on the form of our predators. It’s time to go hunting!

As a finely tuned group, we all take up surrounding areas. We break apart, some going North, some going South, while the rest of us take vigil at the front and back.

“Decoder?” I call his name through the pride link.

“I’m here,” he replies.

“We need to get these human officers out of here, Decoder, can’t have any casualties or fatalities.”

“The best I can do is call them back. You know Chief Anderson’s not going to leave until everyone is safe and accounted for,” he responds. “I’m calling him now, hopefully he answers.”

“He will if you call from the club’s land line,” I inform him, knowing that the Chief is aware we have cameras surrounding us.

“10-4,” he states before breaking our link. Looking over in the Chief’s direction, I see him pull out his phone then answer. His eyes scrunch together as he briefly argues with Decoder before eventually nodding his head.

“The officers and Chief Anderson will be pulling away shortly. Once they do, we’ll all charge in,” I direct my men and hear all of them acknowledge me. I watch as all of the patrol cars pull away, and then state one word, “Go!”

You can hear our paws digging into the grass as we all charge, focused on gaining ground and entering the factory, ducking and weaving bullets as they are directed at our animals. I hear a whine come from one of our men who then states, “Just a graze, I’m fine.”

No one stops in their pursuits, if someone was