out and put an end to the chaos and dangers surrounding us.
Sitting in the living room, I’m sipping on a cup of coffee while waiting for Shyla to drop off Scar for the day and Glorianna to join me. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a shadow swiftly moving along the top of the tree line. Standing up, I slosh my scalding coffee on my hand and curse myself for the stupidity. “Ouch. Fuck, that hurt,” I curse. Setting the mug on the coffee table, I swiftly move to the window and look upward. Squinting my eyes, I allow my leopard to take hold and use her sight to see clearer and sharper than that of my human vision. A burst of light catches my attention and I swivel my head in that direction. The shadow reappears only to disappear into thin air, then, the light dissipates as if it had never occurred.
“Great, I’m losing my fucking mind,” I utter as I hear the front door open from behind me.
“The cavalry has arrived,” Shyla announces as I hear two sets of footsteps join her. “My shadow is as usual up my ass.” I know she means Caspen who hasn’t left her side since the first night they left here together. One night my ass. I internally giggle. She’s not willing to let him leave her side any more than he’s allowing her to be out of his line of sight. They’re like magnets—one moves and the other reacts instantaneously. I teased her the other day saying he was her peanut butter and she was his jelly. Turning my head in their direction, Glorianna is standing behind them with a smirk clearly visual on her face.
“These two,” Glorianna says, pointing between my best friend and her newly acquired mate, “are fighting each other and the mating pull. I’ve never met such hardheaded people in my lifetime.” She shakes her head in dismay as she reaches around and plucks Scar out of Shyla’s arms. “What has you so enamored and mesmerized with Mother Nature this morning?” Glorianna asks me as she steps up beside me and looks out the window at the landscape surrounding our home.
“I-I could’ve sworn I saw a shadow moving along the top of the trees. Then, there was a burst of light and whatever it was disappeared as well as the light.” I began the statement off with a stammer, but toward the middle I rushed it all out, afraid my friends would believe I was in the middle of a mental breakdown.
“A shadow?” Caspen perks up and walks over and joins us at the picture window. “What did this shadow look like?”
“I would almost say it was a human wearing a cape of some sort, but its hands, they didn’t look human at all.” I shudder when I think of the claws that I saw at the last minute as the light flashed around the figure. “They didn’t look like any shifter I’ve ever encountered either. It was like one of those ancient vampires you see on fictional television shows.”
“Long and pointy?” Caspen questions and as I nod my head in agreement, his pallor increases. “Trigger at the station already?” he huskily asks me, his chest heaving in exertion as his breaths are coming faster and heavier with each beat of his heart.
“Yeah, he left a few minutes ago,” I answer, fear and panic beginning to set in. “What’s going on, Caspen?”
“Glorianna, you need to shield this house as soon as I step out the doors. Everyone, stay here, no one is to leave without me or Trigger in attendance. Promise me.” The stare he sends us has Shyla’s head bouncing in acceptance and me stumbling to verbally make the promise.
As soon as Caspen closes the door behind him, he stays on the front stoop until Glorianna finishes her enchantment. When he’s satisfied that we are securely imprisoned, he turns on the heel of his foot and stomps away. I watch as he shifts and runs gracefully away from us and toward the station.
“What the fuck?” I question both of the ladies, my question more rhetorical than anything.
“Something eerie is coming this way,” Glorianna states. Her eyes are white, no pupil can be seen. There’s nothing but a snow-white glaze. Now that’s different.
Trigger
Elbert was finally able to put my computer on an independent server, meaning that no one has access to my files. I no longer share communications with the others under me, but