Gracie - Sherry Foster Page 0,7
determination that this was indeed a dire situation. The secret of his team-mate, indeed all the shifters, must not get out. Not when the shifters were so few and the hatred of humans so great for things beyond their understanding. It helped his decision that Gammon had taken him aside and rather forcefully told him exactly how much pain he would experience while his body was dismembered if he let any hint of their kind out. So destroy everything then retreat to the Alpha they called Marcus. If any pack had the capabilities to find the owner of the drone it would be, so he understood, someone from that pack. Well, he hadn’t been told they could track a drone, exactly. But what he had learned in the last few weeks pointed him toward Marcus.
It said something for the impression Marcus and his team had made that Jeffery did not think first of Landel, or even his former partner Samson. He scrambled to pack his meager belongings and secure them with the hard drives before turning his attention toward Hendrix’s room. Six months ago, even so much as two months ago he wouldn’t have hesitated to pack up his partner’s room. But he hadn’t had a shifter as a partner before, at least, not that he had known. He hesitated at the door of the bedroom for a moment. Gammon’s voice, a memory he was sure he would take to his grave, came to him as he stood at the door.
“If by any word or action of yours my people come to harm, I will rend you limb from limb, slowly, as you scream for a mercy you will never know. First a tourniquet, I wouldn’t have you bleed out before you know the true measure of my displeasure. Then each of your limbs, one after the other, but perhaps not too closely together. Heed my words well human, you will die a death you wouldn’t dream of imposing on another.”
Jeffery steadied his nerves, reminding himself of his training and his background and entered the room. Scarcely looking at what he was doing he packed the bag he uncovered in the closet with all the personal items in the room. If Hendrix had others, more hidden items, he could grab them when he returned.
The work took less time than he thought, despite having done such work before, and soon enough Jeffery stood waiting outside. The sounds of the night the only sounds he could hear. The buzzing of night insects, the occasional call of a bird the only company he had. A slight sound, or more correctly the variation of the sounds of the night, found him squinting his eyes against the darkness, looking for the partner he knew was close. A phrase he rarely used came unbidden to his lips. As the words went out into the night, barely a whisper, he knew his partner heard.
“The hounds are at the door.” Nothing more needed to be said. Everyone knew when the hounds were at the door you fled, retreated, or fought. He had no enemy to fight. Turning he crossed back into the dark house, leaving the door open behind him. The charges had been set, the bags packed, the only thing left to do was wait on his partner. He didn’t have long to wait.
The door slammed shut. “What the hell do you mean the hounds are at the door? We have no one to hound us on the mission. The man has been judged all but innocent. Do you mean to fucking tell me he has sent others against us? What the hell is this? My nose burns with the smell of acid. The house is dark. What the hell did you do while I was gone?” Hendrix demanded.
“It wasn’t me. You can turn the light on, if you need it.”
The light flicked on to show an enraged shifter standing in front of him. Jeffery gestured toward the bedroom Hendrix claimed as his. “Your clothes, the ones you had on earlier, are still on the bed. Everything else I packed and placed in the jeep. If you had anything hidden you best get it. We were, foolish maybe? No not foolish, careless I would say.” He swallowed the next words before they could leave his mouth. Some people you didn’t bait. Turning he pointed to the table where a black box rested. At the gesture and the sight of the box a growl left Hendrix throat.
“Where did