Lynx On The Loose(14)

Pyotr rushed over to her, long hair flopping over his face. His breath came in harsh gasps, and his eyes were wide with panic. Dash moved in front of her protectively, watching Pyotr with a wary expression.

“The humans were here! They came to my cave while I was hunting. They were waiting for me!” he wailed. “What should I do? You said your people could protect me!”

“We can protect you. You need to come with us,” Isadora told him. “We’re going to a town near here where there are plenty of shifters. The police chief there is a shifter; he can keep you safe.”

“That accent…is he from Korslovia?” Dash asked.

“Yes, he is. What do you know about Korslovia?” Isadora asked.

“I’ll tell you if you tell me,” Dash said.

Isadora considered this. It couldn’t hurt to fill him in on the basics. “A scientist in Korslovia discovered the existence of shifters about sixteen years ago, and built a lab at a remote prison site, to experiment on them. The lab was destroyed two years ago when the dictatorship was overthrown. The existence of shifters was not exposed to humans, and only one of their scientists survived and escaped.”

“Had you heard that they actually succeeded in turning humans into shifters?” Dash asked her.

“Yes, we had. As far as we know they only succeeded with one test subject, who was killed,” Isadora said.

“Can you stop talking about it, right now?” Pyotr was pale, and shaking.

“All right,” Isadora said. “Pyotr, I know you’re frightened, but you may be the only one who can help us end all of this. We are going to need a positive identification on Zador Horvath. You are the only shifter in this country who’s seen his face. No official records of him exist anywhere. All that you would have to do is tell us yes or no.”

“Do the people you’re working for have a suspect in custody?” Dash asked sharply. “You think you have him?”

“I can’t answer that,” Isadora said, looking away. Dash let out a low, rumbling growl of frustration.

“Are these humans coming back to get us?” Sally asked, as they trudged through the forest towards Dash’s pickup truck.

“If they try, I will kill them first,” Isadora assured her.

“I will too,” Dash said. “I promise you, no human is getting their hands on you.”

Thomas had a more urgent question on his mind. “If we stay with you, does this mean more baths?”

“Daily. And don’t argue with me.” Isadora saw him glance at the trees. “And don’t try to outrun me. I’m a cat, and a very fast one.”

“I like baths,” Sally declared. “Especially bubble baths.”

“That’s because you’re a girl,” Thomas said, scowling. Then he brightened. “Hey, does swimming in a river count? Or a lake? That’s a bath, right?”

“As long as there’s soap and shampoo and towels involved,” Isadora said. “Quit giving me grief.” Then she said to Dash in a low voice “I almost finished that with the phrase ‘young man’. Shoot me now!”

“Don’t tempt me,” Dash said.

Then he lowered his voice, leaning in close to her. “How long have you been able to get out of those handcuffs?”

“From the minute you put them on me.”

“So why didn’t you just escape earlier?”

She flashed him a wicked grin. “Maybe I just liked being cuffed to you,” she murmured.





Chapter Ten




Pyotr’s face grew paler and paler as they approached the outskirts of Lonesome Pines.

“I don’t know if I can do it,” he said as Dash entered the city limits. “Too many people. I get panic attacks.” At Isadora’s worried glance, he let out a bitter laugh. “You just see a crazy man here, no? Once I was not like this. I was a carpenter, a very good one. I had a wife. I had children. They were killed trying to run from the soldiers.”

“What about your pack? Don’t you want to rejoin them?” Isadora asked.

“No!” he shook his head frantically. “I can’t see them any more. They remind me of everything that I lost. That is why I came to this country. I need to be far, far away from everything Korslovian.”

“When we get to the place we’re going, you can just stay in your room. You don’t have to come out, you don’t have to talk to anyone. You’ll be much safer here than you would be hiding out in the woods,” Isadora said.

They were driving through the little downtown area now. Lonesome Pine was a tiny town, with one main street that ran through the center. It had been a mining town during the gold rush in the 1800s, but now mostly survived on logging and farming.

Colonel Bradwell had run his secret lab in an old abandoned mine near the town for about two years, experimenting on shifters who’d been kidnapped from all over the country.

“I know Shamans who could help you with your panic attacks,” Dash said to Pyotr.

“My panic attacks are what keeps me safe,” Pyotr said. “If I think I’m safe, I’m dead. Being afraid is what keeps you alive. Never sleep, never trust, never turn your back on anyone. That’s how you stay safe.”

There was no point in trying to argue with him. Dash fell silent. Thomas and Sally had fallen asleep in the back seat, with Isadora sitting between them. Pyotr, next to him in the front seat, kept glancing anxiously out the window.

Steele lived in a blue and white Colonial style A-frame house, at the end of a small street. As they approached Dash saw there were a dozen people sitting on the front porch, some in police uniform, waiting for them. Dash had called to let Steele know he was coming, and that they’d very nearly been ambushed by human mercenaries.

A look of alarm crossed Pyotr’s face as he saw all the people there.

“Stop!” Pyotr yelled. Sally and Thomas jerked awake.

Dash stepped on the brakes, stopping the truck with a jerk, and Pyotr flung open his door and scrambled out. “Too many people!” he shouted, and then he shifted into wolf form, and shot off down the street as if a pack of lions were on his heels.

“Damn it,” Isadora said, watching him run off. “He’s our only chance of identifying Zador! Maybe you should go after him. Or I could.”

“I think he’ll come back,” Dash said. “He came to the Hobo camp looking for you; I don’t think he really wants to be alone. I’m afraid if I grab him right now, I’ll send him into full blown hysteria and he’ll be useless to us. He’s suffering from post-traumatic stress. He might see me as the enemy, freak out and try to attack me, I’d have to subdue him – not the best way to get him to cooperate.”

“You may be right. I don’t want him to end up getting injured.” Isadora didn’t sound too happy about it, though.

Dash pulled up in front of the house and parked. On the front porch, Steele sat next to Roxanne, his wife. Roxanne’s son Flint was curled up on Steele’s lap, in cub form, and Roxanne was stroking his fur.

Sally and Thomas yawned as they climbed out of the truck and followed Dash and Isadora up the flagstone path towards the house.

“Why did Pyotr run away like that?” Sally asked.

“He’s stone cold crazy,” Thomas replied with a shrug.

One of the men with Steele was a tall, lean man who Dash recognized as Mayor Bertelsen. Dash recognized another as Edvin Gund. The Gunds came from a pack that had gotten cut off from the rest of the shifter nation in the 1800s, and had intermarried with humans. He also recognized Edvin’s cousin Axel Gund, who had been kidnapped and held in the laboratory for more than a year.

Axel looked much better than the last time Dash had seen him. That had been right after Dash had helped to free him from the underground lab, and Axel had been pale and so thin he was almost skeletal. Now he’d gotten his color back and he’d put on weight. He managed a smile, but Dash could see the thousand yard stare in his eyes.

“Dash. Isadora. You made it.” Steele handed his son to Roxanne, and stood up, brushing the fur off his jeans. He quickly climbed down the steps and walked over to greet them.

“So, tell me what’s going on,” he said.

“Long story,” Dash said as they climbed up on the porch. “This is Thomas and Sally. A bunch of human mercenaries just raided the camp they were staying at, about two hours from here.”

“Anybody hurt?” Steele asked.

“No, the shifters smelled them coming and took off before they got there. It’s not a good thing that they’re this close to your town, though.”

“No, it isn’t,” Steele said grimly.

Dash tried not to stare at the human cops standing there on the porch. Human cops, working for a shifter police chief. This town was absolutely unique. It was a shame that it couldn’t be like this all over the world. Even though these people represented the best possible outcome of humans discovering the existence of shifters, unfortunately, they’d also encountered the worst possible outcome, in the form of Colonel Bradwell and his men.

Roxanne’ son Flint shifted to human form, turning into a chubby toddler. He ran over to Sally, who picked him up. “Oof. He’s heavy,” she said. She stared at Roxanne, then back at him. “Wait. Are you his mother? How is that possible?”