Shifters' Captive:Magical Menages 1(19)

Sherrie felt like she was on a Tilt-o-Whirl. The world flashed by, too  many things she'd thought she knew were turning topsy-turvy, and she was  forced to stay on the ride until some cosmic operator turned it off.  Exhaling a deep breath, she closed her eyes, attempting to relax and  center herself.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Slow the heart rate. Just like in her yoga  class. Her instructor Kamala would be proud. Sherrie squeezed her  companions' hands and felt their power flow into her. This time her  consciousness lifted and separated from her physical body with a natural  ease, as if she'd been astral traveling her entire life. Why her? Why  not Grant who seemed to have had more experience with this kind of  thing? It didn't make sense unless there really was a particular  connection between her and this man.

She found and followed the thread that led her to him. The trail was  clear as if spray painted with arrows leading her to him. In fact, she  almost felt him beckoning her. Did he want to be found?

He stood on a ridge of rock near the cave where he dwelled, surveying  the land below. Sherrie could see with a cosmic  three-hundred-and-sixty-degree gaze where she and the shifters were in  relation to him in the physical world. It wasn't very far away.

This time, her image of their enemy was clearer. He wasn't merely a dark  and dangerous swirling blackness, but a human man wearing, if she  wasn't mistaken, a sweater vest! His hairline was receding and his face  was as round-cheeked as a child's. He turned his florid countenance  toward her and, sensing her presence, focused on her in his mind.

"Did you send that avalanche down on us? Did you intend to kill us?" she demanded.

"I was only testing you. Finding out if you had untapped talent like I  discovered in myself. You're getting stronger. How did you steal the  shifters' energy?" So, he didn't know about the sex that had exploded in  a burst of power, shattering the wall of stone.

She sidestepped his question and responded to his statement.

"You sound like you know something about me, like you've been expecting me."

"I have. We're related, you and I. Two of a kind. Don't belong in either  world." Sherrie considered his words, turning them over in her mind  instead of instantly dismissing them.

She'd always felt like an outsider, but figured most people did. It  could be hard to find anyone you really connected with. However, he  seemed to have something more specific in mind.

"When you say related, do you mean that in the literal sense?"

"You've always wondered who your father was? Well, I have answers for  you. Come and see me in person if you want to know the truth. Leave your  bodyguards behind."

She felt him turning away from her, shutting her out of his mind, and strove to hold onto his attention.         

     



 

The more information she could gather before facing him, the better.  "Who are you? What's your name?" He laughed, an eerie sound that echoed  inside her head. "What's in a name?" he quoted. "I call myself Janus  right now."

"And I call myself Sherrie." She projected the mental equivalent of her  million dollar, Miss America smile, which always earned her great tips.  "Pleased to meet you, Janus."

"No, you're not. You think you're coming to destroy me. But once you've heard what I have to say, you'll change your mind."

"Very cryptic. Why don't you tell me what the big secret is, and if it's  everything you promise, I'll point my companions in another direction  and find my way to you." Again the eerie laughter sounded. "I'd like it  better if you reverse that. Lose the shifters as proof of your good  faith, and then come to me."

Why did he want to see her in the flesh? He must have some agenda that required her presence. That idea was scary.

"Sorry, Janus. I don't know you well enough to go on a blind date, and  honestly, the fact you've put a little girl in a coma doesn't exactly  inspire confidence."

"Not a girl, a shapeshifter. Don't let them fool you with their false faces."

"I have no illusions about what they are," Sherrie assured him, "but  what makes you think they're evil and deserve to be harmed?"

"That's all part of my story, which I'd be happy to tell you in person."  Before she could cajole or bait him with more questions, he cut her  off, snipping their connection like cutting a power line-a snap of  energy, and the line went dead.

She rushed back along the slender thread to her physical body, entering  it with a burst of speed that was like hurtling into a wall. Her eyes  snapped open. She blinked and stared at the two faces suspended above  hers-one almond-eyed and golden, the other raw-boned and tan.

"Are you all right?" John's dark brows were drawn together. He reached out and stroked her hair back from her forehead.

"Yeah."

"Did you find out anything new?" If Grant was in cat form, his tail would be lashing with excitement.

"I learned his name, but I don't think it's his real name. He said ‘I  call myself Janus' and claims to have a secret to tell me about my  connection to him."

"Janus, like the Greek god, the gatekeeper in charge of beginnings and  endings." John took her hand and pulled her to a sitting position while  Grant offered her a bottle of water.

Sherrie drank deeply then wiped her mouth on the back of her hand.  "Janus. Isn't that the one with two faces? That could mean something. If  this man lives somewhere other than a cave in the physical world, he'd  show one face to the people around him and keep the other hidden."  Grant's hand rested on her leg. John's pressed against her back,  completing the circuit. The low-grade power thrummed among the three of  them. Between their touch and the liter of water, her battery had been  recharged.

"I don't understand what special connection we have, but he wants me to  go to him without you two. I think I should do it. You could hide nearby  and, after I get him talking and distracted, you can rush in and  capture him."

John was already shaking his head. "No way you're facing him alone."

"I'm not saying that. You'll be close, ready to attack. We'll find a way  to subdue him then figure out what has to be done to free the people  he's holding captive."

"If he's capable of causing an avalanche, who knows how much power he possesses," John argued.

"What's your plan, Walker?" Grant snarled. "Sit back and wait until he's wiped out both our clans?

We have to make some kind of move and soon."

"I'm merely suggesting a little reconnaissance first. Scope out the area  and get a visual on Janus before we send Sherrie in unarmed and with no  real plan."

"Fine. I'll go ahead." The panther turned on a dime, conceding the  point. "I'm faster. I'll check him out and report back to you. Maybe I  can even take him down without involving Sherrie at all." He was already  stripping down, ready to shift into animal form. Sherrie had often been  told she was impulsive. Grant Perron made her seem unwaveringly stable.

"Wait. I think the three of us should stick together as long as  possible," she protested. "Splitting up now wasn't what I had in mind.  The combination of the three of us seems to be an important part of  this.         

     



 

We haven't even discussed what happened in the ravine."

"We shared power. And I'm ready to use my share of it." Grant's naked body began to shimmer; his face grew long and catlike.

"How do you even know where to go?" she called.

"Fucking cats!" John cursed as Grant loped away. "They never listen and  they never plan ahead." Sherrie watched the mountain lion's tawny body  bounding from rock to rock as it disappeared up the slope. She shivered,  and a feeling of dread filled her. Intuition told her splitting up was  the wrong thing to do. Evidently, Grant's intuition said something else.

Time would prove which of them was right.





Chapter Eight


It felt good to stretch his muscles and push his body to its limit.  Grant raced uphill, finding precarious footing on the slippery shale  before leaping away as it crumbled beneath him. The usual sense of power  he experienced while in animal form was even stronger now, enhanced by  the sex he'd shared with Sherrie and Walker. The compounded energy had  given him a jolt like a caffeine fix. Now he wanted to use that energy  to rend Janus limb from limb. Whatever he was, whoever he was, he was  going to pay for what he'd done to Marina and the others.

He counseled himself to use caution. Killing the man before they learned  the extent of his power over the individuals in comas was not the plan.  But knowing that didn't ease the bloodlust pumping through Grant's  veins.

Reaching the top of the ridge, he padded along with his nose to the  ground, inhaling all the delicious aromas of the forest. He was  starving. The gopher snack earlier hadn't stuck with him, but there  wasn't time to hunt now. He could feel his target getting closer. In his  subconscious, the dream traveler guided him where he needed to go, his  own innate knowledge sending him along the ridge toward the caves that  honeycombed this part of the mountain.