Shifters' Captive:Magical Menages 1(21)

Beyond the wide opening was a rocky chamber from which several  pitch-black holes indicated tunnels leading in various directions. In  the center of the space was an incongruous sitting area, a couple of  canvas chairs and a camp stove on which a kettle of water steamed.

Janus waved her into one of the chairs. "This is only temporary, a base of operations, so to speak.

Someday I'll have a house in the mountains overlooking the entire valley."

"Mm," Sherrie murmured, feeling as surreal as Alice down the rabbit hole. "What would an arch villain be without a lair, right?"

"Not the villain here, Ms. Stoltz." He frowned as he filled a cup with  hot water, setting a teabag afloat. "You of all people should understand  that. The wolf clan kidnapped you, but I haven't hurt a single human  being and never would. Shapeshifters aren't people. I don't feel any  qualms about siphoning off some of their power."

Whatever you say, Dr. Evil. "What do you hope to gain from all this, Mr. Janus?"

"I've already gained it-a power source that makes me untouchable and the  respect of all shifters." Sherrie had known plenty of guys with damaged  egos, struggling to be heard by the world. They despised those they  considered average or inferior, but deep inside it was their self-doubts  that made them weak. Plenty of her fellow actors suffered from the  syndrome. Janus wanted to "be somebody", and she could work with that by  feeding his ego.

"So you're not one of them, a shapeshifter?" she asked. "Just a regular  guy who's figured out a way to use their energy? That's amazing. How did  you find out about the shifters and how did you discover how to harness  their power?"

"Am I one of them?" He laughed bitterly. "There's a story, and it's the  point where your life intersects with mine. You see, my father was a  shifter, but my mother was human. She didn't know what he was until it  was too late. After he revealed his true face to her, he left her. My  mother gave birth to me and brought me to the town where he'd told her  he was from."

"Browning," Sherrie said.

"Yes." Janus fished the teabag from the water and handed her the cup.  "Needless to say my paternal grandparents and the clan weren't happy  about it, but she left me with them and went off to live her own life."

"I'm sorry," Sherrie said automatically. "It must have been hard to be  raised as an outsider. Did you inherit any of your father's qualities?  Can you shift?"

"No. Can you?" He gazed at her intensely with his dark eyes.

"What are you getting at?" Her heart beat faster, blood surging through  her veins. "Are you suggesting my father was … ?" She couldn't even say  it. The thought was too preposterous. And yet, she knew absolutely  nothing about the man. Her mom hadn't had any details to share, claiming  he was a one-night stand after a bender she'd prefer to forget, an  incident in her sordid youth.

"Didn't you ever feel there was something different about you, Sherrie?  Didn't you ever long for something you couldn't put your finger on but  which you desperately needed? Perhaps a birthright that had been denied  you?"

"You're claiming I'm some kind of half-breed shifter like you." She pressed the rim of the teacup to her lips, but didn't drink.

"I'm telling you you're my half-sister, that we share the same father.  My blood recognized yours from the moment we met in our dreams."

"Really? Because I didn't get that psychic message. All this is news to  me. How did you know my name, by the way? You didn't get that from a  dream."         

     



 

"No, but when I'm not up here on the mountain, I live among the wolves  in town. I listen. I know what the pack discusses even if I'm not a part  of their council. I heard they were going to find you and, once I'd  felt you, I stopped fearing your arrival. I understood then that you  weren't going to be the end of me. Instead you were the missing element  I'd been waiting for-a blood relative. A bastard shifter like me."

Sherrie shook her head in denial. The tea sloshed over the rim of the  cup and onto her hand, but she scarcely felt the slight burn. A chain  reaction of thoughts snapped through her mind like a string of  firecrackers. As a little girl, she'd fantasized her father as a movie  star, a superhero or a king. When she'd been angry at her mother, she'd  even imagined she'd been stolen from his kingdom by this evil hag intent  on ruining her life. But never had she imagined he'd possessed magic  powers that might have transmitted to her and never had she imagined her  father was half wolf.

Janus might be crazy and evil, but it didn't mean he was lying. Was it  possible he was her half-brother, and that her father had been an even  more powerful and mysterious figure than she'd dreamed of as a child?

"How do you know this? What kind of proof do you have?"

"I just know. Like I said, I recognized you when I met you in my dreams. Blood recognizes blood.

Any shifter can tell you that. And there's enough wolf in me to know my  own kin when I meet her." Sherrie feigned nonchalance. "What is this  supposed to mean to me? Do you want a hug? Or do you think we're going  to team up-brother and sister superheroes like Dash and Violet?" At his  blank look, she supplied the reference. "The Incredibles. It's a movie.  Ever heard of it?" She glanced around the rocky walls of the cavern.  "No, probably not, because you've been camping out up here like Grizzly  Adams."

She couldn't help her snide comments. It was how she always reacted when  she was afraid or nervous. But she reminded herself she was supposed to  be trying to build a connection to Janus, so she tried to add something  more placating.

"I think your plan is ingenious, but I don't quite understand the  practical uses. What do you expect to do with all the power you've  gained? Do you have a way to store it? What kinds of abilities has it  given you? And how did you discover you could siphon energy anyway?"  Janus smiled, a baring of his teeth that showed no mirth or warmth. "I  can't share all my secrets with you, little sis. Not until I know you  believe in me and support me completely. You see, I think if we combine  our essences together it will increase our power beyond imagining." She  shivered inside at the idea of "combining essences", wondering if he  planned to "combine" in the same way she had with the two shifters.

"What'll we do with this power?" she asked. "How does it translate into a mansion on the hill and a Rolls in the driveway?"

Janus had drained his cup of tea and now he turned the cup in slow  circles in his hand. "They say money is power, well, power can be  converted into money. After a few flashy demonstrations of the hell we  can rain down on them, we'll make demands of the shifters. Demands that  involve an offshore bank account and a wire transfer."

"And after you've gotten the money, you'll leave them in peace and go  away?" Sherrie set her still full cup on the ground by her camp chair.

"No. I'll stay right here and enjoy the fruits of my labors. Not one of  them would ever suspect me, since they think I'm worthless. They've  never even noticed me living among them."

"How would you explain your sudden good fortune?"

"Investments, an invention, it doesn't matter." He waved an impatient  hand, and she realized he hadn't examined his plan too closely. "The  point is I'll be master over them, pulling their strings like a  puppeteer, and they'll never know it."

Sherrie wanted to add, "Isn't the point to earn their recognition at  last?" but she forced herself to keep her mouth shut. No need in  pointing out the big holes in logic in his evil master plan.

"You can live with me. We'll both have a family at last. Isn't that what  you've always wanted?" He set his cup aside, reached out and rested his  hand on her knee, squeezing lightly. "Family?" He was right about that.  Sherrie'd always longed for more than the patchwork life of aborted  relationships and sudden moves that had been her pattern. But being  family with this guy wasn't what she'd had in mind.         

     



 

"Now, it's my turn to ask you a question." Janus released her leg and rested his elbows on his knees.

"How did you get free when you were trapped in the ravine? You were out of my range so I couldn't see how you did it."

Thank God for small favors. Inside, she grimaced at the idea of this  creepy little pervert-her brother?-watching the three of them. If he  wasn't already thinking of combining essences with her in that way, she  certainly didn't want to put the idea into his head.

"I don't know," Sherrie answered. "It was as if something inside me  unlocked, and suddenly I could just do it, suck up their energies like  from a straw in a juice box. The rock wall burst apart and we were  free."