The Shifters

He met her eyes and held her gaze.

Mouth dry, she spoke. “Do we tell them?”

He looked at her gravely. “This is your city. What do you think?”

She was overcome that he had asked, that he trust ed her, that he was counting on her. And she knew too well from past experience that if they revealed too much, there was a big chance of causing a panic that would worsen the situation, heighten the danger and paranoia and hair-trigger reactions of the different species of Others. She started to pace as she spoke, thinking it out. “Is there any way of…feeling the entity approach? Recognizing the onslaught of possession?”

Ryder tensed, thinking, and then—as she had been afraid he would—he shook his head slowly. “They come from the astral, so there’s no warning and no physical defense.”

“What about a psychic defense?”

“Maybe,” he said, but she could see the doubt in his face. “But if Armand was unable to defend himself, and none of us recognized the entity in him, then it was so perfectly masked that I don’t know if there’s any way to fend it off.”

Caitlin glanced toward Armand and shivered, but she forced herself to stay focused on the problem. “You said that drugs and alcohol make humans more vulnerable to possession.”

“And all kinds of psychic attack,” Ryder agreed. “So all the Others need to do what they can to protect themselves psychically.”

“Then that’s what we need to tell them,” Caitlin said. There were just as many Others who craved a high as there were humans, Case and Danny and Banjo Marks being prime examples. So at least avoiding alcohol and other mind-and-body-altering substances was something that Others could do to avoid attack. And there were also Others who practiced esoteric healing, who prayed to the gods of their choice for protection, who could summon their own spiritual strength to repel evil.

“I agree,” Ryder said, and she wondered if he’d been reading her thoughts or just knew how her mind worked.

Before either of them could say anything else, there was a pounding of footsteps in the corridor, and a second later Jagger burst through the door, followed by Fiona, Shauna and the shifter-doctor, Sa mid ha—an Indian with a Scottish-tinged accent, short, slim, butch, and frighteningly good at her job. She took one look at Armand and was instantly crossing to kneel beside him on the floor.

“The danger is that hundreds of Others will be in habited,” Jagger was saying. “Imagine the whole city overrun by Others who have been possessed. Raging entities with the powers of shifters, vampires and weres…”

Caitlin’s heart began pounding wildly, charged with adrenaline at the thought of hundreds of creatures like the one that had attacked her, loose on the city.

“A massacre…” she whispered.

Chapter 19

Jagger, Fiona, Caitlin, Shauna and Ryder now stood at the head of the banquet room, in front of the assembled and restive Others. They had left Armand in Samidha’s capable hands.

“It appears to be a coma,” Caitlin told the Council. “Armand is alive, but his body was ravaged by the possession.”

Murmurs spread throughout the crowd.

She held up a hand, and was surprised to see there was still blood on her arm from the attack of the cat demon. She pulled her eyes away from the red streaks and looked out over the crowd. “So with the death of Louis Grenville yesterday and the possession of Armand this evening, it’s clear these entities, the walk-ins, are not only attacking humans but Others.”

“But not vampires,” Mateas Grenard said, and there was a murmur from the vampire contingent.

Jagger stepped forward sharply. “Do you know that for sure? I don’t.”

Grenard shifted sullenly from foot to foot. “So what are you suggesting we do?”

Now Fiona spoke. “All the Communities should be on full alert. You must spread the word to your constituencies of the danger of potentially hazardous behavior, such as drug and alcohol abuse….”

“And use your own traditions of protection to repel possession,” Shauna added. “Charms, candles, rituals—use the ancient wisdom.”

“It’s simple. Stay off the streets and let the entities take humans instead,” Mateas Grenard said loudly.

Jagger stepped forward to take control. “First things first. Tonight we go home and inform our Communities of the danger as quickly as possible. Everyone needs to know about the threat, and we need to urge our own to report any suspicious behavior, illnesses, deaths or disappearances in the last week. Then we meet again tomorrow morning, early, to share what we’ve learned and make a plan for tomorrow night. At Underworld,” he finished, naming a jazz club owned by the vampire David Du Lac. “At 9:00 a.m.” Jagger shot a glance at David to confirm, and David nodded.

“Go, then. Go quickly,” Jagger said. “And take care.”

The wind snaked through the magnolia trees in the MacDonald sisters’ garden, rustling the waxy leaves, casting pointillist shadows on the bricks of the courtyard below.

Inside the great room, Jagger DeFarge stood in front of the fireplace.

“You three are not going anywhere. Period,” he said to the sisters.

Ryder stood against the opposite wall, radiating silent and infuriatingly male solidarity.

Jagger was immediately besieged by three angry Keepers. Fiona set the coffeepot she was holding down on the table with a crash. Shauna whirled from her restless pacing before the picture window. Caitlin jumped up from the high-backed chair where Fiona had insisted she plant herself after she’d cleaned out the scratch wounds on Caitlin’s back and arms with antiseptic, antibiotic and a supercharged energetic healing powder.

And all three sisters’ voices overlapped in protest.

“You can’t tell us what to do, Jag, this is our job.”

“I think we’re perfectly capable of making whatever decisions we have to make for the sake of our own Communities.”

“Are you seriously trying to keep us out of this? Seriously?”

“Fiona,” Jagger said, and to Caitlin’s fury, just that was enough for Fiona to stop midsentence and hesitate, waiting. “We can’t risk you. The city can’t risk you,” he said, including the other two sisters in his gaze. “Think of everything your parents worked for—died for. We can’t jeopardize that.”

“What makes you think you can handle it?” Caitlin stormed.

“Caitlin…” Fiona said.

“This is a metaphysical problem,” Ryder said. “What ever happens out there, whatever we can do on the street, that’s putting a Band-Aid on the problem. What we need is a metaphysical solution. And that’s your job.”

“Yes,” Fiona said slowly. “You’re right.”

Shauna frowned but said nothing.

Caitlin felt herself blazing. “You’re just trying to protect us. We don’t need protecting.”

“But the city does,” Jagger said.

Ryder nodded terse agreement. “We need to find the lead entity. If we cut off the head of this beast, the others will have nothing to coalesce around. But the rest of the entities will still have to be banished and kept out of the city, or they’ll remain and continue to feed. They’re mindless and will take whatever’s in front of them.”

“You’re talking about casting a circle,” Shauna said, realization in her eyes.

“A circle big enough to surround the city,” Fiona finished. There was excitement in her voice—and doubt, as well.

Caitlin understood what her sisters were saying. A circle of protection could be cast around a person, a house or a building. What Ryder was suggesting was a circle to protect the entire city. It was an immense undertaking.

“The whole city…” Shauna frowned, clearly having the same misgivings as Caitlin.

“If all the Communities work together…” Fiona answered, thinking.

“It’s not going to help until we get the leader,” Caitlin’s voice was hard. “And if it’s so interested in me, then I’m the one who should be out there drawing it out.”

“No.” The other four all spoke at once.

Fiona and Jagger exchanged glances that said as clearly as if they had spoken aloud, “I’ll handle her,” and “Thank you.”

“Caitlin, we can’t do a circle without your help. It makes more sense for you to stay and work with us on that,” Fiona said patiently.

“August will be here shortly, and I’ve already posted several alphas at various points of the compound,” Jagger said. “The sooner there’s a plan for a circle or whatever form of protection you three can devise, the better.”

“We’ll be checking in regularly,” Ryder said, and without another word, the men turned and walked out into the garden.

Caitlin turned on Fiona. “Don’t you see what they’re trying to do, keeping us here? It’s our city. We’re the Keepers. We can’t just stay here, and you can’t make that decision for all of us.”

She ran for the door, wincing at the sharp pain from the scratches in her back as she twisted the door knob and ignoring Fiona’s sharp, “Cait, no!”

The garden was windy and shadowed in the moonlight, magnolia leaves trembling, the breeze misting water from the fountain, as Caitlin burst out the door and followed the men across the bricks of the garden, livid. “You can’t just leave us here.”

“Watch,” Ryder said, without looking back at her.

Jagger was more placating. “Caitlin, the entity has attacked you. You’ve dreamed it’s after you. It told you flat out through your friend that it wants you, and it’s just as likely your sisters are in equal danger. I’m not risking that. No one else is, either.”

They had reached the front gate, and Jagger opened it. Caitlin kept walking, fully intending to leave with them. Just try to stop me.

Ryder stopped in the gateway, towering over her, blocking her with his considerable frame. Caitlin dodged left, trying to get around him. He picked her up by the waist and, as she struggled in his hands, walked forward and set her down beside the fountain. With his hands still firmly around her waist, he pulled her hips forward into his and bent to kiss her, hot, slow, carnivorous. He straightened slowly, and she opened her eyes, heart racing….