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She leaned closer to him. “How did they turn them?”
“They did not turn humans without consent. The shifter would court his intended and when the time was right, he would explain his species and ask to convert his mate. If she consented, then he bit her, injecting her with shifter venom. The transition was painful, but no one died. Conversion was guaranteed.”
Dannika fiddled with the button on his shirt. “What if a shifter didn’t get consent?”
“Shifters that didn’t abide by clan law were sentenced to death.”
Her eyes widened. “Harsh.”
“Necessity. The human that was turned without consent was pulled from their world, forced to leave their friends and family. While transitioned shifters could visit family after conversion, there were rules and they never went alone.”
“That seems unreasonable for someone who willingly enters your world.”
He caressed her arm. “You don’t understand, Dannika. Clan rules were not as strict as they are now. Shifters interacted with humans. They even bartered with them, but they never killed them. Shifters had superior strength. It was like a wolf fighting a rabbit.”
Dannika nibbled her lip. He found the action strangely endearing. Most times she seemed tough and unapproachable, but these rare glimpses of her softer side had his arms wrapping around her waist to bring her closer.
“How did you become shadow shifters?” she asked.
He sighed. “We don’t know how it formed or why, but a portal opened between ours and the demon homeworld. They began attacking and killing humans and shifters, but the infected ones were worse.”
Her breath stuttered. “Infected ones?”
“The infected were shifters that drank blood to survive, but lost their ability to shift to the animal form.”
“What happened?”
Raine shook his head. “The shifters couldn’t fight the demons. They couldn’t even see them. A Bokor with contacts in the shadow world suggested the merge.”
Her brow furrowed. “What was the merge?”
“The means to combine a shadow soul with that of the shifters. The shifters gained the ability to see and fight the demons, but the merge came at a cost. One they would never have paid had they known.”
“What is a shadow? I mean, what were they before you merged with them?”
Raine took a deep breath. “A shadow is a demon soul. Without its original body, it’s neither good nor bad, but it keeps all its demon abilities, and when provided a clean life, it is an asset to humanity. If you feed a demon soul darkness, pain, and blood of the innocent, they turn reaper.”
Dannika blinked. “The shifters merged with demon souls and became shadows?”
“Yes. At first, it was only a small fighting force, but as the war grew and the demons slaughtered more humans, all shifters became shadows. That’s when they discovered the true cost of merging with a demon soul.”
“What?” Her hand tightened on his shirt.
“The non-aggressive species died off first. The women were next. Ten years after the portal closed, the remaining demons were eradicated, but only the wolf, bear, and cougar clans survived. No clan had a surviving female.”
“What happened to them?”
“The women of that time were not fighters; they were gentle and caring. The same was true of the non-predatory shifter species. The clans worked together to protect the gentler species. It’s presumed that the demon souls consumed them. A warrior cannot live within a completely submissive host. We assume this is why so few survive the transition. In the end, only the males were left. Our future died with our women.”
CHAPTER21
Dannika released his shirt, trying to get a handle on her accelerated heart rate. She wasn’t sure how she had ended up in his lap, let alone imprinting her body on his. Still, the ramifications of his story were unbelievable.
“Humans don’t know about this war?”
Raine’s eyes glowed, his shadow bristling beneath his skin. “No. They couldn’t see the demons. One minute they were smiling and laughing with their families, the next, they were lying on the floor in a pool of their own blood.”
“What about the bodies? Surely they could see the dead.”
