AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lauren stood beside Gavin, her mom slightly behind them, while Gavin spoke to the wolf alpha and was given an update on those in the pack who were badly injured. The wolf alpha offered three of his healthy people as vampire nourishment, and Gavin thanked him for the offer while looking towards the vampires helping Ambrose with body removal.
“Kirsten, if you can walk the three wolves to Ambrose, I have three vampires who are flagging more than a little. I’m telepathing them that you’re bringing sustenance. Please let Ambrose know you’re available to help with your special talents.”
Kirsten nodded, waited for the three wolves to step to her, and the four walked towards the bodies, now piled near the center of the lot.
Nick was with his lions, of course, but he’d also been in charge of most of the non-wolf shapeshifters who worked in the theaters, which included a shitload of big cats. She looked over her performers and stage hands, and then looked to Nick. His energy waswrong, and she walked to him and sniffed.
“You’re hurt! They used fucking silver bullets!?Change, Nick.”
“Only one bullet was silver, and I dug it out of my leg. The rest are lead, and achangewill take care of them, but not until the meat arrives and I can make sure my people as well as the other shifters are okay.”
Without thinking, she let her hawk go, so he could look for the truck, and he left her shoulder and was gone within seconds. One of the bear performers hadchangedand was clearly having trouble maintaining, and she walked to him, placed her hands on him, and channeled the bear energy within her into the other bear. This bear handled the safety systems for the silks, climbing up and down as needed without thinking twice of the height. She seemed whole, her physical injuries healed after a couple ofchanges, but she wassoweak.
Lauren’s bear had energy to spare, so she also channeled some into the next bear shifter she encountered who seemedoff.
One of the dancers, a snake, was still in human form and had a bullet hole in the front of her shoulder.
“Did it go out the back?” Lauren asked her.
The snake shifter nodded, and Lauren telepathed Gavin.Do you have something coming for a snake shifter to eat?
A container of rats in the appropriate sizes, yes.
Lauren’s hawk returned, folded itself back onto her shoulder, and Lauren saw and smelled and felt everything the hawk had experienced.
“Food’s only a few miles away. Gavin and Nick have people waiting to unload it and distribute,” she told the snake shifter. “I’m told there will be rats in the sizes needed.”
“I’ll take one with me to the edge of the woods. I can stun it enough so it’ll still be unconscious by the time I shift. I’d rather be alone to feed.”
Some shifters can feed and thenchangeback within about fifteen minutes. Others need up to an hour for the food to digest enough to give them the energy for anotherchange. So, when the truck left with the shifters, about half were in their human form, the other half still furry.
And a lioness in human form sat with a rattlesnake wrapped around her arm, the lump clearly showing most of the way down the rattler’s body. These two were close friends, and Lauren noted everyone else kept their distance. Snakes rarely have the same kind of control other shifters are required to maintain while in their other form. Some do, but most do not.
And Nick wasstillin human form, sitting up front while Dusty drove them to one of the theaters, where they could unload inside the staging area, to be certain no one got pictures of a truck full of exotic animals disembarking in the middle of Branson.
Chapter 19
Lauren rode in an SUV with Gavin, and Link drove.
“Most present will not remember Lauren having special skills.” Gavin told them. “They’ll remember her shooting and levitating, but nothing else. A few saw the hawk leaving her to check on the truck.” He sighed. “Lauren, I was in telepathic contact with the driver. I knew where they were. Ask, next time, before you send your hawk on a scouting mission.”
“Yeah, sorry. The hawk knew what was going on and wanted to go look, and I let him. There’s a learning curve, and I have to remember I’m supposed to be in charge.”
“Nick is going to have questions. I didn’t mess with his memories. Do you wish for me to?”
Lauren sighed. “No. I don’t know how much I want to explain to him, but I don’t want you fucking around in his head. I’m pissed and hurt, but I need to get over it.”
Link took a turn she wasn’t expecting, and she asked, “Where are we going?”
“You need a full meal and some time to meditate before we take you to the theater,” Gavin told her. “I have a safehouse with a cheetah who hasn’t fed anyone in a while waiting for me, and your favorite potstickers, egg drop soup, and sticky rice being cooked as we speak. The soup is ready, but you may have a brief wait for the rest.”
Comfort food. Gavin had arranged for her to have the foods that fed her soul and heart, as well as her body.
“Thank you, and you’re right. I’ll be more help at the theater if I have a little more quiet time after the sensory overload.”
“You killed, tonight,” Link said as he pulled off the paved road onto a graveled one.
“It was kill or be killed,” Lauren told him. “I’ve seen people die before. This is my city, too. I needed to help defend it.”
