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Slowly, my body responded to the images and sounds. Bone reformed, a beard sprouted along my face, my skin wrinkled around the eyes and mouth. I couldn't see my eyes, but I knew they would be black as night when the van door slid open and the interior light shined on them.
Heart thudding rapidly in my chest, I returned to the van and knocked on the door.
"I'm opening it," Mosa growled from the other side. It wasn't me she was growling at. I could tell from the direction of the sound waves. She had been looking over her shoulder, had probably even positioned herself nearest the door while I was in the woods studying every pore on Kalchik's shaggy, craggy face.
The door slid open, there was a collective gasp, and then the business end of a double-barrel shotgun was aimed dead center of my face.
"It's Doone!" Mosa shouted before turning an imploring gaze on her father. "You just have to smell him, you'll know I'm right."
Neither man looked ready to take their finger off the trigger—triggers in Taron's case, both of his .45 automatic Colt pistols aimed at me, one at my head, the other dead center of my chest.
Trusting Mosa to keep both shifters in check a few seconds longer, I closed my eyes and focused on being me again.
"I'll be damned," Mallory grunted, lowering his shotgun. "He's like a doppelgänger."
I had a passing knowledge of the word. But I hadn't heard it in the time since my arrival in Night Falls. And I sure as hell wasn't going to disclose my ability without knowing if exposing myself would put me at risk. Right now, though, all I wanted was to rescue Mosa's mother while keeping Mosa safe.
"So it's a thing with some shifters?" I asked, curiosity overriding common sense.
"Hell no, dumbass!” Mallory rumbled as he shook a finger at me. "And don't think you're getting off easy for straight up LYING to me when you cut half of that finger off—"
He paused long enough to stab at my left index finger.
"And pureed it in the garbage disposal then gave me a bullshit answer when I asked if there was any other extraordinary thing about you that could land me in deep shit?"
Taron finally weighed in with a long whistle.
"That," the big bear said, pointing at a face that had looked exactly like Kalchik's a minute earlier, "may be the only thing that's going to keep us out of deep shit…and the morgue."
CHAPTER21
MOSA
"I fucking love Clover,"I said as I pressed the right side of my face against the floor of the van.
"Still loving her?" Mallory asked as Taron applied his boot and an increasing amount of pressure to the other side of my face.
Wincing, I grunted out an approval as my eyes started to water. My darling father frowned then looked up at the big bear to offer a little advice on the art of torture.
"Clearly, you aren't pushing down hard enough."
Doone's growl announced his disagreement.
"Keep going," I gritted out. The momentary pain was part of the theater that would let us infiltrate the leap's territory. Doone, looking like Kalchik and doused in the shifter’s favorite obnoxiously noxious cologne, was going to walk up to one of the border guards and flash them the picture Mallory was currently taking his damn time in snapping.
Depending on Taron's fortitude in being able to punch me in the face, there would be a few more pictures to sweeten the bait.
There were other parts of Clover's plan about the phone and my wolf, but neurons and entire ganglia were beginning to pop in my brain as Taron sighed and stepped a little harder.
A lot harder, actually.
"I'm sorry, little panther," he said as tears streamed from my eyes.
Mallory snapped a few quick shots before Taron jerked his foot away.
"I can't do the other part," the big bear said, moving in retreat to the opposite side of the van.
Mallory immediately callednot itby protesting he had to operate the camera. I looked to Doone. A wave of anguish rolled off him.
