A. Arthur - Passion's Prey

In addition to the raid, two guard jeeps had been found on the outskirts of the city, deserted. Things were changing and not for the better.

Rome called a meeting of all Faction Leaders, and this time Elder Umberto Alamar had also been included. The conference room table in Rome’s suite was almost full with Kalina, Nick, X, Ary, and Caprise. Each of their guards was also in attendance—Eli, Jax, Ezra, Zach, and Leo. X had assumed responsibility as Caprise’s guard for the moment. Nick wanted to assign her someone else but X had been adamant that Caprise stay with him at all times. Nick, wisely, hadn’t argued the matter further.

Out of the corner of his eye X saw Baxter standing off to one corner. He’d already set glasses of water in front of everyone seated. He’d pulled the small shutters down on the slim windows in the room and rechecked the locks on the door. Baxter had also been the one to get Alamar on the phone, as if Rome wasn’t privy to the Elder’s telephone number. Again, X wondered about the older man and his protectiveness of Rome and the Topètenia as a whole. There was definitely something there, something he doubted any of them knew about specifically.

“There were a lot of drugs found on the premises,” Cole Linden, Central Zone Faction Leader, said through the speakers centered on the conference room table. “Enough that CNN picked up the story; that’s how I knew what happened before you called.”

Rome sat at the head of the table, his face grim.

“There were pictures of the plastic bags with the symbol on it. So we can breathe a sigh of relief that some of the savior drug is off the streets,” he said.

“What if there’s more?” Ezra asked. “I can’t see that Sabar would be stupid enough to keep all his drugs in one place.”

Nick nodded. “He’s right. There’s got to be a stash house somewhere.”

“Most likely outside the city,” Eli added.

“The more pressing question is, were any Rogues arrested in the raid?” X asked.

“Right. That would not be good if they were being jailed. Who knows how they’d act under those circumstances,” Kalina said.

“They would have scented the cops coming,” Rome said with quiet authority.

It still amazed X how easily his friend had migrated into the role of leading all the stateside shadows. As he sat with squared shoulders, nondescript facial expression, hands clasped in front of him in all seriousness, he oozed power and control.

“I doubt anyone of importance was still in there by the time the raid was executed. Which means our guy is still out there.”

“What are you going to do about it?” Bas asked. “My team has killed a total of twelve Rogues in the last week. They seem to be growing in the trees here, making their appearance known throughout the night, pacing around the resort like they’re planning a feast. We shut them down quick and without question because I’m not willing to risk one of my guests being hurt.”

“You’re all but secluded out there,” X told him. “We can’t make kills like that in the city.”

“X is right,” Nick said, sending a closed look at X. “We’re already under a microscope here. We can’t afford any slipups.”

“They are settling in,” Elder Alamar said in his quiet, raspy voice. “We knew this time would come.”

From the corner, Baxter took a step forward as if the Elder was speaking specifically to him. “Yes, we knew.”

Everyone else in the room and on the extended lines went absolutely quiet. Until finally Rome spoke.

“There seems to be an outside conversation going on here. You two want to tell us what’s going on?” he told them.

Baxter looked at Rome with somber eyes, his usual glare.

“Now or later, it will eventually come out,” Baxter said.

“As we knew it would” was Alamar’s reply.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Nick roared. “If you two have something to say—”

His words were cut off by Rome, who raised a hand and gave Nick a level look.

“Now is the time to tell us everything. Humans are dying. Shadows are dying. Rogues are multiplying. If either of you gives a damn about this tribe you will tell me what we’re dealing with so I can counteract.”

Again with that cold power, that ominous tone Rome possessed naturally that fell like a thousand boulders in the center of the room.

“We were all as one hundreds of years ago. Our existence remained a secret because we remained together in the forest, in solitude. There were five tribes, all living as one because there was no choice,” Alamar said clearly.

“After a while there became turmoil. Lions wanted to lead. Cheetahs wanted to run. Tigers wanted to feast. Cougars and jaguars wanted to kill. The peace once harbored came apart. The separation would come tarde o temprano .”

Baxter continued when Alamar grew silent. “He speaks of the different tribes—the Topètenia, the Lormenia, the Croesteriia, the Bosinia, and the Serfins . We were all once a community of shifters, a group of those that were different. It was those differences that kept us together but ultimately pulled us apart.”

X sat up, leaning his arms on the table as he watched Baxter coming closer. Everything about the man was still the same, and yet it was different. X wasn’t looking at a devoted employee of the Reynolds family any longer. No, what he was seeing right here, right now, was a revelation. One that was going to either make or break Rome, judging from the wary look on his friend’s face.

“You’re saying that cougars, cheetahs, lions, tigers, and jaguars once lived together,” Kalina clarified. “Somewhere in a South American rain forest there was a legion of shape shifters that eventually separated and migrated to other parts of the world.”

Baxter nodded. “The ones who saw this as an inevitability made a plan: Within each tribe a different shifter was placed. Overseers is what we are called.”

“Sonofabitch!” Nick roared. “You’re a goddamn shifter?”

Baxter showed absolutely no reaction to Nick’s outburst. “My father lived in a village near the Gungi. He was a shaman and helped the curanderos from time to time. I grew up with your parents, Mr. Roman. When they moved to the States I asked to come with them. That is when the Elders made me an Overseer,” Baxter stated simply.

As simply as if all that he’d said, all they’d both said would be swallowed and this meeting would go on without pause.

X was already shaking his head. “What about the other Overseers—are they shifters or humans?”

“I am the only human Overseer. It is so because of my father’s abilities and his dedication to the tribe. Others are shifters but they will not shift. Our job is to watch, to teach, to preserve,” Baxter continued.

“To lie and betray,” Nick said. “You’ve been lying to Rome and his family for years.”

“No!” Alamar’s voice echoed throughout the room. “What we do is not an untruth. We have been watching and waiting for the division in our tribes to stretch wider and it has finally begun. No longer are we even fighting on our own grounds. We have moved to these places that are highly populated with humans. We are endangering yet another species and it must stop before there are no more,” the Elder said with vehemence. “No more of any species.”

The room grew silent. Absolutely no one spoke. Kalina had reached for Rome’s hand, clasping it within hers. Ary’s hand rubbed her protruding belly as Nick’s larger hand soon covered hers to make the same comforting gesture. Beside him X could hear Caprise’s slow intake of breath, even slower release. She was absorbing all this information. Taking it in as slowly as she could so as not to become overwhelmed. This had to be even harder for her, the one who did not want to be a shifter. When he turned to her, to do what he wasn’t quite sure, X was a little startled to see her watching Baxter.