Born of Embers Read online

  Deciding to file the odd conversation away for later inspection, I tried to continue the conversation as normally as possible.

  “I hope you don’t mind but I took the room closer to the door.” I motioned back toward the space I had claimed as she poked her head back out of her new room to keep talking. I hoped she wouldn’t mind because something about being closer to the main door made me feel safer, like I had an escape if I needed it. I was being polite by asking but I didn’t truly have any desire to switch rooms if she said she wanted the one I had already moved into.

  “Oh no, I’m fine!” she reassured me, “I’m just excited I don’t have to live with these brutes yet.” Her laugh was a small musical sound and I heard more grumbling coming from inside her doorway. So if she hadn’t lived with them, then they most likely weren’t her brothers. Friends, maybe?

  Giving her a small smile, I nodded. “I’ll let you get settled in. I’m going to go for a walk and get the lay of the campus. I’ll see you later?”

  “Have fun! Do you want to meet back here later and go grab dinner together?”

  Deciding I needed to make the effort to get to know my roommate, I agreed. It was going to be harder than I thought to let someone in, but I was prepared to make the most of this experience. I wasn’t a victim, I kept reminding myself of that fact every time I felt myself falling back into familiar patterns. I also needed to find out just what she mean about us being the same. A small amount of dread bloomed in my chest as I thought about being discovered and having to leave.

  Heading out of the door, I made my way down the stairs and into the cool air once again. Wrapping my thin jacket around my body, I started walking down the sidewalks as I made my way further onto campus. I hoped the sinking feeling I had was just an overreaction instead of the bad omen I felt brewing.

  Five

  Theo

  “Theo, get your Aussie ass down here!”

  I rolled my eyes, continuing to focus on my computer screen. Killian could just deal with it. More than likely he wanted to bitch at me again for my suggestion that he kill his free time being an Uber driver. I snickered, still unable to believe that he had given in to my prodding him. If he couldn’t handle working in an office environment, how did he expect to handle people being in his car and personal space?

  “Theo!”

  The roar was louder this time. Killian must have been heading to the upstairs of our house, rightly assuming I’d be in my bedroom. I really wanted to finish the project I was working on for the Council, and I was getting incredibly tired of interruptions of any kind. It wasn’t so much that I minded conversation with the guys I lived with—friends who were more like brothers—but the Council had been adamant that this project was their highest priority, which meant they had been checking in much more frequently than was comfortable. I wanted it done and off my plate as fast as possible, but it was a huge project that required weeks of work and I had classes starting soon. Hard pounding rained down on the door behind me. Fuck it, there was no way I’d be able to concentrate through Killian’s ranting. I’d let him get it out of his system and then push him onto Damien or Hiro so I could get some work accomplished.

  Stretching my arms out to relieve some of the tension in my back, I flung my door open to glare at the crazy Celt pacing in the hallway. “Dude, what the hell is wrong with you? I’m trying to work in here!”

  Killian was agitated—very agitated. While he was frequently an ass, agitated was not exactly a normal state for him. Worry began to seep past my irritation as I studied him. His hair was mussed and his eyes were wild as he muttered under his breath. He whirled to face me, his face a little pale. “Theo, the last fare I had. There was something…” He trailed off as he spoke, his face going hard.

  “Did he hurt you?” The question slipped out before I could stop it. Killian’s mouth dropped in shock, abject horror flying across his face.

  “Hurt me? Of course not! Fuck, you’re one of the only guys who can beat me in the ring, and you think the little girl I picked up hurt me?” His voice was dripping with scorn and I was sure his Puca was just as pissed. Killian got a little touchy when it came to physical strength. His Puca’s preferred form was a rabbit, much to Killian’s intense hatred. It meant he had to do most of his fighting in human form and he worked incredibly hard to ensure that he could be a strong member of the team physically. It’s why out of all of us, he was the largest.

  “A girl?” I murmured, continuing to study him. So, he wasn’t injured and it involved a girl. Killian had been like a brother to me for too many years for me to be able to prevent myself from teasing him a little. “What, did she try to kiss you? Oh, I know. Did she tell you you were going to be a daddy?”

  Killian hissed at me, the green of his eyes beginning to glow. Oh yeah, he and his Puca were definitely pissed off if they weren’t able to handle a little bit of teasing. Running my hand through my crop of blonde hair, I sighed and made a “come on” gesture at him. “I’ll stop guessing if you stop growling and actually use words. What happened with the girl?” My tone was dry as I glanced over my shoulder at the work I had waiting for me. I wanted to get this database finished quickly.

  “I think she’s an unmarked shifter.” The words were a hard growl as he met my gaze straight on.

  I hissed, stepping closer to him. “Explain.” The word was a command, underwritten by my other half.

  I acted as our group leader for several reasons. Other than the fact that leading came naturally to me, all of the guys in my group had powers and alternate forms that were useful and aided in most situations. I was a kraken shifter and while his strength was incredibly high, as was his size, we lived in Anchorage, Alaska—away from the warmer water of my homeland—which meant he wasn’t the most practical to call on for help. A part of me hated that my alternate form was tied to the water. I’d felt rather useless until I’d found my love of computers. Between my knowledge of technology and my organization skills it was natural for me to take on most of the logistics for our group missions.

  Our group was extremely unusual for many reasons, the largest being that we were all mythical creatures. We called ourselves mythologicals. Most shifters were animals, and they tended to stay in family groups of their own breeds: packs of wolves, skulks of foxes, sleuths of bears, and other group names. Mythological creatures were rarer. Since there weren’t as many of us, mythologicals tended to live among the normal shifter groups. We were highly prized and would be welcomed into almost any group of our choosing. Packs with more mythological creatures tended to be stronger, wealthier, and better protected than packs who had no mythologicals. My friends and I had banded together in our teens, and had recently become an official group, fully recognized by the Council. Unlike the sleuth I had grown up in, there was no name to describe our unit. Each of us was a mythological shifter. Ryder had voted that we make up a name for ourselves, he didn’t think calling ourselves a “group” gave us enough recognition. The rest of us had just rolled our eyes and ignored him. There were only five of us, an amazingly small group for any class of shifter, but it was how we preferred it. We had become friends as children and were sick of all of the politics and the games that occurred in the sleuths, packs, and skulks we had grown up in. So, when it came time for us to choose our futures, we had pissed off the Council and stated that we were forming our own group.

  It took weeks of fighting to get them to agree. Having us all in one unit wasn’t advantageous for them. Not only did they want us to distribute our power evenly among the animal shifters, they also wanted us to meet different females in hopes that we would find a mate and “spread our genes”—a responsibility expected of mythological shifters. They had finally allowed us to form a group, but at a cost. The five of us could live on our own, a small group by ourselves, but only if we agreed to continue searching for mates and, more importantly, that we worked directly for the Council. We would act in many different capacities, from bodyguards to assistants, while s
imultaneously obtaining our degrees. My main project had been to create a database of all shifters for the Council’s use. It would allow them to track bloodlines, look for missing shifters, predict cross-breeds, and find part-bloods. It would also allow the Council to keep an eye on part-bloods to ensure that they didn’t cause any damage to our secret. Each of us had been assigned some role to play, based on our strengths and habits. We had finally conceded to their demands as it had allowed us to stay together. Ryder, Hiro, Killian, Damien, and I had all agreed to attend the University of Alaska, Anchorage to help incoming shifters and be close for any needs of the Council. We knew that they hoped we would find mates quickly, or eventually join other packs and spread our strength further, but we knew exactly what we wanted. Our own family.

  Killian sighed and resumed his pacing. “I have no idea what she is. You’ll need to call in Ryder or Hiro for that. Hell, Hiro may be in her dorm, I think she’s a freshman.”

  I pulled my glasses off, tucking the frame into the collar of my shirt. “Fine, I’ll call Hiro. Did you get a name?” Sometimes Killian was hard to keep on track. By nature, he was hard to read and unless he told you what was on his mind directly it could feel like pulling teeth to get the information you needed out of him.

  “She said her name was Nix. I’ll have to check my passenger report to see if I have any more information. I’ll give him a description, believe me she’ll be hard to miss. Theo…” he took a deep breath as he turned back to face me, “… she didn’t know about shifters. She pissed off my Puca and he slipped through enough to create a small illusion.”

  I whistled quietly. She would have really had to piss him off for him to lose control.

  “Okay, so she’s a shifter and she’s a bitch.” I shrugged, still not understanding. “Killian, if you don’t give me more details I’m just going to call the Council.”

  “No!” If I hadn’t been as well trained as I was, his roar would have sent me backwards. His face was nearly as red as his hair, though whether it was embarrassment at yelling or in anger I couldn’t be quite sure. “Look, there’s something different about her. My Puca backed up from her! She chewed him out and he took it, Theo. He actually felt shame. And, she could see through his illusion. She said it wasn’t solid. Nobody but Damien sees through my illusions. I don’t know what she is, but when I asked her she looked at me like I was nuts. She’s strong and she has absolutely no idea. My Puca likes her, she interests him. I don’t want the Council taking her away just yet. It’s our job to monitor the shifters here anyway. Meet her. Let the others meet her. Maybe Hiro or Ryder will know what she is.”

  I flopped back into my chair, preventing myself from chewing on the stem of my glasses. It was a terrible habit and it popped up whenever I was thinking too hard. “She calmed your Puca? That’s different. You’re right, a weak shifter probably wouldn’t have been able to do that. Though, there is a possibility that emotional control is her gift. I’ll text Hiro. You said you could describe her?”

  Killian nodded, his color fading back to normal as he spoke. “I already sent you a description. I wouldn’t have even come up here and bothered you if you would have answered your damn cell in the first place.”

  Fuck. I had no idea where I put that damn thing. While I was good with electronics I was shit at remembering where I had last put them. I spun, pulling up the “find my phone” website on my computer. Hopefully I only had it on silent again. I hated when it disturbed me while I worked. A jarring, electronic whine emitted from my drawers. Hmm, I wonder why I’d stuck it in there? Fishing it out of my folded clothes I saw that I had missed almost a dozen calls, almost entirely from Killian. Nearly the same number of texts also waited on my phone, including one with a description of the girl in question. I raised my eyebrows as I read it back to Killian, “Five and a half feet, all lush curves, black hair to the curve of her butt, gold skin, dark eyes, and not dressed for the weather?” I couldn’t keep the humor out of my voice. “Are you interested in what she is or just interested in getting in her pants, Kill?”

  He snorted and strode out the door. “Just text it to Hiro, have him look for her. The sooner we get some answers the better.” He tossed the words over his shoulder as he left. I snickered and shot a message to Hiro. After a pause, I decided I’d text Rini too. She was moving into the dorms and would have an easier time than Hiro searching out a girl. Plus, with her senses, she may know what the girl was. Bears had amazing senses of smell. While I had been born in Australia, my mother had moved my sister and I to Alaska when my father died. My mother was friends with Rini’s mother and their sleuth had welcomed us with open arms. I knew she wouldn’t mind my asking for a favor. Keeping my message to her brief, I left out our suspicions about Nix being undocumented, instead mentioning that the girl was new to the area and we were wondering what kind of shifter she was. Rini was like a sister to me and I didn’t want to borrow any trouble for her. I figured the less she knew, the better.

  Six

  Nix

  Sunlight spilled through my window as I woke up and stretched my muscles. It had been another nightmare filled night but I’d gotten more sleep than I normally did so I called it a win. I had spent the last two days learning the campus so that I wouldn’t feel the need to study my map all the time, and I was looking forward to starting classes in a few days. I knew most people didn’t get excited about school but I had transferred around so much in my past that I was truly looking forward to some normalcy. I just hoped I would be able to settle here. Alaska was already growing on me and I’d only been here for a few days. The mountains, the trees, the weather, even the air was different; and it was as refreshing as it was beautiful.

  The feeling of freedom was rather addicting. I wanted nothing more than to shake off the oppressive feelings I had felt in my previous life. I shivered involuntarily as unpleasant memories invaded my mind, reminding me of those nightmares, which liked to play on repeat every night. It was too early in the morning for those kinds of thoughts, or so I thought. Glancing at the clock, I realized it was almost lunch time. I was used to waking early to beat Michael out the house, hoping to avoid him at all costs, and I couldn’t remember the last time I had stayed in bed so late. It was liberating and I couldn’t keep the smile off of my face. Getting out of bed, my bare feet hit the cold floor and I wrapped my favorite soft robe around myself and unlocked my bedroom door before peeking out into the common room. Everything was quiet as I tiptoed to the bathroom. I didn’t want to wake Rini. In fact, after dinner the other night, I was more confused than ever.

  Dinner had been fun and insightful. It was clear to me by the end of our meal that Rini had no idea what kind of talent I had—if you could call being able to regenerate a talent—but she sure as hell sensed that I was something supernatural. In fact, I was pretty damn sure she was something supernatural herself. It only made sense that if I could regenerate time and time again than there would be other people in the world with powers too. My newest question was, what was she? I had learned all about her mom, whom she obviously adored, as well as funny stories from her formative years. We had talked all about the different places to eat around campus, the parties she was looking forward to attending, how we should decorate our rooms, and what there was to do around the area, but we never veered into more complicated conversations. I would feel better if I knew what kind of powers she had, but I was feeling more settled the more time I spent with her. I didn’t feel any threat from her or the guys she was friends with, and I found that the overwhelming sense of doom had begun to fade into a general wariness. The one thought that plagued me was the fact that there were other supernaturals who had the ability to tell that I had powers. I couldn’t help but wonder if there were others on campus, and if there were, could they tell what kind of supernatural I was? If that information leaked, I would never truly be safe. My main concern was that somehow Michael would find me. That absolutely could not happen.

  Turning the shower on, I bathed and soa
ked up as much hot water as I felt was fair. I momentarily wished for the luxury of a soaking tub but quickly shook that thought from my head. Originally, soaking in the tub was something I did to help my sore muscles and bruises after particularly bad beatings, but it had easily morphed into a favorite relaxing pastime of mine over the years. Stepping out of the shower, I dried off and wrapped myself in a towel. I spent a while drying my hair, which hung down to my waistline, and then brushed through it until it was soft and straight.

  Grabbing my things and opening the door, I was prepared to tiptoe back to my room to get dressed for the day but when I looked up I saw one of the guys from yesterday letting himself into our dorm room. What. The. Hell. Scowling at him, I almost opened my mouth to give him a piece of my mind but he beat me to it.

  As his eyes landed on me he turned redder than his normal coloring and stammered, “Dammit. I’m so sorry. I… I was just bringing coffee for Rini. I didn’t even think about the fact that it might invade your privacy to barge in so early.” He let out a sigh before giving me his back. “Fuck! I’m not going to get used to her living elsewhere. We never had to worry about this shit before. Sorry… not that you’re shit. Hell, now I’m rambling. I mean, I never thought that she wouldn’t want to move in with us when she graduated and started college. It’s going to take us some getting used to, and you’ll probably need to get used to us being here, because I can’t fucking be away from that girl. She’s driving me up the damn wall.” His tone went from apologetic to an inflection that I decided to call “romantically frustrated” as he ranted.