Shift

By C. N. Lesley

"Human Lily and wolven Rowan get involved in a centuries-long fight between human-seeming werewolves and a scheming, immortal vampire with a revenge axe to grind. And no one comes out of the conflict unchanged."

• Language: English
• Publisher: C.N. Lesley
• Release date: May 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393396345

Book preview

Chapter One

Terrified of driving blind, goaded with the horror of what lay behind and might still be following her, Lily struggled to keep her eyes open against the burning white glare of the winter blizzard. Fine, powdery flakes swirled in ribbons across the blackness of the road surface, and gusts sent fine particles against the windshield. At that moment, she longed for sunglasses she didn’t have as she became aware of what people meant by snow blindness. Her hands ached from the biting cold even through thick gloves, but she dared not turn the heating up again and risk dozing off behind the wheel like she almost had an hour before. Somehow, she must find the strength to continue, in order to have any chance at sneaking over the border into Canada on this dirt track of a back road. The murderers would never find her there if no one knew where she had gone. The few family she had left must be protected by her disappearing from sight for good. Images of blood and brains of victims splattered across her retinas in an endless replay.

No more deaths on her account; she wouldn’t, couldn’t, handle any more pain and loss. Two new identities, complete with birth certificates and passports, lay safe in her purse for another attempt at a new life. Who would she be next? Perhaps she should dye her hair dark? The papers were sealed so she’d have to see what the photos looked like, match her appearance to them, and then act the part. A small voice inside her mind wondered if those identities were as secret as she hoped.

‘Testify against the murderer, join the witness protection program until he was convicted, and you will be safe’; they’d said. Three bodyguards killed in a bloodbath protecting her were three too many. Those men had families, wives, children, and parents. She didn’t have immediate family, not anymore, thanks to the man she was supposed to help convict. Her parents died together when the assassin called at their home. The cops thought he was pretending to sell door to door, and since her folk’s house was the first stop on their road, it wouldn’t have looked out of place, except he had a gun especially for them. Her granny hadn’t escaped, either; finding the bodies on her return from her hair appointment had virtually stopped her heart.

Someone had sold her new personae out twice already; there was no other explanation for how they’d found her. One of the fake identities she had left was Canadian, so would a crime league extend into the Canadian boonies? Not likely. She’d go to a small town, get a job, any job not computer related, for they would be watching for such, and disappear or was she mistaken? Canadians talked differently so she would stand out, meaning a city must be her goal. Maybe she could retrain...a huge dark shape appeared in the beam from her headlights, blocking the narrow road. Lily swerved; the road vanished in a tumbling, screeching roll. Pain, dark, and ...nothing.

SOUND CAME BACK FIRST, followed by pain cresting. She whimpered; her strength gone, along with her courage. Moving hurt almost more than she could bear.

Stay still. You’ve been hurt, but you’re safe now. The voice was deep and rich, though distant.

Light hurt her eyes as she attempted to open them, and the room swirled as black and silver motes danced in her line of sight. A man-shape gradually resolved into a person with overlong black hair, one who was not wearing the white or blue scrubs of a hospital attendant. She must be dead, for he had the face of a fallen angel. This man wore a gray sweatshirt and jeans. The walls of a log cabin formed a backdrop. A good choice of hell for someone who lived on the Internet; trapped, immobile in pain, with a hunk for a nurse and not a flicker of desire on her part. Was that what happened in purgatory?

She attempted to speak, emitting a dry croak. Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth, and her lips hurt.

Responding, he slid a muscular arm under her shoulders to help her sip water from a cracked cup, patient until she had drunk her fill. This was real, not the afterlife. In the back of Lily’s mind, a little voice screamed at her not to eat or drink anything. That was what a long distant first aid course taught. She was hurt, and by the grinding pain in her leg, she was going to need surgery. Lily tried to push him away, only then becoming aware of the burn on her arm, a raw, red patch of angry outrage against her skin. The water against her lips was irresistible, refreshing, and rehydrating her mouth.

The ambulance...when is it coming?

It’s not. We are cut off from the outside world until the melt comes in spring. His blue eyes sparkled with little flecks of amber, while his mouth formed a tight, hard line as if he wished her gone. Behind him, a glow from a wood stove gave off the warmth he lacked.

Did you call for help? The pain built into waves of agony. A sweat broke out on her face and neck, and yet she shivered. She couldn’t bear this pain. A scream began to build.

No phone.

In my jacket, I have a cell phone.

He gently eased her down onto the bed. The room appeared to swirl again. A hard object was pressed into her hand. Lily waited out the dizziness until she could focus, willing the pain into a place she could manage for a few minutes. She pressed a button, but the screen remained blank. She tried turning it on again; that was it? Nothing happened. The battery was dead.

There is a charger in my purse. My cell needs juice.

Sorry. He didn’t look sorry, just annoyed. No electricity, and I couldn’t save your purse. By the time I got you free everything else had gone up in flames.

Her car, her identities, her money, and all her clothes, gone? The pain escalated, and this time she couldn’t hold in a groan. I need a doctor.

He reached back for a different mug made of metal. Here’s something for the pain. It will send you to sleep. Once more, he helped her to drink, holding her up until the sharp-tasting fluid was all gone.

My leg . . .

I set it. He closed his eyes as if he were enduring an exercise in extreme patience. If it were possible to get you out of here, I would’ve already done so. You wouldn’t survive being dragged through the snow on a sled.

A warm feeling flowed through Lily. Her eyes wouldn’t stay open, and the pain receded into a dull ache, vanishing as sleep claimed her.

SOMETIMES A CALM, DEEP voice would soothe her while she drifted in a world of dark and warmth. There were drinks of bitter things that made her sleep again, but also those that stilled her hunger and thirst. Time hung, suspended until the day Lily woke to find her leg up in the air, strapped and splinted with what looked like the remnants of a chair’s staves, and the back as under leg support and now held in traction with a large rock attached to the whole. She was also naked under a down quilt and lying on a mess of towels, something that brought an instant blush to her face. He’d put soft rabbit furs as an incontinence pad under her, and from the lack of stink, also washed her down very efficiently. So much for her shreds of modesty. If he had been an old man or a homely one, it would have been better; only she recalled someone very handsome. Perhaps that was a combination of pain, drugs, and her head injury? She hoped so.

This one-room log cabin had a wood burner against the far wall, and had a pile of pelts resting on the floor next to it, presumably where he had slept as she had the only bed. A table and one chair were against another wall. Herbs hung suspended from the ceiling rafters giving off a fragrant scent as they dried, mixed with the smell of woodsmoke. An old tin bath was pushed into a corner, partially concealed by a modern bamboo screen. Aside from a few cups and plates on a dresser that was no more than planks nailed together, and what appeared to be a clothes chest, this was the most primitive dwelling she had ever seen, more like an old prairie house from a working museum. No curtains adorned the two tiny windows. There wasn’t even a water faucet. Just then the door banged open, and a figure swathed in furs entered, carrying firewood, which he dumped by the wood burner before he threw off his winter gear.

He must have made a habit of working out, since his muscular shoulders and arms stretched his sweatshirt, complimenting his slim hips and long legs. While his hair was overlong, his face looked freshly shaven. He was also as drop-dead gorgeous in his looks as she recalled, but not in a pretty way. This man was all male to the roots of his hair. He turned, as if aware of her scrutiny.

How do you feel? Would you like more pain juice?

Did she? No, it was a dull ache now. I think I’m good for the moment.

In that case, I will get some food happening. You’ve lost a lot of weight. He didn’t wait for comment; he just shucked on his furs to brave the icy weather once more.

Chapter 2

The deer steak tasted different when cooked from frozen. For a start, its center was rare, leaving the outside a tad overcooked. The really strange part being there were no vegetables, nothing, not even canned corn. He must have butchered the carcass as a fresh kill and then either buried the cuts in the snow or hung them in an outbuilding to freeze.  Lily guessed the guy lived off the wilderness and yet a pure meat diet wasn’t healthy. A vegetarian would have been dead out of luck. She speared the already bite-sized chunks, wishing she could sit up at the table, like her host. Still, they went down just the same she supposed.

Thank you for the food and the care, but what should I call you? I’m Lily. She offered him her hand, stretching a little over the small gap between her bed and the table.  He ignored it as if she had tried to pass him a live snake. Did he hate women? Was that the reason he lived this solitary life?

He looked up at her with winter in his eyes, pushing his empty plate aside. Rowan. My mother named us for nature. Those eyes dared her to make a snide remark.

It suits you. There is something inflexible and yet wild about a tree name.

So Lily, I can’t see you as an ornamental bloom somehow. Lilies of the field toil not, neither do they spin. A slight smile lifted the corners of his mouth. Parents have a lot to answer for when naming offspring.

Lily sighed. It could’ve been worse. Her second and third choices were Mehetabel after early pioneer names and Amaryllis, her favorite flower.

His shoulders started to shake a bit until he got them under as much control as he had his twitching lips. Lily isn’t so bad.

Now he was talking to her, finally talking, and not just about her condition. Lily had a pressing concern. I’m deeply grateful for everything you’ve done for me, but now I am awake, I wonder if there is a bathroom I can visit when needed?

Rowan got up from the table to place his hands on her elevated leg. He closed his eyes, concentrating. Soon, you can come off traction. I’ll fix up a crutch for then, although it won’t help you with the bathroom, which is outside. The snow is far too deep for someone recovering from a broken bone and unsteady on their feet, and I think you would be too weak in any case.I can carry you there and back.

Reality slithered sideways. No one should be able to assess a break without an x-ray machine. How can you know for certain the bone is set?

I have this talent. Challenge radiated from his posture, daring her to say anything. Now, about clothes. Are you happy with a pair of my boxers and track pants? I salvaged everything you had on above the waist, aside from the sleeve of your jacket, but the rest...the fire and blood took care of them.

Blood? Was it a compound fracture? There was nothing to show for it on the smooth skin on the parts of her leg that she could see, and there was no sign of blood on the bindings attaching her leg to the traction. He couldn’t mean her cycle as she had accepted the need for a contraceptive implant when she went into the protection program. She’d been assigned male bodyguards, and them buying feminine products would have been a dead giveaway in a place where they weren’t known and where someone watched for those who stood out. Something was out of kilter here. Again, thanks. That would be very kind of you.

Bathroom visits became a nightmare, with the nasty little hut a distance from the cabin and no more than a primitive earth closet at that. What proved a bigger hardship, was not having a daily shower. While Rowan cheerfully obliged by boiling water for her to wash with a rag and a bowl, there was no way she could manage the tin tub in the corner. Even stranger, he didn’t use it either, but he never gave off any odor of being unclean. Yes, he washed their clothes to hang dry in a corner of the shack, but not himself. No adult man could go long without cleaning himself if he didn’t wish to stink. Rowan did neither. Lily began to wonder if he washed outside and yet she had never seen him take out any hot water. On the plus side, she was getting stronger and filling out again on the high protein diet as the days marched on through to what she guessed might be midwinter. Here lay safety for a little while, and perhaps the mobsters would lose her trail if she didn’t resurface. If they had hacked into her cell phone, then they would be out of luck. Was that how they’d found her location before?

Their routine shattered some weeks later when Rowan barreled into the shack near dusk, back early from a hunting trip. His face looked like thunder, but he schooled it into a ‘be nice’ expression before he approached her. There are men sniffing around your burnt-out car. They know there’s no corpse and are coming back in the morning with dogs. These guys are not cops. I could hear enough from their conversation to figure that out. You need to level with me, what’s going on?

This was the end. Lily couldn’t run. She had no transport and how far would she get hobbling into the forest? The dull pain of hopelessness coursed through her again. They’re here to kill me. If you have somewhere to hide out, then go to it until they’re done. I want no more blood on my head. Too many have died trying to keep me alive already.

Rowan sat down on the edge of the bed and took her hand. What is mine stays mine unless I say otherwise. His eyes narrowed. Why do they want you dead?

What did it matter now? What did anything matter? I saw a guy kill some people, and I told the cops. That is when he had his friends murder my family. I went into the witness protection program after he got convicted, but that wasn’t the end of it. He has people making me out to be a psycho. There are sworn testimonies from people I’ve never met, claiming I’m a space cadet. If I don’t appear in his appeal, he will win. This is why there is a contract out on me and why you must let this happen for your own good. I have had four identities and three bodyguards blown away. I can’t live with this trail of death in my wake anymore.

Not acceptable. Frost sparkled in Rowan’s eyes. We will leave here now.

Get real. The dogs will track us in no time.

Track you, maybe, if I were not going to carry you. Tracking me might prove more problematic. He smiled, slow and wicked. Finding me will be their last mistake.

Rowan moved quickly, getting together clothes and a few essentials, which he stuffed into a backpack. He swaddled Lily in furs, then prepared to carry her in a fireman’s lift, with the pack slung over his other shoulder, he set off into the night.

Alarms went off in her head the moment he started his trek. She weighed about one hundred and fifteen pounds, she guessed, and yet he carried her as if she were a feather. His pace was a steady run, impossible for a normal man, even if apparently easy for him. Lily didn’t fight. This was his choice, whatever he was, but she began to doubt if he were human as the hours wore on, as still his pace didn’t alter, nor did he sweat, not that she could smell. This could not be real. Perhaps she existed in a coma, and her mind was giving her a way to cope with her unconscious state?

They stopped at dawn when they reached a cave, next to a waterfall, set in the side of a hill. Lily roused out of a doze to her new surroundings. The place gave shelter from the wind and fresh water if little else. No normal person could hope to survive here in the depths of