Sadly, that friend was no longer with us. I could only hope he was somewhere better now, having been hit by a semi during his shift one summer a few years after we’d graduated.
So much loss in my life…
I shrug off the self-pity and keep running, even though my lungs are burning and my legs are begging for rest. I won’t give in to that. I will run until I collapse. It’s how I get my release. It’s how I know to express myself as a shifter. It’s how I let myself be free.
My eyes blinked open. I was staring at the ceiling of my apartment. That was a dream I had often, usually a replay of the shift I’d just come back from. After a run, I would shift back and drive home once I was done exerting all the physical and emotional stress I had in my body. I now felt languid and balanced, just like I always did after an all-night shift, the dream I’d had an exact replica of the shift I’d been on just hours before.
My phone chimed with an incoming email. I picked it up from the nightstand and squinted at the screen.
Subject: Lone Star Medical Clinic Grand Opening!
Please join us for free flu shots and refreshments at the Lone Star Medical Clinic’s grand opening today!
It went on to describe what the clinic would provide as far as services and everything else. I was glad Nora had gotten her clinic open, but I didn’t have time to go to her celebratory opening. I had a big job to finish up today at a dog wash establishment that was set to re-open in just a week.
With a sigh, I flung the covers back, slogged out of bed, and headed for the shower.
I was dog-ass tired after a full day of crawling into attics and running wiring through walls, but I still managed to make it to the fight club for my shift with the Dark Leopards. It had been two weeks since I’d been here, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t the need for security. The full moon that night hadn’t yielded any issues… but tonight? Something twitchy and unnerving sat brewing in my gut. I couldn’t explain it, but I just felt like I definitely needed to not only be here tonight, but to be very mindful of any new faces that might be coming around. I never claimed to be a psychic or anything like that, but I did have some kind of sixth sense. A lot of times, it came with reading people’s moods, and tonight, I could cut the entire ambiance of this place with a knife. There was something thick and cloying in the air of the club, and I opted for coffee and water during the shift.
I noticed Six and his old lady sitting at a nearby table watching the fights. The first two had gone off without a hitch—well, I mean, the guys who lost were now a lot more bloodied and a lot poorer—but the fights had been clean and fair.
The two squaring off in the ring at the moment, though? Dread pooled in my gut as I watched the stare-off. One of the prospects acting as referee did his usual spiel about fighting fair and all that, and then indicated to Candi to ring the bell to start the fight.
With my arms folded across my chest, I watched curiously as the two circled each other. I didn’t recognize either of the men, but I did know that one was human and the other was a shifter and could tell this was not going to end well. Shifters were naturally stronger and faster than humans, and I chanced a glance over to Six to see if he could tell what was going on. Didn’t seem like he’d allow this—but then again, I’d seen worse. We weren’t exactly the most law-abiding club, but a human?
The first grunt made me flinch and I watched as a couple of the guy’s teeth went flying out of his mouth, along with a spray of blood. The crack of his neck whipping to the left as the shifter hit him was loud.
The guy cursed, but didn’t go down, just shook his head seemingly to clear it, and I was mildly impressed. I watched the shifter’s smug expression turn angry, and he went for another hit, but missed the guy. The man was able to get in a kick to the shifter’s stomach, and while he did go down, he popped back up at an almost unnatural speed and swung at the human again. This time, he did get him—a punch to the temple that sent the man spiraling to the ground. That was it. The shifter was on him, pummeling him. The human man seemed to have friends here because suddenly, the entire place was like a prison riot. I threw my coffee cup down and jumped into the melee, hoping to get the humans out of here—unscathed.
The shifter was fighting off the man’s friends, but he was holding his own. Using the distraction, I dragged the now-unconscious man out of the ring and carried him out of the club. He needed very serious medical attention, and the fuck if I was gonna dial 9-1-1.
I looked around and cursed when I realized there was no way for me to get him to a hospital on my bike. Just then, my buddy Drake, a new
