– You smell magic. It's going to be a real delight. Don't move, it'll be fast. Or almost.
That's when the second man, thinner, but just as athletic, sniffed my neck before planting his fangs deeply.
– How is it possible ? I thought this people have disappeared.
– And it is the case because she will join them into nothingness.
– As soon as we take what we want?
– Of course. The strength tenfold is for us.
Please no. They won't settle for a bump at the end. A huge ball of anxiety clogs my larynx. They cut my stomach, bite my collarbone several times, sucking my blood like vampires, except that they are only fiction and my aggression is real. It looks like they are enjoying torturing me. I feel my strength give up as my blood spills over the white tiles, forming a most macabre contrast, and the suffering is unbearable. I pray that I will pass out before my last breath and that my ordeal will end, which happens when armed guards open the door with a crash to rescue me.
Chapter 2
Connor
I take my coffee on the terrace of my chalet, like every morning, when I can. I often travel for work and I have made this place my haven of peace. The exterior is all wood, from floor to roof, and arranged to receive the entire pack, with tables and chairs scattered here and there at the front of the building. The place is quiet, in the middle of a wood, ideal for the metaphor cheetah that I am. Impossible to guess, seen from here, the original function of this place. I need greenery and space to feel free and relaxed and congeners for social contact. It is for this last reason that my chalet is not isolated in the middle of nowhere as I sometimes feel the urge, but near other chalets of the same style as mine, without being on top of each other, giving us some privacy.
I hear activity coming from the surroundings, doors slamming and leaf creaking under the weight of the walkers. My lieutenants, as well as my beta, will soon come to see me for our daily ritual: racing and fighting in our animal form. Sometimes dominant members of the pack join us to keep themselves good form. This is important for team cohesion and essential for strengthening the pack bond. After all, we are an extraordinary clan. The only pack of animorphs of different species. I love these moments of calm when we give free rein to our animal part.
– The form, Connor?
– Not bad and you ?
– Hum, like a morning when I wake up alone in my big bed.
Phew, Nate is incorrigible. If he sleeps alone, without a woman to warm his sheets, he is in bad mood. However, here, the rules are strict and the same for everyone: no foreigner (man or woman) in this specific case, on our territory. It’s a security matter. This territory is a refuge for many of us and it is impossible to enter it without being authorized. And since we haven't been out for many days, since the end of our last mission in fact, Nate is starting to feel alone.
– We'll go out tonight, if you want. You can find to yourself a hot bear.
– Nop, not a bear, they are too insistent. Each time they expect a serious story and it is no way. I prefer to wait for the right one, the only one created for me.I understand Nate's point of view. As shapeshifters, we know that we have a soul mate somewhere on this earth. Unfortunately, few find it and it is not uncommon for a shapeshifter to decide to unite with another who is not intended for him, but who makes him happy. I am like Nate. I'm waiting for the perfect woman for me. I am convinced that if I deserve it, fate will put her in my way. My beta arrives at that time and takes the conversation along the way.
– Like all of us bro. Right Connor?
– Exact. Hi Sean. The others arrive?
– Liam and Owen spent the evening in town. You know them, they surely have a hard time getting out of bed of their conquest of the day. They shouldn't be long.
Yep, that remains to be seen. They must still sober up.
– OK, let's start girls.
I love to tease them, it motivates them. In reality, they are formidable fighters, as seasoned as I and loyal friends. I would put my life in their hands without hesitation. We undress quickly so as not to disintegrate our clothes and take the shape of our animal. My beast is pleased to be on all fours and does not waste time, it leaps on the lion in front of us, which responds with a stroke of the paw much wider than its own. It is much larger than us, but my animal is more agile and faster. Everyone has their assets. Sean and I turn around, mutually seeking a flaw in the defense of the opponent, when Nate's bear charges us and sends us rolling against a tree. His favorite technique: the ball of demolition. Nate is not delicate, but he is effective. Grrr, I'm going to have a bump. He's going to pay me this big oaf. Against a grizzly bear, the smartest thing is to run to get it tired. A mastodon weighing more than three hundred kilos is formidable when it loads, but it certainly does not have the endurance of my feline. My animal is the fastest in the world, I am unbeatable in racing. I still have time to get started. So I go between two trees when the bangs of bone characteristic of a shapeshifter sound. The latecomers have finally had to get out of their ethylic coma and don't waste time getting into the dance. The game will get tough. A huge gray wolf hits me on the right flank just before I pick up speed while a beautiful black panther, as graceful as deceitful, grabs my left hind paw to make me fall to the side. Liam and Owen are used to work in pairs and have their own attack techniques. Fortunately, my buddy is over two meters tall. Nate jumps and drops heavily on Liam who moans under the weight. The bear is really not in finesse, I am pleased not to be its target when I see a gray crepe buried by a hairy mountain of a bright brown. I take this opportunity to grab Owen by the skin of the neck and force him to back away. Sean then launches into the fray, roaring and growling. To all of us, we form a huge ball of yellow, black, brown and gray fur, speckled in places. Difficult to distinguish who claws who or what. We fight, bite and run most of the morning before taking human form in front of my chalet, covered with tufts of hair, blood and saliva. For a stranger, the scene we offer could be alarming. In reality, our injuries are superficial, the goal of the exercise not being to badly injure , but to acquire new techniques and new reflexes as well as to improve our skills in the art of combat. In few hours, nothing will appear there. I grab the jet of water and rinse us unceremoniously. We are not afraid of cold anyway. Our blood is warmer than that of humans, protecting us from temperature variations. We then sit outside with a beer to take stock of the training.
– Good job guys. Liam, Owen, was the night short?
– Sorry Connor, but this chick was too sexy and …
– I don't need details,Owen thank you. You were less efficient, slower than usual. Force is not everything in the case of an attack. Watch out.
I sometimes show myself hard, but our survival depends on it. And I care about each of these dumbass, even if I would never confess to them.
– Relax Connor, we don't have a mission right now.
Ah, Nate’s optimism. In the group he is the quiet force and the defender of the oppressed. As if these guys need to be defended.
– I know Nate, but it won't last, it never will.
Sean doesn't say a word, he knows I'm right. He is my beta, my right arm, and manages the secondary missions when I am not available. He takes even less good time than me and I already take few. And just like for me, this job is his whole life and his reason for existing on this earth. He is the one who brought us together, even though we all have personal reasons for being here. The five of us represent the little Guardian Angels pack. There are other members of course, but we are the most important and the strongest. I'm the chief, the alpha. I am responsible for everyone and I take this role very seriously. The last three present with me are the defenders, the lieutenants. They have a role just as essential as me. Without the five of us, no more packs. It would become vulnerable and quickly disappear. Our work, thanks to substantial subsidies, allows us to support the clan and has given us this territory, an ancient, highly fortified human military base. But this is valid only if we stay alive to do the job. Our job is not without danger. We serve the governor when the human police are overwhelmed by events. Only for witness protection in investigations involving shapeshifters. Humans are no match for an angry and determined animorph. What are fists worth against claws and fangs that can shred you in less than a second? So we’re fighting ours to make justice prevail, replacing the missing fatels. We are the most powerful species on earth and I estimate, like my companions, that this does not put us above the law. Still, the witnesses must be alive to appear in court, and this is where my team comes in. Most of the people we have saved, often from their own pack, some alphas who love excess and oppression, have settled here with us. This is how this pack was born.
Chapter 3
Connor
Well, what did I just say to Nate? To believe that I am clairvoyant, or that the governor heard me. I knew it had been too long since my phone rang.
– Hello Governor. How are you?
– Good, but truce of banality. We have a problem.
As usual, he would not call me otherwise. His phone calls are never to announce good news. But his tone makes me nervous and puts my senses on alert. The governor is never worried. Tense, stressed, yes, but never anxious and today I could almost smell his fear through the handset. My friends immediately notice my change in posture, I stiffened, my instincts alert, and immediately take their seriousness, awaiting information about their next mission.
– I'm listening to you.
– There was an assault in a human hospital. A wolf who had been admitted the same morning was killed.
It's rather unusual for an animorph to end up in the hospital, especially a human hospital, but apart from that …
– OK, but I can't do anything for him anymore.
– Obviously, and an investigation is underway to find out the reasons for his pitiful state when he arrived. But you could help a nurse who was at his bedside.
– Of course. Did she know him? What pack is she in?
– To my knowledge, she did not know the victim and she does not belong to any pack. She’s a human and she’s in a coma. She was attacked by the shapeshifters who came to finish off the wolf.
I get up from my seat and start pacing. This story is not trivial.
– I'm sorry ? Usually, clans don't even tire of threatening humans because they are too scared of retaliation to testify against them, so attack them! We've only protected shapeshifters until today. Why do they hurt this human woman?
– This is what you are going to have to find out while protecting her. They ran away and left her for dead only because of the guards arrived in the room with handguns . They were forced to shoot several times so that the animorphs decided to drop their victim. Vigils who have spotted several shapeshifters on guard around the human hospital since the assault on Miss Slat a week ago.We think that they want to know if she is alive or if she will succumb to her injuries soon. And they might want to finish the job when they find out that she survived. It is out of the question that a war breaks out between humans and shapeshifters. Humans will not disappear without a fight if the matter gets out.
– Okay. Send me the address. We'll be leaving within an hour.
This is a strange case. She will be the first human to benefit from our protection. Not that it is not important, I respect everyone's life, human or shapeshifter, it is the same for me. Everyone has a place on earth and a role to play. Why would shapeshifters want the death of a nurse? How important is it to want to make sure that she is dead, at the risk of starting a war? It does not mean anything.
– Connor, a problem?
– I don't know, Sean. This mission is unusual. We have to protect a human left for dead by shapeshifters.
– Why would a clan do this?
– This is the hundred thousand dollar question that will have to be answered. The governor fears a war between the two peoples. Which could happen if a pack attacks a human hospital. We may be physically stronger, but we are not invincible. Humans may be afraid and shoot at all of the surrounding animorphs. Sean, I entrust the pack to you. The others, we take off in an hour.
I take my bag in my room without wasting time, turning and returning events in my head without understanding the meaning.The trip to the hospital took us 3 hours by plane plus thirty minutes by car. Have you ever seen wild animals on a plane? It’s like putting a lion in a cage. It's not good. We are not made to fly. So we arrive anxious at the hospital , nervous and a little aggressive. We would need to release the animals to relieve the pressure. Unfortunately, the shapeshifters I see watching without any discretion, confirm to me that the situation is unstable and perilous, so freedom will wait.