Page 69 of Secret Shifters Next Door

She’d definitely been on the verge of some type of breakdown in the car. She’d been talking crazy, and that weird light that had come from her hands? Had that really happened or had that been a hallucination on my part? Then there were the things she was saying. Shifters? What did that mean? What was a shifter?Was it some synonym she had for a liar or cheat? Nothing made any sense. Was Emily crazy? Was I?

Javier was examining my breasts in great detail when we heard a commotion outside. Screams and muffled gunshots. Javier’s calm demeanor faded as he turned his head to the window.

He stepped toward the window, murmuring, “What the fuck?”

Before he got there to see what was happening, a radio clipped to his belt cracked, and a panicked voice screamed out, “Javi. Javi. Where the fuck are you, man?”

Javier unclipped the radio. “I’m here, what the hell is going on?”

The man screamed over the sounds of gunfire and… something else, a screeching roar of some sort. “They’re taking us down. I need back up. What the fuck are they?—”

The man’s words cut off, replaced by a high-pitched agonized scream, then the radio went silent.

Javier’s eyes widened as he stared at the quiet radio. He threw it to the ground and sprinted to the window, trying to see what was happening to his men. From my bed, all I could see was the blackness of the window. I could see Javier’s eyes widen even more, then an orange flash from outside lit his features. It was like someone had shot a blast from a flame thrower outside. Javier’s shoulders slackened, and he slowly backed away from the window.

Whatever he’d seen had shaken him to the core. His face was almost ghost white, and his eyes were glassy. It looked like he was in shock. He slowly went to his knees, trying to steady himself.

The last thing he said before he fainted was a single whispered question I could barely hear over the chaos outside. “Dragon?”

He fell forward, unconscious, his head bouncing off the wooden floor like a basketball. For a split second, I thought about sprinting to the window to see what would cause a hardened criminal to pass out from fright, but I’d seen this movie before. There was only one thing to do. As much as my curiosity demanded to know what was happening, my fight-or-flight response was stronger. I ran. I ran faster than I’d ever run in my life.

The bedroom door was unlocked. Javier must not have thought to lock it while he was in the room with me. Not knowing which way to go, I chose directions at random. I didn’t even pay attention to where I was, I just kept going, taking stairs downward whenever I found them. If I was going to get out, it had to be down, right? After what seemed like an eternity, I found myself in what was obviously the kitchen. I snatched a massive butcher knife off a magnetic knife rack and opened a door that looked like it led outside.

Almost stumbling on the edge of the door, I stepped out onto a concrete patio. The sounds I’d heard coming from outside had died down, and everything was almost eerily quiet. There was a faint glow from the left of the patio, and I assumed that must be the driveway, so I ran toward it. Hopefully, one of the cars would have keys in the ignition. After I rounded the corner and came to the front of the house, I slid to a stop and gaped at the sight in front of me.

Men were lying everywhere. Face down, face up, one was lying on top of a car, the roof crumpled in like he’d been dropped from twenty feet up. They were everywhere. I couldn’t tell if they were unconscious or if they were dead. It was like a war zone.

Before I could even process what I was seeing, I heard a familiar voice barking orders. “Inside. Check inside. Harley, where are you?” Tate bellowed.

I ran for his voice, like a child waking from a nightmare. Safety was at hand. Once I was in Tate’s arms, things would be better. That was when he ran from behind a decorative hedgerow. I dropped my knife and slid in the grass, thumping onto my butt. A whole new terror flooded into my body. He looked… enraged. His eyes were blazing with anger and panic. They weren’t just blazing, they were actually glowing. Gold, like the hottest coal of a fire. He almost looked inhuman, like something deep inside him was angry and trying to rip free. Tate didn’t seem to notice the terror on my face. He stepped forward, his face going almost completely back to normal. I did my best not to flinch away from him.

He turned and called back over his shoulder, “Miles, I found her. Blayne, Steff, over here.”

Without another word, Tate started running his hands over me, looking for injuries. All I could do was look at his eyes. They still glowed with that strange gold light I’d seen a moment before. Without the snarling, angry face, it was less terrifying. It was fading, but still obvious. It was impossible. That was a word I’d thought a lot of the past few hours. That was when I remembered what Emily had said.Shifters.

“Tate,” I whispered.

“Huh?” He grunted, checking my knees for scratches.

“Your eyes are glowing.”

His hands froze above my knee cap. He blinked several times before raising his face to meet my eyes. When I got a look at him, the glow was gone, but he looked tense and worried.

He caressed my leg. “We need to go.”

He helped lift me, and I took his hand, following. My feet were moving, one in front of the other, but where yesterday I would have been happy and content to walk with Tate and hold his hand, now there was a tinge of fear. What was happening? Emily’s voice was in my head again.

Every shifter, every single one of them needs to be eradicated.That word again. Shifter.

Tate escorted me to his truck and helped me get in, and buckled me up. As he closed the door, Blayne, Miles, and Steff came jogging up to him. With the doors closed, I couldn’t overhear their conversation. Tate was speaking and gesturing, a look of worry on his face. He pointed to the truck and said something. That was when the others reacted to something. Steff put his hands on his head, looking up at the night sky in shock. Miles and Blayne looked like someone had kicked them in the gut. It took everything I had not to open the door to hear what was being said. All three of them glanced at me through the windshield before nodding at something Tate said, then they disappeared, walking away from the truck.

Tate got into the driver’s seat and started driving us home. The silence was palpable. Normally, I’d have been uncomfortable, but it was sort of welcome. I needed time to think and process everything that had happened today. Tate gripped the steering wheel like his fingers were a vise. He was still angry about everything that had happened, but there was something else on his face. A battle or an argument was going on inside his head. It was evident in the way his lips twitched, and his eyes squinted. Like he was mentally evaluating some decision.

After going about ten miles, he sighed. Without looking at me, asked, “What did Emily say to you in the car?”

My heart told me to lie, or change the subject, but my brain knew that wouldn’t work. Instead, I told him everything. The talk about shifters, the light that came from her hands, the way she’d somehow stopped the car from wrecking, the way Javier had fainted while whispering the word ‘dragon.’ It was all laid out, and even after I verbalized all of it, it still made zero sense. It was like I was stuck in a different universe or something.

Tate’s grip on the steering wheel grew tighter the longer I talked, his knuckles going white. When I finished, he asked, “Are you afraid of me?”

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