Page 16 of Her Forbidden Shifters
Each time I was hit or fell to the floor, more and more of my energy was zapped. It didn’t take me long to realize the symptom wasn’t normal. They were somehow draining me of all my strength. But for the life of me, I couldn’t catch a good glimpse at either of them, much less figure out what they were using to take my powers and strength.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I was late checking in, but I wasn’t going to pull out my phone in the middle of getting pummeled. Never mind not having a chance to. Jacob was probably checking in on me. He had a habit of that. Especially when I became involved in a case.
Though I appreciated that about him, it didn’t help me in the moment.
My three attackers were all the same, like a shadow, and moved too quickly to be human, but they didn’t shift or use magic outside a few alchemical spells from what I could tell. Humans at their most basic could perform alchemy. But the thing I couldn’t grasp was how they were ethereal and solid at the same time.
I had to figure this out before reaching out. Starting with making it out of this fight alive and without being captured. However, I couldn’t help but find more and more about this case wasn’t making sense. And that didn’t bode well for finding Avery.
I was starting to see a pattern.
No matter how close I was to finding an answer, twenty more questions popped up.
If these people were in any way a part of the organization responsible for stealing witches, they weren’t regular humans and were much, much more powerful than originally thought to be. Though that would explain how they were able to take so many witches, it didn’t give me anything to work with in this fight. The best I could do was give my all and hope that was enough.
My phone started to go off again. But I still couldn’t answer. By now, Jacob would have let Liam know that I was late and not answering.
Worst of all, I was only minutes into the fight, and I was already in desperate need of help. I would reach out to my partner or boss, but I couldn’t get to my phone. At the very least, I couldn’t even answer whoever was calling me. And I didn’t really have to guess who it was.
The hits kept coming. There was nothing I could do.
My team was aware of where I was. They would come soon enough. I just needed to hang on.
I hoped that I would last long enough for one of them to show.
Two more hits and a dark rim lined my vision. Starts bled through with each impact. I sucked in a painful breath as I realized I was losing consciousness. The kicks started to hurt less. My body was becoming heavy.
I was tired, drained, and was losing all the will to keep fighting.
6
LIAM
Jacob wasn’t exactly thrilled with my response to his messages. I had expected as much. But Savannah was nothing if not capable. Jacob needed to realize that. Besides, if I had an iota of a worry that she was going into a fight or trap, I wouldn’t have allowed her to go alone. His lack of trust in me was frustrating. I made a mental note to have a talk with him about that. My decisions were not to be argued.
I hated that he questioned me sometimes. First off, I was his superior. My orders were to be obeyed, not questioned. Not to mention I was fully aware of his feelings for her. He just didn’t know I had shared those same feelings. But I would never break a rule to satisfy an itch.
Or… in this case… a calling. Because my soul called to her.
Him, on the other hand, I wasn’t so sure about. Even I felt tempted to cross the line a time or two, and it took everything in me not to. Especially with the most recent instance just outside of Avery’s apartment. I wanted to kiss her so badly. Needless to say, I wouldn’t put it past Jacob to find a loophole and exploit it to his benefit.
Jacob’s affection for Savannah was one of the reasons why I was thinking about an early retirement. I couldn’t stand the idea of losing my only chance to be with her. No one knew of my plans because I had kept them to myself. I had even been secretly interviewing people to take over my position. The only thing stopping me was figuring out whether or not Savannah felt the same way about me. Or if she could learn to love me as I have loved her from a distance for so long.
Sure, there was attraction. I had smelled her arousals when it had been just the two of us on more than one occasion. But that wasn’t the same.
Jacob would have to find someone else. Because if there are only two things in the world I refused to budge on, they were breaking the rules of my job and sharing someone I cared about. Once Savannah was mine, she was only mine forever.
No exceptions.
Little did he realize I was sticking close by to where she was. I handpicked the park a couple of blocks away to sit and wait it out while waiting on one of my sources to arrive. I wasn’t about to let Jacob know that either. He and I may be on the same page when it came to keeping Noah’s grubby hands off her, but that in no way meant all the effort I’ve been putting into having a relationship with her was for his benefit.
I had nothing else better to do but to sit and wait. To make matters worse, my source was late showing up, and my suspicion about Noah had my distrust of him going deeper than just the fact he wanted my Savannah. I was hoping to find out more about just that. And I couldn’t afford to miss this meeting.
Speaking of… I dialed her number and waited for her to answer. I held my breath waiting for her sweet voice to filter into my ears.
“You’ve reached Savannah…” her voice said. But it wasn’t her. Not really. Just her voice, pre-recorded to play each time her voicemail picked up.
I frowned and hit the end button on my phone. She was likely elbow-deep into her investigation. I would give her a little more time and then try calling again. If she still didn’t answer, I just might have to sacrifice the meeting just to make sure she was okay.
