Steal the Night (Thieves #5)(150)

Trent pulled me down, putting his mouth to my ear so he could whisper. “Shh. Someone’s in the outer room.”

“Oh, god,” I replied softly. “I left the light on. It should have been off. Louis would never have left it on. Who is it?”

Trent breathed deeply and he and Neil looked at each other. “Shifter,” they said at the same time.

My heart seized because that meant one thing and one thing only. If that was a shifter, he knew we were here. He would be able to smell us.

The door to the office opened and the shifter who worked in the dungeons stood looking at us with a smile on his narrow face. He was lanky to the point of skinny and his eyes were little black beads. “Trent, I always suspected you were a plant. Guess we get to see who’s stronger now.”

I felt Trent sigh against me as he moved me back. “Easy job, huh?”

I let the wolf put himself between me and whatever that shifter was going to turn into. “I did say the easy part came when we got back to Dallas.”

“You stay back, okay?”

“Aye, aye, captain.” I didn’t have a weapon of any kind and I doubted the three days I lasted at kickboxing class were really going to come in handy now.

Trent used his strong legs to kick the other man back into the living area. It was a much bigger space, but the shifter was already changing. His clothes ripped around him and the air was heavy. Trent’s change was quick. Though he started after the shifter, his massive gray wolf was charging by the time the other guy took his form. I’d been wrong about the snake. He was a huge, gross-looking lizard thing. He looked primeval, with dead, black eyes and a slithering tongue.

I was actually a little grateful for the lizard. Normally I’m of the firm belief that shifters should really only shift into other mammals. It makes sense to me. Humans are mammals, so I expect something warm blooded to try to kill me when I have to face down a shifter. When they turn into snakes or lizards or birds, it tends to freak me out. Not a one of them has ever turned into a giant frog, which I might find kind of funny. I have yet to see a giant spider. I think insects and arachnids are too hard. I think I’d just run from a huge spider. But while the lizard made my stomach churn, it also didn’t make a ton of noise. A lion or panther would have roared and brought everyone down on our heads.

“Is that supposed to be a komodo dragon?” I asked, looking back at Neil. I would warn Trent not to let it bite him because their mouths were icky. I’d seen that in a documentary once. When I got a good look at Neil, I took a shocked step back.

His eyes were red and it seemed a little like he was caught in an in-between stage of his change. His features were distinctly wolf like, but his face still had human form. He was Neil…and he wasn’t.

“Sweetie, are you okay?” I was slightly horrified by what he was becoming. I didn’t leave him. Something instinctive inside told me to hold my ground. Running might get whatever was inhabiting Neil to chase me, and I didn’t want that to happen. I didn’t want him thinking I was prey.

“I’m fine, Zoey,” Neil replied, his voice deeper than normal.

“No, I don’t think so,” I breathed back, all the while listening to the brawl going on right in front of us.

Trent was fighting quietly and methodically. He was exceptionally well trained and it showed as he went straight for the lizard’s underbelly, trying to turn him over so he could use his claws on the soft flesh there. The lizard managed to get one of Trent’s legs into his gross and probably full of all kinds of bacteria mouth, and I heard Trent groan as the lizard bit down.

When I glanced back at Neil, I noticed something strange. Under the white fabric of the polo he was wearing, I could see the odd tattoo on his body had started to glow. I reached out to touch it and when I did, my fingers singed even as the fabric started to burn.

“Oww,” I hissed, pulling my hand back.

“Both?” Neil was staring at the fight ahead of him, but there was nothing of my friend in those red eyes.

“I don’t understand.”

His eyes narrowed and finally found mine. “Where is my master?”

I didn’t like the sound of that. I thought quickly. Neil was a wolf and I had to hope that whatever was riding him now still had contact with that essential part of his being.

“I am your master,” I said, making my voice as firm as possible. It was the tone I used when I wanted someone to obey me.

“Both?” He gestured toward the room and indicated the combatants.

My blood chilled as I realized what he was asking, and I wondered what the hell Stewart had done to my friend. Neil wanted permission to kill them both. I doubted a lecture from me about world peace and passive resistance would be taken well. He might question my status as his master. “Just the lizard thing. The wolf is a friend and must not be harmed.”

He nodded and then he disappeared. I didn’t know if he moved so fast I couldn’t see him or if he did something wicked cool like teleport, but one minute he was beside me and the next he was straddling the lizard, his clawed hands around its neck. Trent seemed surprised by the sudden entrance of another person in the fight and he backed off.

There was a horrible crunch and then the lizard’s neck bent at a weird angle and the body just stopped. It fell to the floor, deflating quickly. When I looked back up to Neil, he seemed confused to be standing there.