Chapter Eighteen #2
In their remote part of the country, with its rolling hills and wide, sprawling prairies, having easy access to any sort of medical facility had been looked upon by many as a blessing.
Many of the elders had succumbed to nagging illnesses and ailments that had slowed them down to the point where everyday tasks had grown difficult and, in some cases, impossible.
The little questionnaires sent out through their community had seemed innocent enough, but some of the ones that had come later, no longer distributed to everyone but select families, now felt very suspicious to him.
As he picked up each item to dust it, images began to piece themselves together in his mind.
Like with the cookbooks he’d poured over and easily memorized.
Now he brushed his fingers off on the apron he’d put on over his clothes, put the dust cloth away, and hurried to retrieve the tablet and pen he’d placed in the drawer beside the kitchen stove.
Sitting at the table with a cold glass of strawberry lemonade, he closed his eyes, focused on the past, and began writing every single detail he could recall from the time the clinic had been built, until the moment their lives were irrevocably changed.
Arlo
It was easier when there were things to smash.
Point him in the direction of a target that needed to be dealt with, and Arlo knew exactly what to do.
All this waiting around trying to sort shit out, deciphering shifter’s intentions and hoping they weren’t wrong, that was simply becoming a giant pain in the ass.
Just like trying to get information about some of the most elusive shifters on the planet.
Over the years, he’d made contacts all over the country.
He’d never stored their names and numbers in his phone as his trust in technology had never been very high.
That his mate made a living hacking into anything with an electronic signature and the ability to store data had only added to his distrust of the infernal things.
Now he flipped the page in the spiral-bound notebook he’d carefully removed from the lock box beneath the bed and began dialing the number at the top, having to hit the backspace button several times when his large fingers hit the wrong button on the keypad, or multiple buttons at once.
He really needed to get another damned stylist, but he’d broken three already and lost a half dozen others.
Tiny and inconvenient, that’s what the hell they were.
What he really wished was for someone to design a larger phone, even if it wouldn’t slip easily into the back pocket of his jeans.
Finally, he got the number entered right and hit call, hoping for a person on the other end this time because he was really tiring of leaving cryptic fucking messages. One ring, three, five, just went he expected another goddamn recorded message, an out of breath voice picked up on the other end.
“You calling me for a change?” Zaiden snarked, sounding surprised. “Has hell frozen over?”
Arlo chuckled despite the reason for the call. “Not yet, but there’s no telling what the future will bring. I’m sure you’ve kept up to date?”
“No shit, and of course! There’s been a lot of upheaval lately. Is that why you're calling?”
“Yes,” Arlo muttered, getting a sense something was off by Zaiden’s answer. “Has something happened in your world?”
“Members of our community have returned from the surface world seeking refuge in the caverns among the families they’d left behind. Some tales they’ve told have been downright chilling, forcing the king to make the decision to close our tunnels to all but members of our own kind.”
Now he was getting somewhere. Should have called the serpents first, Arlo thought as he settled against the cushions to listen to what his long time associate chose to share.
One of their first encounters with Zaiden had come when Zaiden was searching for his missing brother amid whispered rumors of threats to his people’s monarchy.
Arlo, at the same time, had gotten tasked with ferreting out a traitor and a bounty-hunter they believed someone had hired to take out the previous leader of a crash across state.
Their investigation had led them to the same man Zaiden was looking for only for Arlo to learn that he’d refused the contract and sent the traitor to someone far less scrupulous, who’d ended their life before Arlo had the opportunity to do it himself for his actions.
The three weeks he and Zaiden had spent unraveling a maze of web-filled lies had bonded them as protectors of their people, though it was typically Zaiden who sought Arlo’s aid, as these days he rarely left his underground community since being elevated to hold one of the seven sacred positions as advisors to the king.
“Attempts have been made to expose and even capture several Serphenmatas, through ruses and tricks to try to force them to expose their true selves. Fortunately for them, the shifters who have hunted for them have been unable to see through their glamor, much as you were unable to see through mine.”
“Yeah, no shit, talk about a shock when you finally revealed your true form to me, though I can see why your illusions were necessary.”
“The influx of our people who have returned not just to ours, but other communities, has been almost staggering. We’ve been forced to create temporary dwellings until permanent ones can be constructed.
I cannot even begin to describe the drain on food and resources that has come from allowing them all to return. ”
“All?” Arlo questioned.
“Every last one, even the banished, though they are now held in the dungeon until we can determine whether or not their presence is still a threat to our way of life,” Zaiden explained edgily.
“How could we not offer them sanctuary when we’ve had no way of determining why they were being targeted?
If the world were to learn of our existence, it would be disastrous, when so many of our kind would be considered mutants and even monstrous to them? ”
“Yeah, I get that, and I might be able to help you sort out some of what’s going on,” Arlo explained before detailing what the shifter council had been engaged in and the creatures they’d been creating in order to gain control over all the vast variety of shifters that existed in their world.
Several times Zaiden cursed bitterly in a mix of his language, English and several others he’d picked up in his travels, but never once did he interrupt.
When Arlo finished, he could hear the serpent softly hissing on the other end, the sounds punctuated by heavy, weary sighs.
Arlo could almost picture him rubbing the worry lines in the center of his scaled forehead as he marshaled his thoughts into words.
“It seems that we were right in welcoming them and encouraging our allies to do the same when they reported an influx of ex-members of their community,” Zaiden said at last. “We’ve questioned each returnee extensively and created a detailed database of the encounters they’ve recounted.
I can make no promises now, but I will speak to the king to see if he will allow me to share some of the details with you.
Names will have to be withheld for the protection of our society, but I believe there is information in their tales that will benefit you in your quest to discover who is behind this mess.
As soon as I have received an answer, I’ll get in touch. ”
“Thank you,” Arlo replied, feeling his friend would indeed add his weight to the request.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Zaiden answered warily. “You know this will be viewed as a favor that will need to be repaid somewhere down the line.”
“I’m aware.”
“Then we’ll speak soon,” Zaiden said before ending the call.
Groaning, Arlo pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on as he leaned back against the couch cushions.
Illusive and secretive as all hell, the snakes weren’t ones to get involved with the council, nor did they acknowledge them as having any rulership over them.
They preferred to handle things in-house, not that any knew where they dwelled.
Which made it even more concerning that efforts had been made to trace or trap them.
Everything pointed to a grander plan than what had been revealed so far.
If he were right, it wouldn’t bode well for shifters anywhere.