INVISIBLE PRISON (INVISIBLE RECRUITS) (6 page)

I stepped back with a shrug, giving Dyslexia room to brush past me to join Monroe’s team. I didn’t even snarl as she patted her new teammates on the shoulder as if she’d found her right niche at last.

Only problem was one of Monroe’s team had to now move out of the winning clique if the three teams were to be even.

It was like being in one of those nightmares where you keep thinking you’re on stage with no clothes. That sinking chest feeling as I waited for someone from the winning team to choose to be on the losing team.

I kept my chin high, a smile plastered on my face and my gaze straight ahead, thus able to ignore most but not all of the averted gazes, small whispers, and shifting body language as the women from Monroe’s team had to break up after they’d just bonded.

Maybe this is what Stone had wanted all along. Not to see who could work together but who could be flexible and take one for the team. Not an easy thing to do, especially for women. We loved our comfort circle of friends, even if twenty minutes ago we hadn’t identified ourselves as a cohesive group. Once we did though, watch out.

It was Vaughn who broke the impasse, earning a brow raise from Stone. “Rena,” Vaughn signaled out a woman near her, “You’re a strong teammate. Why don’t you change places and learn from Alex.”

Smooth move. She patted Rena on the back with public acknowledgement, gave her a proactive reason for leaving, a positive stroke for me, and kudos for doing the right thing. Damn, pampered Princess had some wicked leadership skills. Forget Dyslexia changing groups; I wanted to learn from Vaughn.

With a true smile that made it easier for Rena to release the hands of her teammates and enter the Noziak circle, I made sure I caught Vaughn Monroe’s gaze and gave her a nod.

That’s all the time I had as Stone barked out the next team building assignment.

Thank the Great Spirits it didn’t include more hand holding. But it did give me an idea, one I mumbled to Vaughn at the end of the day when we trooped, cold and tired, back inside at last.

“The day we’re given the option to create our own team bonding games I’ve got me a good one,” I said, as Vaughn drew next to me.

“What?”

“We’ll see which team can take down M.T. Stone the fastest.”

Her snort earned a sharp look and frown from Stone as we passed him. But that didn’t stop Vaughn from grinning in my direction and adding, “I’m in. I’m so in.”

Oh, yeah, I’d follow this one to fight non-humans.

Lead the way.

CHAPTER 9

The next three days were more of the same. Martial arts, the beginning of weaponry training and lots of team building with the leaders changing out, but more often than not we ended up with Vaughn, myself, or Chiquita leading a squad.

Stone was trying his damnedest to cull recruits until we were down to two teams of seven each. I wasn’t always sure why someone was cut or quit but was surprised to notice that Dyslexia hung in there, regardless of her continuing grumbles. But then maybe she only groused around her fellow recruits and played suck up when she got to Stone.

The good news for me was there hadn’t been any more magic attacks directed against me. I still smelled a whiff of magic now and then but not enough to pinpoint who was using.

It was the afternoon of the third day that things changed up. Instead of shuffling outside for our team building exercises, Stone had us rally in the gym, slightly warmer than outside but not by much. He was the one who divided us into two groups of seven each. Vaughn led one and I was in her group this time. Kelly was in the group, too. Downside? So was Dyslexia.

Reyes headed the second team with Jaylene Smart the Amazon woman, Serena, Brenda, and another three women. I hoped we weren’t going head-to-head in any physical competition because, except for Dyslexia, the Reyes team had all the muscle. In a bar fight I’d bet on them. On the other hand we had the smarts, which mattered in some battles.

I stared at Stone, waiting to see what he had up his sadistic sleeve.

“New session today,” he said, his tone very even and serious. It gave me goose bumps.

He continued, “Since we’re still in training, anyone who doesn’t want to take part in this exercise can opt out.” He nodded toward the door. “Exit is that way.”

Sounded very generous until he added, “But if you leave, you’re out of the program.”

No gray area with this guy. I glanced at the two huddles of recruits, noticing the wary glances ping ponging back and forth. Something was up. Something most, if not all of us, weren’t going to like.

Get on with it, I wanted to prod him along. Not that I wasn’t worried; I was. But waiting for a threat always seemed worse to me than facing one, patience not being one of my strong suits.

“What’s he going to do?” Kelly whispered next to me. I noticed she was dissipating tension by stepping back and forth and flexing her hands.

“Nothing we can’t handle,” I replied, aware of Vaughn’s quick look and cautious smile.

As team leader she had to think not about her own skin but the rest of us answering to her. Not a spot I’d like to be in with Stone being cagey.

As if waiting for the tension to get to a level between high-alert and run-like-hell, Stone finally nodded toward a set of other doors to the gym, those leading from the hallway.

“Come on in, guys,” he shouted, causing us all to straighten to attention.

The minute the first guy stepped in through the doorway, and before the woman behind him followed, I knew what we’d be facing. Shifters.

I could smell them, knew the way they moved, braced myself even though they were still across the room and acting as casual as a shifter can. Which wasn’t very.

If you’ve ever been around a bunch of military personnel waiting for or looking for trouble, you know what I mean. Testosterone radiated from them, muscles flexed, ready to spring into action, body language screaming bring it on.

The guy coming to a halt on Stone’s left side wasn’t as tall as I was, but his rangy build meant speed, strength, and trouble. The woman was broader, as if she had Viking for
ebearers, wide across the shoulders, big boned. and ice blue eyes. Running full tilt into her would be like smacking into a concrete wall.

Stone glanced at Vaughn and Reyes, then swept his gaze so it touched on every recruit before speaking. “We’re here to fight the good fight,” he said, adding, “With a twist.”

He glanced to his newest instructors. “Up until now we’ve been learning how to physically take down the bad guys. Human ones. Today we’re taking the game up a notch.”

He smiled, waiting for the low murmur sweeping through the group to subside. Wariness and fear. It wasn’t that every one of us recruits wasn’t different in some way, but possessing some abilities didn’t mean all of us had come up against non-humans. Besides we hadn’t practiced, or even acknowledged publicly what else we could do. Were we supposed to start here?

Being different growing up meant most of us hid our true natures so revealing them, even in an environment that theoretically appeared safe, was not easy. It was one thing to admit you were fae or a Were, and a whole other to morph into what humans considered a monster.

So what was Stone up to?

“Rolf and Bitsi are here to help us learn what it means to go up against beings stronger and more dangerous than the average human. They’re shifters.”

Bitsi? That’d be enough reason to be a ball-buster. Since shifters were born, not changed like many Weres could be, her parents must have thought giving her a foo-foo name might disguise her true nature. That’d be like giving a buffalo a poodle’s haircut and expecting folks not to notice they were being charged by an enormous shaggy beast.

So focused on the unlikely shifter’s unlikely name, I missed the first part of Stone’s next comment but caught the end. “… so if the leaders want to—”

“I think we should get Bitsi,” Dyslexia shouted, earning the swivel of everyone’s attention to her. She glanced around our team saying in a lower voice, “What? She’s a woman. She’ll be easier to fight.”

“She’s a shifter,” I snapped back, not caring who heard. And since shifters had better hearing than humans, Bitsi already was listening in on everything being said. “There’s no ‘easy’ in fighting any shifter.”

Stone gave me a small nod and I swear I heard Rolf snort under his breath. But he wasn’t the most immediate problem, being saddled with an idiot with attitude was.

Dyslexia thrust her hands on her hips, lowering her head to protect her vulnerable neck and rocked forward on her feet. “You don’t care about the team,” she snarled back. “You don’t care if we’re all torn to pieces.”

Kelly stepped forward to diffuse the tension, but I thrust my hand out and held her back, not glancing at her but staring instead at the woman itching to take a bite out of me.

“You’re wrong.” I swung my gaze to intersect with Vaughn, then the rest of my team. “No human wins going one-on-one with a shifter. We have to fight as a team or go down. Doesn’t matter if we get Bitsi,” I stumbled a little over the name, “Or Rolf, or Paris Hilton.”

Not that I thought Paris Hilton was a shifter, fae maybe, but she fit the point I was making. “And if you think the sex, or name, or outward appearance of a shifter is going to make fighting one easier than another, you’re on your way to a quick grave.”

“Says you,” Dyslexia almost spit the words. “Are you a shifter?”

“No.”

“Then you don’t know squat. You’re—”

“The sister of four shifter brothers,” I ground out, earning a quick step back from most of my teammates, all except Kelly and Vaughn. Even Dyslexia hesitated as fear washed over her face. Fear of the unknown. And since most shifters never advertised what they were, the fact I’d lived among them marked me as different and frightening. Nice way to paint a neon sign on my head. The first to come out. The group might not know what I was, but they sure as heck knew I was related to non-humans.

I stepped forward, closer to Dyslexia so she was very clear I wasn’t afraid of her stupidity, even if it could get us killed. “Vaughn’s team leader. She chooses. Not you.”

Not that Vaughn had a lot of choice at this point. If she chose Rolf the whole group, including Stone, would assume it was because Dyslexia forced her into a no-win situation. Right now the tail was wagging the dog.

Vaughn glanced at me, gave a what-the-hell shrug and cut her gaze to Stone, not the shifters, as she said. “Makes no difference to me. I’ve got a strong team. We’ll fight any shifter you have.”

Nice face saving move. We were still going to get trounced, but it looked like we could do so in style.

I gave Vaughn a thumbs up, moving the circle in for a huddle. Yeah, that was Vaughn’s call, but I had a few things to share before all hell broke loose.

CHAPTER 10

“What do we need to know?” Vaughn whispered, our heads so close it might be hard for the shifters to hear us. Hard but not impossible.

There were a hundred things I could say but no time, and I doubted that everyone in the group would listen so I cut to the chase. “Hit them with everything we’ve got. No holds barred. Two at a time, wave after wave, and—”  I looked straight at Vaughn for this next part. “Fight as if you’ll die if you don’t win.”

Vaughn nodded, her expression all business. Beside me I could feel Kelly quiver, but she didn’t say anything as Stone announced. “Bitsi, you get Team Princess. Rolf, Team Reyes.”

That a-hole. The female shifter was just told we were lightweights. Compared to Chiquita’s group maybe but don’t count us out. Not yet. But we’d also dissed Bitsi to the group at large so now she had something to prove.

Vaughn directed us into groups of two. Kelly was paired with Dyslexia, who didn’t like the combo. Neither did I but for different reasons
. Dyslexia would watch out for herself and sacrifice Kelly without a pause.

I started to say something but Vaughn caught my eye. She had a plan. I didn’t know what it was, but I could trust her or
waste precious minutes publicly second guessing her.

So I bit the inside of my lip and nodded.

But if she was wrong and Kelly got hurt, Vaughn would pay for it.

Her look told me she knew exactly what I was thinking. Good. We understood each other.

Stone was calling both groups to attention. “Monroe, your team to the south end of the gym. Reyes, you take the north end. If you hear my whistle you stop fighting. If you don’t, you fight until your shifter sparring partner is pinned to the floor, both shoulders down for a count of twenty seconds.”

I noticed he didn’t say immobilized.

Bitsi swaggered toward us, taking her time, a smirk playing on her thin lips, her hands loose at her sides.

Nerves scampered up my spine like a horde of ants at a picnic. I’d been initially teamed with two women I didn’t know well. One was Skylock and the other Brianna or Brie something. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Skylock’s skin slip a little, telling me she was non-human, and didn’t have a lot of control over her otherness.

Not good news. Most of us revert to our base instincts when we get truly scared. If that baseness was non-human, a fight could quickly turn ugly. Think bar fight with everyone amped up on PCP or any other drug that made the fighters forget that there was a world of difference between broken bones and heads torn off.

Stone hadn’t given us any parameters of what we could or could not do. For me that meant the fall back position was ask forgiveness not permission
.

If Bitsi badass here got out of line and stopped holding her punches, then I’d let loose with a few of my own. As soon as I could remember them. That was the other side effect of an adrenaline spike—a frozen memory.

Vaughn shouted directions for where we should stand. Seven didn’t divvy up into three groups evenly so Vaughn made me a roving member. We’d attack two at a time. If one of the team went down, I’d jump in. If two went down the next team would charge. That way Bitsi might eventually be worn down enough to take down.

I’d start three on one, then slip into my roving role. If we were lucky, we’d take down the shifter early.

It was a shaky plan.

A quick glance over my shoulder showed me the Reyes’ group was taking a different approach. Every team member was circling Rolf, a dog pile approach. Given their group had more weight and strength, their course just might work.

My team of three stepped toward Bitsi. We were first wave. I swallowed, deeply, knowing my two mates were just as scared, just as panicked as I was, but they were here. Good start.

“Come on, fur ball,” Skylock taunted, another part of our strategy. Most shifters had easily pressed hot buttons. A pissed person, human or non-human, reacted rather than acted. They might be the aggressor for a short burst, but emotional fighting used up resources faster. Once your anger waned, the levelheaded defenders became the bigger threat. The ones who could keep their cool the longest tended to survive.

Skylock stepped closer, “Here, kitty, kitty.”

None of us had any idea what Bitsi became when she shifted. Could be a cat-like creature but there was a huge difference between an enraged alley cat and an enraged tiger.

In a triangular formation across from Skylock I tried to get Skylock’s attention to tone it down a bit, but she was either totally focused on Bitsi or ignoring me.

“Or are you a bitch?” Skylock threw out, dancing way too close to the threat. “Here, Fido. Catch a bone.”

Bitsi lunged forward, so fast she was just a blur, swiping one meaty still-human paw toward Skylock and sending her ass over teakettle through the air even though I’d seen Bitsi pull her punch. I could feel the thud of Skylock landing on the gym floor through my own body. She didn’t move either.

“Now,” I shouted at my other teammate and jumped toward Bitsi’s back.

Bri remained frozen in place.

So there I was, arms wrapped around Bitsi’s neck, legs sandwiched around her waist, hanging on for dear life. Alone.

My dad had raised a few saddle-broncs for the rodeo and had always warned me to stay clear of them. Now I knew why.

Bitsi reared back, then forward, then sideways, her arms over her head, grabbing for my neck, doing everything possible to dislodge me. But I was Idaho-born and we didn’t dislodge easily.

Vaughn shouted something and Kelly and Dyslexia attacked. Or at least Kelly did. She head butted Bitsi in the solar plexus.

Smart move—low and hard.

The shifter oomphed and grabbed her middle which toppled us both over backwards.

Not so nice.

Dyslexia kept tap dancing just outside arm’s-length of the two of us, being as useful as a Band-Aid on an arterial bleed.

Kelly leaped on Bitsi’s legs, the three of us rolling across the hard floor like pigs in a blanket on speed.

If…we...could…just...hold...her…down.

But Bitsi wasn’t a lightweight shifter. With a roar that sounded part wart hog, part buffalo, she rocketed to her knees and threw me off.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kelly still holding on for dear life.

Then she disappeared.