Alterant

  Tough.

  Isak answered to no one and had his own ties higher up, but he only called in those favors for something significant.

  Nonhumans were significant.

  He could handle Tzader Burke without calling on D.C.

  Isak punched the call back number, curious more than anything.

  When the call connected, Tzader answered, "Hello, Isak."

  How had he known who was calling? Isak blocked all form of ID on his phones. "What do you want, Burke?"

  "To know if you've seen someone."

  Isak grinned. "What makes you think I've seen anyone you know?"

  "Because your Nyght squad misses very little that goes on in the city. I know you've been hunting in Atlanta."

  "Then you know I don't hunt humans. You got a nonhuman you want to tell me about?" He waited through a short silence. "No? Guess there's nothing to talk about."

  Tzader made a growling sound. "I see you earned the nickname 'prick' honestly."

  "Now you're trying to flatter me."

  "You can tell me what I want to know, or I can make it difficult for you to hang around Atlanta."

  Isak said, "Yeah, yeah. I've got better ways to waste my time. File a missing person's report with Atlanta PD if you've lost someone." He started to slide his thumb over to end the call when Tzader said, "I'm looking for Evalle Kincaid."

  This time the silence was on Isak's end. How did Tzader know Evalle? Isak's contact had indicated that Tzader handled special projects for D.C. but not exactly what those projects were.

  "Still there, Isak?"

  "I'm here. What do you know about Evalle?"

  "More than you can imagine."

  Isak extended and closed his trigger finger. Did Tzader know that Evalle talked to demons? The first time Isak had met the woman a demon had been preparing to eat her. He'd blasted the demon into bite-size chips. Why would Tzader call him unless he had some inkling about Isak's relationship with Evalle, a strange one at that. He'd had to kidnap her just so they could have dinner together.

  Isak asked again, "How do you know her and why're you looking for her?"

  "Can't share that. I just want to know if you've seen her on any of your surveillance equipment."

  "Not in a few days." Truth, but Isak wouldn't have told him even if he had seen Evalle.

  "Heard from her?"

  That pretty much confirmed Tzader knew Isak and Evalle were acquainted well enough to talk on the phone. "Not a word."

  "If you see her or hear from her, let me know."

  "We're back to why should I?"

  "Her safety depends on it. That's all I can share and not put her at further risk."

  "I suppose I can let you know if I run into her," Isak said flippantly.

  "Let me be clear. I'm asking for intel if you care about her safety. Other than that? Stay. Away. From. Her. Your ability to continue breathing depends on not crossing me when it comes to her." Tzader hung up.

  Isak brushed the Off button on his phone and lifted the radio on his desk. He called up Laredo Jones, his right-hand man, who was in the hangar with his team. When Jones answered, Isak said, "Bring the team to my office. We're going hunting."

  TWENTY

  Night had overtaken Atlanta when Evalle rode her motorcycle away from her apartment and turned on Marietta Street, heading toward Grady Hospital to find her favorite Nightstalker.

  A pocket of yellowish haze hung low over the sidewalks.

  She'd never seen a fog like that.

  Sirens screeched on the east side of downtown.

  For a city that normally bustled with nightlife at nine in the evening, downtown roadways were eerily empty. She stopped at a cross street, just short of entering the fog that was translucent enough to see through.

  The sulfuric stench burned her nose.

  Reaching out empathically, she encountered hostility unlike anything human. Her beast stirred, interested in the battle.

  That was new and something she needed to avoid.

  She snatched her senses away from the misty cloud and searched for another route.

  A new patch of fog had begun filling in the street behind her, floating her way.

  Trapped.

  Her palms were damp. That fog was not natural.

  Could she hold her breath and drive fast enough through the yellow cloud in front of her and reach clear air without shifting into her beast form?

  If I sit here another minute I'm not going to have a choice.

  Sucking in a deep breath, she rolled on her throttle and raced ahead but slowed when visibility dropped to ten feet in front of her. She couldn't risk hitting a pedestrian, with so little line-of-sight distance.

  Fifty feet into the fog she started seeing fallen bodies, no . . . pieces of bodies. What had attacked them?

  Across the street on her left, a teenage boy wearing a hoodie and carrying a backpack rushed along in the same direction Evalle rode. A woman in a business suit walked just as quickly toward him, both obviously in a hurry to get through the fog. But when the woman reached the boy, the woman slowed as they almost passed each other and swung her briefcase, knocking the kid sideways.

  Evalle's lungs were crying for air, but she hit her brakes. She'd have to breathe if she got involved in that fight.

  The kid jumped up and shoved the woman against the granite wall of the building along the sidewalk.

  Crud.

  Shoving down her bike stand, Evalle yanked off her helmet and gasped for air. Sulfur burned her throat. Her beast sent a tremble through her body. Before she could dismount, the woman had coldcocked the teenager.

  As Evalle rushed over, the woman just walked away casually, as if she'd only stopped to ask directions of a passing stranger. When Evalle reached the young man he turned out to be in his early twenties.

  She coughed from the sickening sulfuric air and bent down to give the kid a hand, asking, "You okay?"

  He shoved up and swung a fist at her.

  She caught his arm. "Whoa. Stop it."

  "Screw you. Get your hand off me or I'll kill you." He swung another punch she knocked away. His eyes were crazy wild.

  She let him go with a shove to create space between them.

  This fog was affecting humans.

  Her first thought had been to warn him to stay away from the fog, but this guy was out of his mind. Instead, she pulled her glasses off and let him have a look at something really scary.

  His eyes practically popped out of his head. He turned and ran.

  Any other time she'd protect her nonhuman identity, but with this kind of insanity going on no one was going to believe him if he told them about glowing green eyes.

  He was lucky she hadn't shifted.

  She paused, taking stock of her emotions. Her beast wanted to battle, but she had control of her urge to change. So the fog didn't bother Alterants?

  A flash of energy swatted her skin.

  She wheeled around to find a person in the last stage of changing into a beast.

  The thing was hideous, with hair across its arms and legs. The distorted head on top of his shoulders had a mouth full of fangs, beaked nose, huge ears and patches of hair on his head, plus a single horn that stuck straight out of his forehead.

  And brown eyes.

  An Alterant? Not green eyes like hers or black like Tristan's eyes had been in his cage.

  Was this a new type of Alterant?

  Could this be what had been shifting across the country and killing? If so, the fog had to be behind the outbreaks.

  The thing snarled and raised stubby arms with clawed fingers, coming for her.

  Evalle took a quick look for humans. None . . . that were still alive. She lifted her hands and shoved a blast of kinetic energy at him.

  He backed up a couple of steps and cocked his head at her.

  He should have been knocked into the roll-off construction Dumpster twenty feet behind him.

  She didn't want to kill him if she could figure a w
ay to contain the beast and throw him into the Dumpster to hold him. Then she'd have Storm get word to VIPER. Capturing one of these things might help them figure out what they were, why the fog triggered their change and how to stop this from happening.

  Based on her line of work, she reasoned that some preternatural being had created this fog to make the beasts shift, but why?

  The beast stomped forward and lifted a fist he shook at her.

  She laughed. "You don't scare--"

  Something that felt like a bowling ball launched from a cannon hit her in the abdomen. The kinetic punch knocked her off her feet and slid her backwards ten feet.

  She sucked in air and shoved up on her elbows.

  A man in thrift-store clothes, an unkempt beard and ratty hair came riding up from behind the beast on a rickety bicycle. He rode past the beast without a glance, as if it didn't exist, but gave Evalle a long, curious look before pedaling past her.

  He hadn't seen that beast?

  But the beast saw the man on the bike and started after him.

  That's it. VIPER would have to catch another guinea pig.

  Evalle shoved up to a crouch. "Hey, Badass. You want to play? Bring it."

  The beast stopped and swung eyes rotting with evil at her.

  She lifted her dagger and waited for him to charge.

  Didn't take long.

  Leaping to her feet, she moved forward. In the first stride, she used her kinetic power to shove off the sidewalk, onto the wall, running horizontally for two steps that put the beast at her left shoulder.

  He swung claws at her that extended six inches.

  She flipped away from the wall and out of his reach at the last minute. Arcing over his head, she stabbed her dagger into the side of his throat, whispering, "Stay put" to the death spell on her blade.

  When she landed on the ground and spun around, purple liquid spewed from his throat.

  He howled, grabbing at the dagger, but that majik blade would not come out by any hand but hers right now.

  Striking out wildly and banging his fist against the handle of the dagger, the beast lasted less than a minute before it collapsed. When the thing finally died, the body changed back into a female in her midtwenties.

  The purple liquid turned into dust. Her heart had stopped beating, so no blood oozed out.

  Evalle withdrew the blade that came out clean. When she looked back at the body it was deteriorating before her eyes, until the entire cadaver turned into a handful of gray dust that scattered away on its own.

  Much as she appreciated not having to deal with a body, that was not a positive sign. With no way to keep track of dead beasts this could mean the number of Alterant-type beasts shifting was far greater than thought.

  She couldn't be sure, but if that man on the bike really hadn't seen the beast, then this fog was also cloaking the beasts.

  She crossed the street and got on her motorcycle with a new destination in mind before she went to see Grady. First stop was Five Points, so named because five streets met in downtown Atlanta at Woodruff Park.

  A block away from the beast she'd fought, she burst out of the fog into the clear night and circled Woodruff Park until she found the blond-haired teenage male witch playing chess. She parked on the sidewalk and pulled off her helmet on the way to talk to Kellman. He and his twin brother, Kardos, lived on the streets. She and Grady kept an eye on the homeless pair of male witches, but Kellman had the unenviable task of keeping Kardos out of trouble most of the time.

  She hoped Kellman could locate his sibling quickly.

  "Have you not noticed the park is empty, Kell?" she asked when she got close to the concrete steps to the fountain, where Kellman sat across from an elderly African-American guy wearing a blue jogging outfit.

  "Guess it has been quiet," Kell mumbled, distracted by studying his next move. "What's up, Evalle?"

  "I need you to do something for me," she said.

  Kell lifted a knight, still not looking at her when he asked, "Can it wait until we finish this tiebreaker?" He made a move and slapped the plastic timer that reset and started counting down for his opponent.

  Evalle stepped up close. "Actually, no it can't wait. I need you to find Kardos, too."

  Kell looked up, his blue eyes registering that he'd caught her tone. "This is serious?"

  "Yes. You and this gentleman need to get off the street and inside a building like right now."

  The old guy swung his sagging face up at her, eyes sharp as flint. "Why?"

  She said, "There's a deadly fog seeping into the city. It smells like sulfur and it's causing people to go crazy. Insane to the point of being dangerous."

  If the fog had crossed highways, which it probably had, the highways would be battlegrounds by now. That explained the continued whining of sirens.

  The strong smell alerted her, but not fast enough. She looked up to see the blasted fog rolling over the fountain. "It's here. You need to get moving, find Kardos for me and get him inside, too."

  Always the levelheaded and polite one of the twins, Kellman sighed and told the old guy, "She's usually right about these things."

  "Then you forfeit."

  She would never understand men. "That's not fair and, besides, this is about keeping you both safe."

  "No problem, Evalle. Joe's right, and I understand." But as Kell stood up, the fog rushed around them. His eyes went from serene to mean in a snap. He knocked the chessboard off the step, scattering pieces, and lunged at his opponent.

  Evalle grabbed Kell before he could attack the old guy, who started growling something vicious. But she couldn't let Joe attack her and Kell either. Using her kinetics to swirl dirt like a small tornado, she whipped it up until dust flew into his eyes.

  While the old guy lashed out blindly, Evalle dragged Kell out of the fog zone. Once he had taken a few breaths, she shook him. "Are you with me now, Kell?"

  "Yes. I don't know what happened."

  "I do. Told you that fog is dangerous. Can you find Kardos?"

  "He's sleeping at the shelter."

  "Is he sick?" She couldn't think of any other reason the born troublemaker would be inside when he normally roamed the streets at night.

  "Sort of. Drank something nasty." He straightened the navy blue golf shirt he wore, a donated shirt too big for his slender frame.

  "He deserves the hangover. Go to the shelter and make him stay there until you hear this fog has passed." She lowered her voice and leaned in close to Kell. "It's causing some people to shift into beasts."

  Kellman smiled with embarrassment. "Tell me about it. I'd never attack old Joe."

  "No, I mean real beasts with fangs and claws . . . and some power."

  That blanched his face. "Really?"

  "Yes. Now where does Joe live so I can get him home?"

  Kell told her he stayed in a vacant building close by, then gave his chessboard a pained look.

  "You can't go back in that fog to get it," Evalle told him. "I'll find you another one."

  "Don't worry about it. Take care of yourself, and thanks for getting Joe home." He took off for the shelter, running around the outside of the fog.

  Evalle went back into the yellow haze and tugged old Joe backwards while he jerked and swung at everything, yelling that he was going to stomp some butt.

  Take a number. She'd like to stomp some herself.

  Once she had him in fresh air, he calmed down. She hated having thrown dirt in his eyes earlier. "Kell told me where you live. If you'll let me lead you, I'll find some water to clean out your eyes, okay?"

  He agreed. Leaving her bike at the park, it took fifteen minutes to walk him two blocks and locate a newsstand that had water. She bought him a sandwich and another bottle of water for his dinner. When she had him settled with clear vision again and convinced to stay away from the fog, she rushed back the way she'd come.

  Sweat soaked her short-sleeved shirt and jeans. Between the heat and this fog, the attacks were only going to esca
late.

  She swung around a corner and skidded to a stop in front of two men carrying heavy weapons.

  Demon-killing weapons just like the one Isak Nyght had toted around when she'd first met him. He'd used his blaster to kill a demon she'd been trying to interrogate.

  "Hello, Evalle," Isak said from behind her.

  She turned around. "What's going on, Isak?"

  Some men had a presence. Isak consumed space, owned the territory surrounding whatever piece of real estate he stood upon, whether he was in full battle gear or slacks and a dress shirt. Tonight he wore black cargo pants and a matching T-shirt with a weapon-packed vest over his supersized body. Those huge hands had held a delicate wineglass and cupped her face when he'd kissed her speechless.

  His gaze took in everything around them and still managed to hold her in place when he said, "Word's out humans are shifting into beasts everywhere. We're here to keep the streets safe."

  Take a breath. Isak doesn't know that I'm an Alterant. "Have you seen any?"

  "Not yet. Saw the victims though." Isak looked over at his team. "Go ahead and I'll catch up to you."

  That's all it took for her to end up alone in the dark with a man who had once kidnapped her in order to have dinner with her because she'd kept standing him up.

  He'd mentioned not seeing any beasts. She asked, "What do you think these things look like if you haven't seen any?"

  "Saw one overseas right before it killed my best friend. An Alterant. They look human, then turn into a monster that murders anything in sight."

  She didn't want him killing any Alterant, but she didn't believe the thing she'd fought in the fog had been an Alterant. Not like her and Tristan. Isak and his men could help protect humans if they knew how to see the beasts in the fog.

  "I've heard some reports on the attacks," she started, hoping he would heed what she was about to tell him even if she had to fabricate a little to be able to share intel. "Sounds to me like the fog hides the beasts. Maybe makes them invisible."

  He let the weapon hang from the cord hooked to his vest and used a hand to scratch his chin, which was covered in short whiskers. Some men wore a five o'clock shadow for a sexy look. In Isak's case, he just hadn't taken the time to shave today.

  That didn't change the fact that it still gave him an edgy attractiveness.

  His eyes sliced down at her. "Invisible would explain why we haven't seen any in the fog even with our night-vision gear."