He stared down at his reflection in the phone. “Does Viktor know?”
“Ne. Viktor knows I am the daughter of Valko, his friend. He believes I am wolf. My father trusted no one with secret, not even his friend. Viktor did not know my mother’s animal. Men will hunt me. Why would Viktor bring me here knowing that danger? I tell him I have no family, I have no education, no job, no means to care for myself. He believes I am an unprotected wolf.”
“So that’s why you’re afraid of me. My tattoo. Did you think I was one of those hunters?”
“They drank our blood,” she said quietly.
Hunting and devouring Shifters was considered taboo. Among Shifters, they only did it in animal form, if at all. It was one reason many Breeds considered them uncivilized, so the thought of a non-Shifter eating them was incomprehensible. Phoenixes were considered as mythical as dragons, and Shepherd suspected there were older immortals out there who might still be hunting them. Viktor had taken her in because he felt a duty to his good friend and because Kira was left alone, without a pack, without any resources to care for herself. She had struck up an agreement to work for him so long as he provided her safety, but he had no idea what was living under his roof.
“Why do you trust me with this?” he asked, searching for the truth in her reaction.
Kira tipped her head to the side. “You love Hunter. If you betray me, you bring danger to him. Hunters will come. Even if I leave, they will want information and come for it. You have something to lose.”
That hadn’t occurred to him. “Can you live forever? I mean… can you be reborn like the legend goes?”
She gave a gentle smile. “If that were true, I would still have my mother. We can die. But we cannot die by our own fire. That is myth. The fire that destroys immortals will not touch us. A phoenix rises from the ashes because it cannot burn in them.”
“Is what they said true? Are you the origin story for Shifters? Were they born from the meat of a phoenix?”
She quickly rose to her feet. “Origin stories are nightmares to scare children. Only the gods know, and we are not gods. You understand my fear? We cannot live forever, and I will not let them destroy my body.Ne. Consume. It sickens me. I want to live free like you, but I cannot. I will never be safe. If I shift here at Keystone, we are far away from people. I was fearful when we were at hotel. I sent boy to bathroom when he interfered with fight—before I shifted and killed Vampire. I flew through window. Many watching eyes. What if people talk and hunters hear there was a phoenix in Cognito?”
“We were in the human district, so not likely.”
“Does not matter. I can never be like you, free to go where you desire.”
Without thinking, Shepherd reached out and held her hands. He felt a great amount of compassion in that moment for her struggles and sacrifices—for all she had lost. Even more, for helping Keystone during their battle against Godfrey Sparrow and taking no credit. He understood why she couldn’t trust people. Even if she could, the more people who knew, the greater the chances the wrong person might discover her secret. A Vampire could charm them and find out by accident, or one of them might mention it in public around prying ears. Sometimes secrets were necessary for survival, and in her case, the fewer people at Keystone who knew, the better. Shepherd had no desire to pressure her into doing anything she didn’t feel was in her best interest. That wasn’t his place. Especially if it led to her death.
“You are good father,” she said, looking at their hands. “One day you will be better father.”
He chuckled and sat back, breaking their connection. “I don’t know about that. It’s all new to me.”
“I can only watch with envy.”
“Don’t you want kids?”
She slowly shook her head. “Even if I am last phoenix, I would not want this for my children. My father lived in fear, as did my mother. There is no safe time to live in. People do not change. Look what happened here with the bad man and all his Vampires. For what? Power?”
Seemed like a damn shame for her to miss out on motherhood, though he understood her point. Shepherd was out of his mind worrying about Hunter’s future. He couldn’t imagine a scenario where his son would always be hunted by people with fucked-up beliefs about magic and cannibalism. There was no Shifter group who would willingly protect someone like her at the risk of bringing wrath upon their own families. She was truly like the rest of them—an outcast.
Kira rose and brushed her hand down her dress. “I have much work to do.”
Shepherd also stood and backed up so she could leave.
She approached him and gripped his arms, gazing up with those copper-colored eyes. It was the first time she’d ever really touched him back, and he allowed himself to explore her emotions. Was she letting him? Trust swept through him. Confidence and sincerity. Kira’s emotions were easy to read in that moment.
She picked up her bag and followed him into the hall. His step felt lighter, as if a weight had come off his shoulders—the weight of always thinking this woman feared and hated him. Now he understood it had nothing to do with him at all. Not his looks, not his scars, and not even his demeanor. She had her guard up, leery of a man who would ink himself with her animal. And though her power put a knot in his stomach, she hadn’t harmed Hunter that night at the hotel. Or any other time. She might have even saved Keystone from a legion of Vampires. She was a born protector, and suddenly that mark on his arm carried new meaning.
Switch crossed in front of them, heading left toward the stairs that went up to the third floor, Hunter in his arms.
When Shepherd snapped his fingers, Switch backed up a step and noticed them.
“I almost gave up looking for you,” he said, heading in their direction. “Gem told me you two went to check on Crush and split up after that. She thought you might have gone back for some reason.”
“What’s up?” Shepherd tucked his phone in his back pocket.
With her bag in hand, Kira walked past Switch to continue her work. When she briefly looked over her shoulder at Shepherd, he glimpsed a warm smile.
Switch shook his hair out of his face, revealing dark circles under his eyes. “He had another nightmare. This one was bad. I know you guys asked me to keep an eye on him since you’re on a job, but he wouldn’t stop crying. I think Kira’s better with him with this sort of thing. He went to look for you, and you weren’t in your room. I tried getting him back to bed, but… He wants his daddy.”
