Roman's Gold (Underground Heat, Book 1) by Ann Gimpel Page B

and claws again. Not as bad as in the bathroom, but obvious enough if anyone were looking at him. Strong emotions… Even if she didn’t care about him, he cared about her. A whole lot, from the looks of things. He took a deep breath, blew it out, and inhaled a second time. He visualized himself as human, human, human, goddamn it. The next time he looked at his hand, it was skin and nails again.
    “Well, hey,” he murmured. “That wasn’t so bad. If I can just keep track of my body, maybe I can fake my way through this riot.” Her words about dancing on both sides of the street bounced in his head. He shoved them aside and hurried out the door. Adrenaline hummed through his blood. He loved fighting bad guys. It was the best part of being a cop.
    An unpleasant thought intruded as he got into his patrol vehicle. At least according to the governmental directive about shifters, he’d just changed sides.
    And become the enemy he’d taken an oath to eradicate.
    *
    Kate stared at the wrist computer display. Her stomach tied itself into a knot. She didn’t have good feelings about what Devon was trying to do. He was living his old life, not yet understanding it wasn’t possible. Some shifters had tried to be double agents at the front end of the purge against them. It hadn’t worked. As far as she knew, they’d all been caught and killed.
    “It’s the same thing you’re doing,” her cat snarled. “Denying reality. He’s denying what he is now and you’re denying he’s our mated one.”
    “Jesus Christ! Whose side are you on? Don’t we have enough problems without your nattering on about ‘mated one, mated one?’”
    “I’m on our side.” The cat’s voice was smug.
    Kate blew out a worried breath. She’d heard about the riot. It had been on the screens mounted all around the bus. She’d used her wrist computer to tap into the frequency and listened for a while.
    According to the broadcaster, some terrorist group had broken into a government lab, using the riot for cover. No sketches of the terrorists were available, but people were advised to stay home, lock their doors, and not open them unless they were certain they knew who was outside. Traffic had been rerouted, so it had taken her longer than usual to get home.
    Kate’s wrist computer LED blinked red. The underground frequency. Blinking red meant she should turn her desktop computer to the underground’s secure channel. Far from an electronics whiz, she didn’t totally understand why the vid feed could be scrambled more effectively than the wrist computer, but she mounted the stairs to her bedroom and study.
    Her house wasn’t large, but it was cozy. The main floor held a generous living room with a stone fireplace and picture windows with leaded glass panes. An old-fashioned kitchen with a real stove and room for a small oak dinette sat off to one side. The upstairs had a wonderful bathroom with a claw foot tub in addition to her sleeping and work space. Tubs like hers weren’t legal anymore. They used too much water, but so far, the city hadn’t done a door-to-door inspection.
    She waved a hand over her computer to move it from sleep to wake mode. The wall screen flickered to life. Max had already begun talking.
    “…thanks to one of our operatives, we now have access to a substance which may well enhance our powers. Stupid of the government to centralize everything.” Max laughed harshly and waved a dismissive hand. “Made it easy to locate our objective. Our scientists are working on determining its relative safety. They’ve fast-tracked this project. We should have answers in a day or so. Do not go far from your terminals. We may need to call each of you into headquarters for an injection. Alert your mixed blood kin—but only if you are one hundred percent positive they can be trusted. If what we have pans out, it could turn them into valuable allies. Keep the faith. We may prevail.”
    The screen grayed out. Kate laid a hand over her