Seas Of Passion

“Jacob, calm down, I know you don’t want to return to that facility, I’ll keep that from happening. Then I will need your help once more and you can go on your way. I just need you to help me kill any guards we see aside from the ones I’ll have under my control.”

Jacob nodded and they went silent while waiting for their chance.

In the front seat, Manfree was on his phone with his supervisor.

“Indeed sir, I was able to capture two of the four, but the woman is worth ten thousand normal shifters, she has powers that are terrifying, but I still did it.”

“Good, well done. Bring them in and put them into separate cells. Are they dangerous as they are now?”

“No sir, they’ll be out for hours still, the dosage I gave them was enough to knock them out completely. Once we arrive I’ll have them tied down so that if they should awake they’ll be unable to do anything. My ETA is 20 minutes.”

“Alright Gordon, you’re out of the dog house for now, but don’t let things get this out of hand again.”

“Of course not sir, I apologize deeply and will never fail you in that way again.”

As Manfree hung up, he unclenched his left hand and saw that his fingernails had cut into his palm from how hard he was clenching the fist. He felt his face going red again, took several pills from his pocket, and swallowed them all at once while trying to calm down.

“Reprimand me will you? You’ll see, you’ll all see. Nobody deserves to be a shark more than me…I’m going to enjoy tearing that bas*ard limb from limb.”

Manfree began addressing the guards as they drove onward, hoping to win them to his side.

“You four have already felt the female shifters power once, so you know it’s real. I am going to learn how they do it and become one myself, but I will need your help, so I’ll need you to work for me, though you give the appearance for working for the facility still, is that clear? I would say that you can refuse, but you really can’t, it would ruin everything.”

The guard in the passenger seat cleared his throat and spoke.

“That’s all well and good that you’d become a shark person, but what’s that got to do with us? What are you offering?”

“You get the prestige of being my guards once I become the ruler of all shifters.”

“That doesn’t do it for me.”

“Fine, I’ll see about getting you all the ability as well, but I must have your total loyalty.”

“You’ve got mine.”

The other two nodded in agreement and continued their ride to the facility.

In the trunk, the cramped space was increasingly frustrating Lara and Jacob had to keep calming her so that she wouldn’t give them away.

“Lara, we’ll be there in a few minutes, we’re only going to get one shot at doing this so we have to wait until they’re opening the trunk. I’ll take care of Manfree and you take out the guards, or control them.”

Lara wasn’t responding because it was taking all of her willpower to avoid going into frenzy. Sweat poured from her face and she clenched her teeth while keeping her hands on the ground. She stayed this way for the remaining twenty minutes of the trip and when they stopped, Jacob breathed a sigh of relief. Lara waited until the trunk began to be opened and lunged at it, knocking the two guards back and springing out. She turned on the other two and her eyes flashed, but one of them looked away at the last second and raised his taser to fire. Lara dodged and the electrodes missed, landing harmlessly on the ground. Lara spoke to the one guard she did control mentally.

“You there, knock the man next to you down, hurry.”

The guard got up and tackled his former comrade, winding him as Lara took control of the first two who had been dazed by the trunk hitting them. She stood up and stared down at the last guard who wasn’t under her control being held down and knelt, looking him in the eye as she smiled and took control of him with a glance.

“Well, that was simple enough. Jacob, did you take care of Manfree?”

Jacob gestured toward an unconscious Manfree on the ground near the drivers’ side door. Lara began kicking him all over until he woke up with a choked groan.

“Well Manfree, looks like you’ve failed your people one more time. I could kill you, as always, but I would rather you get killed by your own kind, you’d dirty my teeth.”

As he cringed and tucked himself to avoid being hit in his vital spots Manfree asked if she could take control of him as well, which surprised her.

“Oh? You want to be controlled by me, do you? I suppose I could, a clan has to start somewhere, and a slave would be fun to have…I’ll think about it. First though, tell me who your leader is, there’s no way you’re in charge of this place.”

“Well, my supervisor is Hans Lieberman, but the owner of the whole company is-”

“Just Hans is fine, I don’t care about who owns the whole company yet. Take me to him.”

Manfree walked a step behind Lara until they reached the door, which he tried to open for her, but found it locked. A voice came from the intercom near the handle.

“Manfree, you’ve failed for the last time. Your project is scrubbed and you are going to be processed for either total denial or liquidation. Ma’am, the one at fault here is Manfree, you may do with him as you like and we will cease all efforts to capture or involve ourselves with you and your kind.”

Lara smiled and then replied, her voice edged with mock sympathy.

“I’m sorry Mr. Lieberman, but that’s not nearly enough. You clearly don’t know who I am, so I’ll tell you: I am what you would call a ‘princess’ of my clan and your actions will be taken as quite an affront to them once I let them know what happened to me. That anger combined with my words will be enough to begin an event your kind will never understand, but to start that I need a place to use as what you would call a base of operations when I’m in this human form; I’ve chosen this facility.”