Tiger's Breath by Hollis Shiloh

Author:Hollis Shiloh
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Spare Words Press
Published: 2014-10-29T04:00:00+00:00

#

Harrison called Justin into his office. "Shut the door," he said when Justin arrived, then frowned at him. Justin's heartbeat sped up even as he tried to regulate it. He trusted he was keeping his outer expression calm, but he was anything but calm underneath.

Now is when he tells me off for rejecting Kyle. He'll probably kick me out, too. It all went wrong. It just all went wrong!

Harrison toyed with the rubber eraser on his desk. It was a bit outdated to Justin's eyes, like seeing someone using a typewriter instead of a laptop. Still, no doubt erasers were useful to people who wrote a lot by hand. Then Harrison looked up, his gaze narrowed, his face troubled. "I don't want you telling anyone what happened with Kyle," he said.

"Uh, nothing happened, sir. I mean, he—I couldn't—"

Harrison scowled, looking confused—and then appalled. "Good gracious. Don't tell me about your love lives. I don't want to know. It was hard enough talking to him briefly on the subject. Spare me the details!"

Justin wondered if the man had something against gay people—and then remembered he thought of Kyle like his son. Of course he wouldn't want to know any "details."

"I meant," Harrison continued hastily, scowling a little harder, "if anyone asks what happened when you found Kyle, turned into your tiger and…tried to protect and warm him…do not under any circumstances tell them any details. This program, this is a haven for keeping people with special abilities safe. We're here ostensibly to study these powers, but mostly, I believe in keeping everyone safe, protected, sane and well cared for. Before this project, there were others that involved the military use of those who could turn into animals. Creatures such as yours, the tiger, were particularly desired by the military for berserker-like war potential. Early experiments all proved extremely negative. Animals were more likely to turn on their own side and kill them than the enemy. It was like setting off a bomb you couldn't direct in any way, shape, or form. The funding was quickly cut when some of the nastier details were leaked.

"My funding only happened when I was able to offer safer, saner, non-military studies and a protection both for my people and from them. Kyle can't be set loose on a population, and neither can the animals."

"I know, sir." Justin was trying to keep a stubborn look off his face. He hated being lectured. What Harrison was talking about might have been before his time, but he knew enough about the formation of this place, and he hated thinking about that other part—the 'keeping everyone safe from them' part.

It was painful to think of himself as a danger to society who needed to be kept quiet and locked away. He hadn't asked for his odd change, the upheaval to his whole life. He usually kept an upbeat attitude and didn't think about things like that, but it was enough to make a man feel downright low. This was a good place; best not to think of it as a jail.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.