Sunshine: Tales of an Assassin

Chapter Three

***Matthew's POV***

    When Nicholas had shown up, I'd moved closer to Katrina for a reason, I'd had a feeling based on what I had already seen tonight that things were going to get more interesting than anyone knew.  I'd seen a lot in my years with United, but I'd never seen anything quite like Katrina's file, nor had I felt as protective of anyone as I had her.  Bear shifters like myself generally preferred the company of our chosen mates, and our cubs, but usually that was it, yet from the first day I read her file, I was as protective of her as I was my cubs, though I pushed her harder than I had them.

    She didn't know it but her parents weren't really her parents, they adopted her as a baby, they were normal humans, and normal humans don't have psychic powers normally, nor has any human in history had the level and number that she has, yet strangely, her bloodwork showed up as human.  United had kept an eye on her starting with the first report of her having some kind of power, another field agent, one who was in charge of watching for potential allies and recruits, had felt the pain she was feeling as a child over something.  She was only five at the time, and she could project her emotions past the shield of a trained agent, after that we watched as she did other things, showing she was both projective and receptive as an empath, that she could take energy from another, drain it, change it and replace it.  Her ability to shock people with touch was highly unusual as well, and though she had some small level of telepathy, prior to her training and what we did to her, it was extremely small and weak, but there.

    Katrina may have been oblivious to everything going on around her when it came to the other men in the room, and what I thought may happen when the vampire joined us, but Lydia and I were not.

    Do you think that they are all picking up on her as a potential mate?  I'd asked Lydia, it was really the only explanation I could come up with for why the three would act as they had,  and while humans were sometimes potentials, never once had we seen a case where more than one species recognized a human as a potential.

    It would seem so, watch the 'stooges' There was a hint of humor in Lydia's voice, and at this moment I had to agree Katrina's nickname for them seemed fitting. They all keep watching her out of the corner of their eyes, yet they all seem ready to attack someone who moves wrong.  I'm wondering if this is a side effect of what was done, or if it is something that was already unique to her.

    Keeping Katrina in my peripheral sight, I watched the vampire enter, and saw the way his eyes flashed watching her, the kiss on her hand, and the reaction of the other males.  I had to fight my urge to protect her, partly because she didn't honestly need it, and partly due to the fact that these men wouldn't understand and it could escalate things more, which we don't really need at this moment.

    Well, the vampire recognizes it too, and which is going to continue to complicate things.  So far she is the only human like this, and the only human to go through the level of...changes that we did to her, she still thinks it is normal for United agents, and that there are other humans like her.  I pushed down the feeling that I was betraying her by hiding so much, but it was still there.

    Telling her now that she is different would make matters worse, don't you think?  Besides, until we know why she is like this, it does no good to bring it up when we have no answers and only questions.  She enjoys being an agent and everything has been fine until now.  

    I couldn't argue the logic there, so I didn't even bother trying, instead I focused on what answers were given by each of the men, and weighed their answers with the behaviors, not as focused on the mission, but more the type of men that these were.  The shifters and the vampire, I could appreciate their answers, but the witch put me on edge a little bit, while I can appreciate anyone wanting to take out a traitor to their kind, at the same point a lone witch, working without a coven was a strange thing indeed and something I was not sure I was comfortable with.

    Lydia put them all on the spot, asking them about their reactions to Katrina, though while she was on any kind of an active mission, and since this case was still active, she called her Sunshine, and refused to acknowledge any other name, and that's how it went for any agent that did the work she did.  Katrina would know that her mission was not over until her normal name was used, until then, she was Sunshine, and would know that she still needs to be prepared for anything at any time.

    "Why do you keep calling her Sunshine?  That is not her name."  The witch piped up again.  He was giving me a headache from his behavior, but given that Lydia had not lifted her truth compulsion on the room, he was telling the truth as he knows it.

    Lydia raised an eyebrow and smirked before responding.  "Because, Sunshine still has a mission that is not over, she knows this and understands.  Now stop evading my question and answer why you are acting this way over one of my agents when you are no part of Unity or its allies."

    The witch was trying to fight the compulsion, while the Nicholas shrugged and actually looked vaguely interested in things now.  "I'm not sure what all behaviors or actions you are talking about, but for myself, I recognize that this woman is a potential partner for me."

    I mentally sigh, leave it to the vampire to be diplomatic and use the pc terms.  Most vampires refer to their potentials as brides or grooms, most shifters call them mates, with the exception of dragons, they tend to refer to theirs as treasures, but each group had a name for them, so in mixed company, usually it was considered polite to refer to a potential as a partner.

    Katrina stiffened beside me, looking like she was about to open her mouth to say something, but Alexander and Nathanial beat her to it looking between the vampire and each other saying the word "Same" almost at the same time.  All eyes shifted to the witch, who gave up fighting and just nodded in defeat.

    "Same."

    Nicholas crossed one leg over the other, using it as an arm rest while he looked at Katrina, then Lydia and myself thoughtfully, trying to figure something out.  The three stooges were still staring each other down while it looked and felt like Katrina was just in shock trying to process things and unable to form words.

    "Interesting.  I'd never heard of such a thing before, but then again, I think there is more to this than I know at this moment..."  Nicholas continued to watch Lydia and then shifted his eyes for a moment to Katrina before looking at Lydia again.  "Well, on one side, I must apologize for my actions causing your case to be hindered, though had I not, we would not be sitting here now.  Perhaps, it may actually be in the best interest of myself and my family to be allies with Unity after all, and perhaps work closer with you.

    Nicholas had what appeared to be a perfectly innocent smile on his face, though I didn't buy it at all, he was definitely more cunning than the others, and while I wasn't the biggest fan of vampires, he was showing far more intelligence than the others at this moment.

    He is genuine in his statements, and there was no drain of it being forced from him.  We have wanted this alliance for some time, though I have concerns that he will try to look to deeply into Katrina and what was done.  This is something we need, but we must be cautious with the interactions.

    I gave a slight nod, while Lydia watched Nicholas and tapped a finger on her desk as if in thought.

    "We can discuss that in more detail later, as we would welcome working with you in the future.  At this moment though, with everything that has happened, I think perhaps it would be best to call it a night.  We will need to gather new intel and formulate new plans, ones I trust will not be," Lydia paused eyeing each of the men for a moment, ice and steel rolled into one, "disrupted like tonight was."

    As much as I want the man taken down, it may be in the best interest of Katrina to keep her on missions for some time.  She will not acknowledge her true name while on a mission, so none of them can use it to try and claim her, and Sunshine is a given, not true name and will not have the same hold or pull if one tries to use it.

    I'm glad you saw that as well, as it is, this is going to be an unusual situation, I'd rather not overly complicate this by someone doing something they shouldn't yet.  I will let you brief her on that, she may prefer to hear it from you than me, oh papa bear.

    I flinched a bit, granted, I didn't have to explain the birds and the bees to Katrina, but to a degree, this was going to be almost as bad from my stand point. 

    "Sunshine, let's get you changed and get you into a bed, your normal room here should still be clean and ready for you."

    I'll take care of it and her, let me get her away from them first, if you can stall them for a moment or twenty while I get her away, that would be great.  I'm not sure if any other surprises are going to show up, but given the fact that she currently has four potential partners right now, I'm not going to push my luck.

    I offered my hand to Katrina, knowing by now those shoes were likely killing her feet, and she took it with a soft sigh of relief, I kept an eye on the men, seeing Alexander and Nathanial tensing, while Nicholas remained relaxed and thoughtful watching, the witch just refused to look.

    As Katrina and I started walking towards the door, I sensed the men getting ready to move, but trusted Lydia to help me in this case.

    "Gentlemen, actually if you could stay for a moment longer, I'd appreciate a moment more of your time."

    I felt them settle down, though there was a dark look or two directed at my back as Katrina and I headed out, and I knew that this was going to be a long night.

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***Nick's POV***

    Shifters are always so hot blooded, they miss what is right in front of their faces so often.  I watched Matthew hovering over 'Sunshine' like a protective father bear and really wasn't too worried about her safety with him or him trying anything with her, beautiful and sexy as she was in that little scrap of fabric that was imitating a dress, it was clear that he viewed her as a daughter.

    This night had been full of surprises for me, the first time in centuries that I had been blindsided like this.  I'd met potential brides before, but none of them had felt quite right, though I had to admit there was something unique about this seemingly human female that roused my curiosity like no other.  I'd seen cases where a human was a potential bride to a vampire, or mate to a shifter, but in those cases, those men and women had only had the one potential, and almost always were passed over.  

    I watched Lydia calmly, as well as the others in the room, the two shifters were not reacting well to her leaving, and to be honest with myself, I wasn't exactly thrilled she was gone either, as I didn't get much of a chance to even talk to her, but I would bide my time and make my own opportunities.

    "Now, gentlemen, we are in a rather unusual situation here.  Nick, you may have missed seeing what happened earlier,  but for now I will explain this to all of you so that no one gets any ideas to do something they shouldn't." Her eyes narrowed on the witch, Dominick for a moment. "I'm sure you all have figured out Sunshine is not a normal human by any stretch of the imagination.  We've been keeping an eye on her since she was around five years old, which was when she first started showing that she wasn't a normal human, her projective empathy was strong enough to be felt by one of our agents who was in the area at the time.  Since then we have watched her, and even sent people to help train her without her knowing this yet.  She was being groomed to come here as she would not fit in with normal humans, and most other races would misunderstand and see her as a weak human."  

    For a moment all eyes focused on the witch, who glared back at Lydia before looking away again.

    "Humans are still weaker than any other race, no matter how you turn that.  Sure, that trick of hers works well if she has a chance to use it, but what if she is attacked at a distance, or even the fact that she got hurt when these two attacked me should be proof that it isn't always going to help her."

    Lydia broke out into laughter after he commented, ignoring the two growling shifters.  "Please be sure to let me know when you are going to tell her that she is too weak to be in the field so that I can get some snacks before I watch that show, it should be very entertaining.  As for her not using it when the fight happened, she was under orders not to fry all three of you and since she was in a rather bad mood due to plans being disrupted causing other problems, the little shock she gave you earlier would have been a static zap compared to what she wanted to do at that moment due to her temper."

    Seems she can do something with electrical currents in a body, this gets more interesting, and to have such abilities at such a young age, more and more fascinating, I can see why Unity was so eager to keep her, and I can't say that Lydia is wrong in regards to most of the races, Vampires are a little more understanding towards humans, as most of us were actually once human, though as we age, most of us forget that feeling.

    "Now, back to the subject, Sunshine, as you are aware, is not her real name, but it is the only name she will acknowledge at this time, and I will let you know this, I will not try to block any of you from meeting with her after this, as she is a potential partner, and doing so could hurt her, but you will not be able to lay a claim on her.  As she will not acknowledge her true name while on a mission, that will not work, and as her alias is not her true name, even while she is on a mission, using that will not work either, and believe me, I have no problem with keeping her on active missions as long as it takes to figure out what the hell is going on here."

    I couldn't help but smile, I had a feeling this one little human was going to shake up the entire supernatural community in a way that no one had seen before, and for the sake of the entertainment it would provide, I didn't even mind that I was going to have to share the little beauty with other men while I watched this happen.