Shift Read Online Free PDF Page B

thrown in jail. Normally, in comic books and films and what have you, when people are told they’re special they always say they somehow knew – that they had a sense they were destined for something big. Well not me. I’d always believed I was perfectly normal, destined for nothing more exciting than your bog standard A-Levels, mid-league university, followed by dull desk job. And it wasn’t that I minded being normal. It was comforting. Safe. I sipped at my drink feeling depressed.
    “Damn,” Aubrey said, her eyes widening. She clenched the side of the table so hard her knuckles went white.
    “What?”
    “They’re here.”
    I looked around trying to see who “they” were and why they were upsetting her so much. My heart pounded. Had the mysterious ARES tracked me down?
    A group of young men wound their way through the tables, pausing to check out the games. I caught the buzz of excitement their presence was causing.
    “Are they with ARES too?” I asked, starting to wonder if everyone at ARES was impossibly cool. These guys looked as if they’d just stepped off the pages of one of those fashion magazines that are so trendy they don’t even bother with a name; all expensive leather jackets and artfully torn jeans.
    “No way. They hate ARES. They call themselves the SLF.”
    “Are they a band or something?”
    “More like a gang. Although they like to think of themselves as a resistance group. SLF stands for Shifter Liberation Front. The prats. They spout all this antiARES propaganda, about how Shifters should be free, to do what they want to do, yadda yadda yadda.” Aubrey hadn’t taken her eyes off the leading member. He had draped a leather-covered arm over the shoulder of a girl with bright pink hair. She giggled and stumbled after him. He led the girl and rest of his gang over to a huddle of sofas on the other side of the room.
    “Who’s he?”
    “Zac. Their self-appointed leader.” Aubrey watched them stride past with an expression that I really hoped was hatred given how good-looking they all were. Especially Zac. He made Seb Cartwright look like a trainspotter.
    “And they’re all Shifters?”
    “Only Zac and the ape-looking guy with him, I think. The other three are wannabes. You get them a lot.”
    “Wannabes?”
    “Kids who find out about Shifting from siblings or hunt down rumours on the net. They seem to think if they hang around with us they’ll be given the power too. Like vampires or something. Idiots. Once they find out you have to keep them sweet so they don’t tell. Although, who would believe them if they did?” Aubrey didn’t take her eyes of Zac as she spoke. I gave up trying to think of something to say to distract her and finished my second drink. I’d stopped being able to taste it, which probably wasn’t a good sign.
    The girl with the pink hair started nibbling at Zac’s throat. He stopped her, leant over and started whispering in her ear. Aubrey flexed in her seat, as if trying to stop herself from moving.
    While still whispering in the girl’s ear, Zac reached out a hand and one of the other boys passed over a thing like a skeletal hand made from plastic. Wires trailed from each of the fingers into a small black cube. Zac placed it on the seat between him and the girl. He brushed her fringe away and fitted the thing over her head so the three points touched the centre of her forehead and either temple.
    I wasn’t sure if it was Aubrey’s reaction, or something in the girl’s nervous expression, but I felt very uncomfortable. “Is he supposed to be doing that?”
    “No.”
    “Shouldn’t you call ARES?” I asked.
    Aubrey didn’t answer.
    Zac reached inside his jacket and pulled out a syringe. The girl rolled up her sleeve and presented him with her pale arm. I couldn’t believe this was going on in full view of everyone. I tried to get the barman’s attention, wondering when someone was going to stop them.
    Aubrey jumped out of her seat so fast she