Body Thief Read Online Free Page A

were isolated in a way that most people couldn’t understand, because being able to see shapeshifters was not a good thing.
    On the other hand, Griffin’s ability to see Shifters was going to clear his reputation and his name. It wouldn’t bring his wife back though, clear up his finances, or fix the past that his bastard shapeshifter ex-partner John Parker wrecked when he’d taken over Griffin’s home and life. It wouldn’t give Griffin back the four months he’d spent in XCEL’s detention center as a prisoner, trying to clear himself of the murder Parker committed disguised as Griffin. But it would be something, and if he had to use Camille Solomon to get that, then he would.
    A server motioned from the end of the bar, and Lyle headed down to handle the order, leaving Griffin alone with his scotch and his thoughts.
    The accomplice was related to Camille somehow; he was sure of it now. Their Shifter shadows were very similar, and he suspected that meant relatives. Whoever the old man was, she’d laid down quickly. He meant a lot to her. That alone confirmed Griffin’s theory, because he couldn’t imagine anything else moving that woman when she didn’t want to be moved.
    He flexed his fingers around the warm glass. And his Shifter grip had worked once again. He didn’t know how it worked, had never questioned why. Just one more curse to add to the list, but at least this one froze Shifters in their tracks. It would be enough to keep Camille in line. He hoped.
    The TV over the bar was showing yet another demonstration on the local news station. There was no sound, but it didn’t take much to see that the protesters were anti-aliens. They were your average Americans, wearing sneakers, jeans, and baseball caps and shaking signs of big-eyed alien faces with red lines through them.
    They’d come out of the woodwork after alien Shifters had been discovered in America—so-called refugees fleeing from another planet that didn’t want them there. Too bad Earth didn’t have the space technology to hurtle them back.
    Griffin watched the protesters with tired amusement. They didn’t even know what Shifters actually looked like. They couldn’t see the shadows that hovered within their “borrowed” human bodies. Bodies that shapeshifters had stolen human DNA for and replicated. It was wrong. Everyone should have the right to be unique, not be clone fodder.
    A patron came up and stood at the bar next to Griffin. He watched the TV for a few moments before saying, “Fucking aliens, here in America. Makes me sick.”
    Griffin wondered if the guy knew that his waiter was one of them. “Yeah.”
    The guy yelled to Lyle, “Gimme two Mic Lights.”
    Then he leaned on the bar and watched the next footage of a pro-alien march. He said, “Unbelievable. Look at those bleeding hearts. I bet half of them are the aliens.”
    Nope, just stupid humans that think aliens aren’t here to ruin them. “Right.”
    Lyle set two beers on the counter and took the man’s money to make change. Lyle handed the guy his change and said, “Thanks.”
    The guy nodded at Griffin and left.
    Lyle grabbed a rag and wiped the bar. “People like him are just scared of what they don’t understand.”
    “They’d be more scared if they knew the truth,” Griffin told him.
    Lyle put his hands on the bar. “I never had any problem with Shifters. They’re hard workers, and most just want to stay to themselves. Live a normal life.”
    Griffin shook his head. Spoken like a man who’d never been DNA fodder. “Our lives. They want to live our lives , Lyle. The ones we worked our asses off to build.”
    Lyle shrugged. “You just got screwed. Probably never happen again.”
    “Why? Because I already had my turn?” he said. “Nothing’s even in this world. You should know that by now.”
    Lyle cleaned a glass and frowned at him. “When you start talking like that, I know you’ve had enough.”
    Only Lyle could get away with cutting him off. Which