Shane wasn"t a good person and he knew it.And he didn"t care.
He never cared.
An orphan abandoned near an hospital. No kidding, his parents, whoever they might be, had the guts to leave their newborn on a bench a few meters away from the maternity.
He always found that quite ironic.
He grew up in an orphanage, when it closed, he was moved. Again and again. Under the care of indifferent people who just got on his nerves.
He was intelligent and he was good at one thing.
Keeping his freedom.
If he had freedom, he could do anything, could go anywhere and be someone.
Not just an orphan.
One of the way to do so was to learn the weaknesses of those who could bring an end to this freedom.
The other was to have money. Always.
So he became skilled in blackmailing. It was easy for a smart kid like him to know who might have dirty secrets and how to use them.
But when a kid has money on him, he can be a target too.
His first real fight happened when he was seven against two older boys.
He lost a tooth and broke his left wrist.
The money was gone.
And the parents of those boys called the foster family in charge of him.
Two months of punishment.
That"s where he learned an orphan like him couldn"t keep his freedom without one thing.
Strengh.
So he blackmailed.
And fought.
And he never lost his money ever again.
That"s until the police became involved.
He was arrested for the first time at nine. It was just a small warning, to scare him a little.
So he became more cautious.
He was arrested again.
And he became more cautious again.
But the more he grew up, the more he fought with people.
He wanted for them to leave him alone, but he had money, and everyone knew he was smart enough to have some.
So he fought, and sent a few to the hospital.
That"s why he always ended up in the police station, because he was too heavy handed in those fights.
The last time he was arrested, he sent three person to the hospital.
One of them was in a coma for two weeks.
The foster families didn"t want to shelter him anymore.
So at eleven, there was a warning. He would go to one last foster family.
If he made a mistake again, he wouldn"t escape having a juvenile record in the police data and he"d be sent in reformatory.
And he thanked every day the moment he came to that last foster family.
The two parents were Susan and Gabriel Peters. They had a daughter.
Daisy.
They had under their care Jamie, Jake and Kyle.
The first step he took in this house, he gained a real family.
It wasn"t easy, though. He fought quite frequently with the boys in the first days, and Daisy was frightened by him.
But Gabriel was a straightforward man, and he knew how to listen.
With a lot of effort, patience and care, he opened bit by bit the armor the little Shane had.
With it, the three other boys came to accept him.
Daisy began to ease her fear and started to interact with him.
Plus, Susan was quite a free spirit.
As long as you don"t do "bad" things, you could do the majority of what you want to do. She loved to travel too, so she brought them if they wanted to a lot of places.
He had food, clothes, a bed, a home.
A family.
The "skills" he kept from his previous life was still used, when someone was menacing towards one of his brothers or his sister.
But what surprised him the most was when Kyle said he wanted to become a police officer.
And then Jake.
And Jamie.
So he started to inform himself on the subject.
And he started to like what he found.
He could help children who was lost like he once was.
He could send to jail those who loved to kick them.
Of course he didn"t have good memories of the police station when he was on the "bad" side, so he decided to verify if everything was still "not good".
So he went to the police station he went before.
He met with some of the police officers who arrested him previously and they talked.
A lot.
When he came back, he and the three boys made a decision.
They would become police officers and resolve crimes.
They started low and became quickly inspectors.
They all had their own skills, and became an efficient team.
And Shane wasn"t someone to neglect his own capabilities. He knew how to deal with people, even when it"s a superior with a little secret who wanted to control them.
That"s why they could successfuly came in this city to save Daisy and the little Shawn.
Daisy, the only sister they had and Jamie"s wife.
If it wasn"t because there was a specialist Daisy wanted absolutely, to make sure Shawn didn"t have the genetic malformation that ran in her mom"s family, they wouldn"t let her give birth in this city.
If they didn"t have an investigation on hand, they would have been here.
They would never abandon her and her baby.
There was a teenage girl with her, they could take her in pa.s.sing. She was a nice one, and she seemed to take good care of Daisy and Shawn, it wasn"t a bad deal.
Until they learned some strange news.
There was another survivor coming. Millie"s elder sister, who survived somehow.
And who wasn"t human anymore.
When Shane learned her existence, he wasn"t at ease.
He knew Daisy. Even if she was easily scared, she had a soft heart, she wouldn"t let this poor girl outside if she could let her enter.
It was Millie"s sibling, if something wasn"t right, they would hesitate to deal with her.
And it would be too late by the time they"d arrive.
Then, there was a call from the girls, saying Nora needed some explanations.
When Shane eared her voice through Jamie"s phone, he became intrigued.
She was coherent, and it didn"t look any different from any normal woman"s voice.
It rea.s.sured the already anxious husband Jamie was, and calmed down Jake and Kyle who were a bit restless too.
But Shane couldn"t help but to wonder.
How did this girl could be this... normal ?
Didn"t she ate someone ?
A zombie, maybe, but still.
Or is she playing with us and is a zombie who can think and plan her next moves ?
If that was the case, it wasn"t good.
So when the four men, after those hours trying to reach the room, finally arrived, a great relief overcame them.
Daisy was alright, Shawn was alright.
Millie was normal harmless little girl.
Shane examined her. She was a bit pet.i.te and with her short dark hair was a bit tomboyish but her face was definitely feminin. She still had the face of a kid, though.
And her big watery eyes were directed toward them all along.
Like she saw her favorite idol.
Shane was a bit amused by this. Jamie and Daisy tended to provoke this reaction all the time actually, so it wasn"t that unnatural.
Then he focused his attention to the elder sister.
The monster.
She looked normal. A cute woman with dark hair and a pale skin.
A danger in disguise.
He went up to her and took his gun.
If he trusted his senses, he would say she was just another girl, like others.
And despite her infusion stand, she was defenseless.
But with what Daisy told them, he needed to test her.
If he had to kill her or not.
He was a cop, not a saint. And if she was dangerous to his family, she would die.
When he aimed at her head, he saw her becoming frightened like a little rabbit.
At least, she was afraid of death.
Then he asked the "Do I kill you ?".
And contrary to his expectations, she didn"t end up scared witless.
But she looked at him with a strange expression. She didn"t say anything for more than ten seconds before she finally opened her mouth.
"No...?"