Midnight Star

by Ophelia Bell

  “There are no studies that show enough time and training won’t work,” she said.

  “She has a point,” Val offered. “It takes time to gather proper research data on shifters. I’m a practitioner of focused synchronicity training myself, and it’s taken me nearly a decade to reach the level of control I have over my panther. I’d love to have an opportunity to dig deeper into pure shifter physiology, where our links to our animals and mating bonds go.”

  “You’d get along great with our friend Simina,” Astra said. “She’s into that stuff. Has been ever since she and my brother . . .” Astra trailed off, frowning as if she just remembered who Simina and Talon had been to each other before her brother had died, but it had been nice to see her enthusiastic about something for a moment.

  “Let’s take a look at this stuff.” Val glanced down at Astra’s bare legs again. “And as much as I enjoy the view, you can put your pants back on.”

  He placed the vial of Astra’s blood into a different machine and turned it on, then leaned back against the counter with his arms crossed while the machine whirred to life and started its analysis.

  Taking a deep breath, he said, “In the interest of efficiency, I’m going to admit that evidence points to both iterations of the drug originating from this lab. It would be counterproductive to keep fighting it when we can get to the business of working out how and why, not to mention where the fuck it’s being produced. Because there’s no way for this lab to produce the stuff in a large enough quantity for export to another planet without me knowing about it. Someone must have stolen it.”

  “How do we know you didn’t sell the formula on the black market just to make some extra cash?” Javin asked.

  Val clenched his jaw. “Because I know in its current state that it is highly addictive, not to mention deadly when metabolized and excreted. I want to save lives with this drug, not ruin them. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

  “Then where do you recommend we start? This is your facility. You know better than we do how something like this might wind up in the wrong hands, don’t you?”

  Val shook his head. “It couldn’t. That’s the thing. I’m the one who unlocks the lab every day. I’m meticulous about tracking every sample. I have a staff here, but they only work with the samples I provide and log the data. They don’t have access to the current formulas, which are locked on a secure drive that only I can access.” He turned to the computer behind him and tapped a few keys. A screen came up requesting a password. He typed a series of characters and across the room a latch disengaged.

  Standing, Val gestured for them to follow and he took them to a large walk-in cold room with stark lights illuminating shelves on either side filled with different types of samples.

  “I’m the only one with access to this cold room,” he said, ushering them back out and shutting the door behind them. When the latch engaged, a red light came on above the handle.

  “Someone must have gotten into your lab and taken it out,” Javin said. “Are you sure no one else has access?”

  Val shook his head. “Just my dad, who is CEO of the company, but he’s oblivious to the goings-on in the lab itself. All he cares about is the business side of things. His domain is the boardroom in the high-rise offices downtown, not way out here.”

  Javin caught a hint of bitterness in Val’s voice. “And your dad would have no interest in selling it?”

  “It isn’t about money for us, trust me. We’re more than comfortable. He’s more interested in me completing my work on it to get a viable drug on the market to preserve our company’s bottom line. He knows it isn’t viable now as well as I do.”

  “Just for the sake of argument then,” Astra said, jumping into the conversation. “If someone did come in who shouldn’t, your security system would know, wouldn’t it? Do you have logs or recordings you can check?”

  “The security logs would catch anyone,” Val said, nodding. “But the breach would have to have been more than five years ago for the original formula to be taken. It’s gone through several iterations since.”

  The machine behind him whirred to a stop and a chime sounded. The screen beside it flickered to life and Javin took a step closer, bending down to view the results. “Show me what I’m looking at,” he said, glancing at Val.

  Val’s shoulder brushed his as he bent over to look, his scent stronger now, and it occurred to Javin that the panther must have let down his guard. He’d probably done something to strengthen his endurance to deal with Astra without pants earlier, which was entirely understandable. But now, as they stood together close enough for Javin to scent the panther’s musky aroma, the attraction between them was more palpable than ever. His cock roused unbidden.

  Taking a deep breath, he tamped down that urge. While he believed Val was being honest with them, they still didn’t have all the information. He needed to maintain the upper hand.

  “Shit,” Val said. “Well, I guess this narrows down our window for searching.” He pointed at the screen where a graph had appeared with two lines superimposed and several colored dots scattered along the axis. “These are markers in Astra’s blood that correspond to the newest iteration of the formula. This tells me without a doubt that she was poisoned with a by-product of the newest version of the drug.”

  “And how recently was the formula adjusted?” Javin asked.

  “Just a few weeks ago.” Val had gone a little pale and stood straighter, frowning down at the screen. “So we can check the security logs from last month on for anything suspicious.”

  “Well, what are we waiting for?” Astra asked, heading for the door. “Let’s go.”

  She and Simon were already out the door, and Val turned to follow, but Javin grabbed his arm. “You already have a suspicion, don’t you? Care to share?”

  Val’s jaw twitched and he shook his head. “Nothing’s certain until we see the recordings.”

  17

  Val

  Val refused to believe what the evidence suggested, but his analytical mind kept screaming the facts at him to the point he wanted to bang his head against the wall to get it to shut up. The simplest, most straightforward answer was almost always right, and right now, all the evidence pointed to one thing.

  No one else had access to the lab, or to the data besides him and one other person: his father. But why in the world would his dad sabotage this project? The company stood to earn millions from the drug once it was finished, and Val himself would very likely be in the running for a Nobel Prize for it too. It made no fucking sense.

  He blindly swiped his security badge to take them back up to the lobby, where Astra proceeded to commandeer the guard’s station. The security guard gave Val a perplexed look.

  “Let her look. We’re concerned there was a breach of the lab earlier in the year and we need to track down who the culprit was.”

  The guard looked concerned and slightly offended. “Sir, I assure you there have been no unauthorized visitors all year.”

  Val patted him on the shoulder. “I believe you. But we need to verify.”

  “Javin, get over here,” Astra called. She rubbed her temples and squinted at the screen. The images were flitting past at double speed.

  “It might help if you slow it down,” Val said.

  “No, we don’t have time,” Astra said. “If I still had my link to my dragon, I’d be able to pick up all the details at this speed, but I can’t. Javin’s trained with champions. He’s almost as good as us.”

  Javin took the seat she vacated and the video resumed. Val watched in wonder, Javin’s eyes flicking quickly over the screen as the series of recordings played at double speed. Every so often, he would pause the playback and ask the identity of a person. So far no one who appeared was the least bit suspicious—only normal staff passing through the lab’s hallways and entering the door at normal working hours.

  Val saw himself coming in at odd hours, but he could always pinpoint those visits as corresponding to nights
he’d had revelations about a new set of tests he wanted to run.

  They watched the recordings up to the date of Astra’s injury, about a week prior, and saw nothing. Val was inwardly relieved, though not happy that the mystery remained.

  “Why are you rewinding? We didn’t see anything unusual,” Val said when Javin started skipping back to the beginning again.

  “Checking again. There was a spot about a month back that I wanted another look at. Something looked off but I can’t put my finger on it.”

  The other two flanked Val as they stared over Javin’s shoulder, the security guard leaning down and peering at the playback too. Astra’s intense heat was making him sweat, and he could swear he scented her on Simon, their two aromas mingling. He wanted to inhale them both as much as possible. Instead, he held his breath as Javin paused the recording again, the screen displaying nothing but the empty hallway and the door to his lab.

  “There’s nothing there,” he said, and Javin lifted a hand.

  “Wait, the image changes. Trust me.”

  He rewound a few seconds this time and hit the play button. Again, Val saw nothing, but beside him Astra let out a little gasp.

  “What is it?” he asked, shaking his head. Did they have some special shifter sense he lacked?

  It was the security guard who straightened up with a curse and shook his head. “Fucking time stamps are off,” he said. “Go back again.”

  Javin rewound and hit play for a third time, then slowed the recording down so it moved frame by frame.

  “Right here,” the guard said, tapping his finger beneath the time and date at the top corner of the screen.

  Val watched with cold dread uncoiling in his belly. One second the time read 22:48, the next it read 23:20. More than half an hour was missing. But it was the date that burned itself into Val’s mind: the date his father had locked him out of the lab a month ago.

  It could have been anyone though. The recording only told them that someone had monkeyed with the security feed that night, not who.

  The security guard had resumed his seat and was scrolling through a grid on his monitor. “Looks like the security logs may have been tampered with too. There aren’t any key-card readings within that timeframe, not even the cleaning staff, who would have entered the building around eleven. Someone had to have done some serious hacking to clear that data. Who do you think we’re dealing with, boss?”

  Val’s mouth had gone dry and he shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ll be in my office.” He turned away, heading down the hallway, only dimly aware of the footsteps keeping pace just behind him.

  Once in his office at the corner of the south wing of the building, he stopped and stared out the large windows that overlooked the rolling hills between the lab and the city.

  The door clicked shut behind him and a second later a big hand yanked him by the arm. He found himself slammed against the window, Javin’s golden eyes blazing.

  “You do know something and you’re going to fucking tell us. What’s missing from that recording?”

  “I don’t know what’s missing!” It wasn’t exactly a lie, but he felt sick repeating it out loud. Sagging against the glass, he dropped his head. “I only have a suspicion, but there’s no way to be sure without confirmation. I can get it, but it will take time.”

  Astra and Simon both slipped up beside him, anger flowing off them in waves. Val cursed and clenched his eyes shut. Boy, he had royally fucked up any chances of a relationship with any of them.

  “How much time?” Astra asked. “What can we do to speed things up?”

  “There are backups of the recordings, but they’re stored off-site.”

  “So, go fucking get them,” Simon said. “I want to know who the fucker was who supplied this drug to the champions on Nova Aurora. Whoever it was ruined my life.”

  Taking a deep breath, Val said, “They’re at my dad’s house. He’s the CEO of the company and he’s a bit of a control freak. He keeps backups in a fireproof room in the office at his estate.”

  “So, tell your dad the issue and let’s get in to see,” Astra said. “How fucking hard can it be?”

  “That’s the thing,” Val said. “I think my dad might be the issue.”

  All three of them stared, and after a moment Astra finally broke the silence. “Are you afraid of him?”

  “No,” Val said quickly, then, “Yes. Fuck, I don’t know.” He sighed and slumped into his desk chair, raking his hands through his hair. “My relationship with him is complicated. He’s locked me out of my lab a dozen separate occasions when he thought I wasn’t living up to his expectations.”

  Javin leaned back against his desk. “Was one of those occasions about three years ago?”

  Val thought back to the first time his dad had extorted specific behavior from him and used his lab as collateral. He shook his head. “More like six, but you said there’s time dilation between our worlds. Either way, he’d have been able to access the original formula then.”

  “What the hell did he make you do?” Astra asked.

  Taking a deep breath, Val leaned back. “The first time was shortly after my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was human, so she didn’t have the normal shifter resistance. He wasn’t happy with my insistence that the drug wasn’t ready for her yet—our initial simulations were very promising but the side effects were too unpredictable. He locked me out, insisting I spend time with her. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it. I have a habit of burying myself in work to avoid facing the truth, and my mom was fucking dying. I’m still glad I had that time with her. But if he went to the lab . . .”

  He trailed off, the implications of that old manipulation hitting him like a punch to the gut.

  “Val, you can talk to us,” Astra said in a gentle voice. She rested a hand on his shoulder and he reached up and squeezed. Why she felt the need to be so nice to him now made no sense, but he would take it.

  “She went into remission for a few months. According to the doctors, it was a miracle considering how advanced the cancer was. Then one day she just collapsed.” He gave her a stricken look, then turned to the two men. “I think he tried giving her the drug. It’s the only explanation.”

  He remembered the day all too clearly. His father never cried, but that day he’d been beside himself. He’d been an overbearing ogre for the next week, refusing to let the doctors perform an autopsy or even to let Val see his mother’s body. He’d had her cremated before Val had had a chance to say his own goodbyes.

  The senior Carver hadn’t been the same since, and his interest in the drug had all but disappeared.

  “Do you think it killed her in the end?” Javin asked.

  “In its state at the time, it was certainly possible. It’s designed to awaken a human’s latent animal, which can trigger the body to heal itself, but I would never have given it to a weakened subject in a testing phase. It wasn’t ready. It still isn’t ready. As weak as Mom was, if her animal was awakened and wanted to shift . . .”

  An image flashed through his mind, a memory of that night when he’d come to visit his mother only to find his dad clutching her to him on their bed and sobbing. He’d only seen a glimpse of her arm before his dad had slammed the door in his face, but she’d been a misshapen mess. He’d forgotten about the memory in his grief.

  “Oh god, what have I done?” He stared up at Javin, whose brow was furrowed.

  “Sounds like your dad was the one who did it, not you.”

  “I need proof. If I can gather enough, I can go to the authorities. But I can’t let him know I know yet. He has too much power over my lab access. If you want me to help create counteragents for the two of you, I need to maintain access to the lab at all costs until he’s out of the way.”

  “So getting to those backups is out of the question, I take it?” Simon asked.

  Val sat up straighter, his mind whipping through the possibilities. Now that he knew where he stood with his dad, he could mak
e a plan.

  “Not quite. The last time he locked me out was before I first met with Gerri. He’s the one who gave me her number. It seems now that I’m nothing more than his legacy. My sole purpose is to give him grandchildren.”

  “He’d lock you out of your lab to force you to breed?” Astra asked. “What an asshole.”

  Val chuckled. “He had concerns that I might not be interested in women, and for good reason. Men tend to be less complicated partners for brief flings. Women in this city only want one thing from me—my money.”

  “But you do like women,” Astra said in a husky voice, slipping into his lap. Both Simon and Javin started to growl at the same time and Astra shot them a glare. “Cut it out, you two. We’re trying to help him.”

  Val rested a hand on her thigh and squeezed. “Yes, I do like women. I have a feeling you may be more woman than I ever bargained for, but you’re how we’re going to get into Dad’s office.”

  “Do tell,” she said, combing her fingers through his hair.

  His skin tingled from the contact and he lost focus for a moment, his panther purring from the sorely needed attention. It was as if she’d read his mind and knew exactly how to calm him down. But now her touch was starting to turn him on. He cleared his throat and grabbed her hand, clutching it to halt her distracting touch.

  Simon and Javin both looked like they were coiled tight enough to spring at the slightest provocation, so Val eased Astra off his lap and stood. He grimaced at the aching tightness in his groin, but he’d managed to keep from getting fully hard at least. He was sure they still noticed his arousal from the suggestive eyebrow lift Javin gave him when he glanced at Val’s crotch—and Simon’s amused snort.

  “Astra’s going to be my mate,” he said. “At least as far as my dad’s concerned,” he quickly added before the two men could tackle him.

  “How will this work?” Astra asked, propping her butt on his desk.

  “He sent me to Gerri to find a woman. It’s as good a time as any to announce that she found me someone.”