Jace: #6 (Luna Lodge: Hunters of Atlas)

by Madison Stevens

  She certainly didn’t achieve all that by being a little sissy and fainting at the first sign of blood.

  Sure, it was more blood than she saw at a typical animal attack site, way more, but she’d dealt with the aftermath of a lot of different incidents. She shouldn’t have let herself be overwhelmed.

  Her gaze flicked to the locked case containing her tranquilizer gun. She decided against it. There was no point hauling it around until she thought she might get close to the animal. It was obviously long gone from the house.

  She nodded to herself. She didn’t need the gun to be ready next time.

  Now that she saw the blood once, she was sure that she could deal with anything else like that during the trip.

  She grunted as she slammed a small knife into a loop on her pants and the pepper spray into one on the other side.

  That would be enough. She didn’t need anything else, or anyone else, including Jace.

  She winced.

  Somehow it seemed even worse that Jace had seen her that way. Now he knew she was vulnerable. He might even think she was weak. She just couldn’t stand that idea.

  Plus, those kinds of thoughts in men’s heads were something in her experience that caused nothing but trouble. It didn’t matter that he seemed like he might be different. Really, all men were the same in some departments.

  For all she knew, maybe his current behavior was some sort of act. Even though she wanted to trust him, it wouldn’t be the first time a guy had managed to convince her he was nice, and then he turned out to be a scum bag.

  “Stupid Jace,” she muttered. No matter how much she tried to stop thinking about him, his handsome face kept popping back into her head.

  She grabbed the remote from the nightstand and turned on the TV as a temporary distraction.

  “The storm front is moving into the county now,” the weatherman on the TV blared in the motel room. “There will be ice accumulation all over the county by tomorrow morning.”

  For some reason, the TV only seemed to have two settings: soft and loud. Fortunately, she wasn’t planning on spending a lot of time watching television. Mostly she just needed a distraction, but the weather report was useful. So win-win.

  Veronica watched as the blue graphic representing the storm front appeared on the screen in front of her.

  She nodded once. Ice was a pain in the ass, but it mostly meant that people wouldn’t be out and would likely keep their pets inside.

  This represented a good opportunity. Heck, she didn’t even need to go back inside that house immediately to do what she needed.

  It’d be the perfect night to check the area around the house she’d visited earlier. She still needed to figure out what she was dealing with.

  Her stomach rolled, and she frowned.

  “Don’t even start,” she grumbled.

  When she thought about it, she realized she didn’t even need to get close to the house to test out some of her equipment. All she needed to do was to set up a way to test her theory.

  Veronica reached into the mini-fridge and pulled out a piece of steak still in its packaging.

  She placed it carefully in the cooler she’d brought. All she needed to do was place the meat in the middle of an open area and place the sonic transmitters around it. If she were correct, it would deter the animal enough.

  She bit her lip. Of course, if it weren’t an animal, the transmitters wouldn’t do anything.

  No. She shook her head. She refused to believe a person could have done that to the animals. She’d seen animals that had been shot or stabbed. She knew what claw and bite wounds looked like. No matter how twisted a person was, they still didn’t have claws or the mouth and teeth of a wild predator.

  She glanced over to the window and sighed. The ice storm might keep pets inside, but it still wasn’t exactly the best environment for setting up equipment. Not wanting to waste any more time, she made her way out of the room and to her car.

  It was time to do her job and redeem herself.

  Chapter Nine

  Jace stalked through the dark house, unhindered by both the intoxicating presence of the woman and the blasted contacts he’d been forced to wear. He needed a better look at the scene at the house with the full range of his senses.

  It wasn’t like he expected his prey to leave a nice little note with an address, but any scrap of evidence might help at this point.

  He grunted. It was just a matter of time before the Glycon got caught on camera attacking someone. A panic would follow. Innocent people would die, human and hybrid, all because of some savage monster that didn’t know when to die.

  Even if Marcus was right and the Glycon was rogue, if it got spotted by a human, the Horatius Group wouldn’t be far behind.

  Now it was a race to not only save innocent lives, but to protect the hybrids from their greatest enemy.

  Jace carefully examined every room in the small house, looking for any detail or clue that might help him understand his prey. He’d thought about just trying to follow its scent trail, but the already falling heavy rain outside made that pointless. It was as if the damn weather was working for the Glycon.

  He wondered how long the creature had even been in the area. For all they knew, it could have been quite a while, and the creature had simply waited until the snow and ice would help it out.

  After all, no matter how tough it was, it wasn’t like it could take on a whole group of hybrids.

  Stepping into the kitchen, Jace shook his head and marveled at the disarray. A table and chairs lay tipped over. Shards of smashed dishes littered the floor. More than a few pieces of food lay on the ground, some half-chewed, much of the rest squashed.

  The Glycon had even knocked over the garbage can, spilling rotting fruit and egg shells all over the floor. Apparently, the owners hadn’t completely cleaned up before their vacation.

  He shook his head. The Glycon had certainly made a mess of the place. Some of this didn’t even seem like the result of getting knocked over by accident. It was like it had made the mess on purpose.

  That still raised the question of why it’d do that. He wondered how much of the destruction was for fun. Not only was it a savage killer; it was just a dick.

  After pulling open the fridge, Jace spotted torn bags and spilled liquids. The creature had obviously raided the fridge during it’s little foray into the house.

  Several very human-like hand prints littered the area, trailing from a ripped bag of flour near the door. He narrowed his eyes. Again, he wondered if there was some purpose.

  Maybe the creature wanted the humans to realize it was there. It was hard to guess. If it was so hell-bent on getting caught, then why skulk around the woods?

  Jace let out a low growl and started wiping away the prints. He kept trying to think like a Glycon, but that was pointless. He needed to worry less about figuring out its motivation and more about just tracking it down, so they could take it out.

  Returning his attention to the evidence, Jace was surprised the police hadn’t noticed the fridge raid or the prints. The blood in the other room and the dogs may have suggested an animal attack, but the kitchen suggested something far more human-like.

  Sure, the locals didn’t know about Glycons and didn’t know they had hybrids in their midst, but looking at the evidence, it almost seemed obvious this wasn’t the work of something like a bear or mountain lion.

  For a second, he wondered if they knew and were pretending not to, but he decided they didn’t. There was no way the police officer would have been that relaxed if he knew something like a Glycon was involved.

  Running his finger along a thin trail of flour, Jace assumed that if they knew, it’d be all over the news. They’d panic and worry about strange, violent killers.

  He hadn’t dealt much with the local police. They might have just been bad at their jobs. He chuckled at the thought.

  As he wiped away another print, another idea hit him. Maybe the humans simply saw what they want
ed to see. No, what they needed to see.

  The police officer looked around and saw an animal attack because the idea there might be a man who could create that sort of carnage was too scary to contemplate.

  A loud buzzing came from his pocket, and he pulled out his phone to look at the name. He groaned when he saw who it was, but hit the green talk button. Some people didn’t like to be kept waiting.

  “Yeah,” he said casually.

  “You there?” Marcus asked on the other end. He sounded annoyed, but then again, Marcus almost always sounded annoyed when he was talking to anyone other than his bonded.

  Sure, he’d improved a bit, but it was more like he was only 80% asshole now, instead of 100%.

  “Yeah, I’m at the house,” Jace replied.

  He moved carefully through the house until he was next to the back door. When he was concentrating on searching, he could force himself into ignoring the smell. Now that he wasn’t, the stench smothered him. He couldn’t breathe in there with all that blood choking the air around him.

  “So, is it the Glycon?” Marcus asked.

  “It has to be the Glycon,” he said. “It even raided the fridge.”

  “Maybe it’s just a murderous human,” Marcus growled. “Not like they never kill each other and steal food.”

  He twitched his nose. “Humans don’t stink like this.” He sighed. “I also found some prints in the blood. Definitely not animal, but definitely not human.”

  “Prints? Shit. The locals will figure things out. The Group will come.”

  Silence hung in the air for a moment.

  “I took care of them,” Jace said after a sigh, “and they think it’s just an animal. If you were here, you’d see why. It’s a fucking mess here. It’s not like they even know about Glycons.”

  Marcus grunted his understanding.

  “This thing was savage,” Jace said. “even for a Glycon. This wasn’t just about feeding.” He grunted. “I don’t know. Maybe it just finds killing fun, or… You think it was trying to send a message? To fuck with us? Fuck with you?”

  Marcus sighed. “Who knows? Maybe? It was certainly smarter than any other I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t matter. Not like it has to be a genius to screw with us.”

  “It’s getting closer to town,” Jace said quietly. “Next time it won’t just be some dogs, I bet. I also bet at that point the locals will figure out it isn’t an animal.”

  He stepped out into the darkness and looked around. Something felt off. He breathed in deeply, but all he could smell was the harsh wet air. Frigid rain was pouring from the sky.

  “Shit. It’s really coming down out there.”

  “It will be iced up soon,” Marcus said. “Head back in.”

  “What about the Glycon?”

  “It’s tough, but it’s not going to be able to do much in this weather. I want this fucker dead, but it won’t do any good if you kill yourself on the road.”

  Jace snorted. “I can handle a little ice.”

  “We don’t time for this shit. You need to come back in. Besides, I want to be there when we take that monster down.”

  He grunted in response, but he wasn’t really listening. A flicker of movement caught his eye, a shadow. At first, he thought it was just the ice and rain fooling him, but after a few seconds, he narrowed his eyes.

  Something was in the woods.

  “What’s going on?” Marcus asked, tension filling his voice.

  “I’m getting movement,” Jace said quietly. “I’m going to check it out and then head in.”

  “No. You sh—”

  He hung up before Marcus could tell him differently. He silenced the phone as Marcus called him back.

  He knew the other man felt like he had failed at his job and thirsted for a second chance to take out the Glycon. Jace also knew that Rem was more interested in a team solution. At that moment, he didn’t care about what either of them wanted.

  Besides, the more he thought about it, the less Jace was convinced the storm would keep the monster in check. A smart Glycon that could prance around in the snow might not care much about an ice storm.

  Jace wasn’t about to risk more lives because he was too chickenshit to investigate some movement in the woods. Maybe he could get the drop on the thing and finish the bastard off, once and for all.

  It was just a damn Glycon. Tough, sure, but it wasn’t a god or demon.

  He hurried toward the woods, keeping a light step. Once actually among the trees, he moved as swiftly as he could manage without too much noise. The patter of the rain helped cloak the sound of his footfalls.

  His prey, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be trying to be all that quiet. He could hear crunching snow and cracking branches in a nearby snow-littered clearing.

  He bit back a growl. Fucking Glycon was too arrogant to hide. He’d make it pay for that arrogance.

  He flexed his fingers several times and moved his head side to side, readying for battle. His heart picked up.

  It was time to finish this.

  Jace raised his fists and stepped into the clearing. He froze.

  No Glycon stood in the clearing. Instead, in front of him, Veronica was sitting on the ground. A bizarre scene sat next to her: a large piece of meat in the center of a circle of silvery wires linking poles set in the snow.

  As if sensing him there, she turned and stared at him in shock.

  Chapter Ten

  One second Veronica was setting up her equipment. The next thing she knew, she felt like she was being watched. Not always the most comfortable feeling when you’re in the middle of the woods by yourself.

  And then there he was. Jace. Almost like she’d conjured him by thinking about him earlier.

  “Holy shit,” Veronica said and tried to stand quickly, her heart pounding from surprise.

  Her back leg caught on the wire behind her, and she was suddenly falling backward. She yelped, worried about her head, but more concerned about her equipment.

  She snapped her eyes shut and braced for the impact, but it never came.

  “What?” she muttered.

  She realized after a second that large warm hands held her. After a moment, the hands helped pull her back on her feet with ease.

  Veronica opened her eyes and blinked several times, both surprised and grateful that she didn’t end up knocking herself out. She’d had enough unconsciousness before.

  Jace released her and stepped back. The sudden absence of his hands disappointed her.

  “I don’t understand,” she said quietly. “What… how… huh?”

  As her brain finally pulled herself into the current moment, her confusion only deepened. Pretty much nothing about Jace made sense at that moment. She didn’t even understand why he was there, but more than that, everything about him pushed past her defenses. Every time she was around him, all she could think was how easy it was to be near him.

  By all rights, some huge man showing up in the middle of the night should terrify her. But with him so near, fear was about the last thing she felt. If anything, she suddenly felt a lot safer, and it wasn’t just because he looked like he could wrestle a bear to the ground.

  She shook her head. It was crazy. She hardly knew him at all. Trust should be earned, not given freely. She reminded herself to keep telling herself that before she did something she regretted.

  Her common sense returned, and she realized that her feelings about him weren’t even the craziest thing going on at that moment.

  She thought it over. One second he was at the edge of the clearing, the next he was catching her. Nobody could move that fast.

  First she thought she misjudged the distance. She glanced down the ground. His footprints in the snow proved he’d been at the edge of the clearing when he started moving.

  “How did you move so fast?” she asked, still in a daze. She gestured toward the edge of the clearing.

  He turned away from her, his back stiff, and stepped back. “What are you even doing out h
ere?” he asked, obvious irritation in his voice. He motioned to the sky. The trees provided some cover from the freezing rain, but several branches had already buckled, encased in thin layers of ice. “There’s a damn ice storm going on. What could be so important that you had to do it right now, at night, in the middle of an ice storm?”

  Veronica bristled at his tone. How dare he. She was an adult.

  “My job,” she said with a frown. “Which involves trying to protect both people and animals. What exactly are you doing here? You thought an ice storm was a great time to go jogging?” She rolled her eyes. “You forget, I know where you live. I have a hard time believing your dog Marcus wandered all the way here from your home.”

  She crossed her arms and smirked. Jace kept looking the opposite way, turned sideways, like he didn’t want to face her.

  At first, she was grateful that he’d caught her, but then she realized she wouldn’t have fallen if he hadn’t popped out of nowhere and surprised her.

  Given the way he was avoiding looking at her, he must have known he was in the wrong. It didn’t matter. She didn’t have time to argue with hunky dog owners.

  After all, he was right about the storm. She needed to get her equipment set up and get out of there before the roads got too slick.

  Fortunately, despite the weather, it looked like the trees would prevent too much ice from building up on the equipment. It was tough equipment, so she wasn’t too worried, but she did need it uncovered to transmit its sound effectively.

  She inspected everything as she finished setting up. Luckily, she hadn’t damaged anything earlier during her fall. Jace had not only saved her head, but her equipment.

  She snorted to herself. It was the least he could do given the trouble he’d caused.

  Now all she needed to do was adjust a few of the poles she’d knocked around, and then turn the system on.

  “Checking on things,” Jace said vaguely.

  “What?” Veronica looked up.

  “You asked what I was doing here. I was checking on things.”