Checkmate

by Elyce de Reefe

  “Thank you, Adam. It could be.”

  Marten watched the young man head to the SUV in front of his and get in. Adam had good instincts. He would probably make a good second. He rubbed his face, thinking. What could it mean?

  He pulled out his phone and scrolled down to Dr. Evans’ number. It might be nothing, but in light of the trouble they’d been having at the labs lately, missing samples, not to mention the fire, he figured better safe than sorry. He could at least let her know to keep an eye out.

  ** *

  Nina set down her phone and glanced at the remains of the Chinese takeout spread across her desk. At least she’d gotten to eat dinner. She began gathering up the containers and placed the leftovers in the fridge in the break room. She glanced around and shook her head. All this time she’d kept an office separate from her lab—the one where she did her real work—so she’d have someplace else to meet with Simon when he came in to Albany. Which was way too often for Nina’s liking. The man was mixed up in all kinds of shady dealings, and she didn’t trust him as far as she could throw him. And since the man was six foot two, and broad-shouldered, that wasn’t very far.

  She sighed and rubbed her lower back. She’d have to give it up soon. She couldn’t afford the extra expense anymore. Not after replacing all her equipment following the fire. But the lease would be up in a few months. She just wouldn’t renew. Maybe it was a good thing Millie had quit, especially if Marten was right and these so-called rivals of his were targeting her labs. She wouldn’t want Millie in any danger.

  She closed her eyes and tried to will away the tide of exhaustion that washed over her. She’d been working non-stop since finding out Eva’s graft hadn’t taken, and she’d been planning to head home after typing up these notes over dinner. But apparently, that was not to be. Because there was no way she would sit by and let those bastards burn down another one of her labs.

  She slipped her shoes back on her feet and tried not to think about the heavy revolver currently taking up way too much space in her purse. It had been her father’s, and she hadn’t been able to part with it after his death. But until this last incident, when her entire batch of formula was stolen right out of her lab, it had resided in her safe deposit box.

  She sighed. Oh, Nina, be serious here. No one is riding in to do battle at the Not-So O.K Corral. But she couldn’t afford to take a chance, because if Marten was right—

  She was working with bare bones as it was. She’d only managed to replace the essential equipment. Even though she hated to do it, she’d had to do some of the work at the medical facility Simon funded. It couldn’t be helped, but she wouldn’t put it past him to have one of the lab assistants reporting to him. That was the kind of standup guy he was. No honor among thieves and all that.

  Nina grabbed her tablet and tucked it into her briefcase. She picked up her purse from the desk and was about to slip her phone in when a thought struck her. What if they damaged the lab at the medical facility? Oh, Nina, don’t get paranoid now. But what if they did? She had a whole series of tests she needed to run on that equipment next week.

  She made a face and picked up her phone, scrolling down to Simon’s number. The man might be completely slimy, but she was certain he’d have no trouble coming up with some muscle to guard the lab.

  Chapter 27

  A Blunder, in chess, only refers to those mistakes you make that your opponent actually capitalizes on. However, those mistakes your opponent fails to take advantage of are not considered blunders. Interesting, no?

  — From the Journals of Aster Ardennes

  Aster looked up from the laptop and grinned into Dean’s beautiful green eyes. She’d just finished creating the loop in the security camera system so that they would show a continuous empty scene of the front of the building, and the empty offices, labs, and hallways inside. It had been fun following Aaron’s careful instructions, and she felt almost giddy with success. Overriding the alarm system had also been easy with Aaron’s help. She could get used to this teamwork stuff.

  “How do you want to do this, wait for Aaron and Jeff, or go in now? We can gather up your micro-thingy and that— what was that other thing? A cell dryer?” Why anyone would want to dry cells was beyond her, but—

  “Freeze dry system,” Dean answered absently, glancing around the alley. The same alley he and Boaz had used the week before. “We’ll wait for them. Shouldn’t be much longer.”

  He took her hand and led her back into the shadows, leaning his back against the wall, before pulling her back against him. He slipped his arms around her waist, and Aster let herself relax back into him, clutching the laptop to her chest and facing back out into the alley watching for any—non-existent—danger. She had the odd feeling of finally being let out to play with the big kids. It was a nice feeling. Why had she resisted this for so long?

  Oh, yeah, because you can’t just do whatever you want anymore. You have to follow orders. Cooperate.

  Dean leaned his cheek against the side of her head, dropping a quick kiss onto her hair. Well, maybe it wasn’t such a high price to pay…

  They entered the building about twenty minutes later, moving quietly up the stairs to the second floor, where Special-T had its offices and labs. Dean led the way, with Aster right behind him, and then young Jeff, with Aaron bringing up the rear.

  Jeffrey’s scent was adorably eager and excited, and his enthusiasm for the mission was contagious. It had to be something special for the recently-accepted loner to have this opportunity to prove his usefulness to the pack. Aster couldn’t quite imagine that feeling, but she could empathize.

  They reached the top of the stairs and opened the stairwell door. She noticed immediately that the smells were different. Well, not different exactly, but there were human scents—new human scents—layered over the more-familiar ones. Recent human scents. She looked to Dean. He’d noticed, too, of course.

  “What do you think?”

  He shrugged. “Not sure. Maybe they had a meeting? Some new clients?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Or maybe they hired some new doctors?”

  Okay, that idea was a little scary. Maybe someone else was working with the data? “I’ll check the personnel records.”

  “Good idea. Jeff and I will grab that microplate vortexer, and Aaron can start placing the charges.” He glanced at Aaron. “We can start this way in the lab.”

  Aaron nodded and they proceeded out of the stairwell onto the darkened floor, skirting past the cubicles in the center. Aster peeled off to the right and headed for the office of the director of the fertility division, Simon Mercov. If they had hired more doctors for that division, she wanted to know about it. The one good thing about all this was that so far they only had Dr. Evans to worry about. The lab techs working with him were all doing low-level grunt work. Dean said he could tell from the data that the doctor was careful not to reveal his final objective to his assistants, just giving them pieces of the puzzle to work on.

  She entered the corner office and glanced around. Mr. Simon Mercov obviously thought well of himself. Either that, or he had a serious inferiority complex. The office was dominated by a huge mahogany desk, with two stuffy-looking leather chairs placed in supplication on the other side. Floor-to-ceiling windows covered one wall, with the wall behind the desk occupied by an impressive shelving unit filled with expensive looking leather-bound books and knick-knacks.

  Aster shook her head. That’s a lot of show and blow, Simon.

  She had just reached the side of the desk when a noise behind her made her turn.

  BANG!

  Aster stared in disbelief at two humans holding guns as searing pain erupted in her chest. Her knees went wobbly all of a sudden and she collapsed to the floor, darkness flooding in around her.

  ** *

  BANG!

  Dean dropped the microplate vortexer on Jeffrey’s foot as a gunshot ran out across the facility. Pain flooded through the bond.

  Aster!
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  He turned and ran, Aaron right behind him, Jeffrey hopping and cursing, following after them as fast as he could.

  “What the fuck’d you do that for?” he heard a male voice say as he rounded the hallway from the labs to the main part of the office.

  “Boss said watch out for intruders.”

  “He didn’t say shoot them. You just shot an unarmed girl. Now what the fuck are you going to do?”

  Dean moved silently into position behind them, Aaron at his side.

  “Now we call the police and tell them we caught an intruder.”

  “Yeah? You want to explain why you shot an unarmed girl point blank in the chest?”

  There was a soft thump as the other man pulled a small sidearm from somewhere and tossed it on the carpet next to Aster’s outstretched hand. Dean’s heart seized. She was lying on her back, unmoving, in a puddle of blood.

  “You’re even dumber than you look. Do you even have a permit for that thing?” The man indicated the gun still in the other man’s hand with his chin and the smaller weapon on the floor next to Aster. “And just what can they trace back to that little Sig?”

  Dean nodded to Aaron and they slipped forward together. Dean dropped his man, the one with the gun, with one solid chop to the back of the neck. There was a satisfying crunch, and the man dropped, boneless, to the floor. He was marginally aware Aaron had done the same with the other man as he dropped to his knees by Aster’s prone body. He pressed one hand to the wound, high on her chest, and tapped her face with the other.

  “Aster.”

  Nothing. Not so much as a flicker of an eyelash.

  He tapped harder. “Aster, baby. Come on, honey.”

  Nothing.

  “Shirts,” he snapped out to Aaron and Jeff.

  Aaron was faster, and Dean pressed the folded garment to the wound, lifting her to see, oh, yeah, damn, there was more blood on the other side. Her life’s essence, spilling out onto the office carpet. So much blood.

  Jeff had gotten his shirt off by then and Dean pressed it to the back of the wound. The bullet had gone all the way through. From the position of the wound, he could see it had missed her heart, thank the Maiden, but must have punctured her lung.

  “Aaron, apply pressure. Both sides.” He moved to let the larger man in, struggling out of his own shirt as he did so.

  “Help me lift her,” he said as he slipped his shirt around her chest, using it to tie the makeshift bandages in place. He pulled it tight and Aster let out a soft moan. Dean thought his own heart might be breaking. Or maybe that was just the pain coming through the bond.

  “Don’t let up the pressure,” he said, his voice trembling slightly as he pushed Aaron’s hands back against the wounds, on top of the bandages— such as they were.

  He slipped around to Aster’s other side, and holding her head steady with one hand, smacked her on the cheek.

  “Aster. Wake up, baby. Come on.” He smacked her again. “You’ve got to shift. Come on, baby.” He placed another stinging slap against her cheek. “Aster! Wake! Up!

  “Dean?” Her eyes fluttered open, but they didn’t focus on him. “Hurts.”

  “I know, baby. You need to shift.”

  “Can’t… Hurts.

  “Aster!” he roared. “Shift!”

  Her eyes opened slightly, looking hurt that he was yelling at her, and then drifted closed again. And he felt her begin to slip away. No!

  “ASTER!” He smacked her cheek, hard. Once. Twice. Three times. “SHIFT!”

  He felt it start, the slow gathering of power just a whisper along the bond, slowly, so slowly. Too slowly… Slipping back. No. No. No.

  “Come on! Aster! SHIFT!”

  He felt it gathering again, coalescing slowly, stirring deep inside, churning, and he wished he could do something—send her strength through the bond—anything—but he was helpless. “Come on, Aster. Come on, baby. Shift. Shift for me.”

  He was whispering now, bent over close to her ear. A tear dripped onto her still face, and he wiped it away. He was trying desperately to send some kind of power through the bond into that swirling aimless energy trying to form the change. Pushing, forcing it down the bond with everything he had. It shouldn’t be possible, but he refused to give up. To give in.

  And then he felt it— the energy gathering again, pulling together, still so slowly, but then more quickly, coming together to form a tight ball, until finally, finally, it reached that tipping point—that point of no return—and the change rippled painfully through her, excruciatingly slowly, from deep inside, and then washing over her like a tide, gathering speed as it went.

  Then, there she was. Delicate, ephemeral Aster with her beautiful misty grey coat tipped in just the lightest touch of golden brown. And soaked in blood.

  Aaron still clutched her between his two hands, somehow still pressing the fabric of the shirts down on the wounds. Dean wasn’t sure how he’d done that, but he was grateful. He quickly tied his shirt tighter around her, making sure the bandages were still in place. The bleeding had slowed, he thought, and her breathing was easier now. He hoped that one shift would be enough to stabilize the damage, because there was no way she’d have the energy for another one.

  “Go,” he said to Aaron, slipping his hands under the other man’s and taking over pressing the blood-soaked bandages against the wounds. He was pretty sure the bleeding had slowed considerably, but he wasn’t taking any chances. Aster didn’t have any more blood to lose.

  “Clear the building and then set the charges. We have to get out of here.”

  Aaron nodded. “What about these guys?” He kicked at one of the prone forms lying on the floor.

  “Mine’s dead. If yours is alive, we can drag him out before we light the fire.”

  “Good enough,” Aaron said. “Come on, kid. We’ve got work to do.”

  And then it was just Dean, sitting on the floor in a puddle of Aster’s blood, holding her limp body on his lap and keeping pressure on the wound.

  Stupid, stupid, stupid. Should have made sure the building was clear before we started. Before I let her go off on her own like that.

  As he sat there in the dark, hoping this one mistake wasn’t going to cost him everything, he heard Aaron talking into his phone. Giving Lucas his report. Alerting him to possible danger in other locations.

  Another mistake. That didn’t even cross my mind.

  Chapter 28

  A blockade refers to the practice of placing a piece on a square so that it blocks an enemy from advancing. It can be used to create a severe restraint on a player’s position, making it difficult to achieve active play.

  — From the Journals of Aster Ardennes

  Cray pressed end on his phone and called out softly. “Hold up, Zeke.”

  Zeke turned, his blond head momentarily illuminated by the streetlight before he slipped back into the shadows.

  “What’s up?”

  “Trouble. Aster’s been shot.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, there were human guards, armed guards, at the headquarters building. Apparently, they were of the shoot first and skip the questions variety.”

  “Fucking humans. Is she okay?”

  “Too soon to tell.”

  Zeke shook his head and turned to spit in the dirt.

  Cray made a face. He had no doubt Zeke hadn’t even realized how insensitive his comment had been. It was the pervading sentiment among the People, the Rabbit River Pack notwithstanding.

  “Aaron said Lucas didn’t find any kind of security at the office building in Albany, but he wants us all to be cautious.”

  Zeke was still shaking his head. “They shot Aster? How is that even possible?”

  “I think they may have gotten a little complacent because they’ve entered so many of these facilities without any problems. Maybe someone got tired of having their security breached.”

  “Maybe.” Zeke didn’t sound convinced. Not that Cray really knew either. Why the sudden
extra security? Maybe it had nothing to do with them. Then again…

  He eyed the strip mall across the street. He couldn’t detect any activity at all, and certainly none inside the store covered in brown construction paper. It had a big ‘Coming Soon’ sign on the front. He knew the team had been in that very storefront less than a month ago, and at that time there had been an active lab. What were the chances that it was empty now? Or were there men with guns waiting inside? He blew out a slow breath.

  The accident that had backed up traffic and delayed their arrival might have been a blessing.

  “Lucas wants us to limit collateral damage as much as possible. We’ll have to remove them from the premises, preferably without harm. That is, so long as we can do it without endangering Pack. So it would be best if they couldn’t identify us afterwards.”

  “How in the wicked-hills are we supposed to do that?”

  Cray made a wry face. “Too bad we don’t have any chloroform.”

  That got a smirk out of Zeke, at least. But only for a moment. “When will we hear about Aster? Was anyone else hurt?”

  “Only the guy who shot her.”

  “Good,” Zeke said with finality.

  Cray wasn’t sure when they might hear about Aster and didn’t address it. Zeke seemed to get the hint. He spent the next several minutes wracking his brain. How to remove hostile humans from a building without harming them or exposing themselves in the process? And still accomplish the mission. Can’t forget that.

  A thought struck him. If there weren’t more than two guards, it just might work. He had a set of sheets he was supposed to return in the back of his car. Apparently, the fact that they were on sale hadn’t endeared them to Elizabeth. He didn’t understand why. Who didn’t like brown?

  But— it just might work. Maybe.

  Ten minutes later, he and Zeke cautiously approached the back door of the store. There were no signs of human habitation, and the door was securely locked, but there were definitely plenty of scent markers clinging to the door and entryway. Most recently, two human males had entered. Probably less than a few hours ago.