I nodded to show I was following along and tried not to laugh at the idea of being part starfish. Abe pulled up another DNA model on the computer and ran another comparison.
“Cynda’s other five percent is not modified from another source, it’s a direct copy. This is the closest match I’ve found. It’s not an exact match because I don’t have the exact animal that the DNA was cloned from, but the computer indicates with ninety-nine percent accuracy that the DNA comes from a rare breed of jaguar. What this means is that rather than having some attributes that may be cat-like, Cynda is in fact five percent cat.”
“Wait, are you saying she’s some kind of a werewolf, err, werecat?” I’ve had over a year to accept vampires as scientifically plausible, but Abe was going to have to explain this one further.
“The scientific term would be a chimera. Cynda doesn’t turn into a cat, she is part cat.”
“So what happened to her this morning? It certainly looked like she was turning into something.”
“You’re right it did, but what actually happened wasn’t a shift from human to animal. Something triggered a chemical imbalance that played havoc with her cerebral cortex and limbic system, meaning she was acting on pure instinct and reacting to perceived threats on a base level. I was able to counteract the chemical imbalance with medication, but as you are aware, that is only a temporary solution. I’m going to have to keep her on a stream of suppressants until I can pinpoint what triggered the imbalance in the first place. Based on what Cynda told us, and the information that Ida passed along, I believe this to be something she suffers from regularly.”
“Okay, but how does that explain her change in appearance and sudden super strength?”
“It doesn’t,” Abe replied, confusing me more than I already was. “Cynda is simply very strong and this can be attributed to the fact that she’s five percent jaguar. The change to her appearance appears to be an involuntary reaction, but I’m not so sure it isn’t something she might be able to learn to control. As for everything else, I’m still working that out. For the moment, she’s fine, but I'm keeping her under observation. I’ve set her up with a monitor. If she has another episode, it will administer a sedative and alert my staff so that she can be medicated.”
“Can I see her?” I asked. I didn’t like the fact that she was being kept for observation and I wanted to make sure that she was comfortable and not stuck in some cold lab, like a science experiment. Especially considering that everything Abe revealed only strengthened my conviction to find this farm as soon as I could slip away.
“Of course,” Abe said with a smile. “Don’t worry, she’s very comfortable. Her room is like any other, but I’ve limited her access as a safety precaution, for her own sake as well as others.”
Cynda’s room was in the medical area, but it did look almost identical to my room in residential. When we arrived, I was surprised to see she had indeed returned to her normal appearance and was quietly reading a magazine on the sofa. Dara was sitting at the small dining table, working on a laptop. I smiled hello and went into the sitting area to check on Cynda.
“Hey Cynda, how are you feeling?”
“Okay, I guess.” She shifted with a wince that said she wasn’t okay.
“Are you hurt?”
“No, just cramps.” She lifted her shirt slightly to show me the heating pad she had placed over her abdomen.
“Oh!” It took me a second, but I understood. “Wait, you get cramps?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, during that time. Don’t you?”
“Actually, no,” I replied. It was weird, I know, and all of my friends had hated me for it, but I never cramped when I had PMS. I had to deal with everything else, like mood swings, bloating, and general bitchiness, but no physical pain. I hadn’t really given it any thought until just then, but I assumed it was part of the whole half-vampire package. But Cynda was just as much vampire as I was. Suddenly something occurred to me. “Cynda, the shift that happened to you, does it usually happen right before you start your cycle?”
Her brow furrowed into a frown and she was silent for a moment. “I never remember what happens when I pass out, but yeah, I usually get my period right after that.”
I looked up at Dara and Abe who had stopped whatever they were talking about and were listening to our conversation. Dara raised her eyebrows and seemed to be weighing the implications.
“Do you remember if you had episodes of blackouts prior to starting your cycle?” Dara asked.
“I don’t think I did,” Cynda said thoughtfully.
“I think you might have discovered the trigger,” I suggested. I almost pointed out that a menstrual cycle is like a moon cycle and as such, my werecat observation was valid, but I didn’t want to offend Cynda. Besides that, she had said she blacks out. I wasn’t even sure if she knew exactly what happened to her during those blackouts.
“Impressive Lucy, you’re making me look bad,” Abe said with a smile. “I still would like for you to wear the monitor, Cynda. But I’ll study this angle and perhaps we can let you out of here sooner than expected.”
“What about her scent?” I asked. There were a lot of vampires that frequently had access to the residential area.
“Actually, I was just about to tell Abe, I’ve figured that out as well.”
“Really?” Abe looked impressed. “I couldn’t find anything in Cynda’s DNA to indicate why other vampires find her scent appealing.”
“That’s because it’s dietary.” Dara pointed to something on the computer. “Cynda, was your diet at the farm mainly shellfish?”
“You mean like shrimp? Yeah.”
“Mm hm,” Dara said and smiled. “When was the last time you ate anything with seafood in it?”
“Um, I don’t remember.”
“Well, from now on, avoid it. Lucy, that goes for you too.”
“Huh?” I gasped. “You’re telling me no more gumbo?” Gumbo was my favorite food in the world.
“In moderation,” Dara amended. “The difference between you and Cynda is that she’s got enough buildup of certain amino acids, which come from shellfish, to make her smell pleasant to vampires. I doubt you’ll ever reach these levels, but I’d say better safe than sorry.”
“Weird,” I shook my head. “But if that’s all it is, why doesn’t everyone notice it? Abe?”
“No, I don’t smell anything different about Cynda than I do anyone else. It seems the only people who would smell anything is a vampire.”
“It’s like asparagus,” Dara explained. “Some people’s urine takes on a strong odor after consuming asparagus. But what’s interesting is that the only people who can smell the difference are those whose bodies process the odor. In this case, only vampire metabolism creates the buildup of acids, so only vampires will smell the attractive scent. The good news,” Dara turned to Cynda with a smile, “is that with time this will fade. But to speed up the process, I’m going to recommend a cleansing diet and a few different teas. I’ll check with Ida and see what we have on hand.”
After Dara and Abe left, I turned back to Cynda. “Are you okay with Dara and Abe checking up on you?”
“They’re okay,” she said with a shrug.
“Would you be okay here if I left for a while?” I asked. “I mean, if I left the building for a couple of days, would you trust them if I wasn’t here?”
Cynda narrowed her eyes at me. “Why are you asking me?”
“I want to find the farm,” I admitted. “I know Evan’s not going to let me go until we have a plan, so I was hoping you could help me by remembering anything about where it was.”
“I hid in the back of a truck after I left the woods,” she said apologetically.
“Do you know how long you were in the truck?”
“Maybe a couple of hours. Oh, I know I went through Baton Rouge because I almost got caught by the driver when he stopped there.”
It wasn’t much, but it was a start. I left Cynda with a promise to ch
eck in again soon and moved on to my next target. Mike was in the security office, setting up before the nightly meeting.
“Hey Mike, Abe told me you’ve been tasked with looking for the area where this farm might be.”
“That I have,” he said with a smile. “And we’ve found a couple of suspicious spots, but nothing definite yet. Got any information?”
“Not much, but it could help. Have you found any forested areas within one or two hours of Baton Rouge?”
“As a matter of fact, I have.” Mike turned to one of the many computer monitors mounted in front of his desk and pointed to a satellite image. “This area, right up here north of Baton Rouge, has a suspicious number of anti-surveillance measures in place. Luckily, we have better satellites.”
I pulled out my phone and jotted the coordinates into the navigation system. Mike gave me an uneasy look, but I smiled what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “I’m going to see if there’s anything between here and there that might be a landmark for Cynda to remember.” Mike appeared to have believed me, which was good considering he was the one person who had the ability to deny my access in or out of the building. “I’ll let you know what I find out.”
With all of the hunters making their way to Evan’s office for the nightly meeting, leaving unnoticed wasn’t too much of an issue. Getting out of New Orleans, however, was my next challenge.
Chapter 6
There’s a saying that goes, it’s easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission. As I stood in front of the open garage, eyeing the pristine white truck inside, I rationalized that technically, I wasn’t stealing. The truck belonged to Andre, but he had given me a spare key once I’d finally gotten my driver’s license a few months ago. Besides, the truck was housed in my garage and Andre had told me it was mine to use if an emergency arose. If this didn’t qualify as an emergency then I don’t know what would.
Less than a half hour after leaving the city behind, I was driving over a long stretch of water that freaked me out quite a bit. I had only come by this way once before and that was on a bus in the middle of the night. I remember there had been a really bad storm and some of the other passengers had been worried. At the time, I thought they had been overreacting, but I realize now that they had a pretty good reason to be scared. The highway literally ran through a swamp and although it was a clear night, I still had a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel for a good hour.
When I got to Baton Rouge, I started to have second thoughts. Any number of things could go wrong out here and I was on my own. I stopped at a gas station and considered turning around when my phone rang. It was Evan. For a moment, I considered ignoring the call, but with the technology at EJC’s disposal, it was likely he already knew where I was. If I didn’t answer, there was a good possibility that he’d send out a rescue party and I didn’t need a false alarm on my conscience.
“Hi Evan,” I answered as casually as I could.
“You know, you should be on my shit list right now, young lady.”
“Should be? I thought that was a given.” I smiled. Despite the fact that he had every right to be angry with me, I could hear faint amusement in Evan’s tone.
“Would it make a difference if you were?”
“Not likely,” I admitted. “Look, I know what you’re going to say and it doesn’t matter. I was going to wait, I swear. But after Abe’s little revelation, it became personal. I don’t like the fact that someone’s been playing with my DNA. How many more copies of me could be out there waiting to be tortured to death by a psycho?”
“Exactly what do you think you’re going to do alone in the middle of the night?”
It was a valid question, but I already had an answer. “Find this place,” I told him. “I’m not crazy, Evan. I’m not going to go charging in there with guns blazing.”
“Lucy listen to me.” Evan’s voice held a note of warning. “Do not attempt to find this place tonight, it’s too dangerous. Get a room for the night and I’ll send you all of the data we have in the morning. Mike thinks his team may be able to get you enough information to keep you from setting off any alarms.”
It was a reasonable request and honestly, I hadn’t even thought about setting off alarms.
“There’s a motel next to the gas station I’m at.” I gave him the name of the place and hoped I didn’t regret the decision. I wasn’t a snob or anything, but the low budget motel was a little run down.
“Thank you,” Evan said with audible relief. “I’m going to send someone out to meet up with you. Even with the data we have, I don’t want you doing this alone.”
“Fair enough, but tell whoever you get to hurry. I still want an early start.”
As it turned out, getting a room was a really good idea. Not only was the room cleaner than I expected, but no more than ten minutes after I checked in, a summer storm started dumping buckets of rain. Had I tried to drive through that, I would have ended up stranded on the side of the road, or worse. I sat on the bed and listened to the rain beat against the windows for a long time. It was familiar and soothing, and a couple of times I started drifting off, despite having napped most of the afternoon and evening.
A sudden and sharp knock on the door startled me into full alert. It was nearing two in the morning and I wasn’t expecting anyone until morning. Besides that, none of the hunters, and I assumed Evan was sending a hunter, would show up without calling to let me know where they were. I crept to the door and tried to look out the peephole, but the rain made that impossible. I slid a CPA out of the holster on my right arm and slowly reached for the doorknob, but stopped. Instead, I went to the window and peered out, but again, the rain, coupled with the fact that the outside light was out, made it impossible to see who or what was out there. I was just about to place a call back to headquarters when my phone lit up with an incoming message so unexpected, that I jammed my bare foot against a table leg.
Stop playing games and open the door.
I was sure I was hallucinating. With my heart pounding and my hands shaking, I threw open the door so fast that I nearly knocked myself out with it. Standing on the other side, rain soaked and scowling, was the last person I expected to see. I opened my mouth, but found no words, so I just stared awkwardly for a moment, slack jawed and probably looking like the biggest idiot, until he raised one eyebrow and motioned that I was still blocking entrance to the room.
“Sorry,” I half squeaked and half whispered as I stepped aside. I probably looked as pathetic as I felt. I was trembling and my bones felt like they’d liquefied. Half of me wanted to punch him in the face and tell him exactly how I felt about his leaving, while the other half wanted to tear off every distracting layer of wet clothing that clung obscenely to his body. Instead, I silently shut and locked the door, took a deep breath, and counted to ten before turning back around.
That proved to be a big mistake. I don’t know how it was possible, but Andre was even more beautiful than I had remembered. His curly black hair, which had previously been long overdue for a haircut, was now long enough that he had it pulled back into a low ponytail. This only drew attention to his high cheekbones, strong jawline, and impossibly long eye lashes. Or at least, that’s what I would have noticed, had he not already managed to rid himself of nearly all of his wet clothing. His shirt was flung over a chair back and he had just wrestled the laces of his boots loose enough to kick out of them.
“Imagine my surprise, Lucy,” he drawled slowly while his hands deftly began unbuckling his belt, “when my flight arrived in Atlanta and I found that my connecting flight home had been rerouted to Baton Rouge. The only message I received from my uncle was to take a cab to this motel, where I find not only my truck, but also the only person besides myself who has a key. Would you care to enlighten me as to what you have gotten yourself into now?”
Despite the fact that he had stripped down to just a pair of clingy boxer briefs, Andre’s icy tone and condescending attitude were like a bucket of cold water on my
libido.
“Do you ever get tired of assuming the worst of me?” The words came out just as sharply as his did.
“Darlin’, I have learned my lesson when it comes to assuming anything about you.”
“Is that so?” I turned away from him and picked up my phone, pretending to be looking for something important to hide the fact that I was one broken heart away from bursting into tears. “It seems to me it was awfully assumptive of you to think that I wouldn’t be hurt when you skipped town without a word.”
I chanced a quick glance and thought I saw a brief flash of hurt in his expression.
“You know I didn’t have a choice,” he said quietly. “Evan told me to get on the next flight.”
“And you couldn’t have at least called me?” It was true that Andre sometimes received no notice when Evan sent him to the Paris office. It had happened twice before while we were together. However, on both occasions, he had at least said goodbye and we kept in communication every chance we got.
“I sent you a text.”
“After you landed in Paris!” I shouted. “And then what? Nothing, nada, for four months! Did I mean that little to you?”
“Lucy,” Andre took a step toward me, but I crossed my arms and gave him a look that dared him to come closer. With a sigh, he stepped back. “Lucy, I had my reasons, as lame as that sounds, but you have no idea what I was dealing with over there.”
“You’re right. I don’t,” I sighed, “because you cut me off. Look, I’ve had a very weird twenty-four hours and if I have to stand here arguing with you while you’re…like…that.” I waved my hand to indicate his state of undress. “I’m going to forget how upset I am and as tempting as it is to take the high road, I’m still pretty hurt.”
He stared at me as if I’d punched him in the face. “That is not fair at all.”
I shrugged. “Since when is life fair?”
“Lucy,” Andre sighed, “did it ever occur to you that I’m hurt too?”
Honestly no, that had not occurred to me and hearing the ache in his voice caused my heart to squeeze. My brain was screaming to just shut up and kiss Andre until we both forgot why we were even fighting in the first place. Unfortunately, my mouth had other ideas. “You’re the one who left me, not the other way around.”
The Eyes of the Sun: The Complete Trilogy Page 37