Alex blew out an exhale. “That’s assuming that our kind have the same gestational period as humans do. I never noticed any of the females missing from year to year.”
“How old were you when it started?”
“Sixteen. I think. We don’t mark or even notice birthdays in the lab. I’m only guessing.”
Of course not. From the sound of it, he’d been little more than a lab rat.
“You said the mating went on for three months. Surely if someone had a baby they couldn’t leave it for three months while they were… doing that?”
“Why not?” Alex ended that line of thought. “The scientists and their people would take care of the offspring. That wouldn’t be a problem.”
“So they wouldn’t grow up with either of their parents?” Casey was struggling to understand.
“Why would they need to?”
Shit! So Alex had no comprehension of a family dynamic then? “So you never knew either of your parents when you were growing up?” Casey wanted to know.
The strangest expression crossed his face at her question. “I had no parents.”
He’d lost them? “I’m sorry.”
He shook his head, ran a hand over his chin. “They didn’t die. I had no biological parents. I was created in a lab.”
Oh my God! Was he serious? “They created you?” Casey couldn’t keep the disbelief from her voice. “What do you mean they created you? What are you then? You look like a human. I admit that hand trick you showed me was a little freaky but…”
“It wasn’t a trick.” Alex’s brow lowered and his expression grew darker. “I don’t know how to tell you what I am. I am at least part human.”
“And the other part?” Casey didn’t want to know, but she had to ask.
“The other part is… a beast. I don’t know how else to explain it.”
Oh, crap. “What sort of beast?”
“If we can find a place outside of the city, I’ll show you. It’s the only way to make you understand.” Alex’s gaze dropped to the small bottles by the side of the tub. “Want me to shampoo your hair?”
The smile was back. Casey did like that. “Sure.” She decided not to let him off the hook now when she was getting somewhere. “You didn’t answer my question, Alex? What sort of beast?”
“You’ll understand when I show you.”
Before she scooted around in the tub to turn her back to him, she watched him squeeze out a small mountain of pearl colored shampoo into his palm. “Whoa! You’re washing my hair, not frosting a cake.”
His lips pressed into a tight line and he scowled.
“I was teasing you,” Casey told him as she turned around.
Alex still said nothing as he massaged the shampoo into her scalp with his strong fingers. Damn but it felt good. Casey sighed, closing her eyes. “You’re good at that.”
“Yes?”
“Mmmm hmmm.”
“I brought some breakfast for you too.”
Thank God! She was starving. Casey had last eaten at lunch the day before. Last night her mind had been on anything but food.
“Alex?”
“Yes.”
“Did they inject you this year? Is that why you need me?”
“No. I planned to escape before that happened, and did. But I think our bodies are so accustomed to it that now they do it automatically.”
“You said you were first generation. They created you and others like you to mate and breed more?”
There was a pause before he said, “I believe so.”
“How many others like you did they create?”
“There were maybe three dozen of each gender.”
“I know when they do test tube babies that more than one embryo is dealt with,” Casey thought out loud. “Did you have any siblings? Anyone created when you were?”
Another pause. This one so long Casey wondered if he planned to answer her at all.
“There were six supposedly in my litter.”
Litter? Shit! What was he? A wolf? A monster dog?
“Four didn’t survive the first few days. Only another female and myself lived.”
Casey didn’t know what he was using to rinse her hair, but she put her head back as he poured warm water over her scalp. “You had a sister?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know who she was?”
Alex rose behind her, his work done, and she watched him head for the door to the bathroom. “Yes, and you know her too.” Opening the door to the bathroom, he cast a long glance at her before walking out. “We’ll talk more later.”
Alex closed the door, leaving Casey there in the tub to ponder his words. He had a sister and Casey knew her? Was he fucking kidding?
The more she thought about what he’d said, her heart began to beat frantically in her chest.
Nicole? He thought Nicole was his sister?
Was she?
Chapter 6
Alex couldn’t believe their luck. As they’d driven through the lush green countryside of New York, away from the cities and masses of humanity, they drove by a huge house where a man rode on a riding lawn mower outside on the grounds. Alex stopped and had only meant to ask the man for directions back to the interstate because in his search for a place to stay for a few nights he’d gotten quite lost.
Instead the man asked if they were friends of the Rushes, who owned the house but were in Australia until later in the spring. Sure, Alex had told him. He wondered if they could stay for a couple of weeks.
The man had shrugged, told them to help themselves. He didn’t know of anyone else coming. But then he rarely did. No one ever told him anything, the man grumbled.
It was a wonderful break for them and Alex knew it. He didn’t think the man saw Casey sleeping in the back seat of the luxury sedan they’d ended up renting under a fake name. Alex slowly drove the car up the long drive and brought it to a stop.
Alex hated waking up Casey. She’d been exhausted after only her first night with them. What worried him was that she had treated him more than a little differently since their talk this morning in the bathroom. Now that he’d imparted the information that he was only part human, he wondered what impact it might have on the entire arrangement. How would she react to him? To them? Would she be repulsed?
“What a place.” Joey grinned at him from the passenger seat. “This is too damned good to be true. You don’t think that guy’s calling the cops right now, do you?”
Alex had thought about that but he didn’t think he read anything aside from mild annoyance in the caretaker’s face. As long as the man didn’t see them again, Alex doubted he’d give them another thought. At least he hoped not.
“No.” Alex shut off the engine and glanced in the rearview mirror, but Casey hadn’t stirred.
“Do you think she’ll make it through with us?” Joey asked.
“I’m surprised she made it through last night,” Alex answered honestly. “She’s human. I don’t know how this evening will turn out. We’ve been talking.”
“What did you tell her?”
Alex didn’t miss the anxiety that seeped into Joey’s eyes with that question. “Enough.”
The quiet sound of Joey’s sigh filled the car. “Are we really going to let her go after the two weeks is over?”
Alex wasn’t particularly shocked that Joey asked that question. She would be as hunted as they were now. She’d be safest with them if she were to be safe at all. Alex wouldn’t allow her to come to harm. Joey knew that.
However, Alex had struck a bargain with her, and he wouldn’t go back on his word. “Yes, we’ll let her go after the two weeks. That was the deal.”
Opening the door, Alex looked up at the huge, well kept home that was available for their use over the next couple of weeks. “Let’s get in.”
But as he and Joey climbed out of the car, the question his companion asked still haunted him.
Are we really going to let her go after the two weeks is over?
Alex stared into the back seat of the car through the window at her beautiful, sleeping form. In sleep she looked like a china doll, fragile and rare. As a woman, she was all a man could want. Her natural passion was incredible. Alex honestly hadn’t expected such a sexual response from a human. His cock ached with fierce abandon now as he thought about the night to come.
When the two weeks were up, he’d make it clear to Casey that she could leave if she wished.
Alex hoped more and more that she’d want to stay.
* * *
Casey waited in the spacious family room of the house they’d brought her to, flipping through channels on the huge, flat, high definition television and drinking the gin and tonic she’d made for herself at the bar next to it. Finally, she figured out how to navigate the satellite dish remote well enough to find the local news.
The broadcast began with a report on the two men wanted by Leviathan for kidnapping her. Images of Casey’s own face flashed on the television screen as they explained how she’d arranged to meet the men after obtaining a lead from an unknown source.
Well, yeah. She’d had to protect Nicole. Especially after Nicole explained that her husband had a brush with the law.
Her cameraman explained that he’d been thrown from the van as Casey was tossed into it by her captors, who then chased off the driver and fled the scene in the news van. He said she’d acted strangely, telling him to stay put until she came for him, which really wasn’t like her. The report ended by saying that she, Casey Howard, was now considered not a victim but a co-conspirator with the two fugitives.
“What the fuck?” Casey shouted in what she thought was an empty room. “Co-fucking-conspirator? Alvin, you dumb shit!”
The remote for the television lost the small plastic piece covering its battery compartment as she hurled it to the shiny hardwood floor.
“Casey?”
She turned to find Alex behind her. She got the feeling he’d been watching long enough to know why she was upset. “Can you believe this shit?” she demanded.
“Yes,” Alex’s voice remained calm and quiet. “I can.”
“Alvin, my idiot cameraman, told them I was acting strangely. That I told him to stay there when normally I wouldn’t. He knew why! There wasn’t anything so out of the ordinary about this!”
Alex sat down next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. The comfort of his gesture took a little of the sting from the unbelievable shock of that report, but not much.
“Perhaps he’s saying what he was told to say, Casey. Of course they want to implicate you. If you’re presented as merely our victim, then you still pose a threat to them. You could be used against them or come out against them. They can’t allow that.”
It was the only explanation that made any sense. She’d worked with Alvin Carraco for four years. He’d never questioned her about her meeting with Alex or acted as if he thought anything was out of the ordinary. On the contrary, he hadn’t even seemed to care.
“What did you explain to him?” Alex’s question broke into her thoughts.
Casey stared at Alex, wondering what she should tell him exactly. She didn’t want Nicole threatened. Especially not when this guy thought they were litter-mates of all damned things. But what choice did she have really? “I told him we had to be very careful and protect our source.”
“Nicole,” Alex confirmed.
“Right.”
“Thank you for not mentioning her, Casey. If you’d told your men her name, Leviathan would now have her and her family.”
A muscle at Alex’s jaw twitched while he sat watching the television by her side. He wasn’t really paying attention to the images flashing on the screen. She sensed his interest in this line of conversation because of the reference to Nicole. The sizable bulge of his erection let her know he had some other things in mind, too.
Maybe he really did care about Nicole’s welfare. He’d said when she’d first met him at the school that he wanted to help her.
“That’s how I was able to convince her to let me come in her place, Alex. Her husband had been in trouble with the law apparently. She didn’t want him involved when you started calling her.”
Nodding, Alex turned to look at her, the arm around her shoulder tightening. The heat of his body was seeping into her awareness.
“I’ve also been thinking since we talked earlier. If Nicole was your… sibling… then she is what you are? Part human, part…” Casey couldn’t bring herself to say beast. She didn’t want to go there.
“Yes.” Alex’s voice was rough with emotion.
“Perhaps her husband didn’t know,” Casey explained. “Perhaps she was afraid this could somehow jeopardize her marriage if that were the case.”
Alex’s hand was soft and warm as it coasted up her other arm to the column of her neck. His strong fingers felt so good massaging the back of her neck. “Her mate knows what she is, Casey. I promise you that.”
That had Casey pulling back to stare at him. “What?”
“Her mate knows exactly what she is.”
“How?”
“Because he is our kind.”
Casey shook her head incredulously. “They created him too?”
“No. He occurred naturally.”
Okay, laboratories where people could be crafted who were part human, part beast she could buy. Conspiracies involving huge and suspiciously unethical companies, she could definitely buy. But naturally occurring hybrid whatevers who just happened to pair up with test tube hybrid whatevers? “Okay, now you’re starting to lose me.”
“Casey, think about something for a moment.” Alex stared into her face determinedly. “Look at me. You said I look perfectly human.”
Casey nodded. She had said that and meant it.
“I’ve already told you that I was their first generation,” Alex continued. “They are very knowledgeable scientists, sure. But do you think they could just go out on the first try and create someone like me? Someone whose animal side can be easily suppressed with drugs? Someone with no deformities at all? No. They worked with a phenomenon they found occurring in nature. Nicole’s mate, Vitali, is one of them, and he’s incredibly rare.”
“How do you know all of this?”
“The appropriate question is how did Nicole come to be in the human world,” he told her. “And I’ll tell you. They sent her out into the world to see how she would interact with them. To see if she could co-exist with them unaided by drugs. Without her true nature having an impact on her life. But things went wrong.”
Enthralled by this tale of the woman she’d come to know, Casey waited with baited breath for more of the story.
“The Kerensky brothers arrived in the city to work at the Central Park Zoo. During their short time there, Vitali and Nicole met and fell in love. But they fled the country not long after that because of a string of murders. There was a local gang member, a tourist and another keeper at the zoo.”
“Did they kill those people?” Casey prayed they didn’t.
“I’m almost certain Nicole had nothing to do with that, Casey, but I don’t know for sure.” His fingers resumed their gentle caress of her sensitive nape. “I just know that the people in the lab went nuts when she disappeared. They lost her. They had no idea where she’d gone or what was happening in her life.”
“They kept pretty good tabs on her, huh?”
“We watched her on monitors in the lab,” Alex explained slowly. “Nicole has no idea who I am, but I’ve watched her entire life.”
Shock had her mouth gaping open as she stared at him.
“They’re looking for her now, and that was part of what motivated me to try and finally get away from them. I don’t want them to find her.”
“And she’s back in New York City,” Casey pointed out. “Why?”
“She doesn’t know she’s in danger from Leviathan. She knows nothing about that.”
“Okay, I’ll give you that, but I remember the zoo murders no
w. Her husband, at the very least, would be wanted for questioning, even if he didn’t kill those people. So why would he return?”
“I’m not sure. He’s obviously able to mate with Nicole without transforming.”
“What? Excuse me?”
Alex sighed, pulling her closer. “Casey, we can only mate with our own kind.”
“I’m not like you,” Casey pointed out quickly.
“I know. But I have drugs for that. Drugs that keep me from transforming every time I have sex with you. Joey takes them too. They also keep us from transforming when we feel threatened.”
“Transforming into what?”
“In time I’ll show you.”
“So you took the pills when you escaped?”
“A lot of them. To buy us time to find someone we trust who can reproduce the drugs.”
“What would happen without the pills and you transformed?” Casey asked. “Would you stay in beast form? Could you return to your human form?”
“I’ve only transformed twice, Casey. It made no sense to the scientists why, but I have to kill something in order to change back to my human self once I’ve transformed.”
“Kill?” That wasn’t good.
Alex nodded. “Oh, don’t worry. It doesn’t have to be a person. But it must be a suitably large animal. In my case it took a medium sized cow to bring me back.”
Did that have something to do with the murders in New York and Nicole’s mate? “Nicole is in danger then.”
Alex nodded.
“We should try to help her.”
His smile was gentle as he gazed into her eyes. The intensity of his green eyes had her heart beating fast and desire running through her veins like a fire in her blood. “You could help her, Casey. She might listen to you.”
“I don’t know now.” Casey gestured to the newscast which had moved on to professional football. “With that report…”
“Nicole knows the truth,” Alex assured her. “She’s probably very worried about you.”
Casey knew that was true. “We could call her,” she offered.
“Just not from here,” Alex told her. “If the police have tracked her down, they might have a trace on her phone.”
Eyes of the Leopard 5: Captive Page 5