“Fine,” she said and fell silent again.
*
It was one of those times when Hailey wasn’t one hundred percent alert. She’d been having a lot of those lately. And she knew she’d be kicking herself for this one later. A lot.
Jeremy led her across the lobby, civil and accommodating, as if he was trying to project the image of a happy couple to the outside world. He even opened the door for her, and later in the elevator put his arms loosely around her.
All the while he didn’t say a word, appearing calm but Hailey felt the tension in him; knew he was scanning everything and everyone around them. He seemed to have all the bases covered so she just … checked out for a little while. Let her mind shut down briefly to consolidate and process everything. If she didn’t think, she wouldn’t have to see the dead girl in her mind’s eye. She wouldn’t wonder if she could have been responsible.
And it wouldn’t bother her how her beast was so completely unconcerned and uninterested in all of this. It was bored; annoyed that Hailey was wasting her time and emotion on this when there were so many other, more pleasant things she could do. The animal had no compassion; no remorse and no guilt.
Hailey shook her head and focused on the screen above the elevator door. It was showing a documentary of some sort. There was a beautiful beach, completely empty and free of human pollution. The water was brilliant in sunlight and so clear Hailey could see fish swimming in the sea. What she wouldn’t give to be there right now.
The elevator dinged, the door opened onto the ninety-fifth floor, and Jeremy guided her down the hallway to their room with an arm around her waist.
It opened as soon as he stepped up to it and he closed it behind them right away. “Better get packing, then,” he said and headed for his own room. It was such an abrupt change from the close contact earlier it left her a little disoriented. Men. With a philosophical shrug she turned for her own room. Might as well get to it. No reason to dally.
Shouldn’t take too long, anyway; Hailey didn’t have all that much to pack. Her riches, jewels and precious memories were under lock and key in a bank on Miramar. All she had with her were necessities, easily stored, and easily gathered in a hurry. She was packed in minutes but took a few more to just admire her room. This truly was a nice hotel. Hailey might actually miss it. Especially the room service and the delectable food. Yum. Just thinking about it made her stomach growl.
Maybe they still had time for one last meal? It would be a shame to miss out on the likes of her dinner last night, or her breakfast this morning. And wasn’t another meal included in the price of the room? It’d be rude not to let Jeremy get his money’s worth after he paid for all this.
She took her bag to the door and dropped it next to Jeremy’s. Where had he gone? “Jer?” she called.
No answer.
Too much to hope he was calling in an order with room service? Hailey sighed. Probably. Agent Starched Underpants didn’t seem the type to stray from his schedule once he set it and they had an appointment with a crime scene—gulp—and a flight to some backward nowhere planet to catch. “Hey, Agent Calen!” she called again, tamping down her disappointment. “We got places to be, remember?”
Nothing.
What was his deal?
Her senses kicked in too late.
Hailey’s lips drew back in a snarl. Her head dropped a little lower, eyes sharp, but there was nothing to see. Goddamn telepath back at his tricks again. Had he left her? She scented the air but they’d spent too much time in this room. Both their scents were all around her and she couldn’t tell if they were fresh or not.
The floor squeaked the tiniest bit and she whirled around just in time to feel the sting of the tranq dart in her chest, rather than her shoulder.
It was a strong one. Hailey’s head swam even as the curses she thought up slurred in her mind. Jeremy caught her against him when her knees gave out.
“I’m sorry,” he said against her temple. Did he just kiss her head? “I can’t risk you going to that alley.” Her eyes closed but his last words still reached her halfway to dream world. “It’s not about what you might find, but what you might not.” Then there was nothing.
Chapter Eleven
August 10th, 3032 Planet Torrey
She was dreaming again. Jeremy swore and poured himself another drink. He’d been doing that a lot ever since he’d passed security on Torrey and drove them to a hotel. Hailey had changed far more than even she realized. The tranquilizer he’d used to knock her out back on Reynard Colony was the same one Amelia had used on Hunt more than once. It had knocked him out cold.
Hailey wasn’t completely unconscious. He doubted even the sedatives they’d used on the both of them on the shuttle had rendered her that way. She was just … sleeping. Curled in a tight ball on the bed, with her head bent over her hands, breathing in rapid short pants, sleeping.
And dreaming.
And for some reason he couldn’t block those frequencies from invading his mind. Just like every other time one or both of them had dreamed, the images and sensations leaked through whether they wanted them to or not. He couldn’t reason it out even as he analyzed his own mind and the strange connection he seemed to have with Hailey.
It was similar to what Dara had described about her connection to the murderer five years ago, in that it seemed to have sprung out of nowhere. But unlike in Dara’s case, Jeremy wasn’t wholly aware of the link. It wasn’t a connection to conscious thought he could easily perceive and control. It was on a completely different level and not at all … concrete.
It felt like the makings of a connection. The building blocks were all in place but not arranged cohesively. Subconsciously, he could only get close to Hailey through it, not actually touch her thoughts. If he were sleeping now he’d probably catch glimpses, maybe feel a fraction of what she was feeling.
Because he was awake his mind automatically tuned in to those frequencies and did what he’d trained it to do—sorted through everything, gave it meaning and context. Which in this case meant that he might as well be in her dream with her. Except he was still here, too.
Nothing he did helped. He’d tried turning away from her—out of sight usually meant out of mind for him. He’d tried leaving the room. He’d gone to the bar downstairs and when he got there, one of the images in her dreams was so graphic he’d ordered a bottle and resigned himself to riding this storm out to its bitter end.
She was dreaming about her transformation. The study that had gone into creating the serum, the wait until Amelia finally left the lab. The near-lethal injection and the horrific pain that followed. He saw a rerun of Amelia’s memories, only this time they were from Hailey’s perspective.
Pain. Confusion. Blood everywhere, and a strange female speaking to her things she somehow understood but didn’t want to hear. The flashing emergency lights confused and frightened her. She reacted like a cornered, wounded animal.
His heart beat double time; his breaths came short. Jeremy felt as though it was him in her place in that lab. Panic attack tempered by a brief outburst of instinct and aggression. Self-preservation winning the battle over fear. His hands shook and he rubbed his chest to relieve the ache inside. He knew that whatever Hailey had gone through, she’d done it to herself with full knowledge of all the repercussions.
But that didn’t stop him from wanting to get in that bed with her and pull her against him, somehow shelter her from the frantic storm of her nightmarish memories. Hailey was singularly the bravest, most reckless and brilliant person he’d ever met. Most people glowed. Hailey shone bright like a star. She put her whole self into everything she did, put everything on the line, taking tremendous risks.
And she didn’t even seem to realize how vulnerable she left herself.
Jeremy reached down to pet her hair. He wanted to help her through this somehow. Even if it was just to offer some small comfort. “It’s all right, Hailey,” he murmured. “Just a dream.” He’d entered her dre
ams before, with disastrous results. This time, he let them play out, remaining a detached observer. “You’re safe now, baby. I’m here.” He sat at the edge of her bed, sifting her snow-white hair through his fingers. “You’re not alone.”
She calmed for a moment, a stray image fluttering like a butterfly across his vision. He saw himself, that night in the procession, dancing and smiling. His arms were around her and she felt … felt…
His vision split again, plunging him back into her dreams.
The run to her den was excruciating on her hands and feet, yet she didn’t even notice, the pain just one more among many by that point. Jeremy saw what came after that too. The shock of her own reflection, the need to flee from it, to go somewhere far away.
He saw the places she’d been. The things she’d seen… It was as if she was reliving the past few months, only none of it was in any kind of order. Just trying to make sense of it all was making his head pound.
Jeremy found himself going to the door again in a daze.
But when he opened it, Hunt stood on the other side.
Ah, shit.
The result of the first successful genetic alteration. A real live shape-shifter who thrived. Tristan Hunt had adapted so well to his animal side that he now resembled it. He was tall, larger than Jeremy remembered him being at their first meeting. His hair was now streaked all the time and when he got mad, his green eyes changed to glowing gold, and his skin became tattooed with tiger stripes.
He was also a telepath, a much stronger one than Jeremy.
Hunt stared him down, his massive arms crossed over his chest. He shrugged one shoulder an infinitesimal amount. “You don’t call, you don’t write … and then you drag another shifter to my territory.”
It wasn’t usually wise to piss this guy off. He took his role of protecting his mate very seriously. If he judged Hailey to be a threat he wouldn’t hesitate to take her out. “It’s not your territory,” Jeremy retorted, not in the least bit cowed. “It was my home before it was yours.”
“Some would say might makes right.”
“And others would say fuck off.”
Hunt’s mouth twitched. “Touché.”
“Good. Glad we got that straightened out. Bye-bye now.”
When he tried to close the door, Hunt splayed one big hand on it to stop him. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”
“Clearly, no.”
“You know I’m coming in whether you want me to or not, right? I mean, you are inside my head right now, aren’t you?”
Actually, he wasn’t. Hunt had mental shields Jeremy wouldn’t be able to penetrate with a tank firing atom bombs, so he’d stopped trying a long time ago.
But apparently Hunt had no such problems with entering his mind. He made a disappointed tsk-tsk sound. “You’re slipping, Jer.”
“Don’t call me that.”
Hunts eyebrows rose slowly. “I think I’ll have to meet this female.” And then he let himself in. Out of a sense of self-preservation, and because there was really nothing he could do to stop the man, Jeremy stepped out of the way. Hunt actually stopped in his tracks and hesitated for a moment when he crossed the threshold. He tilted his head to one side, then muttered a gruff, “Interesting,” and continued on straight to the bedroom where Hailey slept.
He paused again in the doorway, studying her for a few seconds. “She’s cute,” he said, and he sounded surprised.
Hailey was so much more than just cute. She was beautiful. Stunning. Jeremy hadn’t known her before her transformation but there was an innate grace to her that her animal had merely enhanced. Hailey was a sensuous creature and it was so much more alluring because it wasn’t manufactured to fit the occasion.
“Now don’t start going all poetic on me. You know I hate that.”
Said the man who built a castle for the woman he loved. Literally, a castle with stone walls, a bailey, stables, Jeremy didn’t even know how many rooms, an armory, and a dungeon. The last two, they used as wine cellars.
Hunt glared at that.
“Can you at least pretend you don’t know what I’m thinking?”
That seemed to genuinely confuse him. “Why? What would be the point?”
Jeremy groaned. “Never mind.”
Hunt shrugged and turned to Hailey. Then he looked back at Jeremy. “So you and her…”
“Me and her … what?”
Hunt snorted and shook his head, silently mocking him.
When he took a step toward Hailey, Jeremy started forward on instinct. “That’s close enough.”
“Try to remember, Jeremy, she’s the animal here, not you.”
Jeremy wanted to kill him.
Hunt dropped down into a crouch to put his face level with Hailey’s and sucked in a sharp breath. “Christ, how does she stand it?”
Still seeing her dream memories flitter across his mind’s eye, none of them pleasant, Jeremy had a good idea what Hunt was talking about, but he asked anyway. “Stand what?” The desolation? The complete disconnect from humanity? The loneliness in knowing she was the only one of her kind on the planet—whichever planet she happened to be on? Or the fear and shame that she could, and might already have, hurt people in horrible ways?
“The cage.”
He frowned. “What cage?”
Hunt shook his head. “It’s not something I can explain. I’d have to show you.”
“Oh, no thank you.”
Hunt glared at him. “I am inviting you in. It’s okay to look. You have to look so you know what you’re dealing with.”
Jeremy just crossed his arms over his chest.
“For Hailey,” Hunt said.
Son of a bitch. “Okay, fine. Where do you want me to look?”
“Just look. It’ll be obvious.”
Jeremy dropped back into the seat he’d left before and closed his eyes. He let himself into Hunt’s mind, making the trip as short as possible. As soon as he was in, Hunt’s growl-voice reverberated all around him. “You have all the subtlety of a stomping elephant.”
“I wasn’t trying to be subtle,” Jeremy retorted. Subtle took time. The last thing he wanted was more time in Hunt’s head.
There was more grumbling but it was wordless, more animal than human; a sound of displeasure.
Jeremy ignored it and opened his mind’s eye to look around. He remembered this place; it was the forest where Dara had gotten lost. It was different than he remembered it; softer somehow, more defined and detailed, if that was even possible. This was the tiger’s den. There was a soft nest in the middle of a circle formed by giant tree roots. Bugs hissed, birds sang, sunlight streamed in through the tree tops like laser beams. Very picturesque for someone who claimed not to like poetry.
“It’s home,” Hunt said. “And it’s not just for me.”
Of course. This was the den for his mate and soon for their cubs, too.
Jeremy blinked and he was somewhere else. Now, there was sunlight everywhere; he was in a meadow, with a big, glittering lake off to the right. The forest was behind him, a huge dark stain on the scenery. “What am I supposed to be seeing?”
“This,” Hunt replied, and appeared in front of him as a man. The man then transformed, becoming a tiger then the tiger became a man again. “Freedom.”
Jeremy was expelled from Hunt’s mind so quickly, it made him dizzy. “I don’t get it.”
“She lives in a cage,” Hunt said.
“You lived in one for years, and you turned out just fine.”
Hunt looked at him like he was stupid. “You really don’t get it. A cage in body. Never in mind. That’s the one thing I never gave up. The freedom of my thoughts. I embraced the tiger because I wanted to. I was curious about it, and it was curious about me.”
“Hailey didn’t do that,” Jeremy finished as understanding dawned.
Hunt shook his head. “She did something different. It’s like she split her mind, tried to keep herself separate from the animal. But she did it wrong. It�
��s unstable and it’s hurting her. Both of them, actually.” For the first time Jeremy saw pity in the big guy’s eyes.
“She’s doing all right.”
“Is she?” Hunt turned and sat on the floor with his back propped against the bed. “Let me guess. She has no control over the animal. She changes even in small ways when her emotions are too strong, and the more she changes the less she remembers. Am I right?”
“So what? You change when you get emotional too.”
“But the difference is, I never check out. I’m always there, and I know what the animal is doing every step of the way. Hailey … it’s like flipping a switch. And you know that, because when you look into her mind all you see is her or the beast. Never both at the same time.”
“But Hailey remembers bits and pieces of the leopard’s memories. She is aware of its presence.”
“The cage isn’t solid,” Hunt explained. “It’s like two beings on either side of iron bars. They can see through, can reach out and touch each other, but can never cross.”
“So what do you suggest?”
Hunt pushed to his feet. “I suggest we leave the room. She’s waking up, and she’s not very happy with you, Jer.”
“I told you not to call me that.”
“Whatever. Unless you want carnage, we should go.”
The moment they closed the door, Jeremy felt her become fully conscious.
“You should really consider putting up some boundaries,” Hunt said.
“Like you do with Dara?” Jeremy shot back.
“That’s different.”
Hailey was sitting up now, looking around. Another unfamiliar place, more lost memories. At first the desolation, the disappointment in herself hit him like a kick to the stomach.
“Oh? How so?” he said to Hunt, keeping up the thread of conversation. But both of them were staring at the door, waiting for Hailey to burst through it.
“She’s Dara,” Hunt said simply, as if that was reason enough for everything.
Jeremy knew the exact moment when Hailey remembered what had happened. There was a crash—the liquor bottle shattering against the wall—and a string of loud curses.
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