Which meant that Hailey got to play music. The audio system in this place predated the apes by a hundred years but it was good enough for blasting rock music throughout the entire compound.
The heart of the main floor was a central lab with a lot of computers and screens where everything came together. Scans and test results were all routed to this central room, and this was where Hailey and Amelia spent most of their time. At their own separate stations, but in the same general area.
Hailey didn’t ask how Amelia had managed to bring all this together. She really didn’t care. All she wanted to do was cure herself so she could get the hell out of Dodge again. All this family together time was bad for her peace of mind.
It didn’t help that Jeremy hadn’t visited once since he’d left two days ago. No calls, no messages, no overt gestures of apology, or even covert ones. Hailey was almost certain Amelia knew something about his whereabouts but she wasn’t sharing, and Hailey was not about to ask. But it bothered her. Like an itch she couldn’t reach to scratch, she kept thinking about everything that had happened between them.
Hailey didn’t know how to deal with that. There was something missing, left undone between her and Jeremy. It felt as if they’d skipped over a major step before parting ways. Conflict. Closure? Mind-blowing breakup sex.
Hailey frowned, looking over her instruments. Then she realized that grumpy-sounding rumbling noise was coming from her. She scowled and went back to work.
She hadn’t even dreamed about him since Reynard Colony. It bothered her that it bothered her. And it shouldn’t … bother her. She shouldn’t even be thinking about it. All those dreams had been just another part of his grand manipulation.
Or had they?
Whenever the topic had come up he’d seemed genuinely confused and embarrassed. Could he have faked that? She hadn’t sensed any falsehood. Then again, he’d already proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he could manipulate her senses, make her see—or not see—anything he wanted. And it was all too neat, too convenient. Why would the dreams have stopped after she slept with him?
Not that she missed them or anything.
Hailey stifled another growl and fidgeted in her seat. It was just this place playing havoc on her mind. The last time she’d been in a lab like this she’d almost died. This time she probably would die. That thought never left her and the more time she spent here, the more edgy she became.
Just two days since she’d entered this lab and already she was starting to feel she had to get out. She was under surveillance twenty-four hours a day, with cameras set up in every room and hallway. Hailey had destroyed the ones in the bathroom. She needed at least that much privacy. Well, that wasn’t all she needed, but it wasn’t like she was getting the rest of it.
She needed to stretch her legs. Hailey pushed away from the microscope, defiance giving her enough strength that she propelled herself in the chair on wheels to rebound off the cabinet fifteen feet away.
Amelia flinched at her station. So jumpy.
“I’m going out,” Hailey told her. She wasn’t about to ask permission.
The building abutted a mountain. The kind of mountain her beast felt at home in. Hailey couldn’t decide whether Amelia had chosen this place to soothe the leopard or to test it. Either way, Hailey was going to be exploring it today.
“Oh, okay, sure,” Amelia said. “Just be careful.”
Hailey could swear she heard her sister’s sigh of relief from down the hall when the music stopped and the compound fell silent as a tomb.
She took a running start out of the building and headed straight for the jagged rocks. Her shoes were slippery and couldn’t get traction on the gravel. After five minutes, she just took them off and tossed them down to the parking lot.
Ah, much better.
It was easy going after that, felt like this was what she’d been born to do. Up here, the air was cold and crisp. She could smell the rocks. Heaven.
Hailey found herself a nice flat surface to stretch out on and catch some rays. She wanted to purr. Well, not really. Because having all this freedom to frolic was making her horny and it just so happened that her social circle currently included only her sister. The one truly screwable guy she knew had turned out to be a backstabbing liar who deserved to be beaten bloody.
Bastard.
But even as she had that thought her thighs squeezed together, missing him between them. She was tempted to go on a little fantasy spree in hopes that he would pick up on it. Show the telepath what he would never have again. But that was ultimately a bad, bad plan. If he saw and didn’t respond, Hailey would know forever that she’d been cruelly played. If he did respond, she wasn’t sure she wanted him inside her head again. Of course, he might not see anything at all.
Either way she’d just end up making herself miserable, which was extremely counterproductive. Instead she imagined all the things she’d do to him once she was cured. Booby traps galore. The man wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning without something screwing up his life. She’d make his existence hell. She’d pay him back with interest for what he’d done to her.
“I’d think you would have more serious things on your mind at a time like this.”
Hailey snarled but didn’t move to acknowledge the other half animal. “I warned one telepath off already. Didn’t think you’d come crawling back.”
“Didn’t have to read your mind,” Hunt said. “Your pheromones carry for miles.”
Oh hell no! She got up so fast rubble rained down on the tiger man. “So what, you came running? You just turn your tail right around and shoo, kitty.”
He made a disgusted noise. “As if, woman. I found my reason for living in my mate. Wouldn’t look at you twice if I didn’t have to.”
Amazing how casually he said that. He had to love his mate very much to admit so easily just how much power she had over him. The man didn’t strike her as the type to give up power to anyone without a fight. For that, she was inclined to overlook the insult he’d just delivered.
“Besides,” he said, “you wouldn’t know what to do with true, honest to God interest if it dragged your sorry ass across the universe to save you.”
Hailey snarl-hissed at him.
“That guy you are so eager to take revenge against would put his life on the line if it meant sparing you a moment of unhappiness. Although don’t ask me why.” He gave her an appraising once-over. “You’re seriously damaged goods.”
Her hackles rose. She bared her teeth at him. How dare he even broach that subject? “Keep talking,” she dared.
Hunt laughed at her. “You’re such an idiot. You say you want to live. You’re so focused on restoring the pathetic life you had that you won’t even consider that you might have something so much better if you just stop chasing it away.”
Now he was seriously pissing her off. He was on a level below hers, surefooted for the moment but not exactly a mountain goat. This wasn’t his type of terrain. Hailey was surprised he’d even bothered climbing up here. “You need to leave.” Perched on her rock, head canted down, hair flying everywhere, Hailey had to look like a gargoyle. And she wanted to swoop down and see how well she could play one. “This has nothing to do with you.”
“See, that is what you don’t get. You think you live in a bubble and your actions affect only you. If they did I’d be wishing you jolly good luck and moving on. But you’re fucking up the harmony of my life by blaming my friend for everything that’s wrong. Wake up. Or I will make you.”
“He manipulated me.”
“And you’ve never done that to anyone in your life, right?”
Hailey blushed. She wasn’t exactly an angel but she’d never done anything that huge. She’d never led anyone on, made them think she cared when she didn’t.
Hunt rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. He’d get a crimp in it soon, looking up at her the way he was. “Your judgment is clouded. You’re projecting your own fears onto him. And if you were
n’t so preoccupied with your abandonment issues, you’d see that.”
“I do not have abandonment issues!”
He gave her a Who are you trying to kid? look. “I’m not saying you don’t have reason,” he said, somewhat more rationally. “But you can’t assume everyone you meet is out to hurt you and leave you.” That almost sounded kind. Until he added, “First of all, not everyone gives a shit. And second, you’ll end up as alone as you always feared you’d be.”
Hailey scored the rock with her claws. “Why did you come here?”
Hunt surveyed the rocks, probably couldn’t see an easy way up, and gave up with a frustrated sigh. It couldn’t sit well with him to have to look up at her. Well, she wasn’t about to make it easy on him. “I thought,” he said, “that we could talk once you calmed down. Shifter to shifter.”
Hailey pushed to her feet, graceful as a ballet dancer, and stood up straight and tall.
And he had to look up that much higher. Shifter to shifter, yeah right.
“I gotta admit I didn’t expect you to be this unreasonable. Especially with me. We’re on equal footing, you and I. I might be the only one who will ever understand what you’re going through.”
Highly doubtful. “Do you know,” she said, making her way to a boulder on the side, “why snow leopards never go into the jungle and tigers never go up a mountain?”
He actually rolled his eyes at her. Asshole. “Enlighten me.”
She hadn’t been planning to do it. At his words, she changed her mind.
Hailey hopped up on the boulder, braced one foot on it and the other on the cliff wall at her back. “In each other’s territory, they are never on equal footing.” And she pushed against the wall, dislodging the boulder. As it rolled down, missing Hunt by inches, Hailey hopped back to her platform, smooth and graceful. “Now then.” She crouched back down and canted her head to the side. “What was it you were saying?”
“I’m not known for my patience, girl.”
“Really? I read otherwise.”
Hunt bared his teeth, launched himself up and landed on her level, right in her face.
Hailey fell back, but righted herself and sought higher ground. There was none. Behind her was fifty feet of sheer rock. There wasn’t another platform or even easy hand-or footholds nearby. And Hunt was cutting off her access to the edge.
She was trapped.
“Now that I have your attention,” Hunt said, “let’s talk.”
*
Everyone noticed the furious-looking man forcing his way through the crowd. They gasped or yelled when he shoved them out of the way, backed off in a hurry when he looked at them. They saw him. And he saw no one.
He didn’t see the whispering groups he left in his wake or the parents who shooed their children inside. He didn’t even hear them, not past the thrum of noise in his head.
Voices. Echoing over and over and over, always repeating the same thing, making him crazed. Livid. Wanting to hurt something and make it last.
Do I know you? Do I know you?
Knowyouknowyouknowyouknowyouknowyou…
It got louder and louder until Arthur thought his head would explode. He clutched his temples, squeezing his skull to keep it contained. He felt like screaming. But that last little bit of sanity that remained kept him in check. It told him to run.
Arthur wasn’t a runner. Just the fifty yards out of the village made his knees shake and his lungs burn. He was wheezing, but still managed to draw enough breath to scream.
And scream.
He screamed himself hoarse, and still it wasn’t enough. When his knees buckled, he didn’t even try to stop them. He pounded at the earth with his fists, tore at the grass, dug at the dirt until a fingernail tore off his finger. Arthur never felt the pain.
Do I know you?
Every word was a dagger through his heart and soul.
He’d failed her.
All this time he’d kept his beloved safe, protected from her demon. And now this. A split second of indecision. A missed flight. Two days away from her. The demon had won. It had ripped into her mind and wiped away her memory of him.
And he knew who was to blame.
Arthur had made a mistake, true, but he wasn’t the one who’d provoked the demon out of its sleep.
It was that man.
The one he’d seen her with just two days ago. Arthur had seen him before, but hadn’t thought he’d stick around.
It was him. He’d done it. Somehow he’d forced his way into Hailey’s life, probably filled her head with lies; played the hero. The gentleman. The word was as foul to him as this entire damn world. The way he’d touched her, helped her into the transport. So accommodating. It sickened him.
“Hey, sir, are you all right?”
The voice pierced Arthur’s rage, but just barely. Normally it would have made him uncomfortable to be addressed so directly. Now it only added fuel to his wrath. Arthur picked himself up off the ground and took deep, shaky breaths. “I’m … fine,” he said calmly.
“Are you sure?” the intruder asked, all false expression and fake concern. People could not be trusted. No one could. Only Hailey. She was the only source of sincerity in the world.
“Yes,” Arthur said. “I just lost my head there for a moment.” Just boiled over. That was it. Two days he’d been holding that in. Ever since he’d watched Hailey dragged to that taxi.
Oh, but now he had a purpose. Now he knew where to focus his attention. These people knew the man. Arthur could use them to find him. It wouldn’t take long. Hell, he could probably start with the guy talking to him right now. But not in the state he was in.
Arthur composed himself the way he always did—by thinking about his first meeting with Hailey. A fated one.
No one ever noticed the thin, awkward man making his way through campus. They walked right into him, as if he were invisible. Thrice he had his books knocked out of his hands by some stupid jock hopped up on testosterone and booze. And they never even said a word in apology.
I am no one, he thought, kneeling in the middle of the walkway, braving the foot traffic to pick up his scattered books and notes.
And then a strange hand reached for the same book he did. Startled, he looked up into the face of an angel. A smiling beauty with sunshine in her eyes and a heavenly voice. “You okay?” she asked. “You’re taking a beating out here. Here, let me help you.”
Arthur was smitten. She helped him pick up his books and walked with him to his classroom.
And the most amazing thing happened. People actually noticed him. Or was it her they saw? The crowds parted as if by some divine power, and … everything just seemed so much brighter. “Take care,” she told him and waved good-bye when she left to her own class.
He fell in love with her that day. Had never stopped loving her. Watching over her.
He’d seen her at her best and her worst. Been there to watch her seduce a crowd with just a wink and a smile, and to see her cry over a heartbreak. He’d have killed the bastard who’d hurt her if he’d known who it was. But back then, he hadn’t learned to pay attention yet.
He’d watched her that night months ago, stealing into a locked laboratory. He’d watched for the police, ready to distract them if need be. Anything to help his beloved. He’d known that whatever she’d gone in there to get, she needed.
But then he’d seen her run back out. No longer his Hailey, his angel, but a beast with feral eyes and sharp claws, covered in blood.
Red blood, white hair.
Arthur had never felt such fear.
His beloved was possessed. A demonic beast inhabited her body, tormented her soul. It demanded of her things that would damn her for all eternity, if she gave in and obeyed. But the beast’s power could be defused, diverted elsewhere.
Hailey didn’t know how to do that.
But Arthur did.
“Well, hey, listen,” the man said. “If you need anything, just let me know.”
He did i
t for her. All for her. To save her, he damned himself.
“My name is Sam Nunez. I’m … here to help.”
She was worth the sacrifice. She was his light.
And she didn’t even know who he was.
Chapter Eighteen
The bass solo was actually pretty good. Jeremy leaned back on the couch to listen for a while. His eyes needed a rest from all the not-reading he’d been doing. He had a stack of files on his computer to go through but every ten minutes he found himself looking out the window at the mountain in the distance with no idea what the last page and a half of data was about.
He must have read the same thing twenty times by now and still he had no clue.
The song ended. Jeremy typed another title into the miniconsole on the coffee table and more hard rock music blared through the house. It would have been easier to just choose a bunch of songs by genre, but he never knew what the next song was supposed to be until the first one was almost over.
“You are pathetic,” Pixie said from the doorway. She was wearing normal clothes for the first time since he’d come back. Her red hair was loose. No medieval gown, no intricate hairstyles.
“Thanks ever so, sis,” he said. “So what’s this getup called?” She’d named her costumes based on what they looked like. At last count there was a princess, a maid, a wench, and a gypsy.
Pixie twirled to show off. “You like it? It’s called ‘my brother is a jackass who’s giving me a headache because he doesn’t have the balls to go after the woman he loves.’”
“That is way too long to fit on a name tag.”
“Ya think?”
“And anyway, I’m not in love, she doesn’t want to see me, and I’m not playing the music to give you a headache. I’m just … in the mood for drums and bass guitar.”
“Because that’s what she’s listening to.”
Jeremy snorted. “Whatever.”
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