by Eve Langlais
Would his pack have the same commitment to protecting an outsider as Logan did? They’d damned well better.
However, he also knew trouble followed her around. Having her nearby, even on a visit to a possibly dangerous place, meant Logan would be present firsthand if something happened.
Sound logic. Yet, outside the debatable safety of his home, he now wished he’d left her locked in his room. The skin on the back of his neck prickled. His wolf bristled.
Someone’s watching us.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t determine if the watcher was benign or not. It also didn’t help that there was something not right going on with the whole situation.
This institution couldn’t be the right place. It had to be a dead end, bodies or not. There was nothing linking Adara to this spot. She didn’t even recognize it.
“What do you mean it doesn’t look familiar?” Logan asked after they’d driven by for a quick peek before parking.
She shrugged. “I mean, I spent all my time in the eastern wing. Alone usually. My only view out my window was of some forest. I only knew the name of the place because when I asked, the nurse told me.”
“Surely, they took you outside.”
She shook her head. “Dr. Forrester was short staffed on account of the low number of patients getting treatment.”
And this was where Logan had to bite his tongue because her account didn’t match reality at all. First of all, the eastern wing was shut down and had been since a fire two years ago. Which meant the asylum’s other wings were over capacity.
He shouldn’t have been surprised that, once again, they’d run into incongruity. Yet, for once, just once, couldn’t they get a straight fucking answer?
Logan blamed his impatience on the fact that he’d never gotten his interrupted kiss. It shouldn’t have mattered. She was interested. It would happen eventually, yet he couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Thinking about her.
He eyed Titus with a growl almost peeling back his lip.
He sniffs at our female.
The wolf had no qualms about stating it in bold terms. But it took a moment for Logan to recognize the emotion for what it was. Jealousy. As in, he was jealous of the vampire, especially since Adara had turned to Titus for a boost into the truck.
But she almost kissed me, not him. He tried not to reflect too much on the fact that he’d had the most opportunity.
A nudge snapped him out of his reverie. “Are you coming?” Titus asked.
“Yeah.” Just not in a way that was sexually satisfying.
Once again, they’d opted to park away from their target, which, given that the asylum wasn’t in a residential area, meant parking it on the side of a road and hiking back. During that time, he kept a sharp eye out for any fog or the smell of death—not to be mistaken with Titus, who smelled like expensive cologne.
“Subterfuge works better when you don’t smell like a whorehouse,” Logan muttered to the vampire.
“Zombies can’t smell.”
“You can’t know that for sure.”
“Actually, I can. They don’t smell or see as we do.”
“How do they find their victims then?”
“They sense life.”
Logan frowned. “So they listen for a heartbeat?
“Not exactly. Keep in mind, they’re dead, and thus they don’t experience things like we do. Forget all notion of sight, hearing, smell, or touch. When I say sense, I am talking about a different level where life shines like a beacon.”
“What you’re saying is, living things are like lighthouses to zombies,” Adara summarized.
“Yes. It is how they track their prey.”
“If zombies can’t see faces, then how did they find Adara specifically each time?”
Titus shrugged. “My best hypothesis is that the necromancer knew her location in both instances.”
“He spied on her.”
“One possibility. It could also be that her very uniqueness acts as a beacon.”
“Or someone snitched.”
“Assuming that’s the case, then, technically, if we move her often and at random, we could keep her safe,” Titus stated as they hit the wall surrounding the asylum.
“Possibly.” Logan added a dose of pessimism.
“I don’t want to spend my life running.” The softly spoken words were Adara’s.
“Then we’ll just have to take care of whoever’s bugging you then, won’t we?” Logan tossed her what he hoped was a reassuring grin.
“Your safety is my utmost concern, dearest.”
“Says the leech who brought her on this mission,” muttered Logan.
At his rebuke, her eyes flashed. “Stop it. I wanted to come. Me. This is my life we’re trying to fix, and I deserve to be a part of that.”
“I agree. Let us go see what this place has to offer. Hold on to me, and I’ll get you over the wall.” Titus held out his arms, and Logan bit back a growl.
Considering his method of getting her over the fence involved him climbing it, straddling the four-inch lip, and then reaching down to haul her up, hopefully without them tipping, he couldn’t exactly complain.
But he was kind of envious of how Titus got to hold her in his grip and jump. Like literally, bent his knees and sprang up and over, superhero style. By the time Logan hit the other side, he found Titus still holding a flush-cheeked Adara.
“Let’s get moving before someone spots us,” Logan said gruffly. He couldn’t quite stem the bristling jealousy.
Since they couldn’t just walk into the place through the front door, they skulked from the bushes to the trees to the big shed that held the garbage bins. They were aiming for the rear entrance, the employee one easily recognizable by the fenced-off parking lot for their cars. The small gate into the lot required a key card to pass. By the unmarked, gray metal door, there was a picnic table and a coffee tin that held the ashy remains of cigarettes and their butts. The break area for smokers.
Logan darted up for a quick tug at the door, which was, of course, locked. He quickly returned to Titus and Adara.
“Now what?” Adara asked, eyes bright, but doing a good job of holding her fear at bay. More and more, she walked with a straight back. Was the real Adara anything like the shell he had met? And why was it that the braver she got, the more fascinated he became?
This is pathetic. Almost as much as waiting in the bushes while Titus misted. The vampire hovered over the door. Sure enough, at one point, it opened, disgorging two male orderlies in white, who took up spots at the picnic table for a smoke and a chat about football statistics.
But that gave Titus the opening he needed. He slipped through the door, off to scout and maybe bring back some facts.
The two men finished their cigarettes and went back inside, leaving Logan alone with Adara. Under a crescent moon.
Did he mention alone?
Kind of romantic, right? Except she wanted to talk about Titus.
“Can all vampires turn into smoke?” she whispered.
Logan held in a sigh and shrugged. “No idea. Vamps and wolves don’t usually mix much.” Not quite enemies, but far from bosom buddies, the two groups maintained diplomatic relations out of necessity.
“Can you do anything special? I mean, other than turn into a wolf.”
“No,” replied Logan flatly. “But, unlike vamps, we don’t eat people to stay alive.” Too late, Logan realized his words sounded like a rebuke, and Adara clamped her lips tight.
“What if I’m like Titus?”
“You’re not a vampire.”
“No, but you keep saying I’m not human. What if I also need something like blood to stay alive? Will you dislike me, too?”
“Of course, not.”
“Why? I mean I can see what you think of Titus. You keep calling him a leech.”
“But it’s different.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t like him. I like you.”
At the
admission, she went still, and her gaze dropped.
And she said nothing.
His wolf wanted to whine.
The man wanted to fidget.
Okay, the man wanted to whine, too.
Finally, she said, “I like you, too, but I don’t think I can get involved with anyone right now. Not until I get some answers.”
Not completely shot down. “Then I guess we’d better get cracking.” He offered her a lopsided grin. “The quicker we get ’er done, the quicker you and I can go on a date.” And he could get her into bed. Which, technically, she was already in, but he’d like to be there, too. Naked.
Goals.
Time passed, and still the prickling sense of someone watching remained. Movement from the door drew his attention, and he saw a nurse dressed in glaring whites step out, surrounded by a mist.
She walked in a trance to where they hid in the bushes and stopped. Her eyes stared blankly past them. Titus reformed, kneeling beside them with a tight expression.
“What are you doing?” hissed Logan, gesturing to the glamoured nurse.
“I thought you should both hear this for yourselves.” Titus stood directly in front of the nurse, who didn’t register his presence with even so much as a blink. “Rose, tell me about Dr. Forrester.”
“I don’t know him.”
“How long have you worked here, Rose?”
“Fifteen years.”
“And do you remember a patient with amnesia? Pretty girl with long, dark hair.”
“No.”
“Does the name Adara ring a bell?”
“No.”
“Liar. You used to bring me my meals.” Adara stood and glared at the nurse.
“Rose, look at the woman in front of you.” The nurse’s gaze focused on Adara. “Do you recognize her?”
“No.” The same flat response.
“Tell me about the east wing.” Titus kept questioning.
“It’s closed.”
“Who lives in the east wing, Rose?”
“No one.”
“She’s lying. I was in that wing. And she was one of three nurses I used to see.” Adara turned to Logan. “I remember. I swear I do.”
“I believe you, honey.”
Titus snapped his fingers. “Thank you, Rose. You may return inside. You will not remember my questions or meeting my friends and me.”
Her motions robotic, Rose turned around and left. As she opened the door, she gave her head a shake and turned to look behind her with a frown. Then she was gone.
Only once the door closed did Adara explode. “What is going on? I know Rose. She not only brought at least one of my meals every day, she also used to take me to my appointments with Dr. Forrester.”
Titus rubbed his chin, and he looked at her with brooding eyes. “Adara, did you ever see a physician other than this Dr. Forrester?”
Her brow creased. “No. But I told you, he said they were short-staffed. It was why his schedule was so odd.”
“What do you mean by odd? When did you see your doctor?”
“Every night.”
Titus couldn’t completely hide his surprise. “At night? Didn’t you find this strange?”
“Well, no. I just assumed that was his shift to work.”
“I see. What did you do during your sessions with him?”
“He’d ask me questions about my past, which I couldn’t answer. He also hypnotized me a lot, trying to get me to remember.”
At the word hypnosis, Logan stiffened. What had this quack Forrester done to Adara? Was he to blame for her memory loss?
“Did the hypnosis work?” Titus asked.
She shook her head. “Nothing worked. Not the deprivation tank. The pills. The talks. Until I met you guys, I barely remembered what I ate the previous day for supper. But I remember him. He wasn’t a figment of my imagination. Just like I know Rose. I don’t understand why she claims she doesn’t know me. I didn’t imagine it.”
“The plot thickens,” Titus observed. “Who is this mysterious Dr. Forrester?”
“You think Dr. Forrester wanted to hurt me?
“Did he ever hurt you?” Titus asked.
“No. He wanted to help me.”
“If he is a doctor,” Logan interjected. “This whole thing stinks. Why hide Adara here, away from the other patients? Why no records of her being here?”
“Because, obviously, someone wanted to keep her hidden.”
“Could he have been hiding her from the necromancer?” Logan asked.
“That is certainly one possibility,” Titus said “What I can’t figure out is why he went to so much trouble. Obviously, if he wanted you for himself, he could have taken you at any time. Instead, he placed you as a patient in a real facility but separate from everyone else. He ensured he met with you nightly and glamoured the staff into caring for you while not remembering either you or him.”
“Let’s not forget he helped her escape under the guise of releasing her and then set her up in that slum where’d she’d be an easy target,” Logan pointed out.
It was Adara who said it. “He used me as bait.”
“I think that you are correct,” Titus agreed. “I think that when the zombie appeared at the asylum, the doctor decided it was too risky to keep you around, and so he set you up as a clerk in that store. Perhaps he wanted to flush out the sorcerer.”
“And it worked. A zombie found her, except I came along and foiled the plan.” Logan rubbed his chin as he led the way back to their car. “Even if our theory is correct, that still doesn’t explain why the necromancer wants her.”
“I’d say the why is probably quite obvious. Because she’s different. Alluring. The same way we are drawn to her, perhaps, so is he.”
“You keep saying he,” said a red-cheeked Adara. “It could be a woman.”
“It would be the first one to ever exist then. The raising of the dead has long been a male pastime. It is theorized that, as the givers of life, women can’t pervert their innate nature.”
“Sexist magic,” muttered Adara.
“More like power that caters to a particular strength. Just as some males can perform things a female can’t, the reverse is true.”
As the conversation devolved into a lecture, Logan lost patience. “Can we discuss this elsewhere? We’re just asking for someone to catch us sticking around here.”
In near silence, and no further ahead, they returned to Logan’s house. He no longer saw his pack out in the open, yet he knew they hovered nearby. Watching.
Even Kevin had made himself scarce.
While Titus made some calls, Adara huddled around the island in the kitchen as Logan made some food for them.
Once they’d finished eating, the silence broken only by chewing, Titus rejoined them.
“So, what’s our next step?” asked Logan. “Instead of solving a mystery, we’ve just increased it.”
“We keep looking. I think we need to go back further. Whoever is hiding her tracks must have missed something. We need to find it.”
“Good luck. So far, every stone we’ve overturned has either been destroyed or killed.”
“Speaking of people dying…” Adara drew their attention. “I think you need to stop.” She pressed her lips into a tight, grim line.
“Why would we desist?”
“Because it’s dangerous,” she retorted.
“We’re not afraid,” Logan stated.
“But you should be.” She fixed him with a bold stare. “There is something really wrong happening, and it all centers around me. You’ve both been so nice. More than nice. But I need you to stop. People are dying. Do you get that? D-y-ing.” Stretching the word as if it would make a difference.
“As the wolf said, we’re not afraid.” The look in his eyes showed that he was every inch the predator. “We thrive on danger. And I, for one, can think of nothing more important than helping you find yourself.” Titus smiled at her with a charm practiced over hundreds of years. Logan g
nashed his teeth.
“Still—”
“Friends help friends,” interrupted Logan gruffly. Especially one determined to eventually graduate to lover.
“You’re both nuts.” Adara yawned and slapped a hand to her mouth, her cheeks pinking in embarrassment.
“Go to bed, dearest. It’s been a long night. I myself will have to depart shortly.”
Logan couldn’t resist a jibe. “I’d offer for you to stay, but I don’t keep coffins on hand.”
Titus didn’t rise to the bait with anger. “Why would I inter myself in a box when I have a king-sized bed covered in silk sheets waiting for me?” He lifted Adara’s hand to his lips and kissed it. Logan didn’t miss the shiver in her body or the way her lips parted. “Good night, Adara.”
Not to be outdone, Logan snatched her hand too quickly, causing her to gasp and pull away. He smiled at her. “Come on. I’ll tuck you in.”
Adara shook her head. “I’m not a child, and I’m not stealing your bed again. I’ll just bunk down on the couch.”
“If you don’t want to use my bed, then there’s a guest room up there with fresh sheets.”
“See you in the morning,” she whispered and then fled upstairs. No goodnight kiss. Nothing.
Logan blamed Titus. And Titus, that bastard, knew it by his triumphant smile. “The game is not won yet, wolf.”
“The game won’t have a winner at all if we don’t find a way to save her.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
After Adara had departed, Titus paced Logan’s living room, the hour growing late, or early, depending on one’s view. He didn’t want to leave yet, for he had a feeling, with all that had happened, that Adara would end up dreaming, and he wanted to stay on hand so he could help her through it.
If I can enter her dream early enough, maybe I can learn something from it.
“Shouldn’t you be leaving?” asked the wolf.
“Eager to see me go?”
“We’ve been spending entirely too much time together of late.”
“I couldn’t agree more; however, I fear Adara is about to embark on another nightmare.”
The mention of it drained the color from Logan’s face. “Not again. There’s got to be a way to stop her dark dreams.”