Braxton shrugged. “Drew and Quinn came across it for the first time a couple months ago. At least we thought it was the first time. When we went back through our files looking for it in pictures of past sacrifice scenes we’ve photographed, a few more instances popped up.”
Having seen his share of sacrifice sites, Parker was glad he hadn’t been assigned that task. Staked down, tortured and bled out to open a gateway for a Scion to cross over into this realm was not how Parker wanted to go out. Unlike lesser demons, who could cross over on their own, master demons required blood sacrifices to escape their prison.
It was the only time the dark magic they wielded was a disadvantage—that and finding a way to coerce lesser demons into performing enough sacrifices to open a temporary gateway in the first place. The majority of hostiles were too intent on feeding on the emotions of others to be that organized.
“But still nothing like we’ve seen lately,” Brax continued, then glanced at Parker. “What are you thinking?”
“Have you been recording the places where the trackers have failed?”
“As much as I can. Some people are pretty vague when it comes to paperwork.”
Drew reached his arm over his head and covertly pointed at Darcy.
Braxton snorted, snagging the laptop at the head of the table and dragging it toward him. His fingers tapped over the keys. “This is a map of our present hot zone and the areas and times our trackers weren’t reliable.”
He pushed a few more keys, sending the image from the laptop to the screen at the front of the room.
Parker studied the grid. “And do we have the same kind of thing for the symbols?”
“I think so.”
“Yeah, that can’t be good,” Darcy offered when Braxton set the images up side by side. “A lot of them occur at the same times and places. Probably not a coincidence.”
Parker nodded. “It blocks us somehow.”
“So much for the technological advantage,” Drew quipped.
Adrian and Rae chose that moment to enter, and in the space of three heartbeats, Parker went from checking out the images to checking out Rae.
A month ago, the sight of a woman in an expensive suit and power heels, hair pulled back and pinned up, would have earned no more than a passing glance. Women usually underestimated how attractive they were when they weren’t trying to be anyone. Hair down, comfy clothes, no sexy underwear meant to entice.
Women also usually underestimated how easy men were. Men needed naked and that was pretty much it.
But Rae in a suit stirred him up, over and around the fucking bend.
Fantasizing about peeling back those designer layers—the heels could stay—to find the woman he knew was beneath, the woman who sometimes snorted when she laughed, hated her toes, and could eat more pizza than him, had become a favorite pastime.
Yeah, he’d really screwed up by not kissing her last night. Not kissing her, not touching her…
Darcy elbowed him—hard.
Rae arched a brow, noticing his and Darcy’s exchange, but didn’t meet his eyes. Apparently her notes were more riveting.
He leaned back into his chair, letting Braxton explain their discovery. Only once did she glance in his direction and although brief, he caught more than a hint of relief in it.
He would have preferred the usual cool dismissal she reserved just for him or the flat-out annoyance when he was really getting under her skin. Both of those responses were predictable and workable.
“This is more bad news, huh?” Drew sprawled back in his chair, but kept his feet down—probably for Adrian’s benefit. “Next time I want to be in the field during a briefing. At least Gage and Quinn get to slay something when this is done.”
Darcy made a sound of agreement but continued to study her sketch as though the answer to all their demon problems lay at her fingertips.
“I doubt I need to go into the network-wide breaches,” Adrian began. “This office in particular is aware of the growing trend with hostiles using humans to further their own agendas.”
Jordan chose that moment to slip into the room. All eyes swung in her direction at the sight of her ripped pants and the blood on her sleeve. When she noticed them staring at her, she shrugged. “Early morning commuter.”
Stealth demon, Parker decided. In his short experience, war demons tended to get her the most worked up while storm demons bored her. Mimic demons were rare enough that she would have mentioned it right off, and a telepath would have left her massaging her temple to sooth the headaches they often gave her.
Adrian took the disruption in stride. “The relationship between this symbol and their increasing ability to evade our usual methods of tracking them would suggest they know we can read the disturbance between realms when they cross over and are using it to track them. They’ve obviously figured that part out from the security breaches. We still need to determine if it’s all in the name of survival for those that cross over or if they have some kind of end game.”
Darcy tossed her pencil aside. “I like it better when they’re just out for a little homicidal pleasure than when they start working together.”
“You’re not alone in that,” Adrian said. “And we’ve got a new situation to handle that I’m specifically tasking this field office with.”
Adrian inserted a flash drive into the laptop and accessed his own files before pulling up some new images. “This is Lawrence Hurst. He was one of our top scientists.”
Adrian glanced at Rae, waited. She leaned against the wall, arms crossed, features locked in stone.
“Was?” Drew prompted.
“He left the network almost ten years ago,” Adrian continued.
“Why is he of interest now?”
“He conducted some experiments, experiments that we think he might be in the middle of duplicating. Nearly twenty years ago Lawrence theorized that there was a way to control the gene mutation, that those carrying the Destroyer gene could, under the right conditions, develop multiple abilities.”
Parker’s gaze slid to Rae, who stood stiffly near the door, her expression blank. With any other subject he might have misinterpreted the look as boredom, but not this one. Not with kids involved. And not when her eyes met his and he saw something he hadn’t seen in a long time. Fear.
She straightened, looking down at the floor for a moment before giving Adrian her full attention.
Glancing from Rae to Adrian, Parker leaned forward in his chair. “What kind of conditions?”
“The candidates needed to be young and they also needed to be in a controlled environment.”
“Are you telling me that this nutjob basically put little kids in a box with demons?” Drew’s voice turned to ice. Since he was the only parent in the room, his fury was understandable.
“In a manner of speaking, yes.”
“And the network supported it? Supported him grooming his own Destroyers?” Parker had a hard time buying that. He had lost faith in the network once, but even he couldn’t imagine them condoning testing on innocent children.
Adrian shook his head. “No. By the time we learned what he was up to—”
“Oh God.” Darcy closed her eyes, clearly having picked up on something in Adrian’s head.
Parker tensed. “How many survived?”
“They all did, but most were tainted by the repeated exposure to the demon essence during the procedures.”
“He turned them into monsters,” Jordan said quietly.
Parker was the first to speak after they’d lapsed into shocked silence, processing the implications. “How did you learn Hurst started running experiments again?”
“Children of people that have been profiled as carriers of the Destroyer gene have gone missing. We need to find out where he’s operating from, then we’ll form a plan to go in and extract the children.”
Clearly agitated, Drew pushed back from the table but didn’t get up. “What kind of demon initiated Hurst?”
“Telepa
th.”
Drew sagged back in his chair. “So part genius, part sociopath, part mind-reader. Shouldn’t be hard to find him.”
Chapter Five
Hard to find didn’t even come close, Parker decided, even if Drew was being sarcastic when he’d said it.
Parker had been going through Hurst’s file for the better part of the day, learning as much as he could about the former network scientist, but had the same thing to show for his efforts he’d started out with. Nothing.
Ten years ago, Lawrence Hurst had dropped off the map, leaving behind only one daughter who Adrian insisted hadn’t had any contact with her father since that time. Adrian had also filled in a lot of gaps about how Hurst worked, what drove him, and provided a list of people who could shed more light on their mad scientist.
The people Parker had spoken with so far had merely confirmed most of what Adrian had already said, though Parker hadn’t needed to talk to any of them to realize that most scientists were grounded in routines, their processes and actions following a logical pattern.
Carrying around any amount of demon essence made Hurst less predictable, especially when everything so far indicated Hurst didn’t want to be found. Having been part of the network and knowing how they operated would make it that much easier for him to stay under the radar.
It was still early into their search, but with missing kids involved, the sooner they got a solid lead on the guy, the sooner they’d be able to bring him in.
“Has anyone seen Rae?” Braxton strode into the break room where Parker had ducked in for a caffeine refill moments ago.
Braxton didn’t look up from the paper he was carrying when he added, “I want to run some possible workarounds for the tracker by her.”
“Try the roof,” Drew suggested.
“Or not.” Braxton dropped into the closest chair.
The roof? Damn it, he shouldn’t have assumed she’d left with Adrian when he hadn’t caught her presence for over an hour.
After last night, he swore his awareness of her had moved to the cellular level. The click of her heels down the hall this morning had made his synapses fire in perfect rhythm with her steps. But it wasn’t that awareness that suddenly left him edgy and eager to talk to her.
He shouldn’t have been surprised she still went to the roof when she wanted to be alone. Some things never changed apparently, and something had been off with her this morning. Something that had to do with Adrian’s assignment and the way she’d slipped from the room before he had finished the briefing.
Drew toyed with a spoon on the table. “You must have really pissed her off last night if she’s hanging out up there.” He directed the last bit to Parker.
Or there was another reason that didn’t have anything to do with Parker and everything to do with the nights she used to break into cold sweats and wake up calling out for help.
Parker headed for the door.
“Dead man walking,” Drew muttered.
Any other time Parker might have agreed. He no longer cared that every look she’d given him since the briefing had warned him to keep his distance. Something was up with her and the bad feeling in his stomach wasn’t going to let up until he talked to her.
When he reached the roof and took a long look around without spotting her, he started back inside. Then he noticed her, and almost wished he hadn’t.
Forget demon-slaying, the sight of Rae seated on the ledge, her legs hanging over the edge of the roof was enough to jumpstart his heart. Now Darcy’s past jokes about calls from the police about jumpers on the roof made a lot more sense.
He waited for Rae to acknowledge his presence beyond the visible tension that locked her shoulders when the door slammed shut behind him. It was probably too much to ask that she’d head back inside now that he’d joined her, sparing him from having to get that close to the edge.
He’d never been particularly fond of heights, and the breeze was just strong enough to make him prefer to be inside, especially when he approached the edge of the roof. When they’d been living together, he had sometimes found her on the roof after a night in the field had left her keyed up, but never like this.
Jesus, she needed to get off that ledge. She might be able to heal quickly, but he imagined a fall from six stories up would severely test that ability. The thought of her losing her balance when she got up made his palms sweat.
“What do you want, Parker?”
“Fresh air?” He peered over the edge—a damn stupid move—and his stomach churned.
“Next time try taking a walk.”
“I get enough exercise in the training room.”
“I didn’t realize that spending that much time on your ass qualified as exercise.”
He would have grinned, except the strong breeze that whipped her hair across her face had him fighting the impulse to loop an arm around her waist and pull her back.
“Problem?” She finally looked at him.
“Nope.” Not unless she moved so much as a millimeter. Telling her that, though, would likely drive her to test him, and it wouldn’t be pretty when she retaliated for him yanking her down.
So he sat on the ground, propping his back against the ledge.
“Then how come your heart is racing?”
It wasn’t the first time she’d made that kind of comment and he’d just assumed she was guessing. Even now he wished she was guessing, but the band of tension that stretched across his chest said otherwise.
He draped one arm across his raised knee but knew she’d see right through the casual posture. She’d always been good at reading him, and judging by the way her gaze darted to his face and then away, she was good and wary about what he was thinking.
That made two of them.
“You know, I used to wonder what gave you the edge. You trained hard, harder than most agents I’ve worked with, but you always were a little bit faster, your reflexes a little sharper, for just being initiated by a war demon.”
She didn’t say anything, staring out at the city skyline.
“I remember the first time I found you hanging out on our roof. You’d had a dream you refused to talk about. A nightmare. We hadn’t been together that long, but that dream and the ones you had for a few weeks after that scared the crap out of me.”
He felt her look at him, but didn’t meet her gaze. Talking about the past, even about the nightmares that had her reaching blindly for him in the dark, made him remember how good things had been between them in the beginning. How crazy he’d been about her.
And then everything had fallen apart. The death of his mother and sister had ripped him up inside and not even Rae had been able to piece him back together.
“Then you finished your training and became a field agent and the nightmares stopped. I was too relieved to worry much about them after that. I think maybe having another outlet helped, that and training and tracking demons until you were exhausted.”
“Parker, don’t.” Although whisper soft, the tremble in her voice cut into him.
He turned toward her, needing to finish. “But what I remember about those dreams is the way you’d yell for them not to touch you—you didn’t want to be special.” He met her gaze. “And how you’d beg your father not to let them take you.”
For a minute, Rae thought she was going to pass out. No matter how hard she ordered her lungs to draw a breath, they remained paralyzed, frozen and useless in her chest, just like she’d been when the experiments had started.
Don’t think about it.
It shouldn’t have been a problem. She’d gotten damn good at not thinking about it over the years, leaving the past behind her. But with Parker sitting there, watching her as though he wanted her to deny all of it, she couldn’t shove it to the back of her mind so easily.
Not this time.
She finally managed to suck in a breath, and the rush of oxygen made the world tilt at the edges. She gripped the ledge until her knuckles hurt from holding on so tight.
“Talk to me, Rae.”
She shook her head, knowing she should have told him to screw off the moment he’d stepped outside. Before he’d even opened the door she’d known it was him, recognized his determined footfalls on the stairs.
It was enough warning she could have moved out of his immediate line of sight. Instead she’d remained where she was. More than once she’d felt Parker watching her during the briefing, and for the first time in years she’d wondered if someone could look at her and see the fraud that she was, see the pieces that had been put together to make a whole.
Her father’s pieces. Her father’s experiment.
Shit. Her chest ached and her lungs felt ready to quit on her again.
She stood, her knees trembling a little bit under her weight.
Air rushed across her face as an arm wrapped around her waist, dragging her off the ledge before she’d even gotten all the way to her feet.
“Are you trying to kill me?” Parker snapped, holding her tight against him. “Stay off the goddamn ledge.”
Shoving him back wasn’t an option. Not until she was sure her legs were going to cooperate more than her lungs—which seemed to be working fine now. Fine enough she could smell Parker’s aftershave on her next shaky inhale.
God, he smelled good. Familiar. For a moment the good memories from her past competed with the bad and won. She’d only been twenty-one when they’d met, scared she’d end up an empty shell, like the demons that had changed her. More than anything she’d needed something to fill up the empty places inside her.
And Parker had. For three years he’d made her forget how she’d ended up with the network, made her forget she hadn’t been special enough for her father. But in the end she hadn’t been enough for Parker either. Not enough to save him from spiraling into a dark place she couldn’t reach and not enough to get through to him when he’d been determined to believe anything except the truth.
So she’d left, though it had taken her a long time to accept that he’d left her long before that, giving up on them and taking her heart right along with him.
“Rae?” Parker ran his hand up her back.
Dark Obsession: Shadow Destroyers, Book 4 Page 5