by A. C. Arthur
And that’s when he felt it.
Like something weaving its way up his spine, dread sifted slowly into his body. His cat went instantly on alert, chuffing just beneath the surface as Ezra continued to walk. He inhaled deeply, attempting to sniff out the trouble he suspected was close, but there was nothing. Not to be deterred, he listened as he walked, concentrating on whatever might be ahead of them, trying desperately to get a bead on it before it had them. Nothing.
Fuck! It was an inward curse, one his cat shared as they both realized the repercussions of having that dark entity exit the premises. His senses weren’t as heightened as they had been, or at least they didn’t feel like it. Or was it that whatever danger that was up ahead was stronger than even he could predict?
Dyson had already split from them, heading to the utility room where the main board for the building’s security was located. One guard had gone with him while Ezra and the others headed for the bank of elevators and made their way up to the third floor. The minute the elevator doors opened, the six of them filed out, their boots moving quietly over the carpeted floor. There was another code to the lab door that Ezra didn’t have. They were relying on Dyson to have it opened by the time they got there, but when Ezra tried the knob, it was still locked.
“We’re in position,” he mumbled into the com link.
There was no answer.
“Dyson?” he called, remembering all too well the last time he’d been listening so hard to his com link and had heard Bas’s news about Jacques.
“Cleve?” Bas called to the guard who was with Dyson through his com link. “Answer me, goddammit!” the FL added, his voice rising slightly.
Ezra looked over to Bas to make sure he was still steady. He should have already known that answer. Above all else, this was a Shadow Shifter front-runner; he would lead, no matter what emotional turmoil he might be going through. Bas had lifted a hand to Paolo who had his hand on his gun already and was probably about to tear down the steps until he found out what happened to the other shifters.
“We’re here!” Dyson answered finally.
Ezra wanted to breathe a sigh of relief but the weight against his spine prevented him. Suddenly, he didn’t want to be here, didn’t want to go into this lab and do what he knew they needed to do. He’d rather be with Jewel, trying to convince her that she belonged with him. But right now, that was not an option.
“The locks,” he grumbled to Dyson through clenched teeth.
Before the word was complete there was a slow beep and the lights on the keypad to the right of the doorknob flashed green. Ezra was beginning to really like seeing that color.
In the next seconds they were all inside the lab, spreading out, guns drawn. They went to work immediately, looking for anything that mentioned the Genesis Project, whether it be files or specimens. Ezra headed directly to the computer in the far left corner. It sat on a black-topped counter, beneath long white cabinets, as if it were trying to hide. It was a hunch but he thought this might actually belong to that nervous guy he’d seen a couple of days ago in the computer room where he’d been working. The one that had been talking to Captain Crowe and another soldier. The moment he touched the keys a scent filled his nostrils, putrid, offensive, familiar. He cursed, thinking he’d have to enlist Dyson’s help in breaking into the computer, but when the screen lit up, it showed that it had already been logged into. There were timed security locks on all the computers at Comastaz, as Ezra had learned while pretending to be an IT tech. If an employee left their computer idle for more than three minutes it not only went black, but it locked. There was a one-minute window between the computer going black and its locking. This one had not had the chance to lock, which meant … Ezra looked around, his neck snapping with the motion.
“We’re not alone,” he said, more to himself even though he knew the others would hear him.
Eyes narrowed, his nose twitched as he searched for the scent. Fear. Bas had apparently picked it up as well because he held up his gun arm and nodded toward a door six feet from where Ezra stood. In the next instant Ezra was standing opposite Bas, the door between them. They didn’t even bother with a three count, but nodded to each other just before Ezra kicked the door in. There was a cracking sound and then a very high-pitched yell, followed by the commotion of someone hitting the floor.
Paolo went in first, yanking the human by the leg and dragging him out of the supply closet until he lay holding his nose while he moaned in the middle of the lab floor. Bas reached for him then, yanking the man to a standing position by the back collar of his white lab coat.
“He’s the guy I saw talking to Crowe,” Ezra said, looking at the frail man, totally ignoring the blood dripping through his fingers, probably from his nose that he’d foolishly had up against the closet door. “He can tell us where all the data is because he worked on the project.”
“Did you now?” Bas asked.
“No. No. No. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the man began chanting. “I don’t know who you are or what you want. I don’t know anything. I don’t have anything.”
“I got something!” Syfon yelled.
Ezra went to the other shifter’s side, looking down at the papers he held. “E-mails,” Ezra said as they continued to read. “Going to someone at Washington Hospital Center. Who’s DiLaurent?”
The question was another one meant for only Ezra’s ears, but Paolo heard him and replied, “This dude right here,” he said, grabbing the front of the bleeding guy’s lab coat. “It says right here: Dr. Mario DiLaurent.”
The name on the e-mail was Croy DiLaurent. The last name echoed in Ezra’s mind, playing and replaying as if he’d heard it before.
“I overheard him on the phone with someone he called DiLaurent asking him about the blood sample he’d sent to him at Washington Hospital.”
The sentence rang clear and true in Ezra’s mind. Eli had told him this, the night he’d been lying on Jewel’s sofa trying like hell not to remember how freakin’ addictive touching her was turning out to be.
“You bastard!” He turned, yelling at the white-coat-wearing coward.
“No! No! I don’t know what you want!” DiLaurent continued to yell. “Stop it! Stop it!”
The last was in response to Paolo moving away from him and dropping vials into a sink, the sound of breaking glass echoing throughout the room.
“Where’s Crowe?” Bas asked DiLaurent. “Tell me where he is or I’ll break your arm.”
“I do not know. I do not know,” DiLaurent continued to cry.
“Take all of that,” Ezra told Syfon, who quickly began stuffing the papers down his shirt.
So this was the dreaded feeling he’d had, Ezra thought as he moved across the lab. But his cat growled persistently, pressing all its weight against Ezra until he thought his bones would crack right at this instant. He ignored it, knew Bas’s rule about shifting, and tamped down on the cat’s inner urges. He went back to the computer that had been on and yanked the flash drive out of the base. Stuffing it into his pocket, he turned to walk away, then lifted a leg and put his foot through the screen. He picked up the hard drive and smashed it to the floor, and was about to stomp on it too when the first gunshot sounded. Through the door they had come a few minutes ago, bullets entered the lab. Paolo was first to return fire. Ezra shot the computer hard drive until the damn thing smoked and then turned on whoever the hell was shooting at them.
They were dressed in the fatigues Ezra swore he’d never wanted to see again and charged the lab in a blaze of bullets. Paolo and Syfon were the closest, both experienced guards who took out the first three soldiers without blinking. Bas fired with one hand, while using the other to toss an already shot DiLaurent to the floor behind him. Ezra fired back at the two soldiers that were heading his way, ducking behind one of the cabinets when he wanted them to lose sight of him. Across the room Bas had done the same thing, and he suspected Syfon and Paolo had as well. Topètenia jaguars hunted with a
sneak attack. In the jungle they stalked their prey, usually from behind, or from a place where the prey had no idea they were hiding. Then they pounced and it was game over.
With the four of them down out of sight, the soldiers thought they may have done what they’d come for. Their boots crunched over the broken glass as they continued into the lab that was now full of smoke, fumes lifting into the air, stinging Ezra’s eyes. One of them was getting close to where he was crouched so Ezra lifted his gun, prepared to shoot the second the soldier was visible. Behind him he heard something fall, hit the floor, and break. The sparks were immediate, illuminating the entire side of the lab. The soldier cursed about two seconds before Paolo shot him in the back of the head.
This set off the other soldiers and all guns turned toward Paolo, who had been standing about three feet from Bas. Ezra didn’t think, he didn’t hesitate, but shifted and lunged for the soldier with his gun aimed at Bas. His powerful jaws clamped down on the man’s neck just as a bullet pierced through his fur and skin, ripping through his insides like a ball of molten lava.
* * *
Her room was cool considering they were beneath a mountain. But just as with Perryville, Sebastian Perry had spared no expense when it came to building this facility. Jewel suspected each room was as nice as hers, probably nicer for Bas and Priya and the other higher-ups in this organization. She didn’t much care for the muted beige–colored walls and would have actually incorporated more color into the furnishings, but the king-sized bed with its heavenly soft bedding was to die for.
The last of those words swirled right into the dream she’d slipped so effortlessly into after more than two hours of lying on her back, staring at the ceiling. She was in a bedroom, similar to this one, but different. There was lots of color, deep purples and rich golds, sheets so soft they felt like she was rubbing against skin, smooth and indulgent.
With a sigh she rolled onto her stomach, letting the right side of her face sink into the feather-filled pillow. She was naked, a cool breeze blowing through an open window. Outside it was night, some type of bird chirping, a mating call she thought, since it was so late. The moon was high, casting an eerie glow across the room. Her eyes closed, lids so heavy, exhaustion taking over full force.
Just as she was about to sink further a finger touched her spine, moving up from the base to the nape of her neck, coming down and repeating the act once more. She hadn’t shivered, hadn’t jumped to see who it was because she knew. His scent was intoxicating, that intensely earthy and musky smell that made every nerve in her body stand on end. Until he touched her. It was as if she needed that touch, craved it like a drug. And he happily obliged.
His thick, dark-skinned hands flattened along her back, rubbing up and down until she sighed with how good it felt. Down, down, past the curve of her bottom to touch the backs of her thighs, her calves, rubbing down the arches of her feet. When he came back up this time, he kissed the nape of her neck, traced heated lines with his tongue from one shoulder to the next, then dropped open-mouth kisses all the way down to her bottom. Her body trembled at the warm and erotic sensations he elicited.
He kissed each globe, sucking so deep on her skin she was certain she’d have marks there in the morning. His hands continued the exploration, parting her cheeks so that his tongue could finish its trek to her center. She shook all over, pleasure running rampant through her body in tall, fierce waves. Her fingers clenched in the sheet, gathering it up in small hills at both her sides. Breath whooshed from her mouth, her eyes closed but wanting desperately to see, to watch as he tasted her so intimately.
His tongue felt like pure bliss, licking through the thickness of her essence, lapping every drop. She could hear him slurping, felt the tug as he took her plump folds into his mouth. The rush of release crashed over her until her ears rang with pleasure, her body shaking from head to toe. And when she could stand it not a moment longer, Jewel turned onto her back. She left her legs spread wide, watched as Ezra’s naked body came between them.
He was more than gorgeous, more than spectacular, each curve and cut of muscle exaggerated by the moonlight, giving him a godlike presence that left her breathless. She licked her lips, letting her gaze drop lower and lower until his long, thick, jutting erection was her only focus. She’d tasted him, felt the pearly white drop at his tip touch against her tongue like silk. She reached for him, had to hold him, to taste him and he smiled down at her. In seconds he’d switched positions, his knees on either side of her head, pressing the pillows down into the mattress, his face, once again—and thankfully—at her juncture. This time he pushed under her to cup her ass in his palms, lifting her to his mouth where he gorged on her once more.
After a moment of going totally blank, letting that spurt of desire spear through her like an arrow perfectly hitting its mark, she reached for his length as it bobbed enticingly just inches from her lips. Holding him at the base she let his tip slip through her lips, relaxing her throat muscles as she guided him even deeper, deeper, until she could barely swallow around his thickness. Her cheeks hollowed as she attempted to suck every drop of his essence from him, to appease some deep-seated hunger she’d never known she had. The only thing that she was absolutely certain of was that she hadn’t had enough of him, not nearly.
He pumped into her mouth while inserting two fingers into her center and matched the motion there. She could hear the smacking of her juices against his hand, the suction of her clit moving in and out of his mouth and she sucked him harder, hungrier, until her thighs shook uncontrollably. Her hands were wet with the mouth action she was giving him, in desperate need for him, she suckled and licked, breath coming in thick heavy pants and just as she felt his sac tightening, his dick jerking in preparation for release, everything went black.
Emptiness so magnified centered in her chest and Jewel looked around frantically, searching, needing. At one point she even opened her mouth to call out to him, but there was no sound, there was just blackness. In the distance, she could hear something dripping and she followed the sound, reaching her hands out to guide herself through the darkness. After a few steps, light finally speared through the room so bright and so shocking she closed her eyes for a few seconds, then opened them again slowly.
It was red. Everywhere was red. From the ceiling where something dripped, to the floor and the walls. The smell coppery, intense, making her stomach roil with nausea. Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement and gasped when she turned to see what it was. A huge black cat, lying on its side in the corner, a sound like she’d never heard before coming from it. She ran to it, not thinking twice, once again not needing to see it close up to know who it was.
“Ezra,” she called to him after she’d slid onto the floor, her knees moving through the pool of blood beneath her. “Ezra!” she called again, this time lifting the cat’s heavy head onto her lap. “Oh god no, Ezra. No!”
Gasping for air, Jewel jumped up out of the bed. She stood in the center of the room with her hands to her chest, blinking repeatedly, knowing without any doubt that what she’d seen was real. It was in the quickened beat of her heart, the sound of his name echoing in her head, the slight shift of the scent she associated with him. Instead of the earthy musk scent, there was a tinge of blood and the thought of his death wrapped around her neck like a noose. “No!” she screamed. “No!”
Chapter 24
The double doors to the medical facility flew open and in came Syfon and Paolo. Jewel stepped from the corner where she’d willed herself to stay after the all-too-realistic dream had awakened her. Her gasp was louder than Bas, who was yelling for Dr. Sedro, and Syfon, who wanted Paolo to move to the empty gurney on the far side of the room. Every shifter turned to see her standing there. Normally, the last thing she would have wanted was all eyes on her, especially where these particular men were concerned. But to hell with all that, she had to know that he was all right. He had to be all right.
She hurried over, pushing her way past Pa
olo as they lay Ezra’s naked and bloody body on the table.
“No. No. No,” she kept saying over and over again. Even when she willed herself to stop, the word kept coming. Tears, hot and burning, rolled down her cheeks so that his body became blurry, his closed eyes like a bad memory. Her fingers were entwining with his and she brought them to her shaking lips, whispering over them as if that would make his eyes open and all this godforsaken blood disappear.
“Get her out of here,” Bas commanded, his voice casting an ominous chill on the already cool room.
“No!” she screamed. “I’m not leaving him! I won’t leave him!”
She felt hands at her shoulders, pulling her back and she yelled for them to stop, to wait, to let her be with him. When a softer, gentler voice sounded in her ear she turned to it in question.
“It’s going to be all right,” Priya told her, nodding as if that were going to make Jewel move away from Ezra of her own accord. “They’re going to get him fixed up, but you have to get out of the way so they can do their job.”
Jewel was shaking all over, her head going from side to side. “I won’t leave him. I won’t.”
Priya, who by now had wrapped an arm around Jewel’s shoulders and continued to lead her out of the facility, arched an eyebrow. “I know you won’t leave him, Jewel. We’re just going to sit out here for a little while, until one of them comes out and says it’s okay for you to go in.”
“I don’t want him to think I left, that I just walked away, that I didn’t care,” she stuttered, following Priya’s lead.