Xander’s fingers flew over the keyboard and he checked something he’d thought of and Hunter held his breath as the snow leopard’s eyes widened in alarm.
“Well, fuck. They found your car across the street from Standard and although they had high-tech surveillance over every inch of the complex, the police stated the system was under maintenance at the same time you disappeared so no footage.”
Liv scoffed and with a snarl, spoke. “Un-fucking-believable.”
Everyone in the room froze before they turned to look at her.
“I’ve never heard you use the word fuck before,” Hunter said.
“Think about it. They kidnapped Neri six months after I fled with the information on the bioweapon. At the end of that same month I left, you rescued Ara along with the shifters and vampire from Standard.”
Reaper scoffed. Hunter and the others chuckled because Ara evaded him for a month after she escaped from Standard on her own.
“Don’t you realize what that means?” Liv snapped.
At their confused glances at each other, she continued. “Neri wasn’t a shifter at the time of her disappearance and we rescued all the immortals held captive, so who turned her?”
Ah, fuck.
CHAPTER EIGHT
NERI
Neri glanced around the room when whatever Liv said registered with each of them. From what they were saying, there was no shifter around to bite her, so they had no clue how she had transitioned. As she thought back to her time at Standard, nothing but the memory she shared with Hunter would surface.
Her right arm flinched as a phantom pain pierced the crook of her elbow and she pressed two fingers down until the sensation disappeared.
While the others were talking, Xander motioned her over and she sat on the couch next to him. As soon as she settled, he turned the screen toward her. At first, she wondered why he was showing her a black screen. The image was pixilated but there was a light shining in the lower left-hand corner. Then she realized it wasn’t a picture, but the start of a video clip.
“What did you find?”
“Kai’s camera picked up movement after you and Hunter entered the house. Reaper mentioned someone followed you to your house from here, so I searched the video footage and found this.”
Neri nodded, not taking her eyes off the screen. Xander pressed the space bar the silent black-and-white camera moved from right to left and back again, scanning the area. As it panned left again, Neri caught the sight of someone stepping out from behind a tree. A leg only at first, but Neri squinted and leaned forward when a woman came into view.
“Do you recognize her?”
“No, not yet. Does she get closer?”
“Yeah, wait a minute.”
The first obvious clue she wasn’t an immortal was her walk. She shuffled from behind the tree before she pressed her back against the bark, her head whipping back and forth as her long dark hair shimmered with each movement, before she bent her knees and waddled forward. She must have realized how stupid she looked because in the next second, she stood up and brushed away the imaginary lint on her pants.
The woman balled her fists next to her thighs and stomped forward, heading toward the side of the house leading to the front door. The stride was familiar, but it wasn’t until she flipped her hair away from her face and scowled that Neri recognized her.
“Zahava,” Neri sucked in a breath when she realized who she was. “Hunter, do you remember seeing her?”
Hunter moved closer and glanced down at the paused image of Zahava glancing over her shoulder. He recognized her and jerked back. Then he started pacing the floor.
She flinched at every curse she heard flowing out of his mouth and worried about his anger as his fists clenched and unclenched at his side as the length of his stride increased with every step.
“What? What’s going on?” Axel asked.
Neri swallowed as a bolt of fear ran down her spine. But when she noticed the concern in every face as they flanked Hunter, Xander, and herself on the couch, she had two feelings back-to-back. Fear that these people she’s come to care for in such a short time were in danger and the second, pride because they were dangerous to anyone who crossed them.
“In the flashback I had when I first met Hunter, the one I pulled him into, Zahava was the nurse who gave Dr. Steven’s the syringe filled with vampire venom and the bioweapon.”
Hunter cursed again. “I remember glancing at her and recognizing the clear hatred etched on her face when she stared at Neri on the table before the injection, but I brushed it off, thinking she hated all immortals.”
Xander’s fingers flew over the keyboard and after a few minutes, he sat back on the couch. “Huh.”
Hunter froze and glared at Xander. Neri almost laughed aloud but Hunter’s waves of displeasure about the situation washed over her and she bit her lip and waited to see what Xander had to say.
“She used her real first name to apply for the job at Standard. Zahava Wolfe started as a nurse in the biological ward at Standard in July 2015.”
“Wolfe, Wolfe, why does that sound familiar?” Ghost asked.
“It’s wordplay, wolf shifter, but that makes no sense. She has no shifter traits and if she’s human and four years younger than Neri, she’s aged badly. There are wrinkles around her eyes and mouth and there is a smattering of gray hair around her temples,” Ara observed.
“Why would she be after me? She went to a foster home two months before I did. Orphanages were closing and placing kids with foster parents. Since she was younger, they found her a home first.”
Frost squeezed Neri’s shoulder. “Not every placement works. There have been horror stories about kids being abused and neglected from families who only want government help. She’s targeting you for some unknown reason, but no one looks at someone with utter disdain without a reason, no matter how twisted or fabricated.”
Ghost snapped his fingers capturing everyone’s attention. “When Anzû applied for the position at Dark Company, he listed his last name on the application as Wolfe with a ‘e’”
Neri leaned over and watched Xander open and close screens as he typed in the black screens filled with white or green type, each of them foreign to her. She surfed the internet and setup a website which she had to learn for her to sell her pieces around the world, but Xander’s skills surpassed anything she’d known.
Xander stopped his frantic searching at a site that looked to her as pure code. A growl escaped from his throat as he glanced toward the stairs to where his son slept. Neri knew he held his rage at whatever he found because he didn’t want to wake his son again. Instead, he fisted his hands next to his thighs on the couch as he took deep breaths for a solid five minutes before he calmed enough to open his eyes.
“We will destroy this bitch and everyone associated with her and Anzû.”
Frost moved closer to Xander. He reached for her, holding her close and breathing her in. The moment reminded Neri that despite how deadly the immortals were; they were also vulnerable because of those they loved. Vulnerable, yes, but as she was learning with Hunter she had a mate and a family who knew love was stronger than any evil that existed. Including those who wanted to destroy them.
Hunter, sensing Neri’s swirling thoughts, lifted her and cuddled her in his lap. She nuzzled her face against his neck, taking comfort for a moment.
Sensing Xander’s anger and fear, everyone had circled the couch, sitting on the floor or any available seat as they stared at Xander with wide eyes, yet a determined look on each of their faces.
“In the county records, I found a marriage certificate dated the same month Zahava started at Standard,” Xander sucked in another deep breath before he said, “She married Anzû.”
“That makes no sense. If she married him why did he want me?” Frost asked.
Axel scoffed. “Anzû wasn’t stable. I remember how he looked when he walked out of the trees to confront us the same night he died. He had a crazed look in
his eyes, and for an immortal shifter, he looked unhealthy. His cheeks and eyes sunken and sallow, his skin jaundiced, and since immortals can never get sick, what was he suffering from that made him look like that?”
“So this Zahava, is after me for killing her husband?” Frost asked.
Hunter shook his head. “I think she’s after every one of us. For the longest time, we though Anzû and whoever took over Nightfall after his death wanted to destroy Dark Company for control. But now the pieces are falling into place.”
“What do you mean?” Kai asked.
“Zahava was in control all along.”
Hunter’s matter-of-fact statement sent a shiver through Neri.
Axel shook his head, but Ghost seemed to contemplate what Hunter said, his interest peaked. Jade and Noah sat still and Neri wondered at the look on Jade’s face. Kane snarled and both Thomas and Isaac sat back with an air of nonchalance, but she could see they listened intently to Hunter’s words. Seth and Aubrey were looking around the room, gauging how the others reacted to Hunter’s matter-of-fact statement. And Kai, Liv, Reaper, Ara, Xander, and Frost searched Hunter’s face as he continued with his theory.
“Xander, can you check to see where Zahava worked at Standard and her supervisor’s name?”
Within moments, Xander’s eyes widened and his head shot up. “First, she worked for Dr. Ames in microbiology for a year. Then she was reassigned to Dr. Stevens, who is a biomedical engineer, after Dr. Ames disappeared.”
Xander continued to search something he didn’t explain, humming under his breath, and soon found what he wanted. “She doesn’t have a special degree. She earned an associate’s degree in nursing at the local community college and she’s a licensed practical nurse. They found out she lied on her resume. She listed RN and not LPN, but by that time, she stopped coming to work.”
“Yeah, I remember even at a young age, Zahava would do only what was necessary,” Neri snarled.
“Everything from Liv throwing a wrench in their plans, to Ara escaping Standard, and Jade and Noah finding their supposed base of operations earlier this year, Zahava orchestrated it. She married Anzû and worked at Standard a year before Liv even discovered the bioweapon. The dead shifter didn’t seem like a big picture guy. His focus when he fought us was Frost, for no other reason than he wanted her and she became his obsession.
“But Zahava… she worked with the two scientists who created a bioweapon and turned Neri; she made sure she was close-by during Neri’s injection. Despite being human, she’s the leader of a group of shifters and if she’s as smart as I believe she is, she kept herself out of sight for a distinct advantage. We still need answers, but it’s more than we had last year.”
Neri knew it made sense. Although she hadn’t been with Hunter’s family since the beginning, she knew Zahava. For a long time when they were growing up in the orphanage, Neri dreaded being in the vicinity of Zahava. But she placated the girl because she’d seen the mean streak that came along with defiance.
“Where are we going to find what we need?” Gunnar asked.
Another phantom pain pierced her arm, and she jerked it close to her chest. Her other hand pressing down on the spot. Instead of panicking, she knew there was an answer somewhere inside her memory so she relaxed her mind and closed her eyes, searching for why the pain was affecting her. As soon as her shoulder’s relaxed and she leaned against Hunter, another memory assailed her.
Fear coursed through Neri, her body strapped down. The purplish-blue scrubs she wore did nothing to keep the chill from the metal table from soaking through her bones and causing her to shiver. She needed to get her mind off being cold, so she listened for any foreign sounds before she took in the room. The sky blue walls with the one-way mirror on one side, painted a neutral color to ease the mind of whoever they kept. But to Neri, she only sensed dread.
With slow, deliberate movements, she moved her head around the room and the first thing her gaze landed on was one computer on a wheeled stand. It wasn’t on and there were no labels or distinguishing logos anywhere so she moved on.
Her eyes focused on a sink with a long-necked spout that reminded her of a doctor’s office. Around the sink, sat clear circular jars with metal lids filled with cotton balls, swabs, and tongue depressors. On the shelf above, there were purple gloves in both medium and large sizes and a closed cabinet above the shelf.
She pulled her gaze from the nondescript sink, she noticed a sharps disposal container close to the table where she lay. She sucked in a breath when she realized one syringe lay inside. At that moment, she jerked her head up and searched her arms for an injection site and almost cried when she spotted a bead of blood. On her right arm.
She forgot the drop of blood the moment searing pain ripped through her body, setting her blood on fire. Her mouth opened to scream as pain consumed her. But before she could relive the moment, someone cupped her face. She heard her name being shouted at a distance.
“Neri, angel. You’re okay, you’re safe.”
Without opening her eyes, she growled. “No, I don’t think I am fine.”
A ripple started at her feet. It wasn’t painful but something inside her told her to relax her body and take deep breaths.
“What do you mean?” Hunter asked.
There was a rip of fabric as the denim of her jeans ripped at the bottom near her feet. She glanced down and stared at a shocking area of white fur where her feet should be. But when Hunter sucked in a breath and his eyes widened in shock, Neri shook her head.
“Now’s not the time to freak out, panther.”
Even to her ears, the words weren’t as clear as she wanted to make them. At the last word, she realized it came out as a growl. Before she blinked in surprise, she found herself with four feet planted on the carpet of Liv’s living room and the tingle stopped. As she opened her mouth to speak, her tongue brushed against a gigantic tooth and she stumbled backward, landing on her ass with a huff.
What the absolute fuck is this, Hunter?
Angel, do you feel okay?
Neri took a deep breath, and she inhaled every scent in the room at once. Vanilla, apple, pine, citrus, cedar, and more she didn’t have time to identify.
Okay, inhaling is a bad idea.
Hunter laughed. She looked up and tried to glare. Instead, she gasped when she spotted how tall she’d grown. She understood on some level she was sitting on the floor, but there was no way her head should be even with Hunter’s waist.
Closing her eyes, she didn’t inhale this time. But she readied her mind for whatever she would find when she reopened her eyes. Fuck it!
Like ripping off a bandaid, she opened her eyes and glanced down to see furry white arms and four huge white paws. She noticed pale pink pads underneath her two huge back paws. Not believing she had shifted into a…
What am I?
You’re a white panther.
Huh, that explains the fur.
Hunter, not helpful again, laughed. When she opened her mouth to chastise him, a growl, low and deep, escaped instead. The result was the same; Hunter sobered.
“Are you kidding me?”
“Beautiful, we talked about this.”
“No, Reaper, it’s been four years, and it still takes me ten minutes to shift. Neri wasn’t even aware she could and there she is, a gorgeous white panther.”
Gorgeous? Thank you.
Everyone in the room froze. Aware of the change in the room, Neri stood and cocked her head to the side and concentrated on listening to any changes outside to see why they were on alert.
What?
Can you hear me?
Axel?
“Holy fuck, yeah she can hear me.”
Okay, I’ll only say this once and if Hunter laughs one more time… I don’t know, but I’ll think of something. What the ever living fuck is going on?
Liv moved closer but Neri spotted her hesitation. In order not to scare her, she planted her ass back on the ground. Not that it helped, he
r head was even with Liv’s chest.
I didn’t mean to scare you.
“Oh, no sweetie, you didn’t. I noticed you grabbed your arm before your eyes glazed over and I’m wondering if you knew why?”
Neri closed her eyes and remembered back over the conversation. When she opened them, Liv was smiling at her.
“You have exquisite gray eyes flecked with bright blue when you shift.”
Thank you. She shook her head before she answered Liv’s question. When you said there were no more shifters at Standard who could have bitten me, something pricked my arm. Before my eyes “glazed over” I felt the pain again and knew my body was trying to tell me something. To find out what, I relaxed my mind and had another memory.
She filled them in on what happened.
The way I became a half vampire is the way I became a shifter. I remember the discarded syringe but not the injection on my arm. My memory faded when my transition started and I suppose my body continued with the shift because of muscle memory… maybe?
“That explains how Neri became a shifter and then later, a vampire. They took the venom from those captured and used Neri as a guinea pig. I have the captured immortals’ blood from their hospital stay and I’ll compare them to Neri’s blood sample. But it still doesn’t explain how you can shift. I don’t think it can happen because of a memory…” Liv trailed off as she glanced at Hunter.
Neri moved her head from Liv to Hunter, wondering why Liv was looking at him with suspicion. When the small vampire cocked her hip and glared at him, Hunter caved.
Hunter’s voice was so low. “I claimed her last night.”
Unable to smile in her panther form, she huffed instead, drawing everyone’s attention away from Hunter.
Why is everyone freaking out? Hunter explained all about mates and claiming and I wanted him to. We belong to each other and I couldn’t be happier.
Neri didn’t understand. They stood there, shocked at Hunter’s actions. All the immortals who had mates had claimed them in the same way. Neri had a mark on her shoulder and whenever she brushed it with her fingers or her hair swung against it, it reminded her Hunter wanted her.
Hunter (A Dark Assassins Novel Book Five) Page 9