by Leela Ash
Now, with his senses already attuned to the entire land, which he knew like the back of his hand, he tried to sense intruders in the area. If Jessica was truly in this area, he would be able to feel it, he thought, listening closely.
Silence met his ears.
He trudged on until he saw the unmistakable imprint of female sandals on a path that veered off in the location of Tailan and headed toward …
No! His heart thudding in his chest, Theodore began to run using supernatural speed. This was a highly restricted area of Exotic Rescue, which meant people never came here unless they were authorized to do so. The workers only came to top off the occasional supply of Tailan.
As he hurried into the clearing, his heart sank when he realized he was too late; she had found the surgical unit for shifter animals. It wasn’t labeled as such, but that was what it was. He bounded inside the building and found her already caressing the head of a great big lion as she assured it repeatedly and dipped a syringe into its side.
She looked up at him, her eyes shining, “Theodore. Why didn’t you tell me about this part of the rescue? You keep more wild animals here but they are more wounded. That lion has a mangled paw.”
Theodore’s gaze met that of the lion shifter and he shook his head slightly, warning him not to change into his human form, although, as a rule in Exotic Rescue, shifters stayed in animal form until they were healed to help the Tailan Mineral work better. But sometimes, when a shifter was injured enough, he might be unable to control his powers and could keep shifting between his animal and human form.
He shifted his gaze back to Jessica. Her eyes were shining with such bright light as though she had totally forgotten their quarrel. The change in her was amazing, he thought. She must really love her work. She had already turned back around to face the lion and was busying herself with attending to him and trying to read his chart.
She frowned when she saw his prescribed dosage of an antibiotic. “Who ordered this? In a man, this gram of antibiotics is fine but for a lion this size, they would barely make a difference.”
Theodore frowned as he came forward to stand beside her. The particular shifter was an Archstone shifter and he had been caught and injured just last night, by Roy and his men, and they had used very deadly poison to stun him. Then, when he was down, they had run him over with their truck as many times as they could. When he had arrived at Exotic Rescue, he had been in no shape to handle the level of strength required to remain in animal form, so he had kept shifting between his human and shifter forms, which was why the antibiotics had been gauged at that level.
But he couldn’t very well tell Jessica that.
“They are more critical and injured, and that’s why we have separated them and restricted access to only very essential personnel.”
She nodded. His explanation made sense. She collected the sample carefully and rose. “I’ll run these samples. I might find something useful that has been overlooked.”
He looked at her. How on Earth could he snatch that needle from her without raising a million questions? It was almost impossible.
He quietly stood aside to let her pass. As she brushed past him, he felt a rush of desire. He sighed and followed her. “Can we talk about last night?”
She froze for a minute and bowed her head for a nanosecond before lifting it and looking at him. “Last night is in the past, Mr. Cooper. It doesn’t exist anymore.”
He sighed, “I shouldn’t have said what I said. I regret it. Please forgive me. I was a jerk for no reason,” he said, apologizing for the first time in years.
Jessica wasn’t impressed, though. Her eyes were stormy and turbulent as she said, “Just answer me this, though, why did you pass out? Was the sex that bad?”
Theodore shook his head, “Believe me, I enjoyed every bit of last night. I just…”
“What?” she asked almost breathlessly.
His gaze dropped to her parted lips and all the feelings he had been trying to suppress came rushing back to the surface. He wanted her all over again, he thought, as he felt his dick stir and twitch in interest.
He scrubbed a weary hand down his face and gave her the abridged version, “So many years ago, I watched my parents and their friends die. I watched them get killed in a very violent manner.”
Sympathy and sorrow sprang into her eyes at once and she reached out a commiserating hand to squeeze his arm.
He accepted her sympathy with a nod. “I don’t like to talk about it much, but I suppose it still affects me more than I care to admit. Every time something reminds me of them, so seriously, I tend to, um, pass out.”
Confusion mingled with the other expressions already on her face, “Our lovemaking reminded you of your parents’ death? I don’t know how that makes me feel.”
He quirked his upper lip, “No, it’s just that I am sometimes wary of getting close to anyone. In that moment, I honestly thought you were beginning to mean more to me than I could handle. I panicked and tried to remember the last time I had cared for someone that much, and it was my parents that came to mind.”
She nodded, “I think I can understand a little. After my ex, the kids’ father, I’ve never let any man close to me. I haven’t even … well, been with a man until you.”
Male triumph and possessiveness gleamed in his eyes for a moment, then he grinned, “That’s saying something, huh?”
Jessica looked down at the vial in her hands and then back up at him, “Do you think this might be fate? Like, maybe, all of this was supposed to happen so that we could meet and get involved?”
The familiar panic clutched at his gut and Theodore took a step back, “Involved? We’re not involved. Last night was just about —”
“Sex,” she supplied, her voice as sharp as a razor.
He sighed, “I was going to say lovemaking.”
“It’s all semantics, Mr. Cooper. But thanks for setting me straight at once,” she whispered, putting space between them.
“Why the formality? Jessica —” he began.
She lifted one hand. “Save it.”
The screen door crashed into its frame behind her as she exited the room.
Theodore swore, fighting the urge to slap a hand against his head. He had made such a grave mistake, again, and now, he might never be able to fix it.
Chapter 18
Roy Davison grunted in satisfaction as he surveyed the stealthy black garb Sean and Peter, his two most trusted men, had arrayed before him.
It was high time he taught his nemesis a lesson. Theodore thought too highly of himself, and it was about time he made him pay for this.
He looked at the men, “I want us to be in and out in a matter of minutes. Move swiftly, make as little noise as possible, and get very good pictures.”
The men looked at their teams and nodded. They were twelve in all, and Roy had commissioned them to infiltrate Theodore’s Exotic Rescue. They were his men and he had indoctrinated them with his theory that Theodore was up to something that was evil and venomous; something that could harm humans.
As he watched them go, Roy’s eyes glinted with satisfaction. He couldn’t wait to expose Theodore for the shifter he was. He was one of the few people who knew the truth about that mutant, and he would expose him for the vermin he was, if it was the last thing he did, he thought, his hand balling in anger.
This was a reconnaissance mission and nothing more. He would join them when it was time for the real party, he thought, throwing back his head and emitting a deep belly laugh.
Over the years, he had tried everything. He had sabotaged Exotic Rescue by cutting wires, ruining transformers, tampering with water lines, but as soon as he left the place, Theodore flung money at whatever mishap he had created and it went away. He had hated Theodore for years because he had watched the bastard kill his father, helped by that wolf in his pack, Michael Bennet. There were no two … creatures he hated more. He wanted to make certain he ruined them.
Orgasmic pleasure coursed t
hrough him as he remembered the devastation the great Atlas Corning had caused all those years ago. Atlas had been a very wise man and he had hated humans and shifters as much as Roy did.
Atlas had led the crusade that wiped out most of the shifters around Angel Springs at that time and he had slowly began to fill the town with their kind; vampires. They had been feeding happily on the townspeople until the children of the dead shifters Atlas left alive had grown and gotten their shifter abilities. Six of them had led the attack on the town’s vampires. It was those six who killed his father. His father had been the great Atlas Corning.
His fist tightened with anger now as he glared off into an unseen past. He would make them pay if it was the last thing he did.
He had been a vampire and he had been Roy’s father, though no one knew of his relationship to that icon.
No one knew of the key to his ruse either. It was tragic enough that his father had died, but thankfully he had been able to recover the ring. He glanced down at the silver band encrusted with it’s blood red ruby. According to his father, it was ancient, and it bestowed upon the vampire who wore it the ability to walk in the day, although only for limited periods of time, and only with some effort. But his father was able with his dying breath to bestow it upon him. He gave it to him in the name of hate. Hatred for the shifters and all they stood for. And now it was he, Roy who employed it to carry on his father’s work, the work of ridding the world of the foul shifters.
Over the years, Roy had learned to hide his abilities from everyone, in great part thanks to that ring, but it seemed as though the Exotic Shifters were on to him now. At least that was his suspicion.
One last recruit sauntered past, and Roy grabbed his arm, “Remind the men, we are in this for the money, so they need to get us the layout of their security too.”
The fool nodded his head eagerly, happy that Commander Roy had deigned to speak to him directly, then he trotted off to join the rest of the fools in combat gear already heading to Exotic Rescue to help Roy get a revenge they knew nothing about.
Roy cracked his neck, deep in thought. He would probably make a meal of this particular recruit, he thought as he watched the man walk away with a simpering smile. The man was a thorough fool and he would make a delicious meal if nothing else.
His eyes glinted with the thought of sinking his fangs into that scrawny neck and hunger rumbled through his body as he climbed to his feet. It was time for dinner, he thought with a chuckle as he reached into the secret compartment in the floor beneath his seat and pulled out a bag of blood. He set the ring aside as well. It took some effort to wear it, and now he wanted to lose himself to the enjoyment of this sustenance.
If he could get his hands on Exotic Rescue and that Tailan Mineral they had hidden away over there, then he could easily become the most powerful vampire alive. He would destroy Theodore and he would rule this world with an iron fist.
“Jessica is completely out of her mind,” Maria reported the next morning.
Theodore looked up, his heart hammering, “What’s she gone and done now?”
Jessica appeared, her eyes gleaming with triumph. “I may have solved science’s most burning question.”
He kept a poker face. “Oh?”
“I managed to make a breakthrough with yesterday’s blood sample. That lion’s blood is unlike any animal’s blood I have ever encountered. I can’t believe it. It contains traces of what appear to be some rare elements and a one I can’t even identify. But that’s not even the exciting part! I was working on bandaging up a gash that one of the snakes, of all things, and it got away from me and toppled over the lion’s blood sample. Well everything went everywhere…the lions blood got all over the snake. Long story short, I swear it wasn’t 30 minutes later and I couldn’t even find the cut on the snake. It had completely healed! And no I wasn’t imagining it. On further examination I think this blood has properties that could finally unlock the secrets to curing cancer. Yes it was a snake, but the underlying biology is the same. A cell is a cell. I mean this is amazing. I’ll be at the town’s hospital today to get blood samples from a cancer patient so I can test their reaction to the platelets from that blood.”
Theodore frowned, his heart beating wildly in his chest. She had tested the blood and it was abnormal? Of course, it was abnormal; that had been no ordinary lion. That was a shifter and he was already being treated using Tailan. That must have been the mineral she couldn’t identify in the blood.
“Jessica, slow down,” he tried.
“Are you kidding? This validates years of my research. I’ve already sent a sample of that lion’s blood to the lab in New York, to validate my findings, and I have just sent a detailed article to my publisher.”
Theodore shot to his feet, “You. Did. What?”
Maria blanched. She had never heard Theodore Cooper raise his voice. Without another word, she slunk away, leaving Jessica to face the heat.
Jessica frowned at him, “What exactly are you yelling about?”
He stalked toward her so incensed that a vein throbbed in his neck, “Who on Earth gave you permission to take that blood in the first place, never mind to send it to some other lab? And what about this article? Do you want the media on my doorstep? Cancel it. Now!”
Jessica’s chin went up, “I didn’t realize I needed permission to do investigations. I am a scientist. Investigations are what we do. Besides, what does it matter if the media comes? The publicity can only be good for you and Exotic Rescue.”
“This is my property and you’re only here on invitation! I can rescind my offer and have you kicked out faster than you can say investigations,” he growled.
She glared right back at him, displaying a backbone he hadn’t known she possessed. “Well? Is that your decision?”
Theodore sighed. It was impossible to stay angry with her. She made him weak in more ways than one… and yet, she made him strong too. Something about her made him feel as though he could conquer the world. Well, technically, he had conquered the world and amassed a fortune that rivaled the wealth of most nations, but Jessica made him feel as though he had achieved far more than he already had, as though he could do anything.
“Jessica, please have a seat,” he said as he sank onto the chair.
“I will not.”
“Yes, you will,” he growled as he placed a firm hand on her arm and tugged her in the direction of the cushion. He planted her ass firmly onto the cushion and sat down beside her. She gave him a mutinous look for his trouble.
“I am a very private person, Jessica, and you should know that already. I don’t even have my own pictures on Exotic Rescue’s websites. I applaud your research, but I really do not want anything that would bring the media to my doorstep.”
Jessica stared at him. He seemed very earnest and determined. He meant every word, she realized. A chill crept over her skin. First, he hadn’t wanted the cops or the medics to examine him, now he didn’t want the media on his doorstep. What was he hiding?
A memory intruded and she recalled how the townsfolk had been mistrustful of his name and how Roy, in particular, had seemed to hate him.
O Lord, what had she gotten mixed up in? Had she gone and fallen in love with a criminal?
The blood drained from her face as she heard her own thoughts. Love? Was she in love with him?
The knowledge settled that somewhere between lovemaking and fighting she had fallen in love with him in the pit of her stomach like lead.
Jessica stared at him in horror. How had she allowed herself to fall for him? She had always avoided men, she thought. She had never admitted it outright to herself, but there it was. She had always avoided men and buried herself in her work, preferring to work with animals. Animals were safe: they didn’t lead one on and dump one on one’s ass; they didn’t make one feel lost without them; they didn’t betray one.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” he demanded
She shook her head, staying mute.
/> “Jessica?”
“You’re hiding something aren’t you? There’s something deep and dark that you don’t want the world to know and that’s why you’re so afraid of my work and my findings. That’s it, isn’t it?” she asked.
It was his turn to stare at her mutely.
“Theodore, I didn’t come to Exotic Rescue looking for trouble. I came here to learn and improve and grow, and potentially find a solution to a serious problem for humans. If you stand in the way of that, I’ll mow you over,” she whispered.
As she rose to leave, her gaze fell on something on his desk. It was a scrap of fabric from her dress. It must have torn yesterday when she had gone to take the samples of that lion.
She grabbed it and looked at him, “Why do you have this?”
“Because I’m a sentimental fool,” he told her in self-disgust as he snatched the fabric from her hand, flung it into the trash, and stalked around his desk, obviously dismissing her.
Chapter 19
“Carla? Do you think your plan will work?” Kal asked urgently, his eyes bright with childish curiosity as they peered through the hedge surrounding their new home in Exotic Rescue.
“Shhhh,” Carla whispered urgently. “Not so loud or someone could find us.”
Arizona looked down at the mud caking her pink trainers and her face fell in consternation. “I don’t like this place,” she wailed. “Why can’t we go inside and have popcorn and watch cartoons?”
“Because, Arizona,” Carla said, “we need your mom to coming looking for you. If she thinks you’re missing, she’ll call my dad for help.”
“Now, do you understand?” Kal asked his sister.
She shook her head miserably, her lower lip trembling as she forced back her tears. She badly wanted to burst into tears but Kal would just call her a crybaby if she did and he would never include her in anything he did again.
Kal sighed as he leaned down on his haunches in front of his little sister just like the grownups liked to do. “Listen, Ari. We don’t have a dad, and Carla doesn’t have a mom.”