one, meaning any powers that are passed along will be six times weaker than the source. Most likely, only the basic predominant qualities will be passed along for a short time before being weakened by that same ratio.”
Cole felt the proverbial lightbulb start to glow over his head, but knew it was forty watts at best. “So, this stuff might make someone become just a little bit of a werewolf?”
“Actually,” Daniels said with a wince, “a full bond would be needed for transformation. With this process, only predominant traits like strength or endurance of the specimen would be passed on in a diluted form.”
“So if I injected this—”
Daniels shook his head and waggled his hands as if going into convulsions. “No direct injection into the bloodstream. That would be too dangerous. Paige has suggested another means of introduction into the system that might just work.”
When he looked over at Paige, Cole was surprised he didn’t see canary feathers dangling from her bottom lip.
“I sure did,” she said proudly. Being in the football frame of mind, Paige motioned for a pass from the Nymar, and had to scramble to catch the brick-sized package before getting hit in the face. Even that near miss wasn’t enough to dampen her spirits. She ripped off the brown paper to reveal a cardboard box, which she also tore open. Inside, wrapped in bubble wrap and plastic bags, was a cylindrical grip, some long needles wrapped in more plastic, and a piece of machinery that looked like a strange amalgam of spooled wires, small pistons, and metal brackets.
It wasn’t until Cole saw the heading on the receipt that he had any clue what those pieces were supposed to form. “Mustache Pete’s Tattoo Supply? Are you serious?”
He’d never seen a smile so wide on Paige’s face. “It’s perfect,” she insisted. “The stuff can’t be injected, so it doesn’t go into a vein. This is a way to get it right where it needs to be without going too deep!”
“You know how to use that machine?” Cole asked.
“I’m not making a real tattoo. I’ll just be drawing lines on arms or legs. It doesn’t matter what it looks like because it won’t even last. Right, Daniels?”
Daniels rolled his eyes and reluctantly nodded. “Every test I’ve run has resulted in the entire sample degrading over a relatively short amount of—”
“It breaks up, burns off, fades away, whatever you want to say,” Paige cut in. “I’ve seen it!”
“You’ve seen it on a pig,” Daniels corrected. “A
Winking and grinning at Cole, she said, “He also tested it on himself.”
“I’m not exactly the same as you two,” Daniels said.
“But he’s still got human muscle tissue…Well,” Paige groaned, “a little muscle tissue. This stuff he tapped into his arm gave him enough of a boost to move his furniture without breaking a sweat. After a few minutes the stuff just faded away. It was beautiful!”
“Tapped in?” Cole asked.
“Old school Polynesian method,” she said. “Real tribal. Very manly. It worked pretty well, but he wanted to refine it some more. I gave him another week and here we are.”
“You’re two days early!” Daniels snapped. And just when it seemed he couldn’t be more annoyed, a grating buzz filled the apartment. “What the hell?” he muttered as he scurried to the front door.
Paige flew across the room to grab him by the shoulder. “Don’t let anyone in,” she hissed.
Matching her harsh whisper, Daniels told her, “I wasn’t. That’s the buzzer from the security door.”
“Are you expecting anyone?”
He shook his head.
Cole walked over to stand next to the television, which put him between the front door and the kitchen. He’d just spotted the panel in the wall next to the door when the buzz came again. From that distance it was loud enough to rattle his back teeth. “Maybe it’s just someone downstairs hitting the wrong button.”
“Maybe it’s those two that have been sitting in their car watching the building,” Daniels suggested.
“Can you point the car out from here?” Paige asked.
Daniels raced from the buzzing panel to the sliding glass door that opened onto one of the patios Cole had spotted from the parking lot. Daniels stopped there and gingerly pulled aside one of the vertical plastic strips covering the door. He peeked through the narrow opening and then eased the strip back into place. “They’re gone,” he whispered.
“Are you sure?” Cole asked.
Daniels nodded. “The car’s still there, but it’s empty.”
“Someone leaving their car unattended in a parking lot isn’t what I’d call suspicious,” Paige said.
Daniels had already caused a mild reaction within the two Skinners, but something else triggered a dull heat that ran from Cole’s scars up to his elbows. Paige met his eyes long enough to let him know that she’d felt it too.
Whoever was downstairs tapped on the button two quick times, like the friendly beep of a car horn.
After Paige nodded solemnly and stepped back, Daniels reached out to push the speaker button. Setting his jaw as if there was a camera attached to his door, he said, “What do you want? It’s late.”
“My name is Burkis. I think you know why I’m here.”
Chapter 10
Paige’s hand locked around Daniels’s wrist to pull his finger away from the button.
“Do you know anyone named Burkis?” she asked.
Daniels shook his head as he replied, “Is he the one from New York?”
“So you do know him?”
“No, but I’ve heard someone from New York has been trying to find me.”
“And why didn’t you say anything?”
The fleshy pockets around Daniels’s eyes pulled back and his lips twisted into a gaping frown that displayed one and a half sets of fangs that had slipped from their sockets. “I
The buzzer went off with a prolonged, impatient stab of the downstairs button.
Before Paige could answer that, Cole leaned forward and asked, “Can you see the front door from the first floor apartment?”
“Yes,” Daniels replied. “Well…sort of.”
Cole looked to Paige and raised his eyebrows with another unspoken proposition. She picked up on it immediately and nodded. “Good enough,” she said. “Daniels, keep this guy talking while we go down and have a look. Any trouble, you come down to us. Where’s the Blood Blade?”
“It’s in a safe in the apartment right below us. Bedroom, under the throw rug.”
She ran to the closet and slid down the ladder. Cole was about to join her when Daniels snapped his fingers to catch his attention.
“The ladder to get to the first floor is in the little closet in the hall where the water heater should be,” the balding Nymar told him. When the buzzer sounded again, Daniels answered right away. “Sorry, I was checking my contact list. Who sent you?”
Cole couldn’t hear the answer, but the voice that came through the speaker had the low pitch and stern tone of a parent dealing with a bothersome kid. Grabbing onto the sides of the ladder, Cole slid down and hit the floor on the balls of his feet. He went straight to the hallway closet and motioned for Paige to follow. Sure enough, instead of a water heater, there was another rough hole in the floor with a ladder extending down from it. Cole and Paige were a bit more careful to keep quiet as they descended, but were still quick to get to the front door of apartment 103.
Since he was the first to arrive, Cole placed his eye to the peephole. Within seconds Paige was behind him. He expected to get pushed out of the way but instead felt her hand press firmly on his back as she whispered into his ear.
