“I gather you know who’s behind it?”
I nodded and began to pace. “One of my regular mates was talking about me having his child recently.”
“But you didn’t consent to take this drug?”
I snorted. “Hardly. If I ever do take the risk of having kids, it’ll be with someone I love, not with someone I just fuck.”
“Have you still got the chip in your arm?”
“Shit.” I ran my fingers up my arm, and found the small lump under my skin. Relief slithered. Thank
“We need to do more tests,” Jack continued, obviously reading my relief correctly
I frowned. “Why?”
“Because the quantities of ARC1-23 in the blood sample suggest you’ve been given this drug over a couple of months, and, as I said, it’s known to have some serious side effects.”
I pushed my hair away from my face and began to pace again. The anger surging through my body wouldn’t allow me to remain still. “What kind of side effects are we talking about?”
“It seems the drug can mutate once in the body, altering not only its own chemistry but the chemistry of the host.”
“That… that…”
Jack nodded, as if in understanding. “The drug had passed all lab trials, so they decided to run a series of tests on some volunteers who were having trouble conceiving, using a mix of humans, shifters, and werewolves. Of the fifty who were in the first trial, ten were unaffected. Thirty became pregnant, and had normal gestations and births, with neither the parent nor the child showing any adverse reactions to the drug. The remaining ten, however, began to transmute in one way or another.”
With the way my luck had been running of late, I wouldn’t be one of the lucky ones who was completely unaffected. I wouldn’t even be one of the ones who got pregnant. I blew out a breath and changed my mind. I was going to rip the bastard’s balls off,
“Studies undertaken suggest it might have something to do with the fact that the ten who changed rather than getting pregnant were all of mixed heritage.”
His expression was grim and somewhat speculative. I didn’t have to read his thoughts to know he was thinking about
“So where did they find so many crossbreeds?” Breeding between nonhuman races—especially other shifters and werewolves—was extremely rare. Though we were sexually compatible, something in our genetics made it next to impossible for one breed of shifter to impregnate another naturally
“They advertised throughout Australia. Natural crossbreeding may be rare, but it does happen.”
“How long was it before the side effects became apparent?”
“The trial was conducted over a year. It was six months before the side effects started to show. Up until then, everything had been proceeding exactly as expected.”
So I had months to wait before I’d know one way or another. I kicked some stones out from under my foot, watching them splash into the water. Dragonflies buzzed the ripples, their wings jewel-like in evening light. “And how is the drug taken?”
“Via injection, once a month.”
I closed my eyes. Talon had been giving me the injections for at least two months, then. Why else had I been blacking out after drinking his “fine” champagne? “I knew he was single-minded when it came to getting his own way, but I never thought he’d go this damn far.”
“I gather we’re talking about Talon Lasalle?”
I squinted up at Jack. “How did you know?”
“Had him investigated.” His sudden smile was wry. “You may think of yourself as little more than a paper pusher, but the truth is, you work in a sensitive area and know more about the workings of the place than most of the directors. The Directorate has many enemies, and the information you and the other liaisons hold could be extremely useful to those intent on our destruction.” He shrugged. “So I know exactly who all my people spend time with.”
“You investigate everyone we come in contact with?”
He snorted softly. “Hardly. We haven’t the manpower. Just those who feature prominently in your life. The only reason Liander is involved in this mission is because I know all there is to know about him—and his exemplary record in the military. He’d make a good addition to the new team I want to set up.”
“You’d have as much hope conning Liander as you’ve had with me.”
“He’s not as stubborn as you.”
I ignored the gibe. “So what did your reports say about Misha and Talon?”
“Talon is a very successful entrepreneur with fingers in all sorts of pies—and many of those companies have fingers in other pies, not all of which we’ve tracked down yet. He’s ruthless when it comes to getting what he wants but has never stepped beyond the law—as far as we know.”
“Until it came to wanting a kid,” I muttered. “What about Misha?”
“Misha’s even more difficult to pin down. He’s very successful, but as yet we’re not exactly sure how.”
I frowned. “He owns Rollins Enterprises.”
Jack nodded. “Which has suffered five years of substantial losses, yet Misha’s personal fortune keeps getting larger.”
“Undoubtedly thanks to good investments.” Like the South Bank apartment complex
“Damn good. Only, as yet, we can’t locate all of them.”
I stared at him for a moment, not sure what to think. “You think Misha’s a crook?”
“I honestly don’t know, because both the gold and silver packs are notoriously tight when it comes to giving out information about pack members and money. I do know he’s covered his tracks very well, and my instincts suggest he’s up to something. While I doubt
I rubbed a hand across my eyes. The day that had started out so well was becoming positively shitty. “Why haven’t you mentioned this before now?”
“Because I haven’t any evidence that he
I took a deep breath and released it slowly. Misha and I were going to have a heart-to-heart when he got back. If I didn’t get answers that satisfied me—and Jack—he was struck off my list, right alongside Talon
And to think only a couple of days ago I’d been blissfully happy with them both
“So how did Talon get hold of ARC1-23 if it’s not on the market?”
“It’s his company doing the fertility research.”
Fingers in every pie, as Jack had said. “He doesn’t know I’m part vampire. He probably thought it was safe to give to me.”
“That doesn’t excuse what he’s done.”
“No.” I paused, trying to calm another rush of anger. “So what happens now?”
He considered me for a moment. “He’ll be charged, of course.”
As long as I got to him first, I didn’t care what they did to the bastard. “I hear a ‘but’ after that.”
He nodded. “The military badly wants to explore the possibilities of this drug, and Talon is the key to their getting their hands on it.”
Meaning, of course, they weren’t about to let anything happen to him until they did. “I’m gathering it’s no longer being marketed as a possible fertility drug?”
“It’s undergoing a larger trial, and test applicants are being carefully screened. After all, it worked for a good percentage of the test group.”
I took another deep breath, then asked the one question I’d avoided. “So what, exactly, does it do?”
“It appears to enhance certain abilities. Six of the ten were either human-werewolf crosses or human-shifter. All became able to take on
Relief slithered through me. Taking on any shape was pretty cool when compared to some of the scenarios
