I’d been imagining. “That doesn’t sound too bad a skill to have.”
Jack snorted softly. “Yeah, only if they changed too often, they discovered they couldn’t change back to human form. Their body chemistry had altered so much the cells no longer remembered true form, and they got stuck in animal form.”
Which wasn’t a good thing. Death would surely be better than never being able to regain humanity. “And the remaining four?”
“Were shifter and werewolf crosses, and all four had psychic skills. Three of the four were unaware of the fact. These skills were all enhanced to the point where they became dangerous. I believe all four have now been transferred to one of the military programs.”
I glared at him. “Don’t try putting me in any military program.”
He gave me a toothy smile I didn’t trust one bit. “Darlin’, you’re mine. If you go anywhere, it’ll be into the guardian program.”
“That ain’t going to happen, either.”
“You may not have a choice. If that drug does affect you, it’s either us or the military until we discover the full breadth of the changes.”
Then it was the Directorate. But that didn’t mean I was entering the system without a fight. If Jack wanted me as a guardian, he was going to have to drag me there kicking and screaming
“So what happens now?”
“The drug doesn’t appear to have had any ill effects yet, but even so, we’ll begin regular blood tests and cell scans. We’ll also begin regular psi tests, in case alterations start showing there.”
“I’m telepathic—you know that.”
He nodded. “Entry tests also indicated latent skills in clairvoyance.”
“Which is not exactly a skill the military can give a damn about.”
“On the contrary, clairvoyance provides an excellent means of information gathering.”
“Yeah, but as you said, it’s latent. As in, not active and not used.”
“Granted. But your telepathy skill isn’t. Given it can be used for both information gathering and as a weapon, it definitely
I didn’t want to be off the scale. Didn’t want to use my skills for anything more than defense. But I had a vague feeling Talon had taken all choice away from me. I kicked another stone into the dam and imagined it was the head of a certain golden wolf sinking under the murky brown water
Jack squeezed my shoulder gently. “You could be one of the lucky ones. It might have no effect at all.”
My smile was grim. “You don’t believe that any more than I do.”
He hesitated. “No. But right now, there’s nothing we can do about it. Time will provide our answers. Meanwhile, we have a clone factory to hunt down.”
I turned and followed him down the path. “Did you know a company named Konane apparently owns Moneisha?”
He glanced over his shoulder. “No. How do you?”
“Misha told me.”
“Interesting. Wonder how he knows—and why he told you.”
“Because I asked him.”
“Maybe you should ask him a few other things—like whether he knows anything about the clones or the crossbreeds.”
“I can if you want.”
“Might be worth a try. In the meantime, I’ll get a search done on Konane.”
“You don’t think the crossbreeds are coming out of the same factory as the clones?”
“No, and the evidence that Quinn has collected confirms it.”
Rhoan was no longer sitting out in front of the cabin when we arrived. But given the delicious smell of roasting meat that hung on the air, he was probably inside harassing Liander to hurry up and serve the meal
“I’ll never get tired of that smell,” Jack said, taking a deep breath. “Which is why I live above a restaurant.”
I opened the door for him and waved him on through. “I always thought the smell of food turned a vampire’s stomach.”
Jack shook his head. “Hollywood myth. You of all people should know better than to believe something like that.”
“Hey, some myths sound very reasonable.”
“Sounding reasonable doesn’t make them so.”
He moved over to the table and I looked around for Quinn. He wasn’t in the living area, but a second later he came rattling down the stairs. His gaze met mine, dark eyes warm and filled with hunger. The fever surged through my veins, its intensity soaking me in an instant. And the full moon was still two days away. If the mission went on much longer, I’d be in trouble. The fever was still leashed, but the sheer force of it suggested it wouldn’t remain that way too long
“Hey, pretty lady,” he said, wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me close. “Guess what?”
“What?” I said, my voice little more than a husky whisper. God, he felt so good pressed up against me that my hormones were begging me to drop him to the ground and shag him senseless
“Rhoan and I drew straws. We won the bed tonight.”
I linked my hands behind his neck and kissed his chin. “Meaning we’re under the stars tomorrow?”
“Afraid so. But the weathermen say it’ll be fine.”
“It doesn’t matter anyway, because I’ve had scout training. I’ll make us a shelter.”
His grin was decidedly wicked. “Shame you didn’t bring the uniform along. Wouldn’t mind seeing you in that.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Got a fetish for women in uniform, have you?”
“Especially when they’re leggy redheads.” His breath caressed my mouth, then his lips found mine and our kiss became a long, slow seduction that had my knees wanting to buckle
“Enough, you two,” came Rhoan’s comment from behind Quinn. “Some of us have to stomach food.”
I came up for air and accepted the plate my brother shoved at me. “What’s this?”
Rhoan gave me a flat look. “What does it look like?”
“I don’t know. I think it resembles steak and fries, but it can’t be. I mean, it’s not black.”
He picked a bean off my plate and flicked it at me. His steak, I noted, was very, very rare. “When we get home, you’re on cooking duty.”
I caught the bean midair and shoved it in my mouth. “That means you do the laundry, bro.” Which was a good threat, because Rhoan hated washing as much as I hated cooking. We both hated ironing, which was why our living room was overflowing with clean, unironed clothes. “Maybe you should take some cooking lessons from your lover.”
“I can think of better things to do with my lover.”
“So can I,” Quinn whispered into my ear
I blew a breath across my forehead, but it did little to ease the fever assailing my skin. Why did I have to meet this man right in the middle of a disaster?
“When you’re ready, people,” Jack said from the table
I glanced past my brother and saw Jack had laid the maps we’d found out on the table. At one end was his computer unit, currently lit up with diagrams. I followed Rhoan over and sat down. Quinn sat next to me, his knee brushing mine and sending little tremors of electricity up my leg
“I scanned in the diagrams you found and did a cross-check of all known military installations,” Jack said. “We found three possibles—all of them sold off fifty years ago by the government.”
“Any idea who owns them or what they’re now used for?” Quinn said, his gaze on the computer screen
“One was bought by a residential development company and now has several thousand homes on it. Another is currently owned by Hoyle-Brantin, who make household products. The last one is owned by a company called Nashoba, which lists itself as being a cosmetics research and marketing organization.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Nashoba is not a brand of makeup I’ve ever heard of.”
