by Anya Nowlan
It was just him, for now, and he was damn sure that Nia wasn’t being taken to the roof for no reason.
Just when he made visual contact again, seeing Nia being dragged up the stairs by two large, wide-shouldered Arctics wolves, they used his own tricks against him. A smoke grenade went off right in front of him, making Thor stumble for a moment and almost fall face-first into the steps. He covered his mouth with his arm and pushed through, keeping his eyes squeezed shut.
Two flights later, the smoke had cleared and he caught a whiff of fresh air. The door leading to the roof had been thrown open and he could see shadows moving through the golden-yellow glow coming through the doorway.
Nia!
Bringing his gun up again, Thor ran after them. When he was one flight away, he could hear the sounds of a helicopter approaching and his stomach filled with dread.
If they get her on it, I’ll never find her again.
The thought was as desperate as it was resolute. He knew that would be it. It was now or never and Thor was determined to make it now. His instincts took over and he ran through the door shooting. One of the men hauling Nia toward the landing chopper fell like a sack of potatoes, making Nia stumble as well because he was holding onto her so tight.
She screamed, looking back, but then the sound died on her lips and her gorgeous eyes went wide with surprise. Thor didn’t have time to enjoy the image of her beautiful face, because at the same time, the men on the helicopter opened fire against him, making him duck behind one of the large air vents about halfway between the entrance and where the helicopter was landing.
“Lynx Four, they’re on the roof. Target being loaded onto a helicopter now,” he said, surprising himself with how deathly calm his voice sounded.
He reloaded his rifle and took a calming breath before popping out once more, in time for the helicopter to touch down on the roof. Squaring his jaw, he brought up his rifle and fired again, this time hitting the remaining man holding onto Nia right in the eye, with the bullet coming out of his eye socket and hitting the body of the chopper.
Nia screamed and her step stuttered as she tried to turn around and run back toward Thor now. The helicopter was too close though and another man jumped up, pulling her into the helicopter through the open doors.
“No!” Thor yelled, his attention split between the man pulling Nia in and the one who was about to put a bullet through his own head.
Thor got the guard in the helicopter with another headshot at the same moment that Nia’s feet were lifted from the ground. Gritting his teeth, Thor threw the rifle out of his hands and ran as fast as he could, letting the shift take him at the same time. His body twisted and convulsed under the raw power of the change, the panther finally getting the freedom it had yearned for.
By the time Thor’s feet touched the metal roof again, the boots were replaced with soft and silky paws and the large feline pushed itself off the ground with a powerful thrust. The doors were still open as the helicopter tried to take flight, the panther entering through them and landing on all four paws right over Nia.
He growled menacingly at the two men staring at him in shock now and before either of them could set the sights of their rifles on him in the tight, enclosed space, Thor lunged for them. All he could see was red as he ripped out the larynx of the first man and dropped him there, blood spilling everywhere. Just as quickly, he whipped around and went for the other, who backed away and stumbled out of the helicopter, a few feet above the roof now.
Instead of going after him, he glanced at Nia to make sure she was okay – her hands were bound tightly behind her back and she had several bruises on her face, but she was still alive. That would have to do for now.
Thor snarled and hurled his body through the thin slit between the back and the pilot’s area, his long clawed paw reaching the pilot before he could get to his gun in his frenzy to keep control of the helicopter and reach for his firearm. Blood gushed out of his neck and he clutched at it with one hand, letting go of the controls and squeezing the trigger on his pistol twice, sending the rounds into the control panel of the helicopter.
Thor pushed his body back, feeling the violent swing of the chopper now, quickly losing control. He turned to find Nia already getting up and to the door, ready to jump out. They leapt out one after another, Thor landing on his feet on the roof and Nia painfully on one shoulder and on her knees.
He nudged her up and he could feel the way her body was shuddering with tears and pain, but she propped herself up on him and they both ran, the helicopter crashing on the roof behind them and the heat of the explosion searing Thor’s coat and pushing them forward. He covered Nia’s body with his own as the blast rocked the factory, feeling the burn engulf his body as a snarl of pain escaped from between his teeth.
A moment later, he felt himself being dragged forward and Nia out from under him. Thor’s first reaction was to lash out again, but he stopped right when he saw that the men putting their hands on her were Ryker and Rio, while Dice and Prowler were dragging his own body to safety. Price was by the door, standing above the body of the man who’d managed to jump out of the helicopter, the barrel of his rifle still smoking and disgust painted all over Price’s face.
“Come on, we need to get out of here,” Dice said, urgency in his tone as Thor let go of the panther and fell into the shift.
When he returned to his human form, he almost wished he hadn’t.
Thirteen
Nia
“You’re an unbelievably fucking stupid man, Thor Dremmons,” Nia said, exasperated as she changed Thor’s bandages in the faceless hospital room they found themselves in.
The building it was nestled in was like all the others in Singapore – completely featureless in how pristinely modern it was. Apparently The Firm owned the whole thing – of course they did – and the top few floors were reserved for medical personnel and the facilities they required.
Between Thor’s burns, her own cuts, bruises and mild aches, as well as the plethora of small injuries Shifter Squad Nine had failed to get checked up after their earlier missions, the staff had their hands full.
“Yeah, well, I’m not sure you should be saying that to the man who saved your life,” Thor said with a snort, though he wore the makings of a smile that saved him from getting a smack from Nia.
Instead, she just shook her head and applied more salve to his back, which was riddled with serious burns. Thankfully enough, being a shifter and a damn strong one at that, he was healing almost by the hour. The two of them had been left alone in the room now and the sun was high in the sky, though the air conditioning was so good that you could barely tell that the heat was absolutely blistering outside.
“I’ll tell you exactly what you need to hear. That you’re a dumb, stubborn man. You could have gotten yourself killed pulling that fucking stunt,” she said, exasperated and hovering somewhere between completely in awe of him and entirely pissed off at him.
But how could a woman be mad at a man who had just gone to bat for her like Thor had and almost gotten himself killed in the process? It was damn hard to do, though the fact that she was still entirely pissed at him for leaving her after her injury as he had made it easier to manage.
“I had a good enough incentive to do it,” he murmured lightly, the smile wiped from his lips now.
He wouldn’t look her in the eye and that was something she’d noticed the second they had a moment together. Aside from a couple of stolen glances when he thought she wouldn’t see them, he’d basically acted like instead of her there was a black hole in the middle of the room.
How can I tell him anything if he won’t even look at me?
A lump formed in Nia’s throat as she thought of that, her hand still mechanically rubbing the salve on his back before putting the bandage down over it.
In all honesty, she should have been thinking about much more pressing matters. Like, for example, how half of Singapore was in danger of mutating into… well, something o
ver the next few weeks or months. She’d been filled in on the findings and the reason for why Thor’s employers were suddenly so interested in her safety – which had been a cold shower in a way because for a second, she’d found herself daydreaming that it had been Thor who had masterminded the whole rescue.
In any case, the information The Firm provided her was on track with what she’d overheard with The Arctics. That there had been a virus of some sort released into the Singaporean water reserves and at least forty percent of the inhabitants of the large city had come in contact with it before it could be contained.
Seeing as the chemicals and compounds used directly related to her research – as detailed in a paper she had written on her last year in New York – then it became clear why The Arctics wanted her out of the picture and why The Firm was so interested in getting her in their possession as well.
And, while she knew she should have been focusing on that, she couldn’t help but be far more interested in Thor and everything surrounding him at the moment. She, too, had good enough incentive for that.
“Yeah? If the incentive was so good, why did you disappear on me?” she asked, finding herself blurting out the question before she could stop herself.
The silence that rang between them was more deafening than any explosion she could have imagined. Thor stared right past her, his eyes downcast, and Nia almost vibrated on the edge of the seat, her hands rolling into fists.
He won’t even tell me this much. And this is the-
But she couldn’t finish her thought, because the doors to Thor’s private room were thrown open and four men marched in. One of them she recognized – Dice, Thor’s commanding officer – but the other three she’d never seen before. The man in the front, with cold green eyes and a wolfish look on his face could have been a member of The Arctics as easily as he could have been a Firm employee.
“Miss Feroulis. I’m glad to find you alive and well,” the mystery man said, and the room seemed to become a little bit colder as he spoke.
Or maybe it was just because Thor visibly tensed up, sitting up in bed and tossing the man a hateful, albeit careful glare.
“And you as well, Thor,” the man added absently.
Dice stood by Thor’s bed, his eyes slightly narrowed as he observed the exchange. Nia could only look from one man to the other, figuring out quickly enough that the other two new imprints in the room were not to be considered as anyone important as they remained by the door instead of engaging in the conversation.
“What’s going on? Do I know you?” Nia asked, frowning.
“No, I do not think you do, but I know you, Miss Feroulis. At least by your research. Impressive work on those semi-adhesive carbohydrate masses in oil palms, riveting writing,” the tall man said, giving her a toothy smile that was as far from genuine as Nia had ever seen a smile be.
She leaned away from him slightly, instinct kicking in. For a shifter who was not a predatory animal, it came naturally to understand the shifts of power in any space. Right now, she had no doubt that the most dangerous element around her was the man staring at her with a mixture of disinterest and expectation, as if she owed him something.
“Thank you,” she said, forcing her voice calm.
“I think I get to ask this far too often lately, but what is this about, Spade?” Dice queried, quirking a brow.
Spade. The name suits him, she mused silently, scooting slightly closer to Thor on the bed.
“I think I’ve given Miss Feroulis enough time to recuperate now. Seeing as Thor is fine as well, I believe it is time to get to work, hmm?”
“Get to work on what?” Nia asked.
“On the antidote to The Arctics’ poison, of course,” he said as if it were the most obvious thing. “The people we are in connection with are expecting this matter to be resolved within a few weeks. Our labs seem to think that two weeks is about the maximum time that a human body can withstand this virus, or poison, or however you wish to denominate it – I understand it carries the elements of both.”
Nia frowned, looking at Thor before she returned her gaze to Spade.
“But… I don’t think it’s that easy. Two weeks is nowhere near enough time to deconstruct something as complex as this virus. I admit I have not looked at it very closely – just read the report that was left for me after we got in – but it will need months of work and probably people much brighter than I am,” Nia said.
It wasn’t a false sense of modesty that made her say this. Anything that dealt with delicate chemical mixtures and molecular structure modification in the way that the virus seemed to be doing – LH89 as it had been named – had so many intricacies that for one person to make sense of it might take years, or decades. Two weeks was preposterous by any standards.
“Oh, but I think you’re underestimating yourself, Miss Feroulis,” Spade said, his voice becoming damn near icy. “I have it on good authority that you have plenty of incentive to work as hard and as fast on this as you possibly can. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to you, would we? Not in your delicate state.”
You could hear a pin drop in the room, it got so quiet.
Dice was the first one to regain his composure, with Spade having never lost his. Nia’s eyes grew wide and she found herself staring at Thor, whose mouth had fallen open.
He didn’t! He couldn’t!
“You’re not saying what I think you’re saying, Spade?” Dice said, smacking his palm flat on the back of his neck and then sliding it down like he’d suddenly gotten the worst migraine in the world.
Spade chuckled and the sound sent a shiver down Nia’s spine.
“As usual, it seems that none of you gentlemen can keep your dicks in your pants,” Spade said, giving an almost playful look at Thor. “And as usual, the outcome is as expected as it is problematic. I assume you had not yet told him, Nia? We should be on first name basis by now, considering everything, yes?”
“What is he saying?” Thor asked, his gaze becoming steely and his jaw setting, a vein throbbing in his neck.
He looked damn near possessed and Nia’s instincts told her to put some distance between her and him, her stomach twisting at the thought of moving away from him even an inch. But he looked at her like she’d just betrayed him and given him the hardest burden the world had ever known at the same time and it was damn difficult to deal with that with a straight face.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know how to-… I was going to-” she stuttered, looking for the words that could have explained everything and coming up with none of them.
Her eyes pricked with oncoming tears that she tried to swallow down. When she scooted away from him a little, Thor’s eyes flashed from green to gold and then back to green again, his expression softening slightly.
“As much as I love sentimental moments like these,” Spade started, the sarcasm thick in his words. “We don’t really have time for this. You can have your lovers’ quarrel later. Nia, I need you to go to work now, this needs to be done in two weeks and no more. Shifter Squad Nine almost traded their lives for yours, I think it’s the least you could do to repay them, hmm?”
“Lay off her, Spade,” Dice said, his tone protective. “She needs a moment.”
“We don’t have a moment,” Spade said, and Nia felt like the whole room was slowly icing over, partially because of Spade, and partially because of the lost and betrayed and utterly confused look painted on Thor’s expression.
“No,” she said, shaking her head as she tore her gaze away from Thor for a moment. “I can’t do it, not in that timeframe. You’re going to have to find someone else.”
The last thing she could deal with right now was holding the lives of several million people in the palms of her hands. Not when there was a life growing inside of her, one that apparently was neither wanted nor expected by its father.
She swallowed dryly, feeling her hands becoming clammy. Thor still hadn’t said a damn thing about her news and every second that ticked by cut a de
eper wound in her. It wasn’t as if she’d been expecting him to welcome the news with open arms or anything. Hell, she hadn’t even planned on telling him if she did happen to find him and he didn’t seem to be open to the idea.
Considering what had happened to his first child, she had certainly not expected to go after him or be in the same room with him before the baby was born, healthy and happy. She did not know Thor half as well as she should have, considering that he was the father of her unborn child, but what she did know told her that another loss like the one he had suffered would kill him.
“I’m sorry that you feel this way, Nia,” Spade said, his words each sharp as daggers.
Nia could barely see him move. All she saw was the sudden flash of a needle and syringe, produced from the pocket of his black jacket, and then the pinprick of an injection on her neck before he pulled away, already walking toward the door with purposeful strides.
Nia gasped, her hand on her neck, and Dice was by her side in a flash, his eyes flashing the dark brown of his animal. Thor was halfway across the bed, standing up and ready to charge Spade, but he was too far to make it to him. Spade’s guards stepped in his path regardless as Spade opened the door, hovering there for a moment.
“The fuck did you just do to her!?” Thor screamed, the snaking vein of his neck now having companions on his forehead as well, throbbing with rage.
“I gave her a better incentive,” Spade said simply, his expression unreadable. “Nia, you were just injected with LH89. It is up to you to find an antidote. I trust that you know as well as I do that your pregnancy will act as an accelerant. If my guess is correct, you get to be both the first patient to exhibit symptoms as well as the only one who has a hope of curing it. I wish you the best of luck, Nia.”
Nia saw the look Spade threw at Thor, who had gone against Spade’s guards, snarling with anger. The two men didn’t even try to fight Thor, simply held him off long enough for Spade to walk away.
