by Kelly Meding
“Maybe before we start accusing our government of supporting this,” Jaxon said, “we get some proof first.”
Kathleen’s pursed lips suggested she knew more than she was letting on, but getting information out of her was like getting blood from a rock, and it wasn’t really the point right now: getting the werewolves out was.
“So they know we’re here,” I said. “And they seem to believe we’re here looking for a rogue wolf, but they’re suspicious because of the timing of Jaxon and me showing up at their facility and one couple asking to leave. So we need to keep up that front while we dig for more answers.”
“But how do we dig?” Jaxon asked. “I’ve only got one wish left. I mean, I could make some of us invisible again so we can snoop some more—”
“Not yet. Chandra, can you communicate what we learned to Alice and the others? Not the hybrids, specifically, but reinforce that the scientists there are up to no good, and to be ready to make their move.”
“What move?” Chandra asked.
“That is the million-dollar question right now.”
And I had no freaking clue what the answer would be. But I fully expected bloodshed. These researchers had a goal in mind, but so did I: tear that blessed building down brick by fucking brick. No matter what.
Chapter 14
Novak returned before Mom with news that he’d found evidence of several dead rabbits on the outskirts of town, likely werewolf kills, but he hadn’t been able to track Gideon. It gave Tennyson a starting point, though, when the sun finally set, and we filled Novak in on everything he’d missed. He was up to speed when Mom returned with three motel room keys to a rundown place I’d apparently missed on the drive into town.
She’d also gotten a response about the elevator glyphs in the meantime, and she didn’t look happy about it as she brought it up on a tablet. “They’re Gaelic, as I suspected, based on the protective ward from Cailleach,” she said. “But they’ve been modified using American symbols, as well. This one is an eagle’s talon, this one a quiver of arrows.”
The more I stared, the more easily I saw the symbols twisted up in the original Gaelic. “Do you know what they mean, though?”
“No, it’s some sort of code that obviously has meaning to the people who work in that building.” She looked me dead in the eyes, her expression grave. “Shiloh, the eagle talon, the arrows, the olive branch, this six-sided star, the circle . . .”
“Oh my God,” Jaxon said. He looked like he wanted to hurl.
“Okay, what does all that mean?” I asked. “I mean, the eagle is all over American stuff, so are you saying the government is somehow involve in this?”
“Not just the government.” Jaxon pulled out his badge and held it next to the tablet. “They’re all symbols in the Marshals Service badge.”
“They’re what?” Chandra asked.
“Look.”
I looked. Really looked, and the more I studied the badge and the tablet, the more easily I saw it. The individual symbols buried within the Gaelic representations on the elevator buttons added up to the whole of the US Marshals badge emblem. “You have got to be shitting me.”
“Your Marshals Service is involved in this?” Tennyson asked.
“Evidence sure points that way,” Jaxon replied with open disgust in his voice. “Fuck.”
“But the Marshals are overseen by the Department of Justice,” I said. “So we’re saying the federal government is involved in private experimentation using werewolf DNA?” The only person in the room who didn’t appear shocked at all was Kathleen. “Let me guess. Your employer already suspected as much?”
“Yes,” she replied. “Why do you think Lars and I were placed within the Para-Marshals? And Weller’s arrest last week for his part with the necromancer only confirmed our suspicions.”
“When were you going to tell us?”
“When I had more concrete evidence, which I now have, thanks to your mother and her sources.” She flashed my mom a creepy smile. “You should have been an investigator, Ms. Juno.”
“I prefer my quiet life and my garden,” Mom replied. “And believe me, I am eager to get home.”
I was eager for Mom to get home and out of harm’s way, too, because shit just got super-serious, and I didn’t want her involved in this anymore. “Mom, maybe you should take your rental car and head back to Wichita. Get a flight home.”
“I will soon, sweetheart.”
“But—”
“I can still be of use here. I want to help.” There was something about how she said it, though, that made me suspicious, but I didn’t want to get into a fight with my mom in front of everyone, so I just nodded tersely.
“So, what do we do now?” Novak asked. “We’re out here unofficially, and if Ferguson or one of his people reports us to the brass, we’ll get called back to headquarters. Debriefed again on what we’re actually doing out here, and what do we do? Lie? Say we know you’re conducting illegal experiments in the middle of corn country?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “This Damian person is apparently working with the DOJ to create their own Paras. First controlling vampires, and now a werewolf army.”
“Do you think the men in those cages were military volunteers?” Jaxon asked.
“It’s possible. What human parts we saw were definitely fit and muscular, so they could be army, navy, et cetera.”
“This doesn’t truly surprise any of you, does it?” Tennyson said. “Your government was quite happy to accept help from werewolves in the 1940s to stop a world war, but in the last forty years or so, you’ve shunned them. Shunned vampires, as well. You fear what you cannot understand or control, but instead of learning to coexist, you seek ways to more effectively contain or destroy us, as you’ve done with other races throughout your history.”
Anger built behind his words, and by the time Tennyson stopped, his eyes glowed red. And some of that anger, somehow, trickled over to me, that vinegar odor poking at my own temper. I pushed back against that blood connection, because I did not need to get upset and release the Quarrel on my friends.
Well, allies. Kathleen had yet to re-earn her friend status. I’d also never tested the Quarrel on a dhampir and wasn’t sure how much it would affect her human half.
“I hate to admit this,” Jaxon said, “but I agree with the vampire. The only thing that really surprises me is it took us six years to figure it out. I mean, what was the fucking point of the Para-Marshals all this time?”
“A diversion,” Tennyson said. “The public faces of peaceful coexistence with Paras in the form of private policing, while your own organization invests in ways to rid yourselves of the problem entirely.”
“And allows the government to keep track of all the Paras in the meantime,” Novak said.
But something about that didn’t quite add up for me. “You don’t seriously think the DOJ wants to exterminate all of you, do you?” I asked.
“Perhaps the DOJ doesn’t want extermination,” Kathleen said, “but Damian does. Working with the Marshals is a compromise to get what he wants, and it’s likely he’ll turn on his government handlers once he’s achieved his goal.”
“He gets his werewolf army and we get zip?”
“Precisely.”
“Wonderful.” I let out a long, frustrated breath. “So wait, if the government is funding this, then what’s Damian contributing?”
“Protection,” Mom replied. “Kathleen, are you certain this Damian is a man, and not potentially a follower of Cailleach? A witch?”
Kathleen slow-blinked in her version of surprise. “I am uncertain of Damian’s true identity or gender. We only know he or she is quite powerful, has magical resources at his or her disposal, and has influence within the government. This is likely why he’s been able to sway the DOJ to his side.”
“Or her side.”
“Mom, what are you implying?” I asked. “That Damian is one of the witches who killed your parents?”
“It’s possible. It explains the wards on Pack lands, Cailleach’s mark on the building, and the magic I sense all around us.” To Kathleen she said, “You’ve never actually met Damian, correct?”
“Correct,” she replied. “Neither has my employer, and the one agent we sent to smoke Damian out once returned in many small pieces. We’ve kept our distance since.”
“So at this point, we have no way of knowing if Damian is a witch or otherwise,” I said. “What’s our next step? Do we contact Agent Keene and tell him we know about this place? We know and they shouldn’t trust Damian because he’ll double-cross them once the research is complete?”
“My first loyalty is not to the Para-Marshals, and yours shouldn’t be, either. None of your loyalty should.” Kathleen squared her shoulders. “None of us are fully human, and the Marshals seek to protect humanity, while going behind our backs to find ways to destroy Paras. To make us submit and be controlled by their whims, not our own, when we are clearly more powerful. Our service to them has been a joke.”
I wanted to rebut her statements, but I couldn’t. She was right. While I was raised as a human, I was still half-djinn and not fully of this world. Even Chandra and my mother, who were both still technically human, were magic-touched, so they were unique. They were part of the larger tapestry of the universe that the average human never got to see or experience.
I did want to believe that our service as Para-Marshals had meant something in the grand scheme of things, because I’d believed in us. I went into this with Julius because I wanted to be part of something bigger than myself; I wanted to help people. Help Paras. To make a fucking difference, bless it all. And we had. Tennyson being here was proof of that. Yet . . .
Torn and angry, I stalked out of the room, down the short corridor to the main entrance, and then out onto the municipal building’s narrow porch. It wasn’t big enough to pace, so I walked to the small parking lot adjacent to the building and paced there, weaving in between the parked cop cruiser and a Ford pickup that had seen better days.
I hated what we’d discovered, but I wasn’t sorry I knew now. Knew the very same people who’d given me a job were secretly trying to find a way to shackle me and my friends.
“Shiloh?”
Jaxon’s voice was not unwelcome, but it didn’t stop my pacing. He inserted himself in front of me, his own hazel eyes sparking with anger and confusion, same as mine probably were.
“It wasn’t all for nothing,” he said.
I blinked hard. “How did you know I was thinking that?”
“I know you, remember?”
“Remember? Very funny.”
He winked. “Sorry. It’s hard to remember you don’t recall all the things I know and don’t know. All the conversations we’ve had over beer and pizza. The time we lay in bed after making love and you told me how you never felt like you had a place in the world until you, me, and Julius founded the Para-Marshals units. That being part of our team gave you focus and a home, and now you’re wondering if it was all a lie. If any of it mattered and it does. All of it matters.”
He brushed his thumb across my chin, those words caressing not only my mind but my wounded spirit. Beautiful, meaningful words that broke something loose deep inside me, and I pulled him close and kissed him. A hard, bruising kiss he returned in kind. I grabbed his jacket, and he spun us until my back hit the side of the pickup, and hot damn he tasted good. Like mint and spice and a deeper male flavor I couldn’t seem to get enough of.
Maybe we hadn’t been together in years, but the attraction was still there—and if the half-hard dick rubbing against my belly was any indication, Jaxon felt it too.
Sweet Iblis, this is wonderful.
More powerful than anything I’d felt with another man, I wanted to find a quiet place to learn more. To relearn a man my body told me I knew in wicked and wonderful ways. A man who looked at me like I was the most important person on the planet. A man—
—who tore his mouth from mine.
“What—”
Jaxon shook his head, lips kiss-bruised, cheeks bright red. “Shi, we can’t.”
“Yes, we can.”
“You’ve got a boyfriend.”
Well shit, that was still technically true, and thank goddess Jaxon had a level head, because I wasn’t a cheater. Although wasn’t kissing another man cheating? Ugh. I really should have negotiated time to track down Vincent to talk before I took this job. But I’d reached out and Vincent hadn’t. Didn’t that mean something?
“You’re right,” I said. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have kissed you.”
“It’s okay. I enjoyed the hell out of it, but we can’t go there. Not while you’re figuring things out with Vincent.”
“I know. Thank you for stopping, because . . . that was some kiss.”
He tilted his head a few degrees, lips quirked in a half smile. “It sure was. Don’t suppose it was familiar at all?”
“In some ways, yes, I guess. I mean, my body kind of knew things would be amazing if we got naked together, but I don’t consciously remember why. I guess that’s what attraction is, right?”
“Yeah, and attraction was never the issue with us.”
“Right. Thank you, also, for what you said. About it all mattering. I had no idea who I was or what I wanted until I met Julius. And you, too, apparently. With Julius gone, you’re the only one who remembers the earliest days, except I don’t remember you being there.” I let out a long, sad breath. “My Para-Marshals service has been everything to me, and I’m scared it’s all falling apart.”
Jaxon took one of my hands and squeezed. “Maybe the Para-Marshals aren’t your destiny. Maybe it’s the people you met because of it, and there’s something even bigger waiting for you. Something better.”
“I hope so.” I rested my head against his shoulder, amazed at how good it felt to lean on someone else for a change. To not have to be in charge and put together for a few minutes. “I needed this.”
“Always happy to help.”
“I still have no idea what to do next.”
“Shiloh?” Mom yelled from the other side of the lot. “Um, your vampire is causing an argument.”
I raised my head. “He’s not my vampire. Why do people keep saying that?”
Jaxon chuckled and released my hand. “Come on, let’s go see what’s up.”
We strode into the building on Mom’s heels and back into the office, where Tennyson appeared to be squared off against Kathleen, Chandra, and Novak. No one was baring fangs, but the tension was palpable.
“What’d I miss?” I asked.
“I have always been perfectly clear that my first priority is to my line,” Tennyson said, his eyes red headlights. “My line and I are perfectly content to be left alone, but if any of my kind are kidnapped and experimented on by humans again, I will retaliate. I made that perfectly clear to your human authorities after the necromancer incident.”
“Okay. What’s that got to do with what’s happening right now?”
“He wants to tell the Dame and Homme Alphas where their wolves are and why,” Chandra said.
“We’ve discovered the location of their people as we said we would,” Tennyson replied. “It is our duty to inform them of what we know.”
“Are you nuts?” I asked, alarmed at the idea and the very, very bad consequences. “You want to tell Alpha Kennedy his werewolves are being used for DNA splicing experiments in a secret lab in Kansas? Then what? We can’t have every Pack in the country descending on this place to rip it to pieces in retaliation. It’ll play right into Damian’s hands and prove the Packs are out of control and need to be destroyed.”
“That’s what we’re trying to tell him,” Novak said. “Only you said it better.”
“Look, Tennyson, I know you sympathize with the Alphas, because you know what it feels like when your family goes missing. All we’re asking for is time to get a handle on the situation before we get the Packs further involved.”
&
nbsp; Tennyson simply stared at me.
“We need to shut down this lab,” Kathleen said. “It is dangerous and dabbling in things best left alone. We also have no idea what they are doing in there beyond creating their own werewolves.”
“She’s right,” I replied. “We will involve the Packs, but not yet. Please, Tennyson, just a little more time.”
“I have no loyalty to the Para-Marshals,” Tennyson said after a beat. “However, I do consider you a friend, Shiloh, so I will do as you ask.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll reach out to my other unit teammates,” Chandra said. “They’re loyal to the Para-Marshals, but they won’t take well to them developing weapons out of Paras. Perhaps they can do some additional digging for us while we suss out the situation here.”
“I like that plan.”
“All right, I’ll make the calls in the car so I don’t disturb the think tank.”
“Some of us should continue looking for Gideon,” I said once Chandra left. “They know we’re here, so we need to put on a show. Mom, I really think you should leave town before things get any crazier.”
“All right,” Mom said. “If you think that’s best.”
“I do. This isn’t your fight, and I don’t want you here if shit hits the fan. Literal or paranormal shit.”
“You’re right, Shi,” Jaxon said. “Elspeth should go before it gets any more dangerous. I’ll go out with Novak and keep searching for Gideon.”
“Thank you. I’ll go out with Chandra when she’s done on the phone.”
“What do you want me to do?” Kathleen asked.
I pinned her with a hard stare. “You aren’t part of the team anymore. Do whatever you think will be helpful.”
She slow-blinked.
We left Tennyson and Kathleen behind in the office space to do whatever; Tennyson probably wouldn’t come out again until the sun set, so he could move about more freely. He wouldn’t explode into a pile of ashes if a beam of sun hit him, but it would scorch his skin black, and that wasn’t a good look on him. Novak and Jaxon set off to the east, the pair of them amusing physical opposites in every way, but both men fully capable of defending himself (I had to trust that was true for Jaxon, since he was a Para-Marshal and all).
