by Kym Grosso
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Is everything okay?”
Logan held up his hand to silence her, holding his phone to his ear.
“Fi, what’s going on?” Logan inquired with a dominant tone that told Wynter that whatever it was, it was deadly serious. His face darkened, and she knew instantly that something very, very bad had happened.
Chapter Eleven
The Directeur scowled as he left the club. Because he was hiding in plain sight, she never saw him. He’d lingered patiently in the shadows, waiting for the opportunity that hadn’t come. ‘Good things come to those who take’ was his motto. Just a tiny slip and she’d be back in his arms and her essence in his veins. The ruse had worked beautifully for two months. She’d never known that he’d been drinking her blood. He’d even hidden his guilty pleasure from the Mistress. No, she wouldn’t be pleased.
As the evening wore on, the watch dogs never left her side. Irritated that he couldn’t snatch her, he had been forced to play his role. He’d always told his mother that he should have been an actor. For when the mongrels touched his property, he remained in the distance, calmly stewing. Like magma bubbling and building inside the core of the Earth, his rage burned deep inside. Eventually, he’d let his anger flow like a river of lava, destroying everything in its path.
The Director spat on the sidewalk, forced to leave the club. The urge to steal her was great, yet the Mistress called on his service. The Mistress must be obeyed. She’d reward him greatly, he knew. Still, he barely restrained his shaking hands from strangling the little bitch for touching the Alpha. Retribution was his only solace. Soon, he’d punish her for her indiscretions.
The volcano rumbled. The sides cracked, the seeping evil tunneled toward the surface. It was time to release the vehement steam of wrath on a victim who’d meet his deadly kiss. A willing sacrifice would sate his need to kill, for now.
Dana was dead. Fiona was crying hysterically, explaining how she and Luci had found her, sprawled on the bed. The word ‘blood’ was tossed around, and Logan expected a grim scene. After he’d finished talking to her, Logan had hung up and handed Dimitri back his phone.
“Maybe Wynter should stay out here,” Dimitri suggested.
“No,” he responded definitively. “She’s going to be pack soon. And she’s mine.”
“Okay, then,” Dimitri commented, getting out of the cab.
He found it interesting to watch Logan’s reaction to Wynter. It always amazed him how mated males were usually the last to know. They often alternated between outright denial and beating on their chests like territorial gorillas, before finally accepting and succumbing to the fact they’d found their mate. In the meantime, he imagined it was going to make for some interesting conversations.
As they ran up the steps to Dana’s Magazine Street apartment, Wynter glanced around, noticing that the area was well kept and populated. Chic clothing stores, antique shops and restaurants peppered the thoroughfare. Large columned Greek revival styled homes and colorful Victorian cottages were interspersed throughout the neighborhood. A bustling chic café across the street buzzed with late night patrons and served drinks at a sidewalk tiki bar. She wasn’t sure what had happened to Dana but if she’d been murdered, her attacker must have blended into the area, and committed the crime silently.
As they entered the apartment, nothing appeared out of sorts. Tastefully decorated in an eclectic mix of antiques and modern pieces, it was neat and clean. As soon as Fiona saw them enter, she rushed over into Dimitri’s arms. Luci sat as still as a statue, and scowled at Wynter with abhorrence.
“Where is she?” Logan inquired in an authoritative tone.
“In here,” Fiona cried. “She’s in the bedroom. I just don’t know who would have done this. We were supposed to go clubbing tonight. But then we found her…like this. How could they do something so awful?”
Wynter quietly gasped as they arrived in the small bedroom afraid of what they were about to see. She grabbed onto Logan’s arm as she took in the scene, and he briefly touched her hand with his. The white shabby chic décor was splattered with blood. Dana’s body had been awkwardly positioned on the bed, so she appeared as a puppet. Wearing nothing more than a purple bra and matching panties, her grayish skin was mottled with bite marks. Vampire.
Wynter found herself walking toward the body, both drawn to and horrified by the bites. A wide open slit across Dana’s thorax exposed her spine. As a researcher, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen a dead body, but never in her life had she seen one decimated to this extent. Her eyes roamed over the marred pale skin and letters that had been scrawled into the flesh. The monsters had left a message: SCIENTIFIQUE. Scientist. No one else called her that; it had to be him. He’d addressed her in that manner in every single message he’d sent during her captivity. She’d never seen his face but had known him only as Director Tartarus. A chill swept over her.
Why would they go after the doctor? Logan had told her that she’d taken blood samples. Was that why they’d gone after Dana? To get the blood? Or hide the results? But why not just take her? Then it occurred to Wynter that she’d been with Logan the entire time. Maybe they were afraid of the Alpha. Her mind whirled and she considered a possibility far worse than the ominous directive. If they’d somehow changed her DNA so that she was wolf, they could have caused Dana’s death by giving her a virus. They had access to any number of highly contagious diseases. And while they hadn’t yet perfected a virus for wolves, Emma, a hybrid, was ill. And like Emma, Dana was also a hybrid. Panicked, she attempted to get Logan’s attention while he knelt next to the bed with Fiona, who was crying uncontrollably.
“Did anyone touch the body?” she asked, putting a hand on Logan’s shoulder.
“She’s not a body!” Luci screamed at Wynter. “She’s our friend. And she’s Fi’s sister.”
Logan turned his head, and growled a warning at Luci.
Despite Luci’s attack, Wynter pressed the issue. “Did anyone touch the body?”
“No, no one touched the body. Okay?” Luci responded curtly. “Can someone tell me what in the hell she is doing here?”
“Logan, we need to get everyone out of the room,” she told him quietly.
Logan glanced over his shoulder at Wynter, unsure as to why she was behaving so strangely. “Please, can you just give us a minute? Fi’s just lost her sister,” he pleaded.
“I know, and I’m so sorry, but Logan, this message. It’s for me,” she explained with a pleading look.
“Out, everyone out,” he commanded. What the fuck?
“But Alpha, please,” Fiona cried. “I need to stay with her.”
Logan hugged Fiona to his chest. Wynter turned her head at the sight, admonishing the small misplaced pang of jealousy that fluttered in her chest.
“It’s okay, Fi. I’ll be right out. Luci, stay with her. Dimitri, stay. I want you here for this.”
Luci shot Wynter a menacing grimace on the way out of the room. As soon as the door closed, Logan turned on her. “What in the hell are you doing, Wynter?”
“They know I’m with you. The people who took me,” she said, carefully approaching the body.
“I’m sure whoever took you knows you’re with me. It’s not exactly like we’ve been trying to hide that. We’ve been all over the city today.”
“It’s the message.” She gestured toward Dana’s stomach. “Scientifique. It’s me. No, I mean, that’s what he called me.”
“Who called you that?”
“Him. The person who kept me. I never saw him,” Wynter recounted with fear in her eyes. Logan never took his eyes off of her as she continued. “Director Tartarus. I only communicated through email with him. And sometimes text messages before they locked me up. But once I was captured, the guard would bring me a flash drive with a single text file on it in the morning. There’d always be one with a letter of sorts…directions from him. At the end of the day, I was instructed to save my results back onto the drive and the
n I’d give it back to the guard. It was my only communication with him.”
“Tartarus. Very funny,” Dimitri huffed.
“What?” Wynter asked as she knelt next to the bed, looking carefully at Dana’s skin.
“Tartarus. Greek mythology. A place where gods would be sent for punishment,” Logan explained.
“A punishment to fit their crime,” Dimitri added.
Logan watched Wynter remove the lamp shade from the bedside light, pick it up and shine the light into the soulless stare of Dana’s eyes. “What are you doing?”
“Honestly,” she sighed. “I just had to be sure that she wasn’t sick. I mean, Tartarus. He knows disease. The company I worked for…he’d have access to all kinds of viruses. And even though you told me she was wolf, she was hybrid…” Like Emma. “I needed to see for myself. From what I can tell, though, there’s no indication of illness. No jaundice, lesions, weight loss. And if you saw her last night and she was healthy…then it’s unlikely. But the bite marks. Whoever did this tortured her. She died from exsanguination when they slit her throat.”
Just like he’d seen happen to Wynter in his dream, Logan thought. But he knew it wasn’t Dana’s face in his vision.
“She knew him. Maybe well or not. But she liked him,” Logan said with his arms crossed.
“What makes you say that?”
“Make up. Hair’s done. The bra and panties.”
“I agree about the underwear, but she was going out with Fiona and Luci. Maybe she was hopeful,” Wynter said, playing devil’s advocate.
“Or maybe she planned on meeting him there? Look around the room. There’s no sign of struggle. He targeted her to get to you. But the fact is that he may have known her.” The thought that Dana could have known her attacker bothered him. He’d question the girls and see if they knew anything about who Dana had been dating. “Even if he didn’t know her, vampires can be very persuasive.”
“Logan. I’m not sure if you’re planning on calling the police or taking care of this on your own, but in either case, this body…”
“What aren’t you telling me, Wyn?”
Wynter shook her head. It was now or never. She’d tell him the truth.
“Emma.”
“Huh?” Logan raised an eyebrow at her in confusion.
“Emma. The girl Léopold mentioned. Jane Doe. The one I spoke about at the charity event. She’s not just a case study. She’s part of Jax’s pack. A hybrid. And she’s really, really sick.” The thought of Emma made Wynter want to crawl into a ball. The girl was going to die, and she still hadn’t found a cure.
“Yeah, you said that at dinner, but what’s that got to do with Dana?”
“Logan, Emma is going to die soon if I can’t find a cure. And it’s not just that she’s sick, it’s what made her sick. A virus. You can’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you,” she pleaded. Brushing the hair from her eyes, she sucked a breath and blew it out, shaking her head. “You know my friend, Mika, I told you about; Emma’s her sister. Her doctors all agreed that her condition was caused by a viral infection but they couldn’t explain it. I mean, hybrids don’t get sick let alone get terminal diseases. It made no sense. Jax was worried that if word got around about her condition, his wolves would panic. So, her parents brought her to his country home, where she now gets round the clock nursing. I had to do something; something to help her. So I changed my major and started studying virology instead. During my doctoral program, I finally narrowed down the virus, it looked familiar. I should have known.” She began to pace.
“It wasn’t a natural virus to wolves or humans, but it shared visible traits with other known viruses. But what it most looked like was the feline leukemia virus; and of course that retrovirus has a poor outcome. But it wasn’t an exact match. And as we know, wolves are immune to both homosapian and canis lupus diseases as well as most other typical causes of mortality. And while it is true that viruses mutate and adapt to their environment to survive, it’s a moot point. I’ve been investigating, trying to find out if maybe someone gave her this virus. Or created it somehow, manipulated it, perhaps utilizing shifter blood.”
As Logan stood listening, it occurred to him that no matter how strong the attraction was that he felt for Wynter, he really didn’t know her at all. The way she talked was formal and direct, like a doctor, but he detected the pain she tried to hide. Like he’d suspected, her case was personal. And she’d gotten herself into this mess for her friend’s sister? Who does that? Wolves did that. They had loyalty that ran as deep as an abyss. But she’d been a human living with an Alpha wolf. Why would she risk her life to save a hybrid wolf? Why was she still living with the Alpha? Who was the woman he almost made love to an hour ago? So many questions and very few answers.
Logan pinched the bridge of his nose, attempting to shake off the distracting thoughts. He needed to focus. Growing impatient, he blew out a breath. An hour ago, he’d been ready to claim this woman in front of everyone. Sure, it may have been a jealous, lust-driven temporary insanity, but still, it didn’t negate what happened. As she stood before him now, she was no longer the vulnerable woman he’d held in his arms. No, this person was someone he didn’t know at all. A researcher who was up to her eyeballs in some serious shit. And one of his wolves was dead as a result.
“Get to the point, doctor,” he warned coldly.
“When I was offered the fellowship at ViroSun, I should have suspected something was off. They’re one of the top ten virology companies in the country, typically known for their advanced work with next generation antivirals and vaccines. I’d just earned my doctorate, so why did they pursue me? I thought it was because of my relationship with Jax, but it was Emma. They wanted my knowledge of her and the viruses. I made the mistake of bringing samples of her blood to my lab. I had to know if she was intentionally infected; they had all the latest equipment I needed to find a way to save her,” she said quietly. Sadness laced her words and she tried not to cry. She should have never taken that job. She should have listened to her gut and refused the tempting carrot.
“Shortly after I started, they slowly began pumping me for information about Emma…my ‘Jane Doe’. I’d done lectures, so they knew of the case. But I could tell they knew exactly who it was. One day someone actually used her name. Later that day, I tried grabbing all the data, to get it to Jax. I was going to leave. And that was the day they locked me in the lab. And I thought, ‘how could this happen?’ I was working in a large office building. I don’t know how they did it. They just locked me in and the next day, they had me moved and on the road. I never knew where I even was. It was always just me in a makeshift lab with the vampires.”
Wynter regretted her decision to take the data. She should have just walked out the door that day and gone to Jax. They must have been monitoring her through a camera, known what she was doing with the files. She rubbed her eyes, glanced up at the ceiling and then back to Logan.
“And I have to tell you, Logan; I was close to figuring out what caused it, how it works. But they still don’t have what they need yet. It’s not finished. The scary part is that I’ve suspected for some time that they want to make it portable, so it can be actively utilized…on hybrids at first, eventually wolves. You need to know that even though they don’t have me, they have the data. I don’t understand why they still want me. It doesn’t make sense. I already told them most of what I knew about Emma. They could find another scientist to work on it, but this,” Wynter gestured to the blood spatter and the words written on the body. “This tells me they aren’t going to let me go. I don’t know why. I’m so sorry they killed Dana. Sorry I haven’t told you everything. I really wanted to tell you but…”
Logan had heard enough. “Yeah, I know protocol. What a bunch of shit, doctor. I take you into my home, and you don’t think you owe me the decency to tell me that you’ve been working on a virus that could have the capability to kill wolves? Fuck,” he grunted, shaking his head.
He didn’t want to come down so hard on her but he was beyond frustrated. Seriously? A virus that attacks wolves? A corporation looking to exploit the virus? What she was saying didn’t seem possible. What was it about the godlike Jax Chandler that drove her to keep this a secret?
“But they can’t yet. I told you, that’s why they wanted me. I’m sorry,” she whispered.
There was nothing else she could say. It was ironic that the past five years she’d done nothing but devote her life to research, all in the name of protecting wolves, and she was no closer to helping Emma. To add to it all, she’d opened her heart and body to an incredible Alpha, one who was very much pissed at her at the moment. She was a fool to have even thought for one minute he’d understand. As her thoughts drifted to Jax, she almost felt relief. If he found out she’d been with Logan, he’d be angry with her too. Her heart broke, because there had been no doubt how she felt about him earlier. She’d been willing to give herself to him in every way, and it couldn’t have felt more right. In his arms, she belonged to him. He was her Alpha.
But maybe it had been the wolf who’d claimed him as Alpha? The entirely human part of her now doubted her own feelings. Logan’s disappointed expression left no room for misinterpretation. He didn’t want her here with him or his wolves. Now that he knew the truth about what was going on with ViroSun and why she was imprisoned, he could align with Jax and deal with the issue on his own. As she watched him, she could see the wheels turning, the ever present leader calculating his next move in the war strategy.
A commotion in the next room jarred her back to focus, and she straightened her back when she heard Léopold’s voice. What was he doing here? Was he somehow involved in Dana’s death? She quickly sidled up behind Logan, close but not touching. As the door flew open, she held her breath.
Unbeknownst to her, Logan had texted the dark vampire in the car after Fiona had mentioned the state of the body. Logan couldn’t be certain if vampires were in charge of this operation or not. True, vampires had tortured Wynter and had a hand in Dana’s murder, but in his long life, he’d learned that things weren’t always as they appeared. What he hadn’t mentioned to Wynter was that it was possible more than one person had killed Dana.
