by E A Price
His wolf chuffed at him. Yes, the beast wanted to leave and get back to their mate – sooner rather than later. He checked his phone again. Still no message. He guessed – or hoped – that Valentine was too busy to text him. Her lack of communication didn’t sit well with him.
Jake caught a familiar scent and looked up to see Robyn striding toward him purposefully. She never walked any other way. She always looked like she was marching off to declare war on some unsuspecting nation.
He nodded his head and held out his hand. “Nice to see you again, Robyn.”
Robyn rolled her eyes. It was a familiar gesture that had become routine throughout their marriage. “Same old, stuffy Jake,” she sighed. “You’d have probably given me a handshake on our wedding day if I’d let you. Most men at least give their ex-wives a hug.”
She shook his hand thoroughly, and he tried not to wince at her firm grip. It was called ‘power hand shaking.’ Robyn took a seminar on it while they were dating.
He arched an eyebrow. “I once investigated a case where a guy kept sending his ex-wife pig hearts infested with maggots. Don’t knock the handshake.”
Robyn took a step back and cocked her head to one side. “Wow, that was almost a joke. For a second, I almost forgot you were a robot.”
Jake gritted his teeth and soothed his howling wolf as he ignored her jibe. Some things really never did change. She would always say that she was joking, but really, she was trying to get under his skin. Maybe that was why it didn’t work between them – because he never let her.
She led him into the deep underbelly of the building – well, not really, more like the second floor where her team had taken over a conference room and the walls were covered in information pertaining to their current case, and also the past murders committed by Morgan.
Robyn’s team seemed to be thrilled to meet him. Awkwardly, he shook their hands and ignored the looks of awe on their faces. He really didn’t feel like he deserved it. They told him that they studied some of his past cases at the training academy; he tried not to look too startled by that or notice that Robyn was scowling.
He was amazed at how young they were. He tried to remember back to when he was a newbie, but nothing came. He couldn’t remember being anything other than jaded. He was only 34, but he felt worlds apart from the excited young agents trying to swarm him. With a growl from Robyn, they soon settled down.
Jake peered at a picture of Morgan and resisted the urge to tear it to pieces and stomp up and down on it. It might seem a tad petty.
Robyn ran through the details of the case. They echoed the murders Morgan had committed.
Robyn rubbed her forehead. “So far the only link we have between the two victims is that they both used a number of online dating sites, and they both used one called Intimate Connections. It would explain how the un-sub found them. The dating site is virtually a grocery store for crazies.”
Jake grunted. She had such a way with words. “Any idea who it is yet?”
Her lips pursed into a tight, little line. “No; Intimate Connections have given us a list of all the men who looked at each profile, and we’re working through the crossovers. One of the victims advertised herself as being half witch, half tiger, but the other left species unfilled. So, whoever is doing it, can tell somehow.”
He ran his eyes over the wall of evidence. “You think they’re connected to Morgan?”
“We believe so,” piped up a young jackal shifter, blushing furiously when Jake turned his eyes on her. “There are just so many similarities between the murders – like the markings on the body – things that weren’t disclosed to the public. But we really know so little about Morgan, we can’t find anyone connected to him who we could uh…”
Her voice trailed off as she noticed Robyn’s icy glare.
Jake felt a stab of guilt and his wolf yowled mournfully. “That’s my fault. If I hadn’t killed him…”
Robyn rolled her eyes yet again. Something she did a lot around him. “Don’t feel sorry for yourself,” she snapped.
He checked his phone again and was irked to find he still hadn’t received a message from Valentine. His wolf soon bounced back from his maudlin mood and started snarling. She specifically said she’d text him, and she hadn’t! He should call her. Or maybe he should run right over to the hospital and take her over his knee. Damn, she brought out his kinky side.
“We’re going to get the guy doing it; it’s only a matter of time,” declared Robyn confidently.
Jake nodded absently as he twisted his phone in his hand. No matter how many excuses he made, Valentine should have texted him by now.
“Excuse me, I have to make a call,” he said as he ducked out of the room, pretending he didn’t hear Robyn huff.
The call went straight to voicemail. As his temper rose, his wolf began to prowl, and his anxiousness over leaving Valentine alone deepened.
What had he been thinking? Valentine was a new shifter; if she were attacked he couldn’t be certain that she would even be able to shift, never mind calling on her witch powers to protect her. Leaving her alone in this city had been the stupidest thing he had ever done.
Determinedly, Jake stormed back into the room, making more than one agent jump. Fuck, he hoped he was wrong about this, but the fact that he couldn’t get hold of her, the breakin at her apartment, this apparent stalker… Hopefully he was just overreacting, but he had a really bad feeling. And hadn’t Valentine mentioned that she’d used the online dating site?
His eyes blazed amber as he surveyed the fresh-faced agents. “You have the records from this dating site?”
“Intimate Connections?” one stammered. “Yes, of course.”
“You’ve looked at the crossovers? People who looked at both profiles?”
Robyn snapped to attention and clicked her fingers at the jackal shifter who passed her a sheaf of papers. “Yes, we’ve been able to eliminate some but not all yet. Some of these are fake names and details; we’re still tracking them down.”
A cheetah shifter agent let out a bark of laughter. “There are more crossovers than you’d expect considering how wildly different the victims were. I mean why would a guy who looked at a hot college student then go onto a dumpy truck… ugh…”
He gulped as Jake leveled a vicious snarl at him. He was in no mood for this young idiot’s opinion. Everyone else gave him fearful looks, but Robyn wasn’t moved.
“Can it, Clark,” she sniped at the pale cheetah. “Jake, what are you getting at?”
“Can you bring up another profile?”
The jackal nodded. “Sure, the company gave me access.”
“Valentine Daniels, see if she has one.”
He turned his back on a frowning Robyn and tried calling his mate again. It went straight to voicemail. Again.
Jake wasn’t proud of himself, but he grabbed the cheetah by his collar. “Get me a phone number for Ursa General Hospital – now!”
The cheetah scuttled away.
“I have Valentine Daniel’s profile,” called the jackal. “Her account was closed just last week, but they still have her details on file.”
Jake peered over her shoulder at the computer, pretending he didn’t notice the trembling jackal next to him. Yep, that was definitely his beautiful Valentine staring back at him. His wolf snapped his jaws unhappily at the thought of countless men looking over her profile. It didn’t matter now; she was his.
“Good work… uh…”
“Danica,” she squeaked.
“Danica, cross reference all the people who looked at her profile along with all the people who looked at the victims.”
Danica nodded.
“Do you know something I don’t?” asked Robyn suspiciously.
Jake blew out a breath. “I hope not.”
The cheetah passed him the number for the hospital; he snatched it and started dialing. Quickly, he found out where Valentine’s friend was, and was transferred to that floor. In exasperation, the nurse
on duty told him three times that the only people who were in Hilary’s room were her mother and her mother’s friend. No, she hadn’t seen a redheaded woman come anywhere near the room.
His jaw almost cracked with the effort of maintaining his red-hot fury and keeping his beast at bay. It had been almost two hours since he dropped Valentine at the hospital. It could not possibly, under any circumstances, take her that long to find the room. Something was wrong. At that point, he asked to be put through to security and the nurse was only too glad to get rid of him.
When the bored-sounding security guard came on the line, Jake virtually barked orders at him. They were said with such an authoritative voice that the guard didn’t even stop to question who was giving him the orders. Technically a small-town sheriff from Virginia wouldn’t have any sway, but the guy didn’t even stop to ask.
Jake told him that someone was missing and had possibly been abducted in the hospital, and they needed to find her. He took an e-mail address and number and said he would send over a picture of the woman they were looking for. The guard rang off with a ‘yes sir.’ He then had the now nervous looking cheetah send the profile picture of Valentine over to the hospital.
“What the fuck is going on?” roared Robyn, who never liked to think there was anything she didn’t know.
In the back of Jake’s mind, he still hoped that perhaps he was overreacting, but he doubted it. In the pit of his gut, he felt that something awful was happening. He knew it, and his wolf knew it, too.
“I have a list of the crossovers between all three women,” volunteered Danica, almost timidly. “There are only ten altogether, and we’ve managed to eliminate five of those.”
Jake glared at the screen and noticed one of the names on the list was that of Lester Biggs. Maybe it was a coincidence, but Valentine’s stalker was called Lester.
His wolf grumbled in a mixture of fear and anger. No, there was no coincidence. That was the guy. He could just sense it. He felt it deep down inside of him. That was definitely the guy.
“That’s him – Lester Biggs.”
Robyn scoffed. “How can you possibly know that?”
“I’ll explain on the way,” he said shortly as he strode to the door.
She threw up her hands. “Where the hell are we going?”
“Hospital.”
*
Val groaned. Oh, her freaking head! It wasn’t bad enough that she had a raging headache storming within, but she also had an irate leopard snarling and clawing to get free. What had she been saying about the two of them getting along?
Actually, it was kind of strange that Venus wasn’t just taking over. Val was too tired to fight her, and the edgy cat was dying to be free. She tensed and tried to shift and was amazed when she couldn’t. No wonder Venus was so panicky. It wasn’t her inexperience stopping her; no, there was something wrong with her. She couldn’t seem to get her body to respond.
Her eyes snapped open, and she growled at the bright light shining in her face. She squinted and tried to look around the room. She seemed to be in a hospital room, or rather an operating room.
Her gaze alighted on a man to her left who was staring at her intently.
Her mouth felt thick and wooly. “Lester… is that you?”
She recalled getting into the elevator and then… and then… not much else.
“What are you doing here?” What am I doing here? She thought worriedly.
Val tried to sit up, but her body really didn’t want to co-operate.
Lester let out a sound of disgust. “Like you don’t know,” he hissed, in a cold voice.
“I really don’t,” she mumbled trying to look around her.
“You’re a half-breed, I have to kill you,” he replied simply.
Venus howled in fury, and Val didn’t feel like she was far behind. Jake was right; there were people out there who wanted her dead just for being born a little bit different. Oh, Jake! What if she never got to see her mate again?
No, she would see him again. The alternative was unacceptable! She didn’t know how long she’d spent wasting time being all unconscious and useless, but she was sure, by now, Jake was getting all het up about her not texting him. He could burst through the door any second… any second… Okay, it would have been really cool if he had arrived right at that moment, but, instead, she needed to stall the lunatic.
“But why?” she asked, making her lip quiver.
Yep, she had to make him think she was afraid – not hard given that she was.
Lester let out a mirthless chuckle and shook his head. “You’re an abomination,” he said slowly as if he were talking to a child. “Creatures like you shouldn’t be allowed to live. No creature should have as much power as you – it isn’t right. You’re a freak, and you need to be put down.”
He turned his back for a second, and when he spun round he was holding a scalpel. She hadn’t noticed at first, but he appeared to be wearing scrubs. That didn’t bode well.
Val licked her lips and tried to avoid looking at the small blade. “You trashed my apartment, right?”
Lester shrugged unconcernedly. “I thought it would get you back to town – I had no idea where you were. But when you wouldn’t come back, I had to resort to more stringent methods.”
She felt ice-cold horror sink right down to her stomach; it was like drinking the world’s worst slushy.
“You mean you attacked Hilary?”
“I saw her at your apartment, I guessed you were close. So I figured that all I had to do was wait for you to show up at the hospital, and here you are.”
He spread his hands out like he was displaying a magic trick. Ta-da, here’s Valentine!
Her limbs felt heavy and leaden, but she forced herself to try and move them. She needed to get out of there, and she wasn’t going to do it lounging around on an operating table. Thankfully, she still had her clothes on. She repressed a shudder at the thought of Lester taking them off her.
“How did you know I was a… half-breed?” The word was distasteful in her mouth and Venus huffed indignantly.
He rolled his eyes and sighed like he was bored with talking to her. Perhaps he wasn’t used to chatty victims she thought tartly.
“I recognized you for what you were when I came across your profile online – it’s your eyes that give you away,” he said.
“My eyes?” What was wrong with her eyes?
Lester tapped his foot. “Yes, they’re obviously not human eyes, but they’re not shifter – you’re in between,” he told her condescendingly. “My father taught me how to spot creatures like you, and he died doing the same work as I do.” She detected a slight tremor in his voice as he started talking about his father. Whether that was good or bad, she couldn’t tell.
“That’s why you asked me all those creepy questions about my parents.”
He frowned at the word creepy. “Yes, I checked the record of your birth – your father was a leopard shifter and your mother was a witch.”
Jeez, the guy knew more than she did about her parentage. Surely someone should have mentioned this to her before? No-one had even tried to bring this up – it’s not like it was something that she’d forget!
He looked at her expectantly and then smiled when she didn’t say anything. Crap, she’d run out of questions. She started trying to wiggle her arms and legs with more force. Work, damn you, work!
Lester walked toward her slowly. “Don’t bother using your powers. The potion I gave you will stop you from moving, never mind shifting or using magic on me, so don’t even try.”
Val bared her teeth at him as she struggled to move, and he snickered contemptuously, making her struggles even more fervent. He leaned over her to look directly in her face and, unable to do anything else, she spat at him.
He gritted his teeth and wiped his cheek. “Fucking bitch!” He leaned even closer; his face was only an inch from hers. She almost gagged at his rotten breath – smelled like someone had been eating an onion log
recently.
His nostrils flared, and his eyes flashed. “You creatures really are pathetic. After the trouble you put me to, I’m going to enjoy this. And after I’m finished with you, maybe I’ll pay another visit to your friend and finish the job!”
Her leopard roared, and blinding white rage assailed her. Without thinking, Val felt adrenaline pulse through her, and she managed to reach her head forward and she used the only weapon at her disposal – her teeth. With a cry, she bit him on the nose – hard.
Admittedly, up until a few days ago her inner warrior princess had been relegated to verbal smack downs over the last muffin at her local coffee shop. But she had gotten along just fine for the last 30 years without any magical powers or a leopard to rely on. She didn’t need them to save herself from this nutcase.
Lester screamed in pain as his hands fumbled at her head, trying to dislodge her. He pulled on her hair, yanking and twisting it, but even the pain of that wouldn’t stop her. Eventually, his cries turned to whimpers and Val let go and swiftly head-butted him. He let out a startled ‘oof’ and stumbled backward, tripping over and smashing to the ground.
Move! She screamed at herself. Her body felt sluggish, but her heart was pumping a mile a minute. She needed to take advantage of this surge of energy before it went away. She needed to get the hell out of there.
She psyched herself up with the help of her inner beast, and flopped her body off the table. She hit the ground with an undignified slap, and every inch of screamed in protest, but she didn’t have time for that right now. She could cry and whine over her aches and pains later. If she stopped now, there wouldn’t be a later.
Val ignored the stirring body of Lester and began crawling along the floor. Progress was slow, but all she had to do was find someone or find a phone and get help. She inched her way to the door. Lord, she must look like a worm. She almost giggled aloud at the thought, but Venus snapped at her to stay focused. It wasn’t easy; her mind felt foggy and tired. Damn, stupid potion.
