by Jami Gray
She absently stroked her wrist blades. Stopping the telling movement, she forced her body to stillness. There was an additional blade down her spine, and two stuck in the tops of her boots. She finally figured out some of Gavin’s hiding spots for his long blade. It was retractable, so it fit snuggly up a sleeve, down a boot, or along his spine.
The crunch of leaves and gravel underfoot heralded the second guard and his dog as they approached. Catching Gavin’s quick signal to be ready, she gave a nod. Waiting in the deepest shadow they could find, they froze until the pair moved past.
She straightened, took a deep breath, and drew the memorized layout of the building to the forefront of her mind. Focusing on distinctive architectural points, she opened the metaphysical doorway to the shadowed paths and stepped into the cold space.
Frigid energy whipped around her, sending shards of ice into her bones. Focusing on her anchors, she tried to ignore the distorted shapes writhing on the edges of her vision. The temptation to turn and stare in horrified fascination pulled at her, but she kept her final destination in mind and fought it back.
Every step was a struggle, as if trudging through knee high drifts of snow. Time ran strangely on the shadowed paths and her mental countdown was the only thing keeping her moving. Between the icy, violent energy swirling around her and the shifting shadowy world on the edges of her vision, her reality was slipping away. She refused to listen to the chittery voice in the corner of mind urging her to flee.
When her last visual anchor came into view, relief flowed over her. A few more steps and she emerged from the magical maze into the real world. Pushing the metaphysical door closed behind her, she let out a shaky breath. Her skin broke out in a sweat as the warmth of the room hit, masking the chill of the shadows. With no time to waste, she found the security camera located down the hall.
Luck was with her. It faced the other way. Keeping to the shadows, she pointed the jammer toward the camera. The door of the office she and Gavin had identified as their best target lay toward the end of the hall.
Here was the hardest part. To not disrupt the electronics of the jammer she had to keep her reactions level. Using her formidable self-control, she locked her emotions down, grateful to see a small green light on the device. In a matter of seconds, the green light blinked twice indicating it was now synced with the camera.
Gavin materialized out of the darkness behind her, and at her nod moved toward the door at the end of the hall, brushing against her slightly. She followed him into the research team’s office and, without a sound, eased the door closed. She turned off the jammer, noting they had fifteen seconds to spare.
Slipping the jammer in her pocket, she surveyed the room. Gavin headed straight to the first desk near a filing cabinet. She took in the two other cabinets, a second desk on the other side of the room, and a large circular table in the center. It was obvious the office was doubling as a conference room.
Moving to the two cabinets in the back, she flicked her fingers on her right hand. A small ball of low light appeared. She needed the light to take pictures of the files. With a twist of her wrist, she moved it to her shoulder and flipped through files.
She found nothing of interest in the first cabinet. The second held a couple of intriguing documents regarding test designs centering on magic-based skills. Pulling out the small camera from her pocket, she recorded each page on film before putting the file back where she found it. Not seeing any more remarkable reading materials, she moved back toward Gavin, sitting at the desk.
Since his computer skills were far superior to hers—and less volatile—he was the one accessing the hard drive. In the time she spent scanning through the two filing cabinets, he managed to break through the pass coding.
She moved to the third and final filing cabinet. Coming up empty, she pushed her frustration down, did a more in-depth examination of the cabinet, and found a discrepancy. Excitement sparked. One of the drawers wasn’t as full as the others, the back end sitting about half an inch higher.
Moving the hanging files out of the way, she ran her fingers over the bottom of the drawer. Feeling a catch, she gave a quick grin. Jackpot. Popping the false bottom up revealed a slim file folder. Opening it, she rapidly scanned the contents. It looked like a family tree, but instead of names, there were coded labels. Unable to decipher what the cryptic list contained, she quickly snapped her way through the documents.
Once she had them back in their hidey-hole, she turned. Gavin removed the flash drive, which now held copies of files from the hard drive. He shut the computer down, moving the chair back in place. He glanced at her. She nodded once, indicating she had the necessary files copied, then extinguished her little ball of light.
She hadn’t found any mention of Rimmick, but if Gavin’s expression was any indication, he had. His hand was a warm weight on her shoulder as he leaned into her, “We need to go down and check the lab in the basement.” His low voice was as unsettling as the grim look in his face.
Her eyes searched his. “Security?”
“Don’t know.” His voice stayed quiet. “But we have to try.”
She squelched the urge to argue, knowing it was useless. If Rimmick was here, they couldn’t afford to leave him behind. Together, they moved toward the smaller door leading out into Polleo’s inner hallway.
Based on the layouts they’d studied, the jammer wouldn’t work for this, not when there was more than one hallway to get through. Finding the darkest shadows in the far corner of the room, she watched Gavin’s broad back wink out of sight as he stepped into that space between worlds.
The additional Shadow Walking would seriously deplete her energy. Still, she took a deep breath, slowly released it, centered her spirit, and mentally pushed the door open. Ignoring the disquieting sense of her body melting into the frigid shadows, she let her being become insubstantial, making it easier to blend in to the darkness.
Using their skills to move down the twisting corridors they reached the basement. Stepping back into the real world, Raine stumbled and caught herself against his steady frame. He shot her a questioning look, but she shook her head and regained her balance.
Looking around, she realized they were in a huge cavern of cement and shadows. The sterile, glass-walled room crouched in the middle of the dimly lit basement. A metal examination table gleamed softly in the dim light. Just beyond the glass enclosure a solid rock wall was lined with sets of cages. The jarring scene revived nightmarish memories. While not unexpected, panic still dug vicious claws into her chest.
Barely settled after traversing the shadows, her stomach dropped, leaving a sickeningly hollow feeling behind. Her gaze was riveted to the examining table. In the muted light, patches of shadows lay across the table, dripping a macabre path onto the floor.
The illusion was so strong it tore a soft whimper from her closed throat.
A dark figure rose between her and the ominous table, breaking the spell. Strong hands grasped her upper arms, while a low voice calling her name cut through her rising nightmare. The harsh noise of air rushing in and out of her lungs filled her ears. Blinking she found herself staring into Gavin’s worried face.
“Raine?” His eyes were intent. “Can you hear me?”
Taking another noisy breath, she gave a shaky nod. His fingers loosened, then dropped away. She stepped back, closing her eyes, taking a moment to get a grip. Falling apart in the middle of a mission was not allowed.
“Keep it together,” he warned in a soft hiss.
She fought to clear her mind, concentrating on why she was here. When she opened her eyes, she hoped she looked steadier than she felt. “I will.” She cleared her throat. “Sorry.”
Taking her at her word, he continued toward the back of the lab.
She followed, refusing to look inside the glass examination room. The rear of the basement was shrouded in fragmented shadows, but it was soon evident Rimmick was not here.
Since they were pushing their time frame,
they turned to head back to the double-door entry. At the sound of booted feet tromping steadily down the hall, they jerked to a stop. Security was making its rounds.
Blending back into the shadows behind the doors, they stood on opposite sides, neither one daring to move until the guard passed. The unsuspecting man pushed open the door in front of Raine. Holding her breath, she pressed back against the wall as far as she could, watching as the door stopped just before her toes. The guard stood with one hand on the open door, and peered around. Obviously satisfied everything was as it should be, he turned and headed back out into the hallway.
As the door closed, she silently exhaled. Catching Gavin’s considering gaze, she gave him a weak smile. His answering one was quick, and then he was gone, back into the shadowed paths.
She followed and once back in the empty office, she pulled the jammer out of her pocket. When the light flickered to green, she nodded to a now pale Gavin. He looked as shaky as she felt, the energy drain from their multiple journeys into the shadows considerable.
With the small device in hand, she inched the office door open enough to monitor the security camera. When the camera rotated away, she slipped out, aimed, and triggered the jammer. When the green light flicked twice, she tapped the door to signal Gavin.
He slid by her, moving into the deep shadows down the hall. Giving him a head start of a few seconds, she darted after him. A deep breath and she was once again in the icy darkness, pushing her way to their spot outside Polleo’s fences. Drawing on her waning reserves, she stumbled into the moonlit air, leaving the twisted paths behind her.
Once in the woods, they sprinted to where they left her SUV. Next stop—dropping their findings at the office. An investigator at Taliesin would download the flash drive. Another would print out the photos Raine captured.
If luck was on their side, tomorrow morning those documents might give them some idea of where to find Rimmick. On the other hand, they might raise more questions. Since Luck was probably on vacation, sipping a Mai Tai and laughing her ass off, Raine figured they’d just raise more questions.
Chapter Twelve
“Damn it.” Raine rubbed her tired eyes yet again. For the last five hours, she and Gavin had plowed through the seemingly endless pile of paper. Now, the pages were starting to blur. She had a headache from trying to translate abbreviations, which used every letter of the alphabet. It was bad enough most of the readable text was so cryptic it could’ve been anything from a grocery list to supplies needed for world domination.
Set up in the conference room at Taliesin, white paper covered the long table like huge flakes of snow. Gavin sat at the opposite end, meticulously working his way through the stacks. He looked up from the document in front of him and leaned back, arms stretching over his head. Neither had spoken much except for the occasional question, or to add some point on the whiteboard sitting next to the table.
She reviewed what they had been able to piece together so far. It wasn’t much. No doubt about it, testing of some sort was happening at the lab. In fact, the test subjects were something bigger than a rat considering rats didn’t need the custom-made, ten-foot-square cages noted on one of the downloaded invoices from Polleo’s stolen files.
Neither she, nor Gavin, understood the chemical compounds used in the testing formulas. Taliesin’s labs were currently translating the scientific language into something understandable.
What was more worrisome was a series of notes she found. The notes recorded a lab assistant’s disjointed observations on the effect of “parapsychological input on S3M’s reactions to injected stimuli”. Whatever the injected stimuli was, S3M did not perform as expected. Words like: “faulty conditioning”, “unusable strands”, and “unstable cellular walls” left her futilely hoping S3M wasn’t what they were beginning to fear.
Sprinkled throughout the documents were a handful of other letter-number combinations. W8F, DL2M, WF5F, and so on. Going with Raine’s belief the lab was using Kyn for test subjects, she and Gavin created a rough key, hoping the scientists didn’t possess much of an imagination.
The first letter denoted the bloodline of the individual Kyn subjects—W for witches, D for Demon, L for Lycos or Shifter, WF for witch/Fey, leaving S for wizards. The S stumped them both until Gavin mentioned wizard and witch were both W’s. Which led to the question of what else humans called wizards. Raine hunted down a Thesaurus and they came up with sorcerer.
The second designation appeared to be the number assigned to the subject. The fact the numbers were on the low end gave them hope that whatever testing was being done, it hadn’t been happening for long. The last letter was always M or F. Logic dictated, gender—male or female.
Other combinations existed, ones they couldn’t fit in to their theory. Still, breaking even that much of the code didn’t prove anything. Those letters and numbers could easily stand for some esoteric scientific terminology. Even what she first thought to be a genealogical chart ended up being indecipherable. There were no names, just symbols and equations.
Frustrated, she got up and paced. On her third pass, the telephone on the table rang. Gavin hit the speaker button and Rachel’s smooth voice filled the room. “Mr. Durand, you have a call on line three.”
“Thank you, Rachel.” He hit line three and picked up the receiver. “This is Durand.” His eyes narrowed and his spine stiffened as he listened to the voice on the other end. “Fine, but it better be good.” His tone hardened, as if angry at the interruption. In fact, Raine caught the flare of excitement deep in his eyes. “When and where?”
He grabbed a pen and scribbled something down on a piece of paper, then flicked his gaze up to her. “I’m bringing someone with me.”
She heard the sudden sharp exclamation on the other end. The caller obviously didn’t want an audience. She rested her hip against the edge of the table to watch the call play out.
Undeterred, Gavin didn’t bend. “It’s that or you come in. Your choice.” A moment later, a predatory smile creased his face.
Guess he won the argument.
He hung up the phone and leaned back, crossing his arms behind his head as he flashed a heart-stopping grin that hid nothing and contained pure satisfaction. “Want to take a ride with me?”
That look, one rarely seen, fascinated her, leaving her wanting more. It didn’t help that his innocently phrased question caused her imagination to paint a bizarre scene of her straddling him like some sexually deranged cowgirl and kissing that grin off his face.
Damn, he was dangerous to her peace of mind—in more ways than one. Rubbing a hand on the back of her neck, she slammed her unruly imagination into a dark corner. “Sure. I don’t think I’m going to get much more out of these.” She motioned to the covered table behind her.
He reached for his coat, and moved to hold the door open when she walked out ahead of him. Unaware of her prurient thoughts, he raised an eyebrow in silent surprise at her quiet thank you as she passed.
Keeping him unbalanced made her feel better. She wasn’t one to ignore when someone was unique enough, in this day and age, to demonstrate simple courtesy. Wisely, Gavin remained quiet as he led the way downstairs to his car.
Expecting his preferred mode of transportation to be one of those lovely fast motorcycles you practically laid down on, she was surprised by the deep blue, window heavily tinted, yet sleek two-seater, hardtop convertible, he led her to. A soft beep and its lights winked as the security system disengaged.
It was her turn to raise an eyebrow. “Yours?”
“What were you expecting?” He popped the lock on her side, and held the door open as she slid into the supple leather.
“Not this.” She ran her hand down the buttery surface. It fit his sexy predator image, and beat the heck out her SUV for comfort. However, taking this baby off-road would be a huge no-no. The slightly funny, yet absurd image of this low slung sports car barreling along a dirt track, with Gavin trying not to ding his pretty paint job, almost mad
e her laugh.
He raised an eyebrow when she failed to stifle a small chuckle. He shut her door and walked around to the driver’s side. He folded his long frame into the driver’s seat and let a comfortable silence fill the interior as they headed out of town.
She relaxed into the plush seat, watching the scenery race past. “So, are we going very far?”
“A bit. We’re heading north.”
“Who’s up north?”
“Hopefully, someone who can shed some light on those deaths at Talbot.” His casual answer triggered her instincts.
All the momentary pleasure gained from him alluring presence and his sweet ride disappeared into coiling tension. It could be a coincidence. North covered a lot of territory. Dread left her voice tight. “What’s the name?”
Steering his car through traffic, he missed the change in her tone. “Bane Mayson.”
The name hit hard and made her wince as coincidence slapped her upside the head. Dammit! “How did you find him?” Strangely enough, her voice stayed remarkably level, considering her battle not to throw up.
“I didn’t. He found me.” Gavin shot her a look, taking in her tense shoulders and pale face, and his grin faded. Something harder and darker taking its place. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Well, no one could claim he wasn’t perceptive.
Her continued silence shot the tension level in the car into the danger zone. His eyes narrowed, his jaw locking down as he took in her stiff posture.
Under his hardening regard, she fought the urge to go for her weapons—an automatic defense. Guilt was a traitorous bitch as she ran out of time.
His fingers clenched the steering wheel, his frustration making the air heavy. Without warning, he zipped across three lanes of traffic, ignoring the irritated blares of horns, and took the next exit. The abrupt move pulled her out of her spiraling thoughts as she reached out to brace. Driving the car a ways down a deserted road, he pulled off to the side, gravel pinging against the low-slung car. Her body jerked against the seatbelt as he slammed on the brakes and threw the car into park.
