“Jamie?”
A chill swept over her. She knew the voice before she even turned around: Aaron.
This was the last confrontation she wanted to have with the Creeper King. He needed to understand that she wasn’t interested.
Being as nonchalant as she could, Jamie slipped her hand into her purse and wrapped a hand firmly around the pepper spray.
“Hi, Aaron,” she said, turning around. “I was just waiting for my boyfriend.”
He stepped closer to her, and Jamie moved closer to the door of the pub. Anywhere near people would be better.
“I just wanted to say how sorry I am about my behavior earlier,” he said with a smile.
There was something off about the way he was talking. The tone and flow just seemed off slightly. Whatever it was, it made her even more uneasy than she had felt before.
Jamie took another step toward the door. “Oh, it’s no problem.”
Aaron stepped closer. She could see that he’d removed his tie and rolled up the sleeves on his shirt.
“I really think you should reconsider my offer, though,” he said. He took in a deep breath, and she noticed how wild and wide his eyes now were.
Jamie turned to walk toward the door, not wanting to deal with the psycho anymore. She didn’t even bother to respond.
“I just think you can do better than a filthy hybrid,” Aaron said.
She stopped and spun on her heel. She turned to stare at him. “What did you say?”
Aaron stepped closer, and she could smell the mint from the gum he was chewing.
“They are tools,” he said quickly. “Something to be bred, but not with a woman like you. It’s only unfortunate that they weren’t all disposed of when their facility was abandoned.”
Her jaw dropped. She couldn’t even believe what she was hearing. He knew about Lucan. Plus, being jealous was one thing; wishing death against someone over it was way over the line.
“I think that’s none of your business,” Jamie said, and turned back around.
A firm grip landed on her arm, squeezing it like a vice.
“I’m not going to let you go back to that filth.”
Jamie struggled to get away, but his grip was stronger than she would have thought. Just as she had before, she flipped the lid and sprayed, this time over her shoulder with her mouth and eyes closed so as not to experience any blowback.
Aaron shouted behind her, but his hand didn’t come off, no matter how much she struggled.
Suddenly she felt herself being swung hard into the wall, both of his hands on her arms. She stared at his red face. Tears streamed down his face, but his frenzied eyes remained fixed on her.
“You aren’t getting away that easy,” he said.
He pulled both her hands into his. When she opened her mouth to scream, he covered her face with a cloth with an odd slightly sweet odor to it.
The world spun around her, and she felt her body go slack. Aaron reached out to catch her before she hit the ground.
“There, there,” he whispered. “I’ve got you. Everything’s going to be better now. That creature doesn’t deserve you. Even the Group doesn’t quite understand.”
Jamie’s clouded mind tried to process what he was saying. Group? As in Horatius Group?
Bile made its way up to the back of her throat as Aaron kissed her forehead.
As darkness set in, Jamie could hear the sound of a car pulling up and prayed it was someone who might help. Anyone.
“Hurry up and get her legs,” Aaron said.
The world swam around her as a woman came into view. Jamie’s eyes closed as she was moved, and then the lights went out.
Chapter Eighteen
Lucan stepped out of the alley and toward his bike. Something was wrong. A strange sweet chemical odor filled the air. He could smell Jamie everywhere, along with the noxious and all-too-familiar smell of pepper spray.
Nikon stood near his bike, waiting for him, looking just as confused as he was.
“Where is she?” Lucan said. He could hear the panic rising in his voice, but there was no hiding it.
If a mind-controlled person had gone after Jamie before, they could go after her again. It also wasn’t a good sign that he’d just run into one of them.
Nikon shook his head and held up Jamie’s purse and pepper spray.
Lucan smelled the cap.
“She sprayed it,” he said, looking down the road in both directions. There was no sign of her anywhere.
He pulled out his contacts. He could see better without the damn disguise anyway. Another search of the area revealed nothing.
“I must have just missed them,” Nikon said from beside him. “They can’t have gotten far.”
Lucan could feel the beast in him raging for his woman. She was in danger, and he didn’t even know where to start looking. He should have just stayed there and watched for her instead of chasing after the woman. She had just led him away.
He growled. That was probably their damn plan.
“We have to find her,” Lucan said.
Nikon dialed Cato. A second later, he explained the situation.
After a few moments, he turned to Lucan. “Her phone?”
Lucan rifled through her purse, but the phone wasn’t in there anywhere. He shook his head.
“Good,” Nikon said. “They’re running a trace on it. We’ll find her.”
A text came over the line after a moment with the address. Nikon rattled it off, and Lucan entered it into the mapping app on his phone.
“It’s a building on the other side of town,” Lucan said. He shook his head and clenched his fists. “We need to get there. Now.”
* * *
Jamie’s head throbbed as she opened her eyes. Her mouth was dry, and it felt like she’d been drinking all night but was still drunk.
“It will wear off soon.”
She lulled her head to the side and sought out the voice.
Aaron sat across from her in a chair, his hand crossed over his stomach and leg on one knee, like he was watching his favorite TV show or something.
Slowly she sat up on the couch and looked around. They were in some sort of brick room, but the cracks, dirt, and webs suggested the building had seen better days.
Jamie tried to focus on her surroundings, but it was hard when she was so fucking thirsty.
Aaron snapped his fingers, and the woman she had seen before stood in front of her. Her outstretched hand contained two blue pills and a glass with clear liquid.
Jamie stared at it and then at him.
“It’s for your head. Just painkillers and water.”
The thumping wasn’t going to just go away, and she needed the water. It was better to take the risk. If he wanted to kill her, he would have already done it.
“Where are we?” she croaked out. She only hoped that Lucan realized she’d been taken.
She swallowed the pills and water.
Aaron chuckled.
“Well, I guess you’d call it my secret facility,” he said. “I’m like a super hero that way.”
She could see by the way he puffed out his chest that he must really think of himself in that way.
“You’re responsible for the mind control.” Jamie narrowed her eyes.
“One of my greatest projects. This is the main control facility, even though I have to use local signal boosts against those filthy creatures in the town that contains their little zoo, but this is really the important place, the front line against the enemies of humanity. If I’m kind of like a super hero, then they are super villains.”
Jamie scowled. “So, yeah, you’re a super hero who blows up innocent people.”
Aaron placed his foot on the floor and leaned in toward her. “Sometimes sacrifices must be made for science, and in war, there is always collateral damage.”
She glanced around again. The room was full of crates and barrels, but she didn’t see much that looked all that scientific to her. What she did see was a lo
t of people standing like rigid statues.
“What’s wrong with them?” She licked her lips before turning to look at him again.
The stupid pervert took the chance to stare at her chest again.
“They’re awaiting orders.”
“Orders?”
Aaron cleared his throat, stood, and placed her phone on the desk.
“The hybrid should be here soon if he’s actually smart enough to figure it out. Which is a big if.”
Her heart thumped wildly in her chest. “Leave Lucan out of this.”
Aaron sat on the couch beside her. “I’m afraid he has to be taken out now,” he said. She shivered when he traced a finger along her shoulder and then her arm. “He’s too much of a threat now that he’s… been with you.”
“You don’t have to do this. You could just let me go.” She whimpered.
His hand clamped down on her wrist and yanked her forward. She stared into his crazed eyes.
“Why? So you can go back and fuck that filthy animal? So you can betray your species?”
“Please,” she whispered.
Aaron seemed to gain some control over himself. He leaned back and stared at her with the same cold eyes as before.
“You know it wasn’t supposed to be this way,” he said. “I was just going to study you. Maybe use you to tempt out some of those animals for capture. But then…”
Aaron’s eyes softened, and he brought his other hand up to trace the line of her chin with his thumb.
“But then I met you. And everything changed.”
He leaned forward. She tried to lean away from him, but his hand let go of her arm, only to wrap around her neck.
Aaron pressed his mouth to hers as he forced his body over hers, shoving them both down onto the couch.
Jamie hit and scratched him only to have his hands pin hers above her head.
It was then she did the only thing she could do.
She bit him. Hard.
Aaron pulled away, blood running from his mouth as he looked down at her.
He spat to the side and grinned. Not exactly the reaction she was hoping for.
“You’ve got spirit,” he said. “It’s what I love about you. We’ll be perfect together. As soon as you get your implant, everything is going to be just perfect.”
Jamie struggled harder against him. She finally managed to pull her leg free enough to ram between his legs.
“Fuck,” he grunted.
The back of his hand cracked against the side of her cheek.
Jamie stared at him as tears welled in her eyes. The pain pumped through her face.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m sorry. Just cooperate, and I won’t have to hurt you.”
Aaron leaned down again and placed kisses against the spot where he’d hit her. He moved himself firmly in between her legs.
“We just need to make you forget him, and it will all be better.”
Jamie sobbed now and stared up at the woman standing next to her.
“Help me,” she whispered.
The woman only stared blankly down at her.
Chapter Nineteen
Lucan could smell Jamie all over as he pulled up out in front of the large brick building on his bike. The area itself was run-down, with the neighboring buildings abandoned, their windows boarded up.
Nikon stopped his car close behind. He hopped out.
It was hard to miss the huge antenna array atop the building in front of them. Lucan didn’t have to be a technical expert to see how out of place it was in this neighborhood.
“I think we found the original source of the mind-control signal,” Lucan said, and growled.
“We should wait for Cato,” Nikon said.
Lucan wasn’t listening to that shit. His woman was inside, and like hell he was going to wait for them to make their way over. It might be too late by that point.
The hybrid stomped up to the front door. He didn’t even pull out his gun. He was going to dispose of whoever had taken Jamie with his bare hands.
He slammed his foot through the front door and stepped into the large room. No gun fire or Glycons, but there were dozens of people standing around.
None of them looked his way, or gave any indication they even noticed him. Poor mind-controlled bastards. Statues he could deal with.
He could hear Nikon enter behind him. “So much for waiting for reinforcements.”
Lucan spotted Jamie in the back of the room on a couch, some bastard laying on top of her. He narrowed his eyes.
“Help me,” Jamie whimpered to a woman standing over them.
The woman didn’t move.
Lucan unleashed the inner beast. All the anger and fear made its way to the surface as he roared.
The man sat up and stared at him from across the room, his eyes wide, as if suddenly realizing the heap of shit he was in.
After a moment, his expression turned amused, which only pissed off Lucan more. The man grinned at him.
“Finally,” he said, and climbed off Jamie.
She pulled herself to the other side of the couch.
“Secure him,” he said loudly to the room.
Lucan frowned. Just who the hell did this guy think he was?
“The people,” Nikon whispered.
All the living statues started moving. Lucan let out a loud roar. Mind control or not, he could easily take out this room of people.
“Don’t kill them,” Nikon said. “Remember, they’re victims, too.”
Lucan scowled. If he couldn’t go all out, it was going to make things far more difficult than he planned.
A man sprinted at him with surprising speed, just like the woman in the alley, maybe not as fast as a hybrid, but almost super human. More fast zombies.
Lucan grabbed the charging man and tossed him aside. He slammed into a box and collapsed to the ground.
Nikon frowned at him.
“What?” Lucan said. “I didn’t kill him.”
More charged now.
Lucan sighed and grappled with a woman in front of him as another came at him from behind. He knocked the woman to the ground with a leg sweep and shoved the other away.
A scream ripped through the room as the man grabbed Jamie by the neck and put an odd, slender gun to her head.
“Aaron, just let me go,” she cried.
Aaron. A.J. Kinkaid. They had to be one in the same. It was the only way it all made sense.
“Let her go,” Lucan shouted. “Or I’ll tear you to pieces, you bastard.”
Aaron laughed. “She’s too good for you.”
Lucan frowned and tossed off another mind-controlled human.
He glanced over to Nikon, who was wrestling with several men.
“I’ve got this,” Nikon said. “Go save her.”
Lucan nodded and moved through the people who lined the path, shoving and punching. He might be breaking a bone or two, but they’d survive.
“You think a creature like you is good enough for her?” Aaron shouted. “You filthy hybrid scum?”
Lucan tossed another man out of the way. “I know I’m not,” he growled. “But I want to be.”
Aaron laughed and moved farther back against the wall with Jamie, gun still pressed to her neck.
Lucan heard Nikon shout, and he turned just in time to see the hybrid fall after being struck in the back of the head. He kicked backward, knocking his attacker against a stack of boxes, but several others tackled him.
“They’re stronger this way, and faster,” Aaron said, reclaiming Lucan’s attention. “Not as strong and fast as you, but at least they’re still human.”
“You son of a bitch.”
“I’ll never let you have her,” Aaron spat out. “She’s mine. She was always supposed to be mine.” His face contorted in rage. “Then you came and ruined it all. You came and soiled my beautiful woman.” He ran a finger along her cheek. Jamie jerked her head in the other direction away from his touch. “But not anymore. Now she’s a
ll mine.”
Aaron pulled the gun from her neck and aimed it directly at Lucan. He squeezed off a shot, the noise not as loud as Lucan expected.
Lucan dropped instantly. This wasn’t normal. This wasn’t how he was supposed to go out.
He could hear Jamie screaming nearby, but it was quickly drowned out by a loud buzz.
The cacophony echoed in his head, and he collapsed to the floor. Pain wracked his body.
Chapter Twenty
Jamie stared down at the man she loved. Her breath caught in her throat, and she wondered if she might pass out from lack of oxygen.
Tears streamed down her eyes, and she realized that the low moan she was hearing was her own sobs meshed into one.
Aaron held onto her, and she fought to get away from him.
He let go, and she dropped to the floor next to Lucan.
When she rolled the hybrid over, she expected to see blood everywhere. Instead she found him breathing, but slightly pale. A small dart lay embedded in his chest. She yanked it out.
“Oh, thank God,” she whispered, and pressed her face against his chest.
His breaths came in short bursts, and his heart hammered hard in his chest.
“He’s alive,” Aaron said over her. “If you want to call him that.”
She sat up, her hand slipping in to Lucan’s, and glared at the son of a bitch.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” she spat out.
Aaron laughed at her as he continued to circle. “I primed him for control, with something special. He’s of two minds now,” he said. “Mine and his. Only his mind is dormant for the moment.”
Jamie looked back down at Lucan. His face twitched, and she watched as beads of sweat formed on his head.
“I’d back up if I were you,” Aaron said.
Jamie gripped Lucan’s hand tighter. There was no way in hell she was moving away from him so Aaron could do whatever he wanted.
Lucan’s bright yellow eyes opened wide. The light there made her own eyes hurt, and she was forced to shield them.
Lucan: #14 (Luna Lodge) Page 9
