by A. C. Arthur
“She didn’t look healthy when I saw her,” Nick grumbled.
Ary was already lifting her hands to the corpse. Her fingers were steady as she touched the lips, around the mouth, and the chin. “There’s some sort of residue here. It’s chalky.”
Nick spoke first. “She foamed at the mouth as she collapsed.”
“That’s what I was going to get to next,” Papplin began. “Toxicology results show a couple of different substances. Cocaine for sure—that was the easy one. There’s another substance that showed remnants of some type of herb. The third is not known. It could be a poison because it’s very potent. I can’t readily identify it exactly, but I suspect the combination caused the unknown reaction.”
“So she literally went so crazy she killed herself because of whatever she’d taken?” Nick asked.
Ary touched the arms, which were swollen and splotchy. She moved down the body, hearing Nick and Papplin talk but drawing her own conclusions.
“I believe she ingested all of these substances. I cannot tell if they were a mixture or taken separately,” Papplin was saying.
“They were mixed,” Ary told them as she lifted one leg that looked as if it had been injected with fluids. To the touch it was cold as ice, but the splotches here were ruby red, as if fresh blood still pulsed through the veins.
“He’s mixing the damiana with the acids and solvents used to base the cocaine,” she said.
“What acids and solvents? How do you know?” Nick asked.
Papplin stood on the opposite side of the table, looking down at the leg Ary held. He was a knowledgeable man, and clearly open to her comments as he watched her with interest.
“Cocaine starts with the coca leaf, but there are several chemicals needed to complete the final product. In the jungle, tons of solvents, acids, and bases are moved daily to the labs where the cocaine is manufactured. Acetone and potassium permanganate are just a couple of the chemicals they use that also have everyday uses in the jungle, like keeping bananas from ripening too fast, or serving as an agent in house paint. It’s not hard to get these chemicals,” she told them.
“But there’s something going on when these chemicals are combined with the herb and the other mystery agent?” Papplin asked.
Ary nodded. “Something unpredictable.”
“Okay, let me get this straight,” Nick said as he walked around the table.
Today he wore jeans of a washed-out blue; a loose-fitting polo shirt did nothing to mask his bulging muscles and alluring build. The dark burgundy color of the shirt made his light complexion seem brighter, his dark hair and eyes, darker, his entire appearance more dominating.
“He’s mixing all these chemicals together with the damiana to make some sort of synthetic drug to sell on the streets. Only there’s no way to know how each person will react to this drug.”
Ary nodded. “That’s right. The drug in its unpurified state is going to filtrate into the system of each person who ingests it. But each reaction will be different because it’s not just a physical process at work. Remember I told you about what Yuri taught me? The energy surrounding the herb must be purified. Without this process, it’s a living source of negativity.”
“Ingestion by a person with already negative energy would exacerbate their dark traits. One who is normally vulnerable would become utterly dependent and most likely hyperactive, overzealous,” Papplin finished for her.
“So a woman who was already promiscuous would become a walking sex machine, ready to perform any and every sexual act anywhere at any time,” Nick added quietly.
He was thinking of the dead woman as she’d approached him. Ary remembered him telling Rome how the woman had come on to him, pulling down his zipper and … she didn’t like to finish that thought, but she knew the dead woman’s actions were imperative to what they were unveiling.
“This must be what he gave me in the forest. It made me angrier because at the time I was already upset about the kidnapping and what was going on with the lack of supplies. It didn’t make me more sexual, because—” She stopped. Papplin didn’t need to know she’d been celibate for the sixteen years Nick had been away from the forest.
Nick, however, already knew the end of that statement. “Putting this drug on the streets in this unpurified state could create an urban holocaust.”
Her gaze met his and held, neither one of them knowing exactly what to say to that assessment. It was true, that was clear from the silence in the room. Even Papplin looked as if he agreed. The question now was: How would they stop it from happening?
* * *
“Another female body was found in a Dumpster near Georgetown,” Kalina said, walking across the hardwood floors in the building where Rome had texted Nick to meet them.
They’d driven for more than forty-five minutes from the hospital where they’d just seen the woman who had confronted Nick, to this location in Virginia, just beyond Great Falls National Park. It almost looked like a forgotten locale, as the tall white oak trees gave way to what appeared to be a one-level dwelling that spanned a couple of acres in a type of U shape.
“Was she mutilated?” Nick asked immediately.
Senator Baines and his daughter and two prostitutes had been reported mutilated in the last eight weeks in DC. His gut told them this one would be the same.
Kalina nodded. Nick swallowed. He’d always trusted his gut no matter what.
“Part of her face was gone, mauled. The base of her skull had been cracked; ten-inch-deep puncture wounds penetrated her skull, causing instant death. Homicide fears they’re looking at a serial killer. The mayor and the chief of police are organizing a task force. The FBI are on standby to take immediate action if need be. The war has barely started and the casualties are adding up,” she finished.
Rome stood right beside her, his features hard like a mask of the deadliest jaguar ever.
“This building has enough space to be our headquarters. It’s secluded enough for us to shift if need be to protect everyone here. I want this to become our base for the East Coast. I’ve already talked to the other FLs about finding a location similar to this for their Zones,” Rome said sternly.
Nick nodded his agreement, looking around the large open room as he did. They’d come through a set of double wood doors and met Rome and Kalina in this spot, but he could see about thirty feet beyond where the room branched off to a hallway and most likely the rest of the space. This was the case to the right and the back. After seeing the dwelling from the outside, Nick was sure it had more than enough space. “Medical facilities can be down that way,” he suggested, looking over to Ary.
He lifted his brow to show her he was asking and not telling, to prove that he’d heard every word she’d spoken last night. Watching her in the morgue with Dr. Papplin had given him a new sense of this woman who was his mate. She was knowledgeable and serious and focused on her craft. When she should have appeared to be an outsider in a human morgue, around human medical supplies and concepts, she wasn’t. She’d known more about the death of the female than even Papplin had, proving to Nick that she was the one to run the medical facility without any doubt. But even with his positive conclusion, the decision would have to be Ary’s.
“We can look at the entire place to see if anything is more suitable, but I’m inclined to trust your judgment,” she said, holding his gaze.
“What about this new body? Should we try to get a look at it? I have contacts at the city morgue,” Kalina interrupted. “I just think we need to take a closer look at the casualties this time. We didn’t look at Baines’s or his daughter’s body, or those other two females. There could have been clues to let us know positively if it was the Rogues.”
She was right. It was time they started looking at every angle Sabar would play. That sonofabitch thought he had the upper hand, and it was up to them to prove his ass wrong.
“If you can get Ary in to see the body, that would be good. We just came from George Washington University
, where she looked at the body X took to Papplin. Tell them what you figured out.” He deferred to Ary once more.
She looked a little surprised at his words, tilting her head only slightly, her eyes twinkling just a bit. She wore dark gray pants that were only a fraction thicker than pantyhose, hugging her legs and her ass like a second skin. Her sheer white buttondown shirt came to her kneecaps like an air of enticement. Through it he could openly see the white camisole that hugged her breasts and covered her torso. But it wasn’t enough; he knew what she looked like naked, knew what those clothes did nothing to hide.
Clearing her throat, she began to talk. Pride moved through Nick like blood flowing through his veins.
“Sabar is mixing cocaine with the damiana. He’s probably hired a chemist to help him with the process here in the States, and they’ve added another agent that we can’t specify. The female at the morgue was in perfect health before her insides virtually exploded as a result of the high potency of the cocaine and the additional chemicals in her system. I think he’s created a pill that’s easily swallowed, breaks down fairly quickly, and reacts according to the genetics of the victim. In other words, if you’re inclined to be high-strung and more than a little excited, taking this drug will put you right in the sights of a crazy hospital. You’ll be erratic, nonsensical, in short out of control.”
“Jeez,” Kalina breathed, leaning into Rome, who’d wrapped his arm around her as Ary spoke.
“Yeah, my sentiments exactly,” Nick said with a sigh.
Chapter 25
“What are you doing here?”
“It looks like I’m being held captive,” Caprise quipped.
The minute X had walked into Rome’s house Ezra had pulled him aside, whispering that the guards had caught someone breaking into Nick’s house when they’d retrieved some of his and Ary’s things last night.
“She’s a shifter and she’s mad as hell” was what Ezra had told him before walking off chuckling.
X had no idea what he was walking into when he entered the room at the far end of the hall on the third floor away from the FL and the others staying there. He’d entered knowing he might have to fight or at the very least subdue the intruder, but never, ever would he have considered it would be her.
“You were breaking into your brother’s house?” he asked Caprise Delgado with all the confusion he was feeling evident in his voice.
“How else was I supposed to get in?”
X shrugged. “I don’t know, call him and tell him you wanted to come over. Knock and if he’s not home come back later. What the hell’s the matter with you, breaking and entering?”
“Go to hell! You of all people cannot stand there and judge me,” she spat.
What was she talking about? X stared at the young woman he hadn’t seen for at least five years. She’d changed a hell of a lot since then. He distinctly remembered her butter-toned complexion, almost identical to Nick’s. Her hair was raven black, like her older brother’s as well. But that’s where the physical likeness between the Delgado siblings stopped.
Caprise was shorter, possibly about five-eight or -nine, from what he could tell as she stood near the balcony doors that no doubt were padlocked as well. Her legs went on forever and ever, holding X’s gaze for much longer than they probably should have. Thighs spread to curvy hips, a slim waist, and breasts that made his mouth water. The less-is-more vibe her short-ass skirt and skintight blouse gave off made it damn hard to do anything else. But it was her eyes that had done the most changing. You could tell so much from a shifter’s eyes.
Hers were dark, emotionless, scary. Thick eyebrows arched above slightly slanted eyes that watched him closely, too closely.
“Nick said you were back,” he said for lack of anything better. “I doubt he realized you’d be breaking into his house.”
“Oh, please; give it a rest. I needed a place to crash so I went to my brother’s. He wasn’t home so I let myself in. No harm, no foul.”
X nodded. “I believe you.”
“Well, aren’t I the lucky one. Can you tell your hired monkeys to let me go?”
“That’s not going to happen,” he said solemnly. “Not until Nick gets back.”
She’d turned her back, to retrieve her bag he surmised, but at his words she spun around with a dark blur that was faster than light.
“You’ve got to be kidding! You cannot hold me hostage. Isn’t that illegal? Aren’t you some kind of cop?”
Hostility poured from her every motion, every word. She was anxious and nervous—and he wanted to say scared, but he wouldn’t pin that on a woman like Caprise.
“I’m an FBI agent. Look, Caprise, there are things going on here that won’t allow me to let you walk out of this house unprotected. It’s a dangerous time for shifters out there.”
“I’m a woman,” she said, licking her lips and crossing her arms over her chest as if to punctuate that announcement.
X looked her up and down. “I can see that. Another reason I’m not letting you walk out of here.”
* * *
Their meeting had begun as cordially as that of any human with another human. She’d walked into his home office, closed the door behind her, and taken a seat in the guest chair in front of his desk. He’d looked up, acknowledged her presence, and stood to greet her. After all, she was older than him by at least ten years. She’d also been his former mentor’s female, and she deserved his respect.
Taking her hand in his, bringing it to his lips as he went to his knees in front of her was beyond any allegiance Sabar had bothered to pay another living soul, be it shifter or human. But Bianca was, to him, beyond any other living soul. She had forever been the one bright spot in his life. Even when he believed Kalina was his companheiro, he knew she’d never have his heart. That was Bianca’s alone.
She’d taken his hand, rubbing hers along his cheek, and beckoned him to stand.
“You have come such a long way,” she said when he was standing fully in front of her.
She was shorter by at least a foot, and she was enigmatic. Her hair was in two long braids hanging down to her bottom—which by the way was as plump and enticing as any twenty-year-old’s. Her skin was not olive, not ivory, and not darker; it was simply perfect. Ice-blue eyes blinked and changed quickly to white and back again. His heart beat faster, his cat leaping and growling inside.
“I was thrilled when you called,” he admitted, because with Bianca there could be no lies.
“You have been very bad,” she said, a long nail scaling along the line of his jaw.
“No. I am doing what Boden taught me.”
She shook her head. “You told me once you’d never want another but me. You lied.”
Fuck! She knew about Kalina. “You belong to Boden” he gave as his defense. “You said you would never leave him. He was my mentor so I couldn’t kill him to take what I wanted. I had to let you go.”
“And get yourself another?” She walked around him, her fingers trailing down to his pecs, his abs, around his waist to his buttocks and thighs. “Did she suck you?”
“No!” Sabar replied instantly, adamantly. “No. I did not touch her and she did not touch me.”
“But not because you did not want it—because you could not take her from the shadow she is joined with.”
As much as he hated hearing that truth, Sabar gritted his teeth and nodded his agreement. “That is in the past.”
Bianca was once again in front of him. “I think not. You still want her.”
“I want to kill that bitch for choosing him over me. I’m sick of females choosing weaker shifters over me!” And he was. As much as he respected Boden for all that he’d taught him, the fact was, that jaguar had nothing on Sabar.
“I did not choose,” she said, her heart-shaped lips pouting. “The choice was made for me.”
“And you’re here now because?” Being in love with her didn’t make Sabar a total idiot. There was a reason Bianca had contacted him, a reas
on that she’d traveled from the wetlands in Africa to see him. He wanted to know what it was before they went any farther.
“I missed you,” she said simply, coming up on tiptoe to touch her lips to his.
Well, Sabar figured as her tongue traced a hot path around his lips, over the seam that separated them, along his tongue that he readily gave to her, he could always get the real reason later. After.
Her screams were so loud they could be classified as deafening. Her claws scraped the red velour wallpaper off his wall in angry slashes as he pumped into her with vicious strokes. When he bent her over the desk, thrusting his full length into her ass, she screamed again, this time his name. It had thrown him right over the edge. Not only was he fucking Bianca, he was making her his in every possible way. And when his release took him she’d twisted her body so that her face now lined up with his. The kiss she gave him was a scorcher and had his dick hardening once more. But she’d led him to the shower where they’d bathed and she’d fallen to her knees, taking his length into her mouth. She’d watched him with those bewitching eyes as she milked his cock, swallowing his essence then rising to kiss his mouth with the remnants of his seed on her lips.
If Sabar thought he was in love with her before, he was totally obsessed with her now.
Still, half an hour later as he stood at the end of his bed, his body wrapped in a black velvet robe, he looked down on her naked body and asked once more, “Why are you here?”
Bianca sat up, not an ounce of modesty in her entire body. She crossed her legs so that he could see her center, see the damp lips of her core and want her once more.
“I have what you need to lead the shifters.”
Chapter 26
The room was completely dark, as they’d been told to have it. Only candles provided illumination, and they were placed in strategic locations throughout the space.
Sabar hadn’t been thrilled with the news of Gabriel’s death. Darel had knocked on his door to tell him just as he and Bianca were finishing their discussion. That discussion had led to this ayahuasca ceremony being performed in one of the back rooms of his safe house in Arlington.
