I’m going to be eaten alive.
“Nice, Simba,” she crooned in what she hoped to be a soothing tone. “Easy now. Holy shit, you’re one hell of a big kitty.”
He had a huge head and intelligent golden-brown eyes that seemed to study her. A thick mane covered his chest almost down to the knees and flowed more than halfway across a very muscular back. His coloring ranged from light buff on his torso to a dark cocoa brown at the tip of his tail. The lion’s proud stance gave him a regal quality.
The cat yawned, revealing a sharp set of immense teeth, and he flicked the brown puffed end of his tail in her direction. His lazy demeanor didn’t fool Jenny. The animal was on high alert, waiting and watching.
“Getting sleepy? That’s good. You go take a nice long nap and I’ll catch ya later.”
She had no way to warn Nash. Eventually, he’d come looking for her and the lion would get him too. Well, unless the lion got filled up on her first and took a nap.
What a delightful thought.
“People don’t taste very good, you know. Not one of those cases where they say it tastes like chicken.” As she spoke, Jenny took slow steps away from the animal. “Nope, we taste horrible. Meat’s all tough and gamey. You’d be much happier with a nice filet of venison.”
Prepared to take another step back, she was stopped by the sharp cry of what sounded to be another large cat.
“Oh great. This just gets better and better!” She quivered, made a snap decision and stepped to the left, pivoting to get a look at the new arrival while moving from between the two animals.
Let them fight over her. She was okay with that. Maybe they’d kill each other and she could make a break for it.
A large tiger stepped into the open. Jenny blinked a couple of times, trying to clear her vision. Nothing changed. There were still two big jungle cats eying each other warily.
“A lion and a tiger. Oh my! Now all we need is a bear.” Her voice came out squeaky, pitched high, bordering on hysteria.
The two animals facing off made a very surreal sight. She fought down the hysterical laughter threatening to burst free. God, if only she could chalk this up to a hallucination.
Talking softly, Jenny continued to take tiny steps away from the building confrontation. “Play nice, kitties. Ignore the silly human. You’ll have a better time chasing each other.”
With her back to the trees, careful of making sudden movements, she eyed both animals. Somehow, a tiger showing up made perfect sense to her spiraling-out-of-control mind. The tiger’s stocky body stood tense and on edge, prepared for action. Shiny fur, ranging from almost white to reddish-orange, was overlaid by a pattern of dark stripes. While not as large as the lion, the tiger was still a force to be reckoned with.
The beast turned his intense blue gaze on her. Jenny felt her legs wobble. She backed into a tree. Unable to remain upright any longer, she slid down onto her bottom.
Blue eyes?
Those eyes, they looked so similar to Na—
“Oh my God. No. Please, no.”
All thoughts of slinking off evaporated as her brain struggled with what she was seeing. Her mind raced as she put two and two together, not liking the result, grasping for alternate answers.
Nash had told her Nanotech’s scientists were playing with crazy shit but what she imagined couldn’t be possible. Over the years, amazing leaps had been made with genetic research. More than ten years ago they’d cloned that damn sheep.
What the hell was its name?
“Either Molly or Dolly? Fuck, I don’t know the stupid sheep’s name,” she mumbled, knowing the animal’s name didn’t matter. Not with the two cats preparing to fight. But the scars on Nash’s body—those mattered. The sick fucks had done things to him, enhanced his strength, operated. What if they—
Dammit, no.
If you wanted to perform illegal groundbreaking research, you’d set up a secured lab in the middle of nowhere. Do whatever it took to protect your secret. Especially if the potential return on your investment was huge. Men with the ability to change into animals was beyond huge.
Military agencies, foreign interests, terrorists— They’d all shell out big bucks for technology that advanced the strength of their soldiers. Make regular soldiers stronger, turn them into some of the fiercest hunters in the world and the superpowers would hand over a fortune.
The tiger moved to position himself between her and the lion. He seemed protective or maybe possessive. Shit! She had a hard time figuring out men. Animals were a whole different story.
Each step the tiger took was matched by the lion and the cats began an odd dance of advance and withdraw.
“There’s no sense in having a catfight over me.” She glanced into the stunning blue eyes of the tiger again, and her heart beat so fast she was afraid it would burst.
If he is…
That means…
Then who the hell is the lion?
Bits and pieces clicked into place from her earlier conversation with Nash and her mind made a huge leap. Panic bubbled up in her chest, strangling anything she would have said as she scrambled around the tree trunk, keeping her eye on the animals.
Good Lord. She had to be wrong.
The two cats growled and roared, each taking the other’s measure. Jenny hoped to fade into the background and miss the fight.
No such luck.
The lion crouched down, ready to spring at the tiger. No, at Nash. He’d be torn to shreds. She trembled, her mind raced, searched for a way out of this nightmare.
Should she run? Scream? There was no one to hear her cries or offer aid. The cabin’s isolation was one of the reasons she’d rented it for her vacation.
Fuck! She couldn’t run. She had to reach her husband. He was in there…somewhere. And he was her only hope. That’s why he was here, to protect her, right? But how much of Nash’s intellect did the tiger share? Would he even know her?
A ferocious growl vibrated from the lion’s broad chest as he leapt, nearly scaring the piss out of her.
“Nash!” His name erupted from her lips in an anguished scream as the cats attacked. Growls, roars and shrill cries of pain rang out from the tumbling, churning mass of fur. Claws ripped at tender flesh. Teeth sunk into a vulnerable throat. An endless, dark river of blood flowed over the dirt.
Jenny had to do something to help Nash, but what? How the hell did a human break up a fight between two bloodthirsty predators?
No, one of them was her husband. Something about the way the lion moved made her believe this animal also shared a human’s intelligence.
Considering what she believed to be the reality of the situation, she saw only one sure-fire way to bring an end to the skirmish. She had to react, fast. There was no time to think about it.
Pushing past her fears, Jenny squared her shoulders and waited for an opening. Where she found the courage, she had no idea but a gap appeared between the two cats. She hollered the first thing that came to mind and stepped right into the middle of the fight.
“Hey! You two morons, please stop this nonsense. I’m not going to watch you kill each other.”
Oh, please let there be human men under all that fur and muscle!
A trail of fire burned down the back of her right calf as a powerful paw and unsheathed claws met with denim covered skin and muscle. No doubt the strike was intended to land on the other cat. That knowledge didn’t ease the excruciating pain. Air exited her lungs in a rush leaving her breathless. She glanced over her shoulder to get a look at the damage. Ragged, blood-coated strips of denim covered her lower leg. A pool of blood soaked into the ground around her foot.
Cold sweat slicked her body and her field of vision narrowed. Funny, the sight of blood had never bothered her before at work. Of course, that was always someone else’s blood, not her own. Damn if it didn’t hurt too.
“I don’t feel so good.” Her voice dropped to a weak whisper as she plunged face-first toward the ground. The last thing she heard was
Nash calling her name in a harsh tone full of fear.
Chapter Seven
Nash’s claws sliced through fabric and flesh easy as a hot knife through butter.
Spending the rest of his life in the deepest, darkest, most vile pit in hell would not atone for hurting Jenny. There was too much force behind his movement to stop the momentum when she stepped between him and the lion.
She swayed and he shifted. Leaping forward, he wrapping her in the protection of his arms. Nash rolled as they fell, allowing his body to take the brunt of their impact against the hard-packed dirt road and keeping the lion in sight.
“Jenny? Talk to me, Sunshine.”
As he rose, holding Jenny in his arms, the lion shifted form. He’d never seen anyone else make the change before, but Nash sure knew how it felt. The sudden flash of bright lights as the senses and body altered. The momentary disorientation created by such a drastic change in perspective.
Observing the shift was mesmerizing. If he’d blinked, he would have missed it. But the naked man covered in bite marks, gashes and abrasions now standing where the lion had shocked the hell out of him. A heavy sense of dread settled in his gut.
“Oh God. They got to you, too.”
Micah Lasiter nodded. “Let’s get her inside and take care of that wound. Then we’ll talk.”
Nash paced the confines of the small cabin. Thanks to his new super DNA, his wounds had already started to heal. He’d cleaned the gashes in Jenny’s leg and covered it in bandages, but she required more advanced care. While Micah had placed a call to someone he trusted, Nash located the first-aid kit Jenny kept in the car and coaxed her into taking a couple of pain pills. The medicine had done its job and knocked her out.
“Talk to me, man. Make me understand.”
Micah raked his fingers through shoulder-length dark blond hair. “While thirty-five may not be old, my body has taken a beating over the years. Hiding my physical limitations became harder after taking that bullet last year. Then I blew out my knee. That’s why I was on medical leave.” He rubbed at the damaged muscles.
“They came to me with a proposition to join the Predator Project. I became the first non-civilian their new and perfected procedure was tested on.”
Micah sighed. “I had few options. Once they told me what they were doing, I knew too much. It was either become their test subject or be eliminated. It all sounded so simple and amazing. Inject me with some souped-up lion DNA and I’d be stronger than ever before.” He laughed but the sound held no humor. “They left out a few minor details, such as the fact that I’d turn into a lion.”
Nash couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Micah had gone into this as a willing volunteer?
“They kept me isolated, hired a zoologist to help me through the transition and teach me how to handle my new abilities. I didn’t find out about your disappearance until after everything had gone down and Dr. Southerby met you at the lab.”
Nash remembered Weltman bringing in a woman to meet him right before things got crazy and alarms started going off.
“Weltman confronted Becca and I had to get her out of there. I didn’t know about you until later or I would have pulled you out too.”
“Wait a minute,” Nash interrupted. “The head of the organization is in on this? I got the impression a few of the scientists had taken it upon themselves to circumvent the standards for research and experimentation.”
The lines of strain furrowing Micah’s brow grew deeper. He closed his eyes and took several calming breaths. “The project has Weltman’s full backing and support. It’s his baby. Upon discovering a solution for binding the DNA and delivering it into the subject’s bloodstream the plan was to begin testing on disposable subjects. After perfecting the process they’d go for a few specific trials on individuals with previous military training. Strong men capable of handling the alterations. That’s when I was recruited. Weltman himself plans to undergo the procedure once proven safe.
“From what I’ve learned, the project has been in place for more than a year. All the previous test subjects either died during the transformation or their bodies rejected the DNA cocktail. A few went insane. I was the first success.”
Stress and exhaustion had taken an obvious toll on his friend. His thick hair now had a sprinkling of gray. Deep lines bracketed the corners of his eyes where before the golden skin had appeared youthful and smooth.
“All those poor unsuspecting people.” Nash muttered some creative curses and rubbed at his aching temples.
Micah nodded. “How’d you wind up in this mess?”
Nash continued to pace, wearing a groove in the wooden floor. “A tech arrived at headquarters to find out what was being done about a scientist who had gone missing. Took me by surprise because I hadn’t heard about anyone being missing. Hell, I didn’t even know about the facility until the tech gave me details.
“He also wanted to report ethics concerns over how things were being done at a lab. Since you were out on medical, I conducted his first interview. Never heard much though. We were being monitored. As soon as he started talking about unwilling subjects and taking homeless people from the street, Jennings busted in and took over.”
Steve Jennings, head of operations, was the man to whom both he and Micah answered. Nash remembered the older man storming into the room and directing him to forget about everything he’d heard. He’d been told the issue was top-secret and would be handled personally by Jennings.
“They left me out of the loop, but I refused to let go. There were too many unanswered questions, especially about the secret facility. Many of the things the tech had said bothered me. Two days later, I heard about his disappearance and began checking into the matter on my own.” He rubbed at the beard stubble covering his jaw.
“I screwed up, got too close, and learned things they didn’t want me to know. Got busted by Jennings while talking to the wrong person.”
In his panic, he’d attempted to contact Weltman, certain the man had no idea about the immoral practices being carried out right under his nose. The mistake had cost him.
“I got careless, overestimated myself. They snatched me right out of my car.” He glanced at Jenny’s motionless form on the couch. “Made it look like I’d bailed on Jenny. They kept me prisoner in the lab until yesterday when security got lax and I escaped.”
Micah chuckled. “Yeah. I recommended everyone on the lab’s security force. When I learned where you were, I arranged for the breach in procedure and waited in the woods to get you out of there. Ran into a bit of trouble myself with Jennings.” A look of regret crossed his face. “He’s no longer a concern.”
Nash held up his hand. “And how is it that my wife wound up here on the very same night security became lazy and I escaped? That’s too much coincidence for me!”
“I purchased this cabin. Posted notices on e-mail bulletins at the hospital where Jenny works offering it up as a very affordable vacation rental. She e-mailed back and set up the rental dates.” Micah gave a negligent shrug.
“Anyway, that’s how I was able to get here so quick. I’ve been here for weeks. Just had to clean things up and cover my tracks.” He drummed his fingers on a thigh that vibrated with nervous energy. “Speaking of which, it won’t take them long to find this place. We’ve been lucky so far but it’s not a safe location.”
He’d already known they couldn’t stay here much longer, but what now? His conscience wouldn’t allow him to walk away. There were still innocent people in the lab, suffering as he had. He also had to consider the frightening consequences of the military gaining access to the procedure or the altered subjects.
“We’ve got to take them down.”
Micah raked his hand through his hair and nodded. “Doing the right thing won’t be easy or come without significant risk.”
Nash glanced at Jenny again. Even if his conscience had let him turn his back, his love for Jenny gave him determination. She was such a good, caring and compassionate per
son. She would never walk away from innocent people in need of help. If she knew the details, she would want him to do whatever he could to save them.
“Make some calls,” he growled. “Assemble a team. We’ll need electronics, computer and explosive specialists. We go in, get the subjects out, fry their records then blow the place sky-high.”
“Good. I already have a team. Sorry, but I had to find out where you stood on things before bringing you in.”
Micah being a step ahead didn’t surprise Nash. His friend had an uncanny ability to analyze a situation and find all the possible pitfalls with deadly efficiency.
“We have to consider our status, Nash. They’ve turned us into animals with the ability to reason and walk among humans. The public will be frightened and can never find out or there’d be nowhere we could ever live in peace. This will have to be a silent mission. None of the team has full disclosure. Any subjects we pull out will have to be handled with kid gloves.”
Shit. There was no way of just letting the subjects walk out of there. They’d have to be isolated, taught to deal with their new status.
“I want to get General Hughes involved, keep everything hush-hush. The subjects can be trained under his guidance and protection.”
Nash nodded. Hughes had been their mentor in the Army. Next to Micah, he couldn’t think of anyone else he’d trust with something so critical. “The General will be a powerful asset to have on our side.”
“We also have to consider the chance they’ve established a failsafe. If the records have been stored elsewhere then taking out the lab doesn’t mean we’ve cancelled the project. We have to take out the entire Nanotech network.”
“This has to go down without any mistakes…” Nash let his words trail off. Micah knew the consequences of failure as well as he did.
Remaining silent and still was a struggle for Jenny. The horrors being perpetrated in the lab made her blood run cold. Hearing Nash recount what had been done to him, how they’d turned him into a shapeshifter with DNA from a tiger, boggled her mind.
Eye of the Tiger Page 5
