I skidded to a halt. “What?”
“I’ve got shit to do. If Ariana isn’t here, then I’m sure Cash and Maximus found her. I can’t wait around all night for their call.” Jett shoved his hands in his pockets and took a step back.
“Jett, you can’t disappear on us now. Ariana needs you.”
Jett scoffed. “I can do whatever the hell I want, Owen. I’m not part of Ariana’s little harem.”
I narrowed my eyes, but before I could argue further, my phone rang. I pulled it out and checked the caller. Cash.
My heart raced with hope. Maybe they’d found Ariana.
I looked up to share my excitement with Jett, but he was gone. Damn panthers and their gift for disappearing from sight.
Wiping my palm on my jeans, I answered the call, my heart racing. “Did you find her?”
7
Jett
Only when I slid into the back seat of the taxi did I relax. Going through that had been agony, and not just because I’d never wanted to meet the Lamia Queen in my lifetime if I could help it. Now that I was out of the vampire headquarters, I could breathe a little easier. I could have fought traffic in my own car, but taxis were the more inconspicuous mode of transport. Cash might like to flash his wealth, but I preferred the anonymity of taxis.
I pulled out my phone and texted ahead, muttering my destination to the cab driver as I did. By now, Owen would be on his way to the join the other alphas and discuss their plan. They’d probably have a thing or two to say about my behavior, too. I needed to pull it together, stop acting so erratic. If I wasn’t careful, they’d catch on to what I had going. Knowing me as well as he did, Cash should have already figured it out, but as usual, he was too busy lusting after a piece of ass to look around him.
I wondered what Owen would have to say to the others when he got back. They’d probably be on the phone to me in minutes, demanding to know why I didn’t want to find the Silver Shifter as much as they did. If only they knew. I wanted to make sure she was okay every bit as much as they did—probably more. But she wasn’t my mate. Despite my sister’s insistence to the contrary, I didn’t need a mate.
The others apparently didn’t share my opinion. I could still feel the waves of agitation that had been rolling off Owen the whole time we’d been in Vamp HQ, and it wasn’t just about being surrounded by bloodsuckers. He was hurting for his mate so bad it almost made me hurt with him. I didn’t know Owen well, but I could tell that out of the four clan alphas, he was the best of us. Ask anyone else, and they’d probably say I was the worst. After some of the things I’d done lately, I was beginning to think they’d be right.
I hated lying to Owen, but I didn’t have much choice. It seemed that more and more lately, I hadn’t had much choice about the things I’d had to do. When I did have a choice, the options were between shitty and shittier.
I pointed to the non-descript warehouse building, and the taxi coasted through the nearly deserted parking lot to the guard station beside the gate before rocking to a halt.
“What is this place?” the cabbie asked, looking more than a little freaked when he saw the semi-automatic rifle pointed at us.
“Nowhere,” I said, handing him the cab fare. I slid out of the car and slammed the door before he could ask more questions. I waved for him to go, and after a second, he sped off. I turned to the guard, holding up both hands. “It’s just me. Jett.”
“Proof of identity,” the guard barked, keeping his weapon trained on me.
I stopped at the key pad near the gate, far enough from the guard station that he could shoot me if I got any ideas. He looked a little jumpy even though his little booth had all kinds of protection spells on it. Humans had no idea of everything supernaturals could do, and I didn’t blame them for taking precautions.
Instead of punching in a number or scanning my handprint, I slipped on the black and silver device that looked a little like a pair of high-tech headphones. An imposter could steal a pin number or copy everything about a person, down to their fingerprints and retinas. But no one with that kind of magic could fake the brainwaves of a shifter.
I hit the ‘on’ switch and waited for the doctors to give my brain the stamp of approval.
“See anything you like?” I asked after a minute, knowing they’d hear me through the headset.
“You look agitated,” came the answer.
“I’m fine,” I said. “You can read my brainwaves, Doc, not my mind.”
I replaced the headset and saluted the guard, who hit a switch to unlock the gate. I walked through and slid my wallet out, inserted my keycard, and waited for the locks to disengage. Two cameras pointed at me from above the door, but I kept my eyes focused straight ahead. The doc had already seen too much of my excitement. I didn’t want to give her any more ammunition. When I heard the click of the locks, I turned the knob and entered the low, metal building.
The moment I stepped inside, I was surrounded by bright, fluorescent lights, polished linoleum floors, and industrial ceilings. Outside, it might look like a warehouse, but inside, it looked like a hospital. I knew appearances were deceiving on both counts.
I started down the corridor, moving faster than I should. I didn’t want to get caught up in theorizing and guessing before I saw her.
“Jett,” called a voice from down a side hall.
Ignoring it, I hurried toward the observation room.
“Jett,” the voice called again. The doctor was beside me in moments, clinging to my elbow like a leech.
I reminded myself that she was one of the good guys. We were on the same side—the side that hated vampires.
“Someone’s in a hurry,” Dr. Siegfred said, eyeing me.
“I want to see the patient, that’s all,” I said. “I can’t wait to hear about your progress.”
When she showed no signs of leaving my side, I decided to let her follow me. I wasn’t going to be stopped until my eyes were on the prize.
“You should really hear what I have to say before you go barging in there,” the doctor said as I reached the door to the observation room.
Ignoring her, I turned the knob and entered the long, rectangular room with a wall made of glass. It overlooked a large room with a bed and various machines and pieces of medical equipment. My chest squeezed when I caught sight of the slight figure strapped to the bed, the tell-tale silver hair strewn across the pillow. Unaware that she was being watched, she twisted her head from side to side, then tried to sit, straining against her restraints.
“She has been a less-than-ideal participant,” Muriel said, tapping her clipboard. “We’ve tried to give her more freedom, rewarding her for good behavior, but she’s shown us very little cooperation even when we explained we are working to eradicate the vampire threat.”
I barely heard her. My eyes stayed riveted on the woman in the bed, her gaze flying to the clock and her struggles intensifying.
I choked on a breath, trying to control my panther, who had suddenly risen up in mutinous fury, screeching to be free and go to the woman he thought was his mate. From the moment we’d laid eyes on her, he’d claimed her as his own, but it hadn’t stopped me from betraying her.
I was more than an animal, though. My human side was rational and could think beyond myself. This was for the greater good—a necessity, in fact. When vampires ceased to exist, the rest of the world could relax. Only then would it be safe for us to take mates and have children. Only then could we be sure that we’d live to see our children grow into their roles and have families of their own.
“We’ve been extracting a sample of her blood each day,” Muriel said. “It would help if we had her cooperation. We were hoping you’d talk to her, and—”
“Me?” I asked incredulously. “Why would she listen to me?
“Well, we assumed you knew her personally,” she said, eyeing me suspiciously. “You did turn her over to us.”
It sounded so much worse when she put it like that. It was true, though. As m
uch as I hated to admit it, I deserved every bit of Ariana’s wrath.
“Sorry to break it to you, Doc, but Ariana hates me,” I said. “And I never had her in my possession, so I couldn’t have turned her over to you.”
“You told us where and how to find her,” Dr. Siegfred continued, leveling me with a gaze that was both exasperated and curious. She was obviously dying to know the complexities of our relationship, but I wasn’t about to get into that with her. I hadn’t even gotten into it with my sister yet.
“If you need someone to sweet talk her, sorry, but I won’t be of any help to you,” I said.
“Well, if we can’t get her to talk, we’ll just have to do it the hard way,” she said. “It may take longer, but with enough blood tests, we’ll figure out everything she could tell us and then some. We need to isolate the components of her blood that are curing vampires. If we knew why her blood could do this, it might make the process go more quickly, but in the end, we’ll get there either way.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. My ears were ringing with a panther scream that only I could hear, but I held tight to my control, not letting him bully me into submission. He might not see it with his primitive brain, but I could see it. Ariana wasn’t our mate. She was our savior. She was going to make sure no more panthers grew up without fathers because of bloodsucking parasites.
“What she’s essentially doing is bringing them back to life,” Dr. Siegfred was saying. “Not killing them but turning them from monsters into ordinary humans. It’s extraordinary, really. We were hoping you could frame the question in such a way that she sees that she’s the solution. It benefits all shifters—all four clans. That’s a Silver Shifter’s job, isn’t it? We hoped she’d be an enthusiastic participant. I can’t imagine what shifter wouldn’t be, especially after what they’ve done to her.”
“You’re not hurting her, are you?” I asked, stalking up and down the small room, my arms crossed tightly over my chest, keeping myself contained.
“Of course not,” Muriel said. “We’re just keeping her subdued until we can determine the specific properties that make the transformation of vampires possible, so we can manufacture these aspects and not rely on an unwilling subject.”
“I’ll do my best,” I said, my heart wrenching at the sight of the scared girl twisting in the bed below. I didn’t think she’d listen to a single word I had to say, but I had to at least try. So much depended on this girl. Everything depended on her.
“We are as determined as you, Jett,” Muriel said. “We want to form an alliance that is mutually beneficial to humans and shifters. To make the world safe for all of us.”
The only way to do that was to eradicate vampires, and the only way to do that was to use the Silver Shifter’s gift. I kept telling myself that as the door to Ariana’s room opened and a nurse entered. Ariana began to snarl, her eyes wide with terror. I squeezed my hands into fists, my claws extending and piercing the flesh of my palms. My teeth extended as well, and I barely held myself back from leaping through the glass window.
My panther didn’t give a shit about isolating components and manufacturing aspects, about persuasive arguments or even uniting the clans. He just wanted to go to his mate, to free her and protect her from anyone who meant her harm—even me.
8
Ariana
As the poison slowly seeped from the syringe into my vein, I felt my strength draining away. They didn’t just take my blood to make me weak. They gave me something, something that cooled the heat of my dragon and put her to sleep, so I couldn’t even hear her inside me.
My wolf, however, made up for the silence. The silver put us into a state of constant pain that dulled my mind and left her crying for relief. I wanted to rip them to shreds with my bare, human hands for hurting my wolf that way. They had no idea. No idea what it was like to live with this creature inside me, to be trusted to care for her and keep her safe, and to fail her so miserably. They didn’t have to hear her incessant, piteous whimpering, and know that they were once again powerless to protect her.
And they had no idea what it was doing to me. Something inside me was growing in my lucid moments, like a rumbling of thunder in the distance, growing every day. When I unleashed it…
I was going to fucking kill each and every one them, ruthlessly and methodically. I just had to find some way…
As the silver seeped into me, even my resolve weakened. I sank back on the bed, the icy burn of the injection racing up my arm, through my veins. My eyes fluttered closed as the ice invaded my mind, filling it with a dull throbbing and swirling, confused thoughts.
Maybe if I cooperated they would stop injecting poison into my veins, or whatever they were putting in me to subdue my dragon. Maybe they would stop spraying silver down my throat. I shivered under the thin blankets, wanting to curl up, to hold my middle and offer my wolf whatever solace she took from my human company. But my arms and legs were strapped to the bed, keeping me from offering even that small comfort.
I closed my eyes. When I opened them, I heard a shout in the hallway. The door blinked open like an eye, and suddenly, one of my mates stood over me.
No, not one of my mates.
Jett.
I knew I must be dreaming. Jett wouldn’t visit me in the hospital.
“Ariana.”
My eyes snapped open. He was still there. He leaned over the bed, bracing one hand on each edge, his face close to mine. For a second, I could only stare into his black velvet eyes. My wolf whined pitifully, trying to connect with her mate, thinking he was here to rescue us.
But this wasn’t a hospital where I’d been taken to heal. Jett might not visit me in one of those, but apparently, he’d visit me in the kind of hospital that strapped you to a bed and tortured your inner animal.
I nudged my wolf down, knowing that once again, she’d be disappointed by a human. This time it wasn’t me, though. As the realization of what this meant sank in, my lips pulled back from my teeth even though my wolf was too weak to come out and fight.
“Jett,” I growled, a voice coming out of me that I didn’t think I’d ever heard. It was laced with pain that bordered on hatred.
A tiny smile tugged the corner of Jett’s full lips, but it never reached his eyes. “A pleasure, as always,” he said, straightening.
“You did this?” I demanded, straining against my restraints. “I knew it was you. All that time, I thought you were colluding with the vampires. But this… This is worse.” A growl rumbled somewhere inside me, and Jett took a step back, looking uncertain. Even I didn’t know where it was coming from—this strength that fueled my anger. My dragon slept, and my wolf was poisoned by silver and beyond fighting. Something fanned my anger, though, pushing up inside me like a building tidal wave.
“Come on, Quicksilver,” Jett said, his eyes almost pleading. “You don’t mean that.”
“Don’t fucking tell me what I mean,” I said through gritted teeth.
Jett held up both hands. “Okay, fine. You meant it. And I don’t blame you. This isn’t what I had in mind when they told me what they wanted.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Dr. Siegfred,” he said. “The HCA.”
“What does it matter who it is?” I asked. “It could be Dante keeping me in a cage and forcing me to fight, or vampires keeping me locked away so no one can use me against them, or these assholes. They’re all the same to me.”
“You’ve got it all wrong,” Jett said. “The HCA is the opposite of vampires. They want to help people, not hurt them.”
“And yet, they treat me like a prisoner, someone less than human. It makes no difference to me what kind of monster captures me. They’re all monsters.”
Jett’s lips tightened, and his eyes cut away from mine. “I’ll have them untie you,” he muttered.
“That’s all you have to say?” I asked, nearly choking on incredulousness.
“No,” he said, his jaw tensing. “They shouldn’t have kept you like
this, but what they’re doing isn’t wrong, Ariana. They’re ridding the world of a plague. Maybe they didn’t go about it the right way, but from what I hear, you didn’t give them much choice.”
I blinked at him, my hands fisting, anger thudding in my temples. “Are you fucking delusional, Jett? You think I gave them no choice but to attack me repeatedly, to follow me to my mate’s territory, break into the house in the middle of the night, and kidnap me? But I guess you’re going to tell me that was all for my own good. I gave them no choice but to kidnap me, drug me, poison me, and chain me to a bed, after all.”
Jett sighed and ran a hand down his face. “You’re making this difficult, Ariana. All we want is to stop a group of mass murderers from killing. Yes, it’s unfortunate, but right now you’re the only thing we have that can stop them.”
“And you didn’t think to just come to me and ask?” I growled.
“Don’t you want to stop them?” Jett asked. “How can you defend vampires? Haven’t they taken everything from you, too?”
Our eyes caught, and for a long moment, neither of us spoke. My mind caught on that last word.
Of course this was personal. That’s why Jett was so determined, why he’d betray the other clans, risking his life and a war that could wipe out his entire clan. To him, it was worth it to wipe out the vampires. What could make him hate them so much he’d sacrifice everything to erase them?
It wasn’t just a dislike of bloodsuckers, the enemy of shifters by their very nature. This was something else.
“Vampires didn’t take everything from me,” I said slowly. “They tried, on that roof. But most of my life, it was warlocks who owned me, who made me fight. Vampires were nothing but their henchmen in the pits.”
Jett’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t speak.
“But they took everything from you,” I said. “That’s it, right? That’s what would make you betray all four clans. So who did they take?”
Her Bear: An Urban Fantasy Romance (Silver Shifter Book 3) Page 5
