Night Caught

by Godiva Glenn

  Personally, he was looking forward to uncovering the truth about her background. If she was a simple human orphan, he was a Siberian husky.

  * * * *

  While Sky had stared at the laptop and scribbled notes, Kalle had taken a shower.

  Now he was out and hungry again, and Sky hadn’t moved an inch.

  “So that room service thing you mentioned at the other place… is that all hotels?” he asked.

  She paused long enough to give him a look. “What do you need?”

  “Another burger?”

  “Really?”

  “I blame the drugs. I’ve been starving.” He dug through the bag of things she’d found for him earlier and found a t-shirt. “Where’s that horse you were saying you could eat?” he joked.

  She pointed to a blue binder sitting next to the tv on the dresser. “Check in there. It should say when they stop bringing up food.” She paused. “Ah… you can read, right?”

  He pulled the shirt over his head and yanked it into place. It was tight, but it would work. “Of course, I can read.”

  “I wasn’t sure. I don’t know why I just never thought of it.”

  “I, like most lupine, did receive an education. We didn’t go to school with humans, but we learned whatever you all learn, I guess.”

  Curiosity flashed across her face and she grinned softly. “Another time, I want to know all about it. When you’re comfortable talking about it, I mean.”

  Though not all great, he looked forward to the day when they were safe enough to relax and have a talk about his life. But some wounds were still too fresh. His pack. His past.

  He nodded and flipped open the binder. Glancing around, he found the clock. “Looks like I have about fifteen minutes to order a burger.”

  “Better hurry. Get whatever you want.”

  “Shouldn’t we try to save money?”

  She laughed. “No. Once I get what I need from this I’m dumping it. We’re going off the grid.”

  “Meaning?”

  “For us? It means… well, you were living in the woods before I found you, right?” She smiled but didn’t look at him, keeping her eyes on the computer screen. “We’re going back out there. Just pick a state and we only need enough money to get there.”

  He stared at her. “You can’t be serious.”

  She gazed up at him. “In the time you were being tortured, I had to think about these things. You can’t be cooped up in the city. I won’t make you pretend to be human any more than you’ve already had to.”

  “It’s not the best life. It’s…” His voice trailed off. What had he expected, anyhow? When he’d planned on running away with her, wouldn’t it have been the same life he’d been living?

  “I don’t mind being outdoors. It’s oddly comforting and it’s always felt right to me. I’m sure that sounds strange.”

  “It only sounds strange because you aren’t lupine,” he admitted.

  “You mean because I’m a human spoiled by modern amenities,” she teased. “Get a burger. Get two or three.”

  He skimmed the menu. “Are you full of leaves? They have a smoked salmon salad. That sounds filling.”

  “Full of leaves… I swear…” She rolled her eyes. “Fish is meat, so I’ll pass.”

  He picked up the phone and made his order. Afterward, he sat behind her on the bed and peered at her screen. They were planning a life together but in the least romantic way. He wanted to hold her and kiss her. Make love to her. It seemed like they’d earned that.

  His lips brushed her left ear and she shivered.

  “Fuck,” she whispered.

  “Yeah, we really should.”

  She laughed. “No. I mean fuck, you’re distracting.”

  “And you’re cute when you’re busy working to bring down an evil entity.”

  “Give me until after you eat again, and then I’ll be all yours, promise.” She paused and removed her fingers from the laptop long enough to reach back and rake her fingertips along the soft hairs at the base of his neck. “Trust me, I want nothing more than to catch up on this, but the sooner I decrypt this notebook, the sooner we disappear into the trees.”

  Nodding, he nudged aside her hair and nipped at her shoulder. “I hope you find what you’re looking for.”

  SIXTEEN

  Days passed. Each cluster of hours filled with repetition of eat and sleep. Kalle was going stir-crazy, but Sky stayed busy, constantly obsessing over the laptop and scribbling notes.

  “This isn’t what I expected to find,” she said with exasperation. She sat back and rubbed her neck, working her fingertips into muscles that had to be stiff beyond reason given her constant work. “The notebook is one in a series, but it only contains one research subject.”

  “Nothing helpful?”

  “Here and there. I had hoped for more about the organization.” She lifted the notebook she’d been writing in and flipped through the pages. “I’m tempted to give up but… this case is morbidly fascinating. I can’t seem to shake the feeling that…” She wrinkled her brow.

  “What’s that?”

  “Nothing. Nothing except learning the doctor was even more of a monster than I suspected. I never imagined this,” she admitted. “The man writing these cold reports about lethal testing doesn’t even feel like the man who raised me. He was strict, yes, but this…”

  “You don’t have to keep going.”

  She shook her head. “No. I denied the truth of my time with the Wardens long enough. It hurts to read but this is something I contributed to. I need to see the horrid fruits of my labor.”

  Kalle rose from the armchair he’d been sprawled in and sat beside her on the bed where she’d been working day and night. “You aren’t to blame for him.”

  She pulled his arms around her waist and leaned back against his chest. “I did my share for the cause.”

  “Like tagging vampires?”

  A long exhale escaped her. “Yeah. It was never enough to take out one. We aimed for the full nest. Tag a straggler, let it go. Follow it and exterminate.”

  “Them,” he corrected.

  “What?”

  “Vamps, as much as I don’t care for them, they’re men. Women. Not it.” He recalled his time locked up. “The doctor called me ‘it’ and I caught the distinction. If you remove our humanity, it’s easier to keep seeing us as an “other.” But just like we have a human side, vampires all started out as human.”

  She slumped in his grasp. “You’re right. And I suppose I should have caught that. It’s all over the reports. This notebook is all about subject 17 and if not for a few notes on sexual activity, I wouldn’t know that subject is a woman.”

  The hairs on the back of Kalle’s neck stood in anxious suspicion. “What did they do to her?”

  “Not her so much as her parents and grandparents. Three full generations of genetic manipulation with paranormal mutagens. They started with agent volunteers years and years ago, and only produced one child with extraordinary abilities.”

  “I see.” His gut response was one of less neutrality. It was disgusting. A crime against nature. But what if she was talking about herself, and didn’t realize it?

  She turned and looked at him while she spoke, eyes alight with fascination. “Everything they could try to pull from your kind, they did. Same with vampires, but apparently little of that stuck. They had the most success with an unknown specimen—something they had never encountered before.”

  “If they’d never encountered it, how did they get it?”

  “An agent was out hunting a pair of lupine traveling without their pack and he encountered something else. Someone already hunting them, but it—I mean he—wasn’t human. In the files, he’s listed as a skinwalker, which is just a codename. He had incredible strength and speed, but most notably, he seemed to be a shifter of some sort. Not lupine, but something. The agent reported claws. But the lupine being hunted killed the skinwalker.”

  “And the Wardens scooped u
p the body?” Kalle guessed. “I’ve never heard of something not lupine with claws. I thought it was just us. Lupine, vamps, humans.”

  “Apparently there’s more. Better at hiding, I suppose.”

  Something that looked human that hunted lupine? A shiver ran down his spine. He preferred being at the top of the food chain. “It has to be a predator if it was taking on lupine, but I don’t know about hiding. Hiding isn’t infallible. But maybe something that’s low in numbers. Maybe nearing extinction.”

  “Could be. There are absolutely no other records of anything like the one.”

  “So, they managed to get a human with supernatural traits.” But only one. And hopefully, it stopped there.

  Nodding, she turned back to the computer. She glared at the screen. “Just another nail in the coffin for the Wardens. We were supposed to be looking for ways to defend ourselves, but this experiment was something else.”

  “Maybe that’s enough research.” He brushed the wavy hair from her shoulders and massaged them. “It doesn’t look like you’re finding the material you needed for your plan. We can just leave it. We’ve been here long enough. It’s not safe to stay in one place.”

  “No. I want to see where it leads. It’s not what I’d expected but that doesn’t mean I can’t work with it.”

  He stroked her smooth skin, his thoughts immediately growing sensual at the feel of her. Dragging his fingertips down her bare arms, he sighed. “I didn’t think you’d be occupied for this long.”

  “I know.”

  His touch paused at the bandage above her elbow. “Are you certain I wasn’t tagged somewhere?”

  “Very. Lupine reject tags.” She grabbed her arm in thought. “Your bodies don’t heal properly with anything embedded. Foreign objects get pushed out. And if you shift, it gets forced out even quicker.”

  “Good to know.”

  “Yeah. We aren’t completely in the clear, but we’re close.”

  He kissed her shoulder then nibbled it. “I can’t entice you to maybe join me in the shower? We can multi-task. Get clean and dirty at the same time.”

  “Tonight.”

  He’d heard that before, but she tended to work until she passed out. His patience waxed and waned, and for the moment he was feeling generous. “Tonight. But only because it means so much to you.”

  “Knowing the truth means really knowing. I’m not going to gloss over the atrocities I was a party to for my entire life.” She skimmed her fingers over the keyboard. “Have to know exactly what I need to atone for.”

  Tilting her face with his fingers, he guided her mouth to his and kissed her slow and deep. Her eyes fluttered as he pulled away. “Don’t dwell in the past.”

  “I won’t,” she promised. “The future is where I’m looking.”

  * * * *

  Kalle woke to Sky’s lips against his neck, kissing hungrily. Her hands ran over his chest and she sat on his stomach, a writhing, needy thing.

  “How long was I out?” he asked glancing to the clock on his left.

  “Just a few hours.” She returned to her onslaught, pressing her soft mouth against his jaw and below his ear.

  As much as he enjoyed this side of her, it seemed wholly out of place. He’d collapsed after eating, and last he remembered she was still eyebrows deep in sorting the doctor’s files.

  He gripped her shoulders and pulled her into his line of sight, holding her still. “What’s brought this on? Did you finish the notes? Are we good to go with your plan?”

  “I have to know something.”

  “What?”

  “What did you mean when you said my eyes were strange?” The look she gave him held a solemn weight he hadn’t seen in her before. Not her usual determination, but something else entirely.

  “Are you feeling okay?”

  She tilted her head and sat back, allowing his hands to fall free. “My plan to expose Dr. Gregor’s experiments won’t work. I can’t even pretend that I could go public with it.”

  “Why not?”

  She hugged herself as her eyes evaded his. “There’s a baseness to consuming meat. A primitive feature. And though humans are omnivores, there are stereotypes attached to diet preferences. If someone is into bloody steak, it’s supposed to say something about their personality. Same for those who don’t eat meat.”

  He nodded carefully, unsure what she hoped to convey with her odd tangent.

  “Proteins provide different energy,” she continued. “A noticeable difference. Different enough that one bite of your burger and I feel more alive than I have in a long time, and it’s not some strange liberation from being vegan.”

  “I’m not following.” He glanced to the table where he’d left the food he couldn’t finish. Rarely did he have leftovers, but something about being locked in a room all day stole his appetite.

  “I think you are.” She stroked his arm gently. “You figured it out in a few days. It was a secret to me.”

  He turned his head to her bed. The laptop was still open. “What did you find?”

  “Subject 17. I’m the experiment.” Her voice had dropped to a weak whisper. “Lupine didn’t kill my parents, the science did. They were weakened by the experiment and died shortly after I came. Out of a multi-generation study, I’m the only one to survive. And I’m thriving.”

  Her body shook over him and he sat up, pulling her into his arms and cradling her.

  She sucked in a deep breath and exhaled an awkward chuckle. “I don’t know how to feel now.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She curled closer to him. “I didn’t want to believe anything I read. There was so much. Charts and test results and observations of this life—a life I didn’t realize was mine—taken through a cold scientific lens. Going over the reports, I kept shaking off the feeling that it was a coincidence. Notes about the subject’s relationships, daily interactions, personality, they felt so familiar. Then the most recent development. Flashing eyes. Something you’d seen in me.”

  “Sky…”

  “I was the only survivor but that wasn’t the end of the experiment. They thought they could keep going. Breed out the flaws. The temper. The shine of my eyes. They wanted a true hybrid that passed completely. They wanted a perfect killer.”

  He pressed a finger to her lips. He didn’t need to hear it, and she didn’t seem comforted to speak of it. “It’s okay.”

  “How? Every moment of my life was watched and recorded. Analyzed. And so much of it staged. My first boyfriend. Every interaction with Roman, even, was initiated by Dr. Gregor for the sake of testing me.”

  Kalle growled. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”

  She closed her eyes. “The damage is done, isn’t it? My parents aren’t even named in the report. They were numbers. And my name, Sky Smith, was decided on a whim. I suppose to keep up the rouse they had to tell me something. Hard to have an orphan named 17.” She inhaled.

  “You aren’t damaged.” He wound one of her auburn waves around his fingers. “You’re remarkable.”

  She tilted her head against his hand and nuzzled him. “Maybe… But I can’t…” A low trill left her throat. “Damn you smell good.”

  “Eh?”

  “Meat.” She practically moaned the word. “He kept it from me because it was the easiest way to stifle what he called my instability. I’ve always been strong, that’s obvious. Apparently, I’m even stronger when I’m not starving the paranormal side of me. Whatever that other side of me is, it needs more.”

  “That makes sense. I don’t think lupine can be vegetarians. Our human sides could try but eventually, our wolves take charge.”

  “But I don’t have a wolf, so it worked.” She raked her hands over his chest, her nails leaving soft burrows in the dark blue fabric of his shirt. “And now that I’ve tasted it, it’s like new layers are unfolding in me. My thoughts are racing and tripping over each other. I can barely focus on one thing and maybe that’s why I’m numb to finding out that I’m not full
y human.”

  “Or it’s shock.”

  “This is more than shock. I can smell that you’re lupine, and that’s fascinating, if not insane, but what’s more distracting is how much I want you. I’m trying to hold a conversation but every time I take a breath, there you are. Warm and spicy. Delicious. Alive.”

  He grinned, happy to steer the conversation towards something less likely to make her distraught. If she was encountering some strange high as she believed, he didn’t look forward to the moment it tapered off and she dwelled on her parents and origins. “I’m not going to complain about that.”

  “It’s more than looking at you and being attracted to you. I see you, I smell you, but mostly I sense you. Your presence comforts me. When I touch you, you feel mine,” she rambled.

  “All this from a bite of my burger?” he joked to hide his feelings. Her confession led to a jumble of emotions. He wanted her to feel this way—it’s how he felt, after all—but for all the excitement, he had to admit it was a bit terrifying.

  Dr. Gregor wanted to breed Sky with a lupine, which Kalle didn’t think twice of. Humans couldn’t reproduce with lupine, but he wasn’t going to argue with the man. Learning Sky’s background changed that. Maybe she could have children with him.

  In all his theories about Sky, genetic manipulation had never been a possibility. He had assumed there was an external factor. Vitamins or drugs. A regular injection, perhaps. Something that kept her strong and stubborn.

  Not a hybrid of lupine, vampire, and the so-called skinwalker.

  “You’re not happy,” she whispered.

  He looked up. “Huh?”

  “You spaced out. Judging by your expression, I just told you the last thing you wanted to hear.”

  “No.” He kissed her forehead. “Like yours, my mind is reeling. It’s a lot to take in, and a shock to hear you say exactly the words that explain how I feel about you.”

  She met his eyes, but her lips were a tight line.

  “I mean it. We’ve already stated these things in a way, here and there, or shown our hearts through action, but I suppose it’s time to stop being subtle.” He cupped her face and brushed his thumbs over her soft cheeks. “I’ve already called you my mate to others. That’s what I feel. I love you. I haven’t claimed you, but I want to. Ache to, in fact.”