Hunger's Mate (14 page)

“This was the last file in the ADAM folder,” Dyson advised.

A series of cursing was followed by a low growl that grew louder and louder until the FL turned in his chair, his cool gray gaze resting on Ezra.

“Stand down,” Bas told him.

But Ezra wasn't hearing him. He was seeing that “thing,” that ADAM, and he was seeing death, destruction, devastation. He was also feeling the heavy waves of anguish, the sharp pang of suffering, and eventually had to close his eyes to the assault. It was real, it was serious, and it was here, right here in the United States. His entire body quaked as he remembered the teachings of the old shaman, remembered the stories—or what he and Eli had thought at the time were just stories. Now, however, they seemed more like foreshadowing and unfortunately Ezra had a hotline directly into the mind of the beast. He knew the plan, knew the annihilation that would come at its hand, and in an instant he was back in the jungle, ready to fight for his life and the lives of those he cared most about. Jewel's face immediately appeared in his mind and he closed his eyes to the instant assault of emotions that followed.

“What the hell is going on?” came an angry female voice just as Ezra was trying to get ahold of his emotions, his senses that had seemingly gone haywire.

Priya came through the door—the big steel one that probably should have been bolted—in a flash of fury mixed with fear, that when combined with the mojo Ezra already had going on inside, made him nauseous.

Bas was immediately on his feet, his gaze holding his mate's, in what might have been construed as a soft look, for as much as the FL could look soft. Only a mate could solicit that type of look at a time like this. Ezra turned away from the higher ranking couple, leaning forward to grip his hands tightly on the back of the chair.

“We have a situation,” was Bas's response.

“You're damned right we do. There's been some type of ambush on the police department. Sixty officers are missing so the governor's called in the National Guard,” Priya announced. “Where's Jewel?”

Ezra's head lifted at the name, only to find Priya staring at him in question. Before he could answer, Bas went to stand beside his mate, a hand going to her elbow. Priya looked up to him as if she was going to say something else, but when Bas discreetly shook his head, she remained quiet.

“Clear out,” the FL ordered. “Dyson, I want a complete report in writing by sunrise. Syfon, I want your team on top of that bunker holding it … ADAM,” he corrected. “Whatever it is, I want that bastard bolted to the goddamned floor. If it so much as blinks, shoot it with that tranq again. Jacques and Ezra, don't move.”

The guards cleared out of the room, Dyson using his remote to close down his display, the young shifter's face grim as he most likely thought about the report he now had to prepare. When the door was closed, Bas nodded to Jacques who stood immediately, crossing the room to make sure the lock on the door was in place.

“Jewel's upstairs in her room. Heavily guarded, if I'm not mistaken,” Bas said, looking over to Ezra who nodded his agreement.

He'd managed to release his hold on the chair and with slow, steady breathing was now feeling more like himself. With each steady breath the warrior within took over, leaving the conflict of the shaman's teachings and the reality of facing the unknown behind.

“I thought you went to bail her out,” Priya continued. “What happened?”

“That's what we've been trying to figure out,” Bas replied. “Things weren't right from the moment we walked into that precinct. Then they had the audacity to go progressively downhill.”

Priya sighed. “That's an understatement.”

“It knew we would come. It was waiting for us, for me,” Ezra said, his voice low, steady, deadly calm.

“You're talking about that thing, that abomination Dyson thinks is a prototype called ADAM?” Jacques asked.

Ezra nodded, lifting his head until he could look squarely at the FL. “Whatever it is, its roots are in the Sierra Leone. I sensed it the moment we entered that building.”

“No,” Jacques interrupted. “That is not a Shadow Shifter,” he continued vehemently. “It's not one of us!”

“You're right,” Ezra replied. He stood straighter now, strength from his cat pouring into every crevice of the human body that had been momentarily weakened by the awakening of senses, feelings, memories that he'd thought he'd left far behind. “It's not a Shadow, but it's linked to us somehow.”

“How do you know all this? Did you find something at the lab?” Priya asked. “Is it something we can use in the press, something that might deflect this from the resort? Because the moment they mention that Jewel was being held in that precinct, they're going to link her to Perryville. That'll make two unexplained incidents connected to us in less than six months. And believe me, that's not going to go over well.”

Ezra debated how much he should tell these people standing before him. He wondered how much of his and his twin's past he could safely rehash without thrusting both of them into a tailspin. Going back to the Sierra Leone, even in his mind was dangerous enough for Ezra, dangerous for those around him when the memories hit, or when his senses were overrun by all that had been done to him, all that he'd learned. For his brother, that would be another story entirely. It would be nothing less than a disaster for Eli to ever go back there again, even if only in memory form.

“I spent two years in the Sierra Leone,” Ezra began.

“The Lioness Mountains,” Priya added.

Ezra nodded. “Patricio Salazar and his
Serfins
defected from the Gungi almost immediately after the
Croesteriia
, taking his pride to the tropical rain forests of the Sierra Leone. Teodoro Estevez followed behind them shortly, his
Lormenian
shifters fighting briefly with the
Serfins
in a battle for the right to reside in the mountainous region named for the
Serfins
' lion descendants. Eli and I trained with both tribes, spending more time with the
Lormenia
, but getting a good idea of each of their fighting methods and general mentality. During that time I also had the pleasure of meeting a shaman named Dagar. He is the one that opened the connection.”

Bas only nodded, while Priya and Jacques looked at him as if he'd just spoken another language.

“We, meaning the FLs, had heard about the extra-sensory abilities you and Eli possessed. None of us had ever really understood what they were but when Rome sent you here to be the one to infiltrate Comastaz, I figured it was because of those very abilities.”

Ezra hadn't realized the Assembly Leader had been thinking along those lines. Even though the moment he'd overheard Rome, Nick, and X talking about the e-mail message originating from Comastaz he'd known he would be on the next plane to Sedona, with or without official orders.

“Eli and I had no idea what the shaman had given us at the time, we only knew that it made us feel better. It wouldn't make sense why until years later when Nick's mate, Ary, arrived from the Gungi. She's the one who told us about the damiana and its effects on shifters and humans,” Ezra continued.

“So, wait, you're saying you know this thing is from the rain forest because you're connected to it?” Jacques asked, coming closer to stand just a few feet away from Ezra.

“Damiana is an herb that grows in the rain forest. Once ingested or inhaled it magnifies whatever traits that person already possesses. The shaman used damiana in the medicinal cocktail he gave us, reducing it to a smoke that Eli and I inhaled. As a result it heightened our already acute senses.” And wreaked holy havoc on other not-so-attractive traits, such as a shifter's natural sexual urges and Ezra's innate anger. “So what I'm saying is that whatever that thing is, the rain forest is where it originated. And yes, there's a strong connection between me and it so I'd say it has some damiana in it. I felt it the moment we entered that building. I saw it in its eyes. Even now, it's lurking, something dark and destructive is definitely coming. And my guess is, it's going to come right here to Perryville since we're holding what it needs to proceed.”

Priya pulled out a chair at that moment and sat down heavily. Ezra felt bad because she was a human, and not too long ago she'd learned that shape-shifting men existed. Now, she was hearing about another nonhuman entity, another anomaly to the human mind and while it wasn't her job to figure out what that anomaly was, her relationship with Bas and her paying job with the Stateside Assembly dictated that she be the one to figure out how to tell this story to the human people. It wouldn't be easy, Ezra knew, and if they didn't get off their asses and act pretty soon, whatever had created this dark entity was going to get the upper hand. And by that point the word “devastation” would have an entirely new meaning.

 

Chapter 10

The hot water had stung every pore of her body, almost to the point of burning. She'd turned the water up so high in hopes of ridding herself of the dirt, of the stain that had blanketed her life since the moment she'd first met Larry Crowe. Each moment of that time had replayed in her mind in the last few hours, the beginning right up until the disastrous yet liberating end.

And for a brief time after that, three years to be precise, Jewel had experienced peace. If it wasn't total happiness, that was okay, she could deal with that because she hadn't known fear, hadn't felt disgust about who she was and what she'd had to do. Her father had been healthy and she'd been relatively sure that things were looking up for them.

How wrong that assumption had been.

Wrapping the towel tightly around her body, she walked to the bed and sat, lowering her head and closing her eyes. She thought about praying but remembered that hadn't worked when her mother had become sick. She'd prayed on her hands and knees for endless hours each day and night and her mother had still died. No, prayer was not a resource Jewel planned to use, not this go-around. If help was going to come, she would have to figure it out on her own, just as she had before.

In the distance, Jewel heard the clicking of the locks at the door. She heard the padded steps over the carpet that led to the back bedroom where she was. And she didn't move. There was nowhere to go for one, and two, she wondered if there wasn't a reason this man was here at this particular time in her life. Because without having to look up, she knew it was Ezra Preston that had entered her bedroom.

She knew he stood in the doorway watching her, wondering if he should talk or not, if he should leave or stay. No, that had already been decided. He wouldn't leave her. That, Jewel also knew instinctively. There was no rhyme or reason why, and truth be told, she didn't really feel like questioning it. She simply knew that he would come here and he would not leave her alone.

And a part of her, a very distant and very confused part, didn't want him to.

“You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but I doubt whatever is going on with you and your situation is going to go away by remaining silent.”

His voice sounded raspier than usual and a little less forceful.

“I was foolish to think it would go away at all,” she replied softly after a few more seconds of silence.

And that was the honest truth. She'd thought she could outrun it, outrun him and his incessant control. Just as she'd thought the grief of losing her mother and then having to care for her ailing father would somehow subside over time, amidst this gorgeous backdrop. She should have known better.

“No one can continue to hurt you unless you let them,” he said, his voice sounding closer, as if he'd left his perch in the doorway and now stood near the bed.

She couldn't lift her head, couldn't square her shoulders and act like nothing had happened, like all was absolutely as it was when she'd seen him early this morning. Everything had happened. The carefully planned identity, the new life she'd made for herself and for her father. It had all come crashing down and Ezra Preston had a front row seat to that devastation. Her heart thumped slowly, heavily, with the embarrassment.

Then she felt his fingers on her bare shoulder. Light as a feather, even though she knew how big his hands were, how much strength emanated from them. Warmth spread like tiny tendrils throughout her shoulder and down her arm. She blinked but still did not lift her head to look at him. For endless moments he stood there, touching her lightly, not saying a word, not moving a muscle. Then, as if he'd finally had enough, he moved until she could see he stood right in front of her. He knelt, one hand on her right knee, the other using a finger to reach beneath her head and touch her chin. With a forceful but still light touch he lifted her head until she was staring into his eyes.

“They're brown,” she said after a few seconds of blinking, knowing exactly what he saw. “My dad calls them hazel, with flecks of gold like the sunset.”

Jewel had no idea why she'd told him that. Clamping her lips shut she inhaled deeply, exhaling when there was nothing left for her to do.

“They're much prettier than those contacts you were wearing,” was his reply.

“What? You think you're the only one who can have green eyes?” She tried to chuckle, to lighten the mood, but it didn't work. The smile instantly faded.

“I think you should be who you are and let others deal with that however they choose.”

“What if they choose that they don't want to deal with it? What if they send me away because now they know the truth?” she asked, then shook her head, figuring he'd never understand the question.

“What if they already knew,” he replied.

She blinked then held his gaze. He was serious. He had known, or at least he'd thought he'd known. He surprised her, this stranger who had appeared at Perryville one day and haunted her dreams the next.