Tempting Evil (27 page)

That was all I could get. I made him step back, and put my hands around his neck. His neck muscles were tense under my fingertips, the beat of his pulse erratic. Killing him was just a matter of applying some pressure to the right spot, feeling his flesh and bone crack and break under my grip.

My stomach rolled.

I couldn’t do it.

I just couldn’t.

Jack might want me to be a killer, he might have trained me to be a killer, but killing so coldly, so matter-of-factly was a state of mind, a zone you went to. Or so Rhoan had once said. I didn’t have that zone, not yet, and I’d be damned if I’d step on the path to that dark place unless I absolutely had to.

But I couldn’t leave this guard as he was, memory intact, either.

Sweat trickled down my cheek as I went back into his mind and reorganized his memories. Made him remember not me, but a short, blond man with green eyes and a bulbous nose. I had no idea if such a man actually stayed here, but at least Starr would waste time looking for or interrogating him. Better than me or Rhoan. I left him remembering Merle’s order for the papers—a fact Merle and
his
memories would strenuously deny, therefore heightening the confusion. Then I added a fight and gave him bruises to prove it with a quick one-two punch to the jaw that knocked him out cold and threw him back to the floor.

His body had barely hit when the second man suddenly appeared. I saw the gun in his hand in one of those heart-stopping moments when you just
know
you’re not going to get out of the way in time, and flung myself sideways anyway. The retort echoed loudly in the small room and the bullet tore through my arm rather than my heart. Pain bloomed, but I ignored it, unleashing my aura as I hit the floor, striking him with it as hard as I could.

It didn’t affect him. He just stood there, gun aimed and expression fierce.

Shock rolled through me. I’d always believed, had always been told, that a werewolf’s aura would devour any race. Hell, even the Government believed it, because they’d recently put in place laws that made the use of auras on humans the equivalent of rape. We could use it on each other just fine, just don’t touch the precious humans or you’ll find yourself thrown in prison.

So why wasn’t he affected?

I didn’t know, and right now, didn’t have the time to wonder. I closed my eyes and forced myself to ignore the beat of pain in my arm, the sweet smell of blood seeping onto the carpet. Let my limbs go lax, as if unconscious.

For several seconds, the man didn’t move. His steady breathing stirred the air, as did the scent of him, a weird mix of grease and earthy, heady pine.

I remained as I was, on the carpet and bleeding all over the place, and eventually he cautiously walked toward me. He toed my leg several times, then carefully bent to take my pulse. He was too ready for action, the gun too close to my heart, to react in any way, so I simply lay there as his fingers pressed into my neck. After several seconds, he grunted and rose. He walked across to his partner to check him, then walked back around me to the desk. As he reached for the phone, I kicked his legs out from underneath him. He was spinning, the gun swinging my way, even as he hit the floor. I launched forward, grabbed the gun with one hand and elbowed him hard in the face with the other. Bone and cartilage shattered under the force of the blow, and blood splattered across my face and arm. He made an odd gargling sound, as if he suddenly couldn’t breathe, but I ignored it and knocked him unconscious with another punch.

He went limp and tension slithered from me. Instantly, pain bloomed again, becoming a red wave that left me momentarily gasping. The bullet might have been an ordinary one rather than silver, but it still fucking hurt. I quickly shifted shape to stop the bleeding and start the healing. Though the pain muted, it didn’t go away.

But right now, I couldn’t afford to waste more time on another shift. I had to get the controls for Iktar and get the hell out of here.

I swiped at the sweat on my forehead with my arm, grabbed the gun, and shoved it on the tabletop. Then I scrambled back, gripped his belt, and hauled him onto his side. Blood began to soak into the carpet and his breathing seemed a little easier. After unclipping the wire from around his neck, I dove deep into his mind and grabbed the code for the security cabinet that held the controllers, then did a quick search for other usable information—which came in the form of the location of the fire exits for the subterranean levels. Surprisingly, this
wasn’t
the tunnel Moss had disappeared into, so where the hell did
that
go?

The guard didn’t know. Actually, he had no awareness of that particular tunnel.

The sharp spikes beginning to drive into my brain suggested I’d better get on with it before said brain exploded under the pressure. An image that made me smile even as the pain grew and my eyes started to water.

I quickly gave him the same false memories as the first man, then re-clipped the wire around his neck and rose. A quick search in the nearby office uncovered the cabinet. After the code had been entered, the drawers clicked open. Inside was what looked like game controllers, several bunches of keys, and a notebook that just happened to contain all the codes for the various areas. I found a bag and carefully shoved everything inside, then locked up and headed out. I was at the door when I remembered one vital thing—all the locks to security areas were key-
and
thumbprint-coded. I couldn’t get out of this room, let alone into the labs or anywhere else, without both.

Fuck.

I glanced at the two men, then the knife the first guard had. There was no choice—and losing a thumb was infinitely better than losing his life.

I carefully lowered my haul then walked over to get the knife. A quick check told me his pulse was a little thready, but otherwise strong. Unconsciousness would hold a little longer. I stole his knife and walked across to the other guard.

The hilt seemed to grow heavier in my sweaty palm, as if the knowledge of what I was about to do weighed down the metal. I touched the second guard’s neck lightly, checking his pulse yet again, then took a deep breath to fortify myself and splayed his hand on the floor, thumb well away from the rest of his fingers.

After another breath that didn’t do a thing to calm my stomach, I raised the knife and sliced down as hard as I could. There was little resistance. The knife slammed through skin, muscle, and bone as easily as it did the carpet underneath, stopping only when the blade hit the concrete base. The force of the blow echoed up my arm, making my teeth ache. Blood welled from the wound, thick and rich.

My stomach rolled, then rose. Swallowing back bile, I raised his arm so that the flow was lessened, then gingerly picked up the detached digit, wrapped it in some plastic I found on the desk, and headed back to the door. Once through, I ran like hell down the tunnel for the next door. I barely got that one open when my stomach rose again, and this time there was no stopping it.

It wasn’t until the very last second that I realized there was someone standing on the other side of that door.

And by then, it was too damn late.

Chapter 13

V
omiting is never a pleasant experience, but it’s even less so when you don’t know if the person sidestepping the projectile is friend or foe.

I mean, how can you defend yourself when you’re chucking your heart out? It’s impossible. Truly impossible.

The only way I knew I was safe was the mere fact that nothing happened in the time I had my head buried in the bushes. It was only when I leaned against the wall to steady myself while I sucked in great gulps of air that I caught the odd scent of earth and air. Iktar. Neither friend nor foe, but somewhere in between.

But he wasn’t the only one here. Awareness shimmered across my skin, a warmth that went deeper than mere knowledge of presence, touching me in a way so few did.

Quinn watched and I felt a whole lot safer.

“Here.” I dug into the bag and retrieved the notebook, then held out the bag to Iktar. “Your controls and some keys. Knock yourself out.”

“Thank you.” He accepted the parcel warily, but the glow in his eyes was that of a man who finally saw the ending of a nightmare. “I am in your debt, more than you could ever know.”

“No, buddy-boy, you’re in the Directorate’s debt, and you may live to regret that.” Because I had a feeling Jack would like at least one of Iktar’s mob on his “new” team—and the old one.

He shrugged. “It cannot be any worse than being held prisoner by a madman, or being killed off one by one in his insane missions.”

Except that the Directorate and insane missions often went hand in hand. Hell, why else would Gautier love the job so much?

“The maintenance crews are fixing the circuit breakers as we speak,” he continued softly. “You have ten minutes, if that.”

“Then I’d better get my butt into gear.” I pushed away from the wall and wiped a hand across my mouth. There was nothing I could do about the blinding ache becoming well and truly settled behind my eyes, but the bitter taste in my mouth was at least fixable. All I had to do was find a tap.

“Hope you get your people out safely, Iktar. And be careful with those controls.”

His smile held little amusement. “We have someone who can disconnect these. We will be gone before dawn.” He held out a hand. “Thank you again.”

I clasped his hand and shook it. His fingers were cool against mine, his skin smooth and leathery, like a snake’s. Not unpleasant, but not something I wanted to touch on a regular basis.

As he walked away, I glanced at the trees again then went in search of a garden tap. I placed my stolen thumb and notebook out of the water’s way, then rinsed out my mouth and washed the blood from my skin.

Though I heard no sound, the caress of warmth told me Quinn was close. He stepped free of shadows and said, “You look a mess.”

“You always say the nicest things.”

My voice was dry and amusement touched his dark gaze. “Need some help?”

“Yes. I have to rescue a baby and destroy a lab.” I scooped up a final mouthful and drank it, then turned off the tap and picked up my stolen goodies. “The fire exits apparently come out in the trees behind the gym.”

“Lab? Not the main ones, I suppose?”

“No. How’d your tunnel hunting go?”

“Came to a dead end. Or, more precisely, a metal door.” He hesitated. “I waited the day out there, but no one ventured down from either direction.”

“Bugger.”

His shrug was all elegance. “The bad guys do not always play the game the way we might wish.”

“Well, gee, thanks for that news bulletin.”

He smiled, and my hormones did their usual little jig. Annoying, but then, a werewolf’s hormones didn’t usually give a fig about appropriateness or timing. “There were a lot of guards entering the forest when I came out, though.”

“And you didn’t stay to investigate? Why?”

He glanced at me. “I felt your pain.”

“Ah. Thank you.”

Which seemed totally inadequate, but what else could I say? Thanks for caring, but you really should have seen what those guards were up to? I wasn’t that much of a bitch. Well, technically I
was,
but not in the way humans used the word.

“Can I ask why you’re gripping a bloody thumb and notebook?”

“Most secure areas around here are thumb- and number-coded. A thumb is easier to drag around than a guard.”

“Hence the vomiting.”

“Hence the vomiting,” I agreed. And holding it, feeling the coolness beginning to creep into the severed flesh, even through the plastic, had my stomach spasming all over again.

“Would you like me to hold them?”

I didn’t even have to think about it, just handed them over. “Let’s go, before they get the power back on.”

We shadowed and ran around the house to the gym. Every footstep sent lances of fire stabbing deeper into my brain, and I wasn’t entirely sure if the moisture running down my cheeks was sweat or tears.

There were guards everywhere, even here, outside the gym. Starr obviously didn’t think the power outage was chance, and was guarding assets and exits—even the exits most knew nothing about. We stopped in the midst of the trees, out of the direct line of sight of the guards. We might be shadowed, but there was no point risking that these guards weren’t more of Starr’s enhanced humans, complete with vampire DNA that endowed them with a vampire’s infrared. Quinn touched my shoulder to catch my attention, then pointed to the two guards on the left, his arm glowing like fire under the infrared. I nodded, and carefully made my way toward my targets, keeping downwind and as silent as possible.

I was nearly on them when a twig snapped under my heel. Both men spun, their guns rising fast. I froze, my breath catching in my throat. They didn’t fire, simply scanned the darkness, their gaze slipping straight past. They couldn’t see me and didn’t have infrared.

Advantage me.

I stepped close—so close that any wolf or shifter would have smelled my scent—and lashed out with a bare heel, hitting the first man hard in the crotch. He went down with a wheeze of pain. The second man swung around, his expression a mix of surprise and wariness. I dropped low, sweeping again with my leg, knocking the second man off his feet. I grabbed the gun off the first man, flipped it around, and whacked the butt across the second guard’s face. His head snapped back, and he was out of it before his head hit the ground. The first man quickly followed his partner into oblivion with just a little help from the gun butt. I took the clips out of the guns and threw them both deep into the trees, but the guns I left after patting both men down to ensure they didn’t have any more clips on them.

After rubbing my temples in a vague attempt to ease the ache, I made my way back to the fire exits. Quinn soon joined me. The bastard wasn’t even breathing heavily. But then, I’d had a few more fights than him over the last few hours, and had lost my breakfast as well. Was it any wonder I felt weak and shaky?

Though I had a sneaking suspicion the cause for the shakes was more the lurking certainty that something was wrong. That the shit was about to hit, and everything we’d achieved so far was about to go down the toilet.

I took a deep breath to calm down my nerves. I had a job to do, and I’d better start concentrating on that rather than worrying over future problems and uncertainties.

It seemed to take forever to find the hidden exit for sublevels, though I suppose in reality it was only a minute or two. It had been concealed in the remains of a tree that looked to have burned in the bushfires that had raged across these mountains years ago, though the blackened bark was in fact well-concealed concrete rather than once-living wood. Finding the actual entrance was tricky. The tree looked whole, and it was only on close inspection that the outline of a doorway could be seen. The catch was little more than a dent on one edge. On opening that, we discovered another door, this one made of steel and accompanied by the same sort of key-coders that guard the various secure areas in and around the house.

“I’m told the backup generators power these security doors, enabling them all to function normally.” And if they didn’t, we’d truly be up that well-known creek.

“That makes sense.”

He gave me the notebook, and I punched in the code from the book while he carefully pressed the stolen thumb against the print scanner.

The red light above the keypad flicked to green. Quinn grasped the door handle and pulled it open. The air that rushed out was old and stale smelling, suggesting this tunnel hadn’t been used in a long, long time. As did the thick dust that sat on the metal stairs leading down into a red-hued darkness.

Though how dust got into a sealed area, I had no idea.

“Emergency lighting is on inside,” he commented.

I bent to study the tunnel. The unease was growing, and though I wasn’t entirely sure why, part of me wished it would just go away. I didn’t need another reason to be afraid right now.

“Do you think they have movement sensors in there?”

“Probably, though I doubt they would be one of the emergency systems running right now. Were the cameras running in security?”

“No.”

“I would think the cameras and sensors are supported by the same source, so we are probably safe for the moment.”

Given Starr didn’t think like normal people, that statement wasn’t as logical as it sounded. “We’ve got to get moving—we’ve probably only got eight minutes or so before the power is up and running again.”

“I’ll go first.”

I nodded. He climbed down, his steps making little noise but stirring the dust into a sluggish cloud. When he reached the concrete floor, he motioned me to follow then disappeared into the red-shrouded darkness.

“Sensors in the walls and cameras in the ceiling.” He pointed them out as I joined him.

“So if we aren’t out by the time the power is on, they
will
be all over us like a rash.”

“Yes. Let’s move.”

We ran down the tunnel, our footsteps an echo that rode the air easily. If there were guards ahead, they’d hear us coming.

“I cannot hear the beat of another heart beyond yours,” Quinn said.

“There are things in this world that don’t have heartbeats.”

“Like the chameleons. Like the Fravardin.”

“Yeah. But there’s no Fravardin here, other than the one helping Dia.” Which was strange, really. If Misha had the Fravardin at his beck and call, why wouldn’t Starr have gotten his warped little hands on them? Misha had been Starr’s creature to order around—up to a point, anyway.

Another metal door loomed into view. We slowed. This one looked bigger, stronger.

“Containment door,” Quinn said, running his hand over the metal. “We have them in my labs. They have a high exposure rating and durability.”

I got the notebook out and checked the code. “So why have one guarding a fire exit?”

He shrugged. “Why not? If the contamination is truly bad, do you really want those inside getting out?”

“Isn’t the whole point of a fire exit being able to escape when something bad happens?”

He pressed the thumb against the door. “By law we have to have them. It doesn’t mean they should always be used.”

“Glad I don’t work in your labs.”

He glanced at me, dark eyes suddenly amused. “I’m glad, too. I have a no fraternizing with my employees rule.”

“We’re not exactly fraternizing now.” Not in a physical, one-on-one sense, anyway. Well, except for our brief session in my kitchen, and later in the barn—but
that
hardly counted.

“No.” He grasped the lever and hauled the huge door open. Air rushed out, brushing my skin with its musty, ancient scent. “But I intend to remedy that.”

I arched an eyebrow at the certainty—even arrogance—in his voice and reached for the psi-link between us. Given we had no idea how close the labs were or how far our voices might carry, it was better not to talk aloud. Especially when we had another option.
And just how do you intend to remedy the situation when you’re never around and never in Melbourne?

He didn’t answer—no surprise there—just edged around the corner.
Another corridor and door ahead.

No guards?
Which was a dumb question, really, when he was already walking forward.

Not yet. They might be on the other side of the door, though.

You know, something about the lack of security in this place just doesn’t sit right. Surely the first places Starr would send troops to would be his research areas and labs…

I broke off suddenly.

What if he
had
sent his troops to his labs and research areas? What if he
was
protecting them?

Maybe the guards Quinn had spotted in the forest were heading in there for
that
very reason—to guard the exit or entrance to the one place Starr had to protect above everything else.

A large leap? Maybe. Except that Iktar had said that when he and his people were transferred, they didn’t seem to be out of it for very long. I’d taken that he meant only a few hours, but maybe he really
did
mean minutes.

Maybe the reason it had seemed that way was because the labs that made the creatures just like him were
here,
right under our very feet.

Of course, that would also mean there was an entrance somewhere in these hills large enough to take trucks, and surely the Directorate, with all its scanning equipment and satellites, would have spotted it by now.

Maybe not.
Quinn had stopped at the next door.

Why not? An entrance big enough to take trucks needs roads heavy enough to take them. Not an easy thing to conceal in a forest.

It is if it is disguised as something else. Are there any quarries or logging camps nearby, perhaps?

I have no idea.

But Jack will.

Yeah.

I keyed the code into the door then stepped back to give him access to the thumb coder.
The labs being underground would certainly explain why Jack and the Directorate have been unable to discover any suspect buildings with their satellites. But how could Starr do that much excavating without anyone taking note?