Tripp and I said in unison, “Crystal.”
“By the way, has my dad returned from Montana?” I couldn’t remember when he was due home. He’d left last week to meet with Jack Aberdeen.
Jack had decided to join us to take down his niece and mother. Sadly, he couldn’t help his son Noah, and I doubted he could convince his mother, Harriet Aberdeen, to find a quiet place to die. The evil grandmother had joined Adam Emery’s team to help build supernatural soldiers to hunt vampires. She had a twisted idea that it was the best way to rid the planet of my kind. But the main reason she’d trekked back to the United States from her home in Fiji was her health. She had an incurable blood cancer. She thought that by genetically altering her DNA, she could rid herself of her disease.
Webb looked at his watch. “He called me when you rushed Layla to the infirmary a couple of hours ago. He should be landing at the city airport as we speak. And you should know that Jack, Victor, and your father were able to come to a deal with Claude Irving. So he won’t be a problem for Jack.”
Not long after I’d been kidnapped by Intech at the abandoned airport outside of Chicago, Jack had taken his family into hiding. His mother, Harriet, had been one reason, but the deadlier one was Claude Irving.
Claude owned a chain of casinos, including one in Montana that Ray Aberdeen had frequented when was alive. Ray had a gambling addiction that had caused the Aberdeens to shut down their vampire hunting business about two years back. Good for my kind. Bad for Ray since he’d racked up one mondo bill at Claude’s casino. Once Claude got wind that Ray was dead, he’d paid Jack a visit—or rather, sent his goons to collect on Ray’s debt.
“Will Irving be a problem for us?” Tripp asked.
“Doubtful,” Webb said. “Steven compelled Claude to forget Jack and Ray Aberdeen. So Jack’s family should be safe.”
“Speaking of Aberdeens, are we bringing Noah back here?” I asked.
Noah had been captured by our team in West Virginia in April. I thought he would’ve died by now since he was feral, but he was still kicking, although he was losing his mind. I wasn’t surprised. My uncle Patrick’s first test subject, Blake Turner, had suffered the same fate. We should put Noah down, but we hadn’t because Doc wanted to run tests on him whenever we brought Noah in.
Webb had opened his mouth to speak when movement from inside the car had us jerking our attention to Carly.
She moaned as she brought her hand to the gash on her forehead.
Tripp and I exchanged a what-the-fuck look.
Webb, who was standing next to the back seat door, raised an eyebrow as he peeked at Carly. “She lost her monstrous features. And the gash on her head is closing up. That’s odd.”
Engineered humans other than Matthew Costner didn’t return to human form, and they didn’t heal either. But Matthew was a product of my uncle Patrick’s experiments. His concoction had been whipped up with Jo’s DNA and mine.
On the other hand, I would guess Carly’s genetic-altering solution was a mixture of my DNA and Dane Gray’s, the alpha shifter. I hated to think her serum might work on pure humans who had no supernatural blood in their lineage.
Nevertheless, Carly had some similarities to my SEAL brother Ben Jackson, who was half human and half vampire. Ben didn’t have fangs, his eyes changed to red, and he had the ability to heal, although not from a wolf bite. Still, Ben didn’t grow talons nor did his facial features change. Doc would be fascinated when he learned of Carly. He was constantly trying to figure out Ben’s DNA makeup since Ben had no vampires in his family—at least that he knew of.
Carly pushed the airbag in as she moved to climb out of the car, and then she squinted at me. “Sam, is that you?” Her eye color had returned to its normal brown.
Stepping toward her, I raised my hand. “I suggest you stay put. You’ve been in an accident.”
Hawk jogged halfway toward us, his green eyes lanterns in the dark. “Commander London, sir. We have two problems. We have the civilian police at the south gate, and there’s a man at the main gate, asking to see the person in charge. He says the reporter and the cameraman we have in custody work for him. He’s demanding we let them go.”
Webb growled. “I’ll be right there.” Then he addressed us. “Tripp, we need to do a sweep of the immediate area surrounding the base. If Carly is here, others from her camp might be as well. We need to deal with her. We’ll meet later.” He hurried to join Hawk.
Carly rubbed her temple, wincing. “Those cops at the gate are probably here for me.”
“Did you steal this car?” Tripp asked.
She gave him a nod. “I did. I would’ve called, except… It’s a long story. I promise, I came alone. No one from Intech knows where I am.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Why are youhere?” I got the vibe that she was telling the truth. “What is your boss, Adam, up to?”
“I’ll tell you everything. But first I need to see my husband.”
Tripp and I swapped a knowing look.
Normally, I was that asshole who got his rocks off by hurting the enemy, but I liked Carly. Sure, I’d wanted to kill her many times over, but she’d grown on me, and she had the moral fortitude not to experiment on Layla. None of that meant she was off the hook though.
“What is it?” she asked, her pulse racing. “Is Junior okay?”
My phone rang, and my heartbeat kicked into overdrive. More so when I plucked my cell from my jean pocket and saw my sister’s name on the screen. Then a big-ass boulder dropped into the pit of my stomach.
