“Yes, master,” Eli said with a healthy dose of sarcasm. “You know I live to serve.”
“I wish.”
The motel Eli took them to was out of the way in a suburb outside the city. As they drove, Alex called and let Gideon know the situation. Gideon wasn’t happy about the team being apart, but he understood. Bailey agreed and told them Carter would send details on the lab as soon as he found any.
In the meantime, they were to keep an eye on the woman. From what Carter had gathered, two redheads had been in the level 4 group. This woman was either Kennedy Knight or Alissa Baumbach. Bailey had met a few of the women, but she didn’t remember either of them too well.
The motel seemed mostly empty. A good thing. They looked around, and seeing nothing but a few parked cars down from their room, they quickly took the woman inside.
“Not bad. Not great, but it could be worse.” Eli claimed one of the queen beds.
Alex set the woman down on the other and looked her over. He touched her shirt and learned more than he’d expected. “Her name’s Kennedy Knight. Her cousin helped her escape and is still trapped inside. The cousin’s a clairvoyant who sent Kennedy to us. Kennedy’s a telepath, so we’re going to have to be careful about guarding our thoughts.”
“I’m all over that.” Eli shrugged. “No biggie.”
Alex heard more than Eli probably intended. Interesting Eli didn’t express much distress about someone reading his mind. And come to think of it, Carter wasn’t able to mesmerize Eli either. Gideon could only slam into Eli’s mind if Eli wasn’t guarding himself. Alex wondered if Eli maybe had an ability to shield himself from mental attack.
“Anyway, she’s the real deal. I think. Unless she intentionally let me see what she wanted me to.” Just because the woman was out cold didn’t mean she hadn’t laid a trap for them.
He studied her, aware his beast looked her over as well. Then he did what he’d been wanting to. He ignored Eli’s stare and leaned down to sniff her, breathing in her scent at the crook of her neck.
She smelled…good.Better than good. She smelled ripe. Fertile. Like a fitting mate.
“Hmm. What’s going on, Alex?” Eli said in a purr. “I sense a lot of lust, big guy.” A glance at Alex’s pants could attest to his excitement as well.
“I don’t know. But I think…” Alex couldn’t be sure, but his beast was shouting at him to get closer and take another whiff of the most delicious scent. “I think she might be Circ.”
Eli sat up and stared at Kennedy in surprise. “Wait. Hold on. Bailey’s the only female Circ we know of. I mean, not counting the ones the guys up north mated.” The Circs in New Jersey all had female mates. A few even had kids.
“Bailey was experimented on unknowingly, like me. They had to know she was psychic. What do you want to bet that Lang kept his Level 4 psychic project going to create female Circs? He’s into breeding a better mercenary, right? Even though Amelia Norton is dead, she wasn’t the only one who’d pay a fortune for Circ embryonic tissue. Especially if Lang wants to continue experimenting. He needs women for that.”
“Not necessarily.” Eli shrugged. “I mean, he could just artificially create them, right? They’re making clones and organs from pig tissue. I read that on Facebook yesterday.” He scowled. “Don’t look so stunned, Alex. I do read.”
“More than comic books, apparently.”
“Funny guy. My point is he made Bailey for his crazy Circ pack.”
“The B series.” Alex wished he could forget them: Myers, Yates, Sheer, and Caldane.
“But we took her instead. So maybe he needs more females for his leftover Circs. That or to get them pregnant and harvest more embryonic cells. Who the hell knows?” Eli yawned. “I’m tired. Look, you take first watch, okay? I’ll get the next one. But we keep an eye on this maybe-Circ. Right?”
“Yeah. Go to sleep. I’ll wake you in a few hours to give me a break.”
“Sounds good.” Eli dropped back, closed his eyes, and damn if he didn’t fall straight to sleep on the bed.
Alex shook his head, wishing he could do the same. Yet the female captivated him. He sat in a chair and pulled it up next to the bed. Then he studied her, fascinated by the powerful energy, beautiful features, and shapely form of the woman lying so peacefully in bed.
He sighed and shifted in his seat, praying she wasn’t a trap, half wishing she was. Because she distracted him, and he couldn’t afford to be preoccupied this close to the enemy.
So he studied, reassessed, and studied her some more. And because he couldn’t help himself, he took a strand of her silky hair between his fingers and lifted it to his nose. He inhaled the sultry perfume of woman and beast and sensed her settling into his bones.
He waited.
And he watched.
