“You know Powell and I don’t exactly make the best teammates, right?” he asked. “I’m completely new at this—at least as far as DCO missions are concerned—and from my few run-ins with him, Powell doesn’t seem much more experienced than I am. Shouldn’t I be going out with someone who’s been on these types of missions before, someone who can work with a shifter?”
“You have enough field experience for both of you,” Dick said. “Powell is just there to back you up and let me know how you did.”
Jayson nodded, but he was still concerned as hell.
Dick must have seen it on his face, because he frowned. “What’s eating you all of a sudden? You were Special Forces. You’re used to this kind of stuff. You don’t worry about who you’re going with or what the mission is going to be. You just go.”
That had been true until that day in Afghanistan when they were lured into a trap and blown up. His head was spinning at a thousand miles an hour. He’d just admitted to himself a little while ago that taking the hybrid serum had been rash—and stupid. Was he making another rash, stupid decision by going out on this mission so soon after taking the drug, especially with Powell as a partner?
Dick sighed. “I need you to do this for me, and I need you to be a success. There are people on the Committee who didn’t view you as a suitable candidate for the new serum. They thought you were too damaged. I put my neck out and said they were wrong. I told them that you aren’t only a major asset to this organization, but that you’re also a war hero who needs a new lease on life, not just a job. A hand up, not a handout. If you can’t do this, the Committee is going to use that serum on people they think fit their mold. You’re the prototype for the kind of person who should be getting this treatment. You need to do this, for both our sakes and for the sake of other amazing people out there just like you.”
Jayson ground his jaw, hating what the situation was forcing him into. But Dick was right. He’d stuck his neck out for Jayson, and Jayson couldn’t let him down—even if his gut was telling him he was making a huge-ass mistake.
* * *
Layla walked into the DCO operations building with her emotions in a tangled knot. She’d called Jayson last night to tell him she was on her way back from Glasgow, but he hadn’t answered his cell or his home phone. She’d tried to tell herself not to worry, that Jayson had probably taken a stronger pain med and was just sleeping. She’d stopped by his apartment this morning before coming to the complex, hoping to catch him before he went to work, but he wasn’t home. He wasn’t in his office or on the shooting range either, and he still wasn’t answering his phone. That’s when her instincts screamed that something was terribly wrong.
As she hurried down the hall to Kendra’s office, Layla’s fear that Jayson had taken Dick up on his outrageous offer grew more intense. But if he’d taken the hybrid serum and something awful had happened, wouldn’t Ivy have called her?
She quickened her step, practically running the rest of the way to Kendra’s office. The DCO’s resident jill-of-all-trades was sitting at her desk dialing the phone when she rushed in, but the minute she saw Layla, she stopped and dropped the receiver back in its cradle.
“I was just calling you,” Kendra said. “It’s Jayson.”
Layla tensed, praying her instincts were wrong but knowing they weren’t. “What about him?”
“Dick talked him into taking that damn hybrid serum,” Kendra said. “I was out yesterday at my ob-gyn appointment and didn’t even find out until this morning.”
Layla’s heart plummeted.Oh God. “Is he okay? Where is he?”
“I don’t know if he’s okay or not. Dick sent him straight out the door on a mission with Powell.”
Of all the people Dick could have teamed Jayson up with, he had to pick that jackass. “What kind of mission? Shouldn’t they have waited to see if Jayson had a reaction before sending him into the field?”
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you? I don’t know what kind of mission it is or where they went, but I’m hoping Zarina can tell us something.” Kendra put a hand on the arm of her chair and pushed herself to her feet. She might still be in her second trimester, but she looked like she could have given birth to the twins at any minute. “Want to come to the lab with me?”
That was a silly question. Of course Layla did. The moment they were outside, she had to force herself to keep pace with Kendra and not run ahead. She didn’t want to waste even the slightest amount of time.
Zarina was typing something on her computer when they hurried into her office a few long minutes later.
“Is Jayson okay?” Layla asked without preamble.
“He seemed fine when he left,” Zarina took off her reading glasses, then stood and came around the desk. “But that’s probably thanks to the antidote I gave him right before Dick’s doctors injected him with the serum.”
Layla’s eyes widened. “You made an antidote? I didn’t think you even had a sample of the serum.”
“I didn’t,” Zarina said. “I gave Jayson something I’ve been developing for Tanner in the hope that it will reverse some or all the hybrid changes. When I realized I’d never be able to talk Jayson out of taking the serum, I gave him the antidote hoping to counteract it.”
Oh God. Zarina had essentially given Jayson one untested and dangerous drug in the hopes of counteracting another untested, dangerous drug.
“Did it work?” Layla asked.
“Well, he didn’t die the minute the serum hit his bloodstream, which is probably what would have happened if I hadn’t given him the antidote.” Zarina shook her head, her mouth tight. “Other than that, I don’t know how successful my drug was. It might have completely halted the hybrid transformation or simply slowed it down.”
Layla almost growled in frustration. Damn Dick Coleman. “But Jayson lived. That has to count for something, right? If he was fit enough to go on a mission, that has to mean he’s going to be okay.”
Zarina’s smile was sad. “I wish I could tell you that was the case, but I can’t. Without being able to study his blood and DNA, I have no way of knowing what the hybrid serum will do to him long-term, or how his body will handle the interaction of the serum and my antidote.”
“Could this get any worse?” Layla moaned.
