Fangs and claws?
For the second time in the span of a few minutes, the air seemed to freeze in Samantha’s lungs. It only got worse as she listened to Rogi and Nadia go into detail as they told Louis about what they’d seen. If the things they were describing didn’t match up so perfectly with the wounds she’d found at various SWAT crime scenes over the past two years, Samantha wouldn’t have believed them. Strangely, Louis didn’t seem surprised by anything they told him, making her wonder exactly what he’d seen during the fight between Trey and Kyson at the Cedar Ridge Preserve the other night.
Louis glared at Nadia as he shoved a syringe into one of Trey’s forearms and drew blood. “I’m assuming you’re responsible for his unconscious condition. How long did you feed on him?”
Feed on him?
Samantha jerked her head up. She had no idea what Louis was talking about, but she knew it couldn’t be good.
“You knew?” Rogi demanded, his normally small beady eyes wide in shock as he threw a terrified look in Nadia’s direction. “You knew she was…whatever the fuck she is, and you sent me out with her anyway? What if she lost control and decided to feed on me instead of him?”
Louis didn’t say anything as he moved over to the counter and began to use the blood he’d taken from Trey to prep slides for the electron microscope.
Nadia laughed as she motioned toward a still unconscious Trey. “Trust me, Rogi. There will never come a day when you have to worry about me feeding on you instead of him. Why have cold cuts when I could have wagyu beef?”
Rogi bristled at that even as Nadia turned and looked at Louis. “And don’t worry about how long I fed on him. Like I told you before, Officer Duncan is extremely strong. I fed enough to render him unconscious, but I have no doubt he’ll wake up soon enough. Probably a lot sooner than we’d like, too, so I suggest you complete your examination as quickly as possible. We don’t want him coming to before we’re ready. Not unless you want me to feed on him again.”
Samantha spent the next hour shouting questions at Louis and Nadia, receiving few if any answers in return. Her former boss was too intent on whatever he was doing to Trey and his blood, while her former coworker seemed far more interested in torturing Samantha about getting a taste of her man. It drove her crazy that she still had no idea what the whole “feeding” thing was about, but if she was picking up properly on the occasional comment, it seemed like Nadia was somehow able to absorb energy from Trey by touching him. Simply thinking something like that made Samantha feel like the world was tipping off its axis, but it was the only thing that made sense based on what she’d heard.
Samantha winced as Louis pulled a scalpel out and sliced open Trey’s arm. The wound was deep and bloody, and she slammed herself against the door of her cage in an attempt to get free. It was useless, of course, but she couldn’t stop trying to get to Trey. She was so freaked out she almost missed the awe in Louis’s eyes when the wound stopped bleeding and began to scar over in seconds. She’d seen that same thing before, when Trey had cut his hand on the piece of broken coffee mug, but it was still too incredible to believe.
Muttering something to himself that sounded like, “Fascinating,” Louis picked up a knife and stabbed Trey in the chest.
Samantha screamed. Even from where she stood, she knew Louis had deliberately missed Trey’s heart, but that didn’t make the agony of seeing the man she loved in pain any less, not even when that wound healed as easily and quickly as the one on his arm.
She was given a few moments of distraction when Nadia released Shaylee from her cage and handed her a plate of food. Samantha wondered for a second why they hadn’t simply slid the tray into the cell with Shaylee until she saw the girl walk over and stand beside Kyson, straining up on her toes to slowly feed him bit by bit with her tiny hands. Samantha had no idea why, but seeing a man as gigantic as Kyson eat so carefully and gently from Shaylee’s hand struck her as the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. Even Rogi, who was standing a few feet away, leering at Shaylee, couldn’t ruin the tender moment.
Samantha was so caught up in the scene, she barely realized Louis had stopped torturing Trey and come over to stand in front of her cage. She’d missed most of what he said until one word snapped her attention back to him.
“What did you just say?” she asked.
She was sure she’d heard wrong. Because there was no way even a psychopath like Louis would use that word in a serious conversation.
Louis’s mouth twitched in amusement. “I said that it turns out your boyfriend is a werewolf. I must admit that when Nadia told me her suspicious, I wasn’t sure I believed her. But the blood work confirms it. The man you’ve been going out with is definitely a werewolf.”
Samantha stared, speechless. A person could only have so many bombs dropped on them before becoming numb to the sensation.
“You…you’re…crazy,” she finally forced out, unable to come up with anything more rational.
Louis’s expression twisted into something that almost seemed like disappointment. “Please, Samantha. Are you really going to tell me this is a total surprise to you? I know you’ve been collecting evidence on the SWAT team for some time now. You’ve tried to do a good job covering up your interest, but it didn’t escape my notice how you jumped up to take any call involving them. After spending so much time investigating them, I know you had to have picked up on all the strange things that happen around them. The torn-up bodies at the crime scenes, the silly coyote explanation that gets used over and over to cover it up, the way they go up against unbelievable odds and come out on top time after time. And the injuries they survive? That by itself screams supernatural. Are you going to seriously tell me that you haven’t done your own DNA profile yet? Hell, for a time, I thought the only reason you were dating Officer Duncan was to get more conclusive evidence against them.”
That last part hit a little too close to home, making her wince. “But…a werewolf?” she murmured, looking over at Trey still lying unmoving on the stainless-steel table. “That can’t be true.”
Louis merely smiled as he handed her a piece of paper. She recognized it immediately as a DNA profile sheet. It seemed his basement lab was very well stocked when it came to high-tech equipment.
“There’s some kind of wolf DNA mixed in with your boyfriend’s otherwise normal genetic material,” Louis said calmly. “I can’t tell you exactly what kind of wolf, not with the equipment I have here, but ultimately, it doesn’t matter. Claws, fangs, extreme strength, and speed on top of rapid healing? It spells werewolf, whether you believe it or not.”
Yes, it was insane. Samantha knew that. But so was bringing a dead person back to life, and Kyson was walking, talking proof of that. Maybe it was time to stop dismissing what was right in front of her face. With that thought in mind, she turned and moved to the back of her cage, dropping down to her thin uncomfortable mattress. Louis was saying something else, but she found it much easier to tune him out this time.
Samantha was still lost in thought when the door of her cage suddenly opened. She lifted her head to see Nadia and Rogi drag Trey’s unconscious form in. It was all Samantha could do to get in the way so Trey wouldn’t crash straight to the ground when the pair shoved him at her. Even then, her legs buckled under his weight, and they both ended up on the floor in a tangle of arms and legs.
She was attempting to get out from under Trey’s heavy body without hurting him when a pair of big hands grabbed her. Samantha struggled against them, but Rogi was so much stronger than she was that it was useless. Before she could even think about stopping him, the jerk wrapped something hard and rough around her neck, metal clicking on metal as he tightened it. She struggled, kicking and punching at him, and when he took his hands off her, she thought maybe she’d won. Until she realized there was still something around her neck.
Her hands immediately started scrambling, desperately trying to figure out what Rogi had put on her and, more importantly, how to get it off.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Rogi said sharply.
Samantha looked up in time to see him and Nadia stepping out the door of her cage, closing it behind them. She was all set to ignore his dumbass advice until she saw the small black box in his big hand. But it was the evil expression on his ugly face that had her hands freezing on the edges of the stiff leather wrapped around her throat.
