Alphas Unleashed (41 page)

“No thank you, sir.” She smiled at him and took a seat facing the door. She knew Aron would take up residence behind her where he could watch the exits.

The doctor noticed it as well, but said nothing as he closed the door and settled into the antique Victorian chair facing her. Fingers a steeple beneath his chin, he stared at them. “So. Who are you and why are you here?”

Zoey had no idea, so she stared back, and waited.

Aron stepped around her to stand in front of the old man. He held out his hand. “May I?”

The doctor looked up at him. “You are not human.”

“No. I am not.”

“Did one of the Triscani send you to kill me?” The doctor leaned back in his chair. So calm. Waiting to know if he was going to live or die in the next few minutes. Zoey was shocked by his attitude, and convinced that this doctor knew things she didn’t, had seen things she hadn’t. The knowledge was a dark stain behind his eyes.

“I don’t answer to those dogs.”

The disdain in Aron’s voice must have convinced the doctor that he spoke the truth. “Then who are you? How do you know about…? Who sent you here?”

“I got your name from Katherine.”

Zoey watched the wheels turning in the doctor’s mind. Calculating the odds. Eliminating possibilities. He didn’t quite believe Aron, but he wanted to. She could see it in the eager tilt of his shoulders toward her and in his clenched jaw. Hope was bubbling up within the old man, and he fought valiantly to keep it buried. Who was this Katherine to him? Aron said she was his brother’s wife. But if she was the wife of an Itaran, how had she ended up in the Casper Project with this doctor? How well did this Katherine really know this old man?

Doctor Hansen stared at Aron’s outstretched palm. “Are you going to read my mind?”

“Yes. And your memories.” Her lover made no apologies and offered no explanations. “I have to be sure I can trust you before I give you Katherine’s message.”

Well, that was a lie, but she didn’t care. It was a test, and the doctor passed. He placed his hand firmly in Aron’s. “Get on with it, then.”

It was over in seconds. Aron released his hold on the doctor and paced away from them both. She couldn’t see his face, but she sensed his distress through their new bond. The urge to run to him was strong, but he’d turned his back on the doctor, trusting her to protect him, or at the very least warn him if the man made a move. He was Itaran, after all. What harm could an old human man do to him?

She watched the doctor like a hawk anyway, unblinking and prepared to either accept him as an ally or hate him forever. Either way was just fine with her. She simply held him pinned with her stare and waited for Aron to speak.

“You are in over your head, Doctor.” Aron turned and sat on the arm of her chair.

“Tell me something I don’t know, son.”

Aron inclined his head, an act of respect. Guess he liked the doctor after all. “Aron of Itara, First Circle, Forbidden Son, House of the Judgment.”

“Holy shit.” The doctor rose and closed the distance between them to take Aron’s hand. “Doctor Jacob Hansen.” He looked to her.

“I’m human, like you. Zoey. Just Zoey.” The doctor shook her hand and sat back down, a stunned look on his face.

“I’ve heard of your kind, Aron. But never met anyone from your world before.” He leaned forward, forearms resting on his knees and one foot tapping nervously against the rug. “Why are you here? Why did you come looking for me? I already spoke to Katherine and Teagh. There’s nothing else I can do for her. The changes are irreversible. I’m sorry. That hasn’t changed.”

“And Ajax?” She had no idea who this Teagh was, but Aron only cared about his brother.

“I’ve never heard of Ajax.”

Aron froze and she placed her hand on his thigh in a show of support. She knew what it was to lose a sibling you loved. She wanted better for Aron, hoped to spare him her pain.

“Doctor, are you sure? I didn’t see him in your memories, but I don’t understand how that’s possible.”

“Yes. All contact at the CP is documented and tracked. I’ve never seen that name at the Project, and I’ve never heard the name myself.”

Aron cursed. “Katherine is his mate. How can you not know who he is? He would never allow her to be around all of you power-hungry mortals without protection.”

The doctor looked apologetic, spread his hands out in a plea for Aron to listen to reason. “Katherine’s mate is Teagh. They call him the Darkwalker Lord. Protector of the Gate. I do not know the name Ajax. I’m sorry. It’s the truth.”

Aron stood. “I did not find his name in your mind, old man. But I did see you take a silver box full of human syringes from one of my kind. I watched you inject what you knew was alien D.N.A.,
his
D.N.A., into Katherine and a human male named Robert.” Power pulsed through the room like a shockwave, rattling the furniture and her teeth. “If you know nothing of my brother, how did you get his D.N.A.?”

“I took the genetic material from someone we trusted at the time. The Rear Admiral trusted him. He had the entire chain of command eating from the palm of his hand.” The doctor shook his head. “I took it from him, and I used it to enhance Katherine’s abilities. Robert’s too. I didn’t know she was a Timewalker at the time. I had no idea what she was, or how many others she kept hidden. It was stupid and reckless, but I confess, I wanted to know what it would do, what she’d be capable of. I’m sorry. I have no idea where it came from or how to help you find your brother.”

“And this man who gave it to you? Do you know his name? Where I can find him?”

“I will tell you everything I know about him, even let you search my mind for yourself. But he disappeared after Katherine defeated him. No one knows who he is. The only man in the project who knew how to contact him is dead.”

Zoey wanted to cry. A dead end. Damn and double damn. Perhaps the human Timewalkers would know something? But how were they supposed to find one? And how did she know they could be trusted? She needed more information about these Timewalkers that Aron said she was related to. When Aron had mentioned them before, she’d been too busy having orgasms to fully interrogate him. Big mistake. She hated being out of the loop.

The doctor wasn’t finished. “I’ll tell you what I do know. He’s not human. And he’s being hunted by a good many people, human, Timewalker and Immortal. Even the Itaran Seer, Celestina, has made it a top priority to find him.”

Aron paced for a few minutes, the silence heavy as he processed the new information. Zoey had no idea what would happen next, but her heart hurt for him, for the pain radiating from his soul. Aron loved his brother and feared for him. She hated to even think it, but perhaps his beloved brother, Ajax, suffered somewhere in a cage of his own.

The doctor waited patiently until Aron spoke.

“What of the Triads?” Aron’s gaze burned with rage. “What do you know of them?”

The doctor looked confused. “What Triads? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“By the gods. Are all humans this blind?” He met her gaze and she shrugged. She’d heard of the Triads on the black web message boards, the Immortal assholes that ruled Earth from behind closed doors. Of course, most of the world had never heard of them, and the ones who had, who tried, like she did, to sound the alarm, were viewed as psychotic, paranoid nutjobs. Or, they disappeared. Murdered like her sister.

“Yes. Most of them are worse. Why do you think I started the blog?”

“What blog?” The doctor looked at her with new interest.

“IPYNBTT.” The name had seemed tongue-in-cheek when she’d created the blog.
I Promise You Nothing But The Truth
. But her real intel and investigative skills had earned her a loyal following, a few very dangerous and highly anonymous informants, and more enemies than she could track.

“My God. They’ve been hunting you for months.” His eyes rounded in shock, then he burst out laughing. “Oh, how perfect. Outsmarted by a child.”

“I’m twenty-five years old.”

“Exactly.” Suddenly serious, he leaned forward to take her hand. “Be careful. The top brass has the world’s best cyber spies on your trail, with the high-level assets right behind them. They don’t like you leaking photos of their operatives or their equipment. They want the Casper Project and the Gates kept secret. One slip, and you’ll be dead within a few hours.”

“I know.” She did, and before Aron, exposing the truth had seemed worth the risk. But then she hadn’t really worried much about whether she lived or died. Now? Now she cared and it was damn inconvenient.

“No one will harm a hair on her head, not while I live.” Aron’s scowl was enough to scare the dead.

She smiled and let her appreciation shine right at him. “I know that, too.”

The doctor stood and looked at each of them in turn. “The satellite will be on top of us for a bit longer. Why don’t you two stay for dinner and we can talk about the genetic material, Ajax, and these Triads you seem so worried about?”

Zoey looked to Aron for an answer. She was hungry, and the doctor seemed legit. But it was up to Aron. She could take the doc, or leave him. Aron was the only one in the room that mattered to her.

“All right, Doctor.”

Zoey’s cell phone buzzed. Only two people on the planet had this number, and they both knew it was for emergencies only. Her hand shook as an image of a raging fire burst to life on the backs of her eyelids, then vanished. She picked up the phone and forced her eyes open, and the vision away.

“George? What’s wrong?”

“Oh, thank God you’re alive! I was worried sick. Wherever you are, stay there. You can’t come home.” George sounded frantic, more upset than she’d ever heard him, worse even than the day they’d knocked on his door to tell him his son was dead.

“Why? What happened? What are you talking about?” George’s panic was seeping into her through the phone line. Aron was beside her in an instant and removed the phone from her stiff hand.

“George. Tell me.”

“I can’t stay on the line. They’re already watching me. Just turn on the news. And whatever you do, don’t bring her home!”

The line went dead.

Chapter 7

Aron held Zoey close to his side and settled deeper into the plush sofa in the doctor’s private living quarters. Apparently, rich humans kept two separate spaces in their homes, one for visitors and the public, and one where they actually lived.

This space felt more like a home. The ridiculous cache of breakable crystal and collector’s china were gone. No high-dollar rugs or extremely uncomfortable antique furniture filled the room. Here everything was designed for comfort. Big television, soft sofa and two recliners, all lined with pillows and soft blankets.

Zoey had calmed down, but clung to him with tears in her eyes as they watched her home burn on television. There wasn’t much left but a concrete slab and ash.

Her face was splashed across the news like a criminal’s. They were looking for her. Someone was definitely looking for her.

Or thought to use her to find him.

She sobbed, her face buried in his chest and he had no idea how to comfort her. So, he simply held her and stroked her back. He had nothing to give her that would make it better. Well, he had one thing. “We’ll kill those fuckers when we find them, Zoey.”

She laughed, and lifted her bloodshot eyes to look at him. “Yes. We will, won’t we?”

The doctor walked back into the room with a tray of sandwiches and iced tea. “I made a couple calls. It wasn’t the Casper boys.”

Zoey wiped a tear from her cheek with the back of one hand. “Then who was it.”

“The Hunters.” Aron clenched his teeth and fought down the swirling darkness bubbling up from inside. They’d tracked the metal from his manacles. His bonds weren’t from this world, had been forged by one of their own, infused with the maker’s will. The smith who’d forged them would have felt their destruction, and been able to track their remains. “Did George leave the metal in your garage?”

Zoey thought for a minute, reliving the previous night’s events. “Yes. You offered it to him, but he told me he couldn’t accept. Didn’t want that kind of karma in his house, so I brought them back while you were in the shower. I thought maybe you could figure out how to destroy them for good.”

“The will of the one who made them was broken when George cut them from me. He would have felt it, Zoey. And tracked them. That’s how they found your house.” Aron dropped his forehead to hers. There was no way he could make up for this. “I’m so sorry, Zoey. I didn’t think. At first, all I could think about was getting them off. And then…”

The blush riding her pretty pink cheeks told him she knew exactly how that sentence ended. She reached up, wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and laced her fingers through his hair, touching him because she needed to. “It’s okay. My laptop’s in the truck and the important stuff, the things I couldn’t stand to lose, are in a safety deposit box under George’s name. After Jiselle, I took precautions.”

She kissed him, softly, as if all had already been forgiven. “I have you, now. People matter. Everything else can be replaced.”

The doctor cleared his throat, the spell was broken and reality rushed in around him.