The Scent of Seduction (19 page)

"It's one-way glass, Coop. Even a supernatural wolf can't see me.” She kept her eyes trained on the meadow. For some reason, it seemed as though every outcropping of rock and blade of grass sticking up through the snow was magnified. “There it is again! I...I don't know who...I'm not familiar with the animal side of everyone in the pack."

"I said get away from the glass, Nicole.” Cooper came over to the wall and pushed Nicole behind him. He stared out the window for a moment, then took her hand and pulled her into Jaryn's office. Nicole sat in the large chair behind Jaryn's desk while Cooper went over to the bookshelf on the far side of the room. She stared at him as he started tapping the spines of the books. What the hell was he looking for? Did he want to do a little light reading, now? Nicole's eyes widened as the digital photo album on the third shelf came to life and Cooper placed his hand against the glowing screen. She heard a beep then the shelf swung inwards.

"Holy shit,” she whispered.

She jumped up and came around the side of the desk, staring at the space where a wall had been moments ago.

"What are you waiting for? Get in here!"

She followed Cooper's voice and stepped deeper into the rabbit hole than she'd ventured before. There was a glow about the space and Nicole realised that it came from the wall which wasn't really a wall, but one huge smart board. There were also a couple of E-spheres with individual tablets running on the long built-in workbench. Cooper sat at a chair and tapped away at a laser keyboard. It took a second for Nicole to process what she was seeing. The image on the wall was all of the land surrounding her and Jaryn's home. It was as though they had a three hundred and sixty degree view around the house. There was some type of red grid flashing across the image, as though it was searching for something—or maybe someone in this case.

"Gotcha!” Cooper whispered.

The red grid came to a standstill and took the shape of a wolf. Nicole wrapped her arms around her middle. She turned and saw that the wall to her right was lined with weapons. Everything from a basic pistol—similar to what Jaryn had taught her to shoot—to something that looked liked it belonged on the battlefield a world away.

Oh my God Jaryn, what is all this?

"I'm going to kill that fucker,” Cooper growled.

"What! Jesus Christ, Coop, what the hell is all this? What's going on? Who's out there?"

Cooper stood and came over to Nicole. He placed his hands on her shoulders. The simple touch helped ground her, and Nicole felt the panic that had threatened to consume her reduce to a simmer.

"Everything is going to be fine.” He pointed to the wall that now showed a close-up of a wolf with a white snout sitting on their front porch. “That's Jeff. He probably came to pass on some more information about the men in lockup."

"At one in the morning? In a snowstorm? As a wolf?"

Nicole wasn't a suspicious person by nature, but something was making her bullshit metre ping like crazy.

"He just came off shift, and as you heard him say he actually prefers being in his wolf form. It's not unusual to see him out running no matter what the weather or time of day. Given the circumstances, this wasn't the smartest move he's ever made, but then again, Jeff isn't known for having a genius level intelligence."

"Then why is he your deputy?"

"Because he's very intuitive and has amazing reflexes. Let me go out there and see what he wants. However, I'm not going to screw up again so to be on the safe side, I want you to stay in here.” He went over to wall and took down a pistol. He checked to make sure there was a full magazine then gave it Nicole. “You know how to use this, right?"

She took the grip in her palm. The weight in her hand somehow reassured her. She flipped the safety to the off position and chambered a round with the slide. Her finger rested on the outside of the trigger guard, she pointed the barrel of the gun towards the floor then looked up at Cooper. “So are these like magical silver bullets or something?"

He smiled. “No, that silver thing is nothing but an old wives’ tale. These are plain old lead. But don't worry, they still hurt enough going in to knock us shifter off our paws. I'll open this door when everything is clear. The biometrics are set so that only Jaryn, Shaun, or myself can enter."

Cooper went over to the work station and started typing on the laser keyboard. “Hey, here's a fun fact. Did you know that the silver myth didn't even become popular in fiction until about a hundred years ago? Every culture has their superstitions about how to combat paranormal creatures. They assume we're derived from a source of evil, and therefore must have vulnerabilities that can kill or cure us. What they forget or simply don't understand is that being a shifter is nothing more the addition of an extra gene. Unlike vampirism, we're not a viral based species."

"So are you trying to tell me that nothing can kill a shifter but old age? Come on, even Superman had kryptonite."

"Oh, we can die from traumatic injury or poison or any number of things. But because we have healing abilities when we shift, it's simply harder to achieve.” He tapped the keys a few more times. “There, I've locked in the satellite's position so you can keep an eye on what's going on."

Nicole looked at the wall and saw an overhead view of her house and the land surrounding it. “Let me guess. You three aren't quite as retired as my mate led me to believe."

Cooper shrugged. “For the most part we are. We don't go out on missions anymore, but occasionally we still get a call for some consulting work. This set-up allows us to do that without leaving our homes."

Nicole shook her head and pushed Cooper towards the door. “Go."

Cooper left and the hidden door closed with the softest of clicks. Nicole didn't exactly like being locked up. It reminded her too much of her time at Adam's compound, but she refused to let the memories raise the panic in her once again. She needed something constructive to do to keep her mind settled. She turned and looked at the wall. It took her a few minutes, but she figured out how to make the image move by zooming and panning across different angles.

She didn't see any movement outside, and Jeff was no longer perched on her porch. It sure would have been nice to see inside the house and what exactly was happening. Too bad the super spy satellite didn't have x-ray vision. She snickered as she drummed her fingers on top of the desk, then jolted when the screen became a mass of colours. She tilted her head and realised that it was the shape of their home. She looked down and saw that her fingers rested on the laser keyboard.

"Oh crap, what have I done now?"

Okay, she could handle this. It appeared as though she'd somehow activated some kind of thermal infrared feature of the link. It wasn't x-ray, but at least she now had some kind of idea of what was happening in her home. The snow falling and land around the house was dark purple, the house itself a kind of greenish colour, and there were two shapes moving around—blobs really, that were somewhere between amber and pink.

"That's probably Cooper and Jeff. Heat makes brighter colours, right?” She looked around the room, which was the size of a large walk-in closet. “Who the hell is going to answer you?"

"So if that's Cooper and Jeff then I should be...” She looked at the wall again, and traced the lines of the house with her eyes. “There.” She pointed to the corner of the house. There was no pink blob where she knew Jaryn's office was located. “That's weird.” She glanced down at her hands then looked back at the image on the wall. “Clearly I exist, so where in the world is Nicole?"

Had Jaryn somehow built this secret space out of insulated materials? On the wall it didn't even look as though this room existed. There was only purple that matched the outdoors. The two pink blobs in the living room weren't moving, so Jeff and Cooper must be talking. Nicole closed her eyes and tried to open her link to Jaryn again.

"Please talk to me, Jaryn. I know something is wrong. Why can't I feel you?"

There was still no response from Jaryn, and her anxiety made it feel as though thousands of tiny firecrackers were going off under her skin. She stood and paced around the sealed room. The gun was heavy in her hand and she flipped the safety back on. If she had to use the weapon it would be easy enough to flick the switch, but as her nerves climbed higher with each passing second, it was probably safer if she wasn't tapping a deadly weapon ready to fire against her leg.

Nicole looked back towards the wall to see what Jeff and Cooper were up to. They hadn't moved. What the hell were they doing, having tea? There those two men stood, comfortable in her living room and she was stuck in this vault.

Suddenly there was an explosion of red on the wall. What the hell was that? One of the pink blobs fell down. Oh shit! It had to have been a gun shot. The red had been the blast of heat expelling from the weapon as it fired. Was it Cooper or was it Jeff? Was whoever had been shot, dead? Cooper had said shifter could heal, but the pink blob wasn't moving. If it was Jeff then obviously something had gone very wrong. If it was Cooper...oh God, if it was Cooper, would that mean that she'd be stuck in this room forever? It's not as though anyone else knew of her whereabouts. Had Cooper really given his life to protect her?

"Calm down, Nicole. There has to be a way out of here. Your mate would never have built this place without the ability to escape in mind."

She went over to where the door blended seamlessly into the wall. There had to be some type of release mechanism. She didn't see any biometric pad, key code panel, not even a stupid door knob.

"Open sesame?"

Guess voice recognition doesn't work either.

She looked back at the wall. One of the pink blobs started to move. It had crossed the space of the living room, and was headed towards the corner of the house where Jaryn's office was located.

Her eyes tracked the pink while occasionally flitting back towards the prone shape on her living room floor. Whoever was moving had reached Jaryn's office, and she breathed a sigh of relief when it walked over to the wall behind which she hid.

Yes! Cooper's come to get me out of here.

Nicole turned as she heard a faint click. She smiled while all the time preparing to chew Cooper out for leaving her in here.

"Hey, Nicky! I need you to come with me now."

Her smile evaporated as she stared at Jeff standing in the opening to Jaryn's war room, with a very large gun pointed at her.

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"Jaryn!” Shaun exclaimed as he ran into the room and slid to a stop beside him.

"Hey, Shaun,” Jaryn grimaced. “Can you do me a favour and get whatever is sticking out of my back the fuck out of me?"

"Where's Broyles?"

"Gone. Now if you don't mind?"

Shaun ran his hands down Jaryn's back. Jaryn felt when his best friend's hands touched what he assumed was a knife stuck in his back and couldn't stop the shout from bursting out of his chest.

"Jesus, what kind of goat fuck did you get yourself into this time?"

Jaryn hissed as another bolt of lightning speared through his body. “You know me, I'm always out looking for a good time. You're going to have to pull it out. I can't shift with it in."

"That's going to hurt."

Jaryn growled. “No shit, Sherlock. Just...fuck...just get it over with. The goddamn thing is coated in something. I'm on fucking fire, man,” he panted.

Shaun gently wrapped his hand around the hilt of the knife. “On the count of three."

Jaryn nodded and prepared to shift the moment the knife was removed. The rapid healing he could achieve by shifting was the only way to prevent excess blood loss and stop the poison from advancing through his body.

"One...two..."

Shaun smoothly pulled the knife from Jaryn and he let out a howl that shook the rafters. He ordered his wolf to take over, but nothing happened. He tried again, nothing. Since the time of his first shift, Jaryn had never been unable to shift when he wanted to. He started to panic. Where was his wolf? He needed his wolf, now!

"Jaryn?"

He vaguely heard Shaun's voice in the dark room. Every muscle in his body tensed and streaks of lava coursed through his system. He closed his eyes and sank deep within himself.

"Help me, please
."

There was no response, and as if part of his soul had been ripped from his body, Jaryn screamed in anguish. His wolf was gone.

"Alpha!"

Jaryn's body went lax against the floor. He didn't even have the energy to lift his head. Whatever Broyles had coated the knife with had killed Jaryn's wolf. His entire life Jaryn had been cognisant of who he was as a shifter, of what he'd been destined to achieve as the son of an Alpha, as a soldier, as a man. Now with his wolf gone, he was empty inside, alone.

Something pressed hard on his back and Jaryn was ripped from the litany of self-pity controlling his brain.

"What the fuck is with you man? Shift for fuck's sake!"

"Can't,” he whispered.

"What the fuck you mean, you can't? You have to."

"I...mean...I...can't!"

Even though the moonlight filtering through the wall of windows was the only source of illumination in the room, Jaryn saw Shaun blanch. His best friend stared at him with a cross between confusion, shock and pity. The last was the worst. With his wolf gone, not only had Jaryn lost a major part of his identity, but Shaun had lost his Alpha. He'd let his friend and brother in arms down.

"Don't fucking go there, man. We'll figure this out. Maybe there's an answer downstairs in that goddamn horror show of a basement."

"What are you talking about?"

"We need to get out of here, there's something I have to show you. God damn...you're bleeding like a stuck pig."

Jaryn felt trails of liquid seep down his side beneath the leather of his body suit and suddenly realised that he was cold. He never got cold. That was probably not a good sign.

Shaun grabbed Jaryn's hand and placed it on his lower back. “Press down and don't move."