Night Hungers (15 page)

Leave me alone. I’ve got a job to do.”

She closed the connection to him and the rest of the house. Her flight took her just about a mile in front of the car and now she waited for him to pass the branch she was sitting on. It took him less than three minutes to get to where she was. It took her a full minute to realize who she was seeing and another minute before she could wrap her head around it. Taking off again, this time taking her time, Zane headed to the mansion and sat on the roof to think.

If he was in on this then Zane was going to need help. Not just help, but magical help. This man was not supposed to be alive. He’d been killed the day that the others had been; she had done it herself. Phillip. The Phillip from the lab had just driven away from the mansion and was very much alive.

Zane remembered him falling to the floor, his body lying in a pool of blood after she’d taken his hand off that held the gun. She’d left him there knowing, hoping that he would bleed out, that he would die like the others. After she’d passed out the queen had shown up and she never thought to go and check on him and the others. Not that she would have. Now she had to tell the queen what had happened. She had to tell her the truth so that she would know where she had failed. But for now, at this moment, they were all safe. Zane took to the sky once again and went to where the lab had been sitting all those years ago.

There was nothing there really. The grass had all but hidden it from anyone who ventured close. Not that anyone would. The ground was warded against animals moving in and she had purchased the property a very long time ago. The electric fence kept most curious people out and the wolves, wild and hungry, kept out the others. She landed a half mile from the site and then shifted into her panther. It took her less than three minutes to get there.

She walked the perimeter twice and was about to leave it alone and fly over it when she saw the opening. Someone had gone to a great deal of trouble to make sure that she or whomever walked around this area could not see what they had done. The fence had been shorted out and the power had been interrupted here. She got close enough to smell the heat of the power, but not close enough to be hurt by it. This section of wire was not working. Someone had clipped it so that the heavy voltage went around this eight foot section rather than run through it.

Shifting again to human, Zane stood and looked at the damage then around the field.

She could see them now, the tire tracks and the other marks as well. She would guess that it was a moving van, something heavy. It also looked as if they had made several trips to this point. Leaning down, she picked up a blade of grass and sniffed.

She didn’t know what Simon’s scent was, but she did know Phillip’s and knew that it would be the same. It had been several decades, but she remembered, remembered as well as if it had happened yesterday. She had to do something about this and do it now before he came back. Moving into the broken area of the fence she moved inside the perimeter of the compound and reached into the ground.

Looking for any sort of living thing beneath the earth proved a little tricky. The creatures that lived below ground took exception to her invasion. Zane apologized to them and moved on. There were a few disturbances that she was able to mend, a bit of black magic here and a little tainted blood there. When she reached the foundation of the old lab, she wasn’t surprised to find humans within the walls. She was surprised to find the amount of magic inside. Black mostly, but a bit of white as well.

Zane kept moving within the walls and counted as she went. Twelve humans and sixteen
others,
and there was at least three different species of fae. Against those odds, she couldn’t do anything alone but kill everything within, including those seemingly trapped inside. Shifting again, Zane took to the sky and went back to the MacManus household.

~~~

Aiden knew the moment she was within the perimeter of the house. He was making his way up from the lair when he felt her sadness. How profound it was startled him so badly that he had to stop and brace himself against the wall. When he walked into the living room she turned to look at him, but did not stop talking to James.

“…a dozen or so still inside. The place is hot and I think it’s working again.”

Aaron looked disgusted and Sara looked pale. Mel, the queen, and her mate, Shamus, sat on one of the couches and listened to Zane explain. The only ones who seemed to be talking were her and James.

“Why do you suppose that the lab is…I’m sorry, dear, what did you call it? Hot? I don’t believe I know what that means.”

“She means it’s being run again, as in someone is working it again. How can this be happening again? I thought that they were all destroyed when we left it all those years ago.” Bailey had just walked in the room as she spoke.

Aiden watched his brother with Bailey. She looked as if she had been hit and hit hard. When she started pacing in the opposite direction as Zane Aiden had a moment to wonder if all women paced when Zane suddenly stopped in front of him.

He wasn’t sure what she was looking at, but he was almost sure it wasn’t him. She had a faraway look about her, as if she was thinking hard and using all of her concentration to do so. That’s when he felt the fist bit of magic coming from her, a small dose of it first then it grew as she stared at him. He would bet any amount of money that she had no idea she was doing it. He started to reach for her when James cleared his throat.

“Don’t. The women of magic do better when they can think on their own. Mel is hard to even get near when she is working out a problem. Let her be, young man, for now at least.”

Aiden looked back at James. The man didn’t look a day over thirty-five. James grinned, and Aiden knew he’d heard his thoughts. Zane suddenly turned to the queen.

Aiden felt her anger as though it were his own.

“I need your permission to tell them. They have a right to know what I am and what I have been to you. I would also ask that you take this connection to Aiden St. James from me and him.” Zane pulled away and stood before the queen.

Aiden wasn’t sure if he should be terrified for his mate or pissed. He decided to be both. As well as a little insulted.

“I’m not willing to let you go as my mate. And I don’t care what you’ve done in the past or what you may think you’ve—”

“I’m a fucking killer, you idiot. I killed…those people in that lab died because I wanted to help Eight. And now, now they are back and it’s my fault. I didn’t check. I didn’t go back and check.”

“Check what, Zane? The men who actually did this to you and the others? The first men who died that day? I know what happened. I also have a clearer picture in mind why you never told me what really transpired that day. They tortured you, all of you, didn’t they? They put you into—”

“You’ve no fucking idea what we did that day. You’ve no idea what we had to endure every day. They kept us starved, not only for food and water, but for comfort.

Touching and speaking to one another. Did you know that we were fed our one meal on the same tray they cut pieces of us apart on? That there were weeks, sometimes months that would go by and they wouldn’t empty out pails that we used to go to the bathroom in. Eight was dying. Was I supposed to let him? Should I have let them drag him—”

“Enough!” Aaron roared with authority. The room grew silent. “We will talk about this calmly and without fault. You’ll tell us now, Zane. Tell us now what you think is so horrible that you can’t take a mate in Aiden.”

Aiden felt her anger and caught himself before he laughed at her. He had been on the receiving end of her wrath once or twice and was happy to see it directed at someone else for a change. But with the looks he was getting now from Zane he knew he wasn’t quite off the hook.

“There is something I need to tell you, Zane,” Mel started. “Something I should have…I only recently found out about it and it wasn’t until just yesterday that I found out its truth. Something, it’s about your DNA. I’ve been…it’s—”

“Your mate was my donor? Don’t beat yourself up over it. I don’t,” Zane said.

To say that Mel was shocked would have been a gross understatement on everyone’s part. She looked like she’d had the shit scared out of her and then drained as well.

Shamus sat her on the couch and then began to rub her back in slow, tight circles. He was grinning like the Cheshire cat.

“How did you…who told you? Him? Did Sherman tell you, or did someone else?

And if you knew, why didn’t you say anything?”

Zane shrugged. “Didn’t see any reason to get my panties in a twist about it. So what?

He’s the primary donor to my system. And? What does that have to do with the price of eggs in China?”

“Eggs from China? Oh my, Miss Zane, I do believe they have a much better price at the local market. I could order you some if you would like. I do have an order to send out in the morning.”

Aiden looked at Duncan who had just walked in with a huge friggin’ tray of food and drinks. It seemed every time he saw the man he was passing out food.

“Nah, Duncan, that’ll be all right. I don’t eat them anyway. But thanks.” Zane winked at the man and he blushed. Aiden didn’t think he’d ever seen him blush before.

Zane turned back to the conversation at hand. “I figured out what he wanted from me right away. I didn’t have much say in the matter, not then at any rate. But things soon changed and as I grew stronger he did tend to leave me to the others to deal with.”

“But they created you to be some sort of killing machine. He wanted you and others like you for his own army. If you hadn’t gotten away he would have destroyed you too.”

There was pain in Bailey’s voice, hurt and terror as well.

“Destroy me? He couldn’t destroy me. He would have had to have gotten close and there was no fucking way that was happening. I don’t under…you think I was created there? I was created, but not in that lab. I was told I was mixed up in the lab at the castle.

And I wasn’t one of his experiments. I was one of his donors.”

~CHAPTER 17~

There was a moment when not a sound was made, not even a breath could be heard taken. Aaron looked around the room and realized that they were waiting. Waiting on someone to say something, do something. But Bailey spoke before Aaron could.

“You were a donor. One they used to create what…did you know what he was doing with you? Did you know the type of monsters he was making to work for him? I’ve lost so much because of…how could you?”

Aaron started to tell Bailey to back off, that it wasn’t the way she thought, but he wasn’t sure either. But he was prevented from speaking again when Mel did. This time, the pain was in her voice.

“I doubt she had a great deal to say about it, Bailey. Sherman had been…I know about the lab now. It was set up in one of the dungeons deep within the castle. How I missed it for that long is something I’m not proud of. I was so stupid and so naive about him. How could I have…”

“How could you have what? Stopped him? I doubt it. He would have simply set things up elsewhere. Maybe he would have set it up in this world a little sooner. Who knows?” Zane moved to the door. Aaron wondered for a moment if she thought she was leaving. “He’s close again. Sinclair, he’s within five miles of this place. His heat, his signature is all around us as though he is in flight. You have to know what I…the lab is full of weres, mostly pack animals—wolf, cat. My animal of choice is a panther and I could feel them inside. I didn’t know he could…Sinclair has been working with his own DNA. He wants Mrs. MacManus. For a breeder. And the master’s realm. He thinks to control the population he needs by becoming the master here.”

Aaron nodded. Others had tried, but he had always come out on top. It helped that he wasn’t just a vampire, or even a fourteen-hundred-year-old one. But his magic, Sara’s magic, made him more. More than anyone bargained for when the challenged him.

“Does he know she is with child? And what is he? I’m assuming he isn’t wholly human. What else is he besides a dead man?”

Aaron watched Zane pace a bit more. He respected her for not just assuming. He could feel her frustration at having to involve others in the need to stop this madman. But he also respected her for knowing that she couldn’t do this on her own. He glanced over at Aiden. Aaron could almost feel sorry for the man. Almost. But Aaron knew that having a strong and powerful mate had major advantages too.

“No. From what I have seen in his mind, he’s slightly off. He seems to think he will rule not only the world, but all creatures within it too. He has no idea what Sara…Mrs.

MacManus looks like much less what she is capable of. Most of his knowledge of either of you is from Sherman. And none of that is all that helpful.” Her grin told Aaron that it also wasn’t very flattering either.

“What is your plan, Zane? I know that you must have one. You have come here for a reason, to meet with us for a purpose. Tell us what you want.”

Aaron thought that he knew people well enough. He’d been around them for nearly two millenniums. But Zane didn’t act like any other person he’d ever met. She was a force of her own, a being like no other. When she looked at Aiden then at the queen he knew that whatever it was wasn’t going to bode well for Aiden and her.

“I want my free—”

“No. I would ask for my boon now. You will bond and mate with me, Zane. I will take my favor that you owe me now.”

Aaron was startled by Aiden’s sudden demand. As it seemed the others in the room were as well. Mel simply smiled and nodded at him. Zane looked ready to do him bodily harm. Aaron was thankful that as his mate Zane couldn’t cause him harm. But that didn’t stop her from being royally pissed at him.

“Now? You want this now? No. I refuse. You had your chance and you didn’t take…I have plans of my own, you moronic jackass. I won’t bond with you unless she says it’s not permanent. I won’t…why? Damn it!”

“I will and I do. Now. If you will all excuse us, Zane and I have some unfinished business to attend to. Zane?”

Aaron was sure that Aiden was counting on her not being able to harm him or he would have taken precautions. When Zane moved toward the door Aiden followed, but at a safe distance. It was all Aaron could do not to burst out laughing when she suddenly stopped and Aiden took a hasty step or two back. Staring at Aiden, Zane spoke.