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Jana walked out of those shadows. “Marcus had plenty of chances to hurt and kill.” If that had been what he wanted to do, I never would have made it out of that truck. “He tracked his prey, and he put a sick, sadistic man out of his misery. That’s all.”
“Seems like you know a lot about Marcus,” Zane noted blandly. “Talk a lot on that ride up, did you?”
“When you fled the scene of a crime?” Tony tagged on.
She ignored them both.
Erin’s gaze stayed on her. “I understand,” the ADA said slowly, “that this particular wolf was held captive and tortured for the last few months. Something like that could make any man break. And a wolf…” She shrugged.
“It’s not easier for a wolf to break,” Jana said, fighting to keep her voice even. “It’s harder. Yeah, I know wolves have the rep for being crazy, but they’re also smart and incredibly strong. Strong enough to live through hell and survive.” Just like Marcus had. They hadn’t needed to talk. She’d seen the truth in his eyes.
They’d walked out of hell together.
Erin’s head inclined toward her, and it seemed like the tension in Jude’s shoulders eased, just a bit.
“If the shifter didn’t kill Lindsey Meadows,” Jana told them, “then we’ve got a real big problem here.” She had to point it out, though surely everyone had realized that.
Zane’s arm brushed against Jana’s. Okay. She hadn’t meant to walk to his side. Not really. Her gaze darted to those bloodstains and then back to the ADA’s eyes.
Humans were so weak.
It sucked to be weak, and she sure wasn’t about to show weakness now. She hadn’t been given the chance to finish her confession with Zane. He didn’t know the truth. None of the others knew. As far as they were concerned, as far as the rest of the world was concerned, she was the big, bad fire queen. Get in her way, and she’d burn you to ash.
“This crime…” Even the locations were identical. The freak in New Orleans had always picked alleys just behind the vics’ dorms or apartments. “The kill method and the victim type are all the same.” No defensive wounds. No sign of a struggle. “It fits the serial’s M.O.” What was up with the timing of this kill? So close to Marcus’s arrival in town. Too close. “Someone knows about what happened with the serial killer in New Orleans. About Marcus. And I think that person’s trying to set him up.”
“Why?” Jude’s question.
“Because he was the only actual named suspect in New Orleans. He made the papers. Someone wants the spotlight on him again. Someone wants the cops after him.” Hunted. “Someone is turning him into prey again.” The supernaturals who cross the line have to be eliminated. The old spiel from Perseus.
Perseus. Her breath heaved out. “They know.”
“Uh, who knows?” Erin asked.
“Project Perseus. They knew all about Marcus. They could be the ones behind this attack.”
But Zane caught her hand. “Perseus is dead, Jana. The organization is finished. The guards who survived were rounded up. Beth was the leader of that group, the guards confirmed it. She’d started Perseus after a vamp killed her father.”
Jana knew about the vampire. I found my father on the ground. The bastard had torn his throat open. Beth’s shaking voice whispered through her mind. Because at the beginning, when she’d first approached Jana, they’d talked. Almost been friends.
No, no, they’d never been friends. Beth’s psychic talent had just made her extremely good at reading people. And she’d known how to get to Jana.
She offered me a family. A place to fit in. Things had been fine until Jana turned away from the system. Then the claws had come out.
“Beth wanted vengeance,” Jana spoke slowly. “And I gave it to her.” The first vamp she’d killed for Perseus had been the one who’d drained Beth’s father.
Thank you. The only words Beth had spoken after that fire. But Beth’s eyes had been blazing.
That death hadn’t been enough for Beth. Nothing had ever been enough.
So she’d been the one to start Perseus? Jana had always thought Beth took orders from someone else.
“She’s dead,” Zane said. “The Perseus group is finished.”
“Nothing ever dies easily in this world,” Jana whispered.
The instinct to survive was too strong.
* * *
