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Another guy in black—freaking guards, she’d never forgotten them—ran toward her through the smoke. Her body slumped as the drug spread through her blood. Can’t be happening.
Shit, sometimes it just didn’t pay to try and do the right thing. Next time, she was running and looking out just for number one.
Next time.
Jana sucked in a deep breath of air. One more charge. The bastard was closing in on her with his gun clutched in his fist.
The man slammed the butt of his weapon against the side of her head. Right before her cheek hit the cement, she felt the fire escape, and she heard him scream.
* * *
When he heard the scream, Zane leapt to his feet. Good old Davey had dumped him in some kind of holding room—looked for all the world like an interrogation room at the Baton Rouge PD, complete with what Zane knew to be a two-way mirror—and he’d been biting back his rage and trying to keep his control.
Then he heard the scream. Zane ran for the door. He grabbed the handle and jerked—locked. Right, like that was gonna stop him. He jerked again, using some of the enhanced strength he usually kept carefully banked. The lock shattered and the door flew toward him.
He raced in the direction of that fading scream. His nose twitched. What the hell? Was that?—
Smoke.
Jana. Had she come after him?
Davey jumped in front of him. “Wow! Man, wait, what are you doin’?”
He shoved past Davey. “Someone screamed.”
Davey grabbed his jacket. “The guards will handle it.”
“There weren’t any fucking guards there when we came in.” If there had been, he would have noticed them, he would have?—
Davey laughed. “Sure there were, man. They’re chameleons, though. You don’t see them unless they want to be seen. You’re gonna find lots of strange folks here.”
Chameleons. Human chameleons. He’d heard about them. They could blend in with almost any background, could lower their heartbeats and respiration so much that they were often undetected, even by nearby shifters. Unless the atmosphere got damn hot, you couldn’t make a chameleon come out and play if he didn’t want to.
Unless it got hot.
He shook off Davey and rushed for that last door.
“What are you doing?” Davey yelled. “Stay here, they’re watching?—”
Oh, yeah, he just bet they were. He was at the door. This time, Zane didn’t bother with the lock, he just kicked out and the wood shattered.
So much for his cover.
He burst into the cavernous room. Water poured from the ceiling, pooling on the floor and mixing with the smoke. Through the downpour, he saw them. Nurse Nancy, grinning, holding a syringe, and three, no, four bastards in black, all standing in a circle around—around?—
One of the bastards lunged forward and grabbed something. No, someone. He hefted Jana up in front of him and put his gun to her sagging head. “Take another step, demon, just one more…” The guy’s bulging eyes locked on Zane. The right side of his face was red and blistering. Jana had let him feel her fire before the jerk took her out. “And I’ll make sure she never opens her eyes again.”
He stilled and stared at the man. Long and hard. Marking him. Because he’d already seen the blood trickling down the side of Jana’s face.
“Good.” The chameleon smiled, the grin pulling at the burnt skin of his face. “Nice to know you realize who’s in charge.”
The fuck he did.
The sprinklers turned off abruptly and only small drops of water fell onto Zane’s head.
“You need to come back with me,” said a quiet voice from behind him. Zane glanced over his shoulder. Davey was there, gazing at him with demon black eyes. “Now.”
“Don’t worry,” the chameleon with a death wish said, “we’ll be bringing the fire bitch, too.” His wet hair stuck to his head.
