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“Wait, is that…?” I trailed off, too stunned to finish my sentence, my mind refusing to believe what I’d seen.
“A cat,” Jax confirmed. “It seems someone has succeeded in creating a serum that turns humans into animals.”
Chapter 21
Evan
The image on the screen flickered as we played it over and over again, contemplating what the hell Tomas had done. The man writhed in pain as his body contorted and transformed. My stomach churned each time we watched it, yet it was hard to look away. We’d moved up to the office. Abi had put Sofia to bed while Mariah, Jax, and I gathered with Sebastian.
I had more questions than answers, but there was one I needed to know right away. “Jax, how did you get this footage so quickly?”
Jax rolled his eyes. “Just because my old terminal got destroyed doesn't mean my entire system stopped running.” He said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“But where is this video coming from? How are you getting access to it now? This is a live feed?”
Jax pointed to another monitor he’d hooked up. He had eight different rolls of footage running. One screen showed an empty medical clinic, but it was the same location from the other video. “Yes, it’s live. I know this place. It’s the clan's private clinic.”
That meant it was on the Hawthorne clan lands, far away from where we could reach without truly declaring war. I frowned. “And you just happened to have a camera in the clinic? What for?”
“Let's just say I had a hunch something shady was going down there,” Jax said, his eyes never leaving the screen. “A lot of strange comings and goings all of a sudden—ones Tomas was keeping me in the dark about. I was familiar with everything on his property, so I got curious when he started being particularly secretive. One night, I snuck in and found the lab. I thought it was unused at the time. I set up the camera just in case, but for months, there was nothing.”
“Until now,” Mariah whispered, her hand gripping mine even tighter.
“Exactly.” Jax nodded. “This is the first I’ve seen of any of this. When I got back into my system, there were multiple alerts to movement from these particular cameras. I searched it, and boom, now we have footage of a man being turned into a cat.”
“But why a cat?” I had to ask. It was such a strange choice. “I’ve never heard of a cat shifter. Have you, Sebastian?”
H shook his head. “Feline shifters, sure, but shifters are always predatory animals. Dragons, wolves, panthers, but never a little house cat.”
“Maybe Tomas is trying something new,” Mariah said. “Or maybe the serum they used didn't work as intended.”
“Either way, this is bad news.” Sebastian clasped his hands together, his expression growing dark.
“Or,” Mariah said, “maybe their experiments with the predatory animals weren't working, and they somehow altered the serum to break it down to its base species. It could work better on smaller, non-predatory animals.”
She bit her lip as if she feared her theory might be dismissed, but I grinned as I glanced at her. Mariah was so much more intelligent than she gave herself credit for.
“Mariah, that's brilliant.” I reached for her hand, and her cheeks flushed pink. “You really might be onto something. I mean, how did a man get this close to the house without being detected? It had to be one of Tomas’s creations.”
Sebastian nodded in agreement. “I think so as well.” He turned to his own computer and clicked a few buttons, bringing up additional footage from the security cameras around the clan lands. He searched through the feeds for a few minutes, then sat back, crossing his arms as he landed on the clip he was looking for. We all watched in disbelief as a calico cat climbed up the massive brick wall surrounding the clan lands, landing gracefully on the other side.
“Unbelievable.” Sebastian rubbed the back of his neck. “Tomas has found a way to exploit our security blind spots using smaller animals. We'll need to reevaluate our defenses and make an overall reevaluation immediately.”
“Agreed.” The last thing we needed was for our safe haven to be jeopardized. My mind raced with possible countermeasures, thinking through any potential vulnerabilities. I’d explored every inch of these lands as a teen and knew where we might need to focus first.
Sebastian cursed as I listed out other areas that might put us at risk, running a hand through his hair. “We'll need to upgrade the fence. Perhaps build an electric one.”
I frowned, my gaze fixed on the screen displaying the calico cat. “This is worse than I feared. Tomas is making progress with that serum if he just turned a man into a cat shifter. I doubt anyone would pay for that, but it proves he's up to something illegal, and dangerous.” I looked at Jax. “Anything else from the footage?”
He shook his head, frowning as he fast-forwarded through the feed after the man was turned. “Not that I can see. Just the doctor checking vitals once he’s shifted back to human form. And, ugh—” He sat back, banging his fist on the desk. “The camera went dark.”
“Damn,” I muttered, clenching my fists. “Do you think they found it?”
Jax hesitated. “I can’t be sure.” He tapped away on the keyboard for a few seconds and growled in frustration. “I can't access it anymore, so it's a possibility. But what we have is enough. We need to get this information to the authorities.”
Here was the final bit of proof we needed.
Sebastian nodded. “Jax, transfer the footage to a physical drive. I want to send it to my friend who works for the feds and see if there’s enough here to lock Tomas away. We need to put an end to Hawthorne’s machinations.”
