PREY
Reciprocity
¥
Chapter 23 ¥With the mall guide in front of her, the hum of the Christmas shopping crowd, the carols in the background and
the sight of Santa's workshop set up in front of the planters at the foot of the stairs, Sloan was really getting
into a shopping mood. She couldn't help but grin at Marianna's look of skepticism when an elf came by and asked
if she and Ed would like their picture taken.
Marianna just said, "Why?"
"Uh, no thanks!" Ed jumped in, turning almost as red as Santa's suit. He looked desperately to Sloan for help.
"I say we try The Discovery Store - they have lots of fidgety knick-knacks there," Sloan announced pointing on
the store guide to a small store on the second level.
"Fidgety knick-knacks?" Marianna repeated, with her head tilted and one eyebrow raised.
"You know, things you keep on your desk that look neat and you can sort of play with them while you're thinking,"
Sloan explained. "Like the suspended steel balls people have that bounce back and forth?"
"Yeah!" Ed agreed. "I love those things! And the perpetual motion wire figures: you tap them and they move for
hours."
"Right!" Sloan agreed, with a grin. "Completely gender neutral and some of them are really attractive!"
Marianna sighed and looked from one Human to the other, "Perhaps it will make more sense when I see one."
Ed laughed and reached out to lightly brush Marianna's arm. It was one of those too casual gestures that Sloan
had seen him use before with women he found really attractive but hard to talk to. Sloan ducked her head to
hide a smile. She was glad she'd come out with them today. It would be nice if Ed and Marianna got together.
Nice not to be the only Human trying to understand a Dominant's more romantic side.
"Ed," Marianna said suddenly, putting a hand on his arm. Her eyes were distant and she was frowning. "Take Sloan
and get back to the car!"
"What is it?" Ed asked. Just then there was a shout behind them and they all turned to see what had happened.
In through the entrance behind them poured a crowd of heavily made-up young people. Black clothes, with the
occasional white ruffled shirt, artificially pale skin and heavy black eyeliner for both the boys and the girls gave
them a clear group identity. A few of the girls had marks on their foreheads that swirled like backwards
question marks which Sloan was sure she had seen somewhere before.
They weren't letting anyone out of the exit. As the crowd pushed into the mall they herded shoppers back in
towards the central corridor where Ed, Sloan and Marianna were standing.
Sloan saw people yelling and gesturing wildly as they moved into the mall and she started to back up. If they
were going to get to the car, it wouldn't be through that entrance.
Marianna shook her head, grabbed Sloan's arm in one hand and Ed's in the other, and started pulling them away
from the disturbance.
"Run!"
All three of them headed towards the stairs as fast as they could in the sea of mothers babies and teenagers
that made up the crowd of mid-week shoppers. They were only a few feet away, but already the crowd was so
thick they could hardly make any progress.
Other people, too, were trying to get away from the disturbance. The crowd pressed even more tightly together
and Sloan felt Marianna's grip on her arm release. She looked back and saw the Dominant woman had gone into a
defensive crouch and was looking up. Sloan followed her gaze and was just in time to see a young man vault
smoothly over the railing and land lightly in the fake snow behind Santa's Reindeer, on the low retaining wall that
circled the planter at the foot of the stairs. He was of medium height, slim with longish blond hair and wearing
dark Goth-style make-up, and he had eyes only for Marianna.
"Go!" Marianna yelled at them. "Get out of here!"
Squealing Christmas elves and mothers with toddlers in tow were already trying to escape and scurried to get
away from the fight as the man launched himself at Marianna and she at him. They met in mid-air and fell on top
of the lead reindeer. Plastic crunched beneath them as they each tried to gain the advantage.
"Sloan!" Ed yelled and grabbed her arm, "We gotta move, c'mon!" He pulled her away from the fight. "Let's get
up to the next floor! We'll make better time!"
"Right!" She agreed with one last glance at Marianna struggling with the young man in the fake snow.
As they headed up the stairs, the crowd of teenagers that were causing the disturbance caught up with them.
Sloan and Ed were pushed apart.
"Sloan!"
"Ed!" Sloan called as she lost sight of him.
Then the mob seemed to part just ahead of her. Sloan made a dash for the top stairs.
"Hello, Dr. Parker." A young woman with curly brown hair suddenly stood in front of her on the landing, smiling.
Sloan was sure she knew her, but couldn't place her immediately.
She desperately tried to backpedal but the people around her were grinning maniacally at her and pushing
towards the girl.
"Who are you?"
"Don't you remember me? I'm Darcy." And with lightning swiftness the girl grabbed Sloan by the hair with her
left hand, roughly pulled back her head, and with her right hand, thrust something sharp into Sloan's neck. The
world spun and hands were all over her as she was lifted off her feet. The last thing she heard before darkness
closed in was Tom's voice shouting her name.
The world seemed to get louder and wilder for a moment and Sloan had clear picture of where she had seen
those swirly marks before: the teenage groupies at Randall Lynch's trial.
Then everything went black.
¥
Chapter 24 ¥Tom saw Sloan and a girl on the landing of the stairs. He saw Sloan go down and then the crowd of young people
closed in around her. He felt her pass out and then nothing.
"Sloan!"
Her name ripped from his throat without him even being aware of it. He raced for the stairs, giving up his Human
camouflage to run full out, leap for the banister of the stairs, vault over it and land in the exact spot where
Sloan had stood.
He was too late.
Sloan and the girl were gone. The girl had been familiar, though. A Dominant. Someone he had worked with
before? Tom scanned the crowd trying to bring the girl's face into focus in his memory. Who was she?
From the floor below he heard a familiar voice.
"Oh, no, you're not going anywhere!"
He looked down and saw Marianna putting a half nelson on a young male Dominant. The male felt like the crowd
that had taken Sloan: strong, like a Dominant, but volatile, almost emotional. A changeling, Tom realized. One of
Randall Lynch's little species groupies.
Lynch.
Another of the clone brothers had Sloan. With that realization, Tom's heart went cold, and he knew who the girl
with Sloan had been. Her friend Kelly had died, but Darcy had apparently made a successful change to the 1.6
differential.
Tom sensed police arriving. He saw Marianna look up and knew that she felt the same thing. For a moment their
minds touched and he could tell they shared the urgency to get out of the mall with their prisoner.
"Tom!"
He turned and saw Ed standing at the foot of the stairs.
"Did you see what happened to, Sloan?" Ed called. "Where is she?"
"Ed, get the car!" Tom called back.
"Bring it to the entrance we came through!" Marianna added with hardly a pause. "We'll meet you there."
Ed looked like he wanted to ask questions, but then nodded and went running for the car.
"No!" the young male struggled and Tom jumped down beside Marianna. He grabbed the young male by the throat
and lifted him an in inch or two off the ground. "Name!" he demanded.
"Aaron," The boy admitted, gasping for air.
"Aaron, you're going to tell us everything, or I'll kill you," he said simply in a quiet contained voice.
"But not before I make living extremely unpleasant for you," Marianna added.
Both of them brought the full weight of their minds to bear on their prisoner. He squirmed as he felt the
pressure and then slumped down in Tom's grip. "I understand," he said, and seemed resigned to his fate.
¥
Chapter 25 ¥Outside the mall, in a plain van with tinted windows, two men watched the sedan Darcy had gotten into with
Sloan. The driver remained silent as his partner speed dialed their boss on his secure cell phone.
"We've had an unexpected development," There is a short pause, and then he continued. "Dr. Parker appears to
have been kidnapped by members of the splinter peace group you've been negotiating with." Another pause. "Yes.
I recognize the woman driving the car Dr. Parker was placed in. She was at our last negotiations meeting. Dr.
Parker was unconscious. Other than that, it was impossible to assess her injuries from a distance." He paused
again, longer this time, then finally said, "Yes, ma'am, we'll keep you posted on the location and meet you there."
He flipped the phone closed and turned to his partner. "We're off Daniels for the moment. Follow the woman.
We keep tabs and report our position as it changes. The boss is going to try and meet us wherever they end up."
The driver just nodded and pulled out.
¥
Chapter 26 ¥The crowd of kohl-eyed young men and women that had caused the disturbance had melted away as soon as Sloan
had been taken. Tom and Marianna kept a grip on Aaron and moved him quickly and efficiently back towards the
entrance. As the police cars pulled up, Marianna put an apparently friendly hand on her prisoner's arm and with a
gentle smile, she dug her fingers into the pressure-points at his elbow and said, "Just keep walking."
The police rushed past them and several other people who walking at normal speed out of the mall.
Ed was waiting outside in his VW van and Tom and Marianna shoved Aaron in before getting in themselves.
"Which way?" Ed asked
Tom and Marianna glanced at each other and then focused on Aaron who sat between them on the bench seat of
the camper. He squirmed uncomfortably. Sweat broke out on his forehead. "Back towards LA," he finally gasped.
"I don't know which house they're going to. I swear!"
Tom climbed into the front seat. "Let's go." He glanced at Ed, sensing his troubled thoughts.
"That's not much to go on, Tom," Ed hesitated.
"I can find her," Tom assured him. "We just have to get in her general vicinity."
Ed nodded, then headed out.
Marianna began trussing up their prisoner with some of the climbing ropes that Ed had under the seat, but half
her attention was on Tom. When had he come back? There had been rumors that he had returned to Lewis, but
that wouldn't fit with his actions today.
Tom had closed his eyes and she could feel him questing with his mind for some sense of Sloan. Marianna's eyes
widened at the power of his sensing.
This was a very different man from when she had first seen him. That wreck of a man that she had helped to get
out of that research facility was nowhere to be seen. This was a Chameleon sitting in front of her. Strong,
deadly, and in charge. She was amazed that Ed seemed oblivious to Tom's power. It made her realize how
different it must be to be Human.
¥
Chapter 27 ¥Sloan woke up angry.
She couldn't remember ever waking up this angry. She wanted to tear people's heads off, but she didn't know
why. She shook her head, trying to clear it.
That was a mistake.
The headache shot from behind her eyes to the very top of her head. It felt like hot pokers slicing through her
cerebral cortex.
She snarled at the pain.
That brought her up short again. Snarling? Sloan didn't think she had ever snarled in her life. What was going
on? She felt like herself and yet different. It was as if she were wearing someone else's glasses. The world was
in focus, but warped in ways she couldn't quite put into words.
Carefully, trying to keep the pain in her head to a dull throb, she looked around the room she was in. The walls
were white. There was a window with the curtains drawn, the bed she was on, a hard wooden chair next to the
bed, and a small dresser across from the window. On the opposite wall from the bed was a door. There were no
pictures and the curtains and bedcovers were muted taupe and beige.
She sat up slowly and saw a cup of water sitting on the table next to her. She was slightly dehydrated. That
would explain the headache. The water would help with that. But was it drugged? She sniffed the water. It
didn't smell like it was drugged. She took a small sip and decided to wait and see if there was any effect before
drinking any more. She didn't want to give the people holding her any advantage. She rolled the liquid around on
her tongue trying to get maximum benefit from the one sip she felt she could safely allow herself.
She let her mind drift over how she had gotten here. She had been at the mall with Ed and Marianna. There had
been a fight.
Darcy.
She flashed on a picture of the girl's face. She hadn't recognized her immediately with the make up and other
more subtle changes, but obviously the girl had survived. Did that mean Darcy was now at a 1.6 differential? She
thought again about how the girl had looked in the mall compared to when Sloan had first met her. All the
softness was gone now. The bruised innocence had left her eyes entirely.
Darcy was in the building.
Sloan flashed on her talking to someone. Darcy was standing on the first floor with a male. A very powerful male.
Sloan shuddered. God, how had she known that?
Darcy was 1.6 now. She had been Human. She had been changed. Now Sloan was sitting here picking up images
and information she could not explain.
Sloan clutched her head trying to still the throbbing pain enough so that she could think. The implications
weren't good.
The powerful male downstairs was aware of her now. She felt his attention turn to her like a searchlight
sweeping over her. His power, his command, his complete control enveloped Sloan and made her want to cower.
On a deep visceral level she knew she could handle Darcy, but this male that was coming towards her could only
be obeyed. Her own survival would depend on it.
She heard his footsteps on the stairs now. Darcy was with him, but his energies almost obliterated any sign of
the girl's presence. All Sloan could feel was the approach of the male.
She crawled back to the other side of the bed and crouched there with her feet under her, muscles trembling
from the adrenaline pumping through her system. She wanted to run as fast and as far as she could, but there
was no way out. Dozens of possible escape routes played through her head even as she knew they would be
useless.
The door opened and every nerve in Sloan's body began to scream run, but there was nowhere to go. She half
stood on the bed, hands out in front of her, lips pulled back in a snarl.
"Hello, Dr. Parker," Lynch said as he entered the room. He had a slight smile and was completely unfazed by her
reception. "I did say that you would see me again."
In the depths of her mind, Sloan began to scream.
¥
Chapter 28 ¥Tom's eyes snapped open.
"Take the next exit, Ed. We're close," he said.
"Got it!" Ed quickly cut across three lanes of traffic on the freeway and made the exit. He glanced at Tom, who
was breathing faster now and sweating slightly. "What is it? Is it, Sloan?"
"Yes. She's frightened," Tom answered, as he scanned the area they were driving through. "Terrified."
"No way you're feeling her from here!" Aaron said. Ed looked up in the rearview mirror and saw that the young
Dominant sitting next to Marianna looked decidedly panicky.
"What's wrong, Aaron?" Marianna asked coldly. "Afraid you'll be blamed if we find her?"
"He can't blame me!" Aaron whimpered. "I didn't even know where Darcy was taking her! I didn't know! They
didn't tell me!"
"Darcy?" Ed repeated, shocked. He glanced at Tom and quickly back to the road. "Are we talking about Kelly's
friend, Darcy?"
"Yes," Tom answered.
"Why would Darcy take Sloan?"
"It's another Lynch clone," Tom said. "It has to be. I think that's what's frightening Sloan so much right now.
Lynch has her."
"Oh, God," Ed said. "You think he took Sloan to..." He couldn't finish. Tom was looking at him hard and saying
nothing. Ed swallowed and tried to focus on driving, trying not to see the images that kept coming up in his mind:
Kelly raging at him; Kelly doubled up in pain; Kelly's face when he told her that her DNA had been altered.
Kelly dead.
They drove in silence for a while.
"Slow down," Tom said suddenly. "Pull over."
Ed nodded and pulled over. They were on a broad street cutting through a residential neighborhood of old ranch
style stucco homes. Ed looked at Tom expectantly, but the other man was looking at Marianna.
"Yes," Marianna said, and Ed realized she was answering a question he hadn't even heard. "I sense them. They
could be a problem."
"What?" Ed asked.
"People watching the house Sloan is in," Tom answered.
"Human or Dominant?" Ed asked
"Human," Marianna said. "They feel almost like police, but-"
"No." Tom cut her off. He looked at Ed with eyes dark with memory. "They aren't police. It's Walter's old boss
and her men."
Ed shook off the feeling of dread. Was it his own or Tom's? He wasn't sure. "OK, gang's all here, I guess. What
are we going to do?"
¥
Chapter 29 ¥"You wait out here." Alexandra Luthor sat in the back seat of her car and instructed her men in the van by cell
phone. "We know they have Dr. Parker, and Tom Daniels will want her back. I'm going in there and get her."
"What if they don't want to give her up, Ma'am?" their SOF assault team leader over the speaker-phone. "We
still have not established the nature of their agenda in taking her."
"These people may not be exactly who they told us, but they want our funding and our lab equipment. For that
they will have to give me Dr. Parker," she said confidently. "If I have any trouble I'll hit the panic button on the
phone. If I'm not out in ten minutes and I haven't called you with new instructions, come in and get me."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Before Luthor stepped out of the car she spoke to her driver, "Keep the engine running."
"Yes, ma'am." He nodded.
She got out of the Lincoln sedan and headed for the house down the street that her men had identified as
holding Dr. Parker. This would be very interesting.
¥
Chapter 30 ¥Sloan felt as if her will was crumbling under the pressure from Lynch's gaze. She would do what he asked. He
was stronger, smarter, more powerful than her. She would follow him and he would protect her.
He kept smiling.
Sloan slid down the wall until her knees were under her chin.
"You see, Darcy," Lynch said to the girl still standing beside him. "Dr. Parker understands now. She understands
that survival depends on knowing her place. And her place is here with us."
"We all understand, eventually," Darcy agreed. Sloan felt a strange mix of distrust, jealousy, and pity from the
girl.
"True," Lynch said and moved forward to brush Sloan's hair from her face. She shivered and tried to draw
herself in more tightly against the fear and desire that ran through her. "It's a pity we won't be able to breed
her before the change. I'm sure she would have produced exceptional offspring."
"We have anti-serum here, if you want to..." Darcy started to offer.
"No!" Lynch cut her off. "She changes now! As quickly as possible. Wait six more hours and then give her the
booster."
"Of course," Darcy agreed, stepping back slightly from his anger.
"You're mine now, Dr. Parker." Lynch leaned in until she felt his breath on her face as he gently ran a finger down
the side of her face. "I will succeed where my brothers failed."
Leaning even closer, he delicately drew the tip of his tongue back along her jaw to the pulse point of her neck.
Sloan gasped at the current of desire that screamed down her spin. No, no, no, no! Sloan found herself repeating
over and over again. I don't want this man. I hate this man. She could feel herself slipping away even as she
resisted. Then suddenly she flashed on the memory of Lynch holding her down, threatening to cut off her head.
Tom had shot him. Tom had killed him. Killed the clone, anyway.
Tom.
Sloan focused on her memories of Tom. He was strong. Stronger than Lynch. Tom!
And she felt an answer. Power. Reassurance. Much stronger than Lynch. She wrapped that strength around
herself and built a wall with it, a shield. She opened her eyes and looked at Lynch.
"No."
He snarled and backhanded her so hard she was flung off the bed.
Lynch turned to Darcy, "Don't wait. Give her the booster now, and then bring her to my room."
Sloan stayed on the floor, willing herself to be still, to look more stunned than she actually felt. She watched
through her hair as Darcy jumped out of Lynch's way as he headed for the door. Just as he reached it, the
doorbell sounded. It was such a normal sound in such a bizarre setting. Sloan had to stop herself from laughing.
She held on to Tom's strength and tried to keep him in her thoughts to protect herself from Darcy and Lynch's
sensing of her.
"How did she get here?" Lynch said looking at Darcy.
Darcy's eyes were wide and she shook her head and backed up until she ran into the wall. "I don't know."
Sloan could feel the girl's thick fear and Lynch's anger. She couldn't feel the person the other two referred to,
however.
I'm not strong enough yet. She thought. Not fully adapted yet.
Then she remembered what Darcy had said. There was anti-serum in the house. A cure. A way back to being
Human. All she had to do was find out where it was and overpower Darcy while Lynch was busy.
As one part of her mind calmly calculated how best to kill Darcy, which she reasoned she would have to do
whether she took the anti-serum or not, another part of her mind - the Human part - could only watch in horror
as she became something she had never wanted to be. A predator.
A killer.
¥
Chapter 31 ¥"I can take the men in the van,' Marianna said, as she pulled off her sweater to reveal a low cut T-shirt
underneath. She pulled out the pins holding up her hair, shook it out so that it framed her face, and then added
sunglasses from her purse.
"Good," Tom agreed. He looked her up and down and nodded approval of her quick change. "Even if they saw you
at the mall, it will take them a minute to place you. Should give you time. I'll take the house. And Lynch. Ed, keep
the motor running and be ready to pick us up as soon as I have Sloan out of the house."
Tom moved to the back and did a quick check on their prisoner, gagging him and checking Marianna's knots. He
was secured and all the fight had gone out of him now.
"Great - I'm the wheel man on a 1969 VW camper," Ed muttered.
"Don't worry," Marianna said as she got out of the car. "We'll make sure there won't be anyone left to follow
us."
Marianna went up to the corner and turned left to walk towards the van that was up the street.
"You should be out of their sensing range," Tom told him as he too got out. "Especially since I think Lynch is
preoccupied right now, but don't risk coming too close. Pull over to the opposite side of this street and wait. You
should be able to see the house from there."
"Bring her back, Tom" Ed said as the chameleon closed the sliding side door.
"I will."
¥
Chapter 32 ¥"Come on, Dr. Parker," Darcy said to her. " Get up. I know you aren't that badly hurt."
Sloan sat up and rubbed her jaw. "Does he do that often?"
"Only to people who make a habit of pissing him off," Darcy said with a smirk, but again, Sloan felt a hint of pity
behind her sarcasm.
"So why a booster shot?" Sloan asked, hoping to get Darcy to relax, trying to draw her out.
"We use the first shot to get your nervous system ready and then a booster to seal the change," Darcy answered
and then walked over to a small drawer from which she drew a cooler bag. "The first one contains the
retro-virus, with its spliced in messenger RNA, hormones and neurotransmitters that mimic the effects of the
1.6 differential on many brain functions. Then when the RNA actually changes your DNA it is less of a shock to
the nervous system."
"So I've only had the prepatory shot?" Sloan asked.
"That's right," Darcy answered.
"Is that why Kelly died? Because she didn't get the booster?" Sloan pressed Darcy for details, hoping to find
some information she could use.
Darcy frowned and looked away briefly. "I don't know why Kelly died," she said. "Sometimes Acolytes just aren't
strong enough for the change. They go to sleep and never wake up."
"Acolytes?" Sloan asked. "Is that what you call yourselves?"
"Not me," Darcy answered and lifted her chin. Sloan could feel the young woman's sense of pride as she
explained. "I've already changed. The Acolytes are the humans that are still trying to get chosen for the change.
When Lynch thinks they're ready, he gives them the first shot. It's really the only way to tell how adaptive a
Human is likely to become."
Darcy continued. "Once acolyte gets the first shot of hormones and neurotransmitters and they show strong
empathic abilities and muscle strength, we know they'll adapt further after gene therapy. Their bodies will come
closest to the new species template. They produce the best offspring when they are bred."
Sloan sensed a shadow of pain behind Darcy's words, there was something she was missing. "The girls with the
marks on their foreheads, they're all breeders aren't they?"
"Yes." Another flash of pain from Darcy.
Sloan stood and rested her hand lightly on the chair beside the bed. She tried to see into the cooler that Darcy
held. There must be anti-serum in there. She had to find a way to get it.
"Why is that bad, Darcy? Isn't that what you and Lynch want? Lots of good little Dominants ruling the planet?"
Sloan tried to control the anger bubbling up inside her, but it was hard.
"The more your body adapts, the more screwed up your reproductive system becomes," Darcy said in a harsh
voice. Then she looked at Sloan and bared her teeth in what could never be mistaken for a smile. "Most of us are
sterile, the Changelings that is."
Sloan felt as if she had been hit in the stomach. Sterile? No children? "My god. That's why the anti-serum. He
wanted a last minute way to change his mind in case he needed the person for breeding. That's why he said -"
"Yes." Darcy hissed. "But you aren't for breeding. You're just a tool to get Tom Daniels. To get the Council to
listen to his plans. He doesn't need to breed you. You serve your purpose as is."
Without pause or thought, Sloan gripped the back of the chair harder and flung it straight at Darcy's head with
all the force she could muster. It shot across the room, perfectly aimed.
The chair stopped inches from Darcy's head as the girl simply put up her hand and caught it.
"Nice try, Dr. Parker," she said. "Now roll up your sleeve."
¥
Chapter 33 ¥Tom approached the house masked. He had felt Sloan's terror and now her rage. He knew he had to get to her
as quickly as possible. Something had been done to her. He could tell by his sense of her that she was aware of
him, that she was as aware of him as he was of her. But he hadn't thought it possible to change a Human this
quickly. What had Darcy given her in that shot?
He slipped around the back, keeping to a line of trees that separated Lynch's safe house from the next
property. The perfect green lawn and the picket fence were all part of the too perfect image he associated with
all the houses used by his people. He'd seen Walter's ex-boss walk into the house just minutes before and he
could feel Lynch focused on her. Now was the time to move in. He went to a large spreading Oak that grew
beside the house and started up it. Fire escapes were easier, but this would do.
"What can I do for you, Ms. Luthor?" Lynch asked the woman standing in the hallway of his house. He had invited
her in and shut the door, amazed that she would be foolish enough to think that he would let her out again. Her
arrogance was almost that of an alpha of his own people.
"A Lynch brother," she said, unfazed by his implied threat. "You're a member of the peace movement? You must
be quite different from the other two, at least according to what's in my records." Lynch could feel that she did
not believe what she was saying. This was all a game and she was just trying to figure out the rules. "Do you
prefer the term brother? Or clone?"
"You don't have a word for what we are," he sneered. "But brother will do. Now, why are you here."
"You have something I want," she answered and slowly walked around him and into the living room.
"I have a lot of things you want," Lynch agreed, watching her, knowing she was memorizing the lay out of the
house for later. "You will have to be more specific."
"Dr. Parker. She's here. I want her."
"I'm sure the doctor would be flattered, but she is... indisposed right now. I'm afraid she can't be bothered."
"Look, you want a lab, equipment, financial backing for your research. We've been negotiating that with your
representatives - you can have it all now, if you give me the Parker woman."
The lie in her words was clear. He wondered that she still did not realize how transparent she was to his species.
He laughed. "I'll have all of that anyway when I present the Council with Tom Daniels and his mate. You have
nothing to offer me." He paused and took in her arrogance, powerful personality, and complete lack of fear. "I
will keep you, however. You show amazing potential."
Inside the pocket of her coat, Alexandra Luthor moved her hand to the panic button on her phone. Perhaps she
had miscalculated.
¥
Chapter 35 ¥Ed watched as Marianna walked quickly but calmly back towards him and the VW van. She pulled open the
passenger door and got in, wiping a bit of blood from the corner of her mouth. She saw him staring at her.
"Don't ask," she said.
He nodded and turned back to watch the house. He didn't want to think about what was probably in the other
van. He didn't want to know the body count. He glanced at Marianna again and found she was watching him.
"It's what I am Ed." She said. "And it was necessary."
"I understand," he said and reached out to touch her hand, noticing the knuckles were lightly skinned. "I just
forget sometimes, you know?"
"I know." He heard regret in her voice and wished he knew exactly why. But now was not the time to get into it.
"Can you sense anything from Tom?" he asked.
"No." She shook her head and studied the house through the windshield. "He's masked. Sloan is very angry
though. Pull a little closer and be ready to drive."
¥
Chapter 36 ¥The window to the bedroom was blocked by curtains, but Tom could sense the location of the two women in the
room. Darcy and Sloan were circling each other. He waited. Darcy was stalking Sloan, who moved away from her.
Darcy tried to get around her.
There!
He launched himself from the branch of the tree through the window. Glass shattered and spread everywhere.
Tom instinctively grabbed at Darcy who was in front of the window, and flipped her as he rolled across the floor
with her.
Darcy screamed and her anger flared hot. She tried to claw Tom's face but her attack was without control and
he easily caught her wrists and back handed her. He didn't want to kill her but he had to incapacitate her. Her
head rolled back and she went limp in his arms. Gently he let her slide to the floor.
Sloan ran to the dresser and Tom saw her searching through a cooler bag of some kind.
"Darcy!" A shout from below and the sound of feet on the stairs.
"Sloan! Come on!" Tom shouted.
Then the door to the bedroom crashed open and Lynch was there.
"I don't think so, Daniels," Lynch said. He looked at Sloan and held out his hand. "Dr. Parker, I know you weren't
thinking of leaving so soon?"
Sloan looked up from the cooler bag and Tom could sense the wave of panic that swept over her when she saw
Lynch standing there. She stood frozen in place staring at Lynch's hand. She took a half step towards it.
"Sloan!" Tom said, keeping his voice level but firm. "Listen to me, Sloan. You're stronger than this. Stronger than
him. Come to me, Sloan. We have to get out of here."
Sloan's eyes flicked back to Tom. He felt her reach for him, mentally stretching her new found abilities towards
him for reassurance and support. He responded with everything he had, and saw her take a step and then
another towards him.
"No!" Lynch growled out the denial. "You're mine, Dr. Parker. I made you. I'll keep you!"
¥
Chapter 37 ¥Sloan let out a whimper as she was caught between the commands of the two powerful Dominant males.
Everything Human in her screamed for Tom, but her new sensing abilities were so raw and untrained that she
could do nothing to block out Lynch's mental pressure. She tried to use Tom as a shield, as she had before, but
Lynch seemed to be blocking that defense, now that he realized that Tom had been helping her. She looked down
into the cooler bag. There was a vial of anti-serum, and next to it the hypodermic with her booster shot.
Would it be so bad to let the change continue?
Her hand closed over the booster shot and she looked at Tom regretfully. "I'm sorry, Tom," she said, and walked
slowly over to Lynch.
"Sloan, NO!" Tom shouted, but she was already there, in Lynch's arms.
Sloan could feel Lynch's sense of triumph cascade over her. And it was such a relief to be doing what he wanted
her to do. Tom was strong, yes, stronger than Lynch, but Tom wanted to take her back to being Human. To being
weak. No, she liked her new abilities. In many ways she did not want to go back to being Human.
"See, Daniels?" Lynch put a possessive arm around Sloan and drew her in close. "You feel it? I've given her
something you never could and now she's mine.'
Tom's pain sliced across her mind like a razor. Sloan whimpered and hid her face in Lynch's chest. She raised
her arms to twine around his neck as she breathed in his slightly salty smell and nuzzled his neck. Lynch chuckled
and soothed her by running his hand suggestively down her back. The lust he projected at her called up feelings
just as strong in her.
It was the perfect cover for her intent.
She stabbed the hypodermic into Lynch's neck and in less than a second it had emptied its contents into him.
Lynch screamed. The scalding flash of pain caught Sloan off guard and she staggered back. Tom caught her up in
his arms and pulled her back towards the window.
"You little- Ahhhhhh." Lynch staggered towards them, but he seemed to be having trouble with his coordination.
He fell to his knees next to the still unconscious Darcy, and then collapsed completely.
Sloan watched him. She felt none of his pain now, and when she looked at Tom she knew that he was doing
something to shield her.
Tom glanced at the door. "Someone is coming up the stairs. We've got to go now if we're going."
Sloan gave him a hard, fast kiss. "Of course we're going. Did you really think I'd leave you?"
He ran his fingers through her hair and looked at her like he needed to memorize her face. "I was afraid you
were already gone," he said. "Let's go."
He took her in his arms, passed her over the windowsill and lowered her to the ground, then went over himself.
They headed for the road at a dead run and Sloan was relieved to see Ed's familiar VW van waiting for them
with the motor running. Tom helped her into the van and got in himself. Marianna helped pull the door shut as Ed
took off.
¥
Chapter 38 ¥Back in the house, Alexandra Luthor cautiously entered the small bedroom where she was sure Dr. Parker had
been held. She took her phone from her pocket and speed dialed a certain number.
"I need a clean-up team. We have hostiles and possibly some of our own people down. Get here as soon as you
possibly can."
********************
