13. Jax

13

Jax

London snarled at Saul and prowled around the small lab, occasionally muttering something under his breath. Anna stood protectively on one side of Saul, and I leaned in the doorway, watching it all unfold.

"Why didn't you come to me immediately," London snapped, and I watched as Anna narrowed her eyes.

"I had several theories about what the drug might do," Saul explained, still as calm as ever, although his eyes were bloodshot red. "But as I've explained, I wasn't sure what these two compounds were. I was still diving into the research when I fell asleep. It wasn't until Anna's discovery this morning that made me put it together. Well, put most of it together."

"This is dangerous and important. You should have notified me at every step!"

"I had planned to give a report this morning."

London opened his mouth, and Anna stepped forward. "Enough! It is not Saul's fault that you got some weird drug, and someone is using it to turn themselves into Mr. Hyde!"

Saul looked up at her in admiration. Anna caught the look and rolled her eyes. "Don't look at me like that. I'm not all that well-read. My father liked to tell me monstrous stories to give me nightmares. Anyway, the point is that you're accusing the one man who could give you some answers rather than shutting up and listening to his explanations."

Stopping his pacing short, London sighed and nodded. "You are right. I just never imagined this is what the drug would do. Please tell us what you know, Saul."

"You have an extreme upper stimulant combined with an antibiotic. My first immediate thought was super-soldier. These two chemicals here," Saul said as he pointed to the screen, "were experiments several years ago to lengthen the lifespan of canines. Both of them were dismissed fairly quickly for side-effects that included abnormal organ growth and gene mutations. That is what I was researching when I fell asleep. Unfortunately, these two chemicals I'm unfamiliar with. I've done a quick search and have come up with nothing on the internet. There are a number of scientific journal databases that I can search, but that will take some time."

"So, Anna is right. What we saw today was a wolf shifter." London bared his fangs. "I want it dead."

I stepped forward. "I'm not so certain that is your best course of action. I watched the tapes. The creature does nothing to harm anyone. In fact, it went out of its way to avoid populated areas of your territory. It went to an abandoned warehouse to hide, and I suspect she knew that it was abandoned."

"She?" Understanding lit up in London's eyes. "Makayla."

"I suspected that as well," Saul said heavily. "She must have recognized some of these chemicals and thought it might help her sister. At first glance, I might have assumed the same. When she realized we were going to do our own research, she panicked and injected herself with one of the serums to fast-track her research."

"Oh," Anna breathed. "She didn't just appear or disappear. She injected herself in the woods. I bet she panicked and was trying to find you, Saul. She went straight for the house, and when that went poorly, she went to hide. The serum must have worn off when she was in the warehouse, and she escaped out the back. There were no cameras back there. It's good that it wears off in such a short period of time."

London turned to Saul. "What happened to the dogs in the study?"

"They died within twelve hours of injection," Saul said steadily.

"And what will it do to Makayla?"

Saul shook his head. "I couldn't even make an educated guess. The best-case scenario is that her system scrubs the toxins clean, and she'll be fine, but there is no telling what these other two compounds will do. Makayla could already be dead."

"We need to find her," London said tightly.

"Gather anyone close to Makayla. Anyone who can recognize her scent," I told London as I pushed off the doorframe. "Start them at the warehouse and see if they can follow where she went. I'll go back to the security office and start searching the cameras."

"My guards have been ordered not to show you anything else," London said with a touch of annoyance. I just grinned. "I will have Cruz review the cameras. Perhaps you can talk to your witch, and I'll speak to Ava. Magic might find her faster."

I nodded. "Let's get to it."

It turned out that location magic was not all that easy. Janelle and Ava were both needed, and still, the magic could only detect within a two-mile radius. Anna and I followed behind Janelle on the other side of the territory while Finn, Amelia, and Kenzi had shifted to search quickly if the magic found anything.

Cindy had also shifted, but she was walking by Anna and didn't seem interested in leaving her side. At least she was out of the house and controlling her wolf, even if it was to keep an eye on Janelle. I didn't blame her, and Janelle didn't seem to mind. It was almost as if the witch needed someone to blame her.

In front of Janelle, a white orb of light shimmered. It occasionally started to fade, and Janelle would mutter under her breath to make it brighten again. I knew the witch still wasn't at full strength. If this was too much for her, she didn't say anything.

"So," I began conversationally to Anna, "your father would tell you stories to give you nightmares."

"Wasn't he a peach? Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Frankenstein. Cthulhu. Sleepy Hollow."

I mulled that over. "Classics. Not just any genre of horror story but monster stories. Could your father read?"

"Sure. He was always scribbling in a notebook."

"I didn't find any notebooks."

Anna shrugged. "He burned them afterward. I always thought it was weird, but there were more horrifying things about my father than his need to journal and get rid of the evidence."

True, but when you put it all together, it posed some interesting questions. "Most wolves who grow up rogue aren't all that literate. No need to read when you live in the middle of the woods. Finn was already taught to read when he was exiled, and he used those reading skills to barter for things when he became a messenger."

Anna didn't say anything, so I continued.

"You can read. Well, too. Parker said you were even computer literate. And your father told you monster stories."

She slowed just a little and stared up at me. "What are you getting at?" she said uncertainly.

"Did your father teach you to read, Anna?"

She jerked her head away and started walking again. "My father didn't teach me anything except how to be afraid."

"So, who did?"

"I don't know, Jax. What's your point?" She was starting to sound more and more aggravated. Cindy's wolf looked at me and growled in a small warning.

I ignored it. "I always assumed that your father was rogue his whole life, but it sounds like someone taught him to read. A formal education comes from a pack."

"If you're asking me where he grew up, I don't know what to tell you. He didn't talk about his past," she snapped. "Can we drop this line of questioning? I'm trying to focus on Makayla."

Anna was often short-tempered with me, but she usually had good reason to be. This was not a good reason. So why was she pushing back so hard?

Someone had taught her how to read. Someone had taught her father how to read, and he'd had access to classic horror stories. Obviously fell in love with them.

I'd done as much research as I could about Dirk right after killing him. It wasn't out of remorse. I was trying to figure out all that I could about my mate. The first murder I'd found tied to him was fifteen years ago.

There were plenty of reasons for that, and so I hadn't given it much thought. Maybe he'd just snapped and started killing. Maybe he killed a different way before then. Maybe he'd just moved to the mountain fifteen years ago.

But Anna would have been old enough to remember the move. She hadn't said anything about it.

A wolf's howl sounded in the distance, followed by another and another. Janelle's light immediately went out and she sighed and sagged a little. Anna hurried forward and caught her.

We both looked in the direction of the sound. Makayla had been found.