Hunting the Shadows (21 page)

Chapter Nineteen

“You need rest.”

Amy shook her head, leaning forward to press her forehead against his throat. “Davan’s right. I should be able to find her. We can’t give up.”

“We’re not, but we need to rest.” J.C. circled an arm around her waist, offering support when her knees trembled. He hated that Davan had put it in her head that she was at fault. Just because she was a telepath didn’t mean she had to know what everyone was thinking or planning to do at every moment of the day. “We’ve been at this for seventy-two hours with only a few hours of sleep. I’m running on caffeine fumes and you’re close to overloading.”

He took a deep breath. Dawn had yet to break out over the mountains, but a pale orange was beginning to creep through the heavy dark clouds and over the rough ridges. Pine, fir and spruce stretched over towering granite cliffs.

With one hand pressed lightly to the small of Amy’s back, he directed her toward the narrow, faint ribbon of an animal path. Wet ferns brushed against his legs, grass and hay clinging to his ankles. He wanted to take her away for a little while and give her a chance to re-energize.

“Where are we going?”

“Not far. We both need a break. Even if it’s not to sleep, you need to shut it off for a bit.” He paused when he felt more than heard the building of an argument and moved to head it off. “We’ll find Ajay. I believe that. But if you aren’t careful, your headache will only get worse and you’ll crash.”

“How—” When she began to turn her head, he shifted his hand on her back, skimming it up to touch her cheek.

“You’re an open book. It’s in your eyes. We’ll clear our heads for a bit but we both need rest. At least for a couple of hours. Go to the right.”

He took her deep into the forest, not stopping until they were far enough away from the Centre. He glanced up at the tree line toward the wooden platform that had been set up, one of the many lookouts that’d been installed long ago.

“J.C.?”

He nudged her, giving her bottom a light pat until she began to climb. “These used to be lookout posts.”

“Used to be? They aren’t anymore?” She stopped midway on the ladder, glancing down until he nudged her again.

“Not as much.” At the top, he watched with amusement as she lowered herself onto her stomach and crawled to the edge to stare down at the thick canopy below. Her fingers clenched on the wood, so hard her knuckles stood out.

“It’s dizzying.”

“You won’t fall. They built these things to be sturdy. Unless there’s rot or a storm, it’s not coming down.” He leaned back against the tree trunk, looking off into the mountains at the orange glow that made the leaves look like they were on fire.

“This is amazing. I can’t believe I’m here right now. Do you know what I would have done to get out and see this?” She looked back at him, her eyes wide. It was an experience watching her. He’d never seen anyone so expressive, even after everything that had been done to her.

“You don’t have to wonder anymore. You’ll never have to worry that you’ll be locked away again.” He would fight to make sure she kept her freedom.

When he held out his hand she reached for it, curling her fingers around his so that he could lower her between his drawn up knees. Wrapping her arms around his legs, she relaxed against him, setting her head against his chest.

She was silent. J.C. rubbed his fingers over her shoulders to the back of her neck. “How about you close your eyes for a bit? It’s been a long few days. Your mind could use the break.”

He massaged the knots, rubbing at them until her breathing evened out. He didn’t fool himself into thinking she was asleep yet. As much as she needed to shut down for a bit, she kept pushing herself.

“J.C.?” No, definitely not asleep.

“Yeah?”

She turned, looking up at him. He slid his lips along her forehead, watching as pink stained her cheeks. After everything they’d done, she still blushed at small gestures, and it made him feel ridiculously powerful.

“Tell me about Leila. I know you two were an item, but was it serious?”

“What, you mean you didn’t see it in my memories when you were in there messing around?” he teased lightly.

“I didn’t mess around with them.” That biteable bottom lip of hers stuck out, looking adorably sexy. “No, seriously. I know she meant something to you. You cared.”

“I did. I met her when I was twenty. She was up in some trees, taking notes as my squad worked out in the training yard.” He had gone over to tell her to leave, but she flashed him a grin and told him that if he wanted her to go, he would have to come up and get her down himself. Somehow, when he did get her down, he’d ended up not only with her name, but also her squad number.

“Did you love her?”

Had he?

He’d cared. A lot. They’d had a lot of fun times together. “No. Not that way. We were good friends more than anything. I liked her, but it would never have amounted to something else. We both knew what we wanted with each other.”

After a month of hanging out, they had become sex buddies, using each other as sources of stress release. “One thing that’s rare is to see someone so carefree. She had her own problems, but she had a spirit about her that had never dampened. When I was with her, even for a bit, I could forget the things I was dealing with.”

And after a few years, they’d drifted apart. Being a scientist and also a team leader didn’t give him a lot of time. He tried to set up his meetings with his case loads in the mornings and then deal with training and other team stuff only in the afternoon, but sometimes it wasn’t possible.

“I couldn’t leave her behind. We were too good of friends to forget about. I knew the Council would never accept me back after what I was planning. So I got her IDs and told her what the plan was. She was supposed to stay put in the tunnels until the explosion.”

Only to die. He set her up to die.

“She wouldn’t want you to feel guilty.” Amy rubbed her hand along his chest and over his heart, as though she were trying to take his pain away. “She knew how much you cared about her.”

Although he appreciated her words, it wasn’t as simple as that. He couldn’t shut off his feelings. He didn’t know what he’d do if they didn’t get to Ajay in time. She was more than a member of his team, she was like a sister.

Amy nuzzled his shoulder, turning herself in his arms. He noticed her eyes were closed again. He felt the pull of sleep himself, but they still had to worry about enemies of the Council. At least they’d locked up one monster.

For now, that mattered.

After Ajay was found, he would let his guard down, but his main priority at the moment was the woman in his arms and distracting her for half an hour. He fingered the band around her wrist, playing with the ends of it as he rubbed his thumb over soft skin and felt her pulse speed up against his touch.

Her lashes lifted and her gaze locked on his. He felt drawn, unable to look away. What he’d felt with Leila was a pale comparison to what Amy brought out in him. When she touched him, his skin tingled and he could think of nothing but her. He’d never felt this intimate of a connection before and it was disconcerting.

He didn’t deserve her goodness, but he wanted to.

He’d crossed a line with her. He didn’t know what that meant anymore. At one point, he would have backed off and put distance between them. He should—he could never have a woman like her. But he was hesitant to give in, so tired of having to always put himself last. He was J.C.—the team leader and scientist first. It meant he could barely give J.C., the man, any kind of priority.

There were the children to think about and the other members of his squad. It wasn’t the life to get close to anyone for any period of time.

But he wanted to.

“You look so serious. What are you thinking about?”

“You. This thing between us.” That was all he said because he didn’t know what was going on. Broderick would always be a threat. He could live in what-ifs, but that wasn’t the way to live when he could easily enough die at any point.

All he knew was that he wanted her in his life.

He covered her mouth with his. If the reality of what they were doing came back to haunt him tomorrow, right now, he was alone with her and he’d take advantage of that.

She didn’t break the kiss as she twisted her body, moving up onto her knees to wrap her arms around him. When her lips parted and a sigh slid from between them, he swallowed it, holding her head between his hands.

Though he’d barely fed the hunger in his veins, J.C. eased back, tracing the curve of her lips. “We should head back to the Centre. You need to sleep.”

“What about you? You’ve been at this as much as me.”

He pressed his mouth back to hers quickly then rose to his feet, helping her up. “I’ll try and sleep for a few hours, but I can’t really afford to waste time. I need to figure out how to get Stefan to talk.”

He went down the ladder first. With his hands at her waist, he steadied her descent. He trapped her the moment her feet hit the ground, pressing her back against the wood. His hands reached for hers, pulling them up and over her head, curling her fingers around the rung. His lips lowered and brushed hers, pressing until her lips opened to deepen the kiss.

“Watch yourself. There’s something not right about Stefan. I can’t put my finger on it but his signature and all those blocks bother me. Be careful, okay?”

His mouth lifted. “I will.”

* * *

They didn’t get too far before energy reached out to her. Death.

Amy slowed and pressed a hand to J.C.’s arm. She couldn’t breathe. Sharp, violent energy closed in on her, terror laced with panic stripping her of the calm she’d been feeling. Her chest hurt, her heart pounding so loud it echoed in her ears. She forced oxygen into her lungs, trying to block out everything she was feeling as J.C. had taught her. She’d gotten the wall half way up when black began to spill into her vision.

“Amy? Are you all right?”

She didn’t answer. Couldn’t.

She moved away from him to step off the trail. Her shoes sank into mud and, holding her arm out to balance herself, Amy pushed at thick brush. She didn’t know where she was going and really she didn’t care. She needed to get away before the black dots consumed her.

She stumbled forward, her foot catching on something solid. If she hadn’t grabbed hold of a branch, if J.C. hadn’t been there to wrap an arm around her, she would have fallen. Heart in her throat, she stared through the creeping darkness at the corpse.

“J.C.”

Oh god. She whirled away, lifting a hand over her nose and mouth, her gaze jumping to his. There was something wild in his eyes, an unleashed anger that made her stumble back. He caught her by the hand, pulling her toward him, sheltering her.

“Who is it?” She didn’t want the answer for fear of what it’d be. Glancing around his shoulder, Amy saw the blond hair. The face was a mess of wounds, resembling hamburger meat more than anything. An animal had gotten to the poor woman.

“Stay here.”

J.C. gave her hand a squeeze then went to the body, kneeling in the dirt and blood. There was a small shake in his hand as he lifted the mangled wrist.

“Is it Ajay?”
Her stomach curdled. The stench was horrendous—sickly sweet with an undertone of rotting flesh.

“Whoever it is hasn’t been here long. Only a day or so.” He studied the woman more then glanced up at her. “I’ll have to run some tests to confirm but from what I can tell from the tattoo, this isn’t Ajay. The tattoo is hard to make out, though, so I can’t be entirely sure.”

She wanted to get away before she lost what little she had in her stomach on the forest floor. There was a buzzing in her ears, a high pitch wail that unfocused her vision.

“If she’s only been out here a day or so, then Stefan can’t be the killer. He’s been locked up.”

“Tests will need to be run. Forensics will give us an accurate time of death, but that doesn’t rule out copycats.” He dug out the phone from his back pocket, calling the murder in. And then he was at her side, his hands on her shoulders. “Are you getting anything?”

“The signature doesn’t match Stefan’s.” J.C. would never understand what she meant. It was a feeling, nothing more. There was no way Stefan could have messed around with his signature to throw them off.

“You need to put your wristband back on.” His fingers were light on her face, inching it up in the darkness. “You okay? You’re bleeding.” He swiped beneath her nose, his fingers coming back stained with her blood.

Okay? She didn’t know the meaning of the word anymore.

She shook her head.

Her body was crashing. It was happening all over again. The symptoms were telling her that she was pushing herself too hard, she was on the verge of another aneurysm.

Chapter Twenty

“What do you want?”

The roughness of Stefan’s voice surprised her. The man was a mere shell of what he’d been. He sat on the ground in the prison cell, leaning against the bars as he stared forward. He was disheveled, with thick, dark stubble covering his jaw. The eyes that watched her were tired, dark shadows haunting them as though he hadn’t slept in days. When they locked on her, she couldn’t help the shiver that worked its way up her spine.

“I have questions.” She needed to assure herself that they had the right man. It still bothered her that the signature didn’t match. She’d bet her life that it was the clue to the identity of the killer…but at the same time, they had so much evidence against Stefan. Was she wrong?

“Why are you here?”

She frowned. “I told you. I have questions only you can answer.” The closer she got, the paler he seemed under the harsh light, his face thin. Had he been that sick the last time she’d seen him? He looked as though he were on the edge of death and was hanging on by his fingertips.

“Leave me alone.” His sneer forced her back a step and she hesitated before walking the rest of the way to the cell to curl her fingers around the bars. The moment she touched them, it was as though cold water had been poured down the back of her neck. Her mind snapped into focus. The touch was instantly numbing, but she didn’t step away.

He didn’t move, his body tight with frustration and something she couldn’t put her finger on. Anger? Disgust? Hunger?

“Where’s Ajay?” Perhaps she shouldn’t have come. Except she’d needed to know…needed to see. Needed to shut the doubts up and maybe seeing him would do that. “I don’t have all day, Stefan.”

He chuckled and rose to step toward her. “Meaning what? That J.C. doesn’t know you’re here? How did you get in?”

She didn’t flinch when he closed the distance and his fingers curled around the bars, inches above hers. Instead, she held her ground and faced him.

She should have felt something, anything, but there was so much interference. Being in the same room made her mind fuzzy as though she’d been given a cocktail of sleeping drugs.

“Why are you here?” he repeated.

She covered a ridiculous laugh that threatened to come up. Like he had better things to do. He was locked up in a cell. There was no way he was getting out. Not on his own. So why did he act as though he didn’t care about any of this? Was he that jaded, that messed up?

“I can understand why you killed. You can’t survive without some kind of life energy. If you tell us what you did with Ajay, maybe a deal can be cut for you. You can get the help you need.” She swore and pushed back from the cell. That loss of sensation in her fingertips was still there, she realized, and it had begun to move up through her wrist.

He frowned, his words hesitant. “I did nothing.”

“Stefan, if you did nothing then why did they find your DNA in Teresa’s locket? Why was the knife in your room?”

“What do you want me to say?”

Something. Anything. Damn it, she didn’t care as long as he said something that would make some kind of sense. She turned, frustrated and when the feeling came back to her skin, she pushed her fingers through her hair. “I want to understand.” And shut up the doubts.

“Look, Amy, I’ve already said everything I know. Did J.C. set you up to come here? Because if he thinks I’ll confess all my sins to you, then he’s just as crazy. I don’t know anything.”

“I’m trying to help you.”

“I don’t believe that.”

He moved away to slump against the bars on the far right and settled on the ground. For the first time since she’d stepped in, she noticed the dark shape in the corner of the room. Mackenzie.

“Is she…”
Dead?
She couldn’t say the word.

He laughed, a short burst that rattled in his chest. “Asleep. Damn stubborn woman won’t leave me alone.” She heard the amusement and concern in his words. He slid his hand through the bars and latched onto the doctor’s, lacing their fingers together. “Are we done here? I’m pretty sure I’m going to need to be rested before the Council’s next attempt to break me. You helped put me here, Amy. I’m not going to forget that.”

* * *

The base was in alert. The flash of red brightened the darkened halls, the silent alarm making everyone aware that danger lurked. If there was one thing Darilynn knew, it was that they had to act fast. The security system of the Centre had been breached.

“Seal off the corridors. He can’t be far,” Darilynn ordered. She swung around from the darkened computer screen to Cameron. “Damn it. How’d he get out?”

“We found a three minute malfunction in the system. It knocked out the cameras.”

“Not enough to disengage the locks of the cells. Try again. We need to find him.” She palmed a gun then shot a glance over her shoulder. “Ariadne, find Mackenzie. I’m betting she knows something about Stefan’s escape.”

The lights flickered above.

Ariadne nodded. “Even if he got out, he’s been pumped full of neutralizing drugs.”

“Then we better find him quickly because I don’t want to be there when they’re out of his system. Cameron, get Rick and take a look around the grounds.”

“What about you?”

She pushed her fingers through her hair and rose to her feet. The Council was going to freak. “I’ll be fine. I’ll take Medical and his room. We don’t have enough manpower to search the entire area. Someone needs to get J.C.”

Amy bolted up in bed, breath caught in her throat as she struggled to wake, her skin slick with sweat.

“J.C., wake up.” She shoved at him. When he groaned and tried to pull a pillow over his head, she yanked the blanket off him. “Stefan’s gone.”

“What?” He shoved the pillow back and shot up from the bed.

“The system went down and knocked out the defenses. When they came back on, Stefan was gone. No one knows how he escaped yet but Darilynn has sent out a team to look for him.”

J.C. moved about the room, tossing clothes in her direction. “I’m going to need you to stay put. Don’t leave this room or unlock the door for anyone. He’s dangerous.”

Shoving her head and arms through her shirt, Amy frowned. “I can help track Stefan.”

“He’s already tried to kill you once. Now that he’s out, he’s going to be angrier. He’s going to want revenge.” He brushed his hands along her arms, letting them linger and she flushed at the memory of what they were capable of doing. “Please stay here. Don’t fight me.”

“Don’t get used to it.”

She smiled. If the look on his face was any indication, he hadn’t expected her to give in so easily. She liked that she could surprise him. It took a lot to catch him off guard and the fact that she could warmed something in her.

Shimmying into the rest of her clothes, she couldn’t help but admit that his rationality made sense. She didn’t have to like it but she’d do as he asked. Stefan would be starving after having been locked up without any source of a life energy to feed off of. “J.C., if he’s out, he’s going to be hungry. You need to get guards stationed outside of the children’s wing.”

“Darilynn probably has but if not, I’ll get that set up. You’re right.” He reached into his jeans pocket, digging around for something. “I’m not sure when I’ll be back. I’ll try to check in on you in a few hours. The main thing is to stay here.”

She faced him and nodded. “Keep in contact. I won’t go anywhere until you say that it’s safe again.”

He reached for her hand, turning it over to place a small knife in it. “Keep it on you at all times. It’s not a lot, but it’ll buy you time if you find yourself in a situation.” His hand caught her shoulder before he leaned in, kissing her thoroughly until she swayed on her feet. And then he was gone.

Moving toward the window, she slid down onto the windowsill and wondered if they were too late.

Had they lost their only chance at finding Ajay?

* * *

J.C. slammed his hand against the table. Turning around, he shoved his fingers through his hair. This was getting ridiculous. They should have found Ajay. Now Stefan had escaped and they had no luck tracking him either.

They should have heard something by now, or at least have some idea where he was headed. Unfortunately, the GPS transmitter the Council had implanted in Stefan’s neck had been deactivated.

Mackenzie had probably removed it.

He hated the feeling of helplessness. There were too many areas in the Centre where Stefan could be hidden.

“What happened to you?”

J.C. furrowed his brow as he nearly collided with Cameron. He came to a stop in the middle of the hall. He shook his fingers through his hair, dislodging dust and cobwebs he’d picked up from wandering through the walls. He’d found no evidence of disturbance aside from where Amy and Drake had been, but that meant nothing. Stefan knew those walls as well as he did.

Shooting an unimpressed glance toward Cameron, he shrugged. “Took a tour not advertised in the Centre brochure,” he said sarcastically. “Where would Stefan hide?”

“The only person who would have an idea about his whereabouts is the doc and she’s not talking.”

Mackenzie had always been close to Stefan, but enough to break him out of jail? Enough to hide him and become an accomplice herself? “Do you really think she would break him out?”

Surely she hadn’t been that stupid. The Council would fry her. She’d have signed her own death to protect a killer.

“She doesn’t believe Stefan is guilty.”

“True,” he conceded, glancing through the glass enclosure of Medical. “Where is she?”

“The Council took her off duty. She should be in her room.”

He would have liked to think that there was a way around having to include her but there wasn’t. Not if she aided a killer. The woman didn’t know the full extent of what she’d done and he didn’t know how to get that through to her. “Anyone talk to her?”

“Ariadne and I went to see her earlier this evening. She claims she was asleep and didn’t know he was out. If you ask me, there’s something going on. She’s on something. Her eyes…you could see it. I’d never seen her so out of it.”

“We need video up. If Stefan’s still on the property, it’s the best chance at catching something.”

Cameron frowned. “Perhaps. Last I heard video feed was destroyed. The techs are trying to save some of footage but chances are slim. Either way, I think Mac is our best bet.”

And what would they do if they did find proof that she was guilty of letting Stefan out? This entire situation was one fucked up problem after another. He didn’t bother to knock as they stepped up to her quarters. Nodding to the guards, he opened the door.

The first thing he noticed was the cold. She’d jacked the AC on high. He frowned and slowly, as his eyes adjusted to the dark, searched around her living quarters. Following a trail of discarded clothing he found her in her bedroom wearing nothing but a tank top and shorts.

The woman who sat in the middle of her bed was unrecognizable. It was Mackenzie but at the same time, something shifted in those dark eyes as her pupils dilated. If she was on drugs, he would have known. She’d had a problem with illegal substances in the past, but Stefan had helped her through it. Had she relapsed?

“He’s not here.” Seemingly unsurprised to find them standing there, Mackenzie shoved off the bed and stumbled from the darkened room, turning away from the two of them. “Leave, J.C. I’ve already answered your questions.”

“You answered Cameron’s questions but not mine.”

“You’re not going to find anything here.” Her voice was low and hollow.

“How did you get him out?” He stepped around her to lean back against her desk, tapping his fingers along the cool surface. “You cut the feed and put the entire base at risk. It’s up now. We’re waiting for the video. Once we get it, what are we going to see? Do you really want to pretend that no one will notice you sneaking down to the cell block and freeing him?”

Her gaze leaped to his, and a small humorless smile curved her near white lips. “If you know what you’ll see, then why would I bother to tell you? That would be kind of redundant, now wouldn’t it?”

He frowned and shot a look toward Cameron. The other man shrugged, lifting his hands in the air.

“I’m giving you a chance here, Mac. Damn it, the Council knows you’re involved.” J.C. shoved away from the desk to grip her shoulders and give her a shake, as though that would knock some sense into her, and found her skin burning up. Her faith in Stefan was unwavering and in the end, would be the death of her if she refused to acknowledge her actions. “Why would you do this to yourself?”

“I did nothing to myself, but I don’t expect you to understand any of that. No one is going to stand up for him. Now that he’s being branded as the killer, everyone will hate him. It’s not like his father cares. Broderick locked Stefan down there and had him tortured. Stefan doesn’t know anything.” She smothered a sob and jerked her arms away. “Unlike everyone else, I won’t turn my back on him. If you’d let go of your grudge, you’d see that he’s innocent.”

“All evidence points at him, Mac. He was the children’s teacher. The knife was found in his room,” Cameron said suddenly from the door. “He was MIA during the murders. There are literally no records and trust me when I say I looked them up. He can’t be accounted for.”

“Doesn’t mean he’s the killer.” She glared.

J.C. grunted at that. “How do you explain the knife?”

She shook her head. “Evidence is easily planted. We know that all too well, don’t we?”

Something brushed through his head. Amy. Her warmth settled in his mind, a small comfort despite everything that was going on.

“Amy, are you picking anything up? Can you get Stefan’s location?”

“I’m trying but I can’t find a crack in his shield.”She sighed
.
“If I do it wrong, I risk total immersion. He would be in control”

“What about Mackenzie’s mind? Can you get the info from her?”

“I can get in but there’s something weird going on with her. I don’t have an explanation for it.” Amy paused. “She did break him out though. I read that much. But she’s telling you the truth right now. She doesn’t know where he is.”