I didn’t know, but a thrill of success tingled through me. I had a common thread. Fertility. I turned my attention back to the photos and papers in front of me. A few minutes later, I was shaking my head in disbelief. “Look what else I found,” I said. “Check out the fourth paragraph.”
He glanced at the paper, looked back at his own file, then glanced again at mine. “Guess what? Mine says the same thing, except the name isn’t mentioned. Just the description.”
“Please tell me you’re joking.”
“I wish I could,” he said gravely. “What do you want to bet the others say the same thing?”
I fought back a groan. “Let’s pray they don’t.” We knew there was a particular person connected to two of the cases, but if all of them were connected to—I sliced that thought to a halt, not wanting to borrow trouble. Still, I fought a sense of impending doom as I withdrew the two remaining folders from my briefcase, handed one to Jaxon, then opened the other myself. Only two minutes had passed before we were staring over the table at each other.
“Glad you didn’t take my bet?” Jaxon asked.
Damn it. Kyrin was mentioned in every file as a “tall Arcadian male.” Twice by name. Not only had he dated Rianne Harte, he’d had dinner or some type of contact with every fucking man the night before they were abducted. The very night.
This was not the kind of information an agent could ethically withhold from a commander. If we told Jack, however, twenty agents would immediately be assigned to hunt and kill Kyrin. They might even write off the missing men as casualties, not stopping to question Kyrin about their whereabouts, just killing him in their fury.
I couldn’t allow that. Because I didn’t doubt for a moment that Kyrin would act on the threat he’d made to me. If he discovered other agents were hunting him, he would vanish, and Dallas would die.
Unbidden, Kyrin’s image formed in my mind. White hair. Enigmatic lavender eyes. Taut sinew and rigidly muscled body. The way he moved with such grace and fluidity; his long strides of self-assurance. The way strength radiated from him.
“What do you want to do about Kyrin?” Jaxon asked.
“I don’t know. God, I don’t know.”
Jaxon rubbed his jaw with two fingers. “We could split the search. You take one half of the city, and I’ll take the other. Or…” He tapped his fingers against the tabletop. “Or we could bring Kyrin to us.”
Intrigued, I tilted my chin and studied him. “How so?”
“He loves his sister and wants to save her, right?”
“That’s right.”
A man strode by our table, followed by another. Jaxon waited until the two were out of range before continuing. “What if someone alerted the media about Lilla’s execution?”
“Execution? We aren’t killing her yet. We need—Oh. Ooohhh.” I smiled slowly. My heart kicked into overtime. “A false tip. I like that.”
“Everyone at headquarters will be shocked when protesters storm the doors.”
“Which will allow Kyrin entrance. And when the sea of reporters burst inside, every exit will be sealed, trapping everyone inside.”
Jaxon nodded. “Think we should tell Jack and the others what’s going on? They’ll be able to give us more cover, and we’ll have a better chance of capturing our guy.”
“No.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I’m not taking a chance on a trigger-happy agent who doesn’t care if Kyrin lives or dies.”
“Okay. I’ll make the call at eleven tomorrow night and say Lilla’s being executed at midnight. That’ll give the press one hour to spread the word, yet won’t give Jack enough time to deny it.”
“Perfect. If he somehow finds out what we’ve done, though, I’m taking full responsibility.”
“I don’t need you to cover for me. I’ll take the consequences.”
“Sorry. No.” I gave him my grittiest won’t-take-no-for-an-answer glare, which he of course ignored. The male ego was not going to make me change my mind. “I won’t let you go down. I asked you to help me, not the other way around.”
“Too bad.” The lines around his mouth firmed. “Dallas is my friend too. Now, do you want my help or not?”
I paused. “Fine. If we’re caught, I’ll tattle on you like a whiny girl. How’s that?”
“That’s good.” He grinned. “Real good.”
“Go home, get some rest,” I told him. “You’ll need it. I’ll meet you here for dinner at seven.”
Maybe I should have taken my own advice and gone home to rest. I didn’t want to sleep, though, didn’t want to dream. I ended up making the twenty-minute drive to Kilmer, Peterman, and Nate Pharmaceuticals.
I spent two hours inside, questioning employee after employee—but it was wasted time. Mostly they confirmed what I already knew. That several of the abducted men had voluntarily submitted sperm samples for payment. That Rianne had worked here.
The only new piece of information I received was that each male donor had had a very healthy sperm count.
I was feeling frustrated—until I stepped outside. A wave of familiar energy hit me square in the chest. I froze. Heart hammering against my rib cage, I darted my gaze in every direction, searching for Kyrin. And then I found him. He stood off to the side, his back to me. He was facing a young, dark-haired couple.
Damn, I loved this new energy-sensing gift of mine.
I slowly reached for my new pyre-gun and moved toward the group. I held the weapon at my side, not wanting the couple to see it and give Kyrin warning.
“Do not come here again,” I heard Kyrin tell the couple. “Do not let your names be entered into their database. People in that database are dying.”
“You’re crazy, ET,” the guy said. “Something like that would be all over the news. Now, for the last time, get out of my way.” He dragged the pale-faced female along as he pushed past Kyrin and strode into the building.
I waited until they passed me before taking aim, yet Kyrin’s words echoed in my mind, giving me pause. Do not come here again. Do not come here again. He’d risked implicating himself by coming here. He’d tried to warn potential victims away. Neither was something a bad guy would do.
That knowledge almost kept me from squeezing the trigger. Almost.
I had lucked out by finding him so quickly and unexpectedly, and I wouldn’t spit in the face of that luck. I was going to stun him, take what blood I needed, then lock him up and question him.
Zeroed in on him, I squeezed the trigger.
Nothing happened. My mouth dropped open, and I squeezed again. And again. And again. Still nothing. Frustrated and growing more furious by the second, I glanced at the weapon. The crystal had somehow been knocked out of range. Shit. Shit! Had I tested the damn thing before I signed it out of A.I.R.? No, goddamn it, I realized. I hadn’t.
Kyrin’s shoulders stiffened. He spun around, giving me a glimpse of tense features and haunting shadows under his eyes. “Mia.”
I didn’t panic. I kept my weapon steady. He didn’t know my new gun wasn’t working properly. I’d use it to keep him docile, then find some other way to knock him out. “I’ve been looking for you,” I said, holding my ground. “We’ve got unfinished business.”
He opened his mouth to reply, but a blue beam of pyre-fire suddenly lit a path just behind him—and it wasn’t mine—silencing his words. Someone screamed. Footsteps pounded. I caught a glimpse of a lithe, white-haired female as Kyrin shouted, “Get down!” and jolted forward, slamming into me and knocking me down.
The moment we hit, I lost my breath, and sharp rocks dug into my back. Kyrin rolled off me and crouched to his knees. I followed suit, and we scrambled to a car, using it as a shield as another beam flew at us.
Kyrin peeked over the hood. “Where is she?”
I set my gun to kill and prayed that setting would work. He ducked as another beam shot past him, hitting the ground just beyond his feet. Dirt and gravel spewed in every direction.
“Want to tell me why that woman’s trying to kill you?” I said, rising slightly and firing. Click. Click. “Damn it,” I cursed as I sank down. The gun wouldn’t work on kill either.
“Perhaps she doesn’t like that I wish to atone for past sins.”
I slid my old kill-only gun from my ankle holster, popped up, and fired. I hit a dark blue vehicle and shattered the front window. “Yeah, what kind of past sins?”
“The bad kind.”
“Your sarcasm sucks.” I flicked him a glance, but he kept his profile to me. “Don’t worry. I won’t let her hurt you. If anyone gets your blood, it’s me.”
“I suddenly feel warm and giddy inside.” His tone was as dry as the air. “Are you trying to make me fall in love with you?”
I snorted.
He removed a pyre-gun from the waist of his pants. My old gun, I noticed.
“How appropriate,” I said.
He grinned, kissed the barrel with a mocking wink, lifted it, and fired over the car. “Who would have thought Mia Snow would be working with me instead of against me?” A fourth shot whizzed past him, this one nearly singeing his shoulder.
Just then, I felt something…swirl inside me. Tingling inside my veins, pulsing through my entire body. I don’t know what it was, or what caused it. I blinked in confusion. As I watched with wide eyes, the world around me began to slow down.
A fly entered my line of vision, its wings moving so leisurely I could see every flutter, see even the ripple of air. I had to be hallucinating, but…Frowning, I reached out and plucked the insect from the air. No, no hallucination. I could feel him. What the hell was happening to me?
Three more shots soared over our car, and as I released the fly, I watched the fire meander toward Kyrin, watched him leap out of the way, moving inch by inch. I watched that fire slam into the ground behind us. I could have danced around those rays, they moved so slowly.
“Fire, Mia,” he shouted, the sound deep, almost distorted, and as slow as his motions.
I popped up, my every action fast. Too fast. My gaze blazed over the parking lot. The shooter was in mid-duck, her white hair floating above her head, her delicate features fixed in place. She moved like Kyrin, by gradual degrees. I took in her lavender eyes, which were radiating intense fury, her dainty nose, and her startling familiar high cheekbones. I’d seen her before. I knew I had, I just didn’t know where.
And then, just as suddenly as the odd swirl had hit me, it abandoned me. The tingling abandoned my veins, the pulsing left my body. Everything leaped into high gear, and for a split second, my gaze locked with the female Arcadian’s and surprise darkened her face before she disappeared behind the car.
Gasping, I hunched down and eyed Kyrin. “Holy shit.”
He was watching me with a strange, unreadable expression. I shook my head, suddenly tired, hoping an explanation for what just happened would slide into place. Nope, didn’t work. Then another blast soared past us, claiming my attention. “Do you know that woman?”
“Atlanna en Arr.”
Atlanna. The hairs on the back of my neck rose, and I grinned, pushing the weird slowdown thing out of my mind. I loved when suspects made my job easy.
I couldn’t wait to get my hands on that woman.
She could have waited until Kyrin left this area and tried to kill him in private, where there was less chance of capture. But no, she did it here, an action that screamed “Look at me, look what I can do.” That type of behavior fit the profile of Steele’s killer. Perfectly.
I was going to have to trust Kyrin right now if I hoped to get close to Atlanna, and while that knowledge didn’t settle well inside me, I knew I had no other choice. “She was behind the green Lexis, six cars away, straight down the middle, but she’s probably running now. You go left. I’ll go right. Let’s find the bitch.”
I didn’t wait for his reply, didn’t wait to see if he followed orders. I jolted into motion. Gravel cut past my pants and into my knees, and I wished to God I could rise up and walk, but I had to stay low. Atlanna might have come to kill Kyrin, but I’m sure she wouldn’t have minded getting rid of me, too.
“Damn it!” I heard Kyrin curse. “I found her.”
I jumped up and rounded a van as quickly as my feet would carry me, gun aimed straight in front of me. The female was running, and Kyrin was reaching out. He latched onto the long strands of her hair, but they pulled free without slowing her.
Then she disappeared completely.
I stopped and blinked, staring at the empty air where she’d been. She’d gotten away. She’d fucking gotten away. “How the hell did she disappear like that?”
He released the strands of white hair, and they floated away on the breeze. His hands dropped to his sides. “She’s been practicing her molecular transportation, is my guess.”
“That’s not poss—” I cut my words off. More and more I was learning that I didn’t really know shit about these aliens. I searched the parking lot for any sign of her and scowled. She really had transported herself away. I cursed under my breath.
“It’s painful,” Kyrin said, “and Atlanna hates pain, so I’m surprised she did it.”
“Do you know where she went?”
“Do you think I would be here if I did?”
Damn it! “Well, I’m not going home a failure.” I returned my gaze to Kyrin. I’d missed a perfect opportunity to catch Atlanna, but I wouldn’t miss this opportunity to catch him. “Just stay where you are, and I won’t have to hurt you.” I aimed my gun at his heart, very aware the weapon did not possess stun capacity. Easy on the trigger, I mentally chanted.