Samantha was so caught up in the scene, she barely realized Louis had stopped torturing Trey and come over to stand in front of her cage. She’d missed most of what he said until one word snapped her attention back to him.
“What did you just say?” she asked.
She was sure she’d heard wrong. Because there was no way even a psychopath like Louis would use that word in a serious conversation.
Louis’s mouth twitched in amusement. “I said that it turns out your boyfriend is a werewolf. I must admit that when Nadia told me her suspicious, I wasn’t sure I believed her. But the blood work confirms it. The man you’ve been going out with is definitely a werewolf.”
Samantha stared, speechless. A person could only have so many bombs dropped on them before becoming numb to the sensation.
“You…you’re…crazy,” she finally forced out, unable to come up with anything more rational.
Louis’s expression twisted into something that almost seemed like disappointment. “Please, Samantha. Are you really going to tell me this is a total surprise to you? I know you’ve been collecting evidence on the SWAT team for some time now. You’ve tried to do a good job covering up your interest, but it didn’t escape my notice how you jumped up to take any call involving them. After spending so much time investigating them, I know you had to have picked up on all the strange things that happen around them. The torn-up bodies at the crime scenes, the silly coyote explanation that gets used over and over to cover it up, the way they go up against unbelievable odds and come out on top time after time. And the injuries they survive? That by itself screams supernatural. Are you going to seriously tell me that you haven’t done your own DNA profile yet? Hell, for a time, I thought the only reason you were dating Officer Duncan was to get more conclusive evidence against them.”
That last part hit a little too close to home, making her wince. “But…a werewolf?” she murmured, looking over at Trey still lying unmoving on the stainless-steel table. “That can’t be true.”
Louis merely smiled as he handed her a piece of paper. She recognized it immediately as a DNA profile sheet. It seemed his basement lab was very well stocked when it came to high-tech equipment.
“There’s some kind of wolf DNA mixed in with your boyfriend’s otherwise normal genetic material,” Louis said calmly. “I can’t tell you exactly what kind of wolf, not with the equipment I have here, but ultimately, it doesn’t matter. Claws, fangs, extreme strength, and speed on top of rapid healing? It spells werewolf, whether you believe it or not.”
Yes, it was insane. Samantha knew that. But so was bringing a dead person back to life, and Kyson was walking, talking proof of that. Maybe it was time to stop dismissing what was right in front of her face. With that thought in mind, she turned and moved to the back of her cage, dropping down to her thin uncomfortable mattress. Louis was saying something else, but she found it much easier to tune him out this time.
Samantha was still lost in thought when the door of her cage suddenly opened. She lifted her head to see Nadia and Rogi drag Trey’s unconscious form in. It was all Samantha could do to get in the way so Trey wouldn’t crash straight to the ground when the pair shoved him at her. Even then, her legs buckled under his weight, and they both ended up on the floor in a tangle of arms and legs.
She was attempting to get out from under Trey’s heavy body without hurting him when a pair of big hands grabbed her. Samantha struggled against them, but Rogi was so much stronger than she was that it was useless. Before she could even think about stopping him, the jerk wrapped something hard and rough around her neck, metal clicking on metal as he tightened it. She struggled, kicking and punching at him, and when he took his hands off her, she thought maybe she’d won. Until she realized there was still something around her neck.
Her hands immediately started scrambling, desperately trying to figure out what Rogi had put on her and, more importantly, how to get it off.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Rogi said sharply.
Samantha looked up in time to see him and Nadia stepping out the door of her cage, closing it behind them. She was all set to ignore his dumbass advice until she saw the small black box in his big hand. But it was the evil expression on his ugly face that had her hands freezing on the edges of the stiff leather wrapped around her throat.
“Doc originally designed that shock collar to control his pet before he realized that threatening the girlfriend was way more effective at making the creature behave,” Rogi said, motioning with his chin toward Kyson. “But unfortunately for you, the collar is still powered to take down a three-hundred-pound monster. It would probably kill a woman your size and all it would take is one push of this button. So keep your hands off the collar or I’ll have to test it out just to see if I’m right.”
Rogi walked away with a smile, tossing the remote box casually into the air, catching it with first one hand and then the other, seemingly thrilled at the prospect of getting to electrocute her to death.
“Don’t worry about the collar,” Nadia said as she leaned against the metal grating of the cage and regarded Samantha coolly. “It’s not really for you. It’s meant to keep your boyfriend under control until Louis gets around to figuring out exactly how he’s going to use his werewolf blood and healing abilities to resolve this little transplant rejection issue he’d been dealing with. Can’t have Officer Duncan going all werewolf on us the second he wakes up. I have no doubt that seeing you wearing a shock collar will keep him nice and tame.”
Samantha began to panic at the thought of what Louis might do to Trey. She’d already accepted her former boss was a flat-out psychopath. His willingness to keep his dead son in a tank of red goo was a clear indication of that. She doubted there was anything he wouldn’t do to Trey if he thought it would get his mad experiment to the next stage.
“Oh, don’t look so glum,” Nadia gloated with a laugh. “You should be grateful there are only two cages down here. At least that way you’ll get a chance to have some quality private time with your boyfriend before Louis gives him back to me.”
Samantha’s blood ran cold. “What do you mean by that?” she asked, instinctively moving to put herself between Trey and the woman standing outside her cage. “What do you want with him?”
Nadia smiled so wide she looked like the Cheshire Cat. As Samantha watched, she leaned in closer, her eyes slowly changing, becoming larger and darker, causing tingles of fear to run up and down her spine.
“When Louis is done playing Dr. Frankenstein with your werewolf boyfriend, I’m going to suck every bit of life out of him until he’s nothing but a dried-up, old husk.”
As she spoke, Nadia’s eyes turned completely black and her skin started to take on a pale, waxy color. But instead of being afraid, Samantha was on her feet, moving forward until both hands were pressed on the metal grating of her cage door.