Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
He already knew that he made Theo Marshall nervous.
She wasn’t sweating, but her body chemistry was nonetheless clear: she found him disturbing.
Yakov wanted to scowl. He didn’t enjoy going around scaring women. Then again, this could be Theo Marshall’s stock response to any predatory changeling. Many Psy had a tendency to believe that bears, wolves, leopards, and the like lived life on the brink of going feral.
No reason for him to take it personally.
Theo also carried a scent that wasn’t an element of her—it was of another person. Given how light it was, he might’ve assumed she’d picked it up during her journey except that it held a fine strand identical to her own.
Not similar. Identical.
Family, but a special kind of family.
Twins.
So now he had Pax Marshall’s scent, too. Excellent.
Other scents swirled around Theo—the fabric soap she’d used to wash her clothes, the polish on her shoes, the plas of her organizer, the food-based aromas that had followed her from the airport and were already fading.
The vast majority of those scents were such a normal part of life that his brain had long since learned to filter them out from the important data points. Else every bear would spend its life in a state of overwhelm.
But with Theo Marshall, he found himself worrying at each element, taking it carefully apart, then putting it back together. Trying to figure her out through his nose since she refused to talk to him.
His bear couldn’t understand it. It hadn’t scared her. It blamed that on the human half of Yakov’s nature. The bear’s suggestion was that Yakov stop the car, shift, and show her how handsome he was in bear form.
The human side of Yakov considered it: it was true. He was a very handsome bear. And Theo would probably be disarmed by the plushness of his fur. Much less threatening than his human skin.
He was still gnawing on the idea when his attention was caught by the news bulletin on the radio.
Enforcement has released the name of the homicide victim found on August 29 in the Izmaylovo District. Jelena Sekko, age 27, was a patternmaker at a bespoke tailoring business that specializes in menswear. She’d been in her position for the past five years and was in line for promotion to manager.
A clip played, of a woman saying: “She was the best of the best at her work. Punctual and detail oriented . . . and kind.” The last came out hesitant, a Psy who was still uncomfortable with emotion but who’d made the effort for her friend.
Then the bulletin carried on:
Enforcement continues to refuse to speak on the possibility of a serial killer, but the mood on the ground in the city is nervous. Hair salons are reporting an influx of young blond women coming in to get their hair colored to darker shades.
Yakov’s mouth tightened as the news bulletin moved on. Enforcement might not want to say it out loud, but Moscow had a serious problem. As did Theo, a slender, blue-eyed blonde . . . who Yakov saw bleeding out in front of him night after tormenting night.
Jaw clenched so hard that his muscles ached, he made a note to alert Theo to the danger stalking the city just as his eye caught the street sign up ahead. “Fifteen minutes to our destination.”
His instincts stirred, his bear snapping into full hunting mode. It was time to find out what Marshall Hyde had buried on the far outskirts of Moscow. Far enough from any real population centers to fly under the radar—but close enough to the airport to move cargo . . . and people, at will.
He’d intended to come to the facility prior to Theo’s arrival, do a reconnaissance, but had then decided to spend his limited time going over the data Silver had forwarded him. No point driving all the way out here when there was no way the staff would allow him to enter without Theo’s presence at his side.
His brother had also dug up local records for him, to supplement Silver’s information, but neither one of them had found any clue as to the facility’s true purpose. To all outward appearances, and according to the business permit granted when it was built, the place was a Center, same as any other.
Aware of Theo raising her head from her notes as he slowed down, he pulled up to the locked gates of the facility. His information said it sprawled over a large area, but he couldn’t see anything beyond the gate—the place was thick with foliage heavy and green. Ivy crawled over much of the gate itself, and enough trees thrived beyond that he couldn’t see even a glimpse of the main building.
Unexpected for a Psy facility. The psychic race tended to go for manicured lawns and hedges pruned to within an inch of their lives. As juveniles, Yakov, Pavel, Valentin, and their felonious friends had once snuck into the landscaped area of a fancy Psy hotel and pruned their pristine squared hedges into the shapes of bears.