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)
Good thing Yakov had the dominance to balance out hers—and that he was about as charming a bear as could be.
Grinning his best bearish grin, he said, “I have boots,” and pointed out the thick and tall grass up ahead. “I can stomp a path through for you.”
Theo’s lips tightened, and he had the thought that she knew far more about bears than he realized. She might even bust him for being protective. But she gave a curt nod, and they continued on—with his bear keeping a wary eye on a woman who had far more layers to her than he’d initially realized.
Problem was that Yakov liked complicated.
“There it is.” Theo pointed to a patch of grayish white just visible through the trees.
“Here.” He made his way through another patch of grass. “Looks like the path’s pretty clear on this side.” Just moss and mildew—and the carcass of a dead bird.
Yakov was a predatory changeling, the hunt in his blood. But he didn’t like to see an animal injured when it wasn’t about food. So he paused, broke off the plate-sized leaf of a nearby plant, and gently scooped the bird’s featherweight body onto it before laying it carefully at the foot of a tree, where it would decompose without being stepped on, its tiny bones crushed.
Theo had paused beside him, watching in silence.
When he rose to his feet after completing his task, she was looking at him in a way that he didn’t understand. Her next words held a haunted echo. “We saved a bird once. Pax and I.” It was a murmur. “We made its heart start beating again.” A quick shake of her head, a blink.
“Theo?”
“No, it’s nothing.” Her tone was back to normal. “We should hurry so we don’t waste the available daylight.”
Deciding that little mystery could wait for the moment, Yakov continued on toward the building. It looked to have been a small residence. Neat and tidy from what he could see through the windows, with no sign of disturbance.
Then Theo put her hand on the front door lock, snicked it to the unlocked position . . . and opened the door.
Chapter 16
Claire, we need to discuss Theodora now that the twins’ seventh birthday is on the horizon. In my office. 8 pm. No need for Miles to be present. This is a family matter.
—Telepathic message from Marshall Hyde to Claire Marshall (1 September 2062)
IT WAS IMMEDIATELY obvious that the place was too clean.
“Someone lived here relatively recently.” Theo wiped her finger along a tabletop, came away with a fine coating of dust. “This should be thicker if it was shut up after my grandfather’s death.”
“I’m not picking up any scents other than the normal odors of a house that’s been closed up for a while.” He opened the cupboards in the small kitchen. “No sign of food.”
“The cooler is turned off.” Theo opened the door to look into its interior. “Yakov.”
“Smells like milk that’s gone off.” Face screwed up against the unpleasant but familiar odor, he joined her by the open door of the cooler. And saw what his nose had already sniffed—a small single-serve carton of milk forgotten in the corner. Fresh milk, not the kind treated so that it was shelf stable for long periods.
Picking it up, he checked the best-before date. “Expired two months ago.”
Theo shut the cooler door. “Whoever it was is long gone.”
“If you’re serious about discovering their identity,” he said, “we can get a forensic team in here, find fingerprints. We have people in the clan who specialize in that.”
“No, that would involve too many individuals.” Theo shoved her hands into the pockets of his jacket, and his bearish heart beamed at seeing her making use of the warmth. “For now, this is a minor matter. It could’ve been one of the staff—but if it was, their records are unlikely to show up in any search.”
“Because you can’t run a shadow operation without shadow people,” Yakov said, putting the spoiled milk back where it had been since he had no way to dispose of it and, once closed, the cooler kept the smell contained. “Time to check out the main building.”
Theo said nothing as they stepped outside, but he could feel the tension that was taut lines of wire throughout her body.
Judging that her balance was steady, he asked what he hadn’t earlier. “You get a flashback during your panic attack?”
A single lock of hair that had somehow come loose from the punishing tightness of her bun settled to curl softly by her ear. But her voice when she answered held the same unyielding focus he’d glimpsed in her expression. “Jumbled and broken, but yes.”
Stopping when they came within sight of the main building, she stared, her pupils once more inkblots against the searing blue of her irises. “My visual proportions are off in the flashes.”