"What were his theories, Az?" Tristan turned the conversation back on track.
"He thought that taken with the right amounts of vitamins and herbs it could do more than to disguise scent. The day before it all ended, he came to me and asked me to run experiments on it. I never got started and for obvious reasons when the shit hit the fan--oh, sorry Faith." Az's cheeks turned red as he realized he'd cursed. She waved a hand of dismissal.
"Go on."
Az shrugged. "I guess it's just obvious why I neglected to do any assignments he gave me after that.
"Did he think it could make you invisible?" A vision of the bullet that almost killed her but she couldn't see filled her mind. Thank god Theo had been there. Her eyes filled with tears she blinked away. No time to cry. She would get Theo back. They wouldn't lose like this, not to Kendrick, not ever.
Azriel sat up straighter in his seat. "He did."
Faith turned to Tristan. "I believe there are wolves all over this island. The ones Kendrick and Claudius made. The bad kind. We can't see them or smell them because of this stuff. Maybe Ashlee can make a spell to counteract it. Be careful if you leave the compound, they're going to take pot shots at anyone who goes into the woods." Faith paused and chewed on the thumbnail of her left hand. "Do you think Cullen has a name for us yet?"
Tristan nodded as he took his sunglasses off his wolf eyes. It would be obvious to anyone he was furious. "I would count on it."
Chapter Thirteen
Theo banged hard on the oak front door of the palace in Tucson, Arizona where his father had relocated.
"So stealth is entirely out of the question, then?"
Gabriel's voice startled Theo and he spun around. Leaning against one of the ostentatious Greco-Roman pillars that adorned the outside of the clearly-out-of-place-for-the-Southwest colonial house was his older brother.
What was Gabriel doing here?
"Did you think Tristan wouldn't know you were leaving? And did you honestly think he'd let you go alone? It was all I could do to convince him not to send the whole pack after you."
"I'm not going to be responsible for what happens to you." Theo whirled around and pounded on the door again. "Faith is in there thinking she's a demon. She's my first priority."
Gabriel cleared his throat and walked forward in the easy manner that Theo always associated with the second oldest Kane son. It was deceptive. Out of all of them, Gabriel was lethal, a trained killer, the most like their father's former second Cullen than anyone else in the pack. Except that Cullen was methodical and Gabriel just seemed to instinctually know how to get the job done.
"Tell me something, little brother." Gabriel pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and Theo stared dumbly at it. When had he started smoking? It wasn't like Gabriel could die from the habit; not until he was mated anyway, but still he couldn't remember the last time he watched a shifter smoke. Gabriel lit the cigarette and took a drag. "What happens to all of you when you mate? Tristan was ready to drop it all and follow Ashlee back to New Jersey. Cullen suddenly went soft. Derek runs around with his tail between his legs and Stefan is always humming to himself. What happens during mating that makes you all so insane? Explain it to me because I'm afraid I cannot begin to understand what would make an otherwise normal shifter bang on the door of our lethally inclined patriarch's door in the middle of the day thereby depriving us from any chance of a surprise attack, a fact I'm sure he would have been aware of only days ago before he found his mate."
Theo snorted. Leave it to Gabriel to make him laugh. "You know we don't discuss the specifics of the mating ritual."
I think he's in pain.
His canine self was right. At what point had his wolf become a psychiatrist? Now he was going to have to deal with that possibility. He shook his head. Not now. At the moment, there were more pressing things to do.
Stomping out the cigarette, Gabriel moved forward to stand next to him at the door. His older brother reached out and turned the handle and the door creaked open. "Since you've announced our arrival, I figure this saves us some time, don't you agree?"
Nodding, Theo strode through the door first, ready to kill any wolf or human who got in his way.
"It's amazing that Dad has spent so much time setting up locations in such hot venues. We were raised in what practically amounts to the arctic north. It's like he got old and needed hot air for his achy bones."
"Most of the time I appreciate your joviality Gabriel, but right now I'm a little focused."
If she's totally shifted to a demon, how will I recognize her?
It was Theo's biggest fear. What if it was necessary to kill a demon to get the book and the demon he killed was Faith?
In the unlikely event that situation actually occurs, I will be more than happy to kill myself tonight to follow her. It's time we got our mate back.
Leave it to his wolf to put it that succinctly. Whatever happened, he would get Faith back. He hoped. Would she still want to follow him even as a demon? Theo ran a hand through his hair.
He knew more than anyone how cruel fate could be and he didn't believe for a second that just because they had been brought together meant they would always be together.
"Whatever you're thinking about put it away. I don't like how quiet it is here. My wolf is going crazy. I can't smell a damn thing."
Neither could Theo and that bothered him too. Moving forward, Theo had the strangest sense of deja vu. He'd spent very little time in his father's Institute in Mexico but this house was designed in a very similar fashion. Fluorescent lights illuminated the hallways. Strange pictures depicting decapitated cats and dogs lined the walls. The floor was wooden and shone as if it had recently been refinished. All in all, it was a combination of Kendrick's Institute and a mad house found most likely inside of a gothic novel.
"So if we don't know where we're going, are we just going to wonder through the house until someone either jumps us or we miraculously find the gold-covered spell book?"
"I guess that's the general idea."
A loud clank reverberated in the hallway and Theo turned around to see a door, which had not been there earlier, lower with a thud to the floor. Any escape they would have made was now blocked off. Theo raised an eyebrow. That answered three questions for him. First, it meant that his father and minions were fully aware of their presence in the house. Second, there was no turning back--literally. Finally, it answered the question that not everything about his father had changed over the years.
When they'd been children, he'd pushed them all into adulthood differently. They never discussed what happened. It was too humiliating. At twelve years old, Theo had been brought to a carnival and left to wander for hours in the 'funhouse.' Only it wasn't so much fun and he'd been terrified. To this day, if he thought about it, he could still remember the feeling of hands coming out of the walls to grab and assault him. Much later on, he discovered his father had specially commissioned the 'coming of age' experience.
Was the son-of-a-bitch thinking he could do it again? Boy did he have news for him. In no way was he still the same scared little boy. Fully grown and mated, he would take whatever the man dished out and give it back tenfold.
Let's go kill him.
Theo nodded. He loved the idea and for once he and his wolf were in complete agreement.
"What is this?" In front of them, another wall fell as mirrors opened up on the walls. Yes, he had read his father's intentions correctly.