A Shock to Your System (Dangerous Creatures #2) (22 page)

The only thing that really made her stay
unbearable was the fact that her bed was so damned uncomfortable.
It was just a metal cot that was bolted to the floor with a
mattress on it, and using the word mattress was being incredibly
generous. Every time she did manage to fall asleep, it was only for
a few short hours at a time, thanks to the fact that she could feel
the cold metal of the cot just beneath the mattress. The fact that
the lights never turned off was a huge problem too.

Other than that, it wasn't like she was
suffering from boredom. Not really. They gave her old magazines to
read and a couple of romance novels that came from the discard bin
at the library. She knew this because of the big DISCARD stamp that
was on the side, and the library card was still inside of most of
them.

She chose to leave the television turned off
behind the protective shatter-proof glass on the wall. The only
thing that aired were the programs made and approved by Head
Office. Usually educational videos that were anywhere from ten to
twenty minutes in length, that repeated themselves over and over
again. They all had terrible acting from the latest D-list actors
who were big on the current soap operas. Every story was about some
curious paranormal who wandered through life, attempting to control
their basic instincts or powers, depending on what they were.

Jessica had worked for these people long
enough that she had all of the stories memorized without having to
torture herself by watching them again.

They all ended the same way anyway. The
paranormal was either killed because they couldn't control
themselves, or they did the responsible thing and called themselves
in, allowing the friendly collectors to deliver them to the smiling
handlers.

The voice-over promised that respect and
dignity were always maintained in these happy environments, and
that the reward of doing the right thing and ensuring the safety of
everyone was always the best thing for everyone.

For as long as Jessica had worked here, the
only people to ever turn themselves in were the werewolves, or
vampires who were so starved they were on the verge of turning
feral.

Even those cases were few
and far between, and once those poor souls realized that
dignity
and
respect
weren't
maintained, it was already too late for them.

Jessica had known that her time would
eventually come. She couldn't remain on the run forever, and
eventually, one day, she would be found out, caught, and brought
in.

And it was all because she had to defend her
ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend. Jessica really could be such a
sap sometimes.

But she was already planning her escape, and
there was a small chance that it might even work, especially after
she'd found out that Soren was assigned to her. He'd had a crush on
her for as long as he'd worked in the company. He thought she
didn't know about it, and for a while, she hadn't, until that one
time when she'd needed to hack his computer.

The door to her cell opened. It was made up
of metal, the kind that was resistant to the cold, even though she
was now wearing the spelled shackles.

She smiled at the sight of Soren, who walked
in next to a couple of handlers.

Jessica knew this drill. She got to her
feet, allowing the handlers to put their hands all over her body,
checking for places where she could have hidden anything that might
be useful as a weapon. One of them took his good, sweet time
checking her breasts, squeezing them as if he thought she could
hide a weapon inside of them.

Jessica just stared at Soren. She even
smiled a little at him. This was driving him crazy, and she knew
it.

"That's enough," Soren said, and the handler
yanked his hand away.

Soren had the sort of cute, forever young,
boy-next-door type of face, but now he was glaring. There was
nothing cute about him then.

"She's got nothing your hands can find. Get
the scanner if you want a more thorough search."

Which was exactly what happened next.

The handlers waved the metal wands over her
body until they were absolutely sure she didn't have anything on
her that could be used against the good doctor.

If only they knew.

"All right, that's fine. Now get out," Soren
said, sneering at the two men, though it didn't suit his face.
Still, both of the handlers had to obey him. He was their
superior.

The handler that had been a little too
touchy-feely with Jessica grinned and winked at her on his way out
the door. He even made a little kissing motion with his mouth.

Jessica was going to have trouble with that
one. Not exactly what she wanted.

When they were gone, and the door was shut
and locked firmly behind them, Soren took a pen out of his side
pocket, and he clicked it three times before returning it.

A scrambler. "You really think we're being
spied on?" Jessica asked.

"Not us, not really, but a beautiful woman,
all alone in her cell. I don't want to make you uncomfortable, but
some of the guys have been making comments about putting a camera
on you and watching you, and not for the safety of the
building.

"So I've got a whole building of perverts to
deal with. That's beautiful."

Soren winced, and he shook his head. "Not
everyone is that way, but Jesus, because you were a Hunter, there
are a lot of angry people who want to get back at you. They think
you humiliated them by hiding in plain sight. Some of them want to
stick you into the cages with the other paranormals you helped to
bring in, and I doubt that would be pleasant for you either. You're
lucky your brother wasn't caught, too."

"He won't be caught," Jessica said quickly.
She hoped he wouldn't try coming for her.

She stared good and hard at Soren,
pretending like she didn't understand the purpose for his visit.
"Why are you in here? Aren't you going to stick me with
something?"

That time when she'd bypassed the password
on his computer, she hadn't even been targeting him. Any laptop in
the building would've worked just fine so long as the owner had a
class five clearance, which all of the observers did.

She'd had a conversation
with Ethan over the phone, in the building, and they'd both been
stupid and careless with their words. There was still a chance that
the people in charge wouldn't have put together the
colder than ice
comment
that Ethan had made to her as they spoke about potential dating
prospects for each other. In the end, however, once the panic had
worn off and they got onto private and secure channels, they'd both
decided that it would be for the best if Jessica got onto the
nearest computer with access, and deleted the file that said there
had ever been a call.

She'd found a picture of herself on Soren's
screensaver the second the machine had booted up.

It had shocked her. Shocked her so much that
she'd wasted precious seconds staring at herself on his screen
instead of deleting the metadata on the company's server.

It was a normal photo, and once she had a
few seconds to spare, she would search for more.

That had been the only photo of her on the
computer, but she still knew the significance of being the
background image for the main screen. No one ever really did that
unless it was for someone or something important. Pretty pictures,
favorite movie stars, current crushes. Those were the main things
that got put there.

In her search for more pictures, however,
there were a couple of other things she'd found that were much more
interesting than that, and for the moment, she'd put the image of
herself, smiling for the camera, out of her mind.

"Aren't you going to answer my question?"
Jessica asked.

Soren ran his hands through his light hair,
ruining the ponytail it had been in. "Jessica, you're in a lot of
trouble. I'll protect you for as long as I can, I'll make sure you
stay comfortable. I even brought you those magazines from the lobby
upstairs, and those books from the library, but there's only so
much I can do for you."

"Bullshit, there's a lot you can do for me,"
she responded, and then got to her feet. She smiled at the man,
kind of enjoying the slight panic in his eyes as he stepped away
from her. She was in chains, but she was able to walk freely around
her cell. The chains weren't bolted to the wall or anything.

"Jessica, I don't think you should come any
closer," Soren said.

Jessica really looked at the man. He was
handsome enough, around her age, and though he was taller, and had
the sort of shoulders that weren't too broad or too slim, he was
something of a mouse. Timid. She could do this, and she was going
to do it.

"If you're really so worried about what I'm
going to do, then call the handlers back in here. They'll deal with
me."

Soren shook his head. His blue eyes were a
little wide at her words. He looked even cuter when he was in the
middle of panicking like this. "I don't want to call them in.
They'll hurt you."

"And you're really worried about that,
aren't you?" Jessica asked, and she let her fingertips touch
Soren's white coat, grazing over it. She added just enough pressure
so that he could feel the touch, but barely. His shiver told her
that her teasing was working.

"What are you doing?" Soren asked. His voice
was so damned small, he sounded almost scared of her, but she knew
better. He wasn't scared. Just incredibly confused, and very likely
aroused.

Jessica leaned in to him. He was only a
little taller, so she didn't have to be on her toes.

Soren's eyes became half-lidded. He inhaled
a deep, shaky breath when her mouth touched his, just the barest,
faintest brush of lips. The pressure was the same as when she'd
touched his chest, and she pulled away before he barely had a
chance to feel that he'd been kissed at all.

Then she put her mouth to his ear, and
whispered softly, but with enough venom to make him tense. "I know
what you are. If you don't get me out of here, I'll make sure
you're put into a cell next to me."

The End

Authors Note:

I hope you enjoyed Jamie and Ethan’s story
as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did, I would love it if you
could take a moment of your time to leave a rating and review. That
would make you one amazingly awesome reader!

To know when Jessica’s
story will be available,
and to get a free
ebook
, please join my
mailing
list
, and for a full list of all
available books, visit my website,
Mandyrosko.com
.

Again, thank you for reading. I’ll see you
in Book 3, As Cold As Ice. You rock ;)

~Mandy

Please enjoy the first unedited chapter
from:

As Cold As Ice

Coming soon!

They stopped putting other people into her
cell when they realized something.

Either the people they put in with her were
going to hurt her, or she was going to hurt them. A lot.

After the third inmate froze to death, they
cut it out and left her alone.

Jessica Frost didn't exactly want to be
alone. Solitary confinement was its own form of torture, she knew
that, but none of the other prisoners would stop harassing her.

She told them. She warned them, even. No
bracelets has been put on her wrists or ankles. The handlers
weren't limiting her power like that, but it didn't matter, none of
the other inmates believed her.

Or they'd just wanted to die.

Jessica knew how this worked. She knew why
her power was being suppressed. It wasn't like it was difficult to
figure out.

The handlers who kept her alive, sometimes
fed, and barely clothed, were able to come and go without much of a
problem thanks to the air vents that would seep in sleeping gas,
knocking her right out whenever they wanted to come in and let the
scientists do their tests.

Only then were the irons ever slapped on
her.

She’d tried to block off the vents with ice,
fairly sure that the room she was in wasn’t air tight otherwise, so
there was no harm in trying it. That just got her door immediately
busted in, and at least a half a dozen hunters jumped on her,
slapping the shackles on her wrists before she could do more than
give the first one frostbite.

Despite limiting her, they were still
testing her. She knew that much. They were testing the limits to
her powers. They wanted to know how far she would take it if
another inmate attacked her, tried to slash at her face with dirty
fingernails, or bite her, or choke her.

The first person Jessica had defended
herself against left with ice all around his hands. The man had
been wearing spelled shackles to keep his power under control,
unlike her, and he couldn't attack her with whatever his gift
was.

Hell, the second he'd seen her, his eyes had
gone into such a manic rage that there wasn't time to warn him that
she could hurt him a lot worse than he could hurt her if he tried
anything.

So, she'd dodged the first punch, and then
the second, but when the third landed, knocking her to the ground,
and he tried to climb on top of her to give her more, her fingers
locked around his wrists, and she let the cold come.

He'd screamed and screamed. Too much ice
could feel hotter than fire. Someone had told her that once, and
she believed it. Her brother Ethan certainly never liked it when
she did more than act as an air conditioner during an overly hot
summer.

She wondered how he was doing right now. He
was a hunter, too, just like she used to be. Had he been caught and
no one told her? Was he being locked up with other paranormals?
Left alone to be attacked, just so that the people watching him
could see if he had some hidden power or not?