New Species 11 True (23 page)

“I’m going to be better than a seat belt,” he swore. “Move
it, Jericho. Pedal to the metal!”

The Jeep lurched forward as the primate punched the gas and
they shot forward. True stared down at Jeanie as she held his gaze.

“I’m so sorry,” he rasped. “I shouldn’t have left you.” The
misery in her expressive eyes couldn’t be denied. “Faster,” he demanded, not
looking away from her.

It seemed to take forever before they reached the building.
There was a flurry of activity and the older Dr. Harris and Midnight were
already outside with a gurney. True ignored it as he climbed out of the Jeep
with his precious cargo. “Which room?”

“Three,” Midnight urged, her voice deeper than normal,
showing her stress. “We have the recovered syringe and the dart. We have
someone trying to identify what drugs they were given.”

He didn’t give a damn. He just wanted Jeanie to be all
right. He rushed down the corridor and laid her on the bed in exam room three.
Dr. Harris and Paul closely followed.

“Leave, True. We are going to do everything for her. It will
probably take hours for the drug to wear off.” Dr. Harris whipped out a tiny
flashlight and bent over Jeanie, studying her eyes.

“Fuck you.” He wasn’t going anywhere.

Dr. Harris muttered a soft curse as he gripped Jeanie’s
wrist, taking her pulse. “Steady but sluggish,” he announced after long
seconds. “I’m going to hook her up to a monitor. Her pupils are sluggish too. I’m
going to need…”

True tuned out the male’s voice as he inched around the bed
to Jeanie’s head. Her gaze sought his and he leaned down.

“I’m right here,” he rasped.

“True?” A gentle hand touched his arm.

He glanced at Breeze.

“Justice wants you. The other human hasn’t been found.” She
spoke slowly, softly, each word enunciated with care. “I know you’re very upset
right now. We all are. You can’t do anything for her here. Midnight will stay
with her, okay? Did you see the other human well enough to identify him? That’s
important. We need everyone who saw him. The quicker we identify him, the
quicker this is over.”

He was tempted to say no, hoping it would mean he wouldn’t
need to leave Jeanie’s side. He wanted the bastard caught though. “Yes. I saw
his face.”

“More details are coming in.” She used her free hand to
point to her earpiece. “We think they came from Fuller Prison. We had two human
males from there who checked in at the gate and they are the only strangers. We
located their van but not them. The human you caught…” She paused and glanced
down at Jeanie before lowering her voice. “Um, he was impossible to identify
easily from the photo taken at the scene and sent to Security, with so much
facial damage. We have footage from surveillance we need you to see, of those
males entering Homeland, since you saw both of them.”

“Darkness allowed the other male to escape?”

Breeze winced. “I wouldn’t say he
allowed
to him. He’s
kind of pissed, judging from the ranting I heard in my ear. One second he had
the scent and was closing ground, the next it just seemed to disappear after
the male crossed one of our roads. He and the other males who came to assist
couldn’t pick up the scent again.”

A killing rage tightened his chest again as he glanced down
at Jeanie. She blinked up at him but some of her fear had eased. He bent
closer, staring into her pretty eyes.

“Are you okay?”

She blinked once.

“Tell me again so I can be sure. Blink twice now if you’re
really all right.”

She blinked twice.

“I need to do something but I’ll be back soon. Is that okay?
One for yes, two for no.”

She blinked once.

He didn’t want to leave her. It went against his instincts
but the blond was out there free. He needed to be found. Jeanie would be at
risk until he was captured.

“I have dozens of males flooding Medical.” Breeze seemed to
read his mind. “They are concerned about Slash and horrified this happened. She’s
totally safe here, True. That human would be torn apart if he dared enter this
building in an attempt to get to her. This is the safest place at Homeland right
now. Midnight is right here too.”

He lifted his gaze to seek out the other female. She gave
him a tight smile. “I won’t leave her side. Like glue, okay? I know how much
she means to you. I’ll piss down my leg before I even take a potty break.
Swear.”

“Geez,” Dr. Harris muttered. “I’ll hand you a bedpan if you
need to go.” He studied the monitor. “She appears stable. I need a full blood
panel.”

True gazed down at Jeanie. “I’ll be back soon.” He brushed a
kiss on her forehead and she closed her eyes. He spun away before he could
change his mind, shooting Midnight a worried look.

“Like superglue,” she swore. “The strong shit that sticks
your fingers together when you aren’t careful and tears off skin when you force
them apart.”

“Calm down,” Fury demanded, grabbing True’s arms and forcing
him to hold his gaze. “We’ll find the human who got away and we’ll discover why
they tried to take her.”

Justice entered the room in just a pair of boxers and his
hair wasn’t brushed. He snarled, “How the hell did this happen?”

True jerked out of Fury’s hold. “Tim is behind this. I’ll
kill him for what they did to her.”

“I didn’t do this!” Tim stormed into the room in just a pair
of sweats, his boots untied as if he’d just shoved them on. “I’ve been here the
entire time. I didn’t bother to drive home but instead just crashed on my couch
in the office we use. I got woken when Flame rushed in to tell me what was
going on. I had dinner with him and I had a few too many drinks so I planned to
stay at Homeland. I don’t drive drunk.”

True tried to reach the male to hit him for lying but Fury
got between them. “Stop.”

“Tim is telling the truth.” Flame stood behind the human. “I
offered to allow him to sleep on my couch but he insisted on sleeping it off in
the office. He had four bourbons with dinner and was unsteady on his feet. I
escorted him there and he hasn’t left. I decided to work out in the gym before
bed and that’s when I heard the security alert. Tim was exactly where I’d left
him.”

True stared at Flame, knowing he spoke honestly. He turned
his focus on Tim. The male looked unusually untidy and his eyes were red. The
smell of strong alcohol reached him. He tried to think rationally. “You didn’t
order any of the task force members to take Jeanie?”

“No.” Tim half stumbled over to a couch and collapsed on it,
cursing. “I told you I wouldn’t try to take her and I keep my word.” He rubbed
his head. “Someone please get me coffee. Tons of it.” He looked at Justice. “It
wasn’t my men who did this. How the hell did someone get past Security?”

Breeze rushed into the room. “Two human guards from Fuller
signed in at the front gate at eight o’clock, stating they were here to pick up
medical supplies for their clinic. No one wanted to call Dr. Harris at that
hour just to verify the order. They do come once a month to resupply. They were
just a week early and the hour was later than normal but Smiley didn’t think
anything of it. They had the right paperwork. The guards inspected the van but
didn’t see anything out of order. That was the only traffic in or out this
evening.”

“No one escorted them to Medical?” Fury growled.

Breeze shook her head. “We trusted them, being from Fuller.
The human guards weren’t ones Smiley knew but he figured they were just night-shift
workers. He knows the day-shift ones. They didn’t act suspicious.”

“Son of a bitch,” Justice cursed. “Are we sure the other
human is not hiding somewhere on Homeland? Why hasn’t he been located yet?”

“Every Species is still searching but have found no trace of
him. The van is still parked at Medical so he couldn’t have gotten far,” Flame
announced. “We woke up everyone to alert them to what happened. None of ours
are injured or missing. All Species have been accounted for.”

“There’s no way that human can get off Homeland without
being detected,” Justice declared.

“Are we even sure they were from Fuller? What if they stole
a van and uniforms?” Tim got up, almost tripped on his loose shoelaces on his
way to Justice’s desk, and yanked up the phone. “I’ll call them to check if
they are missing anything.”

“They were from Fuller.” Smiley kept by the door. “I
inspected the paperwork myself. The van was the one they always use too. It has
an oil leak and I know it well.”

“The paperwork could have been forged.” Tim dialed.

“Scents can’t be,” Smiley protested. “We supply the paper
and ink they use. It’s specially treated and that’s classified just for that
purpose. They were from Fuller Prison with authentic paperwork that was
recently printed. The ink was fresh.”

Tim gawked at him. “Does that go for the task team paper and
ink too?”

“Yes,” Justice sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Why
would Fuller send two males to kidnap the female?”

Tim slammed the phone down. “They aren’t answering. They
should be.”

True wanted to howl in rage and barely refrained.

“Tim?” Fury glared at him. “Are you sure you didn’t order
them to pick her up?”

“I didn’t. I mean, I did at first, but I canceled it.”

“What if they didn’t get the cancel order?” Breeze shifted
her stance. “This could be a mistake.”

“They didn’t say they were here to pick up a prisoner,”
Smiley reiterated. “Just medical supplies. If it was a miscommunication
regarding Tim’s order, they would have shown different paperwork at the gate
and stated they were here for a prisoner transfer.”

“Perhaps they’ve captured the other human.” Fury reached for
one of the Security radios. “I’ll get an update on the search.”

Darkness stormed into the room. “It wasn’t one of ours.” He
lifted a hand, showing blood on his knuckles. “I thought of our males at first,
when I heard someone tried to take her. They caused a little trouble with True
over the female. None of our males are involved in this.”

“Who did you suspect?” Breeze inched closer to him.

“Our numbers,” Darkness repeated. “The ones who have refused
to take names.”

“It was two human males, Darkness,” True snarled. “They
touched her, hurt her. They were inside my home. Only one escaped.”

Tim straightened his shoulders. “I’m going to be the asshole
again and suggest that maybe this was some kind of escape attempt on her part.”
He backed up behind Fury, staring at True from around him. “Don’t attack me but
it needs to be said. What if she is guilty of using New Species for ransom and
her partner bribed two males from Fuller to break into Homeland to get her
free? There were other officers living down the hallway and they didn’t hear
shit. In my experience women make a hell of a ruckus if they are being
kidnapped.”

“It is something to consider,” Justice calmly stated,
holding True’s glare. “We don’t know—”

True snarled. “No. You’re wrong. She was drugged too. She
will tell us what happened when she is able. I did not want to leave her but
Doc Harris said it will be hours until the drugs wear off and I am needed here.
We must find those who mean her harm.”

The phone rang and Justice answered. He listened, thanked
someone, and hung up. “Slash will be fine. The doctors gave him something to
counteract the sedative. He was able to tell them that the two humans arrived
at the dorm to transfer Shiver to Fuller. They had paperwork for it, wore the
uniforms, and seemed legitimate.” His gaze slid to True. “She protested and
repeatedly asked him to call you. They tranquilized him as he reached for his
phone.”

Justice turned his head to pin Tim with a direct stare. “Forget
your rescue attempt scenario. True is right. She was not a willing participant.
They came to take her by force and we won’t know what happened after Slash went
down until Jeanie can tell us. Maybe she overheard something they said and it
will point to who is behind this.”

Breeze cleared her throat and frowned at Tim. “Did you
verify that Fuller Prison got your cancel order? Perhaps they don’t know she is
to stay here. That fits. If they came here to get a prisoner, too, of course
they’d want her alive. I don’t understand why they’d knock Slash out but maybe
our male frightened them when the female put up a protest. I can’t see him just
standing there meekly if she began to struggle and the humans turned too
aggressive. The Fuller guards do carry dart guns to handle unruly prisoners.”

“The darts used at Fuller aren’t strong enough to take down
a Species male.” Darkness faced off against her.

She didn’t back down. “Obviously, they are now. You didn’t
spend a lot of time at Mercile once you reached maturity and they sent you away
but some of the technicians they hired were as big as our males. Many of those
males are imprisoned at Fuller now. The guards keep strong darts for use on those
captured humans when they become aggressive. They must have a new formula that
is strong enough to disable us as well.”

“She has a point,” Flame agreed. “As we grew stronger the
technicians they used to control us were changed out for males similar in size
to the ones hired by the task force. They might need to be as heavily dosed as
our people to keep them down. Whatever Fuller now has access to, it was strong
enough to take down Slash.”

Tim jerked up the phone and placed another call. Seconds
ticked by. “Fuller still isn’t answering. What the hell? They should pick up.”
He disconnected and placed another call. “I’m assembling two teams to go over
there.”

“I’m coming with you,” True stated.

“No.” Tim shook his head then spoke into the phone. “Trey?
Assemble two teams ASAP and pick me up at Homeland. It looks as though Fuller Prison
guards tried to grab Shiver and everyone here is up in arms. Fuller has gone
dark. I can’t raise them for confirmation about any of this.” He slammed the
receiver into the cradle and turned. “I’m going to put on my uniform and wait
for them at the gate. We’ll call as soon as we know something.”

True blocked the door and fought the urge to punch the human
in the face. “I’m going with you. I will know the other human when I see him. I
will make him pay for touching Jeanie.”

“No.”

Justice got between them before violence could erupt. “We’re
all going, Tim. That’s final. True won’t calm down until we know why his female
was targeted and I want to know what the hell is going on at Fuller. They told
the gate they were here for medical supplies but then darted one of my males
and injected the female as well. Something is seriously wrong and I’m going to
find out how this could be deemed acceptable by them because we all know it’s
not.”

Breeze gripped True’s arm. “Breathe in and out. I’m sure you’ll
get answers at Fuller. Jeanie will be well guarded and well cared for until you
get back.”

“There are bad humans at Fuller. Why did they want to take
my Jeanie? A female died there,” he reminded her.

Her mouth pursed in a tight line. “I’d forgotten about that.”

“It’s all I’m thinking of. I just want to kill all the
humans responsible for harming my female and get back to Jeanie as fast as
possible.”

Breeze released him. “You heard the man. Move your asses but
get them covered first if you rushed from bed to make this meeting. We’ll
assemble in ten minutes at the main gate.” Her voice lowered as she glanced
down True’s body. “Grab a spare uniform and boots from your locker. We’ll scare
the shit out those humans so they never forget proper protocols again.”