Freeing the Feline (14 page)

Zane moved to help Murphy slide off the back since the other man held Finn cradled in his arms. Zane was surprised when Diane came to him first, her hands brushing over him and setting his skin on fire. Tah and the others closed ranks around Murphy, helping him get Finn into the house.

“Are you hurt? Did you sustain any injuries?” She was worried. It carried through in her tone and shone for all to see in her eyes.

“I’m fine,” he told her. Better than fine if her interest in him meant that his time of waiting might be over.

Their gazes met and held. He saw fear, uncertainty and just maybe the start of something more. Then she was moving from him, running into the house to catch up with the others, who were taking Finn down to the labs.

Abby turned to Zane and held her hand out. Her fingers were warm and firm as he took them in his.

“It’s good to have you all home again,” she told him.

“You look better,” he said. “What changed?”

“Blood transfusion. I’ll tell you all about it later. Clara was a Godsend. She knew just what I needed to help me through this. This little guy and I are going to be just fine.” Abby brushed her free hand over her belly, and Zane couldn’t help but smile.

He sobered quickly as they entered the house, and he saw them carrying Finn down the stairs to the labs as Zane had suspected.

“Should I call the rest in? Give them a chance to say goodbye?” he asked.

“Not just yet. The Professor has been working on something with all the blood he’s been taking from everyone. If Murphy agrees, we might be able to help Finn, maybe even save his life.”

Zane looked at Abby to see if she was serious. Her expression said she was. His curiosity piqued, he followed more quickly, not wanting to miss anything.

“Hurry,” the Professor ordered. “Get him on the table. Get that shirt completely off him. Rip it if you must. I need to see how bad his injuries are to know what measures to take.”

Murphy and Tah both moved to follow his command while Reno stayed close to offer help if needed. Zane knew all three men had to be blaming themselves for what Finn was going through. Zane was more of the opinion Finn had no one to blame but himself. His choice, his consequences. That was the way life worked.

“Dy…ing…” Finn managed to push the words out again, though Zane knew Finn was seriously weak. Dying? Hell, he should have been dead at this point. Zane had never expected to make it back with him alive.

Diane moved in and skimmed those long fingers of hers over Finn’s stomach. She used a cloth to wipe away most of the blood so she could get a better look, but Zane could have told her it would only be replaced by more.

“Oh, shit, he’s lost a lot of blood. I can’t tell how deep this is, but it’s still seeping out pretty steadily,” she whispered and turned to the Professor. “If we’re going to do this, we’re going to have to do it now.”

“Do what?” Murphy asked. “Can you save him or not?”

“Maybe,” the Professor said slowly, his gaze on Tah. “I’ve been working with the blood. Well, part of it,” he said with a wave of his hand. “I had an idea when Logan was shot. It took him so much longer to heal than it did Tah, simply because of the unique healing properties of Tah’s shifter DNA. So I took blood and ran tests. I took more blood and ran more tests.”

“Spit it out,” Tah ordered.

“I’ve been working on a booster of sorts for the humans among us. Sort of a way to help them heal faster or to at least stabilize them in cases of more serious injuries until we can get them into surgery. But it’s still in the testing stages. I’m not sure how it will work in reality, only in concept.”

“Use it,” Murphy said. “Test it on him.”

“Murphy…” Tah began.

“No!” Murphy interrupted. “Fuck anything else.” He turned pleading eyes to the Professor. “Save him. Please, don’t let him die on me.”

The Professor looked at Tah. “I won’t do it without your okay.”

“You certainly created it without my knowledge or my okay,” Tah fired back. He shook his head and looked up. “Fuck,” he muttered.

“Tah.” Abby stepped up to her mate and took his hand. “The Professor was going over some of it with me earlier, while we were sitting on the couch. This is a great idea. Look at him.” She pointed to where Finn lay, barely hanging on to consciousness. “We have to try.”

“And what about the consequences? Do we even have an idea of what the side effects of this might be?”

“Not yet,” the Professor admitted. “I just started testing it.”

“On who?” Tah demanded.

“No one,” the Professor admitted. “I’ve added it to some of the human blood I’ve got on hand. I have a program that runs, testing it and checking for any anomalies that might occur.”

“Fuck!” Tah exploded again. “So we have no idea if we’re attempting to save him or just killing him more painfully. And if this works and he pulls through, we have no idea what this could do to him.”

“As next of kin, I give my okay. We’ll deal with anything that happens when it happens. I just want him alive to deal with it,” Murphy said.

Zane didn’t envy Tah at that moment. Ultimately, the decision lay with him no matter what Murphy wanted, and they all knew it. Tah looked at Murphy and finally sighed. Zane could see the answer in his eyes.

“Do it,” Tah told the Professor.

They moved quickly, and Zane was amazed all over again at how well the Professor and Diane worked together. They made it seem as if they’d known each other for longer than the months they’d all been here. She had a hand on Finn’s elbow and a vein picked out by the time the Professor was back with the injection.

“I’m going to give him a shot first. This is a precisely measured quantity of the formula I’ve concocted. It’s a fairly strong dose of the serum I’m working on. It should fire through his system and start increasing his healing immediately. I’m not sure how much his body will do on its own and how much will be left for us. We’ll have to watch and see. We need to give this time to work. The time will depend on Finn and how he reacts to it.”

Diane moved to the cabinets and started pulling stuff out while the Professor slowly pressed the golden fluid from the needle into Finn’s vein.

“As soon as it’s safe, we’ll hook up an IV and put a more diluted version of this into him. From there, it will be a waiting game. I don’t want to do anything to interfere while this is working.” Finally he looked up and met Murphy’s eyes. “There’s one more thing you need to know, Tah. Do you want to tell him or should I?” the Professor asked Murphy.

Murphy gritted his teeth and glared at the Professor. Zane waited for it. If the Professor had been testing all their blood, then he knew who was shifter and who wasn’t. Zane had figured as much, but as it hadn’t appeared the Professor was going to give them away, he hadn’t worried over it. Not that Tah didn’t suspect with Zane, but Murphy was a different story. Now it looked as if the Professor was going to call them out.

Murphy glanced over at Tah. “I’m a shifter,” he blurted. “Eurasian Lynx.”

“Damn,” Zane said. “I didn’t know there were any more like you still around.”

“I’m the last,” Murphy said with a sad look on his face.

Tah glanced at Zane and lifted a brow.

“Now wait a minute,” the Professor interrupted. “I had a reason for asking Murphy to speak up. No one else has to share anything they’re not ready for.

Tah glared at the Professor again.

“It’s okay. I think most of you already suspect I’m a shifter. You’re right. I carry the spirit of a panther,” Zane admitted to them, his glance skimming over to Diane. He didn’t see revulsion on her face. That was a good sign, since he was just about done hiding from her. It was becoming too much to fight the urge to claim what the beast within knew was his.

“Why did Tah need to know about Murphy?” Abby asked.

“Just in case,” the Professor mumbled.

“In case of what?” Murphy and Tah asked at the same time.

“Finn is Murphy’s biological brother. He also carries a unique DNA code just as you do, Murphy.”

“Shifter DNA?” Murphy asked.

“Yes,” the Professor admitted.

“How is that possible?” Tah asked.

“How is any of what we’ve seen possible?” the Professor countered. “It is what it is. Finn has shifter DNA. His is just recessive…for now. I’m not sure if this serum will change that or not.”

“You mean this could awaken the shifter part of him?” Abby asked.

“I honestly don’t know,” the Professor said. “All we can do is watch.”

“Well, fuck,” Murphy said, then surprised them all by laughing. “He’s always said he should have been the shifter, said he’d be better at it than me. The crazy son of a bitch might just get his wish.”

Chapter Eleven

Clara woke up refreshed and feeling better than she had in a long time. Logan had woken her once during the night. He’d gone down to check on Finn, Murphy and Zane and come back up with an unbelievable tale of what the Professor had come up with. A serum that used shifter DNA to boost a human’s healing capabilities? Clara was certain that wasn’t something they wanted to get out. They might be hunted for other reasons then, by countless others.

Logan was already gone, but she found a note on her pillow telling her how beautiful she looked sleeping and that he’d gone to take early patrol. He also said he’d be running into town later and invited her to go along. That really made her grin. It would be almost like a date, which was really funny when she thought about it. They’d pretty much done everything at this point, except go on a date.

She hurriedly threw on clothes, brushed her teeth and hair then headed downstairs to see who was around. Her palms were a little sweaty, and her heart beat a little faster than normal, but her nerves were explainable after all that had gone down.

“Good morning,” Abby called out to her as Clara passed the front room in search of the kitchen. “Where are you off to?”

“The kitchen if I can find it,” Clara admitted. “I’m starving.”

“Me, too,” Abby agreed with a smile and linked arms with her, walking with Clara toward the kitchen. “I swear since I got that infusion of Tah’s blood, my appetite has doubled.”

“You were growing weaker, which means the baby would have eventually grown weaker, as well,” Clara said. “After he’d depleted you of everything. Both of you needed the boost from Tah’s blood. Shifters carry a unique hormone that isn’t shared with our mates. But it’s that hormone that is needed during pregnancy. Not a big deal if the woman is a shifter, but if she’s human…” Clara shrugged. “Well, you’ve seen and felt what that is like.”

“Yes,” Abby agreed with a laugh. “Thanks, but no thanks! I much prefer how I’m feeling now.”

They walked into the kitchen and Abby started pointing and talking.

“We keep all the staples on hand. There’s fresh fruit, cereal, oatmeal, frozen waffles, eggs, bacon and yogurt. If you like something we don’t have, you put it on the list and we’ll see if it’s in town next trip. We usually go once a week for little stuff, and every two weeks for major things. We cook in rotation, which you’ll be added to now. Hope you know how to cook. If not, I’m sure you can sucker Logan into helping. That man is phenomenal in the kitchen.”

“Logan cooks?” Clara asked.

“Like a master chef,” Abby stated and hummed. “I’ll admit to using this pregnancy to con Logan into cooking for me. Tah’s passable. Reno burns everything. Zane is probably as good as Logan. The rest of us do a good enough job. We keep the Professor out of here.”

“He can’t cook?”

“He can cook,” Abby said. “He just forgets what he’s doing and tends to walk away while stuff is cooking. Not a great thing.”

“Logan told me about the experimental injections the Professor’s been working on. That’s amazing to have someone with that type of knowledge on your side. I wish my Uncle Thomas were here. They’d get along wonderfully.”

“Your uncle is a scientist?” Abby asked.

“He’s actually a doctor, but one created through necessity not schooling.”

“There was a need, and he found a way to fulfill it?” Abby asked.

Clara nodded as she pulled a couple of bowls down and grabbed a box of granola cereal. “My dad and my uncle have always provided a safe haven for our kind. We have a sort of…” She thought, searching for a way to describe it. “I guess maybe a type of underground railroad for lack of a better description. Those who need it know how to find it.”

“We wouldn’t have had a clue,” Abby said.

“But then, you didn’t really need it,” Clara offered with a shrug. “Look at you. You’ve got this fortress in the middle of nowhere, and plenty of people to watch your back.”

“It’s the Professor’s. He says he had it built a long time ago and just kept adding on to it over the years. The generators are unbelievable. And he’s even talking about doing more. His money is tied up at the moment. Jess and I are dealing with the attorneys on it.”

“Why is it tied up?” Clara asked, then added, “Jess is his daughter?”

“Yes. It’s tied up because as far as the rest of the world is concerned, Professor Mueller is dead, killed in an explosion. Jess and her mates did it to protect him from whatever they’re facing.”

“Wolves are less social than cats,” Clara offered. “They tend to stay in smaller groups and don’t mix with other shifters, even other breeds of wolves. They’re a different lot.”

“So that’s why you couldn’t help the ones Amia freed from the Blanes,” Abby said.

“Yeah.” Clara nodded, setting the two bowls she’d grabbed together on the table. “Here, eat with me, so I don’t feel so bad for sleeping in.”

Abby laughed and joined her at the table. “Wow, this looks good. What did you mix in here?”

“Some fresh fruit, granola cereal and yogurt. I could seriously live off this stuff.”

Abby took a bite and moaned at the taste while Clara watched with a grin. “I can see why. Mhmm. Looks like you get to make me breakfast for a while.”

Clara laughed. “No problem, unless I get an early rotation like Logan.”

“I might have some pull on that,” Abby promised, eating another bite. “So I’m curious, are there other shifters?”