The Altered (25 page)

Daniel took in
several more gulps of air, before nudging Matt’s shoulder with his
fist. “It’s been a stressful day all around. I’ll let you off.” He
sat back down again and gestured for Matt to join him. “Now help me
figure out how this connection thing works before Keira comes back
and threatens me again.”

Daniel sat at
the table and closed his eyes for about the tenth time since they’d
started. He tried to clear his mind of everything but Jordan and
picture his face the last time he’d seen him, but no matter how
hard he concentrated, there was nothing. No pull, no instant
light-bulb moment of knowing where he was. Nothing.

“For fuck’s
sake, this is useless!” Daniel let his head drop to the table with
a
thunk
and groaned. “I don’t know what I’m doing, Matt.” He
turned his head to face Matt where he sat next to him, looking
equally frustrated.

“Yeah, and I’m
no help either.” Matt sighed and rested his elbows on the table.
“She scares the shit out of me, but maybe we should get Keira in to
help you instead. She’s the one with a mate, so she probably knows
all about this.”

Daniel
shuddered as he thought about asking Keira for help. She wasn’t the
warmest individual, but she’d said herself they didn’t have much
time. They’d been at it for half an hour already with nothing to
show for their efforts. “Will you go get her?”

Matt grimaced
but got up from his chair. “She’s probably heard us already, and if
she attacks me, I’m blaming you.” He glanced down the hall. “God
knows what they’re doing in there. She might not thank me for
interrupting.”

“Better you
than me.” Daniel grinned at Matt’s obvious discomfort, still a
little pissed off from earlier. “At least you’ll heal.”

Matt huffed
but dutifully disappeared out the door.

Daniel barely
had chance to get a drink of water before he heard muffled
footsteps in the hall, and Charlie, Keira, and Matt walked in.

“I should have
known Jordan wouldn’t have shown you any of this.” Keira didn’t
look mad, so that was a good start. “He’s just as stubborn as you
appear to be. What a perfect match.”

Daniel would
have smiled if her tone weren’t laced with sarcasm. But fuck her—he
smiled, anyway—they were a great match.

She took the
seat Matt had vacated and moved both their chairs around until they
were facing one another. “I should’ve asked before, though. I’ve
wasted valuable time, and I’m sorry. Take my hands.”

Daniel did as
she asked, still a little in shock at the heartfelt apology she’d
just laid on him.

“Now, think of
being with Jordan. Pick a moment where you had a strong emotional
connection and concentrate on how that made you feel inside.”

Daniel wasn’t
sure this was exactly what Keira had in mind, but his thoughts
immediately went to their first night together. The way Jordan had
shifted for him, shown Daniel his wolf form with no hesitation.
Daniel let himself get lost in remembering the way Jordan had
looked at him—hungry and vulnerable all at the same time, and
Daniel had felt wanted, needed, and his chest constricted as the
familiar tug pulled at him.

“Come on, show
me,” he muttered as a hazy image flashed in his mind. He saw a
collection of light grey buildings—maybe an industrial estate—but
couldn’t pick out the name of it. Another image flashed the BT
Tower with the sun still visible behind it, so Daniel figured it
must be east somewhere. He caught sight of a Tube station but only
got the first few letters,
Wem
before he lost it
altogether.

Damn.

That narrowed
it down a lot but they didn’t have an exact location. He hoped it
was enough. “I saw something but didn’t get a good enough look at
it.”

“It’ll have to
do. Come on.” Keira grabbed him and hauled him to his feet,
shouting for the others as she led the way to the front door.

Jordan came to
with a jolt as a sharp stab of pain exploded in both his shoulders.
It radiated out from his wrists, downward, and his whole body
trembled with the instinct to shift into his wolf, certain he was
in immediate danger. His fangs slipped down effortlessly, a
comforting weight on his lower lip, and his claws snicked out,
sharp and ready. But that was as far as he got.

No matter how
much he concentrated, the change wouldn’t come, and Jordan whined
in frustration as his body refused to do as he asked. He opened his
eyes, squinting into the bright light and growled, low and menacing
as his surroundings finally registered.

He was in a
cage.

His arms were
chained up above his head—that explained the pain—while his ankles
were attached to thick metal rings on the floor. He yanked on them
as hard as he could manage, but they barely rattled.

He gave up
trying to get free and took a good look around him. The cage seemed
to be about eight feet square, tucked against the back wall of a
white room. The only other things in there with him were two chairs
and a covered trolley. Everything smelled sterile, reminding Jordan
of a hospital, and he had a bad feeling about what might be under
that cover.

A faint sound
behind him caught his attention, and Jordan craned his neck to look
over his shoulder. Two cameras up in the corners tracked his
movements—he was being watched.

He had a fair
idea of who had him—it didn’t take a genius to guess—but he had no
clue where he was. His head ached a little, so they’d either hit
him bloody hard for it not to have healed already or they’d given
him a shot of something strong enough to knock him out.

Jordan’s money
was on the latter. His mind felt fuzzy, like the aftermath of a
heavy night on the booze, and for the life of him, he couldn’t
recall how he’d got from his van to waking up here. The last thing
he remembered was sitting in the van, about to call Keira to ask
where the hell she’d got to.

Shit, have
they got her and Sam too? And Daniel?

A fresh wave
of panic hit him, and Jordan pulled on the chains with everything
he had, not caring who was watching him. He needed to get out,
needed to find his friends.

He needed to
get to Daniel.

The chains
held fast to both the floor and the ceiling. Whoever designed the
room knew exactly what they were doing. Jordan’s energy levels
dropped quickly, both his fangs and claws disappearing as the
effort to keep them out became too much. He vaguely sensed a door
opening, and voices filtered into the room as he drifted off into
unconsciousness again.

The next time
Jordan came round, his head hung down between his shoulders, and he
wasn’t alone. Hushed voices sounded in the corner, whispering about
things Jordan didn’t understand. He kept his head down, attempting
to get his bearings again without alerting anyone that he was
awake. His shoulders ached even more than before, his wrists sore
and bloody where they rubbed against the metal, and he still had
what felt like a hangover headache. At least he was more alert this
time.

The voices
suddenly stilled.

“Nice of you
to join us, Mr Cole.”

Jordan slowly
raised his head, cataloguing the two men from their feet upwards.
They weren’t exactly what he’d been expecting. One wore a white lab
coat while the other was dressed in an expensive-looking suit.
Jordan glanced behind them, and there was what he’d been expecting
to see—two heavily armed men in army fatigues guarding the
door.

“Inject him.”
The suit stepped back and motioned for the man in the lab coat to
step forward.

Jordan
growled, as low and menacing as he could manage, gratified to see
the lab-coat guy pause. Suit rolled his eyes and snatched the
syringe out of Lab Coat’s hands.

“I’m sure
you’ve realised by now that you can’t fully shift.” Suit laughed as
Jordan growled again. “Oh yes, we know what you are.” He opened the
cage door—not locked, Jordan noted, just fastened shut with a
sliding bolt—and stepped inside. “You’ve been most helpful
already.” He waved the syringe in front of Jordan’s face. “We took
the liberty of extracting quite a lot of your blood while you were
out. Thought it would be easier that way.”

Jordan
grinned, making sure to show all his teeth, fangs included. “Come
get some now.” He rattled his chains and snicked out his claws—even
though they were useless in his current position.

Suit smiled
back, making sure to stay out of reach of Jordan’s mouth. “No need.
We had more than enough to perfect the serum.”

“Serum?”
Jordan figured he had nothing to lose at this point. Suit seemed
like a talker, so Jordan planned to take full advantage of that
fact. He had no doubt his friends would be looking for him, and he
intended to buy himself all the time he could.

Suit held the
full syringe steady for Jordan to see. “This is a prototype. One of
two serums we’ve been able to create with the help of your blood.”
He walked in a circle around Jordan, pausing behind him. “You’re
the first full shifter we’ve managed to take alive at this
facility.”

Jordan heard
him move seconds before he felt his jeans being tugged down and the
sting of the needle in his arse cheek. Warmth spread throughout his
body, making him sag against his restraints. He expected to pass
out any minute, but remained conscious, his mind slow and a little
jumbled, and he struggled to clear it.

“We’ve never
managed to get your kind to talk easily. None of the truth serums
we had seemed to affect altereds, and we’ve been working on this
one for over two years. You can’t imagine how excited we were to
get our hands on you.” Suit was back in front of Jordan now, but
Jordan couldn’t get his eyes to focus. “Your blood, Mr Cole… it’s
changed everything.”

Jordan had
enough presence of mind to bare his teeth, but that was all.

“Now, let’s
see if this works. Where is Daniel Fellows?”

“Is this it?”
Keira asked, pulling up alongside an empty bus stop. They’d been
driving around for over an hour now, and this was the third time
they’d stopped.

Daniel opened
the door of the van and hopped down onto the pavement.

Fuck, fuck,
fuck
. He just wasn’t sure.

The brief
vision he’d got had only been enough to see some familiar landmarks
in the background, but as they were discovering, that could be a
multitude of places. They’d seen the BT Tower behind them as they’d
driven out here, lit up like a beacon, but they’d long since lost
sight of it. He closed his eyes and tried to picture the industrial
estate in his mind.

“No.” He shook
his head as Keira came to stand next to him with Sam at her side.
“It doesn’t feel right.”

She didn’t say
anything, just nodded and got back into the van. Daniel glanced
down at Sam. His senses should be heightened in his wolf form, and
they were hoping he’d be able to pick up Jordan’s scent as soon as
they were in range.

“Anything,
Sam?”

Sam whined and
came over to nose at Daniel’s fingers.

Daniel guessed
that was a no, then. “Shit.” Why was it so sodding hard? He’d tried
to find their connection inside him as they’d driven around,
struggled to feel Jordan and get a clearer picture of where they
were holding him, but it was as though he just wasn’t there
anymore.

Keira frowned
when he mentioned it as he climbed back inside the van, and she
shared a look with Charlie.

“What?” Daniel
asked, shifting in his seat to glance between the two of them.

Charlie sighed
and leaned forward from the back of the van to put his hand on
Daniel’s shoulder. “Keira was knocked unconscious once, a stupid
accident a few years ago, and it was exactly like that for me. One
minute she was there, a constant presence or pull inside me, and
then she was gone.” He sat back in his seat, and Daniel’s stomach
dropped as the implications of that sank in.

“Is that
different from being asleep?”

“Yeah,”
Charlie said softly. “It’s a lot less noticeable when we’re asleep,
sort of like a vague awareness, but it’s still there.”

“So wherever
Jordan is, they’ve knocked him out.” Daniel looked out the window
and bit his lip, trying not to yell at how bloody unfair this was.
Everyone fell silent as Keira drove them farther north, the only
sound the creak of the steering wheel where she gripped it tight
enough to send her knuckles white.

*****

“Williams!”
Suit barked out.

One of the
guards by the door snapped to attention. “Sir?”

“Send ten men
to the address Mr Cole so kindly gave us, and bring me back the
seer.”

The guard
nodded, but hesitated before leaving. “What if there’s others,
Sir?”

“Bring them in
alive if you can, but it’s not essential. If they get in the way,
kill them.”

Suit turned
back to Jordan and lifted Jordan’s head up by his hair.

Jordan didn’t
even have the strength to snap his teeth. He’d fought the serum
with everything he had, but the answers to Suit’s questions had
come tumbling out of his mouth regardless—much to Suit’s amusement.
Whatever they’d given Jordan had left him weak and disoriented, and
he was having a hard time keeping his eyes open.

“Yes, get some
rest.” Suit patted Jordan’s head like he would a dog and then let
it drop. “You’re going to need your strength for what we have in
store for you.”

Jordan was out
cold before he had chance to worry what that might be.

*****

“Here!” Daniel
banged on the dashboard, making everyone jump—including Keira, who
immediately stomped on the brakes. Curses and moans echoed from the
back, but Daniel ignored them, already opening the door.