Page 16 of Covert Affections (Shadow Agents/PSI-Ops #5)

Chapter Fourteen

Jesse

The grocery store parking lot came into view, and Jesse’s cat side stirred instantly, suddenly alert.

Odd. It never did that before over groceries.

He’d been alive a long time and had never been attacked in a grocery store.

Guess there was a first time for everything, but the store wasn’t a large chain and didn’t look very crowded.

It hardly seemed like much of a threat. He’d stopped in the same store many times in the past. The only dangerous thing about it was getting stuck having a conversation with the assistant manager.

Jesse had made that mistake last year. Ted, or Fred (he couldn’t recall the man’s name exactly), was as boring as the day was long.

Eye contact had been all it took before Jesse found himself stuck near the canned goods section, listening to the man go on and on about how much he loved to fish.

Of course, everything the man had said about fishing sounded like he’d heard it secondhand, and when Jesse dared to ask questions, he’d been met with a blank stare.

Maybe his cat side was still miffed at how much time Ted or Fred, whatever his name was, had wasted last year and was worried about a repeat performance.

Jesse pulled into the parking lot, carefully maneuvering the Airstream into a spot at the far end where semis usually parked.

He waited there a minute, unsure what had set off his shifter side.

The wind shifted, and a scent hit him that made his whole body go rigid—honey and melon mixed with something darker.

His beast surged forward with a ferocity that shocked him.

Protect her.

He tensed as his shifter side pushed thoughts of protecting at him so forcefully that had he been standing, he’d have surely gone down.

The scent increased and recognition hit him like a ton of bricks. It was the same scent he'd caught traces of in the labs all those years ago. His beast surged forward, recognizing it instantly. But this time, there was something else mixed in—succubus energy?

That’s not right , he thought, straining to remember exactly what he’d smelled leading to the lab all those years ago. There hadn’t been anything in the way of succubus on it. He instantly questioned his judgment on thinking the scent was tied to the lab incident.

Another scent reached him, and at first, he didn’t believe his nose.

He couldn’t be smelling hints of Efren, could he?

Not in Colorado and especially not in the area where everything had gone down years ago.

They hadn’t been part of that mission. Not to mention, Efren and Peters vanished not long after Jesse had been reprogrammed.

He’d assumed they’d been reassigned, but when he’d gone looking for information on them in The Corporation’s database, he found none.

A part of Jesse hoped they’d been one of the many employees who went missing, never to be seen again because they were dead. His only complaint had been the fact he’d not been given the job of killing them. It was a mission he’d have relished.

The odds of Efren turning up here, in this sleepy little town, all these years later, at the same time as Jesse, were too low to count.

It couldn’t be him. It had to be someone with a similar scent.

Besides, Efren didn’t smell like rot—like hybrids.

This scent did. Regardless, the owner of the other scent was in danger.

He’d bet his life on it. He needed to do something.

Don't question the process.

Obey orders.

Keep your head down.

Jesse stiffened as a voice he’d not heard in years filled his head. With it came flashes of a man with long dark hair, equally dark eyes, and tattoos covering his neck and upper body. The man smiled, and when he did, Jesse saw fangs. As quickly as the flashes started, they stopped.

A vampire?

Why the fuck was his mind trying to link the voice in his head to a vampire? Jesse didn’t make a habit of befriending them, and he sure in the fuck did not stand around smiling with one. Efren wasn’t in the area, and Jesse didn’t need his head picking now to crack open and let crazy spill out.

“Enough,” he said in a sharp tone, wanting to head off whatever was happening. He lifted his gaze and stared at his reflection in the rearview mirror. He’d been doing so well, for so long, holding it together, having no more random flashes of events that never took place. Why now? What had changed?

He waited, worried it would happen again.

When nothing more occurred, he exhaled a shaky breath and focused on why he was in the parking lot to begin with.

Supplies. He began running a mental list of items he needed to buy as he exited his truck and started for the store’s entrance.

He was halfway there when he caught a giant whiff of the same scent that had sent him into an Efren spiral to start with.

Months of torture left him recoiling momentarily before his shifter side snarled deeply within him, wanting him to seek out the source of the smell and end it—painfully.

With it came another scent. This one was anything but offensive, like whoever smelled like Efren. This scent was nothing but pure bliss.

The strange dichotomy of the two left him conflicted and following the path of the smells, not headed toward the store’s entrance.

Something pulled at something deep in his psyche, triggering that same fierce protectiveness he'd felt toward Charley. This wasn't paternal. This was different. Like what he’d felt the night of the lab incident when he’d seen the scientist with the ladle about to hit Charley and the other little girl. The one with black hair.

The beast pushed harder, demanding they find the source. Protect. Guard. Keep safe.

Jesse rounded the corner and froze, his mind refusing to process what he was seeing.

There was a man who looked a little like Efren, but only if he’d aged a good deal—something shifters didn’t do with any kind of speed.

The man had a scruffy beard and looked unkempt, something Efren had never been before.

At first, Jesse assumed he’d been wrong, but the man turned ever so slightly, revealing his profile.

It was Efren, and he was pressing a teenage girl with long black hair against a dumpster. The scent of her fear mixed with honey and melon, along with trace amounts of succubus, radiated from the girl and hit Jesse like a punch to the gut.

“Efren!” A snarl broke free from Jesse. He wanted to charge in and save the day, but his beast was too on edge. He could harm the young woman without meaning to, and if he lost control and started to shift, he’d scare the living hell out of her. Neither was a scenario he wanted.

A woman who looked a lot like she’d just come off a week-long bender materialized from nowhere, wielding a baseball bat like she'd been born to it.

The crack of wood meeting skull barely registered as Jesse stared at his former torturer, crumpling to the ground.

The woman helped the girl up, but Jesse couldn't tear his focus from Efren as the man staggered to his feet and set his sights on Jesse.

If he was here, what else had The Corporation let slip its leash?

Jesse glanced past Efren at the woman with the bat and the teenage girl.

A sickening thought filled his head. Did The Corporation know Efren was here?

Had they sent him? Was the teenage girl from the lab incident?

The children would be about her age now, and as much as he wanted to talk himself out of it, she looked a hell of a lot like the little girl with black hair.

The one who had been clinging to Charley in the lab.

If he was right, that meant Efren had found her, and if he didn’t already know who she was, he would soon.

Not if he’s dead , Jesse thought, his gums burning with the change as his beast began to surface fully. He charged Efren, and the coward cut and ran into the woods. Jesse gave chase.

Jesse tore into the trees, the sudden shift in light forcing his eyes to narrow.

One moment the canopy of leaves fractured above him and sunlight burst through with blinding rays, the next he plunged into shadow, his vision catching up too slowly.

Then it flipped again, another blast of white, then back to black.

His pupils kept adjusting and readjusting.

He didn’t slow. Couldn’t. Not when he was so close to retribution, to revenge.

He moved through the undergrowth on instinct, weight centered, limbs ready.

Every part of him locked on the sounds ahead—the crush of boots on dried leaves, the snapping of branches, the sound of heaving Efren’s breathing heavy from a lifetime of smoking.

The smell of cigarette smoke, rot, and fake pine all curled in Jesse’s stomach, threatening to bring with it memories of being tortured.

Of being under the twisted man’s thumb. The only thing that kept Jesse from vomiting then and there was the promise of payback—of settling a decade plus long score.

A shape darted left through a break in the brush, and Jesse’s cat side surged.

He collided with Efren mid-stride, the impact a thunderclap that drove them into the Colorado earth.

Teeth bared, claws half-formed, they crashed in a tangle of limbs and violence.

Jesse landed on top, momentum hurling him into action before the dirt settled.

His fist cracked across Efren’s jaw, a satisfying crunch echoing through the woods.

The second blow smashed into the man’s temple, drawing a grunt.

The third met his ribs, forcing a wheeze from Efren’s lungs.

Efren bucked beneath him, a desperate twist that sent them rolling through dead leaves and damp soil.

Jesse’s shoulder slammed into a rock, a jolt of pain flaring, but he pushed up, claws slashing through fabric and skin.

Efren’s elbow connected with Jesse’s chest. Jesse shoved the bastard back, pinning him flat, and drove a knee into his gut, Efren bent with a soundless grunt, air punched from his chest.

Efren’s cheek split under the next blow, blood arcing across Jesse’s forearm, fueling him deeper into the red haze.

The bastard sagged, but his eyes still flickered with defiance, a glint that stoked Jesse’s fire.

He slammed his forearm across Efren’s throat, shoving down with every ounce of strength left, pinning him to the forest floor.

His other hand rose, claws hovering a breath from Efren’s skin, the final strike within reach.

This was it.

The end.

Justice.

A sound filtered through the trees.

Laughter.

High-pitched.

Light.

Innocent.

It was followed quickly by children’s voices. While Jesse couldn’t see them yet, he could hear and smell them. They were getting closer.

As much as the fury burned in Jesse’s heart, pushing him to end the bastard beneath him, he didn’t want to risk children happening upon the scene.

One, they’d be witnesses to the event which could possibly put them in the crosshairs of The Corporation, and he’d seen what his employer was willing to do to children.

And two, the sight of him killing Efren could leave them scarred for life.

As someone who suffered from nightmares and fractured memories too horrific to put to words, Jesse didn’t have it in him to do that to a child.

Efren evidently didn’t give a shit who saw what because one second he was under Jesse, bleeding like the weak fucker he was, and the next the man was shifting shapes to hell with who may see.

Bones snapped under skin, limbs contorted, and fur tore through fabric as the man shifted hard and fast. There shouldn’t be that much noise—that much effort.

Shifting was like exhaling—it simply happened naturally.

What had happened to the man to leave him in such a state? Did that explain the smell of rot coming off him in waves?

Jesse scrambled off him, watching in horror as Efren remained locked in some twisted, half-form, nothing like a partial shift which was common for most shifters to be able to do. This was more like a science experiment gone horribly wrong.

Jesse got to his feet and staggered backward, his head turning toward the direction he heard the children coming from.

If they happened upon the scene now, they’d never be the same again.

Time seemed to freeze for a fraction of a second.

Jesse’s breath hitched, and he did the only thing he could think to do— he growled, deep and from the chest, the sound echoing through the woods.

It was followed quickly by young screams as the children fled in the other direction.

Good.

it was better they be scared of the “wild animal” in the forest than of whatever the fuck Efren was. Jesse’s attention moved back to where Efren had been. Only discarded, torn, bloody clothing remained, laying on the forest floor, the only sign the bastard had ever been there.

Concern for the young woman behind the grocery store slammed into Jesse, stealing his breath. Would Efren double back and go for her again?

Jesse twisted and bolted back in the direction he’d come, desperate to be sure the young woman was safe.

The run back to the parking lot felt as if it took ten times longer than pursuing Efren had, despite Jesse moving at an unnaturally fast speed.

When he burst through the line of trees, he was greeted by the sight of an empty back lot.

As if on autopilot, he went for the spot the young woman had been.

He knelt, spotting a few drops of blood on the ground—most on the paved area, some on old, damp, smashed cardboard.

He inhaled deeply, committing the smell of the blood to memory before scrapping up some of the cardboard. The next he knew, he was pocketing it before lifting his head, trying to catch the trail and find the blood’s owner. Jesse needed to see she was safe and unharmed with his own eyes.

Needed to know Efren hadn’t found her once again, but there was no trace of her anywhere to be found.