Pausing, he glanced in the direction of her parking spot, a small frown playing about his lips, then he shook his head. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be driving just now. In fact, I don’t want you to be alone. I was planning on taking you home with me so I could keep an eye on you for at least tonight, preferably the weekend. But if nothing happens and you continue to seem fine, I’ll bring you by to pick up your car tomorrow morning.”
When she nodded her agreement, Kyle added, “Fortunately, it’s Friday, so you’ll have the weekend to recover before we have to decide what—if anything—to tell Dr. Cohen about this.”
“I thought we didn’t want him to know?” Claire asked with a frown. “I mean, if nothing has happened…”
“I don’t want John to get away with this,” Kyle said solemnly. “We could tell Dr. Cohen that he tried to turn the destabilizer on you and I arrived as he did it and knocked him out. That you managed to throw yourself out of the way when you heard it power up.”
Claire blinked with a sudden realization.
“What is it?” Kyle asked.
“I didn’t hear it power up,” she said slowly, perplexed by the fact. Usually the soft hum started while she strapped down the animal, then built to a high-pitched whine as she left the room.
“He must have powered it up before you went in,” Kyle said thoughtfully, and his expression became even more forbidding. “The bastard must have planned to try this all along. He was just waiting for a time when I was out of the lab.” Kyle cursed. “I never should have—”
Claire placed her hand over his on the steering wheel and patted him soothingly. “You couldn’t know. It’s fine. Let’s just go.”
Blowing his breath out, Kyle nodded and shifted the car into gear, then backed out of his parking spot.
“You’re okay with staying over tonight?” Kyle asked once they were out of the parking garage.
“Yes.” Claire nodded. “To tell you the truth, if something’s going to happen, I’d rather not be alone.”
Kyle gave a nod, and fell silent, leaving Claire to worry over what might result from the experiment. Nothing much had appeared to happen yet to the animals they’d tested it on. If put in front of a white background, some of them lightened in color, like a chameleon taking on its surroundings, but it didn’t happen to all the animals and it didn’t happen regularly. This didn’t seem to bother Kyle. Claire supposed he was just happy it happened at all. As John had pointed out, the animals didn’t understand what was done to them so simply might not be using their full abilities. She did understand, however, and supposed that was why John had broken all the rules and exposed her to the destabilizer.
Claire peered down at her hands, the only part of her body that wasn’t covered by clothing and that she could see at the moment. She stared at where they rested in her lap, but they looked the same as always to her. Her skin wasn’t suddenly lightening to match the white smock she wore. For a moment, she considered trying to make them lighten, but then changed her mind. She was almost afraid to find her exposure had had some effect.
“Here we are.”
Claire glanced up and felt herself relax. They were pulling into the driveway of the home Kyle shared with his twin sister, Jill. It was an old Victorian house on the edge of the city, their childhood home. Kyle and Jill had inherited it jointly when their parents died in a car accident some years back. The twins got along well enough that they’d decided to live there together until one of them married. At which point, they’d either sell the house and split the profits, or one of them would buy the other out.
Claire had been in the charming old house many times over the years. She and Jill had been best friends since grade school. Claire had slept over countless times as a teenager and still did. It was a second home to her, and she wasn’t surprised to feel relief ease through her as Kyle parked the car in the drive.
“Jill’s home early,” Kyle commented with a frown. “I wonder what’s up.”
Claire shook her head, her eyebrows drawing together with concern. After the accident that had taken their parents’ lives, Kyle had taken his half of their parents’ insurance money and invested it. Jill had used her half to purchase a little clothing store downtown. It was doing well, mostly because Jill was a very dedicated store owner, willing to put in long hours to make it work. She usually started early and worked late. Her being home in the middle of the day was unusual.
Kyle slid out of the car and started around to her side, but Claire opened the door and stepped out before he could get there to open it for her. She smiled faintly as he took her arm to walk her to the door, noting the worry still visible in his eyes as he peered her way. His concern was sweet…and encouraging to Claire. She’d had a crush on him all through high school. It had blossomed into something more since she’d started working with him. Unfortunately, despite Jill’s assertions to the contrary, Claire suspected he thought of her as nothing more than a buddy and coworker. She wished it was otherwise.