He paused for breath, and Kenzie asked cautiously, "What research?"
"The creation of Shifters. For human purposes. How wonderful to have an army of the beasts at our fingertips. We could breed select soldiers with them to produce the best of both, half Shifters with human savvy as well as Shifter strength."
"That's already been tried," Kenzie pointed out. "In Area 51, years ago. It didn't work."
Turner nodded. "Yes, I know. I even helped start up that project, but they were on the wrong track, and I left. They were attempting to create Shifters by scientific means alone, breeding them in petri dishes." He made a noise of disgust. "Of course it didn't work. They were missing the ingredient they didn't believe in: magic. More specifically, good old-fashioned Fae magic from the dawn of time."
"Hardly the dawn of time," Brigid broke in. "Humans had already created far-flung military empires in the places you call Rome and China by the time we perfected the spells and techniques to produce the battle beasts."
"What you're doing won't work either," Kenzie said to Turner. "Unless that half Fae taught you the magic."
Turner gave her a chill smile. "He did. It is difficult for me to work it myself, but then I caught a Fae. She is quite good at it."
Brigid remained stiff with scorn. "I have no choice but to help him," she told Kenzie. "Though I would rather lay out his guts and bathe in his blood."
Kenzie would rather she did too. "So you're trying to create mythical monsters in order to get a promotion at work?" she asked.
"What an amusing way of putting it," Turner said, his eyes like cold glass. "The large beasts are proving to be difficult to control and physiologically unstable. I've been trying to find a true Shifter for my breeding program, but Shifters protect themselves and their cubs so rigidly you're difficult to get near. But now, a Shifter has tumbled into the mists, and I have her."
Kenzie shivered, but she forced herself to remain stoic. "One female?" she asked, lifting a brow. "Maybe not a fertile one at that. I've only managed to bring in one cub in many years of trying. And believe me, Bowman and I have been trying."
"I know you have," Turner said. "You and your mate are a fascinating study in Shifter fertility. I am pleased to have the opportunity to study you further. In fact, I will go report to O'Donnell that his mate is well and in my care."
Something flashed in his hand, and the mists thickened around him.
Kenzie found herself released from her near paralysis, and rushed him. She could move fast, but she managed only to grab a corner of his padded jacket before he vanished. A bit of cloth tore off in her fingers, but Turner was gone.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Bowman finished tearing the last floorboard out of Turner's trailer. He'd found nothing there-at least, nothing that told him where Kenzie was.
He and Cristian had rejoined Cade and Jamie here to continue the search for Turner and what he was up to. Between them they'd found plenty of papers and materials on Shifters, which Cristian thought fascinating and Bowman tossed aside. He didn't give a crap about Turner's opinions on the innate maternal instincts in Shifter females. He was interested in only one Shifter female-Kenzie.
"He has a unique mind," Cristian said, scanning a printed-out page. "A brilliant man, in fact, if one looks at it a certain way. He could be useful to us."
Bowman yanked the paper out of Cristian's hands and let it flutter to the floor. "Pay attention. We need to find Kenzie."
Cristian regarded him calmly. "By studying our enemy, we learn more about him; enough to destroy him. This is what he has done with Shifters, apparently, for many years. Not a man to be underestimated."
Bowman knew that Cristian had a point, but right now he wanted only to find Kenzie, and kill anyone who got in his way.
A shout came from outside-Cade. It was nearing dawn, the sky a faint gray. Bowman could see Cade in the clearing, yelling something into the woods.
Bowman pushed past Cristian and headed outside. Jamie, in his cheetah form, came leaping out from the shadows under the trees, his fur on end.
"Something going on out there," Cade said, gesturing to where Jamie had emerged, in the direction of one of the sheds. "Not sure what."
Jamie shifted to human, breathing hard, his eyes wide. "Stinks," he said, his voice tinged with the yowl of a spooked cheetah. "It got super cold all of a sudden, and darker. Nasty."
"Did you smell another of those beasts?" Cristian asked, coming up behind Bowman.
Cristian spoke matter-of-factly, but a chill washed over Bowman. The first monster had been almost impossible to beat, and he'd had half of Shiftertown to help him.
"It's might be another gate," a voice said from the path up to the arena.
Bowman turned in anger to see Gil, who'd spoken, walking toward them. Pierce, his sword prominent on his back, came behind him. Ryan was walking close to Pierce, looking both scared and curious.
"What's the matter?" Bowman asked Pierce, meeting them. "What the hell did you bring Ryan for?"
Pierce gave him a pained look. "You think I could leave him behind? I tried. He stowed away in the back of Gil's car."
Bowman growled at his son, but he'd have to deal with Ryan later. Pierce wouldn't have come here in person if he hadn't discovered something of great importance, too important to trust to a cell phone.
"Guardians around the country have reported gates opening along the ley lines," Pierce said, a worried look in his eyes. "They've rigged a way to sense them, sort of the way seismographs work for earthquakes. A lot of gates have been popping up around here lately, especially tonight. Something's going down, but no one knows what."
A Fae attack-or an attack from something else that used these pockets Gil talked about-would be just perfect right now. But that was not Bowman's immediate concern. "Do any of them know how to open the gates? From this side? Or where they lead?"
Gil answered before Pierce could speak. "You need a talisman. A Fae one. Something permeated with magic."
"Like the silver thing we found?" Bowman asked. He pulled it out of his jacket pocket.
Gil took it and studied it. "Doesn't have that magic tingle, but who knows? Worth a shot."
"Hold up," Cade said, inserting his bulk between Gil and Bowman. "If you're telling Bowman to hang on to that silver thingee and march into the mists, on your say-so, think again. We don't exactly trust you."
He glared down at Gil, and Gil actually looked intimidated. But then, Cade was huge, his buzzed hair emphasizing his hard face, his tatts black on his arms in the dim light, his brown eyes blazing in anger. Picking a fight with a grizzly Shifter in the middle of the woods wasn't the best idea Gil could have.
"You want me to try it?" Gil asked. "I'll probably die if I get through, but hey, you'll know it worked."
Cristian reached for the silver talisman, careful not to close his fingers around it until Bowman released it. He held it up, letting it wink in the dawn light. "It is unmistakably Fae, but perhaps not magic. An ordinary pendant, I would have thought. The most interesting thing about it is the place in which you found it."
"Not far from here," Bowman reminded him, impatient.
"Exactly. Why should a Fae brooch fall in the woods near Shiftertown? With no sign of any Fae attached to it?"
"I told you, it's magical," Bowman said. "I think Turner used it to pay off the sniper, but it wanted to stay around here, close to something Fae, like one of the gates."
Cristian slanted him a glance, opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again. He tried to hand Bowman back the pendant, but Bowman shook his head.
"Keep it," Bowman said. "You're better at figuring out Fae crap than I am. If it has anything to do with Kenzie, tell me. If not, I'm not interested."
Cristian raised his brows, but nodded and slid the talisman into a pocket.
"Dad," Ryan said, so sharply that Bowman jerked his attention to him. "Is that him?"
Bowman spun to where Ryan was pointing. The Shifters around him came alert, and Bowman moved in front of Ryan.
The mists cleared, and Turner stepped out of them.
Jamie shifted and went for him. The cheetah sprang fast and hard, with Cade, still human, just behind him. Doing their jobs, fighting to protect Bowman and bring down an enemy.
Something buzzed in Turner's hand, and Jamie's Collar went off in mid-leap. Lighting licked all the way around his neck, surrounding him in a blue nimbus. Jamie tumbled swiftly downward, his mouth open in a furious snarl, and landed hard on the dirt.