Crystal Jordan - Embrace the Night

Chloe sighed, closing her eyes. “I was home, sleeping. Alone.”

“I see.”

She opened her eyes to meet Selina’s gaze. “Am I going to be arrested?”

Those dark eyes were unblinking, and the detective’s slim body appeared almost relaxed in her chair, but Chloe could feel the tension running through her. “Have you done anything I should arrest you for?”

Chloe clenched her jaw, stomping down on the unwarranted guilt that rol ed through her. “No, I have not.”

“Then you’re not under arrest.”

Yet. The word hung in the air, unspoken, but both women thought it.

“Wel , that’s a relief.” Her voice was deadpan, because she knew for damn sure she was stil under suspicion, if not arrest. Then something occurred to her, and she felt stupid for not having thought of it before. She reached for her purse. “Damien cal ed me this morning around the time you’re talking about. He left a message because, as I said, I was in bed, alone, sleeping.”

Flipping on the speakerphone feature, she played the message for Selina, but could tel that the woman didn’t think this ruled Chloe out of anything.

“We’re going to want a copy of that message.” The detective shifted in her seat, her gaze scanning the documents in front of her, and then she changed her line of questioning. “He mentioned a project. Can you tel me about the nature of your work with Dr. Raines?”

“We make up two of the three team leads involved in the Desmodus Werewolf Project.” The breath eased from Chloe’s lungs. This, at least, was something she could talk about without worrying. Her love life might be in constant shambles, but her career was impeccable.

Selina’s body went rigid, her eyes rising to meet Chloe’s, and for once her expression was unguarded.

“The project to cure lycanthropy?”

“Not to cure it, to control it.” Al too eager to talk about anything but Damien’s murder, Chloe started babbling. “At this time, wolves are compel ed to Change with the ful moon. Their magic fluctuates wildly with the lunar cycles. The result is an astronomical number of wolf deaths per year. As far as I know, there’d be no way to cure therianthropy, the magical disease that engenders the vampire and werewolf races. It changes their bodies on a molecular level. Regulating the worst side effects of those diseases is certainly possible, which is what I’m working on with Damien. Was working on.”

Werewolves could shift at any time, and after enough years, it became easier for them to control, but a relatively low percentage of the population survived long enough for that. Ful moon was the only time they were forced to shift. It was also the only time they could turn Normals into wolves, and without the older members of a pack to control the cubs and newly Changed, they rampaged at ful moon, biting as many humans as they could. Wolves and vampires who turned humans without authorization were put to death for the crime and for possibly exposing Magickals to the whole world, but only werewolves dealt with a monthly rampage. The outcome of the lycanthropy project was important to so many people, but Chloe usual y managed to focus on the research in front of her. More pressure didn’t make the work go faster.

Selina was quiet for a long moment, obviously processing what she knew against what Chloe had told her. “You said two of three team leads.”

How this was related to Damien and his fiancée’s deaths, Chloe didn’t know, but she was ready to tel this woman whatever she wanted to know in order to get out of this police station. And away from any chance of running into Merek again. “Yes, the third team is lead by Dr. Ivan Nemov. His wife died during the ful moon Change several years ago. She was my best friend. Their son, Alex, is my godson.”

“Sounds like this project is a personal crusade for you.” The detective tapped her fingernail against the table, her brow creased in thought. Her gaze was no less cold when she looked at Chloe.

Again, Chloe fought the urge to fidget. She took a sip of the cooling coffee, tried a warming spel , and more disquiet crawled through her as she was reminded that no magic worked in this interrogation room.

“It’s very important to me, yes. It’s an obsession for Ivan. It was an intel ectual pursuit for Damien.”

The table tapping continued, and Chloe heard it like an ominous drumbeat in her head. Selina’s mouth worked for a moment before she spoke, as if this questioning had gone so far off track of what she’d expected that she wasn’t entirely sure how to continue. “So, you al knew each other wel . You’re close to the Nemovs, dated Dr. Raines. . . . Did Desmodus Industries know about your relationships with the other scientists?”

“Yes, and before you ask, projects like this are top secret, subject to industrial espionage, and guarded like national treasures.” Chloe sat up straight, her gaze narrowing. Security was something she took seriously with her work. Everything about her job, she took seriously. “No one working on the projects ever has al the pieces. You literal y can’t sel out the company if you don’t have any secrets worth buying. In this case, I have one third of the information for the research-and-development stage of the drug.”

“What, specifical y, was your role?” Selina kept tapping her finger, and the noise danced over Chloe’s ragged nerves.

“Can you stop that, please?” She gave the detective’s hand a pointed look, and Selina froze, clenching her fingers into a fist. So, she hadn’t noticed she’d been tapping. Chloe didn’t know if that should reassure her or not. She sighed. “I’m a chemist, Detective Grayson. My specialty in the Normal world of science and medicine is biochemistry. My area of expertise in the Magickal world is potions, mixing chemicals, herbs, etcetera.”

Selina hummed in her throat and looked like she wanted to start tapping again, but didn’t. “I can see why they hired you for this project.”

Might as wel give her everything. Chloe didn’t want to have to come back in for another round of questioning. In fact, if she never saw the inside of a police station again, it would be just fine with her. Sweat stuck her shirt to her back, and the frigid air-conditioning made an uncomfortable situation unbearable. She wanted out of here. “I came to Desmodus Industries with this project. Damien—Dr. Raines—and I both did.”

Those dark eyes narrowed, considering. “That’s very interesting. Desmodus is control ed by the Vampire Conclave.”

Chloe shrugged. “Dr. Nemov and his wife were the foremost experts in the field of werewolf biophysics, and they’d been pushing their pack leaders to get more funding for their research for years. Dr. Jaya Nemov and I did our residency together, and when she died, I took an interest in her research. I went to Dr. Raines, who I was dating at the time, to see if he could convince his superiors that this would be a good project for them to take on.”

What had always angered Chloe was that she, a witch, had been the one to push the project through. The pack leaders should have done something long ago, should have been trying, no matter how unsuccessful y, to find a treatment instead of accepting the terrible side effects of their disease as inevitable and unchangeable. The older wolves had the most control, of their magic and of their packs, and they’d spent so long embroiled in the vampire wars that they were comfortable with their isolationist politics. It was true they had a lot on their plates training their pack members how to use their magic, how to stay alive, but they were leaders. They—not Chloe or Ivan or Jaya—should have lead the way by reaching out for help from the other Magickal races.