"What does that mean?"

"For the rest of your life, you're going to be hunted," Tobias informed her.

She glared at Slade. She had him to thank for that. If he'd just left her in her lab, none of this would have happened. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

The urge to kick something, or someone, increased.

"But we can keep you safe," Tobias promised.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Would you stake Penny's life on that?"

Tobias didn't give her the satisfaction of a response. "We're wasting time."

"Did I strike a nerve?"

"Control your woman, Slade," Tobias snapped.

Jane rolled her eyes. Like there was anything Slade could do to control her.

"Enough," Slade drawled obligingly.

She looked at Slade. "That's your attempt at controlling me?"

With a pointed look at Tobias, he answered, "That's my attempt to make you see reason before I have to take charge of someone."

"You think you can take me, Johnson?" Tobias demanded.

Slade didn't back down an inch. "I think we're about to find out."

Gravel crunched under Derek's feet as he emerged from the shadows. "I told you, Tobias, beneath that lab coat the man is a fighter."

"We don't need him to fight. We need him to get the information from her before it's too late. If he can't, he needs to step aside and let someone else do it."

Jane felt a probe at the edges of her mind. Potent energy just beyond her boundaries, coiled and ready to strike.

She took a step back. Tobias.

"Don't." Slade's warning was couched in a savage growl. When Jane glanced over, she saw Derek had Slade by the arm. Slade's fangs were exposed.

Derek glared at Tobias. "You've said enough."

"We don't have much time."

"Then we'll make it," Slade shot back.

"Make it fast." The energy withdrew. Turning on his heel, Tobias vanished back into the shadows.

Jane rubbed her hands over her arms. "I do not like that man."

"He grows on you," Derek said.

Slade put his finger to the transceiver she knew was in his ear.

"Why don't you just talk telepathically to everyone?" she asked when he was done.

"Because I can't talk mentally with a werewolf unless I've bitten him, and biting a were gets complicated."

"Politics?"

"A s.h.i.tload full."

"Tobias is a were."

"We're not sure what Tobias is."

"He's more than a werewolf."

"Yes."

He didn't offer any more information.

"If you did take a were's blood, would they be able to read your mind, too?" Jane asked.

"Not necessarily. Only if they had psychic power before they were bitten."

"Is it the same with humans?"

Slade shook his head. "If a human survives being converted, he becomes a vampire with some level of vampire power, but those powers do seem tied to whatever latent tendencies they have as humans."

"Really?" That was interesting.

Slade nodded, though his attention was clearly not on her but on whatever was being whispered in his ear.

"Why can't I have one of those earpiece things?"

He glanced at her but didn't answer. She knew what that meant. She was being excluded from the earpiece conversation "for her own protection."

With a "Got it" he dropped his hand. He motioned her behind him. "Let's go."

Finally. "To the house?"

"Yes."

Now that it was time, a sick feeling settled in her stomach. No one was that tense and on guard for no reason. "They've been here, haven't they?"

"Yes."

He took her hand. His energy smoothed over hers. How sweet he was worried about her. "I'm not going to fall apart if they wrecked the place."

"Good."

"They didn't find the flash drive."

His eyebrow c.o.c.ked at her. "You sound sure."

"I am." Because no doubt they'd been looking in the house. She didn't say that to Slade because she wanted to see her home. Everything about her life right now was so surreal, all the threats she never felt supposedly there. She needed evidence that the bad guy still existed. That the threat hadn't been eradicated at the parking garage that day. She needed to know this wasn't a figment of her imagination, that she hadn't eaten some bad mushrooms or something. She let Slade escort her to the house, bracing herself for the worst.

And the worst is what she saw when she got inside the door. She looked around the shambles of her once neat little bungalow and sighed. They hadn't just been searching for her notes. They'd been venting their spleen on the place where she kept the few things that mattered to her. The place she'd created into her sanctuary was now a victim of war.

"They made a mess of things."

"I'm sorry," Slade murmured.

"Thank you."

From the way Slade's men were spread around the room, they'd been doing a bit of searching of their own. "Did you find what you were looking for?" she asked a younger man with brown hair and light brown eyes.

He shrugged and looked to Slade. Clearly he was tossing her complaints up the chain of command. Turning to Slade, she asked, "What would you have done if you'd found the research?"

"Spared you this."

"And then?"

"Asked you to work with it."

"After you'd a.n.a.lyzed it yourself?"

He didn't lie. "Yes."

"So maybe you wouldn't need me anymore."

"Jane, I'm always going to need you. But only one person having the information this vital is not good strategy."

"Maybe not for you, but that research is pretty much my life insurance."

He smiled that bad-boy smile and caught her chin on his fingertips. "Sweetness, I told you that first night, I'm your life insurance."

She wanted to jerk her chin away, but she knew what came next. She was such a sucker for bad boys. This one in particular. "Because you're the bada.s.s vampire that can kick Sanctuary b.u.t.t?"

His fingers skimmed down her neck. Flickers of lightning raced down her spine. His eyes narrowed and his mouth softened. He leaned in. Hot and potent, his energy wrapped around her. She shivered and bit back a moan. His lips touched the delicate flesh just beneath her ear. She felt the moistness of his breath. The graze of his teeth. The force of his pa.s.sion. Goose b.u.mps raced up her arms. Her knees went weak.

His chuckle as he caught her was positively wicked. "Exactly."

JANE supposed Slade was her insurance policy in many ways, but she hadn't gotten this far in life by relying on others. She wasn't going to start now, especially when so much of the threat was in shadows. She looked at bits and pieces of her life tossed about the room. Her once orderly existence now in disarray. A lot like how she felt inside when she looked at Slade. He wanted from her what she'd never given anyone. Complete trust. Complete faith. A hot, s.e.xy bad boy with a mission. She could still feel his touch on the sensitive skin of her neck, the subsequent kiss. Her own personal kryptonite. She was in so much trouble.

A dish toppled off the debris scattered across the counter. It hit the floor with a sharp crash, splintering into tiny pieces. It'd taken her months to settle on that china pattern. And every time she'd added a new place setting to the set she'd felt the same sense of satisfaction. And now the set was ruined. Stepping past the soldiers, she bent down and gathered the pieces. A splinter cut into her palm. She licked her lips, feeling the last of her disbelief shatter with the same catastrophic effect. She'd been kidnapped by vampires, was guarded by werewolves, and hunted by some combination of the two. And a little boy was dying for want of a cure she might be able to provide. She brushed her palms off on her pants. She couldn't afford denial anymore. Either she let that boy die or she put her faith in Slade and his version of the truth.

Porcelain crunched as Slade approached. She watched him as he knelt down beside her. She expected him to say "leave it." Instead, he gathered up a few more pieces and held them out. "We'll replace it."

She shook her head at the irrelevance of replacing china if everything else he'd been telling her was true. "It's antique."

"So am I."

Was he trying to make her laugh? She grabbed an empty plastic grocery bag off the floor "Yes, you are."

He c.o.c.ked his head to her side. "You're not saying that with a smile."

"I'm not feeling like smiling."

He motioned to broken pieces of china. "I'm sorry about this."

She held out the bag. He dropped the pieces in. "It's not your fault."

"I'm still sorry."

Looking into his eyes, she believed him. But believing that he was sorry didn't change reality, didn't ease the decision she was about to make. Sorry wasn't going to fix the catastrophe that could happen if she put the bits and pieces of her research together and the wrong hands got hold of it. Sorry had its limitations.

"Thank you." Tying a knot in the top of the bag, she set it on the floor and dusted off her hands. Looking around the shambles of her home, she realized there was nothing she wanted to salvage. Slade helped her to his feet.

"I told you they would have been here," Slade said.

She'd understood that. It was only logical that someone hunting information she had would search her home. "Yes, you did. But knowing it and seeing it are two different things."

His hand on her shoulder startled her. The destruction of her home had affected her more than she'd antic.i.p.ated. Whereas before she'd felt safe, she now saw demons in every shadow.

"You need to get your notes."

"I know.

"You need to get them now."

To further emphasize Slade's "now," Tobias spoke up from his position at the door. "There's no doubt they're watching this place, and those two Sanctuary spies we found aren't likely to be the only ones."

"You said your guys took them out before they got a message out?" Jane asked.

Tobias nodded. "Those new pups have Jace's efficiency."

The new pups were young men with long hair and an edgy energy that made Jane think of wild animals chewing at their chains. She was not the least surprised they killed efficiently. "All right."

Grabbing a set of tongs out of the debris and shouldering her backpack, she headed for the back door.

"Where are you going?"