We get in the van and Sam drives down the mountain, into San Diego. We end up downtown, where he parallel parks and we get out. He tugs me into a drugstore and buys me a toothbrush, t-shirt, underwear and leggings. He insists on stuffing my dress and lab coat in a dumpster. Something about scent trails.
We sit down in a hipster diner. Suddenly starving, I order huevos rancheros with avocado and a cup of coffee.
Sam appears pleased. He orders enough food for three more people.
Tremors at the base of my skull have my head shaking, but it's not noticeable enough for Sam to see.
"My apartment isn't far from here," I try again. "Maybe we could just swing by to see if the coast is clear."
Sam narrows his eyes. "Tell me what you need there, Layne."
I suck my lower lip into my mouth, wishing he wasn't so damn perceptive. "Nothing. Nevermind. You're right-it's not worth it."
He watches me for a long moment. "Are you from San Diego?"
A prickle of unease shudders through me. There's mistrust behind the seemingly casual question. Probably because he knows I'm keeping something from him. Maybe that's why I tell him more than I mean to.
"I grew up in San Francisco. Chinatown." I head off the annoying question everyone wants to ask when they hear where I'm from. "My mom died when I was eight. My father never recovered. He's a biology professor. He took a position in London after I went to college, so I don't really have a home anymore."
Sam's gone still, like I'm sharing the secrets of the universe. "Do you visit him in London?"
I don't know why I blush. I guess because I'm a bad daughter who has no desire to see the hollow man my father's become. "No." I take a sip of the coffee. It will make my tremors worse, but the familiar bitter taste grounds me.
"What about you? You weren't born and raised in that lab, were you?" My stomach knots thinking about his traumatic past.
"Almost. I was an in vitro experiment. I'm not sure how I was actually born. My birth certificate lists a human female as my mother, but it's doubtful I'm a half-breed. I grew up in foster care until I hit puberty, which is when we first shift. Then, one day I was picked up from school and taken to the lab where I spent the next four years in testing."
I fight back the tears welling in my eyes, crowding my throat. "And then what?" I force the words past my lips.
Sam's eyes glow yellow, gaze unfocused. His fingers curl into fists.
Without thinking, I reach across the table and touch his arm. He's shaking worse than I do without meds.
"Sam?" I stroke and squeeze his balled fingers. I'm calling him back to the present from wherever he's disappeared to. "Sam."
He blinks rapidly, focus returning to my face. After a moment, his grip softens and he lets me pry his fist open. His eyes change back to pale blue.
"What happens when you look like that, Sam? Are you having a flashback?"
Sam pulls his hand away as if I bit him. He rubs his forehead. "It's… I don't know. Not a flashback. My control slips."
"The control that keeps you human?"
He nods once. "Yes."
I want to walk around the table and wrap my arms around him. Sit in his lap and kiss his neck and make him stay with me. The urge to care for him is so strong it stuns me.
I haven't made emotional connections to anyone since my mom died and my dad withdrew into himself. But things have been different with Sam from the beginning.
~.~
Sam
LAYNE PICKS up my hand and holds it to her face.
The metallic cacophony in my ears immediately recedes. My pounding heart slows. I draw in a deep breath. Then a shudder runs through me, as if touching Layne made my body reset.
"You make it better and worse at the same time," I confess.
She arches a brow. "I do?"
"Yeah." I give her a rueful smile. "Somehow you calm the beast inside me-except when I get turned on. Then all bets are off."
"Tell me what happened. How did it end-the testing?"
The sound of grinding gears starts up again. I shake my head. "Not now."
She looks like she's going to argue, but the waitress shows up with our food. I wait to make sure she's really going to eat before I shovel mine into my mouth. Shit. She's so damn fragile-it kills me to think of her stressing her body through long years of study and research. She deserves to live-really live. A part of me wants to show her how-starting right now.
But hell, what do I know? My whole life has been focused on survival or revenge. I wouldn't even know how to begin living or showing Layne anything more.
Layne
I GNAW my lip as Sam pulls up to a low-slung cottage in Chula Vista. I've decided that Sam has a super power other than the werewolf thing. He's got some sort tractor beam-like intensity that sucks you in and doesn't let go. Until you find yourself on the run, visiting random people in rundown housing in an attempt to take down an evil corporation that happened to be your former employer. How else can I explain the turn my life has taken in the past twenty-four hours?
"What are we doing here again?" I ask.
"I have someone looking over the data I stole to find a lead on Smyth. In the meantime, I'm gonna try to find Nash."
"The lion shifter?"
"Yeah. He volunteered for the program. My gut tells me he might know more about the Data-X program. Maybe even how to get to Smyth."
"And you think he's here?" I eye the dilapidated cottage.
"No. But I think the guy who lives here knows where to find him." Sam is out of the car and opening my door before I can protest. "Come on."