Hotbloods (Hotbloods #1)

The lycan shut off the device.

I understood that the camera was there for safety reasons, and was a little confused as to why the lycan had bent on this request. His curiosity must be overshadowing his caution.

He looked back at Navan and nodded. “Proceed.”

Navan shifted in his chair, positioning himself in a more upright posture, before launching into his explanation. From the fact that Vysanthe had become obsessed with seeking an elixir for immortality, to Navan discovering Earth, to his desire to keep it safe from his compatriots, to how he came across me, and everything that had happened since we left Texas. The main thing Navan omitted was the fact that he had killed the lycan agent who discovered his bunker—and fortunately, this lycan didn’t seem to know about an agent going missing up north… which might confirm Navan’s earlier suspicion that the Fed agent who came after him had been working alone.

By the time Navan was finished, the lycan was frowning, his expression unnervingly difficult to interpret. The look he was giving Navan could be either disbelief or deep thought.

“That shapeshifter who took Navan’s friend hostage in order to follow us,” I ventured, wanting to break the quiet that had descended, “was he an ally of the Fed? Was he working for you?”

The lycan’s eyes switched to me, and he barked out a dry laugh. “Absolutely not. We would no sooner work with shapeshifters than we would with coldbloods. Dishonest, conniving creatures.”

I felt some of the blood leave my face as I glanced over at Navan. “Then who was he?” Why had he been waiting in Navan’s bunker, and why was he following us? Had it been the shifters who somehow discovered Navan’s lair, and stolen all his equipment?

Navan looked confused and disturbed by my question, but he pushed it aside, as we came to the crux of the matter. “So will you help me fix my ship or not?” he asked. The Fed might not have his tools after all, but Navan had seemed sure that they’d at least have their own advanced tech that could help.

The lycan looked away and stood up, before prowling up and down the room, his hands clasped behind his back. “The problem is,” he began, and my stomach instantly dropped at his cold tone. “I have no idea if anything you have told me can be trusted. It all sounds very urgent and life threatening, but I’ve never come across a coldblood in my life who wasn’t a scheming bastard.” He paused and looked at Navan. “That’s the downside of belonging to a race as sadistic and depraved as yours, you see. Everyone always expects an ulterior motive.”

“Please,” I urged. “You’re wrong—he isn’t like the others, I promise. Why would I be helping him if he wasn’t acting for the benefit of my kind?”

“He could be blackmailing you, and you could be an exceptional actress.” He rolled his eyes. “You could even be a shapeshifter, for all I know, who decided to ally with a coldblood.”

I exhaled in frustration. “So, what? You’re going to dismiss everything we’ve told you? Aren’t the risks far greater if you don’t help us?”

The lycan returned to his seat, and gave the two of us a considering look. “I didn’t say we wouldn’t help you—that decision isn’t even up to me. But given that we have limited resources, which are stretched to the max at this current time, my job is to gauge the truth of information that is presented to me, before relaying it to my superiors for consideration.

“While our usual response to a coldblood would be to shoot him through the head, I admit that what you’ve told me is concerning, if true. It could also be designed to lead us up the garden path—perhaps even put some of our agents into danger. So, before I even consider relaying your information to our chief, I need to be damned sure of your intentions. As a bloodsucker, you’d better expect to jump through some hoops.”

“We’re telling the truth,” Navan said. “So we’ll do what you ask.”

The lycan breathed in, leaning back thoughtfully in his chair, and then stood up again. “Wait here.”

With that, he moved to the door and left the room.

“I can’t believe this,” I said, unable to keep the frustration from my voice. I was painfully aware of the seconds ticking by, that little pod containing my blood drifting ever closer to Vysanthe. We didn’t have time to be doubted!

Navan, while clearly annoyed, didn’t seem all that surprised by the lycan’s response. “Like he said, it’s what I get for being a coldblood,” he replied. “He’s right not to trust my word. If I were in his shoes, I wouldn’t trust me either.”

I flinched at his self-deprecation, knowing that it couldn’t be easy to be judged like that—to be discriminated against purely on the basis of his physical appearance—in spite of how much he was risking for Earth’s benefit. It made me want to reach out and touch his shoulder, reassure him that I knew he was a good man, but I refrained, since if there was one thing I had detected about Navan in the brief time I’d known him, it was that he didn’t seek sympathy.

The lycan reentered the room carrying a black folder filled with documents, which he dropped on the floor in front of Navan.

“I’m going to give you an opportunity to prove your intentions with action,” the lycan announced. “A little task that will help me buy into your motivation. Now… on the subject of shapeshifters, it’s coincidental that you happened to run into one. We have reason to believe that there has been a recent infestation of them here on Earth, in spite of Earth being forbidden territory to them—the Fed made that clear decades ago.

“This folder contains evidence suggesting that the shapeshifters have established—or are in the process of establishing—an organized base here. Their motives are yet unknown. What I’m asking you to do, with the help of these files, is two things: one, uncover the coordinates of their base, and two, gauge an approximation of the base’s size. We want an estimation of how many shapeshifters we’re up against. Then, you will report these two pieces of intel back to me. Fairly straightforward.”

Navan paled. “That is no small task, lycan. It’s going to take time to uncover their base, given their camouflage abilities, and that’s the one thing we don’t have—time. Not to mention there’s no guarantee I’ll return alive. Until a few hours ago, we were being hunted by one with a clear intent to murder.”