Savor Me Slowly (Alien Huntress #3)(15)
Author: Gena Showalter

Concentrate. He closed his eyes, drew in a slow breath.

Jack snorted. “Taking a nap, Gutierrez? That’s not what I pay you for.”

He didn’t open his eyes. “I need a moment to think.”

“Think at your desk.”

“Jack,” he growled.

There was a pause. A sigh. “Fine. Whatever.” Papers shuffled, a cabinet rolled open. “Sometimes you’re a pain in my ass,” Jack muttered. “I should kick you into next week.”

Dallas tuned out the background noise and reached deep inside himself, not stopping until he found the shadowy corner where he’d tried to bury each of his new abilities.

They swirled and churned, bright lights in a world of black. He didn’t know which was which, didn’t know which to unleash. If he accidentally kicked into hyperspeed, Jack would not be able to see or hear him, so he’d be of no use to Jaxon.

You aren’t alien, a tiny voice spoke up. You arrest and slaughter otherworlders for doing this. It’s against the law. He quickly squashed the voice. For Jaxon, he reminded himself. Anything.

Jaxon would do no less for him.

Not knowing what else to do or how to choose, Dallas simply cut the tether restraining all of the lights. Immediately they shot through him, pinging from one corner to another and heating his blood to boiling. His muscles spasmed painfully, forcing a groan from his clenched teeth.

“Dallas? You okay, man? Listen, I know you’ve been having a hard time since the accident. You’ve lost Mia to the training camp, Jaxon to rogue aliens, and the other agents are leery of you. I know that has to hurt. Your eyes changed from brown to blue in a single night, man. That freaked them out a little. Give them time. They’ll forget soon enough and maybe start to believe you used to wear contacts.”

Every bone in Dallas’s body seemed to expand, stretching his skin tightly.

Jack continued, unaware. “Hell, I might even start to believe it. God knows you won’t talk about the truth and that’s fine. I don’t need it. You’re a good agent, one of my best. You’ve never let me down. I trust you. So trust me on this, okay? Drop the quest for answers about Jaxon. He’ll return to us soon enough.”

Dallas’s throat was constricting, grabbing every breath that tried to enter or escape and holding tight, choking the life out of him. His ears rang, a banshee’s wail.

“I’ve hired a new girl,” Jack continued, still oblivious to the pain surging through Dallas. “Macy Brigs. I think you’ll like her. Not as sassy as Mia, but—what’s wrong with you?”

I’m on fire. I’m going to die in a burst of flames. Breathe, he needed to breathe.

Dallas’s eyelids popped.

He was still sitting in the chair, still visible, which meant he hadn’t kicked into hyperdrive. The spasms suddenly eased, and his muscles relaxed. His throat finally opened, and he sucked in a gulp of air.

Thank God the flames ebbed to a crackle.

Jack’s lips parted on a gasp. “Your eyes…they’re glowing.”

He’d succeeded. He knew it, felt the power deep inside. “Bark like a robodog.” His voice was layered with threads of energy that thickened the air. He could feel the pulse of it, the hum.

“Arrf, arrf.” No hesitation from Jack, no snorting or laughing or asking why.

Not even as a joke would serious Jack usually have done such a thing. Yes, Dallas had done it. He should have been ecstatic, but it was a hollow victory.

“Jack, you will tell me everything you’ve been ordered not to tell about Jaxon.” Wait. A good agent knew to cover his tracks. “And once you’ve spoken of it, you’ll forget what you told me in this office.”

Jack stilled, his breathing slowed. His turquoise eyes glazed over, as if he’d been pumped full of drugs or hypnotized. Then, he began talking. He told of a new alien species, of a virus and infected women. He told of a race between otherworlders and humans to capture the men responsible, for otherworlders could use the virus to destroy humankind.

Dallas listened, his stomach filling with jagged shards of lead. Shards that cut, made him bleed internally. “Why won’t the government let us see Jaxon?”

“I honestly don’t know.” Jack sounded like a robot, voice monotone, devoid of any type of emotion. “I’ve requested his return on three separate occasions and was finally told to shut my mouth or lose my job.”

No wonder we monitor this power and destroy those who use it. Dallas could have forced his boss to share his darkest secret. Could have forced his boss to kill every agent in the building.

Such power could be addicting.

“Call Mia.” As he spoke, his blood began to cool and his hold on the mesmerizing intonation faded…slipping from him…finally gone completely. No! He gripped his chair, feeling a bit light-headed and a lot weak. With those ghostly hands, he reached inside himself a second time, but couldn’t find a single light. They’d winked out, vanished. For the moment? Or the rest of his life?

The puppet-glaze disappeared from Jack’s eyes. He shook his head, as though trying to clear his thoughts.

Tense, Dallas waited for his boss to snap at him, fire him, something. But the conversation was never mentioned. Jack had truly forgotten it.

“You look pale,” Jack said, frowning over at him.

Determination pushed Dallas onward. “Tell Mia to return.” Together, they could hunt Jaxon down. They could do what those government officials probably deemed unnecessary: save him. “Please.”

“No.” Jack gave another shake of his head. He rummaged through his top drawer and withdrew a bottle of antacids. “She volunteered to teach at the academy. You know that, just as you know she’s using their database to try and hunt down other halflings, as well as her brother. She won’t appreciate being summoned, and when that woman gets angry, bad things happen.” Jack shuddered and shook a half dozen or so of the little pills into his mouth, chewed, swallowed.

“She’d kill us all if Jaxon dies and she wasn’t even told of his capture. Give her a choice, at least.”

Jack’s frown deepened. “Look. The truth is, I don’t need pressure from her, too, and that’s exactly what I’ll get if she comes back.”

Dallas arched a brow and pinned his boss with a get-real stare. “You’ll also get a bullet in the brain if she finds out you kept this from her.” Sadly, he wasn’t joking. Mia was the epitome of violence. After the upbringing she’d had, Dallas understood that, even sympathized. While she’d calmed down since falling in love with Kyrin en Arr, king of the Arcadians, she was still a frightening enemy to have.