Flicking her eyes to Jace and then back to Caine, she nodded and left.
Sighing, Jace leaned back against the sofa. He knew what was coming even before Caine opened his mouth. “I’m not going. You don’t need everyone there.”
Caine stood in front of Jace with his hands in his pockets. The vampire’s casual stance was deceiving. Jace knew that under Caine’s spit and polish beat the heart of a formidable predator. Not someone a person would want on their bad side. Jace knew this was going to lead to a disagreement. They butted heads on a weekly basis.
“It isn’t up for discussion, Jace. The whole team goes.”
Standing, Jace brushed past Caine to pace the room. He had a hard time staying still for more than ten minutes at a time. It was even harder with the moon calling to him. It was close to a full moon and Jace should’ve been out running through the woods instead of being at work. That the lab was underground and didn’t have any windows was a small blessing. At least he didn’t have to see his pale mistress begging for him to come play with her.
“Who’s going to run the lab?”
“Monty can handle it. He’s not a complete incompetent ass.”
Jace arched his brow. Everyone knew that the day supervisor was an incompetent ass.
Caine shrugged. “Okay, he is, but he can handle it while we’re gone. Jace, there isn’t an argument you can give me that’s going to change my position on the matter.”
“I can’t do it, Chief. Not after all I went through. I can’t be around them.”
“We’ve all suffered in the past.”
Jace stopped pacing and glared at him.
Caine put up his hand in defense. “Yes, some more than others. But you have to get over it, Jace. It’s history.”
“Not to me.” Jace opened his mouth to protest further, but Caine kept talking. The vampire had a remarkably effective habit of doing that.
“You need to get over yourself and do the job. It’s as simple as that.” Taking his hands out of his pockets, Caine moved to the door. “I’ll see you in the garage in a half hour.”
Anger surged through Jace as he continued to pace. He hated being ordered to do anything. Especially something like this. He couldn’t ignore what had happened and he couldn’t forget.
Over the past few months, he’d been able to warm up to Eve, despite her being human. They weren’t best buddies and never would be, but he could sit down with her and have a conversation. Sometimes even philosophical ones that he quite enjoyed. Of course, he would never openly admit that to anyone.
When she arrived in Necropolis to work the Crawford murder a few months ago, Jace had thought she was as useless as the rest of the human population. To his surprise, she turned out to be a good investigator and a good person. If Caine loved her, there had to be something remarkable about her. He figured she was an anomaly.
One human was tolerable, but an entire city? There was no way Jace could handle it. The plethora of smells and sounds alone would drive him mad. Sometimes his lycanthropy was a curse.
Caine cleared his throat. Jace had completely forgotten that he was still there. “You’re the best investigator I have, Jace. I need you with me on this.” Without another word, he left.
Sighing, Jace ran a hand through his scraggly mop of brown hair. The chief had an uncanny ability to make him feel commended and disciplined at the same time; when he was telling Jace he was doing a good job, Jace also felt the suggestion that he could do better. When it came down to it, Caine made him want to be a better investigator and a better man.
The fact that his mentor was a vampire and not a werewolf wasn’t lost on Jace. He just shrugged it off as another interesting reason he loved living in Necropolis. The species that resided in the city certainly had their differences, but as a community they had learned to work around them. There were rules and regulations set up to protect each species.
In the human world there were no rules.
Pausing for a moment, Jace sat on the edge of the long wooden table and took in some deep breaths. He’d need to center himself if he was going to work with humans. He was a moody son of a bitch as it was. Being around a bunch of humans for more than a few hours was going to put him in a permanently foul state. He’d need some inner peace if he was going to keep at bay his urges to shift when he felt cornered or confronted.
He’d had six years to work on it since he’d been employed by the lab. The first year had been touch and go with Caine and the others on the team. He hadn’t been sure if he would ever be able to work well with others. He’d shifted forms so many times in moments of anger that for a while everyone called him Wolf Jericho.
It had been Caine who had helped him with self-control. The baron had wanted to fire him the first time he’d shifted and pinned one of the lab techs to the wall, but Caine had insisted on giving Jace another chance. And another. And another. He claimed that, being a lycan, Jace had a natural gift for crime-scene work.
Jace could still remember his first case. The evidence he had found at the scene and processed in the lab had put a two-time r**ist behind bars. It had been a rush to know that the work he did was the reason the police were able to get the violent criminal off the streets and into a prison.
After a year, Jace, as well as the rest of the staff, realized the chief had been right. He was very good at his job. Crime detection became his life. He breathed, ate and slept the job. He couldn’t think of anything else he wanted to do. He still got a rush with every new case.
Except there was no thrilling rush with this case, only fear and hostility.
He didn’t want to admit it to Caine, but he was afraid to go into San Antonio. What if they found out about him? About his gift of shape-shifting? What if this time, they didn’t let him live in Necropolis with the others, but put him back into the freak show where he grew up? Jace knew he’d never survive something like that again.