see. He made out one set of prints just outside the passenger door. His heart froze with fear. What if Dr. Phenix found her? What tortures did he plan on this time? Xeon’s fear quickly turned to anger. He growled on his walk around the car, looking for anything else that would help them.
They spotted a set of tire tracks behind Raveena’s car. Looked like someone had spun their tires to get away quickly. It was too much of a coincidence that the tire marks lined up perfectly for someone parked behind the girls. He continued his walk around when something caught his attention under the car on the driver’s side.
“Watch out,” Xeon bent down on his hands and knees.
He reached under the car where Kyro sat. He collected the small squares of paper from the ground. When he stood up, he dusted off his knees and looked at the paper.
“This is Raveena’s insurance and registration card,” Xeon told him nervously.
Kyro looked in Raveena’s wallet for her driver’s license. Not finding it, he closed the wallet and tossed it in the passenger seat. Xeon leaned into the car to see if they found her ID. He spotted it between the door and the seat. There’s only one thing she would get all this out for. They both knew instantly that Sheriff Langley was dirty.
“Fuck!” Xeon and Kyro said in unison.
Chapter Fifteen
Mara woke up in a dark room, wearing a hospital gown, cold dirt against her back. There were a few dim lights placed on the walls, only illuminating a few feet around them. The pounding of heartbeats alerted her to others in the room. Her eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness. She saw much more than she should have been able to. She probably had the panther and vampire to thank for that. There were cages all around the one she was locked in, much like at the hospital, but this couldn’t be the hospital. Once again, she was in hell.
“Son of a bitch!” She knew her gut told her not to trust the fucking sheriff.
She glanced around the room. There were shifters in the cages. No way to distinguish their identities with them being in animal form. A hyena across from her could be Benny. A depressed gorilla lay in the next cage. He looked like he’d given up any hope of ever escaping. A bear stood on the end next to a white wolf. She hadn’t seen them before, but that didn’t mean they weren’t at the hospital.
A man lay on the floor at the back of the room. He huddled up in the corner. Hopefully, he just slept. However, she didn’t see any wolves. The last time she was imprisoned, two angry wolves were in the cells. Did Dr. Phenix change them?
She heard the loudest of all heartbeats in the cell next to her. Mara focused on the cage where a beautiful tiger lay on the dirt floor. It had to be Trina; she’d been a tiger last time she saw her.
“Trina, is that you?” she asked the tiger. The magnificent animal raised its head and looked at her. “If that’s you, please shift for me. It would be nice to talk to you.”
The tiger moved closer to the bars between them but didn’t shift. Mara reached her hand through the gap in the bars and ran her hand over the tiger’s soft fur. The tiger swayed, weak in the knees.
Mara heard footsteps above them. The ceiling creaked with the weight of the person up there. Doors opened and closed nearby. Suddenly the lights flipped on. The illumination was bright enough to momentarily blind a person. Mara closed her eyes and let her eyes adjust to the brightness. When she opened her eyes, Dr. Phenix stood in front of her cage.
“You thought you got away from me.” A sinister grin crept across his face.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Mara narrowed her eyes at the bastard.
“Making history, of course.” His sinister look turned smug. “Imagine, if you were tired of the shifter within. I can change that. Think about it. A human can come to me wanting certain skills like running. I’ll work my magic and... poof, he’ll be a cheetah shifter.”
“Do you think you’re God?” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Oh, my dear, I think I surpassed that a long time ago.”
“What? You’re going to open a shop now?” She couldn’t believe how arrogant the man before her was.
“Not yet, I’m still in the collection