hesitated to answer questions once the secret was out. It was from Samson he learned to not meet the eyes of the wolf with his head tilted up if he didn’t care to be taken for prey, or a subordinate. It was from Samson he learned not to run from the wolf, not to back away, and not to advance in a sudden movement. Whether Samson had meant for him to stand his ground when the shifter was in human form, snarling like the wolf, Jeffery didn’t know. But he also didn’t take chances. Since that night he treated the human form much as he would the wolf form in terms of how dangerous the man could be.
The saying ‘the eyes are a window to the soul’ was obviously created for shifters. At least, Jeffery thought so. He had learned the eyes shifted, depending on the mood perhaps, or something else, he wasn’t sure. But it didn’t matter, he learned to watch the eyes. If the eyes were more human in nature he didn’t have to care so much for his words but if the eyes didn’t look exactly human, something a bit different, then he didn’t back away, but he didn’t talk to his partner. He tried, to the best of his ability, to leave the shifter alone when the eyes weren’t quite human. Fortunately for him, that didn’t happen often.
The sounds of the night changed as the wolf roamed. It was one of the first things Jeffery had noted. As if the forest was afraid to give voice while a killer walked beneath the trees. When the sounds were returned to some semblance of normal he turned back toward the door. It was then he realized the mistake he and his partner had made. It was then, facing the home, that his attention was drawn to something out of place. On the door frame, above the door, something waited. Something silent and small, and one hundred percent out of place.
Jeffery wanted to snarl himself, would have loved to been able to duplicate the sound Hendrix had made that one night. As he stared at the small drone he wondered how long it had been there and whether and for whom it was recording. Reaching up he lifted it from its perch and for a moment considered smashing it against the ground. Fortunately training prevailed and he took it with him into the house where he placed it in a box designed for just such objects. Not that he had ever had cause to use a box such as this before, at least, not on this mission or the last, in fact, not for many mission in the past had he been involved in a situation where he had to secure a drone from a possible enemy. And if someone was spying on them, the person was an enemy. But of who, the organization they both worked for or the shifter, Jeffery had no way of knowing. He could only hope the drone could lead them to their enemy. But for now, he needed to pack. When Hendrix returned they would have to leave.
The mission would have to be aborted and taken up again by someone else, if the organization decided to continue. Had the drone not been there as a silent witness to Hendrix’s shift the issue wouldn’t have mattered. But it had and the existence of the drone meant the possibility existed Johanas was not as innocent as the evidence made him seem. For who else but the one they investigated would be so bold with a need so great to send a drone to the door of their house. If someone else had sent the drone, for what purpose? Jeffery didn’t have the answer to those questions. What he did have was training, and that training demanded he pack the house up and destroy all evidence. The house then would have to be destroyed, along with the computer systems. The information resided on external drives so it was but a moment of work to secure all the data and dismantle the computers down to the individual core components. Dropping those components into a bucket of acid kept by for just such a need was nothing more than a moment of his time.
When houses burned questions were raised so it was not in the best interest of the team to destroy the homes they used except in dire situations. Jeffery spent less than a thought on the