Blood's Shadow: The Lycanthropy Files, Book 3 by Cecilia Dominic Read Free Book Online Page B

spots.
    Steadier than before, I got out of the car on my own this time. “I’m getting better.”
    “Let’s take a look just to make sure.”
    He opened the side door with a key and flipped on the lights. We both squinted against the glare. The blood scent still lingered, although not as strongly.
    A bump from upstairs drew our gazes to the ceiling.
    “Someone’s in Lonna’s office,” Max whispered.
    “Are you sure?”
    He nodded, and we moved toward a door marked Stairs. “We’re directly below the office, and as I recall, we left her at home. There’s no reason for the security guards to be in there.”
    “Do you have a cleaning crew?” I followed him to the door.
    “We told the cleaners not to come tonight. I’ll check it out. Stay here.”
    “I’m fine,” I said. Adrenaline and that extra push from the dopamine that activated when we were about to change cleared the fog in my head. “I’m going to change.”
    He put a hand on my arm. “Not until I can scan you. Rearranging yourself may cause further damage.”
    “I’m still coming with you.”
    He nodded. “There’s a second stairwell at the other end of the hall. I’ll take that one.”
    The darkness in the stairwell seemed total as my eyes adjusted back from being in the light. With my hearing attuned for any sound that might indicate someone coming down, I felt my way up the railing. The stairwell itself smelled like paint, new rubber and cleaning agents, which blocked out the blood.
    By the time I emerged onto the second floor, my eyes had adjusted back to the darkness.
    Max came out of the stairwell on the other end of the hall, and we both closed in on Lonna’s office. I listened for the faintest sound, but the only noise in my ears was my own heartbeat and Max’s breathing.
    “Anything?” he mouthed.
    “No.”
    The door stood slightly ajar, which indicated someone had been there, and he nudged it completely open. Light from the waxing moon poured through the windows and over Lonna’s desk. As with LeConte’s office, paper was strewn everywhere, but thankfully, no body lay on the desk.
    Max indicated he would go around the desk and look underneath. I stayed by the door in case the intruder hid elsewhere and decided to make a break for it. He shone his cell phone torch app under the desk, and I saw its light flicker in the little space between the bottom of the desk and the floor.
    “Nothing,” he said out loud.
    I walked around and checked other possible nooks and crannies, even checking the wingback chairs to make sure no one sat curled up in them.
    “Is there another way out beside the hallway and stairwells?” I asked.
    “Only the windows, but there’s nowhere to go once you’re out, not even a ledge.”
    “No secret passages?”
    He gave me a doubtful look. “It’s a new building.”
    “Hey, it’s Scotland,” I said, but then my attention returned to the mess. “Can you tell if anything’s missing?”
    “No, only Lonna would be able to.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I suppose we should call her. And Garou. And find the security guards.”
    “I’ll have the detective post twenty-four hour surveillance on the place,” I said. “Twice in one day is twice too many. Damn, I wish I could figure out where the perp went.”
    “What if no one was actually here?” Max asked.
    “What do you mean?”
    “You know about Wolf-Lonna and my abilities to create an astral projection.”
    I arched an eyebrow. “True, but you’ve set up wards around the place to ensure none but you and she could get through, right?”
    “Yes, but those are not always foolproof.”
    He walked to the door, and I followed him into the hallway. He locked the door behind him.
    “It will take me some time to test them and see if I can determine whether they’ve been breached,” he told me. “Meanwhile, let’s get you scanned to make sure you don’t have any edema from your head injury.”
    I felt the back of my head where they’d