Chapter 13

The Grey haired man looked up as the door to his office burst open.

"Sir there has been a breach at Windsor's"

"How long ago?"

"20 min"

"Get the chopper and a recovery team"

How in the hell did they find Windsor's room? It didn't really matter, hopefully he would get his hands on Vincent and Catherine, with Gabe already in custody they could finally start work on synthesizing what Vincent and Catherine have. It would be worth millions. He chuckled to himself thinking of Gabe, the idiot had actually thought they would turn him into a beast and just let him go…..

JT and Tess were looking through all the stuff that Windsor and his predecessor had accumulated.

"This is crazy," said Tess, "there is so much here I don't even know what I am looking at".

"Just try and concentrate on names or addresses. We need to find a target for Vincent and Catherine." Said JT

All of a sudden the doors burst open and men in black riot gear fan the room, weapons pointed at JT and Tess….

JT and Tess move close together, hands in the air.

A grey haired, older gentleman walks into the room and JT and Tess look at each other, acknowledging that this must be the man who met with Gabe.

"Well…Hello there, you are not who I was expecting to find here."

JT cleared his throat and said "Well, we weren't exactly expecting company here either, and you are?"

"My name is Maxim Reynolds. I am the CEO of Rognvrald Industries. And you would be?"

"Not Vincent or Catherine if that is who you thought you would find here." JT said trying to be brave.

Reynolds smiled, a creepy smile, the kind that makes you check your back pocket for your wallet. "Yes, that is a bit disappointing, but I have a feeling that Vincent and Catherine will be coming to see me very soon."

With that he nodded at the men, and the last thing JT remembered was looking at Tess and the sting of a tranq dart…

Reynolds addressed the leader, "Take them to the same facility as Lowan. Make sure you leave a trail for Vincent to follow."

Even though Catherine was exhausted after the day they'd had and Vincent's powerful lovemaking, she couldn't sleep so leaving Vincent sleeping peacefully, she crept downstairs to read more of Rebecca's diary.

Lucas had followed me to my Uncle's compound. I saw him after being home a few days. I was out walking, stretching my legs and getting some fresh air in the woods, when out of no where he grabbed me and pulled me behind a tree. I fought him at first until I realized it was him. He kissed me feverishly, like it had been weeks since he had seen me last instead of just a few days. I clung to him; I had missed him so much. He was the air I needed to breathe.

I warned him that is too dangerous to be this close to the compound. He did not care, he said now that he had found me; he was never letting me go. He is too reckless; he has no regard for his own safety. "Mo Thaisce, I never thought I would find anyone who accepted me, who looked at me and saw the man and not the monster, you do not realize how precious you are to me. I would take you away from here, come with me and be my love."

I desperately wanted to leave with him, but I knew that I was too valuable to my Uncle, plus I felt a responsibility to help and to protect people from Beasts. I told him that I could not leave. I had a responsibility, almost a calling to protect people, how could I do that without my families resources.

"Then I will always be nearby, all you have to do should you have need of me is call my name and I will come to you. Meet me here again tomorrow night." He kissed me and melted away into the night.

The next day it all fell apart…

My Uncle called me in to tell me that a rogue beast had been spotted near the property, he instructed me to find and kill it, but as he described what I was looking for, I realized he was talking about Lucas….

I asked him what the creature had done to warrant its death. All my Uncle would say was that several women had been killed in the area and it was feral, dangerous, a rogue that needed to be put down. I knew he was lying, but I did not know why. Lucas would never hurt anyone. My Uncle instructed me to find the creature, but for the first time he did not want me to kill it. He wanted me to capture it and bring it back to the compound.

He explained,"We have never had one so close to the compound before, this way we can study it and find out where he came from. Maybe we can even try and save it."

I was suspicious of my Uncle, we had never before brought one back, we were dedicated to keeping people safe, I had not been aware that we had the facilities to hold a creature, must less study one. I thought all our resources were dedicated to training people like me to keep the world safe from Beasts. I agreed with my Uncle and then set off to find the truth of what was going on.

That night I met with Lucas, I told him what my Uncle had said, he denied having hurt anyone and I believed him. "It's not safe for you here, I have to stay and find out what is going on, but you have to leave here, I could not bear it if something happened to you. Please Lucas, I love you but you have to go."

He of course refused to leave me; he begged me again to come away with him and I was so tempted, but I was suspicious of my Uncle now and needed to find out what was going on in our compound. I promised him I would be careful and I told him that I would meet him tomorrow night in our spot. He held my face in his hands and told me to be careful, that I was precious to him and that he loved me. He kissed me softly and faded into the night.

I found the labs the next day, I don't want to write what I saw there, but it was clear to me that there was a lot more going on then just training beast hunters. There were people caged up, some in full beast and some stuck in transition. It was like a horror carnival. I could not set them free; there was no way these creatures could survive on their own in the outside world. As I turned to flee my Uncle stood in the doorway, he wore a sad disappointed look on his face.

"I had hoped you would never find out about this. What on earth caused you to start looking around here" I don't remember what I told him, I was just desperate to keep my knowledge of Lucas away from him. He had known something was off with me since my return from London. He wanted to know what had happened while I was there but I refused to tell him anything. Instead I went on the attack….asking him how he could have done these things and what kind of a monster was he! He just shook his head at me and said he was sorry as he locked me up in a cell of my own…..

Vincent woke up to an empty bed, putting on his robe, went downstairs. There he saw Catherine curled up on the couch sound asleep with the journal in her lap. He smiled to himself. She looked so beautiful in sleep, as he stared at her; she wiggled her nose and snorted a little. He laughed, God how he loved her. He picked her up and carried her back to their bed, as he curled up around her; she grabbed his arm and pulled it into her chest as if to wrap him around herself. He kissed the top of her head. "I'm here, I will always be here." With those words her body relaxed and she drifted off to sleep.

The next morning Catherine filled Vincent in on what she had read in the journal.

"So Rebecca figured out that her Uncle was actually creating beasts, not just protecting people from beasts and he locked her up?"

"Yes I can't believe I feel asleep at that part. I can't wait to get back to it."

"Before you get lost in that journal again, we need to touch base with JT and Tess. I tried calling JT earlier, but it went to voice mail. Can you try Tess?"

"Nope, straight to voicemail. Could the tunnel be blocking the cell signal?"

"Not sure, but I have a bad feeling"…..

They got to the Curio Shop and noticed that Tess's car and the University van were still there, but no sign of JT and Tess. Down in Windsor's room it was obvious there had been someone there, the place was trashed. It was then that Vincent noticed the blinking red light in the corner of the floor, just under the door.

Vincent knelt down and examined it closer. "Someone knew we were here and must have come looking for us, and grabbed JT and Tess instead. Dammit! How could I have missed this?"

"Vincent don't beat your self up, we were all pretty overwhelmed with finding this place. Can you track whoever it was?"

Vincent stood up and closed his eyes, letting his Beast rise to the surface…..

Catherine loved watching Vincent use his beast like this; he was so strong, so sure of himself. She had loved him before because he was kind and caring, but this new confident Vincent was also a badass and she had to admit that it was very sexy…

"I can track them, let's go!"

"This is almost too easy"; Vincent says a short while later, having tracked JT and Tess to a location in the industrial park outside the city. "You do realize this is most likely a trap?"

"Yes but what choice do we have, we can't just leave Tess and JT, to whatever is going on in there."

Vincent turned and looked at Catherine, fear made his belly clench and his heart pound. His greatest fear was coming true; they were going to walk into the one place that had the power to destroy them. He started panting trying to keep the beast at bay. The beast wanted to protect his mate, he did not care that Catherine was strong and brave. He did not care that Catherine would never be ok with being left behind, being safe. The Beast didn't care that Catherine had saved his life as many times as he had saved hers. The Beast did not care if they were stronger together than they were apart, all the Beast wanted was to keep his mate safe.

Catherine could see Vincent struggle and she knew he was afraid for her. She placed her hand alongside his face and he immediately calmed. We will be OK, we can do this Vincent, you and me, we can do anything….. She took his hand and together they headed for the building.