Henri – 8

 

Taegan's home took up the second and third floors above his gallery. The rooms were spacious—at least the ones Henri saw. The living/dining room was painted golden beige with cream trim. The kitchen had uncarpeted hardwood floors and cream walls. The floors in the main rooms were also hardwood, covered with area rugs.

 

"You like antiques," Henri commented, taking in the various pieces of furniture scattered throughout the rooms.

 

"I do. Antiques and Oriental artifacts," Taegan agreed, pointing to several small sculptures set between the books in his study, and the paintings on the walls. "Don't get me wrong, I love the artwork I sell in the gallery, but on a personal level, I prefer what you see here."

 

At that point, Allyn and Ransom arrived. Taegan offered everyone drinks—coffee, beer or hard liquor. The men all chose beer while Miranda settled for coffee.

 

As soon as everyone had been served and seated in the living room, Taegan asked for exact details on what had happened to Henri. Between them, Henri, Ransom and Allyn went through the story—from Henri's kidnapping until he had ended up living at Miranda's.

 

"That's twice he's found you, Henri," Taegan said when they finished. "From what you said, the first time you think he must have seen you shift. However, as you pointed out, he had a laboratory already set up for his experiments. That presupposes he does know of our existence."

 

 "Agreed," Ransom said. "Not a pleasant thought."

 

"No it's not," Taegan agreed. "Then he managed to find Henri again, after his escape."

 

"Six months afterward," Henri pointed out. "I'd say he wasn't locked on to me, so to speak. We think, perhaps, he might have placed classified ads in the papers and on something like Craigslist, looking for his missing dog."

 

"If he did, it was a clever ruse. Although, why wait so long to do it?" Taegan said.

 

"Perhaps," Allyn suggested, "because he'd wanted to make certain Henri didn't bring reinforcements back to the lab."

 

Taegan nodded. "It makes sense. Or, he packed up the entire operation and moved it somewhere else. Henri, you said your home is close to where he'd captured you. Did you have any reason to believe he'd known where you lived?"

 

"Like, had I ever felt watched? No. Besides, if he had, why wait until I was out on a run to grab me?"

 

"He'd wanted you in your wolf form? Were you ever in your human form after he had you at the lab?"

 

"Only at the end, during the last experiment when I'd managed to escape. The rest of the time I'd been so doped up that I hadn't the strength to shift. Do you think that's important?"

 

"I don't know," Taegan replied. "What is important right now is finding a way to stop him. For all we know he's found another victim to experiment on."

 

"Or several," Henri said tightly. "There were—" he closed his eyes, trying to picture what little he remembered of the lab, "—more cages. I can't say for certain but I'm fairly sure of that. Or at least one more, next to mine. I vaguely remember seeing bars beyond the ones around me."

 

"Unsurprising. Another reason I suspect he might have moved the lab somewhere else—probably quickly—or at least taken the important things he needed, files and such," Taegan said.

 

"And destroyed the place afterward, I bet," Miranda said. "I would have, if I was him. Xavier would have had no idea how many friends Henri had—shifter friends—who would return with Henri to deal with him."

 

"Did he have assistants?" Taegan asked.

 

"Well, there was the man who had come with him when he found me at Mrs. Graham's home. Again, my memories of the lab are hazy at best, but I seem to remember Xavier talking to someone. And for damned sure, it wasn't me," Henri added sourly.

 

"What did he do to you?" Taegan asked.

 

"Took all sorts of samples—skin, fur, blood, other bodily fluids. Just about anything he could test was my impression. And it wasn't only once. It was ongoing."

 

"Perhaps," Miranda said pensively, "it wasn't only for testing. What if he was doing something with them, such as injecting them into a human…or an animal?"