Free Seeker of Shadows by Nancy Gideon

other male of their species would have condemned her. She was treated with respect and kindness and given latitude in her pursuits. After all he’d done for her, could she betray him with the reckless release of emotions he feared and despised?
    Yet how could she be so near her every desire, her every dream, and not risk all for just a taste, just a reminder to last the rest of her lifetime? Could she ever forgive herself if she let that moment pass?
    Damien Frost held her allegiance but Jacques LaRoche owned her heart and soul. She’d given both to him, freely, gladly, without reservation or regret when young and foolish. But even now, when older and hopefully wiser, she couldn’t take them back. He would hold them forever.
    So which would rule her, conscience or emotion?
    “How are things going?”
    Charlotte’s intruding question had her nearly jumping out of her new shoes. Covering up her guilt with a smile of greeting, she turned to the detective who’d entered the room without her noticing.
    “I’ve gotten a lot of information from the new samples but that’s as far as I can go without an actual lab.”
    “Field trip time. Grab your stuff.”
     
    Medical examiner Devlin Dovion saw nothing strange in receiving company at two A.M. in the bowels of the hospital. A big man with a mass of curly hair that had begun to slide from the top of his head to gather at his ears and shoulders, he greeted the police detective fondly and her with a shrewd interest.
    “Busy night, Dev?”
    “What can I tell you, Lottie? You’re sending too much work my way.” He peeled the glove from his right hand to extend it to Susanna. “I’m Dev Dovion. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
    “Susanna is my OB. She has some experience in the, um, particulars of my situation.”
    Dovion’s brows lifted as he studied her. “Interesting. A friend of Max’s?”
    “Not exactly. Let’s say the other side of that same coin.”
    From the cryptic dialogue, Susanna learned two things. Dev Dovion was to be trusted, and he knew about the Shifter presence in New Orleans along with something of their politics.
    “She needs access to a lab and I told her you might be able to help.”
    “I see.” His sudden caution said he did, indeed. “And what type of materials would you need processed, doctor?”
    “Genetic, mainly.”
    His brows hiked even higher at her reply.
    “I’m having Mary Kate moved back here from California, Dev, and placed in a private care facility,” Charlotte abruptly told him. “Susanna’s going to begin an experimental line of treatment she believes can reverse some of the physical and mental damage.”
    Dovion was quick. “The way Max brought you back.” When he noticed Susanna’s puzzlement, he explained, “Our fearless detective here tangled with some of your kind and ended up in the ICU with her bones and internal organs mashed like Sunday’s sweet potatoes. We were getting ready to administer last rites and pull the plug when she made a miraculous recovery. An inexplicable recovery. Is that what you have in mind with Mary Kate?”
    Neither woman answered.
    To Susanna, he said, “You know she’s human, don’t you? A nun. That she was burned over eighty percent of her body and still has a bullet lodged in her brain?”
    No, not precisely those details, but she did now.
    To Charlotte, he added, “And you have her permission to conduct these treatments that she might consider out of the moral ballpark?”
    “She’s my best friend, Dev,” Charlotte answered mulishly. “She’s there in that damned storage facility because of me. Because of me and Max. What am I supposed to do? Just let her die? You think it’s a better moral choice to let her go to hell? Because that’s what she believes. Dying by your own hand is suicide. I’m willing to risk her annoyance rather than her soul.”
    But maybe he wasn’t. That was what Susanna read in the impasse that followed.
    Just because you can doesn’t mean you