Tempting the Fire Read Free Page A

speculate until I learn more.” And animal, her ass. It looked like a monster.
    His smile was slow and all-knowing in that freaky way of his. “How was Puerto Rico?”
    Christ, did everyone know about her trip? “It was as enlightening as I expected it to be,” she said. “Which means I found no new evidence that suggests chupacabras are real.” She tapped the folder. “And if you’re thinking that a chupacabra attacked those men, well, that’s not likely.”
    “Because they don’t exist?”
    “That, and even if they did—which I don’t believe they do—the Amazon isn’t a hotbed of reported chupacabra activity.” Except, she’d checked the logs before she left her office, and recently there had been a number of sightings in the region, as well as an increase in bizarre livestock deaths.
    “This is why you’re perfect for the job. You’re a skeptic, so you’ll be going 15

    in without any preconceived ideas.”
    Sela grumbled. She hated the jungle. “I do have a preconceived idea. I think it’s probably a jaguar or gorilla.” A deformed, superfast, superstrong jaguar or gorilla. Which was almost as unlikely as the chupacabra. “Who were the men?”
    Dev sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers. “Well, this is where it gets interesting,” he said, as if the mysterious cryptid wasn’t the most fascinating part. “They were SEALs on a mission. Obviously, not easy to kill, but whatever attacked them took out the entire team. One is MIA, presumed dead.”
    “Maybe the MIA is responsible.”
    “Could be. Can’t rule out anything yet.”
    “And the Navy wanted our help on this?” Seemed a little extreme for them to call in ACRO, but then, as a secret paramilitary organization, ACRO had covertly worked side by side with all of the branches of the military for years.
    “The Navy didn’t contact us.” He gestured to the thick file. “It’s all in there.
    You can catch up on the plane. Can you leave in an hour?”
    “I’m already packed.” She flipped through the folder’s contents but didn’t stop on any particular page or photo. “Am I going alone?” Usually she went with another cryptozoologist and a small contingent of specialists to assist in photography, research, electronics, etc., if the mission wasn’t deemed to be dangerous. If it was, ACRO sent her with all of that plus a security team.
    Dev’s long pause sent a chill up her spine. “You’re going with Marlena.”
    “Marlena?” Sela frowned. “Your secretary?”
    “She’s no longer my assistant. She’s a Seducer now. She’s fully trained, but this will be her first real mission.”
    “Ah … forgive me, sir, but why in the world would I be taking a Seducer on a crypto assignment?”
    “Because this is more than a mission to find a mysterious species. Two weeks before the attack, a company called Global Weapons Corporation set up camp near where the SEALs were killed. Satellite photos showed that the camp was still there as of three days ago, but now it’s gone and can’t be located.
    However, I have intel that indicates they’re in the area. It’s possible that GWC was either hired to take out those SEALs, or they used the team as a test for their creation.”
    “The creation being the creature.”
    “Yes.”
    “This sounds very Itor.”
    “We know that GWC has supplied Itor with weapons in the past. It’s likely that Itor contracted GWC after they failed to turn Rik into their ultimate animal weapon.”
    Ulrika was a recent acquisition, a powerful shape-shifter who now worked in the Cryptozoology department. As the first truly mythological creature proven to exist, Ulrika had been a shock to Sela’s system. Then again, Ulrika had been, in part, an Itor lab creation, and since her entire family had been destroyed, there was 16

    still no proof that shape-shifters existed as natural creatures in the wild.
    “So why not send a combat agent into this? Why me?”
    “Once you get the intel, proof that