Mercury's War

CHAPTER 16

Ria had never had office sex in her life. She knew Dane had, quite often. She had covered for him several times, rolling her eyes at the habit he seemed to have acquired. But she had never seen the benefits of it.

Until Mercury.

And if she was smug over the pleasure to be found, the wicked naughtiness it filled her with, then Mercury was downright cocky about it as he sat in the chair across from her hours later.

Pretending to read that damned magazine. He would watch her over the top of it, his lashes lowered over his eyes, his expression sensual.

Ria controlled her need to experience the sensations again, though. She copied the work she needed, removed the ghost drive, and as he watched, she tucked it carefully in her bra, beneath her breast.

His tongue touched his lower lip and her nipple hardened.

“Stop that.” She tried not to laugh. “The first chance I get, I’m informing Jonas how little he knows his Breeds. You’re the quiet, calm Breed. Remember?”

His brows lifted. “Sorry, sweetheart, his chest doesn’t hold the appeal your breasts do.”

She rolled her eyes as she stood to go.

She pulled over her arms the leather coat he had managed to have waiting on her this morning, and shrugged into it before wrapping it around her and picking up her purse.

She looked up at the camera above them as Mercury snagged his own jacket from it. He grinned at her as he did so, then looked back at the camera and snarled.

She could just imagine Austin Crowl jerking back in alarm.

“I thought Breeds were all tough and hard and merciless,” she commented as he pulled the lighter jacket on.

“The scientists experimented with advanced intelligence in Breeds like Austin.” He shook his head. “They didn’t program in the genetics for strength and predatory awareness because they felt it would give those particular Breeds the power to overthrow them.”

She arched her brow. “You could do his job with your hands tied behind your back. I’ve seen your file.”

“But I wouldn’t have the patience.” He shrugged. “Austin is good at what he does, or at least he used to be. He’s always been a little superior, a little bullish, but he was damned stupid the other day.”

“No, he was certain of himself,” she stated. “He thought he had power backing him.”

Mercury nodded as they left the office and started down the deserted hallway toward the main section of the house.

“He thought he had Callan’s backing.” His voice was lower. “We’re going to let him believe that for the time being.”

Mercury wanted to believe Austin was somehow involved in what was going on, but Ria had her doubts. Austin Crowl was an irritant, but neither his files nor the information she had pulled in so far indicated he was a traitor to his people.

As they turned the corner, they both came to a slow stop. Ely stepped from another office. She stood poised at the side of the hall, her expression somber, her gaze concerned.

Mercury moved to Ria’s side, placing himself between her and the doctor before urging Ria forward.

“Mercury.” Ely stepped forward slowly, looking between them. “Please. Talk to me for a moment.”

Her voice trembled, causing Ria to watch her cautiously as Mercury drew to a halt once again.

Elyiana Morrey had been specifically created against emotion. She had been trained in the hellish conditions of the Breed labs and had experimented on her own people.

“Ely, I don’t have time for games,” Mercury told her tiredly. “There’s a lot to do today.”

Ely glanced at Ria again, inhaling slowly.

“Your scents are changing,” she said, her voice low. “I need to test-”

“No tests, Ely.” His voice was firm. It wasn’t unkind; he wasn’t angry, but his tone brooked no refusal.

Ely’s hands were shoved in the pockets of her white lab coat, and they were clenched, tight.

Ria paid attention to the doctor’s demeanor, and it wasn’t nearly as calm as she was attempting to appear.

“Mercury, are you willing to risk all your friends this way?” the doctor asked him then. “Don’t you remember how horrible it was to lose control and to kill without thought?”

“Enough, Ely.” He stiffened as Ria watched the pain in the doctor’s eyes.

“Mercury, you could kill her.” She nodded to Ria. “You know how easily it could be done. Do you want to rip her heart from her chest?”

His hand tensed at Ria’s back.

“I didn’t kill friends in those labs.” His voice was deadly. “You know that as well as I do.”

“But you could kill friends now,” she whispered urgently. “I have the confinement cell ready. You have to let me test-”

Ria had had enough.

“Have you lost possession of your senses, Dr. Morrey?” she asked the other woman. “A confinement cell? For what reason?”

“Because small, closed-in places will force me further into feral displacement if its already begun,” Mercury said, his voice cold, emotionless. “It won’t ease. In the labs, it kept me in a state of rage, and allowed them to research the phenomenon and create a drug for it.”

“It’s the only way, Mercury.” The doctor’s voice hitched and broke.

“I think perhaps your good doctor needs to be confined instead,” Ria stated. “I’m ready to leave now.”

She started forward.

“Damn you!” Ely stepped forward, rage contorting her face now. “You’re the reason it’s happening. I warned Jonas it would happen. That increased exposure to whatever pheromone is in your system would cause this. If he kills, the guilt lies on your shoulders.”

Mercury snarled and stepped between them. “Back off, Ely. You don’t want the confrontation this is going to turn into.”

Her expression twisted, anger and fear warring in her eyes as she stared back at Mercury.

“You know you’ll destroy Sanctuary if the feral qualities in your adrenaline continue to strengthen and you end up killing.” Ely’s voice roughened, became harsh and growling. “I thought better of you, Mercury. I thought you cared more for your people than this. And I thought Callan did as well.”

“Do you think Callan can force me into that cell, Ely?” Mercury asked her, the guttural sound of his voice causing the doctor and Ria to flinch. “There aren’t enough Breeds in this compound to force me back into that cell. You’d have to kill me first.”

Ria watched the doctor’s expression. She watched the maddening fear glitter bright and hot in Ely’s eyes.

“I’m petitioning the Ruling Cabinet when they convene,” she told Mercury then. “You deserve to know that, Mercury. You have to see these tests through. It’s the only way to save us all. As a member of that cabinet, it’s my place to tell you you are no longer permitted off the boundaries of Sanctuary.”

Ria froze. She reached out slowly, her hand gripping Mercury’s arm as danger seemed to sizzle around him.

“Council-trained, weren’t you, Ely?” he sneered. “Have you noticed how easily you fall back on Council tactics when you don’t get your way?”

Ely paled.

“And according to Breed Law, you cannot order me confined anywhere without due cause.”

“Initial tests show due cause.” Ely’s voice trembled as tears filled her eyes. “I didn’t want to do this, Mercury.”

Ria tightened her grip on Mercury’s wrist. The tension filling him now was incredible, the anger and fury building inside his muscles.

“Initial tests are not enough, Ely.”

They swung around to face Callan, Kane and Jonas where they stood at the end of the hallway.

In her peripheral vision Ria watched Ely’s face. It tightened into a mask of pained betrayal as she faced her pride leader.

“Respectfully, Pride Leader Lyons, you can’t make that determination.”

“No,” Jonas answered for him. “Breed Law has made that determination. As a member of the Ruling Cabinet, Ely, it’s your place to uphold ‘due process,’ not to accuse or attempt to confine one of our own. Until Mercury shows the inability to control his anger or otherwise destructive behavior, then he cannot and will not be held against his will, nor will he be ordered to undergo any testing until he’s deemed a danger to Breeds or humans. The Ruling Cabinet will be convening, Ely, and a protest against your abuse of your position will be lodged instead.”

“You and your rules,” Ely sneered. “We both know, don’t we, Jonas, exactly what you think of Breed Law. You use it to suit your own means and purposes. How will the Ruling Cabinet feel to learn how far you’ll go to manipulate us all to get your way?”

Jonas smiled at that. “Ely, sweetheart,” he said gently. “Do you think you know anything that could harm me or my job? If you do, you’re welcome to list it in your petition of complaints.”

His voice was smooth. There was no warning, no sense of worry or nerves. It was like watching Dane work. Of course, Jonas had enough secrets to sink Sanctuary, the Breeds and himself. But like his brother, he would never give one person enough information to do more than irritate him if it were ever revealed.

“You think so little of me?” Ely was staring back at him, hurt. The conflicting emotions surging through her were reflected in her expression, and in her scent, Ria assumed.

The Breeds were all tense, watching her closely, the smallest hint of confusion in their eyes.

“I think something’s wrong, Ely,” Jonas finally said gently. “I believe perhaps we’ve allowed you to be under too much stress, or you’ve overstressed yourself. I think you need to rest, and think about the steps you’re taking. How many Breeds will ever trust you should the knowledge of what you’re attempting to do become known?”

“You think you’re so damned smart.” Her hands slid from the pockets of her lab coat, the fingers clenched in fury as a flush rose to her cheekbones. “You’re risking everything. Not just Sanctuary and the Breeds, but Mercury himself, and you know it.”

“Enough, Ely.” Callan’s voice was as sharp, as demanding, as the lash of a whip, causing the doctor to flinch in response. “Return to your office or to your quarters. That’s an order.”

“Pride Leader-”

“That’s an order, Ely!” His voice never rose, but something in it, some primal growl, had the doctor jerking in reaction.

Ely shuddered then turned on her heel and stalked past them, moving through the hall and away from them as something rumbled in Mercury’s throat.

He turned back to Callan. “There’s something wrong here,” he finally admitted. “That’s not the Ely I know.”

Jonas shook his head, watching the doorway the doctor had slipped through. “It’s not the Ely I know either, but just as with you, until we can deem her a hazard, we can’t force her into testing.”

“Why try to force her?” Ria asked. “Do to her as she did to Mercury. Trick her.”

“We would first need a scientist with the ability to run the tests.”

Ria crossed her arms over her breasts. “You kidnapped a Council scientist just last month, didn’t you? Jeffery Amburg? He was never released from your custody despite repeated attempts by several governments to learn what happened to him.”

Jonas’s brow lifted. “We released him. We have proof of it. What happened to him after he left Sanctuary isn’t our concern.”

Ria stared back at him mockingly. “Give that line to someone who doesn’t know better. I know about the cells beneath the labs here, and I’m betting Amburg is resting quite uncomfortably there. Put his ass to work.”

“And ensure the safety of this facility, how?” Callan asked her coldly. “He’s a Council scientist, Ms. Rodriquez, not an ally.”

Mercury watched the exchange quietly before turning to Jonas.

“Put Blade on him. Blade has enough medical experience and strong enough senses to keep an eye on him. If Ely’s sincere, then she’ll agree to her own testing first. Tell her if she’ll do it, then I’ll submit to one more round of samples taken.”

He felt Ria’s shock, watched Jonas’s eyes narrow. “Are you sure you want to do that, Mercury?” he asked.

No, he wasn’t.

“Something isn’t right here, Jonas. Ely’s not a traitor. I’ll take the risk if she will.”

“And what makes either of you think Ely needs testing?” Kane bit out. “She’s scared. She’s running scared and panicking.”

The head of Sanctuary security was less trusting than most Breeds when it came to the internal security of the estate.

“We can’t lock her in her rooms, Kane,” Jonas growled. “Ely’s emotions are raging too strong beneath the surface, and her scent is altered just enough to concern me.”

It was something Mercury had caught as well, though he’d kept silent. His sense of smell was growing marginally stronger, and the proof of that concerned even him. He’d lost those senses when the feral displacement had been “cured” in the labs. That it was returning was further proof that he had cause to keep a careful check on his anger and his emotions.

“Is there any way she could have been compromised?” Mercury asked then.

Jonas shook his head. “The Council never managed to develop a drug that could control us, Mercury, not to that extent. Even the one used on you for the feral displacement didn’t completely control you. And one of us would have scented any biological or chemical imbalance in Ely by now.”

“Have her restricted to quarters for twenty-four hours,” Callan ordered. “We can’t risk her confronting Mercury during the party tonight.”

Mercury stared at him in surprise. “I wasn’t assigned to security for the party.”

“No, you’re ordered to attend the party in full dress uniform,” Callan growled. “You and Ms. Rodriquez. Both Engalls and Brandenmore will be in attendance. I want all eyes on them, and I want Ms. Rodriquez there in case any transmissions are suddenly logged as incoming or outgoing. I want this stopped, Mercury. Now. Before I have to ignore Breed Law myself and kill the bastards.”

With that, he turned and stalked from the hallway, leaving Kane and Jonas both to breathe out in surprise.

Callan never disregarded Breed Law. He had helped to fashion it, to lay in the framework for the rules that would govern the Breeds and allow them to work within society. To even hint that he would ignore one of those rules…

“I wasn’t anticipating a party.” Ria sighed, but Mercury could hear the acceptance in her voice. “Dane is always doing this to me.”

“Dane didn’t request your presence, I did,” Jonas bit out.

Mercury caught Ria’s smile, though he smothered his own.

“There’s a difference?” she asked with false innocence as she moved past Jonas and headed for the front of the house. “Strange. I haven’t found one yet.”

Ria pulled her coat around her and stepped into the limo, keeping her expression composed until the door closed and the window rose between them and the driver.

“One of these days, someone is going to kill Jonas,” she told Mercury.

Mercury snorted. “Yeah, someone’s been trying for months now. Those windows in his apartment you mentioned when you first arrived?”

“Were shot out.” She nodded. “I can understand the need, I truly can. I wanted to shoot him myself. Why hasn’t he forced Ely’s testing by now? My investigation into her lab files as well as her Sanctuary files doesn’t even hint at the irrationality she’s showing. The woman is obviously on the edge of some sort of breakdown.”

“It isn’t that easy.” Mercury shook his head as he moved to the seat across from her, then leaned forward. “Breed Law, everything in it, every value Callan and Jonas have attempted to see put in effect for Breeds, is based on one simple ideal, Ria. Breed freedom. You wouldn’t force a non-Breed into testing for acting irrational. If we allowed a Breed to be forced into it, then Breed Law would become null and void, and we’d be animals again in the sight of the world.”

Ria crossed her legs and stared back at him, folding her hands carefully in her lap as she let herself consider that.

“Breeds and humans are different sides of the same coin,” she reminded him. “You are not fully human, Mercury. You are extrordinarily human. And you’re still learning what your bodies, your hormones, are capable of. In such instances, there should be a safeguard put in place.”

“There is.” He nodded. “But only if we show ourselves to be a danger to ourselves or to others. It doesn’t matter which side of the coin our humanity places us on, we’re still entitled to the same rights and privileges of freedom. We can’t ignore an anomaly in my case and force testing on Ely in hers.”

Dane would have, easily, even it meant kidnapping the Breed in question. But Ria had disagreed with many of the decisions she knew Dane had made, for whatever reason.

“She’s too focused on you,” she finally told him, concerned at the doctor’s continued erratic behavior. “Fanaticism is possible in Breeds, just as it is in humans. And it’s just as destructive, perhaps more so. She’s intent on pulling you into confinement, no matter what it takes. No matter what she has to do to achieve it.”

Mercury stared back at her, knowing the truth in her words. He knew that was exactly Ely’s aim, and the betrayal that filled him at that thought bothered him.

“Did you smell anything that could indicate she was drugged?” Ria frowned back at him, her gaze direct.

“What makes you think I could smell it if she were?” he asked. “The drugs for the displacement wiped out those senses, remember?”

She regarded him with haughty amusement. “Really, Mercury, you should try a little harder to lie. That one was so easy to see through it may as well have been cellophane.”

His lips twitched.

“I felt you inhaling. Very slowly, very deeply,” she informed him. “What did you scent?”

He finally shook his head. “Anger. Fear. And it was very heightened, more than it should have been. She believes in what she’s saying. She believes the feral displacement is returning, and it’s impossible to control.”

Ely believed he would suddenly lose his mind and destroy the very people he had lived to protect for over eleven years now.

“And what do you think?” She tilted her head and watched him, her gaze soft. There was no fear there, no suspicion, almost as though she had formed her own trust in him, and had no intention of backing down on it.

He reached out and touched her cheek with his fingertips then cupped it with his palm. The need to touch her was overwhelming. As he did so, her fingers curled over his wrist, holding him to her. Trust. Complete trust. Something he had never felt with anyone else. Not even long ago with the Breed that could have been his mate.

“I think I would rip apart anyone who dared harm you,” he finally told her softly. “There would be nothing on the face of this earth, short of death, that could control me.”

Ria stared back at him, seeing the truth in his expression, in the savage light of his hammered gold eyes and the flecks of blue that materialized in them. Whatever that phenomenon was that changed the color of his eyes, that made him appear stronger, more savage, it was only frightening to the enemy.

He wasn’t her enemy. He was her lover, in every sense of the word. In ways no other man had ever been.

“Then it’s under control,” she said softly. “And I have no doubt it will stay there.”

If he hadn’t already lost his heart to her, then Mercury would have sworn he lost it to her then.

“That still leaves a problem, though,” she told him as he pulled her to him, lifting her into his lap even though they were too close to her cabin to do more than just this. Just hold each other.

“There are more problems?” he growled. “They’re piling up here, Ria.”

Her laughter, soft and light-he swore it warmed his soul.

“I forgot to mention how much I absolutely detest parties,” she told him. “And Dane knows it. I might have to kick him for this one. Or tell Leo on him. I don’t think this sort of maneuvering can be fixed with bling.”

His lips kicked up in a grin. His mind was on her hand, though. The one that had pushed beneath his jacket so her fingers could play against his neck.

“I’ll take care of Dane’s maneuverings,” he promised her. “But the party’s a small one.”

“Visiting VIPs and dignitaries? Three hundred at best.”

“Three hundred and fifty.” He smiled as she groaned and buried her face in his chest.

“Too many.”

“No, too many is the Christmas party,” he promised. “The guest list, so far, is at a full thousand. They’re predicting snow, and Callan is pulling his hair out as he and Kane work out the logistics of security for the children and mates. Every available Breed is being rescreened for clearance and those that pass are on twenty-four-hour duty shifts. The party is held on the fifteenth. That allows for a private party on Christmas Day. Four hundred, I believe.”

She groaned again and he stroked her hair soothingly as he grinned. She made him grin. She made him happy. She made him want to pick her up and hide her from all eyes, to experience the joy of her with no distractions.

“We could hibernate in the winter,” she finally suggested.

“We’re not bears,” he chuckled, enjoying the play.

“We could go on vacation.” Soft lips kissed his neck; her tongue stroked over it. “I know several secluded beaches. No cold. We could bask in the sun. Lie at the water’s edge and allow the waves to lap over us.”

His cock, already engorged, still hard and eager to pleasure her, throbbed at the thought. Ria naked, her nut brown body laid out on soft white sand as water washed over her and the sun heated her flesh.

If it had the chance to touch her. He’d have a hell of a time allowing to sun to caress her, because he’d be too damned busy touching her himself.

She lifted closer then, her teeth raking over the lobe of his ear, her warm breath caressing his neck. “I want you,” she whispered. “Again. Why am I burning so hot and deep for you after I’ve already had you?”

“Why am I?” He gripped her hair, pulled her head in place and let himself take her kiss.

It wasn’t gentle, and he wanted to be gentle. It was hot and fierce, fiery and consuming, and burned through him with the force of wildfire.

It was pleasure, it was the agony of arousal that was never sated for long, and it was the breath of life. A breath he feared he couldn’t live without now.