Mercury's War

CHAPTER 1

TWO WEEKS LATER

The private jet taxied into the hangar, pulling into the heated cavern awaiting it, and huge metal doors closed to trap the heat inside as its motors stilled.

Long minutes later, the door opened, and Ria Rodriquez stepped out onto the top step the pilot had lowered. She stared around the hangar.

A long black limo was parked well out of the way of the jet’s wings, and as she watched, a door opened and Mercury Warrant stepped from the car.

She wanted to groan at the sight of the man sent to meet her. Or rather the Breed.

She stared at him curiously. She had seen his photos over the past months, knew as much about him as her boss Dane Vanderale could dig up, and still, the sight of him was like a punch of reaction deep inside her stomach.

His features weren’t those of a man’s. Nor were they those of the lion his genes had been merged with. If a sexier than hell version of both could be created, then that was Mercury Warrant.

Slanted amber eyes, the line of the lids black, as though someone had applied the lightest layer of eyeliner. She knew his lashes were thick. His nose was long and straight, though a bit flatter, a bit more arrogantly defined than possible in a normal male.

His lips were just a bit thin, but that lower lip, it had a tempting fullness at the center of it that had had her tongue running over her own lips whenever she had noticed it in the pictures she’d studied of the Breeds she would be in contact with.

“Ms. Rodriquez, we’re heading to Venezuela to pick up Mr. Dane. Should you need us, don’t hesitate to call for pickup.”

She turned and looked at her pilot. Bush pilot. Scruffy, his eyes flat and hard, but there was a twinkle of warmth in them when he looked at her.

She was used to working with the hidden Breeds of the world. The ones the Vanderales has slipped from the labs, or from missions. The ones that were listed as dead. Such as Burke had been.

“Tell Mr. Dane to please remember the bling he promised me,” she murmured. “I’m about to earn it.”

Burke glanced to the limo and the Breed awaiting her. “He’s a fine specimen,” he said quietly. “Dangerous though. More dangerous than we might realize.”

Ria shrugged. He wasn’t the one she was after. She’d already drawn her initial suspicions and sent them to Dane. The person or persons they were after would never stare back at her with such captivating eyes, or with such savage interest.

“He’s going to be my bodyguard, not my mark,” she reminded Burke with a smile.

He snorted at that. “I’ll inform Mr. Dane to add to the bling. Because if that’s your bodyguard, I’m not certain which one of you I should feel the most sorry for. But I like you best.”

“You’re a good man, Burke.” She smiled smugly as she patted his arm. “Tell Mr. Dane the emeralds looked especially fine next to the diamonds. I’m very eager to see just how much he appreciates the risk I’m taking.”

Burke chuckled as he escorted her down the steps and over to the limo.

“Mr. Warrant. I see Director Wyatt couldn’t awaken in time to meet me.” Ria restrained the urge to check the thick bun she had rolled her hair into on the plane, or the dowdy outfit she had donned.

Damn, she was really going to miss her finer clothes. But she knew the persona that garnered the greatest results. And as much as she disliked that persona, she owed the Vanderales. She owed them her life.

“Director Wyatt was detained in D.C.,” Mercury informed her as he glanced at the pilot curiously.

“Anything more that I should tell Mr. Dane?” Burke asked her as she released his arm and he turned to help the copilot with her luggage and laptop case.

“Yes, inform him I won my end of that bet we made. Director Wyatt didn’t show up after all.”

She caught Mercury’s grimace from the periphery of her vision.

“I’ll make a note of that.” Burke nodded his dark, shaggy head as the trunk opened on the limo and her luggage was stored inside.

As he and the copilot loped back to the plane, Ria turned and stared back at Mercury, trying not to feel too female in his presence.

He was tall, broad and absolutely delicious looking. Savage and male-the combination did something to her feminine core that surprised her.

Her lips twitched as he turned his gaze from the Vanderale pilots back to her.

“They were at the hospital with the first Leo,” he commented. “They’re Breeds.”

She nodded as he reached out and opened the door for her.

“They are.” She slid into the sumptuous leather, sliding to the other side as Mercury bent and moved in with her, sitting in the seat across from her.

She glanced to the driver’s section to see Lawe Justice. She almost chuckled at his name. She loved some of the names the Breeds had chosen for themselves when given the chance. Lawe Justice, Rule Breaker, two of Jonas Wyatt’s main security force, and Mercury Warrant.

Mercury, the messenger of the gods. It should have been Ares. How apt that name might have been if the scientists that created him hadn’t completely annihilated the primal instincts he had possessed. According to his file, he may have been one of the greatest Breeds to have ever been created.

“Breeds the Leo worked to rescue over the years,” Mercury pointed out coolly. “Rather than working to ensure we were all free.”

She had known there was an edge of anger in the Breeds who had been at the hospital and sworn to silence concerning the first Leo, who had arrived to oversee his son’s well-being.

Callan Lyons, pride leader and the bane of the first Leo’s existence. Leo didn’t share his son’s belief that the Breeds should carve out their place in the world. The only protection they could be certain of, he believed, was in hiding among the non-Breeds until their numbers were greater. And Ria wasn’t certain which side of the argument she felt was right. But for now, both sides still existed.

“I refuse to debate Leo’s choices; they’re his own,” she pointed out, staring back at him.

“But you’re part of his family,” Mercury argued, calmly. He always argued calmly, she had read. “You’ve known what he was all along.”

She smiled at that. “Surprisingly, Mr. Warrant, I’m not a Breed. I’m simply a lowly little clerk that does the Vanderale bidding. Nothing more. I’m very human and I’m a reasonably healthy twenty-eight years old, rather than however old Dane or Leo are. I try really hard not to do the math there.”

They were older than they appeared. Far older. And the secrecy of their existence as Breeds was paramount. And it was at risk if the information Dane had received was right.

“A clerk?” Mercury’s gaze raked over her, and she was glad she had donned her jacket before leaving the plane, because she swore her nipples were hardening beneath the thin blouse she wore. “Why do I have trouble believing that?”

He was suspicious. His gaze was direct, and she almost thought she detected the faintest hint of blue in his eyes.

She almost shook her head when she looked closer and saw only the dark amber shades of the pupil.

“My charming personality?” She arched her brow.

His lips twitched. “I’ve seen your communiquйs with Jonas, Ms. Rodriquez. Trust me, charming isn’t an adjective I would apply to them.”

“Firmly enchanting then?” she suggested.

He cleared his throat. “I thought the reaction they produced from our director was interesting. And amusing.”

Ria let her own amusement tug at her lips and wished he would release all that thick, multihued hair from the strip of leather confining it behind his neck.

She wanted to see it flowing around his shoulders, the dark russets, browns and blacks merging together to create a heavy, lionlike mane that made her fingers itch to touch.

Strange, Leo had similar hair and she had never wanted to touch his. Of course, his wife Elizabeth might have cut her hand off if she’d attempted it.

For the most part, Leo used a temporary color on his hair when he was required to be out in public. And like Mercury, he kept it tied back behind his neck.

Leo was considered a rogue, a mercenary and a bastard businessman. But no one had ever breathed the word Breed with his name.

The owner of the multinational Vanderale Industries that his father had left him, Leo Vanderale was a law unto himself. And unto the Breeds that knew him.

“I’ll settle for amusing,” she finally stated.

“You might have to.”

He sat in the corner of the seat, one elbow propped on the padded armrest he had lowered, the other arm braced along the back of the seat.

She glanced to the driver’s section and caught a glimpse of Lawe’s lips twitching as his icy blue eyes flicked to the rearview mirror.

“So, Ms. Rodriquez, what put a burr in the Leo’s tail that he sent you out here only weeks after rushing to his son’s side at the hospital?”

Rather, two months, Ria thought. And unfortunately, if the Leo found out what she was doing and where she was doing it, he was liable to skin her and hang her up to dry. That wasn’t a pleasant thought.

“The Leo is a businessman, Mr. Warrant,” she informed him, following the line Dane had taken. “Sanctuary and its Breeds profit greatly by Vanderale’s largesse. The recent attacks against Sanctuary and the weaknesses within it concern him. Both professionally as well as personally. He would enjoy visiting his son and grandson. He’s spoken of attending when his daughter-in-law gives birth to her second child. He can’t do this as long as there’s a risk of the world discovering who and what he is.”

His lips curled mockingly. The sight of it had her restraining the urge to lick her own lips. Damn him, he made her feel weak-kneed and too much like a woman. She realized that weakness could threaten her job. She was looking for another spy, and the consequences of information possibly leaking out of Sanctuary could destroy the Breed community as a whole. On a different note, allowing herself to get involved with Mercury also had the potential to hurt her personally.

She never got personally involved, she reminded herself. That path led to nothing but disaster, and she really didn’t need more disaster in her life.

“Ms. Rodriquez-”

She invited him to use her name. “Ria please.” Ms. Rodriquez just made her feel old.

“Ria.” His brow arched. “Why do I have a feeling there’s much more to you than meets the eye?”

Her eyes widened as though she couldn’t imagine. Dowdy clothes, no makeup. She did a damned fine job of being the little nobody everyone expected.

“Trust me, Mr. Warrant, what you see is what you get.” She smiled back softly. “Of course, I can be rather ill natured when the situation calls for it. I’m not always nice.”

He stared back at her silently, and she had a feeling he was seeing more than she wanted him to. He was definitely seeing more than anyone else had bothered to look for.

For the first time in her life Ria wondered if she had run up against a man she couldn’t continue hiding from. His eyes urged her to share her secrets; the swirl of ambers, the curiosity, the interest, invited her to reach for things she knew she should never reach for.

Play with fire and you’ll get burned. She remembered, long ago, too long ago, how her mother had laughingly advised her to always watch out for people.

They’ll deceive you, my little Ria, she had always said. They’ll lie and they’ll smile, and when they’ve taken all you have to give, they’ll find someone else to use up.

She couldn’t have been very old, but she remembered those words.

The memory of it had her turning her head from Mercury, shifting her gaze to the mountains they were winding their way through as she pushed back the loneliness that filled her whenever she allowed it.

Her mother had died before she was six. Ria had spent three days alone in their apartment, crying for her mother, and her mother had been lying in a cold morgue.

She might have stayed there forever if a neighbor hadn’t realized that no one had mentioned the child of Leo Vanderale’s secretary. Her child hadn’t even been listed in her personnel files. The people she had worked with hadn’t even known about the daughter Mary Rodriquez had borne. Until Mary’s death.

Until Ria had been left alone.

She pushed back the memories. They had no place here. She hadn’t even let herself think about it for years. She was who she was, and she owed the Vanderales for her life after her mother’s death.

And here she was, still running errands for Dane, and still doing his bidding. Still joining in his little games because he flashed that devil’s smile of his and dared her to be courageous when they both knew she really wasn’t courageous at all.

She was being courageous now all right, and this time, Leo just might hang them both out to dry for it. Sanctuary was Leo’s baby, so to speak. Callan Lyons was the son he hadn’t known of until the revelation of the Breeds broke across the world. He was the son Leo hadn’t been able to reach out to.

Dane was his heir, and Leo had always doted on Dane, to a point. He respected Dane but knew his son well enough to know Dane lived a much wilder, much more reckless life than made Leo happy.

Leo was a family man. He was a prime pride leader and he had proven it with the Breeds he protected on his African estate. And he ached for the sons he knew the Council had created from the semen and eggs they had stolen from him and his mate. And he ached for his grandchildren. Grandchildren Dane seemed in no hurry to provide him with.

“I hope you’ve been honest with Jonas concerning your reasons to be here, Ria,” Mercury drawled then. “He can be a bastard when you lie to him.”

Yeah yeah, like father like son. Jonas Wyatt was Leo’s son as well and was more like him than any other, Ria thought.

She turned back to him with a smile. “I know his father, Mr. Warrant, and the apple didn’t fall far from the tree as you would say here. Don’t worry, being honest and straightforward are but a few of my faults.”

Dane would have laughed his rear off at that comment, and she knew it.

But Mercury nodded and said nothing more. But he still watched her. His gaze stayed on her, and she swore the flush mounting beneath her clothing was sinking into her bones.

Damn, she was glad his sense of smell wasn’t as good as most Breeds, but from the way his eyes were narrowing and his nostrils were flaring, she suspected he sensed the arousal she could feel building in her.

She was a woman. And damn if he wasn’t a fine specimen of a man and a Breed. She wasn’t mated, and she wasn’t dead. She had all the instincts other women had, and all those instincts were rioting for a taste of tall, dangerous and delicious over there.

That didn’t mean she had to act on them.

The window rose between the driver’s section and the passenger’s. Ria turned and gave Mercury a questioning look.

“Lawe likes to open his window. It might be too cold for you,” he stated, but his eyes said something entirely different. Something that had her ducking her head and turning to stare out the window next to her.

Yes, she was aroused, and no doubt the Breed driving knew it.

She gave a mental shrug. Just as she didn’t doubt in the least that they should be used to it. Women around the world, in blogs, Breed-sighting websites and a variety of other online communities, both reviled and lusted after the creations man had made and lost control of.

They were fascinated by the Breeds. They were frightened of them and aroused by them. In little more than a decade they had become the bogeyman in the night as well as the dark lovers that invaded women’s dreams. Sometimes it was amusing. Most of the time it managed to remind her how fickle humans could be.

Because it would take very little to turn the tide against the Breeds, and if the rumors Dane had heard were correct, then that tide could be coming through much sooner than anyone expected. And it could be more cataclysmic than anyone guessed.

The animal opened tired eyes, not certain what had drawn it awake. The man. The man’s emotions were slipping. The animal could feel the break in the man’s defenses, the chance to stretch, to reach out. To sense freedom. Sweet freedom.

It stretched with all its senses, slowly, cautiously; it reveled in the chance.

Then it paused. Blinked. It stared through the man’s eyes. It inhaled through the man’s nostrils. It tasted the air against the man’s tongue and it had to restrain its roar.

It crouched, staring, scenting, tasting. It had waited. It had been weak. Worn. So close to death. But it had fought. And it had waited.

For this.

Dark eyes peeked up at the man from beneath lowered lashes. It wasn’t a coy look, it was a cautious look. Dark lashes, shades lighter than her eyes. Dark hair was restrained when it should be free.

And her scent.

This was what had awakened it. Her scent.

The animal felt something akin to joy race through it. Her scent was like mercy. It was like warmth in the middle of the cold. Her scent was like a place to belong.

It was careful. The man was still diligent. The animal let the smell of that sweet scent linger in its head, for only a moment. Just a taste, a tease of what true pleasure was, before pulling back.

The animal crouched now, awake, unblinking. The presence of the woman filled it with hope, renewed that last ounce of strength it needed just to survive.

The man’s emotions, the animal could feel them straining, the chains that bound it growing weaker, because the man was distracted. The man was dealing with his emotions; he didn’t have to be on guard for the animal that had nearly died long ago.

He was just a man. The animal could feel the thought as the man let himself ease his guard. He was just a man, no need to worry. He could watch this woman. He could want this woman.

And the animal watched. And it wanted. It crouched, waiting, growing hungry now where before there was no strength to even hunger.

The animal watched. It waited. Knowing freedom would soon arrive.