Mercury's War

CHAPTER 27

The guests at the party had no idea the undercurrents moving beneath the Breeds on duty, or those circulating through the large ballroom and buffet room. They had no idea the danger that stalked within them, or the treacherous games a few would play to destroy the many.

The plan to capture those few Breeds was simple, yet so much depended on the coordination of everyone involved. If they missed a suspect or conspirator, then the whole plan could be screwed. They couldn’t afford that. They couldn’t afford to allow so much as a single traitor to be left unaccounted for when it was over.

Leo and Dane had accounted for Council-trained traitors within the rescued Breeds. The Council was always big on placing traitors among the small packs and prides, Breeds specially trained, specially brainwashed and treated with care to ensure they did as they were programmed. As those now attempting to betray Sanctuary were doing.

Except it wasn’t for the Council. It was for greed. For the money they believed they would gain, and the dishonor of having destroyed their own community without Council help.

Callan and Merinus stood at the only entrance into the ballroom, calm and to all appearances unaware of the deception brewing within Sanctuary. But they knew, and Callan had already passed sentence once the Breeds were caught. They would die. No exceptions, even for the woman.

Merinus Lyons was as graceful and gracious as always, her brown hair upswept, displaying her slender neck and the pearls that circled it. She wore a ball gown that managed to be both fanciful and elegant, the sweep of bronze material floating around her.

Roni Andrews was with her mate and husband, Taber. Taber was dressed in a black tux, but Ria knew the weapons concealed beneath it.

The entire ruling family was there, including Dawn Daniels and her fiancй Seth Lawrence. They moved through the guests, smiling, chatting, laughing, but the tension was there. The scent of it would have been detectable if it weren’t for many of the guests being nervous, some of them meeting the Breed ruling family for the first time.

Ria curled her hand on Mercury’s broad forearm, moving along the perimeter of the crowd in the emerald sweep of her velvet ball gown, her gaze spreading out over the room, finding several of the security personnel Leo had brought with him as well.

“You look too hot,” Mercury complained with an amused growl as male eyes turned to her, glinted with interest and then flickered in fear when her Breed mate growled at them.

But she heard the pride in his voice. For some reason, it pleased him that the animal genetics she had tried so long to fight were impossible to suppress since he had mated her.

“It’s your fault,” she reminded him, her voice low as she almost laughed at the tiny, warning pat just above her rear.

“Don’t remind me. I’m ready to explode the way it is.”

And he was. He was hard beneath his new dress uniform, and ready for her. He was always ready for her, just as she was for him.

She smiled at the thought of that, warmed to it as she tried to concentrate on the security placed around the room.

There were Breed Enforcers in the expected places for such events, but she knew there were even more ready, heavily armed and waiting.

Horace Engalls was there with his wife, on the dance floor sweeping through the crowd, his expression smug, arrogant. Brandenmore was dancing with none other than Alaiya, the Breed determined to take what Ria had decided there wasn’t a chance in hell she was taking.

Exactly when she had made that decision, Ria wasn’t certain. She had been willing to walk away once, to let Mercury have the mate that had first been intended for him.

He hadn’t let her walk away. He had torn into her heart and soul, and pulled free parts of herself she had sworn she would never allow out again.

He was hers. And once this was over, she would make certain Alaiya Jennings understood, completely, no matter what test results might show, that Mercury would never belong to her.

But this had to be taken care of first.

She and Mercury moved through the crowd, placing themselves close enough to cover Roni Andrews and Merinus Lyons in case shots were fired.

They weren’t up against one Breed, but several. As Dane began to pull the ghosted backups, tracking movements and meetings, they’d found what they needed.

Patterns, there were always patterns, and this one had been a very simple one, based on complete arrogance and the certainty that they had managed to gain all the information they needed concerning Sanctuary’s security. Technical experts, they were not. Otherwise, they would have realized there were always recovery protocols designed into any security system. Especially a Vanderale system. Technology was Vanderale’s game, and they did it better than anyone in the world.

Jonas, Callan and Merinus stood near the entrance to the ballroom, and it was there Mercury and Ria ended up after they made a short round of the room to give the appearance of mingling.

Along with Taber and Roni, they were greeting guests, smiling, the perfect, consummate hosts.

As Ria and Mercury moved in behind the Lyons family, Ria tensed.

Ely Morrey had stepped into the entrance, dressed in a black gown, her hair brushed attractively around her face. She looked sociable and pleasant, until Ria saw her eyes.

“This is bad,” she whispered as she watched Jackal slide away from Jonas toward the doctor. “She’s here early.”

They hadn’t expected this. And if her appearance was anything to go by, she was more agitated than before. She wasn’t to have arrived until later. Hopefully, not at all.

Jackal stopped beside Ely, his dark head bending as he whispered something in her ear. Requesting that she allow him to escort her back to her room.

Sorrow filled Ely’s eyes. Betrayal, fear and tears as she turned and looked at Jackal. His expression was curiously gentle for a man Ria knew wasn’t considered gentle.

“Please, Ely,” he whispered. “For me.”

They had only a second’s warning. Before Jackal could react, Ely had one hand wrapped around his balls in a hard grip and a taser to his neck as she watched him fall. Releasing him, she jerked a handgun from behind her back, beneath the dark wrap she wore, and held it on Jonas.

Guests nearby screamed. A woman cursed and another declared that she knew Breeds couldn’t be civilized.

Enforcers were moving in. Callan and Taber pushed their wives back; guests cried out, as the movement to clear the ballroom became hampered by the fact that the only entrance was now guarded by a hard-eyed, savage Breed scientist, and that left only the enclosed buffet room to find safety within.

“What are you doing, Ely?” Jonas stared back at her coldly. “Stand down and return to your quarters.”

She sneered back at him, the lethal automatic handgun aimed at his heart. She looked ready to use it. Fanaticism gleamed in her eyes, and hatred seared her expression.

“Don’t order me to my quarters, you fucking girl pussy,” she hissed. “Fucking manipulator. You’re going to destroy us all.”

Guests were gasping; growls were rumbling from the Breeds moving in behind her.

“I’ll blow your heart from your chest, Jonas,” she snarled. “I won’t let you do this to Sanctuary.”

“Ely, you’re out of control.” His voice, for all its gentleness, vibrated with a hard, cold core of fury. “Give me the gun.”

“I’ll give you the bullet,” she warned him as a syringe dropped from the wide sleeve of her gown. “Tell Mercury to inject this into his arm.” She tossed the syringe. Jonas caught it easily and stared down at it.

“What is it, Ely?”

“Poison to the Breed system,” she answered easily. “It will stop his heart immediately and leave the rest of his system uncorrupted. The feral displacement will never threaten Sanctuary again, and when I dissect him, I’ll find the answers I need to make certain it never infects another Breed.”

“You would kill Mercury?” he asked her.

Ria’s hand tightened on Mercury’s arm as she felt his shock. His pain. Ely was a friend, she knew. Once trusted. And trust didn’t come easily to her mate.

“What about his woman, Ely? Would you take him from her?”

Behind them, Breeds were moving guests into the buffet room, carefully cutting Engalls and his wife and Brandenmore from the crowd. Isolating them. They had to stay isolated, contained.

Ely lifted the gun until it was level with Jonas’s heart.

“Inject yourself, Mercury, or he dies.”

Mercury moved to pull away from Ria.

“No,” Ria hissed. “I won’t lose you like this.”

He would do it. She could see it in his face. If that was what it took to ensure the safety of Sanctuary, then he would do it.

“Your first duty is to me, not to him,” she snarled.

His jaw tensed and he moved, his eyes connecting with Ria, warning her. She felt it then, that leap of connection, that bond she had never allowed herself to connect to before. As though, spirit to spirit, he was promising her that he had a plan.

By God, he better have a plan, and death wasn’t an option.

She loosened her grip slowly, fear moving through her, terror filling her blood. She wouldn’t let it happen. She wouldn’t let him do this.

As she shifted, she caught activity from the corner of her eye. Two figures moving past the entrance, heading along the foyer to the main doors. All Breed Enforcers were busy, drawn to the ballroom to protect guests and the ruling family.

Mercury eased to Jonas’s side. Alaiya Jennings moved slowly into place then caught Ria’s eyes.

On three, Ria mouthed slowly, her gaze moving slowly to Ely.

Alaiya nodded with a slow, subtle movement.

Mercury took the syringe from Jonas.

One. Two. They jumped.

Alaiya drew Ely’s attention as Ria moved to take the gun. Jonas beat her to it. He twisted the gun from the doctor’s hand, grabbed her and threw her to another Breed as he barked, “Hold her.”

They raced from the ballroom and came to a hard, surprised stop.

Two lab assistants, male and female, were unconscious on the floor of the foyer as Dane stood back, a cigar between his lips, his arms crossed over his chest, as he smiled back at them.

He lifted his hand, and in it, between his fingers, he held a small external chip drive.

“Decoder.” He smiled. “Shall we inform the Engalls and Brandemore of the penalty for fucking with Sanctuary?”

“Son of a bitch,” Jonas snapped.

Dane lifted his brow. “I hope you’re not referring to me, brother. I may have to take exception.”

Lawe and Rule materialized, restrained the lab assistants’ hands, despite their unconscious states, and hefted them over their shoulders.

“What about Ely?” Mercury growled.

Jonas sighed. “Place her in the confinement cell.” He shook his head sadly. “Hell, I was hoping a few days off that shit would clear her mind. It’s only made her worse.”

That shit. The drug she had been fed in the lab. Elizabeth had reported finding it in the over-the-counter painkillers and aspirin in Ely’s desk just hours before. They had known it was being fed to her somehow; they just hadn’t figured out how.

“Confinement will be easiest.” Elizabeth moved into the foyer. “I’ll take care of her, Jonas. I checked Jackal-when he wakes up, he’ll have a hell of a headache from the taser, but he’ll be fine.”

Jonas nodded and turned back to Ria and Mercury, his gaze filled with weariness, his expression heavy with sorrow. “I let them get to her,” he whispered. “Hell, I vetted those two myself. And still I managed to let those bastards from the Council get to her.”

Ria felt Mercury’s arms surround her, drawing her to his chest, his warmth and security wrapping around her.

“They were trained to deception, all Breeds were, Jonas,” she said softly. “Vetting them isn’t always enough. We’re no different than those who don’t have Breed genetics, just a little better at what we do sometimes.”

“Hell!” he bit out again, pushing his hands over his dark hair before staring around the foyer.

He was proud, tall and disgusted. The black tux he wore was wrinkled; a smear of blood stained the cuff of his shirt, and his expression was lined with the heaviness in his heart.

“Losing Ely is going to hurt,” Jonas finally whispered. “Pray to God, Elizabeth can fix this.”

Pray, that was all any of them could do. Ria nodded, her hands closing over Mercury’s as he pressed them against her stomach, holding her close. Secure. Warm.

God, she could have lost him. If Ely had turned that gun on Mercury instead, she might not have hesitated to pull the trigger. She was that determined to see him destroyed for a condition he had never truly suffered from.

“I think I’m ready to leave this party,” he told her, his lips at her ear, caressing the shell as the heat and hardness of him filled her with strength. “The bad guys have been captured and the dress is driving me crazy.”

She almost smiled. “Yes, I think we’re ready to leave this party.”

“I think we all are,” Jonas breathed out roughly. “Unfortunately, we have guests.”

“And I’m off duty and in mating heat,” Mercury growled. “I’m taking my mate to our cabin.”

Because the adrenaline was crashing inside her, combining with the mating heat now that the danger had passed, now that the Breeds determined to destroy their own society were in custody.

Jonas nodded as he turned away. Ria turned, watching as he moved to the ballroom entrance, coming to a stop as Callan carried Ely in his arms and moved for the hallway.

The doctor was unconscious, her face paper white, a smear of blood beneath her nose attesting to the fact that the drug she was on was attempting to destroy her exceptional mind.

Callan’s face was carved from stone; his wife’s was wet with tears as she followed behind him. Ely was a cherished part of the community; she was their hope for the answers to the questions about their own physiology, and she was a friend.

“Will she survive, Elizabeth?” Ria asked as her grandmother moved to her, Leo close on her heels, as he always was.

“If she’s strong enough, Ria. If she’s strong enough.”

Elizabeth patted her arm and moved past her, Leo’s arm wrapping around his wife to pull her close to his side as they followed Callan and Merinus.

Seconds later, Horace Engalls, his wife and Phillip Brandenmore were escorted from the ballroom under enforcer guard, their expressions both furious and terrified.

It was over, Ria thought. As Mercury turned her to the doors and they moved to leave the party, she let herself believe it was finally over.

“We have about eight hours,” Mercury growled at her ear as they entered the limo and the enforcer assigned to the car whisked them from the ball that had nearly turned into a blood-bath. “Do you think that’s enough time?”

He lifted her to his lap, bent his head to her lips and licked her, with heat, with gentleness.

“I won’t let you go,” she whispered. “I can’t.”

He touched her hair, her face. “Do you think I want to be free, Ria?”

“What if she’s your mate? What if the first tests were right, and she was meant to be your mate?”

He shook his head. “She’s not my mate, Ria. Ever. She never was. I’m holding my mate right here, in my arms.”

“I love you, Mercury,” she whispered on a soft, almost hidden sob. “I love you too much.”

“Never too much, sweet Ria Never too much.”

The animal didn’t prowl. It didn’t crouch and glare. It sighed in contentment, watched its mate through the man’s eyes, feeling the animal that reached out to him from the woman as well.

The animal in the man purred, ignoring the man’s surprise as the sound rumbled in his chest. But the woman purred right back, and she laughed with a hint of tears.

Behind her eyes, within the unconscious depths of her being, the mate of the animal in the man stared back at it.

They were animals contained. Hidden parts of the man and woman that were no longer forced to silence. Genetics, yes. They were a part of them, the spirits the man and woman contained, no longer separate, but connected fully. And mated.

Animal to animal. Man to woman.

And as the man carried his mate into their lair, laid her gently on their bed and completed the union their bodies needed, the animals connected.

They were as they were always meant to be. Soul to soul. Heart to heart. Pulsing and alive. They were Breeds, and they were proud.

TWO DAYS LATER

The lab was cool to protect sensitive equipment that didn’t require the warmth Ria did. She sat on the gurney, forcing herself to relax as Mercury leaned against the wall and watched her silently.

Alaiya had demanded that the mating tests be completed quickly, mostly because her tenure in the Bureau of Breed Affairs was being reconsidered. She knew she was on her way out. Not out of Sanctuary perhaps, but out of the upper levels of Breed hierarchy. She had ignored her commander’s orders. Defied him. And she had lost control of herself during that last confrontation with Ria.

Breed Enforcers had to always maintain control, until the full phase of mating heat was established. Hers hadn’t been established.

“You’re mates.” Elizabeth stepped from the office she was using while overseeing Ely’s duties at Sanctuary.

Elizabeth Vanderale was in her element here. Working with Breeds, adding to her knowledge and experience as well as Ely’s.

“And Alaiya?” Ria knew she was Mercury’s mate, there was no doubt in her mind, and she had no intention of releasing him. No matter the outcome of these tests.

“Well, she’s definitely mated someone, but hers doesn’t match the heat in your and Mercury’s systems.” She frowned, shaking her head. “Someone altered the tests Ely had done. They’ve been altering them for months, in several Breeds she ran tests on. She didn’t catch it because the drug had already begun infecting her mind. Charles, one of her lab assistants, would tell her not to look for the anomalies, and she didn’t.”

The information had been easy to find over the past two days. Months’ worth of altered tests, coded transmissions and attempts to drug other Breeds.

The two lab assistants, Charles and the older nurse, Maydene, had been working for nearly a year for Engalls and Brandenmore. But they had been smart where selling the information was concerned. They slipped it out, but then refused to supply the code to unlock it until they’d received full payment.

Something they would never see now.

“Does Alaiya know?” Mercury asked.

“She knows,” Elizabeth breathed out heavily. “But she isn’t accepting it yet. She swears Mercury is her mate and that I’m the one altering the tests. She will be best avoided for a while.”

“I don’t have time to avoid her.” Ria slid from the small cot and glanced at Mercury. “I’ve already told Leo. I’m not returning to the main offices when the two of you leave. I’ve taken a position here, with Sanctuary. They need someone they can trust in Security Control, someone who can understand the systems they have and how to monitor any further attempts to break them. Leo’s going to turn one of the newer satellites over to Sanctuary control, and Dane will never rest if one of his babies isn’t being watched over.” She grinned at that. Dane loved technology. Especially Vanderale technology.

“I already assumed that.” Elizabeth smiled gently. “Leo and I will be staying awhile anyway. I want to continue to watch over Ely. She’s coming along nicely, but once the drugs are out of her system, she’s going to have a hard patch to overcome.” She glanced at Mercury. “You’re her friend, you know. She’s desolate over what she nearly did.”

“She’s still a friend.” He nodded sharply. “I’ll be assigned permanently to Sanctuary now. I’ll be heading the security detail we’re reworking for the labs and for Ely. She’ll be taken care of from now on.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “They may have destroyed her. Bringing her back from this won’t be easy.”

“We’ll bring her back.” Mercury was arrogant, certain of himself. Ria grinned in pride.

“So, mate, ready to go home?” she asked him. Their cabin was prepared, one within Sanctuary’s secured walls, but also within the heavily forested mountain that surrounded the estate.

Mercury’s gaze fired, artic blue eyes that burned. She loved those eyes.

She loved him.

With a smile, he escorted her from the labs and to the main floor, urging her to walk faster as he whispered in her ear exactly how he intended to please her.

“All night,” he growled as she fought to restrain her laughter. “Couch. Chair. Floor.”

“We have a bed,” she reminded him.

“I was getting to that.” He nipped her ear in retaliation as they entered the foyer.

And Alaiya stepped in from another room.

She wasn’t in uniform. She wore cotton leggings, flat boots and a T-shirt. She was ready to fight.

“Keep going,” Mercury growled when Ria came to a stop.

Running had never been the answer. Ria had run her all her life-from who she was, from what she was. She wasn’t running any longer.

She read the challenge in the other woman’s face, in her eyes. Alaiya hadn’t accepted that she had lost Mercury. That he wasn’t her mate, and that he never would be.

“You don’t want to do this here, Alaiya,” Ria warned her.

“Better here than anywhere else,” Alaiya sneered, glancing back at Mercury as he growled his warning at her. “Is your false mate going to protect you? Does he fight your battles for you? Does he know you’re nothing but Dane Vanderale’s whore?”

Ria backed into Mercury as he moved to intercept Alaiya, anger tensing his body. Ria turned her head, glaring at him.

“It’s my fight.”

“The hell it is,” he snarled. “I warned her.”

“You warned her, but only I can convince her.”

Animal to animal. She turned back to Alaiya, hissed, and they charged.

Ria was a Breed. She had trained with the strongest, the most merciless Breed ever created or trained, and she was fighting for everything that had ever belonged to her.

Mercury leaned against the wall, crossed his arms over his chest and fought against the overpowering urge to step in and shake the hell out of Alaiya.

He winced as Ria grabbed a handful of Alaiya’s hair and gave her a hard shake for him.

Ria took a punch to her hip when she jerked to the side to avoid a midsection punch. The flat of her hand slammed beneath Alaiya’s chin, driving her back before her leg sliced up in a kick that threw the other woman against the wall.

Alaiya came back snarling.

Mercury growled furiously as Ria caught a fist to her chin; then he smiled in cold, hard satisfaction as Ria’s elbow slammed into Alaiya’s kidney and a kick sent her to the floor, sliding.

Alaiya was slower getting back up, but no less vicious as she came back at Ria with a hard kick.

“Mercury, your mate is fighting in my foyer,” Callan told him as he stepped from the dining room.

“I think she’s winning too,” Kane stated.

“Shouldn’t we stop them?” Jonas eased around, watching the display as Breeds were drawn to the foyer.

“Let her alone.” Dane grinned from the doorway. “She’s just playing with Alaiya right now. Just wait till she starts fighting dirty.”

Alaiya snarled, her teeth sinking into Ria’s arm. Time seemed to stand still. Dane and Jonas grabbed Mercury before he ripped Alaiya from his mate, about the same time Ria smiled.

Blood dripped down her arm. She lifted it, slammed Alaiya’s head into the wall once, twice, and broke the bite; then she got dirty. A fist to the other woman’s face had blood pouring from Alaiya’s nose. A high, hard kick to the head, another to the knee, and Alaiya was down.

Ria tangled her fingers in the other woman’s hair, bounced her head against the floor and then hissed.

“He’s mine. Do we understand each other?”

Alaiya moaned.

“Answer me.” Her head bounced against the floor again. “Do we understand each other?”

“Yes,” Alaiya cried out, surrendering, submitting as she stared back at Mercury. “He’s yours.”

Ria jumped back from her. There was no triumph in her face, no smug satisfaction. There was a faint light of regret in her eyes, and one of compassion.

“Find your own mate, Alaiya.” Then she turned and stared at the crowd watching her.

Her brow arched at the male Breeds, more than two dozen now, watching for the sheer satisfaction of watching women fight.

“Men.” She shook her head. “Breed or human, you’re all perverts.”

“That makes me your pervert, I guess,” Mercury laughed. “Come on, mate, let’s try that theory out. We’ll see how you fight me.”

He pulled her to the door, her laughter sliding through his senses, stroking them, reminding him that he was mated. And he was loved. And his mate was his greatest treasure.