Mercury's War

CHAPTER 6

“Everything okay, Doc?” Mercury pulled his black mission shirt back over his head and stared back at Elyiana Morrey as she stored another vial of his blood in her little carrier.

They called her the Vampire of Sanctuary. Every time a Breed turned around, she was standing there with her little blood-collecting necessities staring at them with those soft brown puppy-dog eyes. A Feline female shouldn’t have puppy-dog eyes, but this one did.

Too much emotion, Mercury had always thought. She was driving herself crazy trying to find answers to all the anomalies showing up in the Breeds since freedom had been achieved.

She had once been the star pupil of the Council scientists, a genius on a level that had never been attained within their ranks before. With the rescues, she had become the Breeds’ only hope of finding a way to learn the secrets of their own bodies.

“Hey, Doc, you’re not answering me.” He adjusted the shirt beneath the band of his uniform pants, watching her back carefully now.

“What did you say?” She turned back to him, her gaze slightly distant as she focused on him.

He restrained his smile. He liked Ely.

“I said, is everything okay?”

“Fine.” She nodded, turning back to the vials as she stored them in one of her contraptions.

“So why more tests? You just did this whole thing last week.” He stood to his feet, watching her carefully as he re-strapped the weapon holsters onto his body. They were a part of him now; he felt naked without them.

“You know how it goes.” She shrugged. “You’re in close-quarter contact with an unknown female. I like to keep an eye on your tests in that case. Just in case.”

Just in case. He breathed out heavily, silently.

“She’s not my mate.” He growled the word because for the first time since he had learned of the mating heat he was pissed off that there wasn’t a chance of it affecting him. He’d lost his mate before he’d ever had the chance to know what having one meant.

“I’ve never believed you truly mated, Merc,” she reminded him. “My experience with this is that it takes more than wanting or caring deeply for anyone.” She turned back to him, her gaze compassionate. “Have you been feeling any changes since Ms. Rodriquez showed up?”

She moved toward him, her bare hand, devoid of the gloves she normally wore, gripping his wrist to check his pulse. Then she rubbed his arm, almost like a comforting gesture, before patting it as she would a child’s.

At this point, he was watching her suspiciously.

“Do I get a sucker too?” he asked warily.

“You didn’t answer my question, Merc,” she reminded him. “Feeling anything unusual?”

“Well, Doc, there’s no enlarging of the glands under my tongue, but you checked those, so you know that. No funny taste in my mouth, and that little stroke and pat against my arm didn’t have me cringing in pain,” he reported with an edge of disgust. “Is there anything else I should be looking for?”

Her lips twitched. “You have the symptoms down, I see.”

“Pretty hard not to with the damned epidemic that seems to be going on,” he snorted. “Lawe and Rule are bitching constantly over it. I think they like their footloose and carefree ways.”

“And you don’t?” She leaned against the table, watching him carefully.

“You a psychiatrist now, Doc?” He grinned back at her. “Come on, put away the doctor stuff here. Tell me what you really want to know and we’ll work from there.”

She shook her head at that, a light laugh leaving her throat. “You caught me. Are you attracted to Ms. Rodriquez, Merc?”

“She’s a woman.” He arched his brows. “I’m a man, and I’m not mated. And Jonas has me on her butt twenty-four-seven. What do you think?”

She nodded at that, but something flickered in her eyes that had him frowning down at her. “Is something wrong here, Ely? Something I don’t know anything about?”

“Trust me, Merc, if something was wrong, Jonas would be the first to know and you would be the second. Chain of command.” She rolled her eyes. “If you want to be first in line, you’ll have to take it up with him.”

“Then let’s put this another way,” he growled, growing tired of the feeling that there was a very subtle game being played here. “What would make you suspect it is possible for me to mate Ms. Rodriquez when none of the symptoms are there?”

She sighed at that. “Honestly, there’s no suspicion. As you said, with all the matings recently, and the fact that there were very few in the years after Kane and Sherra, I’m merely being diligent. And a word of warning-when the techs in the control room contact me that you’re acting unusual in regards to the clerk in the file room, it’s my job to check for the mating hormone.”

Mercury stilled at that. “Unusual how?”

“I should inform you, just because they can’t see exactly what you’re doing doesn’t mean they aren’t speculating on it.” She grimaced. “I received the call just before coming for you. They were afraid.” She inhaled slowly. “They thought perhaps you were doing something Ms. Rodriquez may not have been agreeing with.”

Mercury’s nostrils flared as he fought back a rush of pure male fury. “They thought I was raping her?”

“There’s a fine line, Merc,” she said. “They merely thought there might be a problem. I checked it out and now I’ve taken the required blood, semen and hormonal samples. I’ll let you know what I find once I find it.”

“There is no fine line,” he gritted out. “No means no. Dammit, Ely.” He forcibly pulled back the anger eating inside him now. He could feel it building, welling in his head until a tide of red edged at the corner of his vision.

“As I said, it was merely a suggestion.” His gaze flashed down as a needle punctured his vein again and blood washed into the attached vial.

Icy rage stole over him. His eyes lifted, and he was only barely aware of the growl that rumbled from his throat and had Ely pausing to stare up at him in surprise.

“I forgot the last tube I needed.” She slid the needle from his arm and efficiently disconnected the sealed tube of blood from the needle.

He clenched his fists, the need to jerk it from her grip nearly overwhelming him. He needed that blood back. He couldn’t risk it… He reached for it, his hand quickly covering her wrist as she stared back at him in shock.

“Mercury.”

“You don’t need that blood.” He felt as though he were staring out at her from someone else’s eyes, feeling someone else’s rage. He couldn’t allow her to keep that blood.

But he had no reason for it. No reason for the anger, no reason not to trust her, other than the fact that something warned him that he couldn’t trust anyone. And why he felt that way was confusing as hell.

He released her hands slowly, staring at the vial of blood in her fist.

“You’re lying to me, Ely,” he stated, watching her closely, inhaling deeply. He swore-and he had never smelled emotions as other Breeds sometimes could-but he swore he could smell her deceit.

She swallowed tightly. “You’re not acting yourself, Mercury,” she whispered. “Are you certain there isn’t anything wrong?”

“Are you?” He had to get away from her; every word that passed his lips was a growl. He held his hand out. “Give me the vial.”

“I can’t run the tests without it.” Did she pale? Was that fear flickering in her eyes?

“You have enough. Make due.”

As he spoke, the lab door opened and Kane, Sanctuary’s head of security, and Callan Lyons stepped into the room.

Mercury looked up at the all-seeing eye of the camera. Like the labs. Always someone watching. How could he have forgotten that? Always the suspicion, always the eyes tracking and second-guessing.

He turned back to Ely. “I asked nicely,” he reminded her.

“Merc, what’s going on here?” Kane’s voice was questioning, but Mercury could feel his pride leader watching, tracking, smelling the danger in the room.

“He doesn’t like giving blood suddenly,” Ely said nervously, moving to turn away.

Merc didn’t touch her this time as he stepped in front of her. “Make sure you get everything you need from that vial of blood, Dr. Morrey,” he said softly. “Because you’ll get no more.”

“You were ordered…”

His growl surprised him. It rumbled, fierce and threatening in his chest.

“I’m not Jonas’s gigolo, or his puppet. Tell him to get screwed if that’s what he thinks.” He flicked a glance to the other two men.

Kane was watching him worriedly; Callan’s expression was thoughtful. Mercury had had enough. He brushed past the other two and jerked the door open as he moved through the narrow corridors of what had once been a Council lab. The cameras followed him; he could feel them now, and he never had before. Like a brand against his back, they burned into his flesh and sent a surge of anger pulsing through him.

He moved to the first floor, turned down the hall and stepped back into Ria’s office, where she lifted her head, surprise showing on her face.

“Merc?” she asked warily as he moved to the corner of the room, lifted his arm and jerked the camera from the wall, before turning to her.

Ria stared at him in shock. His eyes, once a perfect golden amber, were highlighted with tiny blue sparks. She swore they glittered like blue stars against a pure gold backdrop.

As large as he was, he suddenly appeared larger, his muscles harder, his shoulders broader. His fingers clenched around the camera in his hand.

“Was I raping you?” he snarled back at her, his canines flashing and something more than rage flickering in his eyes.

“Excuse me?” She stood from her desk slowly.

“Was I raping you?” The camera flew from his hand to strike the wall across from her, and then she heard it. It wasn’t just anger, it was betrayal. Something in his voice, in his expression, echoed with it.

“You weren’t raping me.” She shook her head slowly.

He paced closer to the desk, staring at her, eating her with his eyes. She could feel his gaze almost as she would a caress stroking over her face.

“Are you scared of me?” he growled. “Is that why you’re saying that? Do I frighten you, Ria?” He suddenly sneered. “Is that why you’re reluctant to take my touch, to feel pleasure from me? Is it too much like fucking a goddamned animal?”

“Let me hear that word out of your lips again and I’ll give you an animal,” she retorted, her hands propping on her hips as she glared back at him. “You might be pissed, Mercury Warrant, but that’s no reason to take His name in vain. Settle down or leave.”

Ria moved to sit back down, though her stomach was jumping with nerves. He was nearly enraged, furious over something. That rage, that hard, lonely look in his eyes did something to her that it shouldn’t. It made her ache, and the worst thing she could do was feel enough for this man to ache for him.

“Answer me.” His hands flattened on the table in a short, sharp burst of flesh meeting wood. “Is that why you’re reluctant to take me to your bed? Do you fear me?”

She lifted her eyes, let her gaze lock with his. “The only thing I’m scared of where you’re concerned,” she stated clearly, “is allowing you to ever make coffee again. Other than that, no, you don’t scare me. But at the moment, you are making me angry.”

And he made her want to touch him. She had to restrain herself to keep from lifting her hand, from touching his hard jaw. Who could have dared to suggest he could force her into anything?

He stayed in position, leaning over the desk, his long hair framing features so savage she should have been terrified. Not dying to reach out to him.

Then her office door was pushed open, banging against the wall as she watched Mercury’s jaw clench, watched his eyes flare brighter. He stayed still, silent, staring back at her as she looked around him to see Callan Lyons and Kane Tyler at her doorway.

“Can I help you gentlemen with something?” she asked politely.

Callan’s gaze went to the camera that had bounced to the floor across the room.

“What happened to the camera?” he asked. His expression was hard, his gaze flat and dangerous, and he looked entirely too powerful for a man who had nearly died two months before.

Ria stood to her feet. “I don’t appreciate being tattled on,” she stated as she gathered the files from her desk and moved around it, aware of Mercury shifting, sliding around her protectively, keeping himself between her and the other two men. “I’m aware what happened earlier may not have been particularly politically correct in such a setting, but I was assured Sanctuary was quite informal.” She turned and leaned against the table set up for the files she was using at any given time. “I asked Mercury to turn it off.” She looked at the camera and grinned. “I believe he may have taken me a little too literally.”

“I jerked the son of a bitch out of the fucking wall before she could say a word,” Mercury growled as she rolled her eyes at him. “I don’t hide behind a woman’s skirts.”

Well, he was the first man in her life who had made that claim. Most of the men she knew, with the exception of Dane, begged to borrow her skirts if the Leo was anywhere near.

“Is he always so arrogant?” she asked Callan then.

Callan lifted his hand to his shoulder and the enforcers behind him moved back, the door closing behind them as they left, leaving the four of them alone.

“Mercury is usually fairly calm,” Kane stated, his pale blue eyes watching the scene curiously now.

Mercury was silent, his gaze steady on her, those blue tints to his eyes almost mesmerizing her.

“I didn’t say he wasn’t calm, I said he was arrogant,” she stated. “I apologize for our earlier actions…”

Mercury growled. This could get on her nerves fast. She sliced him a silencing look and continued to stare. He was obviously struggling to maintain some sort of control, to keep from doing something. He stood ramrod stiff between her and the other two men, his expression carved from granite and forbidding in its fierceness.

“Or perhaps I don’t.” She crossed her arms over her breasts and leaned against the desk. “Would someone like to explain to me what’s going on?” she asked them then. “Ely drags off a perfectly reasonable man and he returns pissed off to the point that he rips the camera out of the wall and asks me if he was raping me? I’m a little confused here.”

Kane cursed. Callan grimaced but no one spoke. And something wild and merciless flashed in Mercury’s eyes. That look should have made her wary, it shouldn’t have made her heart jump with excitement instead. And it shouldn’t have made her remember what it felt like to have him covering her back, growling out his demand that she touch her own breasts.

But she could see where things were going here, and the why of it was beginning to piss her off. She had expected someone to attempt to distract her for weeks now. She hadn’t expected this. But perhaps others had seen what she was only beginning to suspect herself. Mercury could be a very habit-forming weakness of hers.

“Kane?” Mercury’s voice was tense, deep and so dark she almost shivered.

“Yeah, Merc?” Kane asked warily.

“Could you ensure that Ms. Rodriquez is adequately protected when she returns to her cabin please? Shiloh Gage would perhaps be best to place within the house with her tonight.”

She stared at him in surprise.

“I’ll take care of that, Mercury,” Kane answered him. “Ely needs you back in the lab, though.”

Mercury’s lips pulled back from his teeth as he turned to look at the other man. Evidently, what Kane Tyler saw shocked him as much as it had shocked Ria moments before.

“Tell Ely she has all she’s getting from me.” With that, he stalked from the office, moving purposefully along the hall until, moments later, Ria heard a door slam, loudly.

“Ms. Rodriquez, I’m going to ask nicely,” Callan said carefully. “Please submit yourself to the labs below so Ely can take a few blood and saliva samples. I promise, it should be relatively harmless.”

“Like hell.” She straightened, suddenly furious. “What the hell did you do to him? You accused him of trying to rape me?”

“He moved in on you while you weren’t looking. Moments later, it appeared he was taking you without your consent,” Kane informed her. “I had a brief moment to see the tapes before we had to go to the labs. I admit, Sanctuary is a bit informal, but if there was something going on here, something you were unwilling to participate in, now is the time to say it.”

To Kane Tyler’s credit, he didn’t appear to believe any such thing, but that didn’t keep it from pricking her anger. What the hell did they think was going on? And how did they have the temerity to even suggest anything so preposterous as Mercury Warrant attempting something so horrible?

“And perhaps I was willing.” She was amazed at the anger that flooded her now. “That’s what you get for being so damned nosy, Mr. Tyler. You’ve managed to humiliate me in the middle of what should have been a perfectly nice Saturday afternoon, and you’ve insulted and betrayed a friend.” Contempt rose within her as she flicked them both a hard look. “Perhaps you should get me a ride back to my cabin. And don’t bother with another babysitter. I’ve grown pretty comfortable with the one I had; I wouldn’t handle another one well.”

They might not understand loyalty, but she could assure them, she did. It was what had landed her in the middle of this mess to begin with.

“An enforcer will accompany you-”

“I’ll call Dane Vanderale, my boss, and I’ll have a Vanderale heli-jet parked on your landing pad in thirty minutes flat if my wishes are ignored in this case.” She’d had enough. Even Dane couldn’t sweet-talk his way out of this one. “It’s no damned wonder you can’t keep a handle on the spies in Sanctuary. You’re too damned busy suspecting those loyal to you to look beyond them. Get a clue here. I’m not a Breed nor am I answerable to Sanctuary and as far as I’m concerned you can all go bugger yourselves.”

Her accent slipped free. That never happened. She’d been born and raised in South Africa, and her job habitually required that she maintain the impression that she could be from anywhere, everywhere except Vanderale’s home offices.

It irritated her to no end that it had slipped free now.

“Are we clear, sirs?” Dammit, it was still there. “I require a vehicle of my own, immediately. Your enforcers can freeze to death outside for all I give a bloody damn. But if one attempts to step inside my cabin, then that call shall be made.”

She jerked her bag from the floor, pulled it over her shoulder and glared back at them. “The vehicle. Now.”

This time Callan cursed, jerked the door open and stomped out, leaving her alone with Kane Tyler, who stared back at her curiously. “I thought Mercury lost his mate,” he mused.

Her jaw clenched and she had to hold back the trembling of her lips. “I’m quite certain he did. I was unaware it took mating to defend a man accused unfairly. You know, Tyler, I’m disappointed by the lot of you. To be honest, I had a better opinion of the inner strength of Sanctuary. Perhaps I was wrong about that.”

Kane sighed. “Some things might seem that way,” he sighed. “But trust me, it’s not always that easy. Come on, I’ll get your car and your escort.”

Not that either helped her frame of mind. And it wasn’t going to help Dane’s once she got hold of him. He had sent her on this damned fool’s errand. They both knew Sanctuary still had a very dangerous spy, but the first Leo wanted to visit. He wanted to spend time with his grandchild and the child Callan’s mate was now expecting, and Ria had a feeling he wanted to put Jonas Wyatt in his place. The Leo was the Leo. Period. Arrogant. Hardheaded, and stubborn. He was frighteningly intelligent, in control, and certain of himself. All the qualities that Jonas used to piss off everyone he came in contact with.

As Kane watched Ms. Rodriquez drive off, the enforcers trailing her, he bit off a curse.

“Ely thinks he’s going feral again,” Callan told him quietly from the doorway. “That was why he didn’t want her to have that last vial of blood.”

Feral displacement had once nearly driven Mercury insane. The death of the young Lioness he could have mated, likely cared for, had triggered a surge of such violent adrenaline in his body that he’d had to be confined in a special cell in the labs until a drug could be created to control him.

Kane shook his head. “I don’t believe that. I saw those videos of Merc from years back the same as you did, Callan. What Mercury is going through now isn’t some kind of bullshit feral fever.”

“She’s doing initial tests now on that last vial of blood. She thinks he’s beginning to lose control.”

Kane had seen the security videotape. What he saw concerned him, made him wonder what the hell was going on, but it hadn’t made him worry about Merc’s sanity. Evidently, Callan felt the same or they would be sending enforcers after Mercury now. But Ely didn’t make determinations without evidence either.

“I didn’t see anything to indicate force.” He propped his hands on his hips and stared at the entrance to Sanctuary, grimacing at the chanting of voices from the other side of the iron gates.

Protestors, again. They’d been amassing over the past weeks, no doubt drawn by more horror stories in those rags about human sacrifices. Shaking his head, he turned back to the pride leader and watched Callan curiously.

“What proof do we have that he mated to that Breed girl that died?” He headed up the steps as he asked the question. “Could we be looking at another anomaly in mating heat?”

“Ely says no. The mating hormone was detected in him in those labs, just as the feral fever was detected,” Callan told him. “The mating hormone was recorded in him from the tests for weeks before she was killed. Mixing with it was the unknown hormone they couldn’t explain. It seemed to mix with his blood, like adrenaline, or perhaps with the adrenaline during moments of stress, anger or danger. It was present after several missions as well. The day he learned the girl had been killed, he went feral. Hell, Kane, he punched his hand through a Coyote’s chest and tore out his heart. Even for a Breed, that’s not normal.”

Kane remembered those videos as well.

“They were smug about the death. The trainer was laughing and the scientist was less than sympathetic over the loss. Would either of us have done anything differently at the loss of someone we cared for?”

Callan glanced back at him as they moved through the mansion. “After restraining him, the scientist had the foresight to extract blood immediately. The adrenaline was so spiked with the unknown hormone that they decided it was some sort of fever. They used him to research it, then developed a drug therapy to control it.”

“A super downer,” Kane grunted.

“A drug perfected to control that particular hormone. They were still testing it when the rescues took place. He was slowly taken off the drug therapy after the rescues, but there was never a change in his control, until now,” Callan sighed as they entered his office. “And I have to agree with Ely, he’s not acting like himself. Mercury has never shown anger toward anyone in Sanctuary before.”

“Until someone accused him of attempting to rape a woman? Perhaps his woman?”

Callan rubbed one hand over his face as he collapsed in his chair and breathed out roughly. “Until now. And Ely doesn’t seem to know what the hell is going on.”

That one Kane very much doubted, and as he stared back at Callan, he knew his brother-in-law felt the same.

They had fought this fight for eleven years now. The battle to preserve the Breeds’ freedom and hold on to their secrets until they understood them themselves. The battle to protect their people, and their children.

Kane thought of his son, not much younger than Callan’s, and felt the same concern he knew ran through the other man’s mind. They couldn’t afford Mercury’s loss of control. He was the Breed that frightened little children on the street for God’s sake. The savage features of the animal stamped on the face of the man.

“What now?” he breathed out heavily.

“Pull Lawe away from the cabin and find Mercury. I’ll call Jonas back from D.C. Merc is one of his enforcers; maybe he can help us figure out what the hell is going on here. And how to control it.”

“And the woman?” Kane asked. “Can we afford to piss her off any further than we have already?”

Callan’s lips twisted thoughtfully at the question. “We need to convince her to let Ely take those samples, but after she stole that blood from Merc, Ms. Rodriquez isn’t going to allow Ely within touching distance of her.” He stroked the side of his jaw in contemplation. “And I swear, that video looked more like a Breed in mating heat than one experiencing feral displacement.”

“He stood between her and us until he stomped out of the house,” Kane pointed out. “He was protective and angry. And I can’t blame him for the anger.”

“He lost control after the episode in the lab.” Callan’s voice was tight now, hard. “And that isn’t acceptable. He’s a Breed. We were bred to have control over that part of ourselves and he’s lost it. That I can’t tolerate. Have Lawe find him and get him back to Sanctuary. Let’s see if we can’t talk to him and convince him to resume the tests.”

“And if he doesn’t?” Kane had a feeling he wouldn’t.

Callan shook his head wearily. “Hell, I don’t even want to consider that option, Kane, and neither do you.”