A Reaper's Love (WindWorld) (12 page)

But she was too precious for such actions.
This was a woman who needed to be handled with gentle care. Courted if he were
to win her. Loved with tender control. Worshipped with hands and mouth. Firmly
taken with strong thrusts that were not hurried or that bordered on painful.
This was a woman who needed to be satisfied so thoroughly she would never look
elsewhere for pleasure.

That he could provide such pleasure for her
he had no doubt whatsoever. Before the Black Ascendency the hellion said had
descended upon him he was at most an adequate—if somewhat bumbling—lover. Sex
was sex. It was an itch that he’d scratched. The women beneath him had meant
nothing more than a quick lay.

Now he knew it would be entirely different.
He
was different. He was something more.

The Exchange Board Room

“His name is Dixon Wayne Coulter. Born
August 8, 1980 in Milton, Florida. Along with six brothers and sisters he was
taken from his mother and put into the foster care system. He was raised by Ned
and Eleanor Branch, graduated valedictorian of his high school in 1998 and
enlisted in the Navy. He aced the ASVAB and went into SEAL training. Numerous
citations of merit, outstanding evals. On November 22, 2012 he disappeared
during his last mission and until now there has been no word on his
whereabouts,” Jonas Cobb, the Supervisor’s Executive Assistant, reported.

“If he’d had a hellion inside him when they
did his physical they would have discovered it,” Director Charles commented.
“They’d have sent him directly to us.”

“That goes without saying,” the Supervisor
snapped. He was still in a state of shock that the
balgair
had called
him by his first name—a name no one other than his brothers knew.

Taylor was watching the succession of
photos taken of Coulter from childhood on. The last one was dated November 15th,
2012 and was a surveillance photo taken in Afghanistan. “Stop the vid,” he
said.

Cobb frowned but pointed the remote at the
vid-com and paused it.

“Go back to the shot of his face and zoom
in,” Taylor said. When Cobb obeyed Taylor walked up to the screen.

“You seeing something?” Director Ingram
asked.

The Prime Reaper ignored the question.
“Split the screen and run the video feed that was transmitting from Laci’s
camera before the signal vanished.”

Cobb thumbed some buttons on the remote and
the vid-com halved down the middle. The video began playing.

“Freeze it!” Taylor ordered. “Zoom in.”

The video stopped on Coulter’s face then
tightened to a close up.

“Look at his eyes,” Taylor said and stepped
back so the others could see what he’d seen.

“What are we looking for?” Director Charles
asked.

“The color,” the Supervisor said, getting
to his feet. “In the last Navy photo his eyes are brown. On the vid, they are
green.”

“Okay, so we can surmise he was given a
hellion at some point after his disappearance,” Director Nealson said. “Who
would…?”

“He has my hellion,” Taylor said.

The Supervisor doubled his fists and
planted them on the table in front of him. “How can you be sure?”

“Hassan captured him,” Taylor said as
though he hadn’t heard the question. “I knew there were other prisoners but I
never saw any of them.”

“Then how do you know they were there?”
Director Charles asked.

Taylor turned his head to give the man a
hard glower. “Because I could hear them screaming.”

“They took the hellion from you and gave it
to Coulter,” Director Ingram said. “Why? For what purpose?”

“Good question, Ike,” Director Nealson
said.

“Because they thought they could make a
super warrior of him,” Taylor said, his attention focused on Coulter’s face.
“They thought they could control him.” He smiled but the smile did not reach
his eyes. It was the predatory grin of a very dangerous animal. “They were
wrong.”

“So he Converted then went after them,”
Director Nealson said.

“Would not the goddess be in control of the
hellion?” Director Ingram asked. “And thus in control of Coulter?”

“If the goddess is in control of him, that
means he is doing Her bidding and we know how She feels about warmongers,”
Director Charles stated. “If that is the case, then he is with us, not against
us.”

“That remains to be seen,” the Supervisor
said. He straightened. “What is bothering you, Reynaud?”

“He has my hellion,” Taylor said. “Isn’t
that enough?”

“He also has your woman,” the Supervisor
said quietly.

Taylor turned and those who saw the fury in
his eyes drew back from it and were warned by it.

“Yes, he does and there is a reason he cut
the transmission from her camera,” Taylor said between clenched teeth.

“The hellion is telling him she is his
mate,” Cobb put in.

Taylor’s eyes turned scarlet red, his lips
peeled back from his fangs, and every man there save the Supervisor scrambled
to get up from his chair and jump back with audible cries of terror.

“Get me there,” Taylor hissed to the
Supervisor. “Get me there
now
!”

Swallowing his own fear, the Supervisor
nodded. It would not do to show alarm to the directors. “Cobb,” he said,
carefully controlling his voice, “get Reynaud a chopper to the airfield and
have a jet standing by.”

Long after the chopper had vanished from
sight, the Supervisor stood at the window and stared at the overcast Iowa sky.
Rain was coming.

As would the irate mind-hiss from Reynaud
as soon as the Panthera reached the airport and found the surprise waiting for
him.

“It’s for your own good, Taylor,” he said.
“There are forces here you aren’t equipped to engage.”

He heard the soft footsteps behind him but
didn’t turn around. Didn’t speak to the man who joined him at the window.

“They are there, sir,” Cobb said.

“Please call my brothers and thank them for
me, Jonas.”

“Of course, sir. Will there be anything
else?”

“Aye. A stiff bourbon and two aspirins. I’m
going to need them.”

The chopper landed at the airstrip just
north of Oakland Acres. Before the skids had a chance to touch down, Taylor was
out the door he hadn’t let them shut and was sprinting toward the black
Gulfstream. So intent was he in getting on the plane and taking off, it didn’t
register with him that the engines weren’t on when he took the steps into the
jet two at a time. But the moment he saw Viraiden Cree lounging in one of the
plush seats, he knew.

Fury shot through Taylor. They had sent the
badass Prime to accompany him to Greece. Obviously the Supervisor didn’t think
he was up to taking on the
balgair
by himself.

“I don’t need your help,” he snapped.

“Wasn’t planning on giving you any,” Cree
said with a wolfish grin.

“Then why are you here?” Taylor demanded.

“To keep your ass where it belongs,” the
Lupine Reaper replied.

Taylor whipped around to find Darkyn Sorn
blocking his path.

“Going somewhere, Tay?” Sorn asked.

“Get the hell out of my way, Darkyn,”
Taylor ordered. He closed and opened his fists, his fangs descending.

“Ain’t gonna happen, bro,” Sorn replied.
When Taylor made to go around him, Sorn sidestepped into his path. “Unh, unh.”

Taylor heard Cree behind him and before he
could turn around something sharp and wickedly hot drove deep into his
shoulder. He yelped, slapped a hand to the stinging agony then felt his knees
begin to buckle.

“
Fuck you
,” he sent to the
Supervisor as his world started to close down.

“Sweet dreams, little Reaper,” Sorn said
with a laugh.

The last thing Taylor heard was Viraiden
complaining about how heavy he was as he and Sorn began dragging him out of the
plane and to the containment cell he knew had his name on it.

* * * * *

There were three Prime Reapers in
attendance. Two sat with the Supervisor and another was present via conference
vid.

“All right, so he’s safe for now,” Fallon
said from the vid-screen. “But you’re going to have one fucking mad Panthera on
your hands when he wakes up.”

“Better he be
able
to wake up,” the
Supervisor said. “We don’t know what we’re dealing with, Fallon. If I had let
him go to Greece, there’s no telling what might have happened.”

“This dude is powerful, Misha,” Darkyn
said. “The psi abilities were rolling off him like water from a duck’s back. I
could feel the mental pushes strongly enough to give me one really bad headache
that put me in bed for twelve hours.”

“Tay is nowhere near being strong enough to
take on this asshole,” Cree put in.

“So what?” Fallon demanded. “If it was
Bronwyn the prick had, what would you do, Cree?”

“Move heaven and earth to get to her even
if I ran the risk of getting my ass handed to me,” Cree said. “That’s not the
point, Fallon. I might have a chance with the Rogue since my hellion is far
older than Tay’s. At the moment Tay has only a fledgling inside him, not a
full-grown hellion. He’s not that much stronger now than he was when his king
was taken.”

“Well, fuck you, Cree, don’t you think I
know that?” Fallon shouted.

“Mind your manners, pup, or I’ll fuck your
shit up so bad—” Cree began but the Supervisor intervened.

“That’s enough!” he snapped. “We don’t know
the
balgair
poses a threat to Albright.”

Fallon rolled his eyes. “Wishful thinking
on your part,” he mumbled.

“There’s no doubt there is a threat,” Cree
said. “Not a physical threat at least. He wouldn’t hurt Laci.”

“How do you know that?” Darkyn asked.

“You’re not mated so you don’t have a point
of reference,” Cree said, “but mated Reapers aren’t physically or mentally
capable of harming their life-mates. You might turn her shapely ass over your
knee and give her a good smack or two but you wouldn’t dream of actually
hurting her. The protection command is much too strong. That is one
geasa
no Reaper can ignore.”

“But Tay is Laci’s mate,” Darkyn protested.

“It is the hellion inside the Reaper that
intercepts the mating imperative and acts on it,” Cree said.

“And Tay’s hellion is inside the Rogue,”
Fallon said. “This Coulter shit is feeling exactly what Reynaud felt when he
first laid eyes on Laci.”

“What I felt when I first saw Bronwyn and
what Fallon felt with Keenan,” Cree added.

“It hits you like a ton of bricks and there
is no thinking of anything else save having her under you, being inside her,”
Fallon said. “All we can do is hope the Rogue will wait until he gets to the
Exchange before he attempts to mate with her. Trouble is, he may not be
able
to wait. Taylor knows this and that’s why he’s so pissed.”

“And worried,” the Supervisor broke in. “As
am I.”

“You think Laci will give in that easily?”
Sorn asked.

“She may not have a choice,” Cree said. “If
this bastard is as powerful as you think he is, he could easily control her,
make her do what she normally wouldn’t.”

“I see the problem. All right, we need to
separate Tay’s hellion from the Rogue,” Sorn said. “That’s a given.”

“Aye, well that might be easier said than
done,” the Supervisor replied. “We are dealing with a very powerful entity
here. We don’t even know what he is as of yet.”

“I asked
An Fear Liath Mor
to look
into it but he hasn’t gotten back to me,” Fallon said. “I need to rattle his
cage again.”

“Then I suggest you get on it,” Cree told
him. “The longer Laci is with the Rogue, the more time the hellion will have to
work on her.”

“What does that mean?” Sorn asked, his brow
furrowed.

“It means it could make her give in to its
host,” Fallon said. “Influence her, Sorn. Coulter could conceivably have the
ability to take her away from Reynaud.”

“We need to get him to the Exchange,”
Fallon said. “That’s all there is to it.”

“He’ll come,” Cree said.

“And you know this because…?” Sorn asked.

“He wants to be the Alpha here,” Cree said.
“
Why
is the $64,000 question.”

“You question his motives in taking out the
terrorists?” Sorn wanted clarified.

“I don’t trust him because I don’t know
him,” Cree said. “He could be doing the bidding of Raphian.”

At the mention of the Dark God, the
Destroyer of Men’s Souls, the other men looked acutely concerned.

“Has it occurred to any of you that this
might be Raphian’s way of starting the war we all know is coming?” Cree asked.
“Organizations like Al-Queda, the Taliban, Hamas, they now know we exist. They
know we are actively working against them. My guess is that’s why Hassan tried
to make his own version of a Reaper warrior. If Raphian is involved, it would
be on the side of the terrorists.”

“I see what you mean,” the Supervisor said.
“Such a thing had never crossed my mind, Cree, and it should have.”

“Coulter was a SEAL,” Cree said. “That
means he is a patriot. If Raphian is involved, He would want Coulter to believe
he is doing what he needs to protect civilization from all-out war. He’d make
him believe the imperative was coming from the Triune Goddess, Herself. Coulter
wouldn’t know any better. He gets here, becomes your Alpha then starts working
against us.”

“Cree hit the nail on the head. Wouldn’t it
stand to reason if Coulter
was
working for
Mo Regina
She would
have informed us?” Fallon asked.

“
Mo Regina
did not create the
Panthera. She tends to ignore their existence most of the time,” the Supervisor
reminded them. “She can control them—as She can any creature—but they are not
Hers. She doesn’t track them like She does Lupines and Hell-hounds.”

“If
Mo Regina
didn’t create you, who
did?” Fallon asked of Sorn.

“The
an Éigiptian
goddess Bastet,”
Sorn replied. “She and the Diabolusian god Tepeyollotl.”

“Where the Lupine and Hell-hound species
were created, the Panthera were god-born. Which tends to make them very
arrogant,” Alexandru said, glancing at Sorn.

Sorn grinned back at him. “And very
intelligent.” At his Supervisor’s snort, Sorn chuckled.

“Here’s something to consider. Terra could
be low on
Mo Regina’s
list of priorities right now. That may be why She
hasn’t stepped in,” Cree grumbled. “As She’s told us many times, we are not Her
only concerns.”

Alexandru nodded. “She will intervene in
Her own good time. If he’s a threat to us, She’ll quash him quickly enough.”