Act of Mercy (PSI-Ops / Immortal Ops) (16 page)

Mercy sat in the wheelchair that Corbin had forced her into, steaming mad. She was perfectly capable of walking on her own two feet. They were simply being stubborn males—exerting their dominance over her. She wanted to box all their ears. Even if they would let her walk, which they wouldn’t, she couldn’t reach their ears with ease. Still, she’d try if given the chance.

More than that, s
he wanted to see Duke now, not wait for all of them to get around to pushing her as slow as they possibly could down the long corridor.

“
What do you think of this one?” asked Corbin, pointing to yet another framed piece of artwork. While she normally had a high appreciation for the arts, she just wanted to get to Duke and she had a funny feeling they were purposely prolonging the experience.

“
It’s great.” She knew how she sounded—pissed. Because she was. She tried again to stand and Striker, who was pushing her, simply placed a large hand upon her shoulder, holding her firmly in place. Aggravated, she growled.

He chuckled.
“That is adorable, lass. Do it again.”

“
I’m going to bite you,” she said, looking back at him. She meant it too. She wasn’t above resorting to schoolyard antics if it got her point across. And she strongly suspected Striker only understood child’s play.

His long auburn hair fell partially into his face as he smiled wide.
“I’d enjoy that and you know as much.”

“
Grrr.” The man was insufferable. How did his own team members not throttle him? She was the one who put spiders outside rather than harm them and she was strongly considering hurting the man.

Boomer slinked up alongside her
, and for the first time since she’d come to she took the time to notice his attire. It was very Goth, yet incredibly sexy on him. He was tall, as were all the men. His long, straight hair was pulled back at the nape of his neck. She was surprised to see he had piercings in his ears, lining all the way up one. What shocked her even more was the fact the studs looked to be silver.

“
Miles,” she said softly. He glanced down at her. “I saw the doctors at the Corporation using silver to torture shifters. Don’t your piercings hurt you?”

“
They do,” he said with a slight nod. There was a faraway look in his violet eyes. “I like the pain.”

Her heart tightened for him. What past did he have that had him taking comfort in pain
? She knew how fast shifter males healed over injuries. She bet that whenever he took them all out, the holes closed over quickly and he had to re-pierce them. From the haunted look in his violet eyes, she suspected he liked that fact.

She reached out and touched his hand, unable to stop herself
. He flinched at first as if contact wasn’t something he was fond of, but then seemed to take a calming breath, his hand finding hers. He glanced down at her again and she smiled when she realized he was wearing black eyeliner. He was very different from the other team members she’d met.

“
I like you,” he said.

She got the feeling he didn
’t like too many people outside his circle of friends. She couldn’t help but feel honored. “I like you too, Miles.”

“
How come she gets to call you Miles?” asked Striker, a certain pout to his words.

Boomer glanced at him, still holding Mercy
’s hand as they walked at a snail’s pace down the hall. He flashed a teasing grin. “Because she’s prettier than you,
Dougal
.”

“
When we’re done here, I’m goin’ to give you an ass whoopin’ you’ll nae be likely to forget,” Striker warned.

Mercy looked back at him
and rolled her eyes. “No. You’re not.”

“
No?” he asked, seeming caught off guard. “I believe I am.”

She let her gaze harden, feeling almost mother hen
-like around them again. “No. You’ll behave yourself or you’ll have me to deal with.”

He cleared his throat and h
is attention went to Corbin. “She’s doesnae even come to my chest and I’m afraid of her. Explain this to me.”

“
As you should be,” Corbin warned. “I recall seeing her turn a man into a puddle of goo.”

“
I didn’t do that,” she protested, placing a hand against her breastbone.

“
He came that way then?” pressed Corbin with a pleasant smile on his handsome face. The harder she looked at him, the more she began to notice the faintest hint of thin, white, barely there scars running from just under his right jaw downwards. They disappeared under his dress shirt. They were spaced as fingers would be—or claws.

Had the lighting in the hall not been just so, she probably wouldn
’t have noticed them. They did nothing to detract from his looks. All the men were prime specimens in their own rights. But to her, Duke was the most appealing. And the one she wanted to be with now, not stuck being wheeled down a hall by men who clearly wanted to prolong the inevitable.

“
Why don’t you want me seeing Duke?” she blurted, her voice raised as all kinds of horrible reasons why they’d keep her from him circled in her mind.

Corbin motioned for Striker to stop pushing her. He did. Mercy
’s impatience grew by leaps and bounds. A sense of dread began to fill her stomach. There was a reason they were behaving this way and she was sure she wouldn’t like what the reason was.

Corbin sighed.
“Duke is stuck in wolf state, Mercy. He wouldn’t want you seeing him this way. In a few days he’ll come out of the blood lust haze.”

“
We hope,” added Striker, gaining him a dirty look from Corbin. Striker shrugged, as if he hadn’t a care in the world. “What? She is a genius. Do you nae think she’s going to figure out the longer Duke stays locked in wolf form the less likely he’ll be able to come out with ease?”

Mercy gasped
, her lower lip beginning to tremble. She thought about some of the reports she’d read on what other facilities owned by Donavon Dynamics had done. They’d forced shifters into shifted form for months, even years. Their findings had not been good for the patient or test subjects. “The Corporation needs to be stopped.”

“
We know,” Corbin said a certain sadness to his voice. “We’re working on it. Now that you’re up and we’re here, we can have you help decrypt the files you sent us.”

Mercy stared ahead, her emotions on overload.
“I based my encryption off coding I found left behind by someone who worked at the Corporation before me. They were good. Very good.”

“
Can you crack it?” asked Corbin, worry etching his face.

“
Yes.”

“
Yer one smart pixie,” said Striker.

“
Pixie?” she questioned, not following.

He
bent, his hair falling over her shoulder as he leaned in, grinning close to her face. “Do nae deny it. I thought I recognized Fae on you but it was off—different. Now I know where I remember it from. I once dated a pixie. Firecracker in bed.”

She found herself wanting to head butt him and she wonder
ed how many others had the urge while around him. She already knew Duke had a short fuse when it came to Striker. She shook her head and pushed his face from hers.

He laughed.
“Deny all you want,
pixie
.”

Boomer
patted her hand. “Turn him into goo. That will teach him.”

“
I’m seriously considering it,” she replied, eyeing Striker over her shoulder. “If only I’d been the one to do it to the guard in the first place.”

Boomer moved before her, her hand in his as he bent, going eye level.
“Doc, it was you. Your magik raced over me back in France. I’m better at sensing magik than others. It was you. You just don’t want to admit it.”

She thought harder on his words and the
anomaly in her DNA. Everything had happened so fast when they’d breeched the facility. All she could vividly remember was that Duke and the others would have been hurt had the guard used the device he’d had. She remembered thinking that above anything else, the guard could not be permitted to activate the weapon—then everything just sort of shut off for her. She thought about the strange tingling that had raced through her body and how she’d felt compelled to lift her hands. When she’d next had a lucid moment it was in Duke’s arms, being told everything was okay.

The realization that they were right, she
’d done that to a man, hit her hard. She sank low in the wheelchair’s seat, trying to release Boomer’s hand. He refused to let her. He touched her cheek and she found herself captivated by his face—so exotically beautiful yet totally and completely manly. There was an understanding there. Like he totally got the turmoil she found herself in at the moment.

“
Doc, it’s okay to be different.”

Hearing him say it somehow made it better. He was very different and seemed to embrace it. She nearly giggled at the sight of him in a fitted Danzig t-shirt.
His black pants were hardly something one would picture a special operative in. They managed to be fitted in all the right places but loose in others, with buckles lining each side from hem to waist.

Also silver
, but shaped like bats.

“
Bats,” she said, motioning to the buckles.

He winked. “
Throws ’em off my scent.”

“
Throws who off?” she asked.

He smiled. “
Anyone I let kind of close.”

“
Those are real silver,” she said.

“
Yep.”

The man like
d to torture himself.

How sad.

“Thank you for telling me it’s okay and that I’m different but that being different is not a bad thing,” she said.

He surprised her by gifting her the tiniest of kisses on her forehead. He stood and withdrew his hand from hers. From the way Corbin and Striker
remained strangely silent, their jaws agape, she wondered if this was some major breakthrough for Boomer.

“
Duke might not recognize you,” Boomer said softly. “In this state, he might not understand who you are to him.”

Corbin neared her
, a pensive look upon his face. “Stay back until we’re sure if he’s safe for you to be around.”

“
He’s nae safe for anyone to be around,” said Striker, giving her shoulders a small squeeze. “Idiot is so goin’ to be Asshole of the Week for months over this one.”

“
Agreed,” added Boomer.

“
Wasn’t sure anyone could top your attempted mating,” inserted Corbin. “That was classic.”

Boomer blushed.

Striker snorted. “At least you’ll always have the zoo.”

“
Eat me,” replied Boomer.

Mercy wasn
’t sure what they were talking about. She tapped Striker’s hand. “Can you take me to him now, please?”

“
Aye.” He pushed the wheelchair into the cell, lined with cinderblock. It looked like a giant reinforced area made to withstand just about anything. That being said, the room had taken a beating. There, in the back of it, lay a huge black wolf—bigger than any natural wolf she’d ever seen. The thing was massive. Its hackles raised and it sniffed the air. The next Mercy knew it leapt up and lunged at Boomer. Had the wolf not been chained around the neck, it might have taken a chunk out of Boomer as well.

“
Duke,” she said, her voice barely there. A year ago she’d have never believed anything in the way of men who could shift into animals existed. Boy, had her outlook on life changed. Had the men not explained they were taking her to see Duke, she might not have believed the wolf was him. Then again, it had Duke’s black eyes.

And
, apparently his temper.

The wolf continued to growl at Boomer, baring its teeth.
It looked like it wanted nothing more than to take a nice sized chunk out of Boomer.

“
Hey, stop. She’s alive and here,” Boomer said, pointing back at Mercy. There was a note of desperation in his voice and she knew then Boomer was worried Duke might not come back from whatever was keeping him in wolf form.

The wolf didn
’t seem to comprehend what Boomer was saying. It was then she understood why they’d chained him. It wasn’t to be cruel but rather to protect not only others but Duke as well. The blood lust they’d mentioned left him in a state of confusion. It broke her heart knowing she’d caused it. Corbin had explained why Duke had shifted—he’d seen her broken body and probably assumed the worst.

Her chest ached
as guilt assailed her. This was her doing. He would have never lost control like this had she only listened to him. Had she just stayed put and let him clear the area Jimmy had been held in. She’d been too focused on getting to Jimmy to think of anything or anyone else and the cost of her actions was before her—chained to a wall. Mercy tried to stand to go to him.