Forbidden Call (New Breed Novels, Book 1) (6 page)

“Our medical area, a couple offices, and the tech room,” Dimitri replied. “There’s also a kitchen and dining area at the opposite end of the hall from the gym.”

“How the hell did you put all this into place so quickly?”

“Most of it was already here. My father was terrified of the Cold War and had it built in case of a nuclear attack. I just had it remodeled for our purposes.”

They entered the medical area where Nurse Dimitri took SE’s height and weight.

“How tall were you before the Transition?” Dimitri asked.

“About six-two.”

“Well, now you’re just over six-five.”

SE was stunned. No wonder he felt so out of fucking whack.

“Let’s get your weight and hit the gym.”

After discovering that he’d also put on twenty-five pounds of new muscle, SE went into the gym feeling even more curious about what his new body could do. It felt awkward, but strong, and he couldn’t wait to work out and get some sparring in. He was so goddamn pissed off all the time, he figured a little action might help. It was better than punching a wall, which was the next stop.

As they walked out into the open gym area, a male SE had never seen before was leaning against the wall smoking a cigarette.

“Troy,” Dimitri barked, “how many times do I have to tell you not to smoke down here? All we got is the ventilation system. No one wants to inhale that shit.”

Ah, the missing brother.
SE gave him the once-over. Troy wore a knit Red Sox cap, a T-shirt, and baggy jeans. He seemed a little small for a New Breed, maybe six-three, but he recognized the streetwise vibe the brother gave off almost instantly. The expression on his mug seemed plenty intimidating. He clearly wasn’t anyone to be messed with.

Without a word, Troy dropped the cig on the floor and put it out with his shitkicker.

“Troy, this is Soaring Eagle.”

Heading out of the gym, Troy glanced SE’s way and gave him a nod. “S’up?” Without waiting for an answer, he shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans and left.

SE looked over at Dimitri. “Gee, was it something I said?”

The brother shook his head. “Nope. Hell, he said more to you than he’s said to me in the past month.”

SE followed Dimitri into the next room and took a gander at all the workout equipment. The place was so tricked out it looked like a mini Gold’s Gym and it was so up-to-date that SE didn’t even recognize some of the equipment. He followed the male’s lead and hopped on a treadmill for a quick warm-up.

“Troy’s a bit of an enigma. He’s from Southie. Grew up in the system. It’s a hard life. He’s our youngest, only twenty. X seems to get along with him the best. Doesn’t take much to set him off, though, so watch yourself. And while we’re on the subject, do the same around Richard and Adriana.”

“Protective instinct?”

“Yup.”

“No problem.”

“Listen, I wanted to go over some things. The war isn’t the same as it was eight years ago. We’re not just fighting other shifters now. When the Goddess transformed us—”

“Whoa, hold up, D. The Goddess again?”

“The Goddess Akina is responsible for our transformations,” Dimitri said without breaking his pace. “Toltec is creating an army of mutations, shifter mutations. They look mostly like everyday shifters, but they’re somewhat bigger and stronger. They’re low on
k’ul
and their desperation for it makes them highly dangerous. So the Goddess infused us with more
k’ul
so we could fight them. She even gifted some of us with extra abilities.”

“Yeah? What’d you end up with?”

Dimitri smiled. “Me? Nothing. She just wanted me for my money.”

SE laughed. “But seriously. How do you know there isn’t some natural cause for our change?”

“Reyn. He was the first one of us to receive the call nine months ago and he’s the only one who’s ever seen her.”

SE crawled out of the shower, grabbed a clean towel and flopped down on the bed. His body should have been worked to total exhaustion, but already he could feel it recovering. He reached down to pick up his dirty clothes and noticed his ripped-up old jean shorts shoved halfway under the bed. He was about to throw them in the trash when something crinkled in the front pocket. Pulling the piece of paper out, he unfolded it and stared. Ana’s cell number. They were supposed to meet.

Shit.

He chucked his shorts in the trash and almost did the same with her number. For some reason, he couldn’t let go of the paper. Instead, he opened the drawer to the nightstand and tossed it in. Then he changed into fresh clothes and headed down for another workout. He had a feeling he wouldn’t be able to get her face out of his head unless he was near death. Or just plain dead.

CHAPTER SIX

Richard quietly unlocked the door to the room he shared with his mate. He opened the walk-in closet, slid his trench coat off and hung it up. He sighed as he went to the metal cabinet at the back wall, opened it, and began to disarm. He pulled a dagger from a chest sheath and ran his fingertips lightly along the fuller. God, he hated nights like this. He’d been on duty for hours and they’d seen zero action. Not so much as a goddamn whiff of the mutant scumbags keeping him on the job and away from his mate.

Ah, hell. The truth was he wasn’t much use out there, anyway. All he could think about was Adri, even in the field. The further her pregnancy advanced, the stronger his protective instinct grew. He knew that was par for the course, but the panic he felt when he was away from her was getting more and more intense. Having a pregnant mate was always a challenge for a male shifter, but dealing with a pregnancy as a New Breed was uncharted territory. He had no idea what to expect. He couldn’t concentrate for shit, which caused his combat skills to slip. What if he was too distracted and it compromised him during a fight? That was his worst fear—a brother lying dead in the street because of him. No, it wouldn’t be long before he’d have to talk to Reyn about it. Now there was a tête-à-tête he was really looking forward to.
Christ.

Out of nowhere, a lamp clicked on in the bedroom.
Shit.
Richard removed a second knife from the holster and three others hidden in various places. Then he removed the belt that housed his handgun and placed it in the cabinet. He closed the closet and walked over to the side of the bed. He placed his hand on Adri’s ever-expanding belly and kissed her forehead. “Hey, female, can’t sleep again?”

“Nope.”

He swept a dark curl from her face.
Jesus.
Even after all this time her big brown eyes just swallowed him whole. “Did you try a bath?”

“Bath. Reading. Everything short of whacking myself over the head with the lamp.” She gave him the once over. “You don’t look like you’ve seen much action.”

“Not a damn thing.”

“You know, Richard, I’ve been thinking. Does SE seem different to you?”

“I don’t know. I guess it depends on what you mean by different.”

Adriana shook her head. “I don’t mean physically. He just seems so intense…almost angry. I mean, he cut his hair. He’s never had short hair, ever. And every time I try to find him, Dimitri says he’s working out. He told me SE actually
broke
a treadmill last night. Just ran it so hard he burned the damned thing out.”

“He’s dealing with a lot right now. He’ll work through it.”

“Maybe…”

Richard looked into Adriana’s eyes and felt his muscles tense. “Oh, no, I’m not going to read his mind. Not without his permission. It’s bad enough when it happens unintentionally.”

Adriana raised a brow. “Listen, my male, you’ve been gifted by the Goddess for a reason. Maybe you can use your gift to help SE open up to us again.”

“It just, I don’t know…it feels like a violation to me.”

She touched his cheek. “Promise me you’ll at least think about it?”

“Okay, I’ll think about it. I promise. Let me take a quick shower and grab something from the kitchen. Can I interest you in some warm milk?”

“Yes, please.”

He planted a kiss on top of her head. “I won’t be long.”

As the hot water from the showerhead beat down the back of his neck, Richard closed his eyes. Telepathy wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Pax phased into human forms, for fuck’s sake. A nifty power in theory, but also incredibly painful. Just the same, he was beginning to miss the good old days when everyone kept their thoughts to themselves.

When he was dressed again, he headed out of the bedroom. Walking down the main staircase, he caught a glimpse of SE heading through the foyer in workout gear. He paused and watched him turn in the rec room.

Diesel and Pax walked by, holding roast beef sandwiches the size of their heads.

“Dude totally blew out my favorite treadmill.” Diesel nodded in SE’s direction.

Richard sighed. “Any more of that roast beef left or did you two smartasses take it all?”

“There’s some left,” Pax called as he followed Diesel into the billiard room.

Just then, Reyn came out of the study that currently functioned as his office. Jesus, the male looked tired. Deep shadows framed his intense blue eyes. Telling him that he would have to stop fighting until Adri gave birth sure as hell wasn’t going to help matters, but Richard knew his head wasn’t in it and his instincts hadn’t been right since the get-go. Getting himself or another brother killed on duty just wasn’t an option.

Reyn looked up. “Hey, Richard, I was just going to look for you. Can I see you for a minute?”

“Of course.”

The two sat down on opposite sides of the large antique partners desk. Richard couldn’t help but notice all the paperwork spread out on it. He rubbed his forehead and waited. Reyn wasn’t the kind of male to mince words, so he didn’t have to wait long.

“Look, I know how hard it is for you to be in the field with Adriana pregnant. I also know you and SE have a past. I’m not a hundred percent on what went on, but I get the gist. Listen, I’d like to get SE out in the field right away. Do you think he and Dimitri would play nice? That way, I can continue to take duties only when it’s necessary and you can go on leave. There’s so much panic among the civilians right now. We’re getting twenty calls a day that are total false alarms. Shifters think they’re being targeted at the grocery store, for Chrissakes.”

“Are you fielding a lot of complaints?”

Reyn sighed. “I don’t think they’ll be putting out our action figures any time soon. There’s no way I can up my time out there, but we need to locate those dens.”

“I think SE and Dimitri will be okay. D’s already worked with him some.” Richard measured his next words carefully. Reyn was about as reluctant a leader as you could get, and Richard was the oldest New Breed, not counting SE. The last thing he wanted was for the brother to mistake his offer of help as a lack of confidence in his abilities. “Listen, Reyn, let me work with you on some of this official stuff. I’m going to have way too much time on my hands around here. I’d feel better if I were still contributing.”

“Are you sure? I know this is an important time for you and Adriana.”

“I’m positive.”

Reyn crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “You know, I think I’ll take you up on that. If we can keep it more efficient on this end, I’ll be able to spend more time in the field and we can work on locating and destroying those dens. I’ll let Dimitri know about your change in status. Oh, and ah, I think we should get SE out into the field ASAP. Before he breaks something else."

Richard smiled and shook his head. “I can’t argue with you there. Most of his old training has come back to him. We’ll get him out tomorrow night and see how it goes.”

Ana sat in the main conference room at Toltec headquarters and watched the morning sun play on the far wall. She could feel the tension in the room rising, even among the highest-ranking shifters. The
k’ul
she sensed told her that her psychotic bitch of a mother was coming down the hallway. She had just been named Director of Operations for the entire mutant program.
Wha
t
a
load of crap.
And wasn’t she just perfect for the role, because as far as Ana could tell, Mommie Dearest was barely human herself. As Victrixa pushed open the door to the tech lab, Ana watched the other shifters squirm uncomfortably in their seats around the conference table.

Ah, the irony.
Ana had joined this particular faction of Toltec to get
away
from her mother. Victrixa hated getting her hands dirty, much less bloody, so being out in the field seemed perfect. Shortly after that, bio-mom dropped off Toltec’s radar for a few weeks and no one was sure if she was alive or dead. Ana figured gone was good; dead seemed too much to hope for. Then one day, Trixa walked into the Boston headquarters like nothing ever happened. The front of her raven hair had a shock of white cascading down the left side, and a hideous jagged scar ran down the left side of her face from temple to chin. She was the walking, talking embodiment of pure, unadulterated terror.

As Victrixa moved to the head of the table, Ana noticed that instead of sitting, she remained standing at her full height—six feet of
I’ll get you, my pretty
. Ana looked down at the table and wished she could just gleam the fuck out of there. Why the hell was she asked to a meeting with a bunch of science geeks anyway?

Victrixa finally spoke. “Where are we with the serum?”

Roman, Toltec’s head scientist, raised his hand like it was the third grade. “Ah, the potency is stable. None of the shifters with mutated DNA will ever need more serum after the first injection. They will continue to be bigger, faster, and far stronger than the typical shifter.”

Victrixa glared down at him with the same greenish-yellow eyes that always reminded Ana of a cat. Or Satan. “Please refer to them by their proper name.”

The white coat cleared his throat. “Excuse me, Victrixa.
Hellions
.”

“So the mutation is definitely permanent. And what about the side effects?”

“They still suffer from decreased libido, aggression, and an almost total absence of
k’ul
,” another lab guy answered.