Kissing Sin (20 page)

I’d said nothing of the sort, though I’d certainly thought it. But given Misha could no more read my mind than I could his, it was obviously said for the benefit of the watcher. And if I wanted to pick Misha’s brain, I had to play this game, at least for the time being.

“As I told you at the time, I don’t take kindly to being kept waiting. Not when there’s plenty of other offers on the table.”

“So what made you change your mind?”

I forced a grin, and lightly ran my fingers up and down his erection. “What makes you think I have? Maybe I’m just getting a little revenge. Making you rue missed opportunities.”

“Oh, I have been,” he said dryly, “especially in the last few minutes.”

“So that means we can play?”

“I guess if you’re going to insist…”

“And I am.”

“Then a sensible wolf has no choice but to give in.”

He rose, and offered me a hand. I placed my fingers in his, grabbed the beer with my free hand, and slid off the stool.

He escorted me down the dark hall, and opened the last door. Candles flickered in the wall sconces set in each corner, throwing pale light across walls painted in various shades of green, so that they resembled leaves in a forest. The ceiling was black, and dotted with hologram stars that offered little in the way of light. What looked like a mat of dry leaves sat near the right wall. This was obviously the air bed. Had I been here with anyone else but Misha, that would have been the first thing I tried out. Instead, I headed for the pondlike spa, easing myself into the steaming, bubbling water with a sigh.

Misha locked the door, then pressed several buttons on the security panel to the right of the door, setting the timer and the psychic shield.

“So,” I said, dropping all pretense of niceness. “Tell me why I should let you fuck the hell out of me.”

“Because you want a kid.”

“Besides that. You and I both know that I could walk out onto that dance floor and within five minutes have half a dozen wolves ready and willing to get their chips ripped out and attempt to have a kid with me.” Though there was only one particular wolf I’d actually be interested in.

Misha nodded. “The chance of having a son, with no strings attached, is something few male wolves would pass up.”

“So why should I settle for you?”

He slipped into the opposite end of the spa, and stretched his arms across the edge. The heat of the water lent warmth to his pale skin, but it did little to erase the calculating chill from his gaze. “Because you also want answers.”

“You haven’t yet proven you can give them to me.”

“No, but I will.”

“And what do you get out of the deal?”

He raised an eyebrow. “A son or a daughter to carry my name.”

The slight edge in his voice made me frown. “Why is that suddenly so important?”

“Because I’m dying.”

I blinked, not sure I had heard him right. “What?”

“I’m dying.” He shrugged, as if it was something he’d long ago accepted. “And I want to leave this world knowing something of me is left behind.”

There was only truth in his words, not lies. At least in this one instance.

“You’re dying because you’re a clone?”

He smiled. “You know more than I thought.”

“We’ve had Talon for a few months now.”

“Ah, yes.” He considered me, icy eyes slightly narrowed, nostrils flaring. Another wolf on the hunt, and I wasn’t entirely sure for what. “Talon was produced in the same batch as I. There were three others produced alongside us. Talon and I are the only ones left alive.”

“Why?”

“Because the very chemicals used to help give us life are now snatching it away.” He grimaced. “I’ve begun to age at twice the normal rate. It isn’t yet showing, but it soon will. If the pattern of my disintegration follows that of my lab brothers, I will be dead inside five years.”

“And Talon?”

“Will undoubtedly soon suffer the same fate.”

I wondered if Jack or the lab boys knew. “So how long ago did the three created with you die?”

“Two didn’t make it to their teens. One died at sixteen.”

I sipped my beer, then asked, “Why?”

He hesitated. “What do you know about cloning?”

“The DNA from a donor egg is sucked out, and the cell of a donor used to replace it. Then it’s fried into activity and away it grows.”

He grimaced. “Crudely put, but reasonably accurate. The process is far from perfect, even now. There are always problems, and those of us who
do
make it into adulthood without problems then have to contend with a self-destruct button that somehow is related back to the method used to fuse cell and egg and switch on the DNA sequencing.” He took a drink, then added, “Two of the three who died were victims of large offspring syndrome, and one was born with an immune system that was, at best, poor.”

From what I’d read about cloning, having two out of five survive into adulthood was a pretty damn good success rate. “Yet despite these difficulties, they obviously survived quite well. At least for the first few years.”

He nodded. “Medically, we’re far enough advanced to keep them alive where once we could not. However, no one has yet uncovered the sequence that becomes the self-destruct button once the clone reaches a certain age. Nor do we know why some clones can reach their forties, like me, and others don’t even live to see their tenth birthday.”

“I’m amazed Talon never tried to research that—after all, he had a vested interest in uncovering the answers.”

“Talon is a lot less circumspect than his creator, as evident in his approach to cloning. He also believes that he will not face what the rest of us have faced, that he is destined for greatness.”

I snorted. “And like all mad, would-be dictators, he got his comeuppance.”

“In the labs of the Directorate. Quite fitting that he ends in a lab similar to the place where it all began.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Is that how you plan to end? In a laboratory?”

His smile was grim and cold. “I intend to go down fighting.”

And I had a feeling he wasn’t talking about the self-destruct button built within his genes. I frowned. “So, are you wolf, or part vampire, like Talon?”

“All wolf.”

“Then why not clone yourself a mirror image?”

“Because, for all its advances, cloning still carries too many risks—risks I’d rather not inflict on any offspring of mine. And, as I said to you not so long ago, I am not involved in the cloning side of the research.”

“But you are involved in the crossbreeding.”

“No. My companies undertake research to discover the secrets of a vampire’s long life.”

And now I knew why—he was dying. And just in case he didn’t discover the secret in time, he wanted a kid to carry his genes and his name.

It was a desire I could sympathize with—which made me wonder just how much he was playing me.

“Given Talon was running Moneisha and Genoveve, does that mean another lab brother runs the crossbreeding facility?”

He hesitated. “Not exactly.”

“Meaning?”

He simply smiled, so I tried a different tack. “Just how many of you clones are there?” We knew that there was one other, at least, besides Misha, but who knew how many Talon had gotten around to releasing?

He chuckled softly. “Not as many as you seem to think. All up, if you include Talon, there are five of the original cloning attempts left.”

“Meaning, non-Talon clones?”

He nodded.

So, given Gautier was one, that left two we didn’t know about. “What about the Talon-created clones?”

“I think roughly a dozen remain, though I have not been able to keep track of all Talon’s creations, so there could be more. Most are dead, though, or soon will be dead.”

“That self-destruct button you mentioned?”

“No, the Directorate. The mob you work for are an efficient killing machine, Riley.”

Which is why I was fighting like hell
not
to become a guardian. “So what was the aim of the original five?”

He hesitated. “To carry on and perfect our lab father’s research, by whatever means needed.”

It was the “by whatever means needed” bit that had me worried. Talon had certainly shown no need to follow the rules, and the man behind the crossbreeding had proven he was ready to kill to keep his secrets.

And if that was the true aim, then why place Gautier at the Directorate?

“You knew I was in that facility, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but I was not responsible for you being there, nor was I the one who tended to you there.”

“So who did?”

He smiled again. “I can point you to the path that will lead you to the person, but I cannot give you the name.”

“Why not?”

“For the same reason Talon cannot.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Talon couldn’t tell us because the name has been burned from his mind. Are you saying the same thing has happened to you?”

“In a sense, yes. I know the name, but I am prevented from saying it to anyone.”

“So why not just give me his address?”

“Personal details are included in the ban.”

Which was a little too convenient. I finished my beer and glanced at the timer in the door panel. We had less than half an hour left. “Then explain to me why the hell the person behind all this is so determined to get his mitts on me.”

“Because forty years of research has not produced a crossbreed who has fully assimilated his or her dual nature the way you have. It makes you unique. Makes you desirable for research purposes.”

Which was the same reason Jack had theorized some time ago. And the fact that Misha didn’t mention Rhoan hopefully meant they weren’t aware that he carried the very same genes. “They weren’t trying to research my genes in that damn facility.”

A smile touched his mouth. “Yes, they were. But the man in charge of the facility was certainly taking advantage of the situation as well. He says you owe him.”

If it was a hint, it was one I didn’t understand. I frowned. “So why spend all this time and money on this sort of research? Especially when both you and Talon are successful businessmen in your own right?”

He shrugged again. “It is what we were programmed to do.”

“Bullshit.”

He grinned. “Then how about money and power? There’s a lot of both to be had for the man who unlocks the secret of a vampire’s longevity, or the werewolf’s ability to heal almost any wound.”

“And a lot of power to be had for the man who could create an army specially designed to handle specific locations and situations.” He’d said that to me once. I hadn’t understood at the time he was actually feeding me a piece of the puzzle. “You could virtually name your own price.”

“Exactly.”

I toyed with the empty beer bottle. “The military is trying to do the same thing, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Are you involved with the military, in any way?”

“Not me personally.”

“Your company?”

“No.”

“Your fellow clones?”

“Sort of.”

Well, that was helpful. “Give me a starting place, then.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Not without setting terms. Not without a down payment.”

Annoyance rushed through me. “You’ll get your down payment when I get proof that you’re playing it straight.”

“Not good enough, Riley. Not when I’m risking my life by even being seen with you.”

“You keep saying this, but why would they kill you when they obviously need you?”

“Because my part in the grandeur scheme is only minor. And right now, I’m walking the line of being more a hindrance than a help.”

I didn’t believe him. Not this time. I had a suspicion he was doing this for reasons that were purely personal. And while I had no doubt he was telling the truth as far as the reasons for wanting a kid went, I also had no doubt there was more to it than that.

Like maybe playing both sides of the fence until he knew for sure who would be the victor.

“If that’s the case, how the hell are you going to be my only way out of a return to those damn research pens?”

“Because I have something he wants.”

The cold satisfaction in his voice sent a chill down my spine. “What’s that?”

He raised an eyebrow. “I swear on the moon that I can, if I want, keep you safe from another attack. Is that enough of a pledge?”

“It would be, if I believed it.”

“The lack of attacks will be proof enough.”

My fingers tightened around the neck of the beer bottle, but I resisted the urge to throw it at his head. “So, if I agree to your terms, you’ll get the dogs called off, but not before?”

“Precisely.”

I blew out a breath. “What are your terms?”

“No other wolf but me.” His silver eyes gleamed fiercely in the candlelight. “Which means steering well clear of that damn alpha I saw you with earlier.”