Mercury's War (16 page)

    “Sit down, Ely,” he ordered her.

    “I will not sit here and listen to his insults,” she bit out. “He’s protecting Mercury for some game he’s playing and I’ve had enough of it. I want that Breed confined and tested. I demand it.”

    “You demand it?” He straightened slowly. “By what right do you demand anything?”

    He watched the scientist closely now. Her features were flushed, her eyes bright as anger coursed through her.

    “I’ll take my findings to the Ruling Cabinet if you refuse to listen to me,” she snarled back in his face.

    She was defying him; not just defying him but deliberately challenging him.

    “Will you now?” He looked around the room. “We have three of the Ruling Cabinet here now, disagreeing with your suggestions. What makes you think for a second that you can get the vote you need to even consider your demands?”

    Her fists clenched at her side; rage was burning inside her, and that was unlike Ely. Ely was cool, calm. She didn’t become enraged and never had she suggested anything so vile as confining a Breed.

    “You’re no better than the Council then,” she yelled. “At least they had the good sense to confine him and find a treatment for him. You will only allow him to destroy himself and the Breed community in the process.”

    They were all staring at her in shock.

    Callan gave himself a second, then another. Then before he could control himself, he was in her face, his canines flashing in a furious snarl as she plopped back in her chair, paling.

    Callan braced his hands on the arms of that chair, leaning close to her, his eyes holding hers, enforcing his authority over her, feeling the strength of the animal inside him rising to the fore.

    He was pride leader. It was his decisions that led his community, and damn her to hell, but she would submit to those decisions. He stared down at her, waited until her gaze shifted from his to his shoulder in respect, and the smell of her fear overcame the smell of her arrogance.

    “Would you care to repeat to me the insult that just left your lips?” he asked her, the hard rasp of the animal fury coursing through his voice.

    Her gaze flickered, lowered, as she breathed roughly.

    “I apologize,” she whispered. “I had no right to say that.” Her eyes lifted again, and he saw the fear and the concern in her gaze as she stared at his shoulder once again. “Callan, I’m frightened for Mercury, and for that woman. He’s dangerous and you won’t listen to me because he’s your friend. I understand that. But you have to do something.”

    “Jonas.” Callan kept his gaze on Ely’s eyes, boring into them, enforcing his strength, enforcing his command. “Did you order her to keep this information from me?”

    “I did, Pride Leader.” Jonas was smarter than the scientist; he kept his voice level, calm.

    Callan moved back, watching as Ely’s eyes lowered, her hands folded tightly in her lap, her posture calmer now.

    “Why?” He turned on the director.

    In terms of power within the hierarchy of the Breed Ruling Cabinet, Jonas was but a step below him. If push came to shove, the other man could possibly enforce certain areas of strength, but Jonas understood the battle they were fighting. Sometimes.

    “I disagree with her assessment,” Jonas stated calmly, confidently, though he cast Ely another confused look.

    “You’ve seen the tests?” Callan asked him.

    “I’ve seen the test results. I compared those results to the security video of Mercury and Ms. Rodriquez, as well as the video from the lab the day Ely tricked that blood from his arm. She deliberately antagonized him, then took the blood. Results from the blood taken moments earlier showed none of the feral hormone. It was only in the blood she took while accusing him of raping his woman that it showed up.”

    “She’s not his mate,” Ely snapped. “I’ve run all the tests, Jonas. There’s no possibility of it.”

    Callan turned, and before he could halt it, a hiss of male fury passed his lips. Animal to animal, Breed to Breed, that sound had the power to shock them both, because it was one Callan never used. It was a warning of strength and power, and the line she was crossing.

    Callan turned back to Jonas now. “What’s your opinion now, Director Wyatt?” he snarled.

    “Callan, Mercury’s always had the feral hormone.” Jonas sighed. “His lab reports show this. The drug therapy they used merely kept him under their control. He killed when he was ordered. The drug controlled him; it silenced the need for freedom inside him and the anger he would have felt at the death of his pride members. You don’t see him in battle, or during missions. I do. And I’ve blocked Ely’s attempts to test him before and after his missions. Dr. Morrey’s concern for Mercury is commendable, but unnecessary.”

    Callan’s eyes narrowed. “Why have you blocked those tests, at those times?”

    Jonas sighed roughly at the question. “Because he’s what he was created to be in battle,” he admitted. “I have no better enforcer than Mercury. He’s cunning, merciless and frighteningly intelligent. His kill rate is lower than the other enforcers because he has enough power to take his enemies down physically, hand to hand, in large numbers, and he’s intelligent enough and in control enough to know when to kill and when not to.”

    “And I haven’t been informed of these possible problems for what reason?” Callan growled back at him.

    “Because the Bureau of Breed Affairs isn’t under Sanctuary’s control, Callan,” Jonas stated, albeit respectfully. “The enforcers are mine to watch over, and if I do say so, I do a damned good job of watching out for them. In the middle of mating heat, with Supremacists and fucking protestors crowding around our asses every time they see one of us on the streets. Those are my men, and regardless of Dr. Morrey’s paranoid little suspicions, the manipulations she accuses me of are some damned brilliant strategy if I do say so myself. My enforcers succeed, and that record speaks for itself.”

    Kane spoke up then. “I want to know what made Dr. Morrey suspicious enough to deceive a friend and deliberately enrage him before taking that blood. You’ve always been someone we can trust, Ely. The one person we could count on to figure out what was going on with our mates, and in the Breeds’ cases, with their bodies. Why trick him?”

    She stared at her hands.

    “That’s something I’m interested in as well,” Callan stated, staring back at Ely. “Why did you target Mercury?”

    She lifted her head, though she didn’t meet his eyes. She stared at his shoulder, the animal in her realizing the fine line she was walking now.

    “The mating tests,” she whispered.

    “He’s not her mate, so what’s the problem? Besides the feral adrenaline that showed up in it.”

    Ely’s gaze flickered. “She’ll make it worse. Her hormones intensify the feral fever,” she whispered. “For some reason, when I tested for their mating values, that feral quality immediately showed up in the adrenaline. She’ll destroy him. His reaction to her will destroy him.”

    “Or she’ll complete him,” Jonas spoke up, turning his gaze from Ely to Callan. “I’ve studied the lab reports, Callan. I don’t think Mercury lost his mate in those labs; he lost his animal instead. I think Ria is possibly his mate, and the presence of the strength in that feral adrenaline proves it. Mercury’s test results are never the same as other Breeds’. The animal DNA fluctuates in its recession, as Ely can confirm. I believe the results of those mating tests are more an indication that she
is
his mate, rather than not. I think the lioness
could have
been his mate. But I believe Ria is his mate.”

    Ely’s anger built around her, the scent of it causing Callan to shoot her a sharp look.

    “Respectfully,” she finally bit out, “where did he obtain his degree in genetics? Because his supposition is the most dangerous load of crap I’ve ever heard.”

    “Respectfully, Dr. Morrey,” Jonas stated then, “I don’t need a degree to know not to betray a friend. It appears perhaps your education was lacking, though.”

    “I know the science, and I know Breed genetics,” she fired back at him, though quieter than before. “All you know is your own arrogance.”

    “Ask yourself, Ely, is it possible in any way that your findings could have been tampered with as well? Because if you’d pull your head out of your scientific ass long enough to realize it, you’d see that Mercury is in complete control.”

    “Ely, leave the room,” Callan ordered her, staring at her, something hardening inside him at the sense of fanatical certainty he could feel pouring from her. “Return to your labs. I’ll let you know when I need to talk to you again.”

    “Callan, you can’t let him continue this game,” she cried, jumping to her feet and facing him with a hint of desperation.

    “Get your notes and your tests in order and have them faxed into this office,” he told her, his voice hardening. “I expect to see them within the hour.”

    She stared back at him, breathing rapidly, before clenching her fists and stalking from the room. Callan watched her go, his eyes narrowed, his own suspicions aroused now as he turned back to Jonas.

    “Any orders I give concerning Mercury will come from me, in person.” He turned to Kane. “Find out who the hell is falsifying my orders and bring that person to me. I want to know exactly what the hell is going on here.”

    “The enforcer who relieved Mercury of his weapon and uniform came to me afterward,” Jonas told him. “He said the order came into Austin Crowl’s office. The enforcer took the call himself. Someone’s impersonating your voice, at the least.”

    Callan rubbed at the still-sensitive flesh of his chest, where he had taken a bullet but months before, and turned to Kane.

    “Is this room secured?”

    Kane moved from his chair, slid open a drawer on Callan’s desk and lifted free the handheld listening device detector.

    “It says we’re clear,” he murmured, replacing it. But his pale blue eyes were suspicious.

    He drew away a second later as the phone at his side rang.

    “There’s no way to impersonate me to my mate,” Callan growled as he stared back at Jonas. “If you’re in doubt regarding an order, bring Merinus to me. It’s the only safety precaution we can depend on. Until then, find out what the hell is going on here, and where these fucking orders came from.”

    “Gentlemen.” Kane sighed as he lowered the phone that had rung at his side moments before. “Our problems have just been added to.”

    Callan’s gaze cut to him.

    Just what the hell they needed, a bigger problem. As though dealing with Jonas and Ely butting heads over the enforcers again wasn’t enough.

    Kane looked at them all mockingly. “Ms. Rodriquez has just notified her boss that her job is being blocked, she’s been insulted, and she’s requested the Vanderale heli-jet to be sent to transport her to the airport, where the Vanderale private jet is to pick her up. Let’s kiss our funding good-bye right now. It was nice while it lasted.”

CHAPTER 10

    In her life Ria couldn’t remember ever being so furious as she had been when she walked out of Sanctuary. And she couldn’t even explain to herself why the burning anger was rushing through her so powerfully.

    The moment she entered the cabin, she put her case on the bar and lifted the laptop from it before setting it on the counter and lifting the screen.

    She pulled her email up, very much aware that her connection was through Sanctuary’s secured network and would be intercepted. She didn’t bother to encrypt the email she typed out to Dane, and pushed “send.”

    She let a smile tip her lips. She had no intention of leaving Sanctuary, but it would bring Dane on their asses like a ton of bricks.

    “You’re not going anywhere,” Mercury stated as he passed by her on the way to the kitchen. “And you need to eat. You haven’t eaten today.”

    She curled her fingers against the counter and bit back the smart-assed comment hovering on her lips. Yeah, she was a bitch. She knew she was a bitch, but it was an attitude that worked for her. Usually. She had a feeling the consequence of that attitude might be more than she could handle at the moment. And besides, she knew how to be a cautious bitch. It was the intelligent path to take when Dane was in one of his crappy moods as well; she hoped it worked with Mercury.

    “This isn’t the time to treat me as though I were one of your underlings,” she informed him coolly, though she felt anything but cool. “Sanctuary has some serious problems at the moment, Mercury.”

    “And canceling their funding is going to help that?” He snorted as he faced her from the other side of the bar. “If there’s a power play within the ranks, then we need to figure out who’s doing it and what the hell is going on.”

    “Why should I bother? Why should you?” She glared back at him, pushed to a limit she hadn’t known she had. “Do you think I haven’t read your Sanctuary file?” She hadn’t been given the lab files. “Are you aware, Mercury, that your pride leader has all but disavowed you?” Her accent slipped free. Dammit. “Ah, why the hell do I care? Obviously you don’t.”

    She reached behind her to release the bun at the back of her head, her headache intensifying with each moment it weighed on her head.

    The long strands of hair rippled through her fingers as she turned away and pushed her fingers through it in frustration.

    “Do you know…” She went silent as she turned back to him. “Mercury?”

    He was moving around that counter, slowly. His eyes were hammered gold rather than amber, those blue sparks intensifying the color once more.

    Berserker. Once, long ago, his ancestors had terrified English conquerors with their savagery and strength.

    It wasn’t rage she saw in his eyes though, it was hunger. Arousal. The same arousal that had tormented her since that kiss days before. The one that had left her burning each night, enflamed, tossing and turning in her bed as she struggled against the need for his body and her need to protect her heart.