Omega (16 page)

He stared at the high-waisted white monstrosities and swallowed hard. If he laughed at her, he might never get his mouth on those breasts. “Um. Well.” He cleared his throat. “Are you still in the army?”

She squinted at him. “Well, no. But I don’t much like to go shopping at night, you know?”

He hooked a finger on each side of the waistband and tugged the panties down as far as he could. She had a pierced belly button, and suddenly, his mouth had a new spot it wanted to visit. “You could always go commando. And I need to introduce you to this wonderful invention called the Internet. It’ll rock your world. You can shop naked at three a.m.”

He hiked an eyebrow at her and pulled her back onto his chest by tugging forward on the elastic of the world’s ugliest panties. “Come back here and I’ll help you get rid of them.”

Laughing, she kissed him again, and he eased the offensive things over her hips. Randa rolled to one side to help him along, and he screamed when her right leg brushed his left.

“Goddamn! What happened? My fucking leg is on fire!” He expected to see flames erupt from his lower limb at any second. He closed his eyes and tried to move his leg to relieve the agony, but it wouldn’t budge. Trying to move it made the sharp, hot pain grow hotter and sharper.

“Shit. Shit. Shit.” He covered his face with his hands and tried to convince himself the pain was lessening. It was twelve on a pain scale of one to ten. OK, maybe it was down to ten now. He could breathe without wanting to cry, at least.

“Oh my God. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I’ve been trying to stay away from it.” Randa rolled off him and got to her feet, hitching up the underwear. Will was sure at some point he’d think all
this was funny, but right now, it felt like a bulldozer was laying waste to his lower leg.

He struggled to a sitting position and stared at his mangled limb. It looked like it had endured a hard night at a BDSM club. Tape was neatly wrapped around it in four or five places, and the skin had turned four funky shades of purple. The whole thing had been strapped to a freaking two-by-four and lay propped on a pillow.

He looked up at Randa. “Why?”

She’d pulled a sheet off another bed and wrapped it around her. “I’m going to get Krys.”

“Wait, tell me what happened first.”

“They had to—”

“It healed wrong when it was pinned under that beam, so we had to rebreak it.” Aidan strode through the door, followed by Krys. They were both rosy cheeked and recently fed, which was fine for them. Didn’t help his leg any.

Randa had sidled toward the door clutching her sheet, and Will caught her eye. She smiled at him, full of promise that he’d see those army panties again, and slipped into the hallway. At some point, he’d revisit that look. Now, not so much.

Will turned his attention back to Krys, who was cutting tape away from his leg. As she pulled it away, he had the pain of leg hairs being ripped out, along with the top layer of skin. “Why don’t you just shoot my ass while you’re at it? Shouldn’t it have healed during daysleep? Why is it the color of an eggplant?”

“It has healed some, but it’s slow.” Krys’s brow wrinkled in a frown. “I wonder why.”

Great
. Those were not reassuring words coming from Penton’s only doctor.

“A wound this severe is probably going to take longer to heal. I think that’s what Mirren said.” She looked up at Aidan. “Do you know?”

Aidan shook his head and turned back toward the hallway. “I’ll find Mirren. He’s our expert on injuries—not many he hasn’t either had himself or given to somebody else. Krys, while I’m gone, fill Will in on…you know.”

You know?
OK, first Will had woken up with an almost-naked woman in his bed. Then his leg had caught on fire just when things were starting to get interesting. Now his scathe master was off to consult a semiretired executioner about his injury, and they wanted him to play guessing games?

He flopped back on his pillow, gritting his teeth at the pain that shot through his leg at the movement. “Does morphine work on vampires?”

Krys pursed her lips. “That’s a good question. I brought some down here. Want me to try it? I think the worst that could happen is, well, that nothing would happen.”

“Please. It’s more than ten hours until another daysleep, and it’s throbbing like it might explode.” He’d welcome an explosion. If it exploded, it couldn’t throb.

“One morphine cocktail coming right up.” Krys opened her medical bag, selected a vial and syringe, and turned back to him with a grin. “I always thought you had a fine ass. Now I’ll get to see it.”

“You can look at it all you want as long as you stick that needle in it.” Will rolled toward the wall enough to give her access to his butt without jarring his leg. “That’s as far as I can move, so you’re gonna have to make do.”

“Here it comes.” A sharp pain in his ass cheek was nothing compared to the jolt of agony from his leg when he shifted
back onto the pillow. Man, being a vampire turned a guy into a pansy. He’d played football in school and dislocated a shoulder. He hadn’t screamed like a banshee at that. Vampires were spoiled by their quick healing.

“If the morphine works, it’ll work fast, I promise.” Krys crossed her arms and watched him like he was a lab experiment. “I gave you a double dose.”

Will took a deep breath as the pain eased, then eased some more. It still hurt, but it was a bearable three or four. “Oh yeah. That’s better. Muuuuch better.” Was he slurring his words?

“A human would be laid out by that dose, but you might need another one later to get you through until another daysleep.”

He had to be taped to a board for a whole night? Will studied the pattern of acoustical tiles on the ceiling and thought the dot pattern might be swirling. Then again, he might be stoned. “What was the big news Aidan wanted you to tell me?”

“Cage came back last night with his first report, and he found out something we weren’t expecting.” Krys pulled a chair next to the bed, leaning over and talking softly. “No one else can know this until it’s done, but Melissa’s alive. Matthias had her turned vampire immediately after he had the guy break her neck, and somehow—God only knows how—she made it through the transition. He has her locked up in one of the clinic sub-suites. He knows she’s been Aidan’s fam for a long time and is trying to force information out of her.”

Will sat up and growled as the pain shot through his leg again. At least this time it quickly leveled out. He fucking loved morphine. “We have to go in and get her. You don’t understand how Matthias can screw with a person’s head. And a new vampire? Shit. We have to get her out of there before he does so much damage she isn’t the same person we knew.”

“You aren’t going anywhere, junior.” Mirren came in, followed by Aidan, who closed the door behind them. “What’s going on with the leg?”

“It’s bruised, swollen, painful.” Krys pointed out the obvious. “I do think it’s healing, but shouldn’t it be further along by now? I gave him some morphine, and that seemed to help.”

Mirren pulled up another chair and wrapped a beefy hand around Will’s ankle. With his other hand, he slowly began feeling his way up the calf.

Will ground his teeth and tried to kick Mirren with his right foot. “Stop that, you sadist.”

Mirren impaled him with an icy-gray glare. “Shut the fuck up and be still.”

The big guy felt his way along the bones of the broken leg, fingers probing at every fiery ball of agony. Will was so going to beat the crap out of that vampire one of these days.

Mirren looked up and actually smiled. “You might try it, junior, but you’ll never be able to take me.”

Will looked at Aidan. Oh, this was so not good. “He can hear me too?”

Aidan’s smile was faint. “Only when you’re really projecting. You were really projecting.”

Awesome. “Well, stop listening unless you hear me scream your name, OK?”

Mirren sat back. “It’s healing. Stay off of it, and by the time you come out of another daysleep, you might be able to put weight on it. I’ll come back then.” He stood up and moved the chair back behind the corner desk. “If you try to walk on it too soon, it’ll break again and we’ll have to start over. So keep your ass where it is, or you’ll have to deal with me.”

Normal sick people in Penton got the gentle touch of Dr. Krys. Just Will’s luck he required the prickly care of the evil Dr. Slayer.

Aidan had remained standing, leaning against the closed door. “About Melissa. We decided not to tell Mark until we’ve successfully gotten her out. I gave Cage until three a.m. to bring her to the Omega entrance. If he isn’t there, Mirren and I are going after her.”

Will swiveled his head to see Aidan, keeping his lower body still. “Why not let Cage stay put? If we go after her”—
damned leg
—“if
you
go after her, it doesn’t out him as a plant, and we’d be able to find out what Matthias is up to.”

Mirren sat on the bed across the room from Will’s. “He’s going to be outed anyway. Cage says nobody—not even that asshole Shelton—knows Melissa’s down there. Other than Matthias, Cage is the only person who’s been in the sub-suites since Mel was turned.”

Aidan nodded. “If we take her out, Cage is still compromised. The only way to keep him in place is to leave Melissa in Matthias’s hands.”

Will settled back on his pillow. “I hope you don’t consider that an option.”

Aidan opened the door. “We’ll send you a feeder. And no, leaving her there is not an option. One way or another, she’s coming out tonight.”

C
age had hoped to go to Melissa as soon as he awoke from daysleep, but by the time he dressed and left his room, Matthias was already descending the ladder into the sub-suite corridor. “Good, you’re up early. I just got back from a meeting with the Tribunal and have a message from Edward. Let’s go up to the office.”

Cage avoided looking in the direction of Melissa’s door and followed Matthias through the hatch and into the office. They took their seats from three nights earlier. “How is Edward doing?” Cage hoped the UK’s Tribunal representative hadn’t let his dislike of Matthias or support of Aidan show. He’d managed to get a call to Edward last night before returning to town and had filled him in on Matthias turning Melissa. Hopefully, Edward could use the information to turn more of the Tribunal members away from Matthias.

Actually, he’d hoped it would be enough for the Tribunal to call Matthias home and let the assault on Penton drop, but as Edward pointed out, Aidan himself had illegally turned his
mate, Krys, and Mirren Kincaid had killed former Tribunal member Lorenzo Caias, no matter how justified it might have been. The Penton leaders had gotten their hands dirty, and the Tribunal wouldn’t overlook it. They were too paranoid.

“Brilliant man, Edward.” Matthias poured himself a whiskey and offered one to Cage. He declined. Alcohol had very little effect on vampires, but he needed to be at his sharpest if he hoped to get Melissa out of town and to the Omega hatch by 3:00 a.m. The last thing the Penton scathe needed was Aidan and Mirren putting themselves at risk.

“What was his message?” Cage settled back in his chair and wondered if Shelton was down the hall, feeding from the boy—or worse. That situation sat badly with him. He’d seen his share of blood whores, male and female, but never one that young. He couldn’t save everybody, but he didn’t like leaving the kid behind.

“First, Edward is certainly a fan of yours—speaks very highly of your skills, both as a fighter and as a strategist, because of your background.”

Cage nodded his head in acknowledgment of the compliment. “Edward is a highly principled man.”
Unlike you
.

“Yet you’re not bonded to him, which I find interesting.” Matthias sipped his whiskey and set it back on the desk. “Why is that?”

A partial truth would work. “I was bonded to him before coming here, actually. But we agreed that if I came in contact with Aidan Murphy by some chance, he’d know I was tied to the Tribunal—or at least that I had pledged fealty to another scathe. Being a free agent seemed safer. I could pretend to be looking over Penton as a possible place to relocate.”

Matthias picked up his glass again and watched the amber liquid swirl around the glass. “Would you be willing to bond
yourself to me? I’d consider it a sign of good faith, a reassurance of your loyalty. Once this operation is over, of course, I’ll release you from your bond so you can return to Edward.

“That was Edward’s message to you, by the way—that you should honor my request.”

Bloody hell.
He hadn’t seen this coming, and he didn’t believe for a second that Edward had recommended it. But he didn’t dare hesitate. “Certainly, that seems reasonable enough. I’m unlikely to run across Aidan Murphy in downtown Penton, given the current situation. Our bonding decisions were made before we knew you’d led such an assertive attack on Murphy’s scathe.”

“Good.” Matthias set his glass on the desk. “I’m glad you see things the way I do.”

He had to think fast and buy time. What would satisfy Matthias as a plausible reason for delay? “Would you object to waiting until just before dawn? Feeding—and being fed from—makes me feel a bit lazy and complacent, I’m afraid, not being a master vampire like yourself. That’s rather embarrassing to admit. But I’d like to help patrol and be on alert tonight.”