Stygian's Honor (34 page)

From the moment they left the hospital, their personalities had been different. Their looks had been altered from the plastic surgeries needed, supposedly because of damage caused from the vehicle crashing into the canyon.

The fact that no blood and tissue samples had been taken then was highly suspicious and riding the cusp of being illegal.

There were Diane Broen’s suspicions, there were Jonas’s suspicions and his own, but that wasn’t proof. There was no proof at all that she was anyone other than who she was supposed to be.

As he glared at the ceiling, he heard the faint hum of his sat-phone, which he’d set on the bedside table. Glancing over, the text message had him closing his eyes briefly.

Five minutes. Connecting suite.

The message was from Jonas.

Fuck, he didn’t need this.

Dealing with Jonas wasn’t something he wanted to do tonight, not while his own emotions were in such turmoil. Not while he was still trying to process the fact that his mate likely had no idea who she really was.

Not while he was still trying to get a grip on the suspicion that, somehow, the real Liza Johnson had ceased to exist somewhere around the time of that car accident.

In her place was Honor Roberts—but without Honor’s memories, or the knowledge of who she was or who she had been. And if Liza Johnson was actually Honor Roberts, then that meant Claire Martinez would most likely be Fawn Corrigan, the target Gideon Cross was rumored to be determined to kill.

With a tight grimace, he eased himself from the bed.

Liza was sleeping. Stygian tucked the blankets about her shoulders to ensure she didn’t get chilled.

Gathering his clothes, Stygian made his way to the connecting sitting room to dress quickly.

Once he pulled the low boots on and jerked the hem of his jeans over them, Stygian made his way to the door across the room, activated the digital keypad then punched in the code to disengage the locks.

Closing the door carefully behind him, he moved across the room to the entrance and opened the door to admit Jonas, Rule, Lawe and Mordecai.

Lawe Justice’s rumored recent refusal of the position of assistant director of the Bureau of Breed Affairs hadn’t changed the fact that he was still one of Jonas’s most trusted advisors. The fact that he was there for the meeting Jonas had demanded proved it.

“What do you want, Wyatt?” Stygian breathed out wearily as he closed the door quietly. “Liza’s asleep, but she may not be for long. So whatever you have to say that you don’t want her to hear, now’s the time to do it.”

He had no idea what the director wanted, but he could sense the fact that whatever it was, Liza would be offended by it. The fact that the director insisted on meeting
after she would most likely have been asleep was the first indication.

The look on Jonas’s face wasn’t comforting either.

Looking around the room, the director turned back to him slowly. “You’re a lousy host, Stygian. There’s not a damned thing here to drink.”

“Yeah, well, I guess you taught me well then.” He snorted. “There hasn’t been a time I’ve come to the office that you’ve shared with me any of that whisky you’re so proud of.”

Jonas’s lips kicked up at one corner as he inclined his head in acknowledgment. “Perhaps I made a mistake there,” he stated, his voice remaining low. “I can get a drink when I return to my suite. What I can’t get is the information you were paired with Ms. Johnson to acquire. Are you any closer?”

Stygian crossed his arms over his chest and glared back at Jonas. “What do you think?”

Jonas’s nostrils flared as he obviously fought back his anger. “We don’t have much time left, Stygian. Not just because of Amber. The Council has begun transferring key scientists in both genetics as well as Breed physiology and mating heat to highly secured, secretive labs, while known high-ranking members of their elite guard have been making their way into the desert several miles from here.”

The Genetics Council’s Elite Guard had, through the decades, been tasked with the kidnapping of the higher-profile women whose genetics were deemed essential for various creation projects. They were the best. The most highly trained, elusive and competent abduction specialists in the world.

“There’s more going on here, and more players, than I can keep up with at one time.” Cavalier’s growl was rough, his voice almost ruined as he faced Stygian, his expression bland. “I’ve been tracking transmissions from the soldiers in the desert as well as between President Martinez and his head of security, Audi Johnson. Johnson and Martinez both are discussing the canyon where Liza and Claire went over. They’re talking about whether or not they ‘cleaned’ enough.”

Whether or not they cleaned enough.

Stygian grimaced as anger began to burn inside him. The Johnsons and the Martinezes knew exactly what had been done. They knew how their daughters had been brought back from the dead, and now Stygian wanted to know.

“Their fathers are lying to us,” Jonas gritted out, the silver eyes flashing with merciless fury. “You know it and I know it. With half-truths and carefully worded denials, they’re lying through their teeth. The only way we’re going to get the truth out of them is by forcing it out.”

Stygian gritted his teeth at the knowledge that regarding Liza and Claire’s fathers, Jonas was entirely right. “Where does that leave us?”

“With Liza,” Jonas stated softly, though his expression was determined. “I want to bring Ely and Cassie in, Stygian. Ely can run the samples just as she always does for mating heat, and Cassie can do whatever the hell it is she does. We could get the answers we need. And if we’re lucky, maybe Ely can come up with something using the new mating tests she’s developed.”

Dr. Elyiana Morrey, the Breeds’ head scientist and doctor, worked tirelessly on finding the answers on the why and the how of mating heat. She was certain the answers were in the deepest layers of the genetics strands, and had actually found a way to begin comparing DNA before and after mating heat. Now, she just needed the new mates to work with.

Because mating heat, like all things in nature, like all viruses that developed, never remained the same.

“I’ll discuss it with her…”

“Discussing it would defeat the purpose,” Jonas protested then. “If, as I suspect, a ritual took those memories and replaced them with someone else’s, then warning her warns the safeguards placed on it. Risking that is out of the question. Besides, if she’s aware of Cassie’s identity when she meets her, then she’ll be on guard. That will also steal any advantage we have.”

And it was entirely possible Liza had heard of Cassie. She was friends with Ashley, Emma and Shiloh, and Cassie
wasn’t a taboo subject as mating heat was. She could well know Cassie’s abilities to look inside a person and see the secrets that haunted them. Whether they knew they were haunted by them or not.

“You’re asking me to do something no Breed has yet done,” he growled. “You want me to betray my mate by lying to her.”

“I want you to save her.” Jonas breathed out wearily as he pushed his fingers through his hair and grimaced with bitter anger. “Her and my child. If we don’t learn the truth, for certain, one way or the other, then the Genetics Council will take her and learn it for themselves. And if they take her, then you may never find her again.”

That was Stygian’s greatest fear. That somehow, the Coyote soldiers sent for her might actually manage to take her. If they took her, they could disappear with her in ways that Stygian could never find her.

Raking his fingers through his hair, he turned and paced away from the director, refusing to glance at the other Breeds there.

“Amber’s becoming more ill by the week, Stygian.” It was Rule who spoke as Stygian moved to the wide windows on the other side of the room. “The fevers are coming more often and they’re taxing her strength further each time.”

“Liza’s my mate,” he said bitterly.

She was his heart, his soul. They were asking him to betray every part of himself.

“And Amber is a child,” Jonas said softly. “Liza is a grown woman with the ability to make choices to determine her own fate. She suspects, Stygian, we both know she does. She’s doing nothing to learn the truth.”

Crossing his arms over his chest, Stygian stared at the desert beyond the hotel, wishing to hell he’d find a way to keep this from happening.

“We’re going to the crash site at dawn,” he told them. “She wants to know.”

“She’ll fight it. She’s probably fighting it now,” Mordecai said behind him. “But I have a suggestion.”

Stygian turned back slowly. “And that would be?”

“She keeps a personal journal on her laptop. I’ve tried to access it, but she’s not powered it up since she’s been here.”

“And you know she has a journal how?” Stygian growled back at him.

“I was almost in when she shut it down the last time she had the computer online,” Mordecai admitted. “I managed to pull some key words, though, which I used to be certain she may have information there. ‘Dreams,’ ‘nightmares,’ ‘labs’ and ‘pain.’”

Stygian tensed further.

“All you have to do is plug it in, power it up and attach a flash drive, I’ll take care of the rest. You don’t have to steal a password or hack in yourself,” Jonas assured him.

Stygian threw the other Breed a hard look. “And you think that will excuse the fact that I betrayed her? In her eyes or any others’? I’ll always be the only Breed to deliberately break the trust his mate has given him.”

“A mate who refuses to trust you?” Rule growled back at him. “She suspects she’s Honor Roberts, Stygian, just as you do.”

Stygian turned back to them again, the look he shot each of them filled with the mockery rising inside him. “It doesn’t matter if she trusts me or not. That doesn’t excuse betraying her.”

“Distrust excuses many things, my friend,” Rule said, as though reminding him of something he didn’t already know. “But if there’s no trust, there’s no love. What loyalty should any of us have to a mate that refuses to love?”

“What loyalty should any of us have to a mate that refuses to love?”

At that point, Liza rose jerkily from the bed, pulled her gown over her head, collected her robe from the floor and put it on with a furious shrug of her shoulders.

She couldn’t believe what she had heard.

Belting the robe with a furious jerk, she swept from the bedroom and headed for the connecting room.

Where had they lost their minds?

Just to begin with, had they forgotten that the connecting
suite was tied into the intercom on the room phone? Stygian had set it up himself, just in case someone, anyone, attempted to invade their suite.

They were listed as staying in the connecting suite, not the one they were actually in. The precaution had been taken to ensure he and Liza had a head start in escaping.

Instead, it had given Liza a heads-up.

A heads-up into the plans Jonas Wyatt had, and why.

Gripping the door to the connecting suite, she pushed it open hard enough that the sound of it slamming into the wall behind it had Jonas, Rule Breaker and Mordecai Savant swinging to the side, their weapons drawing and leveling on Stygian as he jumped in front of her.

Stepping around him, she faced the other three furiously before pinning Jonas Wyatt with her gaze.

“Have you once come to me and asked me to take a single blood test, or to allow you permission to access the database when you told me you needed it? You have lied to me continually, Jonas. To me and to the Navajo Council. But not once did you ever ask for help.” she said, her voice shaking with her anger as he and the others slowly holstered their weapons.

“Would it have done any good?” Jonas asked.

“If I thought for one minute it would be used for Amber only, then yes, it would have,” she snapped back at him, her fingers curling into fists, fury burning through her. “But as Stygian said, there wouldn’t be a chance, would there?”

“War isn’t pretty,” Rule growled.

“This isn’t war.” She hated this. She hated him. She hated the bleak fury tearing through her. “You would use anyone, anything, to get what you wanted, wouldn’t you, Wyatt? You want to know who I might be, but you still want that database. You still believe it will lead you to Gideon Cross, don’t you?

And the information was in her journal. The chiefs of the Six had actually suggested she keep the information written down somewhere safe, despite her protests. She’d never understood why, nor had she given it much thought in the past months either.

“I’d use anything or anyone to save my child,” he snarled back, the dangerous incisors at the side of his teeth flashing warningly. “Don’t doubt that for a second.”

“And pretending I’m Honor Roberts will do that for you? Ordering Stygian to betray the one person it would destroy him to betray would do that?”

“Is that why you rushed in here so quickly, rather than waiting to hear his answer?” Jonas asked her then, suddenly mocking rather than angry. “Afraid he’d agree to do as I asked, Ms. Roberts?”

“He wouldn’t have done it,” she sneered back at him. “If he were going to do it, he would have done it by now. He’s had weeks to help you betray me and he’s still refused. What more would it take to convince you? What more would it take to get you the hell out of Window Rock?”

“What would it take?” He took a step forward, only to pause at the sudden, fearsome snarl that sounded in Stygian’s chest at the inherent threat in Jonas’s move. “It would take you, Fawn Corrigan and that damned Breed you called Judd. The three of you, and I could draw Gideon in. Then, I would have what I needed to save my daughter.”

“And what do you need to save your daughter?” Liza crossed her arms over her breasts and stared back at him curiously. “Tell me, Mr. Wyatt, what do they have that she needs if you can’t access their memories?”

“Whatever’s left in their bodies of the serum Brandenmore used. The changes that took place in their bodies would be apparent in both you and Fawn, while Gideon and Judd would show the changes to the Breed physiology. That’s what I want.”

As he spoke, terror chased through her.