Stygian's Honor (52 page)

“You couldn’t have known.” There was no way. No one present that night would ever have spoken of it.

Crossing his arms over his chest, he stared back at her confidently. “My dear, sometimes one has to learn how to maneuver those he cares for into completing their destinies rather than meeting death,” he sighed. “I knew Honor and Fawn were in Window Rock. I knew somehow your father and the president of the Nation were involved. That led me
to suspect that, perhaps, the accident their daughters were in at the time of Honor’s and Fawn’s disappearance may have been fatal. That would have allowed the two young girls the ultimate escape if Liza Johnson’s and Claire Martinez’s deaths were never revealed. What was a mere suspicion when this began has, over the weeks, been confirmed. That is beside the fact, as wondrous as such a miracle is, as adept as the earth is at obeying the requests of men such as Orrin Martinez and Joseph Redwolf, still, the scent of the genetics left inside you after those experiments is still there if a Breed knew what he was looking for. And I knew what I was looking for, my dear.”

She was barely aware of the fact that her nails were now biting into Stygian’s arm.

“If you figured it out,” she whispered, “then Gideon will as well.”

Jonas snorted skeptically. “My dear, do not imagine Gideon Cross has yet to figure any of this out. And if he has”—the smile that tugged at his lips was definitely amused this time—“if he does, then trust me, the last thing he’ll do, once I’m finished with him, is want to kill.”

The tears had stopped.

Stygian could almost, almost forgive Jonas his games for the simple fact that Liza—hell, Honor—was no longer crying.

His mate. He couldn’t bear her tears or her pain.

It didn’t matter her name, it didn’t matter who she thought she was or who she had been. She was the other half of his soul.

“What do you mean?”

For a second, gentleness flashed in his gaze before it shifted to calculating amusement. “Gideon is a man driven mad by his inability to do as the animal inside him demanded. To protect. To ensure the safety of those he was bound to. The animal is tearing him apart, clawing at the man’s subconscious and creating a madness that only one thing will cure.”

Honor shook her head. “There’s a cure?”

“Of course there is,” he assured her, his lips quirking
briefly as he crossed his arms over his chest, tilted his head to the side and watched her with eyes the color of living silver. “All he has to do is listen to the animal inside him. All he has to do is find his mate, and protect her.”

She blinked back at him. “Who is his mate?”

“Fawn,” Stygian said softly behind her. “Son of a bitch, that’s why he’s so enraged. She’s his mate. The bastard isn’t feral, he’s in mating heat.”

“Fawn was a young woman when she forced that transfusion on him without the knowledge or the medication the scientists had been using to control what they believed was the feral fever that came from it. But the animal inside Gideon also knew she was still too young to mate without consequences,” Jonas explained. “That’s why the animal inside him went crazy when it happened. The opposing parts of his psyche were suddenly coming together, doing whatever it would take to force back the mating heat until she was old enough, strong enough to endure mating a Breed. Now, I just have to maneuver him into the right place at the right time, to ensure he realizes it. Once he does, then the animal tearing him apart inside, now that the woman is old enough to handle the mating, will settle and the mate will emerge.”

“Do you know where he’s hiding?” she whispered, feeling Stygian’s arms tightening around her, holding her closer, sheltering her.

“Gideon never hides,” he sighed then. “He’s here, right beneath our noses, somehow. Watching, waiting, hoping to pounce when we lead him to you and Fawn. Just as the Council soldiers are. Which is why we’re not going to let anyone know that you’ve remembered anything. As far as everyone involved is concerned, you’re still Liza Johnson and Claire Martinez is exactly who she seems to be.”

“How?” she whispered. “Any Breed that comes close to me will smell the deception. Every time anyone calls me Liza. Anytime I pretend to be her, that scent will be there.”

He stared back at her for long, thoughtful seconds. Long enough that Stygian finally growled in warning.

“Where’s Judd? Who is he?” he asked with a faint glimmer
of amusement in his gaze as he glanced over her shoulder at her mate.

She shook her head. “I don’t know, Jonas, and that’s the truth. I haven’t seen him since the night of the ritual, and not because I forgot who he was either. Judd never came around me again.”

But she knew he was close.

“Don’t hold information from me, Liza.” Jonas sighed as he prowled closer, his gaze intent. “Tell me, as I stare at you now I can smell the truth of what you’re saying, but I can also smell your lie.”

“Then any Breed can,” she whispered, fighting back the tears gathering again.

“Not in this lifetime,” he growled, turning to Stygian. “Do you smell her lie?”

Liza stared up at her mate, watching as confusion flashed across his face.

He inhaled slowly then narrowed his gaze on her and inhaled again. “All I smell is her truth. She’s never seen him.”

“But her subconscious knows she has,” Jonas all but whispered. “That’s my gift, Stygian. You and your mate now know what no one but my own mate has been given the secret of. Even the scientists who knew died by my hand. I don’t give a damn what you believe. I can sense, and even smell, what only your subconscious knows.”

Liza shook her head. “I have a photographic memory stronger than you can even realize,” she informed him, her voice scratchy, so hoarse from her tears she didn’t sound human herself. “I would know if I had seen him.”

“Only if your subconscious wants you to know,” he stated deliberately. “And the added complication of your Breed genetics makes that part of you much stronger. Stronger even than that extraordinary memory of yours.”

Shock had Stygian tightening his arms around her when Liza would have jerked away from him.

“He’s crazy,” she cried out. “I’m no Breed.”

Stygian shook his head, staring down at her as though he were only just realizing it. “That’s why the mating heat was
so different. It’s the reason why your ability to fight is so extraordinary. And why your scent took me aback as I rushed into the room. Breed genetics.”

She was shaking her head as he spoke. “It’s not possible,” she whispered numbly.

“It’s not only possible, it’s a fact,” Jonas assured her. “Now, we just have to figure out how to use it to keep Honor Roberts hidden until we can find the others.” His gaze flashed dangerously then. “I know who Fawn is, Liza. I know Claire Martinez is the girl that escaped those labs with you, but I must know any weakness she has, as well as her strengths. If we’re going to save her and Gideon, then I have to know who and what I’m facing. And I have to know where I can find Judd.”

Liza felt numb inside. Everything she had believed weeks before was a lie. The life she had lived, the parents she cherished, the friends she thought she had grown up with. It was all a farce. A farce that had kept her alive for the past twelve years and one she now had to uphold to save the only sister she had ever known.

She shook her head as she stared back at Jonas.

“Fawn was always so tiny. Judd and Gideon used to call her the little fairy. Every year on Claire’s birthday, a fairy is left where she can find it. And they’re always very, very expensive. She keeps them in a secured storage center in town where she can go look at them whenever she wants to.”

Jonas nodded. “That would suit Fawn.” Then his gaze sharpened on her. “And what about you?”

“I must amuse him somehow, he’s always leaving me knives. And I’ve learned how to use every one he’s sent.” Her breathing hitched painfully. “But I don’t know who leaves them or how they do it.”

He didn’t leave girly little knives either. They were always lethal and always intended for one thing and one thing only: spilling blood.

“Where do we go from here, Jonas?” Stygian asked from behind her. “Don’t play games with me where she’s concerned. The time for your manipulations where Liza and I are concerned is over.”

Liza. She had to stay Liza, not Honor. At least for a little while longer.

“Now, we’re tracking her assailants.” His expression tightened once again. “Once we have them in custody and we learn how much the Genetics Council knows concerning them, I’ll handle that end. Until then, what you do remember of those years and the serum you were given, I must know.” Agony flashed in his gaze. “If I lose my daughter, Ms. Johnson, then it won’t matter the battle we’re fighting or the need to move with caution. I promise you, there won’t be a scientist or an individual associated with that organization that I will allow to continue breathing. That, I promise you.”

That promise Liza felt to the bottom of her soul.

“I still don’t remember everything.” She was holding on to Stygian as though he were a lifeline, terrified she was going to sink into the fears tearing through her now. “But—” She lifted her hands from Stygian to rub at the ache in her temples. “Jonas.” She stared back at him miserably. “There were so many injections, and only Gideon knew what each one was. I was assigned to the scientists that worked with the blood transfusions and who analyzed the data on the blood tests and the different hormones that showed in them. Fawn worked with the techs that coded the information, and Judd was with the group that created and administered the medications for the different side effects. Gideon was with Brandenmore and his scientists as they created the serums for the different groups and administered them.”

“There was more than your group?” Jonas growled.

“Unfortunately.” She had to bite back the sobs that still ached in her chest as more tears fell. “I don’t know how many, or what they were focused on. Only Gideon knew.”

Jonas’s jaw clenched tight as his gaze flashed with a brutal fury.

“Then we’ll just have to ensure we draw Judd and Gideon in. Until then,” he continued. “No one outside a very select group, chosen by me, will know that you are now aware of your identity or that we’re aware you’re anyone other than Liza Johnson. Not even your parents will know. Claire Martinez, especially, will be kept in the dark.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked as Stygian’s arms wrapped around her once again.

He’d remained quiet, but it was as though she could feel him, sense the careful calculation and the plans he was working on himself as she and Jonas spoke.

Dropping his arms from his chest, he slid them instead into the pockets of his slacks as his lips quirked mockingly once again. “Why, Ms. Johnson, I’m going to do exactly what I’ve been doing for the past months. I’m going to pull in the final two pieces. Once I have the four of you together, then I pray to God, I’ll have the key to saving my child.”

With that, he moved to the door, calmly, carefully opened it and stepped into the sitting area of the suite. The door closed behind him almost silently as chills raced up Liza’s spine.

“Will he keep her safe?” she whispered.

“As a mate in her lover’s arms,” he sighed as his arms wrapped around her and pulled her against the warmth of his chest. “She just might not enjoy the experience.”

Turning to him, exhausted, still torn and filled with doubts, she allowed his arms to surround her, to wrap her in the comfort and the warmth she’d always ached for.

“I wouldn’t have missed it,” she told him, feeling his lips at her temple, the beat of his heart beneath her ear.

“Missed what, baby?” he asked gently, as though he didn’t know.

He had to know.

Tilting her head back, she stared up at him, her eyes filling with tears, but this time, tears of thankfulness, of joy.

“You.” Her voice was thick with that emotion. “I wouldn’t have missed what we have, Stygian. Not for anything.”

His hand lifted, brushed back the hair at her temple then cupped the side of her head as his lowered to hers. “Neither would I, mate. Not for the world, or the safety of anyone in it, would I have missed a single moment we’ve had, or all the moments to come.

She wouldn’t have missed it for anything; now she just prayed the past she had managed to escape for twelve years
didn’t find a way to turn around and destroy them. Then she didn’t think, regret or fear. As his lips slid over hers, his tongue stroking against them, parting them and sending brilliant forks of sizzling pleasure to race through her body, Liza knew there was nothing on the face of the earth that could have convinced her to miss this moment, this life and this man.

The taste of the mating heat filled her senses, washing through her, sensitizing her nerve endings and leaving her wet, needy, wanting his touch, his hold as she had never needed anything before.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she held on to him, feeling the heat and incredible hardness of his body as he lifted her closer. As he gripped her hips, lifting her and bearing her back on the bed as he came over her, Liza felt a sensual, feminine weakness sweeping over her.

This was the most incredible pleasure. Watching him come over her as he leaned close, the fingers of one hand moving for the buttons of the light cotton blouse she wore and slowly loosening them.

Her heart rate jumped as the backs of his fingers brushed against the mounds of her breasts. A moan whispered past her lips as he flicked open the front clasp of her bra and eased the cups from the swollen breasts.

“Stygian, yes.” Her hands moved from his shoulders to his hair, reaching for the thin strip of leather that held the silken strands back from his face.

“Not yet.” Catching her wrists, he pulled them back over her head, anchoring them to the mattress with one hand as his lips lowered to the hard tips of her nipples.

Arching, straining against his hold, she whimpered as the heat of his tongue licked over the pebble-hard tip and his free hand slid along her hip before moving to the small metal tabs of her jeans.

Her legs shifting, thighs tightening as heat began building in her vagina, her moisture easing along the swollen folds, she toed her sneakers off, desperate to do whatever it took to get as naked as possible, as fast as possible.