BirthMark (27 page)

“
Still working,”
Silas said.

“
They are moving him outside,”
Tyrone said.

“
I found the bullet in his chest,”
Silas said. There was silence and then, “
Out…out you go.”

“
Everything okay?”
Tyrese whispered along their link, trying to control his panic.

“
Yeah, the bullet fell onto his shirt and I sent additional energy to speed the healing. That should hold him until he shifts. Come on, Davian wake up and kick some ass,”
Silas growled.

Tyrese’s lip curved at the edges. He released a breath and looked around from lowered lids. His heart was racing and he couldn’t understand why. Silas said someone shot him. Was that how they got him here? Closing his eyes he retraced his steps but each time he ran into a dark wall. What the hell? He pressed forward, trying to remember how he got here, wherever here was. A stabbing pain in his head, followed by uncontrollable spasms ripped through his body. Rivulets of sweat rolled off his face and puddled at the back of his neck.

Closing his eyes, he chanted a calming verse his dad had taught him and Rone as boys. Within a few minutes, he could think a lot clearer and move his arms, his legs. Inhaling, he checked his wolf and was met with a low snarl. He was pleased with the response.

“
Damn, dad kicked ass. Threw them in the incinerator and locked the door. Sweet.”

“
What?”
Tyrese tried to follow his brother’s excited chatter. “
Who threw who, where?”

“
Dad. Silas and mom healed him. He grabbed the two guards by the arms and slammed them together. I think he broke their necks. Too much blood to tell. Anyway, he’s got their guns and is on his way back to you. You okay?”

“
Woozy, it’s getting…better.”
He tried to find a comfortable position and couldn’t.
Wait, did he say mom? The thought slipped away before he could question it.

“
He’s on his way to you, and he is pissed. I feel it through our link.”

Tyrese clenched and unclenched his fists, preparing to move when his dad arrived. He didn’t want to think about the last time they saw each other. If the Goddess was willing, he’d have time to apologize later.

“
Wake up, Rese, time to get out of there. I am going to rouse Asia’s wolf, see if I can wake her as well. I don’t like the plans they have for her
,” Silas said.

Tyrese opened his eyes and blinked fast, thinking it was his imagination. His dad loomed over him, looking him up and down before extending a hand to help him get up. Shaky, but standing, he handed him an automatic. “Ready?”

“Silas said to get Asia,” Tyrese said in a low voice. His dad’s palm on his back helped support him.

“You’re not getting anyone,” Trigg said, standing across from them. He looked at Davian and frowned. “Didn’t I—”

A round of gunfire rang out and Trigg fell forward. Davian and Tyrese dropped to the floor for cover. There was silence as everyone tried to find the source of the gunfire.

“
I’m releasing the half-breed guard and sending him upstairs with the other breed
.
I can’t find Asia
,” Silas said. “
Check around, see if you see her. I can’t explain why, but it’s critical that she’s saved.”

“I’ll check the van,” Tyrese said, moving out while his dad covered his back. Either everyone was busy covering their own backs or they no longer cared about the mission, because there were no attempts to stop him.

“Empty,” Tyrese said, looking in the back as his dad signaled the front was empty as well. He leaned against the van to catch his breath. Tingling prickles of warmth slid across his chest from right to left, he scratched the itch and ignored it.

“
Hold on, let me do a search again
.” Silas pushed through Tyrese and searched for the female. “
They are trying to exterminate her. She’s in the back in a cave with the man who gave you that shot. Hurry, get to her before it’s too late. Her wolf is weakening, barely responding to me.”

“
Why are they trying to kill her?”
Tyrone asked, sounding puzzled.

Tyrese didn’t answer. He and his dad tiptoed to the back per Silas’ instructions and stopped outside a small cave. His father waved him to the other side of the rough-hewn wall. Tyrese moved silently and leaned against the wall waiting for his dad to signal the next move.

“
I’m giving her wolf my energy to keep its heart beating. They’ve stabbed and shot her, yet she lives. Get her the fuck out of there.”

Tyrese nodded at his dad when he pressed his hand down signaling Tyrese to go in low. His dad pivoted, sent some shots up high toward the ceiling and returned to the side as a volley of bullets split the air.

“
I’ve got her, but she’s losing too much blood. Something is stopping her from shifting,”
Silas said. Tyrese looked at his dad, nodded as he stooped to his knees, rifle up and ready. Davian swung around and released more shots and slammed back against the rock wall. The gunmen returned the shots above Tyrese’s head. He leaned in and shot both men holding the guns. They dropped to the ground. The doctor ran to the wall. He was holding some kind of knife, but he opened his hand and it clattered to the rocky floor.

“
Take the silver noose from her neck so she can shift and heal,”
Silas told Tyrese.

A moment later, there was nothing preventing her from changing. But she didn’t shift. Silas pulled at her wolf, commanding it to shift, and nothing.

“She needs to shift, so she can heal,” Tyrese said, stating the obvious.

“
I’m trying
.” Silas scanned her body. “
There is a silver dart in the back of her neck, pull it out,
” he told Tyrese.

She gasped the moment she was free of the offending piece of metal. “
Shift
,” Silas commanded and she flowed into her animal.

“Do you have a plan for us to get out of here or do we just leave them behind to rot?” Tyrese asked, watching his father stalk the shaking doctor.

“No one leaves that building except the two breeds. I’ve separated them in the communications area. I’m controlling their wolves.”

“
Yes, Sir
.” Tyrese turned and watched Asia return to her human form. She was firm all over with a tight round ass, and dark quarter-sized nipples tipped the end of breasts just large enough to fill a man’s palm. His dick hardened at the sight of the sexy bitch.

She glanced at him, turned and began pulling the clothes off one of the dead guards. Her long legs were well-formed; she was a magnificent bitch.

“You got another gun?” she asked as she dressed with quick efficient movements. The shirt was too big. She tied it around her small waist and rolled the pant legs up before sliding on the black boots.

“Here.” Tyrese passed her the one they’d taken from the man she had just stripped. She checked it and then nodded. Davian approached with the doctor. He’d secured the man’s hands behind his back with plastic ties.

“Silas asked me to keep him alive for questioning,” Davian said, pushing the hapless man behind Asia, while Tyrese took lead. With silent steps, he moved outside the door and checked the area. It was dark and quiet. He searched for human heartbeats and heard none. He waved the others out. Asia went to his left and then crept forward, gun at the ready. The doctor came out next and Tyrese grabbed him and pulled a stethoscope from his pocket. Grinning at the irony of using the man’s tool to secure him, he tied the doctor to the steel post for safekeeping until he returned to question the guy. Sliding down, the doctor sat on the dirty floor, leaned back and closed his eyes.

Davian waved to Tyrese to move ahead of him. Tyrese took three steps, turned to the left and pulled the trigger. The guard fell from behind the wall. Tyrese looked at his dad and patted his chest. “Listen for their heartbeats.”

Davian nodded and walked in the opposite direction. Every once in a while gunfire would erupt and Tyrese would take cover. After an hour or so it stopped.
“Did we get them all?”
he asked Silas.

“
Hold on, I’ll scan. There are two more. One in the dumpster, just close the lid. It’s too heavy for him to lift it. And one more hiding…looks like a few feet from Davian beneath that pile of rubble.”

Tyrese strode forward and emptied a clip into the debris. The man yelled and then went silent. His dad looked at him and nodded.

“
Get the doctor, he didn’t sound too happy with management when he gave you that shot. How you doing by the way?”
Silas asked, sounding more like himself since the immediate danger had passed.

Tyrese inhaled. His heart was still moving at mach speed, his skin itched in places, felt a little tight, and warm, but otherwise he felt okay. “I’m good.” He retraced his steps to the doctor, pulled him up.

“How you feeling, doc? I got a few questions for you, hope you don’t mind the piss-poor accommodations,” Tyrese said into the man’s ear as he marched him to the communications room where Asia was talking to the breeds. He sat the man down and secured him to the chair, not that he thought the man would try to escape, they were below ground. But he didn’t want the man to get any ideas and try to jam the communications channels.

Tyrese waved the breed aside and looked at the system, tapping in some keys. “Good,” he murmured when he accessed the internet. After typing in a password on a particular site, he ran a scan to make sure the data was clean and then downloaded a popular virus. Within minutes, all the data that had passed through the system was now headed to numerous wolf sites around the world. The enemy had just been exposed.

That done, he looked over his shoulder at the doctor. The man sat with his head bowed, chin on his chest. “Strip him, make sure he’s not wired.” He looked around, searching for something to scan the doctor with. If this dude was packed and loaded, he needed to take a one way trip down the mine shaft without a cart. Tyrese looked around at the steel beams that had been hastily put in place. He doubted they could withstand a direct blast.

“Where do they keep the scanners?” he asked the half-breeds.

“I don’t know,” the small communications guy said.

“If they had any, they’d be in Trigg’s bags and those were buried when the wall fell.” He pointed to an area that had at least a five foot high collection of debris.

“
Sir, can you scan him for bombs, please?”

“R. J., how you doing?” Asia asked the doctor, leaning against the desk.

“
I don’t sense any bombs like the ones we’ve been exposed to lately. However, the good doctor has all kinds of locks in his mind. When he talks it will probably kill him, literally."

Tyrese shrugged. “
He’s going to die either way. Maybe we can learn something useful before he does.”

“What’s going on, R.J.? I thought you stopped working for those assholes,” Asia said, leaning against the small console.

“You know better than most, they never let you quit. Not and live,” he said bitterly as he rolled his eyes at her.

“Why are you in West Virginia?” Tyrese asked. The doctor had a limited amount of time and there were more important issues to be tackled.

“We came to get La Patron’s son.” He eyed Tyrese. “It’s a known fact his son’s a breed, we saw you fight in Texas before the breeder was destroyed.”

Tyrese’s eyes slid to his dad and returned to the doctor. “You thought to use…me as a bargaining chip against La Patron? He’s the leader –”

“Who loves his son. He would do anything to get you back. Even step down.”

Tyrese looked at the man a moment longer. “
Sir?
” Stunned and at a loss, he called out to Silas for the next question.

“
One moment, we got some vermin being exterminated in the house. I’ll be with you in a few…”

He searched his mind for another question. “What did you shoot me up with?” He crossed his arms and waited for the answer.

“It’s a new drug, well it’s not new, it’s been around a while and we finally worked out the bugs. It’s supposed to kill your wolf.”

“What?” Tyrese and Davian roared as they jumped toward the man.

He didn’t flinch. “Except it only works on wolves who are already undeveloped, like those two.” He pointed at the two half-breeds. The guard scowled at the doctor and the other man turned away looking at the floor.

“So nothing’s going to happen to me?” Tyrese asked, feeling a little better, although the idea that he’d been given a shot in the first place pissed him off.

The doctor chuckled dryly. “I didn’t say that. The drug will amplify everything inside you. If your wolf was mean before, he’ll be ten times meaner. Even in your human form, you’ll be better, faster, stronger, a mean son of a bitch.” He looked up at Davian. “What time is it?

“Why?”

“Because it takes thirty minutes for the serum to irrevocably change the cells on a healthy wolf. For them,” he nodded to the breeds. “They have to take a series of shots and then exercise their wolves to reverse it.”