BloodSworn (12 page)

 
Chapter Fourteen

W
hen
Trina trailed away from him, Merrick turned on Victor and bared his fangs. This
was all his fault. Victor had allowed Trina to enter a room full of shifters,
well knowing the danger.

Victor’s only reply was to lower his head again. “They’re
waiting.”

Merrick heard them outside the door, ready to rip his woman
from his grasp. Claws pressed hard against his fingertips, his beast eager to tear
through the lot of them.

Only he couldn’t.

He was their Leo. He couldn’t flout the laws he’d help
create just because it didn’t suit him.

Especially not with his cursed injuries. With his lion so
close to the surface, the wounds on his back throbbed like Beast’s claws were
ripping up his insides. The only thing that helped was Trina’s nearness, as if
she alone could sooth Beast.

Inactivity ate away at him, and it galled him to be denied
the right to protect what was his. Those thoughts were diverted when Trina
placed a hand on his arm and led him back to the desk.

“Sit before you ruin all the work we did this morning.”

He did so, but reluctantly and only to appease her. When she
would’ve walked away, he grabbed her wrist, his fingers immediately finding her
pulse. The steady beat calmed Beast, and he leaned against her side. He lifted
her hand and placed it on his shoulder. “No matter what they decide, you’re not
going anywhere.”

Only when he was sure she wouldn’t move did he give Victor
the nod to open the door. Judith entered first, her fangs flashing when she
sat. The rest of the people filed in more slowly as if reluctant to be there,
wishing they were anywhere else.

He could sympathize.

Inhaling deeply, he caught the elusive scent of wild flowers,
and beast finally relented enough to stop pushing at the underside of his skin
to get out. He’d never thought he’d say it, but he was glad he couldn’t shift.
He would’ve had a devil of a time keeping himself in check.

Victor stood in the center of the room, his back to Leo.
That meant he was about to do something stupid, but didn’t want Merrick to stop
him. Beast’s fur bristled around his neck like goose bumps in human form, a
threatening rumble working its way up his throat.

As if sensing the threat, Victor went ramrod straight.
“Before you vote, you should know that she was invited here to research
CreedMark. It’s how they met. She was guaranteed protection as part of her
payment. If she is threatened, she will leave and take all her research with
her.”

Everyone stilled as Victor’s words lingered in the room. A
surge of painful hope scented the air and all eyes swung toward Trina.

Unable to resist, Merrick studied the slender woman who had
so fascinated him from the first. He expected to see Victor’s lie in her face.
Instead, all he saw was a thoughtfulness that nearly stopped his heart.

The beast in him stilled completely as the reality around
him shifted once again. He admitted he had given her ability to heal more than
a passing thought, but it had only been wistfulness.

Now he wasn’t so sure.

“Bullshit.” Judith shot to her feet, her face a bright shade
of red. “She lies. The real question is why she came to the Den in the first
place.”

“The truth will let out eventually, won’t it?” Merrick didn’t
even bother to address her directly. He couldn’t take his gaze from Trina.

Determination tightened his chest, and the demand to seduce
her intensified. The beast part of him said that seduction would force her to
stay with him of her own will, but the man knew those thoughts were faulty. She
would come to hate him if he used her body against her to get what he wanted.

It shouldn’t matter.

Hell, normally he didn’t give a damn if it meant getting his
way.

It was different with her.

But he knew that keeping her longer than the agreed upon
time would be impossible. The odds were stacked against them, the biggest
hurdle being Trina herself. He’d promised that he’d release her at the end of
two weeks, but if she could solve the riddle of CreedMark before it claimed
more victims, how could he allow it?

The future of the shifters rested in acquiring a cure for
the disease that riddled the pack. If they couldn’t find answers in the next
few years, nothing would save the pack from the threat of extinction.

* * *

Trina blinked when the votes were cast. Five to seven.

In her favor.

The unexpected support should’ve pleased her.

She could stay.

Instead, the cold weight of heavy shackles all but clamped
on her ankles. What the hell did a concubine do that they placed such
importance on the role?

“I request to be assigned as a member of her personal
guard.” A man she’d vaguely recognized when she’d first entered the room stood to
attention in front of Merrick’s desk.

Both Victor and Merrick studied him with suspicion. Not
wanting the somewhat peaceful meeting to erupt in a fight, she quickly spoke.
“I know you, don’t I?”

The man nodded. “A year ago, you found a wounded cub and
patched him up. You probably saved his life.”

“You’re the one who stood guard outside my house when the
other shifters came to me for help.”

The man shrugged then faced her. The emotions in his
expression stunned her, almost as if he’d missed her and had been worried. “We’ve
been keeping watch, doing our best to protect you in return for your help. Except
you disappeared three weeks ago. The man watching your house was murdered, and
your home was destroyed. We thought you were dead until we found you here.”

A pang of loss hit again when Trina thought of her house,
but the mention of the murder sent a splash of fear spiraling through her. It
should’ve been her. She wanted to question him, demand answers about what he’d
found, but forced herself to remain quiet.

Too many ears were pricked forward, searching for answers
about her past. If they found out the truth about her, they would never allow
her to leave. And the vampires and witches would never allow her to remain. She
cast a quick glance at Merrick, only to freeze at the hard man before her. The
calculation in his gaze was pure Leo.

When she lifted her head, she saw the same resolute
expression from everyone else. All except for Judith and the hulking brute
behind her.

As she watched, Judith rose and stalked toward the door, her
eyes never once leaving hers. When the door latched behind them, Trina saw the
chair where she’d been seated had four large rents down the cushions, the
stuffing spilling forth.

This wouldn’t be the last time she and that wolf clashed. If
she didn’t watch closely, those same claws would be at her throat next.

She had to get out of there.

Something had shifted in the meeting when the vote had been
cast. The hunted feeling that had haunted her outside these walls returned
tenfold.

Two weeks.

She just had to hold herself together for two weeks. In the
meantime, she would make full use of the labs and earn her keep. If she kept
busy, she could avoid the paranoia that something wasn’t right from creeping in
at the back of her mind.

“Before more people leave, I want as many shifters to go to
the lab and give blood samples.” She faced Merrick. “That includes you.”

“Go with her.”

The man who’d spoken up for her straightened and nodded. Not
giving them chance to change their mind, she escaped and hurried down the hall.
Although she didn’t hear his silent tread, she knew he was there. With each
step, she felt more like Alice in the rabbit hole. She’d assumed shifters were
free, but they were bound to their pack and duty tighter than she was bound to her
blood magic.

Once they were out of range, she whirled. “What the hell is going
on?”

The wolf halted as soon as she’d turned. Just when she was
convinced that he was not going to speak, he finally relented. “Tell me what’s
after you, and I’ll answer.”

Trina snorted. “Your answers aren’t worth the steep price.”
She spun and resumed her quick pace down to the labs.

“Are you sure?”

His rough voice made her hesitate. Was she sure? Hell no,
but she couldn’t give him what he wanted, and she refused to lie to him.

Her mind switched over to the doctor in her, and she wished
she’d grabbed her notes from upstairs. When the lab doors came into view, she
halted on the spot.

A line of silent men snaked out the doors and down the
hallway. How could they have gotten here so quickly? As if they sensed her,
they turned and slowly stepped out of her way. Some even bowed their heads to
her when she walked past.

Creepy.

Her magic must have thought so, too, rising under her skin. She
swore she could almost see their animals, but that was impossible. Determined
not to succumb to the lure of her magic, she increased her pace. She needed to
get away from the shifters and their expectations.

Just for a second.

Once inside the lab, there were more waiting, all eerily
silent. Not stopping, she headed straight to the back, aiming for the open door
and a little privacy to gather her thoughts and calm her magic.

Power burned along her skin, the bonds flexing under the
weight of the shifters’ attention. But once she crossed the threshold, she jerked
to a stop, rooted to the spot. Nine beds lined the glaringly white walls, the
silence so deafening it hurt her ears.

Each bed held the body of a male, all shifters if the energy
around them was any indication, but that energy was diluted. She might not have
even noticed if her own power hadn’t been so on edge. The episodes were getting
more frequent. Her magic wouldn’t be muted for much longer. She had a lot of
work to complete before then.

After that, it would be much too late.

She stopped by the first bed. The boy, who couldn’t be much
older than twenty, rested on the mattress. It was almost like he was sleeping,
only there was no peace on his face. There were no emotions at all. A thin
blanket was pulled up to his chest and folded down with military precision. His
arms rested at his side.

It was all posed and so horribly wrong.

There was an IV line in his arm, but other than that,
nothing. She passed each bed and saw the same scenario repeated. The only thing
that changed was the too silent patient. Some were old, some young, but they
were all unresponsive.”

“It’s CreedMark.” She whirled at the voice, having forgotten
the man who had followed her.  

The door opened behind him, and Trina saw Merrick enter the
room. His face was stoic, revealing nothing, but she sensed the rioting
emotions bubbling beneath the surface.

As he walked toward her, passing each bed, he touched the
men.

His friends and family.

“CreedMark started out as a myth, but in the last fifty
years, it has become a disease that is killing the shifter race. At first, it
slows your healing then makes shifting harder. Ultimately, you permanently turn
into your animal or end up slowly go insane when your beast is ripped from you.
Either way, you lose your humanity. There is no way to track the process from
host to host, as the symptoms and speed varies. And there is no cure.

“These men are the few who refused to bow to the disease. Few
drugs work with our metabolism, so they forced themselves into a coma. It slows
the disease.”

He didn’t say more, but she knew. “They never wake.”

He shook his head, and his gaze snapped toward hers. “None
live past three years. Most die much earlier. Victor seems convinced that you’re
the key.”

The silent man behind him spoke. “If anyone is able to manage,
it would be her. She healed wounds my men took, wounds that would’ve killed
them without her aid.”

Talk about no pressure.