He came to minutes later, only to find himself unable to move. “Motherfucker. You hurt Doc, I’ll kill you.”
She ignored Ace and focused on Doc. He’s important. Yes, but how? the monster wanted to know. She struggled to think, clasping her hands to her head in an attempt to dominate once more.
“Focus, Sabrina. You can do it,” she dimly heard Doc say. Ace said something as well, but she couldn’t understand him, locked as she was in a battle to control her own body.
Oddly enough, she started to bond with her inner beast. Her human half merged fully with her Circ nature to combat the unwelcome mutation surging through her blood.
“Doc, open the door. Please,” Sabrina begged him. “I can’t control this much longer. Let me out and lock yourself in. Call for help.”
“Do it,” Ace said. “Now, Doc.”
Sabrina didn’t question why Ace readily agreed with her. Once Doc unlocked the door and stepped away, she flew through the door and slammed it shut. She punched a hand right through the control box on the other side in order to disable it. Running hard, she made for the open elevator, thankful they hadn’t closed it.
As she rode toward the first floor, a sudden thought stopped her. She had control of the monster, but she didn’t know for how long. What if Kelly or Caitlyn were upstairs? But they’d have someone with them, surely. Derrick might be gone, but the others would never leave females in the house alone with just one Circ to protect them, not with her in the basement.
Praying she was right in her assessment, Sabrina ran through the house and out the back door, grateful not to encounter anyone. She ran on fleet feet, at one with her inner beast and thrilled that she’d beaten back her mutation. The sedative Doc had given her didn’t make her woozy, and she surmised that it had helped her keep the monster in check. She could think clearly now. No thoughts of murdering Ace and drinking up every last bit of his blood. Not the way she’d do it with Derrick. All that lovely red stuff, sliding down her throat with a hint of cinnamon…
She stopped suddenly, frozen at the thought.
It’s still there, in me. I’m holding it down, but it won’t go away. It’ll never go away, she thought with despair.
She remembered biting Derrick all too clearly and wondered how badly she might have savaged Kelly if she’d had the chance. To wipe out an innocent life, an unborn child, would be unthinkable. Her monster liked Derrick, but it wouldn’t like Kelly, or Caitlyn, she realized. A chance to take out the alpha female and any other young, not conceived by Sabrina, would work in the monster’s favor.
Sabrina had a flash of intuition, a notion of how to make things right. Turning, she headed in the direction of Pearson Labs. Now was the time to get that data disc full of information Doc needed. Derrick would never let her go, and what better time than now? If Pearson Labs caught her, they’d kill her. She wouldn’t go down alive. And with her monster in charge, she’d probably take out a few rogues in the process.
A win-win, as Derrick liked to say.
Sabrina ran hard, planning as she moved. She would remain changed for as long as she could contain the monster inside her. Her inner beast, surprisingly, remained merged within her. She used its strength yet kept her wits. She truly was one, a real Circ, at least for now.
Until the monster returned.
Best to keep isolated from others. She had no wish to harm a human, or to draw attention to herself from the authorities, Doc’s team, or Pearson Labs. She ran harder, strategizing all the while.
“Did it work?” Ace rasped, changing back to loosen the straps at his wrists and ankles.
He slid off the table and gathered his torn clothes, shaking his head at his ruined shirt.
“Like a charm.” Evan smiled and rubbed his hands together. “I hate that we had to send Derrick away for this, but we both know he’d never allow us to influence her. I didn’t want him anywhere near us for this.”
“Yeah.” Ace sighed. “I feel bad, you know? When she started talking about Kelly, I seriously wanted to hurt her. Took me a minute to remember to pretend to be mad.”
“Her conversation couldn’t have been better planned. Though to be honest, her idea has real merit. Once Kelly gives birth, we’ll collect the cord, cord blood, and placenta. I might actually be able to find a cure for the rogue madness if I can isolate a few things.” Evan’s excitement grew at the prospect. Sabrina would be quite an addition to the team, indeed. He’d needed a lab assistant for years. She was intelligent, eager to learn, and charming, once you got past her gruff exterior. A perfect complement to both Derrick and himself.
“Great.” Ace swore and tossed his shirt in the trash. “You can have all that crap after we have a healthy baby.”
Evan gave Ace a look that caused the large man to flush.
“I’m sorry. I know I sound like an ass. But when it comes to Kelly, I can’t help feeling protective.”
“We all feel protective. Why do you think Kelly and Caitlyn aren’t here right now?
Despite the fact you and Zack can readily protect your mate, we aren’t taking any chances.”
“I know,” Ace muttered.
With the women safe, what concerned Evan most about this plan was Derrick.
He’d sent Derrick and Hale on a fact-finding mission to Harry. They normally kept abreast of the goings on at Pearson Labs by phone, but it never hurt to get a visual now and then. So Hale kept an eye on Derrick while Derrick stayed out of Evan’s way. The Circ had become more and more possessive of his mate, to the extent that he argued against anything she disagreed with. Considering Sabrina’s misplaced fear of the change, Evan knew she’d never willingly transform. He had no intention of harming Sabrina, but he’d needed her to change to help her.
The concoction he’d created using Derrick’s blood had tempered the mutation inside her instantly. Pleased, yet not convinced this would work for every rogue out there, Evan needed to run a slew of tests. He had a feeling Derrick’s blood worked so well for Sabrina because they had mated. From what he’d learned from the other Circs, once mated, their blood chemistry altered. Just enough to be noticeable, but not more than that. At least, not that Evan had at first thought.
But seeing how in tune Ace and Zack were to Kelly, especially now that she was pregnant, had started him thinking. Caitlyn and Roane had always had an almost psychic sense of one another. Wouldn’t Derrick and Sabrina? And if so, might Derrick’s hormones help regulate Sabrina’s?
Since Sabrina had previously okayed Evan’s request to merge her samples with Derrick’s, he concluded she would have okayed this experiment. He didn’t feel the slightest guilt about tricking her, either. Without his interference, she would lose to the mutation.
And from what Evan had learned so far, she didn’t have much time left.
“Go get her,” he said to Ace, who nodded and tried to leave. Unfortunately, the door didn’t budge.
“Shit.” Ace got on the phone to Diego and waited. “What’s that? Are you kidding me?” Ace swore, hung up, and turned to Doc. “She must have busted the control panel. Diego says it isn’t registering in the system. He also isn’t reading any heat signatures down here besides you and me.”
“What?” Doc didn’t believe it. The equipment had to be malfunctioning. “That’s not possible. The emergency exit is only accessible through the proper codes. And only we have them.”
“All I’m telling you is that he can’t see her on the monitors. Maybe that mutation allows her to hide herself? Some way to tamper with the computers or alter her body temperature?”
“Maybe.” But Evan had a bad feeling.
Armed with a unique stun gun, Ace was supposed to step outside the door and shoot Sabrina, bringing her right back without harming her. Had the monster reverted control so soon? Did Sabrina have some new type of defense mechanism they would soon discover? Or worse, had she somehow escaped?
Knowing he couldn’t chance her safety, Evan called Roane. After explaining the situation, Roane agreed to return, as well as call Derrick and Hale back to the compound.
When he hung up, Evan shared a dismayed glance with Ace.
To their relief, the door clicked open.
“Shit’s going to hit the fan on this one,” Ace rumbled. He ran his hands through his shoulder-length hair and swore again. “Derrick’s going to kill me.”
“Not if I kill you first,” Diego said as he swung the door open and aimed a gun at Ace.
Ace moved lightning fast, but not fast enough to avoid several bullets aimed dead center at his chest. He crumpled to the ground and didn’t move again. Diego smiled and turned the gun on Evan. “Evan, I think it’s time we talked.”
“I have them.” McKinley spoke through his handset. “You want me to wait?” He stood in a darkened alley illuminated by a single streetlight, on the outskirts of what was once a profitable industrial area that masqueraded now as the deserted playground for rogue Circs and Pearson Labs’ rejects. Surrounding the labs, the industrial park was the perfect place to hide the billion-dollar laboratory while also providing a unique training environment.
McKinley had to hand it to Project Dawn’s backers. The assholes knew how to make the most from their investment.
“Don’t wait. Do it. Now.”
“Will do.” He turned the handset off and tucked it into one of the pockets of his cargo pants. He ran a hand over the thin Kevlar vest he wore over a dark-colored shirt. The black fabric blended seamlessly into the night.
He concentrated on his quarry. Two of them, both strong, both warriors. Circs with limitless power, once they learned how to tap into their hidden resources. If they had them, he reminded himself. The rogues couldn’t do what he did. Maybe Circe’s Recruits couldn’t either.
He’d grown up with the knowledge. Thanks to modern science, he was one heartbeat away from leading Project Dawn’s rejects, what he laughingly referred to as Satan’s army. He grinned at the thought, wondering if Pearl would wear white in hell.
Focusing on his mission, he watched Harry distract Derrick Packard and Hale Rogers.
Packard was a big fucker. McKinley respected power, and Packard had a ton of it. He made a decent adversary. Rogers confused him. The man was a head shorter than Packard and a lot leaner. Then again, few men would look huge next to Packard. McKinley would, but he was a monster, and he knew it.
Rogers, though, bore close watching. Elliot Pearl liked the male. He had plans for Rogers that didn’t make much sense, unless… Shit. McKinley needed to follow up on that notion, praying he was wrong about what it meant. Then Harry rubbed his ear. The signal.
He stalked his prey, carefully, so carefully. He needed to get closer for maximum effect.
Packard and Rogers immediately turned their attention from Harry and looked around.
Packard brought a gun out from a back holster and narrowed his gaze in McKinley’s direction. Not bad.
A directed thought took Rogers to his knees, but it took some extra energy McKinley hadn’t expected to keep him there. Finally, the stubborn bastard passed out.
“Hale? Shit. Harry, hold on. There’s something out there.” Packard kept his gun at the ready, eyeing the darkened vicinity around McKinley as he dropped to his knees to feel for his friend’s pulse. Poor guy would find that Rogers was useless. Out cold. Nullified by a psychic blast that would scramble his neurons for hours.
McKinley glided several feet to his right, amused when Packard cocked his head and slowly shifted his gaze in McKinley’s direction once more. Harry didn’t wait but took off.
Smart man.
The minute McKinley walked under the streetlight, Packard fired.
Rage burned through the male’s eyes as he pulled the trigger. A fitting response.
McKinley appreciated the Circ’s loyalty to his fellow teammate. Packard’s eyes widened when McKinley walked through the barrage of bullets, thanks to his special protective vest and enhanced reflexes. Packard had aimed at both his chest and head. Tricky bastard.
McKinley stilled after Packard fired his last round.
“Who the fuck are you?” Packard homed in on his eyes, one of the many parts of himself McKinley wished had never altered. “McKinley,” he spat and stood, tossing his gun to the side, out of rounds that hadn’t worked anyway.
Interesting. Packard knew who he was. Sabrina had mentioned him. What to do about that…?
“Don’t move, and I’ll make this easy.” McKinley wanted to see how fast the Circ was in action. He hadn’t had a real challenge, a warrior’s challenge, in years.
As he’d expected, Packard ignored him. The man changed without blinking. He ripped through his shirt but kept his trousers on. Intrigued, McKinley wondered at the give in the material. Packard jumped him before he could finish the thought.
A solid fist to his midsection surprised him. He returned the blow and locked on the male’s intriguing scent. Well, well. Packard had bonded with Sabrina. McKinley grinned, knowing exactly how to push this man’s buttons.
“How’s the lovely Sabrina? I always loved that full mouth of hers. Beautiful, full lips, am I right? She was one of my favorites.” For so many reasons.
Packard literally grew, adding inches to his brawn.
Impressed, McKinley wondered if the male knew what he was doing. None of the other Circs could manipulate their growth. Yet Sabrina’s mate could.
“Fuck you.” Packard feinted left and struck right. He kicked out, aiming for McKinley’s knee. Had it been anyone but McKinley, Packard would have landed a crushing blow.
“Nice. Not bad for one of Evan’s asshole Circs.” McKinley laughed as Packard’s eyes narrowed. Rage burned in their depths.
Packard punched him hard in the jaw, and McKinley decided to stop playing around.
This one was a lot stronger than he’d anticipated. While pleased, he regretted what he had to do.
“Sorry about this, but it’s for the best. Really.” Packard growled but didn’t say another word. The psychic blast took him to his knees and gave McKinley a headache. Good thing there are only the two of them. I’m spent. He followed his attack by gently touching the pressure points that he’d found could incapacitate a Circ for hours. Packard slumped to the ground next to his friend.