Authors: Martha Bourke
Diesel and Pax sat down next to Richard. Diesel looked across the large partners desk at Reyn. He knew he was about to be put on leave. The only question was for how long.
Richard spoke first. “I talked to Helen earlier this morning. I asked her if you were in treatment for PTSD and she said I needed to ask you, Diesel. Confidentiality and all that.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I am.”
Reyn pushed his hair back. “Has anything like this ever happened before?”
“No. This was the first flashback I’ve had. My issues are generally more adrenaline related. I can get really keyed up sometimes. I was having problems sleeping, but that’s been better since I started treatment.”
Richard turned to Pax. “There are a million triggers out there when we’re on duty. We’re literally in battle. In your honest opinion, based on what you witnessed last night and anything else you may have noticed, is Diesel okay to be in the field?”
Jesus. Talk about getting right to the point. He looked at Pax, but his partner kept his eyes on Richard.
“I’m no doctor. I can only give my personal opinion. This is the first issue he’s ever had out in the field. He’s never had an incident of any kind before this. Speaking as his partner, I would trust him without question. He’s saved my ass more than once.”
Reyn rubbed his chin. “Diesel? How do you feel about it?”
“Honestly, right now I agree with Pax. I didn’t think I would, but I guess, at this point, I do. But if I have another flashback or any other kind of related incident on duty, I want to be pulled. No question.”
Reyn gave a nod. “Okay. Why don’t you two take your next duty off and rest up a bit. I’ll check with Helen, and if she clears you for duty, you’re all set. While I’ve got you, there’s one other thing that concerns me about this. There was only one Toltec shifter there when you gleamed in?”
Diesel gave a nod. “Yeah, just the one. Pax saw him run out.”
Reyn looked over at Richard. “Is it possible that we got a phony tip and the gas fire was a set-up?”
He’d been so freaked out by his flashback, it hadn’t even dawned on him. “Son of a bitch.”
Richard rubbed his temples. “You got that right. Did we get a name from the caller?”
“No name. It was a male and the call came from a payphone, according to Xavier.”
Pax spoke up. “If it was a den, it may just be that the shifter received orders to burn the thing out once they were done with it.”
“Good point. Okay, I think we’re done for now. Thank you for your honesty, my brothers.”
Diesel followed Pax to the pool room and into the elevator to the compound. “Listen, bro. Did you mean what you said in there? That you’re okay fighting with me? I need to know.”
“Yeah, I’m okay with it. But I also think what you said is right. If it ever happens again, they should put your ass on leave until the issue is dealt with.”
“No worries, bro. If it happens again, I’ll put myself on fucking leave.”
Pax slapped his shoulder. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Thanks, man.”
When they got out of the elevator, Diesel walked to his room.
His mate looked up from her work. “It’s over already? What did they say?”
“Based on what we each told them, I’m good to go unless it happens again. You’ll have to clear me though.”
“Well, let me see. If I clear you, I only get you every other night. If I don’t, then I get you all to myself.”
Diesel walked over to the bed, took the file from her hand, and threw it on the bedside table. He crawled into the space between her legs and took her glasses off. “You are one selfish female, you know that?”
His mouth was so close to hers, he could almost taste her.
“I know. I just can’t seem to get enough of you. I’ll try to work on it.”
“Don’t. You. Dare.”
He leaned in and took her mouth softly then rolled over. “More.”
She laughed before she leaned down and kissed him upside down. “You’re silly.”
“I hope you’re not just realizing that now, Doc.”
“Hey, how did Pax seem today?”
He pulled her down next to him. “Okay, why?”
“I talked to him last night after X and Troy brought you downstairs. He was upset, Dies. Really upset.”
Diesel sat up. “That’s weird. He was fine at the meeting. And then on our way down here, I asked him point blank if he was okay with me fighting and he said it was fine.”
“I’m sure he meant it. I just wanted you to know. He really cares about you. I think it was hard for him to see you like that.”
He nodded and suddenly got real interested in his hands. “Yeah. I’m sure it was.”
“Hey.”
He looked into his female’s eyes. Thank God it wasn’t pity he saw in those beautiful grays. He didn’t know if he could take it. What he found there was her usual strength and determination. He should have known better.
“We’re going to beat this thing, my male.”
He lay back down so that he was partway on top of her. He tucked a wave of honey hair behind her ear. “I love you,” he whispered.
She pulled him down by the back of the neck and kissed him. “Hey, wanna skip out on making dinner?”
“Dinner? What’s that?”
As he leaned down and gave into that taste of hers, he suddenly realized that she had never said she loved him back. Not once.
Huh.
Good thing he wasn’t the kind of male who needed to hear it.
“Whoa! Jesus,
ihkweea.
You scared the shit out of me.”
He watched as Cobra, his mate’s second form, grew in size right before his eyes. She was almost to his height when she let her second form go and phased back. She was panting and covered in sweat.
He walked over to her and ran his hands through her short, wavy pixie. “You’re pushing yourself pretty hard.”
“I know. But my psychotic bitch of a mother relies a lot on her Cobra form in a fight. She’s been able to do the giant Cobra form forever. I need to be ready.”
SE felt his heart rate spike. This was the shit that gave him fucking nightmares. Hell, daymares. He dropped his gaze and started studying the carpet. Lovely color. Matched the drapes.
She reached up and slid her arms around his neck. “SE.”
He looked into her bright green eyes. “What? She’s like the mother-in-law from hell.”
That was the understatement of the motherfucking year.
“I know, believe me. Look, maybe I won’t even have to fight her. There are bound to be a zillion other shifters out there who hate her guts. Maybe one of them will get to her first.”
He sighed. “One can only hope.”
She pulled him toward the bathroom. “Come on. I need a shower before dinner. I’ll let you wash my back.”
“What about your front?”
“We’ll see.”
Seth sat down on the rickety old couch that reeked of cat piss and rolled his eyes as his crew joked around about the shit they’d done the night before.
Nick laughed. “Tell them the rest, Joey.”
“I swear to God. We had the gas all set up for the Tolie shifter, when out of nowhere, this New Breed shows up. So freakin’ bizarre, man. First he fights the Tolie, then the first explosion hits. He gets blown over the counter. Then, get this. He lets the fucking Tolie escape out the side door. He watches him do it. Then outta nowhere, he runs over to the fire and starts trying to put it out.”
Seth lit a cig. “Why?”
“How the fuck do I know? He’s yellin’ and hittin’ it with his coat. Dude went totally Crazytown for realz.”
“Jesus, Joe, when you gonna stop talkin’ like a fourteen year-old girl?”
“Up yours, Tommy.”
Seth had hit his bullshit limit. “Knock it off, you bunch of pussies. The point is that the Tolie is still breathing, which means we can’t get to his
hellions
to find out if there are any in that den who are like us. So why don’t you three stop screwin’ around and figure out what the hell Plan B is.”
Mark sneered. “Why don’t you figure it out?”
Jesus Christ.
If he let these morons have their way, they’d be living in the same trashy one bedroom for the rest of their pathetic lives. “Because I came up with Plan A and you dumbasses fucked it up. Besides, I gotta figure out who we’re gonna hit next, assuming you morons don’t screw this up twice. I’m out.”
He headed out the door. What he wasn’t sharing with those a-holes was that he was looking for a right hand man. He needed a number two guy he could count on and none of those meatheads were qualified for the job. He wasn’t even sure they could flip burgers at Mickey D’s. What he needed was a guy who could see the big picture like he could. He was pretty damn sure he had a ‘sky’s the limit’ kind of situation here, if he could just get everyone else on board. Which wasn’t going to be easy when all the rest of ‘em cared about was
k’ul
and gettin’ laid. He needed them to add a third priority—money. If he could get them to understand that they could have unlimited amounts of the other two if they made money their first concern, then he’d be set. But first, he had to find a partner with a reasonable amount of brain cells left. Easier said than done. From what he’d just heard, even the New Breeds weren’t playing with a full deck.
SE kept to the shadows and watched the
hellion
as he walked down the street. Matched the description X gave him perfectly. Tall. Red Sox Cap. Blue Jordans. Expensive taste. Little shit was from the suburbs. His mate would probably rather do the job herself, but after that little convo about Victrixa in their room, he needed to vent. Hard. On someone else’s face. Preferably the Frankenfucker who’d just wailed on his female.
He gleamed out and materialized in an alley just ahead of the mutant. As the
hellion
walked past, he put out his arm and grabbed him by the front of his coat. He put all of his weight on his front leg and slammed the piece of shit against the wall.
“You like two by fours?”
The bastard struggled against his hold. “What?”
“I heard you do. Especially when it comes to hitting females.”
There it was. The recognition SE was looking for. This wasn’t just any
hellion.
Ana had been right. It remembered what it had done.
This is a rogue.
Correction. This was a rogue.
SE could see the golden glow of his own eyes reflected in the rogue’s as they widened. “That’s right. She’s my mate. The good news is you’ve got decent aim. The bad news, you broke a bunch of her ribs. With a block of wood. Now, I’m gonna break every bone in your body and I’m gonna do it the right way. With my bare hands.”
James met Pax at the target range. This he liked. Which was good because as far as he could tell, it was the only thing he was good at. Really good. On his second day, he was hitting somewhere on the target every time. By the end of the week, he was consistently hitting whatever Pax told him to.
“Okay, James. So far, we’ve been working with a Beretta, which is my handgun of choice. This pistol is a Glock. It will feel very different in your hand. We’ll work with it this week. Next, I’ll have you check out a
Sig Sauer. Ultimately, it’s important that you choose what you’re most comfortable with.”
James nodded. He put in his earplugs and doubled up with his ear muffs. Pax watched as he went through the same dry fire exercises he had done with the Beretta.
“The Glock feels really light compared to the Beretta.”
Pax nodded. “Okay. Good. Remember, none of the conclusions you come to as far as comfort can be wrong.”
When he was finally ready to take the Glock out for some live fire, he was excited to see what he could do with it. That was until he watched the bullets miss the target. As in, completely.
Pax watched James’s arms shake as he did a round of fire at the target. He grabbed him just as the male started to go down.
“James!”
He pulled off his shooting glasses.
Holy shit.
He was out cold. Not knowing if it was safe to gleam him to Helen, he picked him up and carried him to the medical facility. Helen was there.
Thank fuck.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. We were doing target practice and he just collapsed.”
“Okay, do me a favor, Pax. Go and find Diesel for me. I think he’s in our room.”
Screw walking. Pax gleamed into Diesel’s room and had him to the medical facility in record time. For the most part, he’d come willingly. Okay, maybe he was a little pissed.
“Hmm. Fever. Dies, would you check his upper right arm?”
Diesel walked to the other side of the table and lifted James’s sleeve.
There it was.
He’d been marked by the Goddess Akina.
“Okay. He’s going through his second transition. Let’s get him up to his room where he’ll be more comfortable.”
Helen was relieved when James came around. “Hey, kiddo, how are you feeling?”
His teeth were chattering and his thick auburn hair was soaked.
“C-cold.”
“That’s the fever, hon. Dies, would you get some extra blankets?”
Helen watched as Diesel and Pax practically killed each other trying to walk into the closet. Her mate finally added two more blankets to the duvet.
“Thanks. I’m going to stay with him, my male,” she whispered. “Go get some sleep.”
“You sure?”
She nodded.
He squeezed her hand, gave her a wink, and headed out.
She knew in Diesel speak, that meant
You got this.
She wished she felt even half as confident. This was only the second time she’d seen a New Breed transition, and Soaring Eagle had pretty much handled Ana’s.
James tossed and turned, throwing the blankets off and then pulling them back again. Meanwhile, Pax looked like he was about to fly through the ceiling.
“Pax, you don’t need to stay. I don’t think being his mentor means handling this end of things. Go ahead. He’ll be fine.”
After Pax left, she lay down next to James and tried to keep him as comfortable as she could. There was little she could do except hold him when the fever was at its worst and the delirium set in. Except once it set in, it took on a death grip and didn’t seem to want to let go. From what SE had told her from Ana’s transition, this only lasted two or three hours. She checked her watch. It had been close to five. It was strange that a fever would take such a hold in a healthy, young male. Should she try to bring it down? As a doctor that was her first inclination, but this transition wasn’t just physical.
Damn it.
Ana wondered where her male had gotten to. It was their night off. She looked up from her laptop just in time to see her male materialize in front of the bed.
“Oh, my Goddess. SE, your hands!”
They were covered in blood. She took in the scent and sighed with relief. Most of it wasn’t his.
“Come here, my male.” She led him to the bathroom and turned on the sink. “What the hell happened?”
“Ah, there’s a slight chance you aren’t going to be very happy with me right now.”
She stopped and looked into his face. “Lemme guess. You went after the rogue that attacked me.”
She went back to washing his hands.
“I’m sorry,
ihkweea
.”
She wiped his hands with a clean towel. “I’m not.”
“You’re not? You’re not mad? I thought for sure you’d want to deal with him yourself.”
“If I had run into him fighting, I’m sure I would have. But this was something you needed to do, as my male. I get that. Actually, it’s probably the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for me.”
It wasn’t just an answer from a mated female. It was more than that. It was a warrior’s answer. He leaned down and caught her gaze. “You astound me, you know that?”
She grinned. “I tend to do that. Now hang on, this is gonna sting like a bitch.”
Helen tried to stop thinking like a doctor and rely more on instinct, which was like asking a member of the Bruins to play for the Canadians for one game during playoffs. But she couldn’t deny what her instincts were telling her, which was to trust the Goddess and let the fever burn itself out. She pulled a chair up to his bedside and took his hand.
Please let this be the right decision.
As the sun came up and light shown through the window, Helen picked her head up off the side of the bed and rubbed her neck. There sitting next to her was James.
My God
. He was a vision. Going by Diesel’s size he had to be close to six-six. The muscle had come on slowly and was hard to notice with all the blankets. But sitting in front of her now, with just a sheet over his lap, he looked like a Greek statue. All except his eyes. He still had the same remarkably kind, hazel eyes.
“How do you feel?”
“Okay, I think. Just kind of off kilter.”
She smiled. “Think you’re okay to shower?”
He nodded.
“Great. I’ll go down and get a couple of things from our closet that will fit until Geoffrey can go shopping for you.”
She turned her back so that the male could walk to the bathroom in privacy and then started to pull all of the linens off the bed. His transition had really been something. A real miracle. But as she headed downstairs to find James some clothes, all she could think about were the kids in Toltec’s prison that hadn’t been so lucky. She decided she needed to spend the rest of the day wading through more of Sean Delaney’s sloppy files. And doctors had lousy handwriting?
James got out of the shower in one piece, hitting his head on the nozzle notwithstanding. He got out and walked over to the cloudy, full length mirror. He focused on his face first, because everything else scared the shit out of him. He was the youngest New Breed in history. Even Troy and Ana were twenty. He took a deep breath and very slowly looked down his body. For some reason, it was the size of his hands that kept freaking him out the most. Maybe as a ballplayer he was just more acquainted with them than most. Now they seemed like a stranger’s.
There was a knock on the door. He put a towel on and carefully maneuvered his way through the bathroom door. He expected Helen, but it was Dimitri.
“Hey, brother. I come bearing gifts.”
“Hi.”
“How do you feel?”
“Okay. Maybe a little off balance.”
“That’s understandable. You’ll get used to it, but I know it’s a lot. Did I ever tell you where I went through my transition?”
James slid into some sweats. “No, I don’t think so.”
“At the Met Gala.”
“As in the Metropolitan Museum of Art?”
“Yep. Barely made it back to my hotel. Grew right through my tux. Then it took Reyn a fuckload of time to find me. I was only the second New Breed, so detecting another was something he was just figuring out. Now we generally find shifters quickly after they make their second transition, and sometimes before, like we did with you. I gotta tell ya, I thought maybe I was becoming the Hulk, minus the nasty skin tone, which totally would’ve sucked. I’m a DC man.”
James laughed. “Not me.”
“Ah, Marvel all the way, huh?”
“Yeah, I used to read my big brother’s collection when he wasn’t around.”
Dimitri pointed to the bed. “There’re some new boxers, some more sweats, T-shirts, a fleece, and some socks. I brought you a new pair of kicks I haven’t worn yet. You’re first on Geoffrey’s list today, so you should be pretty set. Feel like some breakfast?”
James looked at the clock. “I think we missed it.”
“Naw, that’s main breakfast. We have like, three. Kind of like Hobbits.”
“Biggest friggin’ Hobbits ever.”
Dimitri laughed.
Dinner that night was amazing. Geoffrey made his favorite meal, chicken pot pie. Of course, he was less of a novelty than Ana, so there wasn’t anyone picking him up and passing him around, which was totally fine by him. But everyone wanted to know when he’d be ready for his first duty and who his partner would be, which had yet to be worked out. He noticed he was a bit taller than several of the brothers, but shorter than X and Pax.
Whoa. The third biggest New Breed.
Even Troy was there, which, if he wasn’t mistaken, was happening more often.
Troy grinned. “You know what we should really do? Take James out.”
James almost spit out his pie.
Out?
“Uh, I’m eighteen, you guys.”
“You’re shittin’ me. Does he look eighteen?’
“More importantly, does he look like the kinda guy anyone’s gonna ask?” X added.
Dimitri looked across the table. “So, Dies. I hear you’re sticking with us a while longer.”
Diesel grinned. “Well, it was either that or according to the US government, I could do some volunteer work.”
“You could be a nurse.
Nurse Diesel, will you help with my gown?
” Dimitri said in his best old lady voice.
“You’re pretty tall.” Troy grinned. “You could repaint the Statue of Liberty or some shit.”
James chuckled. “It’s not painted, you dumbass. It’s copper.”
Diesel barked a laugh. “You know, James, I think you’re gonna fit in around here just fine.”
Diesel took the empty popcorn bowl and put it on the bedside table. His female was sound asleep in his lap, exhausted from bringing James safely through his transition. Pride swelled in his chest when he thought about it. Sure, he was fighting for the survival of two races, but she was at the heart of the fight, too. She was right there with him. He picked up the remote, turned off
Casablanca,
and smiled. He thought he would be the first one to fall asleep during that one. Gently lifting his mate, he laid her down so her head was on her pillow and kissed her forehead.
No sex tonight, which meant he needed to squeeze in a second workout. New Breed bodies weren’t just strong, they were naturally energetic. Which was fine, unless you were trying to wear one the fuck out. Unfortunately, he’d always been the restless type, even before the PTSD and his second transition. So that meant some extra time building sweat equity. He wasn’t going to get any cash return on that investment, but all he wanted was some sleep. He figured about an hour run on the treadmill and he’d be good to go.
Halfway through his workout, SE came in.
“Yo, SE. First time I’ve caught you down here this late.”
“Well, I’ve got a new mate that works out in the mornings. So, that’s pretty much out.”
Diesel grinned. “Yeah, it is.”
“Besides, it gives me something to do while she’s out on duty. I never sleep ‘til she’s back in anyway.”
“Man, I don’t know how you two do it.”
SE laughed and hopped on a treadmill. “Neither do we. I’ve heard you down here a couple of times lately. Richard and I sometimes fit in a quick spar before he takes Maya for the night.”
“Yeah. I usually work out twice on my days off. I need to burn the adrenaline off so I can sleep.”
“Any time you need a partner at one in the morning, let me know.”
“Sweet. Back atcha, m’ man.”
Diesel slowed down his pace for a bit, then got off the treadmill. He took a few swigs from his water bottle on his way to take a quick shower. No need to wake up Doc by using their bathroom. Ten minutes later, he was walking back to his room. When he went in, she was still in the exact same position. Now that was impressive.