Authors: Heath Stallcup
Damien wondered, not for the first time, if he were to simply walk out into the sunlight and turn to ash, would she miss him? Would she even realize it was because of her treatment of him? Would she care?
He slumped to the floor and held his head in his hands. He knew the answer. Even if she realized it was her fault, she wouldn’t care. She didn’t care. She’d never care again.
He lifted his eyes and stared toward her room, her rising screams and gasping breaths tearing at whatever it was inside that made him feel. He knew it wasn’t a soul. He knew it wasn’t a heart. But it was something.
And she was destroying it with each thrust.
14
Tracy watched Mark from an angle, nearly averting her eyes as he inhaled the food she brought. He finally leaned back against the wall and belched, rubbing his stomach. “Man, that hit the spot.”
“It hit something.” She looked at the splatters that hit the wall, the floor, and she swore there were some bits clinging to the ceiling. “I swear, Tufo, you need a shower now. You have bits of…gore, clinging to your whiskers.”
Mark rubbed the back of his hand absently across his face and felt something greasy smear his arm. “I’ll live,” he answered absently.
He looked down at the gauze barely clinging to his chest and lifted it again. The bright pink scars were barely visible now. He peeled the rest of the bandages away and turned so that she could see.
“Oh my…” Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at him. Other than faint pink lines across his midsection, he looked nearly normal. “Cover that up. You’re giving me goose bumps.”
Mark shook his head as he pulled at the tape holding the stained bandages away and wadded them. “Screw that.” He tossed the waste into the trash and stood in front of the sink. He stared at the light pink lines then turned his attention to his eyes. “I need to know what the hell is going on with me.”
“What are you planning now?”
“First things first, I’m gonna grab a shower, wash this dried blood and gravy off me, then I’m gonna hit up Doc and see if he has any ideas.”
“Mark, it’s only been a few hours since—”
He turned on her suddenly and she withdrew, her hands coming up defensively. He cocked his head to the side and stared at her. “You know I’d never hurt you.” He closed the gap between them slowly and took her hand in his. “Tell you what, I’m obviously not going to relapse. Head back to the house. Try to get some rest. If I get any answers from Doc, I’ll call you.”
She shook her head vehemently. “No, I’m staying with you.”
“You can’t, Honey. I’m going back to work, and I need answers. Trust me. When we get to the bottom of this, you’ll be the next to know.” He kissed her knuckles and she fought the urge to cringe. She couldn’t explain why she felt that urge, but she did. She stared up at him and nodded slowly. He cupped her face and gave her a smile. “That’s my girl. I’ll call you as soon as I know anything.” Kissing her softly on the forehead, he turned and headed for the door.
She sat and watched as he turned in the hallway and marched off smartly, looking every bit like a new man. She stood slowly on shaky legs and leaned against the sink. Lifting her face she caught her own reflection. Worrying and fretting over him had left her ragged and exhausted. Her face looked as if she had aged ten years overnight.
She inhaled deeply and blew it out hard. “You need sleep.” Her reflection didn’t respond. And it was a good thing it didn’t. If it had, she would have signed herself into the Looney Bin.
*****
“So he just called out of the blue?” Jack sat back slowly, letting the news process.
“It took everything I had not to send a strike team after them as soon as we had a location lock on the call.” Mitchell poured another cup of coffee and leaned back in his chair, facing Jack. “I thought I’d better get you in here and bounce this off of you since you were the last one to talk to him.”
“I don’t know what else I can add, Colonel. I thought I had him talked down at the island. I didn’t even realize he had slipped off until the dust settled.” Jack sipped his own coffee as Mitchell stared into his cup.
“He asked if there was anything he could do to get back in our good graces.”
Jack’s eyes widened at that. “What did you tell him?”
“No, what else could I tell him, Phoenix? The guy turned on his own teammates. He turned on all of us. And for what? Because Sheridan of all people told him his girlfriend was playing kissy face with somebody else?” Mitchell shook his head. “I would have bet the farm he was made of stronger stuff than that.”
“So would I, sir.” Jack set his cup on the corner of the desk and stared at him. “So what will you do with him?”
Mitchell shook his head. “I honestly have no idea.” He ran a hand through his hair and stared at the ceiling. “By all rights, he should be killed in action when we raid that warehouse.” Jack raised a brow at that but held his tongue. “We lost some damned good men here, and I know you lost good people due to him.” Mitchell stood and paced his office, the tension building. “What would I do with him if we simply took him into custody? Lock him up in the silver cells? For how long? Forever? Ban him? Put him in a military prison?” He threw his hands up in disgust.
“I can only imagine what you’re going through, Colonel. Something like this is unprecedented.”
“You’re damned right it is. We operate outside of so many rules…but the rules
have
to apply or what are we doing this for?” Mitchell paused and lowered his head. “Jack, I’m at a loss here.”
“Are you asking me to lead a team in there to take him out, sir?” Jack prayed the colonel would say no.
“Negative.” He worked his way back to his seat and stared at it as though it were a foreign object. He slowly lowered himself into it and rubbed the back of his neck. “He wants us to direct an attack on the full moon while their men are shifted. They have silver lined cargo containers or some such for them to lock themselves into. He’ll be the only one still in human form.” Mitchell looked up to meet Jack’s gaze. “You and I will be locked up down below. We’re going to have to trust the squads to take care of this.”
“So, either Jones or Gregory will be taking lead on this op…” Jack trailed off, his mind racing through different scenarios. “Mark will be out of the game for a while.”
Mitchell picked up his coffee again and sipped at it. “We’ll be spread thin for this full moon, but we’ve been there before.”
“I could call in reinforcements if you don’t want the squads to dirty their hands with this one.” Jack actually looked forward to having a reason to contact the Wyldwood and grill her personally, even if it was under the guise of asking for reinforcements for a night.
“Naw, we have this covered.” Mitchell fought the urge to stand up and pace again. “I just wish that everything didn’t have to go to Hell in a hand basket all at once, ya know?”
“Try to look at the silver lining, Colonel. The attacks pointed out the weak spots in the armor. You’re having those fixed. Now we know who directed the attacks, even if we don’t know who was behind it.”
Mitchell looked up at him and set his coffee cup down. “We know now. Laura came through on that one.”
“Clue me in, sir.”
“Remember that little blonde gal that wolfed out and tore me a new one? Alpha One?”
“Your Fated Mate. She’s the one behind this?” Jack was floored at the prospect.
“Negative. Her
father
. Apparently he’s some rich son of a bitch…literally. He wants revenge for what was done to his little girl.”
Jack let out a low whistle. Thinking about his own child soon to grace the world and putting himself in the father’s place, he couldn’t truly blame him.
*****
Laura opened her eyes and turned slightly to watch Jennifer. She sat stiffly in her chair, her eyes pinned forward toward the cockpit door, her cheeks wet with wiped tears. Laura couldn’t be sure the full extent of her relationship with Mick, but she knew what being torn looked like and Jennifer was definitely torn. Laura gazed out the side window and tried to place herself in her friend’s position. A lifelong friend and possible lover betrayed her to a father whose evil spans multiple continents. A Fated Mate that once shot her in the face then held her as a lab rat for a decade. Forced to choose what is expected of her and not what her heart wants. Laura cast a furtive glance toward the smaller woman and saw her wipe at her face again.
“It’s not too late you know. We could have Mick divert the flight and…”
“You know we can’t.”
Laura turned back to the window and leaned her head against the plastic. “Because I’m not wolf, I know.” She shook her head in confusion. “You know, I used to be jealous of the strength and agility that our men had because of the wolf. I even caught myself daydreaming more than once what it might be like. To be like you, I mean. A natural born wolf.” She turned once more and saw Jennifer studying her. “But I’ll be honest, this whole idea that a force outside of myself dictating who I’m supposed to marry? That doesn’t sit well with me.”
Jennifer smiled and cast her gaze off into the distance. “Not all wolves meet their Fated Mates. Many…actually,
most
, never do. They’ll meet somebody, fall in love and get married. Some will have kids and live a perfectly normal life together. Most stay married until death.” She turned and faced Laura, her face suddenly solemn. “But those who have the chance…the opportunity to be with their Fated one? That is something that simply can’t be ignored.”
“So you’ve said.”
“No, Laura, you don’t comprehend. Being
mated
isn’t the same as married. Your souls are bound together. You feel what each other feels on such a level that words cannot describe. Your lives are physically bound together. If one wolf dies, the other dies as well. It isn’t just a mating or coupling…not a pairing. It’s…truly becoming one with your mate. Your lives become so intertwined that you become a part of your mate.”
Laura raised a brow.
She’s really drank the Kool-Aid if she buys all that.
“And you want to bind to somebody like that? I mean, if they die, you die? Really?”
Jennifer smiled. “It’s an honor to find your Fated one. If he truly is mine, I can’t imagine saying no.” She sighed as she turned back toward the front. “And when I became a woman, I gave up childish things.”
Oh yeah. She didn’t just drink the Kool-Aid, she guzzled from the pitcher.
“What if Mick is who you were supposed to be with?”
Jennifer’s head spun around and she stared at her. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, what if all of this is just a test? You created Matt, didn’t you? He isn’t even a natural born wolf, right? You said yourself that this shouldn’t be happening. So, what if you were supposed to be with Mick and the fates are testing your resolve?”
Jennifer shook her head. “A wolf cannot be with a cat. It isn’t natural.”
“Yeah, lots of things aren’t natural. That doesn’t stop it from happening.” Laura sighed and slumped into her seat. “I’m just playing Devil’s Advocate here. What do I care if you go against your heart.”
“Who are you to know my heart?”
Laura didn’t even turn to look at her. “Any idiot can see that you and Mick love each other. If you’re both too proud to admit it, that isn’t my fault.”
*****
Sheridan shuffled through his papers and stuffed a small handful into a leather portfolio. “Big, do you have the inventories for the southside storage containers?”
Bigby reached across his small workspace and pulled a short stack of paper. “Right here.” Handing them to Sheridan he watched as the man sifted through them then added them to the portfolio with the others. “How’re we doing on our supplies?”
“With the next shipment, we should be able to arm a nice sized force.” Sheridan dropped the leather folio to the ground and kicked it under the counter. “When are the reinforcements supposed to arrive from Mr. Simmons?”
“The day after the full moon.” Bigby leaned back in his chair and interlaced his hands behind his neck. “Do the boys know that we’ll have company?”
“A small handful of Mr. Simmons’ more trusted wolves do.” Sheridan booted up his computer and clicked on the internet, wanting to check their last shipment and estimated arrival times. “Once they’re here, we’ll leave the proper breadcrumbs so that the squads will come to us, and we can take care of them once and for all.”
“So that’s the plan? Make them come to us?”
Sheridan turned and gave him a smirk. “Partly. I’m sure they’ll want payback, so I’m hoping they’ll send most of their forces. The reinforcements will be here to handle them while we finish what we started at their stupid little hangar.”
“You don’t think they’ll be expecting that?”
“They won’t be expecting what I’m bringing this time.” Sheridan chuckled to himself. “I’m taking Mr. Williams’ advice this time and drop a bit of gas on them. Let their own ventilation system deliver the killing blow.”
“I like the sound of that. Let the gas take them out and then we go in and mop up the bastards.” Bigby got to his feet and stretched.
“We won’t have to do much mopping up, old boy. Hit them with mustard gas and regardless of whether they’re wolf, vampire or human, their flesh will blister, their lungs will fill with their own fluids…it will be quite painful. The supernatural beings might recover with time, but we’ll have put silver slugs into their brain pan by then.”
Bigby shook his head at the idea. “You truly are a nasty one.”
“I know. One of my more redeeming qualities, if you ask me.” Both men laughed at the offhand comment as Apollo walked into the office.