Tempting Evil (29 page)

Quinn sounded doubtful, and I can’t say I blamed him. I cradled the little girl close and walked back to Quinn. The threesome on the floor were reaching the heights, their moans becoming louder and louder.

People come to investigate the noise. Shadow the child.
He turned and led the way back out.

I drew the darkness over the child’s body and followed Quinn out the door. Several people had gathered at the end of the corridor, sniggering and talking. Even as we passed them, they began to creep forward. At least with their attention on the threesome doing the horizontal tango, they were less inclined to notice us. Not that Quinn would have allowed them to, anyway.

A point he proceeded to prove by spinning open the old door and ushering me through. Not one of those in the hall turned to look, even though some were very close. When the door had closed again, I asked,
How are we going to get back through the chameleons?

We run like hell.

No, really.

Really.

Fuck. Chameleons were fast. I knew that, he knew that. Outrunning them hadn’t been an option the first time I’d crossed paths with these creatures, and I doubted it would be now.

As we reached the door, an explosion shook the air and the walls. Dust rained down from the ceiling, and alarms began to sound. Quinn ignored it all and gripped the door handle, his fingers a flame against the cool metal.
Ready?

No.
I cradled the baby a little closer, shielding her as much as possible, then reluctantly nodded.

Quinn thrust the door open, and I ran through. The darkness howled, a sound of anger that seemed to echo off the very walls. Air stirred, a whirlwind of hate that seemed to be aimed at me more than Quinn. I didn’t look back, didn’t look sideways, just concentrated on getting to the door and the tunnel beyond it.

Something brushed past my hair and crashed into the wall near the door as I ran through. Bones snapped, a creature howled. Quinn, cleaning up behind me, ensuring safe passage. I fled into the tunnel, my footsteps slapping against the cold stone.

Behind me, a creature roared, the reverberations echoing through the red-tinged darkness. Though I heard no sound, Quinn grabbed my arm, pushing me forward faster. It felt like I was being run off my feet and yet didn’t seem anywhere near fast enough.

Wasn’t
fast enough.

Even as the ladder came into sight, there was an odd click and suddenly cameras were moving, tracking us.

A heartbeat later another alarm sounded, closer and harsher than the other, a strident sound that was deafening in the tunnel confines.

The child didn’t make a sound. Didn’t move. She breathed—I could feel it, see the bright heat of her body—but her stillness was eerie. Hell,
I
jumped when that alarm started, but not the kid. It was almost as if she understood that she couldn’t cry, that to do so would put us all in even greater danger.

Of course, she could also be doped out of her tiny mind, but somehow, that just didn’t ring true.

Maybe it was me who was out of my tiny mind.

As we neared the ladder, Quinn touched my shoulder. I slowed, watching as he scrambled up. From behind came the skitter of claws on stone. He hadn’t locked the security door and I cursed him—until I realized he’d given us cover. Starr just might think it was the creatures who had tripped the alarm.

I reached for the rungs and began to climb. It didn’t matter if it was clear or not up top—I’d rather face six men with guns than two extremely pissed chameleons.

No matter how awkward it might have been to climb a ladder while holding a kid, let me tell you that no ladder had ever been climbed quite so fast. Quinn grabbed my hand and helped me over the final section, then slammed the door shut on my heels and closed the cover. I leapt over the bodies of two security guards who’d obviously been patrolling nearby, and ran like hell into the thick darkness of the forest.

The thump of many footsteps against concrete suggested security were answering the alarm. I hoped my brother wasn’t amongst them or, at least, wasn’t the first in line to open that door.

Unease rolled through me again, and this time, I knew for sure it centered on Rhoan. I just wasn’t entirely sure why. Was it simply sibling concern? Or the growing certainty that something had gone seriously wrong for him? Maybe the next thing I needed to do once I’d delivered Dia’s child to safety was hunt him out—if only to see him and ensure he
was
okay.

Because the last time I’d felt anything like this, he’d been kidnapped and milked for his seed.

And then something else hit me—the realization that Starr was likely to check the whereabouts of all his people. Including the whores and us fighters. I stopped abruptly.

“What’s wrong?” Quinn’s voice was even, showing no hint of breathlessness despite all we’d been through. Annoying, to say the least.

“I need to get back to my room, which means I need you to do me a favor.” I swiped at the sweat trickling down the side of my face. “Will you take the child to the forest and wait for the shifter to come in and collect her?”

He frowned, and gave the silent little girl a dark look. “I am not overly fond of children.”

“I’m not asking you to be fond of her. I’m just asking if you’d take her to safety.”

He didn’t answer immediately, so I offered up the child. Somewhat reluctantly, he took her. “When and where?”

Rather than respond, I flicked the com-link and said, “Jack?”

“Regular reports, Riley. That was in the very first lesson on proper guardian behavior.”

“I think that was the one I slept through.”

He swore. “Damnit, just report.”

I smiled. It might not be wise to bait my boss, but damn if it didn’t feel good when he bit. “We’ve got the kid and blown the lab, but the shit has temporarily hit the fan. Quinn’s going to bring the child to the meet now. I’ve got to get back and act like nothing has happened.”

“Everyone’s cover still intact?”

“That very much depends whether the cameras in the tunnels had infrared or not.” I hesitated. “Listen, those underground levels are not new. Quinn reckons they’re far older than the cartel itself. You don’t think this place is situated on an old military bunker, do you?”

“Maybe one named Libraska, you mean?”

“Well, it does make sense for Starr to have his most valuable asset close to hand.” And it would also explain the existence of the elevator entrance to his rooms—the one no one seemed to know about.

“We’ve no records of
any
installation, military or not, being built in this area, but I’ll get Alex to check with her Government source. Hopefully, we’ll have an answer soon as to what Starr is sitting on.”

Alex was Alex Hunter, the woman responsible for the birth of the Directorate, and who’d been in charge of it since its inception. Not only was she a very old vampire—far older than even Quinn—but she was also Jack’s sister. Talk about job security.

Though how Jack could be several hundred years younger than Quinn, and yet still be the sibling of someone several hundred years older, was a point Jack and said sister had so far been unwilling to explain. But I very much intended to get an answer, even if I had to nag Jack to death.

“Where do you want Quinn to meet your removalist?”

“There’s an old pine leaning over the fence near the south corner. We’ll have people there in five.” He hesitated. “Be careful. And keep in contact, Riley. I mean it.”

I’m sure he meant it the first time he said it, too. It still didn’t mean I’d remember. I flicked off the com-link and glanced at Quinn. “You’d better get moving.”

He nodded and shifted his grip on the child, then wrapped his free hand around the back of my neck and pulled me close. His lips, when they met mine, were warm and demanding, the kiss itself unlike any other kiss from any other man. It was both a promise of intent and a declaration of feeling, and so damn right—so damn
hot
—it had me melting.

A sigh escaped when his lips left mine. He chuckled softly. “Keep that thought for when all this is over.”

I opened my eyes and stared into the obsidian depths of his for several heartbeats. “Only if you accept what I am, Quinn. It wouldn’t be fair to either of us, otherwise.”

His smile was tinged with bitterness, though that bitterness didn’t seem aimed at me but rather himself. “It has occurred to me that to win the race, I must first be in the race. I may not like a werewolf’s propensity for many mates, but if sharing means I get the chance to prove that we are meant to be, then I have little other choice but to accept it.”

My hormones did a happy little jig. “Meaning no more demands that I see you, and you alone? No more gibes at the werewolf culture?”

“Yes to the first, and I will try to the second.”

Well, that was better than nothing. I leaned forward and kissed him gently. “Thank you.”

“Even the very old can try to change if we see something worth changing for.” He briefly touched my cheek with his fingertips, then stepped back. “Be very careful in that house.”

I nodded. He turned and disappeared into the night, though I watched the flame of his body heat until the trees took it from sight. After which, I turned and headed back to my room.

Only Berna was there when I entered, but she wasn’t asleep. Far from it. Her expression was dark, angry, like she was ready to hit someone. And her eyes, when her gaze met mine, suggested that someone was me.

I stopped cold, wondering what the hell I’d done. Other than whip their asses earlier, that is.

But before I could ask, pain hit. Deep, deep pain that struck like a hammer, smashing through my body, driving me to my knees and snatching the air from my lungs.

It wasn’t my pain.

It was Rhoan’s.

Chapter 14

I
’d never felt anything like it before. The pain was real, and yet it wasn’t. It washed fire across every nerve ending, but the agony of it didn’t linger for more than a heartbeat or two. Even so, my limbs trembled with sudden weakness. It was almost as if my strength was being sucked away by the pain.

Or maybe it wasn’t the pain. Maybe it was Rhoan, calling on my strength because his own was failing. It wasn’t something we’d ever figured possible, because we couldn’t share thoughts and, up until now, had never shared the pain of hurts. Though we certainly knew when the other was either emotionally or physically wounded, and we’d always been able to find each other—an ability that had saved us both over the last few months.

If I was feeling
this
from Rhoan now, he was in trouble. Life-or-death–type trouble.

Panic hit like a club, sucking away my breath.

I didn’t know what was happening to him, but I sure as hell intended to find out. I took a deep breath and staggered to my feet. Only to have my neck caught in a vise-like grip and my back shoved violently against the wall.

“You betrayed us, didn’t you?” Berna’s face was inches from mine, her expression contorted with the rage that trembled through her entire body. “We trusted you not to say anything, but you did.”

If she wanted a reply, she wasn’t going to get it. Not when her grip was so damn tight breathing had become a sudden luxury. I reached up, grabbed her hand, and pried her fingers away from my neck before thrusting her back and away.

Surprise flickered through her eyes. Despite the fact I’d beaten them both, Berna still had no idea as to my true strength.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I rubbed my neck and fought the urge to run, to find and rescue my brother. Something else had obviously gone wrong—something I needed to know.

“Nerida tried to kill Merle. Only he was ready for it. Waiting for it. That could only have happened if he’d been warned.”

And the fact that the kitchen had been bombed then the entire power grid had gone down had absolutely nothing to do with his readiness. These two might have been good rangers, but they couldn’t have been leaders. They weren’t forward thinkers.

I shook my head in disgust. “Let me guess. You were treating Merle as an ordinary target, weren’t you?”

“That’s because he
is
a normal target, even if he is a half-breed.” She took a step forward, her huge paws clenched and ready for action.

I held up a finger in warning. “Don’t even think about it, Berna, because I’ll break your fucking neck. Then who will be left to rescue that stupid fox bitch?”

“In an even fight I can take you, wolf.”

I snorted softly. “You have no chance, Berna, just as Nerida had no chance.”

“A fox-shifter will always beat a half-breed who has not been warned. It is the way of the world. Full bloods are stronger, faster—especially when the half-breed is part human.”

“That might be true if we were actually dealing with a normal half-breed. But in the case of Moss and Merle, we’re not. They’re genetically engineered humans who have been implanted with the DNA of several races. They aren’t normal in
any
sense of the word.”

She blinked. “What?”

“I warned you there was more to this. Starr is not only the leader of one of the nastiest cartels in Melbourne, he’s also the head of a lab that has been playing in the DNA gene pool for several generations.” Her eyes widened as the implications of my words hit her. “Did you honestly think those winged things were a product of nature? Did you really think the zoo was nothing more than a collection of misfits?”

“Well, I’ve seen stranger things—” She stopped. “Why should I trust anything you say?”

“Because as a former ranger, you were trained by the military to see beyond the surface. You must know things are not what they seem in this place.” I shifted my stance from one foot to the other. I needed to get out there, to hunt down my brother and beat the crap out of whoever it was causing him pain. “I don’t really care if you believe me or not. But I promise you, if people I care about die because of your interference, you
will
pay.”

“You can’t know of our military service. Our files are sealed against public perusal.”

“Who said I was public?”

She blew out a breath. “We’ve walked into the middle of a major operation, haven’t we?”

“Yeah, and might well have blown it.”

“Fuck.” She thrust a hand through her short hair. “What can I do?”

I held up my hand rather than answering. From down the hall came the rough voices—the guards were doing a bed check. I grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around myself to hide my bloody state. We waited in silence until our turn came, answering accordingly when our names were called out. They didn’t ask about Nerida, so they obviously knew her fate.

When the guards moved away, I said, “Help me rescue my partner, then together we’ll see what we can do about yours. But if we do get her free, I want you both out of here.”

“Your partner has been caught?”

Caught, tortured, and on the move. But not under his own steam. “Yes. I need to get him out of here.”

“How? They have guards on all exits at the moment. No one is getting in or out.”

“Let’s concentrate on one problem at a time.”

I threw the blanket to one side, then turned on my heel and walked out. Berna followed, her larger feet slapping heavily against the floor, drowning out any noise my footfalls were making. I pushed open the exit door and stepped into the cool night air. The guard looked at us but didn’t say anything. He was human. He wouldn’t have seen or smelled the blood and sweat and fear riding my body.

“Where’d they take Nerida?” I asked, as we moved away.

“To the pens, wherever they are. She’s slotted in as the after-dinner entertainment.”

“Against those winged things?” I followed the path around to the left, following instinct and that tenuous, fragile thread that linked Rhoan and me.

“Yeah. If she happens to survive that, she wins the right to fight Merle.” Berna’s gaze was grim when it met mine. “We both know that isn’t going to happen, but Nerida can’t or won’t see reason. Revenge has blinded her.”

I opened my mouth to say it was stupid, but the truth was, I
could
understand it. If something happened to Rhoan, hell itself wouldn’t stand a chance against my desire to get even. To make someone pay.

“Which means she won’t want to leave, even if we do rescue her.”

“She’ll leave. I promise you that.”

It was a promise she had better keep, or Jack would have both their heads. He didn’t have much patience for those who got in the way of Directorate operations.

We padded along the path, heading toward the front of the house. Guards watched our progress, and, after a few seconds, I felt the return of my watcher. This one was a wolf, meaning he would track me better than the first one.

How the hell was I going to rescue Rhoan when I had a tail that would report all suspicious actions back to Starr?

Unless, of course, a little distraction was provided.

I stopped near the end of the house. An old green truck with canvas sides was being loaded near one of the machinery sheds. Though I couldn’t see my brother, the link between us said he was there, already inside. As we watched, the last few boxes were loaded, then the back of the truck lifted and locked into place. No one got in the back. Two men got into the cab. Time to get moving.

“We have a tail,” I said, as the driver started the truck’s engine.

“Where?” Berna’s gaze was also on the vehicle; her voice was as soft as mine.

“He’s stopped near the last door.”

“That’s a hundred yards back.” Her gaze met mine, speculation rife in her brown eyes. “A wolf shouldn’t be able to scent someone that far away when the wind is blowing against them.”

I wasn’t actually relying on olfactory senses, but she didn’t need to know that. “A moot point when
this
wolf can.”

She grunted. “You want me to distract him?”

“Yes, please.”

“Consider it done.”

She spun and walked back. I waited until the truck lurched into action, then slipped around the corner, wrapped the night around my body, and ran like hell for the back of the truck.

It was faster than I thought it would be, forcing me to leap in a desperate effort to get on board before it got away. I hit the backboard hard enough to rattle it, hooked an arm over the edge of the tray, and hung on for grim death as the road swept by inches from my toes. Not a position I was overly enamored of, so once I’d caught my breath, I twisted, hooked a leg over the tray, and dragged myself inside. My hip caught the end of one box as I dropped down, and I bit back a yelp, barely daring to even breathe as I lay there, listening. The rumble of the engine flowed across the air, joined by the hum of the tires on the road surface. The aroma of spice and leather hung in the air, but the relief that shivered through me was tempered by the fact that Rhoan’s scent was heavily interlaced with the sweet, metallic odor of blood. They’d really done a number on him.

Anger rose, anger that was all wolf, all territorial need to protect the pack. Rhoan
was
my pack, all I had, and whoever had done this to him would pay.

Oh yeah, I could more than understand Nerida’s reasoning.

Underneath Rhoan’s scent came the twin scents of pine and ocean. Though I could smell them, I couldn’t “feel” them, meaning they were human rather than nonhuman. With the way the old truck was rattling, they wouldn’t hear me creep forward. Human hearing wasn’t that astute.

But I kept the shadows wrapped around my body as I edged around the first box. They might not hear me, but it would only take a glance in the rearview mirror to see me. I was naked, after all, and a naked female of
any
description tended to catch a man’s attention.

Rhoan was about halfway down the truck, thrown on the floor like so much rubbish, his face as beaten and raw as his body. In fact, the only thing that
wasn’t
beaten and bloody was his genitals. It actually looked as if someone had gone out of their way to avoid that area, which was extremely odd.

I dropped down beside him and gently touched his forehead, brushing the sweaty, blood-plastered strands of hair from his face. He stirred, and relief filled me. He wasn’t as out of it as I feared, even if he didn’t immediately open his eyes.

I lightly pressed the com-link in his ear, then leaned close and murmured, “Jack, track this signal. When we are well clear of the gates, stop the truck. Bring medical aid for Rhoan.”

I couldn’t hear his answer and didn’t dare use my own com-link. I’d have to speak a little louder and it just wasn’t worth the risk.

After a quick glance at the two humans in the front, I stretched out beside Rhoan and gently cradled him. He stirred again, then opened his eyes.

The brown was unsettling, alien. Not so his smile. “I knew you’d find me.”

His voice was the barest of whispers, scratchy with pain, but to my ears it was the sweetest sound ever.

“Isn’t that what little sisters are for?” I gently pressed my hand against his bruised cheek as his eyes drifted close again. “Rhoan, who did this to you?”

“Starr. Moss.” He shuddered and the pain fury had been keeping at bay rushed through me like a tide. It wasn’t just the pain of his injuries. It was the deadly fire of silver.

I licked my lips, trying not to panic. There was no silver knife of any kind stuck in his flesh, nor could I see a bullet wound, but that didn’t mean anything. It only took a sliver embedded under the skin to kill a wolf.

“Rhoan, where is it?”

“Butt.” He made a harsh sound that could have been a laugh. “Idea of a joke.”

Then it was one I didn’t immediately understand. I shifted, and ran my hand across his buttocks. Having been shot by silver myself, my flesh had become extremely sensitive to its presence. If it was under his skin, I’d feel it.

My fingers began to burn in the center of his left cheek. The sliver was about two inches long and needle fine. It was also too deep to drag out with my fingers.

“Take…out,” he gasped. “Things going numb.”

It was
then
that I understood the so-called joke. Silver killed werewolves by destroying muscle and nerves and sensation, until the body was locked in pain and the ability to move and breathe was gone, and all that was left was a lingering, horrible death by asphyxiation.

I’d been shot in the arm, and the numbness had quickly traveled down to my fingers and up my neck. The bullet had been removed before any long-term damage had been done, but even so, I’d risked the use of my arm.

Rhoan was shot in the butt, so his loss of sensation was centered around that area—the butt and genitals. He risked the loss of something far more important to a wolf than a mere arm.

It was sick, and the bastards were going to die for it.

I touched Rhoan’s cheek, drawing his attention again. “I’m going to have to shift and bite.”

He nodded weakly. “Do it.”

I took another glance at the men up front. They still weren’t paying us any attention, so I called to the wolf within. The power swept over me, through me, until I was once again wolf rather than human. I licked my brother’s face—a useless gesture that undoubtedly comforted me more than him—then slid my gaze down his body. In wolf form, the heat of the silver was more intense. The glow of it seemed to leak from his skin, a beacon that pointed to the precise spot.

I didn’t let myself think about what I was about to do, just bared my teeth and slashed down into his skin. The taste of flesh and blood filled my mouth, followed swiftly by the fire of silver. I closed my teeth around it and ripped. Felt Rhoan jerk, and his body stiffen. He hissed, vocalizing the pain that reverberated through every corner of my mind.

I turned away and spat out his flesh. But his taste filled my mouth and suddenly I was gagging uncontrollably.

“What the hell was that?” one of the men in the front said.