If the Breeds heading down to the bar had been seconds slower and hadn’t been in such a hurry, then it would have been all over and his mate would have been gone.
“I need to know what happened, Stygian,” Jonas growled, his gaze narrowed, his nostrils flaring as though to pick up her scent. “And she’ll need to be debriefed.”
“I f**king said later.” The animal snarl slurred his words, the primal, predatory sound jerking the attention of every Breed that had converged in the room to them.
Stygian could feel their eyes on him, their hackles raising and their animals preparing for battle.
Eerie silver eyes flashed in a suddenly stony face.
“You take me for a fool,” Jonas growled, though his tone was pitched so low Stygian had to strain to hear him.
“I take you for a Breed that has no idea when to step back and keep your machinations to yourself,” Stygian snapped back. “You will back off. This is my mate they nearly disappeared with, and I’ll be damned if you’ll take her from me before I know she’s unharmed.”
Stepping back, Stygian didn’t give the other man a chance to comment or to argue before closing the heavily reinforced door in his face and locking it.
The sound of the metal bars inside the steel door snapping into place could be heard even in the other room. The implications of what he had done weren’t lost on him.
He could have made Jonas an enemy for life.
His mate’s safety, both physical and emotional, was far more important.
“Liza.” Moving to where she had sat up on the bed, her gaze on the floor, Stygian knelt before her, one hand tucking beneath her chin to lift her gaze to his. “Are you okay, baby?”
She shook her head slowly, the tears contained in her eyes slowly falling.
“What’s wrong, baby?” Cupping her cheek, he felt fear tear through him. “Tell me where it hurts.”
She swallowed tightly, a whimper leaving her lips as more tears fell.
“Come on, Liza, tell me what’s wrong.” Keeping his voice low, he had to fight back a howl of pure rage at the pain he felt radiating through her.
It wasn’t physical pain.
There were no broken bones, no internal injuries, he would know if there were—the scent of them would have hit him within the first second of rushing back into their room.
Her lips trembled more as she parted them.
“Liza’s dead.”
His heart seemed to still in his chest as a sob tore from her.
As she clapped her hand over her lips, he watched as she fought for control, won it, then swallowed again against the pain building in her soul.
“No, sweetheart.” He shook his head.
“She’s dead,” she whispered again, wrapping her arms across her stomach and bending over, her head touching his shoulder as instinct had him wrapping his arms around her. “Oh God, Stygian. She’s dead. She died twelve years ago and now—” A shudder raced through her. “And now, they’ll find me, and she’ll die again.”
Resignation filled her pain-threaded voice, trembled with it and sliced against the emotions he realized she alone was responsible for awakening.
“Look at me. Look at me, mate.” Hardening his voice, he forced her to lift her head and stare back at him once again. “You brought me to life. You showed me all I have to live for, do you imagine for a second, for even a heartbeat that I would allow anyone to take you from me now?”
“You know who I am,” she whispered, her voice so low he was reading her lips more than hearing her. “You know. They knew—” Her eyes flashed with terror. “I can’t hide anymore. If I can’t hide, they’ll find me.”
“Who will find you? Tell me who will find you?” What enemies did she fear that she could ever imagine he wouldn’t destroy?
Her hand reached out, fragile fingers shaking as she laid them against his cheek. “The Genetics Council,” she whispered. “You know who, and you know why.”
“Why?”
“I have a photographic memory, Stygian. I have had it since birth, and the serum I was given only increased its power. That’s why I had to die. That’s why when Liza Johnson died, I was given her life. I know their weaknesses and they’ll never allow me to live now.”
The animal inside him rose, stretched and smiled in anticipation.
“Oh, baby, I promise you, they won’t touch you. Not now, not ever.”
She shook her head. “You can’t stop them.”
“I can’t, but sweetheart, trust me, you can.” He knew she could and he knew exactly how she would do it.
“How? How, Stygian, can I stop them? I couldn’t even escape them.” She was shaking in his arms and he hated it.
He hated her pain.
He hated the bottled rage.
And God help him, he hated the part he had played in it.
CHAPTER 24
The terror chasing inside her was killing him, it was killing her, and he wouldn’t allow it.
“The same way Callan stopped them,” he promised her, his hands cupping her face, drawing her lips to his for a precious, though far too short kiss. “The same way, Honor. But instead of telling the world, you’ll tell the Breed Cabinet. Who you are. The experiments and the secrets the Council is so desperate to hide. You’ll tell them all of it. And you’ll weaken them as they’ve never been weakened before.”
She shook her head again, slowly, the terror only growing in her eyes. “It’s not that easy.”
“It will be—”
“You don’t understand,” she cried out, her agony searing his senses. “It’s not just me. I don’t have all the information. We were a team, Stygian. Me, Fawn, Judd and Gideon. We were a team and you only have me. Fawn won’t remember until she dies,” she sobbed as Stygian felt his soul freeze, felt fury tear through him. “And I won’t tell you where she is. I won’t, Stygian. I won’t trade her life for my own—or God help me, even for Amber’s. I won’t do it.”
“You can’t know this.” Gripping her shoulders, he gave her a little shake, desperate to make her listen, to make her understand. “Sweetheart, listen to me. If we know who she is, where she is, we can and we will protect her. I swear to you—”
“And Judd, can you find him? What about Gideon?” Anger was building in her now even as the pain kept her tears falling. “He’ll kill her, just as he swore he would kill me and Judd. He’ll see us all dead, Stygian, and trust me, Gideon is strong enough to do it. And he’s crazy enough. He won’t stop until he steals our last breath.”