“Hi, Rory Dodson. It’s nice to finally make your acquaintance.”
Rory struggled to push air past her tightening vocal chords—struggled to keep her heavy eyelids open for a moment longer because she had to know. “Who-who are you?”
His smile was slow and empty, failing to reach his icy blue eyes. “I’m John Krueger.”
Chapter Fifteen
Sleep pulled at Rory like the clawing mud of a swamp, but it was a noise that made her break the surface of darkness. Snarling and roaring filled the old barn that blurred before her when she tried to focus. That wasn’t the noise that lifted gooseflesh across her arms, though. It was all the gunfire.
A glass of water beside her exploded, and tiny shards of glass sliced across the skin of her arm. She didn’t feel it. In confusion, she stared at the welling, red slashes. A few peppered shots finished a volley before the gunfire ceased. She should be terrified, but everything felt surreal, and her body was practically floating. She must be dreaming.
But as she cleared her parched throat and strained her eyes to focus on her surroundings, a man clad in a black, military-looking uniform, complete with helmet and bulletproof vest, ran in front of the open barn doors and into the woods beyond. Men were yelling. Some were screaming in pain. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear the mud from her mind.
“She lives,” Krueger said softly from beside her. “I maybe overdid the dose, but surely you can understand. I’m used to dealing with monsters.”
As the cuts in her arm began to burn, Rory looked around in terror. Against a wall of horse stalls, a long table had been set up with rows of horrifying instruments. Krueger leaned against another table, this one old and wooden as opposed to the sterile-looking plastic one that held the torture devices. His arms were crossed over his chest, his crystal blue eyes on her as if he was studying a bug or rodent. He wore a thick Teflon vest over a button-down oxford shirt.
“They aren’t monsters,” she said, her voice barely a hiss. “You are.”
“I know a lot of good, hardworking American people who would disagree with you.”
“You don’t give the American public enough credit.” Her throat felt like she’d swallowed gravel, and she coughed to loosen up her vocal chords.
She wasn’t even tied to the rocking chair she sat in, but it didn’t matter. She couldn’t move her arms or legs to escape if she tried. She felt boneless.
“You are about to be a part of history,” Krueger said, pushing off the table and exposing a set of tiny, black remote controls.
A quick count told her there was eight of them. Each had a number taped to it, and a red button in the center.
Krueger followed her gaze. “You’re probably wondering what those are and why you’re here. Rightfully so. This must be quite a detour from what you thought you’d find when you brought your son to the Breck Crew. Each operative is assigned a number.” He lifted up the remote on the end. “Your mate is Operative 647.”
“Don’t touch that,” she begged as he ran his thumb over the red button. She didn’t know what it did, but she knew better than to trust a man like Krueger with a doomsday button. He seemed the type to revel in power too much.
“Would you like in on a secret?”
No. “Yes.”
These little devices are what are going to help me—help us—make history. This is the control, Ms. Dodson. This is what I have that keeps shifters manageable, especially ones with the type of weapons and fight training the Kellers have.” He turned his head toward the barn doors and called out, “Bring them in!”
A horde of men filed in like ants storming from a mound, but Rory was having trouble taking her eyes off the remote in Krueger’s hand. When he finally set it down with a knowing smile, he said, “Focus, Ms. Dodson. I wouldn’t want you to miss the show.” He slid his dead glare toward the men at the other side of the room. “Cody. So glad you could join us.”
With a gasp, Rory’s attention snapped to the hole that was forming in the ranks. In the center, Cody, Boone, and Dade were shoved to their knees. Boone and Dade glared at Krueger with roiling hatred, but Cody’s eyes were on her. Jeans clung to his bare waist, which was heaving with each breath, and a gash across his side was streaming crimson over the ridges of muscle that flexed with ever exhalation. Smears of dirt covered him and his brothers from head to toe, but Cody looked like he’d taken the worst beating out of the three of them. His face was already swelling on the right side, and a gash in his hairline made his gold-green eyes look even brighter surrounded by all that red.
“Are you okay?” His voice came out hoarse as if he hadn’t used it in a long time.
She nodded, which was an improvement, because it meant she was getting feeling back. Her hands began to tingle, as if they were waking up after sleeping on them wrong. And when she looked down, her finger twitched on the arm of the rickety rocking chair. She just needed to buy them more time.
“I don’t understand why you’re doing this,” she rasped out. “What have they ever done to you?”
“Oh, you mean besides taking the single most important thing in my life away from me? My mother died when one of those things tried to Turn her. Now, I’m not a stupid man, and I see the value in their abilities to further programs like this one, but surely you can see why my history with these creatures makes me a little…trigger happy. Today is different, though. Today, we’re taking live specimens, which is why you are still breathing, Ms. Dodson. Congratulations on the role you’ve played. Science will be forever in your debt.”
“Fuck science,” she growled out.
Krueger frowned as if he was really taken aback. It was all an act, though. A man as empty as him couldn’t be sincere if his life depended on it. “Do you know how fast they heal? Their regenerative abilities are astounding. It’s what made them viable options for the missions we needed completed where survival rates were almost none. Has Cody told you everything he had to do in the war yet? If he hasn’t, you’ve missed out. He has quite the colorful history in combat.”
“What do you want, Krueger?” Cody said blandly, pulling his eyes to the silver-haired handler.
Dade canted his head and smiled. “You suck at story time, and we have shit to do.”
Rage sank into the deep wrinkles on Krueger’s face. “Oh, do you now? You’re in a rush to be sliced up and studied? Far be it for me to keep you waiting. I only need two, though.”
“Then let her go,” Cody pleaded. “She’s done nothing wrong.”
“Goddammit, Keller,” Krueger yelled explosively. “You were doing so well! How fucking predictable that you beg for her life before your own. You see, this is why your kind was doomed from the first jump in evolution that created you. This is why you are destined to fail as a species. Your survival instincts start circling the drain as soon as you find a mate. It’s pathetic really.” Krueger stared at the black remotes behind him and sighed as if steadying his outburst. He pulled three black remotes and sang, “Eeny meeny miney mo,” to the cruel chuckles of the men with trained weapons on Cody and his brothers.
“No!” she said, clenching her fists and curling her toes. “Cody, the trackers!”
Realization slammed into her mate’s hardened features the second the words left her lips. In one smooth motion, he slid a pocket knife from his jeans and gripped Boone’s neck before slicing deftly. His hands moved so fast, he blurred. Boone gritted his teeth and closed his eyes as Cody shoved his finger in his neck and hooked it around something bloody and no bigger than a pain pill, and all in the span of a second. He turned to Dade as the men above them surged forward and covered them from her view completely.
Rory used every ounce of her strength to push upward and fall against Krueger, who fumbled with the controls as she slammed into his side. One fell to the ground with her, but it wasn’t 647.
Desperate, she pulled up Krueger’s suit pant leg and sank her teeth into his calf until she thought they’d fall from her mouth. Blood flowed against her
tongue, gagging her, but she didn’t care. She hadn’t the strength or feeling to get up again, not yet, and this was the best she could do against the man who was trying to steal everything away from her.
Krueger screamed in pain and kicked her shoulder hard. Stars burst in her peripheral vision. “Too late!” he yelled down at her as he pushed the button on one of the remotes.
“Cody!” she shrieked.
Twin yells of agony filled the barn, but she couldn’t see anything—couldn’t tell if it had been her boys who were hurt. Chaos ebbed and flowed as men were knocked to the side by some unseen force.
“Don’t kill the other two. I need them alive!” Krueger commanded.
Boone and Cody were up, fighting, throwing fists as the blade flashed in Cody’s hand, maiming. He slashed upward, cutting clean across a man’s neck. Spinning, he elbowed another in the nose before yanking him over his shoulder and slamming him against another.
“Boone, Change!” Cody bellowed, and his brother’s response was instantaneous.
Two dark-furred grizzlies exploded from them, sending waves of power and raw fury blasting across her skin. Where was Dade?
She searched the ground, and the youngest Keller lay in a crumpled heap between the bears. They were protecting him, but it wouldn’t help at the rate his neck was bleeding. He held it tight, but pain creased his face, and he was gasping for breath.
“It’s the acid,” Krueger murmured with a chilling smile. “I’ve never had the opportunity to see it up close. Usually, I deactivate my pets from farther away. Each capsule can monitor their vitals, when they’re mad or happy. They monitor their endorphins while they are having sex. Cody has had quite the show when he fucks you, Ms. Dodson. I can track where they are to within a few feet, and the best part of all is the kill switch. Detonate the capsule, and acid explodes outward, eroding the artery in the neck. It is laced with medicine that thins the blood and halts clotting. He’ll bleed out before help can even arrive.”
A sob wrenched from Rory’s throat as she crawled toward him. She had to help Dade. Had to stop the red that was flowing from his throat as his brothers fought to protect him.
“Crews are so pathetic,” Krueger said, following behind her. You all have this desire to make sure the others live, no matter the cost to yourself.” The crack of metal on metal as he cocked a gun froze her on the grit-covered ground. His eyes narrowed with determination as his finger rested on the trigger. “I wish one of you would surprise me and try to save your own fucking life.”
Shining metal sailed through the air and Cody’s knife sunk deep into the space between Krueger’s protective vest and his throat.
“Rory, move,” Dade gritted out, crouching now and holding his neck. Red streamed between his fingers, making mud droplets on the ground beneath his feet.
Her throat clogged with terror as she scrambled toward Dade.
“Don’t touch it,” he rasped as she reached him. “It’ll burn you.”
Yanking on her shirt, she cast a baleful glance back at Krueger, who was pulling the knife Dade had thrown slowly from above his collar bone. Cody and Boone were pacing in tight circles around her and Dade, a protective barrier between them and the mercenaries with assault rifles trained. She pulled her shirt off and jammed it against Dade’s neck to try and stanch the flow of blood.
A mechanical sound reverberated from the rafters above them, and Rory looked up in time to see a thick-roped net falling toward them. She screamed and covered Dade’s body with her own as the heavy chords struck her in the back. The towering grizzlies above her slashed with their claws and gnashed their long canines, but it was no use. The edges had been weighted down with boulders, and the men over them used the butts of their guns to force Cody and Boone back into the center of the net.
Fear pounded through Rory as she was struck by Boone’s back leg. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. All she knew was that Dade was bleeding against her forearm and his breathing was starting to grow shallow. Something was wrong with Cody’s paw. It was mangled and hanging strangely from his arm. The skin there looked chemically burned, like the injury on Dade’s neck.
This was it. This was where they were going to die.
“Cody,” she cried, warm tears spilling down her face as Krueger lifted his handgun toward her. This was it. This was their goodbye. “I love you.”
Her mate turned toward her, eyes glassy with rage. Arching his neck against the heavy netting, he bellowed a challenging roar.
She pressed against Dade’s neck with her hand. The bear she loved lurched in front of her, his fur-covered body blocking Krueger’s shot. When the weapon cocked a second time, she clung to Cody’s powerful leg, sobbing at how unfair it all was.
She’d only just gotten him back. She’d fallen in love for the first time, only to have what they shared mocked and ripped apart. Aaron would grow up alone. Aaron. Who would protect her baby now? Rory closed her eyes and inhaled the scent of Cody’s fur, preparing for the inevitable blast that would rip through the man she loved.
A long, high-pitched roar rattled dust from the rafters, so loud it made Rory wince as her eardrums threatened to burst. The sound was prehistoric and electrified the fine hairs on her body.
“What the fuck was that?” Krueger yelled. A beat of silence followed before he screamed, “Take care of it!”
Cody looked back at Boone as the armed men filed out of the barn. Terror seized her as fire rain down on them the second they made it outside. A few stragglers ran back into the safety of the barn, horror written on their faces and in the whites of their eyes. Thick black smoke billowed in after them, thickening in the air until it was hard to draw a breath without choking on the fumes.
A tall man with wide shoulders strode through the smoke. His hair was dark, and his intense eyes churned gold in the muted light of the barn. Smears of ash streaked his face. He carried an ax and swung it upward in a graceful arch as one of Krueger’s men ran for him. A pepper of gunfire blasted to his left, but the man ducked as if he’d expected the threat. The clicking of the attacker’s empty chamber gave their rescuer enough time to leap at the man and jerk him in front of him, shielding him from another volley of gunfire.
Dade gripped the upper part of her arm and smiled at the man who fought with deadly grace.
He was as tall as a redwood and just as strong, each swing felling the few fighters that were left. A shot fired from Krueger’s gun, but the man ducked easily out of the way and lifted his ax in time for the bullet to ricochet away. Arcing a look of pure hatred, he flipped the ax in his hand and chucked it. End over end it spun until it sunk deep in Krueger’s vest. He blasted backward, the gun flying from his hand, and landed hard against the table with the remotes.
The dark-haired death bringer was on him before Krueger got a grip on the tiny kill switches. He yanked Krueger up and jerked his vest from his torso, then dragged him kicking and scrabbling toward the door.
The man slammed Krueger onto the ground, who rolled side to side, gasping as if the wind had been knocked clean out of him.
The man pulled the ax out of the vest and cut at the net until there was a hole large enough for the grizzlies to get through. Cody sank back into his human skin again, followed by Boone. When they were free of the net, Cody pulled her protectively against his back with his good hand.
“Who are you?” Krueger wheezed out.
“My friends call me Bruiser,” the somber stranger said. “You can call me Horace Keller.”
“Good to see you again, brother,” Dade rasped out from his place propped up against Boone’s shoulder.
“Half-brother,” Bruiser said with a hard look. Turning, he nodded a small greeting to Rory and wrenched his attention back to Krueger. “Your men are all dead—proof that good shit happens to good people, and bad shit happens to bad. You’re free to go.”
Krueger stood uncertainly. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Bruiser said, flipping the handle of his ax r
hythmically, “I won’t stop you from leaving.”
“What’s out there?” Krueger asked in a trembling, suspicious voice.
“The problem with you secret agencies is that you think you always have the upper hand. The tax dollars and a steady flow of intel make you feel safe. Staying hidden from the public makes you feel ahead of the game. Problem with your little program is that you stirred up shit that is better off buried, and then you brought a knife to a gun fight.”
“What does that mean?” Krueger asked, straitening his spine.
Bruiser grabbed the front of his shirt and shoved him out the open door. “It means you have trackers and blackmail. We have dragons.”
Enormous teeth clamped around Krueger as a blasting wind filled the barn. Rory stifled a scream and crouched to keep her balance as the legendary creature flew so low to the ground that the building shook. The dragon arched its back and aimed for the sky. Silver scales faded to an effervescent blue and then back to silver in a dazzling pattern. Giant claws pushed off the ground, blasting craters into the earth where it touched. Krueger’s scream faded to nothing as the creature disappeared from the doorway. Rory ran outside with the others as the dragon caught air currents with powerful thrusts of its wings. Its tail was spiked and flowed in snakelike movements as the dragon lifted himself toward the sun.
Around them, Krueger’s men lay in piles. Their final resting place was a clearing that was charred and smoldering. Smoke billowed from the ground, but there weren’t any flames. Feeling ill, Rory coughed and covered her mouth.
“How the hell did you convince Damon Daye to join our cause?” Cody murmured, a deep-etched frown on the sky above.
Bruiser hooked his hands on his hips and cut a harsh look to his half-brother. “He has a vested interest in the Keller family now.”
“Meaning?”
With an explosive sigh, Bruiser’s eyes tightened as he watched the dragon disappear into the clouds. “Meaning I promised to marry his daughter.”