When hed been a boy, hed thought that if you were just strong enough, tough enough there wouldnt be anything to be afraid ofexcept for God, of course. His parents had been small farmers, patriots, and devout Baptist God-fearing Christians and raised him to be the same. But their best efforts had met the world, and, mostly, the world had won.
Hed left the farm first, and Vietnam had done its best to scour him of his patriotism. It hadnt succeeded entirely, though he reserved the right to think most elected officials could do with a little jail time to mend their ways. Vietnam had also taught him that the tougher and smarter you got,the more afraid you learned to be. It had also taught him that there were monsters in the worldand he had become one of them.
Then hed come back home and found out that war didnt cause fearlove did. He loved Mercy with a fierceness that still surprised him.
Adam took a deep breath, and it didnt hurt. Silver didnt burn in his joints and dull his senses anymore. He tested his body, just to be sure. Someone watching would only see that he continued to sit with his back to the wall of the cold stone room where the pack had been imprisoned. He tightened and released muscle groups that responded with their usual quickness and force.
He didnt understand what Mercy had done. No, that wasnt quite trueshed taken the silver poisoning his body into herself. He understood that was how the pack bonds worked for her, that she saw things in symbols and pictures while he smelled things. Samuel had once told him that he and Bran bothheard music. What he didnt understand was how shed used the pack bonds and magic to do the impossible.
And what really scared him was that he was fairly certain that Mercy hadnt known what she was doing, either. She could have killed herself. Silver wasnt poisonous to her. However, if someone had injected an average Joe human with the amount of silver that had been in his body, it wouldnt have been good for the human, either. He wasnt a doctor, but he was pretty sure it would have been fatal.
He could feel her, so she wasnt dead, but the link felt
offand that really scared him. He had to control the urge to run, to bull through anything that stood between them so he could protect her. But he wouldnt waste her efforts, he would wait until the proper time, then he would go hunting.
Something changed in the room, and Adam pulled his head into the here and now. He listened. The almost constant soft clink-clink was the sound of his bound wolves moving restlessly, even drugged into almost unconsciousness because the pain of the silver in their bodies and in the chains that held them made it impossible for them to lie still. He could smell them, smell silver and sickness in spite of all that he could do for them.
Judging from their condition, the sacrifice hed intended would not have helped the pack enough. Jones was afraid, and hed pumped them all too full of silver. Adam, though, was now free of the effects of all those darts. He could do more for the pack, but he didnt want Mercy to deplete herself keeping him healthy. So he would wait until it was necessary.
Perhaps the soldier who moved like water through the densely populated room would give him other opportunities. The human stepped over Warrens still body and crouched, finally, in front of Adam. He settled in close, because Adam could feel the disturbance the mans breath made in the air.
Alpha, said the man whod reprimanded Mr. Jones after hed shot Peter, the one who seemed to be in charge of the military or pseudo-military rank and file.
Adam opened his eyes. The other man was crouched so his head was level with Adams, close enough to see the whites of his eyes. He was wearing the familiar black armor, and his face was blackened and mottled with a fresh application of greasepaint.
Warren was lying just behind him, and Adam saw the gleam of his eyes in the darkness. Darryl slid closer, his chains silent as the big man moved. Adam made a move with the hand away from his enemy observer, and Warren, then Darryl subsided.
Adam was in no danger. Free of the silver and drugs, Adam could have crushed his throat before the man took his next breath. It was tempting. Very.
But this one wasnt the man whod killed Peter, so Adam waited to see why he was here. Killing was easy. It could be done at any time.
We are going, the other man said in a conversational voice. Leaving our employment here.
Adam lifted his head and met the other mans gaze. After a brief count, his opponent turned his head.
You arent as foggy as my employers think, secret knock em out darts that work on werewolves or not, said the enemy soldier. They dont affect you the way they are supposed to, I saw that right off, even ifJones chooses not to. So you might have picked up that I had some men waiting at Kyle Brookss house with orders to capture your wife, your daughter, and Ben Shaw because our intelligence said that was where they would probably go. Early this morning, the police broke up the party He quit speaking for a moment and stared at Adams face. And how do you know that? He shook his head and spoke to himself. Freaking supernatural bullshit. I told them we should stay out of it, but the money was too good, and we always like to keep the government happy with us. Keeps us employed.
He sat there in front of Adam and thought some more. Patience, Adam counseled himself, there was more information here, and it would be easier if the man chose to tell him about it himself.
So we ended up with one of ours dead and three in custodyand your wife is talking to the police about how someone kidnapped your pack and wants you to go kill the good Senator Campbell. I thought maybe one of my boys talked out of turnwhich they wouldnt. But maybe she knew about it the same way you know what went down this morning, huh?
He waited a moment, but both he and Adam knew that Adam wasnt going to respond.
Now my outfit is pretty big news, and we make good money. With no civilians dead, it didnt take our lawyers long to get the rest outand once out, theyre all the way out. Too many eyes on them to make them useful for this operation. No worries, we have the resources to replace them with operatives with clean slates and redeploy the hot ones somewhere less worrisomeout of the country until certain people forget the ones who work for a paycheck and keep after the people who pay the money, you know what I mean?
Adam didnt say anything, just waited for the man to get to the point.
Ill tell you the truth, he said slowly, as if he had all the time in the world. Maybe he did. I asked to be in on this. You are demon spawn, you werewolves and the fae and the witches. All of you need to die, and someday I hope to be one of the people called upon to rid your scourge from the earth.
And Adam smelled the fear on him for the first time, fear and eagerness for blood. Adam was sympathetic; he was afraid for his people, for Mercyand hungry for blood, too.
But I didnt get where I am by working against the rules, the mercenary said. Rules keep people alive and keep the money flowing. Rules say that the people who hire us dont get to kill us when weve served our part or because we know things they dont want to get out. We dont talkand we police our own if someone thinks about singing inconveniently. He met Adams eyes briefly again. You know about rules, you wolves. Ive heard that.
The mercenary paused, waiting for a response that didnt come. When it was clear his invitation to talk had been turned down, he continued. So these guys had a flight out of here for the morning, but Slickone of the ones who got awayhe went over to the hotel where everyone should be and surprised a government cleanup crew and the bodies of my men who should have been alive. He managed to get away and contact me. All casualties, no survivors but Slick. Hes taking a roundabout way to a rendezvous, and Im taking my boys out. The word to eliminate the men who were arrested didnt come from our companyno one who works for our company is that stupid. Were leaving; and then well deal with the betrayal.