It was disconcerting in the extreme. Merc had to remind himself that it was only temporary.
Funny. As much as Merc hated being a mutant, he also hated being a regular. At least, this regular.
While in possession of him, Merc could access the man’s memories of his family, village, friends, the jobs he’d had over his lifetime—all except his current job. For that, there was only fear.
And ghouls.
The man had seen Flynn’s monsters.
Merc knew that they prowled the perimeter of Flynn’s operations in the jungle. Perhaps Juan had run into them.
Merc neutralized the man’s fear, numbing him. The transport slowed as it neared the mine’s gate. One by one, each man showed his ID, did an eye scan, then stamped a time card and entered the premises.
From Juan’s eyes, Merc could tell the grounds looked nothing like the mystique Flynn had cast over the premises. There was a heavy-duty twelve-foot chain-link fence topped with two rows of razor wire. Signs posted every few feet on the fence—in English and Spanish—warned it was electrified.
Juan walked along a path into the jungle inside the compound. When the foliage cleared, a huge fortress came into view. Had to be at least twenty feet high and was at least twice the size of Liege’s fort back in Colorado.
Was this a prison? What the hell did Flynn have going on here? Nothing here looked like the mine the Legion owned. Were they working below ground? Where were they offloading their spoils? Where were the chemical vats used in processing the minerals?
Guards patrolled the battlements with automatic rifles at the ready. An alarm sounded for the incoming team, then the fort gate opened, exposing two sets of multi-bar turnstiles. As the men entered, a green light flashed with the word “Clear” in several languages.
Merc, riding Juan as he approached the entrance, could get no further. He was yanked back to his reality, sitting on the floor in his rented room.
It was late afternoon when Ash hurried back to the room she shared with Merc. She carried a bag of ice-cold bottled water and another bag with their dinner. She’d skipped lunch, so she was starving.
She knocked on the door, but there was no answer. A flash of disappointment hit her. She’d been hoping to have a few minutes with Merc before he left. Maybe he was showering or on the phone.
She let herself into their room. A glance showed no Merc. She must have looked too fast, because a second glance showed him sitting cross-legged on the floor by the kitchen counter, covered by a long afternoon shadow. He was meditating or something—completely oblivious to her return.
Ash sat in front of him, setting her bags aside. His khaki eyes opened slowly. He stared at her, a little dazed. Man, the guy went deep in his meditations.
He blinked then frowned and said, “You can see me?”
“Yeess.” She gave that single word a little more emphasis than was needed. “Did you think you were invisible?”
“I did.”
“Oh.” She chuckled nervously. “Well, then, surprise! I brought us dinner. Empanadas and churros.”
“Not a health freak, are you?”
“Not exactly. Not when I’m on vacation, anyway.”
Merc took an empanada and a napkin. She opened a bottle of water for him. “How was your day?” he asked.
Ash took a bite. “I have questions.”
He nodded, then lowered his gaze from her eyes to her mouth. “I have answers, but you aren’t going to like them.”
“I already don’t like my questions.”
“Remember when I told you that you would have to choose between the devil and your bliss? Now’s the time to do that.”
“I can’t do that without answers.”
“I know. Ask me your questions.”
“How did you do the miracles? Magic? Hypnosis?”
“No. Physics. I can manipulate energy. I do that when I want to set a force field around me or something else.”
“Which accounts for the way no one can get close to the death chairs.”
“Right.”
“One of the murals showed other things that happened. The shooters who surrounded you but could not hit you.”
Merc nodded. “Just an energy bubble.”
“Prove it.”
“Try to touch me.”
She reached out to his chest. “I’m touching you.”
He pulled a long breath, seemingly in no hurry to set the energy field. “Take your hand away. Now try.”
This time, she couldn’t get closer than six inches. “How are you doing that?” There was nothing hard stopping her, but her hand got only so close before it couldn’t get closer. Just as it had the times she’d tried to touch the skeleton chairs.
“Energy. I assert an energy from my body that is equal to the energy approaching it, resulting in resistance. I could make the energy I assert greater than that coming at it, which would reverse incursion attempts.”
“Like you did with that gun battle. And the rocks those guys threw at you while you were painting over the murals.”
“Exactly.”
Ash folded her knees and wrapped an arm around them. She picked up another empanada and waved it at him as she spoke. “That blocks the big stuff. But what about gases? Could you still be poisoned while in your bubble?”
“Possibly. Depends on the intent of the bubble. I could allow oxygen through, but not carbon monoxide or other toxins.”
“Or you could set a bubble over someone and block their oxygen.”
“Right.”
“That’s scary.”
“It is—for regulars.”
“You’ve used that term before. What do you mean by it?”
“Regular humans. I’m a mutant human. So are the members of my team.”
“Summer too?”
“Summer’s a mutant, but not a fighter.” He smiled. “She’s a landscape architect. What a person is before they come in determines what they become after they’re changed.”
“Selena?”
“Yes.”
“So you’re fighting other mutants.”
“Right. Our job is to protect regulars. We’re supposed to do so without being noticed, without interfering in human free will. I really fucked that all up here.”
“You did.” She finished her empanada and picked up a churro. “How did you become a mutant?”
“Through genetic modifications.”
Ash frowned. “You realize that all your answers only give me more questions.”
“Yeah. This isn’t something you can comprehend after a single conversation. It’s been ten years for me, and I’m still discovering new things about being a mutant.”
“Like what?”
“Like having the ability to set curses.”
Ash gasped. “Like up at the death pits?”
He nodded. “What I don’t know is how to undo a curse I’ve set.”
“Ask the padre here in town.”
“I did, sort of. He said it wasn’t up to me, that it was God’s will. But I disagree. I set it; I should be able to un-set it.”
“Do you have a mentor in your mutant world?”
“Liege, but he was formed at the same time I was. He has stronger skills in many areas, but not the skill of setting curses.”
“Liege?” Ash frowned. “You mean Sam? That orange guy called him Liege, too.”
Merc shut his eyes for a long moment before he nodded. “That orange guy is our own mutant nightmare. The Matchmaker.”
“I’ve seen him too.”
“When?”
“Here. Then at my house when I would wake from a bad dream about you.”
Merc looked angry. He picked her up and settled her on his lap, her legs open over his hips. She set her hands on his shoulders, relaxing into the strange electrical current that flowed between them. She licked her lips.
“I can protect you from many things—beings—but not from him.”
“Why not him?”
“It’
s his mission in life to find a mutant his mate. You and I are doomed to be together.”
Ash lifted her brows at the softly delivered insult. “Doomed?” She tried to get off his lap, but he didn’t let her.
“It’s the Matchmaker’s Curse. If we succumb to it, then we will share some amount of divine time together before you die. Minutes, hours, weeks. I don’t know. If I resist our union, then you will be safe, but I will die.”
Ash stared at him. She could see no evidence that he was lying, no waver in his expression. She smiled, then giggled, and collapsed against his chest, laughing.
Oh. Fuck. So now she knew the maestro who orchestrated the town’s brilliant resurgence.
After a moment, he pushed her upright and glared at her, which made her laugh even harder.
“You are so good at this,” she said. “How long have you been role-playing in this game? What’s it called, anyway? Mutants and Demons?” She held up her hand. “Oh, wait, no. I got it. Mutants and Monsters.”
Still chuckling, she got off his lap and started cleaning up their meal. “You really had me going at first. Then it was easy to just fall in step with you and play along.”
Merc looked stunned that she’d called him on his game. She had to really fight her laughter back. Role playing. Fucking role playing. Figured she’d fall for a guy with that lifestyle.
“The whole town here is in on this, aren’t they?”
He nodded.
“Ugh! Kiera was right. She said I fell for an elaborate scheme. God.” Ash shook her head. “Tell me, are they using chemicals? I need to know—I don’t want to lose my job because I fail a drug test through no fault of my own.”
He looked stunned…and shattered. “There may be chemicals involved, but they come from within our own bodies.”
“Riiight. What’s your real name? You owe me that at least. Not your gaming name.”
“I don’t have a human name any longer.”
“I’ll just ask Sam about it—Liege, I mean. Oh, hell. Liege. He’s in on this with you. They all are. Bastion. Guerre. Acier. You’re the original gamers for this Mutants and Monsters.”
“That’s not a thing.”
She waved her hand. “Whatever it’s called.” Another idea occurred to her. “It’s all part of Sam’s ecotourism thing, isn’t it? You have crazy shit happen in the game, stuff that takes place in a town desperately in need of increasing its tourism, and voila! A flood of gamers. Gamer tourism.” She shook her head and threw her hands in the air. “It explains everything. Even the insane fort that Sam built. Does Summer know?”
Merc nodded. Ash didn’t miss the shadows in his eyes that he tried to hide with a blink. “She knows everything.”
“She never told me about it.”
“You haven’t been initiated. She couldn’t.”
Ash took her phone out of her purse and swiped through her contacts for Lautaro’s number.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting outta here.”
“Don’t go.”
Ash’s thumb hovered over Lautaro’s number when she looked at Merc. She couldn’t stay in the same room with a sexy-as-fuck role-playing mofo…could she?
Merc grinned at her. “You have a few days left before you have to go back. Let’s spend them together.”
“Doing what? I don’t play games.”
“No? Not even in bed?”
“No. I’m a serious person.”
Merc laughed. “Then how do you explain all those times you conjured me up to love you in your sleep? To walk with you to coffee appointments? To hold your hand when you were lonely?”
Ash frowned at him. How did he know all those things? They were only in her mind. She’d spoken of them to no one, not even Summer or Kiera.
She glanced at her phone, then dropped it on the table. “You bugged my phone.”
Merc rose and prowled across the room, stepping ever closer to her. “Does your phone read your mind?”
“Maybe. Maybe there’s a new Mutant and Monsters app.” She backed away from him, but only managed to get a few steps before hitting the wall.
He stopped his forward roll when his knees touched her legs. He nudged her knees apart, getting closer to her body. “Three days. I’ll answer all your questions.”
“Three days isn’t enough.”
Merc lifted his brows. “Then we’ll begin with the most hardcore.” He set his fists against the wall behind her and bent to catch her jaw between his teeth.
Ash lifted her chin. “I have a lot of them. Too many.”
“We talkin’ questions? Or fantasies? Can there ever be too many hardcore fantasies?”
“There are if they’re never satisfied.”
“Then let’s knock some off your list.”
“But no role playing. I hate that shit.”
He kissed the side of her throat. “Mm-hmm. Because you’re a serious woman.” His beard stubble prickled the soft skin behind her ear as he nuzzled her earlobe. “Want to know one of my fantasies?” He lifted away just enough to look into her eyes. “It’s watching you learn patience. You always jump to the sex phase so you can judge a potential lover. And all your hapless victims are only too thrilled to get you there, little knowing the rush makes them one and done. But with me, you’ve finally met a man you can’t hurry along.”
She shook her head, but sadly, it was the truth. She’d long suspected she was still single because no man she’d met had truly satisfied her. But how did he know?
“Your phone told me.” He laughed, a throaty sound that rumbled from his chest to hers.
She looked over at the bed.
He shook his head. “Let’s go have a drink.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
Ash felt her face heat up. “I-I can’t walk. I need you, Merc.”
“I know. I can smell your pheromones.”
Ash winced. “That’s horrible.”
“Not for me.” He slipped his hand down the waistband of her dark green travel pants. His big hand cupped her mound. She was wet. Embarrassingly so. He pressed his fingers between her lips, over her panties. She shut her eyes and drew a feathery breath.
“I’ll give you ease,” he said against her cheek.
She nodded, all for that.
He moved his fingers inside her panties, spreading her, a firm, welcome intrusion. He slid his fingers up and down, slowly, from her clit to her opening, never quite penetrating her. His fingers slipped through her wetness. Her hips arched against his hand. This was torture. She wanted him in her, wanted their bodies naked against each other.
He caught her clit between his fingers, squeezing enough to get her attention. She sucked in a quick breath, then let it out as he began a gentle circular motion over her sensitive skin. Fast then slow, heavy then light, up then down, on repeat. She tried to decide which motion she liked the best, but she loved all of it.
She set her hands out to her side, trying to find something to hold on to, but the wall was flat.
Hold my shoulders, Merc whispered into her mind. She did, then wondered how it was that he could talk to her without speaking.
Shh. Only this. Only now. He leaned down so he was face to face with her, their lips almost touching.
When her body finally surrendered to the magic of his fingers, she couldn’t help the quick breaths she took. Her nails dug into his shoulders. At last, when the spiral of heat and ecstasy eased her back to reality, she leaned against the wall and stared up at him.
He pulled his hand from her pants, put one finger into his mouth, sucked it off, then did the same with his second finger. “You taste delicious, Ashlyn. I can’t wait for a feast of you.”
She could only respond with a nod. Words were galaxies away from the floaty space she was still in. He stood with her at the wall, holding her for a long moment until she felt her feet under her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against his skin, in no hurry to end their sweet com
munion. Nor was he.
The man was full of surprises.
A few minutes later, they pulled themselves together and headed out for a walk around the new eateries and bars at the plaza.
Ash was glad he didn’t rush off to do whatever nefarious work it was he did when he left their room at night. She wanted this time together.
“Nefarious?” He arched a brow at her.
Ash stopped. “See that right there?” She poked his shoulder. “How do you do it? It’s like you’re listening in my head.”
“It’s called telepathy.”
“That’s part of your game, isn’t it?”
“No. It’s just a communication from our phones’ Mutant and Monsters app. It tells me what to say.”
Ash cracked up. Easier to laugh it away than to hold him to what was a real question. “I think I’ll throw my phone away.”
“Good idea. But wait until you get back home.”
He reached for her hand. It was exactly as she’d imagined it would be. She lifted their joined hands and ran her finger over the heavy veining in his. Weird. It was almost as if he’d been with her on her walk to meet Kiera at the café back home.
Merc stopped and faced her. “Ash, I need you to go home. We can talk this through when I get back.”
“Why the change of mind? I thought you wanted three days with me.”
“I want a lot more than that, but this isn’t a good place for you right now.”
She shook her head. “I have a few more days. I’m going to use that time to enjoy this place, now that the mystery’s solved, and I know what’s really happening.”
He caught her face in his hands and stared into her eyes. She loved the odd, tawny color of his eyes, sometimes green, sometimes brown, often a warm caramel.
“I could compel you to go.”
She wrapped her hands around his wrists and fought her own smile. “But you can’t. I haven’t been initiated yet.” A thought occurred to her. “Oh—I get it. The mutant convention is happening here. Is the whole team coming down?”
“Ash—“
“Are all these people here for the convention? That’s genius. And explains my last question.”
He leaned forward and kissed her. Deeply. She wrapped her arms around his neck, tightening the connection between their bodies. He moved his hands from her cheeks to her waist and behind her head.
O-Men: Liege's Legion - Merc Page 19
