Mercy Temple Chronicles Box Set 2

by Ciara Graves

  The Feds weren’t going to be enough. The Gathered who hadn’t been corrupted might not be either.

  There was a knock at the door.

  Shep stomped over to open it.

  Bowen, Rufus, and Todd entered, looking dejected.

  I didn’t have to ask. It was clear the intel they’d been following had turned up nothing.

  The door had barely closed behind them when Monroe began shouting.

  “You! What the hell are you doing here, you traitor?”

  The room fell silent as we all turned around to see who he was talking to.

  At first, I thought it was Todd. Until he drifted out of the way.

  Monroe’s glare landed on Rufus.

  The goblin didn’t move an inch. Didn’t even look like he was breathing. His hand twitched to the knife at his hip.

  “How long have you been playing both sides?” Monroe went on. “You can’t tell me you trust him? Of all the assholes Shuval has on her payroll, you’re working with him?”

  “Rufus, what is he talking about?” My hands curled into fists. “Rufus, answer me.”

  “Nothing you need to worry about, ugly.” His dark glare hadn’t moved from Monroe.

  “They should. If they knew what you did—”

  Rufus lunged across the room.

  Monroe’s scream turned into a gurgle as Rufus slit his throat.

  Blood covered the goblin, his knife dripping with it as he stepped back. Chest heaving, he watched Monroe die.

  The mage twitched a couple of times then was still.

  “What have you done?” I shouted, rushing to Monroe. It was too late. “Are you insane? We needed him.”

  “Trust me. He’s better off dead.”

  “Why? What was he talking about? Don’t you dare stand there and lie to me.”

  “Let it go, ugly,” Rufus warned. “Just let it go.”

  “Why? Because he was telling the truth? Were you… are you working for Shuval?”

  Rufus bared his sharp teeth.

  I reached behind me for a weapon. I wasn’t armed.

  From the way his eyes narrowed slightly, he knew it too. He made a step toward the door. “Do yourself a favor and drop it.”

  “Not happening. I’m the reason you’re even free. You owe me the truth.”

  “You want the truth? Fine, I’ll tell you,” he snapped, readjusting his grip on the blade. “Shuval had the last members of my clan held captive. She used them against me. I had no choice, but to do it, until she killed them all, and you threw me in a jail cell.”

  I clutched at the closest table, crestfallen. “You… no,” I uttered.

  Rufus hung his head.

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Tell me you didn’t.”

  “What is it?” Rafael asked roughly.

  “You want to say it out loud, ugly? Or should I?”

  I gaped at him, unable to form the words. The curses he deserved.

  Bowen appeared in the corner of my eye as he moved to grab Rufus, the goblin ducked, aiming his knife at Bowen’s neck. A flick of his wrist and the blade was flying through the air.

  It hit home.

  Bowen hissed viciously, falling backward as his hands reached for the blade.

  Rufus headed for the door, but he was not getting away with this.

  I threw myself at him, tackling him.

  The wounds on my back reopened.

  Then the bar erupted in chaos.

  Rufus kicked me off him long enough to grab something from his pocket. It was small and round. He threw it into the air and smoke exploded, filling the bar and making it hard to see.

  The others were yelling.

  Rafael called my name.

  I wasn’t letting Rufus escape that easily.

  I summoned my mage fire and blasted it in front of me. Rufus’s shriek of pain as the flames hit home was all I needed to locate him in the smoke.

  My hand found his shoulder and then I decked him, sending him flying into a table. The smoke cleared around me as I pushed through it, using my fire to amp up my hits.

  Rufus brought up his arms to block my attacks, but I was too enraged to let him stop me. My fist connected with his face. Blood spurted from his nose.

  He snagged my wrist and flipped me over his body.

  I was on my feet a second later, wrapping an arm around his neck, choking him.

  “They were children,” I shouted. “You took children to her for sacrifices. What the hell were you thinking?”

  “Saving my clan,” he rasped, clawing at my arm. “Had no choice.”

  “There’s always a choice, asshole.”

  He bit down.

  I screamed, letting him go.

  He threw his head back, headbutting my face. Suddenly, a second knife was in his hand.

  “Don’t make me fight you, ugly.” His eyes shot to the door behind me. “Don’t do this.”

  How could I let him leave? How could I not?

  He’d been a part of my family, as messed up as it was. I’d trusted him. We all did. My parents did.

  And he spat on everything we’d fought for the second he agreed to take children to Shuval.

  I wasn’t backing down.

  He raised the knife and the Rufus I’d come to know disappeared as someone else replaced him. His eyes darkened until they were a solid black.

  In the back of my mind, I knew only one of us was walking away from this fight.

  Smoke filled the rest of the bar, stopping anyone else from interfering.

  Fire burst to life around my fists.

  Rufus came at me.

  I ducked under his arm as he swiped over the top of my head with the knife.

  I kicked his side, then punched him in the spine.

  He whipped around faster than I expected him to, and that knife slashed across my arm. There was no time to check how deep he’d cut when he was on me again.

  I was on the defensive in seconds, fighting to keep my eyes on the blade. My fire sputtered and started to go out from the strain of staying upright. The wounds on my back burned, but there was no stopping.

  The knife came at me again. This time, I barely avoided being stabbed in the chest.

  “You don’t have to do this, ugly,” Rufus snarled as I caught the wrist with the knife, stopping it from plunging into my neck. “Don’t do this.”

  I tuned out his words, twisted his wrist around, and kneed him in the groin. I followed it up with a headbutt and let my rage crash into him. I held onto his arm and beat at him with my other hand, kicked out his knees, then grabbed him by the throat.

  I kneed him in the gut.

  He doubled over for a second.

  I managed to get both hands on his hand holding the knife.

  He pushed back, cursing and snarling like a wild beast. I remembered the faces of those kids in the cage in Sector 13. How many had he captured for Shuval?

  How many were already dead?

  I saw their little faces. I heard their screams of terror as they died. With a scream of rage, I drove that knife into Rufus’s neck.

  His eyes widened and his hands scrambled for mine.

  I gritted my teeth and plunged it deeper.

  Rufus’s body stilled and the light faded from his eyes.

  I let go of the knife. He fell over, eyes open in death as his blood stained the floorboards.

  “Mercy!” The smoke finally cleared, and Rafael was there, taking hold of me. “Are you hurt?”

  “Yeah, I am,” I muttered into his chest.

  “You didn’t have a choice,” he assured me. “Come on. Let’s get you patched up. Again.”

  “I killed him. I killed Rufus. He’s dead.”

  “I think I missed something,” Todd chimed in.

  I forced myself out of Rafael’s arms. “Rufus was accused of kidnapping and eating children. Only he didn’t eat them. He handed them over to Shuval so she could kill them.” My body went numb as I glared at his lifeless body. “And now he’s d
ead, too.”

  That’s all our lives were now, blood and death and more blood. It covered my hands.

  I scrubbed at it harshly until Rafael stopped me.

  He held the back of my head to his chest as angry tears seeped from my eyes. How many more of us was Shuval going to break and kill before the end? Would any of us even make it?

  “We’ll take care of these bodies,” Shep told us. “See to Mercy.”

  “I’m fine,” I said into his chest.

  “The hell you are. You and Bowen both need to heal. Let’s go. For once, don’t argue with me.”

  I didn’t. I followed Rafael into the back room.

  Bowen trailed us, holding a hand to his neck, the skin stitching itself back together. He hadn’t said a word, but we both looked at each other long and hard.

  Rafael went to get healing salve and bandages.

  Bowen took hold of my hand then hugged me.

  “You didn’t have a choice.”

  “Yeah, I did.”

  “No, you didn’t. Rufus was lost to us a long time ago. You killed one of Shuval’s soldiers. That’s what he was. Nothing more. You hear me? Don’t let this get to you.”

  How could it not?

  There was nothing more to say. Bowen let it go.

  Rufus was dead. I killed him.

  Suddenly, I was very eager to head back into Sector 2 to take out my rage on the enemy. I was going to tear them apart with my bare hands and set that whole damned place on fire.

  Then I’d go after Shuval and end this for good.

  Chapter 14

  Rafael

  “They’re going to know we’re coming.” Mercy rubbed at her hands, as though she was trying to get Rufus’s blood off. She’d taken a shower at Shep’s and was cleaned up. But still.

  A few hours wasn’t going to be enough to erase what she’d done.

  “What’s your point?” Damian asked.

  “Just saying if you’re going to lay out a plan, you might want to make sure it’s a good one,” Mercy snapped, rubbing again.

  I took hold of her hands, but she tore herself away from me.

  “I’m fine,” she snapped.

  I breathed out heavily, exchanging a worried glance with Bowen over her head. He’d had his eyes on her all day, too.

  It was like we were both waiting for her to take off and get into a fight, or to find a way to hurt herself. Rufus’s death hit her far harder than I thought it would.

  “That’s what we’re working on,” Damian argued. “What about this plan don’t you agree with?”

  “All of it. You saw the forces they had there. You don’t think they’re going to amp up the guards, now? After what we did? We’re going to be walking into a freaking war zone with hundreds of innocent people between us and our targets.”

  “Which is why we’re going to find a way to get them out.”

  “And you can guarantee you can get them all out? Every last one? That we’re not going to lose anyone? Because, in case you hadn’t noticed, we’re losing this battle,” she shouted, throwing her hands in the air. “How many more people are going to die before we get ahead of her? How many more of us are going to get killed?”

  “Mercy, calm down,” Bowen tried, but she whirled around on him ready to hit him.

  She caught herself at the last second. Her fist fell to her side. “Do not tell me to calm down,” she seethed. “Do not.”

  “We have some good ideas,” Bowen said quietly. “We’ll make this work.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure our plan will work out. Right, just as well as everything else has for us so far.”

  Damian glared at her, but she didn’t seem to notice or care. She grabbed her jacket from the back of the chair and charged for the door.

  Damian called after her, but she slammed the door behind her as she slipped out of the Wailing Siren.

  “I’ll go after her,” I assured him. “Keep talking.”

  Nor came from the back room, holding his cell to his ear. “Where are you headed? Where’s Mercy?”

  “Working on it. Who are you talking to? Calling in the Feds already?”

  “Only a few. Iris and Jeremy, maybe a couple of others we can trust. Let me worry about that. Go get Mercy. Once everyone gets here, we’ll have to move.”

  I hurried after Mercy. It didn’t take me long to catch up to her in the mostly empty streets of the Underground.

  I kept my distance, watching her hands twitch at her sides. Every now and then, a curse reached my ears.

  She shook her head. The farther she walked, the more I realized where she was headed.

  I considered stopping her, but at the same time, I wanted to see what she was planning on doing once we got there.

  Mercy darted up the steps to Rufus’s hideout and turned the knob.

  The door was locked. She kicked it then banged her fist on it. When that didn’t work, she backed up and bashed into it with her shoulder.

  It took another hit, then the door shattered, and she stumbled through the debris.

  I waited until she disappeared inside then followed her up. I peered in but didn’t see her.

  There was a crash, then she was yelling about Rufus being a slob.

  I stepped inside. “Mercy?”

  “Back here.”

  That was followed by another crash.

  I walked through the small living area and into the back room. A room I’d never ventured into while Rufus was alive.

  I shoved aside the ragged curtain. My jaw dropped. “What is this?”

  Mercy straightened, holding a milk crate filled with small, round objects. She set the crate down and began to pull the silver orbs out, lining them up on the sleek, metal table.

  “This is Rufus’s weapons lab.”

  I walked further into the room. The walls were metal and filled with swords, daggers, guns, other weapons.

  It wasn’t a large space. Most of it was taken up by several black cabinets.

  Mercy had been digging through them when I arrived. There was a work table taking up the right side and another one covered in tools on the left.

  “Where did you think all those bombs and gadgets came from?” She counted the orbs she’d lined up, then turned back to the cabinet and hauled out a second crate, also filled with silver orbs.

  “What are those?”

  “These are the bombs that destroyed Liam Manchester’s mansion. Those,” she said, pointing to another crate under the work table, “are more of what Rufus used while we were in Sector 13. The ones next to those brought down the hotel.” She picked up a bag from the floor. “These are smoke bombs. There are several boxes of silver ammo, iron ammo, and a few that explode when they strike a target.”

  “He made all of this?”

  “Yeah. And now, thanks to me, once we use these up, it’s all gone.” She slammed the crate on the table.

  “How about we not shake the crate filled with bombs?” Gently, I removed her hands and pulled her away from the table. “Mercy, look at me.”

  “Why? You can’t keep telling me I didn’t have a choice. I did. I killed Rufus and now we’re down one person. We’re about to attack an entire sector with what, seven people?”

  I counted quickly inside my head. “Probably closer to ten or twelve.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Not much better. How are we going to pull this off? Look me in the eye and tell me this is going to work. You can’t. I don’t blame you. No matter what plan we come up with, it’s going to fall apart. You and I both know it.”

  “Then what, you want us to take these bombs, rush in there, and pray we don’t kill the ones we’re trying to save?”

  The second I said it, I realized the genius of that plan. There were more than enough bombs here to bring down all of Sector 2. The guards and the hybrids, too. We could make this work.

  “We wing it,” I whispered.

  “What?”

  “You’re right. We can’t plan. They’re going to be ready for us and we
have no way to know what we’ll be walking into. But,” I said picking up one of the bombs, “if we go in full tilt and attack, we could throw them off. Get the donors out and kill everyone who works for Shuval.”

  “You and Bowen were just yelling at me about not having plans, and now you want to go in there without one?” A wicked grin spread across her face. “I like it.”

  We gathered up every explosive, smoke bomb, ammo, and whatever else we could, then left Rufus’s place.

  By the time we reached the Wailing Siren, Iris, Jeremy, and three other Feds were there.

  Nor appeared to be in the middle of explaining what we’d been up to.

  At the sight of us—laden with several crates and bags of weapons—Nor stopped talking and frowned.

  “Brought us an arsenal,” Mercy explained. “We’re going to need it.”

  “How’s it going here?” I asked.

  Iris walked over to Mercy and held out her hand.

  Mercy hesitated then took it.

  “Never met a dragonborn before. Pretty damned neat.”

  “Yeah, it’d be better if we all weren’t about to be killed by a one. Another one. ”

  Iris nodded. “We’ll fight with you. No questions asked. Nor says there are a couple of hundred people to save. What’s the plan?”

  “It’s simple,” Mercy explained as she handed Iris a bomb. “It only has two steps. We get the donors out. Rafael and I will kill Lucas. Oh, and then we’re going to blow the entire sector up. That’s it. That’s the plan.”

  “You’re kidding, right?” Damian snapped.

  “Nope, that’s it. If you have anything better, I’m all ears.”

  Damian’s hands were on his hips as he looked to Nor, then Bowen, Sycamore and Wesley. “Sounds like a damned good idea to me. How many of those bombs do you have?”

  “As many as we could find.” Mercy said.

  “You ready for this?” he asked her.

  “Yeah, I’m awesome,” she muttered. “I get to kill some shit tonight. Blow up a few buildings. All in all, it’s going to be a great way to relieve my stress. Don’t you think?”

  “There’s one more to this plan,” I chimed in. “Don’t get yourselves killed.”

  Silence filled the bar, then one by one, we all started laughing. It was far from mirthful and held a dark undertone.