More Than Life (Arcane Crossbreeds)

by Vyne, Amanda

  Raife struggled to keep his mind afloat, but a weak tremor of humor slithered through him. Tag didn’t do fieldwork. He was a tech nerd. They’d brought him in on this because he was the only other person at Incog who could communicate with him at such a distance. All Drachon were strong telepaths.

  “That’s great, fuckwad. So happy you’re impressed.”

  Amusement buzzed through their mental connection. “Sorry. Gideon’s already en route, and he’s aware your mate is priority. You know that fucker has some freaky mojo.”

  Raife had worked with the man countless times during ops. He was like smoke. He was a man of few words, and he kept to himself. Like many of the agents who worked at Incog, he was a crossbreed with the scars to show it. Elemental and Guardian. That would be a lethal combination. In this instance, he hoped so.

  His mind was lethargic. It took every ounce of his concentration to keep it from succumbing to the sucking abyss of the hibernation. Cold was one of the only weaknesses a mated Drachon had. Blood moved sluggishly through his body, his heart pumping just enough to keep him alive. The cold wouldn’t kill him, but it definitely incapacitated him. Made him an easy target.

  “Stay on top, Merrick. Gideon’s got visual of the compound. Tell me what intel you’ve uncovered.”

  It took Raife a moment to process the question. Intel. Right.

  “Not much.” Which translated to nothing, at least nothing concrete. He had his suspicions, though. Especially now. He just wasn’t any closer to the why yet. “I think the missing Drachon were some kind of whack job test subjects. The man who brought me here was an Elemental, one that has a real hard-on for me to mate.”

  “So they’re testing on female Drachon. The Drakes won’t take kindly to that. It’ll be war.”

  “No, there’s no actual Drachon females that I know of. Genetic mutations, I think. Katya still seems Sanguen.” Her bite definitely felt like one, but her fire was all Drachon. “Mostly.”

  “Shit. So they could have more than just Drachon males there. Other species that they’re fucking with.” Tag’s silence was weighted, and he knew what the unmated Drachon was thinking. If these assholes managed to mate him to a non-Drachon, were there other females that would be compatible? It could bring the Drachon back from the brink of extinction. “We’ll have to inform the Drakes.”

  Raife agreed. Mostly for personal reasons. The Drakes were like elders; their word held a lot of weight. If the Drakes thought there were possible mates in danger, they would bring the fires of hell down on this place.

  He liked the thought of that. Fuck, he wanted to be holding a torch.

  “Gideon’s in. I’ll tell – ” Tag suddenly withdrew.

  Raife felt a shiver of something, some awareness. Just a flash, but it slashed through him, making his body jerk once from the excruciating pain of it.

  Katya. His blood turned to ice.

  “Tag? Tag. Jennings, you better fucking tell me what the hell is happening.”

  “Gideon is on it.” Tag tried to reassure him.

  “Tag. Tell me what the fuck is going on.”

  “Hell just broke loose, and your mate is in the center of it.”

  Chapter Six

  “It would be so much easier if you cooperated, little one.”

  Katya arched under the precision edge of Dr. Rupple’s scalpel as it slid through the top layer of skin on her abdomen. She was restrained on the table again, her head strapped down with her chin angled toward the ceiling. The good doctor was hell-bent on knowing what abilities she’d developed. It would never happen. They were her key to escaping this place. If she told him, he would guard against them. She’d rather die.

  “I don’t know what you want.” The words were forced through her clenched teeth. Agony stroked down her belly and her legs. She could taste the metallic blood in her mouth from biting down on her lip.

  “I’d like for you to describe in detail any new” —he paused as he slid the scalpel over her hip— “characteristics you’ve developed that have not come up in our previous discussions.”

  Katya’s breath rocked in her chest as she struggled to maintain control of the pain, her mind ripping through reasons the doctor would suddenly change tactics. Why he suspected she was keeping information from him.

  “And do not waste my time with your little dragon tricks. Those were present when I acquired you.”

  Dragon tricks? Her mind snapped back to that room; an image coalesced in her. Curtains curling and turning to ash, lights fracturing. She’d done it…by screaming. Of course. The cameras. She knew they were there. They were always there. Always watching.

  “Not that our male’s assistance wasn’t extremely helpful in getting them to manifest. Now, I would like to know what else has manifested.”

  Our male. Raife.

  Humiliation burned through her. Every detail of what happened was seared into her mind. She could still feel his touch, marked just as surely as he was. The mating had felt primal and sacred. But it was only another torturous way to get what they wanted from her. Heat curled down over her flesh, and rage intertwined with anguish, filling her until it mingled with the blood on her lips.

  “Emotion seems to be a trigger for manifestation.” His voice became more distant, as though he were talking to someone behind him. “Miss St. Vincent, document that the subject has exhibited accelerated healing in both lower extremities.”

  Katya forced her eyes open and focused on him.

  “Bilateral dark optical occlusion congruent with the Guardian species. Infuse her with Serum B. Collect samples before and after infusion.” Then he turned his head, and beady little eyes focused on her. His clammy hand patted her thigh, and disgust rolled up through her and clogged her throat. “See, now, that wasn’t so bad, was it, my dear?” His gaze roved over her naked form. “It appears we will not even be required to treat your wounds.”

  Katya jerked in her restraints. Her flesh crawled and went ice-cold. An overwhelming urge to kill something, to make it feel as wretched and riddled with pain as she was, came to the fore. It took an effort to control herself, to make her body relax back on the metal table, but she pushed the heat of a dark promise into her gaze, made sure it was a tangible force that radiated from her. She wanted him to feel it. Fear it.

  She hadn’t been aware she could heal herself. That was one ability he knew about before she did, but the others were still secreted away deep inside her, waiting for when she could use them to escape. What else could he possibly infuse her with that would make her any more of an abomination?

  The doctor stepped away to allow his assistant to draw her blood. She was impossible to read, most likely because she wasn’t human. The woman was cold and impersonal, never taunting or purposefully cruel like Dr. Rupple was, and Katya usually disregarded her altogether. Cool smooth fingers touched her arm, and she noticed the woman wasn’t wearing gloves.

  Then she felt it, a gentle brush against her mind as though someone was trying to gain access. Startled, she reinforced her mental barriers. She darted a worried glance at Dr. Rupple, who was writing in his lab books with his back to her. The assistant expertly drew her blood and placed the vial in a rack on the metal table. She retrieved a large syringe from the tray, her bare hand never once moving from Katya’s arm.

  Words brushed over her. Faint. Distorted. She stared hard at the woman. Was she trying to communicate? Why, after all these months?

  Distrustful but curious, Katya eased her mental barriers back. The words grew louder but no clearer. She flared out her senses and lightly touched the surface of the assistant’s mind.

  “If you can hear me, please listen carefully; we are arranging for you to be transferred out of here. Don’t be afraid; my men won’t hurt you.”

  Transferred, not freed. Katya didn’t miss the distinction, which made her distrust the woman all the more. Yet she didn’t want to lose the opportunity this might give her to escape. Should she pretend to be agreeable, make them think sh
e believed them? She’d have to open her mind more to respond, and she wasn’t sure that was such a good idea. It couldn’t be a coincidence that she was being “transferred” barely hours after Raife was brought in to mate her.

  “You don’t understand now, but you will.” The woman’s thoughts were toneless, matter-of-fact, as she infused her with whatever new serum the doctor had concocted. “We have some men in the building. They will intercept you on your way back to your room and move you out of here. We have to evacuate tonight.”

  Katya studied the woman, considering her options. Raife being here left her vulnerable in ways that terrified her. If they put her back in the room with him, the possibility she would fall into his arms was too great. If they were looking for a weakness to exploit, they found a hell of a big one. But if she went with these new men, would she be trading one prison for another? She wasn’t going to bet her freedom on it. She was going to use it as the opportunity it was.

  Careful to push her intentions deep where they wouldn’t be easy to read, she eased her mind open just enough to communicate with the woman. It wasn’t a strong connection, but the tremulousness of her tone would just make the woman believe she was desperate and accepting. “I’ll go with you. Please, just get me out of here.”

  The woman narrowed her eyes, and Katya wasn’t sure she believed her. After a long moment, the woman sighed. Setting the syringe on the table, she returned with a smaller one filled with a familiar murky liquid.

  A sedative.

  Katya pulled against her bonds once as she felt the slight pinch of the needle.

  “I’m sorry, but this is for your own good. We’re too close to lose it now.”

  The apology barely registered as her mind began to sink into the obscurity of that drug-induced sleep. She wanted to tell her to go get fucked, but the words wouldn’t pass her lips. She did manage a small smile as she succumbed.

  It felt like only moments before she became aware of voices above her and the slight shudder of the gurney beneath her as its wheels rolled over the cement floor. The light weight of a sheet covered her nudity. No restraints. No silver cuffs.

  A tiny ember of anticipation flared to life in her gut. Had Miss St. Vincent’s “men” intercepted yet? If they had, they were taking their sweet time making their escape. And they were talking about football. She was going to hazard a guess and say they hadn’t. That meant they soon would be.

  Katya took the time to completely orient herself with her surroundings and allow the rest of the drug to be pushed through her system. The last couple of months, she’d noticed her body was metabolizing the drugs they gave her at an accelerated rate. She’d taken it as the perfect opportunity to create a weak point she could exploit later on, and continued to let them think she was sedated long after the drugs wore off.

  It hadn’t been pleasant, but she’d developed a tolerance for pain in process. It was finally going to pay off. They naturally assumed she’d be out long enough to get her to her cell. They’d left her completely unrestrained.

  The sound of boots on cement echoed down the hall, and Katya had to focus on not stiffening. Were these the men she was waiting for? Her gurney slowed and came to a stop. Her mind was still groggy. She wasn’t sure she had enough focus to shimmer where she needed to go.

  “We’ve been ordered to take her to Lab Four.”

  Shuffling papers.

  “We weren’t told anything about that.”

  “Well, we were. I’m not getting on the doc’s bad side by not following orders.”

  “We can leave her in her room while we clear this up.”

  “That doesn’t work for us.”

  A flood of animosity fanned over her as the dull thud of fist hitting flesh reached her ears. Fuck! The assistant’s men weren’t damn likely to get her out now that they’d lost their cover. Soon more of the lab’s Guardians would descend on this hall, and she would lose the opportunity to escape at all. The foot end of her gurney struck the wall and sent a shudder up the entire thing as it rocked, threatening to overturn.

  She had to act now, and she wasn’t up to shimmering across the entire complex yet. She was going to have to work with what she had. She couldn’t build the mental image of the facility; the details she’d been collecting these past months proved elusive in her still foggy mind. She did the best she could, envisioning the gleaming cement floors and walls, the recessed lights overhead in the concrete ceilings. A tingle worked its way over her body.

  When her bare feet met the cold floor, she staggered weakly against the wall, clutching the sheet to her chest. Blinking away the blurriness that still plagued her eyes, she glanced quickly around. One hall looked the same as any other in this place. Taking a deep breath, she shifted through the scents. Despair. Fury. Pain. Malice. This was her wing of the complex.

  “What are you doing out here?”

  Katya turned drunkenly around. Four men in black BDUs were coming quickly down the hall, carrying rifles. One lifted his rifle, and she shimmered farther down the hall, the tranq sailing harmlessly past her shoulder. The dizziness and weakness were getting worse, not better. Nausea churned in her belly.

  “How did you get loose, little piggy?”

  That voice whipped against her, and she spun around, the fear crawling over her skin. It was the one called Lobo. He was the worst. The cruelest of all the guards here. Even the sound of his voice chilled her flesh. He called them all pigs for the slaughter. She hated him almost as much she did that freak Rupple.

  Guards were advancing on both sides, and she could barely stay on her feet. She couldn’t go back. She wouldn’t. The thought of facing Raife again sliced cleanly through her, and the pain that welled up in its wake was far worse than anything she’d experienced thus far. No. She had to get out of here. Now.

  Shouldering off the wall, she swayed on her feet as they advanced. Heat boiled up in her throat, and she parted her lips and let it pour from her mouth in a soundless scream. The two closest guards burst into flames with a strangled roar, falling to the ground. Spasming. The smell of burning flesh had the nausea churning into her throat. Fuck, her head was beginning to pound. Two more fired off tranqs from the opposite direction, and she barely managed to avoid them by shimmering to the other side of the hall. The cement began to blur and spin around her, high-pitched ringing filling her ears.

  Katya shook her head to clear it, and Lobo filled her vision. He had a finger pressed to his ear and his lips were moving, but she couldn’t make out the words. But the cruelty in that smile was unmistakable.

  “We’ve been given permission to use live rounds. Extremity shots only, boys. The doc wants something left to test on.”

  Cold fear formed around the growing nausea as the six other guards still standing pulled the dull black weapons they kept holstered at their hips. There was a pop and then another. A burn slashed across her outer thigh as she shimmered behind the group in front of her. The group led by Lobo would have to shoot through their comrades to get to her. It gave her a moment of respite but left her disoriented.

  A sickening thud echoed in her ears, and she staggered back with a cry as the bullet blazed through her shoulder. Fury curled over her, eating away at what was left of her composure, the heat of it mixing with the excruciating burn of where she’d been shot. Her chest tingled, the icy sensation working its way down her arm and into her palm. With a scream, she swung her arm out in front of her, and the guards flew back, lifted off their feet.

  A red haze ringed her vision. Little tongues of flame licked up her legs, encasing her in an inferno that blanketed her, separating her from the sounds around her. She tried to shimmer farther away, but agony speared through her – grounded her. Silver bullets? Son of a bitch.

  She stumbled back, gathering strength to roar at them again, the heat of the sound burning up her throat. Lobo advanced, weapon up, when the sound waves roiled over him. He cursed and leaned down to vomit on the floor. The bastard didn’t even have the decency to
go down.

  “You’re gonna pay for that, bitch,” he snarled and dragged his sleeve across his lips.

  As though that was news. She wasn’t a fool; there was no way she could take him head-on. She could feel her strength draining, each step a lesson in endurance, but she pushed herself, funneling what was left into escaping. Another bullet whizzed by and cut a burning path over her calf. She cried out, and her bare feet slid in her blood. She slammed into the wall but righted herself, afraid to look behind her, and continued to run.

  Her heart was a heavy but slow beat in her chest, every pulse a drain on her diminishing reserve of strength. She couldn’t focus her eyes enough to see where she was going. Was there a turn at the end of this hall? She tried to remember, tried to focus on the map she’d drawn in her mind. She could barely hear the shouts of the men behind her. The popping of their guns was dulled, as though she were under water. Bullets streaked around her, brushing past her arms and legs with little scorching kisses. She couldn’t even isolate one specific area. Everything burned; every inch of her flesh was on fire. She would make them kill her, or she would escape. There were no other options. She was never returning. No more humiliation. No more torturous experiments. No more helplessness.

  A bitter sense of freedom filled her. No more of this place. No matter what.

  Her vision blurred, and her feet slipped over the floor as she slowed to make a sharp turn in the hall. She put up her good arm to brace herself against the wall. It met solid warm flesh.

  With a drunken wrench of her head, she looked up to see the rest of the man manifest from the solid wall, a menacing tower of a man. So dark…dark eyes, dark hair, dark skin. Her knees gave out, and she blinked her eyes to clear them. He easily tucked her against his side with one arm and raised his free hand, palm out. Had she just seen him walk through a wall?

  His voice was whisper soft. “It’s okay, achoti. I’ve got you. You’re safe.”

  His gaze was intense, focused ahead of him, and she reflexively followed his gaze, fearful of what she would see. The guards were frozen in place, several bullets suspended in air before her. Holy shit!