Act of Mercy (PSI-Ops / Immortal Ops) (15 page)

When it was done, he eased off her only to pull her around a corner, and pretty much shove her into a seated position.
“Don’t move!”

She gawked. He was still ordering her around and she hated it.
If he thought for one minute she was the type of woman to obey a man’s every command, he had another think coming. He could keep playing games with the guards. She was going to get to Jimmy come hell or high water.

She bolted away from him, rushing past the shooting, tryi
ng to stay low in hopes she’d avoid getting shot. Duke yelled for her but she ignored him, her entire mind centered on getting to Jimmy.

Mercy ducked and then crawled through what seemed like a storm of gunfire. Everything was so loud she soon stopped hearing anything. It was as though her body naturally adjusted her hearing volume to protect her ears. Single-mindedly, she kept crawling until she reached the doors to the cellblock. She knew better than to attempt to scan her retinas. The Corporation had probably attempted to lock her out of here as well. No matter. She had a way around it, as with all the scanners.

She popped the front of the unit off and
worked as quickly as she could to handle a hardwire bypass since her tablet was damaged. It took longer than a soft bypass would, but she got it to click and the doors to slide open. Staying low, Mercy kept going, the need to get to Jimmy and keep her promise burning bright inside her.

Duke would be angry.

He’s always angry.

She made it a few feet into the cellblock before she was snatched off the ground with so much force that it knocked the wind from her. The back of her head hit the wall and for a moment everything around her blacked
out and then faded into view again.

Dr. Bertrand had hold of her and was slamming her against the wall repeatedly. She grabbed at his wrists,
his very hairy, very misshapen wrists, trying to get him to stop. He was strong. Much stronger than a human should be. And his features, they’d changed. They were almost animal-like.

Ohmygod, he
’s a supernatural.

The very idea that he
’d treated his own kind the way he had nearly made Mercy be sick. It explained so much. Like how he was able to inflict so much damage on Jimmy and the others when he was by himself. Only a supernatural could hurt another supernatural in that manner and with that amount of force.

“
Bitch!” he spat, his face close to hers. “I told them to kill you months ago. We had what we needed from you. We had no more use for you.”

She clawed at his arms to no avail. He hit her against the wall again and the pain was so gr
eat she had a hard time staying conscious. Hot energy seemed to quicken in her belly. She kicked at Bertrand but it did nothing to stop his assault. Desperate, Mercy gave in to that tiny portion of herself that wanted to be free. One second Bertrand held her suspended off the ground and the next she was falling onto her side with a hard thump while he staggered backwards.

His beady eyes seemed to ignite with rage as he stormed at her. He drew back his booted foot and kicked her so hard she slid nearly all t
he way down the cellblock corridor, coming to a stop outside of Jimmy’s open cell door.

Pain pulsed through her but she pushed thoughts of it away
, thinking instead about the cell door being open.

He killed Jimmy. I
’m too late.

She cried out and tried to p
ush to her feet. It didn’t work. Bertrand was on her in a flash, banging her head against the unforgiving floor.

“
Stupid fucking bitch!” he shouted as he hit her over and over again.

There was a blur of motion near her and then Bertrand
’s weight was removed from her. Everything on Mercy hurt to the point it took real effort to lift her head. Something wet ran over one eye, blurring her vision. It took a minute or two for her brain to register it was blood.

Her blood.

None of that mattered. She’d wanted to save Jimmy.

She
’d failed.

Mercy closed her eyes and pushed with all her might to get up. She
’d not let the Corporation win. She’d burn their damn building to the ground first. That was, if she could get up.

“
Doc?” a soft, familiar voice, asked. “You’re hurt. Stay still.”

“
Jimmy?” she questioned, pushing at the blood over her eye. There he was, looking like she felt. He’d propped himself against the wall and was close to her, his hand on hers.

“
I’m here. Hold on, all right?”

“
Bertrand?” she asked, fearful he’d kill Jimmy.

There was another flash and a growl. She reached into her waistband and without thought, pulled out the stun gun she
’d tweaked. She pushed it at the mass coming at her. She understood that by stunning Bertrand, she’d stun herself and possibly Jimmy too. Still, she did it. Pain radiated through her.

“
Mercy!” Duke’s voice rent the air as the pain won out and Mercy found herself welcoming the darkness slipping in around her field of vision.

Duke rushed into what had at one point probably been an all-white corridor. Cells lined the sides. They were fancier than any cells he’d ever seen and he’d seen his fair share. Blood smeared the wall and the floor. There was a direct line of it, and as he took a breath in, he instinctively knew it was Mercy’s blood.

She
’s hurt.

“
Mercy!” he yelled again, desperation making his head fog. Red seemed to close in on his field of vision. His mouth burned for the change. He wanted to attack something, anything, but he saw nothing but blood.

Her blood.

“H-Here, Duke,” responded a voice belonging to a man he’d not heard in a decade—James. “She’s hurt. It’s bad. She’s out cold because she stunned us. Bertrand is rattled but running the other way. He’s been injecting himself with various supernatural DNA, he’s something I’ve never seen before. Stop him, Duke!”

“
James?” Duke ran, nearly slipping in the blood on the floor, reacting nothing like the super soldier he’d been trained to be. Not one ounce of suave remained. Only the baser need to see to his mate survived. He reached the end of the long hall and found James partially in a cell, his back against the wall and Mercy on his lap, being held protectively.

She
was still.

Too still.

Oh gods, no!

His heart thumped madly as he felt his grip on reality slipping from him fast. He tried to hold tight to it but the sight of Mercy there, a broken, bloody me
ss, was too much for him to handle. He snapped. Duke swayed and red eased into his vision. The human in him lost control of the beast. He knew he was shifting forms and that it was about to get ugly. He didn’t care. They all needed to pay for hurting his woman.

And pay they would.

The shift was normally painless. This one came with nothing but pain. So much so that Duke screamed as his bones cracked. The rational part of his brain told him this was different—that he was going to do something he could never take back.

The rest of him didn
’t give a shit.

His paws hit the bloody floor and the wolf in him howled, mourn
ing his mate. Duke looked out from the eyes of a predator and spotted five additional guards running in from the other direction. There was a man in a white lab coat behind them, pointing. Mercy’s blood was on the man. The wolf could smell it even with the distance between them. He’d hurt the wolf’s mate.

Mercy.

Rage consumed Duke and the wolf. Duke made no effort to temper the wolf. He let it be free, let it control his every action, the man in him losing his grip on the situation more and more. Soon enough, he’d lose his ability to find his way back. He understood as much but didn’t care.

They had to pay. And the wolf was only accepting blood and f
lesh as currency.

He charged forward, leaping in the air, his jaws clamping around
the neck of one of the guards. The man’s hot blood filled the wolf’s mouth, doing nothing to quench the thirst for more. When he felt the man slipping away, he released his hold on him, moving to the next. The wolf the knowledge of the man who was now buried deep inside. The man whispered the shiny object held by the man was bad and should be handled first, before killing the man. The wolf leapt, knocking it up and away, causing it to make a loud sound.

The wolf bit the man
’s arm first and then released, going for the man’s throat as well. Blood filled the wolf’s mouth, rushing over its tongue, filling its throat with coppery goodness. Too long the wolf had hungered for the taste of the kill and now he was finally allowed to do as he wished—to savor the moment. Sweet freedom spurred him onward, the want for more blood overpowering. They stopped being people to the wolf and started looking like prey.

And he was an expert hunter.

The game was nearly too easy yet the wolf took pleasure in it all the same. He would take the kills where he was permitted them because it was what he was created for.

The others were no match for him.
He had nothing to lose. They had everything. He would make them pay for causing the man deep in him pain. They would know what it was like to hurt, to suffer and then to die by the wolf’s hands.

Jimmy pulled harder on the tiny doctor, getting her all the way into the cell before kicking at the door, trying to trigger it to automatically shut. Everything on him hurt. The doctor’s stun gun was unlike anything he’d been stunned with before. It was packing a hell of a punch. He couldn’t feel his feet just yet and he strongly suspected that was for the best. That way, he couldn’t sense the pain. He had a feeling when the effects wore off he’d be wishing for numbness again.

He pulled Mercy onto his lap more, wanting to keep her safe.
Duke wasn’t himself. He’d gotten lost in the blood lust and rage. In his current state he could hurt Mercy without meaning to and the little doctor had been through enough.

She
’d done as she’d said she would months ago.

She
’d gotten help.

But at a great cost to herself.

Jimmy had spent the last ten years trying to make amends for past sins and he couldn’t help but think that if she didn’t make it, he’d spend the rest of his life trying to make up for that.

He drew her onto his lap, everything on him hurting and nothing wanting to work as it should. His
left arm was rendered totally useless. He wasn’t sure he’d ever regain use of it. The full extent of his injuries were unknown to him.

Mercy moaned
softly and began to come to. She nodded off again and Jimmy gritted his teeth. Dammit. She should have left him.

She shouldn
’t have come for him. She should have left him to die. He deserved death. She didn’t.

The sounds of Duke
’s snarls filled the area. Screams from the guards echoed. Jimmy couldn’t find it in himself to feel remorse over their passing. They were all sinister to some degree. Some more than others.

The scientists had been that way as well. All but a select few.

Mercy was one of those exceptions. There had been another. She was gone now. She’d gone before Mercy had arrived, and James wondered about her often.

Corbin appeared just outside the cell. He took one look in and
Jimmy knew the sight he and the small doctor presented. It wasn’t pretty.

Swallowing hard, Corbin nodded to him.
“J-James.”

“
We’re fine for now. Stop Duke. Blood lust took him.”

“
Shit,” said Corbin.

Striker was next to appear. His hair was longer than James remembered it being. The Scotsman pressed a smile to his face.
“Good to see you, though you look like shit.”

“
Thanks.”

“
The doctor?” asked Striker.

“
Not good.”

Corbin tapped Striker.
“Duke is shifted and the blood lust has him.”

“
Fuck.”

“
You got her?” asked Corbin.

“
I’ll protect her with my last breath,” returned Jimmy. They needed to worry about corralling Duke before he took the place down in wolf form.

Mercy opened her eyes, her head feeling heavy but her body pain free. Strange, she’d only just nodded off, or so she thought, and she’d been riddled with pain. What had happened?

She turned her head, surveying her situation. The white walls around her made her breath catch
. They looked similar to the walls of the laboratories at the Corporation. Had she been taken by the Corporation? Was she now a test subject?

Ohmygod.

She nearly screamed. Her mind raced with all the horrible things the Corporation would do to her as punishment for the trouble she’d caused. They would show her no kindness and whatever Bertrand was now—whatever monster he’d turned himself into—he would kill her slowly. She was sure of it.

She didn
’t recognize this room as being part of the facility she’d worked at but she knew the Corporation had more than one location. She’d never be found. She could be anywhere. No help would ever come because the Corporation could make someone vanish without a trace.

And Duke, oh, Duke. She
’d never see him again.

Another thought jarred her. Had he survived? What
if he’d been captured or worse, killed?

A primal scream threatened to rip free from her.
She shook to maintain control. She wouldn’t give the Corporation the satisfaction of knowing they’d won.

“
There you are, lass,” said a deep, familiar voice, its burr a welcome sound—alerting her to the fact she was not being held by the Corporation. There was no way Striker would sound so calm otherwise. “Been wonderin’ when you’d wake up, sleepyhead.”

“
Striker?” she asked, her mouth dry as the panic eased from her chest.

The giant of a man moved n
ext to the bed she was in. He held a glass of water for her. She sipped from the straw. She noticed his right arm was bandaged and he had a black eye. It looked like he’d seen one heck of a fight. “Where are we?”

“
We’re safe and in our London location,” he said. “Know that I’m only agreein’ to stay on here because of you. England and I don’t see eye to eye.”

She laughed softly.
“I wouldn’t think so. And Jimmy?”

Striker nodded his head.
“Is recoverin’ nicely, thanks to you.”

“
Duke?” Mercy asked, concern for him seeping into her bones. He should have been near her when she woke. The fact he wasn’t terrified her.

Licking his lips, Striker looked away.
“Well, that’s another story.”

She sat up fast and her head spun. She touched her temple, her eyes wide, fear gr
ipping her heart. “He’s dead?”

“
Och, no. He’s nae dead. He’s unable to be by yer side.” He glanced to the far end of the room and it was then Mercy noticed a large hole in the wall, towards the floor. “Though, he’s tried to be on more than one occasion.”

“
How long have I been here?” she asked, confused.

“
Three days.” He swallowed hard. “You’ve had us worried, Doc. Do nae do that again. You hear?”

She nodded slightly.
“I hear.”

“
Good.”

The door to the room opened and Corbin and Boomer entered. Corbin offered a warm smile when he noticed she was awake.
“How are you feeling?”

“
Tired, but other than that, very good.” She sat up slowly and Striker helped by putting the pillows behind her back. “Tell me what happened.”

Corbin pursed his lips.
“Mercy, you know what we are.”

She nodded.
“Jimmy’s friends.”

He smiled warmly.
“Yes, but in addition to that, we’re supernaturals. Each of us can shift into animal form.”

She nodded.

Striker groaned. “For the love of me feelin’ my immortal years tickin’ by, just tell her Duke shifted, got all crazed in the head, and is stuck in shifted form until he can calm his hairy arse down.”

Gasping, Mercy tried to get out of the bed. Striker caught her around the wa
ist before she’d have fallen. She looked to the floor, realizing how far down it was. “How high is this bed?”

Striker kept hold of her
, his laughter filling the room. “Made for men our size. Nae lil wee slips of thing like you.”

“
I want to see Duke.”

“
Nae possible right now. He’s, uh, less than pleasant to be around.” He set her on the bed and tapped his bandaged arm. “Took a chunk of me yesterday.”

Boomer pointed to the hole in the wall.
“And has broken through the wall in an attempt to get to you. We had to chain him.”

“
You had to what?” she asked, her voice barely there. “Why?”

Corbin stepped closer to the foot of her bed.
“He’s a danger to you and others while stuck in a state of blood lust. Duke wouldn’t want us allowing him to harm you.”

“
But he’d want to be chained?” she demanded.

The men all looked guilty.

“We tried tranqing him. He doesn’t stay down and he doesn’t calm down,” Boomer added. “Trust me, we didn’t want to have to resort to that but we ran out of options.”

“
We had to lock him up for the flight here. It wasn’t pretty, Mercy,” Corbin said. He moved closer to her. “We’ve never seen a shifter male get this far out of control. We believe Duke thought you were dead, which prompted him to shift. There is no reasoning with him right now. We believe he needs to see you are alive and well. Seeing you in the hospital bed, out cold, didn’t help any. It made matters worse.”

“
Take me to him,” she said sternly.

“
Lass, is nae a good idea. You need more rest. The doctor here has nae cleared you to be up and about.”

She shot him a hard look and he backed up.
“Take me to Duke.”

“
Are you planning to do the arm thing where you throw me backwards again?” he asked.

She lifted a brow. What on earth was he talking about?
“Just take me to Duke.”

“
I’ll get a wheelchair,” offered Boomer. He stepped out of the room and was back within a few minutes.