Broken Moon (9 page)

Jocelyne struggled against the grip of the
two soldiers as they dragged her back to the same cursed cell they’d put her in
less than forty-eight hours ago, determined to fight them with everything she
had before they put her back in that cold, hard, forsaken place. But the guards
only laughed as they dragged her down the hall, past rows and rows of empty
cells, their burly arms too strong for her to break through, and before she
knew it, they were tossing her back into the cell Harley had fought so hard to
break her free from, and the door was sliding shut in front of her wide, fiery
eyes.

            “I’d
watch yourself if I were you, little missy,” one of the guards sneered down at
her as she scrambled to her feet. “We saw what you and your boyfriend did to
our friend the last time you were here, and we’re just itching for the first
chance to give you a little payback.” His lip curled into a cruel smirk. “The
boss lady only said you had to be alive and in working order – she never
said anything about not
banging
you up a little.” His emphasis on the
word ‘banging’ left no doubt in Jocelyne’s mind as to what they had in mind,
and fear choked her windpipe, preventing her from speaking. The guard and his
cronies disappeared down the hall, and all she could do was stand there and shiver
with rage as their laughter echoed against the walls.

            But
as she stood there, her breathing gradually evening out, the sting of their
taunts faded, and she focused a little more on the meaning behind their words.
Why exactly
had
they brought her back? I mean, yeah, they’d kidnapped
her initially, and she assumed that they would try to recapture her, but the
fact was that they’d chosen to leave Harley behind was confusing to her.

           
What
exactly did they want with her? Were they not holding her as a hostage, as
she’d initially assumed?
But she didn’t understand how she could be
valuable to them. She didn’t have any knowledge of the Order’s military
operations, so she didn’t see how she could be more than a pawn, something used
to control her father.

           
But
if that was the case, why hadn’t they tried to contact her father yet?
From
what she’d been able to glean from Harley, her father hadn’t been approached
with any demands.
Why wait so long?

            Sighing,
she sat down on the cot and stared out through her cell bars at Harley’s cell,
which had yet to be fixed. The sight of those bars all bent out of shape
kindled a spark of hope in her chest that Harley and her father would come for
her – Harley was determined and resourceful, and her father would move
heaven and earth in order to ensure her safety. She knew between the two of
them, her eventual rescue was assured.

            She
just didn’t know how long it would take.

            Jocelyne
had just started dosing off when a warm, feminine voice floated through the
speakers above. “Getting comfortable, are we?” the voice said in smooth,
melodic tones, and Jocelyne bolted upright, her eyes searching for the cameras
she knew must be in the cell.

            “Who
are you?” Jocelyne demanded, glaring at the single camera she found in the
corner of the ceiling. “And what do you want with me?”

            Laughter
floated out of the speaker like a warm, soft mist, as if the speaker was some
benevolent spectator, rather than the cause of her current pain and misery. “I
can’t imagine Harley wouldn’t have told you my name,” she said. “But in case
you don’t remember it, I go by Amelia. As for why you’re here, it’s because of
your untapped potential, which I am highly interested in harvesting.”

            “Untapped
potential? Harvesting?” A sick, cold fear curdled in Jocelyne’s gut, and she
had to force herself not to back up against the wall to put some space between
her and the voice – not that that would have worked anyway. “What the
hell is that supposed to mean?”

            “You’re
about to find out soon enough.”

            There
was a loud beep, then a swish that signified the door at the end of the hall
opening. Jocelyne’s throat tightened in fear again, and this time she did
scramble back against the wall, pushing herself into a corner like a frightened
animal might when the guards opened her cell door. She fought and screamed and
bit, wishing like hell that she could form teeth and claws the way
full-shifters could, and was rewarded with a meaty fist to the face. Stars
exploded in her eyes, blood rushing down her face from her nose, and still she
struggled as they dragged her down the hall and into a brightly lit corridor
that hurt her eyes. They dragged her through a set of blue double doors into a
large room that, from the large array of equipment and tables, looked like part
laboratory and part surgical suite. Panic sent gorge rising up through her
throat as they dragged her to a steel table fitted with cuffs, and she threw up
on one of the guard’s shoes.

            “You
bitch!” The guard pulled back his fist to hit her again, and Jocelyne braced
herself from another blow.

            “Now,
now,” the warm, feminine voice from earlier chided, and Jocelyne looked up to
see Amelia standing by the steel table, dressed in a white lab coat that was
open, revealing a gray skirt suit beneath. She had dark hair pulled up into a
bun, and square, black-rimmed glasses that framed a set of lovely, beguiling
dark eyes. “We wouldn’t want our lovely mother-to-be to miscarry, now would
we?”

            Jocelyne
froze. “Mother-to-be?”
She was pregnant?
How could the woman even
know that?
“No…you’re mistaken,” she said frostily, glaring at her captor.
“That’s impossible.”

            “Oh,
my dear…nothing is impossible,” Amelia said coolly as she gestured to her
guards. They immediately hauled Jocelyne atop the table and were strapping her
in before she had time to fight, she was so caught off guard by the woman’s
bold statement. “Do you really think human birth control would prevent a
pregnancy from a shifter?”

            “What
the hell are you talking about?” Jocelyne snapped, but she had a feeling she
already knew the answer as the woman gave her the kind of smug look that could
only come from secure knowledge.

            “I
pulled your medical records before we kidnapped you, so I already knew that you
were on the birth control pill,” she told Jocelyne. “Your pristine health
records were one of several important reasons we chose you for this project. But
none of that matters when you have unprotected sex with a shifter… it was a
given that you would eventually have sex with your mate, if you two were put in
close proximity.”

            Jocelyne
gaped at Amelia, aghast. “Mate? I don’t understand. Why would you do such a
thing?”

            Amelia
shrugged. “Well, because we wanted to get you pregnant, of course.” A feline
smile spread across her lips. “We’d already collected semen samples from Harley
while he was unconscious, just in case, but since you and your mate decided to
move forward more…
naturally
, that may not actually be necessary.”

            Jocelyne
clenched her fists to try and keep them from shaking, but it was no use –
her whole body was trembling with a combination of fear, anxiety and rage.
“You’re lying,” she hissed between chattering teeth. “You’re insane. None of
this makes any sense.”

            “It’s
amazing what people think they can convince themselves of,” Amelia drawled,
giving Jocelyne an amused glance. “Surely you understand the mating bond?”

            “I’m
a human,” Jocelyne snapped, but she couldn’t stop her body from trembling in
fear. “And he’s a shifter. There’s no way we could be mates.”

            Amelia
laughed lightly and returned the thing to the cabinet. “Whatever makes you feel
better, sweetheart.” She motioned to two men wearing lab coats, plastic caps
and surgical masks, and they moved toward her on either side. “Now let’s start
the testing.”

            “Testing?
What testing?” Jocelyne tried not to sound hysterical. “There’s no way you
could know from my blood samples whether or not I’m pregnant.”

            “True,”
Amelia said with a sigh, not even bothering to look at Jocelyne – she had
a clipboard out and was making notations. “I must say that’s the one
aggravating thing about all of this. We have to wait six to eight days to know
whether or not you’ve conceived, and that’s quite a bit of time. But after all
of the work we’ve done to get to this point…I’ve become a very patient woman,
so that’s perfectly fine with me.”

            The
doctors began hooking her up to hospital machines, and Jocelyne forced herself
to relax, knowing they wouldn’t harm her if they truly believed she was
pregnant. A tiny bubble of joy formed unexpectedly in her heart at the idea
that she was carrying Harley’s baby, but it quickly burst as she caught the
look of undisguised greed on Amelia’s face every time the woman glanced at her
belly.

            “Why
do you want my baby?” she demanded as one of the doctors, or nurses, or
whatever
these men were, began to take her blood pressure.

            Amelia
gave a bored sigh. “My peers and I decided that rather than simply genetically
modifying and training an existing shifter – which was what we were
planning on doing with Harley – we should also try to breed shifters and
humans together to try and see if we can get the best combinations of genes.
After all, half-shifters tend to not possess the same weaknesses that full
shifters do, as evidenced by your resistance to silver poisoning.” She grinned
at Jocelyne like a cat who’d unexpectedly happened upon a bowl of cream. “All
the other research heads are doing what I mentioned before – breeding
shifters and humans – but I’ve decided to take it a step above and breed
a half-shifter with a full-shifter.” Her dark eyes gleamed greedily. “I’ve no
doubt that the results of my experiment are going to be far superior to anyone
else’s. The Head Justice will be most pleased.”

            “My
baby isn’t some kind of experiment!” Jocelyne shrieked, struggling against her
bonds as a new wave of rage and fear overtook her. The doctors were forced to
hold her down, one pressing down on her legs and the other seizing her arms.
“You can’t do this to him!” She’d already decided, somehow in what little part
of her mind was still functioning, that it was a boy, even though she didn’t
even know whether or not she was pregnant for sure. But something in her gut
told her she was, that the tests would come back positive, and that secret
knowledge fueled her fears, making her unreasonable as she bit and kicked at
the doctors.

            “Stop
struggling,” Amelia snapped. “Or I’ll have your fetus sliced from your womb and
placed into a surrogate, and then I’ll kill you.”

            Jocelyne
froze. “You wouldn’t dare,” she breathed, staring into Amelia’s dark eyes,
which were now chips of black eyes, all of their earlier warmth and humor gone
as if they’d been sucked down a black hole.

            “Of
course I would,” she sneered. “I’ll do absolutely anything in the name of
Justice. So if you value your life, I suggest that you stay put and let my
assistants run their tests.”

            Jocelyne
sagged against the metal table, all the fight abruptly leaving her limbs. As
she leaned her head back against the cold metal, she squeezed her eyes shut,
and prayed that Harley would come find her soon, before it was too late.

 “Christ, they’re well-defended,”
Commander Fitzsimmons muttered as he studied the base from his seat in the
black SUV. They were parked on a hill about a half-mile from the enemy base,
and the Commander had dragged Harley out into the cold so they could study the
terrain together.

           
Not
that Harley was complaining. For Jocelyne, he’d walk through the fires of hell
themselves if it meant ensuring her safety.

            “Yeah,”
Harley agreed, peering at the base through his own binoculars. He counted six
men patrolling the electric fence, and another six at various places on the
grounds and atop the building. No doubt there were more inside, even though he
and Jocelyne had taken out a dozen or so on their way out. “No idea how the
hell we managed to escape the place.”

            “Dumb
luck can get you pretty far,” the Commander said. “But we’re not going to be
relying on it for this mission. Not when it comes to the safety of my
daughter.”

            The
two of them climbed back into the armored SUV, which was one of ten vehicles
the Commander had brought along, loaded with shifter soldiers. The Commander
picked up his radio, and Harley fought to take deep, even breaths as Fitzsimmons
barked orders into the secure channel for everyone to hear. His strength had
returned some, and he’d downed several pounds of meat and slept a few hours on
the ride up here, so he was ready for what was to come. He had to be.

            Getting
past the outer defense was easy enough. A few snipers perched on vehicle hoods
were enough to take out the men patrolling the fence in rapid succession, and a
well-placed RPG blew a nice-sized hole in the fence big enough for them to roll
their vehicles through. Rapid gunfire pierced the night, cracking against the
windows and doors of the armored vehicle, and Harley cradled his own gun, ready
to join the fight.

            “Hang
back,” the Commander warned when he would have jumped out of the vehicle to
join the other shifters. “I need you by my side.”

            Harley
ground his teeth, but he did as his Commander ordered, knowing he was right.
Glaring down at the body armor he was covered in, he wished he could get rid of
it so he could shift – he was much faster and more deadly in his wolf
form – and he knew it was a sentiment shared by the other shifter
soldiers. But they couldn’t risk it since being in wolf form offered them no
protection against those silver-laced darts, and the Commander had been very
explicit in his orders.

            “Okay,
let’s move!” the Commander ordered when the other soldiers had cleared a path
for them. Harley and Fitzsimmons left the car, and were immediately surrounded
by a protective barrier of soldiers. Together, they headed for the nearest
entrance, the other soldiers covering them as they made their rescue attempt.

            Harley
didn’t waste time – he went straight for the underground cells, which was
the most likely place Jocelyne would be. They busted through the prison
entrance, setting off a loud, blaring alarm, but Harley didn’t care – he
could scent Jocelyne here – her sweet, vanilla aroma was laced with anger
and fear, but it was her, and she was alive.

            “Jocelyne!”
he shouted, approaching her cell at a dead run.

            “Harley,”
Jocelyne sobbed, throwing herself at the cell bars as she saw him. “Please, you
have to get me out of here. They’re going to take my baby.” Her large, round
eyes were red-rimmed and shimmering with tears, her nose pink and swollen from
crying. “Please.”

            “Your
baby?” They must have hopped her up on something, Harley decided, because she
was delusional. He couldn’t see any baby. “Don’t worry sweetheart, we’ll get
you out okay,” he said soothingly, motioning two of the soldiers over. “Now
stand back.”

            The
soldiers used hacksaws to quickly cut through the bars, and then Commander Fitzsimmons
reached in and grabbed his daughter, pulling her tightly against his barrel
chest. “Oh sweetheart,” he said roughly, cupping the back of her head and
rocking her tight. “I was so worried.”

            “Oh
Daddy,” Jocelyne sobbed, clutching him tightly. “Thank you so much for coming.”

            “We
need to get you the hell out of here. Right now.”

            She
tried to reach for Harley then, but Fitzsimmons put his body between her and Harley,
a fierce glower on his face. “Now you stay away from him,” he growled. “He has
no business getting involved with you.”

            “Yes
he does,” Jocelyne choked through her tears, some of her fire returning as she
glared at her father. “He’s the father of my child.”

            Harley
frowned – this was the second time she’d mentioned a child. Her hand
moved protectively to her belly, and his eyes widened. “Are you serious… you’re
pregnant?”

            “Oh
for fuck’s sake!” the Commander exploded as shouts and footfalls sounded from
outside. “We don’t have time for this discussion right now.” He grabbed his
daughter by the upper arm and pushed her gently toward the soldiers. “We need
to get the hell out of here while we still have the chance.”

            “Not
yet.” Harley stepped past the Commander and shouldered his way through the
soldiers crowding the space. “There’s something else I need to do first.”

            “Something
else? What something else?” the Commander snapped.

            “I
need to get the data from the lab.”

            Ignoring
the Commander’s shouts, he sprinted down the hall and up the stairs, then down
the brightly lit hall and through the double doors of the lab, using his
superhuman strength to bust through the locked doors. Amelia was already
standing at the bank of computers, uploading data to an external hard drive,
and she whirled around with a gasp, several of her guards training guns on him.

            “Kill
him!” she shrieked, and then turned around, her slender fingers flying across
the keyboard. “Kill him now!”

            Harley
closed the distance in a flash, grabbed the first guard’s gun, and yanked it
sideways, aiming the blast of gunfire in the direction of the others. The
coppery scent of blood laced the air as two guards went down and another took a
bullet in the shoulder, and Harley quickly broke the neck of the guard he was
holding before taking out the fourth man with a final shot.

            Amelia
backed away from the console, trying to put as much distance between Harley and
herself as possible. Her hands were shaking, her face an icy white, but her
sensuous lips twisted in a cruel, defiant smirk even as he lifted the gun to
her face.

            “Even
if you kill me, you won’t destroy what I stand for,” she cried. “We are
everywhere, and our mission won’t be denied! Justice always prevails!”

            “Yeah,
well prevail against this,” Harley snarled, and pulled the trigger, a shot
firing into her chest.

            Amelia
collapsed to the ground, and stepped back, as her head hit the floor. She was
dead within seconds. Harley moved quickly to the computer, and saw that Amelia
had already started downloading the data. He waited until the hard drive had
finished loading, then pulled the data card from the slot, torched the room,
and left the building.

            If
only everything else in life was this easy.