Dawn Endeavor 1: Fallon's Flame (13 page)

* * *

“I don't want her here,” Fallon said for the twentieth time since they'd left the States. The suite they had here was nicer than the one he had at home. The damned thing even had a Jacuzzi in it. But Fallon couldn't appreciate anything but the danger surrounding his mate. His beast didn't like any of this, nor did the Navy SEAL ready for action.

Jules sighed. “We've been over this. Hayashi said she needs to be here.”

“Bullshit. His visions are possible futures, not definite futures.”

“You're talking to a brick wall, Jules,” Tersch grumbled next to them. “She has him by the dick.”

“Asshole. That's not the point.”

“That's exactly the point. You're not thinking straight. If we'd left her at home, Montaña's men would have grabbed her. Hayashi said so. She's safer here with us.”

Fallon's beast was screaming at him to protect his mate. Yet Jules insisted he leave her with Hayashi while they hashed this out. According to their unreliable seer, had they followed Fallon's decision to leave Olivia at home, she'd manage to leave the safety of the house and fall into enemy hands. How exactly, Hayashi didn't know. But Mrs. Sharpe had agreed they had to take Olivia with them into Trindade.

He moved through the open doors onto the balcony and looked down on his mate, the object of way too much male speculation for his peace of mind. The assholes he'd warned away had left, but too many men thinking with their dicks remained by the pool. “The fuckers are all watching her.”

“She's sexy. What do you expect?” Tersch retorted. “Hell, I can barely look away as it is, and I know that fine ass.”

“You're such a dick,” Fallon said with disgust, gripping the railing of the balcony with long fingers. “See if you come anywhere near her ever again.”

“Ease up, man. She likes me.” Tersch's broad grin annoyed him.

Especially when Jules added, “Not as much as she likes me.” Then he sobered. “Cheer up, Fallon. We won't let anything happen to her.”

“Oh really?” Fallon snarled. “Then what the hell's that?” He pointed below him, where four brutish men surrounded Hayashi and Olivia.

“Damn, he was supposed to wait.” Jules leaned over the rail.

“What?”

“Our contact insisted on meeting Olivia away from us. For some reason he doesn't trust Mrs. Sharpe.”

“I hear him on that.” Tersch grunted. “The transmitter's working?”

“Yeah.”

“Jules, so help me, leader or no leader, if you don't fill me in, I'm going to shove your balls up your throat.”

Jules had the nerve to grin. “Quite an image. Fallon, the reason I didn't mention this before is that you never would have gone along with the plan, and we need Olivia to meet with Gatito.

There's a transmitter sewn into Olivia's top so we can follow her. Discreetly,” he emphasized and caught Fallon's arm when he tried to leave. “We spook him; he'll bolt.”

“So those assholes belong to him?” Fallon watched as they led Olivia off the patio through the building and out of sight. Hayashi remained tense, standing by the lounge chairs. “How does our criminal contact plan to stay under the radar using those thugs?”

“Those thugs are state
polícia
and friends of our esteemed Mrs. Sharpe, though Gatito doesn't know that. Relax. We have it covered. Ask your girlfriend if you don't believe me.” Fallon felt like an idiot for not having thought of that sooner. “
I'm so sorry, baby. I didn't
know about this until now. Olivia, it's okay. We're tracking you with a transponder sewn into
your suit
.”

“
I know, Kisho mentioned it before dropping this bombshell. Warn your Circs, I'm going to
carve them into little pieces when I get back. There's such a thing as sharing information with
your own team
.”

He let out a relieved sigh and left the balcony, but not before warning Jules. “One of those fuckers touches her, and he's losing a hand. Let's go.” Tersch grinned. “I love when Fallon turns mean. Now let's have some fun.”

* * *

They followed the group by trading off. Tersch tracked her, then Hayashi, Jules, and finally Fallon. The polícia dropped her off near an isolated beach house off the beaten path. Run-down and buried in a thick tropical mess, at least its location afforded Fallon cover while he darted in closer.

He used his nose to lead him to Olivia, whose fear bothered him. He stopped when he caught clear sight of her standing across from a nervous little man who wouldn't stop fidgeting.

The guy seemed more worried than Olivia, which settled some of Fallon's fear that he would try to harm her.

“
Obrigado por ter vindo encontrar-se comigo
.” Olivia held out her hand, looking out of place in her yellow bikini and sun-kissed body. Beauty and the beast, he thought with wry amusement as the smaller fellow accepted her hand.

“
I'm here
,” Fallon sent, wanting to reassure her. “
What did you tell the guy
?”

“
I thanked him for meeting with me. Now hush and let me learn what he has to say. That is
why I'm here, after all
.”

He sensed her unloading power and watched as her companion relaxed by degrees.

Apparently Olivia could do more than sense feelings; she could control them as well. To his surprise, he found his beast liked the thought of her with more power. Dominating a weaker woman wouldn't be much of a challenge.

“
Chamo-me, ally from such a character as this Olivia Gatito. Não temos muito tempo. Vou
contar-lhe o que sei
.” The guy rambled on, but all Fallon caught was Gatito, his name.

Several minutes passed. Olivia frowned, questioned Gatito, seemed to disagree with him at times, then nodded. For his part, Gatito remained in the shadows of the trees, his back to the large palms behind him. It didn't take a Circ to smell his fear, and Fallon noted how Olivia used her voice to question him. Soothing, reassuring, and not at all the one she used when speaking with him.

Subtle rustling to his right and the scent of cedar and vanilla indicated Tersch and Jules had arrived. Across from the partial clearing, he saw Hayashi's wave before he disappeared into the vegetation. Much of Fallon's agitation eased when he knew his team had this meeting surrounded.

And then a smell that didn't belong in the jungle reached him. The rotting scent of rogue Circ—something he'd never forget, and something he hadn't experienced in over a year.

“
Shit. Jules, rogues
.” He stripped and
changed
in an instant, prepared to protect Olivia at all costs.

“
Where
?” Jules asked.

“
I'm not—there, by Hayashi
.” Fronds and branches waved. Rustling and growling grew louder, alarming Gatito, who shoved some papers into Olivia's hands before bolting into the jungle, away from the beach.

“
Espera
!” Olivia cried and stupidly rushed after him.

“
Dammit. Olivia, wait
,” Fallon ordered. Two rogues rushed him from out of nowhere.

Rogue Circs, unlike the mutants that resembled nothing more than mutated monsters, looked like him and his team. Enlarged bodies, toughened skin, fangs and claws, and powerful needs. But rogues possessed fierce tempers they couldn't control—appetites for sex and destruction caused by a genetic anomaly in their blood, an anomaly that only seemed to abate once a Circ had found a mate—and before turning rogue in the first place.

Years ago scientists working on Project Dawn had created control drugs, but they only managed to turn rogue Circs into mutants. Fallon and his team had beaten the odds and managed to stay sane, leaning on one another for support, as well as the drugs Doc had fashioned for them.

The drugs no longer worked as well as they once did, but Fallon didn't worry about turning rogue. Not with Olivia by his side. Except she wasn't at his side, and he had these assholes to worry about.

Tersch yelled to him, but he didn't understand. The fierce imperative to find and protect Olivia consumed him. Without thinking about it, he sent a mental roar at the rogue closest to him and slashed at his throat. He drew blood, but the wound began healing immediately. The other rogue shoved him back and broke one of his ribs. Fallon hissed through the pain, and having lost sight of Olivia completely, he snapped. His control vanished.

He tore into the rogue who'd shoved him, with no thought but to destroy. They battled back and forth, but Fallon couldn't wait any longer. He shoved a clawed fist through the rogue's chest cavity and dug for his heart. After ripping it from the rogue's chest, he tossed it aside and bounded after Olivia.

Behind him, he heard Tersch's soul-stirring battle cry and knew the berserker had come out to play. About fucking time, he snarled mentally while tracking Olivia with skill and speed. He caught up to her in minutes but was too late to save Gatito, who dangled from the claw of a mutant.

“
We have mutants to worry about too
,” he broadcasted to the team, unaware of how he did it exactly. Unlike the rogues, the mutants looked like nothing remotely human. This one had a misshapen spine that crooked like an S. Tar black skin, scaled instead of flesh. Red eyes without a hint of white stared malevolently as it gnawed on Gatito's arm. Sharp teeth and a forked black tongue flicked at the man's blood.

Olivia didn't scream. In fact, she made very little noise at all. When she glanced back at him, she froze. A haze of ripe cherries lingered on his tongue, made bitter because of her obvious terror.

“Baby, it's me. Jesse. This is the
change
in its entirety. That thing over there is an abomination.”

She flinched at his deepened voice but didn't try to escape when he took her in his arms.

Unfortunately the mutant latched onto her scent, as he'd known it would. It roared, dropped Gatito, and made a beeline in their direction.

“Run,” Fallon yelled and launched himself at the mutant. He wondered what the fuck these things were doing still alive and in this particular place. Especially when he and the team were here at the exact same spot at the exact same time. He did his best to stand between the mutant and his mate.

Mutants had twice as much strength as Circs, as they weren't held back by control, reason, or conscience. They did what they pleased when they pleased, and corrupted by an unnatural drug, they lost the power to think with any sense of logic, the only flaw in their design, as far as Fallon could tell.

The thing picked him up and threw him into the base of a thick tree, cracking his femur.

The pain stunned Fallon for a moment before he rolled to his feet and fought back while he healed. Olivia, damn her, hadn't moved.

“
Jules, I need help. Olivia's in danger
,” he yelled with his mind. “
Olivia, dammit, get out
of here
!”

“
Coming. More mutants out here
,” Jules returned, mentally struggling.

Tersch's eerie growl echoed around them. He could only imagine what the sight of his monstrously large friend would do to Olivia's already fragile state of mind.

The mutant caught him in the side, using his distraction against him. The bastard pierced his flesh with twisted, jagged claws that hurt like a bitch. He roared his displeasure and cried out in pain as the thing ripped its nails out. They entered smoothly but pulled out more flesh, the jagged teeth on the things fucking effective weapons.

Bleeding like a sieve, Fallon faltered on his feet. Need to keep clearheaded for Olivia, he told himself and forced his feet to move. A glance at her showed her fixated on his blood.

“Olivia, honey, please. You have to get to safety,” he growled, upset his mate wouldn't leave. The damned woman was going to get herself killed.

The mutant sniffed in her direction and grinned. Then it wrapped itself around Fallon, clinging like a goddamn leech, and bit into his neck.

Trying to free himself from its bone-crushing grip was bad enough, but feeling the mutant's pronged tongue sucking at his neck, ingesting his blood, freaked the hell out of him. Light-headed and growing weaker, Fallon struggled for Olivia's sake. But as his ribs cracked, he began to drown in the fluid building up in his lungs.

An alien shriek pierced the air, but he couldn't see what happened. Weak, you're weak, he berated himself as he fought to remain coherent, to not leave his mate to a horrific fate. Instead he floundered in a sea of cold, dark hell, listening to inhuman screams while he imagined the demon killing the only thing he'd ever loved.

Olivia couldn't stand it. The monster was eating Jesse! The only guy to ever prove somewhat promising in the relationship department, and a reject from the Black Lagoon was devouring him.

“Hell no,” she yelled and gave in to the sudden well of rage boiling inside her. She used the creature's own hungers to foster a need to kill within herself. Screams and alien noise from all around her only added to the insanity of the situation. Jesse's large, tough body continued to bleed out as the thing tightened around him like a coiled boa.

On fire, Olivia pulled at her clothes and stretched with every cell she possessed. The pain was agonizing, but the mutant's fury fed her desire to destroy. When the ache finally passed, she clenched her fingers, aware of a subtle difference. Her nails were an inch long and hard as steel A glance down at herself showed her body to be darker, taller, and way more muscular.

She smacked her lips, called for the mutant, and had to avoid piercing her tongue on the long, sharp fangs in her mouth.
Holy crap.

“I'm here, you prick,” she yelled to it again. The scent of its internal decay sickened her, but in a way she also felt a strange pity. The thing had no sense of self, only a lonely need for companionship. It broadcast like a radio tower, its feelings loud, all-encompassing, and pathetic.

“I'm here. Come to me,” she said more quietly and held out her arms.

It didn't break its stare at her as it released its hold on Jesse. He slumped on the ground while the mutant crawled to her. Before she could figure out what she intended to do to it, a dark blur flew in front of her, taking the mutant away once more.