Impulse (53 page)

“You Mage and your little dreams of war,” Christian spat. “I’ve been hearing it for centuries. Think you’re going to be King of Connecticut?” he heckled. “Kill humans and you kill everything that has given you comfort. Packaged cakes, automobiles, movies—”

“Trite possessions. Did we always have them? No, and I could give a shit if civilization is altered and put on a new course. I want what’s mine, and that’s fucking dignity. Wouldn’t mind knocking off Vampires and Chitahs while I’m at it. The hunger for war is a live grenade; you can’t sit on it and expect it to disappear.”

“Then fight your war instead of a woman.”

Merc squinted and the pale moonlight cast shadows across his face. “I’ve worked for
years
keeping my political position and associations with other parties concealed. The one thing I will never tolerate is a snitch, and you can bet that as long as there is breath in my body, I’m going to make sure that a snitch is taken care of.” He made a chilling motion with his hand, slicing across his neck. “Once I cut off her head, I’m going to shove this stick up your ass and set you to the fire.”

“Threaten me, Mage, and I will yawn with boredom. Threaten Silver, and you will pay with your life.” Christian’s deep voice was so powerful that it vibrated against my chest.

Merc cocked his head to the side as I peered at him from behind Christian’s right arm. “Are you her guard?” The bones in his jaw tightened and he nodded. “Now it makes sense. I thought you were only babysitting her at the park. If you’re her guard then that means she’s valuable to the Mageri or been given a position.” He tapped the stick against his leg. “Novis, I presume.
That arrogant little prick
. His reputation as a peacekeeper makes me want to puke. Think you’re someone important now, don’t you?” Merc spit on the ground and dragged his murderous eyes up to mine. “You’re a joke.”

The hum of an Aston Martin rumbled in the distance. Merc was oblivious and I realized it was a residual effect of the Vampire blood allowing me to hear it. The adrenaline rush must have spiked what little abilities I had remaining. The engine shut off and doors clicked open. I felt no flaring, but if Justus parked that far out, then he was preparing himself for a fight.

Merc lowered himself like a football player on the offense. “You know, if I plug this thing deep enough in you, Vampire, I just might kill two birds with one stone.”

“You’re depraved!” I yelled at him.

Christian eased up just enough that when Merc flashed at him, I reached around and chopped my hand upward—snapping the stick before it was centered in his chest cavity. Merc yanked my wrist and flung me to the dirt. His heavy boot came down to stomp my head and I rolled over as Christian ran forward to swing.

Merc flashed out of his reach—laughing.

“Call the Council, Simon. We need Enforcers!” Justus panted urgently in the distance. He must have felt the energy swirling between Merc and me like a nuclear meltdown.

Justus emerged from the thick shadows and I could almost see the heat licking off him. This was a man built for battle, whose strong arms could wield swords, whose hands could expunge life from an enemy’s throat. He was bigger than life as he strode forward, carrying an air of authority that made the trees quake. Those glittering cobalt eyes promised pain and punishment. Justus threw back his broad shoulders as if he were leading an army. The teeth of his boots bit into the earth as he neared the driveway.

Pride swelled looking upon my Ghuardian.

I’m not sure why the one thing that stood out was his shirt untucked on one side, but then it occurred to me—that was the side he carried his dagger. When I dragged my leg up, my right sock snagged on something and pulled off.

Justus stood with one arm behind his back. “Stand down, Merc. The Council has been notified and Enforcers are on their way,” his glacial voice commanded.

“Always the tattletale, weren’t you?” Merc chided.

“What was your intention? To murder an innocent Learner? I thought you a better man who respected our Breed.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere,” Merc grumbled. “You’ve never thought me a better man, so cut the bullshit. Your Learner is not entirely
our
Breed. She’s nothing but a mutant gene that needs to be exterminated before it spreads like a virus.”

“She is a woman; have you forgotten the code of chivalry?”

“Woman?” Merc laughed. “I care not that she’s a woman; she would not be the first woman whose life I’ve taken, Justus, dear old
friend
.” Merc unsheathed a dagger.

“We’re not friends. You betrayed our trust.”

Merc scraped his hair back and his bicep flexed. “HALO should be dismantled. You turned me in without any evidence; my reputation was
ruined
!” he roared. “My good name was soiled and I deserved retribution.”

“Don’t deny what we both know is true,” Justus warned.

Merc glared down at me and sniffed. “I was incarcerated on charges never proven.”

“Deservedly so. You took bribes in exchange for confidential information. You swore an oath to HALO to uphold the laws and respect your brothers.”

He shrugged. “And? Nothing was ever proven by Nigel and that damn Chitah.”

“Proof is irrelevant. You were guilty and if that fact only lies between us, then I’ll be your judge and jury. Do you think that I’ve let this case go? I’m going to get the evidence I need one day, Merc.”

“Fuck, did you just see that?” Merc asked, staring at his ankles. “I think my legs just shook.” He laughed. “The Mageri has a conscience, as I found out. Did you know that’s how I got a position on the Council? To rectify what was taken—my reputation. Can’t say everyone was in agreement about it, but they owed me.”

Justus widened his stance a fraction and lowered his head. “Owed you for what? You
lied
. You deceived. You broke our trust for the sake of profit by selling information. You single-handedly placed doubt on our organization that took us years to reconcile!” he shouted in fury. The vein in his head stood out like a warning of the wrath to come. “And you still hold claim that you are owed for a punishment that was never fully rendered?”

“I broke nothing,” Merc denied. “That was your own undoing by failing to produce evidence. The Chitah deserved a taste of his own medicine for the public humiliation that was served to me on a silver platter, and I’m glad that it ruined the alliance between our Breeds.”

“He
knew
what you were up to and took an oath to expose the truth. Brother or not, the order and our principles come first. Do you think Nigel enjoyed knowing that he was going to turn in one of his own? He saw you as a brother.”

Merc shook his head indifferently. “I care not. Had you anyone in your life that mattered to you… I would have also ended their life.”

Justus shifted his stance and his jaw slackened. “What do you mean?”

Merc clicked his jaw from side to side and grinned. “You bastards really didn’t figure out what happened to Nigel, did you? Thought it was related to one of the HALO cases or a personal vendetta. It
was
personal. Mage or not, Nigel was no brother to me. He was in too deep and when the Mageri didn’t punish him, I got all the revenge I needed taking by his life. His sister was
so sweet
.” Merc’s tongue caressed the words like a delicious memory.

When I looked at Justus, his face was ashen—frozen—lost in the horror of the answers that time had never given him.

Until now.

Merc scraped a heavy shoe along the concrete and I stood up, looking between the men. The tension was palpable and crackled against my fingertips.

“I invited myself over to talk man to man,” Merc said. “He poured the alcohol and I put a stunner in his chest. I had propped him against the wall to sever his head when an unexpected guest tumbled into the room, screaming. What a gift that was. For what he did to me, his life alone was not enough retribution. I tasted the blood of Nigel’s Breed sister and let him watch as she took her last breath. Every scream, every plea that fell from her rosy red lips—I made sure he was witness to. Even though all she said was
don’t watch
,” Merc said mockingly, mimicking her reaction. “Now that you have a Learner, I might get the same satisfaction. Paybacks are a bitch, aren’t they?”

Without warning, Merc flashed at me from behind, ready to strike me down with his unmerciful intent. Christian spun me around and stood between us like a shield.

Color flooded into my Ghuardian’s face like an erupting volcano. A vein protruded in a vertical line on his temple and his eyes blazed with light. Never had I witnessed such savagery and loss of control as in that moment. It was as if the lights went out and a warrior emerged—one without mercy, compassion, or recognition for all the laws he stood to protect. I sensed the heat funneling around him like a firestorm.

Merc tapped his blade thoughtfully against two fingers, watching the change that took over Justus. A knowing smile bled from his expression.

“
Of course
. Why did it never occur to me before? You
liked
Eleanor, didn’t you?”

There it was—an open wound exposed for all to see. A secret buried, a truth revealed, and a vengeance awakened.

The pieces of what I knew began to fit together. Logan’s father was part of HALO. He and Nigel had discovered Merc was accepting bribes in exchange for confidential information. The accusation had gone public without evidence. Logan’s father walked away with a tarnished reputation; that was enough punishment among his own kind. The Mageri cleared all charges against Merc and he was free to walk, but not without a black mark on his name. Nigel received the same public scorn for slander, but in Merc’s eyes, he hadn’t suffered enough. So he exacted his own revenge against him and his sister.

Visceral pain spread across Justus’s face and my heart constricted. Merc had crossed the line. Justus was more than my Ghuardian—he was
family
.

I approached Justus, but nothing existed in his eyes. Not the battered trees or the ancient moon smiling overhead. Only Merc. I cupped his face in my hands and it was rich with pain. His skin prickled the tips of my fingers as power surged through his body uncontrollably.

And the heat. My God, the heat.

“Look at me,” I pleaded.

For the first time, he didn’t pull away. Justus stared beyond me because in that moment in time, the only thing that existed was his nemesis. I tried to turn his head but it was granite.

“She didn’t cry out for you when she died, Justus.” Merc strutted around with mockery on his tongue. “Did you not consummate your love? I felt the heat between her legs and it was delicious. Had I known about your infatuation, I would have done the honors. Of course, with all the blood and crying, it would have been a stretch to tell if she was still a virgin.”

“Shut up!” I screamed. “Justus, please don’t listen to him. Please come back to me.” I used his name, hoping that would bring him out of his blind rage. My heart was racing out of control and an impending sense of dread took hold.

Justus believed that emotions made you vulnerable and if you allowed them to consume you, then you would only know defeat. In this moment, he wasn’t thinking rationally. He wasn’t even thinking.

For once, Justus was
feeling
.

“Ghuardian,
don’t
do this. Please don’t do this.” My hands traced over his sculpted jaw and I tried to pry his gaze away from Merc, but he was unresponsive.

Merc’s dagger was eager to remove life from our bodies and a dark laugh rocked from his chest like a boulder tumbling down a mountain.

“I tasted her down to the last drop, Justus. Her light was
so
sweet when I plucked it out of her and made… her… mortal.” He licked his thumb for emphasis. “You know what the real shame of it is? That gift of hers would have resisted your charm. She could block gifts; it was a tragedy when it leaked away from me. Had I known an Infuser, I would have sealed her light to my core. Blockers are so rare to come by.” His grin faded as if he finally recognized a flavor on his tongue. “But you didn’t know that, did you?”

Merc howled with laughter and darkness filled the contours of Justus’s face.

It happened fast.

I spun around with an outstretched arm and used my gift to pull the dagger from Merc’s hand. Christian stepped in the path and it sank into his abdomen. In the blink of an eye, Merc flashed forward and Justus shoved me to the ground, out of harm’s way.

Their bodies collided like Titans and they fought in dark suspension—a blur of fists, muscle, and blood. Without a weapon, a Mage could only battle with another Mage using their hands and years of experience. I caught a glimpse of a blade planted in the dirt and realized that Justus had thrown down his weapon so that he could take down Merc with his bare hands.

The dagger was too far for me to pull.

“Christian, the knife!” I yelled.

He yanked the blade out of his side and slid it across the dirt. I used my gift to pull it the rest of the way. It left a cutting trail and I caught it.

Christian made no attempt to stop them, but kept his eyes focused on me.

I flashed into the chaos. Merc elbowed Justus in the eye, caught my wrist, and spun me around so that the biting edge of the blade I still held was cutting into my neck. He stood behind me with his hand firmly gripped over mine and the other arm wrapped around my waist.