Mercy (7 page)

She should be thinking about how to outplay her uncles so that she survived this. She should be trying to find out what Gabriel really wanted so that she could use it against him should it prove necessary. She shouldn’t be thinking about hard hands and sweat-slick bodies and rough whispers of trust.

Still, Iada admired the view until Gabriel said, “No boat. We swim.”

She scowled. “All the way downriver.”

“Not quite so far. We cross here then travel overland for a ways.” He pointed. “There. You can see it from here.”

She made a rude sound. “Barely.”

“I thought the academy’s champion would be tougher than this.”

She knew what he was doing but it still stung. Wordlessly she removed her dress and sealed it inside a watertight bag, threading her arms through the straps. They were made of a sturdy elastic material that would adjust when she changed. She’d never gone far enough from the compound to require one of the packs they had specially made to blend in with the colors of fur and jungle. Gabriel left his clothes where they lay. She supposed that he would have a stash of replacements hidden in the jungle near his home.

“You can swim, right?” he asked.

She responded with a look of murderous disdain and dived, changing to jaguar form before she hit the rushing water. The strength of the current whipped her from the shoreline. It took all her strength and concentration to angle herself to reach the narrow outcropping Gabriel had indicated. She dragged herself up onto the bank and shook the water from her fur, finding a flat rock to sit upon as she watched Gabriel struggle against the current. She licked some water from her forearm as she waited. No point changing back if he planned to travel through the jungle.

Gabriel’s claws scored the muddy banks as he pulled himself from the river. He was as fine a specimen in jaguar form as human, heavily muscled and dangerous. She swallowed a purr of appreciation. She had to watch herself in this. Her cat body lacked all subtlety. Instinct was more powerful when she was in this form, all animal urges more intense. Her tail twitched with the concentration it took not to rise up and curl herself around his body, slide slowly down his length and tuck her head beneath his jaw.

He nudged her to her feet and headed into the tangle of vegetation that walled the river.

They stopped several times to rest in the shade, once to hunt, once to take shelter when a particularly fierce storm burst shook the canopy and drenched them with sweet cooling rain.

Gabriel watched her with flat eyes. His intent was impossible to read, his head resting on one forearm, steam curling from his back. When the rain lessened to a mist, he rose up, flicked his tail and led her onward, already miles beyond her farthest excursion. They had rejoined the great river, skirting the small human settlements scattered along its banks. By morning they reached the very edge of the city.

Iada sat back on her haunches, ears twitching, her nostrils flaring at the assault, and looked upon the dirty sprawling pile of rubble the humans called home.

***

How could they live like this? The noise and the smell were appalling. Add to that the cold, ugly concrete and it was Iada’s personal idea of hell. There were people everywhere. Hopeless eyes. Dirty faces. The young men on the corner tracked their progress down the narrow street with greedy speculation.

They’d shifted back into human form just outside of the city and dressed. Gabriel had chided her for not packing shoes and she’d rolled her eyes. She hated wearing shoes. But as she picked her way gingerly over the broken glass on the sidewalk, she could see he had a point. Gabriel glanced down, plucked her up into his arms and kept walking. He turned right down an alley smelling of garbage and setting her on the stoop, rapped sharply on a rusted steel door. After a moment the door cracked open just enough for a dark eye to peer out at them. There was a whoop of joy, then the door was thrown wide and Iada saw a blur of flying dark hair and golden skin hurl itself at Gabriel, two skinny arms snaking tight around his neck. Iada tensed to snatch the little monster away. But before she reached out, she saw Gabriel’s face, happy and completely unguarded for that one heartbeat. And she stopped, arms dropping to her sides and a flush creeping up her neck.

He was hugging the little one back, swinging the girl in his arms before setting her bare feet back on the crumbling stoop. He whispered something in the girl’s ear and she scurried away. When he turned back to Iada and swept her inside the dimly lit corridor, that reserved and watchful look was once again firmly in place. He led her down the narrow hall, knocked once on a door at the very end, ducked his head inside then pulled her into a cramped and squalid apartment, shutting the door behind them.

“What is this place?” Iada’s gaze swept disdainfully over scarred wooden floors and peeling paint. Better to sleep in the jungle than here.

“A safe house.”

Iada pulled her eyes away from the sagging water-stained ceiling and cocked an eyebrow. “Safe,” she repeated, lifting her brows. “You’re certain?”

A human woman who had been hovering beside a small round table came forward with a tentative smile. Middle-aged, plump with short, curling hair, she looked pitifully soft. Iada had seen humans before. A boat had stopped near their lands once to wait out a storm. She’d crept out onto a branch near the water. A half-dozen men huddled beneath an awning as if they were afraid of the rain. Why would Anna have taken one of these to mate? A human mate couldn’t possibly protect their child.

Instead of answering Iada, Gabriel turned and spoke to the human, reassuring her that he wasn’t hungry when she offered to prepare him food. Iada walked about the room, examining the few possessions. It was one open room. The kitchen on one side. A living area on the other with a square metal dining table in between. There was a small sofa covered in worn fabric that had once been a cheerful orange but now only looked dingy. The pillows were flat and it was too short to sleep on. The human finally accepted defeat and Iada could hear her approach from behind.

“Welcome,” she said to Iada’s back. “My name is Sofia. Make yourself at home and if there’s anything I can do for you, only let me know.”

Iada dropped onto the single chair in the small room, turned to their host and said, “Something to drink.”

Gabriel winced and put his hand on the woman’s arm, rumbled something in that deep, smooth voice of his that teased the scowl from her face. When she was gone he turned on Iada and growled, “Your social skills are alarming.”

“You’re probably right,” she agreed amicably. “They didn’t teach diplomacy at the academy.”

“Not common courtesy either. You’ll need to learn to relate to these people. Humans are not your servants. To them you are the abomination.”

He had nearly killed her and had not looked as angry then as he did now. She frowned. “They are human.”

Looking tired and exasperated, he said with forced patience, “Humans are people too. You do know that you’re not actually a jaguar?”

She raised her brows and regarded him coolly.

His eyes narrowed thoughtfully and he said, “If you’d been born in the forests of America, you might have been a cougar or a wolf.”

He let the sentence hang there like bait. To assess her gullibility? She snorted. “Nonsense.”

“Did they teach you nothing about our kind at your academy?” This said with a touch of derision that stiffened her spine.

“They taught me everything I needed to know. How to fight. How to win.” She didn’t need the look Gabriel gave her to remind her that they were lessons that had failed her in the end.

Gabriel leaned his shoulder against the wall and plucked the dingy curtain back with two fingers to peer outside. He was toying with her again, always poking and prodding at her then measuring every reaction. Always finding her wanting. A wolf. Ha. Except Gabriel had been honest with her so far. At times, brutally so. Iada shifted uncomfortably on the hard wood.

“The truth,” she demanded. “Are there others who can shift to different forms?”

He dropped the curtain and shot her an amused glance. “Wolf. Lion. Bear…You’ve heard of Berserkers? I heard a rumor once of a boa constrictor but I’m not sure I believe it.” That wry grin. “Don’t really want to believe it. We have a genetic anomaly that allows us to shift form to mimic the largest predator in our environment. The form is set at maturity during an imprint stage. That’s when most abandoned mixed-blood children die, because they are unprepared to handle the change.” His gaze was strangely intent. “Any of this sound familiar?”

None of it. Her education had been woefully single-purposed, she was realizing. Her uncles had required a warrior they could control, not one who was well informed. That nauseating sensation of being cast adrift swamped her again. “I am familiar with the difficulties of the first change, of course.”

He rubbed his hand over his face, looking worn and weary. “So the Federación? The European Council? These mean nothing to you?”

“No.”

“Damn, you are amazing,” he muttered, shaking his head. “I’ve never met anyone so self-absorbed.”

The muscles in her shoulders twitched but she managed to suppress her reaction otherwise. She turned her face away so he would not be able to read it there. He didn’t even seem to be aware of the insult he’d delivered. Either that or he did not care.

When the woman returned, Gabriel crossed the room in two long strides to take the heavy tray from her and set it on the table. Then he was through the open door with a promise to return soon.

Iada accepted the red plastic cup from her reluctant hostess then made herself look into the human’s wary eyes.

Iada smiled and said, “Thank you.”

Iada stared at the thin mattress pushed into the corner of the closet-sized room. There were no sheets, no blanket. She thought fondly of the damp pile of palm fronds she had slept on the night before. She supposed they could rip down the curtain that served as a door. She felt Gabriel stop behind her, his large hands settling on her hips as if it were the most natural thing in the world, that light touch sliding warmth down every limb and pooling deep in her body. Cold at least would not be a problem.

“There’s only one pillow.”

“I’ll wrestle you for it,” he said, and that was her only warning before he swept her legs out from under her and flipped her onto the mattress. He followed immediately, pinning her to the thin mattress with his weight.

He was too heavy for her to roll, too skilled to be caught by her hands or feet. She tried to clip him with an elbow but he only chuckled and dodged it easily. She growled in frustration then ran her tongue up the column of his neck. He jerked back in surprise and she slipped her arm free. Rolling to her hands and knees, she nearly made it out of his reach. Sprawled on his back, he hooked an arm around one thigh to pull her back.

“Cheater,” he accused though it lacked force. He was grinning, that wide, easy smile that made her want to smile back. He was more relaxed here among his own people. This playful side of him tempted and confused her.

“I didn’t bite,” she protested. “No teeth, no foul. Tongue doesn’t count.”

She squirmed, trying to roll away, but he positioned her hips over his face, hands on her ass, arms angled so that her thighs were spread and her knees were only barely touching the mattress. She braced herself onto her elbows but couldn’t shift her legs to find the leverage she would need to slip free. Though admittedly she wasn’t trying very hard.

His tongue stabbed inside and then went wide and flat as he moved up toward her clit, parting her folds as he licked at her leisurely. He pulled her hips just slightly away and she knew that he was staring at her. She could feel the heat of his breath on her skin when he said, “Tongue counts, Iada.”

And he pulled her back down, determined to prove it. He licked and nibbled at her until she was moving against his mouth, moaning. His hands gripped her hips and balanced her at that awkward angle that gave him all the control. His thick hair tickled her thighs and she knotted her fists in the mattress as he worked at her with lips and tongue and teeth. She should tell him that teeth were clearly prohibited. She should.

She dropped her forehead to the mattress and she could see him. She could see the top of his head and his thick black hair as he moved his head for a better angle, to lick deep inside her or, oh God, to take her clit between his teeth and dig the tip of his tongue there. When he angled his head just so, she could see his lashes lower, and the look on his face was one of…joy.

The air felt trapped in her lungs and her chest suddenly hurt. Then he whispered her name, his deep voice hoarse with need and nearly tender, and she felt the first swell of release lift her. He nuzzled at her, speaking soft words of praise and caressing her through the aftershocks.

He slid her down his body, over his chest and abdomen and rolled her. She was still floating somewhere beyond conscious thought when he spread her thighs wide and pushed in deep, stretching her, filling her. He wrapped his thick arms beneath her shoulders and fisted his hands in her hair, easing her head back so that when she opened her eyes, his face filled her vision.

He looked smug and she had the vague feeling she should be irritated by that. He slid nearly all the way out and she whimpered until he slammed full into her again. He did the same again and again, angling his head so that he could watch the bounce of her breasts as he pushed himself deep. Ducking his head, he caught her nipple between his teeth until his next thrust broke the contact. His ragged breath and the slap of their sweat-slick bodies were the only sounds in the small enclosed space.

“Tell me you need me, Iada,” he demanded, voice hoarse.

She parted her lips but the words would not come. She wouldn’t lie to him and she didn’t need him.

He growled. “Tell me at least that you really want this.”

That she could say. Surely there was no harm in admitting that much. Her gaze locked on his. His lips were tight, the corded muscles in his neck strained, but there was none of the dazed look in his eyes that she felt. He looked intent, focused and fiercely determined.

“I want you, Gabriel,” Iada said with complete honesty even though it was almost painful to reveal so much.

She recognized her weakness and it terrified her. She had always been the one in control, the victor. And all she wanted to do was cede to this mutant, defer to his strength. Let him take her where she wanted to be. It was a foolish indulgence to trust him with that kind of power. But she surrendered to it anyway. Just one more time.

***

When she woke the next morning, Gabriel was gone and the apartment was empty. Iada was returning from the one working bathroom shared by the entire building when someone tugged at her sleeve from the shadows. Before the touch even registered in her conscious brain, she had the stranger pinned to the wall by the throat. Anna. No wonder she had not sensed a threat. Her fingers slowly loosened their grip. She was so attuned to the human stench that the smell of her own kind went undetected.

“Please don’t, Iada,” Anna’s voice shook pitifully. She turned her face away. “Not you too.”

Iada slipped her arms around her sister’s bony shoulders and pulled her in tight against her body. Anna had lost weight. She was trembling and filthy.

“I would never hurt you.” Iada was momentarily stunned by the ferocity in her own voice. She tucked Anna’s head against her shoulder and felt tears soaking through the thin cloth of her T-shirt. “I’m taking you home.”

Little Anna pushed away from her so violently that Iada stumbled back hard against the stone wall. Anna bolted down the corridor and Iada followed her after a moment of stunned disbelief. She turned the corner just in time to see Anna duck into the apartment at the end of a dark corridor. Not bothering to knock, Iada pushed her way inside and there was Gabriel, standing in the middle of the dingy room, holding a wailing infant, looking angry at her again while Anna hid behind him like a child.

“You won’t let her take me back, will you, Gabriel?” Anna whispered.

Iada glared at him.

Gabriel said, “No one will make you do anything you don’t want to do.”

***

Anna met her husband at the door with a kiss, looked over her shoulder at her sister then leaned in close to whisper something in Lucas’s ear. Gabriel looked from Anna, pretty and restless as a little bird, to Iada sitting stiffly in the chair beside him holding Michael awkwardly on her lap.

His wife was staring at the couple with an indecipherable expression on her still features. Beautiful, composed, lethal. He thought by now he would know for certain where her loyalty lay but he still didn’t know quite what to make of her. Somehow she managed to alienate every human that she met, reinforcing their worst opinions of the Yaguara and undoing years of his work to force a reconciliation. It was impossible to even know what she truly thought let alone how much of her was still owned by Vinicius and Arturo. He didn’t know what to do with her. Except when she was on her back beneath him or on her knees or…He jerked himself from that line of thought and watched Lucas approach with barely veiled hostility.

“Welcome to our home, sister,” Lucas said with something of a challenge in his voice.

Iada looked around her and sniffed, a world of comment in that delicate flare of nostril. Placing his palm on her thigh, Gabriel squeezed out a warning he had little hope that she would heed.

Lucas bristled visibly but continued, “I know you don’t like me because I’m human…”

Iada surprised them all by leaning forward and saying the one thing sure to sink into the devoted Lucas like a dagger to the heart. “I don’t like you because you’re not taking care of my sister.”

Anna hauled back on her husband’s arm. Every muscle in Gabriel’s body clenched, prepared to step between Iada and danger even as he wanted to throttle her himself. He muttered, “Damn it, Iada. Do you always go straight for the jugular?”

She tilted her head, considered that for a moment and then shrugged. “I suppose that I do.”

Michael squawked and Iada startled, looked down at his tiny wrinkled face and smiled. It was just a tight little baring of her teeth but Gabriel realized it was the only sincere smile he’d ever seen on her face. Something eased a little bit in his chest, soft and sad and sweet. And what the hell was he to make of that reaction?

While Anna worked on settling Lucas, Gabriel turned to Iada. “Your uncles had Anna dumped in the jungle. Sick, alone, in the final weeks of pregnancy and unable to shift without harming a human child. She was barely alive when she made it here. Lucas has no reason to welcome anyone from her family.”

Iada’s face was alarming in its utter stillness. She whispered, “I did not know.”

Gabriel’s mouth tightened. How could she not have known? Anna was her sister. “That man is the only reason your sister is still alive.”

He paused to let that sink in. Iada’s eyes remained focused on Anna, who was still busy soothing her furious husband with soft words and gentle hands.

Gabriel said, “You need to apologize to him.”

Iada jerked her head to look at him and he saw the outrage there. He repeated firmly, “Apologize.”

“I said I didn’t know.”

“You insulted him by rejecting his attempt to make peace and for implying that he was the cause of your sister’s illness when it was your family who was responsible. You will apologize.”

Her expression closed down. Damn, he could usually read people better than this but he had no idea what she would do, not even when she drew in a shaky breath and got to her feet. Gabriel watched Lucas slowly fist his hands and he was glad at least that Iada still had Michael in her arms.

“Please accept my apology and…thank you for taking care of Anna.” Iada looked down and her face softened, impossibly making her even lovelier. “And Michael. I am sorry…brother.” The last was said awkwardly but Gabriel couldn’t have been more proud of her in that instant or more relieved. The tension slowly ebbed from his body and he settled back into the chair. Iada turned to her sister. “I’m so sorry, Anna. I didn’t know.”

When Iada excused herself from the apartment a short time later, Gabriel lingered to speak with Anna. “Is it possible that she didn’t know what your uncles did to you?” His tone was skeptical.

Anna nodded without reservation. “Who would tell her? Once she was selected for the academy, they took her away and I hardly ever saw her,” Anna said quietly, looking up at her husband with her heart in her eyes.

The look was so tender, so intimate that Gabriel had to look away. How could little Anna be such a sweetheart when her big sister didn’t seem to have one?

When Anna looked back at him, her face was almost grim. “When our parents died, she was the one who found Maria to care for me when she entered the academy. I didn’t understand why at the time. I was so angry that she was sending me away from the compound but she was only trying to protect me from them.”

It fit with what little he knew of his wife. He could see her as an angel-faced black-haired child with those solemn eyes placing herself wholly in Vin’s and Arturo’s hands even while trying to protect her younger sister. Iada was ruthlessly practical, he thought, but not entirely without the ability to care for others. He wondered, through a childhood spent under Vin and Arturo’s twisted tutelage, was there ever anyone who’d looked out for Iada? Had there ever been anyone to truly care for her? He wanted to ask but he was pretty sure that he already knew the answer.

He quenched the stir of pity in his chest. He couldn’t afford to be swayed by any tender feelings toward the lovely, lethal bride he’d won along with his crown. Yes, it was sad, but the woman Iada might have been had been lost a long time ago. One more casualty in her uncles’ not so secret war to exterminate the mutants. He would do what he could to protect the broken little thing but he couldn’t make the mistake of trusting her.

“And she kept that rock,” Anna added, pressing her lips to Michael’s temple. When she glanced up and saw Gabriel watching her, she said, “The flat stone she wears around her neck. I gave it to her before she left me with Maria.” Anna shook her head. “I don’t think she’s as cold as she acts. She’s more than just a fighter.”

“You might want to keep that opinion to yourself. I’m not sure that Iada would agree.”

Anna laid the sleeping Michael in his cradle and then took Gabriel by the hand. “There’s time to convince her, thanks to you, my king. For now it’s time to celebrate your victory.”

“I hope you didn’t go to any trouble, Anna.” He of all people knew how little the residents of this refuge could afford it. “There’s too much work to be done before we can claim a victory.”

Lucas clapped him on the back and opened the door. “Then we will celebrate this minor success. Tonight you are among friends. Go gather your wife and join us in the courtyard, highness.”

“Don’t be too hard on her,” Gabriel said gruffly to Lucas before he left. “I think that she’s doing the best she can.”

Lucas followed him into the empty hallway and pulled the door closed behind him. “She will report back to her uncles when you return. It’s bad enough that she knows where we live.”

“Careful, Lucas,” Gabriel warned. “Iada is my wife and your queen. I’ll be damned if I let you or anyone else mistreat her.”

“No one will harm her,” Lucas said, then shrugged. “No one will welcome her either. You risk our lives for hers.”

“I know that.”

“And if it comes to a choice?”

Gabriel only had to look at him, let him see his pupil’s begin to elongate at the unspoken threat to his mate and Lucas was holding up a hand in supplication. Gabriel swatted the hand aside and gripped Lucas’s shoulders. “Don’t worry, brother. I can manage my wife…and her uncles too.”