The Link That Binds (4 page)

He threw Jace the keys to the cuffs and the cat freed himself from the restraint, then rubbed his wrist to get rid of the stiffness.

Unfortunately for Link, he hadn’t expected the cuffs to come flying back to him and he was struck square in the face at a harsh speed, “Son of a…!” he ground out as the cat gave him a smug look. One that Link wanted nothing more than to wipe straight off his face.

At least his newly-gained headache distracted from the bite in his neck, albeit not by much.

Shamus was having a really good time making fun of Link’s nasty new bruise, which crossed him straight over the right eye and reached slightly above his brow. Even Mika had some issues keeping a straight face, despite being pissed at him for not being able to produce the poison he’d wanted.

Still, Mika took the thin folder of what Link had compiled and handed it off to his lackey, who snickered as he put it into his pack.

“I see the kitty’s been giving you some problems. Bet you’re glad to get rid of him now, aren’t you? Maybe enough to give you a little more incentive to fulfill the task I asked you to look into? I’d think that for a guy with your smarts, a little plague shouldn’t be too difficult for you to cook up.” Mika sneered with some amusement.

Link suppressed the desire to growl at the loathsome creature. Instead, a cold, thin smile stretched across his features. “You’re absolutely right, Mika,” Link agreed, “I could easily work up something like that… of course, such a
cure
would most likely destroy your kind as well, but hey, less problems for me, right?”

Glaring, Mika got straight up in his face and snarled. “You do like to joke, don’t you, Link? But do not forget that it isn’t just vampires working for me. If anything were to happen, there could be more than a few individuals out for retribution and I assure you, they know exactly where to find it.”

Link didn’t back away. He wasn’t scared of Mika, but knew he’d make good on his promise if Link tried to back out of their agreement.

Until that time arrived, though, Link knew he was far too valuable for Mika to risk losing him. There were some other concerns as well, like what would happen to Jace now that his deadline was up.

“I’m sure they do.” Link nodded before turning to look at the cat in the cage who looked about ready to kill whoever or
whatever
opened his cell door first. “Now what will happen to the cat? Another bag of bones for your pile?” Link tried to sound like he was completely indifferent to whatever might be the case, but hopefully this wouldn’t be the end of the little firecracker who enticed him as much as he managed to annoy the hell out of him.

Mika looked at him suspiciously for a few moments, sizing him up, before letting out an overly dramatic sigh, “Unfortunately, little miss kitty is a return to sender kind of deal… or rather my half of a trade off.”

Link hoped the relief didn’t show on his face, knowing better than to let his guard down in front of the crazed vampire.

Disregarding Link, Mika took hold of his tranquilizer gun and aimed it at Jace.

Link could just see the cat mouth a word suspiciously close to
fuck
… before the dart hit him right in the chest. Hopefully, after Jace returned to his family, he could perhaps take a vacation and travel to a country void of the numbing drugs. God knows he deserved a break.

Shamus got the door open and started dragging Jace across the floor by his foot, the cat still barely conscious with his eyes glazed over. As they passed him, Link muttered, “Bye kitty,” then watched him being dragged outside and shoved into the ridiculous hearse-like limo.

Link couldn’t really help but feel a slight pang of disappointment as the car drove away… somehow he thought he might even miss the shifter.

* * * *

Jace had been hissing pretty much nonstop since waking up. Snapping at whoever came within striking distance.

On one hand, he was fucking ecstatic that he’d finally found his ticket home, although still pretty certain Mika was gonna try something. On the other, he was just fucking pissed off.

He would probably have to go on the same damn detox cure he’d given to Leo when he first came to the pride. He’d definitely started to feel the shakes as his body tried to rid itself from the toxic crap. Feeling as if he was being chased around by evil, man-eating color blobs didn’t exactly make him feel any saner.

They were in the same warehouse where they’d captured him in the first place and from the looks of it, they hadn’t exactly done much cleaning since the last time they’d been there. Shattered crates and bloodstains covered the floor. Hell, he even recognized some of his own stains.

At least they’d had the decency to remove the dead bodies.

Mika struck out at him with his gun, nailing him where he’d caught the damn thing a million times before. “Shut the fuck up, Garfield! Your whining is giving me a headache.”

“Yeah, well, so the fuck is your insisting to manhandle me with that fucking gun of yours,” Jace snapped back as his own head throbbed, setting off a new swirl of colors around his head.

Mika had seemed genuinely entertained by him at first, but Jace sure as hell tried everything to piss him off and by the looks of it, something was working. The vampire had even started to grind his teeth and it wasn’t a far stretch to imagine the importance of the vampire hostage, seeing as Mika hadn’t disposed of him yet or permanently wired his jaw shut.

It struck Jace though, how clearminded Mika suddenly seemed, sure he still shook from time to time and had some gnarly aspiration problems, even had the occasional eye-twitching, but otherwise, Mika seemed to be present in the mental department… well, as present as an evil vampire junkie could be.

He could sense how Mika tensed when they heard the car pull up. Mika caught hold of his arm and pulled him along outside. It had started to rain and Jace took a moment to just feel the drops hit his face.

It’d been his first chance to get anything close to clean in far too long and he could really use a hot, steamy shower right about now.

His attention returned as Solomon stepped out of the SUV, weapons on display at his sides. No point in hiding them since none of them would be dumb enough to be caught without one anyway.

Solomon looked pissed as he stood before Mika, who chuckled.

“We meet again.” The vampire smiled, “Now where is Brass? ‘Cause no Brass means kitty, here,” Mika grinned as he pulled back Jace’s head and aimed his gun at his jugular, “won’t be chasing any balls of yarn in the future.”

Solomon didn’t react other than to glare at Mika. “You know you really should leave the jokes for the comedians. I’ve coughed up hairballs funnier than you… not funnier looking, though.”

Sneering, Mika snapped, “Bring me Brass or there’ll be a massacre here tonight and I’ll bet your hairballs are even funnier covered with blood.”

Solomon wasn’t even rattled by Mika’s words and Jace couldn’t help but feel a bit insulted that a threat on his life didn’t seem to warrant any reaction. Well, he knew Sol cared, but he couldn’t really show much in the way of emotions with all of the vampires standing around, never being one to be caught looking weak, but still…

“Before I bring out your little friend, I should inform you that I have snipers covering the area. They’ve already incapacitated the two you had stationed on top of the warehouse. If you so much as flinch the wrong way, my men will fire at will. So in case you had something planned…” Solomon trailed off, Mika apparently getting the point as he bared his teeth in unhappy disgust.

Jace grinned,
Go team Sol!
Their Sorena wasn’t one to be messed with and had proved his leadership skills on more than one occasion. If only the council would allow them to go in and bust some skulls, Mika and his gang would’ve been toast decades ago. But
no
, the council had interests that needed to be maintained and a war would surely fuck things up. Not like it would have been the first war.

He saw Solomon gesturing towards the car and the door opened.

Liam got out with a tight grip on the vampire’s arm as he pulled him from the car. This Brass guy looked fairly roughed up and pale or at least paler than normal for a vampire, so that probably meant the guy had worked up quite an appetite, to the point of starving.

Still, Jace had expected there to be more bruises or at least a few broken bones, especially if Liam had been the one interrogating the vampire.

Then again, the vampire looked kind of gangly compared to his fellow fang folk so maybe torture didn’t sit too well with him… even if he was rumored to be some kind of elite… maybe he’d been hired as an elite archive filer or something?

When Liam and the vampire stood in front of them, Solomon nodded to Liam to let the vampire go. He seemed to hesitate a bit, but let go and the vampire sauntered off to join his brethren.

Jace could feel Mika’s grip tighten around his arm, but after glaring back at the spot where he’d planted his now useless snipers, he reluctantly let go. Jace would have hugged Solomon if they weren’t in the open with a gang of vampires around, but he gave his friend a great big smile as he took his place next to his Sorena.

His big smile was a last attempt to piss off Mika and the glare he got from the vampire could have burned a hole through him. Raising his lip in disgust, Mika turned and stalked off to where the limo stood. He had no concerns that he was now open to attack; he trusted Sol and the guys to keep him bullet-wound-free. Jace also had a sneaking suspicion that Mika had some inside intel on the council’s reluctance to off him.

The vampire Brass stumbled several times as he hurried to catch up with his nut-job leader, but he threw a few more glances over his shoulder, looking nervous.

Pushing Brass into the limo, Mika turned and sneered at them. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about Leo, Sol. Give my best to Maddox and tell him I’ll see them both soon enough.”

Despite the threat to his pride-mates, it felt good to be free and Jace couldn’t wait to get home and just crash under his covers for a week. He would never again underestimate the value of a mattress. There was just one other thing though. Turning to Solomon, Jace figured he’d just spill. “Sol,” he started in a serious tone, but got cut off by Sol who laughed.

“There are burgers in the car.”

“Oh, thank god! You totally rock!” Jace exclaimed as his tummy rumbled like a goddamned thunderstorm.

Jace was starving and not just because the drugs had given him the munchies. In the days since his kidnapping, he’d had exactly two ham sandwiches, which wasn’t nearly enough food for a guy who thought steaks should always come in pairs.

“Then let’s eat.” Jace grinned as he dove for the car, practically crawling past Liam to get to the real goods. It might not have been steaks, but right now a pickle-drowned burger was a fucking amazing piece of ambrosia.

Jace sat behind his desk, looking at the evil looking pile of paperwork he had to go through. You’d think a guy with his kind of job would only have to work on medical files, but sadly, that was far from the truth.

He needed some new equipment, which should be fair enough, but apparently the council had to make sure he wasn’t going to use the devices for frickin’ world domination if they were to finance the purchase… how Jace was going to control the world with an x-ray machine and a high intensity defibrillator he had no idea, but apparently they were some pretty hefty devices.

Maybe he could go around
shocking
world leaders to death or expose them to radiation by ordering inhuman quantities of x-rays so they’d end up with cancer ten to twenty years into the future. Yep, world dominion was clearly within his reach.

Then there were the papers filed by several prides that were without proper medical care and wanted Jace to either join them or schedule them in for medical exams. For some reason each and every one of them required a forty page explanation as to the
why
of it all. Not like the buggers could just pick up the damn phone and ask,
hey I think I’m down with the kitty sniffles and wanted to know what soup works best to cure said sniffles.

It’d been nearly a week since he’d gotten back, but he just couldn’t focus on dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s anymore
.

He hadn’t had much to do with the others either, not except for giving Leo a checkup after the insistence of his mate, Maddox, the very large, protective lion-shifter that was also on Sol’s team.

Leo had been fine and although he still suffered from spasms whenever he got too stressed, the attacks were harmless to his body. But doing a medical exam on a guy whose mate kept snarling at him whenever he touched the guy was always an enjoyable experience.

A tentative knock sounded on the door and Kett sauntered into the room. “Hey, Jace. Dinner will be ready soon.”

“Not really hungry.” Jace answered as he considered sending the entire pile of paper through the shredder and making himself a confetti party.

“You need to eat properly, Jace. Not like your skinny ass needs to slim down.” Kett snickered.

“You jerk!” Jace hissed. “I eat plenty, and I have an awesome ass.”

Kett gave him a look saying
yeah right
. “When did you eat last? Seriously.”

“Breakfast,” Jace answered before he really thought it through.

“First of all,” Kett told him as he held up a finger, “breakfast was over ten hours ago and second, you weren’t there.”

Kind of surprised when Jace realized Kett was right, he blanched. He’d intended to go for breakfast, but he just hadn’t been able to stomach it.

The burgers Sol had gotten for him had been devoured in no time, but since then he hadn’t really had an appetite for food. “I have a few energy bars in my drawer,” Jace lied, although he did actually have some in an emergency pack in the backroom, not that that crap could really be considered real food. “I swear I’ll try and get some real food before I call it a night. I just really need to get some of these papers done.” Jace gestured to the magnificent pile of cellulose crap before him.
Had it grown?