S.A. Price (19 page)

Merrick frowned at him seeming to follow his thoughts. “Be nice to her, she politely turned you down, is that’s such a crime?”

“Yes!” He answered incredulously not believing that Merrick could actually ask such a stupid question.

“You know it’s not a crime to be choosy about whom you sleep with Aiden, especially in her position. It can’t be easy for her.”

“Sure it can, she’s hot and don’t tell me she’s not up for it. I’ve seen those posters with their come hither looks. She’s a tease.” He ranted half-heartedly.

“No she’s not. Now play nice or you’ll be going nowhere. Elise should be giving Myra the details and location. I know navigating isn’t your forte.” Merrick smirked at him as he walked away towards the library door. “Now go and get changed. You’re on a time limit here and I still need you to make a few devices when you get back.” He shouted as he disappeared out of sight.

He was too caught up in his own feelings to remember to ask Merrick how things went with Elise.

He turned back to where Myra, now in naked human form, stood in the last of the dying sunlight.

Watching her excited him, things were finally starting to kick off and now he had to spend some time alone in a confined space with her. At least now he would be able to get to know her more without sounding so stupidly obvious. She walked steadily out of his sight rolling her hips seductively as she padded across the grass. He grinned thinking of her and Evelyn in a car together; it was definitely a very sexy thought. Things were heating up indeed he grinned again to himself as he made his way back to his room.

~77~

EIGHTEEN

Homer sat in the sumptuous office on the top floor of the compound, a bag of ice on his head where Evelyn had hit him. He was proud, she had done very well, even split the scalp enough that he had needed stitches just behind his left ear. That alone had worked to his advantage when Loretta had found him, and woken him, carrying him to the infirmary. By the clock on the wall when he was woken, it was almost a half hour after the incident, and he hoped she had gotten to safety. Now, as he looked up at the ornate antique clock on the mantle of the grand fireplace, two hours had elapsed, and he hadn’t heard anything about Evie being captured. He wasn’t rejoicing just yet, because he was here waiting on the head honcho, Cristof, to come. He knew he was going to be questioned, and thoroughly, but he also knew he had one thing on his side, his rank.

Cristof was a lunatic, bent on gaining powers and having a goddess consort, but he wasn’t stupid.

He would need foot soldiers, and strong men to mate with his female Ophidians if and when he found some. Though the sect believed that in order for them to have the Ophidian or partial Ophidian children, the men would have to have relations with the goddess, and he had figured Cristof wasn’t going to be so forthcoming on his own for that. Word had it that Delphyne, the supposed goddess they were trying to raise, was not as interested in monogamy though. Cristof had to know that, and be willing to share or else he wouldn’t have this insane crusade he was on limited to men he could approve of.

Hopefully, Evie was well away from the compound, and already rallying the troops. He sighed; upset with himself for not sending her to someone he knew would help. Having her call Santos wouldn’t have been smart man, you know this! It would have done more harm than good. And it would have opened up some questions you aren’t prepared to answer, not to her or to Santos. Just need to play it cool, she won’t let me down, Hell the woman isn’t capable of it.

So yeah, they were on their own, probably with the cops or maybe the mob or something, hell maybe an army of swimsuit models, he didn’t know and he didn’t care, so long as things here got cleaned up and the girls got back home.

Some of them were close to a break down, having been with them well before Homer had shown up. Regardless of whether they were the legendary snake shifter, or just a victim of circumstance, they didn’t deserve this, captivity without hope. The trust of the matter was that they were all very strong women, dealing with the situation to the best of their ability. For that he had to give them credit.

He looked about the room and sneered. Cristof was a fop that was for damn sure, falling into bad guy cliché’s left and right. He already wore the requisite bad guy suit and robes, and a large platinum medallion all the time, apparently the symbol for Delphyne, a snake and circle intertwined with obsidian eyes. All he needed was an angora cat and a monocle and he would be every bad guy James Bond ever tangled with. Add to that his scary obsession to be the snake king like Thusla Doom, and you had a ripe old lunatic on your hands. So Homer knew he had to tread lightly, make Cristof believe him but not overly believe. Guys like him had a god complex yes, and they didn’t like to not be in control of the situation. The trick was to make sure Cristof thought he was.

~78~

He shifted the ice on the lower part of the back of his head and sat up straighter as the door finally opened, and Cristof sauntered in. Homer almost smiled to himself, seeing that Cristof was indeed a creature of habit. Today he was in a dove grey suit with a purple velvet robe, his medallion affixed to his neck by way of the collar of his robe. His wingtips sunk into the thick pile carpet as he walked around to his chair behind the giant rosewood desk. He sat regally and motioned to Homer who nodded and winced, the pain in his neck and head further proof that his Evie was the right woman for the job. Cristof looked at him and gave him a small smile.

“Major Maxwell, I trust you’re okay?”

Homer nodded, keeping his eyes on Cristof. “I will be, luckily there’s no concussion, but she did whack me pretty good.”

“Yes, tell me what happened?”

Homer gave him a wan smile. “I underestimated her.”

“Obviously. I mean why is it we found you fully clothed. Did you not seal the deal?”

Homer blushed. He knew that was going to come back and bite him in the ass. “Yeah… Guess I’m not the kind of ladies man I thought. I had turned to grab the glasses from the tray and I guess she hauled off and hit me.”

"And did she exhibit any extra ability?" He asked his voice calculating and cold showing only the mildest inflection of interest. "Strength? Speed?"

"Well unless you count the fact that she can heave a half full wine bottle like a discus thrower, no."

he smiled what he hoped was a sheepish smile.

A small crease between Cristof's brows was the only indication he gave to disappointment in Homer's answer. "You let your guard down?" He said more as a statement than a question.

"Not intentionally. The woman gave no indication that she was unhappy after I let her out of the cage, in fact she was very grateful most of the time. I had her on the grounds several times and she didn’t try to bolt once. She’s quite the little actress."

"Apparently, though given who she was, that was to be suspected. It was my understanding that you were aware of that."

"And I was, but again, after chatting with the woman, I didn’t feel the need to be overly on guard.

You hired me to do a job to the best of my ability, and this is the kind of work I do. It’s very rare an undercover agent gets out acted. You brought me in for my abilities didn’t you? Well I said it before and I’ll say it now, nabbing the actress was the wrong thing to do. She’s too high profile.”

"The goddess directed us to her. I wouldn’t be so quick to cast judgment on her orders. I brought you in on this, yes, but I will admit that I expected better results. This level of failure I would expect from Jackson." He brought his black cane up in front of him clasping his hand tightly on the silver cobra head.

"Jax?" he laughed. "Hell the last woman you let him play hero for he raped to get results. Don’t think the goddess would appreciate that. Poor thing is scared to death and is on a hunger strike."

"Very true. Yet his girl seems to still be safely in his cage while yours is... whereabouts unknown at this time."

"Yeah and his hasn’t changed, is scared to death and spits at everyone. Not the kind of woman that would be used for precious Delphyne. But that’s not here, nor there. It was my mistake, and I take full responsibility, but remember one thing Cristof, the woman was a wild card, and if she is a snake, if Jax got his hands on her, or any one of your grunts, she would be spoiled and Delphyne wouldn’t want her. If she is in fact a snake, and she got away, the Goddess will direct you to her again then won’t she? She is hot..." he offered.

"Stunning I believe would be more accurate and I couldn't agree with you more. When we relocate her I'll deal with her myself, can't have another incident allowing her to escape. It's true the goddess has qualms about physically forcing the girls’ however, she has no such problems with a little magic enslaving their minds. Hardly touches their spirit." He gave Homer a lecherous grin.

~79~

Homer smiled at him, but inside he was seething. That fuck was not touching his Evie, not a chance in hell. Luckily, he was able to keep it all inside as he spoke to the lunatic. "That’s up to you Cristof. Now is there anything else? I’m still on duty tonight at the pens."

"Of course, if we haven't located Miss Rose by dawn tomorrow we will have to relocate everything.

Thankfully we do have a back up location fully stocked for us. I want you to choose another, no sense in wasting time with them. We are, after all, working with a time limit."

"Indeed. I’ll peruse them while I’m down there tonight, and make sure the girls are all fit for transport, should the need arise. Though in light of recent events, make sure you have someone call down to me if Ms. Rose isn’t found. I’ll need to trank a few of them for travel."

"There won't be enough time for that we'll leave the broken ones, I'm sure you can spare a few bullets for them. It'll put them out of their misery. Jackson can help you; one has to keep him amused somehow. There are only seven I want you to bother packaging up, the rest are dead weight. The goddess doesn’t want to associate with them. She is very interested in Miss Rose though. All efforts are being made to recapture her. Especially given recent evidence."

The idea of the women getting a bullet for not fitting into the lunatic’s mold didn’t sit well with him but he was smart enough not to say a damn word. He wouldn’t be plugging any of them, and he was going to make sure no one else did that job either. "Indeed? You think she’s right for the vessel?

The seven then? I’ll make sure they are able to handle the transporting." He asked, hoping to get some more info incase he needed it.

"They're marked out so you know who they are." he smiled again the thought of the girls’ deaths clearly not effecting him in any way. "Yes it’s quite exciting really, when we watched over the security footage we found something distinctly different about Miss Rose. It’s a pity you could nether confirm or deny any special abilities that she may have, other than acting of course."

"Really? Dare I ask?"

"I don't know. Do you?" He smiled again. "You're not really a true believer in our venture. That hasn't escaped my notice although you do not insult our intelligence by pretending to believe like your friend Jackson. One day I wish to make a believer out of you Major Maxwell."

He nodded. "And one day you very well might, but I’m a realist Cristof, something beaten into me in the military. Taking something on faith isn’t something I’m able to do. I need to see it in front of me as a tangible entity for it to be real for me. So what exactly did Ms. Rose do to make you think she’s right for you?" he asked and smiled. He had played his honesty card, knowing that would get to Cristof more than anything. The man enjoyed being right about people.

A smile cracked on his face showing full in his eyes. It was the first show of real emotion Homer had seen on him. "I'll show you." Standing he moved to a large plasma TV picking up a remote. "It's the tape we had watching the grounds on the gate side." He pressed play and the tape started showing the background. "You see when she moves across it. She moves faster and more fluidly than any human could. She makes that run faster than any Olympic athlete could."

Homer watched the tape and inwardly cursed. If she could move like that, then she might very well be what Cristof was looking for, and that was a bad thing. Either way, he was going to have to keep an eye on his beauty from now on, provided she came back to help like she was supposed to. He whistled. "Well I'll be damned. I’ll be honest Cristof, she didn’t do anything like this when we were together, though she’s got a great set of lips."

"And other assets," he leered watching Evelyn run. "It will indeed be a joy to have her back in our company."

"I’ll take your word for it, though it won’t be too soon that I see her again." He smiled and then stood, the ice bag that was at the back of his neck now clutched in his hand. "So if that’s it, don’t let me keep you, I’m sure you have things to do, and I have my duties to take care of."

He nodded. "Be careful, and remember to choose your next one out of the seven girls we're taking."

~80~

"Can do. Question though, which one hasn’t been fucked with too badly? I don’t want something Jax has played with."

"None of the ones we wish to take with us."

"Fair enough. Anything you would recommend?"

"They are all lovely specimens although I believe one of them does porn films. Catherine Everret is her real name; she might be something in the talent department. That’s depending on what you're looking for; Jackson’s been begging me for her. But if it’s a stunning conversation you’re after, Mila Wallace is a psychologist, the two of us were talking this morning. She's rather bright for a woman."