Sword of Mercy (31 page)

She laughed and slammed Lancaster so hard
against the wall, his eyes rolled to the back of his head as he
slid down the wall.

“Make me,” she challenged Verrick as she
stepped in front of Lancaster. Verrick she could
eliminate.

Verrick’s gaze slid to Lancaster and then back
up at her. The next moment he was airborne, she dropped to the
floor missing his outstretched arms as he hit the wall and landed
on top of Lancaster. She moved quickly, grabbed his head and
twisted hard until it snapped.

The pounding on the door increased and then
someone kicked on it. Asia looked out the broken window, grabbed a
struggling Gordon, and pulled Lancaster from beneath Verrick and
tossed them out the window. Seconds later she jumped and landed
near Gordon, who moved slowly. Lancaster remained limp on the
ground. She looked around the space.

“Where is Hawke?” She asked Gordon.

His face tightened and he looked
away.

She grabbed him by the shirt and shook him
like Raggedy Ann. “Where is Hawke?”

He pointed down and she looked over her
shoulder at the smooth floor. “It opens?”

He nodded.

“Hawke?”

“Almost done. I’ll meet you in a
bit
.”

Happy to hear his voice she didn’t ask any
questions. Instead, she lifted Lancaster and Gordon and ran out the
room.

Chapter 31

In the hall Asia tightened her hold on
Lancaster and pulled Gordon along. They needed a secure place where
she could knock both men out while waiting to kill them or until
either Angus or Hawke arrived.

After turning down two short halls, she
stopped and looked at Gordon. “Open it.” The surprised expression
on his confirmed her suspicions. This section was a private area,
although none of the rooms were marked or had door
handles.

He placed his palm on the wall and it moved.
Rather than wait for her instructions, he stepped inside with her
right behind him. The small room held a table barely large enough
for two people and one chair.

“What kind of room is this?”

“Holding.” He took the seat and leaned back in
the chair watching her. “Is Damian okay? He wasn’t there when I
woke up and I’m wondering where he is.”

Asia released Lancaster, allowing him to
buckle to the floor, but kept her palm on his shoulder to rifle
through his mind to find out locations, names, dates, traitors and
anything about LOBO.

The man’s mind was littered with so many
failed ideas, hopes and challenges that it took a few minutes to
unlock the area with Liege information and read through it. She sat
on the floor next to Lancaster, moved her hand down his arm and
held his wrist. “As far as I know, he is fine and on his way here.
That should make both of you happy.”

Gordon’s brow rose at her actions, but smiled,
nodded and then closed his eyes with the information on
Damian.

LOBO was located in the mountains of Colorado,
she didn’t see a name for a close town, but the facility looked
like a college campus. She’d have Hawke research abandoned schools
or permits for new ones along with the landmarks. Over the years
they had many pups enter, but later discovered few pups could
handle the surgeries. There were so many faces she wanted to cry
over the destroyed lives in the name of science and
progress.

Next she searched for information regarding
current projects, their client base and products. Whereas the names
of projects were in his mind, in-depth information was missing
unlike LOBO, his personal project. She continued opening his mental
doors and searching for information that would help La Patron,
Hawke and anything regarding her true identity. One thing that
didn’t surprise her was his alternate plans in case he needed to
ditch the Liege. Seems like he took the reversal of the covenant
serious and made arrangements for his disappearance.

After securing information on the Liege
operation, she searched for data on Hawke and was surprised by the
level of pride and affection the old bastard had for her mate.
There was a love and hate battle going on in Lancaster’s mind with
Hawke.

Lancaster had encouraged Greggor’s feelings
for Hawke, even told his disturbed nephew that Hawke returned his
interest. Later he installed a corrupt neck brace on Greggor
knowing either the brace or Hawke would kill the young man. She
paid close attention to the neck brace information finding it
interesting that under certain circumstances the effects could be
reversed.

Asia watched Gordon and continued taking
information from Lancaster. He was no doctor, but understood the
mechanics of their enhancements. After a few minutes longer, she
gave up, there had been no mention of her other than her surgeries,
assignments, progress and disappointment that she escaped.
Lancaster didn’t really believe she and Hawke were mated. He clung
to the notion of Hawke and Angus.

The project underway to duplicate the power of
the chameleon disturbed her. The Liege had secured natural crystals
and rare herbs from all over the globe to recreate Angus’ work. She
would inform him and her Mistress of this new threat. The idea of a
Liege Lord in high positions of power sent shivers of distaste
through her.

Standing, she searched the area for Angus or
Hawke.
“Where are you?”
she asked her mate.

“When I fell through the floor I hit a
caged ball which rolled out the building and landed into the Nistru
River. I’m headed back in your direction, but look for me on the
side of the road, I’m quite a distance away
.”

She told him everything that happened since
she saw him last. Hawke laughed. “
Pity you couldn’t kill him.
They never expected you to focus on them rather than try to save
me.”

“You didn’t need saving.
”

He chuckled.
“Angus, Damian and Byte are in
the building searching for you. Angus took information from Damian
as well
.” He paused. “
La Patron pulled Damian’s wolf and had
Angus train him in the woods. That’s where they were during the
ceremony.”

“Are you okay with that?”
He sounded
put off for some reason.

“Yes. No. Well, I’m not sure, but I think I
would have enjoyed seeing him as a wolf his first time and giving
him instructions. But I’m not sure that’s what I’m feeling. It’s
all new. Does that make sense
?”

Asia had no point of reference and tried to
imagine if she ran across a pup from her loins, how would she feel?
Would she want to train the pup? Teach him how to survive?
Possibly.

“Yes, the confusion and uncertainty makes
perfect sense to me. Hopefully you will have time to run with him
in the forest and answer questions I’m sure he has.
”
Encouraging him to further bond with his son seemed the right thing
to say and do. At least for now.

“You said there is
another?”

“In the lab one of the workers
said you had two. I’ll ask Gordon, he’s waiting for Damian. I don’t
think he likes Lancaster much, you should have seen
them.”

“Thanks, I’m curious if there are more,
even though I’m not sure what we should do about
it.
”

Neither was she, but she could hear her
Mistress saying it was all about family. “
We’ll work it
out.”

She leaned against the wall next to the table
where Gordon sat and looked down at him. The man sat slumped in the
chair with his head down. “Is Damian the only pup from Hawke’s
seed?”

Gordon’s head rose, in slow increments until
he met her gaze. “No. There is one more. A female, two, no three, I
think. Extremely smart, cute, definitely Alpha material. Strong
willed from the beginning, she will need to temper that in order to
survive the training.”

Asia swallowed hard at the sorrow in his gaze.
“You’ll kill her if she doesn’t… what? Obey? If she has a mind of
her own?”

He nodded. “Behavioral optimization. She is
too young for any of the surgeries, so she is punished in a
traditional manner.” He chuckled. “Doesn’t work though. As smart as
she is, we cannot keep her if she does not bend. So yes, she will
be terminated if she does not change. I’m telling you this because
she is Damian’s… sister, I suppose and Hawke’s seed. If I survive
and return to my duties, she will undergo a series of tests, her
future is dependent on how well she does.”

“Can’t you just release her?”

“No. I don’t work alone in a vacuum.” He
glanced at Lancaster on the floor. “Do you think he would ever
release someone who could one day return and destroy him or the
Liege? None of us would do that.”

“Why doesn’t Damian have the same computer
chip as Hawke?”

Gordon released a long sigh. “Meant to, but
things kept coming up, labs destroyed, merchandise lost, lost staff
and things like that. Takes time and resources to find and train
doctors. Since he was born in-house and the expense of the surgery,
plus finding the right personnel, we put it off until later. That
asshole brought him out before we put a tracking device in Damian.
He wasn’t ready in more ways than one.” He shook his
head.

“What about his wolf, did he ever
shift?”

“No and we didn’t give him drugs to suppress
it either. I think it had something to do with him not wanting his
beast. He wasn’t the only one. Some shift at puberty, others never
do. We haven’t figured out why yet. Do you know?”

“No. All pups shift, it’s unusual not
to.”

“If they are around full-bloods and see it as
a normal occurrence, but when it’s not… I’m not sure.”

Since she had no idea, she’d ask Matt in a
Patron’s laboratory how that played out long term for the health of
the full-blood. “What about Asia, did she have any pups?” She had
searched Lancaster’s memories and found nothing.

Gordon glanced at her and snorted. “I wish,
that would be the icing on the cake, but as far as I know she
didn’t.” He closed his eyes as if savoring the idea. “Now that
would be something.” He looked at her. “Asia is still our top
enhanced work. Never understood what it was about her biology, it
was different from the others. Her body accepted each additional
enhancement, her arm and legs when she fell from the plane and
crushed her original set. Once she was in Japan on an assignment,
lost an eye, we were able to replace it with an improved
version.”

Asia had forgotten the incident when she fell
onto the mountains. The pain had been excruciating. Hours passed
before the extraction team found her. When she woke up one of the
doctors told her of the surgery.

Gordon’s account of the situation made it seem
as if they’d done her a favor and that their actions had been
benevolent when that wasn’t true. Too bad she couldn’t tell him
what she thought of their treatments.

“Hawke is amazing as well. Even without the
computer chip he has excellent utilization of his limbs. One day we
hope to create the right balance with the metal so that no chips
are needed.”

“So Damian has something?”

“No. Hawke’s behavior needed optimizing, he
thought like a wolf with a pack mentality and refused to respond to
Lancaster as his Alpha. His chip overruled his wolf and controlled
his limbs. But the chip no longer works, I don’t think it’s still
embedded. How did that happen?”

Asia shrugged and scented the air. Angus was
nearby. “Mates. It cancels out everything.”

Gordon nodded as there was a knock on the
door.

“That’s Damian.”

Gordon brightened and opened the door. Byte
entered first causing Gordon to back up and return to his seat. The
animal looked at her, sniffed Lancaster and then settled beneath
the table.

Damian entered and headed toward Gordon. Angus
stepped inside as the door closed behind him. “You good?” he asked
her.

She nodded.

“Let’s go then.”

Before she could turn, Lancaster jumped up,
placed his palm on the wall behind him, which opened. He dove into
the small opening and lashed out his hand. The wall closed and he
was gone. It all happened within seconds.