Chapter Nine
“Come,” Devon called when the knock sounded on her office door. She didn’t look up because she was concentrating on finishing the contract she was reading, but she knew immediately who it was and she could pretty much guess what he wanted.
She made Carter wait until she reached the end of the page, her digital pen flying over it to make last-minute corrections as she went. When she was satisfied, she put it aside and looked up. She saw the scowl on his face and had to resist rolling her eyes at his predictability.
“Yes, Mr. Spencer?” she greeted.
“Mr. Spencer? Have I been demoted now?” he asked, a barely concealed sneer edging his tone.
“Only when you piss me off. Sort of like when your mother uses your middle name when you get in trouble?” She sat back and gave him a tame smile. “Relax, Carter. No need to pass around your resume.”
“You know, you wouldn’t have even made a joke like that before that Nash showed up. What the hell is going on here? We’ve known each other for decades, Devona. Why are you suddenly acting like I’m the enemy and that … human is someone you can trust?”
“Because you’ve been screwing up in ways that are just too careless to be excused in a man known for his efficiency, and that human has nothing to gain in his life except payment for keeping mine in existence.”
“Are you sure about that?” he drawled, leaning a hand on her desk and bending forward slightly as he narrowed his eyes on her.
“You are a rich, beautiful woman with the sexual aura of a cat in heat, and he’s no different from any other tomcat, human or otherwise.
He’s already staked a claim, you know. You can feel it on him like some sort of primitive monkey beating on his chest and screeching to warn other males away.
He reeks of possessiveness. You’d best be careful, Devona.
This is not the sort of man you’d want for a stalker. ”
He straightened up, trying not to look too pleased with himself when she frowned thoughtfully.
He had known Devon for years. Many long and loyal years.
He knew her inside and out, and he knew one of the things that scared her most was the idea of things she couldn’t control.
It was why she had so few personal relationships.
She could not control others, so she often subconsciously went about discarding them almost as eagerly as she picked them up.
It was a shame because she really enjoyed the stimulation of others, but she feared it too.
She always had and always would. Carter had only lasted this long because he made every effort to understand this about her.
He was well suited to her needs. He took great pleasure in being everything she could possibly want or need at any given moment, without ever giving her cause to worry.
When she was displeased with him on the rare occasion, as she was now, it disturbed him deeply.
He didn’t like the insecurity. Devon was solid and secure in all ways imaginable.
Or she had been before the information on how to kill a Morphate had finally come across her desk and she’d taken on the folly of inventing these damnable weapons.
And while her wealth, comfort, and position, the things he treasured most highly, had not changed, they could and would if something were to happen to her.
So he had to accept this outside influence that suddenly surrounded them and filled every corner of the previously museum-quiet mansion.
This … NHK. Though he thought very little of the human forces surrounding them, there wasn’t much choice in the matter.
Carter didn’t mind their self-imposed exile.
He didn’t even mind pretending to be human.
It had its perks and amusements. But Devon depended solely on him, and he on her, as the only Morphate contacts in each other’s lives.
The only ones sharing the secret of their existence.
It made for a very special bond between them.
“I know you and Liam have taken an instant dislike to one another,” she said softly, “but it would please me if you could at least try to get along.” She stood up and turned to the covered window directly behind her.
She folded her arms across her middle, looking at the window coverings as if she could see right through them.
“It’s a rare human who can welcome Morphates into their circle without feeling fear and prejudice.
So many look on us as monsters. Unfortunately, many of them are right. ”
“I don’t know what you were thinking, telling him we are Morphate.
No one except other Morphates knew that.
Now a small human army is going to know.
And while Nash might not be prejudiced, there’s no way he can speak for his entire workforce.
It’s impossible. These are well-armed and well-trained killers, Devona.
They have access to your house. Your bedroom.
You. Mark my words, you are risking your life trusting these people.
What’s more, I resent you telling them about me without even asking me! ”
“I didn’t tell them, Carter,” she snapped, whirling to face him down with angry fire in her eyes.
“Your holier-than-thou superiority gave you away long before I could ever have done so. Liam probably suspected you were a Morphate even before he knew I was one! You have no idea what a pompous ass you can be sometimes, you know that? And you talk about racism among the humans? Look at yourself, Carter. One day just watch and listen to your behavior and you’ll see what it is that has me so damn disappointed in you! ”
Spencer jerked back at the accusation as though she had slapped him in the face.
The change that washed through him was phenomenal.
He practically deflated before her eyes, his arrogance streaming out of him.
He was tall and handsome in a narrow sort of way, so much leaner than Liam that he almost seemed scrawny in comparison, though Devon knew it was unfair to compare anyone to Liam’s outstanding physical stature.
But as his bravado left him, Carter looked very small all of a sudden.
And very young. If a Morphate could look vulnerable, then he had achieved it.
He had been careless, but she knew he would never betray her.
“I’m sorry,” he said, and she believed him. “I know I do have some obnoxious behaviors sometimes.”
“When you are threatened,” she agreed, not quite ready to let him off the hook. “What is it about Liam and his people that threatens you?”
“Jesus, Devon, they have mercury!”
He said it like it made all the difference in the world.
And she supposed it did. For the first time since Paulson’s labs, Carter was facing the only human beings who knew about that vulnerability and had the means to use it against him, and it wasn’t bringing out the best in him.
How could she not understand that? When one treasures immortality for so long, only to have it so suddenly destroyed, it was bound to make the fear of death prominent, and ten times as daunting.
But nothing should live forever. It simply wasn’t a natural part of the lifecycle. The universe was all about life, death, decay, and rebirth. From the smallest bacteria to the exploding stars so far away, the same rhythm existed.
So she simply accepted that she did, indeed, exist, whether or not it was a natural existence.
She enjoyed that existence in her own way, managing it the best way she knew how.
Devon figured that was the freedom of being an intelligent being.
Unlike her brethren, she believed she would die one day.
The price on her life had only reinforced that feeling.
Perhaps that was why she saw things so differently.
She believed it enough to want to give her people a dose of the feeling.
“I have mercury,” Devon said gently. “And I explained to you some time ago that this day was coming. Didn’t you prepare yourself for it at all?”
“I …” Carter shrugged and looked away. “I thought you’d change your mind.”
Devon actually laughed aloud at that. “When did you ever know me to change my mind?” she wanted to know.
The truth was on his sheepish face. He had been fooling himself because it had given him temporary comfort to do so.
“Now, please,” she said gently, brushing her hand before herself as if to brush away all these issues, “let’s focus on the present and the future and the things I desperately need your help to accomplish.
In all fairness, Carter, you’ve been unforgivably careless with private and secure information and it stops right here and right now.
You will obey every directive regarding security that Liam Nash gives you. Understood?”
“Yes, Devon. If that’s what you would like me to do.”
“It is.” She smiled. “Thank you. Now I need to fix my schedule and organize a few more meetings before things get any worse than they are.”
“You’re going to continue meeting with the members of the Morphate sects, Devon? Are you crazy? After what happened last time?”
“All the more reason to do it,” she said firmly. “I am making my propositions to each and every one of them, the Alpha Council as well, until each one sees this situation properly. And in the process, I’m watching for evidence of who my enemy is.”