Chapter Thirteen #3
“Do not goad him,” Devon warned. Political leader of a species or no, Nick wasn’t above goofing off and stirring up mischief.
“I think he has a crush on you,” Nick observed keenly. Too keenly. It made her look at Nick sharply and her body stiffened with telltale guilt. “Holy shit! Are you screwing your bodyguard? Do you have any idea what a frigging cliché that is?”
“Shh! Keep your voice down,” Devon hushed him frantically. Then she squared her shoulders. “I don’t give a damn about clichés, Nick. Just like Liam doesn’t give a damn about stereotypes. And considering that Morphates have tried to kill him on more than one occasion, I respect him for that.”
Nick had to nod in grave agreement. “Humans have been growing more and more prejudiced against us over the past years. That’s a nerve-wracking thought, considering we were never merrily accepted in the first place.
In the beginning we were able to play the victim card.
Now people are forgetting about that and are being flooded with negative news stories that the Morphates of Dark L.
A., Dark Phoenix, and their splinter groups have been causing.
I won’t even touch on the subject of our …
unusual offspring. And it’s only going to get worse.
All the more reason for you to come back behind the safe walls of Dark Manhattan, Devona. ”
She just shook her head.
“Not yet, Nick.” She looked back at Liam. “Not yet.”
Nick could have pressed her. He could have teased her quite a bit more, too, he realized as he read her distracted attention toward her bodyguard.
But he did not. She was in danger, dancing on a precarious sword’s tip.
She certainly didn’t need any more flack from her Alpha.
He’d have Amara contact her in a day or two and let his mate work on coaxing her Beta back into the fold.
If anyone was going to succeed, it would be Amara, Nick thought.
Their friendship had been forged in the hell of Paulson’s laboratory.
Nick’s mate deserved the right to command her lieutenants.
He would not interfere. In fact, he was only there at Amara’s behest. He would not have presumed otherwise.
Being Alpha did not mean walking all over the rights of his mate. Not in his mind, anyway.
“Okay then. Not yet,” he agreed with a nod. “But I don’t have to tell you this request isn’t going to stop with me.”
Devon smiled. “I am well aware Amara is using you to soften me up for the kill. I will expect her call.”
“She loves you,” Nick reminded her, “and misses you. She won’t mow you down and force you to come home … unless she thinks you’re in too much danger. So stay safe, okay?”
“I’m trying,” she insisted as they both rose from their chairs and Nick used their joined hands to pull her close for a warm, lingering kiss on her cheek. If he had not said outright that she was missed, his gesture of affection would have said it all.
Nick was barely out of the dining room before Liam was by her side, his hand resting protectively and possessively in the small of her back.
Devon had a bad headache, tension and stress taking its toll even on her Morphate body.
She didn’t show any outward sign of it, however, knowing she was under scrutiny in more ways than one.
Devon wanted to go home more than anything, but she suddenly couldn’t look up at Liam and ask him to bring her there.
Despite Nick and Amara’s support and obvious love for her, she felt all alone in the world.
All alone in her endeavors. She didn’t know if Liam would understand that.
How could he when she’d never given him any explanations?
She understood why he thought she was treating him like some ignorant soldier sometimes.
He was an intelligent man and deserved explanations.
His patience in waiting for honesty from her was finite and she should not test it too much longer, she knew.
She wanted to go home, but going home meant she’d have to face him in private again, and she didn’t want to argue anymore tonight.
Time was growing short for her very quickly.
She was burning all her last remaining friendships among Morphates into ashes.
She felt scorched and dirtied by the coarse smoke left behind.
She had never in a million years thought she would one day be orchestrating the possible death of a species.
How far she had come.
Or fallen.
Liam watched her escort leave, and then turned his careful attention back to Devon.
He would never be certain when exactly it was that he began to sense the wrongness of her mood, but he knew with sudden certainty that she needed him.
That she needed his patience and understanding, not his censure or jealous attempts to control her.
When she looked up at him, he saw a weary sadness in her eyes, and then steel as she prepared herself to deal with him. He slowly reached for her hand.
“Hey,” he greeted her gently, letting her know with just his tone that he’d no plans to attack her again.
“Hey,” she replied softly, her gaze training steadily on his as she tried to figure out what he wanted from her. Liam imagined there were a lot of people wanting things from her lately.
“I’m never going to be okay with anything I feel puts you in danger,” he whispered so only she could hear him, “but I shouldn’t have hassled you like that.
I might have been overcompensating a little as I tried to prove to myself that our sexual relationship would not change our dynamic as protector and protectee. ”
Devon looked away, turning her face from him, but she didn’t have the fall of her hair to hide behind, so she lifted fingers that shook just slightly to cover her mouth.
“Devon …”
“I’m very tired,” she said, clearing the quaver from her voice.
“Then let’s bring you home.” He turned his head, engaging the mic. “Okay guys, let’s wrap this up. Col, front or back?” He nodded to himself as he received Colin’s assessment on preferable exits. “Nez, you’re with me. Kell, walk the route. Tori, stand back and watch.”
Victoria and Kellen stood up and went in opposite directions.
Inez crossed the floor to join them. He took Devon’s hands in his and drew her close, pulling her against his body briefly, protecting her within the comforting circle of his arm.
The ma?tre d’ brought Devon her wrap and thanked her when she signed for their tabs with a generous tip.
Devon took a deep breath, as though bracing herself for her exit; but what she was doing was trying to scent for other Morphates in the area.
She was only aware of Nick’s lingering trail.
It was no guarantee, however, because there might be human assassins as well, though she felt less threatened by them.
Liam’s hand rested on her waist at her back and he guided her from the restaurant.
The intruders knew very well that there were cameras covering almost every inch of the compound.
That both visual and heat spectrum projections were sent back to the control room.
They had watched guard rotations and movement for so long that they had finally come to understand the order in the chaos of their schedule.
Whatever clever prick was in charge of these guys had trained them to never patrol the grounds or house in exactly the same way.
They had been taught to change it up constantly, and yet be very thorough every single time.
Sometimes they started at the security room.
Sometimes they started on the top level.
East wing bottom floor. West wing top floor.
East wing top floor. West wing mid floor.
And the exterior guards did the exact same thing.
Sometimes in teams. Sometimes solo. They even had a shadow maneuver where a team split up, the first member beginning a circuit and the second waiting five minutes before following and shadowing his partner’s path and checking behind him.
The point was it was impossible to predict how much time they had or what things they might have missed despite their long wait in the woods, watching every detail as shrewdly as they could.
Infrared technology and visual cameras did not faze them in the least. It was the human factor that was the wild card.
That humans could be something to fear stuck in the craw.
And that was why they were there. They were going to burn Devona Candler to the ground and her weapons with her.
Maybe they couldn’t erase knowledge of the effect irradiated mercury had on Morphates, and maybe this was only an act of postponing the inevitable, but striking at Devona would have a twofold effect.
It would set her project back quite a few years and it would rob the humans of the genius of Devona’s intellect.
Plus, it would be giving the traitorous, presumptuous bitch what she deserved for betraying her own people.
Perhaps Ambrose would order them to do the same to the next and the next who thought themselves brilliant enough to create such a weapon, delaying the development for decades.
Delaying just enough to allow Morphates to move out of the shameful banishment of the Dark Cities and into positions of power all around the world.
No more of this illicit bullshit, as if it were a crime to live as free as the humans did.
And why couldn’t they? Because they were immortal?
Because they were stronger than humans? Because of the way they made love?
Because of the ferocity of their children?