Tempting the Beast

CHAPTER NINETEEN

It was barely dawn when Callan brought Merinus quickly awake. With his hand over her mouth, his voice a quiet hiss in her ear, he warned her to silence. Staring up at him in surprise, Merinus nodded her head, barely recognizing the savage standing before her.

His expression was hard, frightening in the dim light of the room. What was even more terrifying was the fact that he was dressed in dark fatigues, his hair tied back, his amber eyes glowing with an eerie light within the darkness of the room.

“Here.” He jerked her shirt over her head as he pushed her shorts into her hands. “Dress quickly.”

He was already dressed. As she dragged her shorts nervously over her hips, he handed her socks and her hiking boots.

“Hurry,” he urged her as she pulled the socks and boots on and laced them with trembling fingers.

As she rushed to dress, Callan was stuffing small boxes in a backpack, his movements hurried but controlled. Muscles bunched beneath the clothing, tight and hard, his body tense in preparation for danger. This was not a relaxing wake up call.

“What’s wrong?” Confusion filled her voice, though she fought to keep it at a low whisper.

“We have company. Soldiers.” He grabbed her hand when she tied off her boot and drew her quickly to the door.

It was then Merinus saw the dull glint of the gun he carried in his hand. Small and lethal, the silver black color gleamed subtly in the darkness, reminding her of the death that always surrounded him. She took a deep, steadying breath, following him as he drew her from the bed. Keeping his other hand wrapped carefully around her wrist, he pulled her from the bedroom, heading cautiously down the dark hallway.

Merinus couldn’t hear anything. She strained to detect any sound out of the ordinary, but all she heard was total silence, and the dull thud of her own heartbeat. They moved carefully along the hallway, staying flat against the wall as he drew her towards the kitchen. Drawing her down to a crouch, Callan moved her into the kitchen and over to the door that led into the garage. There, he turned the doorknob silently, standing alert as he inhaled slowly.

He jerked the door opened and rushed her across the concrete floor to the hidden door. It opened before they could reach it. Sherra waved them in quickly, dressed in fatigues as well, a gun in her hand.

“Get her dressed.” Callan pushed Merinus towards Sherra as he headed to where the doctor was packing equipment in desperate haste.

“Leave anything you don’t have to have. Samples and notes only, Doc.” Callan grabbed several cases of just that and rushed them to a waiting jeep parked at the end of the cavernous room. “We don’t have time for the rest.”

“How close are they?” Sherra pushed pants and a T-shirt at Merinus as she glanced back.

“They’ll be through the security system in a matter of minutes. It will take them no time to find the hidden door,” Callan barked. “Get your shit together and let’s get out of here. Taber and Tanner are keeping track of them and they’re working on the doors now.”

Merinus hurriedly took her boots off, jerked her shorts over her legs, then her T-shirt over her head. As she struggled to put the boots back on then, she glanced up. Only then did she see the small earphone and mic that he had over his head. He talked quietly into it for a second as he loaded another box into the jeep.

“What about Dayan?” Sherra questioned him as Merinus jerked on the pants and pulled her boots back on.

“Out of contact.” Callan’s voice was hard, cold.

“He ran again?” Sherra questioned in amazement, anger pulsing in her voice. Evidently it wasn’t unusual for Dayan to be out of the line of fire when trouble arose.

“Packed.” Callan ignored her question. “Sherra, you and Dawn get the doc the hell out of here. Get to the safe house and wait for me there. You know what to do if you don’t hear from me.”

Merinus felt fear crawling through her body. What would they do? What about Kane? Sherra was supposed to meet with them that morning, she knew.

“You promised Sherra would meet Kane.” She stared across the room at Callan’s cold expression.

“And we weren’t attacked until I talked to that cutthroat brother of yours,” he bit out. “Until I know if he’s the one who betrayed us, then he can cool his heels where he’s at. This isn’t a team, Merinus, like before. This is a full assault, over a dozen soldiers. They aren’t taking chances this time.”

Merinus shook her head at the accusation in his tone.

“Kane didn’t do it. He didn’t know where we were.”

“Kane is a soldier, Merinus,” he growled. “He could have had a trace on that fucking cell and pinpointed us within minutes. Had I not been so concerned with your worry and fears, I would have thought of that. I’ve risked us all with my own ignorance.”

Merinus bit her lip as he strode quickly to her, pulling a large backpack over his shoulders and carrying the smaller on his shoulder.

“We have to go.” He grabbed her wrist, pulling her along behind him as Sherra and the doctor rushed to the jeep. “Hopefully, the soldiers will see the signs of the jeep and follow it as far as they can. Sherra and the doctor will have no problems when they emerge outside, because the area is heavily used by hunters and the road into here is unknown. There’s a smaller, hidden corridor on up here that takes us out into the mountains.”

“How will that help us?” She fought to keep up with him as he rushed through the narrowing tunnel that led through the mountain they were currently in.

“Because I know the fucking area and they don’t,” he bit out. “We’re not safe anywhere else, Merinus. Only here.”

“Call Kane,” she gasped when he pulled her into a shadowed crevice.

He pushed a large rock out of the way, drew her into the dark corridor, then rolled it closed once again. Seconds later, a small beam of light lit the way.

Merinus could feel nerves and panic washing over her. Callan thought Kane had betrayed him, she knew he did, and she couldn’t think of a way to convince him otherwise. She knew her brother would have never, ever put her in a position that could get her seriously hurt. Bruised a little, but never hurt.

“Maybe it wasn’t soldiers.” She struggled for breath as he loped along the narrow passageway, pulling her behind him, forcing her to keep up. “Maybe it was Kane and my brothers.”

“Then they came in the wrong way,” he bit out. “Whoever was out there was packing weapons, Merinus, and plenty of them. It was the first thing I smelled. They were outside our bedroom window right before I woke you. If it were your brothers, they should have fucking knocked. And Taber would have recognized your family.”

“Kane wouldn’t try to hurt you,” she argued.

“Dammit, Merinus, the bastard has enough sense to know that an animal is fucking his baby sister. He was furious on the phone. If it were me, I would have already killed him.”

She flushed at the knowledge. Of course Kane would know, but still, she couldn’t see him rushing in and doing anything so impulsive without assessing the situation first. It just wasn’t like him. But she didn’t have the breath to argue further with him. He was moving them quickly through the passageway, his steps silent as she fought to keep her own movements just as quiet. Her boots were soft-soled, but still there was a shuffle, a scrape of leather over stone that seemed to echo around her.

It seemed they strode though endless miles of weathered stone before he slowed the fast walk they were in. He began to move slower, easing her through the corridor, his head tilted as he listened carefully.

“We’re getting ready to move out of the tunnel. I want you to stay quiet, Merinus and stay right behind me,” he warned her as he stopped and laid his mouth at her ear to speak. “No matter what I tell you to do, you do it, and do it quickly. Do you understand?”

His voice was quiet again, that throb of savagery in it making her heart beat out of control. She nodded her head quickly as he glanced back at her. His eyes glittered in the darkness, a dull gold, furious, cold.

He extinguished the penlight and eased around a corner, moving silently toward the dim light ahead. He stilled, his fingers going to her lips as his head tilted, listening intently. He pushed her against the wall, indicating she should stay there, stay silent.

He was going on without her. Merinus shook her head violently, her fingers gripping his arms. Then she heard a sound, a shuffle of feet, a light scrape against stone. Her eyes widened, terror flooding through her. Callan’s eyes narrowed as he pushed her tighter into the stone, a warning in his expression as he pulled the gun from his belt and began to move away from her.

Merinus took a deep, silent breath. She fought to keep her breathing normal, her heart rate slower. She couldn’t hear anything past the desperate drum of blood rushing through her body. She was terrified. Her own fear was like a separate entity choking her, strangling the breath in her throat as Callan moved silently away from her. She watched his face, seeing the cold threat in his expression. This wasn’t the lover she had known in the past days, or the teasing, elusive prey she had stalked the weeks before. Callan was now the creature those damned scientists had created. Cold, hard, his body primed and ready to fight.

Stay! He mouthed silently.

She nodded, unwilling to worry him. Kane had warned her many times of the danger of a soldier allowing his concentration to fracture under fire. He had to be able to fight without the baggage of internal or emotional conflict. She pressed herself tighter against the stone, watching him desperately, praying he knew she would stay put as he warned her to.

He smiled softly, approvingly, then disappeared from sight as a tear fell from her eye.

Callan could smell them despite the camouflaging scent they stupidly thought would mask their presence from him. There was no way to hide the stink of sweat and the desire to kill. They were good, he gave them that. Had it not been for the smell, he would have never known they were there before he heard the shuffle of feet. And that would have been masked by his own rush through the corridor. The men sent after him were well trained and determined. A hazard.

Taber and Tanner were still on the other side of the caves ensuring Sherra and Doc Martin’s escape. There would be no help there. Only God knew where Dayan was. As usual, he had disappeared when trouble came calling. There were three of the soldiers waiting for him in the small cave where the corridor emptied out. The good thing was that they seemed to think they would hear him in time to react. They weren’t hidden, rather in plain sight.

Callan slid a hunting knife from the sheath at his thigh, palmed it carefully, then stepped into view. The weapon went flying into the shoulder of the man whose weapon came up first. He dropped to the ground as Callan turned his gun on the other two, another knife whipping from sheath to hand and flying to the arm of another.

“I don’t want to kill you bastards, but I will,” he announced softly, his gun trained on the injured, more than surprised soldiers. He looked to the last one left standing, watching coldly as the man held his hands carefully at shoulder height.

“We’re not here to kill you, Lyons. We just want the girl.” The surprising statement had Callan growling low, dangerous.

“Why would you want the girl?” he asked him softly.

The soldier shrugged. “Council orders. They didn’t give a shit about you on this one.”

Could the Council know? How could they have known unless Kane had relayed the call to them?

“Throw me the restraints.” Callan indicated the plastic ties the soldier carried in his belt.

He moved carefully. Callan saw the bunch of his muscles, the intent in his eyes. He pulled the last knife, aiming it as the soldier stilled.

“The next bastard who tries gets it in the heart,” he warned them. “Now do as I said, real damn careful.”

The restraints landed at his feet. He threw two back to the standing soldier.

“Take care of your buddies.” He watched impassively as the ties were placed over the soldiers’ wrists then jerked tight, but not tight enough to restrict blood flow. “Sit down. Hands behind your back.” Callan waved the gun at him, indicating the floor.

They sighed and did as he ordered.

“Why do they want the girl?” He repeated the question as he restrained the soldier, then placed the straps on the feet of all three men. “And answer me this time or you’ll shed blood, too.”

He could hear the gnash of teeth. They had been taken out efficiently, easily. It wouldn’t look good on their records.

“All I have are the orders.” The soldier shrugged, his weather beaten face resigned. “We don’t know why they want her. Just that she’s your woman, and they now consider her Council property.”

Rage burned in Callan’s stomach. Council property. Disposable merchandise. If they knew Merinus was his woman then her life was in more danger than his was at the moment. He moved around the men, pulling lethal knives from hidden sheaths and boot straps. Little daggers came from under shirt collars and shoved in sheaths beneath shirtsleeves. There were a million places to hide a weapon and he could only hope he found those the soldiers carried.

“When did the order go through?” Callan asked him, his voice hard.

“Late last night. We were rushed in on a Council jet and brought here.”

“Where were you rushed from?”

The soldiers grunted. “Now, Callan, you know better than that shit.”

They wouldn’t tell, they never did.

“You made a mistake.”

“Naw, you did when you killed the last team,” the soldier told him quietly. “They reported your rescue of the girl, when they showed up dead, you proved she was more than just a nosy journalist. You should have known better, man.”

Callan took a deep breath. He didn’t know this soldier, but he was like all those he had known. They knew what he was, who created him. They knew the main goal was capture, but the Council would accept his death if there was no other way. And now, they knew about Merinus.

“Tell the Council and your buddies, playtime is over,” Callan told him quietly as he moved back to the corridor entrance. “I won’t be playing anymore. I’ll be killing.”

He paused, listening carefully. He could smell Merinus’ fear, and the beginning lust in her body. Damn, he wasn’t moving fast enough. He had to get her to safety, fast.

“Merinus,” he called out to her softly.

She rushed to him, her hands reaching out to the broad palm he extended to her. He wrapped his arm around her, watching the soldier carefully. The man’s eyes went immediately to the mark on Merinus’ neck.

“Shit, you mated her.” The soldier shook his head as he watched Callan wrap his arm around her body, censure lining his voice. “You may as well kill her now, man. She’ll never survive the tests those bastards force on her when they catch her.”

Callan felt Merinus jerk in fear.

“Shh, say nothing,” he warned her, his breath at her ear. “Let’s get out of here.”

He moved her through the cavern, careful to skirt around the soldiers. They were well trained and still more than dangerous, even restrained. If they got their hands on Merinus, they could easily use her to force his compliance in any area and he knew it.

Dawn was barely peeking over the ridge as he moved her through the forest. The soft chirps of morning, the sounds of animals awakening, feeding, moving about freely assured him that the danger had yet to stalk them too close. He had to get her out of the area and to the jeep he kept carefully hidden. Even the others had no idea of some of the safeguards he had in place. That jeep, carefully hidden and packed for emergencies, would get them far enough away for him to ensure Merinus’ safety and to pay her brother back for his betrayal of her.

He had to get her to one of the safe houses though. Already her body was heating, needing his, just as he was beginning to need her. Even in the danger of the moment, he could feel his need for her pulsing in his blood.

“How did they know about the mating?” she questioned him as they moved through the thick growth of forest, following what appeared to be little more than an animal trail.

“My ignorance,” he bit out. His mistakes were going to end up costing him the life of the woman who was beginning to mean everything to him.

“You didn’t do anything,” she argued breathlessly, but she still kept up with his fast pace. He had to get her as far from the damned cavern as possible before those soldiers got free and managed to call their buddies.

“The mark on your neck, the fact that I touched you. Pulled you into my arms,” he bit out. “I rarely touch, and only during the actual fuck do I embrace a woman. They know this. The soldiers know everything about my DNA, my training, my habits. I gave us away.”

He was filled with self-disgust and impotent anger. He had made his first mistake in killing the soldiers. He had never gone searching for them, and only killed when given no other choice. He should have known the bastards had reported Merinus and her probing questions to the Council. He should have thought, dammit, rather than letting fury guide his actions. The animalistic urge to protect and shelter, to retaliate against any danger to his woman had rode him hard, even then. It was getting worse. It had been all he could do to keep from killing those men in the cave. Only his knowledge of Merinus’ reaction to it had swayed him from doing it. Her emotional connection to him wouldn’t have survived the bloodshed.