Blood Bonds (30 page)

How easy it would have been to tell her yes, just so Bauer could have what he would want.

“No,” Haley said. “Bonding is more complicated than that. There are ... certain processes.”

Brenda’s shoulders eased and she nodded. “I need to go.”

“Please don’t get caught.” Not only are there religious violations taking place, but legal ones, too.

“Thank you.” Mrs. Bauer left Haley burning up with a horrible feeling inside her chest.

When she examined it, she discovered the feeling was guilt.

Colonel Dobson felt like a man who’d just won the lottery only to discover his bitch of a dog had eaten the ticket.

“Did you hear me, colonel?” asked the Human mouthpiece for the Queen.

Fuck yes, he heard her. He just didn’t like what she was saying. “I have it under control.” It was getting harder and harder to cap his temper with this she-devil. Especially when she laughed at him. Which she was doing a lot of lately.

“Oh, colonel, colonel, colonel, you do amuse me so.” Her voice dropped fifty degrees with a suddenness that Dobson was getting used to. “But I am done being amused.”

“I have everything in order. I’m just waiting for my request to be granted. By this time tomorrow, I will own her. There’s no need to make things more treacherous than they already are.” The last thing he needed was a full blown Kin battle in the middle of the city. That would only slow down his plans. Something he just couldn’t afford, thanks to Jones.

The bastard.

Jones had sold out. In a very, very big way. Two-point-eight-million sat in an off shore bank account in his daughter’s name.

Germans, Japs, Russians, they hadn’t nailed down who it was yet. But sure as shit, Jones had been working both sides for quite some time. This time something had gone wrong. Maybe he’d gotten the vials mixed up. Maybe he’d accidently broken the thing and contaminated the product. Who the hell knew or cared. ‘Cause the virus was out. Now, it was only a matter of time before someone from the CDC identified it.

Yeah, that was going to be a helluva nut buster.

Dobson was now left scrambling to clean up the mess left behind. Jones and McKinney had died like they were supposed to, but that stupid Negro had been one of those lucky ones. Not many people survived that much air in a line.

Some kind of luck.

“I’ve heard some interesting reports about your recent activities.”

Dobson fell still and tried with everything he had to not let his breathing change, ‘cause she’d hear it. The bitch heard everything. “What kind of reports?”

“That your virus is working. That you have successfully killed as many as two dozen useless Males.” There wasn’t a drop of anger in her voice. Which confused Dobson, because it had been her city where they died, they had been her Males. Or at least the ones that lived in her Dens. He expected anger, venom, not ... praise?

The colonel steadied himself. This had to be some sort of trick. Some play of words. “I’m glad you approve.”

“As you should be.” A deep hiss came over the receiver. “But my pleasure changes nothing. Tomorrow she dies. I would suggest you stay out of the way.”

Two could play it this way.

“I understand.” Dobson smiled, then downright grinned. The tangible discomfort radiating from the silence practically gave him a hard on.

A growl echoed over the line. “I do not play games, colonel. Do not get in my way. Killing you will not bring me sorrow.”

“I feel the same way about you, Your Majesty.” She laughed and so did Dobson. “I just have one request.” Abrupt silence, then a slow intake of air. Dobson could almost see her in his mind, thinking, carefully picking her next words ... moving her rooks carefully across the board.

“Speak.”

“I want minimal damage. The city cannot afford the kind of devastation that your pet can cause.”

“Pet?” The Queen sighed. “Oh, he is much more than a pet. I command Niles. He will do anything for me.”

“Good, then it shouldn’t be a problem doing this away from the Bureau.” With this recent wrench, he couldn’t afford losing an hour’s worth of work.

“Should I send Haley an invitation to meet me out in the countryside? Or perhaps you will consider delivering her to my doorstep?” Anger trickled into her words, distorting the pitch and tone.

“Listen. You want her dead? Fine. But if you bring the attack into this part of the city, you will jeopardize everything I have worked on. This means your enemies will still be alive and there will be other Queens to remain your rivals. I cannot afford the loss of a single scrap of genetic information. If Niles starts taking out buildings, he could easily involve any number of my satellite labs, not to mention the fires will bring the entire place to a standstill for weeks. And I do not have weeks.”

It was far more information than he wanted her to know, but it was the only way he knew to convey just how much was at stake for both of them.

Twelve hours. Twelve hours and Haley would be underground, pumped up with his virus, her blood being spun down into serum to be released as an aerosol. By the time the wyrm Queen figured out the truth, she’d be dying herself. Or better yet, dead.

Because she
would
figure it out. She always did.

“Did you have a particular spot in mind, colonel?” Her tone was a kind of calm that promised terrible things.

“You pick the location. I just need it to be at least three miles outside the Bureau’s offices.”

The Queen sighed, and the Human mouth she spoke through clicked its tongue. “I must admit, I am skeptical of your sudden amicable nature. It is ... unlike you.”

Just like a woman. You can’t make them happy when you disagree, and they don’t trust you when you follow. The Whore was the same way. Dobson just chalked it up to not having the right equipment.

“And if I argued with you, would you change your mind?”

She laughed. “Of course not.”

“Then why should I bother? To tell you the truth, I don’t have the fucking time. Every minute I stand here flapping jaws with that Human puppet you use is time I could be getting what I need done. Now, if you don’t mind, pick a goddamned spot so I can arrange to get her there.”

A low growl licked over the phone and Dobson fully expected the Queen to throw a dragon-sized tantrum. Instead she said, “Will Gresham Park suit your requirements?”

Dobson took a minute to think. The distance was good. The team could respond in no time. And by the time the Queen figured out Haley wasn’t dead...

“That will work.”

“Good.”

“What time?”

“Two. Do not be late.” He started to hang up, but her voice held him. “Oh, and Dobson ... if I find out this is some sort of trick, I will use Niles to take the Fury from you. Even if it means ripping him out of the ground.”

Farley headed into the Resources office. They’d texted him about the phone records request Haley put in for him.

“There you are!” Judy Grimm flapped a handful of papers at him from the other side of her desk. “The ink on these is getting cold. I was starting to think you weren’t coming.”

No, I just didn’t sleep worth a shit. For once.

Nope, he’d just laid there on his broken down mattress counting the cracks in the ceiling thinking about Deshi, one word taking precedence. Fool. An absolute fool.

That and fuck-tard.

And his chest still ached for him, because his friend was making a terrible choice.

“Hey, you okay?” Judy worked the piece of gum in her mouth like her life depended on it. Her eyes flicked up and down over Farley’s body, but there was absolutely no desire in them, just concern. Not that Farley hadn’t tried stirring those feelings, but Judy said she was gay.

As in female to female, not the happy kind of gay.

Lesbian, she told him.

Yeah, whatever that was supposed to mean. Humans and their carnal boundaries escaped him.

He took the papers and scanned them. Over one hundred phone calls had been made from the pay phone closest to Niles’ apartment in the past month alone.

Whoa, now this was interesting.

Every seven days or so Justice’s number popped up, usually on Tuesday, sometimes Thursday. Farley flipped the papers, going back six months. The pattern was the same. A lot of people used this phone, but the likelihood of this many people from the Dens giving the Great White a ringy-dingy just wasn’t happening.

That was about as likely as ... well, Judy going out with him.

She smiled and craned her head like she might be able to catch a glimpse over his shoulder. “Did you find what you need?” Damn, she was cute. Same height as Haley, with long dark hair she kept braided in the back. She was tawny like Farley, her small tight breasts almost invisible.

They could easily wear each other’s clothes. Both of them preferred black skaters with chains, and T-shirts. Today, hers was Seether, his was Disturbed.

“You’re looking at me like that again.” Judy reached out and tweaked his ear.

Farley winced. “Sorry, just admiring your shirt.”

She looked down and gave the hem a tug. “I got it at their concert. Hey, are you going to get tickets to the Battle of the Bands in December? I hear all the wyrm-based ones are going to be there.”

Farley shrugged.

“What’s eating at you? You’re usually way more talkative than this. You’ve been here,” she checked her watch, “five minutes and haven’t asked me out once. Normally you’re working on your sixth try by now. You sick?”

“Kin don’t get sick.” Then he thought about Creyal and added, “Normally.”

“Well, something’s wrong.” She popped her gum in rapid succession, then froze. Judy’s eyes widened a little. “You didn’t break up with Claire, did you? ‘Cause if she’s available, I’m so after that piece of.”

“She’s not gay.”

“Well, me not being straight doesn’t stop you now, does it?” She grinned. “Hey, half the fun is making the attempt.”

“No, I didn’t break up with Claire.” At least not that he was aware of. But then, after the locker room incident...

“You don’t look too sure about that.” Judy put a hand on his arm. “You wanna talk about it? We can go get beers after work.”

“Naw, z’all good. Just some relationship difficulties is all.” Well, he was sure
something
was being difficult, but it didn’t have anything to do with Claire. “I gotta split. Haley will want to see these.” He stalled and gave Judy a cockeyed smile. “If I was having heartbreak ails, could you find it in that heart of yours to
ease
me?” Farley breathed in her scent when she leaned close. Her cheek nearly brushed his. Warm air stirred against his ear, making his temp kick up. This close and he could see bits of green in her gray eyes. Judy had great lashes.

Man, he wanted to put his lips on hers, run his tongue across her skin.

“Still gay,” she whispered.

He sighed. “Your loss.”

“You keep telling me that.” She went back to her desk. “Oh, an F.Y.I. for ya.” He leaned back over her desk and she tapped the computer screen. “I’m not sure what it means exactly, but I saw an internal investigation request come over the system. It had your partner’s name on it.”

Farley raised an eyebrow. “What did it say?”

Judy shrugged. “Don’t know. Couldn’t see it. Usually, any kind of I.N.I. requests go through Resources because we have to file them with the individual’s personnel report, as well as alert their legal defense. Everything has to go through the lawyers first. Annoying, if you ask me.”

“And this didn’t come through here?”

“Nope, it went right upstairs.”

“Which means what?”

She switched the screen and pointed to a number at the end of a name. “See this? This is Agent Gills. He had one pulled on him because of a missing file on a case. The S here at the end means it’s a standard double check. He probably has the damn thing stuffed in his trunk again. Anyways, your partner--” she clicked back to the other screen. “There is an M at the end and then a one.” Judy pulled at her bottom lip as her eyebrows clenched.

“And you don’t know what that means?”

“I’ve never seen it before. So I looked it up.” Judy patted the large white binder on her desk. “It’s a Military code. Someone in the Bureau’s Military section has called an investigation on her. And that number one...” She looked back at the screen. “That one means it can only be the Head of Operations for that section. You know who that is, right?”

Farley’s legs shot him down the hall and drove him up the stairs two at a time.

Dobson had requested an I.N.I. It didn’t mean he would get it, but the fact he’d bypassed Resources was a good sign the S.O.B. had something up his sleeve. Farley hated Dobson. That jerk was the reason he’d lost his Agent status and almost wound up in the ADF doing a six month stint. He would have never survived the
need
that long. That kind of fortitude just wasn’t possible for Food.

As he took the corner, his shoulder smashed into someone and sent them spinning. They cursed, and Farley shouted an apology, but he didn’t have time to slow down. One right and a left and he skidded to a halt in front of Garrett’s office. If the guy didn’t know, he needed to. And if he did know, Farley wanted something done about it.

Garrett was on the phone. He looked up but didn’t motion him in. Farley bounced on his toes, waited, and waited some more. Garrett kept an open door policy. As in, “my door is open and you just stand there ‘til I tell you to come in.”

Which was going to take forever.

Fuck.

Farley walked up to the man’s desk. During a pause in his conversation Garrett turned his chair away.

Farley shuffled, he shifted, he picked at the corner of the desk. Fifty years later, Mr. Chatter-Box-Garrett finally hung up the phone. He was the only man Farley knew that could have a twenty minute phone conversation and say all of two sentences.

Those storm gray eyes pegged Farley where he stood. “I know I didn’t just see you walk into my office and stand here at my desk without invitation.” Garrett stood up and the term brick shithouse came to Farley’s mind.