Chosen by Blood (23 page)

Mahone was too tired to be amused. Even if he managed to give the Goddess the results she was looking for, there was a good chance these Others were going to be the death of him, he thought. Then he realized Knox was still waiting for an answer. “Obviously, Wraith’s already told you. What do you want from me?”

“I know such a collar exists and that one was used on her. I know that reason involved experiments. I don’t know why or by whom. And Wraith would rather not go into details.”

Again, Mahone glanced at the wraith. O’Flare and she were now arguing in low angry tones. O’Flare shook his head and Wraith said quite loudly, “Fuck you, you nosy, self-righteous, blabbermouthed prick,” before storming out of the room.

With all eyes on him, O’Flare seemed to struggle for control. When he looked up, he once again glared at Mahone, then settled back into his chair.

“Mahone. The collars. Now.”

Mahone closed his eyes, fully recognizing the downside of having to bribe Others to work for you. It gave them a feeling of entitlement, he thought, oddly feeling like a parent with a brood of squalling kids.

“Fine,” he said, “but you didn’t hear anything from me. Wraith, like all wraiths, simply woke up one day to find herself dead. Cold. No pulse. No memory of who she was or how she’d died. She could remember what a Big Mac was, but not her name, favorite color, birthday, or anything else about who she was. Eventually, she realized memory loss was the least of her concerns. She had to adjust to experiencing the world in a whole new way. With how she experiences touch. With changes in her vision.”

“What kind of changes in vision?” O’Flare asked.

“Not my place to say,” Mahone said, feeling a hint of pleasure when O’Flare frowned, his annoyance obvious.

“Occasionally, a wraith has been ‘birthed’ in a morgue with a tag on its toe, telling it exactly who it is. Most of the time, however, it doesn’t work that way. Whatever it is that causes them to come back from the dead isn’t predictable, but it certainly seems to have some kind of plan.”

“What about fingerprints?” Lucy spoke up for the first time. “Why can’t you just print the wraiths and find out who they are that way?”

Felicia answered before Mahone could. “No prints. Whatever it is that happens to a wraith before it’s born includes the elimination of any fingerprints.”

“What about DNA?” O’Flare asked.

“Same thing. It’s as if the wraith’s body self-destructs or coats itself in order to avoid detection. It’s unexplainable,” Felicia continued. “Almost mystical.”

Yeah. Mystical. As in, manipulated by a creature who did what she liked, when she felt like it, and to hell with how it affected others. “It—” Mahone gasped, his words catching in his throat, just as a vicious pressure grew in his head, blocking out sight and sound in less than a second. Before he could even groan, the pressure was gone. It could have been a fluke. Hell, it could have been induced by a brain tumor.

He knew instantly it had been a message from the Goddess. Apparently, she was getting tired of his mental put-downs.

The others were staring at him, Felicia’s gaze just edged with concern. He shook his head and cleared his throat. “Since a wraith’s properties, or lack thereof, appear to have been deliberate, certain mages are bent on solving all the riddles that are part and parcel of being a wraith.”

At Mahone’s words, Lucy stood, frowning. “What are you saying? That it was a mage that experimented on Wraith?”

For a moment, staring into the mage’s wide, dark eyes, Mahone hesitated. Something about the way she looked at him made him uneasy, as if she could see straight into him and divine all of his secrets in a way no one else could, hopefully not even a vampire. He’d learned to protect his mind years before, in ways that were painless and painful to him, and even vampires, who were naturally gifted with telepathy, would have a difficult time breaking through his barriers. Apparently, the only being that could access his mind without his permission was the Goddess. Even so, for a crazy second, Mahone wanted to let the mage in. To share some of his burden with her. To get some kind of comfort . . . But that was impossible. He narrowed his eyes at the mage, falling back on facts to buttress his shaky emotions. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. And more than that, it’s far from a singular event. Before the War, a certain portion of the mage population was quite blatant about its right—no, its duty—to experiment with wraiths in order to discover the secret behind their immortality. Now they’re much more discreet about it.”

“Wait a minute.” Lucy shook her head furiously. “If these mages were so blatant about this duty, how come I’ve never heard any of this before?”

“Have you ever heard of Project Life?”

From the way Lucy stiffened, it was obvious to Mahone that she had.

“What do you know about it?” Knox asked the mage.

Lucy shook her head in obvious denial, but answered anyway. “Since I was little, I was told that a group of mages had discovered the proverbial fountain of youth. That they’d traveled to a kind of Eden to find it, only to be trapped there. Project Life is a legend, a tale old mages tell the young, a way to teach them that if they just practice hard enough and stay focused, maybe they’ll be the mage who’ll be powerful enough to find the others and bring back the elixir. But . . .” Lucy turned back to Mahone. “But that’s just a fairy tale, isn’t it?”

Mahone stared at the mage. If he didn’t know her secrets, he could almost buy her “more innocent than apple pie” looks and attitude. “Not to some,” he said. “I’ve seen how obsessed some mages are with finding that ‘elixir’ and many of them believe it can be found inside wraiths, creatures who were once human and somehow were able to escape death and become immortal.”

“So these experiments . . .” Lucy whispered.

“Resemble something closer to torture,” Mahone confirmed. “I’ve seen the results myself, but not the collar we’re talking about,” he clarified. “We haven’t been able to get hold of that or the chemical agent used with it. But I’ve seen the wraiths. I’ve seen what was done to them. Some of the mages? Let’s just say they were fond of revisiting things. Just like a football coach watches game film, there are mages who want to record their experiments in order to watch them again and again, in case they might have missed something.”

“You talk as if mages are the only ones who have experimented on wraiths. Is that a fact or are you making an assumption based on a few bad seeds?”

The hostility in Lucy’s voice was one of the first cracks in her calm exterior she’d allowed Mahone to see. Her loyalty to her race was obviously one that ran deep.

“No one’s going to think less of you or your race because of a few bad seeds, Lucy,” Knox said.

Mahone almost winced at the dharmire’s blatant, if unconscious, hypocrisy.

“Is there a recording of Wraith?” O’Flare asked.

“I don’t—”

O’Flare stood, his face and his body exuding a threatening vibe that was impossible to miss. “Is there?” he repeated.

Mahone sighed. “Yes,” he admitted. “I’ve seen digital images of Wraith detailing exactly what was done to her. But she won’t thank me for telling you that, I’m sure.”

O’Flare cursed, then punched his fist into his palm. Once. Then twice. “Fuck!” he shouted again, then walked out of the room.

“It seems my team needs some time to prepare before we leave to see those scientists,” Knox stated, “but what you’ve told us is further proof that the Koreans’ interest in the Others is likely connected to experiments, likely some of them involving the vamp vaccine and the antidote. How long will it take for you to get us to them?”

“You’ll see them tomorrow morning. Nine a.m. I’ll send a car to pick you all up.”

As Mahone turned, Knox stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. The touch shocked him so much that he stared at it, his mouth hanging open.

“Thank you, Mahone,” Knox said. “But do me a favor, okay?”

Mahone narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “What?”

“Leave the blindfolds and handcuffs at home this time.”

While Knox didn’t have to deal with the blindfold and handcuffs the next day, there was plenty of clandestine, superagent stuff he did have to deal with—not the least of which was Mahone’s sick sense of humor.

“ A limo,” he sighed.

Beside him, Felicia choked back a laugh. “I have to admit, it’s a first as far as I’ve heard. But maybe we’re being harsh. Maybe Kyle’s acknowledging our hard work—”

“He’s calling us high-maintenance,” Knox gritted.

Felicia walked toward the limo with an extra sway in her step. Over her shoulder, she winked. “High maintenance ain’t bad in my book.”

As the rest of the team followed her, almost all of them making a derisive snort first, Knox struggled to hold back a smile. Shaking his head, he motioned to Lucy, who was still staring at the limo with delight. “It’s even cooler on the inside, I’m sure. Come on.”

Four hours later, even the limo’s luxurious interior wasn’t a distraction.

“This is ridiculous,” Wraith snapped. “We’ve been driving in circles half the time and I still know exactly where we are.”

“Gee, thanks,” O’Flare said wearily, his head tilted back on his headrest with his eyes closed. “I’m sure they’ve got this puppy bugged and your comment just prolonged this journey for another hour or two. Frankly, I would have rather been blindfolded and cuffed.” He opened one eye to peer at Wraith. “Then again, I wouldn’t want to be that helpless around you.”

Wraith pressed her lips together and refrained from commenting.

“So where are we?” Lucy asked. “Because I couldn’t tell you.”

“We’re back in D.C., about an hour from FBI Headquarters,” Knox said. “And if we don’t arrive soon . . .”

The limo turned and then began to slow. Everyone scattered to their perspective windows to see probably the same warehouse that Knox had visited to read the scientists’ minds. Clenching his fists and grinding his teeth, he held back a snarl of fury. Damn Mahone. Assimilating and training the team was taking long enough; they didn’t need to waste more time playing Mahone’s stupid games.

Knox said as much as soon as he exited the limo. Mahone simply shrugged. “You got what you wanted, didn’t you? Agent Parker will escort you to the scientists now while I meet with the others.”

“Wait a minute,” Lucy protested. “I thought we were all going to speak with them.”

Mahone glanced at Felicia with a raised brow. Felicia sighed and turned to Lucy. “I was hoping Mahone would allow that, but it doesn’t make sense from a security standpoint, not when Knox can ask our questions for us. Why risk exposing the scientists to multiple people while outnumbering Mahone’s security in the process?”

“Then why bring us here in the first place?” Wraith asked.

“More games,” Knox concluded, but Felicia shook her head.

“No. Actually, that makes sense, too. We don’t need to go in now, but that could change. Depending on what Knox finds out, one or the other of us may be needed, at the very least to consult with him about what he’s found out. Or even to use one of our individual talents. We’re on-site if needed. And if we’re not needed . . .”

Felicia waved a hand at Mahone, who was standing with his arms crossed, a look of annoyance on his face. “So you’re done explaining for me?”

Felicia just smiled sweetly, causing Mahone to sigh.

“I want to talk to each of you while Devereaux makes first contact. Felicia, you’re up first.”

“I didn’t expect anything different.”

Knox’s stomach tightened when Felicia shifted her gaze to him. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to. Her expression told him all he needed to know.

She stood by him even when she couldn’t physically be there.

Knox turned to the man Mahone had referred to as Agent Parker. “Let’s go.”

They’d taken less than three steps when two men rushed to Mahone’s side, their voices hushed and urgent.

Mahone recoiled. “All of them?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Kyle? What . . .” Felicia took several steps closer to Mahone even as the other agents talked over her.

“They were fine this morning. We checked on them less than a half hour ago. When the limo arrived, we went in to inform them and—”

“What’s going on?” Knox asked a second before he saw Mahone’s narrowed gaze shift to Felicia. Sensing the man’s intent, Knox tensed and moved. Too late.

“You idiot! You don’t know what you’ve done. What’s at stake . . .” In a flash, Mahone grabbed Felicia’s arm, jerking her toward him. Knox didn’t see Mahone reach for his gun, but then it was in his hand, its barrel pointed directly against Felicia’s temple.

Chaos erupted.

The three agents, slower to reach for their weapons, never got their fingers near them. Knox had Parker immobilized just as Hunt and Wraith grabbed the others. O’Flare shoved the limo driver back against the vehicle and pinned him there with an arm to his throat while Lucy caught Knox’s eyes.