Circe's Recruits: Gideon: A Multiple Partner Shifter Book (14 page)

What were the odds all the men with Myers and Yates would have followed her into the woods? Someone had to have stayed behind, waiting in case she showed back up.

She had to take that chance. Creeping close to the wall of the building, she neared her room.

In her adrenaline-buzzed state, something odd happened. The woman and creature inside her melded, bringing intellect and instinct together. She stopped in place and took in the sights, sounds, and smells around her, then formulated a plan.

Bailey smiled, then rushed toward that SUV…

Myers growled low in his throat, wincing at the large scratch down his eye. After his nightmare of a fuckfest last night, all he’d wanted was something easy to go down, something fun—like a less-than-willing female. And all the better to have the Circ they’d been promised months ago.

The perfect female created just for his team.

He frowned, wondering if he and Yates could get away with disposing of Caldane. Sheer was bad enough, a bastard and a freaky perv. But he could be contained. Caldane, on the other hand…

Fucking Amelia Norton. Smith and Lang bowed to every damn thing the woman wanted. Dr. Lang had complained that Caldane had grown unmanageable and would be better put to use as a research tool. In other words, as an organ donor. But Smith had sucked up to the bitch, who was determined to keep the guy around. He’d convinced Lang that he’d handle Caldane. Lang, with too much else on his plate, had agreed and gone on to new pursuits. No matter how little sense it made to keep Caldane around, Smith would do it because Amelia Norton found the monster “fascinating.”

The woman was as bad as Caldane.

Myers cringed, remembering how the fiend had torn into him with an unhealthy lust. The creature, more beast than man, slaked his hungers with a ferociousness that kept everyone else back once he fixated on a victim. Into blood and pain, he’d done more than rip into Myers’s body. The psychopath had also psychically raped Myers’s mind.

The sheer horror of having no control over his body or mind, no place to retreat into while Caldane savaged him, had him reliving the torment in detail. Fortunately, that brought on a rage he needed to keep from going insane. The anger simmered, grew.

Bailey Duncan.
The woman should have been safely in their custody. He could have been impregnating the little witch instead of getting brutalized by a monster. She’d screwed with the wrong guy, and she’d pay, dearly. He rejoined Yates and tracked Bailey’s scent, away from the darker interior of the forest behind the motel.

“Think she doubled back?”

“Yeah.”

Yates frowned. “Sheer’s in the room.”

“At least Caldane’s ahead of us.” But Sheer was little better. “Shit. Hurry up. If Sheer gets to her first, he’ll kill her before we can have any fun.”

They turned and ran back the way they’d come. As they drew closer, they heard a car crash. Flames lit the night sky. They ran faster.

***

Alex frowned and gripped the steering wheel. Gideon had seriously taken charge, to the extent even Elijah listened to him. He had no idea why, but he too felt the need to follow Gideon. Even his aching need for revenge didn’t outweigh supporting Gideon’s actions.

They’d all taken turns driving the large SUV without stopping. All day and into the night. They’d nearly arrived at their destination. “This Hayashi guy was pretty specific.” Alex didn’t trust the information.

“You think it’s a trap of some kind?” Carter rumbled. He sat in the back next to Elijah while Gideon napped beside Alex.

“Could be.” Alex saw Carter shake his head in the rearview.

“No way. If they’d wanted to off us, they’d have done it on their private property. No one would have known. This is about something else.” He paused. “Bailey Duncan. You know her, Alex?”

Alex had been thinking about her since Doc had mentioned the woman. “I did a little digging into one of Katie’s documents.” He’d copied her files, keeping the information on the sly while turning “all of it over to the government.”
Yeah, right.
“She had a few email chats with Bailey. They were friends.”

Typical of his sister to keep her personal life private. Though they’d been psychically linked all their lives, their family had never been close. Their mother an alcoholic, their father nonexistent, gone when they’d turned five, they’d had no one but each other to rely on. Yet something had always held Katie back. Her flashes of the past had soured her on trusting anyone, it seemed. Like him, she caught glimpses of the past through touch. But while he got images off inanimate objects, Katie caught visions through touching people.

Too bad this Hayashi guy hadn’t been around to predict her future sooner. Then Katie might still be alive. Alex clenched the steering wheel. No matter what anyone said, he knew she’d passed. He felt the void inside him where she should be. No matter how long it took, he’d find who’d hurt her and make them pay.

“Easy, Alex,” Gideon murmured, his eyes still closed. “Don’t want to get delayed by a speeding ticket.”

Alex took their speed back down to eighty, but just ten miles over was no biggie. They reached a sign for Elmore, turned off the interstate, and followed GPS directions to the BlackLight Motel.

As they turned onto the motel’s street, Alex saw flames shooting high into the black sky.

“What the hell?” Eli sat up straight. “Shit. Slow down, Alex. We got problems.”

Alex slowed, and Eli bailed. He dove out of the car and started running. Gideon swore and followed him, while Carter remained in the vehicle and rolled down the window.

“There. Pull into the motel lot. Smell ‘em? Circs. Bad ones.” Carter sounded grim.

Alex sped into the lot and screeched to a halt, but Carter had already gone. Wishing the guys hadn’t taken off in opposite directions, he parked the car and hurried after them, calling on his senses to follow…Gideon.

He ran in a northerly direction and heard grunting, punching, and then the sound of muffled gunfire.

“Damn it.” Alex put on a burst of speed and rammed into a Circ standing some distance from Gideon, aiming at the back of Gideon’s head. Alex recognized the sick smell immediately. “Myers.”

Myers rolled over and socked Alex in the jaw. “
Palmer.
Now this just makes my day.”

Alex got to his feet, facing Myers, and blinked at the change in the man. In just five days, Myers had gone from cocky asshole to looking like grim death. Alex smirked. “What the hell happened, Myers? Karma catch up with you?”

“You could say that.” Myers swung and kicked at him, keeping him at a distance. “But you know, what goes around comes around. You turned on us, you bastard. You were part of our team, and you left us high and dry.”

“Bullshit. I was tired of you beating up on Lang’s helpless victims. And God knows what you were doing on your off time.” Then he realized something. Myers smelled like Circ. “Hold on. I thought you were too smart to take the serum? That’s what Pratt said, that none of you were stupid enough to take an experimental drug that turned so many guys crazy.”

“Pratt lied.” Myers flashed a set of fangs and withdrew a knife from his pocket, not using claws. “But I guess you lied too, because you’re as Circ as they come.”

Alex wondered if the guy had limitations, because Alex had never sensed the Circ in Myers until now. “It wasn’t anything I planned. Lang or Smith must have doctored my food. I didn’t sign on for this.”
Not for any of it, damn it. Katie…

“I’m crying for you.” Myers sneered. “Because of your dumbass betrayal, they paired us with a new guy. Caldane.”

Alex blinked. “Are you shitting me?” Caldane had been on the termination list when Alex had first been introduced to the world of Circs. A man who’d been psychotic to begin with, he’d been an experiment in learning what the serum did to an unhealthy psyche. He’d turned from serial killer crazy into monstrous times ten. “I thought he’d been moved to another facility months ago?” At the time, Alex had imagined the unsuccessful candidates were incarcerated or rehabilitated elsewhere. Now he knew better.

“Nope. Norton likes to keep her pets close.”

Norton. He committed that name to memory and let Myers get near enough to land a hit, to keep the bastard talking. “Yeah? And what about you? You still taking it up the ass from Smith and Lang, like a good little beast?” Apparently the wrong thing to say, because Myers went apeshit.

He started a beatdown Alex was hard pressed to get out of. Then Myers aimed his knife at Alex’s throat. Alex stopped him, but it wasn’t easy. They struggled for control of the blade, and Alex’s fingers brushed the hilt.

“No. Please.” Katie sobbed, disheveled, obviously abused. Tears tracked down her bruised cheeks and bloodied lips.

Around her, Myers, Yates and another man, Sheer, stared down at her as if fascinated.

“Come on, pretty lady. You’ve been spilling secrets. We all know about it. How about you tell us the truth? Who knows about our facility and what we really do at U-Ground?”

Katie sobbed, then spat in Myers’s face. “Fuck you.”

“We’re gonna get back to that, precious,” Yates said with a chuckle. “But how about you tell us the truth? Who are you working with? Who else is on the inside, because it isn’t just you. I can smell it on you. Something familiar…”

Katie screamed and grabbed at the knife in Myers’s hand, then dragged him down on top of her, plunging the blade through her heart. As her eyes closed, she whispered, “I always knew this was coming, but it’s okay. You needed to see this. You need to find the others. Save Bailey. Love…you.”

A dying message meant for Alex, because she’d known he’d find the truth.

Alex froze, staring into Myers’s eyes, caught in a hell he couldn’t get out of. “It was you.
You
killed her.”

Myers shoved him back and grinned. “You’ll have to be more specific. I’ve killed a lot of bad pussy.”

Alex lost it. He launched himself at Myers and started hitting. He gave his furious beast free reign and sliced his claws into Myers over and over, leaving a bloody mess on the ground. Blood and entrails gathered. Screams from mutant Circs surrounded the motel, enemies gathering closer. But nothing mattered but getting revenge for Katie.

He shook off the hands trying to separate him from his conquest, needing to rip out the bastard’s throat with his teeth. He leaned closer…

“No, stop!” A female in distress broke through to him. Katie? She was dead, wasn’t she? But the woman who’d cried out had golden brown hair, long, like Katie. She ran from some bastard, trying to survive in a world gone horribly wrong.

“Katie.” He dropped what was left of Myers and ran after her, determined to save his sister. Past and present mired his reality, leaving him with nothing but memories to hold onto, a sister who needed him.
Now.

He scented his pack drawing near, coming to help. He flashed his fangs in a raw smile, satisfied that they’d corner their prey and attack, leaving nothing but bones behind. He’d save Katie this time. He had to.

Chapter Nine

Gideon didn’t know what the hell had happened. One minute he’d been pounding Yates into tomorrow, the next he’d sensed Alex snap. Gideon’s beast rallied him to protect the pack. But when he’d glanced behind him, he’d seen Alex looking strong, kicking the shit out of Myers.

Then Carter yanked at Alex, trying to pry him free, and Gideon realized Alex wasn’t Alex. Something had hurt the pack, something bad. A female scream distracted him. She distracted Eli and Alex too, because they rushed in her direction.

While Carter dealt with more Circs coming from all directions, Gideon rushed to join the others after the female.

Shit, but the mutants all around them sure made him glad he’d been able to tolerate the serum. The poor misshapen bastards trying to suck him down for a late night snack had left humanity long behind. Except a few of them seemed to know it. The grief, the anger, burning behind those red eyes. He pitied them, ending their existence with compassion, a quick kill for those he reached.

But not for Myers, Yates, or the other two freaks sniffing after the female.

Her scent was…
unusual.
She smelled like Circ for sure. But her allure had more to do with a unique femininity than her beastly side. At least, to him. It confused him, because he wanted to draw her in, to his lungs, to his soul. The man wanted more than the beast. And the beast decided that was just fine.

He raced through the dark, seeing without issue. The moonlight helped, but his night vision needed no enhancement.

He caught up to two large Circs dragging the female, men bigger than Carter even. Gideon stood shoulder to shoulder with Alex and Eli, trying to gage how best to get the woman to safety. Covered in scratches and bites, her blood smelled rich, ripe.

Mine.

He licked at the air and snarled at the enemy male closest to him. Before he could reach out, fire licked at the ground in front of him, and he jumped back.

“What the hell?” Eli stepped aside before he could burn.

Their enemy raised his hands, and Gideon saw flames reflected in his dark gaze. The fire obeyed his commands.
Shit.
Gideon felt like a moron when he realized he should have immediately blasted his opponents with his mind instead of relying on claws. He aimed a psychic blast at the pyro’s brain and knew satisfaction when the guy crumbled. Eli gouged his side with enough venom to put down a small horse, no doubt.