A long moment passed. He eventually said, “We have to get out of here. I don’t know how many more ghouls might be headed this way.”
Ash nodded and followed him back to the Jeep. She was standing beside her door when she felt something sting her head, just inside the hairline beside her right temple. She swatted at it. The thing fell on the ground. She was relieved it was a bug and not a bat, but when she looked into the woods a few feet away from her, she saw Flynn.
She gasped. He said, speaking directly into her mind the way Merc could, Now you’re mine.
That freaked her out. “Merc—Flynn’s here.”
Merc looked where she was pointing, then back at the body bag he was getting situated in the small cargo area. “Get in the car. We have to go.” He finished up in the back, then went around to her side and held her door.
“Did you see him?”
“No. Doesn’t mean he’s not there. Get in.”
“He said, ‘Now you’re mine.’ What did he mean by that?”
“Who knows with Flynn.”
She buckled up as he got in. He put the Jeep in gear and started down the road, moving cautiously.
Ash folded her knees and braced her heels on the seat, wrapping her arms around them. She felt nauseated—the aftereffect of so much adrenaline. “Are we still going to Lautaro’s?”
“Yeah. We can crash there, then head home. Or we can just head out tonight from there. We’ll see how we feel when we get there.”
“Are you really all right?” Ash looked him over. He had several nasty gashes on his arms and torso. She couldn’t see how badly scraped up his legs were. His grip on the steering wheel was firm. He didn’t seem to be suffering any of the shakes or shock she was. “Does this Jeep have a first-aid kit? You’re bleeding.”
“I’ll be mostly healed by the time we get to Lautaro’s. Don’t give it another thought.”
A couple of hours later, they parked in the courtyard of a beautiful Colonial home. Some part of Ash’s brain registered what she could see of the lush landscaping and inviting veranda from the outside lights, but the rest of the details about the house blurred together. She got out of the car as Merc grabbed their things.
The front door opened. Lautaro stood there with a worried expression, checking them over. Merc didn’t say anything, just led her inside.
They walked through a large entryway into a massive living room. Lamps spread a warm glow over the furnishings. Besides the two large sofas, there were several arrangements of armchairs and tables spread around the room. It looked perfectly situated to host several clusters of visitors. Ash made a mental note that she should come back for that visit that never happened.
But maybe not for a while.
A long, long while.
She realized Merc and their host were talking. She hadn’t caught much of what they said. When Lautaro finished questioning Merc, he turned his attention to her. She made the mistake of looking into his eyes. As dark as espresso, they seemed to take a reading of her entire emotional and physical state.
He looked at Merc. “You are, of course, welcome to stay here, but you may prefer to head out tonight. I think Ash might like to get settled at home.”
Home.
She loved her little cottage. Loved her job. Loved her life back in the real world. Usually, at the end of a trip, she never wanted to go home. But not tonight. Right now, she wanted nothing more than to be back in her own place, to sleep in her own bed.
She began to shake. “I think he’s right, Merc.”
Merc put his arm around her and pulled her close. She felt him nod. His cheek rubbed her bug bite, irritating her just a bit.
It was definitely time to go home.
“I left a mess in the Jeep,” Merc said.
“No worries. It needed to be detailed anyway.” Lautaro laughed. “Can I send you a meal or offer you something before you go?”
Ash looked at Merc and shook her head. “I can’t eat right now. I don’t know I’ll ever be able to eat again.”
“You will,” Lautaro said. “I was following along with things. We’ll talk when you get back.” His voice was rich and lyrical, spoken with a heavy Spanish accent.
A servant came out with a tray that held two bottles of water. Ice cold, they were sweating droplets of condensation. Merc took them and handed her one.
“Take a few minutes to refresh yourselves. Merc, you know where the guest rooms are. You should clean up before heading home. If Liege sees you like you are, he’ll get all mother-ish.”
Hearing him say Sam’s secret team name made her wonder if Lautaro was a mutant too.
I am. Lautaro smiled as his voice slipped into her mind. You are safe among us.
“Right.” Merc nodded. “Good call.” He held Ash by the shoulders to get a good look at her. “A quick shower would feel great, yeah?”
She nodded, feeling too numb for words.
Once again, he shouldered their things. Taking her hand, he led her up a wide staircase. The risers were decorated with beautiful hand-painted blue and yellow tiles that contrasted with terra-cotta treads.
She hadn’t noticed from the outside, but the house was built in an L shape. The short and long wings met at the top of the stairs. Merc led her toward the left and opened the second door on the left. It looked heavenly—dark wood flooring, whitewashed walls, and furniture made from tropical woods. The bed linens were crisp white cottons. Mosquito netting covered the top and sides of the bed.
Merc dropped their things on the floor. “I’m sorry you had to see that fight.” He put his hands on her shoulders, then moved them down her arms.
Flashes of the fight dashed through her mind. She shook her head, trying to block them. “I’m going to wait for my shower until we get home. I left my other outfit drying in the Jeep.”
“I’ll get your stuff. You should shower. It’ll help wash away what happened. I’ll see if Lautaro has a change of clothes for you.”
“Because he just happens to stock clothes for random chicks that drop in?”
“Because he’s a prepared host.”
“Yeah. That makes sense.”
Merc frowned. She knew she was being peevish, but she was tired and out of sorts.
“This is his B&B. He’s stocked for all kinds of eventualities.”
Ash nodded and crossed her arms. “Right. Sorry.”
Merc stripped and went to a dresser. He pulled out a gray pair of boxer briefs and held them up. “No worries. I’ll be five minutes, then we’ll head out.”
Ash caught sight of the slashes on his discarded clothes. The jagged rips were dirty but bloodless. She looked at the corresponding places on his body, but saw mere scratches.
“Merc, wait.” Ignoring his growing interest in her, she walked around him, touching his skin near the wounds. “This doesn’t make sense.” She held up his shredded T-shirt. “How could you heal so quickly?”
Merc’s face became serious. He stared into her eyes. She felt his thoughts—the weight of them, anyway.
“Guerre healed me. I mend quickly on my own, but since we’re a long way from home, he thought it best if he sped things along.”
Right. Guerre was their healer, the guy that Flynn and the Omnis were after.
Because all of that made sense.
“When did he do this?”
“While we drove.”
“I don’t remember any of that.”
“I sent you to sleep.”
Ash’s mouth opened, but she didn’t know what to say. He’d taken control of her body—without her permission.
Merc tilted his head by way of apology. “There are things I’m just used to doing around regulars, things that have become first nature for me and the others in the Legion. I should have explained myself.”
Ash sighed. There was no real harm done. And he was probably right, given the situation—she’d had all the shock she could have handled by then. She nodded, moving past the confrontation.
I
t wasn’t as if she was going to stay in his world, so it wasn’t worth a battle.
When that realization hit her, she shot him a fast look, catching his wounded expression.
No. It wasn’t her final decision. Not yet. Not now, here.
He turned away from her. She distracted herself with the sight of his naked backside as he walked into the bathroom. The man was the finest specimen of a male she’d ever seen.
She regretted not showering with him.
Not too late to join me. She could hear the humor in his comment.
Boundaries are good things, she said.
Boundaries are for regulars.
I am a regular.
But I have opened our channel. You could be one of us.
Ash didn’t respond to that. His world was half paradise, half nightmare, the two so tightly coupled that one couldn’t exist without the other.
Ash grabbed her toiletries bag from her backpack. A knock sounded on her door. She sent a worried look over to the bathroom, then reminded herself she was supposedly safe there.
She opened the door to find a woman in a uniform standing there. The woman smiled and handed Ash a stack of folded clothes as she said in Spanish, “Lautaro said you needed these. If they don’t fit or you need something else, let us know.” She nodded toward the next room over. “You can use that room to clean up, if you like.”
“Thank you.”
Ash flipped the lights on in the next room and went into the bathroom. She showered, dressed, and did her teeth. She started to brush her hair, but scraped her bug bite. Leaning toward the mirror, she pushed her hair out of the way. Sure enough, there was a nice red bump there. She sighed. She couldn’t remember exactly what the bug had looked like when she knocked it off her, so she wasn’t going to be able to research its impact. She would just have to keep an eye on the wound. She finished twisting her wet hair into a messy bunch that she clipped in place.
She splashed more cool water on her face, then stared into the pool of it in her palms, watching it swirl under the tap and spill over her fingers. For a long moment, that was all she let herself be aware of.
Not the ghouls. Just the paradise-half of the nightmare.
She knew she would never come back to Lautaro’s beautiful B&B.
She wondered if she could even stay friends with Summer. Or Kiera. Her best friends in the whole world.
Her little return to Valle de Lágrimas had cost Ash her life as she knew it.
She shut the water off, then turned and saw Merc standing at the threshold of the bathroom, his arms braced on both doorjambs.
He had that shattered look of a puppy left on the side of a road. They both knew what her answer was going to be; she just couldn’t make herself say it yet.
“Ready to go?” he asked, handing over her backpack.
She nodded, then collected her things and packed them up. Merc led the way downstairs. No one came to see them off, but there were more bottles of cold water and two brown bags.
Merc opened a door off the foyer that she hadn’t seen when she was there the first time. It led to a short hallway where there was just an elevator. When the doors opened, she noticed that there were floor indicators for the ground floor, first, and second floors, and then simply a down arrow. Merc pushed that button.
She looked at him, but he avoided her questioning eyes and stared at the elevator doors. She expected their descent to be a quick drop to an underground garage or something, but the elevator kept going. And going.
After a long moment, they stopped. The doors opened to reveal the same short hallway they’d used above, but when they exited the fire door, they were in a place that looked like a subway station. It had gray industrial tiles that covered every surface, floor to ceiling.
Merc took her hand. A small white pod was sitting before them.
The side door lifted, revealing three rows of three seats. The black body bag from Merc’s Jeep was in the back of the pod, along with a bag of her things. He pulled her forward. They sat in the front row. He keyed in a code of some sort.
“Buckle up,” he said, fastening his own seatbelt.
She did the same. The pod’s interior lights dimmed as it slipped out of the depot. “Lautaro has a train station under his house?”
“Yup.”
“Are we going to Medellín?”
“Nope. Home to the fort.”
“Where do we transfer?”
“We don’t.” He clasped his hands in front of him and stretched his long legs out in front of him, spreading his knees slightly so that one of his legs touched hers. “We have a couple of hours. Now would be a good time for us to have our chat.”
She curled her legs up and turned sideways in her seat, facing him. She loved looking at him. He seemed half feral. “I don’t think it is a good time for that. I’m feeling overwhelmed.”
“That’s understandable.”
“Is it possible that a mutant could bond with a regular human and that could be that?”
“Meaning the regular would not have to take the changes?”
She nodded.
“Possibly, but it’s problematic. If you’re in any way associated with the Legion, you’ll be a target for our enemies. You’ve seen some of what you’d be up against.”
“Only some?”
He nodded. “It’s dangerous for you to be with us but not of us. You need the physical and mental advantages the mutations provide. If you survive the change.”
“Summer survived it.” Dammit all. Had to be her fatigue talking. She was speaking as if she believed what he was telling her about his world—and as if there was a chance she would join the game.
“Yes, but the transition wasn’t easy for her.”
Ash wished they weren’t buckled into their seats. She wanted to be closer to him.
Merc smiled at her. He released his seatbelt and lifted the armrest between them. “Get over here.” He opened his arms.
She didn’t waste time moving to his lap. She settled between his legs, stretching her legs over his thigh to her seat. She leaned her head against his shoulder, drawing a deep breath of his scent. The scent of the soap he’d used at Lautaro’s was strong, so she had to make an effort to focus on his unique, calming essence.
Merc shifted so they were looking into each other’s eyes. She could sit for hours like that, absorbing him. He brushed his fingers through her hair, frowning as he felt the bump near her temple. “What’s this?” he asked.
“Just a bug bite. Happened after you cleared the monsters from the road.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t think I need to let you know about every bump and bruise I get.”
He frowned. “You should. Did you see the bug?”
She shook her head. “Not really. It was dark. I told you Flynn was there.”
“Shit. It’s a big bite. It’s swollen.”
“It was a big bug. Don’t worry. It’s fine. It’s just itchy now.”
“We’ll have Guerre have a look at it when we get to the fort.”
“How long will it take to get there?”
“A couple of hours. This pod runs at hyper speed.”
“And I’m guessing there’s a depot under the fort, too?”
“Yep.”
“That could come in handy. Took a couple of days for me to get down to Valle de Lágrimas.” She wiggled a little lower, trying to get to a comfortable position so she could shut her eyes.
“Go ahead and sleep. I’ve got you.”
“You aren’t making me sleep, are you?”
“No, but I can if it helps.”
“No.” She began drifting off, then thought of something else. “When do I have to give you my decision? We have time, right?”
“Some. I’ll try not to rush you.”
28
Ash did sleep, despite being overwrought. Merc was the one wounded from fighting those monsters, but she was the one who needed comfort. If this was going t
o be their lives, there was no way it could work for him.
She heard Merc speaking softly as he gently rubbed her arm. “We’re here, love.”
She sighed, loving the feel of being in his arms.
I love it too, he said. And it can work for us. You’ll see. I would be happy to have you to care for.
She forgot their minds were linked so tightly that they communicated in shared thoughts. She straightened as she realized that he could hear her thoughts, but she could only hear the thoughts of his that he sent to her. Why was that? Was he somehow blocking her? Or was it because she wasn’t a mutant but a regular?
“If you take the changes, you’ll be able to hear me. And once you can, then you’ll also want to learn how to block me and others from your mind. That you can’t do so now exposes you to Omni predators. It’s how Flynn has been able to touch your mind.”
Omni predators. Mind reading. Mutations. Monsters. It was all too much.
She got off his lap, feeling sluggish, as if she’d taken the longest, deepest nap of her life. “Tell me I didn’t drool.”
He laughed. “Drool? No. Snore…for the love of God, woman, can you snore.”
Ash gasped, making him laugh again.
The pod’s door opened, revealing another small depot. A fire door and a short hallway led to an elevator. It had cryptic floor identifiers as well.
She’d been to the fort several times. As much as she and the girls had gone exploring, she’d never seen this depot, which was a reminder that what she thought was real wasn’t.
She sent Merc a panicked look. “I don’t know who I am or where I am or what I am.”
He frowned, then pulled her close. “You sound like us after we were changed.”
“It’s all so disorienting.”
“It is. I know,” Merc said. The elevator took them to the second floor where the bedrooms were. “I asked Liege for privacy. I thought you’d like to get some rest before facing everyone, even Summer.”
O-Men: Liege's Legion - Merc Page 27