He shook his head. “That wasn’t necessary.”
Pain and hurt and a thousand unnamed emotions warred across Daisy’s face before she stamped them down under a blank expression. She stepped toward Bailey and then, with the flick of her wrist, her sword tip was under Bailey’s chin. “Don’t make me ask again.”
Cold fury dropped in the pit of Tony’s stomach. Blue light pulsed through the veins on his forearms and sparked at his fingertips.
He snarled, “Sloan forgave you for what happened to Max, but I’m warning you now, you touch a hair on Bailey’s head, and I’ll come for you. I’ll rip you in two.”
Bailey gasped and shot Daisy accusatory eyes. “You’re the one who kidnapped Max.”
Daisy’s violet gaze darted between Bailey and Tony. She lowered her sword but used the gun to point in the direction the plant monster went. “Track it.”
“Let Bailey free and I will.”
“No.”
“It’s okay, Tony,” Bailey stood up. “I’ll come. You need someone to have your back.”
He gripped the back of her neck and met her determined brown eyes, glistening under the starlight. “Baby, this is dangerous. I can heal. You can’t. Leave this to me.”
“There’s no chance in hell I’ll leave you with the bitch who almost killed Max.”
“She’s my sister. She won’t hurt me.” He hoped.
“She’s your sister?” Bailey hissed. “That nasty bag of crazy is related to you?”
“It’s a long story.”
She shook her head. “I don’t care. I’m not leaving you with her. Parker said you’re the best fighter out of all of them. I know if it comes to it, you can keep me safe and you need me. I keep you balanced. If anything else, having someone to watch your back and support you will help.”
Parker had said he was the best?
He was going to regret this, but what was the alternative? Fight his sister, perhaps to the death? He nodded, gesturing for Daisy to lead the way.
Daisy shook her head. “You first.”
Nineteen
Tony gripped Bailey’s waist and lowered her from the manhole ladder to the sewer below. They were underground in tunnels made from old brick and concrete. A pungent stream trickled around their feet in the culvert. Bailey gagged, and Tony took a moment to acclimatize to the smell with his nose buried in his elbow. His new edition Nikes were well and truly stuffed. Mud, silt, gross things and worse had leeched into them.
He shook them out, but it did no good except to disturb the rats and cockroaches as they scuttled past.
Unperturbed, Daisy was already a few feet into the tunnel and stood with her sword and torch at the ready. Her light illuminated the dark passage ahead, in the direction the creature was last seen. Tony sparked the power in his hands, adding a blue glow to the ambiance.
“Not bad,” he murmured to Bailey, showing off his hands. “Comes in handy, right?”
She shot him an amused look before hardening her features and glaring at Daisy.
“Thank you,” Tony whispered into her ear. “I know working with her is hard for you.”
“We’re being forced at gunpoint. Not exactly what I call working with her,” she replied sardonically.
He cast a glance over his shoulder to where Daisy stood a few feet away. “My instincts aren’t so great when it comes to her. She’s the one we left behind.”
Studying him closely, Bailey nodded. She was law enforcement. She would know what it was like to leave a soldier behind. It simply wasn’t a thing you did.
They’d been children at the time, but they now had a chance to mend bridges, to bring Daisy back to them.
“Walk next to me,” Tony said to Bailey, voice low.
She came up to his side. “You good?”
He nodded. “You?”
“I’ll never get this smell out, but yep. Let’s do this.”
They joined Daisy. She pointed with her sword, irritated at their delay. “The last time I came with Bosch, we surmised the creature nested in here somewhere. It gets deeper later. It likes water, so if it’s drinking, you’ll sense it. Alert me, and we’ll follow that direction. If I feel its sorrow, I’ll do the same. Between the two of us, we have a good chance at locating it.”
“And then what?” Tony’s gruff voice sounded loud in the small space.
“Then we exterminate it.”
Tony nodded and followed her. “Who’s Bosch?”
A pause. “Wayne Bosch was the botanical geneticist who created the creature.”
“Was?” Bailey asked.
“He’s dead.” Daisy’s raspy voice echoed. “He was absorbed by the plant.”
They walked on. The water got deeper and flowed faster. Any time they came to a new open tunnel, they stopped and put their sin-sensing feelers out. Tony sensed no gluttony; Daisy sensed no despair.
They must have covered miles, because Tony’s stomach began to growl, and Bailey asked more than once to rest. Daisy tried to hide it, but on occasion, her hand went to her throat and she wheezed when the air became particularly polluted and stifling.
“Does it hurt?” Tony asked, alluding to the wound on her neck. “Do you need to stop?”
Daisy coughed. She hooked stray white hairs behind her ear. It was clear to Tony that she was trying very hard to remain composed, to not let him see her weaknesses. Even in the low light, Tony could see the scars on her skin. Catching his attention, Daisy turned to the shadows. “I’ve had worse.”
Awkward silence dropped like a stone.
He didn’t know how to respond, so continued walking. After a few moments of silently trudging through the wet sewage, he was over it, impatient. He had to do something to break the tension. He hummed a snappy repetitive song. It was the first tune that came to mind, and he had no idea what it was, except he’d always sung it to fill the silence. Waiting for another scene check, spending grueling hours in the makeup chair. It made him feel calmer.
Next to him, Bailey’s voice lowered. “What is that? I heard you humming that at the sobriety house.”
“Don’t know. I hum it sometimes when it’s too quiet. Catchy. Gets stuck in your head.”
“It’s the song I used to sing when you were a baby,” Daisy answered, surprising them. “At the lab, we used to have our blood drawn at the same time every day. When that time came close, you would get nervous. You were three years old and terrified of needles. Sometimes they were bigger than my finger. I sang to stop you crying.”
Daisy’s profound words cut off abruptly. She continued walking, sloshing onward doggedly, completely unaware of Tony’s and Bailey’s stunned silence.
She’d shared something. Hope flared in Tony’s chest. Maybe he could keep the conversation going, keep cutting through that icy exterior.
Hurrying to catch up, Tony asked, “Do you hate us for not coming back?”
Dickhead. Go straight to the most uncomfortable question, why don’t you? He mentally slapped himself.
“No,” she answered, once again surprising him. “Once I hated you for leaving. Then I hated you for not coming back. Then I hated you for forgetting. Now, I feel nothing.”
“I’m sorry. We all are. Especially Mary. You have to know that. We all thought you were dead.”
“If you are asking for forgiveness, it won’t come. I am beyond the hopes and dreams of a child.”
She wouldn’t forgive them?
Fuck that.
She’d tried to murder them on more than one occasion! She’d hanged Mary from the rafters of a nightclub. She’d set rabid beasts after them. She’d purposefully kidnapped and tortured Max to prove that the mating bond could be manipulated to bring about the deadly berserker state. He clenched his fists, and his blue light flickered.
Tony stopped and gathered his patience. They were at a split in the tunnel and the culvert was deeper. The water came up to his knees. Scanning Daisy, he considered his words but screw it. Honesty was the best policy.
“Just because we want you back, doesn’t mean we’ve forgiven you, either. You still have a long way to go before you can redeem yourself, but you’re family, Daisy. You get a chance, and so do we. We’ve only just learned you are alive. We want you back. We want to make it right, and we hope you do too.”
“There is no coming back from what I am, from what I have done.”
“Yes, there is. You have to see that life with the Syndicate is no life at all.”
Daisy stopped and stared at him. “I told you, I feel nothing.”
“That’s not true,” Bailey interrupted. “You warned us about the plant’s neurotoxin.”
Tony’s eyes turned sharp as understanding flowed through him. “She’s right. You didn’t want Bailey hurt. And for whatever reason, you gave us the clue on how to heal Max. You do feel.”
Daisy shook her head and turned away. She stared long and hard at the glistening domed brick walls covered with mildew. “All I have left are empty memories and false promises. Don’t think there is something here when there isn’t.”
“Does Julius know you’re with us?”
“Enough conversation.” She peeked into another tunnel and shone her torch down its length. “I sense nothing. Do you?”
He shook his head. “I haven’t sensed the creature’s sin since we were face to face with it, and it was feeding on your Faithful.”
“Then this is pointless.” She threw Bailey’s gun into the contaminated water. The gun landed with a splash and promptly disappeared into the murk. “You can go.”
Daisy took off down one of the tunnels, leaving Bailey and Tony stunned and on their own. Daisy’s torchlight dimmed the further she went, so Tony flared his power and held it steady, giving them blue illumination to guide their way back. Fatigue ached in his arms. He didn’t know how long he could hold his power. The long overuse of it to light his way was taxing. He gave his retreating sister one last look and shook his head.
“I saw a ladder to a manhole not far back.” He gestured for Bailey to go in front of him. “Go first and I’ll hold up the rear.”
Regrettably, he didn’t trust Daisy to keep going and not return to stab them in the back.
“I want to say let’s collect my gun, but I don’t want to stick my hands in that murk.” Lines formed in Bailey’s forehead and she eyed the water like it was poison.
“Just leave it,” he replied. “I don’t like the vibe down here. Let’s get out.”
“No complaints here.”
Bailey continued to trudge. She took two steps ahead of him, and then it came out the water. In an explosion of watery action, tentacles shot out, wrapped around Bailey. She aquaplaned and fell face first, splashing loudly.
It’s here.
Adrenaline surged through him. He dove for Bailey, aiming for where her body submerged. He gripped her as she thrashed. Blue light glowed in the murky water, casting a cloudy bloom. He heaved, but the creature was everywhere, latching onto her and pulling her down. How had he not sensed it? Because it hadn’t been feeding. It was smart. It knew how to hide from him. His fingers lost the battle with the vines and slipped.
“No!” he roared. This can’t be happening.
Thousands of tendrils, roots and vines slid and slithered, gathering purchase on her body and trying to grip him. He felt it on his side, around his ankles, everywhere.
A burning sensation sliced his arm. The toxin. If any of that got onto Bailey. Maybe it already had.
“Bailey!”
Thrashing vines whipped around, coming up from the water, lashing out at him. Careful not to get his face whacked, he changed tactics and dug his fingers into the thickest appendages, hoping they were integral. Every panic, every fear, powered his fire, and he roared his agony, wrenching it free from his body. Blinding light burst under the water and the thing jolted away, but it wasn’t enough. The water dulled his power’s effect, but the fire kept the toxin from getting into his hands.
Freeing himself, he went back to Bailey and focused on the thickest roots. Clamping down on his panic, he went at it with robotic precision, trying not to let that niggling doubt push in.
That was not her thrashing getting weaker.
That was not the life draining out of her.
Hurry.
Explosion after explosion, he let loose on the creature. Out of time. Bailey slackened, sinking. Flattening his lips and bracing himself, he lifted her—heaved. Smaller roots snapped away, and he elevated enough to get her out, to give her one spluttering breath, but then she went down under new vines and water.
It was never ending.
“Daisy!” He roared, panicked. “Help!”
Please let her hear him. Please let her come back.
“Daisy! I NEED YOU.”
And when the sense of gluttony trickled into his gut, he knew the creature was feeding. Whether it was from Bailey or the water, he couldn’t tell. Didn’t care. Ripping with all his might, he yanked and shot power into the thing—Pop! Pop! Pop!—until his lungs burned, until his arms felt like they would rip from his body, until Bailey started to lose her fight again. The feeling of despair, so hard and so deep, sliced through his heart.
“Don’t give up, baby!”
He fired, and yanked, every time ripping a new piece of the creature away, throwing its bio-matter over his head.
And then Daisy was there.
Swinging her sword, slicing into the depths. She chopped and attacked like a machine. “Now!” she shouted. “Lift her now!”
Half submerged and on his knees, Tony slid his hands beneath Bailey’s body once more. He dragged her up, breaking the last binding vestiges. Water sluiced off her face as she broke the surface, but she didn’t splutter. She didn’t breathe.
No no no.
He patted her face. “Bailey!”
This was his fault. He should have refused to let her come. Should have forced her away at the park. But he’d been selfish. Some part had liked that she’d wanted to stay to watch his back.
Daisy continued to hack the creature while Tony shifted Bailey to get her in a better position, reclined against his knee. He rested her neck over one forearm arm so her head tilted up. There was no dry, flat area to do CPR.
Come on. He patted her face. Nothing. Baby. He pressed his ear to her mouth and listened for life. Nothing. He shifted to her heart.
Thump, thump.
Yes. Yes.
“That’s it, baby. Stay alive.” He titled her head to the side and cleared her airway. Wet gunk came out. He pinched her nose and angled her, opening her mouth. Then he breathed into her and continued to do so until she spluttered. Her chest heaved, and she vomited more water.
Sucking in air, her eyes opened with a naked plea. “Tony. Oh my God, Tony.”
“I’ve got you.”
“I can’t feel my legs.”
He scooped her up, one arm under her arms, the other under her thighs. He cast his sister an agonizing glance. “I’m going. I have to get her out of here.”
Daisy clenched her jaw, screamed a war cry and stabbed her sword into the water. Vines thrashed as she hit the creature. “Go!”
And then he did the most painful thing he’d ever done. He chose between his mate and his sister. He left a soldier behind.
Twenty
Bailey couldn’t feel her feet. From her ankles down there was a numbness. She lay in the medical room in the Lazarus House basement, still wearing her stinking sewage outfit and waiting for the antitoxin she’d been administered to take effect. The pain and swelling had gone down, but the numbness around her feet remained. The creature had slid beneath the hem of her pants and wrapped itself around her bare ankles. She could still feel the vines sliding around her torso, her arms... clamping, tightening, holding her down. Her struggle had been impossible. The disgusting water invaded her mouth, her lungs.
She shivered.
Stop. You’re fine.
Max paced along her side, silently fuming. She could feel the tension
in the air. Now and then, he’d pick up a figurine of Sailor Moon, and then put it back down on the bench. Most likely Sloan had put it there to brighten the sterile place. Sloan had a borderline unhealthy obsession with the manga character, and Max brooded when he stared at it. Most of the Deadly Seven, bar Parker, had returned topside to scout the area where they’d left Daisy fighting the creature.
Raised and flippant male voices filtered back into the room through the open door. Tony and Parker argued somewhere beyond and had been doing so since Parker had seen to Bailey’s paralysis with an antitoxin injection. They’d not known what the plant toxin was, but because Tony had been exposed to the venom, they filtered his blood to produce a serum with antitoxin antibodies. Fortunately for Bailey, when administered, it worked.
But she knew how close she’d come. If Tony hadn’t been exposed to the toxin, she might not be alive.
The moment she was stable, Parker immediately took the opportunity to blast his brother about failing to wear the Deadly Seven communicator watch. When the backup had arrived where the cell phones had been dumped, they couldn’t be found, and the hidden tracker in the watch would have provided them with a beacon to trace their location. Neither of them would have been harmed.
“How long do I have to be here?” Bailey whined to Max. She plucked a twig from her hair and cringed, imagining it still wiggled. She dropped it on a metal operating instrument tray next to the bed, adding it to the ever-growing collection of potential plant matter for further scientific study. “I’m starving and I need to bathe.”
“Grace is almost here. Just a few more minutes.”
Max stopped pacing. He flexed his fists at his side. The ex-army intelligence-gathering specialist had served with a few of the Lazarus family. He’d also dated Sloan for many years and had known about their secret long before anyone else. He’d been on missions with them, yet he had the nerve to round on her, fuming.
“You should have never been down in that sewer with him,” Max insisted with a growl.
“Excuse me?” She held out her hand and counted on her fingers. “One, I was forced at gunpoint. Two, he had zero backup. Three, he was hunting a plant-monster. You heard me. A. Plant. Monster. Four, he is my partner, my mate. You would have done the same for Sloan.” Her eyes narrowed at the guilt flashing across his face. “Or maybe you already have, and that’s how you ended up with a bomb strapped to your chest.”
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