Royal Blood The Complete Collection

by Amity Cross

  Mercy moved with me, rearing back as I fucked her ass, her cries growing as her own pleasure built. Her thrusts became desperate, harder, and my body answered hers. I quickened my pace, my balls flaring, filling, aching, until I couldn’t hold on any longer. Losing all sense, I pounded into her hard and came. There seemed to be no end to it as she clenched tight, milking everything I had until I had no choice but to fall back down into reality.

  Grasping her hair, I tugged backward, and she stood tall with my cock still buried in her ass. Turning her face, she found my mouth with hers and kissed me, her tongue wet and desperate against mine. It was so intense that I found myself falling, breaking that little bit more. Her blue eyes were ice, and the blood from my dream felt like it was falling around us, coating everything I touched. One day, maybe one day soon, I’d be responsible for her death. It was a sign.

  I might not pull the trigger, but I’d set her on this path when I could’ve stopped it.

  Letting her go, I pulled out roughly, ignoring her cry of pain as I stepped from the shower. I dismissed her like a thing, like an object…

  I grabbed a towel and dried myself off, tossing it onto the floor and staggering into the bedroom. Blood was everywhere in my dreams.

  Like the monster I was, I just took without a care for the consequence. She’d let me, so who was to blame? Perhaps both of us in equal measure.

  “You won’t talk to me,” Mercy said, following me into the bedroom. “How can I help if I don’t know what’s wrong?”

  She couldn’t help, that was the problem.

  Without a word, I turned and slid back into bed.

  Closing my eyes, I let myself drift off, and this time, it was into a dreamless sleep.

  When morning came, and I finally woke, it was to an empty bed.

  Sitting up, I listened, expecting to hear sounds from the bathroom or the kitchen to signal Mercy was up and getting ready for the day. I knew that I had to apologize for my behavior, but it was a foreign concept. I never apologized. For anything.

  Fuck, the whole notion of a relationship was still very much alien. I had been approaching this with the mentality of a partnership, and it was in a way, but I had been visualizing it as I would a contract.

  I was a fucking moron.

  As I listened, it became apparent that the cottage was silent. Empty.

  I threw the blankets aside and rose, pulling on the jeans I’d discarded on the floor the night before. Finding the bathroom empty, I padded through the living room and found the kitchen cold and dark, but it was something pinned to the front door that finally caught my attention. Something that hadn’t been there the night before.

  A knife was imbedded in the wood, its tip piercing a piece of white paper. The knife that I’d given her so she could practice her aim out in the yard.

  Typical…she’d left me a note. I strode over to it and tore it down, reading the words she’d left for me.

  X, I need some time. I will be back tonight. Mercy.

  I slammed my fist into the wall and cursed.

  I was losing her.

  My fucked up inability to cope with my past, to not want to know, to fucking disappear, had pushed her away. There was no other reason she’d leave. I had been fine with not knowing, but apparently, she was not. She hadn’t been truthful with me, and the bite of betrayal stung the shredded remains of my heart.

  I was losing Mercy Reid.

  Chapter 10

  Mercy

  He wouldn’t talk to me.

  X was never one to share his thoughts and feelings, but this was different. Something was very wrong.

  There were things he’d never tell me, things that would go with him to the grave, but something had changed last night. First, when I’d disappeared in to the city, he’d gone someplace, maybe to follow up something Weiss had told him. He was angry with me, but I’d expected that. Then, when he’d woken from another dream…it didn’t feel typical. Usually, he’d find his solace in our bodies together, but he’d pushed me away as if my touch had burned him. The sex we’d shared in the shower had become violent with him in the dominating position, much like it had been when we first met. It didn’t feel right in my heart, and for the first time since he’d walked into The Gambler’s Inn and called me a bitch, I didn’t know what to do.

  X's sudden downward spiral made me think he was regressing, that all the things we’d been through up until now had been for nothing. That was worrying enough, but there was another problem I didn’t know how to face.

  The woman Mei. That was a can of fucking worms if I ever saw one. If I told X Intelligence had approached me the moment he’d turned his back, he’d snap even further and then there would be nothing I could do to save him.

  More than ever, I believed he had to face his past before he could move forward, and his denial was doing more damage than good. What was I meant to do? He wasn’t leaving me with much choice, and I feared I would have to give him up before I could win him back forever.

  Before X could wake, I dressed in the dark and slipped out to the car, my boots sinking into the snow that had fallen overnight. I needed to get away and think.

  I drove all the way across the moor in the gray light of the early morning, the landscape looking alien underneath its shroud of white ice. My life seemed to be full of metaphors lately. The world had changed overnight, internally and externally.

  Exeter was already beginning to bustle with the day’s activities by the time I found myself driving through it. People were on their way to work, or school or whatever it was they did. Normal people with lives, families, jobs… Regular people with regular dreams. I wondered what X had dreamed about before he was conditioned. He would’ve been in his early twenties, maybe in University, maybe working… What if he had a family out there who were looking for him? My fingers tightened around the steering wheel. What if he had a girlfriend or a wife he’d loved… What if she was looking for him?

  I pulled the car up into a spot and killed the engine. Silence descended as I stared out the window. The snow wasn’t nearly as pretty here. It had turned to brown mush in the gutters, the road wet and slippery. Across the street was a lone phone box, and a sense of fate prickled at my heart. Was it a sign? My life was full of them after all, and it wasn’t like they were common in the age of smartphones. I glanced at the sky through the windshield like I’d see the god I didn’t believe in laughing his ass off at me.

  Settling back in the seat, I stared at the phone box and wondered if I should call the woman. Agent Mei.

  She only wanted a meeting, which could mean anything, but I had the opportunity to control how it happened. I could talk to her first, get more information. It was clear X needed help, but I wasn’t sure that involving Intelligence was the right way to go about it. They’d cage him like a beast, no matter what she promised.

  I curled my hands into tight fists and began to shiver as the warmth began to seep from the interior of X’s car. I wondered how he’d coped when he found me gone. If he would be even more pissed at me for leaving before he woke. That was the point, right? He wasn’t coping.

  Opening the door, I stepped out onto the street. It was just a phone call. If I didn’t like what she had to say, I could just hang up and walk away. No harm, no foul. I could go back to X and try something else because abandoning him was not an option.

  I jogged across the empty road and slipped inside the booth, the door closing with a bang that made me jump. Shivering, I grasped the handset and pressed it against my ear. I dialed the number Mei had given me and closed my eyes as it began to ring.

  She just wants to talk. I just want to talk. I need to ask the right questions. I need to help X.

  “Hello?”

  Mei’s voice echoed through the receiver, and before I could lose my nerve and hang up, I blurted, “What do you want with him?”

  There was nothing but silence, and I wondered if the call had dropped out. I began to shiver even more violently, shoving my free h
and inside my jacket. Then, I finally got an answer.

  “We just want to talk to him,” Mei replied, sounding like she hadn’t believed I was going to contact her. “Nothing more.”

  I didn’t exactly trust her word. The world had shaped me to be distrusting of everyone…everyone but X. “What assurances can you give me that he will walk away after?”

  “Mercy, all I can give you is my word.” Her voice was calm, even, confident. Well-fucking-trained. “We will set the meeting in a neutral location. No surveillance, no backup, no wires. Just me and him.”

  “Why? I don’t understand what you want.”

  There was a rustling as Mei shifted her phone, and I tried to remember how long the call had been connected. There was no doubt in my mind they’d run a trace, and at any moment a tactical team would be surrounding the little phone booth I huddled inside of.

  “I can’t tell you. All you need to know is that he’s a person of interest.”

  I snorted at the irony. “Let me guess, it’s above my non-existent clearance level?”

  “We want to help him, Mercy. We know what he’s been through.”

  I stilled, the blood draining from my face. My breath caught, and I shook my head, almost dropping the receiver. “You can’t know.”

  “I think…” She paused as a rare note of emotion came through in her voice. “We think we know who he is.”

  I fell against the side of the booth and pressed my palm against the opposite window to steady myself. They knew who he was.

  I was desperate to help X, but the cost of betrayal might be too great. But what if they could help him come to terms with his conditioning? What if they could reverse it? Was it even possible to undo such severe brainwashing? If they knew who he was, they might be able to give him his life back. I might lose him in the process, but if there was even the slightest chance…then I had to know.

  “Can you help him?” I asked, my voice wavering.

  There was silence for a moment before she replied. “Yes. We can help him.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut and made the call.

  “What do I need to do?”

  Chapter 11

  Mercy

  I hung up the receiver, my fingers numb with the chill of what I’d just done.

  Had I just betrayed the only man I’d ever loved?

  I did it to save him. I had to trust Mei. I had to save X’s soul like he had mine when he came with me to kill Sykes. He’d left me with little choice but to take matters into my own hands.

  Drawing in a deep breath, I stepped from the phone booth. X would come back to Exeter to speak with Weiss, and that was when they’d approach him. They’d talk to him and at the end of it, give him a choice. Go with them and get the help he needed or walk away. Perhaps that choice would be the thing that saved our relationship, but maybe it would never be enough.

  Turning, I gasped as a dark figure lunged for me. I twisted to the side, using the phone booth as a springboard. I shoved hard against the glass, putting distance between me and my assailant—who I now saw was a rough looking man—and me.

  Intelligence? Somehow, I didn’t think they’d be that stupid, even if they’d traced the call.

  “Who are you?” I cried as I twisted out of the way of a punch.

  “Who the fuck do you think, little girl?” His voice was harsh, as if he’d been gargling turpentine, and the hint of a crude greenish tattoo peeked out from the collar of his bomber jacket. He was too thuggish to be Intelligence, which meant one thing and one thing only.

  No!

  I stumbled as I realized the reality of the shit I was in, and it was enough for the man to lunge and curl his hands around my neck. I thrashed against his grasp, but he was too strong and I was stuck. His fingers squeezed around my throat, closing off my airways.

  “Royal Blood,” I gasped, desperately trying to hold on to consciousness.

  He smirked as a black van screeched to a stop beside us, the side door sliding open.

  Fuck…I had to get away. The only way that was going to happen was to trust in the things X had taught me. It was the only chance I had. A clear mind, a level head and zero emotion. So, I did the exact thing he’d kept trying to beat into my head over and over since we arrived at the cottage.

  I turned off my emotions. I turned them off and I fought.

  Grasping the man’s shoulders, I jumped with as much force as I could muster and kicked forward. Catching him by surprise, his grip slackened as his knees buckled, and I managed to twist free.

  Gasping for breath, I stumbled as two more men jumped from the van and came straight at me. I reacted instantly, reaching for the knife in my boot. My hand grasped the hilt and I pulled it free. With the flick of a wrist, I sent it hurtling through the air.

  Everything seemed to slow down, and for a sickening moment, I thought I’d missed my mark, but there was a dull thunk as the knife imbedded into the chest of one of the men. It sunk right into his flesh, right to the hilt, and he fell hard, his eyes wide with shock. His friend hesitated, and I stepped forward, my fist raised to strike, but I wasn’t fast enough to counter him before the first man I'd knocked to the ground collected himself.

  Pain shocked through my side and I staggered, a boot sinking into my ribs with enough force to break bone. My eyes widened as the man in front of me struck, his fist slamming into my temple.

  Stars burst through my vision, and I felt myself falling, the world spinning and tumbling until it turned to darkness.

  I had to hand it to myself. At least I put up a good fight.

  I fell into darkness and I awoke into it.

  My head ached something fierce, my brain throbbing against the inside of my skull like I was being beaten over and over with a rubber mallet. Thump, thump, thump...

  The ground was hard and cold beneath me, and I flattened my palms against the surface. Concrete.

  Coarse material scraped against my face, and I realized I’d been hooded. My entire head was covered, but I still felt my clothes and boots against my tender body. Whoever had snatched me from the street hadn’t been careful with my transport, and my left arm was numb where the circulation had been cut off. As awareness came back to me piece by piece, pins and needles exploded down my limb.

  My breath condensed hot against the inside of the hood, my vision totally dark. No light leaked through the material, and it only made my heart pound faster.

  X had failed to do the job on day one, and a part of me wanted to go back and change everything. What would’ve happened if I had been able to escape the city before X found me in my apartment preparing to flee? Where would I be now? In a much different place, that’s for sure.

  Back then, X would've made it quick, but these men—whoever they were—would make it slow. Bile rose in the back of my throat at the thought of the things they would do to my body. They'd inflict the worst kind of pain and violate places that I'd vowed solely to X. They wouldn't stop until I was broken, and only then would they kill me.

  Tough way to die, Mercy.

  Tough way to die.

  Chapter 12

  X

  Mercy didn’t come back.

  I waited on the sofa, watching the flames in the fire, silence stretching on into the darkness. The longer I waited, the more my anxiety levels rose until I felt like I was going to explode. Was this how she felt all those times I went away and left her here?

  I picked up the pliers from the box by the window and flexed them in my hand. Tangible. I’d do something tangible until she returned.

  Dragging the box to the coffee table, I began to place the tools onto the surface, methodically positioning everything in one long assembly line. Mercy had complained until she was blue in the face about making bullets. She was crap at it but practice made perfect. Out there, you couldn’t afford to make any mistakes. Rough around the edges sometimes had to fly on the run, but the better she could do something meant a higher success rate when it really mattered. Pressure was the real tes
t.

  I worked late into the night, assembling five different calibers of ammunition. When I ran out of supplies, I picked up a sliver of wood and began to whittle it with my knife, feeding the flames in the fireplace.

  Hours had passed, and it was still silent. The cottage was still empty.

  I began to pace, then I showered. Then I dressed for the day, vowing that if the sun began to rise and she still wasn’t there, I’d go look for her. Even if it meant I had to walk all the way into Exeter to do so.

  I stood out on the stoop as the last flakes of snow that had fallen overnight settled on the ground. The sky had cleared enough that a few pinpoints of light shone through. A handful of stars trying to break through the chaos and fight the sunrise. Attacked on all fronts.

  Mercy was missing. Narrowing my eyes, I realized that I couldn’t do this on my own, not with my mind in the state it was. My conditioning was unraveling faster every day, my ability to cope with the pressure was faltering. She’d been right all along. She’d been right and I’d punished her for it.

  Swallowing my pride, I pulled the burner phone from my coat pocket and called the one man who would be able to help me. The only man who would.

  Vaughn answered on the second ring. “X?”

  “Mercy is missing.”

  Silence. “Cut to the chase, why don’t you.”

  “Vaughn.” He knew I wouldn’t call unless it was dire. I never needed help, but I needed it now. I wasn’t fucking around.

  “Well, fuck. You need a hand?”

  “She’s been gone since yesterday morning. She left a note saying she would be back last night…and she hasn’t come back.” He knew that Royal Blood and Intelligence were poking around Exeter. He was on high alert as it was, and now that Mercy hadn’t shown up…

  “I’m assuming you have no way to contact her?”