Royal Blood The Complete Collection

by Amity Cross

  “Fuck!” I cursed, fisting my hands into my hair.

  No Mercy, no Vaughn… No fucking revenge. They were never here, which meant they could be anywhere in the world by now. I didn’t want to admit it, but I might’ve just lost Mercy forever. I couldn’t comprehend that the next time I laid eyes on her, she might be an emotionless monster, come to kill me as her test. Greggor would control the one thing in this world I loved…the one thing I would die for…

  Everything was darkness without her.

  I was a broken man…and a broken man with everything to lose? Well, he was a fucking dangerous man to cross.

  Royal Blood would burn, and I would start right at the top. I would tear Greggor’s heart out with my own bare hands.

  The monster he created would be the last thing he ever saw.

  Chapter 15

  Mercy

  The Watchman sliced me open.

  He bled me, letting me slip in and out of consciousness before zapping me with a bolt of electricity. It snapped me to attention, my heart thumping erratically. It fucking killed. The constant low then high was driving me further and further toward madness.

  Still he asked questions and still I didn’t answer.

  Where was X? What were his plans? What did he know? They were afraid of what his past would reveal, if the secrets they’d made him forget would come to light…if he had remembered. They must’ve done some pretty fucked-up shit. I mean, things were pretty fucked-up as it was, but there must be a whole other level if they were going to these lengths.

  When the dunk tank and the scalpel stopped working, they sat me in the chair and began a new tactic…one that still hadn’t revealed itself.

  “What are Xavier’s plans?” The Watchman asked. “Tell me, and this will all go away.”

  “Liar,” I spat. “It won’t go away. It won’t go until you make me forget.”

  “Dear Mercy, we haven’t even begun your training yet. This is merely the screening process.”

  “If this is the job interview, then I decline,” I said with a sneer. If he was telling the truth, then X had been through far worse than I could ever have imagined.

  He narrowed his eyes. “I assume since you fornicated with him, you saw his scars.”

  I knew they’d been inflicted by The Watchman, even a fool could see that, but I’d never knew how they got there, what kind of torture they’d inflicted upon him.

  “Fire,” he went on. “Hot metal melts flesh wonderfully. It is very…cleansing. I burned away all that he was and shaped him into something new.”

  The phantom scent of burning flesh wafted up my nose, and I almost gagged. They’d branded him?

  I watched The Watchman as he watched me in return, waiting for my weakness to surface. X was the button, but they’d never be able to push hard enough.

  “You have very lovely teeth,” he murmured.

  My gaze flickered to the tray beside the chair and fixed on a pair of nasty looking dental pliers.

  “Tell me about Xavier Blood,” he said, reaching out for them.

  Even knowing exactly what was coming for me, I squared my jaw in defiance. “Never.”

  The Watchman held the pliers up as a man that had been watching the whole interrogation stepped forward. It must be his perverted apprentice, heir to the throne of Watchman. I guess this was going to be one of those moments where I thrashed. Fun.

  “Do me a favor,” I said, eyeing my captor with as much resistance as I could muster. “Start at the back.”

  Without blinking, The Watchman shoved a clamp into my mouth, spreading my jaw wide. The apprentice took hold of it and held my forehead with his other hand as my torturer tightened his grip on his carefully selected tool of pain. Without a word to acknowledge my request, he moved over me and placed the stainless steel into my open mouth, clamping down hard onto a molar toward the back.

  I wasn’t stupid enough to think he was showing me any kindness. A tooth was a tooth, and the pain would be extraordinary. I’d asked him to start in the back, thinking about my looks like a vain prissy bitch, but molars? They would hurt the worst.

  Good fucking job Mercy.

  As I felt my tooth begin to move, I screamed.

  It had been snowing again.

  The sky was ablaze with stars and the green and purple veil of an aurora shimmering over the icy landscape.

  Shivering, I pulled my coat around myself even tighter. I was sitting on the fallen tree out in the yard, the trunk hard and cold underneath my ass. If I looked over my shoulder, I knew I’d see the cottage someplace behind me.

  “Start at the back?”

  I glanced at X, who’d materialized beside me in that sneaky silent creeper way of his. He was exactly how I remembered him, strong, handsome, the emotion in his eyes constantly shifting as his state of mind fluxed beneath the surface. His haircut looked pretty good, even if I’d just made it up as I went along.

  “I didn’t think you’d like a toothless hick of a girlfriend,” I retorted, watching the colors of the aurora play across his skin.

  “I don’t care about a tooth,” he replied. “I care about your soul.”

  I snorted at the irony. Trust me to finally hear it pass his lips in an hallucination.

  “I didn’t plan on it ending up like this,” I murmured, glancing up at the stars.

  “I didn’t either.”

  “I didn’t plan on loving you.”

  His eyes were sad, an emotion that I’d never seen in them before. “I didn’t plan on making you into a monster.”

  Freeing my hand from underneath my coat, I found X’s and curled my fingers around his. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I was only trying to help you.”

  He didn’t reply. I’d betrayed him by calling Mei, and I’d betrayed him by allowing my heart to rule my head. It was what led me to being captured by Royal Blood, after all. I’d lost count of the times he’d told me that emotions would see me killed or worse. Had I listened? No, because I thought I knew better.

  I didn’t know shit.

  “So, what happens if I can’t hold on?” I asked, glancing sidelong at him.

  He pulled his gaze from the stars he seemed to love so much and focused his green eyes on mine. “You die.”

  I stiffened, absorbing the notion that X would rather see me dead than be anything like him. He was right, but then again, he always was.

  Nodding my understanding I whispered, “Then I die.”

  I landed heavily onto the concrete floor of my prison, the door slamming closed behind me.

  Groaning, I rolled onto my side, my mouth throbbing. At least they started in the back…if that was a kindness. I tasted blood, and the cold air burned through the open hole in my gum. Clamping a hand over my mouth, I breathed through my nose, trying to control the pain.

  I had plenty of teeth left. I’m sure they made spectacular sets of false ones these days. I bet you couldn’t even tell the difference.

  Curling up into a ball where I lay, I wondered what was next on the agenda. What horrors they’d throw at me to make me break. What would X do?

  X would endure, and so would I.

  I would endure until he found me or until I escaped and if he failed…if I failed…

  Then, and only then, I’d do what my hallucination had bid me.

  I’d die.

  Chapter 16

  X

  Hawkes and I went back to the distillery.

  There was nowhere else to go.

  The moment he pulled the car into a space out the front of the abandoned building, I shoved open the door and strode inside. Heading straight downstairs, I kicked in the door to Weiss’ prison and lunged for him. His eyes widened in surprise as I sucker punched him right in the face. He was thrown to the side and fell to the ground, the back of the wooden chair splintering as it hit.

  “Where is she?” I roared.

  Weiss groaned, freeing his arms that had been locked onto the back of the chair. The handcuffs that had bound him st
ill locked his arms behind his back, but he scrambled to his knees, glaring up at me.

  “For the love of fucking god…” I exclaimed, fisting my hands into my hair.

  “Desperation doesn’t suit you, X,” my one-time handler declared, sitting back on his heels.

  “Tell me what you know,” I snapped. “Who has her? Where have they taken her?”

  Weiss narrowed his eyes. “You know who has her, X.”

  The Watchman. Greggor had given her to The Watchman. Dread settled into my bones.

  “Where is he?”

  “Do you really think I know shit now?” he asked like I was fucking stupid. “I was captured. Everything I know is worthless. You of all people should know that. After all, he trained you.”

  With a sickening smack, my fist connected with his face, and he fell backwards, hitting the ground hard.

  “Let me go, kill me, what do I care?” he asked with a grimace, rolling onto his side. “I’m dead either way.”

  I stood over him, my chest heaving. “If you ever loved her, Weiss…”

  He began to laugh, the sound echoing through the concrete room. “Love? I would’ve liked to fuck her, have her suck my cock, but not love.”

  With a cry, I kicked him in the stomach, and he grunted, curling into the fetal position. “Don’t you fucking dare talk about Mercy like that.”

  “You started out the same way, X. Wanting to fuck her. Tell me, when did you realize she was the one who tried to kill Sykes?”

  I turned away from him, burying my hands into my hair. He was just trying to fuck with me, push me over the edge I was already falling over. I was nothing without her.

  “You said it yourself,” I said, facing him once more. “You’ve got nothing to lose. So, why not fuck up the people who abandoned you to this?” I gestured to the room around us. “I’m going to find them with or without Mercy, so what’s it to you?”

  Weiss stared up at me and wiped his mouth against his shoulder, smearing blood across his face. “What’s the point?” he asked. “I still end up in the ground no matter what I do.”

  “What you get is what everyone who’s ever been fucked over by those kind of men wants. Revenge,” I stated. “Tell me.”

  “How far down the rabbit hole do you really want to go, X?”

  “Tell me,” I urged.

  He scrambled to his knees and glared up at me. “Before I give you anything, promise me one thing.”

  I narrowed my eyes, waiting.

  Weiss stared me straight in the face, determination set into his ugly features. “When you kill me, make it fast.”

  I regarded him for a moment and decided he was telling the truth. He had nothing to gain from lying, but he had nothing to gain from giving me what I wanted, either. Maybe in his last minutes he wanted to repent. Worse men had turned in their last breaths, why not Weiss?

  “Agreed,” I said

  “The woman is an Intelligence agent, but I assume you already know. Her name is Mei Akiyama. She’s MI6 and has been looking for you.”

  There could be hundreds of reasons she was after me. “Keep talking.”

  Weiss rattled off a telephone number, his eyes drooping. Even if I didn’t kill him, he’d die from his injuries if I left him long enough.

  “The number is for a medical center in Exeter. Ask if you can talk to Dr. Jonathan Hancock about some test results. They will tell you that he is currently with a patient and will ask if you would like to wait. Say yes, and the operator will place you on hold. Wait ten minutes, then hang up.”

  Distrust began to wash over me. Weiss had just described a standard call-in procedure for a British Intelligence agent. “What kind of game is this?” I asked.

  “If you want to know the truth about your identity, you will follow the protocol. It may be the only thing that can help you save Mercy.”

  I shook my head, more confused than ever. “I don’t understand.”

  “Follow the protocol.”

  I grimaced. I was alone. Not like I had been when I was working for Royal Blood. No, this was much worse. I was truly alone. A monster adrift with nothing to lose but the woman he loved. What choice did I have?

  Clicking the safety off the gun, I leveled it with Weiss’ head. “What assurances do I have that you’re telling me the truth?”

  He laughed, shaking his head. “Distrusting to the last, hey?” he scoffed. “Not everything about the past eight years was a lie, X. I’m fucked. I know I’m about to die, so let me give you this one last thing to destroy the monster and give you back the man.”

  “Weiss has a heart?” I mused, cocking my head to the side.

  He shrugged. “I guess it’s up to you to find out if that’s true or not.” He nodded to the gun in my hand. “See you on the other side, brother.”

  I pulled the trigger.

  Part II

  Blood In The Water

  The Inevitable End.

  Chapter 17

  X

  I stared at the phone box that was the last suspected whereabouts of Mercy Reid.

  I stared at the spots of blood on the glass and wondered why nobody had bothered to clean it. I didn’t know if it was hers or her kidnapper’s.

  Glancing around the street, I wondered why she’d chosen this spot. Probably because it was one of the only phone boxes in the whole of Exeter. Or maybe because she just happened across it as she drove to clear her mind. It could mean anything.

  I’d left Hawkes behind at the distillery. He’d been working all night, coordinating the rest of Vaughn’s contacts and men, trying to find a lead on where Royal Blood had taken him. As soon as it was light, he’d packed up what little was left behind in the office and drove away. I’d assumed he had forgotten all about Mercy in his determination to see his boss back safely.

  I’d lost everything, so I let him go. He had a way to contact me if needed, but I didn’t expect to hear from him. I was now in this one hundred percent solo.

  I had no leads of my own after the failed attempt at the warehouse, none but the protocol Weiss had shoved into my face before I shot him in the head.

  If you want to know the truth about your identity, you will follow the protocol. It may be the only thing that can help you save Mercy.

  I didn’t want to believe him, but I had nowhere else to turn. My past and future were colliding, and I could no longer run from it. I’d fought against my identity ever since I’d realized my conditioning was unraveling, and I’d realized Mercy Reid was my target. Now it was catching up with me, whether I wanted it to or not. This part was inevitable.

  Stepping inside the phone box, I picked up the receiver. Mercy had stood right here, used this exact telephone… What was I going to find once I called the number?

  Raising my hand, I pressed my finger against the number pad, dialing the digits that Weiss had given me in his last moments. Pressing the receiver to my ear, I listened to the dial tone, counting each beep as the number rang. One, two, three, four…

  “Exeter Medical Clinic, how can I help?” The receptionist’s voice was chirpy, one hundred percent friendly without a care in the world.

  I took a deep breath. “I’d like to talk to Dr. Jonathan Hancock about some test results.”

  The pause stretched on a minute too long, and I realized they knew exactly who was calling. This was a dead protocol and I realized only one person should know it. Me.

  “I’m sorry, but Dr. Hancock is currently with a patient. Would you like to wait?”

  I closed my eyes. “Yes.”

  Music began filtering through the handset, a soft classical piece that I found oddly familiar. Had I been an asset? Had I been working with them before I was conditioned? I supposed I was going to find out one way or another. I needed their help, but the more I waited, the more I understood that this would go one of two ways. I’d get the help I wanted to find Mercy or they’d take me into custody for a string of murders longer than my arm.

  I had nowhere else to turn, so it
seemed like a good idea. I could trade everything I knew on Royal Blood and The Watchman for Mercy.

  When the allotted ten minutes was up, I set the handset back into the cradle and leaned my head against the glass. It was too late to go back now. Those ten minutes had given them ample time to trace the call and send a team. They’d be picking me up any second now.

  Standing tall, I pushed out of the booth and stood on the side of the road, trying to imagine Mercy in the same spot. Fighting for her life.

  There was a squeal of tires, and I glanced up as four armed men leaped from a dark van while a fifth jumped out of an SUV driving in front. Each leveled a semi-automatic weapon at me, the click of the safeties as they were simultaneously flicked off, echoed down the quiet street.

  I raised an eyebrow, my hands wedged firmly in my pockets.

  “Don’t move.”

  It was the woman I’d followed the other night. The one I’d witnessed completing a dead drop outside that coffee shop in the city center. Of fucking course it was. I was no longer surprised at the things Weiss had led me into, even the parts where he was still fucking with me from beyond the grave. The asshole was probably laughing at me right now.

  A man in a suit stood beside her, a handgun aimed at my empty heart, and I snorted. He should be aiming at my head.

  I waited to see what they would do next, not willing to give away my position on the side of the road in front of the help.

  The woman cocked her head to the side, her brown eyes drilling into mine. If I wasn’t mistaken, I was sure I’d seen a glimmer of surprise in them.

  “Arrest him,” she declared.

  The man that stood beside her strode forward and shoved me across the hood of the lead car, pressing my cheek hard against the bonnet. Hands yanked my arms behind me, and there was a click as I was cuffed. Really, what was I expecting? Confetti and a fucking parade?