A Lover's Mercy

by Fiona Zedde

  When I’m done, he looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “I’m shocked she’s still with you. Then again, I never claimed to understand women.”

  “Some days, I’m surprised, too.” A rusty chuckle tumbles from my mouth. The sound echoes in the partially enclosed tomb.

  Pascale shakes his head and gives a weak laugh of his own. He drops down heavily into one of the stools, stretching out his long legs in front of him. Silence presses in on us for endless minutes, and then he says, “You know you have to tell the rest of the team about you and Mai, right?”

  He’s right. He and the others deserve to know.

  “Yes.” The inevitability of it tightens my chest, but I swallow my nervousness and face what I need to do like a grown-ass woman. “And there’s no time like the present.”

  Chapter 12

  My only class today starts long after Mai’s first one, but as usual, we decide to arrive at the university together. Save gas and all that even though we weren’t too intent on being environmentally conscious in the shower barely an hour ago.

  The temptation to have her was too much to resist. The water was cold by the time we stumbled out, breathless and staring anxiously at the clock since her class was due to start in a few minutes. But we made it on time. Even if we both look a little rushed.

  Well, I like to think that Mai seems absolutely ravished from our shower romp that almost drowned me, but the truth of it is she looks perfect—intimidatingly gorgeous in cuffed pants and the lavender silk blouse shimmering against her skin.

  In my usual pale colors, a gray jumpsuit this time, and with one of her pretty green scarves draped around in my neck, I just look like I got dressed.

  “You have some lipstick right there…” Smiling with an evil flash of teeth, she leans toward me and wipes my chin with her thumb. Her thumb comes away with her darker shade. Mai looks smug.

  Normally, I wouldn’t allow something like that. After all, we’re supposed to be discreet whenever we get to campus. Off campus is a whole other story. I’d go down on her in the Starbucks parking lot if she let me.

  Scowling, I wipe at my chin, too. “Is there any left?”

  “You’re fine,” she says with another flash of evil. “No one will ever know you just had your face between my legs barely half an hour ago.”

  “It was fifteen minutes, thank you very much.” Yes, we were already running late, but I like to take my time and make sure she comes before I take my own pleasure. Just kissing her some days is enough to make me explode. If I didn’t take care of her first, Lord knows when she’d ever get a turn.

  She laughs. “As if you’d ever leave me unsatisfied.”

  It’s good to be appreciated.

  Smiling wide enough for my face to hurt, I sneak a quick squeeze of Mai’s hand.

  After three days, the violent ripples from Ethan Redstone’s hearing are finally fading away. The bruise in Mai’s gaze has hardened into some type of acceptance: this is her family’s way and that’s it. As for me, when I told Caleb and Farr about my relationship with the Redstone heir, the world didn’t end.

  Okay, so Farr laughed and called me an idiot while Caleb stared at me like I stole the Holy Grail and have been using it as a water glass the whole time. But at the end of it, they just asked me how secret my relationship was (if the boss asked them about it, should they deny knowing?) and did I plan to go to the next Conclave as Mai’s plus one. The answer to both questions was a solid “no.”

  Two pairs of high heels, mine and Mai’s, click against concrete as we cross the courtyard side by side.

  The campus is huge. Mammoth buildings with rich people’s names on them stretch up toward the sky in a good attempt at being impressive. It’s the first day back at school after a long weekend, and I can’t wait to get her off campus and back into bed again. Or at least off campus so we can keep enjoying each other without worrying about the anti-fraternization rules.

  Enforcing is easier than this. At least there, we have the one rule: Justice above all. Everything else, we can do as we want. It works for me, and it works for the other enforcers.

  I refuse to think about the Ethan Redstone farce looming over all of us.

  It’s crowded today. It’s the week before exams start, when everyone who gives a damn is eager to get in the last bit of studying, cheating, or whatever before they sit down to sweat in front of impossible questions.

  “Thanks for the clean-up.” I purse my lips in her direction. A long-distance kiss. “I’m sure your boss appreciates your efforts to make it look as though we weren’t just making out in your car.”

  “If she knew, I’m sure she would be appropriately thankful.”

  She probably wouldn’t care, though. Mai is one of the best at what she does. Her students love her, and more than one student has come to this school and this campus because of her at the recommendation of a friend or sibling. She is a jewel in the university’s crown. They would be stupid to let rules pertaining to grown adults make them shoot themselves in the foot. Then again, no one has ever accused school administrators of being smart.

  “Lunch again this afternoon after class?” I ask.

  “Can’t. One of my students has a small pre-exam crisis and asked me to block off a big chunk of time for her this afternoon. I’ll probably end up eating a sandwich and commiserating with her in my office.”

  If I were anywhere near as dedicated as she is, I’d have the same problem. But the few students I have would rather go to any other professor but me. I’m fine with that. This isn’t the job I have the most stake in. “After school, then?”

  “Yes. After school.” Her lips curve up, and she licks the corner of her mouth just to tease.

  “You’re not a very nice woman,” I say, and turn toward my office. Her class starts soon, but I can just go to my office and get a few things done before my own starts in roughly two hours. The things I do for love. Or after a really fantastic session of shower sex.

  A high-pitched scream yanks my attention from the pout of Mai’s lips. What the hell? What kind of drama are these kids cooking up first thing in the morning? But just as that thought runs through my mind, the emotions behind it hit me.

  Fear. Bone-deep terror.

  “He’s got a gun!” someone shrieks just as the sound of a bullet rockets through the air.

  Chaos breaks loose all around us.

  Kids are running. Feet pound against the pavement. The formerly orderly campus turns into the scene of a stampede. Someone rushes past me and bumps into my shoulder. They stumble instead of the other way around.

  “Mai—” But she’s already gone. Briefcase dropped to the ground and disappeared into the madness to do something stupid. Like bring Mercy out of hiding at the place where she damn well works.

  I scan the minds around me and feel their terror, the fear that has some of them frozen stupid and others running for their lives. Not far away, the sound of honking horns. Tires screeching. A bump. Some idiot must have run into the street.

  Everyone is frightened, but none one can seem to pinpoint where the—Oh, there he is.

  High up in one of the buildings, a slight boy with a pale face and a long gun peers down from a barely opened window. I feel Mai’s presence. Mercy’s presence. She’s looking but can’t find him.

  The single-minded purpose of the boy sits like poison in his brain. And his scorn. A torrent of thoughts that have nothing to do with reality and everything to do with his inferiority complex and—what?—a girl didn’t want to go out with him? Complete idiocy.

  I slip into Mai’s head and feed her the boy’s location. But she’s busy. A student is badly hurt.

  Pushing through the screaming crowd, I reach a corner with relatively little chaos and look up to watch the pale boy with the dark gun, staring down into the plaza and getting ready to squeeze off a blaze of bullets. He’s on
ly shot one so far, and he’s psyching himself up to unload them all.

  Why did this have to happen here where we work? There’s got to be some sort of rule about this. This should happen at some out-of-the-way place with ill-prepared cops and a slew of politicians waiting to offer thoughts and prayers, but not here where Mercy, damn it, Mai, with her superhero complex can get into trouble and nearly get herself killed playing Superwoman.

  Damn it.

  My heart is pounding fast. But it’s not for these humans, it’s for Mai. These are bullets, and just a moment of inattentiveness can turn this easy situation into a nightmare.

  I curse again and drop my bag along with Mai’s briefcase in the corner out of the way so none of the running horde will trip over them. Unlike Mai, I can’t easily disguise myself, and though this job means more to her than it does to me, losing it because I show up to play enforcer with my face exposed won’t do a damn thing for either of us.

  Maybe I should start packing my enforcer uniform for work at the university, too.

  At least I’m wearing pants today. Grumbling about the annoying behavior patterns of women with hero complexes, I kick off my high heels and leave them in the same corner as my bag. Then I tie Mai’s scarf around the lower half of my face and run through the crowd, toward the danger instead of away from it.

  I hope to hell the cameras don’t catch me doing something stupid. Or at least something I can’t erase later.

  “Mai!” Then I catch myself. She needs to focus on her own stupidity, not mine.

  I search for that barrage of thoughts again and quickly find the boy. He’s moved up to a higher floor. Shots explode from the gun. The bullets are raining down fast, and I fling up my power, overheating the rounds and exploding them just above people’s heads before they get the chance to do any damage. I move quickly, shoving the humans out of the way, destroying as many bullets as I can, and running full out for the building with the stupid boy who ruined my damn day. If I catch him before Mai or any of the human police, I’m going to burn that little prick’s insides to ashes and laugh while doing it.

  I sprint through the building’s open doors and to the stairs, not even thinking about the elevator. This building is too damn big. Whimpers of fear reach me. The coppery spill of blood. Adrenaline. Triumph.

  My legs stretch and eat up the space between me and boy. Mai is already high up in the building. The sound of bullets has stopped. All I hear now are the cries of terror. Genderless wails of fear.

  Just in case Mai isn’t as good as she thinks she is, I run faster.

  Her mind is calm, though. As always in her crazy moments of heroism, all she’s thinking about is who to save. My stomach twists with anxiety, and I almost hate her at that moment.

  I’m not someone who feels anxious. Ever.

  But I breathe through the unfamiliar emotion, then sweep Mai’s thoughts again. She’s clear-headed and calm, ready to take on anything that she finds.

  Although she’s looking, she hasn’t found the boy. He’s here, though. Hiding. Waiting.

  Wait. There he is. The boy. The tip of his long gun is sweeping toward Mai.

  “No!” I shout, and the sound roars through me, through the building, and it feels like they hear it all the way in hell. The boy jerks and his gun fires wide. Panic flares in his brain and he takes off, up the stairwell and away from Mai.

  She chases him, the breath punching out of her lungs in desperation for him not to hurt anyone else. He’s fast. Determined.

  So is she.

  Call the police, she sends at me as she runs.

  I’m pretty sure someone else has taken care of that, I respond, and hear clearly enough for both of us the wail of nearby sirens.

  Rescue has arrived. Right.

  The boy is pelting up the steps like he’s after salvation. Heaven’s so close he’s practically blinded by it. But Mai is on his trail. Fast and fleet, a gazelle who can break him like a pretzel if she feels like it.

  She’ll catch him. I slow down and grip the banister to the industrial stairs. This ridiculous thing is almost over.

  A scream bursts out. A human girl. A student.

  Christ. Please don’t let that be someone from one of Mai’s classes. She’ll be destroyed. With a curse, I throw myself up the stairs and in the direction of the screams. But when I get there, it’s not anyone I’ve ever seen with Mai.

  A girl lies slumped over in the stairs. Blood lurid on her sunshine-yellow T-shirt. Whimpers of pain tremble her mouth, and her eyes are wide with fear.

  The boy runs up and up and brings his gun up, spraying bullets behind him, but Mai stops for the girl. “Get him!” Mai shouts, gently pressing a hand over the girl’s stomach to stop the river of blood.

  Get him? That I can do.

  I leap forward, the scarf fluttering around my face as I head higher, chasing the boy. Should I teleport? The thought comes as fast as the action, and moments later I’m in front of the boy. His bright green eyes widen. Fear twists his face, and the pleasure of it makes me want to howl.

  “Leave me alone!” he shouts as if he has a prayer of me listening to a word he says, but I’m not in the mood for his shit.

  My day was god-damn amazing until this idiot screwed everything up. Snarling, I grab the gun and twist it from his hands.

  It’s hot from all its hard and deadly work, and I rip the magazine from the gun, break the weapon in two, and throw the pieces behind me. They clatter down the stairs toward Mai with the wounded girl. Screaming more words I don’t have the patience for, the boy flings himself at me.

  “You little shit.” I punch him, and he sails back. His body flies toward the window. And out. Glass breaking. The rag doll of him explodes out into the brilliance of the morning, the look on his face of comic dismay. Right. He didn’t think it would end like this.

  Screams rise up from below.

  I don’t wait to hear the thump of his body on the pavement. Mai is more important.

  My mind searches for her and immediately finds what it needs. Mai is with the wounded girl in a too-slow elevator. The girl’s eyes are glassy from pain and fear. Blood bubbles out of her perforated belly, and Mai holds on to her tight. She’s called an ambulance to have them waiting for them when she gets to the bottom floor.

  The threat is gone.

  Slowly, my breath calms. My anger at the boy bleeds away.

  The sounds of sirens and cries of pain and more rush in through the broken window. A police radio squawks with noise and mysterious numbers and call signs I never bothered to learn. Everything inside me begins to still. Then panic. The fear for Mai. The burst of anger that threw my fist harder than necessary at that human boy.

  My legs shake, barely keeping me upright in the middle of the hallway. The cloth over my mouth flutters with every breath I take. Cameras. I feel them on me. But at least my face is covered. Still, I’ll have Farr wipe any footage of me. This isn’t official enforcer business, but I can use the excuse of keeping my identity secret as a reason to interfere with the human’s technology.

  Humans.

  Mai.

  The dead boy ten stories below.

  I squeeze my eyes shut imagining Mai’s face when she sees the boy’s crushed body and realizes I am the reason for it. The contentment from this morning seems so very far away now. Like it existed in another world. Slowly, I open my eyes and prepare to face the consequences of this one.

  Chapter 13

  They shut down the university. But not before I grab my bag, Mai’s briefcase, and my shoes, and escape from the chaos-ridden campus. Human police are everywhere. News helicopters circle above the sadness and blood, and reporters hustle close, pushing at the cordoned-off scene to feast on firsthand details of this latest mass shooting. I’m too weakened from teleporting with the boy killer to do anything other than slip through side streets, trying n
ot to look suspicious.

  I find Mai at home.

  She stands as herself, Mercy costume discarded in favor of jeans and a well-worn T-shirt, in the living room like she’s waiting for me. Her face is a storm of misery and anger. “Why did you kill him?”

  It’s the question I expected, but I thought she’d at least ask if I’m okay first. My bag and Mai’s land on the sofa. My shoes tumble into a corner by the front door. I’m drained and a little irritated, immediately put on the defensive.

  “He killed at least three of your precious humans, and he would have killed more if you hadn’t stopped him.”

  Mai growls and stalks toward me. “You mean if you hadn’t stopped him.” She stops only a few inches from me, so close I can feel her breath on my face. Her anger blazes high enough to rival any of my fires. “I saw you.” Her eyes are narrow and black. “I saw you take out those bullets before they even hit.” There is accusation in those eyes, and pain. “You could’ve made his gun explode then and stop things from being as they did.” She drew in a long and shuddering breath. “Why didn’t you save them?”

  “Oh, could I? You know so much about my power, do you?” I growl back at her, unable to stem the tide of anger rising up out of my exhaustion. “I bet you know mine about as well as you know yours.” She could’ve been killed running around after this kid with just about unlimited bullets for his gun and the lack of fucks when it came to using them.

  I lingered enough to hear that the kid’s father was in the army. He stole the rifle from him. Brought his small penis to school, backed up by a big gun, and hoped to take out as many of his classmates as possible, including the girl who didn’t want him.

  None of this is my fault, and the nerve of her to say this makes me want to shake her. “You’re the one running around playing hero, Mai. Not me. My job is to take out Metas who kill or abuse other Metas. I don’t protect humans. But today, I did. For you.”

  Her arms cross tightly over her chest. “But you could’ve saved them all if you wanted to.”