by Leah Blake
Raul stepped up beside Cael, his gaze never faltering from Mik. “I trust Aeson’s skills in witchcraft with my life. He, and many of the witches living under my care, have provided valuable, life-saving necessities to myself and my men when needed most. I have asked him if he could create a death potion, and he did. The only way you can escape that contract without Jude hunting you down is through death.”
“No!” Nico barked. Mik pulled out from under his hand before Nico had a chance to shove him behind his mate’s larger frame.
“Nico, wait,” Mik said. “Let them finish.”
Nico’s jaw moved as he ground his teeth. His sun-gold eyes flared with anger. Mik rested a hand against his bicep, trying to calm the wolf.
“Let them finish, Nico.”
Victor rounded Raul, stepped up to Nico, and pressed his palm to Nico’s shoulder. A rush of calm flooded over their link, pouring out from Nico. He watched in shock as the tension in Nico’s body vanished and his fierce expression relaxed.
“I really hate that you can do that,” Nico muttered. Victor simply grinned and stepped back, pulling his hand away.
“You should be grateful he prevented you from being hauled out of here,” Raul said, a stern bite in his voice. “I understand you’re concerned about your mate. I will not let anything happen to him, Nico, but we’re not dealing with just any hunters. We’re dealing with Jude Cristo and his posse.”
“Nico, Raul’s right. Everything we’re doing is a risk. If we’re going to do this, let’s do it right the first time, no matter the risk.” Mik slipped his hand in Nico’s and threaded their fingers together. Nico’s gaze dropped to him. For the first time since Mik met the wolf, he caught a pang of fear in his stunning eyes. “Everything will go smoothly. I have no doubt about it.” He turned back to Raul and Cael. “What’s the plan?”
Cael held out the dark vial. “This is the death potion. You will drink it when you’re alone. It will place you into a coma, followed by a clinical death. There will be no heartbeat and no breathing. You will be dead.”
Dead. A chill skated down his arms when he took the vial.
“And the other vial?” Mik asked.
“That is what will keep you from dying. It is another potion laced with a drop of vampire’s blood.”
Nico stiffened beside him.
“Don’t go rabid on them again. I honestly don’t like this any more than you, especially since I’m the one who’s going to die.”
“Love, don’t. I’ll pull you the fuck out of here in the next second and to hell with the plan.”
“How does it work to keep me from dying?” Mik asked, ignoring Nico’s threat.
“The blood will help preserve your organs while you are in a state of death. The potion will continue to provide essential nutrients to your body and oxygen to your brain until we can intercept your body when you’re transported out of the compound. All you’ll need is a shot of the lighter potion without the blood and some epinephrine.” Cael motioned to a small box sitting open on his desk. Mik saw the third matching vial and a syringe. “You will not suffer damage from your temporary death.”
He was going to die. How…morbid.
“How do you know Jude will not dispose of me on his property?”
“A missing person will draw too much attention to him, especially since there are obviously connections between you and Jude,” Raul said. “He provides you with credit cards, apartment, car. Everything will point back to him. In following Jude for the last few decades, I’ve learned he stages deaths of hunters away from his compound. They are usually ruled as suicides or other medical reasons, if they apply. We’ll confiscate you once you’re out of the compound. Victor has connections with most police precincts and will be certain to inform his contacts regarding the death. There will be no body, but it will be played up as if there was.”
Mik shook his head, trying to relinquish the surrealism. “I would never have imagined myself discussing how I was going to die, how my death was going to be staged, and how I’m expected to survive. Frankly, I don’t ever want to do this again.”
“I don’t want you doing it now.” Nico groused. “This is a fucked up twist to Romeo and Juliet.”
“In essence,” Cael admitted.
“I’ve called out to the teams hunting the lamabra and requested their presence. We’ll be dropping Mik off tonight. I plan on going packed. Scant guards to patrol the premises here tonight. Everyone else will be with us.” Raul’s eyes cut to Mik. “Are you on board?”
“Yes.” The plan, as risky as it was, was a good one. He placed his trust in these men, trust that they would protect him and get him back to Nico alive. He took the second vial from Cael. “How will I remember to take these?”
“Nico will not let you forget,” Cael said.
Nico squeezed Mik’s hand. “Damn right.”
“Okay. Let’s get moving. It’s a hike to The Bunker. If we plan on getting there tonight, we’ll need to leave soon.”
Mik unlocked his hand from Nico’s and dug the blood-stained coin from his pocket. He placed it against Nico’s palm, kissed the back of his hand and stepped toward Cael.
“Hold on to it until this is done. We can bleed together again.”
“I won’t be letting you go for a long time after this.”
“Good.”
Mik spread his arms out and smiled at Cael. “Make me forget.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“I’m with you at all times, love.”
Mik blinked against the stark white of the florescent lights. The voice in his head. He knew that voice. It created a silken ribbon of warmth throughout his veins. He liked the voice, knew it belonged to someone special. His body’s pull to the voice, the reaction to that deep, sultry rumble assured him of a connection. Problem was, he couldn’t remember who or what that connection was.
The two armed guards who had picked him up wandering around the forest beyond the secured walls stopped their synchronized march in front of double doors. Mik stiffened. Jude Cristo’s office. The Bunker’s layout hadn’t disappeared with his memory, nor had the knowledge of who he was. It just…changed. He couldn’t understand the gut feeling. It made no sense. He was a hunter. He had been for twenty years. Now, darkness curled along his mind every time he tried to hold on to a promising memory of his past, creating a wedge and making his stomach churn.
One of the guards knocked on the door. A moment later, Jude opened one of the two doors, his intense dark stare piercing Mik like a devil’s spear. The man’s face was set, sharp lines hardening, suspicion strengthening.
Those eyes narrowed.
His ridiculously broad shoulders pushed back, puffing out his ridiculously muscled chest.
Jude Cristo was a fucking devil. The sight of him sparked an unreasonable anger inside of him.
“Easy, Mikhail. Take a deep breath and let it out. Don’t give yourself away.”
God, if that voice hadn’t spoken up when it did, he might have done something uncharacteristic of himself, like throttle the big man. Attacking Jude was suicide. All he had to do was cut his arm wide and throw Mik against a wall. He’d be done.
Dead.
Gone.
The twin vials secured to his inner leg awfully close to his balls brought about a strange reminder that he would die. He planned to kill himself.
Mik rubbed the back of his hand over his forehead. This confusion bolstered his anxiety.
“Where the fuck have you been, Mik?” Jude demanded in a threatening rumble. Thunder and lightning in the form of sound that barreled through Mik’s chest and shocked the breath from his lungs. An evil, sadistic sound.
Mik’s brows furrowed. Since when did he look at Jude as evil and sadistic?
“I…I don’t…” Mik shook his head. “Know.”
“We found him wandering around the wooded area to the south. He’s had this dazed look since we picked him up. Claims he doesn’t remember anything since he left here for his ass
ignment with the lamabra,” one guard said.
Jude’s gaze narrowed. “You don’t remember anything.”
Mik licked his lips, nerves wreaking havoc as he struggled to dig up at least one memory. He shook his head. “No.”
“He’s clean. We scanned him after a pat-down. There’s nothing on him. They didn’t bug him.”
Yeah, they patted him down good, right down to squeezing his balls and his dick. Thankfully, they missed the vials. Why that was a good thing, he didn’t know.
The ever-persistent hum in his mind flickered. A sense of warmth eased his anxiety a bit. To be somewhere by himself and wrap his soul in that warmth would be nice right about now.
By the look on Jude’s face, it wasn’t happening anytime soon.
“Wake up Jones and tell him to meet us in the exam room in a half hour. He’ll need to be thoroughly examined. They removed the chip. Another will need to be placed.”
“Chip?” Instinctively, Mik lifted his fingers to a whisper of an ache at the back of his neck. The pad of his finger ran over a tiny bump in his skin. “What chip?”
“Never mind. The good thing is you’re back alive. We can deal with whatever mind manipulation those fucking beasts did to you.” Jude stepped out from his office and slung an arm over Mik’s shoulders. He flashed Mik a smile, one that reminded him of a predator schmoozing up to his prey. As the two guards did Jude’s bidding, Jude led him down the hallway in the opposite direction. “We’ve been trying to trace your whereabouts since the attack. At first, we thought you were killed with the other two, but things didn’t add up at the site.”
Mik looked over at Jude, completely baffled. “Killed? Who was killed? And what didn’t add up? I-I’m sorry. I just don’t… remember.”
“You saved a woman’s life from one of those lamabras. Because of you, a human survived to live another day.”
Good. That was good.
It just didn’t feel like the truth.
“Let him talk, Mikhail. Keep your mind open to me and let him talk. I’ll protect you. He won’t hurt you. I promise.”
“Who are you?”
“Your mate, love. The man who has promised to keep you safe.”
“Mik, is everything all right?”
Mik gave his head a sharp shake and nodded. “Yeah. I guess.”
“We feared you were taken by paranormals.”
Jude’s voice hung on an unasked question. Mik sighed. “I don’t know. Everything is so gray and blurry.”
“Did someone else attack you in the forest the night you disappeared?”
His frustration flared up a notch. “I don’t know. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know who was killed or what woman I supposedly saved. I don’t remember.”
“You can’t recall anything?”
“No,” Mik snapped. He let out a sharp breath and raked his hand through his hair. Jude’s brow lifted. “I don’t know.”
“We tracked you to an area within Beast.”
Mik stiffened. Beast, the paranormal headquarters? Was Jude serious? Jude practically salivated to get inside the highly secured grounds.
His dark eyes glinted with excitement, though his face remained hard, making Mik uneasy. “Shadow Creek, Mik. We couldn’t hold on to the signal, but when we did get it, you were in the heart of their headquarters. We’ll get your memory back, kid. We’ll get it back and you’ll be able to tell me how to hit Raul Carney’s heart.”
Mik nodded even as the sickening, fury-filled knot in his stomach protested his agreement.
Jude gave him a short shake. “This is great, Mik.”
“Oh…kay?”
Jude snickered. “You’ll understand in no time.”
“Good. I’d like to understand.”
Jude motioned to a steel door. Mik stared at it, his feet refusing to move forward. Something about that door unleashed a surge of panic. He knew exactly what lay behind the door, but he couldn’t make sense of the fear.
Jude swung the door open and had to drag Mik into the stark white and steel gray room, lined with cabinets of medical supplies. The place was an exam room.
Flashes of horrific memories flooded his mind. He curled in on himself, squeezing his eyes shut, pressing clenched fists to his forehead as he groaned. The images were maddening, as maddening as the gray spell in his memories. Blades, silver and steel, cutting and poking at his skin. Burning pain after numerous injections. Shocks. Shackles. Whippings. Beatings. Caning.
Blades.
More blades.
Mik roared, falling to his knees.
“Sweet Goddess. No wonder you hate blades. Is that the torture he put you through?” In his head, those images flickered, the golden light connecting him to his unknown mate flaring brighter and brighter until it consumed him in a wash of soothing heat. “Baby, I want nothing more than to wrap you in my arms and make that pain go away. It’s past, though. Be strong, my little hunter.”
“He’s going to do it again.”
“What is he going to do?”
“The torture. Oh god, he’s going to try and break me.”
He couldn’t explain the bolt of darkness that shot into his mind and settled in his chest. An emotion, pure and raw. Something that left him cold as death and frightened.
Jude lowered down to Mik’s side, resting a hand on his back. “Kid, you okay?”
Mik struggled to fill his lungs with air, but managed a nod. “Yeah. I-I don’t know what just happened.”
“We’ll get to the bottom of everything soon enough. Follow me.”
Mik managed to press to his feet on wobbly legs and follow Jude to a small bathroom with a bench. A dark gray gown hung on a single hook. Mik eyed the gown, recalling putting one on before he was strapped to the cold exam table in the main room. For a brief moment, he was certain he’d throw up until he turned to Jude and saw a strange shadow cross his expression.
“I need you to change out of your clothes. Leave everything in here and come out when you’re done,” Jude instructed. The haunting tone of his voice made the hairs along the nape of Mik’s neck lift. What had changed so suddenly? “We’ll reverse whatever it is they did to you. You’ll be well in no time.”
Jude left the bathroom, closing the door behind him. Mik sat on the bench, contemplating his situation. It was murky at best. The flash memories that attacked him were from years ago, not recently. The torture was the root of his hatred for blades. He had pushed it so far out of his mind that he had actually forgotten the full brutality of his initial training.
He couldn’t leave. Jude would hunt him down and kill him.
He couldn’t stay. That look on Jude’s face was one of pure evil.
Either way, he was a dead man, and that tore at his heart. He didn’t want to die. He couldn’t die. Someone waited for him. Someone…
“Mikhail, I want you out of there.”
“I can’t leave. He’ll kill me.”
“Remember those vials we’ve secured to you?”
How could he not? They were a nuisance rubbing against his balls. “Yes.”
“You need to trust me, love. Before Cael placed the spell on you, we discussed those vials and what they will do.”
“Cael?” The name sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t pin it down. “But you’re not Cael.”
“No, love. I’m Nico.”
Nico. The very mention of that name made his heart swell, even if he didn’t know who Nico was other than his mate.
Hopefully he was big and handsome and had a tender streak. He always imagined his partner being tender with him.
“I have to change. Jude has me changing into an exam gown. He’ll be waiting for me to leave the bathroom. If I take too long, he’ll come for me.”
“Mikhail, listen to me. He has seen that you’re alive. He won’t hunt you now, but we need to get you out of there. I’m not getting a good feeling about this.”
“How do I get out? If I’m not dead, he’ll hunt me until I am. I si
gned a contract…” Mik gulped. His suicide contract when he joined the hunters. He dropped his head into his hands. Why was everything so confusing right now? The only comfort he found was in the faceless voice in his head.
Shit, maybe he had lost his mind.
Maybe he needed to ignore the voice.
“Stop, Mikhail. I’m not a voice. I’m your mate and I’m outside Jude’s Bunker, waiting to save you and bring you home with me. Don’t you dare shut me out.”
The fierceness behind Nico’s claim scraped the doubt from Mik. Okay, so he didn’t remember this Nico fellow, but the voice gave him hope he didn’t have with his current options.
“I’m seriously going to lay into Cael after this is all done. This was a fucking horrible idea. Change in case Jude returns. When you have the gown on, let me know.”
Mik did as the voice instructed, shucking the collared shirt and gym shorts, and pulling on the gown. He wanted to leave his sneakers on in case he needed to run, but knew Jude would take them off. The table was for nothing but a gown in the beginning, until that gown came off.
God, Jude was evil. As black-hearted as black could be. Why was he only realizing this now?
“Okay. Gown is on.”
“Remove the vials.”
Mik removed the vials secured in a piece of foam taped to his inner thigh. He winced, ripping hairs out with the tape. He removed the small tubes and held them up.
“Now what do I do?”
“You’ll drink. The dark one first. It will kill you.”
Mik’s eyes went wide. “Hell no.” He shook his head. “Oh no.”
“Mikhail, you have to trust me. There’s no other way to get you out of there and off Jude’s radar. You will not die, but he has to think you’re dead.”
His hands trembled. He started to pitch the vials across the room, but froze, his fingers tightening around them. Something in the voice’s instructions and explanation rang true. A faint shimmer of a memory. He stood in a doctor’s office. There were people he didn’t know. Two vials, like the two he held, came into view.
When his memory panned to an utterly handsome man with sun-golden eyes, his entire world shattered.