“When what happened?” asked Peren as she and Missy slid closer to Melanie.
Taking a keen interest in the floor, Melanie wanted to avoid her friends’ accusatory stares. “You won’t believe me if I tell you.”
“No, sweetie, it’s okay. We’ll believe you, go ahead,” Peren said, moving closer.
Melanie took her friend’s hand and held it tight. “You’re going to think I’m crazy, but I swear to you…Lance changed during his orgasm.”
“Changed?” Peren asked, rubbing her thumb over the back of Melanie’s hand.
Missy snorted and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, psycho-paramilitary freaks tend to do that. I bet he flipped out on her. I told you these guys were bad news.”
“He changed how?” Peren asked.
Melanie debated on ending the discussion then and there. It was bad enough she was sure she’d lost her mind seeing the impossible, but to share her insanity with her friends was another matter. Peren gave her hand a gentle tug, reassuring her.
Melanie nodded more to herself than anyone else. “His mouth widened and then his shoulders moved up. Hair, dark black hair, sort of appeared all over him and the worst part was his teeth—they were huge. He looked like—” she gasped, “like he was going to tear me apart after he fucked me and eat me. Like an animal would. Not like a person.”
“Oh, this is ridiculous.” Missy stood quickly, tipping her chair over. “He obviously slipped you something in your drink at the club and you were hallucinating.”
Melanie wiped the tears from her cheeks, embarrassed and humiliated by what she’d said, what she’d done. “Hallucinating? Yes, maybe, but it felt…it felt so real.”
It was real.
Inside she knew it had really happened, but she didn’t voice it aloud. There was no point. No one believed her. She knew there were things out there that were more than human. She was one of them. As a Fae, a being of magical descent, she’d spent her life having to hide the truth of it all. It was forbidden to speak of it with humans. She’d heard horror stories of cleanup teams being sent to eliminate any human who learned the truth of supernaturals. That was why her father had always instilled in her and her brother that no one could ever learn the truth of them.
Her father had never mentioned men could turn into animals. He’d left that off her bedtime stories, and she couldn’t speak to him about it. He’d kill Lance for daring to touch her.
Missy gave a rather dramatic wave with her hand and huffed. “Well, you don’t have a mark on you, and since you’re sitting here telling us this, he couldn’t have eaten you.”
Melanie nodded, knowing to just play along rather than make any more waves. “Yes, you’re right. When I got up this morning, he was lying next to me in the bed, normal. I, yes, it must have been something in my drink.”
Peren held her tight. “Yes, you were tired and had too much to drink. Lance didn’t slip you a thing. You were half in the bag when we got to the club and you’ve been running on empty with finals lately. I’m guessing the stress of all that, combined with alcohol, left you a little off.”
Melanie didn’t believe Peren was as sure as she presented herself to be. In fact, Melanie’s powers, the ones she kept hidden from her friends, told her that Peren was as worried about Melanie’s revelation as she was. Maybe more.
She waited until Peren glanced away to close her eyes and try to calm her nerves. Someone’s rage swept over her, and for a split second she could have sworn she heard the auburn-haired man’s voice—the one who had driven the van away after Lance told her to get in. The one whose emerald gaze fixed on her in the rearview mirror of the van they’d came to the safe house in. The one who made her feel uncomfortable, but not in a bad way. What had Lance called him?
Green.
That’s right.
Green.
Melanie stared around the white room. She, Missy, and Peren were the only ones in it. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling she was being watched. Her gaze flickered to the mirror, running the full length of the left-hand wall. Drawing upon her power, she let the tiniest bit out and watched in awe as Green, another of the special operatives who had taken the women for their protection, lunged at a man she didn’t recognize. Green paused and looked in her direction, as if he felt her gaze on him. Was he like Lance? Was he more than human too?
Melanie stiffened and dropped her power quickly. Peren wrapped her arms around her and gave her a gentle squeeze. “It’s okay, Mel.”
“Thanks,” she said, holding tight, still thinking about Green when she should be thinking about Lance.
Chapter Two
Two and a half weeks later…
“Bravo, this is Alpha-Dog-Two, do you have a lock on the target? I repeat—do you have a lock?” The sound of Roi Majors’s voice filled Doctor Thaddeus Green’s earpiece as he swiveled around in his chair to check the secondary monitors. The drop-down ability of the screens certainly cleaned up much needed counter area in the surveillance van. The days of turning and accidentally putting his elbow through a monitor that was as big—if not bigger than—some televisions were long gone. Now, with his supernatural strength, he only put his elbow through the machines when not paying attention.
Much better.
The interior of the van was still cramped for a man of his size, but he was used to it so he didn’t complain. The line feeding into the monitors was from the inner dwellings of the nearest known hot spot for the enemy. It was a lab specializing in genetic research and development. In the grander scale of things, the lab was a small one, but it needed to be destroyed all the same.
Gisbert Krauss, the team’s main focus at the moment, had been funneling money throughout Europe and Asia into highly suspect labs like this one for the last thirty years. Krauss’s fascination with the idea of immortality and power put the scientist in the forefront of genetic research. Publications in the area of genetics claimed Krauss was on the verge of some sort of genetic breakthrough. Intel gathered on him proved he wasn’t just on the threshold of something big—he’d already succeeded and had been conducting research on humans for decades.
Krauss had even been daring enough to have an underground paranormal website talking about DNA alterations and the making of super humans with the potential to be used as weapons for the highest paying governments. A paper trail connected Krauss with Pierre Molyneux, a master vampire who was legendary throughout the supernatural community as a man with means and a wicked bad side. With Molyneux’s connections, Krauss could transport just about anything between countries under the guise of it being art as Molyneux was known as a high-dollar art buyer—not a vampire. In the case of Krauss, Molyneux was no doubt transporting human cargo and who knew what else.
Green knew after having been briefed by Colonel Asher Brooks on Intel’s latest findings that Krauss had been behind the assembling of a large group of women in Asia from around the world, impregnating them, and experimenting on their children in utero. The mothers had disappeared once the children were born. The more likely explanation was that the mothers had been murdered. Apparently, the enemy had aborted their project, or rather hid their testing better because I-Ops got a little too close to discovering them.
The enemy spread the surviving children out to orphanages in various countries. Most were third-world, but from the data Green had read, some were dumped in the United States as well. The majority of their experiments on fetuses and newborns took place between twenty to thirty years ago. The Asia Project was massive. Green had initially assumed the children would not have survived, that they would have died when their bodies attempted a shift or that they’d have gone insane long ago. He’d been wrong. Records indicated that all of them had indeed made it to adulthood. He couldn’t fathom how they coped with having enhanced abilities and turning into an animal or a vampire without warning. It had to leave some sort of lasting damage.
The main issue at hand was that Krauss’s people were sacrificing innocent lives in the name of science a
nd attempting to round up the children from the Asia Project. Green didn’t want to think about what would happen should Krauss get his hands on the people who had once been unwillingly subjected to testing. The very fact that these children had managed to grow to be adults spoke volumes about their will to live. Krauss had to know that and he’d exploit it for all it was worth. If that wasn’t enough, information was trickling in that Krauss may have aligned with a powerful Fae.
Shuddering at the thought, Green rubbed his temple. Almost instantly, images of Melanie Daly, a Fae and sister to Eadan Daly, the newest member of the I-Ops team, flooded his mind. She was still clueless as to who they were and their relationship to one another, thinking her friends were merely girlfriends to I-Ops members when in reality they were now lifemates, spouses.
His cock hardened and his pulse raced. Melanie had worked her way under his defenses and left her imprint. Already he’d spent many a night stroking himself to peak, guided by thoughts of her. Her blue eyes. Her long, white-blonde hair. Her seemingly endless legs. Her scent, distinctly feminine and familiar to him. He needed to touch her and soon or risk going insane. Or developing carpal tunnel from excessive masturbation. In real life he’d had very few interactions with her directly. She’d fallen for Lance, the teammate they’d only recently lost in battle. None of that stopped the pull Green had had to her from the start.
“Bravo Dog One, do we have a go?” Roi asked, drawing Green from his thoughts of Melanie.
Green punched in the sequence of numbers needed to access the facility’s computer system and waited for confirmation that he was indeed in. It had been a bit trickier than he’d assumed it would be to hack into Krauss’s facility, but he was confident of his skills.
When a map of the building’s blueprints popped up and an analysis of the security system displayed, he smiled. “Alpha Dog Two, you have a ‘go’ to enter. Once in, you will find two, I repeat, two tangos. There is a four-second window until my hacks will open the main gate from there. If you attempt to force it, you will set off secondary alarms. Do you read?”
“Copy that. Get antsy and bad things will happen,” Roi said, being his normal sardonic self. He was also famous for simplifying things. As usual, he held true to expectations. “We’ll kill ’em quietly and then wait for the ‘magik doors’ to open. Do we have to say ‘open sesame’ or do you think your mega brain got the calculations right?”
Captain Lukian Vlakhusha sighed into his headset, clearly annoyed with Roi. It was normal, so no one commented. Besides, they were like brothers. If Roi got too obnoxious, Lukian would just slap him. Arching a brow, Green hoped Lukian might actually haul off and hit Roi. Then again, it could damage the equipment Roi had on. Green had always been partial to technology, though Roi wasn’t too bad either.
Decisions…decisions…
Green watched the other monitors, six in all. Five displayed images of the team members. The cameras were mounted to their headgear. Each soldier was equipped with a small flip visor that, when in place, covered one of their eyes. If on, the person could see what a selected team member was viewing. While disengaged, they merely looked through a slightly tinted eyepiece. Green, on the other hand, was able to view what each one of them was currently seeing. It was a little like being a god, at least according to Roi.
Lukian was with Roi waiting to enter through the west entrance. Wilson Rousseau and Eadan were near the south end of the facility, awaiting orders to move in and assist if need be. Jon Reynell, the team sniper, was stationed on the north tower, having already taken out the two guards with the hope for more kills. His location was perfect to provide cover should things go awry. The other two monitors provided visuals from Peren, Lukian’s wife and mate, and Missy, Roi’s wife and mate.
The women were in a secure location three miles up the road in another van, watching the feed from Green’s van. Missy had only just found out she was expecting a child and no one wanted her to go in with the men, regardless of how qualified she was. Missy was a level-one Shadow Agent with Paranormal Security and Intelligence (PSI). PSI was basically the CIA of the supernatural community. Since humans weren’t permitted to have the knowledge that supernaturals existed, the government denied any and all knowledge of PSI’s existence. Hell, most government officials didn’t even know it was real. Since Missy had also been experimented on in the Asia Project, she had a personal stake in the matter at hand.
Green hated Krauss for playing God, but even he had to admire the man’s genius. Krauss had managed to introduce small quantities of supernatural DNA into the bloodstream of an adult human without killing them. That was all but unheard of. Somehow, Green and the men he’d originally worked for had gotten lucky enough to do something similar during the Immortal Ops’ inception. Each man, with the exception of Green and Lukian, had been injected with DNA to alter their own. They’d survived, alive and mentally whole. The same could not be said of previous test subjects. The good guys stopped trying to play God after that—at least that was what they’d all been told, and he hoped it was right. The bad guys took it as a cue to what was possible and as a sign to proceed.
Krauss’s strands of DNA and his testing increased a person’s physical strength but did not permit them to be able to shift forms or be immortal—at least from what Green had seen. He strongly suspected that would change before long. Krauss had found a way to enhance those who were already supernatural. Basically, Krauss had managed to introduce other aspects of supernaturals into a preexisting one. Meaning he could, theoretically, give a vampire similar traits to a werewolf, thus creating a hybrid creature. All in all, Krauss could and would be powerful enough to take down even the I-Ops at the rate he was going. He was a new kind of evil. One who would stop at nothing to rule the world. And while his experiments still had a great deal of kinks to be worked out of them, the fact the man had blended supernaturals at all was something.
Green twisted in his seat once more, keying in the coordinates to the satellite above. It took a second, but it synced up and began systematically zooming in per his instructions, generating images of the area as it went. The images showed the facility, his van, the second van containing Peren and Missy, and the surrounding area. The moment he spotted vehicles that weren’t supposed to be there, he let out a long breath.
Of course. Nothing can be easy.
Glancing at the screen for Jon, Green estimated their “guests’” arrival time. “Bravo Tiger Two, we’ve got a convoy of vehicles moving in from the north. ETA, two minutes.”
“Copy that,” Jon said, positioning himself to watch through his scope as the convoy approached. “I have a visual.”
That didn’t surprise Green. Jon was part were-tiger and had amazing eyesight to begin with. Add in the use of a scope and it was damn hard to fall out of his line of sight, making Green very happy they were on the same side, considering how accurate Jon was. Jon didn’t have to fight the limits of his eyesight, just those of technology.
Green noted that Roi and Lukian had taken out the enemies within the entrance to the facility just in time for his hacks to begin to take effect. The gate opened a second after the Trojan horse Green had loaded into the system a few days prior began to work its magic, taking down the alarms in alternate locations to avoid raising suspicions.
“How are our boys doing?” Peren asked over her intercom link to Green.
It was easy to pick up how nervous she was, and Green was thankful he’d thought to keep the girls off the team’s main line of communication. He didn’t need Lukian or Roi getting distracted by their mates’ concerns. The women could hear the men just fine, but until Green flipped another switch, only he could hear the women.
“Alpha Team, proceed to level two,” he said, watching the facility’s sensors for signs of life forms but finding none in the stairwell. “On your left will be the cryogenics room. On the right you’ll find a mini lab. From there, you’ll see an operating room and, according to PSI Intel, a room used to cage animals and h
umans. I’m not detecting any life forms or heat signatures at present. Proceed with caution.”
“Alpha Team is a go,” Lukian said.
Green watched silently as Lukian entered the room and planted charges. They would not allow any DNA material collected by Krauss’s people to survive. As much as they all needed to fully understand DNA splicing and manipulation better, it wasn’t worth the risk of it falling into enemy hands once more.
Spinning in his chair, Green spotted another problem. “Shit!”
“Aww, I hate it when he says that,” Wilson, resident smart-ass and were-rat extraordinaire, said wryly.
Green ignored him, focusing instead on the three red dots moving down the corridor closest to Wilson and Eadan. “Bravo-Rat-Three, prepare to engage hostiles in three…two…one.” The door nearest them opened and Green watched with bated breath as Wilson snapped one man’s neck while Eadan, a full-blooded Fae, used his power to silently kill the other two.
Wilson stared at Eadan, his face filling the viewing screen before Green. “Ya think you could give us a bit more warning next time, Mr. Science Geek? And kiss my ass with the Bravo-Rat bit.”
Green rolled his eyes. “Cut the chatter, Rat.”
Wilson flipped Green off. Green returned the favor even though he knew Wilson couldn’t see it. He smiled. “You’re lucky Eadan is with you or I’d have let you figure out on your own that the enemy was coming.”
Eadan chuckled. “I appreciate that, Green. More than you know.”
Wilson mumbled something about the fucking faerie getting more respect than him and then shut up. Green couldn’t help but laugh. Double-checking the remote feed, he grunted. “Bravo Tiger Two, report.”
“Tell me when they’re done,” Jon said quietly, always a sign he was concentrating on the target. His normally slight Southern drawl seemed to intensify when he stopped thinking about it. He also had a habit of asking for forgiveness every time he took a man out by way of sniper rifle. Green wasn’t even sure Jon realized he did it, but all in all, it seemed to keep Jon real. The threat of losing touch with humanity was a danger for the I-Ops, one they hoped they’d never succumb to. They’d seen it happen to plenty of men who had entered into testing to become an I-Op. It never ended well for them once their humanity was gone.
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