Mercy Temple Chronicles Box Set

by Ciara Graves

  A small part of me grunted in approval that she thought to call me instead of him first, but now was not the time to be petty.

  I tapped his name and waited, putting him on speaker.

  “Mercy, I told you we don’t need to talk about it,” he said after one ring. “You need to sleep.”

  “Mercy’s been attacked,” I said loudly.

  “What? Who is this?” Bowen snapped.

  “Rafael. She called me. Just get your ass here, alright?” I hung up, cutting off his yelling, and waited.

  The worms on Mercy’s neck bothered me, but I couldn’t move my hands from her hip to knock them away. She seemed to be sleeping, rather than unconscious. I

  The room was a mess. She said the killer was here. The same one who killed Jaxton? If he came after her, then she must’ve gotten too close to whoever it was. And she said a werewolf, but in Sector 18, that did not help in narrowing down our suspect pool. She needed to wake up, so she could tell me who attacked her. So I could find him and beat his ass, if he was still alive. There was so much blood everywhere and no way to tell what was hers or her attacker’s.

  “Mercy,” Bowen yelled, and then he slammed into me, grabbed me by my coat front, and bashed me into the wall. “What did you do? Answer me, demon. What the hell did you do to her?”

  “This wasn’t me,” I snarled, shoving him right back.

  “Bullshit. You came here to take her in, didn’t you? And she resisted, so you attacked her. You nearly killed her.”

  He decked me, his vampiric speed making it near impossible to see the first hit, but not the second. I grabbed his fist and threw him across the room.

  “I found her like this,” I explained in a rush. “She called me, said she was attacked. You really think I would hurt her? Do you?”

  He was back on his feet, wiping a bit of blood from his lip, and his eyes glowed a fierce red. “All I know is your orders are to take her in. You can’t be trusted.”

  “The hell I can’t. I would never hurt her. Never.”

  Bowen tilted his head, studying me in a way that had me shifting on my feet.

  Mercy let out a groan, and we both turned back to her.

  “Shit,” he whispered, and we hurried back to her side, pressing against her wounds. He kept his eyes on Mercy’s face the whole time, whispering softly, telling her to hold on. She might’ve told me there was nothing between her and Bowen, but the way he looked at her revealed a completely different story. The way he attacked me did, too. He cared for her a great deal, which prompted the question of why Mercy called me first.

  He hissed louder when Mercy grunted in pain again, her eyes remaining closed. He pressed his hands to her shoulder wound harder to try and ease the bleeding as I did the same at her hip. “Those worms, we need to get them off her neck.”

  “What the hell are they?”

  “Dreamweavers,” he replied stiffly. “Don’t touch them.”

  I yanked my hand back. “Why? How am I supposed to get them off her neck?”

  “Use something else to grab them, or you’re going to be exactly like her,” he warned.

  Questions about why these were even in Mercy’s room flooded my mind as I searched around for something to use.

  I grabbed a paper towel from the coffee table and folded it over a few times. Hoping it was enough, I reached out and gently picked up one of the glowing, blue worms. It came off without issue, so I removed the others quickly, in the same way, placing them on the coffee table for the time being. The webbing followed them, and what was left on Mercy’s neck took on the same glow as their bodies, creating a mesmerizing pattern.

  Both of us watched her intensely. When nothing happened, Bowen cursed.

  “Why isn’t she waking up?”

  Bowen didn’t answer but blurred away and returned with a first aid kit in hand.

  “Her wounds are too bad. She needs a damned hospital.”

  “She was attacked in her room,” he seethed as he grabbed gauze. Shoving her shirt aside at the shoulder, he pressed it down hard.

  Mercy didn’t even wince.

  He handed me some gauze to do the same. “You truly want to take her to a hospital after she claims a werewolf attacked her? She is safer here.”

  “She’s going to bleed out if she stays here.”

  He ignored me and pulled out his cell, his thumb blurring as he punched in a number then put it to his ear. I was more than ready to pick Mercy up and take her to the hospital myself when he started talking.

  “Gigi, how fast can you get to Sector 18? It’s Mercy, and it’s not good.”

  Whatever Gigi said must’ve been enough to satisfy him because he hung up without another word. The bleeding seemed to be slowing, and I pulled back the gauze to see how bad the injury was.

  A harsh growl slipped out of me at the sight of the stab wound.

  Carefully, I peeled back her pants enough, so I could get to the wound better, tuning out Bowen’s possessive hissing. She would need stitches, and she was damned lucky it wasn’t worse.

  “Why won’t she wake up?” I asked, needing to fill the empty sound of the room.

  “Those worms put her into a very deep sleep,” he replied quietly. “They’re meant to stay in a jar and rest by one’s head. The attacker must’ve thrown them at her.”

  “But she’ll wake up, right?”

  His brow furrowed as he shrugged one shoulder. “Gigi told us to keep them in the jar. To have direct contact with them could lead to disaster. I don’t know if she’s going to wake or not.”

  He brushed her hair from her face, and it was like a white-hot knife twisted in my gut. I growled until I caught myself doing it and stopped abruptly.

  “I don’t know what transpired between you two,” Bowen whispered, “but it doesn’t matter. You’re here to take her in, and if you try, I will stop you any way I can.”

  “I’m not going to take her in.”

  “I heard you and your partner. Those are your orders, and you’re a Fed. Why wouldn’t you follow them?”

  “Not every Fed is the same. Trust me, bringing her in is the last thing I want to do.”

  “Why?” he demanded.

  I found Mercy’s hand and squeezed, hoping she could feel that I was here, that I’d gotten here in time. “I have my reasons, one of them being I owe her.”

  “I still don’t trust you.”

  “And I don’t trust you, but it’s up to her, not you.”

  He hissed, opening his mouth flashing fang, but I cut him off.

  “I’m not leaving so think again. You can take my cell if you want to make sure I don’t call anyone, but I am not leaving her side until she wakes up.”

  “I’ll take your gun, too.” He held out his hand for both. His hand was covered in Mercy’s blood just like mine was.

  I handed my gun and phone over without hesitation.

  “Gigi should be here shortly.”

  “What’s she going to do?”

  “Stitch her up for starters. With any luck, she’ll get Mercy to wake up.”

  I nodded since there was nothing else to do. Mercy’s eyes scrunched again, and she shifted on the couch. We moved to keep her still, stopping her from making her wounds worse and I glanced at her angry scar again. Magic. She must’ve used magic tonight to keep herself alive and now she was paying the price. And that was in addition to those worms being thrown at her.

  We patched up the two wounds the best we could, then waited for Gigi to arrive.

  Bowen gave no indication if she said how long it would take and every so often I leaned in to check Mercy’s pulse and breathing and make certain the wounds weren’t bleeding out of control. My cell went off several times until Bowen finally turned it off and tossed it in the armchair. That was fine by me. The only one calling me now would be Iris, and I had nothing to say to her. Or Nor for that matter.

  An hour crawled by and we were halfway through the second when Mercy’s hand seized mine painfully.


  “Mercy?” I whispered, hovering over her, expecting to see her eyes open.

  They were firmly closed, and she shook her head back and forth. Her lips moved, but whatever she said was lost in grunts of pain.

  Gently, I trailed my fingers down her cheek, not caring if Bowen saw or not, and Mercy calmed.

  “Right here, Mercy. Bowen and I are right here.”

  She settled back down, and I hung my head. Seeing her attacked by those goblins had been bad. This was worse. She’d walked away from that fight. Now, I had no clear idea who the enemy was and no way to know who to go after. My gaze roamed over the bloody mess that was this room again, imagining how the fight had gone down. Water was on the floor near the small kitchenette, and her sword lay nearby, surrounded by broken shards of glass. There was only one traveling bag nearby. It made me smile a little to know she wasn’t sharing a room with Bowen.

  “Something amusing, Fed?” Bowen asked tightly.

  “Nothing at all. Will Gigi be here soon?”

  “Should be, but with the way the storm blew in, it might take her longer if the transport’s not working efficiently.”

  The snow was still coming down so fast it was near white-out conditions. The transports might be powered by magic, but weather could disrupt them just as it did electricity. If the transport was down on this end, Gigi would have to take the long way around, and I wasn’t sure if she had a pass to go through the human sectors.

  Another hour dragged by.

  A quiet knock sounded at the door. On instinct, I reached for my gun, but it was in Bowen’s possession. He got up and went to check. Looking at me, he put a finger to his lips. If the killer returned, he was not going to get at Mercy again. With the amount of blood in the hall, it was my hope he was already dead in an alley somewhere from his wounds.

  Bowen peered through the eyehole and gave me a nod as he unlocked the door and opened it.

  “What the hell happened,” a voice bellowed, but it wasn’t Gigi’s. “There’s blood trailing all the way out of her room! Bowen, you were supposed to protect her… and what is he doing here?”

  It was the half-demon I saw in Mercy’s apartment. His face was as red as his eyes as he stormed toward me and grabbed my shirt front, yanking me to my feet.

  He was stronger than I expected. He bared his smaller fangs at me. I didn’t push back, and his gaze flickered to Mercy on the couch. Gigi was right behind him, already digging in the basket she held.

  “Explain, now,” the half-demon demanded, glaring from me to Bowen.

  “She was attacked by the werewolf who killed Jaxton,” I replied before Bowen could say a word.

  The half-demon’s lip twitched in disgust as he released me. “And how would you know this?”

  “She called me right after,” I explained. “All I got was it was a werewolf and he was the killer. When I got here, she was unconscious on the floor with those damned worms on her neck.”

  “The dreamweavers,” Gigi whispered harshly. “They were on her bare skin?”

  “Yeah. Can you wake her up?” I asked, taking a step closer, but the half-demon blocked my way with a growl.

  I returned the gesture in kind. I was taller and broader than him, but the dangerous glint in his eyes said no matter how much bigger than him I was, he would kill me if I so much as touched Mercy.

  “Move.”

  “Not happening, Fed.”

  “He’s helping, Damian,” Bowen said, surprising me. “Not that I agree with his being here, but he’s the reason she hadn’t bled out by the time I got here.”

  “You were supposed to be watching over her. Where were you?” Damian snapped. “I trusted you to keep her safe, and then I get a call saying she’s been hurt. Did I make a mistake?”

  “No,” Bowen hissed.

  “Then where were you? Where?”

  “We got in a fight,” he replied roughly.

  “Fight? About what?”

  Bowen’s gaze flickered to me then back. “Something stupid. It doesn’t matter. It won’t happen again.”

  “Damned straight, it won’t.” He whirled around to Gigi who was applying a salve to Mercy’s hip and shoulder. It was a dark green. Healing I assumed. She had a needle and thread at the ready.

  “Well?” he asked her.

  “If I’d gotten here sooner I might’ve been able to wake her with a potion,” Gigi told us. “But now—”

  “Now what?” Damian asked.

  “She’s going to have to wake up on her own.”

  “How long will it take?” I asked this time.

  “You have somewhere you have to be?” Damian’s anger and worry made him extremely unstable.

  Any second now I expected to be decked. If I confessed why I was so worried, I’d be lucky to make it out of this room unscathed.

  “You going to talk or what?”

  I scrubbed my face, my mind in a tug of war with what was right and what my orders were. “Look, the last thing I want is to bring Mercy in,” I started slowly, measuring every word I said. “My boss wants her for questioning in Liam Manchester’s death and dealings and Jaxton’s murder. He believes she’s involved in both.”

  “And you? What do you believe?” Damian asked, closing the distance between us.

  “I believe she had nothing to do with Liam’s crimes. Or, at least, the murder. But… but there’s been a complication.”

  “What kind of complication?” Bowen moved closer to Damian.

  Gigi paused in her stitching.

  All three sets of eyes held a warning in them that they would protect Mercy to the death if need be and I was treading on very dangerous ground.

  “If I don’t present her in twenty-four hours, my boss will issue a warrant for her arrest,” I finally blurted. “My plan was to tell her and then help her get out of Nashville if need be. I owe her that much, at the very least.”

  Damian grabbed hold of me, and for a second time that night I was thrown into the wall. My head slammed back, and I saw stars, but I made no move to defend myself.

  “You bastard.”

  “I’m not going to do it,” I said again, keeping my voice as calm as I could.

  “Liar.”

  “She saved my ass, alright? I don’t give a damn what my boss says, but there’s no reason for Mercy to have murdered Jaxton. She’s not a killer.”

  Damian blinked fiercely and suddenly released me. “No, she’s not.”

  He nodded to Bowen, and they moved to the other side of the room, whispering with each other in a very heated conversation. Gigi went back to her stitching, lips twitching in annoyance.

  “She called you first, huh?” she asked me, not looking up from her work.

  “Yeah, she did,” I replied. “That a problem?”

  “No. Curious, is all.” She tied off the shoulder wound and moved to Mercy’s hip. The thread at her shoulder gave off a light green glow I hadn’t noticed before.

  “Healing thread?”

  “Only the best for her,” Gigi said sadly. “Girl doesn’t know how to stay out of trouble. Especially lately.”

  Damian and Bowen were still arguing, and when I glanced their way, they shifted closer to the door and further away from me. No matter what decision they came to, I was not leaving this room until Mercy was conscious and could tell me who attacked her. As far as I knew the only alpha who would not want her finding out the truth was Colton since he had the most to hide. Whatever was going on between Rubella and Jenella could be simple pack politics. Putting the bounty out with Rubella could easily have been Colton’s way of trying to get us off his trail, especially if he was the one who suggested it. Seeing as how Mercy was attacked, this was the prime time to tell Nor she was not our killer and to call off this manhunt of his.

  “Demon,” Damian said as he and Bowen returned.

  “Rafael,” I corrected. “And you can say whatever you like, but I’m not leaving.”

  Bowen smirked as Damian growled. “You want to stay? Fine, yo
u can stay, but you are not leaving my sight, and you will not be alone with her at all. Understand me?”

  “Yeah. Loud and clear, as long as you tell me who you are to her.”

  His brow shot up. “I’m her boss. Among other things,” he added the last bit almost too quietly for me to hear. “Maybe sometime tonight you can tell me the real reason you’re here and don’t feed me some bullshit line of you owing her,” he said as he stormed off, toward the kitchenette.

  That was not going to happen since I had no idea myself. Nothing that I cared to share anyway. Gigi shot me a knowing look which I pointedly ignored. I sat down in the armchair, and focused on Mercy. Bowen went to the kitchenette with Damian. I turned my head and leaned to the side to hear their conversation this time.

  “You shouldn’t even be here,” Bowen hissed. “If the alphas catch you—”

  “They won’t, Gigi made certain of it. They can’t even track my scent. It’s fine, stop worrying about me.” He sighed heavily and uttered, “You should have been here.”

  “I told you, we got in a fight.”

  “And? I don’t care if she tried to stake you in the heart, you were not to leave her side. She’s still too weak to defend herself.”

  “I know, I’m sorry. I just… it’s nothing.”

  “If you think you’re the only one in this room who cares for her that way, you better look again,” Damian whispered, his voice even quieter. “He wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

  “It’s dangerous for him to be around,” Bowen hissed.

  “Mercy called him. She trusts him for some reason. And for now, that’s good enough for me.”

  “Is it? Since when?”

  “Since I’ve watched her almost die too many times to count lately. If we don’t start trusting her, there won’t be a Mercy to save, and I said I would keep her alive. We both did. Remember? When she wakes up, we’ll see what she wants to do. For now, be grateful for the extra guard in case that asshole comes back to finish her off.”

  “Too bad it was a werewolf who attacked her,” Bowen snapped. “We could ask a favor from one to track the blood.”