Critical Intelligence Read online

  Chapter Thirteen

  Missy swung out, catching her attacker across the face. He loosened his grip on her enough that she was able to kick him, catching the back of his knee. He went down hard and fast, trying to take her with him. She wasn’t having any of that. She broke free and spun in the air, twisting out of reach as she plummeted and hit the ground hard. Coming to her feet, she tried to see. Her vision was still blurry but clearing slowly. Something moved toward her but struck her hard in the side of the head. Pain exploded behind her eyes and she did her best to stay focused, to stay conscious. Passing out wasn’t an option.

  “Don’t kill her!” someone shouted.

  They want to take me alive now?

  The thought wasn’t a comforting one as she tried to break free of the attack. Slowly, she could make out the shape of someone even bigger than Roi. Kicking out, she found her foot caught in someone’s strong grasp. Unable to clearly make out who had what, she wasn’t sure if it was one attacker or more. The second multiple hands grabbed hold of her, she cried out, “Let go of me.”

  Deep laughs followed. Never a good sign.

  “Missy!” Roi’s voice sounded farther away than she’d have liked.

  “Roi, I’m over—“ The man holding her hit her again, this time in the center of the chest. He struck her with his full strength. It would have killed a human. It knocked the wind out of her and pain radiated through her as the air left her lungs and she fell quickly to the ground, clutching her body, straining to breathe.

  Her attacker tipped her head back and jabbed something sharp into her neck. She couldn’t scream, couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything other than sit on her knees as he injected her with something. A burning sensation began in her neck, instantly taking over her body. Suddenly, her muscles began to spasm as thunderbolts of pain radiated through her.

  By the time the man had pulled the syringe away from her, the pain was so intense that it became numbing. Still shaken and disoriented, Missy could do nothing to stop the man as he yanked her off the ground.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Roi spun around and delivered a kick to the solar plexus of some idiot who tried to zap him with a stun gun. A slight smile played across his face as he watched the man fly a few feet into the air from the force of Roi’s kick. Spinning fast, Roi smashed the flashlight from hell through another man’s chest, smashing it and dusting the vamp in the process.

  Nothing like beating the shit out of someone to make the evening enjoyable.

  Hearing Missy scream, Roi jerked back to reality. “Missy!” When she didn’t answer, fear took hold of his gut. He looked next to him where she’d just been but found no sign of her. She screamed again.

  “Roi, I’m over—”

  Running in the direction her scream had come from, Roi met up with two more men. One swung at his head, missing him by a long shot. Roi, however, managed to come into full contact with the man’s throat. The amount of pressure he’d used should have broken the assailant’s neck. Instead, it just stunned him. That meant they were shifters too. “Aww, look, the cousins came to play.”

  The wolf in Roi afforded him excellent night vision. As he threw his fist up and knocked the other attacker away from him, he noted that both men before him wore some sort of odd earplugs. Missy had been right. They did have a weapon that would affect hearing.

  He saw Missy then, in the distance, crumpled on the ground, holding her chest. Red-hot rage tore through him and the urge to shift was overpowering. His fingers began to lengthen and his jaw tingled, signifying the start of the process.

  Suddenly, Roi sensed the other I-Ops. They were closing in on their location. He fought to cage the wolf within. Missy didn’t need to see him change right now. As fine as she appeared to be with his shifting, it was still something he’d rather not do in front of her just yet.

  Lukian broke through the darkness first, lunging at a group of men who had come out of nowhere. Roi turned and struck out, catching one of the men’s arms, showing no mercy. Claws extended from his fingertips as a slight smile played across his lips. The severed limb fell to the ground and its previous owner howled out. Roi growled and made another swipe at him.

  He missed, but it didn’t matter. Wilson was suddenly there backing him up, firing a shot into the retreating one-armed bad guy. The man’s pace slowed, but he kept on running.

  “What the…?” Wilson murmured as he fired another shot dead into the man. The man continued running away.

  “Shifters,” Roi said, seriously laboring for breath.

  Wilson dropped his clip to the ground and snatched another one from his belt. “Rightie-o, let’s get it on. The rat’s packin’ silver now, baby. Who wants to play? Here, shifter, shifter, shifter… Here, boy. Come to Papa!”

  Roi rolled his eyes and used the lull in the fight to run to Missy. His heart slammed in his chest as he saw her lying on the ground shaking uncontrollably.

  Sliding to the ground next to her, he tried to hold her still without hurting her. Something was seriously wrong but he couldn’t see any visible wounds. Saliva ran down from the corners of her mouth as her eyes rolled back into her head. Fear gripped him as he held her tight. “Missy, baby, hang on. Green! Green!”

  It seemed like an eternity before Green dropped next to him, but Roi knew it was only a matter of seconds. “She’s seizing.”

  “Really?” Roi asked sardonically. “Fix her now.”

  Green grabbed Missy’s head, checking her eyes. He sniffed the air and looked up at Roi with wide eyes. “Do you smell that?”

  “No, smell what?”

  “Shifter.”

  “That’s what attacked us,” Roi said, seriously annoyed by Green’s lack of focus. Missy needed an ambulance and fast, not Green’s analysis of the air.

  Green shook his head. “No, Roi, the smell of the shifter is coming from Missy.”

  That didn’t make any sense. He’d have picked up on it if she was a shifter. Her scent always drove him mad but he’d never got the smell of shifter from her. Drawing in a deep breath, he caught what Green had smelled too. Instantly, he recognized it as a feline breed. That must have been why Green smelled it first. The werepanther in Green gave him the edge in that department. It didn’t make any sense. Where had the scent been on her? Only the most powerful of supernaturals could mask what they were and that took a lot of training and time. “But…?”

  Green moved Missy’s head to the side and they both saw what he was looking for—a red, raised area on her neck that was fast turning purple. “They’ve injected her with something.”

  Roi’s mind raced with endless accounts of Green rambling on and on about humans being injected with shifter DNA.

  Hundred percent fatality rate.

  Missy knew she was something but didn’t know what. What if she didn’t have enough supernatural blood in her veins? A fear like he’d never experienced before tore through him, and the wolf within fought to be free. It needed to run, to mutilate, to kill all responsible for this. “Why? Why would they inject her with that? If they wanted her dead. Gods,” a sob broke free from his throat, “why not just…why that?”

  Green checked Missy’s vitals as her convulsions slowed. He glanced up at Roi and didn’t have to say a word. His expression spoke a thousand words. The situation was grave. Missy would be dead soon.

  He couldn’t wrap his mind around the inevitable. He couldn’t imagine his world without Missy in it. He’d only just found her and to have her ripped away so suddenly simply wasn’t an option.

  Roi sat on his knees next to Missy, rocking back and forth with his arms wrapped around his own body. Afraid to touch her for fear of hurting her in his unchecked state of mind, he just watched as Green worked hard to stabilize her. Every ounce of him wanted to pick her up and take her home with him. He could hold her there, as she was meant to be held. She was his. His responsibility. His charge. She was his, damn it, and he’d failed her.

  The idea of never seeing her agai
n, never hearing her quick-witted responses to him, tore at his gut. How this little woman could come out of nowhere and turn his world upside down was beyond him, but she had.

  Missy drew in a sharp breath and then went still. Roi grabbed her and drew her tiny, lifeless body into his arms. “Missy, doll baby? Come on. Come on, sugar. Get up now. You need to wake up and yell at me some more. I promise to say something asinine just for you. Just look at me.”

  Green tried to take her from him, but he wouldn’t let her go. Smacking Green’s hands away, he kissed Missy’s forehead gently.

  “I’ve got you, Missy doll. It’s okay, I’ve got you now. I’m here, baby. I’m here.”

  “Roi,” Green said softly.

  He shot his longtime friend a nasty look as he brushed Missy’s long black hair from her face. She was so beautiful, so full of warmth and goodness, why would anyone want to hurt her?

  “Roi,” Green said again.

  “I just want to hold her for a minute, okay?”

  “You’ll have to ask them if it’s okay first.”

  “Huh?” Roi asked, glancing up for the first time to find that a group of men wearing ski masks surrounded them. They were the last thing he wanted interrupting his chance to just hold Missy before someone forced him to give her up. They were also the reason she was gone now.

  “Fuck, now that’s original. Hey, Green, why didn’t we think to dress like we were knocking over a liquor store too? It would have been nice to coordinate the night’s outfits.” He let his voice run cold. “Now, if the rest of you would be so kind as to fuck off, I’ll be along soon enough to rip your still-beating hearts from your chest.”

  “No, I believe we’ll stick around for just a bit more,” a man said, stepping from out of the shadows, his voice laced with a British accent. He apparently didn’t feel the need to hide behind a mask or black ops-like garb, like the others, because he wore neither. His long white-blond hair blew softly in the breeze and it was then that Roi knew where the smell of a vampire had come from. The vampire narrowed his gaze on him and smiled callously. “Major Majors, I presume.”

  Roi glanced over at Green, shaking his head slightly. “He didn’t just say that, did he?”

  Green gave a lopsided grin. “In his defense, you are a major and your last name is…”

  “Yeah, I get it. Thanks for clearing it up for me,” Roi said dryly.

  Lukian, where are you?

  Moving in behind them. Keep them busy.

  I’m the one who gets to deliver the killing blow to each and every one of these fucks.

  I know, brother. I know.

  Roi smiled at the men, unafraid of them. In fact, he prayed one of them would be stupid enough to charge him. The need for blood was overpowering. They’d taken his mate; he’d take each and every one of their lives. “I’ll give you two seconds to get the hell out of here before I kill each and every one of you.”

  Several of the men laughed. The one who’d addressed him as Major Majors didn’t. “How, may I ask, are you planning on killing each and every one of us? You are in no position to be making threats.”

  “Yeah, one would probably think that, wouldn’t they? But, here’s the thing, Dick Dickless, I’m thinking that if you wanted us dead, we’d be dead already. And since you’ve eliminated the only leverage you would have had against me,” he set Missy’s body down on the ground gently, inwardly screaming out and wanting to pull her back to him, “I’ve got nothing to lose.” Roi stood slowly, watching as the men pointed their weapons at him. “You, on the other hand, do.”

  Green stood too and moved his head back and forth, letting his neck audibly crack. The man looked intimidating as hell and he knew it. Problem was, short of Green boring them to death with a detailed description of quantum mechanics, he wasn’t sure how much help Green would be. Two of the masked men took steps back and Roi smiled. They were actually scared of Green. This was too good.

  Shit, they hadn’t seen anything yet.

  “If you move, we will be forced to kill you and that would be most unpleasant since our employer wishes you alive to study.”

  Study? Roi’s eyebrows rose quickly. He wanted a name and he wanted it now. Sensing Green’s agitation at the mention of studying them, Roi feared that he’d make a move and get himself killed.

  Dick Dickless tapped his AK-47 gingerly. A vampire packing was never a comforting sight, not unless the vampire was part of the Crimson Sentinels Ops Unit of PSI. The vampires assigned to the unit were annoying but loyal to the good fight and friends. “Care to take a guess at what type of bullets we’re carrying?”

  “I could, but I’m thinking you’d get pissed at my comment,” Roi said sarcastically. “Shooting blanks does come to mind. Green, you with me on this?”

  “You won’t be so eager to make smart remarks once you are strapped to a table being experimented on, will you?”

  Been there and done that.

  Green huffed. “You don’t know him very well. He lives to be tied up and the comments fall out at random. I think he may have Tourette’s syndrome.”

  “We shall see if you retain your sense of humor after we are through with you.”

  Roi watched carefully as red dots appeared on two of the men’s heads. That meant one thing. Jon and Wilson were nearby and had marked their targets. They’d wait until Green and Roi were ready before shooting. The I-Ops had worked together long enough to know how the other team members would react.

  Dick Dickless motioned to one of his men and set his hard gaze on Roi. “Keep an eye on him and grab the girl.”

  “What, you collecting dead chicks now?” Referring to Missy as dead and a chick turned his stomach to the point that he bit back vomit, but he had to buy Lukian time to be in position.

  The man tossed his head back, letting out a maniacal laugh. Roi imprinted it in his mind, not wanting to forget it.

  “Ahh, she is far from dead, wolf. From what I gather, when she wakes she will feel more alive than she ever has and will be begging for us to fuck her.”

  Missy was alive? The thought sent hope surging through him.

  The vampire sneered. “You care for her—no, you love her,” Dick Dickless said, sounding shocked by this news.

  He wasn’t the only one the news took by surprise. Roi was too. He knew vampires had an amazing ability to sense truths in others; that wasn’t what he was surprised about. It was the part about him loving Missy. There was no way he could possibly be in love with that little pain in the ass. Could he?

  Red dots danced across the other men’s heads and Roi knew it was now or never. He glanced over at Green to see if he was armed. Sure enough, he was. With lycan-like speed, he snatched Green’s silver Desert Eagle from his back. He fired two shots off, hitting one shifter directly in the chest as he leapt over Missy’s body, knowing Green would drop down to cover her.

  Instantaneously, shots rang out from behind him. Two other men dropped as Roi zeroed in on a fourth, thanking the gods that Green was anal about carrying silver bullets. Roi fired again, taking another man with him. Lukian’s scent was strong and Roi knew that he was close. Not wanting to let Dick Dickless escape, Roi scanned the area for him. He was nowhere to be found.

  Lukian! Find the vampire.

  He took flight. He’s gone. I’m sorry, brother. We’ll find him again. See to your mate.

  She’s not my… He stopped, realizing there was little point in denying it. Missy, whether she liked it or not, was his mate. The Fates obviously had a sense of humor, and apparently, it was “dick with Roi week” on their viewing screen.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Missy blinked, unsure where she was. Warm gray walls and a weathered mirror greeted her. She tried to sit up, but her body was too sore to cooperate. Glancing to the side of the room, she noticed a low table that ran along the length of the wall. It held a flat-screen television, DVD player, and a rather large collection of movies, all of which appeared to be adult films. A beautiful white vase full of
yellow roses sat on the end of the table, in stark contrast to the rest of it. A mound of tiger-striped throw pillows and a pair of men’s blue jeans lay on the floor next to it all.

  Instantly, a large, heavy arm wrapped around her. She froze, unsure who or what was next to her. Glancing down, she noticed the obscene amount of muscle on the arm and gulped when its owner moved closer to her body. Fire shot through her inner thighs as a large, warm body snuggled up against her back, spooning her perfectly, as though it had been created for her and she it.

  Whoever was behind her pulled her back against them more, leaving nothing to her imagination as she felt a rock-hard erection pressing deep into her back. She wiggled slightly, and the man behind her moaned.

  Missy’s eyes widened. She knew that voice. “Roi?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

  “Mmmhmm,” he murmured, snuggling his rough, stubble-covered chin into the crook of her neck. She wanted to be mad and throw him off her, but in truth, it felt good having him hold her.

  Her mind screamed at her to run, but her body wanted to be near him, needed to be near him. The last thing she remembered was being injected with something, and then thinking she was dying. Roi had held her during the worst of it. She’d known he was there, cradling her in his arms, wanting her to get up, to yell at him, to just live. He’d been what had kept her mind off the pain.

  Roi shifted a bit and she realized then that nothing was between them. He was as naked as she was. Heat rushed to her cheeks and her stomach tightened, part in anticipation and part in embarrassment. Just when she believed the situation couldn’t get any more humiliating, her stomach growled loudly.

  Roi chuckled and placed a tiny kiss on her bare shoulder. “Good afternoon, sleepyhead. You hungry?” he asked, like he didn’t already know the answer to that question.

  “Afternoon?”

  “Yeah, we had a long night.” His voice was laced with suggestion and Missy wondered how much they’d done. The fact that they were lying together, naked in a bed, gave her a good idea of what must have gone on.