“Come in,” she said.

  It was Dean.

  “Is it time for our run already?” He had barely left her side while they recovered, but once they were released from the hospital wing, he had given her some space.

  She wasn’t sure if she was relieved by that or disappointed. They went for a run every day, though. And Dean took it upon himself to train her in the use of her super speed. He was also trying to get used to his new power.

  “No, I’m still sore from the tests they’re doing on my stone skin.” He tapped his arm. “They fired an arrow at me today.”

  Keeley winced. “Did it pierce through?”

  “No, but I’ve got a hell of a bruise.” He rolled up his sleeve to show her. “Can you kiss it and make it better?”

  “Wouldn’t that be great if it worked?” And then because anything was possible, she leaned in and kissed the ugly black and blue. She stared at it critically, but it didn’t look like it was shrinking at all. “I don’t think that did anything.”

  “I got punched in the mouth too.” He pointed to his lips.

  For a second, anger flared through her that someone had dared to hurt him. And then she caught the glimmer in his eye. “Good thing they didn’t knee you in the balls.”

  He grinned and dipped his head to give her a kiss on the lips. Keeley enjoyed the tingles and wondered for the billionth time if she had hallucinated that he had said that he loved her. She didn’t have the courage to ask him, because what if the answer was no?

  “Are you ready for our meeting tonight with Gray?”

  “You’re coming too?” She stepped in closer to him because she liked how his body felt against hers.

  “If you don’t mind. I’m on forced down time right now, and I’m a little bored. I want to see how this is all going to end.”

  Keeley hugged him. She knew it was going to end once she killed all of Zeller’s and Allen’s clones. But there wasn’t any reason for him to know about that. She knew how he felt about killing people, and she wouldn’t burden him with her mission.

  He stroked her hair, and because she had nothing else to do and she enjoyed it so much, she relaxed into him. Keeley imagined this is what normal felt like. It was nice, but she couldn’t let herself get too used to it. She had her job to do, and Dean had his. He was the guy in the white hat, and she would forever be one of the black hats. She wasn’t a villain, but no one would ever mistake her for being one of the good guys.

  As Dean held her close to him, she became aware of his heartbeat. It thudded against her ear, and she realized that her heartbeat had synched up to his. That was weird but oddly pleasant. She was also aware that he was getting aroused, and the hard jut of him felt right against her body. Shifting, she rubbed herself against it. He groaned softly in her ear.

  “I want to make love to you,” he whispered.

  His breath sent little shivers down her spine. “Okay.”

  They started out kissing while standing in the middle of her room, holding each other tightly. Keeley loved the feel of his lips against hers. She got lost in the sweet slide of his mouth and the sweeping caress of his tongue. Peeling his T-shirt over his head, Keeley greedily ran her hands over his lithely muscled frame. She groaned when he tossed off her shirt and peeled off her bra. He cupped her breasts, massaging them, running his thumbs over her nipples.

  “Oh yeah,” she whispered, going up on her tip-toes when he kissed down her chest to suck on one of them.

  Then it was a frenzy of who could get naked first. Skin on skin, they tumbled into bed. She pinned him first and wiggled down his body, kissing all the way. When she got to his hard cock, Keeley rubbed her cheek against it.

  He shivered when she flicked her tongue over the tip. Then he groaned and pulled her hair when she deep-throated him. Slowly, she bobbed her head up and down his hard length. His eager groans and the loud sucking sounds she made turned her on. Keeley liked his fingers gripping her hair and the way his hips rose to meet her mouth. He tasted wonderful, and she loved the power it gave her when he started to lose control and shake apart underneath her.

  When he came, she licked her way back up his body, and they kissed some more. She allowed him to roll her over and eagerly parted her legs for his fingers. They touched her in just the right way, and she rode his fingers as he plunged them in and out of her, stopping only to tickle her clit until her nails were digging into his shoulders. In between stroking her and pumping his fingers inside her, Keeley felt her orgasm crest like the giant waves they’d ridden escaping from the robots. She shivered as every tingle ignited her senses. His tongue was back on her nipple, hot and wet. Each tug of his mouth sent a jagged wave of desire into her core. His fingers danced on her clit until she was writhing for him.

  “Dean,” she cried out as he rubbed her over the edge and she could only clamp her thighs shut to keep his hand there while she rode out every last bit of pleasure.

  She wanted him deep inside her, but he had other plans. Rolling over on his back, he pulled her astride him. But instead of placing her on his cock, he sat her on his face.

  “Fu-uck,” Keeley moaned as his tongue teased her sensitive clit.

  His hands were gripping her ass while she held on to the headboard and rode him. Each swipe of his tongue brought her closer as the stubble on his cheeks tantalized her delicate skin. He swatted her on the butt and made her yelp, but the sting soon faded into a sweet burn, and she wanted more. She wiggled faster, and he moaned, sending vibrations through her core. His hand made another slapping sound on her ass, and she almost came from the sensation. His tongue was wild inside her, and Keeley couldn’t get enough. He held her tight against his face, and when her orgasm exploded out of her, she shook apart and sagged against the headboard.

  Dean eased her on to her back and covered her body with his. He slipped in easily, filling her deep. He kissed her neck while rocking slowly inside her. Keeley curled her legs around his and lost herself in the rhythm of his love-making. It was heartbreakingly perfect. The sweet suction on her neck, the way his chest hair brazed her nipples, the thick pounding of his body into her core. Closing her eyes, Keeley let herself drift as wave upon wave of pleasure swelled in her. This was what she had always wanted. What she had dreamed about. And while it might not be forever, Keeley would take what Dean could give her and greedily cherish these memories forever.

  “I love you,” she whispered, and Dean stopped dead.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Shit, forget I said that. Just don’t stop.” She cursed at herself for having ruined this perfect moment.

  “I’m not going to forget it.” He hauled her thigh up higher and sank in impossibly deeper.

  She arched up and moaned as he hit a new spot that clanged joy like a gong through her. Dean moved faster now, harder. The bed creaked. The headboard thumped loudly. Dean’s mouth was hungry on hers. She could taste herself on his lips, and the connection between them sang.

  They both kicked up into their super speed and hit a dynamic that fueled her nerve endings to a fever pitch. It was sweet torture as delicious friction and swift desire shook through them both.

  “Mine,” Dean shouted.

  Her soul answered him with a heartfelt “Yes.”

  Pleasure blossomed inside her. Holding him tightly, Keeley kissed him while he shook apart with a roar that echoed in every part of her. They sank back down to the bed, down to earth for all she knew. Stroking his sweat-slicked back, she didn’t know how she was going to leave him when it was time for her to go hunting their enemies.

  But to keep him safe, she would risk anything.

  Chapter Seven

  Dean and Keeley held hands when they walked to Gray’s office. Maybe the Aethor Institute hadn’t mixed up a serum that made them bonded mates. In a way, that was almost comforting. He didn’t want anything this beautiful tainted by an evil organization that had destroyed Keeley’s world. And yet, he couldn’t explain his new stone skin or how she could suddenly race around the track, matching his speed at over two hundred miles an hour.

  “Glad to see you’re feeling better,” Gray said to both of them as they entered his office.

  He was surprised to see Vera Seer there too. She looked drawn and tired, as if she had been overusing her powers. Maybe she had been.

  “What did you learn from Finnegan Grace?” Keeley asked, sitting down in the chair across from Gray’s desk.

  Dean was too anxious to sit. He had too much pent-up energy from not working this past week. Even the lovely afternoon love-making session had only calmed him down for a few hours. He couldn’t shake this feeling of dread.

  “Supernatural humans are facing a crisis that we haven’t seen since before the Aethor Institute’s pinnacle. Protogenus is creating clones in ten laboratories around the world.”

  “They have to be linked somehow. Do you have a computer hacker or someone who could follow the information that they have to be sharing?” Dean asked, pacing around the room.

  “We’re working on it.”

  “Have Pisc and Ichth found the underwater lab?”

  “Yes. We’ve sent in agents, but it was abandoned.”

  “So Zeller and Allen got away,” she said. “Do we have any leads as to where any of the other labs have been?”

  “No, but they’ll need supes for their clones. Eventually, they’re going to draw attention when they try to kidnap us.”

  “I suppose it’s too much to hope that they’ll keep sending the robots out as bait,” Dean said.

  “We can hope.”

  “Was there anything else in his mind?” Keeley asked, turning toward Vera.

  “Many ugly things. I’m still processing what I’ve learned to see if anything, any little thing can give us a clue as to where the other labs are or where the underwater lab staff went. Pisc and Ichth are out there tracking.”

  “Well, thank you for your efforts. What will happen to Finnegan?”

  “We’ll keep him imprisoned here until his trial.”

  “Trial?” she snorted. “He’s guilty.”

  “Of course he is. But he’ll have his day in court.”

  “I hope you’re going for the death penalty,” she said.

  “It’s out of our hands. He’s a human. He’ll get human justice.”

  “Which is none at all when the victims are supernatural. You know that as well as I do.” Keeley stood up. “I appreciate all that you’ve done for me, but I need to get back to my life.”

  Wait, Dean thought. What? After what they’d shared, he just assumed that she would stay here at the consulate with him.

  “About that,” Gray said. “We were hoping to offer you a job with the Gemini Initiative.”

  “I have a very specific skill set.”

  “So do Pisc and Ichth. We could use someone with your skill set.”

  Wait, what? Dean thought again. The Gemini Initiative didn’t hire assassins.

  “No thank you,” she said and turned to leave.

  “You haven’t heard my offer,” Gray said, smiling expansively.

  “You don’t have anything I want.” Keeley gave Dean an apologetic look and walked out of the office.

  “If you change your mind,” Gray called after her, “the door is always open.”

  Dean hurried after her. “Keeley, wait.”

  “Don’t make this harder than it already is,” she said.

  “You can’t leave me. Leave us.”

  She stopped in the hallway and turned to him. “You could come with me. We could be a team.”

  “An assassin team?”

  Keeley bit her lip and nodded. “Yeah. I’m going after the Zellers and the Allens. I’m going to have to take some jobs to finance that.”

  Hurt panged through him. He knew that he would never be able to stop her, but he was afraid her quest for revenge would wind up killing her. Or destroying the beautiful soul that he had connected with.

  “Please don’t go. You can do all of that here,” he said. As much as he hated what she did, he loved her. And maybe if he was with her, they could find a way out of the darkness.

  “If I do, then Gray can’t hire me to kill Finnegan Grace when the humans give him a slap on the wrist and release him.”

  Dean gaped at her. “He’s not going to do that. He’s a Castor variant. He doesn’t kill people.”

  Keeley placed a hand on his arm and squeezed it. He hated the pain in her eyes when she looked up at him. “Of course not,” she said. “They hire people like me to do it for them.”

  And then she sped away.

  A PART OF HER HOPED that Dean would catch up to her, but when she made it down to the New Athens City docks without feeling the familiar red vapor trail next to her, she knew she was on her own. A part of her was glad, though. Dean would keep his innocence and not have to be tainted by her Mercury variant genes. She was a killer. That was what she was good at. That is what the Aethor Institute made her to be. It was only fitting that she would use those skills to take down the new threat to supernaturals.

  She zipped out to the farthest dock and sat down at the end. Taking off her socks and shoes, she pricked the toe of her big foot so a single drop of blood welled out. Lowering her feet into the water, she kicked and stirred up little waves. She wasn’t sure this was going to work. Keeley knew that regular sharks could sense blood in the water from hundreds of meters away. Supernaturals with shark abilities might have a greater range, if they were even close enough to smell it.

  She waited an hour, but Pisc and Ichth never showed up. It was a shame. They were the only Mercury variants she knew still existed. Perhaps they would meet again someday. Keeley tried to ignore the pang in her heart, but it was still there. She wondered if Dean would always be with her like this. Rubbing her chest, she wished that things could have been different. That she was different.

  Hell, while she was wishing, she might as well wish that Diane had never met Allen Brewster. Then she would have been a norm, an outsider looking in at all this supernatural activity.

  “Hey lady, you’re not supposed to be here,” one of the security guards said.

  “I’m not. I’m a figment of your imagination.” Then she activated her super speed and sped off, leaving him staring at nothing.

  Chapter Eight

  Six months later

  Dean missed Keeley every single day and regretted not chasing after her when she had left. He had assumed that she would come back to visit. But she never did. More bonded mates had come out of the woodwork. His friend Xavier had found true love with Ari. It was too painful to watch their happiness, knowing that his mate was out there.

  Sometimes, he thought he sensed her in the wind. Walking into a coffee shop was torture because it reminded him of how her hair smelled. He dreamed about her at night, every night. They were together, and they were happy. They made love until dawn, and he could smell her on his hands and taste her sweetness in his mouth when he woke up.

  He told himself that this was another special connection they shared. He wanted to ask Vera about it, but he was too embarrassed. Still, sometimes he went to bed early just so he could meet her in his dreams. They didn’t talk. If he tried to talk to her, she just faded away. He hoped to see her in person today, though.

  Dean had sat in the back of the court room during Finnegan Grace’s trial. The jury of his peers, twelve men and women, listened to the evidence against him. He was charged with kidnapping and false imprisonment. But his lawyers claimed that he was a victim. They couldn’t pin the kidnappings on him. Zeller, wherever he was, was taking the fall for that one. And Allen Brewster was being blamed for the false imprisonment. It was convenient that both of them were dead, even if their clones lived on.

  Unless Keeley had gotten to them.

  He hoped she had.

  It had taken this trial to make him realize that there was no justice for Protogenus from the humans. The norms simply didn’t care or just didn’t want to believe that this was happening right under their noses.

  The judge didn’t even let the prosecution mention Protogenus and their underwater laboratory. While they’d found the remains of the lab, there had been no proof of any wrongdoing. Not one piece of evidence that any illegal gene manipulation or experimentation had gone on down there.

  The jurors filed back in, and everyone in the courtroom stiffened in anticipation. Finnegan smiled and patted his attorney on the back.

  “Have you come to a decision, Lady Foreman?”

  “We have, your honor.” She looked familiar to Dean, but he couldn’t place where he had seen her before.

  “On the charge of kidnapping, we find the defendant...guilty as charged.”

  Dean’s head snapped up in surprise. A shocked murmur spread through the crowd.

  “Order,” the judge commanded, banging his gavel. But he also looked confused. The defense had pretty much slam-dunked this case.

  “On the charge of false imprisonment, we find the defendant ...guilty as charged.”

  The uproar was deafening.

  “This is bullshit,” Finnegan said, jumping up to his feet.

  “And as for sentencing, we recommend he be remanded to the Gemini Initiative to be punished as they see fit.” The forewoman smiled at Finnegan.

  The judge banged his gavel until everyone settled down. He opened his mouth to speak, probably to tell her that the jury could recommend, but he’d be in charge of the sentencing. But what came out of his mouth was, “Thank you, jury, for your service today. Gemini Institute, you may collect the prisoner. Court is adjourned.”

  That was not supposed to happen. Pisc and Ichth walked down the row and collected Finnegan Grace. Another surprise was that Finnegan went quietly. Dean scanned the gallery and saw the head of the Pollux Legion, Rick Charming, stand up. He watched the judge leave the courtroom, and then he turned to leave. He gave Dean a wink as he passed by him, following Pisc and Ichth out of the courtroom.

  Rick Charming’s superpower was mind control.

 

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