Sin Undone

Seventeen

“Go to hell, Valeriu. And take the Sigil with you.” Kynan slammed the satellite phone down so hard that a piece of plastic snapped off it and pinged off the stone wall of Shade’s Central American cave. Cursing, he checked to make sure the phone still worked. It did, but damn, he was pissed. Beyond pissed. And he hoped to hell Serena hadn’t heard him telling her father to bend over for Satan’s big stiffie.

But fuck if he was going to take orders from the R-XR again.

Picking up the phone, he sank down on the leather couch that ran the length of the cave’s living room wall. He started to dial Tay’s cell phone number… and froze at the hair-raising rumble of a growl.

The women had heard the intruder before Kynan did. It wasn’t that he wasn’t alert; it was just that Serena was a vampire with uber-sharp senses, and Runa was a werewolf with ultra-sensitive hearing even when she was in human form.

Which she wasn’t right now.

Runa, thanks to military experimentation immediately after she was bitten by a warg—Luc—had been altered. She still shifted into a raging beast on the three nights of the full moon, but she could also shift at will. The way she just had.

Her snarls echoed off the smooth rock walls of the cave. Kynan, drawing his Sig, darted to the kitchen, where Runa was standing on two strong, toffee-furred legs, teeth bared. Behind her, Serena, fangs bared, blocked the doorway to the bedroom, where Runa and Shade’s triplets, and Serena and Wraith’s son, were sleeping.

The narrow entryway filled as someone stepped inside. Kynan held his breath, letting his finger ease from the trigger guard to the trigger.

He damn near sighed with relief when Runa’s brother and Kynan’s old Army buddy Arik stepped out of the shadows. Arik wore a standard-issue beige T-shirt with his cammie BDU pants, an M-9 Beretta at his hip, but his hands were empty, and when he held them up, Ky lowered the weapon.

“Take it easy.” Arik’s voice was the calm, soothing drawl of a police negotiator talking someone off a ledge. But Ky knew Arik well enough to recognize a rare note of stress. “I’m not here to take you in, Runa.”

Kynan angled his body so he could cover the cave entrance. “Are you alone?”

“Of course I am,” Arik snapped. His muscled arms bunched up hard, as though he was prepared to end any further doubt with his fists. Because of the charm, Kynan couldn’t be injured—unless he wanted to be injured. He hadn’t had a decent challenge in months, and he almost hoped Arik would throw a punch just so Ky could work off some aggression.

For a long moment tension circulated in the cool air, and then Runa shifted back into her petite human form. Ky and Arik averted their gazes as Serena handed her a robe to replace the clothes that had been shredded by her shift. One of the babies started crying, and Serena disappeared back into the bedroom.

“I’m sorry, Arik,” Runa said, the rustle of cloth on skin mingling with her voice as she shrugged into the robe. “You startled us. And the R-XR does want me as a lab rat.”

He had the grace to blush. “It’s not an issue now.”

“So, what, have I been given a pass? And you can look at me now.”

Arik’s mouth tightened into a grim line. “You haven’t been given a pass.”

Runa froze as she tugged her caramel-colored hair out of the back of the robe, and Ky’s pulse picked up. He didn’t want to believe that the man who used to be his friend had come to grab his own sister, but a lot of things he hadn’t wanted to believe had proved to be true over the last couple of years.

“Why are you here?” Kynan tapped the pistol against his thigh, drawing Arik’s gaze. “You’ve got five seconds to fill us in.”

Arik’s pause lasted four. “I refused to give up Runa’s location, and they threatened to lock me up until all of this is over. So I walked.”

“You’re AWOL?”

Arik nodded, and Ky let out a low whistle. Absent without leave was a serious offense in the regular military. But from the R-XR? The paranormal unit played for keeps and without oversight. It could do anything it wanted to Arik, and no one would argue or even know.

The only thing that might save him was that the people who worked for the R-XR were specialists and worth their weight in gold. And Arik, an ex–Delta Force operative who could learn any demon language after hearing only a few words, was priceless.

Runa ran to Arik and folded him into her embrace. “You can stay here, Arik. For as long as you need to.”

Arik cocked a dark eyebrow at Kynan. “And what does your bodyguard have to say about that?”

“Brother,” Kynan drawled, “it ain’t me you need to worry about.”

“Shade will be fine,” Runa said, as she drew away, and Ky hoped she was right. Arik and Shade weren’t the best of friends; Arik still hadn’t forgiven Shade for his role in turning Runa into a werewolf, and Shade had a total distrust of the R-XR.

“Do I get to see my nephews?”

“They’re in the bedroom with Stewie.” Runa’s champagne-colored eyes lit on a rattle on the floor and then flicked back to her brother. “You haven’t met Wraith’s son, have you?”

“Nope.”

“Okay, hold on a minute.” Runa went into the bedroom, leaving Kynan and Arik alone.

Ky gestured for Arik to follow him into the living room. Once there, Ky pivoted, putting himself in line to keep an eye on the doorway. “Tell me everything.”

Arik rubbed his hand over his dark, military-short high-and-tight. “Have you spoken with the other Elders recently?”

“You could say that,” Kynan said.

“Did they tell you The Aegis is taking orders from the R-XR now?”

“Val mentioned something about that. But I don’t know why The Aegis is going to be the R-XR’s bitch. We didn’t get that far into the conversation.”

Arik glanced through the doorway at the bedroom Runa had disappeared into. “You know born wargs are now being affected by SF, right?”

“Yeah. And there’s a danger it’ll jump species.”

“There’s no time left to find a cure.”

Kynan exhaled slowly, as if that would put off what he knew was going to be very bad news. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying,” Arik said gravely, “that the powers that be are done waiting. They’re mobilizing forces and joining up with The Aegis to go out on a search-and-destroy mission. If a cure for this disease isn’t found now, they intend to eradicate every werewolf on the planet.”

They had just gotten to the mountainside Harrowgate when Tay’s phone rang. She peeled away from the group to answer, and through the static and in-and-out reception, she could barely hear Kynan’s voice.

“Tay? Where are you?”

“Montana. Are Runa and the kids okay?”

“They’re fine. But The Aegis has been trying to contact you—” As if on cue, her phone beeped, and the caller ID identified her supervisor, the head of the New York State cells.

“Yeah, Richard is on the other line—”

“Don’t answer!”

Jesus. Okay… Ky never got excited like that. “Ky, you’re making me nervous.” He was making everyone nervous—they’d gathered around, and Shade was about to grab the phone from her.

“Look, I got a call from Val earlier. He said the R-XR and every military supernatural unit in the world is heading up an operation, and that The Aegis was going to be taking orders from them.”

Tayla snorted. “Bullshit.”

“That’s what I said. Val told me to fall in line, and I told him to go to hell. Right after that, Arik showed up.”

She lowered her voice and turned away so Shade wouldn’t flip out. “At the cave?”

“Yeah. He’s here because he refused to hand over Runa. Apparently, the R-XR and The Aegis are sending out extermination squads to kill all wargs, born and turned.”

“Oh, shit.” Tayla paused, the implications of what Kynan had just told her flashing like a movie in her head. A horror movie. The worldwide slaughter would be off the scale. “We’ve got to stop them.”

“I tried,” Kynan said. “I just got off a conference call with the Sigil.”

“They’re not listening to you?”

A sound of frustration came over the airwaves. “Tay, I used all my clout. I swore to leave the fucking organization, but they aren’t budging. They’re serious about destroying the wargs.”

“Is that why Richard is calling? To get me to organize my cell for a warg hunt? Because I won’t do it.” Ky paused, and a chill skittered up Tay’s spine. “Ky… what are you not saying?”

“They know you won’t cooperate. Richard wants you to head back to your cell’s HQ.”

“And then what?”

“They plan to hold you until the massacre is over. They don’t want you interfering. Tay, hold on.” She stood there, stewing, while Ky spoke in low tones to someone else. When he came back on the line, he sounded like he was speaking between clenched teeth. “Arik’s got some interesting intel. The R-XR indicated that there’s a massive gathering of wargs in Canada. Do you know anything about it?”

“Canada?” She frowned, and then scowled when Con grabbed the phone from her.

“Kynan? What about Canada? Isn’t that where you told the Warg Council there was a Feast warg?” Con listened for a moment. “She’s a Guardian? And wait… what? Holy shit.” Con closed the phone.

“What’s going on?” Eidolon asked.

“Luc.” His gaze drifted to Sin, and Tay recognized that look. The dhampire was falling, and falling fast. “We need to get to his place.”

“Why?” Tayla was confused as all hell.

“Man, I can’t believe I didn’t put this all together sooner,” Con said. “Luc… in Egypt. He banged this Guardian who was a werewolf—”

“We don’t have any werewolf Guardians,” Tay interrupted.

“Not that you knew of. Apparently, she was hiding it.”

“You can’t hide it. We make sure every Guardian works at least one night of the full moon.”

Con nodded impatiently. “She’s a special breed. They turn on the new moon. Kynan went to the Warg Council to ask about her. She was heading to the Northwest Territories. So the borns and turneds both sent out extermination squads to kill her. But the thing is, I think she was heading there because that’s where Luc is. She’s the werewolf he had sex with.”

“So she’s leading packs of werewolves right to him,” Wraith said.

Con’s voice went low. “And worse, both warg sides know the other one is there. They’re amassing an army.”

“That’s where they’re going to fight their civil war,” Sin said, and uttered a dark curse. “Werewolf Armageddon.”