Breeds: Stygian's Honour Part 57

free. Two years later, someone from the Council arrived, though, and they demanded Father return me to the labs. I was the only one left, they told him. Judd, Gideon and Fawn had died in an escape attempt."

Honor remembered the agony that had knifed through her when she'd heard her friends were gone, and with them the in- formation that had been ama.s.sed over the years.

"But you knew better," he encouraged her to continue.

Honor shook her head. "Not at first. The Council's messenger was telling Father how they knew about our photographic memor- ies, and how they needed whatever I had seen to begin the project once again because Gideon and Judd had destroyed the files and data in the escape attempt. That was when I knew that they were alive. Gideon would never have allowed Fawn to die. Just as Fawn wouldn't have allowed Gideon to die.

821/862.

That night, Father put in place the escape plan he'd already mapped out for me. He managed to find someone he knew could hide me. This man contacted me within hours of Father telling the messenger he needed a few days to arrange everything. My father then made certain I was in a place where his contact could slip me away. A few weeks later I was reunited with Fawn and Judd. We ran continually." She tried to dry the tears that continued to fall. "We never had any peace. Then, one night, they found us before we could run. They crashed into the room just like they did tonight. And be- fore we could think, Fawn, Judd and I were shooting. We were shooting to kill rather than wound, fighting for our lives because we knew they would kill us with the tests if we had to suffer them again. We managed to get away just as the man that helped me escape arrived with another and drove us to where two girls were dying in the desert."

822/862.

"And then you became Liza Johnson," he whispered.

He was dying inside with her. The pain searing her soul was ripping his to shreds as well. The agony of the blood she had been forced to shed that night, the lives she had been forced to take, no matter the reason, would always haunt her now. It would tor- ment her, just as the knowledge that it had been another girl's death that had been her only escape from certain h.e.l.l.

Laying her head against his chest, concen- trating on the steady beat of his heart, she nodded wearily. "And then I became Liza Johnson."

"Claire Martinez is Fawn, isn't she?" he asked her then. "Liza and Fawn both died in that wreck, didn't they, Honor?"

She shook her head. "They took Fawn away."

And they had.

823/862.

She had to be careful. So very, very careful to keep him from sensing the lie she knew she had to tell.

"I'm your mate," he said then, his lips at her ear, his voice so soft she had to strain to make out the words. "My first loyalty is to you, and let me tell you, you reek of that lie, sweetheart. If you want to hide her, protect her until those memories return, then you're going to have to let me help you. Without your trust, mate, I can do nothing. I am nothing."

She pulled back to stare into eyes the color of the darkest blue.

Could she trust him?

Did she dare?

G.o.d help her, did she really have a choice?

"It was a ritual," she whispered. "The medicine chiefs did it. They gave us Liza and Claire's lives and completely took the memories from us of who and what we were until the time came to remember. One would 824/862.

have their memories returned in a night filled with chaos, the other..." She swallowed tightly. "The other with her death."

"And you don't know which is which?"

A strained, mirthless laugh escaped her lips. "I'd pretty much say tonight was chaos.

And I know none of the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds died." A sob escaped as more tears fell. "That leaves Fawn's death." Shaking her head, she tightened her grip on his shoulders, fear and desperation building inside her again. "That leaves her death, Stygian. I swore I'd protect her. I swore-oh G.o.d." Her fingers fisted in his shirt as she shook with the pain and fear tearing through her. "Oh G.o.d, Stygian, even as Claire Martinez she's not known any peace. She's not had a moment to be happy because Ray can't forgive her," she sobbed.

"He won't forgive her because Claire died and she lived, and there's no way she could make up for it. And I broke all my promises to her, because I promised to protect her."

825/862.

He could do nothing but hold her. Hold her. Rock her. All he could do was try to comfort her, because the pain inside her was killing him. To feel her shaking so violently, to feel the pain racking her slender body and to feel her sense of failure as though it were his own, was more a h.e.l.l than the twenty years he'd spent in those f.u.c.king labs.

And he'd be d.a.m.ned if he'd allow her to fail in this, because losing the young woman she'd always fought to help protect would kill her.

"We'll protect her, Liza-"

The door between the rooms swung open.

Jerking around, Liza stared back at Jonas in terror.

He knew.

She could see it in those liquid silver eyes.

He knew.

Somehow, he'd heard it all.

Stygian snarled in raging fury, his muscles bunching as he moved to tear away from her, 826/862.

to jump for Jonas as the other man lifted the small electronic device she knew had some- how allowed him to hear everything that was said.

"We'll all protect her." An animalistic, primal rasp so rough and terrifying it seemed to sc.r.a.pe across her nerve endings came from his throat.

"No." She tried to jerk from Stygian's grip, suddenly terrified of what Wyatt would do to gain the answers he needed to protect his daughter.

She couldn't stop sobbing.

Fighting to be free of Stygian, she only wanted to escape, to get to Fawn, to hide her- "For G.o.d's sake, the melodramatics are driving me insane." The door slammed be- hind him with a crack of steel against steel that reverberated through the room. Rage glittered in his liquid mercury gaze, as did disgust and irritation.

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"You'll destroy her," she cried.

"Get serious." Exasperation filled his voice as well as his expression. "No matter the stories mothers tell their children about the bogeyman of the Breeds, I am not a cruel person, Ms.-" He paused, his head tilting to the side before his expression tightened and a savage determination filled his gaze. "Ms.

Johnson. And I am well aware of the ritual that overlaid your memories with those of the two girls who died twelve years ago. For- cing those memories was never my goal. I merely hoped mating would instead allow the memories free. I have always known your secrets."

"You couldn't have known." There was no way. No one present that night would ever have spoken of it.

Crossing his arms over his chest, he stared back at her confidently. "My dear, sometimes one has to learn how to maneuver those he cares for into completing their destinies 828/862.

rather than meeting death," he sighed. "I knew Honor and Fawn were in Window Rock. I knew somehow your father and the president of the Nation were involved. That led me to suspect that, perhaps, the accident their daughters were in at the time of Honor's and Fawn's disappearance may have been fatal. That would have allowed the two young girls the ultimate escape if Liza John- son's and Claire Martinez's deaths were nev- er revealed. What was a mere suspicion when this began has, over the weeks, been confirmed. That is beside the fact, as won- drous as such a miracle is, as adept as the earth is at obeying the requests of men such as Orrin Martinez and Joseph Redwolf, still, the scent of the genetics left inside you after those experiments is still there if a Breed knew what he was looking for. And I knew what I was looking for, my dear."

She was barely aware of the fact that her nails were now biting into Stygian's arm.

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"If you figured it out," she whispered, "then Gideon will as well."

Jonas snorted skeptically. "My dear, do not imagine Gideon Cross has yet to figure any of this out. And if he has"-the smile that tugged at his lips was definitely amused this time-"if he does, then trust me, the last thing he'll do, once I'm finished with him, is want to kill."

The tears had stopped.

Stygian could almost, almost forgive Jonas his games for the simple fact that Liza-h.e.l.l, Honor-was no longer crying.

His mate. He couldn't bear her tears or her pain.

It didn't matter her name, it didn't matter who she thought she was or who she had been. She was the other half of his soul.

"What do you mean?"

For a second, gentleness flashed in his gaze before it shifted to calculating amuse- ment. "Gideon is a man driven mad by his 830/862.

inability to do as the animal inside him de- manded. To protect. To ensure the safety of those he was bound to. The animal is tearing him apart, clawing at the man's subconscious and creating a madness that only one thing will cure."

Honor shook her head. "There's a cure?"

"Of course there is," he a.s.sured her, his lips quirking briefly as he crossed his arms over his chest, tilted his head to the side and watched her with eyes the color of living silver. "All he has to do is listen to the animal inside him. All he has to do is find his mate, and protect her."

She blinked back at him. "Who is his mate?"

"Fawn," Stygian said softly behind her.

"Son of a b.i.t.c.h, that's why he's so enraged.

She's his mate. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d isn't feral, he's in mating heat."

"Fawn was a young woman when she forced that transfusion on him without the 831/862.

knowledge or the medication the scientists had been using to control what they believed was the feral fever that came from it. But the animal inside Gideon also knew she was still too young to mate without consequences,"

Jonas explained. "That's why the animal in- side him went crazy when it happened. The opposing parts of his psyche were suddenly coming together, doing whatever it would take to force back the mating heat until she was old enough, strong enough to endure mating a Breed. Now, I just have to man- euver him into the right place at the right time, to ensure he realizes it. Once he does, then the animal tearing him apart inside, now that the woman is old enough to handle the mating, will settle and the mate will emerge."

"Do you know where he's hiding?" she whispered, feeling Stygian's arms tightening around her, holding her closer, sheltering her.

832/862.

"Gideon never hides," he sighed then.

"He's here, right beneath our noses, some- how. Watching, waiting, hoping to pounce when we lead him to you and Fawn. Just as the Council soldiers are. Which is why we're not going to let anyone know that you've re- membered anything. As far as everyone in- volved is concerned, you're still Liza Johnson and Claire Martinez is exactly who she seems to be."

"How?" she whispered. "Any Breed that comes close to me will smell the deception.

Every time anyone calls me Liza. Anytime I pretend to be her, that scent will be there."

He stared back at her for long, thoughtful seconds. Long enough that Stygian finally growled in warning.

"Where's Judd? Who is he?" he asked with a faint glimmer of amus.e.m.e.nt in his gaze as he glanced over her shoulder at her mate.

She shook her head. "I don't know, Jonas, and that's the truth. I haven't seen him since 833/862 the night of the ritual, and not because I forgot who he was either. Judd never came around me again."

But she knew he was close.

"Don't hold information from me, Liza."

Jonas sighed as he prowled closer, his gaze intent. "Tell me, as I stare at you now I can smell the truth of what you're saying, but I can also smell your lie."

"Then any Breed can," she whispered, fighting back the tears gathering again.

"Not in this lifetime," he growled, turning to Stygian. "Do you smell her lie?"

Liza stared up at her mate, watching as confusion flashed across his face.

He inhaled slowly then narrowed his gaze on her and inhaled again. "All I smell is her truth. She's never seen him."

"But her subconscious knows she has," Jo- nas all but whispered. "That's my gift, Stygi- an. You and your mate now know what no one but my own mate has been given the 834/862.

secret of. Even the scientists who knew died by my hand. I don't give a d.a.m.n what you believe. I can sense, and even smell, what only your subconscious knows."

Liza shook her head. "I have a photograph- ic memory stronger than you can even real- ize," she informed him, her voice scratchy, so hoa.r.s.e from her tears she didn't sound human herself. "I would know if I had seen him."

"Only if your subconscious wants you to know," he stated deliberately. "And the ad- ded complication of your Breed genetics makes that part of you much stronger.

Stronger even than that extraordinary memory of yours."

Shock had Stygian tightening his arms around her when Liza would have jerked away from him.

"He's crazy," she cried out. "I'm no Breed."

Stygian shook his head, staring down at her as though he were only just realizing it.

835/862.

"That's why the mating heat was so different.

It's the reason why your ability to fight is so extraordinary. And why your scent took me aback as I rushed into the room. Breed genetics."

She was shaking her head as he spoke. "It's not possible," she whispered numbly.

"It's not only possible, it's a fact," Jonas a.s.sured her. "Now, we just have to figure out how to use it to keep Honor Roberts hidden until we can find the others." His gaze flashed dangerously then. "I know who Fawn is, Liza. I know Claire Martinez is the girl that escaped those labs with you, but I must know any weakness she has, as well as her strengths. If we're going to save her and Gideon, then I have to know who and what I'm facing. And I have to know where I can find Judd."

Liza felt numb inside. Everything she had believed weeks before was a lie. The life she had lived, the parents she cherished, the 836/862.

friends she thought she had grown up with.