Seduced by the Storm (43 page)

The
first man sighed. "Ryan, this is only going to hurt for a minute. But it’s
going to hurt a lot."

The
agony began instantly, like his head was being run beneath a steamroller. Pain
overwhelmed him so he couldn’t even scream. But inside his mind he did scream,
because these fucks weren’t going to erase the one memory that seemed to be
important. So over and over, he silently screamed, praying this one thing would
stick.

Coco…Coco…Coco…

MARLENA
HEARD DEVLIN speaking with Creed for the first time since the ghost-whispering
operative had left the compound after Oz’s death.

"We
have to talk when you get back here, Creed—after you collect Wyatt. We have to
talk about Oz." The pain in her boss’s voice was evident; it coursed through
her in much the same way it did Devlin. She’d been with him long enough so that
the transference of feelings was unavoidable—and destined.

She’d
been destined to love men who didn’t love her back. Like a fractured fairy
tale, she’d been cursed from birth by a jealous sister who had wanted to remain
an only child, but Marlena found that linking herself to one man—Devlin
O’Malley—helped to ease some of the pain.

He’d
never made her feel unloved, despite the fact that his heart would always
remain with another. And in return, she showered him with all the comfort and
affection he would accept.

Some
days, he’d allow more than others. Today, when her hands moved on his shoulders
to massage, she knew he would allow anything she wanted to give to him.

"That’s
nice," Dev murmured, closing his eyes and leaning forward, elbows on his
desk so she could have access to his muscular back. As she kneaded out the
familiar tensions in his neck and shoulders, she noted the newfound strength
there—he’d been training, long and hard during that time when he’d had to be
sheltered from ACRO’s day-to-day activities. It had been a long four months
that she hadn’t been allowed access to him, and she’d been as scared for
herself as she had been for him.

She
was a beautiful woman—there was no use denying it. So much so that she’d been
sought out by ACRO after they’d seen some of her modeling photos in a fashion
magazine. The original position they’d interviewed her for was that of a
Seducer—a job so powerful, so important, she’d almost taken it. She’d always
been a sensual woman, had always enjoyed and understood that sex was nothing
more than a power play, whether it was for love or money or something else
entirely. She’d figured that the job would allow her to cut off her feelings, to
stop herself from falling in love and to learn how to treat men and sex as
merely jobs.

But
that wouldn’t have worked—she didn’t have special powers, and she would’ve
fallen in love with every single man she taught if she’d taken a position as a
Seducer trainer. It would have been unbearable, and when she turned down the
job, Devlin himself had come to her hotel room, right before she’d prepared to
leave the Catskills.

He
was the only man in her life—the only person outside of her family who knew her
story.

Her
sister had been killed in a car accident, effectively ending all but a tiny
spark of hope there was of reversing the curse. According to ACRO, when the
person who placed the curse crossed over, the curse gained strength and could almost
never be broken. And so far, no one at ACRO had been able to help her. But Dev
had promised her forever, and he would never go back on his word.

She
was safe here. And Devlin was safe with her, would never lose his heart to her,
and therefore could, in effect, ultimately give himself to her sexually, guilt
free.

She
also knew that, if what Oz said was true, Dev would find another love, that her
time with him would be limited.

But
what about her? It would have to be someone far away from ACRO, a man who
didn’t know she’d been sleeping with her boss for years—filling a required role
for his body in return for emotional protection.

What
kind of man would want her for anything more than sex, knowing all of that?

"I’m
not letting you go, Marlena," Dev told her, and she shook her head,
because she’d gotten so comfortable around Dev that she’d forgotten he could
read minds.

"I
can’t stay with you forever, Dev."

"I
hate it that I have to be the one who hurts you—but I won’t let the rest of the
world do that," he said.

"You
can’t take the weight of the world on your shoulders. Oz always used to tell
you that, and he was right," she told him, and he smiled. She was really
the only one he’d talked to about Oz.

"Maybe
someday they’ll be able to reverse the curse."

"Maybe."
She smoothed a hand over his cheek. "Let me help you, Dev. Please. You
know how happy that makes me."

She’d
already begun to work the buttons on the black BDU shirt all the operatives
wore, pulled it off his shoulders and suckled the sweet-tasting skin behind his
ear, which made him jump with anticipation.

Yes,
she knew every single part of Devlin’s body—knew how to play him so he could
forget everything else, even if it was for just moments at a time.

"FAITH?
FAITH BLACK?"

Christ.
Faith hadn’t been sitting in the private park outside the mental hospital for
more than ten minutes. She’d expected to have at least an hour before MI6 came
for her.

As
expected, she’d landed in a pot of boiling hot water when she arrived back at
TAG. After being royally chewed out by Paula, she’d taken a relaxing shower and
a walk, needing some time to herself before she was hauled before the MI6’s
Special Agent section chief for punishment.

It
hadn’t been enough time, and she was grumpy. She didn’t even look at the speaker.
"Who wants to know?"

"A
friend of Wyatt Kennedy’s."

Wrenching
her head around so fast she tweaked a muscle, Faith looked up into the icy blue
eyes of an extraordinarily beautiful blonde, who smiled the most evil smile
she’d ever seen.

"Confirmation
enough." The blonde planted her booted foot in Faith’s face.

Faith
dumped off the park bench, rolled, came to her feet and ignored the blood
pouring from her nose. It was a little harder to ignore the painful throbbing.
"You bitch."

"Oh,
dear." Sarcasm dripped from the blonde’s voice. "You hurt me."
She attacked with a series of amazing moves Faith barely blocked. "And my
name is Annika. But bitch always applies."

Yeah,
Annika had that right. "Look at you," Faith drawled. "You have
quite the pair, yeah?"

"Yeah."
Annika bared her teeth. "A big, steel set."

Faith
went on the offensive, landing some light blows but never doing damage. The
tight leather skirt she was wearing didn’t help much, and Annika moved like
she’d bloody invented hand-to-hand combat. Even so, Faith held her own,
blocking most of the other woman’s attacks.

"You’re
good," Annika said. "But I’m not really trying all that hard. And I
have a secret."

Faith
snorted, circling the other woman. "Don’t bore me with a weapon. I’ll have
you disarmed before you can blink."

"Please."
Annika rolled her eyes. "If I’m close enough to use something as lame as a
pistol or knife, I’m close enough to use this." She lunged, closed her
fingers on Faith’s forearm and suddenly, the world exploded into a million colors.

Well,
if that wasn’t a huge blow to the ego.

Mercifully,
the world went black.

CREED
ACTUALLY breathed a huge sigh of relief when Wyatt fell asleep on the jet. For
the first hours of the flight, Wyatt paced back and forth like a wild man,
muttering to himself, and with his out-of-whack emotions he’d made it hard as
hell for the pilot to remain in control of the aircraft.

He
wondered if Wyatt knew his powers had gotten stronger, mutated like a strange,
wonderful gift he’d recently unwrapped and was still figuring out how to use.

Creed’s
friend and fellow operative had been sitting outside a Yorkshire inn, on a
boulder, staring straight up at the sky, when Creed and Annika had gone to
collect him.

From
what Dev had told him in the brief call where unspoken words about Oz hung
heavily across the line, Wyatt had gotten himself into some trouble with a
female operative from the mysterious third agency ACRO had been attempting to
get information about. And when Creed saw the condition Wyatt was in, he was
more than glad that he’d sent Annika to collect Faith.

And
when the call came in from Annika to let him know that she and Faith were on a
second ACRO jet heading for headquarters, Wyatt woke up again and uttered a
deep sigh.

"You
want to talk about it?" Creed asked.

Wyatt
pulled his lanky frame to a sitting position. "I…uh…" He sighed again
and hung his head. "I’m just a little beat up inside right now. I’ve got a
lot going on."

"Annika’s
found Faith."

"I’m
sure that went well," Wyatt commented with a wry smile.

"Dev
needs to meet with her—figure out where her loyalties lie." Creed spoke
quietly, and Wyatt let out a snort.

"Good
luck with that."

"She
hurt you."

"She
betrayed me. Big difference." Wyatt stared out the window for a second
before his dark eyes met Creed’s. "She kicked my ass."

"I
know all about that."

"I
guess you do."

"You
love this woman?" Creed couldn’t help but ask.

Wyatt
nodded. "I’m hoping that feeling goes away sometime soon. I’d even take a
mind scrub to help me out."

Unfortunately,
they both knew that those only took away memory, not emotion.

"Can
we talk about something else?" Wyatt asked. "Anything. Tell me what’s
going on at home."

It
was Creed’s turn to sigh, as he began to tell Wyatt about Oz.

Erreur!
Signet non défini.

ANNIKA
WATCHED with detached interest as Faith stirred, jostled into consciousness
when the jet began its descent through hurricane remnants on its way toward the
ACRO airfield. Annika had shocked the shit out of Faith to knock her out, but
the sedatives she’d injected her with later had kept her nice and quiet. The
anti-psychic drugs would keep her from trying anything stupid. The biokinesis
wouldn’t work on Annika, but she didn’t want to take any chances with other
ACRO staff once she and Faith were on the ground.

Now
Faith stretched, gave Annika a cool stare as she sat up straight after having
been slumped in her seat and leaning against the window.

"You
drool in your sleep," Annika said. "I’ll bet Wyatt just loved
that."

Faith
shoved her dark hair back from her face. "There’s no filter between your
thoughts and your mouth, is there?"

Annika
ignored her, snagged a cola from the fridge next to her. "Thirsty? Mouth
taste like an electrical burn?"

"That’s
one hell of a gift you’ve got there," Faith said, as she reached for the
offered drink.

"It’s
cool, huh? Gotta love evolution."

That
was how some ACRO scientists explained most of the nonpsychic, physical gifts
operatives had: a sort of evolutionary process that was bringing humans more in
step with the animal world. Annika’s own gift put her in line with electric
eels and some species of fish. How the theory fit in with the apocalyptic
prophecies Dev and Creed had been talking about didn’t matter. Personally, she
didn’t give a shit about the science behind her abilities. Sure, the whole
not-being-able-to-have-sex thing had been a drag, but now that she had Creed,
she wouldn’t give up her gift for anything.

Grinning,
Annika popped the tab on her Diet Coke. "It also gives me this nifty
impenetrable barrier against telekinetic attacks, so don’t try anything."

"Is
that why I’m not restrained?"

"You’re
not restrained because Dev thinks you deserve respect, being the head of a
friendly agency and all that crap."

Faith
rested a booted foot on the seat across from her. Goth boots with metal hoops
and chains. Awful. On the other hand, they’d been packed with razor-thin, sharp
blades, a micro-gun, and even tiny, drugged darts. Annika had removed all
weapons while Faith slept, and not without a dash of admiration.