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ISBN: 978-1-935192-88-6
THEY all knew, really, before it even started. Liaison knew he was
destined to be killed by the weak little man who knew, in a dark place in
the back of his mind, that he was destined to be punished for his crimes.
Epsilon and Leander knew they would be bonded together through pain
and hate, through trust and respect as friends and partners and then
ripped apart and glued, unevenly and imperfectly, back together, stronger
and yet weaker than ever. Madison and Alex knew, at the start, that they
would find each other and hate each other, find each other and love each
other. And Wolf and Mercedes knew, somewhere, somehow, months
before it began, that their team would be rocked to its core.
Even knowing, they took their places on stage and prepared for what
was to come. Because they also knew, although not one of them would
admit it, that they had to. They were meant to. This was destiny, and this
would change everything.
HEIGHT: 5′8″
WEIGHT: 140 LBS.
HAIR: STRAWBERRY-BLOND
EARS: YES
TAIL: YES
Mourning Doves 3
FUR: NO
EYES: GREEN
SCARS: BACk, CHEST, LEFT SHOULDER, AND RIGHT LEG
TATTOOS: A DRAGON ENCOMPASSING ENTIRE BODY
PIERCINGS: LEFT EAR, FOUR; RIGHT EAR, ONE
OTHER MARkS: N/A
NOTES: LEANDER WAS BROUGHT INTO TASK AT FIFTEEN WHEN HE STOLE
INFORMATION FROM THE TASK SYSTEM. TALENT DULY NOTED, HE WAS
DRAFTED INTO THE TEAM AS A SkILLED CON ARTIST AND HACkER.
SOFT beeping coaxed him, urged him awake, and pain followed swiftly.
The pain was muted and dull, and he knew through long experience that
he was feeling it through painkillers. He blinked awake, taking stock of
where he was. Hospital, obviously, lying on a bed with tubes in him and
monitors attached. Familiar situation, he thought wryly, lips twitching.
He came more alert slowly, and his smile grew when he saw
Madison by his bed, long legs crossed at the knee, a book in her hands.
She sat by the window, her red curls spilling down her back, in a T-shirt
and jeans. Not her typical wardrobe. She glanced up and lowered the
book when he moved. “Leander?” she asked, and he marveled at the tone
in her voice. Concern.
“Hey, Maddi,” he drawled, and his voice rasped from his throat in a
croak that startled him. “Slummin’ today?”
“Madison,” she corrected, but did she look awfully near tears? “And
I’ve been ‘slummin’’ for the past week.”
“You—what?” He blinked, trying to find what he’d missed in the
conversation.
“A week. That’s how long you’ve been out,” she said. “They said if
you weren’t Kin, you’d be in a coma or—” She stopped, cleared her
throat gently. “You’re supposed to be trained in how to fight these
things, Leander. What do you think you get paid for?”
He chuckled hoarsely and winced. His ribs felt like they’d been
crushed. “Is Epsilon… is he okay?”
Madison grimaced a little. “You know the man. We can’t find him,”
she admitted.
“You can’t find him?”
Madison scowled. “Don’t give me that incredulous tone, Leander.
You know him.”
Leander’s lips thinned, and he fought back a growl. He did, and
therefore he couldn’t really be pissed at anyone for their inability to
locate Epsilon. When the man was hurt, particular when it was bad, he
went to ground, and when he did that, you had to be a damned hound
Mourning Doves 17
dog to get to him. Or a Fox.
But Leander had been down for the count, and no one else knew his
partner well enough to know where he’d go to lick his wounds and try to
heal.
“He could be dead right now!” he protested, despite his
understanding, trying to push up. Madison moved fast, pressing him
back down with a no-nonsense hand on his chest.
“I doubt that very much,” she said. “And you do too.”
Stupid, stubborn man…. Leander did growl this time, a soft,
rumbling snarl. “How did you find us?”
“Epsilon.” She said on a weary sigh. “After he killed that Bearr, he
called. He told us you were down and critical and that he’d done what he
could to stabilize you. He gave us your address and told us to bring a
cleanup crew.”
“How did he sound?”
“Excuse me?”
“How did he sound, Madison? And don’t lie to me.”
She paused and then shut her eyes. “Exhausted,” she said at last.
“Hurting and exhausted. We tried to keep him there, but he hung up.”
“I have t’ get him.”
“You can’t go anywhere,” she snapped, eyes hard and fixed on him.
“Leander, you just came back around after getting the shit kicked out of
you.”
“I’m okay. I’m Kin. We heal fast.”
“Epsilon is Kin too.”
“Damn it, Madison, it’s not the same!”
“You’re right; it’s not. But I’m not going to have two of my boys
hurt and missing out there.” A new voice drawled, a familiar one laced
with a rich Southern accent and gently deep. Leander pushed up again,
this time managing to shove Madison off him. Hurt or not, being Kin he
could still outdo a little human female without trying.
18 Angela Romano
Wolf Addison stood in the doorway of the hospital room, leaning on
the frame. His auburn hair was tied back in a loose tail, his green eyes
half-lidded. The man was young, too young for his station, most would
say, at twenty-nine years old. But Leander saw his age in his eyes, in the
weariness of them. He looked like a man who had fought too long and
too hard, seen too much too soon. Sometimes he looked so heart-
wrenchingly sad it took Leander’s breath away. He was Leander’s
superior and the head of TASK. The man behind the desk, though that
was certainly not all, he was a spokesperson, a pretty face, a leader, a
researcher, and he could kick serious ass if you threw him into a situation
where he needed to.
Wolf often said, with a lopsided, dimpled grin that made girls swoon,
that he would never ask his agents to do something he hadn’t. So don’t
bitch at me, he’d say, because I’ve already bitched at someone else, and
it didn’t change a thing.
Wolf’s grin wasn’t in place today. He was smiling to see Leander
awake, but it was a tired little smile.
“Your dimples are drooping,” Leander said, and Madison gave a
decidedly un-British, unladylike snort of amused surprise.
Wolf’s eyes darted from one to the other, and he pushed off the
frame. “Well, our resident wiseass is clearly fine,” he drawled and
accidentally “bumped” Leander passing by the bed. Pain flared, and
Leander hissed a string of curses that made Madison flush and cough
softly.
“Leander Kale.”
“He did that on—”
“Leander, there is a lady present.”
“Where?” he quipped, and this time Wolf didn’t even pretend it was
an accident.
“Ow! Son of a bitch, Wolf!”
Madison was laughing quietly, and the sound was relieved,
somehow. He had a feeling she hadn’t laughed much recently.
“Glad to have you back,” Wolf said, leaning now against the wall
Mourning Doves 19
and regarding Leander. His eyes were a mild, rich green, deep and dark.
Pretty, exotic eyes, yet another feature women loved about him. Leander
would give the man that. His eyes were lovely. Madison complained, all
the time, that hers were not the true color of his, but a softer shade, closer
to hazel.
Pretty eyes, yes, but not the right kind of pretty. Not at all like
Epsilon’s eyes, which were the exact opposite of his tempered, almost
non-personality. His eyes were a jumping, electric, vivid, screaming
blue, almost white they were so light, a shade Leander had never seen
before. Leander wanted those too-blue eyes to be looking at him now,
not Wolf’s somber, leopard-in-a-forest eyes.
But one thing was exactly the same: Wolf had Epsilon’s unnerving,
unflappable stare. And it was trained on Leander now.
“Where would he go?”
“To ground. I don’t know, Wolf. I’d have to go home and start
tracking from there.”
“He has to have some places he would automatically head for.”
Leander shook his head. “You’re thinking of the den instinct, and
that’s smart; we all have it, yeah. When in danger, run for the burrow.
Hell, I did it. But the hounds found the den, and he’s not going to lead
them straight to another one. And he ain’t a normal Kin either. He’s a—”
The leader of TASK cut him off. “I’m aware of what he is.”
“I’m the only one that can find him,” Leander said, already fighting
to get off the bed and untangle himself. Then he stopped and looked over
at Wolf.
“Why was a Bearr there, anyway?”
“You know what case you just took, Leander.”
“Oh bull fucking shit. No way did the Hunters know we were after
’em so fast.”
Wolf looked down, and Leander got a sick feeling.
“Wolf?” Leander sat up, eyes searching his young leader’s face. He
already knew what had happened. He wanted to be wrong.
20 Angela Romano
The Southerner’s eyes flicked down. “We think there might be
someone taking bribes in TASK,” he said flatly, getting right down to it.
“And it’s much bigger than telling Hunters we’re after them.”
“Bigger?” Leander yelped as he yanked a tube from his wrist, ears
laying flat. Madison sighed in annoyance and came over to help.
Wolf looked up again, eyes mild. “Don’t ask, Leander. I can’t tell
you right now.”
“You can’t tell me? I’m lyin’ in a hospital bed—not the first one, I
know, but all the same—and my partner and friend is missing, possibly
dying, and you… damn it, Wolf!”
“If I could, I would!” Wolf barked, eyes flashing. “If I could,
Leander, I’d have gotten the son of a bitch already.” He stopped, eyes
closing.
Leander paused too, ears flicking upright. “I’m sorry,” he said
quietly, both lying flat back against his skull once more. Madison
coughed softly, pushing up off the bed.
“Leander, lay back down,” she said mildly, her eyes accepting no
argument, her voice hard. “You can go and find him when you’ve at
least rested some.”
“How much is ‘some’?” he asked, startled at how gruff and harsh his
own voice sounded. It happened, sometimes, when he was emotional or
hurt. A low, lilting growl entered his voice without his full permission.
Both Madison and Wolf were long since used to hearing it, though, and
neither flinched.
“At least a few hours,” Madison said, her tone never changing from
its take-no-bullshit manner. “You just woke up.”
Leander growled, but Madison raised a brow and Wolf started to
chuckle in a soft, coughing way that said he was smothering it.
“Down, puppy,” Madison drawled, and she reached out to stroke
behind his ears once more. He wanted to beat her away, but her touch
was too pleasant, and he closed his eyes. She smiled, which he couldn’t
see, and winked at Wolf.
Wolf chuckled softly, eyes dancing. One sure way to calm the man
Mourning Doves 21
down was to pet his ears and know exactly how to do it. Madison was
one of the few with that knowledge.
Wolf jerked his head toward the door, and Madison followed after a
moment, leaving Leander peacefully napping, recovering.
Outside in the hall, Wolf was fumbling in his pockets with shaking
hands.
“No smoking in the hospital,” she said mildly, and his sharp green
eyes landed on her, narrowed.
“I know that, Madison,” he growled, his accent thicker, rich as
cream.
“If it upsets you that much, just tell him,” she murmured, her own
accent demure and mild in comparison.
“You know I can’t. I can’t do that, Madison.”
Madison went quiet, closing her eyes. “Do you really think Epsilon
would do something like this, Wolf?”
“No,” Wolf said, voice a bare breath. “Does it matter what I think?”
Madison’s eyes opened a crack. “As the head of TASK, I would hope
it does.”
“Bullshit,” he snarled.
Madison sighed. “If you need a cigarette that badly, we can talk
outside.”
“It’s not just the cigarette, and you know it.” He gave up with a grunt
and dropped to the floor. She moved quietly, crouching in front to push
back his hair.
“I know,” she murmured. “Epsilon’s been with us a long time,
Wolf.”
“I already told you I don’t think he’s the one.” Wolf straightened
against the wall, sighing.
“Then say that, Wolf.”
“I have! A hundred times, every fucking meeting we’ve had!”
22 Angela Romano
She sighed, running a hand over her eyes. “You need to relax.”
“I need a fucking smoke.” He groaned and then jumped as his cell
phone started to buzz. He was on his feet in an instant.
“Addison,” he said, voice crisp and alert again, no longer ragged or
on the edge of breaking. “I can’t—” He waved a hand at her in apology
and dismissal and moved outside.
Madison rose as well, concern and worry on her pretty face. Then she
masked it with ease and went back into Leander’s room, to sit and wait,
and to lie and pretend.
WOLF was only in his late twenties, but sometimes he felt much older.
Times like now, when his head throbbed so badly he could barely see
and hadn’t eaten properly in nearly two days. He was pushed past
exhausted, well beyond the point of anger. He felt numb and detached,
an odd floating sensation. He knew if he stood up, there was a very good
chance he’d pitch right over again.
His phone was ringing. Bleary-eyed, he lifted his head, finger finding
the speaker button. “Addison here,” he said, trying to sound as he should.
“Addison, this is Mercedes Knight,” said a familiar, and by this time
dreaded, voice. “I’m calling—”
“I know why you’re calling,” Wolf managed. “Mercedes, I already
have people looking into the attack on Leander, and they can find no
proof that Epsilon had anything to do with—”
“But what about the proof pointing directly at him regarding that
incident right before Leander came aboard?”
“That was the entire reason he was paired with Leander in the first
place, and if I recall, you originally put the blame on Leander.”
“At the time, Leander wasn’t—”
“Oh, bullshit. You don’t trust him now any more than you did.”
“That language isn’t necessary.”
“That language is completely necessary. It’s four a.m., I haven’t
Mourning Doves 27
eaten anything except for snack and junk food for over two days, I have
a migraine I can’t do shit about, and this is the dozenth time I’ve had to
defend not one but two of my best agents from people who know almost
nothing about TASK or Kin. Agents, I might add, who I have been
forced to defend at every turn, every time anything goes wrong.” His
outburst was not loud—Wolf was never loud—but more vehement than
he’d meant for it to come out.
The man on the other end was silent for a moment. “You’re right,”
he said at last, softly, and he sounded genuinely affectionate and
apologetic. “You’re right, Wolf. It’s not fair of me to push you like this.
Look: go home, get some rest. Eat. I’ll hold the suits off as long as I
can.”
Wolf sighed, running a hand through his hair, his eyes closed. “I
can’t. Look, we can’t do this over the phone, Mercedes—”
“Some FBI officials want to have a chat with you, but like I said, I
can hold them—”
“When?”
“Wolf, you—”
“Damn it, Mercedes, just tell me when I have to be there.”
Long pause. “A week.”
“You’re lying.”
“How do you know? Maybe I pushed it back a few days, maybe not.
You can’t deal with this logically or intelligently on no sleep and no
food. I may be a bloodthirsty son of a bitch, but you’re my friend, like it
or not, Wolf.”
Wolf groaned and closed his eyes, never able to stay angry at
Mercedes, even when he should be.
“Wolf?”
“I’m all right,” he said, running a hand over his face. “One week.”
“Good,” Mercedes replied, and Wolf could hear the other man sigh.
“Get Madison to drive you home.”
“I can drive myself.”
28 Angela Romano
“Wolf, you said it yourself. You’re past exhausted. I’d feel better if
you just got someone to pick you up.”
Wolf growled something unflattering under his breath, but Mercedes,
well used to being called worse and much less affectionately, ignored it.
“Apparently, you’re grumpy as well.”
“Fuck you.”
Mercedes laughed and hung up the phone. Wolf hung up his end and
then put his head back down on the desk. Mercedes wasn’t a bad guy, a
skilled go-between for TASK and other law-enforcement agencies and a
natural born mother hen; he was actually someone Wolf considered a
good friend and trustworthy companion. But Mercedes had difficulty
trusting Leander because of his background and Epsilon just because.
Wolf couldn’t entirely blame him on that one; Epsilon never made any
attempt to seem approachable or companionable.
He sighed and rose at last, and, sure enough, the world tipped, and he
staggered into the edge of his desk. He swore vividly, hand going to
protectively cradle his now-wounded leg, and the pain was just the
excuse his body needed. He lurched convulsively and heaved into the
trash can by his desk, bringing up almost nothing. His body continued to
bow and quiver with the force of his gagging despite the fact that there
was nothing to bring up, retching four, five times helplessly before he
fell back panting.
Maybe he did need that ride. He forced himself up again—it took a
couple tries—and made his way to Madison’s office down the hall. He
nearly passed it, focused as he was on simply making it to her office. Her
hand on his shoulder was the only way he knew he’d gotten close.
“Wolf? Problem?” she asked, moving around and cupping his face
with a hand. Her brow furrowed and nose wrinkled. “You’ve been sick
in there; I can damn well smell it. That’s it. You’re going home.”
“Mercedes asked you to take me,” he murmured. “Doesn’t think I
can drive.”
“That would be because you can’t,” she drawled, amusement
flickering over her expression. “I’m amazed you can walk. The strongest
thing I’ve got on me is Tylenol. I’d think you’d know better than to leave
Mourning Doves 29
stronger medication at home.”
“I can’t take it here; it knocks me out,” he replied, not liking the
slurred tone of his own voice. He needed to sit.
“Well.” She huffed. “Let me get my things and I’ll take you.
Anything new on the Epsilon front?”
“The FBI wants to talk in a week,” he replied. “But other than that,
no.”
“But I thought the evidence didn’t point at Epsilon for the Bearr
attack.”
“Of course it didn’t,” he snarled, and then he flinched. “Sorry. No
evidence points at Epsilon for this particular situation, but they’re using
the questionable points that aimed right at him when the whole situation
with Leander came up.”
“They’re blaming him for that?”
“They’re blaming whoever they can for that, and sadly, those two are
the easiest targets.”
Wolf put his hands on his arms, his eyes closed. Madison’s face
pinched, and she puffed out her cheeks. “Hang in there, Wolf.”
He nodded once, but said nothing, and by the time she’d gotten him
out, he’d been ill in her trash can too. She’d rubbed his back and held his
hair for him.
She got him home without incident, helping him out of the car and
into bed. His medication was tucked safely away, but he managed to tell
her where to find it, and she dosed him. Then she checked his messages:
over ten, most from the media and the brats in other agencies, just
waiting for an opportunity to bring TASK down. But there were a couple
from Leander and Epsilon, thanking him for the pickup last week and
wanting to know if he wanted to get a drink or just come over for dinner.
That was Leander all over. He could befriend a rock. Madison knew if
Wolf was feeling better, he’d have accepted, tired or not.
Grinning, she noted the messages and was making some hot tea for
herself—she wasn’t planning on leaving Wolf alone in his state—when
the machine blinked another two messages.
30 Angela Romano
Weird. The phone hadn’t rung.
Frowning, she hit the button to play them and jumped back when
loud static assaulted her ears. She quickly turned the volume down on
the machine and was abruptly aware of a voice in that mess. She
replayed it and leaned close, listening hard.
Stay away, she realized the voice was saying, and her pulse raced.
Stop looking.
The message ended as quickly as it’d started.
The second was more of the same. Less static, but the voice was
oddly distorted, as if someone were using a gimmick to disguise it.
Probably are.
She saved both and then bit her lower lip. No one but Wolf really had
any reason to know about this, did they? Really?
No. No, they did not. Smiling in a content way, she went and made
her tea.
IT’S cold.
There’s fire, so he should be burning, but instead he’s freezing. He
can feel the flames licking at his skin, but they don’t hurt. They seem to
caress him instead. But he knows he should be afraid. Not for himself,
though.
He walks forward calmly, watching the fire dance around him to a
rhythm he can’t hear.
Then the boy stands before him. He is almost red-haired, not quite,
and his eyes are a very light green, holding laughter and age. He is
small, both around and up and down, and dark-skinned, thoroughly
tanned. Ears extend from his long hair, furry fox ears that are currently
pricked and twitching around to catch every sound. A tail wraps around
his legs, the end swinging in irritation.
He watches the boy, watches those green eyes focus on a spot past
his shoulder.
Mourning Doves 31
He turns to see what this figure is looking at and gasps.
Another man is there, tied to a stake like an old-fashioned witch
burning. His head is down, resigned or exhausted, and his blue-black
hair hangs limply around his face. He’s tall, much taller than either
observer. He’s not tan, but his skin is naturally darker. Scars rip across
his skin. He lifts his head when both sets of eyes land on him, and opens
his own, revealing a startling white-blue color. Those eyes are
expressionless. The fire around them seems to avoid them, the fire only
reaching out to caress shyly, but with this tied-up figure, they lunge and
leap, eagerly trying to burn, to destroy. Sweat plasters his hair down,
glistens on his face.
“You know,” the boy behind him murmurs, and he spins back around
to look into those pale green eyes. “You know.”
He knows better than to expect straight answers by now.
“Do I?” he asks, and the figure nods, jerking his head to the left in a
“look” motion. So he looks and physically takes a step back.
A figure in the fire, also untouched. Cruel, hard eyes set in a pale
face, stringy graying blond hair. Tall, like the figure at the stake, taller
than or of a height to him, at least.
Familiar. So familiar.
The man with the eyes, hazel eyes, hazel made darker with madness
and meanness, steps forward. He reaches out, and the boy behind him
cries out sharply. Around them, the fire suddenly roars like an angry
beast, and it’s not cold anymore. He feels the heat suddenly, knows he
has to get away. The fire closes between the man and himself, and he
hears the snarl of rage. The boy that was behind him suddenly grabs
him. His touch isn’t felt.
“You know!” he repeats, desperate and hard. “You know!”
And he does. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he does.
The boy is crying.
The fire rages around them, keeping the figure at bay, at the same
time killing the raven-haired male somewhere behind them.
“Who are you two?” he asks, feeling the fire start to lick at his
32 Angela Romano
ankles. “Where?”
The boy is still crying.
“Where, damn it, where are you? I have to know where you are to
help!”
The boy opens his mouth.
“The fox in the wolf’s den,” he says, and his voice is already fading.
“The wolf and fox.”
Should have known better than to demand a straight fucking answer.
“ANY luck?”
Epsilon’s voice jerked Leander out of his work, making his ears pin
flat. He turned the swivel chair, watching his partner take a seat
backward in another chair. He sighed. “I found where our Hunter’s lover
is hiding out, and ’pparently there was a tracker on the Bearr,” he said,
choosing his words carefully. Wolf had said not to tell Epsilon about the
suspected mole. No one should know. It felt strange, keeping this
important bit of information from his partner, but Wolf had promised to
rip his ears off if he so much as hinted to Epsilon what was going on.
Yeah, that made Leander’s hackles go up. But whatever.
“A tracker?” Epsilon echoed, eyebrows arched.
“Mm. But evidence says it weren’t the lover that put it on the Bearr.
Our tests confirm it was a male.”
“I still say we find the girl and have a talk.”
“Already planned on it.” Leander smirked. “I’ve got her address and
contacted her by phone.”
Epsilon nodded. “That all?”
“For now? Yeah, ’cept for what’s in the files.” He motioned. “And
that’s mostly all personal info on th’ girl and shit.” He shrugged.
“Background info that’s sorta helpful,” he added. “But that’s pretty much
it.”
Mourning Doves 33
“Two weeks and that’s all you come up with?”
“You’ve been lying in a hospital, Epsilon, not very much help.”
Epsilon snorted. “Call the girl, Leander.”
“You want to go today?”
“Now.”
“Now? Epsilon—”
“Call her.” Epsilon rose, swinging off the chair. “And get your
things. No changing unless you have to. It’s a last-minute resort. I will
cut off your ears.”
“I know, I know,” Leander retorted, sticking his tongue out. People
kept threatening his poor ears. He rubbed said ears unconsciously and
made a face. But Epsilon was already moving upstairs and was
oblivious. Leander snarled, growling under his breath. He grabbed the
phone and punched in her phone number.
“What if she’s not home?”
“Then she gets a surprise!”
“Typical,” Leander muttered as the phone was finally picked up.
“Hello?” The now-familiar, soft voice was on the other end of the
line.
“Hello, Alex, this is Leander Kale from TASK.”
“I remember.” The smile was evident in her young voice. She’d liked
him, but then, Leander was likable.
“I called about a week ago. My partner was down for the count in the
hospital, and we couldn’t really get together.”
“I remember that too.” She sounded vaguely amused. “I’m assuming
your partner is up and on his feet again.”
“Yeah, actually, and he wants to speak with you now that he’s up and
around.”
“It’s only been a week.”
He sighed into the phone. “I’m aware.”
34 Angela Romano
“How did your partner get out of the hospital in a week?”
Leander gnawed his lower lip softly and tried not to groan. “He heals
very well.”
She was quiet for a long time. Then she laughed, a low, smoky sound
that sent shivers up his spine. A pleasant laugh, indeed.
“I have no problem with Kin, Mr. Kale.”
He flinched. “It’s Leander.”
“I have no problem with Kin, Leander.”
Well, that’s good to know before you set eyes on me.
“He’s a little more than just simple—”
“He’s a Gene Baby? That’s fine too, you know. Look, I called an
agency dealing with… people that aren’t exactly normal… and I
expected to get someone a little less than normal themselves. Or more,
depending on how you look at it. Isn’t that a quote from something?”
Leander laughed, watching Epsilon trot back down the stairs. “Glad
to hear it,” he said. “We’ll be at your house in an hour or so. Let us grab
some breakfast first. Probably the golden arches, actually. Not
Piccadilly’s, but there it is. Want somethin’?”
“Sure,” she replied, and he could hear her smirk in her voice. “I’ll
pay you back.”
“Don’t worry ’bout it,” he said, waving off Epsilon’s growling
irritation. “We’re on our way.”
He hung up and grabbed a backpack from the floor. Inside, he stuffed
a first aid kit, water bottles, a cell phone, and a small switchblade that
was neatly hidden in the thing’s lining. He set it on the table and grabbed
his jacket, a punk thing that was red with black and white patches, a very
long vee collar that attached, via several chains, to a choker. One sleeve
was detachable, also held on with chains, and the other was split up one
side. It cut to the knees in front and down to the ankles in back, an eye-
catching spectacle that Epsilon often scorned. He attached a holster to his
forearm and slipped the little derringer inside. Much more accurate and
lethal than its Old West predecessors, the tiny .45 was still deadly in
close quarters. A shoulder holster got strapped on too, with his baby
Mourning Doves 35
slipped in, a big, ugly gun called the Taurus Raging Bull. The gun was
the weapon Leander had wanted when the Bearr had come after them,
the one he’d not been able to get at. It was a stocky .454 Casull and
nearly jarred even Leander’s teeth to the root every time it was fired, but
it was accurate and had stopping power that was unbelievable. It had
been used to put down animals as big as African elephants.
Epsilon’s weapons were sleek and elegant; Leander’s were big and
blocky. Both were efficient, both were deadly.
He slipped on the combat boots he typically wore and watched as
Epsilon came back into view in his more traditional black trench coat
and more normal-in-appearance boots; his held a nasty little surprise,
though. With a tap of his heel, a blade would jump forward from each.
He knew without having to look that Epsilon also wore a shoulder
holster like his own. It held a gun not much larger than Leander’s own
derringer, a Beretta 21 Bobcat. He knew, too, that a leg holster was
under that long black trench, holding something more along the lines of a
sniper’s rifle. In fact, it was a sniper’s rifle, a VSS Vintorez. Also
beneath the trench, a pair of butterfly swords lurked.
Changing was a last-resort-only kind of thing for moments when
your mini-arsenal didn’t do the job.
Epsilon grabbed the little emergency backpack, tolerating it since
Leander wanted it, and headed out. A moment later, Leander heard the
familiar, powerful roar of the Mafia Car, the sleek black Cadillac he’d
purchased from a junk shop and repaired. Now, he’d found out only
about a year ago, the thing was worth several thousand dollars. That
thing was his baby, though, and he’d never sell. He followed his partner
out, sliding into the passenger’s side. He was barely in before Epsilon
was moving.
“Shit, man, the girl ain’t going anywhere!” he yelped as his poor girl
whined in protest. Epsilon smirked over at him. “We’ve wasted too
much time already. Your car’s not made of porcelain, Leander.”
Leander snarled and lay his ears flat, arms crossing over his chest
and tail lashing, making a soft sound every time it hit the leather of the
seat, his eyes out the window in a glare.
Epsilon let out a low, soft chuckle and turned back to the road… and
36 Angela Romano
then suddenly swore and hit the brakes hard, swerving sharply.
Leander yelped again, crying out in soft pain as the belt caught. Old
wounds, still healing a bit, protested loudly, and beside him he was
aware of Epsilon snarling with pain, doubled over the steering wheel.
“What the fuck, Epsilon?”
“Kid in the fucking road,” he gasped out tightly, throwing open the
door. “We hit….”
“Shit!” Leander climbed out too, alarmed. Epsilon staggered, came
around, and stopped, his nostrils flaring.
Leander smelled it too and sent his partner a look.
Hunter.
“Get back in the car,” Epsilon said, voice low and dangerous. “Get
back in the car now.”
Hunters were not impossible to take on. But they were tough, and if
you tangled with one, you did with others. There had never been a kid. It
was a Hunter disguised as one; not something new. They were fantastic
at using cover and disguise like that.
Leander pinned his ears back, both he and Epsilon scenting the air
without conscious thought as they climbed back into the vehicle. Just as
Leander moved to pull the door shut, the Hunter came up to his window.
It looked, indeed, like a child, but not one who had just gotten hit by
a car. Its eyes were cold and inhuman. It was smiling manically at him,
and when it did, it bared its fangs at him and giggled.
“Drive!” he roared, and Epsilon’s foot slammed into the gas pedal.
Leander’s claws flashed, raked out against the Hunter’s pale, pale skin.
Blood spilled, and it yanked back with a scream of anger that was lost as
the car pulled forward almost violently.
It took off after them, running as fast as the car could move,
effortlessly. Its claws sank into the metal of the car, and Leander hissed.
“Get your damn paws off my girl!” He snapped the wrist holster, leaning
out the window to fire directly into the Hunter’s face.
Hunters were things that had once been people. But they were
Mourning Doves 37
injected with a drug that made them stronger and faster, with better
senses and a lack of pain sense. This one displayed that now, barely
flinching as the rounds cut into its flesh and ripped it away.
It did lose its grip, though, and hit the ground behind the car.
Leander’s ears pricked, and he grinned his victory.
He sat back, putting the gun away. “That thing’s going to be up and
recovered soon.”
“Injured it can’t keep up.”
“It has reinforcements, Epsilon.”
The other Kin grinned suddenly, a dark, humorless expression.
“Afraid of a little Hunter Baby, Leander?” he asked, and it was made all
the worse by that emotionless tone. There was no drawling mockery.
“Oh, shut up, will you?”
They spun around a corner, and Leander reclined back in the seat,
closing his eyes. “We need to grab McDonald’s.”
“We’re being pursued by Hunters, and you want food?”
“We’re not being ‘pursued’; there was one and it’s that way.” He
jerked a thumb behind them.
“‘It has reinforcements’, Leander.”
“Wiseass,” Leander snarled, and Epsilon grinned at him.
The car whipped around the corner, pulling through a side street back
onto the main road.
“Anything still comin’ behind us?”
Leander gathered the gun again, leaning out of the car and scenting.
He was nearly thrown out of the car when Epsilon braked, but he caught
himself abruptly.
“Fuck, Epsilon!”
“Shut up.” Epsilon gritted his teeth. “Are they following us?”
Leander snarled and laid his ears.
“Leander!”
38 Angela Romano
The younger Kin bared his fangs but put his ears back up, eyes
closed as he focused.
“I don’t think so,” he replied. “I can’t smell anything.”
Epsilon nodded. “Then McDonald’s it is.” And now he was drawling.
It was strange to hear in that cold voice. He accelerated again, and once
again Leander was nearly pitched out.
“Will you stop that?” Leander dropped back into his seat, buckling
himself in. “You’re trying to kill me.”
“If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead,” Epsilon reminded, smirking
and slowing to a more moderate speed.
Leander smiled but went silent, looking in the rearview. Doesn’t he
wonder how the Hunters already know we’re after one of their own? He
doesn’t know about the leak, so why isn’t he curious?
He glanced over at the impassive face of his partner, his ears softly
back in his hair and worry on his young face. It was nearly impossible to
read Epsilon. Even Wolf had problems with it. He’d only been Leander’s
partner for roughly a year now, not a very long stretch of time, though
he’d been part of TASK for nearly ten. Leander had been in TASK for
only five years and had been a solo agent four of those, mostly because
so few others could deal with him.
He and Epsilon had just, oddly, clicked. They had been through some
major bullshit together before they were ever partnered, standing
shoulder to shoulder through it all, and Wolf had seen one hell of a
potential team.
Leander’s ears disappeared further into his thick hair. Why doesn’t he
want Epsilon to know? Why me and not him? Why me, when I was the
one who was known to be the lawbreaker? Why can’t he tell the man
who’s been here ten years?
Epsilon brought the car into the parking lot of the mundane, familiar
fast-food chain, pulling the big, beautiful car to a stop as if nothing were
out of the ordinary. And for the first time in five years, Leander was
scared.
Mourning Doves 39
WOLF had to be a name. And there were only so many “Wolf” listings
in the phone book. Not a single one offered him anything to go on. He
wasn’t sure if “Fox” was a name or not, but he couldn’t find listings for
it anyway.
He’d asked the Little One to try and find something out through less
conventional channels. He hadn’t come back yet, and that was to be
expected.
The visions were worse.
Painful.
Normally if he ignored them, the visions eventually went away.
These were getting worse with each passing night, and now sometimes
when he was awake too.
The man, the man who felt so wrong, gnawed at the corner of his
mind.
Liaison had made some bad acquaintances in his life. He knew that,
and he’d done what he could to sever the connection with those people.
But why would he know this man, this man who so clearly
represented a huge threat? Why did he feel so….
Wrong. He gave Liaison chills, and few enough people could do that.
While the Little One checked for leads in person, he tried over the
Internet. His skills as a hacker hadn’t even started to get rusty, and he
Mourning Doves 47
was thankful for that.
The dreams had, at the very least, become slightly more specific. He
was starting to get the idea that the two men in his dream—the man tied
to a stake and the man with the sorrowful eyes—were detectives or
bounty hunters of some kind. Being tied to the stake meant that the
raven-haired man was some kind of scapegoat or martyr. The witch
hunt/witch trials metaphor wasn’t lost on the young man. The fire was a
similar metaphor. The Kin with the pleading eyes may have been his
lover, maybe just partner, but they were close. He always pleaded for the
life of the other man, never for himself. The flames ate at him too, but he
ignored them. He could not get to the tied man; the one in the middle
who gave the young seer chills stopped him. He stopped the seer from
getting any closer too, and he wondered with a shudder what would
happen if he tried to force the issue.
What would happen if he let the man grab him, the way he so clearly
wanted?
BY the time Wolf was able to be up and active again, Madison had long
since taken off. He smiled as he read the little note she’d left him next to
a sandwich and a glass of milk. Typical. She was a conundrum, that
woman, one who would offer you the coldest of glares with a gun
leveled at your skull and kill without hesitation, but who would mother
hen and comfort in the most subtle, even shy, of ways.
He managed half the sandwich; and the milk eased what upset
remained in his stomach. He then checked his messages: one from
Madison herself, telling him not to take any calls and remain in his
house, taking it easy, for the next week. She did say that she knew he’d
go crazy without anything to do, though, and that on his computer were a
few cases for him to page through to try to work on.
He went to the computer and sat down, paging idly through the files.
He had difficulty focusing on the cases, though, with his brain locked on
the situation his two best agents were currently in.
If they didn’t find who was tipping off the Hunters, then Epsilon
48 Angela Romano
would have the blame placed firmly on his shoulders and be pulled off
TASK. And once pulled off TASK, what happened to him? To Leander?
Epsilon was the only partner they’d managed to find that fit Leander.
Epsilon was the only reason why Leander was as sane and put together
as he was. Before Epsilon… before Epsilon, Leander had teetered
dangerously on the edge of insanity.
He remembered finding the young hacker who had broken into
TASK’s systems. A too-thin, jumpy, skinny young Kin who was terrified
of crowds and spent most of his free time huddled in dark corners.
He paged through another file, idly noting in the back of his mind
that the phone’s answering machine had picked up.
Odd. I didn’t hear the phone ring.
He ignored the hair that rose on the back of his neck, reaching for the
milk again.
Static. He paused with the glass halfway to his lips, eyebrow arched.
The phone cut off, and he finished his sip. More likely than not
Leander, with a misbehaving cell phone.
But it came again, twenty minutes later. Static.
Wolf rose and went to the phone, lifting it to his ear. “Addison,” he
said, and he tried to ignore the way he almost didn’t say it. The way he
was almost afraid to give his name.
“Stay away,” said a voice that jolted him, shocked him with how
familiar it was.
“Who—”
“Back off the case,” the voice said, and then the phone clicked, and
Wolf stared at the phone in confused shock.
He knew that voice.
He knew that caller.
Somewhere. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he could put a face
to it, but it was blurry and faint.
His lip was between his lower teeth before he could stop it. He
Mourning Doves 49
quickly let it go, composed himself. Physical displays of insecurity were
not something Wolf allowed himself, not ever. He had to be sure and
confident in every step he took and every decision he made.
Even when he wasn’t.
He put the phone back slowly, deleting the one message there. He sat
back down slowly, trying to put a name to that voice. He knew almost
everyone who was on or had been on the TASK force. He’d headed it for
the majority of his life and had a nearly photographic memory. He
remembered every name and face that had come and gone that he’d ever
met, or at least he believed he did.
And he knew he’d spoken to this person, somewhere, once upon a
time.
The phone rang this time.
He glanced up; let it go to voice mail.
“Addison? C’mon, man, I know you’re home.”
Wolf let his breath out, only just now aware of how tense he’d been.
Leander’s voice. A familiar voice, if nothing else, though it was tense.
Leander’s street drawl was thicker than normal. That happened only
when the Kin was too hurt, exhausted, upset, or angry to keep it as toned
down as it usually stayed.
“Addison. Wolf. Fuckin’ hell, pick up y’r motherfuckin’ phone.”
Wolf jolted out of his thoughts, diving for the receiver and lifting it.
“Leander, sorry. I’m here.”
“Thank fuck, man, it’s about time.”
“What’s up?”
“We got Alex, uh, Alexandria Price, in the car with us. We went t’
get some info from her an’ wound up pulling a pair of Hunters with us.
One’s the girl’s lover. We’re headed f’r TASK right now. One Hunter’s
dead, missin’ half ’is skull, but th’ lover’s still alive an’ maybe right on
my ass.”
“Leander, slow down. I can’t understand you.”
50 Angela Romano
“Fuck, man, don’t make me repeat it.”
“You don’t have to. I’ll let Madison know you’re on the way with
possible trouble.”
“Right.”
“Injuries?”
“Nothin’ serious, so far as I know.”
“All right.” Wolf took a deep breath. “Be careful, all of you.”
“Always am.” Leander suddenly hung up.
Wolf was used to that. He dialed Madison almost before the dial tone
was back. She answered on the next-to-last ring.
“Wolf?” She’d been asleep, not unusual. Madison was not often
awake before one or two in the afternoon.
“Get down to the TASK building,” he said. “Leander and Epsilon are
being hunted.”
“Shit,” she muttered, sounding worn.
“Pretty much.” He smiled despite himself. “They have the latest
target’s girlfriend with them.”
“Shit,” Madison growled now, her accent making the word that much
more vehement sounding. “I’m on my way.”
“Watch your back, Madison.”
“Of course.”
She’d hung up before he could ask about the voice on the phone or
whether he’d gotten any similar messages. With a growled snarl of
frustration, he dropped his own receiver and went out for his car. So
much for taking it easy.
MADISON was only about twenty minutes from the TASK center and
had been there nearly an hour when her boys showed up at last. Leander
had pulled recklessly in and jumped out nearly before they’d hit full
Mourning Doves 51
stop, making Epsilon lean over to keep them from crashing. The young
Kin ran around to the back and tugged open the door, pulling out the girl,
who was, apparently, now a target.
Madison’s lips twitched as she emerged, looking frightened but calm.
Pretty. Cute little snip of a thing, isn’t she?
The tall redhead strode out, and Leander spun, shoving her at
Madison. “Take her inside and get her locked in. I think her girlfriend
wants her.”
Not unusual, for a former relation to want their loved one changed
too. So that they could Hunt together.
“Come on,” she told the girl who was now, inadvertently, in her
arms. “These two big, bad men can handle things from here.”
“They’ve been doing pretty well so far,” the girl replied with a weak
smile, and Madison returned it. “You must be Madison.”
“And you must be—”
“Alex. Just Alex. It’s less stuffy sounding.”
Madison laughed. “Pleasure, Alex.”
“Or it would be, in a better situation,” Alex corrected as they slipped
through TASK’s big front doors and upstairs.
The TASK building was entirely unlike what such a building would
be expected to look like. TASK did not worry about anonymity. They
had found years before that, at least for what they did, not existing was
not a workable option. Everyone knew Kin existed, and everyone
eventually understood that for things like Kin and anything like them,
special factions were needed. You couldn’t expect a normal cop to
handle a Kin, particularly not if the unlucky cop in question got to face
off against something or someone like Epsilon.
Or if one was having a really bad day, a Bearr.
You couldn’t expect cops to handle Hunters either, or those who
were Different. Not Kin, not in any form, they were people who had
abilities. Mostly these types stayed out of sight and kept low, but every
now and again you’d have a rouge Different pop up robbing a bank with
52 Angela Romano
telekinesis or something like that.
So people knew TASK existed, making the hardest bit of their
worries looking good for the public. So TASK had a big security gate,
monitors, sensors, dogs, and electric fencing around the outside of a ten-
story building that was almost utterly windowless. Typical and
predictable look of a place like TASK. It was the inside that was
different.
Alex openly gawked as they walked into the lobby of TASK, past the
receptionist’s desk and the huge fish tank that held large, exotic
examples of the species, toward an escalator that took her up to the
second floor. There things looked more like she’d expected and less like
a waiting room. But Madison hurried her past the rows of closed doors
and covered carts to elevators that took them up still more stories to the
very top of the building. Here were the bedrooms.
Rows upon rows of more doors, but these stood open—some of
them, anyway—and they were all clearly apartment-like in nature. The
whole floor was, in fact, and Madison said the one below it was too. The
only working floors of TASK were the first four. The rest were rooms.
Madison, Wolf, Epsilon, and Leander did not live there, though all
were more than welcome to, but many of the employees did, and
sometimes there was call to stay overnight here. For those situations, all
four of them had spare rooms that were hardly ever used.
“We’ll be using them for a bit now, it seems,” Madison said with a
small laugh as she explained. “TASK is the safest place for us right now,
and I expect Wolf will appear any moment, though I told him to relax.”
“TASK….” Alex had pulled away, much to Madison’s
disappointment. “What does that stand for?”
Here Madison laughed, the sound rich and truly amused. “Nothing,”
she said.
“But it’s an acronym, right? It has to stand for something.”
“Wrong.” Madison smiled, unlocking one of the many doors. “TASK
isn’t an acronym for anything. It actually came about thanks to a rather
snaky comment made from a government official, and it just sort of
stuck. Our official title is actually Kin Related Circumstances
Mourning Doves 53
Management Team.” She snorted. “Much less appealing, isn’t it? Say it
letter by letter, and it sounds like a radio station. All at once and it’s
nearly Kermit the Frog.”
Alex was gawking at her. “What comment was made that was so
bad?”
Madison’s expression faded, hardened. “TASK wasn’t always looked
at kindly, Alex,” she said, pushing the door open. “Here. You’re going to
be staying here for a few days, so make yourself comfortable,” she said,
trying not to think about that time, about the first few days TASK had
been formed. They’d taken the name as a show of defiance, of internal
strength. After TASK had become an accepted part of the system, they
could have dropped the name.
But they had kept it.
Alex peered curiously around the room, studying it with her quiet
gaze. Comfortable but sparse, the room held a bed and a bookshelf, a
computer and a window seat with pillows, and a dresser in a corner.
There was a bathroom attached.
“I don’t know how long you’ll be stuck here,” Madison said. “So feel
free to play. I’ll have Leander get your clothes from your house when it’s
safe.”
Alex wrapped her arms around herself. “Will it ever be? Until Sasha
is dead?”
“Sasha… that was your girlfriend?”
Alex nodded.
Madison shrugged. “Do you want the truth, or do you want me to
make you feel better?”
Alex looked up at her, eyes widening with surprise. There was no
hurt there, or anger, just surprise and a little bemusement.
“Both,” she said, and it was nearly a challenge.
Madison smirked. “Well, if I’m making you feel better, then of
course it’ll be safe. She’ll give up eventually, get bored or distracted,
she’ll leave you alone in favor of Hunting. Sooner or later, she’ll be
caught and locked away.” Now a low, humorless laugh. “The truth? No.
54 Angela Romano
You won’t be safe until she’s dead. And she can’t be locked away. No
Hunter can. They have to be killed, end of story. And she won’t be
content until she’s turned you too.”
“Oh.” Alex paled, and now Madison could see it hit her, the full
force of the situation. “Oh,” she repeated, and her legs buckled. Madison
caught her and pressed the younger woman’s face into her shoulder as
the tears came in a hard, racking stream.
IT had been far too long since he was out here, and he couldn’t help but
feel uncomfortable at how comfortable it was. As if he’d never left in the
first place. The Little Ones danced around and beside him, but he
couldn’t share their light-hearted good nature. Not now.
But he knew where he had to go to find that man, to find who he was.
The place he’d thought he’d left behind years ago.
His feet took him to the building without any real thought necessary
behind it. He knew the way with cold certainty. He paused, taking a deep
breath. Here, he would become all he’d fought so hard not to be. But he
plastered on a smirk and ran with it. Let this man think what he would.
He pushed open the warehouse door—
—and instantly found himself fighting off a skinny, wiry cross-
dressed man whose voice made his ears ring but his lips twist up in a
fond, familiar grin.
“Riley. Riley, get off of me!” he laughed out, pulling away. His smile
faded as he looked at the man. “Oh, kid, you look horrible.”
“Thanks,” Riley drawled, but he was smiling. He was pretty, a good
cross-dresser, one who would have made a beautiful woman, would have
been a beautiful man too.
But he was pale and thin with exhausted dark eyes and the looks of
one who’s lived too hard.
58 Angela Romano
“What are you doing back here, man?” the littler man asked. He was
Hispanic, but with striking hazel-gold eyes, and those eyes regarded him
now with wary fear. “I thought you got out.”
“I did.” He lowered his voice, and motioned for Riley to do the same.
“I did get out, but I need information.”
“Information?” The younger man’s eyebrows arched upward. “What
kind of—”
“Don’t ask me that,” he told the boy. “Just go back to your room and
stay there.”
“Stop treating me like a tagalong kid—”
“To me, you are,” he reminded, his own violet eyes searching the
boy’s. “I’m an old man, remember?”
Riley snorted but pulled away, recognizing the sign, the hint that this
was something between the over-twenty-year-olds of the group. Riley
was no young child, but this… he wanted to keep the kid out of this, if he
could.
“I need to find Montgomery.”
Riley blinked. “I don’t think he’s around much anymore.”
“No?” Strangely violet eyes met and held Riley’s. “I have it from a
pretty reliable source that he’s still here sometimes.”
“He is. Just not as often. And he’s most cautious too. And there’s
something… wrong.” Riley shrugged.
“Something wrong?”
“You’ll see if he’s around today.” Riley shrugged again and gave
him a kiss on the cheek. “Good to see you again, man, but listen. Get the
fuck out of here again as fast as you can.”
He had every intention of doing just that.
WHILE Madison was being kissed, Epsilon and Leander were being
stalked. They were very aware of that fact, but they let the Hunter think
they didn’t know.
Leander leaned against the building they’d trailed Sasha to, watching
her prowl inside, literally inches from him; only the closed window kept
her from smelling him, he was sure.
Epsilon, on the wall opposite him, had his butterfly swords in his
hand. Blasting away a Hunter was one thing; close-up fights were
another entirely.
And this would not prove to be a blast-and-go. Leander had the
sinking feeling.
He lifted a hand, five fingers spread. One at a time, slowly, he
dropped them.
When the fifth fell, he spun out from the wall, his gun’s deep snarl
breaking the silence around them. The glass of the window shattered,
and the Hunter inside let out a scream of rage.
Many things happened at once, then.
The first was that Leander was reminded that one did not stand in
front of Epsilon in a fight. Friendly fire wasn’t something he’d do on
purpose, exactly, but he was never one to avoid hitting you if you were
in the way.
And Leander was in the way.
With a yelp of dismay, he dodged the blade of the sword that came
an inch from beheading him and also cut short the Hunter’s attempt to
Mourning Doves 61
bite him. Her teeth sank into the blade instead, and she snarled. She
yanked, and Epsilon swore vividly as her strength sent him plowing into
Leander, the pair tumbling over each other through the window. Glass
cut and bit, but Leander felt no serious wounds.
“Epsilon!”
“I kept her from biting you, didn’t I?” He grunted, climbing off and
shaking his head like a dog. Leander stood a moment later, pulling his
gun from its shoulder holster. Epsilon was lazily twirling his swords. He
was scenting the air too. Leander, for his part, listened hard. Hunters
couldn’t move as quietly as Kin.
He heard her move a second before he saw her, and then Sasha was
on him.
He brought the gun up defensively and fired into her stomach. The
shot blew through her body, making her lurch, and then he kicked
upward.
“The fuck off me, bitch!” he growled, rolling to his feet. Epsilon had
taken off, his footsteps echoing to Leander’s sensitive ears. He could
also hear a second set.
Another one?
He turned his attention back to his own side of this fight, and even
with all his attention on the Hunter’s motions, he was still halfway to
unprepared when she landed on his back. Her claws sank into his flesh,
and he swore vividly, again when he felt them rip flesh as she leapt off.
“Motherfucking son of a bitch!” he snarled, bringing the gun up.
“Die already, you roach!”
She grinned at him, blood leaking from her mouth. The hole he’d
blown in her would have put any normal human down, but it only slowed
her. She lifted a hand, his blood dripping off her nails.
She grinned, and his blood ran cold.
No, his blood was literally cold. He felt as if he’d jumped into an icy
shower.
Shit. Oh, just shit, this is so bad.
62 Angela Romano
He leveled the gun on her again as he heard Epsilon crash down the
stairs, heard him cry out in pain. There was another crash, though, and a
male scream. Epsilon had taken the second Hunter with him. The sound
of splintering bone and wood made his stomach churn.
He fired. The bullet hit her between the eyes, and now she went
down. Epsilon was at his side instantly, and when Leander looked at
him, he wished he hadn’t. Epsilon’s side was a mass of glass shards,
though Leander hadn’t heard anything break, and he was cradling his
side in a way that suggested cracked or broken ribs.
“Any of that blood yours?” Epsilon asked, his voice gruff and
shaking with pain. Leander shied from his touch, his now-tainted blood
staining his shirt. Favorite fucking shirt too.
At least he wasn’t wearing the coat.
“All,” he gasped out, lowering the gun. “Epsilon….”
Epsilon set his jaw grimly. “Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“You gonna make the ride back?”
“I don’t—” And then the pain hit.
Epsilon abandoned caution and reason, grabbing him as he doubled
over. Epsilon’s grip on him was steadying as he fought back wave after
wave of cold, frigid pain. “Leander, you’re not breathing. Breathe.”
Epsilon’s voice came near his ear. “You have to breathe.”
Leander nodded, gasped a breath. Epsilon had to remind him again a
moment later. The taller man was leading him out of the house, but after
a moment stopped and simply picked him up. Leander was distantly
aware that his companion was running.
He was settled into the car, gasping as heat began to spread from his
chest, negating the ice in his veins. He knew what the next step would
be, and he whimpered, curling into a tight ball on the chair.
“Hold on,” he heard Epsilon say, his voice grim, and his free hand
reaching out to clutch Leander’s shoulder briefly. “Hang on with me,
Leander.”
Mourning Doves 63
What he meant was fight. Fight to keep the seizures at bay. Fight to
keep from losing his mind. Fight to keep the nausea down. Fight to keep
the screams of agony locked behind a tight throat. Fight to keep
breathing.
Leander fought.
He leaned back in the seat, head pressed to the headrest, panting even
as Epsilon reminded him not to. He knew, somehow, that Epsilon was
driving too fast, that the man had to pull over once to be violently ill,
cradling his ribs and crying out. He wanted to help, but he couldn’t seem
to move.
He was barely aware of it when Epsilon pulled up to TASK, hauled
him up again, ignoring broken ribs and an injured arm. When he saw
Wolf appear at the door, Madison a step behind, he knew he was safe.
He knew he could let go.
And so he did.
“HE’S got so much of that drug in his system, I’m surprised he’s not
dead,” Wolf informed them, stepping out of the medic room and closing
the door softly. He regarded his audience: Stubborn, stupid Epsilon, who
should never be branded anything like a traitor, with his arm bandaged
tightly and ribs bound, refusing medication; Madison, who had been
distracted all day, now suddenly focused and alert, her face its usual
impassive mask but her eyes burning with concern; Alex, to his surprise,
was there too, sitting next to the older woman, biting her lower lip and
looking painfully guilty, sorrowful too, when they told her Sasha was
dead; and leaning against the wall, a man taller even than Wolf with hair
that had gone completely gray by the time he was twenty hanging in a
loose tail around mid-back, his calm, empathetic eyes an earthy brown.
Mercedes.
The man had come a day after Leander and Epsilon’s return, come
because Wolf wasn’t returning phone calls, and he’d been concerned.
Concern had been the least of things he needed to feel, it seemed.
64 Angela Romano
He’d arrived to find Epsilon on the warpath and Leander half-dead in
their medical area, a strange woman who clung to Madison like a burr
and his two team captains worn and stressed to the point of breaking.
It was a good thing, he thought, that he’d come. They needed
someone who was more level-headed, less attached to the situation.
Someone who was detached and less emotionally tied into the scenario.
Mercedes pushed off the wall now, moving over next to Wolf.
“And?”
They all looked at him. If Wolf had been anything besides what he
was, it would have been worrying indeed, all those hard stares.
“Wolf? And?”
“His body is naturally rejecting the drug,” Wolf said, and he watched
both Epsilon and Madison wilt in relief. “He won’t be a Hunter. I don’t
think it’s physically possible for a Kin to be a Hunter. His body’s
naturally fighting against the effects and pretty soon will neutralize the
drug. But it’s going to be painful and difficult for him.”
“At least Sasha is dead,” Alex said softly, her eyes downcast.
Mercedes closed his eyes. “Not as much, actually.”
“What?” Epsilon’s gaze shot up. “I saw Leander put a bullet between
her eyes, and that was the least of her wounds.”
“Hunters are hard to take down; you know that,” Mercedes snapped.
With Epsilon, you had to assert your dominance, your alpha quality,
within the first five minutes. You do not scare me, and I will not take
your bullshit.
Epsilon eyed him and then curled a lip, but inclined his head a bit.
Mercedes thought this was more in respect for Wolf than himself.
“So with a headshot, she’s not dead.”
“It’s possible,” Wolf said quietly, looking down. Not for the first
time, Mercedes was struck by his beauty. “And if Mercedes says that
she’s alive, I believe him.”
And his utter loyalty.
“Then someone needs to make sure she stays dead,” Epsilon snarled.
Mourning Doves 65
“You can’t fight a Hunter on your own—”
“In case you haven’t noticed, my partner is laying on a cot in
agony.” Epsilon rounded on Wolf. “So I suppose I have to.”
“We can get you a temporary partner,” Mercedes tried softly,
stepping forward. Epsilon spun, in a crouch.
“There’s a reason why Leander and I were only able to be paired
with each other,” he snarled. “We don’t play well with others.”
“Epsilon,” Wolf tried, voice low, soothing, but the genetically made
Kin had already started to back away, bristling.
Mercedes took a breath, fought for control. Getting angry back at
someone like Epsilon only made things escalate wildly. “Epsilon, Sasha
is not the cause of this—”
“There is something more going on here, all right,” Epsilon snarled,
abruptly whirling again. “And you can play all the games you like for as
long as you choose to play them. I don’t want any part of them, so either
you tell us why you’re acting like we’ve got the plague, Leander and I,
that is, but that Hunter is the reason why Leander is in there as he is. And
I will kill her for that.”
“Epsilon—”
“I will kill her for that!” Epsilon yelled, for the first time Wolf knew
of. The sound made Alex shrink back. Madison put a reassuring hand on
her arm and then yanked back as if burned.
Wolf didn’t even flinch. Beside him, Mercedes only closed his eyes,
as if pained.
Wolf, it seemed, wasn’t the only painfully loyal person in the room.
The door shut with a slam, and then Leander’s screams began.
66 Angela Romano
EPSILON knew he was being followed from the moment he set foot into
the alley. He paused at the door of the warehouse where the fight had
taken place, paused with his hand on his swords, and closed his eyes,
feeling for danger.
Genetically altered Kin could do many things natural Kin couldn’t,
and one of those things was to focus on and sharpen a sense, such as
scent, without Changing. These were usually more powerful Kin than
even Epsilon, and that was rather saying something. Epsilon could
heighten all his senses without making the change, and he was working
on narrowing it down, but it was difficult. He also knew other Kin that
could change physical aspects of themselves, but that was a purely
aesthetic pleasure, and Epsilon wasn’t the type to indulge in too much of
aesthetic anything.
He’d come back for more reasons than he’d let on, he mused as he
drew his swords smoothly, focusing on the feeling of being watched
intently.
Partly, yes, because he wanted to make sure Sasha was dead. Of
course he did, and if she wasn’t, he admitted only to himself, he wanted
to kill her. She’d hurt Leander, and no one did that on Epsilon’s watch
and got away with it.
But partly because something wasn’t ringing true here, wasn’t
clicking the way it should. There was more than one thing wrong here,
but for now he’d handle what he could.
A Hunter should be dead after a shot like that. If there were a reason
to think she might not be, then there was something very new and very
unprecedented going on with the Hunters, and Mercedes knew what it
was.
Mourning Doves 75
Epsilon didn’t like Mercedes knowing things he didn’t, particularly
not important things.
But he didn’t say a word of these thoughts to anyone, not even to
Leander.
Odd. The pair had known each other just over a year, no more, yet
Epsilon felt so strongly bonded and pulled to the younger man that
keeping this from him almost hurt.
What hurt worse was that he knew it wasn’t entirely mutual. Oh,
Leander felt that bond, that pull, yes, but he kept things from Epsilon that
Epsilon felt he had a right to know. And he didn’t have complete trust in
Epsilon either. Whatever was going on here, Leander’s constant glances
at Epsilon had shown him that much. The man refused to say anything
about it, but he had a feeling that was more because Wolf had asked him
not to more than anything else.
There were a rare few people that Epsilon considered friend or
companion. And there was damn little he kept from those people. But not
one of those people knew why he was truly here. None of them knew
that he was aware of just how bad things had to be for Mercedes to
suspect what he did.
Mercedes himself was not necessarily a friend. Wolf respected him,
trusted him, and so Epsilon did as well. Wolf was the only person
Epsilon trusted utterly and completely. If he said Mercedes was an ally,
then he was. But Mercedes didn’t like or trust Epsilon or Leander, and it
was mutual.
He jerked out of his thoughts as the watcher’s scent came to him. A
cat. He’d been paranoid over a cat. He chuckled and broke into the
warehouse.
The place was empty, and he couldn’t pick up the traces of death.
That unnerved and threw him; he should be able to smell the death of the
Hunter he’d yanked down the stairs with him, at least. He could smell
blood, Leander’s, his own, Sasha’s, and the blood of that man, all
mingling together in one sweetly tangy camphene. Part of him, the
animal part, reared its head and growled with deep, excited anticipation.
It liked the blood smell.
76 Angela Romano
It was for that reason as much as any other that the rest of Epsilon
shrank in disgust from the exotic tang in the air. He covered his nose,
though it didn’t help much.
He went upstairs, carefully choosing his footing. He moved silently,
eyes half-closed as he focused hard on more important aspects of his
body, primarily sniffing the air. His vision was grayed out anyway,
thanks to his partial change, like a wolf, he was unable to see colors. He
couldn’t see well either, right now. But now he could smell death.
He followed it to the area where the main fight had taken place, to
the broken stairs. The body of the male Hunter was there, broken and
twisted unnaturally.
Epsilon cut his head off anyway, just to be safe. The stink of the
Hunter’s blood suddenly overwhelmed him, covering any other smell,
and that animal part of him bubbled forth with a savage, wet snarl. He bit
back on it hard and ended it, wiping his sword on the Hunter’s pants.
He moved onward to where Sasha’s body should be. The death smell
had been faint and did not grow stronger as he approached, and, not to
his surprise, Sasha’s body wasn’t there.
“Fuck.”
“Well, you haven’t been doing much of that, have you?”
He spun around at the first light touch of foot to floor, but still almost
too slow. She came at him with teeth bared. He brought his sword up fast
and hard, and she bit into it rather than him. He yelped with the
reverberation of the impact, nearly dropping his weapon, but collected
himself and brought the other sword up instead. She released his weapon
and ducked, rolling away from him and coming up again.
“Will you just stay dead, bitch?” he snarled and brought the swords
around. Whatever Leander thought of him, however far he was or was
not trusted, he would kill this person who’d harmed one of the few
people he loved. He would kill her and bring his enemy back to the pack,
proud and victorious.
The animal snarled and opened its mouth wide, hot with excitement.
And Epsilon let it come.
Mourning Doves 77
ALEX was scared, although she’d never show it. Well, beyond what she
already had, of course, embarrassingly enough breaking into tears in
front of the pretty redheaded woman. Madison, her name was, and she
was not hugely fond of Alex. Partly because Alex was being bitchy quite
on purpose, and mostly, Alex thought, because Alex had kissed her. She
wasn’t entirely sure what had brought that on, even when she’d done it.
Alex wasn’t much of an emotional person. Honestly, she’d been
through enough bullshit in her life to learn how to take most things, bad
and good, in stride. But she’d been upset and frightened, and Madison
had been lovely and so very close, and had given Alex the perfect
opening, anyway, so there. And she hadn’t pulled away, not at first. In
fact, at first, she’d kissed back.
Then she’d come awake and jerked away violently. She’d been
avoiding since. Until now.
Alex looked up in surprise at the gentle rap on her door and set her
brush down on the sink. “Come in,” she called, and the door cracked
open just enough to admit Madison.
Alex was, to say the very least, surprised. And pleased. Oh yes, Alex
was very pleased indeed, and more so to see Madison in little more than
an overlarge T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. It was sexy in its utter
sexy-less-ness.
Seeing Madison in anything other than a crisp suit, for that matter,
was pretty damn cool.
78 Angela Romano
“Hi,” Alex managed, self-conscious as she realized that she was
dressed much the same—sans the pants. Alex was really very pants-less.
Madison seemed to see it at the same time, and if she’d been less
than she was, she may have even blushed. As it was, she averted her
eyes.
“Alex,” Madison said in that soft, gently accented voice. “I—Wolf
has Leander well under control, and it was suggested I stay with you, at
least for a bit, to make certain of your safety.”
“That all?” Alex asked, just as quietly, head tilted. “Just here to be
my guard dog then?”
“Should there be more?”
Alex shrugged and decided she liked being half-naked in front of
Madison. It got a reaction, and so little seemed to.
“Do I need to get you a basket, or are you going to sleep at the foot
of my bed?”
Madison raised a delicate brow, and a smile wanted to be on her lips.
“I’ve a feeling you’re not a pleasant bedmate. The basket would be
acceptable.”
Oh, ow.
Alex flinched inwardly and then moved to the closet, pulling down a
blanket and pillow.
“Next best thing okay?” she drawled, turning and giving a purposeful
little bounce. Madison didn’t look impressed.
“That’s fine,” Madison replied curtly, glancing around the room. “I’ll
be using the shower, if that’s all right.”
“Your shower,” Alex replied honestly, smirking a little. “I mean,
technically, it is.”
Madison sighed. It was impossibly hard not to be drawn to Alex,
with her quirky sense of humor and boyish attitude. She was an aloof and
cool person, but a warm and playful one too, who seemed to want
nothing more than Madison’s friendship. Or… more. She seemed to
want more.
Mourning Doves 79
Madison fought down the blush.
She’d always been perfectly accepting of her own sexuality, but there
was a line she always drew in her own head. Yes, she was very bisexual,
and no, she would never actually have a relationship. And a relationship
with any client, particularly one like Alex, was a complete no-go. Ever.
“Yes,” she said at last, trying not to look at the semi-dressed woman.
“I suppose it is.”
Alex gave her a half-smile, showing one little dimple. “I’ll make
your nest,” she teased, and when Madison got out of the shower, she
couldn’t help but throw back her head and laugh.
Alex was lounging on the bed, reading, and beside her, the blanket
and pillow had been arranged in a laundry basket, with a cup of water
next to it.
MERCEDES didn’t like being confused, and it seemed like that was his
emotional state for the past month.
Leander Kale had come to them only recently, a street brat with a big
mouth and a big attitude. The young Kin had the dress of a punk hooker,
the drawling slur of an uneducated louse, the fast temper and emotional
unbalance of a woman on PMS, and the intelligence of a man who had
graduated from Harvard. He was clever and sly, a great liar and better
manipulator, more than a little crazy, and world-wise to the point of
cynicism.
He’d hacked into TASK’s files to entertain himself, no other reason,
and had nearly gotten away clean too.
Sadly for him, Epsilon was just as smart. Epsilon had been alerted to
something not right with the system and busted Leander in almost as
short a time as Leander had broken in.
Epsilon caught Leander, and then Leander, it seemed, had caught
Epsilon. Because when Epsilon had gone through that, Leander had
stood beside him and refused to believe that he had done the things they
accused him of doing, the horrible things Mercedes had accused him of
80 Angela Romano
doing.
Mercedes hadn’t done that because he had anything against Epsilon.
The evidence had pointed in a direction, and Mercedes, as he had always
done, unquestioningly followed where it led. And it led, at the time,
straight to Epsilon. At the time, Leander hadn’t officially been the man’s
partner. That hadn’t happened for another two-ish years, really. But Wolf
had seen the potential, and, as much as he hated to admit it, so had
Mercedes. As things had been resolved and it became very clear that
Epsilon was not the man to blame, Wolf had paired them up officially,
and they’d been such ever since.
But the real culprit had never become clear on that case, and so, to
some, Epsilon had never been cleared of suspicion. And Leander, well,
poor Leander seemed to be the scapegoat at every turn. His past hurt his
present, and he knew it. He normally didn’t let it bother him or let it get
to him. Sometimes that was difficult or impossible, and Mercedes hated
to admit he was a big part of why.
Wolf had several valid points regarding this pair, and Mercedes had,
weeks before, started to reconsider his position with those two. They had
proven themselves time and again. And as proven, Wolf was starting to
be seriously affected by the behavior of nearly everyone else regarding
the two. He was getting exhausted just defending them, and, claiming to
be Wolf’s friend, he had no right to do that.
But damn if these two didn’t seem to keep ending up smack bang in
the middle of all the drama bullshit. And if one wound up caught in the
middle, they both wound up there. Because they stupidly, stubbornly
clung to each other, even when they hated each other.
And here they were yet again, once more in the middle of what
seemed to be an ever-increasing attempt at placing the blame of a
situation gone so very wrong on the head of Leander and Epsilon.
Wolf slipped out of the room Leander was being kept in, closing the
door softly.
“Let’s get this over with, can we?” he asked, searching his pockets
for a cigarette. Mercedes touched his shoulder gently, and his seeking
paused.
Mourning Doves 81
“Relax,” Mercedes said. “With Leander down for the count and
Epsilon warbling in between sanity and not so much, the big wigs’ll take
it a little easier on you.”
“They will not, and lying to me doesn’t help.” Wolf ran a hand over
his face. “I need a drink.”
“You need to cut back on your vices.” Amusement, tender concern
rang in Mercedes’ voice. “Wolf, come on, the sooner we do this the
sooner you can get back to Leander.”
“It shouldn’t be me getting back to him.”
Mercedes sighed. “Yes, but that conversation goes nowhere very
quickly. Come on. Just get a shower, and we’ll grab coffee or something,
whatever you need.”
Wolf sighed. “At least stay with him while I clean up? I’ll meet you
back here in a few minutes.”
Mercedes could remember a time when Wolf wouldn’t have
considered letting him stay with Leander alone. Particularly not when the
boy was injured. He wondered what, if anything, it meant that now Wolf
extended the plea without hesitation.
“I’ve got him covered, Wolf.” Mercedes placed a hand on the man’s
shoulder. Wolf sighed, nodding gratefully, and moved from Leander’s
sick room to his own.
Mercedes slid into the sick room, inspecting it for a moment. This
was possibly the biggest room in TASK, with two beds, a large picture
window with pillows everywhere around it, a tiny bathroom with a small
shower, two tall bookshelves, chairs strewn about, and of course,
medical supplies. It was strange, seeing Leander so quiet on one of the
two beds. He was a sprawler, a restless sleeper, and to see him still was
unnerving. He approached and touched a darkly tanned hand to
Leander’s forehead, stroking back the strawberry-colored curls there.
Everything about Leander seemed soft: his skin was light, his hair was
light, his eyes, his freckles. His feminine face, his slim build, it all
combined to make him so delicate in appearance.
He looked even more so, small and pale like he was.
To his surprise, those pale green eyes fluttered open, and Leander
82 Angela Romano
blinked blearily at him.
“Hi,” Mercedes said quietly, and Leander’s brow furrowed, lips
working a moment. Then he swallowed and shrugged a little with an
attempted smile. Mercedes realized with a lurch in his chest that Leander
didn’t reply because he couldn’t. His voice was gone from screaming.
“Easy,” he soothed. “Wolf’s just getting a cleanup and heading out to
take care of some business with me. We’ll be back in a few hours.
Madison’s going to be with you, okay? You going to be all right?”
Leander shrugged again a little and then nodded.
“Hurt any less than before?”
Leander nodded again, lifting a hand to hold his fingers less than an
inch apart.
“Because you’ve been drugged. You’re going to be an addict by the
time you get out,” he teased, and Leander managed a silent laugh, eyes
closing again.
“We finally found a way to shut you up,” Mercedes said, and
Leander smacked at his hand weakly, cracking his eyes open once more.
He stuck his tongue out, and Mercedes smiled to see the spunk that
Leander had was not totally absent.
“You just take it easy,” Mercedes said. “Need water?”
Please. Leander’s lips formed the words even as he blushed and gave
a bashful smile. Mercedes felt like an idiot. Of course he needed water.
“All right. Let’s sit you up,” he said gently, grabbing the water bottle
from the bedside table and working an arm carefully under Leander’s
neck and shoulders. Instantly, tension formed in Leander’s body, and his
eyes closed tightly, brow tucking down. His lips parted to pant hard
breaths. Moving hurt, apparently, and Mercedes nearly lowered him
back down out of sheer guilt. But soon he had Leander up, leaning
against Mercedes’ front. He gently eased the bottle to Leander’s lips and
let him drink until he coughed and turned his head. Mercedes rubbed his
back a few moments until he felt Leander relax. Then he gently lowered
the man back to the bed, running his fingers along his brow.
“Better?”
Mourning Doves 83
A slow, sleepy nod. The painkillers were still in his system,
apparently.
“Go on back to sleep, Leander,” he urged gently, taking a seat in one
of the chairs near the bed.
Leander’s hand touched his elbow, and Mercedes glanced at it in
surprise. “Hey, take it easy, Leander. It’s all right,” he soothed, knowing
exactly what Leander wanted when those large green eyes came to land
on him again.
“He’ll come. I promise, Leander. We’ll get him back.”
WOLF stepped from the shower, roughly toweling his long auburn hair,
another wrapped around his lower body. His body was scarred and
battle-rough, his skin dark and tough with the life he led. But his face
and eyes were gentle and mild, and his body was strong and as
powerfully built as it’d ever been.
He slid into a long-sleeved blue shirt and a pair of black slacks,
pulling his thick auburn curls into a ponytail and tugging on a black
jacket. He dressed quickly, eager to get back to Leander, and then forced
himself to calm and slow down. Rushing wouldn’t get this meeting over
any faster, and he wasn’t in any hurry to do this.
In all the chaos, he’d forgotten his meeting-in-a-week, and now here
it was, suddenly, one week later.
And they were waiting.
Snarling in irritation, he headed back out, rapping sharply on
Leander’s door. Mercedes opened it a moment later and then slipped out.
“He just got back to sleep,” Mercedes said, in a low whisper. “Shh.”
Wolf half-smiled in fondness at the sudden protectiveness Mercedes
seemed to be displaying, so unlike him, really. “We getting coffee before
this thing goes down?”
“Of course.” Mercedes gave him the lopsided grin that girls swooned
over. “Starbucks, on me. Come on; you need caffeine.”
84 Angela Romano
Wolf followed Mercedes from the TASK building out to his car, a
black Mustang with red interior. He often teased Mercedes about the car,
but in reality, it was… nice. Nicer, anyway, than Wolf’s car; but,
ignoring that, Wolf loved his baby.
They climbed into the car, and Wolf felt a sudden, deep unease as
they pulled away from the building. His hand tightened briefly on the
belt, but when Mercedes glanced over to ask him what was wrong, he
lied and said “Nothing.”
Mercedes knew his friend was withholding, but he lied too and said
nothing.
And in the end, they both wished they’d said something, because if
they had, maybe a young man would still be alive.
But if you’d asked Liaison, if he were still around to ask, he’d have
said it wouldn’t have mattered much anyway. He’d have told you the
simple truth: Walking into Monty’s new lair that day, he knew beyond
any doubt that he would die.
And with quiet acceptance, he stepped forward and met his fate.
When they came back to TASK, they saw the familiar black cars that
marked the TASK officials’ presence. Wolf took a deep, bracing breath
and stepped out, followed by his less-tense friend. They reentered the
building, nodding to the first of the officials they passed in the hall. They
got no answering acknowledgment, but then, hadn’t really expected one.
They followed the tide of black-suited officials down to the main
offices, where a laptop sat on the table and a projection screen hung
down one wall. The room was dark, and faces mostly obscured. This was
how it always was when the higher-ups in TASK were forced down to
the level of normal people. Identities were kept as private as possible on
the rare occasion when those men were seen at all.
Aside from one man’s. The man they would face on that laptop in
just a matter of minutes. The men all took seats around the table with
Wolf at the head and Mercedes at his side.
Silence reigned for a long time, and then someone reached over and
gently tapped the laptop’s mouse. The laptop sprang to life, and after a
moment, a dark-skinned male with steely gray eyes and graying black
Mourning Doves 85
hair appeared on the screen. If possible, the silence grew deeper.
“Hello, gentlemen, and thank you all for being here so… promptly.”
The pause was significant, and Wolf ducked his head a bit, grateful for
the darkness. Mercedes was, he knew, looking at him with empathy he
didn’t want.
“I believe we all know why we’re here, today: the same reason why
we’ve had to meet often in the past. Matters concerning one Leander
Kale and Epsilon Maddox.” The man on the screen went on, not really
looking at any one of them. Wolf lifted his gaze at last, his natural
instinct to protect his men overcoming his own self-consciousness.
“Mr. Leshaun, I believe it was already determined that nothing
pointed to neither Leander nor Epsilon as a potential suspect in—”
“You’re very correct, Addison. Nothing as of yet points to your boys
as suspects in this particular case.” The man’s voice rose and arched.
“But this is not the first time they’ve come under suspicion.”
“Why should it matter if they’re not guilty of the accusations?”
“Because they are continuously falling into situations like this,
Wolf,” the man explained with strained patience. “The constant
situations they find themselves in arouse curiosity.”
“Haven’t you ever heard of ‘wrong place, wrong time’?” Wolf
snapped, and then he flinched when it seemed every head in the room
snapped up to glare him down. One didn’t speak to Mr. LeShaun that
way.
The man on the screen waited until Wolf had sat under the weight of
his own outburst long enough and then spoke again.
“As it is, I am tired of being forced to second-guess my own agents
constantly. So, I am, for a time, suspending your authority over those
two.”
Now Mercedes looked up, his brow furrowed.
“But if Wolf is removed from heading TASK, then—”
“That is not what I said,” the man reprimanded calmly. “Wolf is not
being ‘removed’ from anything. Despite the chaos your team often
causes, Addison, you are a fine choice to head an organization such as
86 Angela Romano
TASK. However, you are also understandably biased. We need a less
involved, neutral party.”
“Neutral? Can there be such a thing when it comes to TASK?”
“I believe that I have located a few men who are capable of
remaining so while also following your command up until such point I
tell them not to.”
And didn’t that just sound wonderful? Wolf closed his eyes.
“Can I ask who it is you’ve chosen?”
“I would hope you do so,” came the amused drawl back.
“Considering this is your team at stake.”
Wolf flinched from the second reprimand in half the time and was
distantly aware of Mercedes’ touch on his arm.
“I have chosen Montgomery Edwards to be your… you can call it
‘second’, for a brief period. Until you can prove to me that Epsilon—and
Leander, for that matter—are of no threat to my organization or my
men.”
To Mercedes’ side, a man rose, slowly. He was small, nearly the size
of Leander, and in the darkened room it was nearly impossible to see his
face. His hair fell around his shoulders, lank and limp, but the set of his
shoulders was confident and firm.
Montgomery Edwards. I know that name.
Wolf studied the standing man hard, trying to make out his features.
Something about the name made alarm bells ring distantly in the back of
his mind.
Mercedes was watching him, not the man who had stood, and even in
the gloom, Wolf could see his expression. Concern. Worry. Mercedes
felt the unease and discomfort this man had about him too.
Wolf rose himself, carefully, lifting a hand. But when Montgomery
extended a hand to him, and he took it, his breath sucked in harshly.
“A pleasure to work with you, Mr. Addison,” the man said, and the
voice was so similar to that hissing threat on his machine. So similar that
it made his hackles raise.
Mourning Doves 87
Montgomery slowly let go of his hand, giving him a confused look,
or what Wolf assumed was confusion. It was still difficult to see him in
that dim lighting.
“Wolf?” He jumped as the voice from the laptop made him jump
slightly, startled.
“Thank you for rejoining us, Addison. I wasn’t aware the attraction
between yourself and Mr. Edwards was so… strong.”
Mercedes scowled, jaw set, but ducked his head and kept it private.
Not a wise choice, to scowl at the man who headed TASK above
everyone else. The man who had formed the group in the first place.
“My apologies, Mr. LeShaun.”
Montgomery sat down too, and Wolf subtly wiped his hand off on
his pants. He could still feel his skin crawl, though, even after he’d done
so.
88 Angela Romano
LIAISON had his contacts on the street, and then he had the Little Ones,
and between the two, he’d found exactly where he needed to go.
Why Monty was the man featured in his dreams or why he was so
frightened of him, he didn’t understand. He’d never in his life been
afraid of Monty. But there was something lurking in the pit of his
stomach now, something deep and dark. It roiled and threatened to make
him vomit, so intense was it, and he knew beyond a doubt what would
happen this day.
He knelt by one of his Little Ones, stroking its soft fur gently.
“This is as far as you can follow me, darling,” he told it softly, and it
mewed at him as he pressed his lip to the soft head. The animal slunk
away after a moment, and he stepped into the small apartment, making
his way down the hall to the appropriate room. Not that it was hard. This
was a dilapidated building, at best, and most of the rooms were empty or
worse. A few didn’t have doors attached and the insides of them were
hollowed out like a bug half-devoured by something.
He carefully ascended the stairs, not trusting the elevators for longer
than it took to glance at them. His long legs ate up the distance easily, a
lazy amble deceptively hiding his nerves. He rapped on the door, but
there was no answer. He tried again, then knelt and simply picked the
lock. It was almost painfully easy; a cheap, crappy lock on a door that
was nearly falling down.
He let himself into Monty’s room. It was pretty sparse, a cot rather
Mourning Doves 89
than a bed, a set of drawers, some clothes scattered about, a lamp,
magazines, porn, and a small TV. He gritted his teeth and then
approached, with a raised brow, a phone in the corner. There was
something strange about it, something not right.
He knelt, reaching for the phone on the floor. His hand brushed over
the sleek black plastic, shy and butterfly light.
He didn’t want to touch it.
He didn’t want to touch it.
He didn’t….
He didn’t….
His fingers closed around it.
A wash of memory that wasn’t his own swept him away, choking
and gasping for air. His back arched, and his eyes rolled back in his
head, violent and jerking rather than the gentle, sweeping vision touching
his Little Ones brought on.
A rush of Monty’s life, except for it wasn’t Monty. It was a man who
stood straight and held himself with confidence and arrogance, a man
who held his puppets in the palm of his hand and watched them dance.
The man-who-was-not-Monty made threatening calls on the phone, hid
drugs under his bed. He watched fast-forward style as people came into
the room. They argued with the man-who-was-not-Monty; they fought.
They left the room again, and time passed, more calls, more arguing with
those men.
And then a hand came down on his shoulder and yanked him fiercely
out of the vision.
Liaison screamed, and blood streamed out of his eyes, his nose, his
ears, his mouth. In front of his eyes, in seizure-inducing flashes of light,
he saw the man tied to the stake, his blue, blue eyes boring straight into
his.
“Live,” the man said, and his voice echoed, boomed. “Live. Just a
few days more. Live. You know. Live. Live.”
And Liaison gritted his teeth and hung on with all his strength,
because he knew.
90 Angela Romano
THE first thing that Epsilon noticed was that Wolf did not greet him at
the door.
He was relatively unhurt. Lacerations, his old wounds throbbing with
pain, maybe a badly sprained or broken ankle, blood fucking pouring
from his skull, but head wounds bleed like a bitch, always. Already he
could feel his wounds slowly mending, trying to heal.
Sasha’s blood covered his clothes, his hands, his arms, his face. He’d
tried not to get any in his mouth, but he wasn’t sure he hadn’t.
He’d find out soon enough.
He staggered to the apartment he shared with Leander, a half-
destroyed apartment. Almost in a daze, he moved past the wreckage and
upstairs. He showered and roughly bandaged his own wounds, then
pulled on a button-up black shirt and jeans. His ankle wasn’t broken.
Bruised deeply and harshly, but as far as he could tell, that was the extent
of it.
He returned to TASK the next day. And the first thing he noticed was
that Wolf didn’t greet him at the door.
He limped inside, past the receptionist, upstairs to the main area of
the TASK force base. A man stopped him at the elevators. Something
about the man lurking there put his hackles straight up, made the animal
in him snarl with dislike. He slammed down on that part of him. The
animal had had more than enough time to play.
He was a small man, roughly on par with Leander in size. His hair
was auburn, hanging lank and limp around his face in an unattractive but
clean manner. His face was gaunt and thin, his body rather much the
same. His hands were small and calloused, skin dark and scarred.
Epsilon’s eyes narrowed with faint memory. He knew this person.
He slowed until he’d come to a full stop, unconsciously assuming
alpha position. The other man didn’t react, but to watch him with calm,
frighteningly cold eyes.
Mourning Doves 91
The look in those eyes spooked him. Not much was able to do that,
not to Epsilon, who had killed and would kill again.
But those eyes were….
He shivered, and the animal in him shrank back, showing its teeth.
“Epsilon Maddox?” the man asked, and his voice grated on Epsilon’s
nerves, set his teeth on edge.
“Yes,” he said cautiously, pulling back from the extended hand.
“Montgomery Edwards,” the man said, ignoring the way Epsilon
ignored his hand. “I’m going to be Wolf’s second-in-command for a
while.”
“Why? What happened to him?”
“Nothing, exactly,” the man replied, hands going into his pockets.
“Perhaps you should speak with him.”
“Is Leander hanging in there?”
The man sobered, if it was possible. “The pain is very intense. Your
friend seemed to be recovering, and then… he’s taken a severe turn for
the worse.”
Epsilon closed his eyes and glanced away, guilt surging through his
body. He should have been there, should have been beside Leander.
He stepped on the elevator, around the man very carefully. Some part
of him didn’t want to get any closer to this man than he had to. The man
watched until the elevator doors closed, and then, to his relief, Epsilon
was out of sight.
He rode up to the top floor and was met by Wolf, who scanned him
for serious injury in the span of four, maybe five breaths. He decided
Epsilon was mostly unhurt, and then suddenly Epsilon found himself
grabbed by the shirt and slammed backward. His back met with the wall
harshly, and he choked a cry as his ribs jarred.
“Where the fuck have you been?”
“You know where I’ve been,” he replied calmly, struggling for air. “I
brought Sasha down.”
92 Angela Romano
“Yeah, well, while you played soldier, Leander is dying.” Wolf let
him go with a final slam.
“The man downstairs said he was recovering.”
“He was, Epsilon, until this afternoon.” Wolf took a deep breath,
running a hand over his face. “And now I just don’t know,” he said,
voice sad. “This whole time, the only person he’s wanted is you. Do you
know what it’s like to listen to him beg for you and not be able to find
you anywhere?” Wolf snarled. “Pain can kill just as much as an injury
can, and that man in there is fighting for his life. And the one person who
can give him strength was missing.” Wolf met his eyes once more.
“Epsilon, you two had—have—the most amazing, fragile bond. I think
you damaged it pretty badly.”
Epsilon took the speech in silence. He deserved it and worse, and he
knew it. He stroked down the front of his shirt, looking up to meet
Wolf’s eyes.
“What’s going on here, Wolf?”
The head of TASK looked down and sighed. “We’ll discuss it later.”
“What’s there to discuss?”
Wolf shied away from Epsilon’s touch. “For now, you need to go to
Leander,” he said, lifting his gaze once more. “Once he’s stronger and
you’ve healed a little yourself, we’ll talk.”
“Is he going to be a problem? That ‘Montgomery Edwards’ person
downstairs?”
“Probably.” Wolf snorted. “Leander’s room is four doors down on
the right.”
Epsilon nodded and moved down the hall to the appropriate room,
rapping softly before pushing the door open.
Leander was writhing on the bed, tossing, panting, straining. His
whimpering breaths filled the room. Madison was beside him, Alex
beside her, wiping a cloth over his forehead. The girl gave a startled cry
to see him back, but Madison didn’t react.
His breath sucked in, and he heard himself hiss Leander’s name
before he even realized he was doing it, moving across the room in two
Mourning Doves 93
powerful strides. He was at the bed in moments, dropping down onto it
and reaching out hesitantly to run a hand over Leander’s face.
Leander’s soft green eyes opened and struggled to focus, lips parting
as he gasped in a breath. “Ep… silon?” he managed softly, then: “About
damn time, man.”
He laughed softly and reached out again. His hand froze in midair as
Leander flinched back away. It was an instinctive movement, and then
his wrist was caught in Madison’s firm, small grip.
He had about two seconds to look up before he was yanked to his
feet and, all Kin strength aside, couldn’t have fought if he wanted to.
“Madison!” Leander tried, and Alex covered her mouth with a hand,
but Madison had already leaned over Leander’s prone form and slapped
Epsilon hard across the cheek. Her blow split his lip, her nails raking
across his cheek to tear the skin.
He stayed like that for a moment, eyes closed. Distantly, he heard
Leander protesting, Alex whimpering with fear. He turned back around,
gently touching his lower lip.
“Got that out of your system now?”
Her face was pale, her lips thin. “No.” She gritted her teeth. “But for
now, it’ll have to do.”
“Madison, please.” Leander’s voice was soft and weak. He didn’t
sound angry or affronted. Just tired and hurting.
Epsilon felt a small chill of fear as he remembered Wolf’s words.
The thought of losing the only person who trusted him completely—who
he could trust completely—of ruining that fragile link between them
made his chest ache.
“Madison,” Alex said softly, touching her arm. “Let’s leave them
alone for a moment.”
Madison turned and then nodded, calmly wiping her hand on the
sheet. “Wolf and I want to speak to you later,” she told Epsilon, her
voice cool and distant.
The two women left, and Epsilon settled at the foot of the bed,
resting a hand gently on Leander’s leg. Silence fell, but it was not their
94 Angela Romano
typical, comfortable silence; it was tense, filled with Leander’s soft
grunts as he shifted and tried to find a position that eased his pain.
Epsilon wanted to reach out and help, to sooth away the ache, but he
was… he no longer had the right.
“Did you get her?” Leander’s voice broke the silence, making him
startle.
“I—” Epsilon stopped at the worst part of this situation, the part that
made the animal in him snarl with frustration and rage. “I put her down,
but she got away from me in the end.”
Leander groaned softly as he tried to push up on one elbow. “You let
her get away?”
“I didn’t let her do anything!” Epsilon snapped back, bristling. The
animal in him bared its teeth and snarled before he could stop it.
Leander’s ears flattened on his skull, but then his entire arm shook
violently, and he was dumped with a yip of pain onto his back. He
yipped again, curling into a pill-bug position.
“Leander?” Epsilon slid up to his side, and all pretense of space
between them evaporated. He gripped Leander’s hand and cradled his
partner’s shoulders and head, rocking gently, free hand soothing over
Leander’s ears. They waited until the fit had passed, and then Leander
relaxed into Epsilon’s hold, eyes closed and trying to relax.
“How’d she get away?” he asked after a moment, breathless.
“She was half-finished from your fight with her before, but
something’s—something’s different about the Hunters, Leander. She
wasn’t nearly as finished as she should have been. She went through a
window when I got her on the run.”
“She’s not stupid. She wasn’t going to sit down an’ let you kill her,”
Leander whispered, eyes not opened.
“Maybe, but I have a feeling that burning her or chopping her into
pieces is just about the only way to keep her down,” Epsilon replied,
leaning back on the headboard. “I nearly took her head off her neck
before she finally found her way out.”
“So yet again, Sasha ain’t dead.”
Mourning Doves 95
“Unless she bleeds to death out there. I followed the scent of her
blood until the trail dead-ended on me at a lake.”
“So she either drowned or got across.”
“Once you heal, we can go back and see if we can pick up her trail.”
“It’ll probably be cold by then,” Leander replied.
“You think it will take you that long to recover? Leander—”
“Epsilon.” Leander grunted, tried to push away, failed, and tried
again. This time he got free of Epsilon’s hold. “Epsilon, this isn’t just an
injury.”
“You’ll heal.”
Leander’s face went blank and cold. “Yeah. I guess I will.”
“Leander, I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you needed me to be. I’m
aware of how badly I messed that up. But Sasha was the most pressing
matter.”
“Don’t worry. I get it, Epsilon. I’m used t’ it.”
“Used to—Leander, don’t blow this out of proportion.”
Leander rolled over again, his eyes dark with anger. The argument
was cut off forcefully, though, when pain creased his face, and he
groaned, rolling away again.
The heaviness of something lost settled hard in Epsilon’s stomach.
But now wasn’t the time to call it out, and he leaned back and closed his
eyes. Whatever had broken and whatever was still whole didn’t matter
right now. All that mattered was holding Leander until he was better.
As it turned out, he held him until he fell asleep.
Then Wolf slipped back into the room and hissed his name. Slowly,
he freed himself from the tangle that was Leander’s body, and rose. Wolf
and Madison were waiting for him in the hall, and he could see Alex
moving back toward the room she shared with Madison.
“What?” he asked, closing the door softly behind him and following
the pair into the empty room next to it. Wolf shut that door too, and then
Epsilon started to get a little nervous. Wolf was tense, and he could smell
96 Angela Romano
the man’s mingling of emotions. Despite the fact that Wolf was
outwardly calm, Wolf was always outwardly calm, and it was impossible
to tell, unless you knew him well, what he was feeling. Even if Epsilon
hadn’t been able to sense the tangle of emotion, he’d have been able to
read it in Wolf’s eyes, in the way his hands couldn’t be still. He kept
looking at Madison, and he was shifting restlessly and constantly.
“Wolf? Madison?”
“Epsilon.” Wolf ran a hand through his hair, his eyes closing.
“Epsilon, listen to me and promise not to interrupt, all right?”
“I don’t make promises I don’t know I can keep,” Epsilon said in all
honesty. “But I’ll try if you need me to.”
“We do,” Madison replied. “Epsilon, you may have noticed the…
oddity of the behavior of certain TASK members, as you are not an idiot.
Particularly Leander. Epsilon, there’s a leak in TASK, a mole, of sorts.
And—” She paused. “And you have come under serious scrutiny.”
Epsilon was quiet for a long moment. “I’m not, to be honest, very
surprised,” he drawled after a moment. “Just once more in a long string
of taking blame.”
Wolf flinched and looked down. Madison placed a hand on his for
just a heartbeat’s length. It was not a lover’s touch. Madison and Wolf
had been through too much together not to be powerfully connected. The
touch was a reassurance, an offer of strength.
“Montgomery Edwards has been assigned the position of a second-
in-command to me for the length of time it takes to prove that you’re
innocent or not,” he added grudgingly, not looking up.
“Or until we find the real mole.”
“Or until then, yes.” Wolf sighed once again. “Did you get Sasha?”
This time, at least, the animal didn’t rage in impotent frustration.
“Almost. I about took her head off, but she got away on me.”
“So she is badly hurt.”
“There’s a chance she bled out,” he said. “Why?”
“Because I need to know if we still need to keep an eye on Alex.”
Mourning Doves 97
“I would, for a few more weeks anyway. Leander and I will get to
work on finding our leak,” Epsilon said, taking a deep breath, taking
things in stride. You had to when you worked for an organization like
TASK. When you were something like Epsilon.
“I’ll go back to her room then,” Madison said, and she actually
blushed a little when Wolf sent her a sideways look. For a moment
amusement broke through the tension in the air. Epsilon’s brow arched a
little. He’d sensed the attraction between Alex and Madison from
moment one, and apparently things were progressing nicely.
Cute.
“You and Leander need to come back to my apartment with me,
when you can,” Wolf replied, letting him go with the flow of things,
pretending like he hadn’t just suggested Epsilon could be a traitor. “I’ve
gotten some odd phone calls.”
Epsilon nodded. “It’ll be our first stop. Wolf?”
The man had been moving toward the door, but now he stopped and
turned partway, so that one shoulder and part of his face was visible to
Epsilon.
“Don’t hide things like this from me again,” Epsilon warned, his
voice low and dangerous. “I don’t care who suspects what of me. Fuck
knows it’s happened before. Don’t keep things from me. And don’t tell
Leander and expect him to keep it hidden.”
“He didn’t—”
“No, he didn’t say a word.” Epsilon took a deep breath. “And that’s
what upsets me.”
BACK in the bedroom, Alex tugged her hair back into a ponytail and
then leaned over her sink to brush her teeth, her mind tossing around the
little information she was aware of. Her heart was racing, her fear
pouring through her veins.
This whole thing wasn’t fair, and it wasn’t right. She’d just wanted a
98 Angela Romano
nice, quiet life with her girlfriend, with no excitement, no strangeness.
Just a nice, peaceful life.
And now here she was with a girlfriend who wouldn’t die, sitting in a
government building surrounded by men and women with ears and tails,
falling in love with a beautiful redheaded woman who was everything
Sasha hadn’t been, hiding for her life.
And she was enjoying it.
There was a gentle, familiar rap at the door, and she opened it,
admitting said beautiful woman.
“Hey,” Alex greeted with a small smile. Madison looked worn out.
Alex knew there was something going on with TASK, some kind of leak
or something, but she wasn’t clear on the details and had a feeling she
probably would never be. Madison and the others had been rather open
and forthcoming with information and such, but there was a line that had
to be drawn. Alex understood that, of course. She was not part of TASK
and therefore an “outsider.”
Madison shut the door softly, pulling her coat off and hanging it in
the closet. “How are you doing?” she asked, turning back.
“I’m… all right,” Alex said, sitting on the bed. “Look, Madison,
about earlier, a few weeks ago—”
“Don’t.” Madison held up a hand, eyes closed. “You were upset and
emotional, and I pushed buttons I suppose I shouldn’t have.”
Alex ran a hand over the bedspread, eyes focused downward.
“Maybe. Look, you got a place to eat around here?” she asked. She knew
how dangerously close she was coming to asking Madison out on a date,
and she’d meant to.
It felt wrong and awkward, flirting and teasing with someone like
Madison when Sasha was still there, but at the same time, it didn’t.
Sasha and Alex had, yes, been committed to each other, but with what
had happened, it was as good as a breakup, right?
Hell, when your girlfriend goes nuts on super-drugs and turns into
psycho-bitch stalker from hell, is there a socially acceptable waiting
period before you start hitting on the sexy lady with the hair like wine
who wanted to kill her?
Mourning Doves 99
Madison turned. “This is the TASK headquarters, not a waiting
room.”
“In other words, no cafeteria?”
“If there were, I’m sure the food would be terrible anyway.”
Madison’s lips twitched in something that wanted to be a smile. Alex
returned it with the genuine article.
“You wanna… I mean, you hungry?” Alex asked, rising off the bed.
“Not really, but I’m sure you’re not safe going out there alone right
now,” Madison replied.
All right. Okay. If that’s how you feel better about this. We can do it
this way.
Alex walked over to the closet, placing a hand on Madison’s
shoulder. “Well, I need food, and I don’t plan on ordering in.”
Madison didn’t remove the hand from her shoulder. “Alex, dear, are
you trying to get me to go on a date with you?”
Alex blinked in surprise at the straightforward question. Her lips
curved up in a coy smile, and she ran her fingers through the small hairs
at the base of Madison’s neck. The other woman looked at her, cautious,
curious.
“No. If I was asking you on a date, I’d’ve said, ‘Hey, Madison, let’s
go have some fun.’”
“Oh.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were disappointed, Ms.
Madison.”
Madison shrugged off her hand, wry amusement twisting her face.
“You seem incredibly certain I’m even lesbian.”
“Well, you didn’t slap me after that kiss.” Alex smirked. “So either
you’re really very curious, or—”
Madison raised a brow. “Wonderful deduction skills, Mr. Holmes.”
“Ms.,” Alex giggled out, hand over her mouth. “And everyone
always forgets about poor Watson.”
100 Angela Romano
Madison chuckled a little, pulling her coat back out of the closet.
Alex reached in as well and pulled her own jacket from the closet.
“Hey, Madison,” Alex said, shrugging the jacket on and smiling over
at the other woman. Alex took a breath and took a chance.
“Let’s go have some fun.”
Mourning Doves 101
LEANDER’S world had been tilted on its axis, and combined with the
pain raging through his system, he felt like he was about to implode.
He curled into a tighter ball, whimpering his agony softly, his ears
vanished into his hair, and his tail tucked like a kicked dog.
The pain had let go a little since Epsilon had come back.
No matter what else he thought of Epsilon right now, no matter how
angry he wanted to be, he couldn’t deny that the moment Epsilon had
walked into the room and held him, the pain had started to become
bearable.
They had always had a connection, a bond, that was almost physical,
and it hurt that he felt that he couldn’t trust Epsilon. He’d only known
the man—really known him, not just worked with him—for about a year,
and there was nothing you could really understand about a fellow person
in a year. Two years, now, actually, hadn’t it been?
So much he didn’t know about Epsilon. So much that was hiding
from him, revealed only in sobbing dreams and begging pleas in his
sleep for someone who was hurting him to stop, please stop, please,
leave me alone.
So unlike the Epsilon he knew.
Most people didn’t know anything about Gene Babies, in fact. They
were created by the government in a series of ever-darkening
experiments on unwanted and uncared-for people, the scum and the
102 Angela Romano
criminals, in an attempt to make everything Better, and the whole
shebang was broken apart when the atrocities and horrors committed
against the people trapped in that hellhole were revealed. But no one
ever made a huge fuss over it, and Gene Babies were just generally
accepted as another part of the strange and growing society that was
taking over humanity. With Kin and the ones who were Different, with
organizations like TASK being open and well-known and things like
Bearrs wandering the woods, people had come to accept that these sorts
of things were here to stay. Get used to it or don’t, but they weren’t
going away.
People never considered what those used for the genetic experiments
must have gone through, and when he heard that soft, heartbreaking
plea—please, it hurts, please—he wanted nothing more than to hold
Epsilon and soothe away the things done to him.
The longer he’d known Epsilon, the more intense that feeling
became, the deeper their bond grew. There had always been an
unflinching trust between them, an understanding. Through everything,
they’d never second-guessed each other.
And then Wolf’s reluctance to let him share the suspicion with
Epsilon, which suggested that maybe Wolf had entertained the thought
that Epsilon was the person responsible. And for the first time, Leander
had entertained doubts about his partner, whom he trusted so much but
knew almost not at all. Even when Epsilon did things like read through
Leander’s file to find out things about his past, it didn’t wound that sense
of trust. That was just Epsilon, and he hadn’t meant to hurt anyone.
It had scared him, that doubt; confused him.
Epsilon picked up on it, of course, sensed the change in their
relationship. Of course he did. Leander was pitifully bad at hiding it.
And then Leander had been in such pain, such burning agony, and
he’d screamed and screamed and wanted to die because it hurt so badly,
and when he’d reached for Epsilon there had been no Epsilon there. And
in his pain and terror, it had seemed the ultimate betrayal. With all the
time he’d spent wanting to comfort and support Epsilon, and then
Epsilon hadn’t been there.
And then Sasha was still alive.
Mourning Doves 103
Leander rolled over again, groaning deeply as another wave of pain
took him. It was receding, yes, but not gone. And it got worse at times,
better at others.
The door cracked open, and his ears pricked up as he struggled to sit
up a little. Epsilon himself entered, carrying a tray and pushing the door
open with his back. The other Kin kicked the door shut again.
“You need to eat.”
“Not hungry,” Leander murmured, and the instant he spoke, the
tension seemed to snap into the air. He felt it, the change between them.
If Epsilon had ears, they would have flattened. He felt it too, and hated it.
“I didn’t ask you if you were hungry. I said you need to eat.”
Epsilon set the tray down, separating his own food and taking a seat
backward in a chair.
“Epsilon, I can’t right now.”
“You can’t get better if you don’t nourish your body. Don’t make me
put a tube in you, Leander.”
If this was Epsilon showing concern, he needed work at it.
“I can’t,” he tried, falling back again and closing his eyes. “Fuck,
Epsilon, I hurt.”
There was a pause, then Epsilon swung his long legs off the chair and
sat behind Leander’s head, gently helping him sit up. The tray was set on
Leander’s lap, and Epsilon paused, letting his partner adjust to the new
position, letting the pain fade. He wrapped his arms around Leander’s
thin waist and gripped the bowl the man’s soup was in.
“Just relax,” came his mild voice, near Leander’s ear. “Just relax and
take it easy.”
He lifted the soup gently, pressing it to Leander’s mouth. Leander set
his teeth against it and turned his head. Epsilon’s own jaw set.
“Look, I know you’re angry, but you can’t starve yourself.”
“It hurts. I can’t keep it down, Epsilon—”
“Leander, either let me help and work with me, or I will stick a tube
104 Angela Romano
in you.”
Leander bristled in anger and struggled to push him away, but
Epsilon just tightened his grip until Leander cried out, then cried out
again as the pressure increased.
“Ow, fuck, okay, Epsilon, all right!”
Epsilon let him go swiftly; he hadn’t meant to hurt Leander, not
seriously. He let go his grip slowly, and Leander slumped back into him,
panting softly.
“You’re an asshole, asshole.” Leander gasped softly, eyes closed.
“Better this than sticking it down you.”
He lifted the soup once more and eased it between Leander’s lips. He
eased the liquid into Leander’s mouth, and, to his surprise, he felt
Epsilon’s big, calloused hand rubbing slowly, gently, up and down his
back. He hadn’t expected the soft encouragement, and he worked to
swallow the offered soup.
He hurt as much inside as he did out, and the heat scalded, making
him writhe in something that was more discomfort and less pain, really.
Epsilon hushed him mildly, pulling the bowl away to let Leander catch
his breath.
“Little sips,” Epsilon said quietly, and he eased the cup back up. In
this way, they fought their way through the entire thing, and Leander
slumped in exhaustion.
“Water?” It was a mild, almost neutral question, and Leander nodded
weakly. A moment’s more rest, Epsilon helped him drink, and then
Epsilon eased him back against the blankets, rising and taking the tray
with him. He resumed his seat in the chair and began to work on his own
food. Only then did Leander see the half-healed wounds, the way he
favored his side, which should have healed by now. Apparently he kept
re-aggravating it, which, knowing Epsilon, was not surprising.
Leander sighed and sank deeper into his pillows and blankets, eyes
closed. Epsilon had looked up from his food and was studying Leander
once more. There was a quiet intensity in his eyes that was
uncomfortable. He was thinking hard and possibly considering the
sudden tension in their bond.
Mourning Doves 105
“Leander.”
Leander put his face into the blanket, hiding in his pillow. He didn’t
want to discuss this, not now, in so much pain he could barely think.
“I don’t want to talk about this right now,” he murmured. “Not now,
Epsilon, please.”
“I just need one question answered,” Epsilon said very quietly, and
Leander twisted to look at him.
“Do you think I’m the traitor?”
The pause was too long for either of them to enjoy.
“No, Epsilon. I don’t think you would ever do that sort of thing.”
“You said ‘would’, not ‘could’.”
“That’s because I know what you’re capable of.” Leander shifted,
trying to get comfortable on the bed.
“And you think I could turn traitor.”
“I think—oh, ow. Ow. I can’t—fuck—” Leander doubled over, only
distantly aware of the cry that ripped from his throat. “I can’t do this
right now.”
“Leander—” Epsilon was cut off as Leander gave a low, deep whine
of pain and reached out blindly, helplessly.
And this time, Epsilon was there and took his hand tightly in both of
his own.
LIAISON hurt. His entire body throbbed like a giant toothache, and he
couldn’t focus on anything. Every time he tried, his stomach churned and
he tried to vomit, but couldn’t bring anything up.
He was badly dehydrated, he knew, and hadn’t eaten properly since
Monty had come back and found him.
He tugged at his bonds, grimacing as the ropes bit into his arms.
Well, that was a smart idea.
106 Angela Romano
The effort it took to exert even that slight attempt at freedom left him
panting, chest heaving. He felt weak and exhausted, and he’d not felt that
way for a long time.
He was in a bed—a mattress on the floor, actually—and naked,
which made him decidedly uncomfortable. His lean, dark body was
covered in scars and tattoos, his mane of hair sliding in a matted, tangled
mess down his chest and back. Once, that hair had been long and
beautiful. Once, men and women alike had loved his hair.
He looked up tiredly as the door opened, and Monty himself came in,
stripping his jacket. He’d come straight from work, obviously, and his
gaze was intense and focused inward. He looked up abruptly and then
moved over to the bed where Liaison was tied.
“You know,” he said, sitting next to the mattress and running a hand
over Liaison’s brow. “You really should have just minded your own
business.”
“You know I couldn’t,” he rasped, turning his head away from the
touch. “What you’re doing is wrong, Monty.”
“I’m not going to argue morals with you,” Monty replied. “Hungry?”
Starving. Liaison turned his head away quietly.
“Liaison, I asked if you were hungry.” Monty was fondling a piece of
cloth and extended it slowly to the young seer in front of him.
“I’d rather starve to death,” Liaison spat, and Monty jerked as if
stung and gritted his teeth.
“I don’t have to make this deal with you, Liaison. I could just make
you tell me what you know.”
“You could make me see it. I won’t tell you anything.”
“Liaison, you’re proud and a bit stupid,” Monty drawled, fondling
the material. “You’re so weak and worn out after a vision that I could
force you to tell me whatever I needed to know.”
Liaison’s jaw set, and he looked away again, eyes closing. He
stiffened when Monty laid a hand on his chest and the strip of material
was placed in his right hand, gently. He fisted it, refusing to accept the
material, but Monty squeezed the pressure point on his wrist until his
Mourning Doves 107
hand was forced to open.
Liaison jolted and bucked, fighting hard against the vision that
wanted to take him.
“Stop it,” Monty chided from somewhere in another world. “Fighting
it is pointless, Liaison.”
Liaison tossed his head, his vision blurring and blacking out on the
edges. He didn’t want it, he didn’t want to see, not anything that would
help Monty. But his body didn’t have any choice about which visions it
was privy to and which it wasn’t. It kicked in as it knew it should, and
trying to hold it back was almost impossible. He could hear himself, to
his own shame and horror, keening like some wild animal.
Monty’s hand ran over his face, gently, deceptively gentle, through
his hair. “Let it go, Liaison. Just relax and let it go.”
“Leave me the fuck alone!” Liaison gasped out, and he ripped against
his bonds, against Monty’s touch, holding the scrap of cloth there. “Get
off of me!”
Monty’s grip only tightened, and with a final cry of frustration, the
vision took Liaison.
“Well?” Monty asked when he came out of it, a panting, half-sobbing
mess.
Despite his exhaustion and his pain, there was a victorious grin on
his lips, grim and humorless, when he turned to face Monty.
“They know it’s you,” he sobbed out, head arched back into the
pillow, writhing in his pain. “They know, you cowardly son of a bitch.”
Monty’s brow furrowed, and his teeth were bared in a snarl. His hand
snapped across Liaison’s jaw, whipping his head to the left. “How?”
“Because I’m going to tell them,” Liaison said, spitting blood and
grinning again. “I’m going to tell them, and you’re going to die. You
never should have let me See, Monty. Montgomery. You made a
mistake.”
“And you should never let your ace out of the hole,” Monty snarled
back, grabbing his chin harshly. “Bad choice.”
108 Angela Romano
“You can’t change it,” Liaison said, still grim, still intense. “You’re
coming to your end.”
Liaison no longer fought against his exhaustion. He needed to rest.
Rest and gather his strength for what was to come. He closed his eyes
and let Monty’s threats and rage wash over him as the exhaustion carried
him into sleep.
“CAREFUL. Just take it easy; you’re still healing.” Wolf’s voice was
soft and warm as he unlocked his apartment front door to admit himself
and his two companions. Leander was moving stiffly, slowly, but he was
himself once again, or getting there, anyway. Epsilon, over the past few
weeks, was almost completely well also, with only a slight tenderness on
his right leg. It might never go away fully, but the limp was slight and
would never get worse.
Leander was sniffing the air the moment he stepped into the
apartment, an instinctive reaction that didn’t get him a lot of information.
He smelled Wolf, of course, and Madison; he smelled the booze that
Wolf often drank too much of and cigarette smoke; and he smelled
Epsilon next to him and his own scent from when he’d been in here in
the past.
Wolf’s apartment was smaller than Leander’s and Epsilon’s, of
course; it was an apartment that was meant for one person and always
had been. There was something helplessly lonely in that, Leander had
always thought; in an apartment that was never meant to hold more than
one person. It wasn’t a small apartment, by any means. There was a
moderately large living room and a half kitchen, a bedroom and a guest
bedroom, one bath. Much like with Leander and Epsilon’s, the guest
room was more of an office than anything, but unlike with theirs, there
was a bed in there too, and a little bedside table. If it needed to house a
person, it very much could. His apartment had a cold feel to it, partly
because he never seemed fully unpacked, as if he expected to pick up
and move at any time. In reality, this was because Wolf was a
procrastinator, not because he honestly expected to have to move at any
time. It looked much worse than it was.
Mourning Doves 109
“Well, everything smells normal,” he reported, a little uncertainly.
“Let’s hear those messages you say someone left you, Wolf.”
Wolf moved over to the machine, letting the threatening messages
play. Epsilon and Leander knew the voice too, and Leander’s ears twitch
manically as he tried to place it. Epsilon’s ears, if he’d had them, would
have been twitching too, Wolf suspected.
“I can try and clean it up,” Epsilon said at last. “Match the vocal
patterns and so on. I’m surprised you haven’t already done that.”
Wolf sighed. “I haven’t had a lot of extra time.”
“You’ve had plenty of extra time. You’ve just not thought of it,”
Epsilon returned with an arched brow. He gently lifted the tape from the
machine and tucked it into the little emergency pack that went
everywhere with Leander. Thank goodness that Wolf had an older
machine rather than a more modern version. He would have had a hell of
a time of it, trying to get the messages off that.
Leander shrugged the backpack off, dropping it onto the table to let
Wolf put the tape in it, and he moved into the kitchen with familiarity.
“Don’t break anything in there, Leander!” was Wolf’s only
admonishment, seemingly upset at this invasion of his home. “You want
a drink, Epsilon?”
The other man was pawing with what seemed to be idle curiosity
through Leander’s backpack.
“A drink or a drink?”
“Which do you want?”
“Do you mean ‘want’ or ‘need’?”
Wolf laughed, and Epsilon pulled back from the backpack.
“Either,” Wolf said.
“Then I need a drink,” he admitted with a wry half-smile. Wolf
returned it and nodded. It took a long time to earn that from Epsilon, that
semi-openness. It made Wolf somewhat proud that he had it.
He thought that perhaps he and Leander were the only two that ever
saw Epsilon smile, including Madison and the rest of TASK.
110 Angela Romano
He was also one of the few privy to Epsilon’s sense of humor, dry as
it was.
“I certainly have it available. I’m guessing Leander wants something,
as well.”
“Leander always wants something,” Epsilon replied mildly, that little
half-smile still in place.
“Either one of you on pain pills?”
“Do you think it matters?” Epsilon’s grin turned wolfish.
“I’d rather not have you two keel over from mixing drugs and
alcohol in my apartment, thanks.” But Wolf continued to lead the way
into the kitchen, where Leander was already making a rum and coke for
himself, making Wolf roll his eyes.
“You couldn’t just grab a beer, could you?” he drawled, doing so for
himself and Epsilon as well.
“Hey, you had it available.” Leander sipped his drink and then
cocked his head. He shifted to lean on the counter, and Wolf saw the
weapon at his shoulder for just a second. The powerful, powerful weapon
that should have taken Sasha down in one blow.
He got a little chill. That gun should have ended it right there, and if
not then Epsilon’s swords should have beheaded her easily.
There was something not right here.
Leander caught him staring and unconsciously pulled that outrageous
jacket back up in an unconscious movement that made his brow lift.
Leander had never been shy about his weapons before.
Epsilon propped himself up on the counter next to Leander, and
Leander leaned against the man’s dangling legs, his ponytail tickling
Epsilon’s knees.
“If I can get a voice match, I don’t see how difficult this’ll be,”
Leander drawled, after a moment.
“You’re assuming you’ll be able to get everyone’s voice patterns,
which isn’t easy. And the higher-ups in TASK won’t submit to any sort
of—” Epsilon said.
Mourning Doves 111
“You’re suggesting that the higher-ups in TASK could be at the core
of this?” Wolf’s eyebrows arched skyward. “I’d keep my voice down, if
I were you.”
Epsilon shrugged, swishing the beer around in the bottle, studying it
quietly. “If you think they haven’t been involved in some of the incidents
in TASK before, then you’re naïve,” he drawled at last.
Leander nodded. “I’m not saying it’s a conspiracy or whatever, but—
they’re people, Wolf, an’ people do shitty things,” he said quietly, head
tilted back.
People did shitty things, indeed. Leander and Epsilon knew that
better than most.
Wolf knew very little about Epsilon’s past, but a rather great deal
about Leander’s. The Kin had been dropped in a dumpster as a child and
grown up on the streets, doing anything and everything he could to
survive. He’d seen the scars from the life the man had led, seen them on
his body and in his eyes.
Leander was defensive and sharp, despite his warm and open
demeanor. A get them before they get me sort of person, he trusted few
people and offered himself to less. Wolf saw the damage Epsilon had
done to the bond between Leander and himself, and it was still there,
weeks after Leander was out of the hospital. It would stay that way, Wolf
thought grimly, and hopefully dissipate when enough time had passed. It
broke his heart to see the sudden cool distance between the two
previously close friends.
Not that it had utterly destroyed them; that much was clear, too. It
took more than a fractured trust to break them completely apart. The
bond they held, two people badly hurt by the rest of the world, was too
intense.
With time, they would heal. Or at least Wolf hoped so. He knew that
if Leander kept his distance this way, or worse, grew farther away,
Epsilon would lose himself and probably fade away.
Wolf sat down at the kitchen table, fiddling with his own bottle.
“And if we can’t match the voice?”
“…. Then frankly, Wolf, I don’t know what step two is, here,”
112 Angela Romano
Epsilon said. “We don’t have much else to go on.”
Leander set his glass down, biting his lower lip. “We’d have t’ find
more information on the actual leak itself, an’ no one up top is gonna let
us close t’ that,” he pointed out darkly. “Not Epsilon an’ I.”
“But maybe me, if we need to.”
“Since you’re supportin’ us, I don’t know if they’ll let you close,
either,” Leander said slowly, biting his lower lip. “But you got a better
chance than us.”
Wolf nodded and sipped at his drink again. “Maybe Mercedes could
get a look at those files, and if we get really desperate we can send
Madison in without permission.”
“There’s something about Montgomery I don’t like.” Epsilon’s quiet
statement broke through their argument in his mild voice. “Something
that makes—” He stopped, and for the first time in a long time, Wolf saw
him look uncertain, almost frightened. His tongue darted out to wet his
lips, and his eyes went to the bottle in his hand.
Leander glanced over and started to reach out, and then aborted the
movement and met his eyes instead. Wolf lowered the bottle. Epsilon
became very inarticulate when he got upset or lost his footing—yet
another aspect of his personality very few people were aware of. He
spent so much time being cold and aloof, confident and cocksure, that
people didn’t realize how different he could be.
Leander didn’t touch him, but he went still and very alert, paying full
attention to his partner, giving him strength with his simple presence,
with his quiet focus. Pushing would only make it worse.
“Epsilon? What?” There was something in his voice, something low
and urgent. He needed to hear what it was Epsilon was trying to get out.
“Something that makes a part of me—react,” Epsilon managed at
last, eyes still downward.
“React how?” Wolf asked softly, his own attention focused on
Epsilon now.
“Something in me feels… like….”
“His scent,” Leander interrupted softly, never switching his gaze
Mourning Doves 113
from Epsilon. “He smells—”
“Wrong.” Epsilon finished for him.
Leander nodded. “Wolf, inside every Kin there’s a part of us that’s
very animalistic in nature,” he said. “I mean, natural Kin, it’s not so bad.
Gene Babies….” He sent an apologetic glance toward Epsilon. “They got
a little bit of a harder time with it. The animal tendencies aren’t natural,
weren’t part of ’em t’ start with, so when they show their teeth it’s like
it’s hard t’ control sometimes. And it’s more sensitive t’ outside
influences.”
“Something about him makes it react,” Epsilon picked up, sounding
sure again.
“Well.” Wolf murmured. “I don’t have that little gift, but there’s
something about him that puts my hackles up, as well,” he admitted.
“Something about his voice.” He sighed. “But keep it quiet, for now. If it
comes down to Montgomery versus us, the others will listen to him, and
you know it.”
“Let me run the voice tests,” Leander said. “And see if anyone in the
bullpen matches.”
“Or anyone we have the vocal patterns for or can get.” Wolf nodded.
“If no go, contact me, and I’ll send in Madison.”
Leander nodded and sighed, pushing a hand through his hair. He
pushed off the counter and finished the drink in a few long swallows,
grimacing slightly. Epsilon did not finish his drink; he set the half-empty
beer on the counter. “I’ll follow Montgomery to the best of my ability.”
He said after a moment. “See what I can find out about him.”
Wolf pushed his own bottle away. “I’ll see what information on this
leak I can get to through Mercedes,” he drawled. “Probably not enough,
but we’ll see.”
The two men said their goodbyes to him and headed out of the
apartment again, leaving Wolf alone. He dumped out the rest of
Epsilon’s beer and his own into the sink and was suddenly swamped by
the overpowering loneliness and his own exhaustion once more.
Why couldn’t things be easy once in a while?
114 Angela Romano
MADISON, Alex found, was a very different person when not in her
work environment and stressed out of her mind. It took a few glasses of
alcohol and a lot of bad, bad jokes to get her to relax enough to talk, but
once she did, Alex found herself thoroughly enjoying Madison’s
company.
The bar they’d gone to was a fairly nice one: clean, moderately lit.
There was a place for dancing that was darker with colored spotlights, of
course, and the bar itself was also more dimly lit. But no place in the bar
seemed dingy dark, and there was actual food and tables placed around
the dance area. Once such table is where Madison and Alex sat, sipping
wine and talking quietly over the remains of their meal.
Alex had found that Madison was only thirty-four years old, five
years older than Alex herself. She found that she’d never had an actual
girlfriend before, though she had had a few one-night stands with other
women, and that Leander, Epsilon, Wolf, and Mercedes meant the world
to this woman. She discovered that Madison’s hair was, in fact, naturally
red.
She discovered that after a few drinks, Madison was much less shy
about inviting Alex to find out for herself just how natural the color was.
Alex had blushed and choked on her drink. Madison glanced over at
her calmly over her own drink. “I never took you for shy, Alex.”
“I’m not shy. I just never—”
Mourning Doves 115
“Expected that?” Madison lowered the glass and her lips curled in a
secret, impish smile. “Few do when it comes to me. Now, you’ve
honestly drilled me for more information than an interrogator. I should
think it’s my turn, don’t you?”
Alex lowered her own glass, grinning. “By all means, be my guest.”
“Well, I expected more resistance than that.”
“Madison, this is not my first drink of the night. Take advantage of
my lack of resistance; it won’t happen very often.”
“I doubt that. You seem like a rather open person. Aside from our
original meeting.”
Alex shrugged. “I’m not a quiet person, no,” she agreed amiably
enough. “Open? I don’t know, really. Friendly doesn’t mean book. Not
usually.”
Madison nodded. “Not usually, no, but you’re easy to read, Alex.”
“Unless what I’m showing you is only what I mean for you to see.”
Madison went quiet and nodded again. “I doubt you have any reason
to do something like that. And you don’t seem to be the type of person
who hides so deeply.”
“All due respect, as I believe you told me, you don’t know me,
Madison.”
“No, I don’t know you. And maybe you are hiding something.”
Madison conceded. “Do you have something to hide? Something,
maybe, that has something to do with Sasha? Or with this case?”
Alex let her breath out hard. “No, I…. Madison, I’m just playing
word games, here.” She placed her hands flat on the table. “I don’t mean
to turn this into some type of head game. I just want to have a few drinks
with you. And talk. And dance, and have some fun, and forget about
things for a while.”
“I can’t afford to forget about things.”
“Madison, it’s not healthy to work twenty-four seven,” Alex drawled.
“Everyone needs to let go for a little bit.” She grinned. “Come dance
with me.”
116 Angela Romano
“Alex—”
“Madison. My girlfriend is an unkillable monster, I’m being kept in a
building meant to hunt down and kill criminals like her, surrounded by
Kin, genetically created Kin, who knows what else, and I’m in almost
constant danger.” She grinned. “And now I’m sitting across from a
beautiful woman who just happens to share my interest in the same
gender in a nice bar, listening to music I love, and wanting to dance. And
I think I deserve to. I need to forget for a while.” She rose, pushing her
chair back. “Come and dance with me!”
“I don’t—”
“Oh, come on, Madison!” She grabbed Madison’s wrist and tugged.
“Please?”
Perhaps it was the drink, perhaps it was just her affection for Alex,
but laughing, Madison allowed Alex to drag her out of the seat and onto
the floor. Awkwardly at first, but soon Madison had fallen into the
rhythm of the music and was moving against Alex’s body in a familiar, if
timid, pattern. Alex wrapped her arms around Madison’s waist and
pressed them slowly against the small of her back, pulling her close.
“Relax. We’re all right, Madison, I promise.” She giggled. “We’re
not waltzing, here. Move in.” She lifted her head, resting her chin on
Madison’s chest lightly as the music changed to a slower song.
“Alex—”
“If anyone has a problem, they can cause a fuss. Let them.” She
sighed and shifted, her cheek pressing into Madison’s breasts. “You
really are beautiful.”
“Alex—”
“Madison.” Alex pulled away with a playful grin. “Hush.”
“Alex!”
“What?”
Madison reached out to tuck a hand under Alex’s soft chin.
“You’re painfully stupid, dear Alex.”
And she leaned her forehead against Alex’s, letting them sway gently
Mourning Doves 117
together, choosing to forget all they could in favor of losing themselves
in their first date.
EPSILON could feel it again, that feeling of being watched. It made his
hackles arch, even though he knew by now the scent of the cat that had
been watching him before. Still, it was strange by itself that the same cat
would be watching him, and he wondered if he were dealing with
another Kin. It didn’t have the smell of a Kin, but you could never be too
careful. Epsilon turned down a back alley, his claws scraping on the
cement softly as he began to sniff down the cat.
Then Montgomery appeared from the building he’d slipped inside
ten minutes ago, and his attention was drawn back to the man.
Following him had been a very good, if very annoying, idea.
The man had the strangest habits and schedule Epsilon had ever been
privy to. Not that he’d been privy to a great number of people’s internal
workings, but the point remained the same.
The man, who was supposed to be working as Wolf’s second-in-
command, was oddly absent at TASK, and they’d all noticed it.
Mercedes had told them that it was because Montgomery was supposed
to be rather unnoticeable, but all the same, his absences struck them all
as odd at different times. They saw him, at times, in the shadows or
lurking in the background, but more often, he was nowhere in sight.
And that wasn’t suspicious at all, was it?
So Epsilon had, as he said, taken up following Montgomery. At first,
it had seemed pointless, watching the man go from apartment to store to
TASK to library, all normal, ordinary places to go. Then he started
making trips to places like this: these back alleys, seemingly empty
warehouses, places someone like Montgomery had no place being.
Epsilon had taken to shifting for these places, simply for anonymity.
Well, as much anonymity could be afforded him as a giant-ass black
wolf. But while he wasn’t exactly inconspicuous, he at least was faceless
and therefore nameless, and he was fairly sure that Montgomery had
never seen his Changed form.
118 Angela Romano
Of course, fairly sure left more than enough chance for error. That
thought was not a pleasant one.
He padded softly away from the cat smell, following Montgomery
back down the road, keeping a careful distance. The man had come out
of the building carrying a backpack and take-out Chinese. He picked up
the scent of the food from his distance, the old, stale scent that said the
food was not for Montgomery.
So who, oh who, could it be for?
Montgomery was walking again, so Epsilon found the shadows and
followed.
Montgomery wasn’t stupid, though, and didn’t travel on foot. He
climbed into his Cadillac and peeled off. Epsilon snarled in frustration
and raced after it. He kept up, for a little while, long limbs allowing him
to nearly pace it, but after about ten blocks he started to wear, and at
twenty he was panting harshly and had to stop.
Fuck!
He turned and began to head back for TASK, too tired to change
back just yet.
He stayed a wolf until he felt the strength to return to human form
and did, then staggered and nearly collapsed. He felt in his pockets for
the cell phone he kept and dialed Leander’s number.
“Epsilon? Hey. ’Sup? You all right?”
“Tired,” he admitted. “Montgomery lost me in his car.”
“You tried to keep up with the car?”
“I did keep up with the car, for ten blocks,” he replied, still fighting
to get his breath back. “Lost him off of 29th.”
“Are you kidding me? Epsilon, that’s nearly an hour from where you
started! Your paws must be—”
“My feet are sore, yes, but not bleeding.”
“Do you need a pickup?”
“Yes,” he admitted, a little grudgingly. He didn’t think he could walk
Mourning Doves 119
home.
“No problem. Lemme close down some programmers, and I’ll be
there in about ten minutes.”
“See you.” Epsilon snapped his phone closed and pushed off the
wall. His feet really did hurt, more than he would admit, and he needed
to find a place to sit.
He found a bar and took a seat near the window to wait for Leander
to paper, and that’s when he saw it.
The cat that had followed him into the warehouse before. The animal
sat by the door now, watching him with intelligent, curious eyes. There
was something about that cat that had him so on edge, but not in the
same way Montgomery did.
He rose, grimacing, and moved forward toward the cat, which wound
its way through the crowds toward him. He kept an eye on it through the
ground, nearly losing it at least once. But soon he found it again, and
then behind it, another cat. Curiosity made his brows arch up, and he
extended a hand to the cats.
“Hello there,” he greeted, as the pair meandered up to him. It purred
and rubbed against his hand, and the other came up more shyly, flirting
around his fingertips. It was timid and shy, and reminded him fondly of
Leander—wanting affection but too shy to ask for it. After a moment, his
fingers finally brushed the soft fur of the animal.
And then he picked up the scent of the blood. He jerked his fingers
away sharply, his brow furrowing. He couldn’t see a wound, and the cat
didn’t act hurt. But the tangy scent of old blood was there.
Another, deeper scenting of it, and it proved to be human, not feline,
in nature. He reached out to grab the animal, but it darted away swiftly,
and its companion followed it. They were gone before he could gather
his wits enough to follow, but he saw the direction they’d gone.
The same way Montgomery had. They had run the same direction.
He rose, meaning to follow them, but they had slipped into an alley,
and there were too many smells to pick out the specific cat scents here.
Even the coppery tang was lost to the city smells. Leander rolled up
moments later, anyway, and Epsilon climbed into the car.
120 Angela Romano
“Want me t’ head in the direction he went?” Leander asked, as his
partner slid into the front seat.
“No. He’ll notice a car—particularly one like this.”
“Epsilon, I’m good at tailing people and not being seen.”
“Leander, he’s part of TASK too. He’s as good as or better than you,
as a senior agent—”
“Technically, aren’t you a senior agent too?”
Silence fell.
“Technically, yes. However, because of my past, I’m not permitted
access to the internal workings of TASK. You won’t be, either, even
when you hit the number of years here you need to. If.”
“You mean they don’t trust you as far as they can fling you.”
“Or you.”
“Yeah, well, I haven’t been there ten years, Epsilon.” The words
came out hard and biting, more forceful, more accusing than he meant
them to. Silence fell in the car, and then Epsilon sighed.
“No, you haven’t, but I assure you once you are—if you are—it
won’t make a difference.”
And here it came, out on the table.
Leander pounded a hand on the steering wheel gently as they pulled
up to a red light. “I’d like t’ think it would.”
“It won’t. Once you’ve been branded hard enough to be placed in
their little black book, there is no getting out, Leander.”
Leander wasn’t sure what made him choose his reply. Maybe he
wanted to see Epsilon flinch, wanted reminding that his partner wasn’t
some ice sculpture, wanted to see that vulnerability and aching sadness
that was only visible some nights, in nightmares. Maybe he was just
pissed.
“I’m mostly in it because of you.”
Epsilon, though, didn’t react, didn’t even look at him. “Yes, that’s
true; you sided with me throughout the period of time I was accused of
Mourning Doves 121
murder, and because of it you had your hand stamped. It won’t ever go
away, and you will always be looked at sideways. Those who don’t
know you will mistrust and second-guess you, and you can only hope
that those that do know you won’t do the same thing.”
Oh. Right through the heart.
Leander did flinch, hands tightening on the wheel. “That’s not fair,
Epsilon.”
“No?”
“No. It’s not. I barely know you. We’ve been partnered for all of just
over a damn year.”
“Odd, then, isn’t it, that I feel as if I’ve known you for much longer.”
“Yeah, that’s why you go ’round reading files.”
“It was not anything to do with you personally.”
“Are you trying t’ say I hurt your fucking feelings?” The car
suddenly lurched to a halt by the side of the road, the engine rumbling to
a stop. “Don’t hand me that!”
Epsilon looked over at him, his blue eyes steady and level. “I’m not
quite saying that, no,” he replied mildly enough. “I am saying that I’d
like to know what it is that made you believe you can’t trust me the way
you used to.”
Leander opened his mouth for an angry retort and then stopped. “I
don’t really know,” he heard himself say instead, his voice soft and
distant, as if heard through a wool blockade. “Not at first, anyway. I
think it was Wolf. Normally, when we’re in shit, he tells us. Both of us,
at the same time. I—he didn’t want me t’ say anything’ t’ you, so I think
some part of me started thinking why would he not want me to, and
then…” He shrugged. “I think I thought Wolf maybe believed it a little.”
Epsilon didn’t look hurt or stricken. In fact, Leander thought, he
looked far too understanding and calm.
Leander felt absolutely sick.
“I mean, he doesn’t, of course,” he said, and it felt like the words
came out too fast, even forced. “None of us think that—”
122 Angela Romano
“You do.”
Leander felt like his little car had just slammed into the back of a
semi. He almost physically lurched with the shock of Epsilon’s words.
“Huh?”
“You do.” Epsilon was staring out the window, as if they were still
moving and scenery was passing them by at fifty-five miles per hour.
“When I asked you if you believe I could be the leak in TASK, you said
you didn’t think I would, but you very much believed I could.”
“And I do believe you could,” Leander said, throwing his hands up.
“Hell, so could I! We’re both capable agents an’ really fuckin’ skilled
actors. We could both play both sides of the coin and better’n whoever’s
doin’ it now! Let’s face it, Epsilon; they’ve got reasons for thinkin’ it’s
you—or me.”
“They have plenty of reason. They are not you.”
“Well, that was the reason, at first. Then….” He stopped, looking
away. “Then you weren’t there.”
“What?”
“You weren’t there, when I was….” He stopped again, shrugging.
“And I needed you. And then you came back, and Sasha was still alive.
It—I don’t know, it just—”
Epsilon sighed, interrupting Leander. “Leander, you stay with me as
long as you trust me, as long as you want to. If the day comes when you
really—when you truly believe that you can’t trust me again—you leave.
And I’ll….” He stopped again, and his voice dropped to a low, low
caliber. “I’ll regret it and miss you. I don’t have many friends, Leander,
and I count you very high among them. I hope I don’t lose that.”
“Epsilon.”
There was no reply, and Leander turned the car back on and headed
back toward TASK. The rest of the ride was in silence, but the strained
trust that everyone thought would last for years suddenly felt less so, and
by the time they were back, it was once again a comfortable and
companionable quiet, and there was no longer anything wrong between
the friends.
Mourning Doves 123
THAT night brought the climax of everything far sooner than anyone
expected it to come.
Leander lay in bed, his mind ringing with Epsilon’s soft, heartfelt
words, so rarely heard, his friend and companion in the room across the
hall, snoring softly. Epsilon would deny until he turned blue that he
snored, but he did.
The younger Kin rolled over, studying the wall. Epsilon was scared,
he realized, terrified of losing him. He’d never even considered that.
Once again, it fell back on the past he knew so little of, and he wondered
how many people Epsilon had lost in that testing facility, how many he’d
lost over his years in TASK, fighting.
He’d hurt the other man deeply, and even though things seemed to be
okay again, he could still feel that hurt.
He rolled over again, pushing back his thick hair, then sat up and
swung his legs over the bed. Leander, too, had very few friends, and
Epsilon was the closest out of them. Leander felt like a real piece of shit,
and it wasn’t letting him sleep.
It was only because he was unable to sleep, though, that he happened
to notice the cat outside.
He stiffened, ears upright and quivering. The cat glanced up and saw
Mourning Doves 129
him, and he saw its mouth open in a meow.
Calling me? His tail lashed irritably, and one ear flicked backward,
listening for Epsilon. He was still sleeping peacefully. He opened the
window, and the cat meowed again, rubbing along the wall.
Leander bit his lip, torn for only a span of several heartbeats. He
knew exactly what he was considering doing could bring down upon his
head. He knew how stupid it was.
He should wake up Epsilon. He should wake him up and tell him
about the cats, get his backpack and his weapons. Should get on proper
clothes and let Epsilon call Wolf and tell him something was odd. He
should tell him that he smelled the same blood smell on the cat’s fur that
Epsilon had talked about.
Then he was a fox, and he was going out the window.
WHILE Leander was sliding out his bedroom window, Mercedes was
calling Wolf, informing him that he’d gotten the information they
needed.
Mercedes showed up at Wolf’s door with the small stack of files at
nearly midnight, wearing a grim expression.
“If anyone finds out I got these, I’ll probably be in jail for the rest of
my natural life,” he’d greeted, slipping inside. “Madison tried to get
them—um, by going through the proper channels—but she was shot
down before she even got the full request out of her mouth.”
“Figures,” Wolf spat in irritation.
“You can’t blame them, not with Epsilon and Leander’s reputation.”
Wolf gritted his teeth. “They’re not—”
“Oh, hush, I know. But let’s face it, Wolf, they have perfectly good
reasons for being wary. I had perfectly good reasons. Don’t give me that
look.”
“I’m not giving anyone a look.”
130 Angela Romano
“You are so, Wolf.” Mercedes turned. He was dark, all dark: black
jacket, dark jeans, black long-sleeved shirt, his silver hair a striking and
stark standout against his shadowy clothing.
And, much as Mercedes had noted Wolf’s beauty once again weeks
before, Wolf couldn’t help but have his breath taken away by his older
companion’s striking appearance. Mercedes had always been a beautiful
man, and age was treating him well.
Wolf flinched away from those thoughts, closing his eyes.
“I’m sorry if it bothers me that the man who’s supposed to be my
friend doubts me, despite what I’ve gone through to prove myself—”
“It’s not you, Wolf. We’ve had this conversation.”
“Yeah, yeah, we have.”
“Oh, come on, I thought we’d talked this to death. Wolf, my position
in TASK demands that I take perceived threats seriously. And honestly,
can you blame me for looking cross-eyed at your boys? Especially at the
first?”
“Mercedes, I never said I couldn’t. But time and time again they
prove themselves to you, and time and time again you continue to pin
blame on them every time something goes wrong.”
“It’s not me, Wolf, not just me—”
“And every time you second-guess them you’re second-guessing
me—”
“What the hell even brought this on?”
“Alex and I were talking this morning, that’s all. Are you even
listening to me?”
“No, Wolf, I am not listening to you, because we have already gone
over and over this.”
Wolf stopped, his jaw setting, pain creasing his forehead.
“Wolf? Are we going to discuss business or what?”
“Thank you, Mercedes. I’ll make sure no one finds out you two did
this.”
Mourning Doves 131
“Madison made a back door and covered her tracks pretty well. I
think we’re okay.”
“Good.” Wolf turned back around, setting the files on his desk. “She
and Alex are home safely?”
“Of course. I made sure they got there.”
“Mercedes.” Wolf started then bit down on his words. “I… I’ll see
you in the morning.”
Mercedes nodded, suddenly aware of the tension between them. “In
the morning, then,” he said gently, his voice soft. “Good night, Wolf.”
“Night.” He turned back to the files, sitting down at his desk and
pointedly paging through them. He didn’t look up, not when Mercedes
lingered, not when he started to reach out but aborted the motion, not
when he tried to speak, not when he murmured a soft goodbye, and most
certainly not when the door opened and quietly clicked shut. He focused
intently on the files, even though he didn’t read a single thing there. He
couldn’t.
THE fire was gone. There was only darkness, broken by a soft, faint
light, and the boy standing before him, and the other man, and, behind a
filmy wall, the one known as Monty. The one that Liaison now knew as
Montgomery, as well. This was not a normal vision. This was not how
they went.
They stood inches apart, quiet and solemn. He didn’t hurt, here, but
there was a deep, aching sorrow in the eyes of the Kin male, an apology
for putting him through this. Liaison wanted to reach out to him, to
comfort him.
But when he tried, the other man stepped in front and caught his
wrist. And Liaison found a gentle hand on his cheek.
“You,” the man said, and his voice was a mellow rasp, “would have
been a good friend too.”
He loved that voice. He wanted to hear more of it. Part of him rose to
meet it, sang at hearing it. Part of him felt connected to that voice, and
he felt tears start down his cheeks. He didn’t want to lose that before he
ever had it. He didn’t want to lose them.
“You are a good friend,” the other man said, more gently, stepping
around Epsilon, a soft smile on his lips. “I’m so sorry we couldn’t help
you the way you helped us. Others. You’re a good person, Liaison. Don’t
doubt it. Don’t ever. You’re a good person.”
Behind that thin frost of glass, Monty was laughing. It was bitter,
ugly laughter, and the man’s ears pinned tightly. “It’s pointless. Your
death, their deaths—it’s pointless.”
“I won’t let them die,” he replied coldly, moving in front of the pair
protectively. “They won’t die, Montgomery.”
The glass seemed to be melting away, and behind him, the Kin let out
a low, frightened whimper. His companion hushed him gently, hand on
his shoulder.
“You seem to think you can stop me.”
Mourning Doves 137
The wall was almost gone. Liaison move backward a step but
continued to keep himself between the two men and Monty.
“I already have. They know. They’ll find you and end this—”
“Not if I end them first.” The wall was gone.
The wall was gone, and Montgomery stepped forward, reaching as
he had in the first vision.
And Liaison grabbed his wrist.
An electric pulse beat through him like he’d been hit with a few
hundred volts of electricity. Monty’s hand latched onto his wrist, holding
him, and he began to seize and spasm. Blood poured from his nose and
his ears, and he was distantly aware that the Kin was screaming for him.
Screaming as if he could feel the violent shocks rocking his body.
Monty dragged him closer, his lips inches from Liaison’s ear, his
teeth bared in a vicious, aggressive snarl.
“Do not fight me,” he growled as Liaison struggled for air, struggled
for sense.
But Liaison would fight him. And he would fall, but they would win,
and that was enough.
“Do you hear me? It’s going to be enough.” And he pulled Monty
even closer, despite the pain, the agony of the contact.
“They won’t lose to you. Not to someone like you,” he managed, and
then he let go, back arching as the pain swept over him. But he was
laughing as it happened, laughing because he knew beyond a doubt, he
knew that Monty would lose.
And that was something very nice to know, indeed.
LEANDER followed the cats at a rapid pace down back alleys and side
streets, the entire time feeling more and more ill at ease and wishing
more and more that he’d not run off blindly like he had. He should have
brought Epsilon, should have waited and gone in the morning with his
partner.
138 Angela Romano
But what was done was done, and now he trotted, tail between his
legs and ears pinned, through the darkness in pursuit of the cats leading
him fuck only knew where. His nose was to the ground, and his steps
were sure, but he was scared, and getting more scared.
Then he picked up the blood scent.
He bristled and growled, speeding up the closer it became. The cats
darted off, but he didn’t need them, now; the scent was almost
overwhelming. He picked up into a run, and now his ears came
frontward, his tail flagging.
You’re close. Keep coming, he heard, and the voice was not his own
internal monologue, but clearly someone else’s. Male, a light, pleasant
tenor. It trembled with weakness but burst with strength, a defiant, proud
voice.
He followed it, followed it until he finally changed back to his two-
legged form, and he was navigating narrow alleyways that made him
nervous all over again.
“Where the hell are you?” he muttered, wrinkling his nose as he past
a dumpster a bit too closely.
Just a little farther. Just a little farther. Hurry, please. I can’t—
“I’m coming.” He heard himself respond, heard himself answer
aloud. “Hang in there, hang in there, whoever you are. I’m coming,” he
muttered, lifting his head to scent, and then he was on the trail again.
He found the body moments later, slumped against the wall,
surrounded by cats. He gasped softly in shock at the man.
The familiar man, at that. There was some part of him that
recognized this man, even though he’d never seen this person before in
his life.
The man would have been beautiful, if he hadn’t been so badly hurt.
Physically, he didn’t look badly beaten; but there was something broken
and dead in his green, green eyes.
Leander knew he was looking at a dying man, and he approached
with a timid, skittish respect. Somber, solemn, he dropped to his knees,
scattering cats.
Mourning Doves 139
“Hey. Hey, can you hear me?” Leander asked softly, looking in vain
for the wound that was killing this man. He saw lots of blood, but most
of it came through the man’s orifices, and Leander felt terror and bile
rise in his throat at the sight. It increased when the man reached up and
out, touching his face, and smiled.
It was the most horrible smile Leander had ever seen, broken and
bloody.
“You,” the man rasped, and it was a mockery of the cool tenor that
had led him.
“Yeah, me,” he said, uncertain just what he was agreeing with, here.
“Don’t talk.”
But the man shook his head, coughing blood onto Leander’s shirt.
Leander hissed, lurching away instinctively. The man caught his hand in
a grip that was amazingly powerful. “Follow them,” he managed, voice
strained and struggling. “Follow the cats. He’s there. He’s….” A gasp, a
struggling breath. “He’s working with them.”
“Who? What? Aw, man, don’t you dare fucking die on me if you
know what’s going down here. You hang tight with me, kid.”
Leander had no idea what he would have done if Epsilon hadn’t
followed him. He’d taken off out the window without any supplies and
he doubted if this man would have been able to make it back to the
apartment, or even TASK.
As it was, he picked up on the man’s scent moments before he heard
him, and then he whirled in time to see the huge timber wolf—or,
perhaps, as with Bearrs, it would be more appropriate to call him a Wylf,
after the genetically modified wolves that had appeared just as Bearrs
had—pad up softly behind him. It growled deeply, its anger savagely
obvious, and paced a circle, snapping at him. He yelped and shied away
from Epsilon’s teeth, laying his ears.
“Not now, you fuckin’ bully. We gotta get this kid to TASK’s
medical center!”
Epsilon snarled, one giant paw swiping the back of Leander’s head,
but he moved forward calmly and let Leander ease the injured male onto
his broad, huge back. Luckily, Epsilon was more than large enough to
140 Angela Romano
load the male on comfortably, but every soft cry of pain made Leander
flinch in empathy.
“Are any of the others here?”
Epsilon’s huge head dipped in a nod as they started to walk out of the
alley, Leander holding the weak male on Epsilon’s back. He was aware
of how slowly they were moving, and it made his entire body itch with
the desire to change that fact—to just run. He had the disturbing feeling
that something or someone was following them and, paranoia or not, it
made his spine itch.
Epsilon brought them out of the alley and to the road where Wolf’s
car waited for them, and in the distance, he could see Madison’s rolling
up. He let out a relieved breath and then yelped with pain as Epsilon’s
jaw locked around his forearm and pulled. His first reaction was to think
that Epsilon was still pissed at him and getting revenge, but then he
heard the gunfire.
Oh, shit.
He rolled, watching Epsilon bolt for the car, the injured male
clinging to his neck. Mercedes climbed out of the car, taking the limp
figure from the huge creature’s back.
Leander spun, looking frantically for the source of the danger.
The Hunters came from the shadows in black swarms, half of them
armed, half of them coming forward with nothing but teeth and claws.
We didn’t smell them. Why didn’t Epsilon and I smell them?
He rippled and Changed, rushing forward to meet one of the unarmed
Hunters. He heard return fire from his companions in the car, including
the familiar bark of Epsilon’s rifle. The sound was oddly comforting,
gave him the knowledge that he had backup, and his fangs sank into the
throat of one of the Hunters. For one moment, one split second, he
remembered those savage weeks of pain, of ripping, aching pain that the
scratch Sasha had given him caused. It gave him pause, it scared him, but
then it was over. It was gone just as fast as it had come.
And in its place was the absolute rush he was more familiar with. His
teeth tore through flesh and bone, crushing the Hunter’s throat in a
powerful bite, snapping his head back and forth violently. He pushed off
Mourning Doves 141
the body in a lithe bound and raced to his next target. Around him,
bodies fell, brought down by Epsilon’s expert shots. And somehow, he
knew that’s exactly who it was, knew that in the onslaught of gunfire and
violence around him, it was Epsilon and Epsilon alone that was guarding
his back.
The two were very used to relying on only each other, and anyone
trying to help them would only get in their way.
“Leander! There’s too many. Get to the car!” Wolf’s voice reached
his ears, and he ignored it, for the moment, his fangs and claws ripping
into the face of a female Hunter, dodging as she swiped at him and
digging his nails into her eyes.
“Leander! Now!”
The animal in him reacted to the alpha in Wolf’s voice, and he
sprang free, racing back for the cars.
Epsilon, sure enough, had parked himself just behind Wolf’s car and
was calmly and steadily picking off the Hunters that were on Leander’s
tail. He could see Madison behind Alex, her arms wrapped around the
other woman’s waist, hands on hers, guiding her shots, an oddly erotic
sight, and in another situation, he might have had fun with it. For now,
he was too busy trying not to get shot. The injured man was in the
backseat of the car Epsilon was taking cover behind, his head in
Mercedes’ lap, and Wolf was sliding into the front seat, cutting losses
and getting what was important out of the way.
Epsilon, though… Epsilon wouldn’t leave without him. Which meant
Leander had to haul ass back to him or he’d put himself in the line of fire
to get Leander out of the way. And that was something they’d both been
doing too much of lately.
He made two lat fierce leaps, and, midway in the air he concentrated
and concentrated hard.
He made the change halfway through his leap, hitting the ground on
two feet. It sucked just about every ounce of strength out of him, and
Epsilon had to yank him back up after his legs gave out.
“Idiot,” Epsilon snarled, shoving the .474 into his hand. Leander
smiled tiredly at the familiar feel of the gun in his hand and felt blood
142 Angela Romano
run down his chin.
Now that he was back to two legs, part of him shuddered in revulsion
at what he’d done. Epsilon’s gaze was dark and serious.
“You okay?”
“Fine.” He cocked the gun. “Wolf, we goin’ sometime today?”
“Both of you get in,” Wolf said, and they did, Leander taking the
front and Epsilon the back. Leander leaned out the window as he had in
his own car, his gun level and steady on the Hunters that started after
them.
Wolf was, to his immense gratitude, a better driver than Epsilon, and
more thoughtful to the fact that a certain Kin was hanging precariously
out the window. He wasn’t nearly pitched on his head. In fact, he didn’t
even lose his balance as Wolf spun around a corner, followed closely by
Madison and Alex.
It was almost boring.
He watched, holding his breath, as Hunters pounced on Madison’s
car, trying to use their sheer weight and aggressiveness to drag it to a
halt. He picked off the ones he could, more than glad to have the gun
back in his hand, but there was only so much he could do without fear of
hitting Madison and Alex. Most of it was taken care of, though, when
Madison slammed on the brakes and sent most of the Hunters flying. She
accelerated again, and the car either crashed into or ran over a good
number of them. He yipped and raised his gun into the air, his ears
upright and laughter on his face. Despite everything, it was always good
to see something like that.
“Leander!” Wolf barked from inside. “Get back in here!”
Leander slid back into the seat, and Epsilon sat forward, handing him
his holster.
“Here,” he drawled. “Next time you decide to run away, little boy,
don’t forget your toys.”
Leander shot him a brief grin. “Sorry, man. Shoulda woke you up.”
“Yeah, you should have, but what’s done is done.” Epsilon sank back
into the backseat next to Mercedes. “Damn, I can’t find any real wound
Mourning Doves 143
on him.”
“I couldn’t either. I think it’s mostly internal or something.” Leander
turned in the seat to look back, and Wolf snarled.
“Leander, turn around, damn it! If you don’t learn how to ride in a
fucking car….”
Leander’s ears lay flat, and he sat correctly, tugging the belt around
himself reluctantly. “How’s he doin’ back there?”
“Pretty poorly,” Mercedes murmured. “He can’t breathe. Wolf,
hurry.”
“I am going as fast as I can without getting pulled over,” he snarled
back, his tension rising by the notch. “Leander, turn the fuck around!”
Leander whirled around once more, settling forward in his seat. His
ears were back and his entire body tense with anger and concern. “Where
are we going?”
“To TASK, of course. We can’t take him to a hospital, and their
medical center is the next best thing,” he said. “Are Madison and Alex
still behind us?”
Before Leander could turn and annoy Wolf more, Epsilon glanced
back. “Yes, and coming up fast.”
“Good.” Wolf turned sharply and sped up despite his own
misgivings. “Make sure she stays on my tail.”
Despite the speed Wolf put on, it was still a close thing by the time
they got to TASK, and Wolf and Mercedes rushed the man—boy, really,
just a boy—up to the medical center. Alex and Madison followed, but
when Leander tried, Epsilon grabbed his elbow.
“Epsilon, let go of—”
Epsilon spun him around, grabbed him by the collar. The force of his
lift pulled Leander off his feet, and his back—and the back of his head—
met with the wall.
“Motherfucker! What the hell, Epsilon?”
“You. Are. An. Idiot,” Epsilon hissed, face inches from Leander’s
own. “What were you thinking, taking off alone, without a gun?”
144 Angela Romano
“I was just—”
“You weren’t, is the proper answer, I think!”
“Well, maybe, but it’s just so overused—-”
And then he was tossed. He hit the ground with a yip, rolling away
from Epsilon. He staggered upright, bristling and ready for the fight, but
Epsilon didn’t come at him again. Instead, the older Kin made a
disgusted noise in the back of his throat and headed for the med bay.
Leander shook his head to chase away the fuzziness brought on by
Epsilon’s forceful slam and followed.
As it turned out, they all got chased out anyway as their medical
techs fought tooth and nail to save his life.
There was nothing physically wrong with the man, pure and simple.
It was all in his mind, and that wasn’t to say he was nuts. The man was
one of the rare humans who was Different, who had a sixth sense, a
power. He’d been so massively damaged on that plane that it was killing
him physically. The more they tried, the longer they took, the more time
passed where the small group could be questioning him.
Wolf paced the hallway, snarling curses under his breath. He’d been
utterly unable to get access to the med rooms, blocked by determined
techs, and even Mercedes had been unable to pull rank and demand
access.
And so Wolf paced. Mercedes sat in a chair with his hands between
his knees, head down, and watched him pace with a silent, bristling
irritation mingled with concern. Leander sat on the floor, leaning back
between Epsilon’s knees, and the older Kin was brushing his fingers
absently though his friend’s hair. Alex sat on Madison’s lap, her head on
the other woman’s shoulder and her eyes closed. She was shaking,
trembling from head to foot.
Wolf wondered if she’d ever killed anything before in her life.
“Wolf, stop.” Mercedes’ voice was soft and low. Wolf paused for all
of ten seconds to glare, then resumed pacing.
“Wolf, that’s not helping. Stop.”
“Excuse me. Our one chance at anything even resembling a lead is in
Mourning Doves 145
that room dying, and we can’t get within ten feet of him because
stubborn techs refuse to admit they can’t fucking save him!”
“Wolf, they have to try.” Leander’s voice was soft and quiet. “You
can’t just want to let him die.”
“Of course I don’t!” he snapped, and Leander flinched away. Epsilon
snarled warningly, and Wolf took a deep breath. “Of course I don’t,” he
said more gently. “I just need answers,” he murmured, pressing his hand
to his forehead. “I’m just… I’m frustrated.”
“We’re all frustrated, Wolf,” Mercedes murmured, running a hand
through his hair. “But pacing is just making you more tense.”
“And what if he dies in there? What then?”
“Then we have to do this the old-fashioned way, that’s a—” He
stopped, his jaw clamping shut.
Montgomery Edwards stepped from the shadows to their left, his
gaze on the door. Epsilon started to growl, and Leander’s tail began to
lash over the slick floor.
“I hear you had some problems tonight,” he drawled in his soft,
dangerous voice. Wolf had stiffened and now watched him warily, and
even Mercedes had come half-out of his chair. It seemed that the tension
the group felt for the man was no longer as hidden as it had been. But
Montgomery seemed oblivious to it.
“Who is your new friend?”
“We don’t know, actually,” Madison replied. “We found him, and
he’s too badly hurt to get any information from.”
Montgomery nodded, his half-lidded gaze still locked on the door.
“What made you go looking for him?”
Leander’s chance to speak. “I smelled something funny. Followed
it.” It was a little more than half a lie. But then, it was half the truth, as
well, and Wolf smirked at it.
“And what alerted you to the smell?”
Leander went more stiff than before, very aware of how thin the ice
he was on. “I went to the window for some air. Couldn’t sleep,” he said,
146 Angela Romano
which was, again, a half-truth.
“And you picked up the scent?”
“Yes, and then I picked up the scent.”
“You sound a little defensive.”
“Excuse me if I’m stressed.”
“Leander.” Epsilon’s admonition was quiet and low. Leander’s
mouth shut immediately, and he gritted his teeth.
“And what are we hoping to get from this man?” Montgomery asked.
“How do we know he’s anything but a bum?”
“We have cause to believe he’s a good lead on—well, pertaining to
our little issue,” Madison said. “There’s been some oddity pertaining
to—”
“Cats,” Montgomery finished for her quietly, making all of them
startle visibly.
“Yes, actually,” Madison said at last, very cautiously. Montgomery
nodded.
“You’re forgetting that I’ve been keeping an eye on all of you,” he
reminded, and then he slid back into the shadows once more as the
medical doors opened.
“Well?” Wolf demanded, rising, and then everyone’s hopes were
crushed in one sweeping moment and the tech shook his head quietly.
“He tried, bless his heart, but he didn’t make it. Whatever got at him
did a good—”
Even Wolf jumped in surprise at Epsilon’s fierce snarl as he flipped
the side table over with a sharp clatter and stormed from the room.
Leander ran after him, whining softly, and Alex covered her mouth and
closed her eyes as Madison made a low, pained sound.
Wolf just slumped, falling in a defeated hunch into a chair with his
hands over his face. Mercedes placed a hand gently on his shoulder.
“Did he say anything before?”
The tech shook his head. “No. I don’t think he could.” The man
Mourning Doves 147
looked a little disgusted that his words were all they were concerned for.
Wolf made a soft, pained sound of frustrated ache, and Madison’s
hand tightened on him.
And, unseen in the darkness, Montgomery smiled in grim
satisfaction.
148 Angela Romano
THE door to the apartment slammed forcefully, nearly tearing apart the
newly repaired frame. It opened again seconds later, and Leander closed
it considerably more gently, taking a deep breath.
“Epsilon, they were doing their jobs.”
“We missed the chance to get information from our only lead!”
“They couldn’t just let us quiz him until he couldn’t breathe
anymore.”
“He was our only thing to go on, Leander!”
“I’m very aware of that!” Leader gritted back, hands fisting. “You
think I don’t know that?”
Epsilon turned, his eyes sparking with his anger. “And what now,
Leander?”
“Don’t make it out like this is my fault! Hell, if it wasn’t for me we’d
not have found him at all!”
“As if it makes a huge difference.”
Leander’s jaw set once more. “He told me to follow the cats, told me
it was ‘him’. That ‘he’ was working with ‘them’.”
Epsilon took a deep breath, trying to calm down visibly.
“Come on, Epsilon, we both know what ‘he’ that kid was talking
about.”
Mourning Doves 149
“We can’t prove it.” Epsilon growled. “We had proof if he’d lived—”
“Maybe we still can, if we go after those cats,” Leander tried.
“Maybe there’s something there—”
“You’re forgetting the part where swarms of Hunters ran our asses
out?”
“That may have been a fluke. If Montgomery—or whoever—was
waiting for us, lured us into a trap with that kid, they’ll be gone when we
come back.”
“You are not naïve, you are not stupid, so do not act like you are,”
Epsilon snapped.
“I’m not! Damn, Epsilon, I try to point out potentially good facts,
and you act like any optimism is stupid!”
“That would be because it usually is.”
“Oh, beautiful outlook on life.”
Epsilon snorted. “I’d think someone with your past would have a
more cynical view.”
A pause. “Y’ know, maybe you’re right; maybe I should be more…
cynical, I guess, but I can’t, okay?” Leander sat backward in a chair,
resting his chin on his arms. “The world’s got too many people like that
already.”
“There’s a difference between cynical and realistic, and I’m not
going to get into a debate about anything moral with you, not right now.”
Epsilon stripped off his jacket and draped it over a chair. His swords
came off, too, but those were gently set down on the table, as were the
guns. Leander also yanked off his holster, but kept the gun gently
gripped in his hand. He loved that weapon, and right now, he needed it in
his hand.
“Look, I’m sorry the kid died. But this doesn’t end us, and it’s not
my fault!”
“I never said this was your fault.”
“You’re sure as hell acting like it.”
“Maybe because you took off out the window with no weapon,
150 Angela Romano
without even your stupid little backpack—”
“That didn’t get him killed!”
“Leander, for once in your life can you just admit you did something
stupid?”
“I was trying to help you! I already apologized, anyway!”
Epsilon took another breath and held out his hands, his eyes closed.
“Stop, stop, just…damn it. Leander, we just need to go back to bed.
We’ve been up since the middle of the night, we’re stressed, tense, we
just need to get some sleep and take some time to catch our breath.”
Leander nodded, putting his forehead in his hands. Epsilon moved as
though to reach for him, then stopped.
“You’re covered in blood,” he said, very gently, and Leander’s eyes
snapped open.
They’d been at TASK since the discovery of the man, now almost a
full day ago.
Leander—hell, none of them—had gotten cleaned up since that
battle, and the blood of the Hunters was dried on Leander’s face. He
could taste it again, abruptly, and before either of them could do
anything, he doubled over and heaved. It didn’t bring anything up; there
wasn’t anything to bring up. Epsilon’s nose wrinkled, but he moved
forward calmly to rub Leander’s back.
Shooting someone and ripping out someone’s throat or face are two
very different things. Leander halfway opened his eyes, watching the
world spin lazy circles, watching it fade and blur at the edges.
“Leander. You’re going into shock.” Epsilon’s voice was calm and
gently. “Don’t pass out, because I’m not dragging your heavy ass
upstairs. Let’s get some water in you.”
He gently eased a hand under the Kin’s arm, pulling him upright. He
took the man into the kitchen, setting him down at the table and pouring
a glass of water for him. Leander used it to rinse his mouth out, and then
drank the second glass that Epsilon brought him. It helped to ease his
stomach, and after a few deep breaths the shaky dizziness had passed.
“I’m all right,” he announced, coming out of the kitchen. Epsilon had
Mourning Doves 151
already gone upstairs, taking his jacket and weapons. Leander’s, too. He
made his way upstairs, dragging himself to his room and stripping his
clothes as he went.
His room, besides being a mess, was one that most people would
have made a disgusted face at before they called him a spoiled brat.
Large enough to hold a bed twice the size of his own futon, with its own
full-sized bathroom attached, it was a spacious and luxurious area, but
Leander never thought of it that way, or himself as spoiled. He worked
for his position in TASK, and this room, this apartment, was his
paycheck.
Still, it was a nice thing, having a bathroom this large only a few
steps away.
He shed his filthy clothes as he walked, not even bothering to find
clean ones; he just wanted to wash himself off. He turned the shower on
just about as hot as it could go without scalding him, then stepped in,
letting the water soak his red-blond hair and washing the dirt from his
body. He leaned his head against the tiles, his entire body relaxing
slowly, in increments. His mind began to relax as well, unwind from the
tense knot it’d found itself in all day. He scrubbed his skin nearly raw,
cleaning off the blood of that poor man who had died in the alley and the
blood from the Hunters he’d fought, though he could still taste that in his
mouth.
What made him double over and vomit yet again was that part of him
liked that. This time, there was something to bring up, and he did, all
over the shower floor. Mostly bile and water, but it made him feel better
when it was out, anyway.
It was slightly rust-tinged.
He closed his eyes against it and washed it down the drain quickly,
scrubbing his hair and then finishing his shower. He stepped out and
scrubbed his teeth like he’d scrubbed his body, rinsing and brushing until
his gums bleed.
That was okay; that blood was his own. He slid into a pair of
sweatpants, his bare torso revealing the huge dragon tattoo he bore. It
also showed the scar on his chest, a nasty, ragged tear gotten from a
Hunter, the knife wound from a street fight on his leg, and the winding
152 Angela Romano
scar from barbed wire around his right shoulder. And a half-turn showed
the road-rash-style scars almost completely covering his back. He’d been
dragged for miles for that one, and he was absurdly proud of the scar left
behind.
He yanked his hair up in a ponytail, giving it a little shake to remove
the last of the water. He snarled softly on a low, heavy inhale.
“I need a drink,” he muttered.
He stepped from the room, padding softly down the hall to rap on
Epsilon’s door. It opened after a moment, and his companion’s head
poked out. He looked freshly showered too, his dark curls falling in
damp hanks around his face, half obscuring his eyes, and he was in a pair
of shorts and a T-shirt that bore a the face of a grinning werewolf and the
words “Hello, Lunch.”
“Hey, you feeling better?”
“A little. You gonna yell at me more?”
“No.” The door opened wider.
“Can I….”
“I didn’t open it for the hell of it.” Leander moved into the room past
Epsilon, and Epsilon shut the door again softly.
“We should just get some sleep, really. Talking this late is just going
to take us in circles,” Leander said, but perched backward in a chair
anyway.
Epsilon sat on the bed, pulling his legs up to his chin. “We need to
know what Mercedes can do. Has done.”
“And we can’t do that until the morning, either,” Leander pointed out
quietly. “Let’s just… let’s just get some rest tonight. It’s been rough,
Epsilon. On all of us. Wolf most of all.”
Epsilon sighed and went to staring out the window. “I just want this
to be done with. I’m tired of people second-guessing my every breath.”
“Aw, babe, I know. Me too,” Leander agreed softly, rising once
more. “Look, I just wanted to be sure you were all right. Let you know I
am. Get some rest, okay?”
Mourning Doves 153
Epsilon nodded. “I’ll call Wolf in the morning and see if he wants to
take off on this or give us all a couple days.”
“It’s weird. It’s not like we knew him, or anything. He may not have
even been a proper lead,” Leander murmured, putting his chair back in
the corner.
“So why does it feel like we lost a friend?” Epsilon asked, when
Leander was almost back at the door. His voice was so soft and faint that
Leander almost didn’t hear the question.
“I….” He stopped, closing his mouth and laying his ears softly, as he
always did when he was upset. “I don’t know, but it does, huh?”
“Yeah. Yeah, it really does.”
Leander tried a smile that felt like it failed miserably, and shrugged
one shoulder. Then he slipped out and shut the door once more with a
quiet click.
That entire night, cats prowled below Leander’s window.
They were gone in the morning.
“SON of a bitch!” Wolf’s voice was ripped through with raw frustration
and anger, but he wasn’t yelling. His voice was low but pulsing with
anger and power, an edge to it that Mercedes didn’t like. It was that edge
that had made Mercedes follow him home in the first place, worry about
Wolf’s—um—mental state at the moment.
Wolf had the bad, bad habit of drinking too much at times like this.
He had the worse habit of driving while at it.
“Motherfucking son of a bitch! Who the fuck do they think they are?
Do you know what we could possibly have just lost? Do you have any
idea how close we were? Damn it. Fuck!”
“Wolf.” Mercedes’ voice sounded sane and calm in the void left by
Wolf’s rage. “Stop it; calm down.” He closed the front door softly and
set the alarm.
154 Angela Romano
“What are you doing?”
“Staying here for the night,” Mercedes said, refusing to take no for
an answer. “And don’t argue with me. You’re upset. I’m upset. Luckily
for you, I handle it better.”
“I handle it fine.”
“Yes, I can see that.” Mercedes stripped his coat. “Wolf, go take a
shower. Hell, I need to shower. We’ve all got blood on us. And dirt. Lots
and lots of dirt.”
“I don’t want to shower.”
“Yeah, you need a shower.” Mercedes grabbed him by a shoulder
and got thrown off. “And so do I, so if you won’t take one I want to.”
“Go ahead.”
Mercedes growled and gritted his teeth. “Wolf, don’t turn obstinate
on me, damn it.”
“Oh, excuse me. Am I irritating you?”
“Too late.” Mercedes propped his hands on the counter and hung his
head with a sigh. “Look, I’m going to clean up and go to bed. Do
whatever you want.” He pushed away from the counter and moved into
the little bathroom. The door closed behind him but didn’t lock.
Wolf was very aware of that.
He swore violently under his breath, punching the tabletop in
frustration. As if everything that had happened recently wasn’t enough,
he now had his body’s reaction to the thought of Mercedes in his shower
to deal with.
Mercedes and Wolf had been lovers months before Mercedes had
been assigned a higher position in TASK, and for a while nothing had
suffered. But it had been a slow erosion, their relationship, and before
either of them had known what was happening Wolf was packing his
things and moving out.
There had been no argument, no violent fight. In fact, the end of their
relationship had been almost a nonevent, and in all honesty, maybe that
was part of the problem.
Mourning Doves 155
Such a mild but ugly break, because neither one of them had wanted
it to end.
Wolf could only handle Mercedes’ suspicions of Epsilon and
Leander for so long, and Mercedes had to be suspicious, because now it
was his job. And so they’d both just seemed to understand and
unspeakingly agree to end their… whatever it was… before it ended
badly.
Wolf now wondered if it hadn’t ended badly anyway. Or if maybe it
ending at all was the problem.
He shrugged out of his shirt, noticing the dried blood for the first
time. He was filthy, and suddenly he felt it. It made his skin crawl. He
shivered and climbed out of his pants too, standing naked in his living
room.
He glanced back to the bathroom and sank his teeth into his lower
lip.
Well. He did need a shower.
He slid the door open quietly, watching for a moment without
moving. Mercedes, of course, felt him watching instantly and froze for a
moment before he pushed back the curtain.
“Don’t just stand there,” he said gently, and Wolf stepped into the
shower, allowing Mercedes’ familiar touch to soothe away the hurt of the
day.
“DAMN, that poor kid.” Alex’s lament was soft and faint as she lay in
Madison’s arms on the bed that night. She took comfort in Madison’s
warmth and presence behind her, in her arms wrapped around Alex’s
slender waist, holding and soothing.
“I know, sweetie, but this….” She sighed quietly, pressing a kiss to
Alex’s hair. “This is far too common, in this line of work.”
“So people dying, it just… doesn’t bother you anymore?”
“I didn’t say that,” Madison scolded. “But if this—if you and I—”
156 Angela Romano
“Madison.” Alex rolled over, pressing her fingers gently to
Madison’s lips. “I’ve known from the moment I kissed you that getting
into anything like a relationship with you wouldn’t be easy.” She took a
deep breath. “This is what you do. And it’s not going to scare me of. You
won’t scare me off.” She ducked her head under Madison’s chin. “I’m a
tougher bitch than that.”
Madison was quiet for a little while, and then pressed her lips to
Alex’s hair.
“Good.” She said, and smiled in contentment. Alex made a soft
sound and nuzzled even closer to her.
“Are we—is everyone going to be okay?”
“I don’t honestly know,” Madison admitted softly, pressing her face
into Alex’s hair. “I think Leander and Epsilon put a lot on this lead. A
lot. Maybe too much. And Wolf got caught up in that. Mercedes, though,
managed to stay grounded, more like myself—and you—and hopefully
won’t let him do anything stupid.”
AND come morning did. A man and his love—the only one he’d had in
his life, in fact, and the only one he would ever have—were forced to
wake up and face reality; a reality that would be difficult and painful for
them. And two young loves were also forced to rejoin the world, but they
did not dread the morning; they had each other. Reality did not frighten
them.
And Leander Kale and Epsilon Maddox woke too, peaceful for only
a moment before last night’s events caught up to them. Then a cold, hard
ball of dread formed in Leander’s stomach, and he felt sick all over
again. Physically ill. He lay in bed until Epsilon rapped on his door and
then peaked in.
“Leander? You’re going to oversleep.”
“Not asleep.”
Epsilon made a low, irritable sound. “Lying in bed all day isn’t going
to solve anything.”
“No, but it lets me stall.”
“Leander.”
Leander sat up, pushing hair out of his face. “Epsilon, yesterday I
had a man die practically in my arms and ripped out four throats and two
faces at least. Can I please just take a break, for once?”
Epsilon went quiet and then closed his eyes. “I know, and I’m sorry.
160 Angela Romano
But the sooner we end this, the sooner we can all breathe easier.”
He came closer, gently tugging the blankets off Leander. “Come on;
up you get, Leander, Wolf’s already calling us. And he doesn’t sound
right. Something’s off.”
“Something’s off and going to stay that way. After yesterday—”
“It was yesterday, Leander. Let it go.” Epsilon said.
“But—”
“Leander.” Epsilon’s voice was tight, bitten off. “Just let it go.”
He turned. “Wolf wants us to meet for breakfast, so hurry up and get
dressed,” he said. “We’ll talk about what happened yesterday—what was
important, Leander—when he decides to.”
“I happen to think what I’m trying to say is very important.”
“And I happen to disagree.”
Leander raised a brow and slid off the bed, well on his way to a pout.
It would have been a waste of a good pout, though, because Epsilon was
already leaving the room. Leander pulled his hair down and brushed it
through, then gently brushed his teeth a second time and dressed, sliding
into his “Never Stray from the Path” sweatshirt (it had a paragraph from
Little Red Riding Hood on the back, and it was one of his favorites,
bought for him by Epsilon a year prior) and a pair of jeans. He slid into a
pair of sneakers too, and grabbed his lovely, lovely jacket and both his
weapons before joining Epsilon in the living room.
Epsilon was in a gray T-shirt that read “Werewolf? Therewolf.”
Leander had given it to him on his birthday and been surprised to hear
Epsilon laugh out loud. And Epsilon also wore it, and not just
occasionally. Leander said it should read “here” instead of “there,” but
you made do with what you had.
Besides, “here” didn’t rhyme.
Leander accepted coffee in a travel mug gratefully, and the pair
loaded into their car and headed to where they’d agreed to meet Wolf.
It was a little hole-in-the-wall dinner, but they’d all been there
before, and the food was decent. More importantly, privacy was easily
Mourning Doves 161
gotten there.
Leander smelled it instantly.
Something was so off between Mercedes and Wolf that it burned.
They were seated opposite of rather than next to each other. Wolf was
quietly sipping a coffee of his own, and Mercedes was tearing apart a
doughnut instead of eating it. They weren’t saying a word, and the air
between them smelled like—
Oh, lord, not again.
He looked at Epsilon.
Epsilon looked at him.
This was going to be a long fucking week.
They both were alerted to the sound of Madison and Alex pulling up
moments behind them, and then Epsilon sighed and took one for the
team, approaching the pair.
“Everything all right?” he asked softly, pulling up a chair between
the two men.
“Not really,” Wolf said bluntly, looking up from glaring into the
mug. “But it’s none of your business.” He hooked a chair out with his
ankle and motioned. Leander approached, tugging out the other available
chair and draping his small, slender frame into it, legs propped up on the
table.
Mercedes promptly shoved them off, and Leander’s chair nearly
tipped over backward.
“Is this going to mess us up?” Epsilon inquired, reaching out without
real thought to grab the chair’s back and steady it. “Because if it is, it
needs to get cleared up now.”
“And just what do you think ‘this’ is?” Mercedes asked abruptly,
looking up from his food.
“Whatever we can both smell on both of you.” Leander didn’t even
look up from the table. “Whatever you wanna call that.”
A terse silence fell around the table, and then Wolf spoke, voice low
and soft.
162 Angela Romano
“I was stressed, and Mercedes and I fucked. That’s all there is and all
there’s going to be. Now, is that a problem?”
“Not if it’s not,” Epsilon said.
“It’s not.”
“Good; then down to business.”
“What about Madison and Alex?”
“Alex isn’t a part of this. Madison’s keeping her alive.”
“Oh, she’s keeping her alive, all right,” Leander piped up, grinning
wryly. Epsilon smacked the back of his head.
“So they’re not joining us?”
“No.” Mercedes reached into his coat and withdrew copies of papers
in a manila file. He paused with his hands on the file. “Don’t,” He said,
mild but warning, “alert anyone to this, the fact that you’ve seen this,
that you know anything in here, or that you’ve even laid eyes on these
copies.”
“They’re going to be burned after this,” Wolf added softly, though he
didn’t look at Mercedes. “So if you need something you see, retain it.”
He pushed the files forward.
The men at the table all sat forward, glad of the privacy this place
offered, and began to push over the files that Mercedes and Madison had
swiped from a back door.
And the more he read, the more Leander felt his stomach clench even
further.
They knew. They knew.
His eyes flicked over the pages, hearing Wolf’s breath pick up faster
and faster as they read.
Every single file, everything they were reading, pointed straight to
Montgomery Edwards as being the person who had framed Epsilon so
many years before. There was no solid proof, of course, nothing that said
in big, red letters MONTGOMERY EDWARDS IS RESPONSIBLE
FOR THE FRAMING OF EPSILON MADDOX, but they certainly had
Mourning Doves 163
their suspicions about him; there were notations about things he’d done
in the past, in other facilities of the government; he’d been on the police
force, once, until allegations of being a dirty cop had chased him away
from the game and sent him running to TASK.
TASK was notoriously open-minded, considering the type of people
and places they handled. There’d never been any proof that he’d been a
dirty cop, so TASK had tucked the files away and given him a clean
slate.
But, much like with Epsilon and Leander, things hadn’t gone away
completely. It had always been there, a black spot on the man’s record,
and it had made him primary target one when Epsilon claimed he was
being set up.
No one had bothered to say a word about it.
Of course they didn’t, Leander thought, tail lashing around the legs
of his chair. Of course not, because they’d be just as happy to be rid of
us, of Epsilon, even though we’ve done more for and through TASK than
Montgomery has even considered doing.
“Leander, you’re growling. Stop it.”
Leander jolted in surprise, eyebrows arching skyward. He was,
apparently, doing it again. “Sorry,” he muttered. “But, if they—if he was
suspected here, aren’t they looking at him for this situation?”
“Of course they are,” Mercedes said. “But it’s easier to place the
blame on someone like Epsilon or you, Leander.” Mercedes slid the files
back, turning them away once more. “You saw it in the files. The
moment this began they started looking at him,” he said. “They just did it
more quietly than they did Epsilon and Leander. It’s a scapegoat
problem, and you all know it. Unless we can bring irrefutable proof that
Montgomery is the one behind this situation, then they’ll just keep
bringing the blame on you two.”
“So. Our one and only lead just died, so what do we do?” Epsilon
asked.
“He tried to tell us,” Leander murmured, his ears back gently and
eyes half-lidded. “He told me to ‘follow the cats’.”
“We saw how well that worked.”
164 Angela Romano
Leander’s ears pinned once more, flat this time. “That was my fault,
and I admit it. But if we went prepared, then—”
“Then we’d be running directly into the Hunters and whatever else is
waiting for us out there,” Wolf said.
“Maybe. Maybe is the keyword—”
“I didn’t say it though, did I?” Wolf demanded.
“But you can’t discount it. Montgomery may have known he’d be
headed toward us, known we’d find that kid in the alley because of his
cats—”
“And he might know we’re going to follow them out there again.”
“Might.”
“Leander, we’re not prepared to fight that many Hunters; we proved
that just now,” Wolf said firmly.
“We were taken by surprise and had a badly injured man! It’s not the
same thing.” Leander threw his hands in the air, frustration making him
snarl. Didn’t they understand? Didn’t they feel it? That strange
connection, that strange draw to the now-dead man?
Didn’t they realize that this, even gone, was their only chance to
prove, beyond all doubt, that Epsilon was innocent?
“This man… this man wanted to help us,” Leander said quietly, his
eyes on the table. “He died trying to help us. He was calling me, in that
alley, psychically calling me, begging me to hurry. What d’ya say we let
’im help us, huh?”
A silence fell at the little table. Then Wolf let out a little sigh,
pressing his palms into his eyes. “Whatever this kid wanted us to know,
we owe him to find out,” he said. “He tried hard to get to us before—”
“Before he was killed,” Epsilon finished. “The damage done to him
was so intense it had to be deliberate.”
“So,” Leander said, still in his quiet tones. “Do you think you’ll let
me follow those cats?”
“Not alone.”
Mourning Doves 165
“Epsilon, please. I’m small, quick, lithe, agile, all the things you
aren’t. You’re power, force, and that’s not what we need here. I can
handle myself if things go wrong—”
“Leander, I am not letting you go in alone.”
“Epsilon, I am just as much a trained agent as you are.” Leander had
come to his feet, tail lashing. “You don’t let me do shit.”
“I still have superiority over you,” Epsilon snarled. “And if you don’t
listen to me, Wolf has superiority over me.”
Leander whirled. “Don’t you fucking dare. You know I’m right.”
“He is,” Mercedes said quietly, wadding up the remains of breakfast
in a napkin. “He’s the best candidate for what needs to be done.”
“Bug me,” Leander snapped. “Wire me, bug me, do whatever you
need to do, up until and including being ready to burst in with guns
blazing if things go wrong! But I need to be the one to do this. And not
just because of my size. Epsilon. Trust me. I need you to trust me.”
Mercedes leaned back and closed his eyes. “We put a wire on him,”
he said softly. “Put a wire on him and send him in as a fox, and if
anything goes down, Epsilon, you charge in.”
Epsilon swore, and then he swore again and his hands connected with
the table. “Fantastic,” he growled. “Fan-fucking-tastic.”
Which was as close to an agreement as Leander was ever going to
get, as they say.
THE ghost of Liaison was still there; that surprised him more than
almost anything. He was hovering in the room near the back wall,
helpless and useless. He was, when you got right down to it, still a spirit,
and still intangible.
So in the end, in a shootout he wasn’t very helpful.
Leander wished he had his ’Bull more than almost anything, his ears
pinned, tail lashing about.
And Montgomery held his own gun steady, unwaveringly, on
Leander. The two weren’t moving. Hell, Leander wasn’t breathing, until
he felt lightheaded and had to remember to do so.
He didn’t know how Montgomery had gotten from TASK to here so
quickly, though really, it wasn’t that difficult to believe. TASK was only
a five-minute run from here, and if the others were being restrained or
hurt in some way, there was no one to say that Montgomery had actually
been the one to do it or even been there for it. He could have taken off
for this place right after Wolf had said that nothing was normal.
That was easily ten minutes ago. But then, Montgomery didn’t look
as though he’d run. In fact, he barely had a hair out of place, his entire
countenance calm and unruffled.
He didn’t look as if he could see Liaison in the back of the room, and
Liaison looked pleased about that fact; hell, Leander would have been
happy if Montgomery hadn’t been able to see him too.
“Easy now,” Leander murmured, lifting his hands slowly.
“Montgomery, you don’t want to do anything.” He backed slowly toward
Liaison, who was frustrated now, kneeling beside the locked door in the
Mourning Doves 179
floor. He may have looked solid, but his incorporeal hands went through
the wood of the floor, causing him to make low, desperate sounds of
irritation.
“Actually, you’re right. I don’t,” Montgomery said softly, in a low,
mild purr. “At least, not right now. But I want you to take off the wire I
know you’ve got on and calmly come with me. Quietly. I don’t want to
shoot you, Leander, but I will.”
“What did you do to the others?”
“You’re going to find out. Now, Leander.” Montgomery made a
fierce jerking motion with the gun. Leander took another step backward,
yet again closer to Liaison. Liaison put his hand on his shoulder, and he
felt a cold chill at the touch. Absolutely no contact, though.
“Montgomery, look. I’ve got no idea what’s going on here. Just put
the gun down, an’ we can pretend that I was never here—”
“I said move, Leander!”
The gun cocked, and Leander realized that he was babbling and only
irritating Montgomery more.
“Montgomery, c’mon, man, this is pointless.”
“You have until the count of five to move, or I start putting bullets in
places on your body you will not like. It doesn’t matter if I have to shoot
you here, Leander. I can work that into things.”
“ ‘Things’?”
“One.”
Damn it. Leander was good at thinking fast, thinking on his feet, but
not this quickly.
“Just go,” Liaison said quietly, his voice shaking. “Just go with him
and give yourself time to think of what to do. Once you get where he’s
taking you, you might have a better grip on things. You might have a
better idea of what to do. I can… I can wait here for a little bit longer.
Not long. But a day or so. He’s counting.”
“Four—”
Sonofabitch!
180 Angela Romano
“All right. All right!” Leander yelped. He lifted his hands, scooting
past Montgomery. The man grabbed his hair, and he let out a squawk of
pain as it was yanked, nearly pulling him off his feet, and Montgomery
gripped his ear, twisting it forcefully. “Slow down,” he snarled. “You
will walk to the car, and you will not let anyone know that I have a gun
pressed into your back.”
“Gotcha,” Leander hissed, panting softly. Montgomery, mercifully,
let go, and Leander pushed himself to his feet. He felt the cold steel of
the gun press against his flesh and flinched once, and then he forced his
face neutral.
He walked out to Montgomery’s car—that explained the speed of
arrival—and slid into the passenger side of the car. He slammed the
door, and Montgomery climbed in after him, keeping the gun on Leander
with one hand and steering the car with the other. Leander stayed calm
and patient, letting the other cars and people go by without alerting them
to anything strange occurring. They drove up to TASK, past the guards,
and as if Leander needed reminding to behave, the gun was pressed into
his thigh.
Again, the forced march down the halls of TASK, careful to keep his
expression as normal as it could get. He passed fellow agents and bit
down hard on his tongue to keep from alerting someone, from giving
them some subtle signal that something wasn’t normal, wasn’t right. As
it was, all they saw was Leander Kale, being closely guarded by
Montgomery Edwards, as the case should be.
Montgomery took him down the hall to one of the main conference
rooms, and Leander smelled the Hunters before he saw them.
Aw, sonofabitch. We’re not walking out of this.
He brought his head up as they grew closer and then took a breath
and took his chance. He whirled, hitting the floor flat on his back and
pulling Montgomery’s arm with him. The gun went off, blowing a hole
in the floor next to Leander’s face. Bits of it flew, hitting him in the side
of the face. The sound of the gunshot brought instant attention to them,
and suddenly Leander realized he’d made a very, very big mistake.
This was too easy for Montgomery to warp. To manipulate. It would
be his word against Montgomery’s and, shady past or no, they’d believe
Mourning Doves 181
him over Leander. They would, because while he may have been a
“dirty” cop, he was not a “bad guy,” and Leander had been.
He rolled past Montgomery, scrambling to his feet in desperation.
“Stop him! He’s brought Hunters into TASK. He’s a traitor! Leander
Kale is the man you’re after! Stop him!”
Swearing, Leander watched as TASK members reacted as if shocked,
swarming the Hunters in the hallway. He bolted for the door of the
conference room, but found his way blocked by men he’d called friends,
his co-workers. With guns leveled at him.
He snarled and Changed, darting through legs and dodging people
who tried to grab him with graceful elegance. He heard one or two other
Kin start after him, but he didn’t stop to look back.
He’d given Montgomery exactly what he’d needed to prove—or at
least fake-prove—that Leander was the leak. The way this entire
situation looked could have Leander pegged as the aggressor.
And now he was running.
But that was okay. He would come back; or get the information he’d
found in Liaison’s hideaway to Wolf or Mercedes, Epsilon, or even
Alex. But he couldn’t do that if he was—
The bullet caught him in the shoulder blades. He screamed in pain,
bucking. Another bullet caught him in the ribs, and he went down,
panting, scrambling at the ground, writhing in agony, feeling the life
flow out of him onto the cold tile of the TASK floor.
182 Angela Romano
WOLF had been moved again. He wasn’t surprised, after that uproar
with Leander. He and Epsilon had tried to get attention from inside the
room, but the Hunters had acted fast to shut them up, and after the
gunshots had been fired, they’d all gone very quiet. Even the Hunters
had seemed surprised.
After the Hunters outside had been killed and Leander shot,
Montgomery had had them all moved. They’d been drugged, Epsilon
snarling and fighting like a wildcat, Mercedes groggy and out of it still,
Wolf fighting too, but still less violently than Epsilon. He thought very
few could be as violent as Epsilon, really. The man was so feral right
now that he was afraid he’d hurt himself.
He’d cut his wrists all to hell, and he kept fighting that collar around
his neck, kept trying to Change.
Every time, that thing would shock him until he slumped, panting
and twitching, into the chair. When they came to drug him, he’d gone
insane, so much so that Wolf was amazed no one in TASK had heard.
He wasn’t sure where they were. He’d only just come to, still
struggling to breathe through a badly wounded throat, watching
Mercedes, who had come around at last about an hour after Wolf, on the
cot across from him.
They were in an old building, some kind of abandoned apartment
complex, if he was right. There were cots for each of them, and they
were bound with hands behind them and feet together. Epsilon was
Mourning Doves 183
trying to come around, growling softly in pain and effort. The drugs
weren’t going with his head wound well, and this was his second
attempt. The first time he’d tried to wake up, he’d just sort of faded back
into unconsciousness.
“Epsilon,” Mercedes coaxed gently, from his left. “Epsilon, come on,
big guy, come on back.”
Epsilon’s growl increased in pitch, and he tensed, brows fluttering
and breathing coming more deeply. But after a moment he seemed to
grow tired and let himself fade again.
“The head wound and the drugs aren’t a good mix,” Wolf rasped,
clearing his throat with effort. It hurt, as did his eye; and his lack of
proper vision was making him sick to his stomach. His vision was gone
in his right eye, and it wouldn’t be coming back. Mercedes moaned
softly and shifted, trying to get his weight off his broken arm.
“I think it’s more than that,” Mercedes said after he’d gotten into a
more comfortable position. “We all heard Leander take that bullet; I
think Epsilon’s just done, thinking Leander might be….”
Wolf closed his eyes and shuddered. “Maybe,” he admitted. “But
he’s trying; you can hear him.” As if to give his words weight, Epsilon
had begun growling again, a broken, straining noise.
“Yeah, well, there’s a difference between trying and fighting.”
Mercedes groaned again softly, brow furrowing with pain. “Fuck. I
can’t… can’t….” He gritted his teeth and lolled his head. Wolf’s eyes
opened again.
“Easy,” he soothed. “Just hang on, Mercedes.”
The other man panted softly. “I’m sorry, Wolf. I didn’t mean to get
you hurt,” he rasped, making Wolf roll over in surprise.
“Mercedes, this isn’t your fault.”
“Should’ve… you saw that file. I could have… could’ve protected
Epsilon and Leander—”
“No, you couldn’t have, and this isn’t the time or the place.” Wolf
swallowed with more effort than it should have taken. “We’ll talk about
it later.” Epsilon was growling once more. The sound was more focused
184 Angela Romano
now, as if he’d gotten his head on straight.
“Epsilon,” Mercedes said again calmly. “All right, Epsilon, come on,
come on.”
Epsilon’s brow furrowed, and his lashes fluttered. He threw his head
and bared his teeth, growling more loudly. Wolf started to get frightened,
watching him struggle so hard to do something as simple as wake up.
Finally, though, with a snarl of effort, his eyes came open.
“Epsilon?” Wolf tried, and his head snapped around in alarm. He
clearly re-created it instantly, because his eyes closed again and he
moaned deeply, bowing his head.
“Hurts,” he whispered, pressing his face into the cot. “Dizzy.”
“I know,” Wolf said. “I know, Epsilon. Stay with me.”
“I… dizzy.” Epsilon suddenly lurched upright and vomited violently
over the side of the bed. Even when his stomach was empty, he dry-
heaved helplessly.
“Yeah, he’s not reacting well,” Mercedes muttered, worry thick in
his voice. “How much did they smack him with?”
“I think it’s a combination of the drugs, head wound, and that
fucking collar, and, like you said, Leander.”
“If he’d stop trying to force it, he’d stop activating that thing.”
“Like that makes it be—” Wolf stopped, coughing hard. “Better.” He
ended on a gasp as he got his breath back.
Epsilon, for his part, seemed to have sunk back into his drugged
sleep, willingly or not. Mercedes, too, was falling back into sleep. Wolf
could hear it in his voice. With a groan, Wolf let himself follow them.
Whatever happened would happen.
Maybe he wouldn’t want to be alert for it.
LEANDER paced.
He was, frankly, amazed that he was alive to pace. But, despite the
Mourning Doves 185
pain, neither bullet had struck a vital area.
And so now he was stuck behind a cell and about to go out of his
head with pain and worry.
He snarled and fell back to sit on the bed. Montgomery had won. It
was over. He didn’t know where the others were, although he knew
Montgomery had organized a “search party” for them, but it was very
likely they were all dead. Even more likely their deaths would be blamed
on him.
He groaned and cupped a hand over his ribs; already they were
starting to heal, but he kept breaking the skin over them open once more.
It felt like he’d done it again. He leaned back on the wall and took an
experimentally deep breath, letting it out slowly. Ache, but no stab of
pain in his back or ribs, so he relaxed and took another. He forced
himself to use the deep breathing to calm down. After a moment, it
worked, and he was able to sit up and survey his surroundings without
wanting to destroy things.
He was in the holding area of TASK in a cell that was only about the
size of the living room in his apartment, which was to say, not very big
at all. Leander had never been too great with small places, but he forced
that to the back of his mind. He couldn’t deal with claustrophobia on top
of everything else right now.
He jerked up and looked in surprise at the sound of footsteps that
suddenly began to approach his cell, rising once more and moving
toward the cell bars. The guards in TASK came down in four pairs, two
Kin among them. And in the middle of them was—
“Madison!”
He yelped the name in surprise and relief, hands gripping the bars
savagely.
Madison looked over at the guards who’d escorted her down. “Can I
be with him… privately?” she requested.
“Miss Rivers, the prisoner is highly dangerous, not to mention Kin—”
“Not to mention injured, weaponless, innocent until proven guilty
last time I checked, and in a cage,” Madison said. “Besides that, you can
see everything that’s happening from the observation booth right up
186 Angela Romano
there.” She pointed with a falsely sweet smile.
“It’s very unorthodox for us to allow you to be alone with someone
known to be both a traitor to us and your companion.”
“You don’t know anything.” Madison sounded tense now. “There’s
been no concrete proof, and until you get that, then all you’re going on is
theory and bias.”
“There’s no bias, Miss Rivers—”
“Of course there’s not.” She smiled again, just as coldly. “Forgive
me for disbelieving that.” She turned. “Now, am I going to be allowed to
be alone with him, or do I need to make a scene?”
They were still reluctant to agree, but she was finally given the room
to herself with only Leander for company.
Once they’d gone and shut the door, Madison’s whole demeanor
changed. “Oh, Leander,” she breathed, gripping his arms through the cell
door tightly. “Oh, sweetie, are you all right?”
“Hurtin’ a bit, but I’ll live,” he breathed. “They won’t give me shit
for the pain.”
“I can get that changed if you need it.”
Leander shook his head. “I don’t wanna be foggy,” he said. “I just
like givin’ ’em trouble bitchin’ about it.”
She laughed. “Typical.”
He grinned in a charming manner. “You know you love me. Where
are the others, Madison?”
She let him go, regaining her composure. “Wolf, Epsilon, and
Mercedes are missing still. Alex is back at my place,” she said, as if
telling him the weather.
He growled. “Montgomery’s little ‘search party’?”
“A front, mostly, I’m certain,” she replied. “He knows where they
are, and he’s not going to let anyone else know.”
“Of course not. I don’t think he intends for anyone to find them ever
again,” Leander spat out bitterly. “He’s winning.”
Mourning Doves 187
“Stop that. We’re not just going to give in that easily, are we?” she
asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Madison, it’s done. We’re done,” Leander said, slumping tiredly
again. “I can’t—” He closed his eyes, pressing his forehead into the bars.
“Can’t what?” she demanded, her voice taking on a hard, steely tone.
“Leander, you’re just going to let him win?”
“I’m tired,” Leander murmured, not lifting his head. “The others are
dead or dying, and no matter what happens, no one’s ever going to fully
believe we’re… innocent, for lack of a better word. I’m tired of trying
and being found wanting. My whole life, I’ve been fighting, and my
whole life, people keep kicking my feet out from under me. I can’t get up
anymore.”
“You haven’t even spoken your case—”
“It doesn’t matter, Madison!” He hit the steel with a fist, eyes
blazing. “They will find Montgomery innocent of any wrongdoing, and
they will find me guilty of being a traitor and a murderer, because in the
end, Montgomery is more important than I will ever be!”
“And you’re just going to give up on our boys.”
He let out a dry sob. Madison’s hand came through the bars once
more. Her hand gently caressed one of his ears, rubbing the base
steadily. Comfortingly.
“Madison,” Leander said at last. “Go to Epsilon and my apartment.
Follow th’ cats from there. Trust them. Trust me.” He told her no more.
He didn’t want to risk anyone who may be able to hear from the
observation room figuring out anything they shouldn’t figure out. He
wasn’t sure if they could hear or not, but he wasn’t taking any chances.
“The cats?” Madison’s brow furrowed, confused.
“Yeah,” he said. “This is all I got left, Madison, and I don’t know if
it’s worth it.”
“It’s worth it, Leander,” she promised. “Don’t you burn out on me
yet.”
He nodded, but it was a dull, exhausted thing with none of his usual
spirit behind it. Not for the first time since this began, Madison felt her
188 Angela Romano
stomach churn and twist with concern.
She would not lose her boys.
EPSILON was struggling again. Wolf opened his eyes, taking a moment
to get used to only having vision in one. Mercedes had managed to get
himself into a sitting position, but he was slumped, chest heaving with
pain. His eyes were closed, but he was awake. His brow furrowed as
Epsilon muttered and whined, tossing and struggling in a nightmare.
He’d started having those recently, too, and they broke Wolf’s heart.
Wolf pushed himself upright slowly, swallowing. The swelling in his
throat had gone down, and breathing was, thankfully, less of an effort.
But swallowing still hurt.
“Mercedes?” He asked.
The eyes slid open, and Mercedes blinked a few times, trying to
focus. When he seemed able to, he groaned and shifted once more. “You
doing okay over there?” Mercedes asked.
“Hurts, but I’m all right. You?”
“I don’t know what the fuck they’re gonna do about my arm,” he
admitted softly, fear in his voice.
“Let’s face it; we’re all pretty badly beaten up. And to think, we’re
trained agents.”
Mercedes chuckled softly, leaning his head back. “Apparently, we
need to buff up our troops.”
“Or just blow Montgomery and his Hunters off the planet.”
“That too,” Mercedes replied, chuckling softly, closing his eyes once
more. “We’ve lost this, haven’t we?”
“Not yet,” Wolf snapped.
“Leander—”
“We don’t know if he’s alive or dead. Don’t give up on him.”
Mourning Doves 189
“We heard that gun go off. You heard him scream.”
Wolf closed his eyes at the memory. “I’ve heard him scream before,”
he said with a weak, gentle laugh. “And he survived, if barely. These
guys are stronger than you give them credit for. So am I, for that matter.
Don’t underestimate us, Mercedes.”
Mercedes let out a soft breath. “Yeah, I’m figuring that out.”
190 Angela Romano
FOLLOW the cats, he’d said, and so that was what she’d done. This
wasn’t her typical hangout, and she felt out of place. Very out of place.
She ran her hand over the wall, watching the small tabby run in front
of her, pausing every few steps to turn and meow at her, rubbing along
the wall and her legs, purring, running ahead then coming back. There
were other cats she’d seen too, around Leander and Epsilon’s apartment.
They had been everywhere; at least twenty cats.
They’d led her instantly, as if knowing what she wanted.
Needed.
She had followed them without hesitation, though, remembering their
conversations about the cats, watching their odd behavior. There was no
doubt in her mind that her boys were right. No doubt that these cats were
trying to lead her somewhere.
That they weren’t normal cats.
They led her to the side door of a building, and she pushed it open
with some trepidation, gasping as she saw even more cats inside. The
place was half-trashed, and once again, Madison wondered what,
exactly, she was supposed to find here.
She entered, slowly, running her gentle hands over the backs of the
cats. She poked around the room quietly, wrinkling her nose despite
herself. She wasn’t a snob, per se; she’d never been a snob, but this place
was a run-down pigsty, and despite her association with Leander,
Mourning Doves 191
Madison remained something of a neat freak.
“Why in the world would you want me to come here, Leander?” she
muttered. She poked at the pile of blankets on the floor, her heart aching
for the person who had to live like this. Leander had explained that he, at
one point, had been in this situation too; and she remembered when
they’d pulled him from that, brought him onto TASK.
She sighed and rose once more, petting her hands over one or two of
the cats. “I’m sorry, Leander, but I don’t see whatever it is you wanted
me to find here,” she said. She headed over to the door and then
suddenly froze as her hackles shot up. Her hand drifted to her gun,
landing softly on the butt, and she half-turned.
Nothing there, but she felt like someone or something was…
watching.
It didn’t feel malicious, but it was very creepy, and she licked her
lips nervously, biting the lower one. She knew there were humans,
“normal” people with abilities—ESP-type abilities, the Different ones, as
they were known. She thought of the boy they’d found only days before.
Wait, no, weeks now. She thought about how Leander had known—
known—to find the man, to find the cats.
And now, this shivery, icy feeling down her back.
“Hello?” she asked softly, taking a step back into the room.
The cats meowed insistently, running suddenly to the back of the
room. She followed them hesitantly. “Hello?” she tried again, and she
felt something brush gently over the back of her neck.
Please don’t be scared.
She jumped. Someone’s voice, clear as if she’d heard it out loud. But
she was alone in the room, and that voice hadn’t been aloud.
“I’m not scared, exactly,” she replied, unsure if she was actually
being heard. “More like extraordinarily wary.”
She had the oddest sensation that she’d just amused the… whatever it
was and took another step into the room. Cautious, slow, she approached
the back wall and felt that cold, chilling brush against the back of her
neck once more. It pushed her, guiding her to an area of the room, and
192 Angela Romano
she let it, followed it. Her steps were uncertain, but she only stopped
when the cold chill suddenly let up off her neck, and she looked down.
Trap door. Trap door, well hidden under old carpeting, but partly
revealed. “Leander must have started to open this,” she muttered,
running a hand over it. It was locked, firmly, but Leander was not the
only one who’d come from a less than perfect past.
Madison knew how to pick a lock. She was rusty, but she knew how.
The entire time she worked at it, she could feel that odd thing or person
waiting impatiently off to one side.
Hurry. You need to hurry.
“I’m going as quickly as I can,” she muttered, at last letting out a
hard, victorious breath as she popped the lock.
“There, are you happy now?” she asked the thing in the room with
her she could only assume was Liaison. She looked into the trap door,
and gasped.
Inside were sketches of Montgomery, sketches of him with people
who were clearly Hunters, and a note. It was written shakily, and blood
dotted the paper in many places.
My name is Liaison, the paper read, and that is all you need to know
about me. I am Different, and I guess you could say I was a psychic, a
carnival fortune teller. But I don’t see the future; I see the present. I get
visions, and sometimes I can see into the past, and I have dreams.
These drawings are things I’ve Seen. I don’t know if I’ll live much
longer, and if I don’t, this is all the proof I can offer. Montgomery
Edwards is also a man named Monty, just “Monty,” a pimp and a drug
dealer. He sells the drugs that Hunters use. I’ve put a list of his
connections under this paper and the “images.” I used to be one of them.
Montgomery tried to use me to divine what you—whoever you really
are—were doing, to stay one step ahead. It backfired. I am not a
weapon, and I will not be used.
He is a traitor. He’s killed me and not just me, so you kill him.
I’m sorry I couldn’t help more.
And the cold chill in the room suddenly brushed gently along
Mourning Doves 193
Madison’s hair and face, like the touch of a lover.
She glanced up at the touch. “I don’t know if this will be enough,”
she said. “We already have knowledge of a dirty past with him, but I still
don’t know.” She sighed and rose. “Thank you for trying, anyway,” she
said. “And don’t worry; we’ll fix this.”
Kill him.
“We can’t just kill him—”
Kill him or I will.
And there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that this was true. She gathered
the papers and gently closed the trap door again. “Are you planning on
lurking around forever?”
Until he’s dead, yes.
She sighed and closed her eyes. “Thank you for giving us this.” She
rose, tucking it away and heading for the door once more. “We won’t be
able to just kill him.”
Suddenly there was a roar, and the cold in the room began freezing.
She screamed as wind suddenly picked up in the room, gusting and
blowing violently.
No proof, not enough to put an end to a man who ruined lives, who
killed me? Then I’ll handle it the renaissance way, won’t I? the voice
demanded, and, just like that, it ended.
She did not run, but she left very quickly.
And as she left, the door slammed behind her, and for just one
moment, she could swear she heard the sounds of a young man crying.
THE door slammed into the back wall, narrowly missing Wolf’s head.
Mercedes grabbed him with his good hand and yanked him clear, but he
could still feel the wind of the door’s passing. He cried out in surprise
and stumbled, nearly knocking his companion over. Montgomery lifted
his gun, aimed it at the door.
Wolf knew within moments that there was no point. Whatever had
tossed that door as if it was made of straw was not something you could
put down with a bullet.
It crashed into the room and systematically began to destroy things.
And then it started on the people.
It blew the beds, the cots, upside down and tried to throw them, but it
seemed like that first blast had taken most of whatever this thing had in
the way of energy and it was quickly running out. It got them tipped
upside down, though, and knocked down every item that was on the
walls. Then the wind-like force spun like some nightmare out of The
Wizard of Oz, spinning every small, removable, breakable, loose item
into a tornado and making that tornado into a weapon. It spun wildly,
attacking the Hunters with force and items like some Carrie rip-off,
attacking, attacking, savagely, ruthlessly.
But it was getting tired. It was clearly struggling to maintain its force
and speed, and was flagging, dropping its weapons and losing force.
It wasn’t hurting them, though. It wasn’t targeting them in any way.
Epsilon had fallen back, behind one of the overturned cots, pulling
Mercedes with him, and Mercedes reached out to drag Wolf back too.
Mercedes put his body over Wolf’s, pinning him to the tipped cot, and
Epsilon leaned over both of them, protecting them with his body.
Mourning Doves 203
Montgomery’s scream made Wolf flinch and huddle into the bed
despite himself, and he felt Mercedes press even closer. The man
screamed again as the freezing wind howled, drowning out the sound of
his agony.
He was glad he couldn’t see what was being done to the man. He
knew Epsilon could, though, and it was a testament to how bad it was
when a man who had just ripped a Hunter open with his bare hands
leaned over and began to retch violently at whatever he saw.
And just like that, it was over.
Wolf opened his eyes at the gentle touch to his hair that wasn’t
Mercedes. He saw nothing, but he could swear a soft, lilting male voice
whispered in his ear.
Sorry.
His jaw worked soundlessly for a moment, and then he shook his
head. “No,” he said, almost choking on the words. “No, I’m the one
who’s sorry. We’re all sorry we couldn’t save you. You felt you had to
do this. Whoever you were, I’m sorry you thought you had to do this.”
Arrogant wolf. But there was laughter and affection in the perceived
voice.
Then he heard Epsilon. “Fucking hell, he’s alive!”
Wolf jerked in surprise and felt Mercedes, above him, tense as well.
“That thing left him alive? After that?”
“Barely. If I didn’t have these fucking cuffs on—”
And just like that, they fell off.
Epsilon blinked in surprise, rubbing his arms, and then Mercedes
gave a low, growling hiss of pain as his own cuffs were removed. Then
Wolf felt his pair loosen, then again, as if something was struggling with
them, before falling off.
Lock that son of a bitch up for life, came the ghost of a whisper.
“Thank you.”
And then the force was gone.
204 Angela Romano
WHEN Leander and the others finally arrived at the small, destroyed
home in the outskirts of the city TASK was located in, they found the
bodies of Hunters sprawled over the ground, blood painting the area.
They found their missing agents, huddling together in front of the body
of Montgomery Edwards, who was clinging to life. They seemed to be
trying to keep him that way, though they were pretty beat up themselves;
broken, bleeding, raw, and battered. Leander flew into Epsilon’s grip,
and the two stood, clutching each other in sheer joy to see each other
alive, but then Epsilon’s legs gave out, and he collapsed, finally reaching
his own limits. Leander caught him before he fell, the two sinking to the
earth together slowly.
Madison helped Wolf struggle to his feet, her fingers running over
the scar ruining his eye with gentle, almost feather-light fingers, making
a soft moaning sound in empathy. Mercedes’ arm was lifted into a
makeshift sling the moment someone saw how bad it was, but the second
change in position made him come inches from passing out.
An ambulance was called, and Montgomery was taken to an
emergency room. TASK medical officials could handle the smaller
wounds on the others.
When they got back to TASK, Leander was instantly taken back into
custody, grabbed by guards.
“Stop! Let him go. You have no cause to take him back into—”
“Until this situation is resolved, then Leander is still to be held in
custody,” one TASK official told her calmly.
“Wolf, Mercedes, and Epsilon all told us Montgomery was the
person—”
“We need to hear the testimony from the men themselves, and
Montgomery’s version of things, and then, possibly, he can be let free.”
But Leander’s face was calm, his posture relaxed. “It’s all right,
Madison. Calm down,” he murmured. And it was okay, because Epsilon
was alive, and Wolf and Mercedes, and things would be okay.
Mourning Doves 205
IT took precisely one month before the impromptu captives healed fully.
Leander was kept in custody for that full time, and while it nearly
drove him insane, he was uninjured and relatively good-natured about
the situation, all things considered.
After all, things had decided to take a turn for the better.
And Epsilon was alive. Leander was fine, so long as Epsilon was
alive. Wolf and Mercedes would be all right too, given time to heal and
rest, and Leander could survive a few weeks in a cage so long as his
friends were no longer in immediate danger.
Wolf had been right about his eye; his vision was lost in it for good.
The scar wasn’t bad, but it was painful-looking, and he suffered chronic
pain from it. The doctors told him in time it would likely fade, but there
was a possibility that he would always have fits of pain. Mercedes was
lucky that his broken arm healed well; it had to be re-broken, which was
not a pleasant experience, but was healing nicely after that.
Other things were slower to mend.
Wolf and Mercedes gave their testimony, told those above them in
rank and station that it had been Montgomery Edwards that was behind
their kidnapping and what had been done to them. They gave written and
audible testimony and then went their separate ways.
Between the circumstances surrounding Wolf, Mercedes, and
Epsilon’s kidnapping and the circumstances of how they were found, the
206 Angela Romano
papers and drawings, the written evidence, Montgomery’s past and the
word of, most primarily Mercedes, gave the officials of TASK no choice.
There was too much evidence to suggest that Montgomery was, in fact,
the one behind not only the leak in TASK but the attempted setup of
Leander.
Of course, it was still too much trouble to pursue legal consequences
for Montgomery, but he was dismissed from TASK and black-marked
from all government work; his previous record as being a dirty cop was
mysteriously leaked as was his involvement with selling drugs and
prostitution on the streets, something that was easily checked and proven
correct with a little directive work.
Once out of the holding cell, Leander collected Epsilon, who was
wheelchair bound for at least another few weeks, and took him home.
The man had physically and mentally exhausted himself fighting that
collar, regressing violently into the animal that lurked behind the human
he was.
Madison went home, where Alex hadn’t yet bothered to move out.
And then, she just never bothered to move out. And neither of them
really ever said anything suggesting or pertaining to it. It was strange to
Madison, how easily Alex fit into her life; the spunky, spirited girl
brought something into her home she’d never imagined could be there.
A happy ending, all the way around, it seemed.
But if things were that simple, things would be boring.
And as stated, not everything mended so easily.
LEANDER stretched, curling around his pillow and resisting the urge to
kiss it. It was peaceful, being back in his own room, in his own
apartment, knowing Epsilon was safe down the hall from him and that
Montgomery, when he finally recovered fully, would not be coming back
to TASK.
He felt secure, for the first time in a long time. It was a bittersweet
feeling, a lost, sad kind of feeling, in truth. The man, the boy, Liaison,
Mourning Doves 207
was still dead. He’d been so angry, so desperate, that he’d stuck around
as a ghost. Ghosts, spirits, weren’t any more unusual than Kin or the like
nowadays, but it took a majorly strong will and a serious grudge to allow
someone to hang around, and from what Epsilon had said happened at
the end—Liaison had torn Montgomery’s arms and hands off and
mangled what was left beyond recognition—he’d expended some major
energy.
That boy had been felt such intense anger and emotion that he had
not only stuck around as a ghost, he’d nearly exhausted himself getting
revenge.
He had no idea what would happen to an exhausted ghost. He
thought it might not be pleasant.
He sat up at last, reluctant to leave his bed but knowing he had to.
Hell, he needed to get Epsilon out of bed too. The man had lost energy
and punch ever since he’d come back, and Leander knew why. It was
only partly the exhaustion and pain from his weeks of being tormented.
The rest of it was emotional and mental exhaustion. The collar had
launched him right back into his past at whatever lab had made him what
he was, and the animal in him had thrown its head up and slipped its bit
in rebellion at being contained.
The nightmares had been getting worse with the awakening of his
past, and it wasn’t helping him recover. It wasn’t helping Leander
recover, Epsilon’s screams waking him at night. He showered and threw
on his “Creatures Dig Me” T-shirt and a pair of shorts, tugging his soft-
colored hair into a braid and tugging it through the back of his black
R.O.U.S. baseball cap. There were holes cut in the top of the hat for his
ears, just as there were holes sewn into all of his pants for his tail. The
hat was a birthday present from Epsilon, knowing his secret love for the
movie The Princess Bride.
Emphasis on the word secret.
He moved downstairs at the smell of coffee, yawning softly.
“Mornin’,” he muttered.
“Or rather, good afternoon. I wondered if you were going to stay in
bed all day,” Epsilon said. The older man looked as sharp as Leander
looked messy, in black pants and a black T-shirt with a picture of a girl
208 Angela Romano
who seemed to be Little Red Riding Hood being licked by a wolf.
“Like you have any room to talk? And look, you made food.” He
grabbed a biscuit and dodged Epsilon’s smack to the back of his hand.
“You’re rude.”
“You love me all the same,” Leander muttered, mouth full. “You
doin’ okay and everything?”
Epsilon paused. “I—” He shrugged.
“No?” Leander offered gently, setting down the biscuit. “No one
expects you to be right away, Epsilon.”
“I’m fine.”
“Well. That’s awesome for you, considerin’ I went through less and
I’m not. Fine. And I know Wolf and Mercedes aren’t. Madison and Alex
are maybe the only two that are, and even that’s questionable.”
“I’ve been through worse.”
“I always guessed you had,” he replied, nodding sagely. “You know,
people—they don’t talk about those places.”
“They shouldn’t. It’s not a pleasant topic of conversation.” Epsilon
turned away from him.
Leander shrugged. “Neither is eating out of Dumpsters, but no one
ever let me forget I did it once. So what makes your background taboo
and mine perfectly acceptable?”
“Are you upset by that?”
Leander laughed softly, taking a seat and propping his feet on the
table. “Nah,” he said in a low voice, grinning down at the tabletop. “I
outgrew being upset about that kind of thing. It was just a question.”
“My past is taboo because people don’t know a lot about it and they
don’t want to. People can barely stand the thought of a monkey being
tested on for medical reasons, let alone a person being tested on for
reasons straight out of a sci-fi novel.”
“But you… it was rough there.”
“Yes, it was rough.” Epsilon turned back around, jaw set. “Leander, I
Mourning Doves 209
don’t like to talk about it.”
“Maybe you need to.”
He slammed a hand into the countertop, making Leander jump, along
with several kitchen items.
“I don’t want to, and I’m not going to!”
“All right, all right.” Leander lifted his hands.
“Leander, look, I know—” He stopped, trying to find the right words.
“Just let it alone. I understand what you’re trying to do, but just let it
alone.”
Leander nodded. “All right, you’re the boss,” he said mildly enough.
Then there was a knock at the door, and all conversation was finished.
Leander jumped up to get it, and Epsilon chuckled.
“Next thing you know, you’ll start barking.”
“Oh, fuck you, all right?”
TWO weeks.
In two weeks, Mercedes would be going back to his home on the
outskirts of town, four hours away from Wolf.
But it may as well have been fourteen hours.
Wolf felt the distance between them, ever since they’d left the
hospital, every time he saw Mercedes in the TASK building. They barely
spoke; they barely even looked at each other.
The loneliness Wolf had felt in his apartment so many weeks before
was only intensified now. He wanted Mercedes back in this apartment,
wanted the familiar, comforting sound and feel of the man wandering
around, keeping him company.
His hand drifted to his lips, eyes closing. He could still imagine
himself able to taste Mercedes on them, as romantic and foolish a notion
as that could be.
210 Angela Romano
If he was being honest, all he could taste was the alcohol he was
downing right now.
He looked at the label on the bottle, trying to read it. It was like
looking through a tunnel, a strange, warping sensation that made him
almost vomit. He had absolutely no depth perception, but that was
ignorable compared to this. Well, ignorable except that he had walked
into more than one wall. And door. And table. And TV. And Madison,
once, which had nearly killed her. He actually preferred hitting inanimate
objects.
Before, when he was hurt, there was a pair of hands there to catch
him, a pair of hands to soothe away the hurt.
He wanted those hands back. He wanted those hands, that voice,
those lips, that gentle, kind warmth.
He threw the bottle across the room and dropped his head into his
hands. He just wanted Mercedes again, and he’d been viciously, harshly
reminded of that fact when he’d gotten into the shower with the man
and….
He groaned and fisted his hands in his hair.
Son of a bitch. What was he supposed to do?
Common sense said that the obvious choice was to let Mercedes go
home, let this entire thing blow over. Common sense said that pursuing
anything would end up the exact same way it had last time.
And fuck, he couldn’t do that again.
He couldn’t survive that again.
He opened his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he grabbed a mop
and a towel, picking up shards of broken glass and cleaning up the
spilled liquor. Thank goodness for wood floors.
He tossed the entire towel, rather than tossing the glass inside.
He managed to cut himself anyway, because he couldn’t see well and
managed to place his hand down on a piece he missed. Swearing, he
jerked away and stuck his hand in his mouth.
He found a bandage inside his pantry and was struggling with
Mourning Doves 211
wrapping his hand wrong-handedly when there was a knock at the door,
and his semi-drunken pity party was interrupted.
WOLF stared in surprise at Mercedes, and then took a step back from the
door.
“I—hi.”
“Hi,” Mercedes replied. “You look… your eye.” He said softly in
regret, and he reached out without meaning to as if to caress the scar.
Wolf pulled back a little, and the hand stopped partway in the air,
then lowered again. “Do you think I could come in? We need to talk.”
“We do?” But Wolf opened the door further to let his superior and
companion into the apartment.
“I think so, actually.” Mercedes closed the door softly and turned.
“You want a drink or something?”
“I want you to sit down before you fall down. You look pretty pale.”
“It’s the vision. It takes some getting used to.”
“You still look pale.”
“I’m dizzy.” He leaned on the counter. “What did you want to
discuss?” He needed a smoke.
“Dizzy from your eye or from this?” Mercedes lifted a bottle and
shook it gently.
“I haven’t drunk much. What do you want?”
214 Angela Romano
Mercedes flinched. “Look, we haven’t had a lot of time to discuss
what happened a few nights ago—”
Wolf shook his head. “There’s nothing there, Mercedes. We’ve
already had this conversation.”
“We sort of have.”
“Sort of nothing, Mercedes. We’ve talked this thing to death.”
Mercedes sighed, grabbing Wolf’s arm gently. “Wolf, please.”
Wolf snapped Mercedes’ grip with skill, spinning around to face the
man. “No, Mercedes. Don’t do this to me, okay? Not again. We—I—
made a mistake. I was exhausted and frustrated, and I made a mistake,
and I’m sorry. Just leave. Walk out of here, go home, and forget about
me, forget about us, just like you did last time.” Wolf took a deep breath,
leaning back on the counter.
“Wolf, I never forgot about you or forgot about us,” Mercedes
breathed, taking a step back. “I can’t believe you ever thought that.”
“I hoped you had,” Wolf replied, teeth gritted. “It would be better if
you did.”
“Better?” Mercedes threw up his hands. “How the hell is it ‘better’
when we’re both miserable and can’t stop fucking pining over each
other!”
“I have never pined in my life. That word is reserved for romance
novels and fainting heroines.”
“I think Madison would resent that remark.”
“I said ‘fainting heroines’; that doesn’t imply that there aren’t ones
that don’t faint.”
Mercedes chuckled, shaking his head. “You can’t be that drunk if
you’re so eager to bicker and change the subject.”
“So who says this isn’t me drunk?”
“Wolf, you’re a friendly drunk. You get more and more friendly and
then you pass out. You don’t hit anything like obstinate. Hell, the worst
you get is flirty.”
Mourning Doves 215
“And how do you know what kind of drunk I am?”
“Because I know you!” Mercedes threw up his hands. “I’ve known
you for years, Wolf. I love you no matter what you try and call it.”
“Oh you do not,” Wolf snapped, all good humor gone. “We never
loved each other; we just had a good couple of fucks.”
“Wow, remarkably cynical coming from you.”
“Being dropped on my ass and betrayed by my lover does that to
me.”
“Betrayed? What the hell does that mean?”
“Betrayed. Backstabbed, double-crossed, lied to, cheated, tricked…
you know, betrayed?”
“And when did I do any of these things?”
Wolf turned to stare at him in slack-jawed astonishment. “I don’t
know, Mercedes, maybe when you condemned my team the first time it
looked like they’d done something shady? Accusing me of allowing the
murder of other agents in TASK, dropping me on my ass the moment
you got a higher position—”
“Excuse you, we both agreed that was better—”
“Only because you were ready to send Epsilon and Leander to the
chopping block! How was I supposed to stay in a relationship with a man
who doesn’t trust me!”
“I never mistrusted you. I did what I had to do in my position, which
was investigate every possibility. The evidence pointed to Epsilon. What
the hell was I supposed to do?”
“Trust me when I told you he was innocent!”
“I trusted you this time!”
They both went silent at that.
“I came down here to you because I believed you. I believed you last
time too, but you saw just how badly your hands can wind up tied in that
situation. I came down here to help. I came down here because…
because I wanted to be close to you again. Because you needed someone
216 Angela Romano
on the inside who believed you. Because—” He stopped, shaking his
head.
Wolf was staring at him, silent. “Because?” He prompted.
“Because I trust you. I trust you completely, Wolf.” Mercedes
reached out to him, and this time his hand didn’t hesitate. It landed,
butterfly light, on Wolf’s cheek. Wolf shrank back and then leaned into
it, letting his breath out.
“I always have, always will. Fuck, man, when I walked out before, I
thought I was going to just lose my mind, the few years I had to wake up
without you.”
“Mercedes, I don’t want—”
“Yes, you do want.” He took a step closer, pressing Wolf closer to
the counter, slowly pressing his body closer to the man who had been his
lover, had been a friend.
“I—” he tried, words failing and growing softer. “I—”
“Hush.”
Mercedes kissed him softly and then kissed him again more firmly.
Wolf responded even though he didn’t want to, felt his body stirring at
the familiar presence. His arms lifted, wrapping around the man’s arms,
fingers twining in the soft, prematurely gray hair. Mercedes shivered at
the touch, pulling away slowly.
“Told you,” he breathed very softly, and Wolf laughed, the sound
almost a sob.
“You can’t do this and leave again.”
“Who said I wanted to leave?”
“Wanting doesn’t necessarily—”
“Wolf, things are a little different now,” Mercedes said, brushing his
lover’s hair out of his face. “Before, I was new to the position. I was
unsteady on my feet. I’ve had this position for years now. I can go where
I want and do what I want, and no one’s going to get in my face about it.
Especially after this business with Montgomery. I can throw this in some
important faces.”
Mourning Doves 217
Wolf stroked Mercedes’ face slowly, letting his fingers linger over
the man’s lips. Mercedes nipped him, and Wolf chuckled, pulling his
fingers away like a startled animal. Mercedes grabbed the retreating
wrist and began to press kisses up along the skin of the man’s arm.
“Mercedes. Mercedes, stop, you have to stop—”
“Don’t run away from me, Wolf. Not again.”
“I can’t. We can’t.”
“Wolf—”
“I need a smoke.”
“Stop it.” Mercedes caught him again. “You taste like an ashtray
when you smoke.”
“You won’t be kissing me, so you won’t care.”
“I plan on doing a lot more than kissing you.”
“Damn it, Mercedes, let go of me!”
“Never.”
Again, silence fell, and Wolf shivered. “You did.”
“I was an idiot.”
“It hurt.”
“I know. I was there.”
“You say you trust me. How can I trust you again?”
“Wolf, I’d like to think I did a pretty damn good job of proving
myself through this entire situation. Look, here, just let me stay a few
weeks. Until you get used to your vision being messed up. You need a
seeing-eye dog for a little bit. After that, we can figure out where to go.
Okay?”
“Just to help me out.”
“Exactly. Just a friend playing guide dog until you’re more adjusted.”
“I can still see, you know.”
“Humor me.”
218 Angela Romano
Wolf laughed softly but kept putting space between them. “Just a few
weeks.”
“Then we’ll see what happens?”
“I already know what’ll happen. But yes.”
“All right, then. I’ll move some of my stuff in here tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay.” And Wolf allowed Mercedes to press a kiss to his hair.
BY the time Leander and Epsilon appeared at her front door, Madison
was nearly ready to give up and start a search on her own. She knew it
would likely be futile, but she was antsy, and realized that she might not
be thinking all that rationally.
As it was, they arrived before she could do anything stupid, rapping
at her door.
Madison let them in, smirking as Leander entered as a small, merrily
trotting fox and Epsilon followed carrying his companion’s strange
jacket, backpack, probably his weapons somehow, and a bag, she saw
with a laugh, of candy.
“No wonder you two took so long.”
“You know Leander; can’t go an hour without food. Preferably
sweets.”
Madison took a moment to inspect the pair. Leander was a fox, but
she’d seen him in the past few weeks. He had a pale, worn look under his
usual smile and laughter; there was something bothering him, and he was
still recovering. Physically, he looked well enough; skinnier, tired, yes,
but being home again was helping, and being with Epsilon too. The
immense pain he’d been in for so long had left its mark on him; he was
still, and probably always would be to a degree, a little stiff, had a little
difficulty moving in the morning. But he had recovered nicely and was
continuing to recover nicely. Perhaps, soon, even that stiffness would go
away.
Epsilon looked worse than his partner; strained and tired, his
Mourning Doves 219
normally dark skin was pale, and there was a listless weariness to his
movements. He was jumpy and growled distantly under his breath at
almost everything. He was thin and scarred, most especially his throat
and wrists; it made her breath suck in sharply every time she saw them.
He must have gone crazy, to leave ragged tears in his flesh like that.
Leander ran into the bedroom she shared with Alex, hopping up right
onto her bed.
“You put mud on that sheet and I’ll shave you,” Madison threatened.
Leander whined and pinned his ears at her, and then he Changed and was
sitting on her bed. He looked a bit better than she remembered, and she
smirked. “I will still shave you.”
Leander stuck his tongue out and reached for the candy Epsilon still
held. “So, you want us to find lover girl?”
“Did you smell anything—odd—when you came in?”
Leander shook his head. “No, and I didn’t smell fear or anything else
coming in, either. Just you and Alex.”
“Did you smell her outside?”
“No, but I wasn’t smelling for her,” Leander admitted. “There are
about a billion and one scents on that sidewalk, but I know Alex’s.”
“Are we still leaving Mercedes and Wolf out of this?” Epsilon asked,
studying knick-knacks on the shelf. He was running a finger along little
figurines of animals.
“Yours?”
“Alex’s,” Madison said. “You should know better than to think I
collect those things.”
Leander grinned. “You don’t seem incredibly concerned.”
“No blood, no signs of a struggle, no odd scents, no sign of a break-
in, nothing out of the normal. I’m assuming she just went somewhere.”
“You’re hoping. You never answered me.”
“That’s because your partner butted in.”
Epsilon snorted.
220 Angela Romano
“Let’s see if there’s any need to involve all of us in this first,”
Madison replied, slanting him a glance. “If we think there’s anything
wrong, we’ll see about bringing them out.”
Leander shared a quiet, secret glance with Epsilon, and then nodded.
He took his jacket and weapons from the man.
“First, let’s see this letter you were talking about,” Madison
suggested. Leander instantly froze, and Epsilon looked away, reaching
into his back pocket.
He handed the envelope to her, and she pulled out the paper inside. She
gasped softly, despite herself, when she read it. It was a note from the
TASK head himself, and while it was addressed to Epsilon and Leander,
it referenced all of them.
It explained what they already knew, that Montgomery would not
have legal action taken against him but would no longer be allowed to
work in government once he recovered, but that they were—they all
were, from Leander to Alex—to appear at the TASK main conference
room in a week. They were to receive a public apology for everything
that had happened.
“This is a bad thing why?” she asked, raising her brows at them.
Leander sighed, his ears back. “It just… things don’t work this way
for us,” he murmured at last. “And we’re not really sure—Epsilon and I,
anyway—that we’d accept it.”
“Why not?” Madison demanded, throwing her hands up.
“After everything?” Epsilon put in quietly. “We just want it to go
away.”
“But this would clear your record—”
“Maybe.” Leander finished shrugging into his coat, turning. “We
ready to go?”
Madison sighed and handed Epsilon his envelope back. The man
tucked it into his pocket, and then Leander led them all outside.
Epsilon and Leander began to sniff the air the moment they stepped
outside, neither Changing. Madison knew that their sense of smell was
just as keen without doing so, and she only stood back and let them go.
Mourning Doves 221
Leander picked up her scent first, but Epsilon led the way; they
swerved down the sidewalk, weaving in and out of the crowds and
darting across roads with no care for traffic, much like dogs, while
Madison snarled at them both for being idiots.
“Do I have to keep you on leashes?” she snapped, the fourth or fifth
time this happened. Epsilon raised a brow at her, and Leander stuck out
his tongue.
“Do you want us to find Alex or not?”
“Not by killing yourselves. I’d like you in one piece when we find
her—both of you.”
“Takes more ’n a car to wipe us out, Maddi.”
“Madison.”
Leander just laughed and kept walking. Epsilon fell back to walk
alongside Madison, cutting his long stride in half. She was tall, but he
was taller.
“He’s not going to get hit.”
“I know.” She shrugged. “It’s nice to be able to worry about him
over mundane things again.”
“I know.” He tucked his hands in his back pockets, his coat moving
with the action of his arms to reveal his weapon, tucked into his pants.
She sighed quietly, looking up at him; a man of barely thirty who’d spent
his entire life like this with a gun by his side. Fighting.
She felt absurdly sad for a moment. It wasn’t as if she and him were
much different, really, but she hadn’t been forced to claw her way for a
handhold in TASK her entire life, hadn’t been forced to struggle to keep
her head above water.
His blue eyes flicked over to her, feeling her gaze on him. “What?”
“I just….” She shrugged. “Nothing. Just… thoughtful after
everything, I suppose.”
He nodded, turning away to watch Leander half-run ahead of them.
“I think we’ve all been,” he said, voice quiet.
“You two doing all right?”
222 Angela Romano
He nodded. “Recovering. Leander’s gotten clingy, after everything.
And not just to me. To the house too. At least he recognizes that he
needs to get out, needs to get back to normal.”
“Or as normal as we ever get.”
Epsilon’s laughter was low and soft. “Or that.”
They walked in silence a few more minutes, watching Leander lose
the scent. Epsilon found it again for him, and Leander continued to lead
them.
“What about this public apology you’re meant to be getting?”
“We’re. We’re meant to be getting.”
“You two still not planning on going?”
“It won’t matter, Madison,” Epsilon said. “They’ll make their
apology, and then the first time anything out of the ordinary comes up,
they’ll be looking at us sideways again.”
“Epsilon, they have proof that Montgomery’s been behind everything
against you two—”
“That doesn’t matter, Madison.” He shrugged. “There’s been so
many times I’ve just considered… leaving. Taking Leander and leaving
TASK, living a boring, normal life in an apartment we paid for, and just
living.”
“Why don’t you then?”
Epsilon shrugged. “I don’t think either one of us would be happy
with that. Leander loves doing this.”
“You don’t.”
Epsilon was quiet for a while. “No. I do. I just dislike having to
prove myself constantly,” he said.
“Well, maybe things will change now,” she suggested.
“I doubt it will.”
“Epsilon, look, you won’t know unless you go there and find out.
And if they’re taking the steps to reach out and mend bridges, then you
should meet them halfway.”
Mourning Doves 223
“‘They’?”
“The officials of TASK.”
Epsilon snorted. “I’ve been trying to meet them halfway for years.
Both of us have.”
“I promise you things are different.” Madison stopped, turning
Epsilon around to face her. “If I’m wrong, then you two do whatever you
need to, but you should at least try, even just this last time.”
He opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by Leander’s
voice.
“You two gonna kiss or follow me? Trust me, Epsilon, I think Alex’d
be pretty upset at both of you.”
“Wiseass. Why are you talking instead of scenting?” Epsilon replied,
pulling away from Madison—hell, all but shrugging her off.
“Did you lose her again?” Madison asked.
“Just the opposite. Her scent gets real strong here. The problem is
there’s another one just as strong.”
Epsilon frowned and came closer, and then instantly growled when
he picked up whatever Leander had. “Motherfuck, that bitch won’t die!”
Madison’s blood ran cold.
“Sasha? But you said you nearly decapitated her!”
“I did. Apparently ‘nearly’ wasn’t enough.”
“Rarely is.” Leander stretched, popping his neck from side to side.
He grinned and pricked up his ears. “What say we jump on back in up to
the neck?”
“Leander—”
“Oh come on, Epsilon, get back on the horse.”
“Can you track them?” Madison asked.
“Of course I can track them.” He grinned and winked. “Epsilon can
too, but he’s letting me do all the work.”
Epsilon snorted.
224 Angela Romano
“You want I should follow?”
“I want Madison to go home,” Epsilon said abruptly, and Madison
stiffened. “Leander and I can handle Sasha and any little friends she
might have brought with her.”
“Just the two of you?”
“When she ran off from me, she was very badly injured. There hasn’t
been enough time for even a Hunter to have recovered fully, not from a
wound like hers. It’s easier for the two of us to handle this without
having to worry about someone else—”
“As if I’m not as fully trained and capable as you both.”
“You are, Madison. Nobody’s trying to say that,” Leander gritted
out. “It’s just that Epsilon and I, we know each other. We understand
each other, how we fight, how we move. It’s not that you can’t fight. It’s
that we’re not used to another person.”
Madison scowled. “I want to find her.”
“I know you do, Madison, but right now it’s better if you just let
Leander and me handle it,” Epsilon said.
“I can’t just let you two go rushing in there clashing your way
through everything.”
“Madison, I understand you’re worried about her, but honestly, it’s
better to just let us do what we do best.”
Madison huffed, gritting her teeth. “You just plan on making me wait
in my tower like a damsel in distress?”
“No, I expect you wait with Mercedes and Wolf.” Leander was
already sliding off his backpack, pulling out his cell phone.
“You can’t make them babysit me like a child!”
“If it keeps you from going with us, yes.”
“I have every right to go with you—”
“Not if we ask you not to—”
“Or to go home!”
Mourning Doves 225
“I don’t trust you to stay there. And if something attacks you, I don’t
want you to be alone.”
“I can handle myself!”
“So can Wolf, Mercedes, and I, and we all got brought down by these
things!” Epsilon snapped. “Madison, this isn’t a question of ‘can you
handle what the boys can’. We’re not on the school playground!”
“I’m very aware of that!” she snarled right back. “But Alex is my
responsibility.”
“Alex is a big girl,” Leander put in softly. “Madison, it’s no more
your fault she’s missing than it’s ours that that boy, Liaison, died. It took
a very long time for that to become clear in my brain, but it’s the truth:
it’s not our fault he’s dead. It’s Montgomery’s, and his alone. He’s
paying for that. And this, Alex being taken, that’s all on Sasha, Madison.
You thought she was gone; we all did. That doesn’t make you
responsible for this.”
Madison pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Now,” Epsilon finished softly, touching her shoulder. “Do you want
us to continue to stand around arguing, or do you want Alex back?”
“Fine.” Madison’s voice was clipped and hard. “Fine, then, call
them.”
Leander let out a soft breath of relief and dialed. The phone was
picked up on the second ring by, to his surprise, Mercedes. It was to his
surprise because he’d called Wolf first, and while a few years ago
hearing Mercedes pick up at Wolf’s place might be normal, not so much
anymore.
“I… uh… hey, Mercedes, ’sup?” he recovered at last, and Mercedes
laughed heartily on the other end.
“Don’t worry, I’ve not taken advantage of your friend’s gentle
innocence,” Mercedes teased. “I’m just staying here a few weeks until
Wolf gets used to his new… way of seeing things.”
Leander winced. “Bad pun, my friend. Look, babe, we’ve got a pretty
major problem on our hands, here, and I need you two to come get
Madison.”
226 Angela Romano
“Come get? Where are you, and who all’s there?”
“Epsilon an’ me, with her. We’re, um—” He stopped and read off the
street name.
“That’s a little ways from her apartment. What’s up?”
“I’ll tell you two when you get here.”
“You’re assuming we’re coming.”
“Ha ha. Just get down here.”
“Let me see if Wolf’s up to it. In all seriousness, Leander, he’s
rough.” Leander felt a prick of guilt at the words. He remembered
Madison’s reluctance to bother them and realized there were probably a
few reasons why that was.
“Look, Mercedes, you don’t gotta—”
“Leander, if you need a pickup, it’s not a big deal. I just need to see
if Wolf is up to coming with me or being left alone.”
“Everything okay?” Epsilon asked as Mercedes left the phone for a
moment.
“I think Wolf’s feeling pretty bad,” Leander admitted. “But
Mercedes, at least, should be available for a pickup.”
At the moment, Mercedes came back on. “You there?”
“There some reason I shouldn’t be?”
Mercedes sighed. “Knock it off, Leander. I’ll be on my way in about
ten.”
“Wolf coming with you?”
“Possibly.”
“Well, that’s so vague it just might work.”
“Oh, hush and wait.” Mercedes hung up the phone.
Leander flipped his phone shut as well, tucking it back in his little
pack. He swung the pack over his shoulder once more. “Mercedes is on
his way.”
And indeed, Mercedes pulled up about an hour later. He stepped out,
Mourning Doves 227
and Leander could see Wolf in the passenger seat, but his seat was tilted
and his head leaned back. He was, Leander could see even through the
car’s windows, pale.
“Should you have brought him?”
“He’ll be fine. He needs to start getting out,” Mercedes replied.
Leander chuckled a little. “Nice to know Doc Mercedes is on the
job.”
“Wiseass.” Mercedes extended a hand to Madison.”After you, my
dear.”
“And you call him names,” Madison snorted, but headed for the car.
She bent by the passenger window to speak softly to Wolf, who opened
his eyes and tipped his head so the good one focused on her. He smiled a
little at whatever she said, and then she climbed into the back, sitting
behind him.
Mercedes grinned and then looked back at Epsilon and Leander, who
had already turned to finish tracking the scent. “You two gonna be okay
alone?”
“There’s no guarantee we’ll even find her today,” Leander reminded.
“The scent might drop off halfway and we’ll have to find it again.”
“But if you do find her.”
“Then we’ll be fine.” Leander gave Mercedes’ arm a pat. “We might
be just getting back in the rodeo, Mercedes, but this isn’t our first bull
ride.”
“I know,” Mercedes said. “I worry; it’s natural.”
“Go on. Wolf doesn’t look so hot,” Leander said, instead of replying.
“Like I said, he needs this.”
“‘This’ is not sitting in a hot car while you argue with me. Go home.”
Mercedes paused, visibly torn for a moment, and then sighed. “Fine,
all right. But call, for fuck’s sake, if anything goes wrong.”
“Well, if anything goes wrong we might be a little busy handling it.”
“You know what I mean.”
228 Angela Romano
“I know what you mean. We’ll be all right, honestly. Go on.”
Mercedes nodded and patted Leander’s shoulder. Then he climbed
back into the car and peeled away. Leander watched as the car pulled off,
then glanced at his partner.
“Ready?”
“As I can be.”
Leander quirked a grin and then bolted. Epsilon was barely a half-
step behind him, and both were moving faster than Madison would ever
have been able to. Yet another part of the reason why they’d not wanted
her to come along; they’d have been forced to slow down for her. Not
that Madison was out of shape; Kin were simply faster. Epsilon actually
had to slow down for Leander. The pair ran in tandem across the side
streets and down alleyways. They ran past the lake and ended up having
to circle back, circling around to the other side. Luckily, the scent
resumed there.
They followed it into the shallow woods around the area, and back
into deeper woods still, not stopping, not even pausing. Whatever was
going to come was going to come, and they may as well get it over with.
They only skidded to almost violent halts when they came to the
edge of the “forest,” finding a small cabin there, half-hidden. They
stopped almost in tandem, Epsilon purposely coming to a halt a few
steps in front of Leander, so that the smaller male was just barely behind
him and to his right. It was an unconsciously protective pose, and it
made Leander smile a little. In his turn, Leander did what the person in
the back is supposed to do: he watched Epsilon’s back. His ears swiveled
around behind him to catch any sound that might come up on them, one
to the side for the same reason in another direction, and his .475 came
out of its holster, ready to fire in any direction but the one Epsilon was
facing. That was Epsilon’s concern, and, unlike his partner, Leander was
not always so comfortable putting his companions in the way of potential
friendly fire.
He was a good shot, but he didn’t ever want to have to find out how
good. Epsilon already knew he was a crack shot.
“Can’t believe this bitch won’t just stay down,” Leander muttered
Mourning Doves 229
absently, and Epsilon grunted an agreement.
“Actually, our attempts to keep Alex from her probably only made
her more determined. And injured, like one of us would, she’s operating
more with animalistic thought processes.”
“So she has even more drive to claim Alex.” Leander finished the
thought.
Epsilon nodded, not pulling out his own weapon but resting his hand
near the hilt of his swords. “It makes her all the more dangerous.”
“Yeah? Babe, we’re dangerous too.” Leander grinned wolfishly and
nudged his partner. “You ready? Let’s go.”
Epsilon nodded and advanced, slowly, with Leander barely a step
behind him. The two split as they got nearer the cabin, Leander
vanishing into the woods; Epsilon moving right at the front door.
Leander slipped around, silent as—well, a fox—and paused mere
steps from the rear entrance. He’d know when it was time.
He watched the windows for any sign of movement, trying not to
burst in completely blind. He had the feeling that Epsilon was doing
much the same, and thus why nothing had gone down yet. He could see
nothing, but then, there wasn’t much light. Closing his eyes, he listened
hard but couldn’t hear anything abnormal or out of place in the woods
around him, either. He waited another few heartbeats, and then he heard
the sound of the front door slamming open hard and knew the time for
waiting and planning was over.
The chances of Sasha being in there alone with Alex were slim, and
Leander knew that there were only so many things that would happen
once he joined Epsilon in this rather hostile takeover.
The first scenario was the best case: Sasha, wounded and worn,
would not be capable of rational thought, would be running on simple
instinct. In that case, there might be one or two other Hunters in there
with her, members of her Pack, easily taken and easily killed. Alex
would be hurt, perhaps, but not injected in any way with that drug, and
getting her out would be a black-and-white matter.
Or, things could be roughly the same, but Alex was drugged and
already affected by the same drug that destroyed Sasha, and in the end
230 Angela Romano
they had to put Alex down too. Madison wouldn’t be too damn happy
with them for that one. Neither would Leander be happy with himself.
There had been one death because of this whole mess, and that was too
many already.
Or Sasha could have recovered, healed to the point where she was
functional once more and methodically and intelligently taken Alex. This
was the second-to-worse case scenario, because in it Alex was still
salvageable, but probably badly hurt and maybe raped, and there were
lots of Hunters protecting of the two women. If Sasha had gotten her
entire Pack to protect her, then that was a damned ant colony of Hunters
like back at the warehouse, and Epsilon and Leander would probably
have to retreat. Or at the very least fall back and strategize.
The worst possibility was also very similar to the one above it on
Leander’s mental list. But if all that occurred and Alex, once again, had
that stuff in her system, there’d be nothing they could do but blow up or
set fire to the lot of ’em, and let Alex die, once again.
This all flashed through his mind in moments, and then Leander was
coming in through the window, rolling to absorb impact and coming up
with his gun steady and level, ready.
Mourning Doves 231
THE ride back to Wolf’s apartment was a quiet one indeed. Wolf was in
pain and a little carsick, and Madison was so concerned and frightened in
the backseat that she was thin-lipped and said barely a word.
Mercedes tried to lull them both into conversation a couple of times,
but failed miserably, and the only words spoken were from Madison,
when they were home once more. She informed them she was going to
take a bath, and Mercedes offered to make some lunch for all of them.
Wolf simply went into the living room, and Mercedes bit his lip in
concern when the man flopped onto the couch.
Wolf had so much less spirit than he’d had, and Mercedes couldn’t
help but wonder if this was caused by his presence in the home. He knew
Wolf didn’t, or hadn’t, wanted him there at first. He knew that Wolf was
hurting and confused. Mercedes understood that very well right now. He
just hoped he wasn’t doing the wrong thing by sticking around.
Mercedes had the bad habit of doing the wrong thing.
He finished making subs for lunch, bringing Wolf’s out to him and
dropping it on the table. “There you are, your highness,” he drawled,
sitting down on the other end of the couch. Wolf’s good eye flicked to
him, and the man sat up slowly.
“I’m not hungry, thank you.”
“Oh, come on. I went through all the trouble of making it.”
232 Angela Romano
“You eat it then. Or give it to Leander when he gets back before he
starts gnawing through the table legs.”
“It’ll be soggy and gross by then.”
“Do you think that’ll stop him from eating it?”
“Point noted, though I really wish it wasn’t. That’s nasty.”
“It’s Leander. What do you want?” Wolf pointed out. He sobered.
“I’m really just not hungry, Mercedes, but thanks.”
Mercedes studied his friend in concern for a moment, and then he
reached out a hand to stroke along the man’s face. Wolf flinched back on
instinct, and Mercedes let the hand fall.
“Wolf?”
“I just don’t feel so wonderful still,” Wolf said.
“Wolf, you can’t mope around and then be surprised when you feel
like shit.”
“I don’t mope around!”
“No?” Mercedes quirked a brow. “What do you call what you’re
doing now?”
“Resting because my face fucking hurts, if it’s all the same to you,”
came the tight snarl in return. Mercedes paled and reached for Wolf
again. The hand threaded into his hair and stayed put this time. Wolf
tried to yank away, but Mercedes tightened his grip and pulled Wolf in
closer. Wolf whimpered but stopped fighting, instead pressing close to
Mercedes.
“Hey. Wolf, c’mon, easy, sweetheart,” he soothed, feeling sudden
tears leak onto the front of his shirt. “If you’re in that much pain, Wolf—”
But the dark head on his chest shook “no.” “It’s not my stupid eye,”
Wolf muttered, thick and foggy sounding. “It’s you.”
And there was the realization of worst fears. Mercedes froze, eyes
going cold and stark.
“Wolf, if you need me to, I can leave,” he said gently as Madison
reentered the room. She froze in the act of tying up her hair, watching
Mourning Doves 233
them. Her gaze on Wolf was protective and watchful, and he knew that if
he hurt Wolf, she’d throw him out of this house herself.
But Wolf reached up and grabbed the front of his shirt, his hand
fisting in the material.
“No. I don’t even know anymore,” Wolf murmured, but didn’t let go
of his shirt.
Mercedes gently gripped Wolf’s upper arms and pulled him away.
He looked the man in the eye, freeing one hand to gently wipe the tears
from his face.
“Hey. Relax, breathe, it’s all right, man, you’re okay.”
Wolf closed his eyes and pulled in a deep breath, then pulled away
from Mercedes. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’d say we have to talk, but we’ve about done it.”
Wolf laughed softly, taking a deep breath. “No. I mean, no, we
should.” He ran a hand through his hair, his eyes closing. “We should do
something besides ignore—”
“Not now,” Mercedes replied, rising slowly. “Wolf, I already told
you, I don’t expect anything out of you.”
Madison was very aware she was missing something, but kept quiet.
Wolf was glad of it; he rose, headed into the kitchen. He nearly
knocked over half a dozen cups, but Mercedes had followed him and
grabbed his elbow.
“Okay?” he asked, steadying the man.
“I’m fine.” Wolf pulled free gently. “I hate lacking peripheral
vision.”
“I’m sure you do, but that’s what I’m for. What was that all about?”
“Nothing.”
“Apparently I’m nothing, now.”
“No, you’re not—that’s—” He sighed.
“You gonna last a week with me?”
234 Angela Romano
Wolf smiled a little. “I wouldn’t have said yes if I didn’t think so.”
“Wolf, you just burst out in tears. Do you know how unlike you that
is?”
“I feel like shit, Mercedes, and yeah, okay, you’ve got me a little…
emotional… but we’re all worn down and sick after everything. That’s
all.” He laid a hand gently on Mercedes’ arm. “It’s okay.”
“No, actually, it’s not.”
Madison had come to the doorway of the kitchen, and stood with her
cell phone in her hand. She looked pale and frightened, and that alone
was enough to scare Wolf and Mercedes. Madison didn’t look that way
for no reason.
“Madison?” Wolf asked. She glanced at him, but her eyes didn’t see
him at first. Then she bit her lip.
“Leander just called me. Sasha is, without doubt, dead this time.
Unfortunately, so might be Epsilon.”
Mourning Doves 235
LEANDER wasn’t sure if it had gone bad or it if had started off bad. He
remembered jumping through the window, powerful gun brought to bear.
He remembered getting a flash of a Hunter rushing him, and then
everything just went to hell.
He remembered running up stairs after his prey, and he remembered
hearing a distant rumble like thunder, but wrong somehow, off.
He’d stopped, turned on his heel, and looked back to where Epsilon
was.
Epsilon was supposed to be.
The man was gone.
Snarling, he turned back to the Hunter, pulling the trigger once. He
didn’t feel like playing right now, not with the sudden feeling of wrong
that had taken over this entire situation. The bullets took the Hunter
through the head and blew him backward. He ran back toward where he
saw Epsilon, skidding to a stop. He scented the air, ears quivering.
He picked up Sasha’s scent and then Epsilon’s; he relaxed a little.
Likely he was chasing her.
There was another distant rumble, and he went tense again instantly.
Fuck, something was just not right.
He took a moment, getting his bearings. There was only one story to
this place, no upstairs; but lots of stuff to shift dangerously if there were
236 Angela Romano
an earthquake or something.
That noise didn’t sound like an earthquake.
The smell of heat reached his nose, and fear rooted him to the spot.
“Epsilon!” he bellowed, taking off at a run. The thing was only one
story, but it was huge. He burst through rusted heavy door after rusted
heavy door, following the scent of his partner. Soon he got Sasha’s trail,
also, and he snarled as the familiar scent of her reached his nose.
“Epsilon, we gotta go!”
He turned a corner, slamming through another door into a back room
without thinking.
The shot caught him high in his left shoulder, half-spinning him
around with the force of it. He cried out and hit the floor, ducking behind
a pile of boxes and leaning back on them, panting and clutching the
wounded shoulder.
Motherfuck! That’ll teach me to barge in.
“Shit, Leander!”
“You shot me, you dumb sonofabitch!” he snarled in reply to
Epsilon’s shaky call. “Can’t you fucking smell me before you fire?”
“I’m a little distracted!”
Leander took a deep breath and then dared to look around his boxes.
He saw Alex, held by the hair, Sasha using her as a human shield. Alex
was weeping, and he could barely hear her, if he listened hard,
whispering, pleading with Sasha. She was trying to appeal to what was
human in Sasha, but the problem was there was nothing human left in
Sasha.
Once, Epsilon had told Leander that he’d always been a little
frightened of that happening to them. He could, he’d said, feel that
animal inside him; feel it like a tiger in a cage, pacing and clawing,
snarling and growling, just waiting for the chance to leap out and go
mad. It had almost happened when Montgomery had taken him captive.
He’d nearly lost himself to that wild animal instinct that drove the
Hunters.
Mourning Doves 237
Leander understood his fear. He knew exactly what Epsilon was
talking about. He’d experienced that sensation too. And there was
nothing he could say that would ease the older man’s mind, because
anything he said would be empty and hollow.
It was possible for a Kin to lose his mind to that animal instinct. It
had happened before. Once in a very great while, a Hunter turned out to
be a Kin.
They’d always had to be put down too.
Leander growled with annoyance, unable to get a clear shot at Sasha.
“Epsilon, something’s not right here!” he called.
“I know. I hear it too. You gonna live over there?”
“Your aim sucks, dude. I don’t feel a thing! You owe me majorly, all
th’ same!”
Sasha whipped around toward his voice, and he ducked down again
instantly.
“You disappointed me, Mr. Kin!” Sasha sang out, head tilted. “I
wanted you for mine too!”
“I know,” he drawled. “Sorry. I don’t play pet to anyone.”
He didn’t know if she’d heard him. He didn’t really care.
“Epsilon!” he snapped, and there was no reply but he could feel
Epsilon pay attention, feel him ready himself.
He closed his eyes. Sasha was snarling, audible over Alex’s soft,
distressed cries. He could hear her pacing, shifting uncertainly between
Leander and Epsilon, unsure what to do.
She made for the door suddenly, dragging Alex with her. Running.
“Now!” Epsilon and Leander snarled at the same time, and the pair
leaped from their respective hiding places and charged. Leander came
low and hard, Epsilon high and fast, and they slammed into Alex and
Sasha both, drawing a scream from the former and a roar of rage from
the latter.
It worked, though. Sasha got involved with flailing and biting at
238 Angela Romano
them, and Alex’s hair got let go.
“Move!” Leander snarled at her. “Go. Get the fuck out of here now!”
He ducked Sasha’s claws, watching Epsilon’s face Change, watching the
man’s fangs sink into her neck. The woman screamed.
Alex started to back away, one uncertain step at a time.
“Go!” Leander yelled again, and she turned and ran this time, flying
out the doors.
Leander knew there could likely be other Hunters out there, waiting
for her, waiting to grab her. But he also knew how Hunter packs worked;
if Sasha was the leader of this little group, they would let Alex go in
favor of assisting her.
Still, Leander let the woman go abruptly. “Take her, Epsilon. I’ve got
Alex’s back!” he demanded, and he ran after her.
And that was when the final distant rumble came, and then there was
a BOOM so loud that he felt it more than heard it, and then only for a
split second.
Then Leander was flying backward.
His back struck the wall with enough force to crack a rib, and he had
a split second to realize that the ceiling was coming down on him. He
threw his arms over his head and tucked into the smallest ball possible,
as it was the only thing he could do.
He didn’t know if he was grateful or not later, when he was hit on the
head and blacked out and he didn’t come around for minutes, at least.
When he blinked awake, the room was far too silent; as if the world was
stunned, trying to recover from the shock and the violence of what had
just occurred.
There was no longer a ceiling; most of it was on top of him, actually,
and he realized just how fucking lucky he really was. He could have
been killed instead of just knocked out for a few minutes. He was
covered in more than just roof debris. He was singed, he realized, and
bleeding badly from… somewhere. His numbness was fading, but the
pain was so spread throughout his body that he couldn’t pinpoint one
location.
Mourning Doves 239
He pushed up slowly, carefully. He was fully aware that he shouldn’t
be moving. He was also fully aware he didn’t have much choice in his
current situation.
The movement hurt; his ribs moved in a way they shouldn’t, and he
cried out, a choked, hard sound that he cut off before it could grow. If
any Hunters at all were around and alive and had heard that, they would
be on the move, even if they were as hurt as he was. And they would
deal with injury better even than a Kin.
In body, he was still just a skinny, lanky teenage male. A skinny,
lanky teenage male body didn’t do well in the event of—-
Of—
What the hell happened, anyway?
He lifted his ears—the right one was bleeding—and tried to take
stock. He had trouble picking up a smell or sound in the chaos, but he
quickly determined what had occurred.
Something had blown up. Hell, something had blown everything up.
He groaned and tried to drag himself upright, and instantly forgot
about the Hunters as pain ripped through his leg. The scream tore from
his throat and echoed around the destroyed building, and the second one
followed it before the first had even dissipated. He doubled over, hand
clutching his thigh, his ears back and his face contorted with pain. He
stopped at last, panting, heaving, and began to shove debris off his legs
and torso.
He saw the problem almost instantly.
A metal pole had been driven through his kneecap.
His breath sped up and he was aware for a moment that he was
starting to hyperventilate, that if he didn’t stop and calm down he was
going to do himself more damage. But the sight of the pole going
through his jeans and skin gave him instinctual panic, made worse by the
animalistic side of him; for a split second all he could think was trapped
trapped trapped hurt trapped, and he was afraid he was going to lose it
and gnaw his own leg off.
Then he forced himself calm again. He closed his eyes so he couldn’t
240 Angela Romano
see it and forced himself to take deep breaths. When he could open his
eyes again, he did, and forced his body to relax slowly. Then he reached
out and gripped the end of the metal pole. He closed his eyes again,
taking one, two, three, four, five breaths, and then yanked in one clean,
smooth motion.
He didn’t scream this time. He couldn’t.
The pain surged up around him in a black, charging wave, making
him buck and arch as if struck with electricity. His head slammed into
the floor, bounced off. He hurled the blood-soaked piece of metal across
the floor, curling around his wounded leg and then he could react, his
breath coming out of him in a whoosh, his pain leaking out of him in
rocking sobs, heavy and loud.
Finally he brought himself back under control, panting softly and
rocking himself in agony. Then he sat up again slowly, evaluating
himself to the best of his own ability. Ribs broken or cracked, leg, of
course, ear, his arm wasn’t bending right and hurt when he lifted it above
his head, bruises, cuts, bleeding from multiple shallow and deeper
gashes. Didn’t feel like anything internal was badly hurt, but then, didn’t
hurt to be careful.
He grabbed hold of the same wall he’d crashed into, standing by
inches and leaning against it, waiting for the world to stop spinning.
Head injury, maybe from smacking it into the floor, maybe not. But he
was dizzy and nauseous; he wondered if he had a concussion.
When he felt he was ready, he took a step forward and promptly went
down in a heap. He yelped silently in pain, curling into a fetal position
and rocking until the pain subsided. Then he tried again, pushing himself
upright a second time, more slowly this time. He used his tail for balance
the way a reptile might, though it didn’t work as well, and made his way
through the room again, using every item available to stay upright.
He began to sniff again, fear making a cold ball in the pit of his
stomach now that the pain had been pushed to the back of his mind. This
place had just been blasted like a condemned building, and Epsilon had
been in here too.
“Epsilon?” he tried, and started to cough and cough hard. He doubled
over, hacking violently, gasping to get air. He heard himself crying out
Mourning Doves 241
again, his ribs jarred with each wrenching cough. His ribs too, were a
fear factor for him; he was afraid that he would hurt himself worse by
coughing. He stopped after what felt like hours, gasping desperately.
“Epsilon!” he tried again, breathless and weak. There was no reply,
and he managed to get back into the room he’d left the two battling in.
It wasn’t there anymore.
He stared at it in horrified shock, at the place where that room should
have been. There was a wall, and part of the roof, but not much more.
“Oh, fuck,” he hissed, and began a frantic search for the backpack
that came everywhere with him. Luckily it had landed only steps from
him, and he got it free of the rubble without much effort, though the
whole kneeling-to-pick-it-up issue was one that nearly made him black
out again.
He dug his cell phone out of it, amazed to see it was not only fairly
uninjured, but working just fine. “Wonders of modern technology,” he
muttered, eyebrows arched. He leaned on the wall again, dialing
Madison’s number.
She picked up on the second ring.
“Leander?”
“Madison? There a demolition scheduled for a building on 10th
Avenue?”
“No.” She sounded confused, worried. “Not that I know of, anyway.”
“Oh,” he breathed. “Then someone just wants us all dead.”
“Leander, what the hell are you talking about? What happened?”
“I think Epsilon’s dead,” he said, hearing his own voice grow fainter.
“Sasha too. Ever’ Hunter that was in here with us. Alex. Me.” And then
he dropped the phone, leaned over, and vomited until he passed out
again.
242 Angela Romano
“HE said 10th Avenue,” Madison said as they clambered into Wolf’s
car. Mercedes already had half a dozen other TASK agents on the case,
dispatched to find out what they could about why the hell a building
would randomly explode.
Or maybe not so randomly. That was what Wolf was afraid of more
than anything; that Sasha had planned this, had set it up. That she wasn’t
as base and instinctual as they’d thought, but was steadily and slyly
setting dominos up and watching them fall, setting them all up for a
painful fall.
He knew Mercedes was afraid too.
He wondered if Madison was thinking about it too. From her deep,
musing silence, he’d say so.
He bit his lower lip and closed his eyes, leaning his head back on the
seat, his fear swelling in the pit of his stomach. Mercedes reached over
and took his hand briefly, and he startled and opened his eyes once more.
Mercedes didn’t smile at him, didn’t even try to look reassuring. But
Wolf felt startlingly better, as if someone had just offered him a hand up
from a deep, dark pit and pulled him up.
Mercedes let go a moment later, giving his hand a pat, and they
started to move toward the street their friends had run into so much peril
on. It seemed no matter where Leander and Epsilon went, said peril
followed. You’d think by this time they’d all be used to it, but no matter
Mourning Doves 243
how many times it happened, it seemed to strike home anew. Of course,
he imagined that no matter many times anyone saw a loved one in peril,
you couldn’t really “get used to it.”
They drove in silence to the street Leander had mentioned. They
didn’t have to look very far or hard for what had happened. Wolf had
been concerned about that, but the moment they turned his fear
dissipated to be replaced by fear of a new sort.
Police, paramedics, government officials, camera crews, and
emergency teams flooded the streets. People had come out of their
homes to see what was going on, but farther down there weren’t any
homes left to come out of. They’d been massively destroyed.
The car rolled to a stop outside the police barricades that were being
set up. Mercedes was the first one out, getting out before the car had
almost come to a complete stop. Wolf was forced to reach over and
nervously grab the wheel, glaring daggers at Mercedes’ back. Madison
came out after, and then Wolf, moving slightly more slowly than the
other two.
Mercedes flashed his badge as they approached. No matter what
people thought of TASK, it was still an official agency, and it still
demanded respect, at least technically.
“Mercedes Knight,” he introduced. “The hell happened, officer?”
“This isn’t TASK-related,” the man snapped, sneering the word
TASK. Wolf bristled, but Madison laid her hand on the man’s shoulder
and held him at bay.
“A TASK agent was in this area on a job. We’re concerned he was
injured in this… whatever happened here.”
“You had one of your guys in there?” The cop’s expression changed;
dislike the branch of government or not, losing a partner was still losing
a partner, and he understood what it was like to have one of his own men
in danger.
“Two, actually. They’re partners.” Mercedes jerked a thumb over his
shoulder. “And her partner too.” Technically, this was true.
The cop sighed, running a hand over his face. “Place was old;
scheduled to be taken down about a month from now,” he explained at
244 Angela Romano
last. “Some nut job found out about that and decided it would be fun to
try and do it themselves; set up an assload of homemade explosives and
set ’em off. Didn’t expect it to be such a big explosion. He took down
half the block,” the cop gestured around, “then took off again.” He
sighed. “Guess it spooked him when he realized that the explosion
wasn’t gonna be small and neat.”
“Who thinks blowing up a building’s going to be small or neat?”
Madison demanded, and the man snorted.
“Yeah, well, there it is, Miss—”
“Rivers. Madison Rivers”
“Miss Rivers. I’m sorry about your partner, and the other guys, but
frankly I’m not sure what you want done about it.” He went on,
shrugging a little. “There’s so much chaos here I’m surprised anyone
knows what the fuck’s going on.”
Mercedes sighed again, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Who the hell
blows up a building in the middle of town?” he muttered.
“Dumb kids,” the man replied, gruffly.
“Just let us have a look around. We can help you out too,” Wolf
spoke up softly.
The cop shifted and then closed his eyes. “All right, get over here.
But keep yourselves out of the way and don’t touch anything.”
Mercedes stepped around the barrier, followed by the other two. The
chaos around them was disheartening in the extreme, but the actual
building was fairly calm; the only people inside, it seemed, had been a
few Hunters, Leander and Epsilon, Sasha, and Alex. The Hunters were
all dead, and the only people messing about with them were people
taking the bodies away.
One body, Mercedes saw and pointed out, was Sasha. Or what was
left of Sasha. She’d been blown nearly in half. She must have, Madison
said softly, fear making her voice shake, been close to where the blast
was.
Which likely meant Epsilon and Alex had been too.
The place was a helpless mess, and they quickly departed from the
Mourning Doves 245
area the paramedics and cops flooded, looking through the less populated
areas that were still standing. Leander and Epsilon both would have
dragged themselves off to the most isolated part of the half-destroyed
building they could the moment people started to flood the place. Instinct
would have driven them to do it, and they wouldn’t be coherent or strong
enough to try to deny it at that time.
Wolf saw the blood first, to his own surprise.
There was a trail of it that he nearly stepped in, and, following it, he
saw its source rather quickly; he gave a shout of delighted surprise and
broke into a sprint, nearly killing himself on the destroyed matter around
his feet.
Alex stood near the back of the building, leaning on the wall.
Madison called her name, and she turned, instantly letting out a sob
and falling into her lover’s arms as they got close. She clung to Madison,
sobbing helplessly while the older woman tried to both comfort her and
see how badly she’d been hurt. They wound up sinking to the ground,
and all Madison could do for the now was to hold Alex and let her weep.
One down.
Hopefully, Wolf scanned the area where they’d found Alex, but he
could see no hint of Leander or Epsilon. Mercedes had moved off down
what had been, at one time, a hallway, back into the remains of the huge,
destroyed building.
He turned and faced Alex and Madison again, watching the younger
woman stroking her hands gently over Alex’s face and through her hair.
Their foreheads were pressed together, and Madison was murmuring
gently to her. He bit his lip softly and then made his way back to the pair.
He knelt beside them, placing a hand on Madison’s shoulder.
“She gonna be all right?”
Madison’s head came up and she pulled Alex protectively into her
chest. “She needs a hospital.”
“I know,” Wolf assured, squeezing his friend’s shoulder gently.
“We’ll get her to the paramedics out front, but we need to know if she
knows where Leander or Epsilon could be.”
246 Angela Romano
Madison closed her eyes, and Wolf saw tension enter her body as
Alex began to hiccup for breath, brow furrowed in pain.
“Alex. Alexandria, calm down and look at me,” she said, in the voice
that Wolf was more familiar with. The firm, demanding tone that
commanded respect and control. Alex stopped crying and looked up at
her with bleary, pain-dazed eyes. “Darling, I need you to focus. I need
you to listen to me, all right?”
Alex nodded, one arm wrapped around her middle, clutching her
other arm. Broken, Wolf assumed, and most likely an ugly break. But
she was nodding and listening, and that was all they needed.
“Did you see any of the others?” Madison asked. “Do you know
where they might be?”
Alex took a gulping breath, struggling to calm down. Wolf had seen
Sasha’s body. The woman had probably been ripped away from Alex,
and no wonder the girl was traumatized. She shook her head, burying it
back in Madison’s chest. “She—” She stopped, her voice trembling, and
tried again. “She threw me when the blast hit,” she whispered. “She felt
it coming and threw me out of the way.”
Oh. That would be a good reason for being traumatized too; your
half-insane lover tossing you out of harm’s way when only moments
before she’d been holding you captive. Gave a person a lot to think
about.
What is it with us and fucked-up relationships? Wolf thought, and
then snorted. Oh, please, comes with the territory. He pushed himself
upright, groaning softly. His own body was still recovering, and he had
to brace for a moment against vertigo brought on by his increasingly
annoying lack of proper vision. Then he grabbed Madison’s arm, gently
tugging both women upright.
“Come on, Madison, let’s get Alex to a hospital,” he said gently, and
she wrapped her arm around Alex’s waist, guiding the woman back to
the front of the building. When he was certain they’d gotten out safely,
he went back inside, out of the bluster and hubbub, the dead bodies and
hurting people.
Who the hell blew up a fucking building for kicks? His instincts were
Mourning Doves 247
screaming there was something more here, but he didn’t care. He didn’t
want to care.
He just wanted this whole mess to be over.
He picked his way over fallen bits of wall and support structures,
paying close attention to make sure nothing else would come down on
his head. He knew they had limited time before that happened, before
everyone was forced to leave the area because it was too dangerous to
stay inside.
He grimaced. Never should have let Mercedes wander off alone
inside. Now they had yet another missing person. He called his ex-
lover’s name softly, concerned when he didn’t get a reply. He reached
the base of stairs that had half-fallen down, and groaned.
Surely, surely Mercedes hadn’t been stupid enough to attempt that.
He placed one slender hand delicately on what remained of the rail.
“Mercedes, if you’re up there I hope you break your leg!” he called
dangerously, wondering if he should try for it.
“Now that is not very nice.”
The voice made him startle so violently he fell into the stairs. They
instantly shuddered and gave more under the unexpected weight, and
Wolf had a split second to realize that there was no way even someone as
slight as Mercedes could have made this climb before he was tumbling
backward.
“Shit!” Mercedes reached out and caught the front of his shirt,
hauling him upright again. He did it fast enough to keep the material
from ripping and dumping Wolf on his ass despite the save, and Wolf
clutched at his friend’s upper arms for a moment, as if unsure if the
ground would stay steady under his feet. Then he realized Mercedes was
laughing, and he shoved him away violently, punching him in the
stomach. Mercedes “woofed” with the loss of air, doubling over, but his
amusement was still plain.
“Jackass. That wasn’t fucking funny.” Wolf snarled. Mercedes shook
his head, unable to speak just yet, but grinned helplessly. It was so, and
you know it, said that grin, and Wolf took to pouting.
Mercedes caught his breath again after a moment. “That hurt,” he
248 Angela Romano
informed.
“It was supposed to hurt. Asshole.”
“Oh, stop.”
“Did you find anything, or are you just playing?”
Mercedes’ grin faded, hurt and anger crossing his face. “Excuse the
fuck out of me.”
Wolf snarled, turning to walk past the steps. “You’re in here playing
around like it’s a fun old time. Leander and Epsilon could be dead!”
Mercedes ran the two steps he needed to catch up, walking briskly
beside Wolf. “I’m dealing with stress instead of letting it toss me around
like a little rubber ball,” he drawled. “Getting so uptight you can’t
breathe isn’t going to help, Wolf.”
“Fuck you!” Wolf stopped, distantly aware that he’d yelled and it
was echoing. At least, if Leander and Epsilon were alive, they’d know
their dysfunctional rescue party was on its way. “Fuck you, you stupid
son of a bitch! You never take anything seriously, and when I do, I’m
being too intense!”
Mercedes drew back as if stung, blinking. “Do you really think now
is a good time to have a couples squabble? Because I’m all in for talking
about us, but not usually when two people could be bleeding to death
somewhere.”
“That is exactly my point,” Wolf hissed, finger in Mercedes’ face. He
resisted the urge to bite it. Wolf would probably hit him again, in the
face this time. “You don’t even care about them.”
“You used to like my light-hearted banter. It kept you from doing to
yourself what you’ve been doing to yourself ever since I left. That is,
stressing until you get sick. And then pushing yourself until you
collapse. And didn’t we just have this conversation?” Mercedes asked as
Wolf began walking again. “Or one a whole lot like it? Does everything
come down to that? That, once upon a time, I doubted your boys? You?”
“Not everything.”
Mercedes shut up, jaw snapping shut with a nearly audible click.
“Well, then,” he snarled at last, and he used his height advantage to out-
Mourning Doves 249
distance Wolf.
Wolf didn’t really make an attempt to keep up, at any rate.
That’s that, then, Mercedes thought, surprised at how calm he felt. If
it just comes down to he can’t stand me, there’s not much I can do about
it. We’re just not compatible.
Maybe we never were.
But I love him.
The last thought was achingly painful, and he closed his eyes briefly.
Sometimes that wasn’t enough, would never be enough. After everything
that had happened, they’d proven that Mercedes was a back-stabber and
a traitor, and Wolf wasn’t someone who could stay with someone he
couldn’t trust and depend on.
Apparently, there was even more to it than that.
They came at last to the last room in the old building, and Wolf
stayed out in the hall as Mercedes began to poke around, calling out
softly and shifting anything that might be hiding a wounded person.
Or a body, but he refused to consider that. One body was enough for
this adventure. More than. He scowled.
He was starting to get discouraged when he heard it; the barest
whimper from his left. He perked up, listening intently. “Leander?
Epsilon?” He called again and got another low whimpering groan in
reply.
“Wolf! Get over here and help me!” he snapped, and, differences
aside, Wolf moved instantly next to Mercedes. The pair of them moved
toward the sounds, and soon had unburied Leander Kale from the pile of
building he’d been half-buried in. Carefully, delicately, they pulled him
free, Mercedes hissing in empathy when he saw the gaping wound in the
man’s leg. He pulled his shirt off and made a bandage hastily, winding it
tightly around Leander’s wound to stop the now-sluggish bleeding.
Sluggish couldn’t be a good thing.
The man didn’t wake up, barely even stirred as his two rescuers lifted
him carefully, but he did come around as they got back into public,
struggling weakly and snarling.
250 Angela Romano
“Easy, easy,” Mercedes soothed gently, as they got him on a stretcher
and the paramedics descended in a swarm. “You’re safe, Leander, you’re
safe now.”
Two down.
“We need to go back,” Wolf said, as they finally let Leander go and
started to back away. But Leander shook his head, grabbing Mercedes’
wrist. “Not there,” he rasped.
“What?” Mercedes turned, freezing with concern.
“Sasha—did you find—”
“She’s dead,” Wolf said bluntly, watching Leander fight off the
paramedics. “Leander, stop. You’re hurt. They’re going to help. We can
talk later.”
“No.” Leander shoved away the helping hands once more. “No, I—
she’s dead?”
“More than.”
But Leander did not look pleased at the news. “Epsilon—he was
chasing her,” he breathed. “He was right there with her.”
Wolf and Mercedes glanced at each other in stark, hard fear.
“Alex was—”
“She told me Sasha got her out of the way,” Wolf interrupted. They
both knew exactly what that meant. If Sasha had been ripped apart that
way, and Epsilon had been steps behind her—and he probably had been
as he’d would have been after her with those damn swords instead of a
gun like a normal person—he’d probably been torn open too.
Leander’s eyes closed, and tears were already streaming down his
cheeks as he finally gave in and let the men trying to help him do their
jobs.
Wolf and Mercedes went back to the car. Madison had gone with
Alex in the ambulance, but they would follow behind Leander’s. They
didn’t want him to see them grieving.
Wolf settled into the passenger seat, staring blankly out the window.
“Hunters,” he said at last, as Mercedes climbed in. “Hunters. Routine.
Mourning Doves 251
Hell, fucking easy, all things considered. I’ve seen Leander laughing
while fighting Hunters. He plunged right into that swarm of them and
came out without a scratch. Epsilon can pick them off in one long shot
like shooting cans.” He laughed, the sound bitter and broken. “This
should have been simple. Easy.”
Mercedes reached out, but Wolf jerked away. Mercedes bristled at
this second, blatant rejection.
Mixed fucking signals left and right. You don’t know what you want.
He placed both hands on the wheel and leaned his forehead on it. He
didn’t have a right to be upset by Wolf right now. Not with two people
badly hurt. And Epsilon.
Leander was going to be devastated.
“Wolf, this was not your fault.”
“They’re my boys, Mercedes,” he replied, without looking over. “My
responsibility. I trained them, I practically raised them. Those two are
my best. There’s no one in this world that can ever be like them. Special.
Incredibly special. The world was going to let them go and TASK
brought them back around, and they turned into the most unique and
incredible kids. And I just let one half of the whole die because I was too
busy—”
“Wolf, you can’t be expected to keep them in little bubbles. Leander
will recover, and you can retire him. Send him out to the country, let him
take it easy for as long as he needs. I’ve got a little cabin up near
Colorado. He’d love it there. He likes open spaces. Wilderness.”
Wolf blinked and then turned to smile faintly at Mercedes. “That
would be good for him,” he agreed, but there was doubt and sorrow in
his eyes.
“He’ll heal. We all will heal.” Mercedes started the car, pulling out
after the ambulance carrying Leander.
“Maybe physically,” Wolf said, going back to looking out the
window. Mercedes flinched at that, but didn’t argue. He couldn’t.
They’d lost one of their own.
They’d lost a friend.
252 Angela Romano
HOW many times was he going to wake up to the steady, calm sound of
hospital machines beeping in his ears?
Amused, he pried his eyes open and realized instantly that he was
much, much worse off than he usually was. There was a mask over his
face, uncomfortable and smothering to the point of panic. He closed his
eyes and forced it back. It’s all right. I’m in a hospital, it’s all right. He
opened his eyes again. Someone’s hand was on his forehead, whispering
gentle assurances, and someone else was stroking his leg gently. His lips
quirked up and he slid his eyes to the person touching his forehead first.
Wolf smiled down at him. Leander tried to smile, awkward with the
mask, and reached up. Wolf’s fingers laced with his and squeezed.
Leander squeezed back, but it lacked significant force and hurt to do.
Still, he liked Wolf holding his hand, so he didn’t pull away. He looked
down at the leg-stroker, his mind full of naughty little comments for the
only person who would dare touch his leg. He focused his gaze on the
person that should have been Epsilon, but wasn’t.
And then it all came back in a hard jarring slam.
Epsilon was dead. Sasha was dead. Who knew about Alex? Mercedes
removed his hand when the black panic entered Leander’s eyes and
moved his touch to his other hand. “No, no,” he said, sharply but gently.
“Hush, Leander.”
Leander’s eyes squeezed shut, and he tossed his head violently to the
left, breath coming in huffing pants, even with the mask. He wanted that
Mourning Doves 253
thing off, and he wanted it off now. He tugged at the hand in Mercedes’
grip, but the other man only added his other one to the mix. “Stop it.
Leander, I’ll take it off but you have to calm down,” he told the man.
Leander nodded agreement, and Mercedes reached up, gently
removing the mask. Instantly it was obvious why he’d been made to
wear it. It was hard and painful to breathe without its assistance. But
he’d rather suffer than have to wear that thing again, right away, anyway.
He smiled a little, grateful, and Mercedes returned it. “Welcome
back,” he said gently, stroking Leander’s hair.
“Alex?” he asked, surprised at the effort it took to do so.
“Is actually better off than you,” Wolf piped up softly. “Sasha got her
out of the worst of it, which is the most amazing part of all. Few broken
bones, cuts, scrapes, minor burns, and one goose egg of a bump on her
skull, but she’ll be all right.”
“Epsilon?”
Silence, and Leander’s brow furrowed with resignation. He’d thought
as much when he saw that room. No way had anyone in there survived
that.
“We can’t say he’s dead, Leander,” Wolf tried. “No one’s found a
body to fit his description.”
“There’ve been no reports of him being found alive, but the victims
of that accident are being transported to hospitals all over,” Mercedes
added. “We’ve got TASK officials covering it; anyone who even sounds
like they fit Epsilon’s description is being checked out.”
“Accident?”
Wolf explained what the cop had told him, and anger darkened
Leander’s normally good-natured face.
“All this ’cause of some… motherfuckin’ stupid kid?” he gasped, and
if he’d been stronger Wolf thought he might have thrown something.
“Calm down. Now, Leander,” Mercedes told him again, holding the
mask like a threat. “You get yourself upset enough to hurt yourself and I
will let the nurses tie you down. And not in the way you like.”
254 Angela Romano
Wolf chuckled, and Leander tried one as well, but it died in the back
of his throat. Wolf cleared his own softly.
“Mercedes, could I have a minute alone with Leander?” he asked
softly, and obviously this didn’t surprise Mercedes in the least, because
he nodded and gave Wolf’s shoulder a pat. Wolf, Leander saw to his
confusion, jerked away from it. Something dark and aching crossed
Mercedes’ face, and then the man left.
“Was that?” he asked, conveniently forgetting the first part of the
sentence. Another odd quirk of Leander Speak, which they had all come
to get used to and even fond of.
“Nothing,” Wolf said, pulling his chair closer and finally letting
Leander’s hand go.
“Didn’ look like it.”
“I’m not here to talk about my relationships—or lack thereof—with
you.”
“I don’t want to talk about th’ other.”
“Neither do I, but some things need to be said.”
“Like… stop pushin’… guy you love off.”
Wolf blushed. “I’ll put this mask back on you to shut you up if I have
to,” he snapped, and Leander grinned once more.
“Don’t want… t’ talk about th’ other… thas’ all.” He was sounding
steadily worse, the more he forced himself to speak.
“Shut up, you idiot. You’re hurting yourself.”
“You… too,” came the murmured, pointed reply, and Wolf froze.
“You’re hurtin’… th’ both of you.” Leander’s eyes were sad and far
away. “Stop it… ’fore you run outta chances.”
Wolf’s blood ran cold at the truth of the words. Any day it could be
Mercedes rather than any of the others who wound up dead or badly hurt,
and the one thing he regretted more than anything else—the one thing he
would always regret more than anything else was chasing Mercedes
away.
He knew he had every rational reason for keeping the other man as
Mourning Doves 255
far at bay as possible. Leander knew it too. But Leander was removed
enough from the situation to see what Mercedes could not for the trees;
that it was crushing both of them.
“I’ll talk to him,” he said gently, softly. “Once things calm down,
okay?”
Leander nodded, seemingly satisfied with that reply. “What’d you
wanna say?”
Wolf went silent for a while, considering his words. Epsilon was not
necessarily dead yet, but it would be insulting to Leander to pretend that
he was fine and everything would be fine. He wasn’t and it wouldn’t.
But to hurt him with Epsilon too much while he was trying to recover
wouldn’t help, and Leander had insisted that he didn’t want to discuss it.
He had to be careful.
“Wolf?”
“I just… I wanted to apologize. For everything that’s happened up to
this point,” he said softly, holding up a hand when Leander tried to
interrupt. “Let me finish, Leander. I need to get this out.”
Leander fell quiet obediently, mostly because he didn’t really have a
whole lot of strength left to argue, anyway.
“I should have done more to protect you two, through everything.”
Wolf went on, after a pause to collect his thoughts. “I spend so much
time blaming everyone who judges you two, but none of it blaming
myself, and I should be.” He shook his head when Leader tried to
protest. “It’s my job to protect you two, and in every way, I keep failing
at it.”
Leander couldn’t stay quiet any longer, it seemed.
“You didn’t fail any—”
“Yeah, actually, I did.” Wolf rested his chin on his arms, but his face
was calm. He didn’t seem unduly upset by the thought. It was, Leander
thought, as though he’d gone through this a million times in his head and
was so unaffected by it now that it came off as apathy.
That thought disturbed him more than he’d like to admit. If Wolf had
gone over this in his head, then that meant he’d been likely beating
256 Angela Romano
himself up over it, even subconsciously. Wolf did things like that; he
beat himself up without even realizing he was doing it, and then when he
felt like shit he didn’t understand why.
But Wolf was pushing up right now. “I’m not going to anymore,” he
promised softly, his hand landing on Leander’s cheek softly. Few people
ever touched his face; most of them went straight for his ears. Not that
Leander minded people touching his ears, but it was nice to have his face
touched instead. He leaned into it unconsciously, and Wolf smiled. His
touch became firmer, and he stroked his hand gently through the man’s
hair and then brought his hands up to the fuzzy ears. His fingers found
the notch that was now in the right one.
“You’ve got a little character here,” he commented. Leander smiled.
“Beauty mark,” he said. He closed his eyes. “I think I need the
mask.”
He gently brought the mask back up over Leander’s face. “Rest,” he
said. “Just rest for a little while. Everything’s going to be okay.”
Leander shook his head, but let his eyes fall shut, too tired to keep
them open. His ears wilted backward, and after just a few moments he
was asleep.
Wolf closed his eyes and pulled the chair away, working it back into
its corner. He bit his lower lip softly, and then went back to the door.
“Mercedes?” he asked softly, poking his head out. The taller man was
leaning on the wall, and turned his head a little, and Wolf’s breath
sucked in softly.
He saw what Leander had seen. Mercedes’ eyes, normally gentle and
warm, were strained and dull, and they went flat and blank when he
looked at him. His mouth thinned, and when he pushed off the wall, his
motions were stiff.
Wolf gave him a smile and saw something spark softly behind that
bleakness. He hadn’t entirely killed Mercedes after all. He took a deep
breath and gently extended a hand, still smiling, still keeping his eyes
locked on his partner’s.
Mercedes’ brow furrowed, and he studied Wolf’s face hard. He
didn’t say a word, and Wolf suddenly realized he was holding his breath,
Mourning Doves 257
was afraid to move too quickly for fear of startling Mercedes like a
skittish colt.
And Mercedes reached out, placing his hand in Wolf’s slowly, as if
afraid of being burned.
Again.
Wolf flinched a little, and Mercedes thought it was his touch. He
moved to pull away, and Wolf’s grip tightened on him. “No,” he said,
and tugged him gently into the hospital room.
Mercedes allowed himself to be tugged as he was closing the door
softly. There was a cot set up against the wall, as Mercedes had
demanded they be allowed to stay overnight with Leander, and Wolf
moved over to it now. He toed off his shoes and crawled onto the cot,
then looked up at Mercedes, who was clearly uncertain.
“Come on,” Wolf said softly, a husky, nearly tearful quality to his
voice. “I’m cold.”
Mercedes nodded, sitting gently on the edge of the cot and then
climbing in next to Wolf. Gingerly, he wrapped his arms around the
smaller man and pressed back against the wall to make room for both of
them, surprised when Wolf cuddled up with a sigh.
Mixed signals, indeed, Wolf.
He looked over at Leander and caught the young Kin watching back
through slitted eyes. The moment Leander saw him watching back, he
slammed them shut again, but Mercedes had already seen and knew.
You troublesome little matchmaker.
He chuckled and ducked his chin against Wolf’s head, closing his
eyes.
They would be okay.
They would be okay.
EPSILON was dead, and Leander could feel it as a cold, heavy ball in
258 Angela Romano
his stomach. It was as if he’d just swallowed gallons and gallons of ice
water, then chased it with some steel wool.
His heart was breaking. His world was shaking unsteadily on its axis
and all he wanted, all he wanted was to open his eyes and see Epsilon, to
know the other man was all right.
But he knew he wouldn’t.
The mask had come off about two days ago. He was physically
healing in that speedy way Kin had, recovering quickly, outpacing Alex
by far, and his injures had been worse. Normally, he’d be teasing her
about it, encouraging her, sneaking off to her room in a wheelchair,
sneaking them all off in wheelchairs. Normally, he’d be helping
everyone else recover with the sheer force and energy of his happy,
playful presence.
But his Epsilon was dead. His best friend. His partner. He rolled over
on the hospital bed, careful of the things still attached to his skin, and
stared at the spare cot.
The only vision Leander could entertain was Epsilon, hurt, dragging
himself off like some wild animal to find a quiet place to—
He shook his head. No. No one had made it official. Epsilon could
possibly be alive. He could be, really. Kin could survive massive
amounts of damage, particularly genetically altered Kin. Epsilon was
tough, he was hard. If Leander had survived that blast, then couldn’t
Epsilon?
He refused to just believe Epsilon was dead. He couldn’t just
swallow it.
Leander had lost a lot of people in his life. Growing up like he had,
he’d seen friends and family die in ways that were both natural and
horrible, and he’d gotten over each and every one. Some more slowly,
some more easily, but he’d recovered from them all. Death was
something Leander was used to experiencing, and he knew how it felt to
lose someone.
He didn’t feel that now. He didn’t feel the love of Epsilon. There was
a part of him that insisted the other man was alive, was out there
somewhere, if they could just find him.
Mourning Doves 259
Leander’s door opened, and he half-turned to face it as Wolf and
Mercedes entered again. Madison wasn’t with them, but that didn’t
surprise him. She’d been staying with Alex as much as she could, easily
as much as the pair had been staying with him.
“Hey, you need to be eating,” Wolf said, as the pair slipped inside
and Mercedes closed the door behind them. He made a motion at the
untouched hospital food the nurse had brought him only minutes before.
“I’m not very hungry,” he said. His voice was still breathy and
painful, but at least there was no longer any risk for him when it came to
moving about or speaking.
“You need to eat anyway,” Mercedes put in, perching on the edge of
Leander’s bed. Over the few days he’d been in the hospital, after he’d
said what he’d said to Wolf, Leander had watched the pair heal their
relationship, slowly. Now there weren’t exactly any PDAs between
them, but there was something comfortable and easy.
They had taken the first steps forward, toward trusting each other
again.
Leander was glad to see it; glad that Alex and Madison were happy,
Wolf and Mercedes would be happy, eventually. He needed them to be
okay so when he finally was offered undeniable proof that Epsilon was
dead, he could look to them for strength and comfort.
He needed someone to be all right.
He wondered what he would do now, since he knew no other partner
would have him. He didn’t want another partner anyway. So, pushing
himself carefully up on an elbow, he addressed the pair in front of him.
“I think I’m leaving TASK when I get out of here,” he said, and he
watched for reactions. Wolf looked ill but unsurprised; Mercedes just
looked unsurprised.
“We thought you might say something like that, eventually,” the
older man told him. He brushed his gray hair back, a nervous tick. “I was
telling Wolf that I have a place you could stay, if you wanted, a little
cabin out a few miles outside Colorado. It’s pretty much in the boonies,
but not so far out that you don’t have modern luxuries.”
“Colorado. That’s really far away.”
260 Angela Romano
“Sometimes being really far away is easier.”
Leander nodded solemnly, reaching up to finger the knick in his ear.
He rather liked it. “So, what? I’d just go an’ hang out for the rest ‘f my
life up there?”
“If you wanted, yes. Or, for until you want to leave.”
Leander bit his lip. Colorado. Horses. Mountains. Hills. Snow. Snow.
Leander had always wanted to see that in person. It never got cold
enough here. It must be beautiful, where Mercedes’ cabin was. Peaceful.
It would be boring for someone who’d lived as he had. He’d be restless
and listless and probably regret it, but he would never hate it there. In
fact, he could probably learn to love it. And wouldn’t it be nice, getting
to finally relax, to finally get some downtime after spending his entire
life fighting?
Epsilon had sometimes mentioned wanting that.
Leander looked up again finally. “I think I’d like that,” he said at last,
slowly.
Wolf and Mercedes looked at each other, and the moment was
bittersweet. Wolf nodded once, suddenly, and Mercedes touched his
hand. The gesture was so fast Leander almost missed it, but he didn’t,
and smiled.
“I’ll go make some phone calls,” Mercedes said, and left the room
again.
Leander’s ears went back softly as he looked at Wolf.
“Epsilon will want to come too,” he said, his words unflinching and
unarguable. Wolf looked so tired and so hurt, for a minute, but then it
was gone and he was approaching the bed, picking up the hospital tray
and plopping it down on Leander’s lap, pretty as you please, as if
everything was perfectly normal.
“Of course he will. Cabin’s big enough for both of you,” Wolf said
with a soft, fond smile, and Leander cried softly, because when Wolf
smiled like that he was lying, and despite all of Leander that screamed
he’s not dead he’s not dead there was a little, bitty corner of him that
whispered, maliciously and cruelly, over and over again, he is, yes he is,
and so are you.
Mourning Doves 261
LEANDER got out of the hospital nearly four full weeks before Alex did.
He didn’t go to the apartment he’d shared for so long with Epsilon.
Instead, he let the movers pack the place up and went up with Mercedes
and Wolf to see his new home.
The place was beautiful; he hadn’t been wrong.
It was a small cabin, two bedrooms, one bath, with a nice front porch
and a swing to go on it. It was set on five acres of land, but no one
owned the land around, so it was pretty isolated, like Mercedes had said
it would be. The inside was sparsely furnished, but that would change
when Leander’s things arrived. It was a rustic, old-fashioned thing that
Leander instantly fell in love with. He was charmed by the whole setup,
and Mercedes felt sure that he would recover nicely.
The young Kin already looked happier than he had for a very long
time.
When they returned, he stayed in a hotel. Wolf was concerned
beyond words that Leander wouldn’t go back to his apartment, but
Mercedes was calm about it.
“Think about it, Wolf,” he said, two nights after they returned from
the cabin. “Think about everything that’s happened in and near that
apartment.”
262 Angela Romano
Wolf tugged off his shirt, shivering a little as Mercedes came up on
his blind side, his voice somewhere near Wolf’s ear. It took a lot of trust,
Mercedes knew, for Wolf to let him do that; and he privately thought that
it turned Wolf on a little too. Hell, it sure as fuck turned Mercedes on,
and wasn’t that sick?
But what was more sexy than unfailing trust in one person and one
person alone?
Being that person, that was more sexy. Being the person that trust
was directed at. That was also a heavy responsibility, and Mercedes was
determined not to screw it up this time.
He reached out and touched Wolf’s bare arm, letting his fingers trail
over the skin there. Wolf didn’t pull away. “I understand that; it’s just
not healthy,” he replied, as if Mercedes wasn’t testing the waters.
“Wolf, you are in no position to say what’s healthy and what’s not.
None of us are.”
Wolf chuckled and then looked down at the hand still on his arm. He
brought his hand up to cover it gently, lacing his fingers with the other
man’s. Mercedes turned him around gently, fingers gripping Wolf’s chin.
“I know this isn’t,” Wolf breathed, but he leaned up and kissed
Mercedes with all the emotion of the past few weeks anyway. Mercedes
responded instantly and then pulled away with a laugh. “You taste like
an ashtray.”
“Fuck you.”
“Please do.”
“Hard ass.”
Mercedes chuckled and tumbled Wolf backward onto the bed, his
long, lean frame sprawling on top of Wolf’s smaller, more compact one.
“I’ve missed you so much.”
Wolf reached up, initiating touch for the first time in a long time. “I
know,” he said. “Me too.” He pulled Mercedes down for another soft
kiss and then pushed against his chest gently.
“What?”
Mourning Doves 263
“Need a shower. Move.”
“But you make a comfy pillow.”
“Get your heavy ass off.” Wolf laughed, grabbing a pillow to whack
Mercedes with. The older man groaned and rolled away, rubbing his ribs.
“What’s in that thing, bricks?” He grabbed the pillow from Wolf, and
his expression changed. “Ooh, soft. Mine now.” He clutched it to his
stomach and rolled over, laying his full body on it. Wolf grinned. “What,
it’s a better pillow than me?”
Mercedes peeked open an eye. “No, nothing’s better than you,” he
said, letting go of the pillow to grab Wolf’s arm. “But it doesn’t wiggle.”
Wolf raised an eyebrow at that. “I should hope not,” he muttered.
This was nice, this normalcy that Mercedes’ presence offered. The man
had always managed to keep Wolf balanced, keep a light-hearted,
grounded feel to any situation.
Wolf liked having that back.
He swung his legs off the side of the bed and half-turned to look at
Mercedes, who was watching him. Mercedes offered a little smile, and
looked so hopeful and happy for a moment that it damn near broke
Wolf’s heart, and he smiled back gently.
“I’m glad you came back,” he said at last. “And that Leander told me
what an idiot I was being.”
“You’re glad?” Mercedes quipped, and then his cell phone went off.
Swearing, he rolled over to grab it as Wolf made his way into the
shower. It was, to his horror and disgust, TASK, calling to find out from
him if their meaningless little apology to two men whose lives had been
ripped apart would be accepted.
“They’re dead,” he snapped into the phone, pushing himself up on an
elbow. “And Wolf and I quit.”
The immediate, squawking protests over the other end of the line
didn’t faze him. It was high time, he thought with a slight grin, that he
learn what was important in life. Power, position, money, fame; none of
that was it.
He snapped the phone shut and cocked his head a little as the shower
264 Angela Romano
came on, his now-unemployed partner humming softly over the sound of
the water. Wolf was going to have a fit. But it would be a good fit,
Mercedes thought, his grin spreading.
“Wolf!”
“What?” The door cracked, and Wolf’s head popped out when he
didn’t answer right away. “Mercedes?”
Mercedes stretched like an oversized cat, and then rose and went to
the man he was slowly making his partner once more. He bent, lips
inches from Wolf’s ear.
“Love you,” he whispered, and Wolf went stiff as a board until
Mercedes pulled him into a soft, tender kiss.
This was what was important in life. And Mercedes was tired of not
having it.
He pulled back slowly. “We need to talk,” he said. “I have a little
surprise.”
YOU can’t say they ever really lost touch. Friends so closely bonded,
they can’t ever really lose touch, not unless something drastic happens.
But they did drift away from each other, physically becoming farther and
farther apart even while they stayed close emotionally.
Leander reclined on the porch swing, watching the sun set and
smiling to himself as he ran his hand over the book given to him for his
birthday, the newest novel by his favorite author. Inside, in four
different, familiar pens, were four different birthday greetings; none
were signed. They didn’t need to be. He could pick each out.
“Happy birthday, Leander! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t let you!”
was Madison, in her neat, half-cursive writing.
“Happy twenty-fourth, old man!” had to be Alex, in a hand that was
unfamiliar to him now, but wouldn’t always be. Her writing was big and
loopy, taking up half the inside flap of the book. He chuckled at it.
The girl had healed well, and she and Madison had come down
Mourning Doves 265
nearly two months after he’d gotten settled in to see him. Alex had been
awed by the wilderness and begged Madison to move them out of the
city. Madison had turned in her resignation from TASK only a week
later, and last time he checked, the two of them were renting a little
home in Massachusetts, in one of the less suburban areas. Alex was an
artist, and finally getting noticed, at that. She’d opened a gallery
recently, and they’d all been there for the opening of it. That had hurt,
admittedly, having them all together like that. It made the absence of one
all the more noticeable. But Leander, to his own surprise, had dealt; he’d
handled it.
They’d had no body to bury for Epsilon, but they’d had a service,
anyway, with a closed, empty casket. It was a small funeral with only the
four of them and one or two other TASK agents; they’d buried the body
of that man that had fought so hard to help them too. Liaison. His name
was on his headstone, and Leander was glad they knew it.
It had been like a cauterization, those two funerals.
His thumb traced Mercedes’ familiar, neat print. “All the best, pup.
Happy b-day.” And, under it, Wolf’s bold, firm writing, still a little
shaky and off center but very legible and commanding, if writing could
be so. “Miss you, Leander. Happy birthday.”
Mercedes and Wolf had been the only pair to stay in the city, but
they had moved to the outskirts of it, out of the hubbub and memories of
the actual city. Their relationship was mending, repairing itself slowly
over time as they learned to trust and depend on each other again.
Those two, Leander thought with a gentle smile, had never once
stopped loving each other. They’d just gotten tangled up in themselves
halfway through the dance and had to go over the steps from the
beginning again. Neither one of them entirely minded. In fact, Mercedes
was having a ball courting Wolf once more, and Wolf was thoroughly
enjoying being courted. Leander laughed aloud this time, and the sound
surprised him.
It had been a while since he’d laughed.
That was not to say he was sad.
He wasn’t, not really. There was a bittersweet weight to this life, but
266 Angela Romano
it was almost nice, that melancholy peace. He was, he thought, closing
the book, content. Even happy, in that slightly sad way.
He was never meant for a life like this, though. He wasn’t a solitary
creature by nature, and he missed having a partner, a roommate, a friend,
a companion, someone to talk with and annoy. He liked being alone but
he didn’t like being alone constantly.
He set the book down gently on the rail, letting his hand linger softly
on the cover. He wasn’t used to everything being so calm, so easy and
peaceful and completely without fight or challenge, and quiet. It had
been nice, for the first few days, weeks even; it had been wonderful.
Now, though, the more time passed the lonelier he became. And he
knew if he wasn’t careful, he could become unhappy very quickly.
But Leander refused to allow those thoughts to take root, to grow in
him. Epsilon would, he thought, gazing out on the wilderness before
him, have loved this and loved that Leander was out here. You’re free,
he’d have said. You’re free and miles away from ghosts and memories.
But that was just it; he couldn’t seem to separate himself from them,
not entirely.
He took a deep breath, inhaling the very not-city air and holding it in
for a moment, relaxing slowly. Then he stepped off his porch. He wasn’t
sure where he was walking, but he just wanted to be walking.
He let his feet take him out into the woods, passing ancient trees with
quiet respect, admiring the trees that were hundreds and hundreds of
years old. There was a deep sense of peace in these woods. Peace and
something more, something almost surreal. The light was almost erased
by the thick, large canopies, and flowers of different, brilliant colors
covered the ground in the thick moss around his feet. Vines and ropey,
thick brambles stretched from tree to tree, and there were rivers and
several small waterfalls that could be found buried deep inside the forest.
It was his own private world.
The lingering sadness and aching feeling he’d been struggling with
vanished as if it hadn’t been. He Changed, something he hardly ever did
anymore, and made his way as a fox through the wilderness, feeling at
one with everything around him and totally, utterly, okay.
Mourning Doves 267
I’m okay, he thought, sticking his nose in one of the icy rivers and
lapping at the water. Playfully he splashed in, yelping at the cold, and
swam along it until he got tired. He climbed out, shaking the water from
his fur and continuing to follow it. He could go a very long way without
danger of getting lost.
I’m really okay. How weird.
He startled a pair of birds and chased them on a whim, nearly
catching one by the tail feathers, then broke into a lazy lope, picking up
speed as he ran.
And ran.
He kept going until he couldn’t go anymore, pushing himself until
his ribs heaved, his tongue lolled. He could barely hold the Change, he
was so tired, and finally he collapsed under a tree, his legs giving out
from under him and slamming him into the earth violently.
He was exhausted, and it felt wonderful.
He lay panting until he could get up again and then shakily began to
make his way back home. He moved considerably more slowly and
Changed back halfway to better admire and inspect his surroundings. At
long last he came back to the pretty little cabin in the open field
surrounded by majestic woods.
For one minute, just for one second, he thought he saw a man sitting
there on his porch swing. Tall and dark, with impossibly, electrically
blue eyes and black hair that spilled down his back in deep waves, the
wind teasing his locks and tugging at the black trench coat he wore.
The figure looked up and smiled at him, lifting a hand in a lazy
greeting as if nothing had happened, but when he opened his mouth, the
wind gusted, and the image was gone.
Leander, he thought he heard, but it was just the wind.
Of course it was just the wind.
Leander smiled softly, making his way back up the porch. His right
hand gathered the beloved book gently, and he reached out to stop the
swing’s motion, then he pulled back and went inside instead.
268 Angela Romano
IT had taken him nearly two years to find this place. Everyone was in
places they were not supposed to be, and none of them were looking for
anything from the past anymore. But he wasn’t angry at them, because
after all, who could blame them?
He looked forward to their surprise, their happiness. He was glad
they were all as already as happy as they were. They deserved this, he
thought. They deserved this and more.
He limped. It was pronounced and painful, and his skin was covered
in scars, marred from head to toe in burns and cuts. He moved stiffly
where once he’d been graceful, and his thick, dark hair was little more
than stubble, growing back in where the flames had burned it off.
But his blue eyes still burned with life and intensity.
The terrain was rough, and he stumbled more than once, staggered on
his bad leg and swore in a low, growling voice that had been ruined and
distorted by heat and flame. Despite his grumbling, he was captivated by
the beauty around him, and he paused a few times; sometimes to rest, but
others just to look. Just to admire the area.
You picked a good place to retire, anyway, he thought with a twitch
of his lips. Even that was stiff, the burned flesh on his face making it
difficult to smile.
He wondered if he should follow through with this. He was badly
hurt, badly burned, and he didn’t want to make life any harder for any of
Mourning Doves 269
them by showing up out of the blue and looking like some kind of
monster. But he was too close to turn back now and he knew it.
He took a deep, bracing breath and stepped into the clearing, closing
his eyes and scenting.
Leander. Horse. Wilderness. Gasoline. Leather, hay, manure, grain.
Mercedes. Madison. Alex. Leander. Wolf.
He smiled, and it came more easily this time. He could hear the
horses getting closer now, and he crossed the front yard and strode into a
recently erected stable, taking comfort in the warmth and smells. He
could also hear laughter and talking, the snorts and grunts of the horses.
Leander had always wanted horses. Leander had begged for a horse,
if they ever wound up out of the city.
The little group finally entered the barn, and no one saw him right
off. Leander swung down off a pretty blue roan animal that didn’t seem
perturbed by his Kin-ness. It was a horse, not a new, mutated Equess,
and so were all the others. The roan nudged Leander affectionately, and
he pulled the bit from its mouth, giving its forehead a pat.
Mercedes and Wolf both rode dusky gray animals, Wolf’s a lighter
shade than his partner’s. He was pleased to see Mercedes help Wolf
down and Wolf let him, even more so to see Mercedes brush a fond hand
over his partner’s back.
Good going, Leander. You fixed them.
Alex rode a tiny bay, and Madison a big paint. It was as they were
dismounting that he saw Leander freeze, saw him half-turn.
“Leander?” Mercedes asked him in concern, and he melted back into
the darkness, once again unsure of the choice he’d made.
“I thought—” Leander’s voice was deeper, more mellow than he
remembered. When had that little Kin grown up?
“You thought?” Alex walked into the barn, leading the little bay. She
wasn’t lingering around or hiding behind Madison anymore, he noticed.
She was confident now, competent.
“Nothing. Never mind.” But Leander was staring hard into the
270 Angela Romano
darkness where he’d just been standing. He pulled back farther, well out
of the line of sight.
The men and women who had once been involved with TASK went
about rinsing down and unpacking the horses, chattering among
themselves. Mercedes made a comment on the cold, and Leander
instantly perked up.
“Cocoa?” he chirped, and the man grinned and shook his head. In
many ways, it seemed, his little Kin hadn’t grown up. That was nice to
know.
“Sure,” Madison said. “Come on. I’ll help you make some lunch to
go with it.”
“I rented a few movies for us too,” Alex said. “Madison, they’re in
the back of the car.”
“We’ll be in as soon as we’ve given the horses dinner,” Wolf said,
and the group separated.
He slipped out of the barn, carefully edging past curious horses to
follow the pair up to the house. He didn’t go in, but watched through the
window as Leander stripped his coat and moved away into the kitchen.
Madison stopped at her car to grab a small shopping bag of movies and
laughed to herself at the amount, then headed inside too.
Now that he’d heard it mentioned, it was cold. He wrapped his arms
carefully around his ruined skin, shivering with the sudden feel of the icy
weather.
He stood watching the house for a while longer, still considering
simply vanishing into the woods. He was already slipping back into the
darkness when Mercedes and Wolf entered the house, and Wolf stopped
too, looking out into the woods. Mercedes touched his arm gently.
“You okay?” he asked, and Wolf nodded.
“I—Leander—” He shook his head. “If Leander—”
“Wolf, he’s dead. He’s been dead for nearly two years now.”
“I just… Leander’s always half-expected him to be alive, and—”
“And that’s to be expected. They were best friends.” Mercedes laced
Mourning Doves 271
his fingers gently with Wolf’s. “We all loved him. Wolf….”
Wolf shook his head. “I just—I keep expecting him to be there. He
was always Leander’s shadow,” Wolf murmured.
“I know.” Mercedes’ voice vibrated with longing, so sad that it broke
his heart, and he leaned against a tree, feeling cold inside more than
externally now.
Then he realized that he’d been feeling cold since he’d healed from
that explosion, since he’d lost Mercedes, Wolf, Leander, Madison, and
Alex. He needed them to feel warm again. He needed them to stop
hurting.
He stepped forward slowly, one stiff step at a time, slow and
frightened. His breath puffed in the cool air, and he zeroed in on the door
before him. His feet scraped on the stairs, on the wood of the porch. To
his amazement, the door opened before he could even lift a hand to
knock.
Leander Kale stood in front of him. It had been years since he’d seen
the Kin. He was taller; his ear had a knick out of the top of it. His skin
was darker, as if he were outdoors more, and his tail was bushier, waving
lazily behind him. He’d started smoking, somewhere along the line,
something he inherently and instantly blamed Wolf for, and his clothes
had toned themselves down; he was in a black button-down shirt and
black jeans, with a black—
His black trench coat, he realized with a start, a hard-drawn breath.
Leander was wearing his coat.
And all black. Mourning. Leander was mourning him, after all this
time.
The soft, feminine lips were parted in shock, and the ears lay so flat
in the hair that they nearly vanished.
That was different too, his hair. It hung now nearly to his ankles,
tightened back in a ponytail. So different from his own near-baldness.
He smiled, feeling his lips crack, and it took him two tries before he
could speak. It had been so long since he’d made his voice work, and it
was rusty and painful-sounding even to his own ears.
“Hey, Leander.”
272 Angela Romano
Mourning Doves 273