Decker’s lips twitched as he turned back to the admiral. “Gray will do anything to accomplish the mission, to include putting himself needlessly in harm’s way.”
“Needlessly?” Gray scowled. “I—”
Decker interrupted. “He thinks because he heals easily, he’s not at risk. But he forgets the enemy always has surprises in store for us, since it seems like everyone out there knows we Circs exist.”
“Bullshit.” Gray fumed.
The admiral stopped him from saying anything else with an upraised hand. “And his mood swings?”
“Mood swings?” Gray repeated, not understanding Lonnie at all. “I’m not moody. Christ, where the hell are you going with this?”
“Getting worse,” Decker answered. “But I can handle it, no problem.”
“Good, good.” Lonnie clasped his hands together on top of the desk. Then as if they’d never discussed mood swings or Gray’s alleged idiocy in the field, Lonnie briefed them on their next assignment. “I’m sorry to throw you two out there again, but we can’t ignore these reports of a rogue Circ. After that last batch we found in Mexico, I thought we’d contained the breakouts. But the file I have indicates another rogue, possibly the beginnings of a nest. Reports lead me to believe this one might turn mutant at any time.”
Before Decker could ask any of his stupid questions, Gray interrupted. “The rogues won’t be our worry here.”
“Rogues are always a threat, Gray. You constantly underestimate them,” Decker said in that uptight Northeastern accent that annoyed him.
“True,” the admiral agreed. “Like you, Sebastian, they were injected with the Circe serum and at first, turned Circ. Soldiers able to transform into bigger, faster warriors with claws, fangs, and hardened skin. They sense danger and can repel small-caliber rounds when changed. But because they’re rogue, their strength is doubled, as you’ve no doubt experienced in the field.”
“Exactly.” Decker nodded. “Superstrength too, so they’re not easy to take down, Gray.”
Gray didn’t need the history lesson. “That’s Circ 101, genius. But in the time you and I have been partnered, we’ve yet to run across a mutant. You don’t know what they can do.” He turned to Lonnie. “I thought they’d capped the last one in Brazil last month.”
Lonnie’s mouth turned grim. “So did I. The Circe’s Recruits team suffered a beating but managed to take care of a nest growing in the jungle. Problem is we have information that indicates the leader of this new group is turning fast. His name is Al Ross, and he’s gathering a following we don’t want.”
“Terrific, just what we don’t need. A gang of mutants.” Gray turned to Decker, conscious the man smelled faintly like cocoa. Though most Circs tended to have a unique scent all their own that any Circ could identify, Gray always detected Decker with little effort.
“So we have mutants.” Decker shrugged. “We take care of them like we handle rogues.”
Gray knew Decker had yet to face the real rough stuff, and he was curiously loath to subject the younger Circ to the ugly side of his condition. Which made little sense, so he forced himself to continue. “Mutants are rogue Circs who react even worse to the Circe serum. When they don’t satisfy their sexual urges with other Circs, the buildup of hormones mutates their genetic structure. So instead of looking like hulking weightlifters on steroids, they get seriously weird. Their skin grows black, their eyes turn red, and they kill everything in their path…after fucking it. Nothing much human about them except their capacity to destroy.”
“Hell.”
“Yeah.” Gray sighed. Maybe after this operation, he’d take a few weeks off. He was getting tired, exhausted by the constant cruelty he saw way too often in the course of his job. Lately, even time spent with his precious niece couldn’t nudge him from the depression settling into his bones. His beast felt restless, his need to shift into his more primitive, stronger form all-encompassing.
“Gray?”
He blinked at Decker, not surprised to see a measure of concern in the man’s eyes. “What?” he snapped.
Lonnie answered, “Your partner was asking if you needed to sit this one out. He said you took quite a hit saving him from a bullet—one he wouldn’t have been exposed to if you’d taken more care with yourself in the jungle.”
“Ah, I didn’t exactly say that, Admiral.”
Holy shit, Decker was blushing. Gray blinked, bemused at the sight of his partner looking less than reassured. If he hadn’t known better, he’d have thought himself attracted to the guy. But Gray had always favored women. Unlike most of the artificially created Circs, he’d been born this way. He didn’t undergo mating heats—periods of intense sexual arousal, when only sex with another Circ would do. The Circ way of perpetuating the species.
Lonnie pierced Gray with his stare. “You might not have said it, Sebastian, but we both know it’s true.”
Gray refused to agree.
“Very well.” Lonnie stood up and handed a folder to Decker. “I want you two to study up on your quarry. No picture, I’m afraid. This rogue was never part of an official project. But we have a name, his last location, and a few crime scenes. Your plane tickets are reserved for Friday, so you have three days to get yourselves together while we gather some last-minute intel from our sources out West.”
“Where West, Admiral?” Decker asked.
“Bend, Oregon. Center of the state, and in the Cascade Mountain Range. Lots of mountains out there for our guy to hide in. And lots of snow too.”
“In June?” Gray asked.
The admiral nodded. “Oh, and before you think about doing anything ‘we’ll both regret,’ you screw with this mission at all, you answer to Alicia from now on. You go by the book on this. My orders, my way. We clear?”
Gray wanted to stay far away from the matchmaking woman. Lately, Alicia’s answer to everything involved mating and babies. Gray had a career to think of, that and a life he chose to live. He’d be damned if he’d let some ancient mystic tie him up in fate and destiny with a great big bow. Even if she was his grandmother.
Gray left with the admiral’s blessing, but Bas—as Sebastian referred to himself—stayed behind at his superior’s request. “Sir?”
Personally, he liked Admiral London. The man had been straight up with him from the get-go, unlike the pricks at the laboratory where he’d been kidnapped and injected with that nasty serum that turned him Circ—involuntarily. He could only be glad he hadn’t succumbed as so many others had. The mating heat had never affected him, much to the bemusement of the admiral and the myriad doctors who’d studied him.
But he feared he might be more like the Circs of Circe’s Recruits and Dawn Endeavor than anyone thought. Lately he had…needs. Sexual needs that his beast wanted only one particular man to satisfy. The scent of Grayson Belle lingered like a fine cologne. Wild and earthy and uniquely male. A mug on the admiral’s desk trembled, a residual of Bas’s telekinetic energy escaping, and he hurriedly tamped it back down. Another problem he’d been trying to handle lately—his unstable and unwelcome psychic ability. Fortunately, the admiral didn’t notice.
“Tell me, son, how is he?” The older man nodded to the closed door through which Gray had exited.
“Honestly?” Bas continued when the admiral motioned for him to speak. “He’s like a time bomb waiting to explode. It’s like he’s craving the excitement. I can’t explain it, but I can feel him tensing, sizing me up, and it’s all I can do not to attack him first.”
He hadn’t wanted to share Gray’s problem, but he worried about his partner. Truth was he lusted after the guy with a hard-on that wouldn’t quit. That caramel skin, those hazel eyes, the black hair that kissed the nape of his neck and framed a face too wild to be classically handsome. Yet Gray captivated all the same. He was Circ to his bones. A fact Bas’s beast never let him forget.