“Good point.” Watts seemed in good cheer, now that she was back in the game and on his side. He’d been nothing but solicitous once they’d partnered up. He couldn’t seem to help staring at her, sizing her up like his next meal, but he made no move to scare her. If anything, he gave her more space. “I’ll go in first. I can take a lot of hits. You wait till I’m down, then take him out. Trenton’s not expecting you.”
Since they’d disabled the security cameras before entering, he would have no reason to suspect her presence. She’d made sure to keep to the shadows and retain her scent as well, on the off chance his rogue guards had radioed ahead before Watts disarmed them.
“Go.” She reloaded her pistols and waited with her weapons drawn.
Watts pushed through the steel door as if pushing through paper. Then he went down hard, several Taser darts clinging to his neck while bullets bounced off him. Some Circ ammo failed when used against mutant skin. From what she knew of Watts, nothing had ever put him down permanently.
She didn’t waste his sacrifice. Ali popped the three guards, brutal enforcers she recognized who’d killed without remorse. Trenton cowered in the corner, covered in smatters of blood. He held a pistol and shot wildly, but she dodged his bullets while tucking her pistols back into the holsters under her arms.
After slapping the gun out of his hand, she dragged him to his feet. She’d changed before the attack and stood a few inches taller than the bastard. He’d always seemed so much bigger to her. But not so much now. The blue eyes she’d once found so cold and piercing now pleaded for clemency, and his dark hair was threaded with more gray than she remembered seeing. The pristine white lab coat he took such pride in had smatters of blood and gore on it, as well as a few tears.
“Pathetic.” She punched him in the gut and took pleasure in his wheeze of pain. “A bully who’s not so big without his guards and his weapons, now is he?”
“Please. Don’t kill me. I’ll do anything.”
When he started crying, she felt nothing but disgust. This same scientist had ignored her tears and pleas for mercy while he’d documented a huge monster molesting her. “You’re a piece of shit, you know that? You turned me into this. You made me a killer, you bastard.”
“I did. I know. I’m sorry.”
“For a long time, I just wanted to be left alone. But you wouldn’t let me be, would you?”
“No, no. I knew I was wrong. I wanted to leave you alone. I swear. But he wouldn’t let me.”
She frowned. “I’ve been dealing with your rogues and mutants for nearly a year. Why do you think I kept raiding your warehouse for ammo? Why I sent back your soldiers in pieces?”
“I liked that. Really liked that,” Watts said from behind her. He slowly picked himself off the floor and staggered, woozy from the electric assault. A few bullets had managed to penetrate his skin as well, and she watched as they pushed out of his body and his skin healed.
“Not me,” Trenton whispered, frantic. “Him.” He nodded to Watts.
Watts grinned. “Kill him, Ali. You know you want to.”
She withdrew one of her guns. But something about this was wrong. Trenton was a dick, but he didn’t lie. “What’s he talking about?”
“Nothing. Dr. Caleb Trenton is full of shit. Everything out of his mouth is a lie.” Watts shrugged. “Fine. You won’t kill him, I will.” He advanced until she sighted in on Watts’s head.
“Not another step. You’re good, and you’re fast. But if I shoot you in the right place, and at this range I won’t miss, I’ll put you down hard. Long enough to slice your neck from ear to ear and rip your head clean off.”
He froze. “I don’t know what the fuck you think you’re gonna hear, but go ahead. Let the little prick lie if it makes you feel better. Then I’m going to gut him and strangle him on his intestines.”
Trenton pissed himself. She dropped him in a hurry and wished she could feel worse about scaring the little man so much he lost control of his bladder. “Talk.”
“I followed his orders, to the letter. The breeding experiments, the shots, everything was all at Watts’s say-so. He’s a former colonel in the army. Your father’s and my superior. The lab was his idea—”
Watts lunged before she could stop him and knocked the gun from her hand. He turned to Trenton and broke his neck in an instant. “Happy now?”
She looked from him to Trenton, now a mess of bones and flesh on the ground. “But how could you be my father’s superior?” Despite his mutation, he looked only a few years older than her.
“The serum affects us all differently.” He didn’t deny it.
The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. She took a step behind a nearby upended chair, intent on keeping some distance so she could draw her remaining weapon.
Watts didn’t blink, staring at her with all the hunger he’d been suppressing for hours. “You were perfect. From that little girl Dan Ross first brought into the project sprang a beast with intelligence, beauty, and instinct. I’ve never seen a female better built for breeding.” He shook his head. “But Trenton wouldn’t hear of it. He tried to play power games with me from the first. Had a few secret files that he threatened to release if I ever killed him. So I let him be in charge, but we both knew who held the reins on this place.”
“I thought he injected you, made you what you are.”
He licked his lips and focused on her breasts. “At my order. I took to it like a cat to cream. Too bad the mutant recessive kicked in a few years ago. For a while I could pass as a normal Circ. Then I grew too big and weird to hide. Oh well.” He took a step closer, and she withdrew the pistol from her other holster. She shot past his head in warning. “And that’s what I like about you, Ali. You’re not afraid. You don’t flinch. Even when Trenton went behind my back and tried breeding his own batch of rogues, when he used you, you didn’t break. You killed the fucker on top of you. Good girl.”
For a while it had been silent outside the room. But now she heard movement in the corridor, the faintest sound, but it was there all the same. Rogues or government men, she couldn’t tell. But maybe she could distract Watts long enough to let them do some damage. If not, she’d die trying to kill him herself.
“I was saving you for myself. Until you reached your peak.” He inhaled and smiled. “Yep. Fertile little thing, aren’t you? I’m going to enjoy plowing you. Mating heats are a bitch, and frankly, men don’t cut it for me.” He didn’t hide his erection.
So she added to his discomfort. “I know what you mean. Try this.” She released her pheromones and saw the immediate effect on Watts. His face grew flushed, his cock looked even larger beneath his pants, and his eyes took on the glazed look so many others had taken before she’d ended them.
She fired as fast as she could while he ducked and roared. She managed to graze his ear but hadn’t counted on his strength or speed. Holy crap, Watts could move.
So she pushed her claws all the way out another inch and charged him, going for his groin or his eyes, whichever she could gouge first. The best spots to hit if she wanted to maim him long enough to kill.
She made contact with his left eye. As her finger shot deep, he broke her wrist and then her arm.
The pain made her cry out, but Watts didn’t try to kill her. He seemed fine hurting her, though.
“You bitch,” he swore while smiling and threw her into the wall. “Damn, I like you.”
Her head hit and rang, giving him time to haul her up and stab a hole in her side. His claws tore through her flesh. The scent of her blood stirred his bloodlust. She saw his eyes darken, swirls of black amid the red. Then he stabbed her again.