3. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

And Remmus did like it.

The blonde she-wolf was sinfully seductive, and she'd nestled herself into his mind as a perplexing mystery. Nothing enticed him more, and the reactions she got out of him were stronger than what he'd felt in years.

"Can we leave before I accidentally on purpose strangle him?"

Remmus linked eyes with Riaz, waiting for his go ahead to teleport them. At the alpha wolf's nod, the psychic energy that resided within him exploded outward, grasping the signature of the three immortals gathered around him and pulling.

Gravity became irrelevant.

Colors blurred and balance shifted momentarily until their feet solidified beneath them, well-hidden in the wild landscape just outside the St. Louis manufacturing hub. They had landed behind a smattering of sparse pine trees, a few sizable rocks, and a chain-link fence.

Beyond the fence was a facility that manufactured the means to kill most immortals: silver nitrate and liquid sunlight. The Citizens of the Light, the human terrorist organization behind this travesty, had been responsible for killing hundreds of immortals throughout their rise within the last decade.

This was the third time Remmus had scouted the location. Before the Citizens had taken over operations, it was a steel manufacturer. There hadn't been any remodeling permits filed since the change of ownership. Between the intel provided by the werewolves' surveillance and the blueprints he was able to find by snooping through archived records, they had a pretty good idea what the internal structure was.

Unfortunately, they'd also discovered that the technology within was a closed system, most likely sealed by the infamous Citizens hacker. If he attempted to breach it by force remotely, any hacker worth their salt would notice. To search their internal systems—without arousing suspicion—he'd have to be inside the walls with direct access to the tech. Given his ability, he couldn't do that without a lookout.

Blondie would fulfil that role.

Cortana and Riaz, the second pair of their unit, would be on the prowl for a suitable place to plant an explosive. Additionally, while they were all inside, the werewolves would scent trail for the Raeth that'd aligned himself with the Citizens. It'd make him easier to track in the long run.

Nina and Zeke loathed the fact that this facility was only a few hours away from the heart of their territory. They were as eager as Remmus and the wolves were to wipe them out.

While eliminating the building was one part of their plan, it wasn't their main goal. Tearing down the Citizens' leadership from within was the priority. If they could rot the foundation, they could topple the empire.

As the others righted themselves following the teleport, Remmus explained, "Tzuriel, Zeke's second, is our backup teleport if we encounter trouble inside, but I'm not expecting resistance. The two times I've scouted at night, the only minds in the building were cleaning crew."

He jerked his chin toward the building. "Did you all memorize the schematics like good little immortals?"

"Of course," Cortana and Ava replied in unison.

"Good, then we go now," Remmus replied, nodding to Riaz. "Would hate to put this back on my to do list."

"It was always at the top of ours. What took you so long?"

Of course, Blondie was the one who'd fired the scathing retort back at him, one eyebrow raised. For an instant, Remmus was drooling over her bee-stung lips, wondering what they tasted like.

Ava would have known the answer to her question before she asked, they all did.

The Heat.

The other answer, the trickier one, was why it'd taken five months for his dual sovereigns to feel secure enough to allow him off campus. And that answer wasn't on the table for discussion.

"Rolling around under the sheets with your honey?"

Ava made it sound as though it'd been nothing but fun and games. In truth, the Heat had revealed that he was incapable of holding and maintaining a significant romantic relationship, and any opportunity to have a mate or children had been dashed. But there was no way he'd tell Ava that.

"Jealous, Blondie?"

To his surprise, her eyes shifted to a lighter shade of oceanic blue as she growled in complete disregard of him and his jabs. Having spent centuries around Aidan on clan lands, he recognized it as her wolf coming to the surface. She must have been more affected by him than she let on.

Well, hello, you beautiful creature.

"I thought you said you could handle one obnoxious Raeth, Ava? How will you handle traveling with him from pack to pack?"

Riaz had noticed the same thing Remmus had. The single note of empathy, clouded almost entirely by humor, made him perk to attention. Why was the alpha feeling protective of the other wolf, when Ava responded to him with open hostility?

The mystery deepened.

"As much as I'd like to explore that fascinating comment, let's get a move-on," Remmus interjected. "Door A2 is our entry point and it's not far. Our nearest guard is still on the other side of the facility—if we move now, we're in the clear."

Shifting to get a better view of the facility that was more than a hundred yards away, Remmus stalked out into the open, banking on the darkness to conceal his lack of cover. Behind him, the puzzling she-wolf tailed him, and Riaz and Cortana took a similar route up the left side of a copse of trees. Keying into his psychic abilities, his telepathy hurtled into the building, cataloging each mind with instant clarity.

Human. Human. Human. Another human.

And then—Raeth.

Unfriendly, without a doubt. Aligned with the Citizens. Born of destruction. Angry, bitter, and exceptionally keen. Each trait crashed into Remmus' mind upon his quick analysis of the male's psychic signature.

Remmus' spine stiffened. "There's a Raeth mind in there."

Having inadvertently brushed up against the other Raeth's mental shielding, it'd only be a matter of time before the immortal took action. Building up his defenses, he held up a hand to signal a stop. He glanced over to where he could sense Riaz and Cortana, still moving toward the facility on the other side of the small thicket. They needed a new plan—and fast. With the Citizens Raeth inside, their opportunity to finally get answers was finally here.

The pop of a sniper rifle was his only warning. Mistakenly, he'd thought the cover of darkness would conceal their movements, and he hadn't thought to secure physical shielding around them. He and Ava were exposed, and he wouldn't let her get injured on his watch.

He launched himself at Ava to cover her from the side, feeling the bite of a bullet tear through his right deltoid. Intense pain ricocheted through his arm like a flame, scorching through his veins and muscles.

In the split second the bullet had caught his shoulder, his internal mental shield faltered. Searing pain stabbed into his skull, mirroring the agony of his flesh. Remmus doubled down on the psychic shielding, cursing himself for the temporary breach.

Failure.

His compromised limb seized, his fingertips biting into his palm and instantly drawing blood. Gritting his teeth, Remmus cradled the she-wolf's body into his own as they rolled behind the shelter of the pine trees. When they crashed to a stop, Ava was trapped beneath him.

Her hand was clamped around his throat. Rage-tightened fingers constricted his air supply, stealing his ability to breathe.

His every attention was on maintaining the hasty air shield he'd erected between the four of them and the onslaught of bullets that were leveled against them from the facility.

"Ava!"

Riaz's angry shout was background noise, but when he could finally breathe again, Remmus registered the fact that Ava had stopped choking him.

His power briefly fluctuated. Not enough to make him lose the air shield, but enough that it told him they needed to leave. Capturing the Citizens Raeth would have to wait.

Without asking, he teleported all four of them into the Great Hall of the werewolves' den, directly onto the wooden flooring without the usual finesse. Remmus maintained the good sense to teleport Ava out from beneath him, so that he could collapse on the floor without suffocating her, or worse, insulting her.

"What the hell was that?"

Each word pulsed into his mind like an oncoming locomotive, her voice barreling into him with enough volume that it physically hurt. Pinching his palms over his temples, he pressed inward, desperate to relieve the escalating burn between them.

The ensuing conversation was drowned out while Remmus calmed himself, diving into his own mind to locate the source of his mental pain. His psychic canvas was blazing an angry red, a warning that seemed illogical since there was no immediate danger. Confused, he continued to scrutinize his neural map, only to come up empty-handed. Remmus could locate no source of pain or trauma for the additional darkness that'd seeped into his mind like oily water.

"Remmus!"

The sound of a near-hysterical Cortana made him casually lower his hands from his temples, an attempt to appear less concerned and assuage everyone's panic.

"Yes, little leech?"

Relief poured into her doll-like features from where she looked down at him. "What's wrong with you? You weren't responding to us at all."

"Breach in my psychic shielding." Shaking off the last vestiges of his phantom pain, Remmus pulled up into a sitting position and braced his good hand on the floor. "All good now."

While Riaz mirrored Cortana's concern, Ava sneered at him as though he was gum she'd just discovered on the bottom of her shoe.

Glad to know she cares.

When Remmus finally rose to his feet, he fought a near-uncontrollable urge to pitch forward. His balance was compromised. To camouflage the awkwardness, he used his momentum to simply step towards the others.

"You look like you're about to faint," came Ava's unconcerned voice.

"I'll only ever faint for you, Blondie."

He winked to emphasize his sappy reply, but it was obvious Ava didn't buy it for a second. For what seemed like the hundredth time that hour, she dismissed him.

"So you're okay?" Cortana asked.

"Right as rain." Perhaps he'd told a lie. His parents would be so proud.

"Well, Mr. Everything's Okay," Ava hissed, "you're bleeding all over our floors."

Glancing down, he located the source of her distaste. His right shoulder had been superficially scored by a bullet, its path dragging through the top layer of skin and muscle before exiting clean out the other side. His dark cashmere sweater couldn't conceal the spreading crimson. Blood had gathered on the floor where he'd laid, and now was pooling underneath his fisted right hand.

"Well, would you look at that."

"Silver ammunition," Riaz grumbled. "Did it get into your blood stream in any decent quantity?"

No one was mentioning that silver poisoning would follow—and Remmus knew it had already begun. The pinpricks of pain lodged behind his temples were throbbing a steady tune.

"I doubt I'll keel over."

The sudden nosebleed that followed his statement didn't help his point.

"You're a terrible liar."

Remmus couldn't help but grin at Ava's deadpan tone while he pinched his nostrils shut. The alpha wolf was already ushering him down a corridor, leaving the women behind.

"What happened back there?" Riaz asked.

"The Raeth must have sensed my telepathic gift brushing up against his," he explained, dabbing at the nosebleed that still hadn't stopped. "He must've informed a sniper—or snipers—before I could get an air shield in place."

"That's what that was?"

Remmus nodded. "One of my gifts is the ability to conjure a Shield, mental or physical. I can do both at the same time, but not without a bit more prep."

Like all Raeths, Remmus had some measure of telepathy, transfiguration, and teleportation. His immortal breed grew in strength as they aged, similarly to vampires and werewolves. The stronger a Raeth was, the higher the likelihood of additional gifts from telekinesis, to healing abilities, and everything in between. Kaien, Nina and Zeke had three talents; Remmus only had two.

"Good to know." Sighing, Riaz eyed the wound on Remmus' shoulder. "That doesn't look so hot."

When he shrugged away the concern, stabbing pain undermined his flippant attitude, and the healer who came to greet them noticed. The red-haired woman quickly set about ushering them into the examination room and cleaning his shoulder wound. It was simply another scar to add to his collection.

"Wouldn't be much of a mission without some danger to spice things up."

"Yeah, we're in the presence of a daredevil." The werewolf alpha shook his head to hide his blooming smile. "Sadie, what can you do for him?"

"Because of how the bullet grazed you," the healer said, "I can't extract any of the silver without doing extra damage."

"I'm good, doc. I'm sure it'll heal just fine."