Not enough, just a bit. The taste of her was true warmth. The ice encasing the animal weakened, and as it licked at the soft flesh of her shoulder, it was as though that warmth sparked its strength.
Strength. It could be free now. It could struggle free of the bonds holding it, but if it did, if it moved too quickly, the man would fight.
The animal stepped back, aching, but stronger. It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t strong enough for the battle the man might wage. And the man was ever diligent. Even now he was struggling past sleep, aware that something was different. That something moved inside him.
The animal hid in the cold darkness, the warmth of the woman so close. Its eyes closed. It forced itself to sleep. Because the woman was so close. And still, the animal was so weak… And danger was approaching.
Mercury came awake quickly. For a moment, he felt something he hadn’t felt inside himself for so many years that at first, he simply didn’t recognize it. That surge of feral adrenaline, rage tearing a hole through his mind as his claws flexed, but gentle, very gently because the soft flesh beneath them belonged to Ria.
And he didn’t dare move. Not yet.
The shadows were slipping past the door. There was no scent. Not the scent of human or the scent of Breed. There was the scent of clothing, of danger.
A silent snarl tugged at his lips; rage pumped through his system. He didn’t stop to think about feral displacement or the animal instincts suddenly rising to the fore.
He could smell the weapons they carried; that was enough for him. He could taste the danger surrounding the shadows stealing through the night.
He tracked them, his night vision no longer clouded as it usually was, but still it wasn’t perfect. Not quite as clear as it had been before the feral displacement. He couldn’t make out their faces, but he could track their bodies, watch them move.
They paused as they entered the room. The taller, broader form motioned the other to the side of the bed and indicated he would round it.
Not likely. If they separated, taking them down would be harder. Just another second.
He waited, muscles bunching, and then with a snarl of rage he was out of the bed.
He didn’t question the adrenaline rushing through him; the burst of power or the surge of strength that burned through his body.
They were there, in Ria’s room, too close to her. Too close to his woman. Too close to endangering her. And that was intolerable.
He slammed the first against the wall as Ria screamed. Beneath a well-placed powerful kick to his kidneys the second went down and rolled in pain.
The enemy should have been dead. Only a last-second thought saved him from it as the first shadow flew at Mercury.
It had to be a Breed. Nothing else could be so fucking strong.
Light flared in the room, momentarily blinding Mercury’s sight but not his senses.
His arm snaked out, throwing the Breed back, slamming into the dresser with enough force that wood cracked as he felt the second coming for his head.
His arm flashed out, his hand wrapping around a throat, the other knocking the weapon from the other’s hand. Slamming into the wall, his sight still fuzzy, adjusting from dark to light, Mercury snarled in the intruder’s face.
“You want to let him go, mate,” a hard voice informed him as the barrel of a gun pressed into his neck.
Mercury froze.
“Mercury.” The sound of Ria’s voice inflamed him.
Instinct had his hand flashing up, jerking the gun to the side as it discharged and his elbow slammed back at the same moment the voice penetrated his mind.
“Dane!” Ria screamed the name as Mercury’s vision cleared, his eyes locking on the pale blue gaze, the bulging eyes of Ryan DeSalvo, the bodyguard who traveled with Dane Vanderale.
Mercury loosened his grip only enough to keep from killing the other man before turning, his eyes falling to Dane himself as Ria bent over him, her gaze locked on Mercury in horror.
He loosened DeSalvo slowly, watching as the other man sort of slid down the wall, choking on the oxygen pouring back into his system.
Dane was also breathing.
Mercury snarled again as Ria lifted Dane’s head to her lap. He couldn’t stop himself. Naked, enraged, he gripped her arm, dragging her to the side of the bed as she fought him.
Her fists struck his chest, tears fell from her eyes.
“Do you want him to live?” he snarled into her face, the feral adrenaline still surging through his body as he gripped her shoulders and shook her just enough to force her to stare up at him. “Touch him, and he dies.” He didn’t recognize his own voice. “Do you understand me?”
“You’re crazy!” she screamed. “He wasn’t here to hurt me.”
“And I knew this how?” He meant only to yell, but it came out as a primal roar. “How did I know? No scent, Ria. No warning.” He shook her again. “How did I know?”
“I have to help him.” She was crying. Crying for another man and she had never shed tears for him.
He lowered his face until they were nose to nose.
“Touch him, and he dies.”
If she could have paled further, she did. Her face was stark white as he released her, growling. He was growling like a rabid animal. Releasing her slowly, his finger pointing at her as he stepped back for his clothes, warning her.
A movement from behind him had him turning and snarling furiously again. Half roar, half enraged growl. Ryan DeSalvo halted, his hand within touching distance of the weapon he had carried.
Behind Mercury, Ria’s sobs were wrenching, tearing him apart.
He kicked the gun beneath the bed, spared a glance for the still living Vanderale and jerked his pants from the floor.
As the zipper locked he jumped across the bed, ignoring Ria’s scream, and pressed her to the wall as the door slammed open and Breeds raced in.
Lawe and Rule, Jonas and Callan. They came to a jerking stop, staring in horrified shock at the tableau that met their eyes. Then swung to Mercury as he growled back at them warningly.
“Easy, Merc.” Jonas was breathing harshly as he jerked the silken robe Ria had worn earlier from the floor and tossed it to him. “Take care of your woman. We have this.”
Merc caught the robe, feeling his blood pounding in fury at the thought of anyone seeing Ria naked. Seeing her bend over Dane, naked, her long silken hair flowing around her, he had wanted to kill Dane. Rip his throat out. Had Dane been conscious, Mercury wondered if he wouldn’t have done just that.
He turned back to her, helping her into the robe as the tears continued to fall from her eyes.
“Keep crying for that bastard and I’m going to lose my mind,” he bit out, that hard, violent rasp of his voice causing her to flinch.
“You’ve already lost your mind.” She slapped his shoulder, hard. She could have punched him in the face and he knew it. The fact that she pulled back was a testament to her fear.
He tied her robe around her waist gently.
“Get dressed.” He was fighting the surge of adrenaline now. “Get enough clothes on that I don’t go crazy. Do it now.”
Ria stared up at him, swallowing tightly as the blue burned in his eyes now, mixing so deeply with the hammered gold that it was hard to tell the true color of his eyes. They glowed in the savage features of his face. Feral rage tightened every plane and angle and warned her that he hadn’t yet gotten control of the fury raging through him.
She slid around him, casting a look toward Dane despite Mercury’s growl of protest. He was alive. Bloody, but Callan and Jonas and the two Breeds surrounded him, as did Ryan. Or Rye, as Dane had a habit of calling him.