Merc put his hand above the robe—feeling for heat, Ash assumed. When he was satisfied that the robe no longer smoldered, he stepped back. The glass case closed and the locks snapped in place. No smoke filled the case.
“Oh. My. God.” Ash stepped forward to look at the robe. It alone had burned. The velvet it was on was untouched.
“Your priest still has his miracle, I assume?”
Ash nodded. “I’d say so. Are you sure the fire is out?”
“I drew the oxygen out of the case as it closed. It’s done.”
She tried to make sense of that, but she’d begun to realize that Merc often made no sense. He could do things no ordinary human could, and doing the extraordinary was ordinary to him.
They left the building, locking it behind them without touching it, as he had the other doors. Ash was stunned. She’d been worried the night watchman would get in trouble for being on guard when the robe was taken, but burning it in place while he stood duty was an even greater mystery.
Merc opened the Jeep’s passenger door. She looked up at him, wondering if she’d ever be able to understand so extraordinary a man. He touched her cheek, watching her with his sad, fierce eyes.
She got in, still feeling a little dazed as they drove out of town. “Where are we going?” Ash asked. He looked grim. She wasn’t certain he’d answer.
“You need to know what you’re getting in to before you decide about joining us. It’s dangerous, and being one of us will change you in ways you can’t anticipate. Once you’re in, you can’t get out.”
“Do you want out?”
He hesitated. “I did. In the beginning. Now,” he shrugged, “it is what it is. I have become what I am. The Omnis are a ruthless, brutal, power-hungry bunch. Flynn is the worst of them.”
“That’s who or what you’re fighting?”
He nodded. “That and so much more. We’re fighting for humanity’s survival.”
Yeah. Always the game. Maybe she could get the answers she needed if she pretended to go along. “You said that what a person is before they come in determines what they become after they’re changed. So I’m a lot of nothing now. I’ll be even more nothing afterward.”
He laughed. “You aren’t nothing. You’re loyal, fun, adventuresome.”
“All useless attributes.”
“All are behaviors that help us remember our humanity. Plus, you have the gift of psychometry—a very useful skill for us. Guerre has that too. You are extremely sensitive, Ash. The way your brain is wired, it might make the transition easier for you than it is for others.”
Ash bent her knees and braced her feet on the seat. “That’s if I decide to join the game.”
“Right.”
“It is my choice, right?”
He looked at her. She thought there was much he wanted to say, but still he held back. “It is.”
“Is Kiera one of you?”
“No.”
“Does she know about you, what you all are?”
“Liege talked to her. He’s her father, you know.”
Ash had to take that news in. She remembered Summer telling them that was the case, but the photo she had didn’t match Sam. Had he been hiding his real self using the same tricks that Merc had shown her he could do?
“Yes. That’s exactly what he did.”
“So I’ll see the real him when we go back?”
“I don’t think you’ll see him differently. I think he’ll just correct your memories of him.”
“How do you keep any of this straight?”
Merc shrugged. “You get used to it. This is all our norm now.”
“So where are we going?” Ash asked.
“A place a few hours from here. It’s where the guys from the fort and I went shortly after we were changed—our training grounds. There’s someone I need to find there.”
24
Ash fingered the piece of fabric in her pocket. There was no accompanying jolt of an unexpected vision. This time, she just felt the comforting energy of Merc.
It was a miracle he’d survived that night. What had driven him to do it, though? His differences from regular humans? What were the genetic modifications he’d mentioned? What did it mean to be changed?
The questions were swirling in her tired brain. It had been a rough day—she wanted answers, but wasn’t certain that she’d understand them just then.
She looked over at him, his face ghostly in the pale dashboard light. “I never talk much about my psychometry abilities. The girls know, but I don’t think they really understand.”
He gave her a quick look before returning his focus to the road. “Why not?”
“Because it’s strange. People don’t like weird things, especially if they haven’t experienced it themselves. I’ve learned to cope. I can block readings from ordinary things, like doors, surfaces in restaurants, public banisters, stuff lots of people touch.”
“An ability like yours would keep a lot of people from wanting to be out in the world, traveling like you do.”
She nodded. “Yeah. I have times where I just want to retreat. But mostly, what I feel makes me want to understand life more. And plus, until you validated it, I thought it was just something I made up about myself…you know, a story I repeated to make me feel special.”
“There a reason you needed to feel special?”
“Nope, no more than anyone else. Truth is, I believe most people can feel energy. I think it’s why we avoid certain things, or places, or people.”
“I think you’re right.”
“And plus, a skill like mine feels odd, and it can be dangerous to be an oddity.”
“It is.”
“So most of us with odd skills just downplay, ignore, or doubt them, which weakens them in time.”
“Learning to overcome our belief in our own limitations was the first thing we needed to learn, once we were changed.”
“How long were you in training?”
“Years. I still am. We still have new skills showing up—like the ability to set a curse.”
She reached out to touch his arm, feeling his heat and strength, wishing they weren’t on the road in some frightening and hostile jungle but in a big bed somewhere with cool white sheets.
His hand jerked on the steering wheel, bouncing them a bit.
“What made the glow I saw while you were in the pit? Your wounds were glowing.”
“Guerre’s a healer. He was mending my wounds.”
“I saw it that night you came back mauled.”
“I tried to cover that up.”
“What attacked you that night? It was the same as what got that man.”
Merc grimaced.
“We’re out here, in the bush, with that thing prowling around. I think I should know.”
“It’s a werewolf.”
Ash gasped.
“Well, not technically a werewolf—it doesn’t change repeatedly from human to monster and back. It only makes that transition once. Flynn has ways of blending human and animal DNA, creating a hybrid creature. They don’t live long, but while they are alive, they exist under Flynn’s thumb. They are vicious beasts, starved for blood and living flesh. Their metabolisms are so high that they need to feed often.”