Page 78 of Bad Moon Rising
Nova asked, “That place…what was it?”
“I hopedyoucould fill me in. You were led here. FenCor is desperate to eliminate you, Nova. If you dig deep, you’ll discover they own this building through one of their bogus shell corporations. There are contracts circulating for you on every circuit. You popped up on Interpol today, and even the CIA and MI6 are hunting you. Since the new King of England is a member of FenCor, I bet he asked Roman and Flynn to kill you as well.” He turned to Roman. “The fact you’re still alive means what?” Antonio leaned forward to look around Flynn and make eye contact with Roman.
“I’ve got amnesia,” Nova said. “Self-inflicted. I have no answers. Roman and Flynn are helping me try to figure out my past before they make a decision on killing me, not that we’ve gotten anywhere in filling in the gaps in my head. What was that place?”
Antonio sat straighter. “This isn’t the first of such facilities we have encountered. Obviously, they moved the inmates before you arrived. By my guess, I’d say they abandoned this place weeks ago. They never house humans or other species in them, only lycans.”
“That’s what Ky must’ve discovered,” Flynn muttered.
Roman knocked his foot against Flynn’s. Not the vampire’s business what Ky had been up to. “Why are they torturing lycans at these facilities?”
“I think something evil is going on.” He fisted his hands and relaxed them. “It’s a theory. I have no proof. They never leave evidence behind. They wipe everything from all cameras and other monitoring devices in a ten-mile radius whenever they move inmates or they set fires to destroy the places. We can’t find the facilities until they’ve left.”
Roman held up both hands in a “well,what?” gesture.
“I think it’s a breeding facility.” Antonio didn’t expound.
“Breeding lycans for…?” Roman kept his voice even, while inside he’d gone cold and his stomach twisted.
“You think England is the only country that wants its own private lycan warriors? Imagine a group of trained lycan soldiers forced to work for a country or a person rich enough to afford them, but he or she wasn’t limited by a curse to hunt only non-humans? They could target anyone.”
“No…that’s…not possible…” Flynn shook his head back-and-forth in a slow sweep of denial.
Antonio said, “Lycans are physically stronger than any of the other non-humans. If I were to consider which non-human was easiest to mentally manipulate…to brainwash, I’d chose a lycan. One who’s not a Lanzo brother, that is. But, then again, you guys aren’t exactly all lycan anymore. Roman, you’re like half witch with all the magic you use. Ky has got the superpower to be able to kill almost anything. And Flynn…okay, I don’t know if you have anything non-lycan going on other than being a sugar-addicted doofus.”
“Hey,” Flynn said.
Roman elbowed Flynn to get him to shut up. He swallowed several times and glanced at Nova, the pieces of the puzzle falling into place. She was a trained assassin. Had she been forced to assassinate those FenCor executives? Somehow without remembering?
Had she been forced to breed?
Something awful welled up inside him. His gut twisted. Bile rose. Sweat broke out at the thought of some male forcing himself on her.
As if she sensed his rising emotion, she linked her hand with his and held tight. “Could children survive without others of their kind?”
To envision young lycans not allowed to grow up guided by the rules of their species, which although antiquated and often annoying, had purpose, was horrifying. He carefully enunciated, “That is a horror that cannot be allowed. Is this happening with species other than lycans?”
“We know almost nothing, but it’s possible. If I was to run a non-human brainwashing facility, I’d try all types, if I knew about their existence. We have to assume they are well aware of all of us. Vampires, witches, warlocks, mage, demons…” Antonio drummed his fingers on the seat for a moment. “Your curse is interesting. I don’t think the witch who cast it actually wanted to do it. If she had, she wouldn’t have put all those stipulations on it. To only eliminate non-humans. To protect the innocent.”
Roman’s shoulders tensed. “How do you know the specifics of our curse?”
“You weren’t exactly quiet when you asked other witches across the world about it.”
“I wiped their memories.”
“That doesn’t always work on their species. I found one who remembered.” He interlaced his fingers and rested his hands in his lap, a deceptively relaxed posture. This creature was incredibly dangerous.
“Why did you save us? What’s this about?” Roman felt weighed down as if anticipating the answer was going to be something he didn’t want to hear, something new he’d have to deal with.
“I’ve watched you and your brothers a long time.” Antonio rose and moved to sit across from Roman. He crossed his legs with his ankle over his knee. “You don’t do this simply to follow orders. You’re too good at how you carry out your tasks. I’ve concluded if you were to break free of your bond to the Crown, you would be compelled to continue. On your own terms.”
“If freed, I’m going to disappear from the world. We’ve done enough for humans.” Roman crossed his arms. “If I never again face off with an insane magical super shit with a hard-on to kill me, I’ll be happy.”
Antonio chuckled. Fucking chuckled. “A Christian angel helped you last year.You.Not your brothers.”
“We were against some top-level demons out for world domination. I asked for help from the best source, and he came through.”
Antonio shook his head, smiling. “I’ve lived a lot longer than you. Believe me when I say, no one I know has ever been able to recruit an angel’s help, no less get a minute of their attention. No one else has God’s ear. Angels exist for humans, not us. They sneer at our kind and consider us abominations. Based on my sources, the angel not only helped you but he also liked you. I think if needed, you could call him again.”
