Blood and Bone: (Royal Blood #6) (15 page)

I
found
my way outside to the hotel roof.

A tiny patio sat among the eaves, filled with furniture that was falling apart and puddles that had collected after the days of rain, which had pounded the city. Fuck, the word
pounding
. The spot between my legs that X loved the most still throbbed after he’d done just that.

Casting my gaze over the city, I couldn’t really see much. Old stone buildings blocked my view, but I could see a few lights peeking through the gaps. Jackson had really picked the shittiest, most unassuming hole London had to offer.

Closing my eyes, the panic I’d felt rising when I was stuck in that coffin began to surface again, and I shook my head. This whole mission was spiraling out of control. If X had any ideas on how to outsmart Moltke, he wasn’t sharing, but I suspected he was exactly like me. He didn’t know fuck all, either.

I rested my palms against the ledge and stared down at the car-lined street below. X was alive. I was alive. I sucked in a deep breath as my skin began to tingle and tears threatened to fall from my eyes. What was this thing I was feeling? Relief? I supposed it was.

I tensed as the cool touch of steel slid across my throat.

“You people are unbelievable,” a female voice purred in my ear.

I didn’t have to turn around to know who’d decided sneaking up on me was a good idea. I knew why she’d chosen me, because X would have just grabbed the knife, turned, and rammed it right into her gut before she could say
boo
. Actually, now that I thought about it, he wouldn’t have turned at all. He wouldn’t have even opened his eyes.

“Let me guess,” I declared, my emotions evening out. “Banshee.”

“I see my reputation proceeds me.”

“Only when you feel up the love of my life in a dirty alley in Berlin,” I drawled.

The knife pressed harder against my skin.

“What do you fucking want?” I asked, rolling my eyes. “I’ve already been buried alive tonight. I’ve seriously had a gutful of you people. What I wouldn’t give for a bloody mai tai and a white sandy beach.”

“We both have a problem that needs solving,” she replied, and this time, I definitely heard the hint of Russian in her accent.

“Right now, the only problem I give a fuck about is the knife at my throat. Way to go asking for a hand. Good first impression.”

Banshee laughed softly, and the knife dropped away. “You have spark.
I like it
.”

Turning, I took my first real life look at the mercenary known as Banshee. She was slightly taller than I was, her limbs long and willowy, her skin pale and dusted with a light spray of freckles. Her black locks mirrored my own, but from the fine line of lighter colored hair at her scalp, I could tell it wasn’t her natural color.

She flipped the knife in her hand and smiled. I mentally added ‘cocky’ to the list. Typical gun for hire bitch, then.

“Mercy Reid,” she said, sizing me up.

“That’s my name,
don’t wear it out
.”

“The other one is here?” she asked, nodding toward the door that led back into the hotel.

“Other one?” I asked with a smirk.

“The nerdy one with the computer.”

“Oh, I see,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “You’ve been watching us with a bag of popcorn, providing the laugh reel to our disastrous attempts at killing the evil mastermind.” I threw my hands up into the air. “
Great
. All this time and you could have thrown a bone, you know?” I looked her up and down. “Providing that’s what you mean by ‘we both have a problem that needs solving’.” I air quoted her words, thoroughly fed up with her, Moltke, and especially X, the motherfucker who got shot and let me believe he was dead.

“I believed I could provide a quick end to the…situation,” she said, her lip curling in amusement. “We have come to the same conclusion, you and I. Together, I think we can find the answer, yes?”

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t push you of this roof right now,” I snapped. “I’m sick of games. Why can’t
you people
just say what you mean?”

“You never know who is listening, Mercy Reid,” she replied smoothly. “I think we should take this elsewhere. You have company, yes?”

I narrowed my eyes, weighing up my options—shove the bitch off the edge of the roof or stop and listen to what she had to say. X and I had no more options. Our cards had played out, and here was Banshee, surfaced at last.

She shrugged at my unresponsiveness and pouted. “I could let you lead me inside with a gun to my head, but you and I both know I could disarm you before you pulled the trigger. I could have killed you while you stood up here all alone…
but
I didn’t
. You are running out of options. It’s only a matter of time before all your friends die, so I suggest we
cut the crap
, as you say, and get on with it.”

“Why now?”

She shrugged again. “I can explain all the finer details once all parties are present. I do hate repeating myself.”

I didn’t have an option, and she knew it. That was the only reason she’d revealed herself, which meant either she was in the same predicament or she needed help to pull off whatever plan she had in motion. Either way, I had to let her say her piece.

I nodded once. “If you pull anything, there will be consequences.”

Banshee smiled. “But of course.”

X would chuck a pink fit when we walked in. The thought made my lips curve into a small smile. What better way to piss him off than to present him with Banshee.

I made her go first, ushering her through the door and down the narrow stairwell to our room. Unlocking the door, I paused.

“Don’t try to pull anything,” I said, giving her a final warning.

She smiled and nodded. “You’re the boss.”

Grimacing, I opened the door and stepped into the hotel room, hoping X had decided getting dressed in my absence was a good idea.

“Mercy, I think we need to discuss…” X appeared in the doorway, wearing nothing but a pair of boxers that left little to the imagination, and the moment he laid eyes on Banshee, he reached for the gun he’d left on the sideboard, but I raised my hands.

“She’s with me,” I said, wishing he’d at least put on his jeans.

“Look at you,” Banshee said appreciatively, her gaze raking up and down X’s torso…and lingering too long on the bulge in the front of his boxers.

“
Hey
,” I snapped. “Off limits.”

She laughed and glanced back at X, who was looking none too pleased.

“I hear you got tossed in the drink,” she said.

“I wrung myself out,” he replied shortly.

She looked him up and down again and said, “I’ll say.”

“Get the fuck dressed,” I snapped at him, and then I turned to Banshee. “Get the fuck explaining.”

X disappeared into the bedroom while Banshee propped herself against the wall, playing with the knife in her hand. Fuck, was that another assassin trait? Playing with sharp objects like they were Play-Doh?
Children
.

“You said we both have the same problem,” I said, prodding Banshee into talking.

She nodded. “Moltke. He has been a thorn in my side these past days. A thorn I thought I’d gotten rid of a long time ago.”

“A long time ago?” X asked as he reappeared—this time, fully clothed.

“Our story was supposed to end,” she mused. “But he is like a woman. He doesn’t know when to let go.”

I frowned, the pieces of the puzzle starting to fall into place. Or at least, I thought they were.

“He’s doing all of this for Vesper,” I said. “Revenge for her death. We never saw evidence, but he said he saw her die…”

Banshee snorted as if I’d said the most ironic thing in the world. “The real Vesper is very much alive,” she said absently.

“Then where is she?” I asked. “If Moltke can see…”

Banshee grimaced.

“What aren’t you telling us?” X snarled, his entire body tensing.

“You want Vesper?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at his reaction. “The
real
Vesper? You’re looking at her.”

“But you’re meant to be dead,” I said, my mouth dropping open. “That’s what this whole fucking thing is about. Why Moltke—”

“Moltke believes a lie,” she snarled. “He’s blinded by emotion.”

X stepped forward, drawing his gun. “You need to explain yourself,” he hissed, anger brimming in his eyes. “
Now
.”

“My name,” she said, pushing off the wall so she could match X’s stance. “Is Vesper Cunningham. I was a sleeper agent planted by a black ops division of Russian Intelligence. My mission was to gain the confidence of an MI6 agent specifically chosen for me.”
Gathering British secrets and handing them to Russia.

“You’re the enemy,” I whispered.

“And what makes you think we won’t deliver you to a federal prison?” X asked, staring her down.

“I no longer serve any country or organization,” she stated. “MI6 will have a file on me, of that I’m sure.
Look me up
.”

“The hospital…” I began. “The day you disappeared…”

“Was an extraction,” she explained, glancing at me. “My employer saw the attempt on my life as a threat to my cover, so I was pulled from duty.” She glanced away. “I didn’t want to go, but in hindsight, it was the best thing. I remained loyal to my agency for a time, but then broke away from their service. That is another story and one I don’t care to tell.”

“If you were in love, why are you going after him?” X asked. “It’s not making sense.”

“It’s true,” Banshee replied. “I loved Moltke once. Enough to tell him the truth, and he accepted my subterfuge despite the cost to his own reputation at MI6. We never got to see how that played out. The night I confessed was the night my own agency came for me.”

Folsom had suggested the same thing, minus the double agent angle, and it made sense to a point. The lengths Moltke had already gone to find and avenge Vesper.

“Why?” X prodded.

“Moltke is no longer the man I once loved,” Banshee declared. “In the years he went dark, he was ruthless in his pursuit of me. He carved a path of destruction in his single-minded need to rekindle our lost love. He got too close, so he was fed a lie. A double was planted to make him believe the British Government had me in custody since the night I was extracted. Irrefutable evidence that I’d been incarcerated in a federal facility. It wasn’t until much later that I realized the nature of evidence they’d planted. They made Moltke believe I’d been tortured, starved, and kept in darkness for five years until I’d succumbed under the pressure of my treatment. He believed they’d murdered me in the worst way possible.”

I glanced at X, and his expression gave away that he was thinking the exact same thing.
So that explained what he’d done to Lorelei.
I assumed it was also the reason why she’d broken away from her agency and turned herself into a mercenary. If that was her case, it was a pretty good one.

“Why would they go to those lengths to make him believe you were dead?” X asked. “Why not make it simple and fake a gunshot or a stab wound? Why fabricate years of torture?”

She shrugged. “They wanted to spark him into action, I suppose. Get him back into MI6 where they could manipulate him to commit mass murder.”

My blood ran cold, and I swallowed hard. Shit, Moltke was just a tool in a grand conspiracy to wipe out an entire spy network. Military Intelligence was one of the largest in the world, apart from the CIA. Grand probably wasn’t the right word. Epic. Yeah, it was an epic conspiracy that would lead to the murder of thousands of lives.

The gravity of what we’d been unknowingly dealing with this whole time made me feel sick.

“I’m still not convinced,” X said. “What’s stopping you from using us to lead you to Moltke so you can run off into the sunset together? You could still be with them.
You could be a part of this
.”

Banshee stood tall, her expression never changing. Just like a certain cold, hard assassin I knew. “Regardless of my reputation or what you people think of me, Moltke is chasing a ghost. Murdering the entire British Intelligence network is a pointless slaughter. A lie by the people I once trusted has driven him to insanity, and I have to stop it. This will not bring him justice. It will only bring him and the world pain that didn’t need to be felt. He is being manipulated and driven to become a monster against his will. I cannot let him suffer this fate.”

I glanced at X, knowing that I was pretty much convinced she was legit. Probably because I understood more about the notion of normal person love than he ever would. X was a much harder mountain to climb than me.

“I believe you,” I said, causing X to hiss through his teeth. “He’s a stubborn asshole.”

“The problem with people switching allegiances is there is no way of knowing when they will switch back,” he stated, his finger lingering over the safety on the back of his gun. “You’ve turned no less than twice. Third time is lucky,
yes?
”

“X,” I said, curling my hand around his wrist. “We need her, and she needs us. We’re talking about mass murder here. If Moltke pulls this off, there’s no telling who this technology will be sold to next. If it gets dumped into the water supply, we could be talking about
mass genocide
.”

“This needs to end before more innocent people are killed,” Banshee said, prodding the monster. She glanced at me before turning back to X. “Are you with me?”

X hissed and dropped his arm. “If you try
anything
…”

Banshee laughed and turned her attention back to me. “Men, huh?”

I
stared at Banshee
, waiting for the moment she’d slip because if she were lying, she’d have to at some point. No one, not even me, was that good at duplicity.

The sounds of running water echoed through the quiet room as Mercy showered…and as I watched our unexpected houseguest.

“Where is the nerd?” she asked, waving her hand absently.

“That’s none of your concern,” I replied, narrowing my eyes.

She sighed.

“Why did you stop me in Berlin?” I asked, my thoughts going back to the scuffle we’d had in that alley. I’d been stalking Bateman, trying to get to Moltke. Speaking about Bateman…he’d disappeared after the events at the wharf and hadn’t returned.

“You were in my way,” she replied blandly. “And you were going to give yourself away if you lurked much closer.”

“If I get too close, then it’s usually too late for them.”

“We are all skilled, Blood, but underneath it all, we are still human.”

“At some point, humanity is all but lost.” I’d given up mine on several occasions to get the job done. I’d given up on it for eight years while working for Royal Blood. One had to have a certain…
coldness
…to live in this world of murder and mayhem.

“One day, you will understand,” Banshee said. “Giving it up and pushing it aside are two very different things. You look very human to me now, yes?”

I promptly decided I didn’t like her.

“What do you know about sleeper agents?” she asked, casting her gaze out of the window.

“A sleeper agent is placed in a target country or organization, not on a mission but to act as a potential asset if activated,” I recited, then glanced at her. “Were you activated?”

“Of course I was. My mission was to gather intelligence about Moltke’s comings and goings in relation to his investigation into a human trafficking organization. An organization mine wanted to keep in business.”

“They wanted to let those sick fucks keep operating?” I asked. “Why?”

“Dirty men need a steady supply of things to play with,” Banshee replied. “Powerful Russian men with God complexes were a crowd that needed to be kept happy. If you know what I mean.”

It was no secret that her homeland was one of the most corrupt in the world. Rich men were rich for a reason. Bribes were commonplace, as well as sexual deviancy it seemed.

“You didn’t agree,” I stated.

“No, but at first, I did my job. I went about my life seducing Moltke, and when the time came, I followed protocol. Just like I’d been programmed to do.” She glanced at me and smiled wickedly. “Something you know a great deal about, no?”

“Are you saying you were conditioned to follow your mission?”

“Not in the same manner, but I may as well have. My employer had certain strong-arm tactics to ensure cooperation.”

“Then you don’t know,” I snapped. “Being tortured to forget your past and being remade into a monster is nothing like having your arm twisted. Don’t patronize me.”

She laughed and shook her head. “If you say so.”

“Your attitude needs adjusting if you ask me,” I said with a sneer. “You want us to help bring down your ex-husband, yet you poke and prod the monster every chance you get…and you’ve only been here five minutes.”

“I can let you go try again if you like,” she shot back, not missing a single beat. “You’ve been doing such a brilliant job so far.”

“You know nothing,” I hissed, tightening my hold on the gun in my lap.

Banshee leaned forward, her expression never once giving away her true feelings. “Then hear this, Xavier Blood. We all have sad stories, so stop thinking you’re so special and deserving of the world’s sympathy. I had a bleak childhood and an even bleaker adolescence. I was mistreated and beaten during my basic training as a Russian Intelligence agent. I was forced to come to Britain and marry a stranger chosen for me. The life I was meant to lead as a sleeper agent was not a pretty one. I could have died waiting for an order that was never coming. I could have died if I was discovered. I could have died that night in the hospital at the hands of MI6. A lot of things could have happened to me if not for Moltke. What I am about to do is not a choice I ever wanted to make.
He was meant to let me go and move on
. I see you love Mercy more than life itself. I see it in every part of you. Never betray her trust like I did Moltke’s. This whole mess…” She sighed, and I knew she blamed herself for what Moltke had become. In a way, she was, but a great deal of the conspiracy had been out of her hands. She had been a pawn just as much as Moltke was now.

“He forgave you,” I stated.

“And to what end?” she scoffed. “Don’t put her in the same position. The life I lead now is not much better than the one I had before. I am no one. I have no name, no country, no family, no freedom… Hold on to your love, Xavier Blood,
and never let it go
.”

The water shut off in the bathroom, and we fell silent, but her gaze never left mine. I nodded once and set the gun on the coffee table. A small gesture to let Banshee know I trusted her…for now.

“Jackson will be back in the morning,” I said, glancing at my watch. “In four hours.”

She inclined her head. “Then I will sleep…if you promise not to slice my throat.”

Rising to my feet, I rolled my eyes. “What did I say about poking the monster?”

Smiling, she kicked up her feet on the couch and nestled back into the corner. “But it is so much fun.”

Sighing, I closed the bedroom door behind me. I had a great deal to think about in the wake of our conversation. Banshee had driven home some truths I had already known about myself and my actions, but hearing them from someone who was living with the consequences made it all that much more real.

In the bathroom, Mercy was pulling on her top when I leaned against the doorjamb.

“Did you play nice?” she asked when she saw me.

“She’s sleeping,” I replied. “I left her there alone. I’m pretty sure that’s
nice
.”

Pushing off from the jamb, I wrapped my fingers around her wrist and tugged.

“We’ll end this, X,” she said, sinking against me. “Then we’ll have forever to figure out where we’re meant to be.”

“I hope so,” I murmured.

I held her close, the scent of the cheap hotel shampoo filling my senses. Her skin was still slightly dewy from her shower, her hair damp and dripping on her shoulders. Grabbing a towel from the rail beside us, I began pressing it against her wet locks.

“An assassin drying my hair,” she mused, sounding tired.

“I’m sorry,” I said, forcing the words through my lips.

“I know.”

“I need…” I sighed.

“
I know
,” she said more firmly. “It doesn’t mean your actions don’t hurt.”

I grunted. “
I know.
”

“Let’s just get this over and done with,” Mercy said, plucking the towel from my hands. “Figure out how to stop Moltke, then we can deal. Okay?”

I’d rather deal now, but I was inclined to give her everything she desired in the wake of being such an epic asshole.

Nodding, I stepped back. “I’ll let Jackson know we have a guest so he doesn’t piss his pants when he gets here.”

Her lips curved into a smile, and she laughed softly. “Sure.”

Hesitating, I curled my hand around the doorjamb. “We have a way forward now, Mercy,” I murmured. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”

The smile faded from her face, and she glanced down at the towel in her hands. “I know.”

Drawing in a deep breath, I turned and closed the door behind me, the catch clicking softly.

One thing would never change where Mercy and I were concerned. I’d love her until the end of the world and to the end of whatever was after that.

Whatever it took.

Forever and always.