Anger lashed him. Humiliation too. “This is your Breedmate talent? Seduction? Enthralling a man into thinking he loves you, blinding him to the fact that you’re really a hideous gorgon underneath your pretty face and innocent words. This has all been a game to you, Siobhan? One big fucking lie.”
A sadistic sneer pulled her lips flat. “You saw what you wanted to see. That is the power of my ability. And you can stop calling me that name. I’m beyond tired of hearing it.”
Rafe frowned at this new revelation. “If you’re not Siobhan O’Shea, then who are you? Tell me everything, you deceptive bitch.”
Then it hit him. “Ah, fuck. Iona Lynch didn’t die in that flat outside Dublin. Siobhan O’Shea did.”
“I knew the Order had me in their crosshairs after they killed Reginald Crowe. It was only a matter of time before they closed in on me. I was preparing to leave when you and Aric Chase showed up at the flat I shared with Siobhan. I had already killed her to ensure her silence, but you arrived too soon. I had no hope of getting away fast enough, so I decided to hide in plain sight.”
“You’re sick,” Rafe seethed.
“No,” she said, unfazed. “I’m a soldier, just like you. And I’m very good at what I do.”
He grunted, despising her now. “Why not break loose as soon as we got you to London? You had ample opportunity. The Order treated you with nothing but trust and kindness. You could’ve bolted to freedom anytime you wanted.”
“I thought about it,” she admitted, no emotion in her voice at all. “I expected to be deposited somewhere in that city and then disappear. Instead, the Order informed me they intended to bring me to their headquarters in Washington, D.C. So, I decided to use that unexpected advantage to finish the work Opus Nostrum failed at before. Killing the Order’s leader, Lucan Thorne.”
Rafe’s curse was airless with his shock. “You never would’ve gotten close enough to him to try.”
“Maybe not. The last thing I wanted was this detour away from my goal. But then imagine my surprise when I learned that Lucan and nearly all of the Order would be coming here instead.”
“You’re the mole.” Rafe nearly spat the words. “I was so sure it would be Kaya, but it was you leaking intel to Opus.” He glanced once more to the crates of wired ultraviolet ammunition and his veins iced over. “Now you’re planning to kill us all.”
She smiled. “You’ve all made it so easy. How can I resist when you’ve brought me the very weapon I need to take out most of the Order in one fell swoop?”
Pretty, evil eyes looked up at him sweetly. “But now you have to die first.”
Pain seared him, a sudden sharp jolt to his gut. He didn’t realize she held a weapon concealed somewhere on her person. Perhaps whatever power she’d been wielding over him when he found her here a few minutes ago had obscured the threat from his notice.
She stabbed him again, driving the blade into the center of his chest. Directly into his heart.
His fangs erupted from his gums on the roar that ripped out of his throat. She darted back, out of his reach as he sagged to his knees, astonished by the accuracy of her strike.
Blood poured through his fingers, too much of it and the wound far too grievous. His ability to mend wounds with his hands only worked on others. As for his Breed capacity to self-heal, he hadn’t taken a blood Host for nearly a week, starving for the Breedmate who had denied him her vein only to smile as she now stood before him and took his life.
His vision fading, Rafe collapsed to the floor, a growing pool of blood gathering all around him.
Iona Lynch watched him suffer for a moment, then she turned and went back to her work.
CHAPTER 28
Aric reached the command center so fast it was as though his feet had wings. Kaya had insisted she and Leah would be fine making their way back in the car, leaving him only one crushing concern. The life of his best friend and comrade.
Siobhan O’Shea--or, rather, Iona Lynch--was only a diminutive female but the depth of her treachery knew no bounds. And Rafe was more than halfway mad in love with her, which Aric feared might prove to be an obstacle all of its own.
Rafe needed to be warned of the woman’s deception, but to his marrow, Aric dreaded it might already be too late.
He thought back to the excuses Iona had made for missing the ceremony earlier today. Excuses that had left Reginald Crowe’s bitch alone for hours while everyone in the command center was preoccupied with the ritual and celebration that followed. And the fact that there was a sizable cache of ultraviolet arms and ammunition at her disposal didn’t exactly ease any of the bone-deep dread that strangled Aric with every rapid beat of his heart.
He decided to check that hunch first, speeding directly to the lowest floor of the command center where the evidence from Scrully’s estate was stored. The scent of spilled blood was a punch to his system. The sight of his immense, practically immortal friend lying unmoving in the center of that dark, sticky lake was even more of a shock.
Crouched inside the open car of the stalled elevator was Iona Lynch. She held an electronic device in her hand, working frantically in front of several crates of UV now wired to blow.
“You fucking bitch.”
His seething growl brought her strawberry-blonde head up with a start. She squeaked at the sight of his transformed face and growing fangs.
Aric grabbed her in savage hands and threw her against the wall. She hit with a hard thump, bones cracking. Stunned, momentarily rendered immobile, she dropped in a petite heap on the floor.
While she was disabled, Aric went to Rafe’s side. He’d been stabbed in the abdomen and in the chest--a
