And the fact that the kitchen had been bombed then the entire power grid had gone down had absolutely nothing to do with his readiness. These two might have been good rangers but they couldn't have been leaders. They weren't forward thinkers.
I shook my head in disgust. "Let me guess. You were treating Merle as an ordinary target, weren't you?"
"That's because he is a normal target, even if he is a half-breed." She took a step forward, her huge paws clenched and ready for action.
I held up a finger in warning. "Don't even think about it, Berna, because I'll break your fucking neck. Then who will be left to rescue that stupid fox bitch?"
"In an even fight I can take you, wolf."
I snorted softly. "You have no chance, Berna, just as Nerida had no chance."
"A fox-shifter will always beat a half-breed who has not been warned. It is the way of the world. Full bloods are stronger, faster - especially when the half-breed is part human."
"That might be true if we were actually dealing with a normal half-breed. But in the case of Moss and Merle, we're not. They're genetically engineered humans who have been implanted with the DNA of several races. They aren't normal in any sense of the word."
She blinked. "What?"
"I warned you there was more to this. Starr is not only the leader of one of the nastiest cartels in Melbourne, he's also the head of a lab that has been playing in the DNA gene pool for several generations." Her eyes widened as the implications of my words hit her. "Did you honestly think those winged things were a product of nature? Did you really think the zoo was nothing more than a collection of misfits?"
"Well, I've seen stranger things - " She stopped. "Why should I trust anything you say?"
"Because as a former ranger, you were trained by the military to see beyond the surface. You must know things are not what they seem in this place." I shifted my stance from one foot to the other. I needed to get out there, to hunt down my brother and beat the crap out of whoever it was causing him pain. "I don't really care if you believe me or not. But I promise you, if people I care about die because of your interference, you will pay."
"You can't know of our military service. Our files are sealed against public perusal."
"Who said I was public?"
She blew out a breath. "We've walked into the middle of a major operation, haven't we?"
"Yeah, and might well have blown it."
"Fuck." She thrust a hand through her short hair. "What can I do?"
I held up my hand rather than answering. From down the hall came the rough voices - the guards were doing a bed check. I grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around myself to hide my bloody state. We waited in silence until our turn came, answering accordingly when our names were called out. They didn't ask about Nerida, so they obviously knew her rate.
When the guards moved away, I said, "Help me rescue my partner, then together we'll see what we can do about yours. But if we do get her free, I want you both out of here."
"Your partner has been caught?"
Caught, tortured, and on the move. But not under his own steam. "Yes. I need to get him out of here."
"How? They have guards on all exits at the moment. No one is getting in or out."
"Let's concentrate on one problem at a time."
I threw the blanket to one side, then turned on my heel and walked out. Berna followed, her larger feet slapping heavily against the floor, drowning out any noise my footfalls were making. I pushed open the exit door and stepped into the cool night air. The guard looked at us, but didn't say anything. He was human. He wouldn't have seen or smelled the blood and sweat and fear riding my body.
"Where'd they take Nerida?" I asked, as we moved away.
"To the pens, wherever they are. She's slotted in as the after-dinner entertainment."
"Against those winged things?" I followed the path around to the left, following instinct and that tenuous, fragile thread that linked Rhoan and I.
"Yeah. If she happens to survive that, she wins the right to fight Merle." Berna's gaze was grim when it met mine. "We both know that isn't going to happen, but Nerida can't or won't see reason. Revenge has blinded her."
I opened my mouth to say it was stupid, but the truth was, I could understand it. If something happened to Rhoan, hell itself wouldn't stand a chance against my desire to get even. To make someone pay.
"Which means she won't want to leave, even if we do rescue her."