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"The earth protects those who seek her embrace. " His voice deepened with warning.
"My grandson and what is his will always know its protection. No matter which land they step upon or which side their enemies think to attack. She will always protect him, and cherish what is his. The earth gave you to his embrace, and only the earth can tear you away from it. "
She turned, staring back at him as his words sank inside her mind, her soul.
"Why would it choose me?" she whispered. "Every part of me is stained with blood. " He snorted. "You did the land a favor in the lives you have taken. But the time for that is now at an end. Return to my grandson, and as you do, decide once and for all. Are you Harmony or are you Death? For the two can no longer entwine and survive. Make your choice now, woman, before you destroy not just yourself, but the man who would give you life. "
Make her choice. If she chose Lance, then Death would be gone forever and so would vengeance. And so would the safety of the young women and children she protected. It was a choice she feared could end up destroying her.
__________
Jonas slipped through the silent house, eyes narrowed, his senses alert as he sought for signs of something other than death.
His eyes narrowed on the figure lying in the center of the bedroom floor. Tommy Mason's throat had been cut, a near perfect imitation of a Death Caress, the signature slice attributed to the serial vigilante who had struck across the United States and Europe over the past ten years.
There were a few slight anomalies to the cut. Depth, the angle of the cut, the width of the blade used. But not enough that anything other than a Breed could identify. Only someone much too familiar with Death's training would notice the anomalies.
"Where's the wife and kid?" he spoke into the comm link quietly.
"Still locked in the basement. They're alive. "
He knelt beside the corpse, studying the body. Mason hadn't been dead long. An hour maybe. Jonas glanced at his watch. It was barely eight in the morning.
"I can't smell anything unusual anywhere else in the house," Merc reported over the link.
"Nothing but fear and filth. "
Jonas rubbed his hand over his jaw. Someone was definitely framing Harmony, and they expected him to tie the noose around her neck.
Sanctuary's spy, he thought, shaking his head. Only a select number of people had known about Death's presence in the cells below the detention building. He was narrowing the suspects down, but he would have preferred to do so in a different way.
"Someone to report she went running, then someone to come in and make the kill," he murmured over the link. "Time of death will coincide with her absence from Lance's home and make the case for her guilt. "
"Only one group that would go to that extreme," Rule stated as he stepped into the bedroom. "Alonzo must know who she is. "
Jonas's lips thinned. She wasn't the same girl she had been ten years ago. She had filled out, firmed up; her features had evened out. But if someone had known what to look for, they would have seen the resemblance. Alonzo could have only known that Harmony was here if the spy at Sanctuary had warned him. Son of a bitch, when was the bastard spilling their secrets going to mess up enough to get caught?
He should have killed Alonzo himself. If he hadn't attained such popularity, such notice over the past years, then Jonas would have. Unfortunately, his death would have only brought suspicion on the Breed community.
"Courtesy of our friendly Sanctuary spy," Jonas murmured as he straightened. "At least they left the wife and kid alive. "
"Death would never hurt them. " Rule shrugged. "What do we do now?" Jonas rubbed at the back of his neck wearily. "We use it. "
"Hell, Jonas. " Rule's voice was filled with disbelief. "You can't call Breed Law on her over this. She didn't do it. "
"Dammit, Rule!" he snapped. "Do you really think I'm going to see my sister dead for someone else's crime? Hell, I wouldn't pull Breed Law for her crimes, why do it over this?"
"You haven't exactly been brotherly," Rule pointed out. "Why didn't you just ask her to cooperate?"
"Because she would never give him up, whether she trusted me or not. Harmony is nothing if not loyal. The only chance I have of catching him is pushing her until one of them makes a mistake. "
"You want that shadow of hers damned bad," Rule pointed out.
"Not bad enough to sacrifice the only good thing that ever came out of those fucking labs," he snarled before inhaling roughly and gathering his control in both hands. "He's the first Leo. He and his mate have what we need. The answers to the aging process. We have to figure out what the hell is going on before proof of it hits the press. I want him bad, Rule, but not bad enough to actually endanger her life with Breed Law. He and his scientist mate hold the answers to the mating heat and the aging, and I want those damned answers. "
The discovery of the slim evidence they had attained that the first Leo was indeed still alive, nearly a century after his birth, and still in peak physical condition, had been a fluke.
After Harmony had ignored his messages to meet with him years before, Jonas
