Brody's Beast Read online

  “Everybody?” Brody needed to be sure, and, at his question, Terk hesitated.

  “Well, almost everybody. Of our team, yes, all eight of us are back on our feet.”

  “Well, thank God for that,” Brody murmured. And then he stopped. “So who didn’t make it?”

  “They attacked all three admins. Tasha was minorly injured and was able to hide until we found her. Wilson is dead, and Mera? … Well, she survived the first attack, though she was shot twice, but didn’t know who could be trusted and so wouldn’t come in. She was taken out when they came back around, while most everyone on the team was still comatose, and we were still trying to figure out what had happened.”

  “Good God,” Brody asked, struggling with the bad news, “why would they take her out?”

  “And Bob at the defense department, our contact there?”

  “You mean, our ex-contact,” Terk noted, his voice harsh.

  It dawned on Brody. “He’s dead.”

  Terk nodded. “Executed at the same time but claimed to be a heart attack. Even Lorelei was in a hit-and-run, but she survived.” Terk sighed. “Exactly, our ex-contact. As you know, we were done and supposedly finished and officially disbanded, but then this happened.”

  “Did our government try to take us out and clean up permanently in the process?”

  “It’s something we’ve been kicking around. It will take quite a bit to bring you back up to speed. A lot’s going on,” Terk stated, “and, I mean, a lot. One of the things you need to know is there have been follow-up attacks on multiple fronts. On nearly all of us and we have followed each attack back to one particular group. They’re constantly cleaning up, exterminating their own ground forces, and, every time we turn around, hiring new footmen,” he murmured. “It’s frustrating because we’re always one step behind. As soon as you’re up for it, I’ll give you a short synopsis.”

  At that, Brody shuffled up against the headboard, his body breaking out in a sweat. “Jesus, just even that much movement and I’m already exhausted.”

  “If you can let Cara give you a hand,” Terk suggested, “you might get on your feet faster.”

  “Cara or Clary?” Brody asked.

  Terk looked startled for a moment. “Is Clary here?”

  “She’s been keeping me sane on the other side,” Brody murmured, “or as sane as it seems I can be.”

  At that, Terk whistled. “I’ll have to ask Cara about that.”

  “Yeah, you do that,” Brody noted. “I’m not exactly sure what’s going on, but I do owe her my thanks. She was a beacon among all this.”

  “Yes, exactly,” Terk agreed, “and, for that, we are most grateful to the whole group.”

  “I gather there are more involved than just our team?”

  “Not just more, … a lot more,” Terk murmured. “Let’s start with Damon. He was up first.”

  *

  Brody sat here in shock, as Terk ran down the whole story. “Good God, you need to get me out of here now.”

  At that, Terk smiled. “We’re working on it, but you’re not up to snuff, as you can tell.”

  “I know,” he muttered, as he wiped the sweat off his face. “It’s pretty distressing to be this weak. But to think that you guys have gone through so much already and are so shorthanded, with a big finale of some kind to come, I don’t want to miss out.”

  Terk chuckled. “Of course you don’t, as if you were likely to do that. The problem is, I can’t have you be a vulnerability.”

  Terk was never one to pull his punches, and this was no different. But it really hurt when he said things like that to Brody. He stared at his old friend. “Well then, you need to find a way for me to get back on my feet and at your place, wherever the hell that is,” he murmured.

  “And amid all the attacks, we have established a temporary compound.”

  “Are we in England?” At Terk’s nod, Brody snickered. “I bet MI6 doesn’t appreciate that.”

  Terk snorted. “They would like to see us gone, no doubt. However, at the same time, these guys after us are now on MI6’s turf and making a mess of their world. We’re doing something to help MI6, so they’re okay with that. But, yes, in the end, they want us gone.”

  “Have you thought about afterward?”

  “Oh, there’s lots of talk about afterward,” Terk noted, “just nothing solid yet.”

  “Obviously, until this is done, there can’t be any solid planning.”

  “Nope, there sure can’t. And it’s more complicated now that a lot of partners are involved and …” Terk hesitated.

  “What?” Brody asked curiously. “Surely there can’t be more you haven’t told me.”

  “Well, there is more,” he admitted. “It’s the first thing that I learned about after the accident that blew everybody up.”

  “Accident?” Brody asked in a dry tone.

  “Well, let’s just say, attack.” Then Terk proceeded to tell Brody about the woman named Celia back in Texas.

  “So they’re attacking somebody in Texas, while we were all in France, getting attacked?” he cried out in astonishment. “And followed us here to England to continue to try to kill us?”

  “Yes, but the real question is, how did they choose Celia? What do they know about Celia, and is she really carrying my child?”

  “It’s not like you to be uncertain.”

  “I’m not uncertain,” he replied, “but, since I don’t know this woman and obviously don’t recognize her, … it puts me in a tough spot.”

  “Of course,” Brody agreed quietly. “Maybe she went to a bank?”

  Terk raised an eyebrow. “I’ve never donated,” he said drily, “so that’s out.”

  “Right, and when will you resolve all that?”

  “When I’m sure that you guys are all safe and sound, without need for my support. At the moment, Celia is safe with Ice and Levi.”

  “Where’s your brother in all this?”

  “He’s been helping us out steadily on the ground,” Terk admitted. “We would have been lost without him. He’s flying solo, seeing what he can find and turning up when we need him, plus being our intermediary to MI6. As you can imagine, we can trust few people when the chips are down like this.” Terk shrugged. “It all comes down to family and close friends, anyone who is solid and has seen all the shit that can happen. They’re far more than just a necessity when it comes to chaos like this.”

  “I understand,” Brody murmured.

  “Exactly. So, with Ice and Levi handling as much as they can on their end, and giving us a hand with data searches and working with Tasha and Sophia and Lorelei,” he explained, “it’s pretty insane. Sophia had been doing the odd contract with them and had traveled over with Merk to help out. She’s paired with Wade now.”

  “Which is also pretty un-fucking-believable.” Brody shook his head and smirked nonetheless.

  “I know, but so much is unbelievable right now that it seems to be the name of the game. It’s all insane,” Terk muttered.

  Brody shifted his body again, checking to see just how bad every movement was. “Did you bring me clothes?” he asked.

  “I think you need to stay here for a couple more days, now that you’re awake,” Terk replied. “It’s too early for you to move much.”

  “Because, if you didn’t bring me clothes”—he completely ignored everything Terk had just said—“it’ll be a little embarrassing for everybody else as I walk out to the vehicle, but have no doubt that I’m going.”

  With that, another knock came at the door. The nurse stepped in, took one look at Brody, and sniffed. Turning to Terk, she stated, “Told you that he won’t be an easy patient.”

  “No, he’s not,” Terk agreed, “and we really appreciate all that you’ve done for him so far.”

  “Well, you might, but he certainly doesn’t.”

  At that Terk’s lips twitched. “He isn’t necessarily the best of patients. He does come from the heart, and we do need his particular br
and of expertise.”

  “You can’t take him away,” she replied in alarm. “He’s only just gotten out of the woods, and it’ll take him weeks of therapy to get up and move.”

  Terk shot Brody a look. “You heard that, right?”

  “You talk to her,” Brody snapped, almost snarling at them. “You leave me to figure out what it’ll take.”

  Terk shrugged. “You know you better than me. You can have a certain amount of assistance from me,” he added, “but that’s all I’ve got to give. I’ll need to recharge as it is.”

  “Oh, you aren’t kidding,” Brody confirmed. “You’ve done nothing but give. You need all this to be over so you can get to Texas, before you’ll ever really get recharged.” Brody waved Terk and the nurse out of the room.

  With them gone, he took a deep breath and tried to stand. Almost immediately his legs gave out, and he collapsed. Once again, back in his head, came that same voice.

  I told you, she said cheerfully.

  Well, instead of telling me, he growled, why don’t you help me?

  What is it you want me to do? she asked, and there was such curiosity but no judgment.

  She had no idea how to help apparently. What kind of doctor was she? I want to get up. I need to get dressed, and I want to get in the vehicle with Terk and go back to where my team is, he explained. Then I want to continuously heal going forward.

  Hmm, she muttered. It might be possible, but it’ll take some assistance.

  Yours to be exact, he demanded, sounding adamant.

  Sure, she agreed. Not certain it’s in your best interests though.

  Maybe you don’t get to make that decision, he growled.

  Well, if you want my help, I should get some say in the matter, she stated matter-of-factly. I won’t return to back a losing horse.

  He stopped at that. Do I look like a losing horse? he raged.

  If I don’t assess this properly, it could go badly, and you’ll go back down again. It took an awful lot to bring you to this point. I get that you’re one of those big tough guys who figures, as soon as he’s awake, he’d better be back to normal. But the fact is, you’re not back to normal, she snapped and then continued. And no amount of your deciding that you should be back to work will help.

  He growled in frustration.

  She laughed. I’ll do an assessment, and, when I come back, we’ll talk. And, with that, she withdrew.

  He cried out after her, I don’t know what kind of assessment you’ll do, but you better make sure it’s one that gives me the answers I want.

  But only silence came on the other end.

  *

  Clary heard him and laughed.

  Just something about these guys, who were so tough and so angry at their bodies for failing them, that she wanted to kick him in the shins to make him smarten up. But she’d also heard from her sister a lot about this team and about everything that was going wrong in their lives.

  Clary genuinely wanted to help as much as she could, but, as her sister had said, Cara had made a lot of decisions to save Rick, and so she was worried about what would happen if she went so deep again with somebody else. Thus Cara declined to help Brody.

  Not believing her, Clary dived in to help Brody, after she realized that he was out there lost and that her sister wasn’t capable of reconnecting on the same level. But now? … Clary absolutely had to wonder if her sister was right after all. Clary had never seen it like this before. She was willing to do what was needed, and always had been, but it was a little on the bizarre side to see it play out in front of her like this.

  Still, Clary was nothing if not curious, as she worked her way through Brody’s system, checking to see how he was doing. She soon realized that he really had come a long way and, even now, was able to utilize her energy at an efficiency rate that she’d never seen before. Most of the patients she worked with didn’t know how, whereas this whole team was amazing. Apparently they specialized in energy work, and it certainly made a difference from her perspective. It was incredible to see him healing and utilizing her energy, almost like an efficient machine, for his own needs.

  The more she gave him, the more he grabbed, and at such a rate that she was in danger of running out, but for the abundance of the universe. Something to be said about understanding what was going on and what could be going on in his system.

  When she came back out, he immediately asked, Well?

  Wow, you don’t even give a person a chance to adjust, do you?

  No. What’s the verdict?

  You’re burning through a ton of energy, she noted. The good news is that you appear to understand how to utilize energy, and your body is using a lot of mine to make up for it.

  That’s because Terk is running low, he said.

  Terk has literally kept you alive, she stated bluntly, completely by himself for at least three weeks, until Cara could send him some, and then I took over. Clary huffed. So I get that you want to run off and take your place as a key man on your team, she murmured, but there’s an awful lot more to this than just you. She felt his shock at her words.

  Terk did that? Brody asked in an odd voice.

  Yes, she confirmed. My sister told me that, at one time, when all this happened, he was keeping all of you alive and protected.

  Jesus, can you imagine what that took out of him?

  And I know he’d do it again. Thankfully, one by one, you’ve all come back. It’s all due to his energy.

  Yes. That’s Terk. And he’d do anything for his team.

  And he has, but it’s also important that we don’t pull more from him now than he can provide. He’s also running his energy in ways that I’ve never seen anybody use before, as a defense system.

  Yeah, that’s Terk, and that’s not all he can do, Brody stated. But you’re right, I can’t keep draining him.

  Yes, I get that, and I agree, but you also can’t be on your own just yet.

  So, what’s the workaround? he asked.

  That’s what I’m still trying to figure out.

  No, he argued. You’ve already figured it out. You just don’t like the answer.

  She snorted. Whoever gave you that kind of confidence?

  You’d be surprised, he snapped. I can feel a hesitation on your part, but I don’t know what the hesitation is.

  The hesitation is easy, she stated. In order to do what you want to do, you’ll need me.

  And the way she put it was so blunt, so clear, that he appeared stunned. No, he replied, I don’t think so.

  That’s because you’re not thinking, she muttered, and that’s a problem because you’re reacting instead. And I get that, but, at the same time, we have a lot more to deal with here than just you.

  So, he said impatiently, I’m not really somebody who likes to beat around the bush. You want to just tell me what the answer is then?

  The answer is, … I can help you, but … I need you to make a few commitments to me.

  Like? he asked suspiciously.

  She snorted at that. Like, I need to make sure that you don’t overdo it, and, when I say you’re done, you allow me to knock it out.

  Knock what out?

  My energy going to you obviously, she stated.

  Hell no, he growled, riled and irritable.

  Well then, you’re not going anywhere. Then she disappeared.

  Disconnected from his system, she sat here, thinking about it. She didn’t want her sister put in any jeopardy either, and, where her sister was now in this entire mess would cause trouble. Her sister was out there in this world, physically with Terk’s team, where everything was under attack, and that was concerning.

  Very concerning, to be honest.

  She would do anything to keep her sister alive. In fact, it’s one of the reasons they had developed their abilities as they had. She didn’t know if Cara had said anything to the rest of the team or to Rick at this point in time, but it was because of her sister almost dying that both of them had gone under and l
earned how to do this. First, Clary had gone under, and her sister had come in afterward, trying to save her, doing everything she could to call Clary back home again. Yet, as soon as Clary started to recover and come back up, Cara had gone down from the effort of keeping Clary alive.

  These were hard-learned lessons, but, once the twins had learned them, they had developed and expanded on those initial findings and kept on learning more. Now they did what Clary and Cara had thought nobody else in the world could even do. But apparently there was a whole team of people just like them.

  Clary desperately wanted to be part of Terk’s team. It was addictive having these kinds of abilities, but it was also lonely, and to know that others were out there who could do things like Clary could do was simply unbelievable. She needed to hold on to this group. She wanted to be a part of something bigger than a nine-to-five routine. But she also had to make sure that this Brody guy understood exactly what was required of her to keep monitoring his system.

  If he wouldn’t cooperate, well, … she wouldn’t go there, at least for now. She heard him calling to her, but she kept ignoring him. Then she heard a desperate note to it. She popped back in. Now what?

  Thank God, Brody said. Look. Terk is leaving soon, and he says that, if he doesn’t get the okay report from you, I can’t go with him.

  Of course not. I won’t do that, she stated in a quiet voice. If nothing else, I am still a doctor, intent on healing you, not harming you.

  He hesitated, Please, and she heard that plea from deep inside him.

  The same conditions still apply, she noted calmly, and, if you can’t live with that, it doesn’t matter what we’re doing or what we have done so far to save your sorry ass because the answer will be a big and final no.

  Are you always this hard to get along with? he murmured.

  Always, she declared, without a hint of remorse or hesitation, and don’t you ever forget it. While you’re my patient, I’ll do everything I can to keep you alive. Cross the line, and I’ll take you down to where you can’t do anything. If you can accept that, fine. Otherwise I am not giving in. Then she concluded with finality, We’re done here.