"What did it do to him?"
Jonas steepled his fingers as he frowned thoughtfully. "I asked him that once. He said he felt as though he were walking in two worlds. An automaton. With it, he lost all the exceptional senses he had tested so highly in. But he was merciless when it came to killing. Cunning. He had no compassion and that was what they had wanted all along. When he was rescued, he was slowly taken off the drug therapy, and his adjustment was remarkable. I consider him one of my strongest enforcers. But still, his senses are barely better than a non-Breed's. Sense of smell, hearing, scent and taste barely register when he's tested."
Ria felt her chest tighten. "And now?"
Jonas shrugged. "He doesn't talk about it much. But the last tests Ely ran showed an advanced state of the feral displacement. She wants to restart the drug therapy."
She stared at him in shock. The doctor the entire Breed community held in such regard would suggest something so horrifying?
"Why?" she gasped in outrage. "Why would she want to do that if he can control it?"
"Because she believes, based on the video from that camera" he nodded to the camera"that Mercury was within minutes of sexually assaulting you. You didn't see his expression before he moved to you. His features seemed to shift, became more animalistic, and his eyes . . ." He frowned.
"Blue," she said softly. "Blue sparks."
He nodded. "The woman he was bred from was a blond-haired, blue-eyed Swede reputed to be from a family that once bred berserkers. Vikings."
Ria rose to her feet, rubbing her hand over the back of her neck as she closed the file she was working on and moved around Jonas to the file table.
"I have a favor to ask you, Ria," he said then, his voice quiet as she stopped at the table and stared down at the files. "I want you to come to the labs with me. I want you to have the blood, hormone and saliva samples taken."
She stared at the wall, remembering Callan's order to do just that, as well as the promise Mercury had extracted. He didn't trust the doctor now for some reason.
"Did Ely find the mating hormone in his tests?" she asked, though she knew the answer.
"No. She didn't."
It was no more than she had expected.
"Then there's no need for me to submit to a woman who would so unfairly accuse and betray someone who went willingly to have those tests done." She turned back to Jonas slowly. "She tricked him, didn't she, Jonas? She deliberately antagonized him to get what she wanted."
He stared back at her, his silver eyes solemn and, for the first time since she had met him, without the cynical mockery they usually contained.
"You're very perceptive," he acknowledged. "Yes, she deliberately antagonized him to prove what she suspected."
"Why?"
With that question, he shook his head. "I'm not certain why," he finally said. "There were traces of the displacement found when the tests were mixed with the results from the blood, saliva and hormone samples of yours that Vanderale sent us before your arrival. We knew you would be in close-quarter contact with Mercury, Lawe and Rule. We run the mating tests as a precaution. The hormone showed up in those tests where they didn't show up in the tests done on his samples alone or with other women."
"And you're telling me this why?" she asked him. "Is it somehow my fault?"
"It's not your fault, Ria, merely an anomaly." He shook his head. "One that concerns me."
"You're afraid he'll hurt me?" She couldn't imagine that, and didn't want to hear it.
"On the contrary." He looked at her as though surprised by the question. "I believe Mercury would destroy himself before he ever risked harming you. I believe it's merely coincidence that the hormone showed up in the mating tests. An error perhaps on Ely's part. The tests aren't infallible and aren't always right. But her opinion carries quite a bit of weight with the Ruling Cabinet. If she suggests Mercury be placed back on the drug therapy, then he'll have one of two choices. Submit to it, or leave Sanctuary."
"They wouldn't order him to do such a thing."
Jonas stood slowly to his feet. "Ely has begun the paperwork to have it presented before the Ruling Cabinet. How it's handled will depend a lot upon you."
"Me?" And now she watched him suspiciously.
"Get him back in that cabin, Ria. Get him back on your protective detail. Unless I can prove Mercury isn't going to start ripping hearts out and heads off at the spur of the moment, then we're all screwed. The Breed community is fighting to keep public opinion on its side. It would take very little to turn the tide of approval at present, and the Ruling Cabinet knows this. If I can't prove this is something he can control, then they could unintentionally destroy a damned good enforcer, and a hell of a Breed."
"You're manipulating me." She crossed her arms over her br**sts and stared back at him in disgust. "I know you, Jonas. You and Dane are so similar it's terrifying."
He grimaced and shot her a look that would have withered a weaker personality.