Mercury stared at the Breed who had his weapon lifted, poised for battle, and felt that sense of anger fill him. He had fought alongside this Breed many times, and yet here he was, his weapon lifted as though to protect himself as the skinny, glaring Austin, head tech in Security Control, stalked into the room.
Mercury glared at the weapon the Breed held. Before Austin could take another step forward, Mercury blocked him, reached around and jerked the powerful, shortened automatic rifle from the guard's hands as he pushed him back and snarled a warning at him to stay put.
Blond hair spiked, his gray eyes a bit malicious, Austin sneered at Mercury as he moved forward. The scent of ego filled the room. He believed himself safe, able to order other Breeds around because of his position rather than his strength. For the most part, enforcers only barely tolerated him.
Glaring at him, Mercury watched as Austin crossed to the corner, jerked the sweater from the camera and tossed it to the floor.
Mercury growled furiously at the blatant disrespect of the action. His hand fell to the weapon strapped to his thigh as the Breed Enforcer backed up a step, swallowed tightly and glanced from the tech to Mercury.
"Pick the sweater up," Mercury ordered the geeky little bastard who had always set his hackles to rising.
Austin Crowl was a computer and expert security technician, trained by the Council, and his sense of power had grown over the years within Sanctuary, as he rose to rein over the control room.
The bastard sneered at him with his tiny little canines.
"She can pick it up herself." And he moved to stomp from the room, clearly ignorant of the Breed he was dealing with, and the fact that the normal rules that governed enforcers no longer applied to Mercury.
Before Mercury could stop himself, he had his hand around Austin's throat and was pinning the other man to the wall, aware of Ria coming to her feet quickly behind the desk.
"There's no blood, Ria," he informed her, staring into Austin's pale, despicable little face. "At least not yet."
"Merc, man, let him go." The young Breed Enforcer had a nervous quiver to his voice as Mercury kept his hand around the tech's throat.
Fear. The scent of it slammed into Mercury's senses, causing his lips to curl back, a vicious rumble brewing in his chest.
"Pick up the sweater," Mercury growled into Austin's face as he released him just enough to shift his grip to the back of his neck and force him down. To his knees, watching as the other man picked up the sweater, gasping for air and in pain at the grip Mercury had on him.
It would be so easy to snap his little head right off his shoulders and watch him bleed. The slight he had delivered to Ria was intolerable. It wouldn't be allowed.
Pulling him back to his feet, Mercury stared into his eyes, watching fear sink into Austin's bones as he trembled like a weak-kneed coward.
"Respect." He let the word rumble from his throat. "In her presence. Or you die, little girl." He used the worst insult he could have used to the egomaniacal little Breed.
His gaze flickered over the pristine, perfectly pressed, perfectly starched yellow shirt, buttoned to the throat and glaring against the Breed's dark skin and white-tipped, spiked brown hair.
"Before you challenge me, girl, grow some balls," he snarled, pushing him out the door, as once again, Kane, Callan, and Jonas rushed into the hallway.
"He's crazy," Austin gasped, his high-pitched voice causing them all to wince as he pointed to Mercury. "He tried to kill me. I was ordered to watch the room and he tried to kill me for removing that damned sweater."
Callan turned to him, Jonas leaned against the opposite wall, and Mercury felt Ria move to his side as she watched, the scent of her anger drifting around him now. It was so volatile that even he could smell it.
"Mercury, leave the cameras uncovered, for God's sake," Callan bit out, staring back at him in anger.
"Why? I'm with her. It's not like she can steal the files while I'm watching her."
"Perhaps it's not the files but her we're worried about." Ely stepped into the fray, maintaining a careful distance as she stared back at him worriedly.
"Dammit, Ely, since when the hell aren't we worried about Ms. Rodriquez?" Callan snapped. "Security is my concern here."
Mercury stared back at her, aching. His chest actually ached from the eyes trained on him, suspicious, cautious.
"Mr. Lyons, was the order to uncover the camera given by you?" Ria asked, her voice bland, carefully neutral.
"Ms. Rodriquez, those files are the heart and soul of Sanctuary," he snapped back at her, his eyes blazing now. "I wouldn't allow anyone alone in this room with them."
"I wasn't alone," she pointed out.
And Callan shook his head. "Until we know what the hell is going on here, then it's my job to protect everyone here. Even you," he snapped, glowering at Mercury.