Ria stared back at him mockingly. "Give that line to someone who doesn't know better. I know about the cells beneath the labs here, and I'm betting Amburg is resting quite uncomfortably there. Put his ass to work."
"And ensure the safety of this facility, how?" Callan asked her coldly. "He's a Council scientist, Ms. Rodriquez, not an ally."
Mercury watched the exchange quietly before turning to Jonas.
"Put Blade on him. Blade has enough medical experience and strong enough senses to keep an eye on him. If Ely's sincere, then she'll agree to her own testing first. Tell her if she'll do it, then I'll submit to one more round of samples taken."
He felt Ria's shock, watched Jonas's eyes narrow. "Are you sure you want to do that, Mercury?" he asked.
No, he wasn't.
"Something isn't right here, Jonas. Ely's not a traitor. I'll take the risk if she will."
"And what makes either of you think Ely needs testing?" Kane bit out. "She's scared. She's running scared and panicking."
The head of Sanctuary security was less trusting than most Breeds when it came to the internal security of the estate.
"We can't lock her in her rooms, Kane," Jonas growled. "Ely's emotions are raging too strong beneath the surface, and her scent is altered just enough to concern me."
It was something Mercury had caught as well, though he'd kept silent. His sense of smell was growing marginally stronger, and the proof of that concerned even him. He'd lost those senses when the feral displacement had been "cured" in the labs. That it was returning was further proof that he had cause to keep a careful check on his anger and his emotions.
"Is there any way she could have been compromised?" Mercury asked then.
Jonas shook his head. "The Council never managed to develop a drug that could control us, Mercury, not to that extent. Even the one used on you for the feral displacement didn't completely control you. And one of us would have scented any biological or chemical imbalance in Ely by now."
"Have her restricted to quarters for twenty-four hours," Callan ordered. "We can't risk her confronting Mercury during the party tonight."
Mercury stared at him in surprise. "I wasn't assigned to security for the party."
"No, you're ordered to attend the party in full dress uniform," Callan growled. "You and Ms. Rodriquez. Both Engalls and Brandenmore will be in attendance. I want all eyes on them, and I want Ms. Rodriquez there in case any transmissions are suddenly logged as incoming or outgoing. I want this stopped, Mercury. Now. Before I have to ignore Breed Law myself and kill the bastards."
With that, he turned and stalked from the hallway, leaving Kane and Jonas both to breathe out in surprise.
Callan never disregarded Breed Law. He had helped to fashion it, to lay in the framework for the rules that would govern the Breeds and allow them to work within society. To even hint that he would ignore one of those rules . . .
"I wasn't anticipating a party." Ria sighed, but Mercury could hear the acceptance in her voice. "Dane is always doing this to me."
"Dane didn't request your presence, I did," Jonas bit out.
Mercury caught Ria's smile, though he smothered his own.
"There's a difference?" she asked with false innocence as she moved past Jonas and headed for the front of the house. "Strange. I haven't found one yet."
Ria pulled her coat around her and stepped into the limo, keeping her expression composed until the door closed and the window rose between them and the driver.
"One of these days, someone is going to kill Jonas," she told Mercury.
Mercury snorted. "Yeah, someone's been trying for months now. Those windows in his apartment you mentioned when you first arrived?"
"Were shot out." She nodded. "I can understand the need, I truly can. I wanted to shoot him myself. Why hasn't he forced Ely's testing by now? My investigation into her lab files as well as her Sanctuary files doesn't even hint at the irrationality she's showing. The woman is obviously on the edge of some sort of breakdown."
"It isn't that easy." Mercury shook his head as he moved to the seat across from her, then leaned forward. "Breed Law, everything in it, every value Callan and Jonas have attempted to see put in effect for Breeds, is based on one simple ideal, Ria. Breed freedom. You wouldn't force a non-Breed into testing for acting irrational. If we allowed a Breed to be forced into it, then Breed Law would become null and void, and we'd be animals again in the sight of the world."
Ria crossed her legs and stared back at him, folding her hands carefully in her lap as she let herself consider that.
"Breeds and humans are different sides of the same coin," she reminded him. "You are not fully human, Mercury. You are extrordinarily human. And you're still learning what your bodies, your hormones, are capable of. In such instances, there should be a safeguard put in place."
"There is." He nodded. "But only if we show ourselves to be a danger to ourselves or to others. It doesn't matter which side of the coin our humanity places us on, we're still entitled to the same rights and privileges of freedom. We can't ignore an anomaly in my case and force testing on Ely in hers."