Chapter Ten
“Stop fighting!” Holly yelled.
And Holly’s blood…the scent was around him. Driving him insane. The bastard before him had dared to use his claws against her skin. He’d cut her. Would have killed her.
Duncan swiped his claws over the back of the other wolf.
A wolf that was big, muscled, with dark black fur. A wolf that looked just like his own altered form, except for his eyes.
Connor leapt back.
Duncan’s muscles tightened as he prepared to lunge for the wolf again.
Only Holly jumped between them. “Stop!” Fury hardened her voice. “Don’t you realize that someone is hunting us all? Connor, you weren’t the only one attacked tonight. Duncan was, too.”
Attacked. Locked in the dark. Locked in a prison too like the one that haunted his past.
And then the silver had started to burn him.
The silver collar still circled Connor’s neck, but the silver didn’t glow. Connor paced near the back of the cell, never taking his eyes off Duncan.
Duncan stalked forward. His body bumped into Holly. Move back.
He didn’t want her to watch this battle. She already saw him as enough of an animal, but he couldn’t let the threat to her continue.
Then he heard the crack of thunder. No, not thunder, a shot. He saw the jerk of Connor’s head and knew that his brother had heard the sound, too.
I came in here to save him. He’d heard Connor’s cries, and his instinct had been to protect. But then Connor had turned on Holly. On him.
As he always would. Holly had been right. Connor was psychotic.
Am I?
“Someone else is hunting,” Holly said. Her fingers sank into the fur on Duncan’s back. “Please, we have to go help the others. We can’t stay here.” Her breath rushed out. “And I can’t let you kill your own brother.”
Why not? His brother had made it clear that Duncan was on his hit list.
“Duncan? Are you in there?” Then she dropped to her knees. Brought herself too close to his fangs. That scent—her blood—had him snarling. “Control your wolf. Help me.”
He couldn’t pull back. There was no changing into a man now. The beast was in power, and Duncan didn’t even know how to go back from this point.
But…but he could still help her. Carefully, he put his body between hers and Connor’s. Then he edged back with her, making sure that he protected her with every step as they headed for the cell door.
One step.
Another.
Connor wasn’t following. He was just watching them, with his head cocked to the side.
He told me that I would lose her. That I would lose everything.
Duncan wasn’t in the mood to lose.
He pushed Holly back through the cell door. Then he followed her. Connor stood inside the cell.
“Come on,” Holly said. “We have to find Pate.”
Duncan turned away from the cell as Holly locked the door, caging Connor once again. Then he ran with her toward the exit. For every step that she took, he was by her side.
Connor howled after him. The call was a challenge.
Duncan ignored him. Even the wolf that he was knew some things were more important than fighting.
Holly. She was what mattered.
So he ran with her. He followed the scents that flooded his nose. She’d gone with him to find his brother—a battle that will come again—and now it was time for him to find Pate.
It didn’t take long to find the other man. They went back toward the lab, running quickly, and when Holly saw Pate’s prone body sprawled on the floor, a wild cry broke from her.
Then she was diving down beside him. Both Pate and Shane were on that floor. They weren’t moving, and there was so much blood around them. Too much.
A trap.
A trap that Shane had been caught in as he rushed to Pate’s aid.
Duncan spun around, his strong senses picking up the other presence in that hallway. Then he saw the gun. Aimed at Holly.
He rushed at the attacker. A bullet plowed into his body when he jumped into the air, but there was no burn so he knew that the bullet wasn’t made of silver. Your mistake. The wound didn’t slow him down. The shooter fired again, and that bullet missed Duncan entirely.
His claws sank into the shooter’s shoulders, and he took the bastard down, just as he’d taken the man down when he’d found him near Connor’s cell.
Elias hit the floor with a thud. “I’m doing…what you wanted…helping you!”
No, the bastard was killing.
His claws drove deeper into Elias’s shoulders.
“It’s too late,” Elias said. Then the alarm finally stopped. Silence. Perfect. Deep.
He could hear Holly’s desperate breaths—and the faint hitch that signaled her pain.
Her pain?
His head whipped around. Holly had sagged against the wall. The second bullet. Shit. It had slammed into her.
Her eyes were closed. She slumped to the floor.
A slow hiss slipped from the ceiling. A new scent filled the air. Acrid. Thick.
“Pate had a backup security system in place. Did you know that? Gas…to knock out the paranormals, in case they ever overpowered the humans.” The gas was pumping down now. Choking Duncan. He wrenched away from Elias.
“It’ll…” Elias heaved out a hard breath. “Knock us…all out…when you wake up…they’ll be dead…”
The fuck, no. He rushed toward Holly.
“All…dead…” Elias whispered behind him, his own voice slurring. “Then you’ll…be next.”
No, he wouldn’t be. His gaze was locked on Holly. Not moving. If the bullet was wooden, then she wouldn’t move until he dug it out of her heart—if it had hit her heart.
“Maybe…you’ll…be now…” Elias rasped.
Duncan spun back to face him. Saw that Elias had that gun of his up again.
No more.
The beast took over totally then. He launched at Elias.
Ripped. Bit. Clawed.
And Elias was dead before his head slammed back into the floor.
***
She…hurt.
Holly tried to open her eyes. She was being pulled—dragged?—by someone, and there was a tight pressure on her shoulder.
Not just pressure. Pain. Like knives were digging into her. She tried to lift her arm and fight her attacker, but she just touched heavy fur.
And she smelled an animal.
Fear had adrenaline pulsing through her. She screamed and sank her fingers into the fur.
A wolf growled at her.
Then she saw his eyes. Those glowing eyes that only belonged to Duncan. The knifes in her shoulder had been his teeth. He’d been dragging her.
They were…outside now. She sucked in fresh air and wondered why her throat burned. Beside her, his body heaved.
She tried to sit up, but couldn’t. She was so damn weak that her body just slumped sideways.
She saw the flash of lights in the distance. Cars, rushing toward them. What in the hell was happening?
“Duncan?” She tried to reach for him again, but he backed away from her. “Duncan, change back.”
The wolf stared at her.
Her heart beat faster, and she became aware of her other wounds then, especially the bullet wound. Elias had shot her.
And Pate.
And Shane.
But at least Elias had been a crappy shot. If his bullet had gone into her heart—and it had been a wooden bullet—her body would have instantly shut down.
All the better for him to come and take her head.
Her heartbeat shook her chest. “What happened to them? Why are we outside?” Her brother had been so still. She’d tried to help him, but Elias had shot her. Then the air had started to smell funny.
Gas.
Duncan was still backing away from her. Still staying in animal form.
Goosebumps rose on her arms. She could hea
r the sound of footsteps now. Pounding toward them. Who was coming? What was happening? She looked straight up and saw that the moon was almost to the zenith point. Oh, no. Oh, hell, no, that wasn’t good.
“Get away from the woman!” A hard voice shouted.
Her gaze jerked to the left. She recognized the faces of a few of the guards who’d just run toward them. Where had the guards been when all hell broke loose inside the facility? And were these guys on their side…or had they been working with Elias?
Duncan growled at them.
“Werewolf,” she heard one of the men say. Wait, that was Brent, one of the newer agents in the unit. She’d patched him up after a particularly bloody mission a few weeks ago. “Dr. Young, don’t move!” He shouted. “We’ll take him out!” Brent lifted his gun.
He was going to fire at Duncan. “No!” She stumbled toward Duncan and wrapped her arms around the wolf. Duncan’s muscles were hard beneath her hands.
“Get away from him!” Brent shouted. “I got the call at home from Elias…I know he’s gone rogue. He’s killing—and we won’t let him kill you!”
Is that what Elias had done? Set Duncan up for murder? Why?
“It’s not like that,” Holly yelled, refusing to budge. Duncan’s throat was vibrating with a growl. With rage. That moon was so close to the zenith. “Just lower your weapons, and I can explain!” There were half a dozen men there and…
“They’re dead inside!” A man shouted, running toward them. His voice broke. “All of them…the other agents and guards are all dead. They’ve been ripped open!”
No. No, that wasn’t possible.
But I smelled the blood.
Brent stepped toward them. He still had his gun up. “Get away from him, doctor.”
“It’s Duncan!”
“Not right now, it isn’t. It’s a werewolf. One with blood on his claws and blood staining his fangs.”
Because their flashlights were centered on her and Duncan. She knew they both had to look like walking nightmares.
“Dr. Young…” Brent’s voice had tightened. “Are those…fangs in your mouth?”
No, it was freaking candy. She snapped her teeth together. “Get back.” Then she stood fully, trying to shield Duncan with her body. “Drop your guns!”
They all lifted the weapons.
Duncan snarled.
Six weapons. All pointed at her.
All ready to fire. Why? Because she had pointy teeth? Or maybe because she had a werewolf at her side? A werewolf who would not be smart and just stay behind her.
“I can explain all of this,” she said, and the words were mostly true. She could explain some of this, if she had the chance.
“Don’t…fuckin’…aim at my…sister!”
Pate’s voice. Pate’s wonderful, angry voice. Her shoulders slumped. He was alive. Yes. Pate would make everything right again.
“Shoot the…wolf…” Pate continued as he shuffled forward. “Not…her…”
What? “No!”
But Duncan had leapt away from her. So I wouldn’t be a target. And gunfire was erupting. The wolf dodged the bullets and raced away from the men.
She screamed, but the wolf didn’t stop. She didn’t blame him. Not with bullets chasing him.
Then the men were running after him. And he—he was vanishing into the night.
She wanted to chase after him, too, but her body felt cold and numb and when her knees gave way, she sank to the ground.
“Help her!” Pate barked.
But there was no help for her. Her body was so cold, and Duncan was gone. He’d vanished, and the gunfire was quiet now.
At least he’d gotten away.
But what would happen to him?
“Holly?” She forced her eyes to stay open as she looked up at Pate. Blood covered him. How was he there? She’d seen the bullet wounds to his chest. She knew the damage they’d done. Humans would die from injuries like those.
They wouldn’t be walking around minutes later.
“How…long…” Holly whispered.
Brent was there. Lifting her into his arms. “Is she supposed to be this cold?”
“No, she’s going to need blood. A lot of it.” Pate put his hand on her cheek. “It’s okay. I’ve got you now. You know your kind can’t afford this much blood loss.”
No, they couldn’t. To kill a vampire, you had to either cut off the vamp’s head or drain all of the vampire’s blood away.
The easy trick for getting the vampire in the position that you could do those things? Paralyze the vamp with a wooden bullet.
But in order to paralyze the vampire, the bullet had to go straight into the heart.
Elias had missed her heart, but he’d sure nicked vital organs and made the blood gush from her. She’d tried to stay strong for as long as she could.
But she was too weak now.
“I’ll take care of you,” Pate whispered.
She didn’t believe him. And, staring at him then, she didn’t trust him, either. She’d risked her life for Pate, died for him, and now, she could only ask, “How long…have you been a-a vampire?”
Because she could see the edge of his fangs.
All emotion drained away from his face. The man she’d known was gone. He stared down at her as a stranger. “Long enough.”
She realized that the world she’d known was a total lie.
Then she was being carried away. She couldn’t fight. Could barely even lift her hand. Behind her, she heard a wolf howl. But the howl was so far away.
***
Holly paced her living room. Again and again. As soon as she’d gotten an infusion of blood—okay, four infusions—she’d run away from Pate.
He’d let her go.
Probably because he knew there was no place she could escape to that he couldn’t follow.
Pate…a vampire? How had she not known about him? Why hadn’t he told her? Had he been a vampire that night, when she’d been so desperate to save him? By that time, had he already been changed? No wonder he was so keen for her to find a cure. The guy must have been using her karahydrelene, too.
Her hand lifted and smoothed over the wound on her chest. Well, not really a wound any longer. It had healed as she ingested the blood.
The Para Unit’s containment facility in the woods was being shut down. The order had come from above. The place had been deemed too unsecure and dangerous.
Only one prisoner was still alive in that building—and Connor was due to be immediately transferred to Purgatory. The other wolves—even Saul—had all died from silver poisoning. Their collars had been cranked up to full power.
And as for Duncan…
He was a wanted man. Werewolf.
Pate was searching the city for him, and Duncan was assumed to be a deadly threat.
When the power went out, six more guards had been killed in the containment facility. So many lives…lost. And all six of those men had been killed by a werewolf’s claws.
Only the werewolves had been killed, too. Except for Connor. But it seemed Connor had never made it out of his cell, so he couldn’t be responsible for all of those deaths.
Every sign pointed to the fact that Elias had been the one to hijack the system and take control of the collars, but he wasn’t a werewolf. He couldn’t have killed the humans in the facility.
So who had?
She knew Pate thought it was Duncan. She’d told her brother, again and again, that Duncan had been in his cell.
But he didn’t believe her. He seemed to think that Duncan had escaped and gone on a rampage. He had no trust in Duncan.
And she wasn’t exactly big on trusting her brother any longer.
When did you change, Pate? When?
Shane couldn’t back her up. Because he was dead. Too much blood loss. So said Pate.
Another lie? Could a vampire as old as Shane die that easily, that quickly? At this point, Holly wasn’t sure if Pate even knew how to tell the truth any longer.
&nb
sp; Holly paced toward her window. It had been fixed, probably by one of Pate’s men, and she stared down at the street below.
Would Duncan run? Get out of the city?
She heard the faint rustle of a footstep behind her.
Holly’s eyes squeezed shut.
He wouldn’t run.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she said without turning around. Her eyes opened. “You know he’ll be watching my house.” Her breath rasped out. “Pate thinks you killed the humans at the facility. He’s hunting you.” Her hands clenched into fists. “Leave now, before he comes.”
The floor creaked.
“Please,” she whispered. “I don’t even know what’s going on. Pate isn’t the man I thought.”
No one was who she thought these days.
The floor creaked again. She could feel him coming closer to her. Feel the warmth of his body seeming to reach out for her. And she could smell him. The rich, slightly wild, masculine scent that was pure Duncan.
She remembered the first time she’d seen him. He’d come into her lab. Looked so intense. Dangerous.
His fingers brushed over her arm. Fingers. Not paws. He’d shifted back into the form of a man.
“Holly…”
He said her name with such need.
She whirled toward him.
And saw that the wolf wasn’t completely gone. His eyes still shined with the beast’s power. His face seemed sharper than before. His cheeks more hollow. His lips a bit more cruel. And his fangs were out.
Hers weren’t.
“Duncan?”
His hand rose. His fingers brushed over her cheek, and an expression of confusion flickered over his face.
“You need to leave,” she told him, voice husky.
He gave a hard, negative shake of his head. “Need…you.”
Then his head was bending toward her neck. Holly held herself perfectly still, not afraid of him, but afraid of what was happening between them.
Their relationship was dangerous. The world around them was spinning out of control. He should be cutting town and not looking back.
Instead, he’d come for her.
His breath blew lightly over her skin. Her hands rose to his shoulders and her fingers curled around him. “Duncan, you have to—”
His mouth closed over her, right there where her neck met the curve of her shoulder. She tensed, expecting pain, a bite, but he licked her flesh.
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