I held perfectly still, but as the Alpha got more aggressive with his sniffing, and that turned into licking, I struck out, hitting him the chest. “No!” I snapped at him. He dropped me with a startled look.
Gunfire suddenly roared around us and two Jeeps came flying into view with men I didn’t recognize in them. My heart sunk; Marks hadn’t breached the compound and his Jeeps had been hijacked—that was the only answer to what I was seeing.
The Nevermores began to fall as Donavan’s men shot them; I hit the ground, covering my head, a large body landing on top of me.
Soft, warm breath tickled on the back of my neck and my knees trembled. A large, very familiar pair of hands wrapped themselves around me and circled my belly, pulling me tight against a hard body I was intimately familiar with.
“Sebastian,” I breathed.
“Love too,” he rumbled at me, holding me close. I have no idea where he’d come from, or why he’d stayed away so long—and at that moment I didn’t care. The Jeeps went roaring by and shot through an opening in the gate that was quickly closed by the men standing guard.
Sebastian jumped up and pulled me to my feet. He wasn’t fast enough. The Alpha male roared a challenge that Bastian couldn’t deny and he spun, placing me behind him, as they launched at one another.
Hands grabbed me and I spun to see Buck pulling at me. I followed him, dodging the bodies and using the smoke for cover as the sound of gunfire reached my ears. A bullet whizzed by, and then a few more for good measure.
Buck dragged me along until something bit into me and I stumbled, my left leg suddenly numb, followed by a brilliant haze of pain that forced me to my knees.
I buckled when my left leg touched the ground, the world around me fuzzing over, the noises dimming, and the lights flashing, but I felt nothing but the agony of fire in my leg.
I didn’t realize I was screaming until hands slapped over my mouth and a pinch in my arm competed for my attention.
“Well, well, well. Beauty loves her Beast, but will the Beast follow her into the depths of hell?” Donavan leaned over me, his grin securely back in place.
It was at that point I knew I was caught and the world around me went black, silent, as I slid into unconsciousness.
17
I floated in a strange fog between wake and sleep for some time, trying to figure out where I was and why I was here. My eyelids flickered open and I found myself staring up at a chandelier that was swaying ever so slightly.
“I’m telling you she’s infected and we should keep her with the rest of the animals downstairs. It’s only a matter of time before she changes, you know that.” I didn’t recognize the voice.
“You don’t understand Clint, the pack was trying to protect her, like she’s one of them but she’s obviously human. This could be the breakthrough in our research if she’s taken the drug and her system has overcome it. This is what could save Juliana,” Donavan said.
A shuffle of feet. “I still don’t think it’s a good idea. Either one of those big bastards might break in to get to her.”
That made me groan and, though I didn’t feel strong enough to sit up, I croaked out, “Sebastian, is he okay?”
A face came into view—Donavan’s—and I got an up close look at his bright blue eyes. He smiled down at me, but the smile didn’t reach anything but the edge of his lips. Marks had said Donavan was crazy and, staring into his face, I believed it. Donavan’s eyelids twitched as he looked down on me; his eyes flicking first one way and then the other, seemingly unable to be still.
“I don’t know a Sebastian. I’m glad to see you’re awake. Do you have a name?” He asked, offering me his hand to help me sit up. I didn’t take it, forcing myself into a sitting position with a hiss of pain, my leg protesting the movement.
“Mara. Do I have a bullet in me?” I touched the bandage wrapped around my upper thigh.
Donavan smiled at me. “No Mara, what hit you is a type of tranquilizer dart used to drop the Nevermores at a safe distance so that they can be brought in without damage to them.”
“Will the drugs hurt my baby?” I asked, my hand going to my belly, my eyes searching his face, not trusting him to tell me the truth.
He tipped his head from side to side, his fingers flicking at unseen things. “They shouldn’t. We will run some blood work and perhaps do an ultrasound.” He twitched and his smile tightened. I swallowed hard. I was not safe here.
I knew that part of the blood work he wanted done was to see if I’d taken Nevermore, to see if my system had the antibodies or whatever it was he was looking for, but I didn’t care. “That would be good, I’m about twelve weeks along now, I think,” I said, as I started to get up. “I need to go see where my husband is, he was in the pack too.”
Donavan shook his head. “No. There is no contact outside the gate. Lay back down and we’ll bring the ultrasound in. Perhaps you could describe your husband to me. Maybe he’s in the morgue already.” Donavan patted the bed beside me as if that was some comfort, but otherwise didn’t touch me. Chills swept through me but I refused to buckle under the possibility that Sebastian dead.
“Sebastian is 6’4, dark hair and built like a tank. He’s was the new male fighting the Alpha of the pack.” I watched his eyes and recognition filtered through the madness in them. “Yes, he’s still alive and quite pissed the last time I saw him, circling the compound and pounding on the gate.”
“Please don’t hurt him,” I whispered, remembering the explosion all too vividly, the spray of bodies on the ground. “He’ll listen to me; I can bring him in. Please let me go get him.”
Donavan’s jaw twitched. “We brought most of the pack in; we don’t shoot them like Vincent’s crew does.”
I frowned. “Then what was that explosion, all the smoke and the bodies everywhere?”
“A canister of tear gas, a light bomb and then a spray of fast acting sedative darts. The other explosions were from Vincent’s crew.”
“What do you want with the pack?” I asked.
Donavan bobbed his head while he smiled and steepled his fingers, a veritable Mr. Burns. “We’ll run blood work on all of them, see if there are any anomalies. It’s the only way we will be able to find a better cure. The sedatives are not working on the two big males, not at all.” He grimaced, then his eyes brightened and I had a very bad feeling wash through me.
“If you think he will let you draw blood off him perhaps that could change things.” He lifted an eyebrow at me. “Perhaps I could let you go if you were of enough help to me.”
I frowned and thought quickly. I couldn’t trust Donavan, that much was certain, but what if there was a cure? Something better than what Vincent had used on Adam and Eve. It was the best I could do at this point, and I would take it for what it was worth; at least Sebastian was alive. I nodded, my eyes glued to a dark stain on the floor.
Donavan and Clint stepped out of the room and a woman came in, the first I’d seen that wasn’t a Nevermore. Her name tag on her starched white nurse’s uniform said, “Lucy”. She wrapped my arm with a plastic band and flicked at a vein until it came to the surface. I stared up at the ceiling and the sparkly chandelier, wincing as she jabbed me with the needle.
“You didn’t take Nevermore?” I asked, just wanting to speak with another woman that wasn’t pumped full of the supposed miracle drug, even if she was on Donavan’s side.
She frowned down at me, her face a twist of unhappiness. “I hadn’t put together enough money for it when the true nature of it reared its ugly head. Pure dumb luck. You?”
“I’m allergic to scotch broom. The doctor said it would kill me if I took it. Kind of squashed my plans of getting pregnant.”
Lucy stared at me, and then pulled up a chair, all the blood drawn. “But you’re pregnant now? That seems beyond stupid to get knocked up at a time like this.”
I gave a half laugh that nearly tumbled into a sob. “My husband took the drug when the fertility tests came back that he was
the problem, not me. I didn’t know he took it. We were trying but not really.” I didn’t care that she was being rude to me; it was just nice to have someone to talk to.
She reached around me and grabbed another empty vile that she plunked on to the end of the needle. After three more vials full she pulled the needle out of my arm and pressed a cotton ball onto the open vein.
“Hold here for at least two minutes; I’ll be back to put a bandage on in a few minutes.” She stood to leave, her frazzled brunette hair tied into a messy bun.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“You can ask, I’ll answer you if I can.” She turned at the doorway, impatience highlighted in her hand on her hip, the arch of her eyebrow. I wondered if perhaps we were the only human women left on Vancouver Island. That was a horrible thought.
“Is Donavan as bad as Vincent made him out to be?”
“I don’t know how Vincent made him out to be. But genius often comes in the guise of madness. Right now we need a genius to make this mess right again, to get our people back.”
“Is there a cure?” I asked. Marks had thought so. I prayed he was right.
She shook her head. “He’s close to a breakthrough, but that’s all I know.”
Lucy left the room, the door locking behind her. My eyes closed slowly, in what I thought was a blink, and when they opened, she was back in the room puttering.
“Mara, they’re bringing the ultrasound in now. Drink this.” She held out a glass to me and I took it, grateful for the cool clean liquid. “Was I asleep?”
Lucy grimaced. “You slept right through the night, didn’t move a muscle, not even when I put a bandage on your arm. I should know, they made me sit in here and keep a watch on you.”
I swallowed hard. A lot of things could happen in one night; I should know. “Is Sebastian still acting up?”
“The big boy? Donavan’s tried to talk to him, see if he can get a response out of him like you said you could.”
“How’s it going?” I asked, as I sat up slowly, the room spinning slightly.
She shook her head, her earrings catching the light and throwing rainbow prisms around the room. “Not as well as he’d hoped, not as bad as he thought.”
“That’s enough now Lucy.” Donavan stepped into the room and Lucy swallowed hard, her face blanching. What was it about him that kept people here helping? It couldn’t just be the cause for the greater good, could it?
Donavan sat down in front of me, his eyes twitching, muscles in his face spasming. “Your Sebastian wouldn’t talk to me, but last night when I said your name he calmed right down and stopped the rioting. Fascinating, really, very unusual for the species to behave in such a manner.”
“I don’t know if your Sebastian made it through the night.” He lifted an eyebrow, watching my reaction as one would inspect a strange insect, a morbid mixture of curiosity and revulsion.
I closed my eyes and held my breath, letting it out slowly. I would not believe that Sebastian was gone until I saw the body myself; until then I chose to believe he was alive and well. Lucy came to stand over me, a tube in her hand. “I’m going to put some gel on you and then we can take a look at the baby.”
Donavan held up his hand. “No. If you want to see your baby and make sure it’s alright then you must go down and bring in your pet. I want to run tests on him and the sedative darts haven’t worked. If he’s dead, then call in the other big male, he seemed taken with you as well.”
My stomach rolled at the thought of Sebastian being dead, the possibility higher than ever before with the matched size and strength of the other male. I licked my lips and nodded slowly. “Okay.”
Donavan continued to smile and nodded as if he expected nothing else. Lucy let out an audible sigh of relief and I stared at her. What was her game in this anyway?
The two of them guided me out to the front door and all but shoved me forward.
“If you can’t bring him in I will have him shot. If you try to run, I will have him shot. If you think to call your friends . . .”
“I get it,” I said. “You’ll shoot him. No need to spell it out Einstein.”
Donavan laughed as if I’d hit the punch line in a joke. “No, no. I won’t shoot him for that, your friends are all dead so there will be no need to try and call them. You are quite the tart aren’t you?” He laughed as he shut the door, locking it behind me.
I started out across the tiled courtyard to the front gate, limping ever so slightly, the spot where the dart had stuck me throbbing in time with my blood pumping.
“Sebastian,” I called out, my voice echoing down and out over the water, the ships moored there bobbing along with the gentle roll of the waves. It was peaceful considering how short a time ago it had been a freaking war zone.
I made it all the way to the fence without any movement. I called out again and waited. Nothing. My heart began to pound. What if he’d left me here, believing me safe, believing me better off without him? I didn’t think I could go through that again.
“Sebastian!” I screamed, my fear giving me more decibels than normal.
I limped up along the fence line towards the bluffs Burns and I had stood on. I kept calling for Sebastian and still there was no response. As a last resort I let out a whistle.
There was a shift in the bushes at the base of the cliffs and my hopes rose. Scout pulled himself out of the shrubs and literally crawled to the fence. I crouched down and put my hands through, touching his face. It was obvious he was hurt badly, his left leg at an odd angle and his body a mass of bruises. Through his right bicep was a gunshot wound that had crusted over.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, emotions clogging my throat. I stood and half ran to the nearest gate. I slipped through and locked it behind me, running to Scout’s side. He grimaced when I helped him to sit up, propping him against the fence. “Sebastian, where is he?”
Scout shook his head and my throat tightened. No, he wasn’t dead; I couldn’t believe that was what Scout was trying to tell me. He pushed himself to stand and hobbled on his broken leg towards the water. I followed, trying to decipher what it was he was trying to show me. A shot rang out and a bullet ricoched off the pavement in front of me. Scout dove for cover behind the nearest bush and I held up my hands.
Apparently I wasn’t to go towards the harbour.
Another shuffle of bush and Scout scuttled away down the water line, dragging his broken leg behind him. I scrubbed my face with my hands, emotions welling up hard and fast.
As my strength began to wane I turned and called for Sebastian again. I walked slowly, favouring my leg, back to the gate. A scan of the area nearly stopped my breath. There was a hand and arm sticking out from under one of the green hedges. I ran to where the body lay and let out a gasp of relief. It was the Alpha male; the one Sebastian had been fighting. His guts were ripped out of him, spread in a semi circle where the ravens and crows had made their feast.
Was this what happened to Sebastian? Had he died alone and in pain, keening for me? A sob ripped from my throat as I turned and familiar hands grabbed my arms.
Sebastian let out a low rumble, a wild look in his eye that I ignored as I threw myself at him, great gulping sobs of relief pouring out of me.
At first he didn’t respond, and then slowly he slid his arms around me and buried his nose in the crook of my neck. Moist warmth slid down my skin and dripped into my shirt, leaving a burning tingle wherever the tears roved.
I clung to him, the razor edge of fear sharp on my heart leaving me more than a little needy. I was terrified to lose him again. “Sebastian, come with me, please,” I said, as I took his hand and walked to the gate. He stared at the high fence and stopped dead in his tracks. I didn’t blame him, the memory of Vincent and the captivity in that camp was too fresh. But we didn’t have a choice. I knew that Donavan would shoot us both if we tried to run.
I didn’t know how else to explain it so I took his hand and placed it on my belly. “Please
.”
He closed his eyes and a tremble rippled through him. I pulled on his hand and he stepped forward with me, slowly, but moving. A scuffle to our right snapped us both into high alert. It was Buck and he was watching us go inside the fence with a look of disbelief. Sebastian grunted at him and flung his hand as if tossing Buck something. Buck nodded and slipped back down the slope towards the water.
“You just made him Alpha, didn’t you?” Sebastian nodded once and then touched my cheek with his hand. He had given up his leadership over a second pack to be with me, his love overriding the animal drive to be Alpha.
My eyes filled and we walked into Donavan’s compound together, holding hands, ready to face whatever would come our way.
18
“I hope you’re sure of this Donavan, bringing a Nevermore in here un-sedated,” Lucy whispered to herself, as Sebastian and I walked past her. He glared at her but otherwise didn’t make a single move in her direction. I clung to his hand, fear bubbling up in my throat. I had no illusions about what would happen to Sebastian if he went after one of the other people in this compound.
I headed back to the room that held the ultrasound machine and Donavan was still there. He didn’t look up when we came in.
“No doubt your Sebastian wasn’t as malleable as you’d hoped. Mara, it isn’t your fault, my wife Juliana is the love of my life and she attacks the cage whenever I come ne . . .” His words stuttered to a stop as he lifted his eyes and saw us standing hand in hand in the doorway.
“This is Sebastian,” I said, and smiled up at my scowling husband. I squeezed his hand. “Sebastian, this is Donavan; he’s a son of a bitch, but may have a cure for Nevermore.”
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed, then he looked down at me and the wildness ebbed. He lowered his head and pressed it against mine.
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