“Who—wha—what is this? Morhamer? Is that you?”
“It is.”
The dark wrinkles on Sri’s face twitched. “Please tell me you did not inject yourself intentionally.”
“I did.”
Sri’s thick brows knitted together. “Why? Why would you do such a foolish, reckless thing?”
“To prove that experiment works.”
“That’s what the test subject is for, Morhamer! We’re not even certain where we erred, or what was flawed. Wentworth-”
“Jaxon was an anomaly and he’s a lost cause. There are no flaws. I’m good.”
“But Wentworth –”
“Why do you keep bringing his name up?” Victor felt his mouth twist into a snarl. “He’s worthless, always has been. We don’t need him anymore. I can demonstrate the results myself now. This is a good thing, Sri.”
“And if you too become uncontrollably hostile and volatile?”
“I won’t!” The bite with which Victor’s reply came took even him by surprise, and he turned his head away in case his anger showed on his face. He couldn’t let Sri think he was losing it. Which he wasn’t. He just needed a moment to collect himself.
Behind him, Sri sighed. “Belderon may not want to use her emotional suppressant on Jaxon, but at least now we have it in case it becomes absolutely necessary for either of you.”
Victor’s head snapped around. “Such a thing wouldn’t be necessary, but what exactly are you talking about?
“The emotional suppressant Belderon and I have been working on for the better part of this day. She had already done most of the work last night, I only helped her to create a supplement to the Titan Formula. We needed to determine the strength and amount of dosage necessary to not dilute or taint the Titan Formula while simultaneously correcting the flaw –”
“You told me you were going to work on treating Jaxon today, you said nothing about going behind my back to build an unnecessary supplement.” Although he tried hard to keep his voice calm and even, Victor found that it was loud, foreboding, and lined with a dangerous edge. “As I’ve told you repeatedly, my Titan Formula works fine.”
“Our Titan Formula.”
“It stopped being ours when you started doubting it, and sneaking behind my back to try to replace it.”
“To fix it, Morhamer, we are trying to fix it! We are a team, and have been for nearly a year. I have just as much of a vested interest as you in seeing this through.”
“Right. Whatever you say.” Victor gritted his teeth and shook his head briefly, trying to make the irritation go away. But he was growing increasingly agitated. “Where’s Celise now?”
“Still in the lab, eating late lunch or early dinner, whichever you may call it.”
“Which room?”
“A lab on the second floor.”
“Which one? What’s the room number?”
Sri shifted his eyes to the side. “I don’t recall the number.”
Victor narrowed his eyes. “You lie. To protect them, I suppose, because you mistakenly think I’m not in my right frame of mind. Fine, how about you come with me then? I’ll show you that you’re wrong.”
Sri’s bottom lip quivered a bit before he answered. “Maybe we should wait until you’re somewhat calmer first, before we make a visit.”
Victor leapt forward and snatched Sri up by a fistful of his shirt. “I am calm. Lead the way. Now.”
A pounding in his head matched his thudding heart. Victor could feel the jealousy and suspicion at being left out of further developments—and then the anger that accompanied it—consuming him like a corrosive element.
“You seem like you distrust what Belderon and I have done,” Sri said as they stopped to enter the elevator. “But just stop and think about it for a moment, Morhamer. We are a team, and we both benefit if one of us succeeds and we both suffer if just one of us fails. We need each other.”
Sri was right. They had been a team, and had needed each other. But Victor no longer needed Sri. He no longer needed anybody. In fact, it would be a waste to have to share the profit of his genius at all. There was no point in keeping Sri around. Or any of them.
For a flickering moment, panic fogged over him, as he realized that the formula was flawed, and that he was being completely irrational and overreacting. He was aware that he was quite possibly worse off than even Jaxon; Victor was losing his mind. Somehow, he had to stop it before someone got seriously hurt.
But then the moment of clarity was gone …
* * * *
“You’ve been quiet all day. How are you feeling? Are you okay?”
Jaxon flashed his teeth at Celise. Hours had gone by without a single thought of breaking something or someone crossing his mind. “I’m freaking fantastic.”
“Fantasic? Wow,” her eyes opened wide, sparkling to match her smile. “Well, I’m glad to hear that.”
Jaxon pushed the thick sub sandwich into his mouth and bit off a huge chunk. While chewing, he watched Celise as she raised her sandwich to her lovely mouth and daintily nibbled off a bit. A few crumbs rested on her plump, bottom lip for a few seconds before she cleaned it off with her tongue.
His dick twitched at the memory of all the wonderful things she did to him with that mouth and tongue last night.
After Celise brought him to climax, he’d had the best sleep he’d had since his transformation. The best sleep since before that, actually. All day he’d been feeling more like his normal self, and completely in control. Well, almost complete control. He couldn’t seem to control his fluctuating heart whenever his eyes met with Celise’s, or the overwhelming sense of admiration as she concentrated on work. Not to mention the-off-the-charts desire he felt every time he got a strong whiff of her, or watched her move.
Was it the formula that was making him feel all of this so strongly? Or was it simply the way he felt about her?
Did it matter? Either way, he was sure he didn’t want it to stop.
“Perhaps you’re finally getting used to the effects of the Titan Formula.”
“Honestly, I think it’s getting used to the effect you have on me that’s the big help.”
Her cheeks went red and she looked down into her bag of chips. “Well, I definitely suppose a good orgasm will help anybody with anger management issues.”
“That’s not the only effect I was referring to.”
She met his eyes. “How else am I affecting you?”
“I enjoy spending time with you. Really enjoy it. You’re a welcome distraction from everything else that’s usually going on in my head.”
She rolled her eyes and snorted. “Well then. Good to know I’m a distraction.”
“I don’t think I’m saying it right. See, it’s my feelings for you that have me distracted.” He groaned inwardly. He wasn’t coming off as very smoothly at all. As much as it worried him, he had fallen hard for this woman, and all he wanted to do was express that to her. But he was making a banged up job of it.
However, her expression softened as she looked at him. “Jaxon, what are we, exactly? In your mind, at least.”
That, he wasn’t prepared to answer. “I don’t know. I want to be with you. But –”
“But what?”
“I don’t think it’s a smart idea for you to be with me right now. Not while I’m like this.”
She shrugged. “Like what? You’re perfectly yourself right now.”
“Right now,” he snorted. “But what happens when the bliss runs out, and I’m a monster again?”
“Then we do it again, of course.”
“What?” The question was rhetorical, but she answered it anyway.
“Have sex again. And again, if necessary.”
He stared at her, his libido on a dangerously fierce upswing.
“Listen, I want to be with you, too,” she continued. “Even if we can’t transform you back, because really you’re still you, just in an altered package. So as long as you can live with it, I can too.
” She laid her hand upon his.
Jaxon’s heart pounded in his chest, and his stomach twisted in knots. Damn he loved this woman. Maybe he could live like this, if this is what it would feel always feel like.
“So long as as…” she started, but then her voice trailed off.
He kept his gaze on her hand. “So long as what?”
“So long as we can be sure what you’re feeling truly are your feelings. That anything you may be feeling for me isn’t temporary, or falsely inflated.”
He moved his eyes from her hand, up her arm and shoulder, to her mouth, then to her eyes. Eyes that burned him with their vulnerability, strength, intelligence and emotion. Then he returned to her mouth. Reflexively he licked his lips, then the next thing he knew, he had her in his lap, crushing his mouth against hers, devouring her lips, her breath, her tongue. He gripped her shoulders tight as he held her against him and kissed her until he felt his senses begin to slip away.
He paused with a gasping breath, just long enough to get out six raspy words. “Did that feel false to you?”
She shook her head, face flushed. “No. The evidence lends to the contrary, in fact.”
“Good.” Instead of admitting to how much he’d needed to hear her say that, he attacked her once more with his mouth. He was reaching for her lab coat, prepared to strip her naked, shove the crap off the table and take here right there in that lab, when the door flew open so hard it hit the wall with a loud, reverberating bang.
They both jumped and looked up in time to see Sri stumbling into the room with someone big, scary and angry-looking storming in behind him.
Someone almost as big, ripped and crazy-eyed as Jaxon himself, yet who oddly reminded him of Dr. Morhamer. His reptilian eyes seemed tinted with an orange hue. “Take your hands off her Jaxon, before I rip them off!”
“Morhamer, please wait, you need to remain calm.” Sri put up both hands at the big guy, as if to try to pacify him with gestures.
It was Victor! Jaxon wasn’t certain of what the hell was going on, but he sprang to his feet, ready to for a fight.
Celise scrambled out of her chair and stood just in front of Jaxon. “Dr. Morhamer, you need to calm down. Jaxon wasn’t doing anything I didn’t want him to.”
“I saw it! He had his hands all over you! Don’t worry, he won’t hurt you anymore. I’m just as strong as he is now.”
“Jaxon hasn’t hurt me at all. He’s—he’s my … we’re seeing each other.”
Monster Victor looked between Jaxon and Celise, his face twisted with his perplexity. Then his brows and nose wrinkled in disgust. “You intentionally choose to be intimate with him? That intellectually inferior cop of a man, who can’t even handle his feelings while on the formula?” Victor shook his head. “He must be forcing. Get away from him.”
“Victor, please. You’re not listening.”
“I don’t want to hurt you, Celise. Get away from him now!” Victor picked up a chair that sat nearest him, and flung it towards where Jaxon and Celise stood. It flew over their heads and crashed loudly behind them into the unbreakable windows that lined the wall. Jaxon understood it was only meant to be a warning, but he didn’t like the chosen method of communication. He could feel all of his internal restraints slowly snapping loose.
“Morhamer, stop this,” Sri demanded. “We can help you. Belderon has a serum that can suppress-”
But Sri did not get to finish his statement. With one swing of his giant fist, Victor sent the older man up into the air, flying several feet further into the room and landing with a distressing thud upon the floor.
“No! Dr. Ashni,” Celise cried as she scurried over to help the man.
“Leave him be,” Victor bellowed. He leapt at Celise and jerked her by the arm so roughly, her head snapped the side.
“Let go, Victor,” she cried. “You’re hurting me.”
“Maybe I want to hurt you,” he hissed. “You’d be better off dead than with that cop, anyway.”
Jaxon went still. Every sound, every smell, every visual in the room vanished until there was nothing but the ringing of rage in his ears, the pheromones of Celise’s fear and his own anger, and a haze of red that overtook all of Jaxon’s senses.
With one focused thought, he lunged up and towards Monster Victor, just as his wall of sanity came tumbling down.
Chapter Nine
For a while, Celise tried not to notice that Victor and Jaxon were fighting. Mercilessly. There was a man down who didn’t have the benefit of super strength or enhanced healing abilities. The grunting, crashing, and slamming of fists into flesh would just have to be ignored for a moment.
She ran over to Sri to check on him, grateful to find him breathing and still with a pulse. She scurried over to cabinets and flung them open, then yanked drawers until she found some gauges. As quickly as she could, she bandaged the side of Sri’s head. Once the bleeding stopped, she exhaled and paused long enough to observe the violent interaction between Jaxon and Victor.
It was ugly.
They were like rabid beasts, fighting for a piece of meat. Neither one was putting forth much effort to avoid blows, they seemed only concerned with dealing them. It was strictly a contest of who could hit the hardest, who could draw the most blood, who could deliver the most pain.
Celise stared in disbelief. She’d never seen either man behave in such a way. It was fascinating, and yet tragic, how something as basic as unchecked emotions could degenerate man into animal.
She winced and jumped to her feet when Victor picked up a table with one hand and swung it as if it were a baseball bat and Jaxon were the ball, knocking the officer into the wall, sending blood into a splattering flight against the same surface.
“Stop it, both of you!”
They ignored her. She watched helplessly as Jaxon snatched the table he’d just been struck with from Victor, tore off one of the metal legs and proceeded to beat the doctor with it.
“Jaxon, don’t!”
Her plea was ignored.
“Damn it all,” she huffed, as she scrambled to the table and grabbed a syringe and a vial of her suppressant. She didn’t want to use yet another untested drug to try to combat the side effect of another. But what choice did she have?
She filled the syringe, squeezed the pump a bit to test it out, and then looked at the fighting men. She’d need to stab both, or at least one of them, in order to try to stop the fight. But they were moving fast and violently around the room. How was she ever going to get even one to sit still enough for her to try to prick him?
“Celise.”
It took a moment for her ears to separate the sounds of mayhem from the softer, pleading voice which was calling her name. She tore her attention from the brawl over to where Sri was sitting up now on the floor, rubbing the back of his head.
“Dr. Ashni, how do you feel?” she asked as she went over to him, examining the bandaging on his head and checking his neck and shoulders for injuries.
He gave a slight shake of his head and pushed her hands away. “Other than my aching cranium, I am okay, Belderon. Those two, I’m not so sure about.”
“What happened? How did Victor get infected?”
“He intentionally took the formula. Said he wanted to prove that it was Wentworth that was the failure, not the formula.”
“Is he crazy? Well I mean, he may be now, but I mean before he took it? We didn’t even come up with an antidote yet to reverse the effects on Wentworth. Now we have not one, but two affected subjects.”
“We’ve got to stop them, or they are going to kill each other. It hasn’t been fully tested, but the emotional suppressant is the only solution we have.”
“I know, but I’d need to get them still long enough for the injection. Which doesn’t look like it’ll be an easy feat at all.”
Sri held out his hand. “Give the syringe to me. Between the two of them, Jaxon seems the most stable, especially when it comes to dealing with you. Talk to him, get him to calm down a
nd make him hold Morhamer still while I deliver the dosage.”
Celise nodded and gave him the syringe, then took a deep breath, turned around and approached Jaxon. Keeping up with him was hard at first; he kept tumbling and leaping across the floor, over, around and under Victor.
“Jaxon,” she called softly after him, and then again louder when she saw him get the upper hand in the fight, pin Victor to the floor and stab him in the chest with the jagged edge of the ripped table leg. “Jaxon!”
But he seemed lost in a trance of rage. Blood squirted from the doctor’s chest wound as Victor gasped for air and convulsed wildly, while Jaxon kept him staked to the floor.
“Jaxon, listen to me,” her voice came out squeakier than she intended. “He doesn’t need to die. We can give him the suppressant to calm him down.”
The grim expression on Jaxon’s face and the narrow, angry slit of his pupils sent Celise’s heart racing with fear. What if she couldn’t reach him? What if he was too far gone to calm down?
“Please,” she tried again. “Listen to me. He doesn’t deserve to die.”
“He hurt you.”
“Not much. And he couldn’t control himself.”
He didn’t respond. Instead he rotated the table leg around the wound in Victor’s chest, making the man growl in agony.
Celise turned her head away. “Officer Jaxon Wentworth, you are not a killer!”
Jaxon’s voice was a monstrous snarl. “I’m gonna kill him.”
Victor laid his head back and looked up at the ceiling and laughed. “Then hurry up and do it already! The only thing you’re killing right now is my patience. This wound is soon going to regenerate.”
“Let’s see you regenerate the breath I’m gonna choke out of you,” Jaxon said as he pinned the man to the ground by the throat, squeezing out the air and preventing any more from going in. Victor thrashed about, trying determinedly to push Jaxon off of him.
Way Out of Control Page 9
