“Don’t…hurt…” Eric rasped.
“It’s all right,” she tried to soothe him once more. “Connor is guarding Cedric. You can trust him. You can—”
“Cedric…”
Eric’s fangs were lengthening. And now his eyes were…darkening. The green and blue had nearly vanished completely. Fear skated up her spine.
“Ella, you need to leave,” Holly said, her words strained. “You need to back away from him and leave right this minute.”
She tried to pull away. He just tightened his hold even as he brokenly told her, “Go…”
She couldn’t look away from him. “What’s wrong with him?” Ella’s question was for Holly.
“Was he bitten?” Judging by the way Holly asked that question, she already knew the answer.
“Yes.” She’d seen that on the video feed. Cedric’s teeth had torn into Eric’s throat.
“If Cedric put Lawrence under a compulsion, it stands to reason he did the same thing to Eric.”
“But Eric—he’s part vampire!” I tried to put him under a compulsion, and it didn’t work. So she’d thought any compulsion Cedric attempted to give wouldn’t work either. “He resisted me, why can’t he resist Cedric?” Why was this happening?
“Probably because we don’t know just what the hell Cedric is! And maybe the guy is a lot stronger than you are, so his compulsions hold.” Holly pulled harder on Ella. “Come on! I need you out of here. I need—”
Eric leapt off the exam table. He wrapped his arm around Ella, a steel band around her waist. “Go.” He was still telling her to go but holding her so that she couldn’t leave. Eric’s heart is saying one thing, but the compulsion is making him do another.
Ella was facing Holly now. She saw the other woman’s eyes flare wide.
Before Holly could speak, there was a sudden rush of pounding footsteps. Then a frantic roar of “Holly!” had the doctor’s body jerking.
The doors burst open. A tall, dark-haired man stood there. He took one look at Holly and grabbed her, holding her desperately. “Blood, your blood,” Ella heard him mutter. “Your blood…”
But Holly pushed him back. “Duncan, something’s wrong with Eric.”
Duncan’s head shot up. His eyes—eerie, glowing eyes—locked on Eric…and Ella.
“Your claws are out, Eric,” the man—Duncan—said softly. “And so are your fangs.” Duncan stood at Holly’s side. “Want to tell me what’s going on?”
“Can’t…hold on…long…”
“Can’t hold on to what? The pretty woman in front of you?” Duncan’s voice was flat. “Okay, then how about you let her go?”
“Never.”
And then…something happened. Something changed with Eric—in Eric?—because he gave a deep, rumbling bellow—one that seemed to shake the very building behind her. His body began to shudder and twist. She tried to look back at him, but he held her too tightly. She didn’t want to hurt him. Not Eric. Not—
He bit her. Sank his teeth into her neck and drank from her. Ella cried out because the bite was too rough. He was too rough. Not hurting her, but…close.
This isn’t Eric.
Duncan streaked forward, grabbing out for her.
Eric lifted one hand and caught him around the throat. He didn’t even seem to strain as he held him.
“I will kill you,” Eric said to Duncan. His voice wasn’t rasping any longer. It was cold and hard. “I will kill anyone in my way.”
She couldn’t let that happen. “Eric, stop.”
He just tossed Duncan aside, as if the man didn’t matter.
Then he spun Ella to face him. His face—it had twisted. Contorted. Become far more savage. His eyes were so very dark now. And cold.
“I don’t stop,” he said. His smile flashed his fangs. “I do whatever I want. I can kill, I can take, and there will be no stopping me.”
Fear grew within her, but she fought it back. “Holly, you and Duncan get out of here. Keep the doors barred. Don’t let anyone else inside.”
“And what’s supposed to happen to you?” Holly yelled back.
“She stays,” Eric snarled.
“I stay,” Ella said, her voice soft. “Go find a way to break the compulsion.” Just putting him under with a tranq wasn’t going to do it. He would recover too fast and just come at them again. They had to get Eric back. Her Eric. Not this stranger.
I have to get him back.
“He won’t hurt me,” Ella said even as her neck throbbed. Liar, liar. “Just go!” She held her breath until she heard the door close behind her.
Eric stared down at her. She thought he was going to try and bite her again but then he cried out, as if in pain.
He pushed her away.
And he hit the floor, slamming down to land on his hands and knees.
“Eric?”
“No control…not anymore.” His bones were snapping. Popping. “Beast…coming out.”
She started to retreat toward the door. Then Ella stopped. They were in this together. They had a deal. No, no, they had a whole lot more than that.
“You’re shifting,” she said.
His shoulders stretched. His claws lengthened. His back—it looked as if something were trying to tear right through his back, along the ridges of his shoulder blades.
Wings? No, of course not, not possible but…
Eric had told her he was the blend of many creatures. Powerful paranormal creatures. If his control was truly gone…if he were following Cedric’s dark orders, then she couldn’t let him out of that room. He could be a threat to everyone in the building.
While he was on the floor, changing, shifting before her, she ran and grabbed a silver collar that had been left out on the shelf. A remote was right next to it. She jumped back to Eric and locked that collar in place as fast as she could.
He had werewolf blood in him. So maybe the collar would keep him in check. Maybe.
“I’m sorry, Eric,” she said and she pressed the button on the remote.
He stilled.
Her breath heaved out. The silver was working. Good. Good. Now they could calm down and come up with a plan to—
His long, claw-tipped fingers yanked that collar right off. It literally fell apart beneath his hands. Then he rose before her. He rose and behind Eric, she saw the dark shadows that shouldn’t be there.
But those shadows grew. His growls filled the air as he kept changing. The shadows deepened and a quiet rustle filled the air.
Every bit of moisture vanished from Ella’s mouth. “So I guess I was…kind of right after all.” His wings stretched toward the ceiling. Wings. “Were you holding back on me?”
His gaze burned with dark fire. “Mine.” Then he flew straight at her.
His hands locked around Ella and she didn’t even have the chance to scream, not before he’d whirled them around and flown straight out of the window. Good thing they were on an upper floor—otherwise, she got the feeling he might have just burst right through the ceiling and destroyed that whole place as he fought for freedom.
But the glass shattered. They escaped. Eric hurtled away into the night, and Ella held onto him with all of her might.
***
“What. The. Fuck?” Duncan McGuire stared at the broken window. “What happened here?”
Holly peered into the night. They’d gone rushing in to the med ward when they heard the breaking glass. Now she could see the distant figure. One moving far too fast.
“Eric has wings,” she whispered. How does Eric have wings?
Duncan caught her hand. “Holly, baby…” He cleared his throat. “Mind telling me just when your brother sprouted wings?”
“I’m guessing about two minutes ago.” But she would be finding out exactly what had happened to him. She’d pour over the recent bloodwork she’d done on him. She’d help her brother—get him back.
“How?”
Now Eric was just a tiny dot in the distance. But he was a dot she could track. ??
?I have no idea.” She’d have to attack that problem later. Right now, she needed to get Eric and Ella back to the base. She exhaled slowly as she fought to maintain her calm. Eric seriously just flew out of here. “Let’s get a team and go after them. Eric Pate out of control—shifting like he is—he’s a threat that we can’t allow loose in the city.” They’d have to stop him.
One way or another.
***
Connor glared at Cedric’s prone form. They’d put three gold collars on the bastard while he was knocked out, just to be extra careful. And they’d moved his ass to another maximum security containment area. New chains were on his wrists and his ankles.
Connor had just been informed about the chaos in the med ward. About Eric’s freaking flight. He wanted to rush out with Holly and Duncan and help retrieve the director, but he also didn’t want to leave Cedric alone with the humans. He knew Eric would want him to stand guard, and after Cedric’s last attack…
I can’t risk him putting compulsions on anyone else. So Connor crossed his arms over his chest and waited. The guy would wake up, sooner or later.
And when he did, the compulsion that Cedric must have placed on Eric…it would be ending. Connor would make sure of it, even if he had to kill the guy in order for it to vanish.
Chapter Thirteen
They landed in a dark alley. The moonlight shone down on them. The beat of music drifted in the air. Ella could hear people’s voices floating on the wind, and the idea that humans were so close terrified her.
Eric’s wings folded down, seeming to vanish behind him.
He stood in front of her now, maybe two feet away, and he just—stared at her.
“Eric?” Ella managed. “Please tell me that you know me. That you’ve got some control still inside.” Please.
“I’ll kill for you.” Again, he spoke in that odd, cold voice. The one that she hated because it didn’t sound like her Eric talking. More like a stranger.
Ella shook her head. Those humans were definitely too close, and, judging by the voices, they were getting closer with every moment that passed. “I don’t want you to kill for me.”
“I’ll make them scream. And bleed.” He turned and headed for the street.
She raced after him and managed to jump in front of him, stopping him with a hard jab to the chest. “No! I don’t want anyone screaming. Or-or bleeding!” She shook him. Tried to, anyway. He didn’t exactly shake much. “This isn’t you. I want you back.”
“I am back. Now.” And his wings rose behind him. “I’m just what you wanted. The mate who was waiting for you.”
“You weren’t Fey before,” she whispered. “You said you weren’t.” But all along, hadn’t she been responding to him as if he were? Then he’d told her she was wrong. I wasn’t the wrong one.
He smiled. A flash of white in the dark. “I’m many things. All things. The worst of the monsters. The strongest. They’re all in me. I’m the beast everyone should fear. I’m the one who will wreck them all.”
“No, you aren’t. You’re a good man, Eric. You’re a protector. That’s who you are.”
But footsteps were coming toward them. Drunken laughter. She looked over her shoulder and saw two men staggering their way.
One guy caught sight of her and gave a long, high whistle as he hurried away from his friend. “Hellooo, pretty lady!” He called out as his voice slurred. “Are you looking for a good time? Cause I can show you—”
Eric had him. In a blink, he’d eliminated the distance between himself and his prey. Eric locked a hand around the guy’s neck and jerked him forward. Then Eric sank his teeth into the man.
“No!” Ella yelled as the human screamed. She grabbed at Eric, and when he wouldn’t stop, when he wouldn’t let the fellow go, she drew back her hand to punch him and—
Gunfire.
It blasted, hitting hard. Hitting…her. Ella felt the warmth of her blood pouring down her shirt. She looked down, saw the dark stain on her shirt, and then her gaze snapped to the mouth of the alley.
The other human stood there. Still swaying drunkenly, only now he had a gun in his hand. He must have been carrying that gun all along. Humans can be dangerous. “L-let my buddy go, f-freak!” He yelled. He fired again.
The second bullet didn’t hit Ella.
Because Eric had already attacked. He’d grabbed the shooter. Broken his arm with a quick, vicious yank, and Eric slammed his fist into the man’s face. There was the crunch of more bones and Ella knew the human’s nose was broken.
“You don’t touch mine!” Eric’s roar was almost deafening. “You don’t hurt…mine.”
Ella put her hand to her chest and staggered forward. “Stop this!” Ella yelled at him.
There was a whoop, whoop, whoop overhead.
She didn’t look up.
“Eric, stop!”
He was pummeling the guy.
“I’m okay!” She used a burst of her speed and managed to tear the human from Eric’s arms. And Eric’s fist froze mid-motion, right above her.
Her breath heaved out. Staring into his eyes right then, she didn’t see much of the man she’d known at all. He was feral. So wild. So…
Dangerous.
She could fight him, but that might stir up his beast even more.
Or she could try to reach the man inside. The man she’d thought was her mate from the beginning. The man. Not the beast.
Not any of the beasts that her lover carried. Werewolf. Vampire. Fey.
No wonder control was such an issue for him.
When he let go, he really did turn wild.
Ella tilted her neck to the side, offering her throat to him. “I don’t think you’re going to hurt me,” she said.
His fist lowered. Opened. Then his fingers were reaching out to touch her throat.
The whoop, whoop, whoop was even louder now, but Eric didn’t look away from her.
“Don’t be so sure of that,” he told her. “There are so many things I want to do with you. To you…”
“You have wings.” It seemed important. “I didn’t think you were Fey.”
His smile was cold. She almost wished she couldn’t see so well in the dark. “Guess the government spliced my DNA with everything they had.”
And what—he’d just needed to be pushed hard enough for that part of him to emerge?
His claws were on her throat. A werewolf’s claws. His fangs were bared. Vampire fangs. And his wings were out—a Fey’s wings. What else was there? What else lived inside of Eric? Did she even want to know?
“And you thought you were the evil one,” Eric whispered. “I’ll show you how evil I can be.”
His mouth was right over her throat. To rip it open—
Or to kiss her?
“You won’t,” Ella said. Her eyes drifted closed. Her hands curled around his shoulders. Massive shoulders. He hadn’t done a full-on shift, but he’d sure gotten one hell of a lot bigger. “I trust you.”
“You shouldn’t.” His hand fisted in her hair. He pulled her head back even more, exposing her neck fully.
Ella smiled. “Go ahead…show me just how bad you really are. But I know you won’t hurt me.” It was easier to say without looking into his eyes. Without seeing him. “We had a deal, you and me. An agreement.”
Whoop, whoop.
His breath blew over her throat. She waited.
Teeth. Fangs.
Or a kiss?
Her heart raced too fast. Her claws dug into his arms and he—
He kissed her. A light, soft kiss on her neck.
“You smell…” Eric muttered. “Like you’re…mine.” His voice wasn’t so cold now. More strangled. Confused. “No, you smell…”
Ella’s eyes opened.
“Lilacs. Paradise.” Eric seemed to force out the words. “Every dream…everything I want…”
He was coming back to her.
And just in time. A rough blast of wind blew her hair and she looked over her shoulder, back into the s
treet, and she saw that a helicopter had landed just beyond the entrance to the alley. Para Agents were rushing forward, with their guns up.
There had better just be tranqs in those guns. Surely they wouldn’t shoot to kill their own director?
If the director had claws and fangs and wings…maybe.
And Eric was back to snarling and growling because he’d finally noticed them. He pushed her behind his body and his wings spread wide, shielding her totally as she screamed for him to— “Stop!”
He didn’t. He flew forward. The guns blasted.
Two agents went down.
A third.
More bullets came at Eric.
In a flash, a fourth and fifth agent were groaning on the ground, bleeding from Eric’s claws.
And…Holly was there. Standing near the helicopter. Lifting a gun and pointing it straight at Eric. Duncan was at her side.
They were the only two Para Agents still standing.
Ella rushed toward them, running in a quick burst of her supernatural speed.
But Holly fired. And finally, finally Eric staggered. He dropped to his knees before his sister.
“I guess it was my turn to shoot,” Holly murmured.
Eric’s body slammed forward onto the cement. Ella reached him an instant later. She flipped him over, frantic. He was still breathing. His eyes were closed.
“We need to get him back to the base,” Duncan ordered the scattered group of agents. “And get him contained.”
Contained.
“Now,” Duncan barked to the agents who were trying to rise. “And somebody…go tell the humans there’s a gas leak in that bar. That they’re having delusions. No winged man was out here.”
Eric was going to be contained. If he couldn’t be brought back to his senses, what then?
He was strapped to a gurney. A collar was put around his neck—no, two collars were locked around him.
“One is silver,” Holly explained. “And one has liquid gold inside. He won’t be getting away from us again.”
But…
He shouldn’t be caged. It wasn’t Eric’s fault. Cedric had done this to him. Cedric had pushed him to let the beast out.