by Eve Langlais
Her neck, small, fragile, bitable.
Marcus didn’t lunge as she reached him. It wasn’t easy to stay still. He could hear the shouting, his ears even picking up the distinct vowels. “Ma’am, get away from it.”
It.
Had Marcus changed so much he didn’t merit a him?
Cerberus was to blame. The coward who never strayed from his fortified castle. But there was a way to hurt him.
This sweet-smelling female held the answer to his revenge.
She reached into the pocket of her sweater, her voice a soft murmur. “Just stay still and I’ll help you.”
There was no help for him, only vengeance, and yet, he couldn’t help but whisper, “Sorry.”
Marcus suddenly lunged, yanking her by the arm, ripping her hand free from her pocket even as he dipped. A shoving of his shoulder into her midsection flung her onto him. Straightening his legs, he kept her braced with his arms, pivoted for the forest, and ran.
A feral grin lit his lips as he heard the shouted, “Holy shit, he’s kidnapping her!”
Chapter Three
Adrian was with Aloysius when Marcus took Jayda. Literally. Just popped her onto his shoulder and ran into the woods.
“What the hell is happening?” Adrian snapped. “I thought I said no to your plan to use her as bait.”
“You did.” Aloysius frowned. “But you know Jayda.”
Yeah, he did, stubborn and foolish. “I can’t believe he kidnapped her.” Couldn’t believe and yet couldn’t help an element of excitement.
“But you’ll notice he didn’t kill her.”
Callous even by Adrian’s standards. “This is not a case of half full, Aloysius. Why aren’t you more panicked? We need to send the guards after them.” Adrian already had enough blood on his hands. He didn’t need to add one more name to that list.
“Not yet.”
“What do you mean not yet? Why the fuck would we wait?” Adrian didn’t often curse, yet the situation warranted it.
“Because his actions are odd. And we don’t want to act precipitously.”
It took strength to not pinch the bridge of his nose in exasperation. “He’s kidnapped your daughter.”
Yes, daughter, because Aloysius knew of a bait that would work, especially since he was not willing to put himself on the line. Then again, Adrian wasn’t ballsy enough to offer himself as a dangly carrot either.
“An unexpected turn of events.” If it weren’t for the lines of stress on Aloysius’ face, Adrian would have thought he didn’t care.
“I don’t suppose she agreed to a tracker?” Adrian asked. If only everyone would agree to be chipped, it would be much easier to keep track of people.
“Jayda wear a tracker? Not likely.” Aloysius snorted. “She’s still convinced she’s invincible.”
“She’s not,” Adrian said flatly. “I’m sending in the guards.”
“Like hell you are.”
Adrian glared. “I am not standing by and doing nothing. As her father, you should be screaming at me to get men into those woods.”
“Why the hell would I send men armed with guns after them? I know about their itchy trigger fingers. She might get hit in the crossfire. If that happens, things won’t end well for them.” A grim statement by Aloysius.
“We shouldn’t have told Jayda about Marcus. You knew she’d do this.” Then again, so did he. Jayda wasn’t one to back away from a challenge. One day it might get her killed, possibly even today, and he would be at fault.
Don’t tell me this late in the game I’m getting a conscience.
That wouldn’t do. A doctor doing cutting-edge medical science couldn’t afford to follow the rules.
Or get caught.
“Have a little faith. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
“She was kidnapped by a lionman. How the fuck is she supposed to be fine?”
“Because she has to be.” More of a fervent wish than an actuality.
However, Adrian wasn’t about to wager her life on Aloysius’s conviction that everything would turn out all right.
“I’m sending in the guards.” Because the longer they waited, the less likely they would find Jayda alive. And for some reason, that mattered.
Chapter Four
Don’t let them catch you.
It was the only thought running through his mind, an imperative that had Marcus leaping and running through the treacherous forest. His feet nimble on the uneven ground. His breathing a huffing moist heat through his nose.
Over his shoulder, the solid weight of the female kept him focused. The scent of her surrounded him. Vanilla and honey with a womanly musk.
A woman who said nothing, didn’t even scream.
Probably fainted, which was for the best. She wouldn’t like what came next.
The means of his revenge wouldn’t be pleasant. There would be blood involved. The lobbing of body parts in the direction of the clinic to let Cerberus know what he’d done.
Let him hurt like Marcus hurt.
First, he had to reach his safe lair, the cave he’d found, tucked into the mountain and hard to reach by normal means.
In the distance, he could hear the loud noise of vehicles in pursuit. The only way the clumsy meat sacks had any hope of catching him. He was much faster than them. Wilier, too, than those with no sense of smell or direction.
But the meat sacks had guns.
Mustn’t forget those dangerous guns.
Lucky for him they weren’t close enough to fire, and Marcus left them behind as he ran. He moved far enough away that the only sound was the whisper of his feet hitting the ground, the occasional stir of a branch from the wind of his passing, and the slight puff of his breath.
Still the female said nothing. Just dangled at his back, her legs under one arm, his other hand still grasping hers, holding her in a secure loop around his body.
Getting to his cave would be tricky with no fingers free to grip. He had to leap and hope his footing didn’t slip as he traversed rock to rock, the calloused bottoms of his feet barely feeling the bite of stone.
Reaching the thin lip, he finally had to flip her off his shoulder. He held her in front of him, noting her limp head, closed eyes.
Still unconscious. But not dead. He could hear the pitter-patter of her heart. Smell the life coursing inside her.
It smelled…divine.
He wedged her into the crack, pushing her ahead of him through the snug gap until it opened into a sizeable cave. Only then did he drop her—gently for some reason—laying her down on the floor, cradling her head. A wasted effort, given what he planned.
Marcus turned from her and crouched by the crack he’d just used. The only problem with his cave? It had one way in, which meant one way out. Yet it was the safest place he could find to hide and where he would conduct his revenge.
Seconds ticked by as he listened, strained to hear any signs he’d been followed. The silence, broken only by the soft whisper of wind, let him know he’d escaped the enemy. For now.
Which meant time to move on to the revenge part of his plan. He turned to get started, only to find the woman sitting and staring at him, holding out a square device that shone a light bright enough to see by.
She saw him, and for a moment, Marcus was ashamed. Could only imagine how he appeared. Hair long, unkempt, and dirty. His clothes but ragged remains, filthy beyond any repair. His skin barely any better.
In direct contrast, she shone with cleanliness and good health. Stared at him with wide eyes. Opened her mouth, probably to scream, cry, or plead.
“Hi.”
He blinked.
“Do. You. Speak. English.” Each word succinct.
A frown creased his brow. “Don’t talk.”
Her mouth curved into a smile. “Well, what do you know. You do talk.”
He growled.
“Too late. I already know you can. What’s your name? I’m Jayda.”
He didn’t want to know her name. “Do
n’t care.” He turned from her, unable to look at her and maintain the rage needed to tear her to pieces.
“You must be one of the patients who ran away.”
How did she know? He turned a sharp look her way. Narrowed his gaze. Of course, she knew. Look at who she kept company with. “Free.”
“Can’t say as I blame you. Those rooms can feel like a cage.”
Despite himself, he found himself agreeing. “Bad place.”
“A place of healing, you mean.”
“Bad,” he insisted.
“To some, I guess it might seem that way. But the doctors had reasons for what they did.”
“Bah!” He snorted. What those doctors did to him…it shouldn’t have been allowed. Wasn’t actually. Not by law. They’d volunteered his body to experimental science, injecting him with a monster, and each day it was a fight to not let the beast sharing his mind win.
“They’re really worried about you at the clinic.”
At that, he couldn’t help a feral grin. “They should worry.” Because he hadn’t yet completely lost his mind. Look at what a little focus could do. He spoke in words, not grunts.
“Are you dangerous?”
“Yes.” Which was why she should show more fear. He glowered, and yet she continued to watch him, her gaze steady, the hand holding the light not even trembling.
“My dad wants you back.”
Dad? So not wife or lover, but closer than that. Cerberus’s kin.
The revenge would taste all the sweeter.
He took my humanity. I’ll take his heart.
“Not going back.” Ever. He’d rather rip out his own throat than become an experimental puppet again.
“Because living in this cave is so much better.” Spoken with sarcasm.
He saw it through her eyes then, the dirty space with the pile of leaves against a wall. The smell of piss because he’d marked it against other predators. The discarded bones from a meal.
“I am free.” Free of tests and medicine and a warm bed, with plenty of food. A cave was better than a cage.
“Free to be an animal.” Definite sneer on her face and a reminder that the man was losing in the battle for dominance of his body.
“I like it.” A lie. Marcus hated his life now, especially since the only time he was happy was when he wasn’t himself.
“You’ll die out here. Winter is coming.”
He knew. Could feel it in the bite of the wind. And what would he do when it came?
“Quiet.” He growled at her.
“Or what? You’ll kill me?”
“Yesss.” He hissed, flexing his fingers, the nails jagged and sharp.
“I don’t think you will. If you really wanted to take me out, why not do it on the edge of the woods? Instead, you risked capture and took me to your lair.”
A strange choice for sure. Had he ripped open her throat by the tree line, he’d have had his revenge. The cameras would have caught it. Cerberus would have seen.
But he’d smelled her, and next thing he knew, he was running away with her.
“I will kill you.” The words spilled from his lips, each one getting easier and easier.
“Really? How? Going to strangle me with your hands? Gnaw on me with your teeth?”
All of the above actually. “Shut up.”
“Why should I? Not used to the things you kill talking back? Too bad, so sad, lionman.”
The word caught his attention. “Not a lion.”
“Says a guy who’s obviously not seen his long blond mane in a while. Not to mention those teeth. Maybe you will rip my throat out with them.” She angled her head. “What are you waiting for?”
What indeed? “Quiet.” Because each time she talked, more clarity returned to him, and more conscience, too. It asked him how he could even think of killing an innocent. What had this woman done to deserve such an end?
“I won’t be quiet because I don’t think you know what you want.”
How true, and yet at the same time, he remembered the reason why he woke this morning. Why he woke every day. “I want revenge,” he roared, the words echoing in the small cave.
“Do you really think killing me will satisfy you?” She stood, and despite his size, she wasn’t intimidated. She met him stare for stare. “Revenge won’t be found living in the woods like an animal, freaking out the staff of the clinic.”
“Killing you will hurt him,” he huffed.
“Killing me won’t do a thing to make it better. The thing inside you won’t be satisfied.”
“The thing inside me would enjoy seeing Cerberus suffer.” The truest thing he’d said in a long time.
“Making him suffer doesn’t help you, though.”
“I don’t need help.”
“I’d beg to differ. Take a look around you. Is this really what you want?” She swept her hand. “Do you intend to live out the rest of your life like some base creature in a cave?”
“Better than being used as a guinea pig,” he shouted back.
“It doesn’t have to be the way it was. There are alternatives.”
He almost asked her what she meant, only he heard a noise. His head swiveled, and he eyed the crack. His nostrils flared as the monster inside sniffed for danger.
“Lionman, eyes on me.” Jayda snapped her fingers, and he turned with a snarl to see her standing framed by a light.
A light created by a phone.
The realization hit him. “You sent a signal!”
“Actually, a whole message, but they’re not listening to my orders.” She sounded annoyed.
Not as annoyed as him. This was his secret place.
Which was why he barked, “Hands.” Since he had no rope, he yanked off his shirt and spun it to make it into a rough cord.
She didn’t offer her wrists.
“Give me.” He reached and batted the phone out of her hand. It hit the ground, still glowing.
“That wasn’t nice.”
“You tricking me wasn’t nice,” he retorted, winding the cloth around her hands tighter than probably necessary, given she didn’t offer any resistance.
Why did she not fight?
Why hadn’t he killed her yet?
“Stay,” he hissed, stomping on the screen of the phone, hearing it crunch and finally putting an end to its illumination.
He eased out of the crevice for his cave, just another shadow that moved slowly, quietly. The guard who actually managed to stumble into his area never heard him coming. Marcus felt no qualm about pouncing on him and knocking him out. No remorse at all when he dumped the body in a ravine nearby where it would take searchers a while to find. By then, he’d be long gone.
Marcus didn’t expect to find Jayda still in the cave when he returned. Yet he loped back as quickly as he dared, scanning about for her scent, because she’d have left one behind as she fled.
She could try and run. He would track her and make her pay for disobeying.
Only…she remained in the cave, curled on her side, hands tucked in front, still bound in his shirt, eyes closed.
Kill her now. She was but a meat sack. A means for revenge.
A nobody.
A nobody like me.
He couldn’t kill her while she was defenseless.
With a sigh, he sank down beside her. Close enough to have her scent in his face. Near enough he could snare her if she tried to flee.
Too far away to ever chance feeling the warmth of another person ever again.
Chapter Five
Jayda barely dared breathe when the lionman lay beside her. She’d sought to make herself appear benign. And it worked.
He settled down, not as much the savage as expected.
When her father and Adrian had spoken of this Marcus, they’d argued about his mental state.
“He’s an animal,” Adrian insisted. “You can’t think to reason with him.”
“I disagree. The man is still inside.” Daddy wasn’t one to give up on supposed lost cause
s.
“Why not just tranquilize his ass and drag him in to find out?” Jayda asked in between the nonchalant filing of her nails. It had been a long time since her last visit to the clinic, and it intrigued to see the change in Dr. Adrian Chimera. What happened to his motto of leave no genetically modified beast behind? It was Adrian who’d first insisted there were no failures. Who refused to put any of them down.
And now, he was advocating they kill a project?
“The problem with using tranquilizing agents is, how much? A normal dose won’t even make him blink. Too strong and he’ll be a corpse.” Daddy’s concern being the safety of his patient.
The big ol’ boss had other issues. “Good luck getting the guards to agree to go into the woods with anything less than a full magazine of bullets.”
“Going into the woods is a bad idea. That’s his turf. You need to draw this Marcus out where you can control the situation,” Jayda observed.
“And how do you propose we draw him?” Adrian asked. “And before you suggest dangling yourself as bait, your dad already offered, and I said no.”
“Not up to you,” she stated, crossing her legs and planting her feet on the edge of his desk. She knew it would annoy him. Adrian liked things tidy.
“Yes, it is up to me. This is my clinic. My patient. My rules.”
She leaned forward. “Your patient is running amok and needs to be taken in.”
“Taken in to do what?” Adrian threw up his hands. “The man has regressed to an animal state.”
“We’ve brought some back from the brink before,” her daddy said.
“A handful of times. How many others have we lost?” It surprised her to hear the regret in his tone.
When had Adrian started to care?
Pussy.
“While you two argue a little longer, I’m going for a shower,” she stated. A lie. She was going outside to make her own evaluation of the situation. Unlike the trigger-happy guards and screaming nurses, Jayda wasn’t prone to panic and could take care of herself.