by Cynthia Eden
“Dies…and comes back.” Eric stopped pacing and glared at Chloe. “You aren’t supposed to do that.”
She glared back at him. “Sorry. Guess I missed the memo on that.”
He pulled out his gun.
Chloe jumped off that exam table and Connor immediately stepped in front of her.
“What in the hell are you doing?” Connor demanded.
She peaked around his body and saw Eric contemplating his gun. “Holly should see what occurs when she dies and comes back. Then we might be able to figure out what’s really happening.”
Connor leapt forward and yanked the gun out of Eric’s hands. “We don’t have any guarantee that she will come back again! You shoot her, and that could be it. She’d be gone.” His voice lowered and it sounded as if he muttered, “Then you’d be gone, too.”
Chloe wrapped her arms around her stomach. “I think you’re all wrong. I-I didn’t die.” She laughed then, and the sound was hollow even to her own ears. “Keegan must have knocked me out for a few minutes, that’s all. I probably hit my head when I fell—because I was on the floor—and that’s why things are a little sketchy in my memory.”
Silence.
And in the face of that silence, Chloe just kept right on talking. “I don’t think…maybe my father didn’t kill me, either.” Her words were coming too fast. “He was my father, after all…he probably missed my heart.” Okay, that came out desperate. “I healed. Werewolves heal faster, right? I healed and that’s all that happened that time, too.”
Connor turned back to look at her. Everyone there was just looking at her.
Chloe tucked her hair behind her ear. “What? That’s what happened. I didn’t die. I know I didn’t.”
Connor stepped toward her. He caught her hands and held them in his warm grip. “I was watching you. I saw the bastard break your neck. I heard the snap.”
She jerked, but he held her fast.
“You were falling, and I caught you before you hit the floor. Your heart wasn’t beating. You weren’t breathing.”
Chloe shook her head.
“You know it’s true, baby. You just don’t want to admit it.”
She needed to get away from them. “I-I need some air.”
His hold just tightened on her. “You have nightmares every night, don’t you? But are those nightmares about your father? Or are they about you dying?”
Her eyes were filling with tears. “Stop.” She didn’t want to hear any more right then.
“You talk about fire…”
“Stop!” She could feel the flames on her skin.
“Where do you go…when you die, Chloe?”
“I don’t die!”
The door to the lab opened. Olivia stood there. Her hair had been pulled into a long braid—a familiar sight to Chloe—and Olivia’s eyes were filled with sorrow as she stared at Chloe. “I’m sorry.”
Chloe shook her head. “You don’t need to be. My father—he’s the one who set all of this in motion. He hunted you—”
“You were bitten because you were protecting me.” Olivia strode toward her. “You were trying to save me, and it cost you everything.”
It hurt to look at Olivia. Her father had done so much to cause her friend pain.
“Chloe. Please.”
She forced herself to meet Olivia’s stare.
“I did this to you.” Olivia’s lips trembled. “He killed you, and I-I didn’t even stop to think. I just wished.”
Chloe’s breath was coming faster. Her chest hurt because her heart was pounding too hard.
“I made the wish. I wished you’d be alive, and you came back. You were alive.”
She had to get out of there. They were all staring at her with pity and confusion in their gazes. Chloe rushed around Olivia and ran for the door.
But another man was there. One who’d entered with Olivia. Big, blond, and blocking her exit.
“I can’t let you go,” he said, voice soft. “None of us can.”
She looked back at Olivia. Her friend’s shoulders had sagged. “That wasn’t the only wish I made,” Olivia said.
“Stop!” Chloe didn’t want to hear any more. She didn’t want to hear that she was now some kind of undead freak. Her life was more than screwed up enough as it was. Frantic now, her gaze locked on Connor. He would help her. Connor always helped her. “Get me out of here, please.”
Connor walked toward her.
Her breath came a little easier.
But then he shook his head.
No. “Connor?”
“You died,” he said, “and that gutted me.”
She could only stare at him.
“We need to know exactly what we’re dealing with here.” He glanced over at Olivia. “So tell me what else you wished.”
Olivia’s hands clenched at her sides. “I didn’t realize how…how the wishes would work. I’d been told that they came out darker, that you never really got the exact thing that you wanted…”
Because, according to legend, the djinn had been creatures of darkness. They took wishes, twisted them, and…well, her father had said they grew stronger with every dark wish they granted.
“I thought I had to say the wishes in order for them to come true,” Olivia continued. Her words were husky. Sad. “Later, I realized…” Her words trailed away.
Eric sighed. “All right, let’s hurry this along.” He waved his hand. “She just had to think the wishes. If she thought them, bam, they came true.”
Miserably, Olivia nodded. “I wished for you to be alive, but then…I was making another wish.” She looked over at the big, blond male—the one still blocking the exit. “Shane stopped me before I could say it, but it was still in my head.” Her shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry.”
She shouldn’t ask. She shouldn’t. “What were you wishing?”
“I did wish it.” Olivia crept toward her. She took Chloe’s hand and held tight. “You are my best friend, Chloe. You were dying in front of me. No, you were dead. I didn’t think. I just wished.”
Chloe couldn’t breathe.
“I wished for you to be alive.” Olivia nervously wet her lips. “And the wish I didn’t get to voice, the one only in my mind…”
Just say it!
“I wished that you’d come back. That you’d never die.”
Chloe took a step back.
Olivia’s hold tightened on her. “I didn’t know it would mean you could be killed—that you’d die and come back in some kind of endless cycle! I didn’t know! I just wanted to help you!” Tears filled her eyes. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
“Wh-what am I?” Chloe asked. “Am I a zombie?” Like in a horror show? Was she going to go crazy and start eating brains?
“No!” That fast response came from Holly. “Your heart is beating, your brain is functioning. You’re very much alive.”
“But I can’t…die?”
“No, you die,” Connor said grimly. The faint lines on his face appeared deeper. “I saw you. You were gone.”
“I just don’t stay gone?” Her head was throbbing. Her whole body shaking. “Where do I go?”
No one spoke. Chloe’s gaze flew from one of them to another.
And her terror just got worse.
***
Chloe had been holding out on him. She wasn’t just a werewolf. She was something far, far more important.
Chloe could cheat death. Die, then come back, better than before.
Keegan kept his gaze on the nondescript building. He could see the men patrolling the building’s perimeter—acting as if they were just security guards. But security guards weren’t usually equipped with that much fire power.
He’d tracked them back to this base. With the way the men had been bleeding, it had been like child’s play. And…just in case we had lost them…I took the liberty of stacking the odds in my favor.
He doubted they’d even found the little tracking device that he’d shoved into one of Harris’s wounds.
“What now, alpha?”
He smiled. “Now we just wait for our moment to attack.” Because he had an end game of his own. Originally, many of his men had gone to Purgatory because they’d been following the orders of David Vincent. Vincent and the senator had thought their plans were so fucking perfect.
They hadn’t been.
Now Keegan needed his men back. He wanted them out of Purgatory, and the only way that would happen…I need those Para Agents to release them.
One way or another, he’d be getting his werewolves.
Even if he had to take a little trip to Purgatory in order to make that happen.
Chapter Nine
“Unwish it.”
Chloe’s shaking voice broke Connor’s heart.
“I-I shouldn’t be like this. No one should die and come back.” Chloe’s face was far too pale as she stared at Olivia. “Just unwish it. Put me back the way I was before.”
Connor already knew that couldn’t happen, even before Olivia shook her head.
“Please,” Chloe said.
“She can’t,” Connor said as he wrapped his arm around Chloe. He needed to get her alone. She was so close to breaking, he could see it. And he didn’t want her around everyone else when she was hurting so much. He wanted to take her out of there and just hold her. “Olivia isn’t a djinn anymore. Shane changed her. She’s a vamp.”
And after that change, Eric had seemed confident—fairly so, anyway—that her djinn powers were gone. A good thing because, otherwise, Eric would have needed to permanently contain Olivia. A being who could kill just with a thought? There would have been no way the government could have allowed her to run around loose. She would have been far too dangerous.
“Look, everybody…” Duncan’s loud voice caught his attention. “This isn’t such a bad thing. We’ve got an indestructible woman. There are plenty of people out there who wish they could bounce back from any injury.” Duncan slanted a glance at Eric. “I’m betting you could use a few others folks like her on your team.”
Eric didn’t reply.
Knowing the sneaky SOB, yeah, he probably did want more folks like Chloe. And all those tests that Holly had been running…Connor would bet that Eric was hoping Holly would find something in Chloe’s blood work or in her DNA that would let the doctor replicate the condition on some federal volunteers.
“I need to go check on Harris,” Eric said, giving them all a curt nod. “Connor, I trust you’ll make sure that Chloe doesn’t leave the facility?”
“But—” Chloe began.
“Under the circumstances, I’m sure you’ll agree that you’re far safer here with us,” Eric said smoothly. “After all, it seems there’s a pack out there that wants you dead. Since you keep rising, how many times do you think they’d kill you before they got the clue that you weren’t exactly the type to stay in a grave?”
She blanched.
“Exactly. Connor, keep her here. Holly, please let me know immediately if you find out anything in her blood work and Olivia…”
Olivia glanced over at him.
“To play things safe, let’s keep up your current order protocol, shall we? Don’t make any wishes, don’t even think them. I don’t want to tempt fate.” He inclined his head toward Duncan. “Follow me for a briefing.” His gaze cut to Shane. “You, too.”
Shane’s brows lifted. “You know I don’t really work for you anymore.”
“Hell, you never did. But I need a favor, and if you can help, I’ll owe you.”
Now Shane looked intrigued.
But Connor just felt worried. He knew Eric was already cooking up some new plan, and whatever that plan was—it wouldn’t be good and it wouldn’t be safe. Eric’s plans never were.
“I need to go outside,” Chloe said as she tugged him toward the door. “I can’t breathe in here.”
Like he was going to deny her anything. “I know a place.” There was a small, enclosed courtyard in the middle of the facility. Eric actually used that courtyard when he was interrogating vampires. A little sunlight could go a long way.
But it was night then, and the darkness…the glittering stars…they could be just what Chloe needed.
He was at the door when Eric spoke again. “Don’t let her out of your sight.”
Connor glanced back at him.
“This thing isn’t over,” Eric told him quietly. “Those wolves aren’t stopping, not until we stop them.”
“More for Purgatory?” Connor hated that place. Mostly because he’d nearly died there.
“Purgatory isn’t the answer,” Eric muttered. “It’s the damn problem.”
***
Eric braced himself before he went into the next exam room. Harris Grey was strapped to the table, and a glowing silver collar was locked around his neck.
When he heard Eric’s approaching footsteps, Harris’s head snapped to the left and he locked his gaze on his boss.
There was desperation in Harris’s stare. Fear. Fury.
“Kill me,” Harris said.
Eric shook his head. “You’re not the first agent who’s been bit. Death isn’t the solution.”
Sweat soaked Harris’s body. “If I…don’t change…I’ll die anyway.”
A most painful death.
“You have the DNA that will allow you to change. You can survive this.” He’d learned a lot since taking over the Para Unit. Some good things, some bad.
The door opened behind him. He didn’t look back. He knew it was Duncan McGuire. After all, he’d ordered the man to come in. Duncan had always been a good agent.
A better man.
That’s why I let the lucky bastard stay with my sister. I knew he’d die for her.
Especially after what had gone down in Purgatory…yes, Duncan was a man worthy of Holly.
“I don’t want…to hurt anyone…” Harris whispered. “Saw what…wolves do…”
Eric shook his head. “You saw what some wolves do. They aren’t all like that. Werewolves are just like humans.” A lesson he’d learned. “Some are good, some are evil.” He stared into Harris’s eyes, needing the guy to understand this message. “You aren’t evil. You never have been, and I don’t think you ever will be.”
Harris’s body shuddered. “I’m…scared.”
Duncan stepped to Eric’s side. “You should be. I won’t lie to you, this isn’t going to be easy and it sure won’t be pretty, but you can survive it. You will survive it.”
“The first full moon will be the hardest,” Eric said. Unfortunately, the full moon would be coming soon. “Get through that, and you’re good.”
And if he didn’t…if his beast took over and the guy went feral, then Eric would deal with him. But Eric would not take out this agent without giving Harris a fighting chance.
“I’ve been where you are,” Duncan said to Harris. “There’s a choice other than death.”
But Duncan had been an alpha, and Harris…Eric didn’t know how much fight the guy had in him. He’d been one tough cop in Atlanta, and he’d transferred, aiming hard and fast to move into the FBI and up the ladder there. The guy had popped up on the Para Unit’s radar because his parents had been killed by supernaturals, and…well, he’d seemed properly motivated to join the group.
Now they would wait and see. Either Harris’s human side would win this battle, and he’d keep the baser instincts of the werewolf in check…
Or I’ll have to put him down.
***
Connor typed in a code and opened the heavy, metal door. It squeaked on its hinges as it swung out, and Chloe saw the glitter of stars. She hurried outside, but stopped short. The entire area—Connor had called it a courtyard—was enclosed in a large fence. A fence made out of what looked like—
“Silver,” Connor said. “So, just to be on the safe side, don’t touch it, baby.”
She walked to the middle of that area. Tilted her head back and stared up at the sky. The moon was up there. Big and bright, but not quite full. No
t yet.
“The full moon is close,” Connor murmured. “You know that’s bad for a werewolf.”
Because the beast inside got stronger then.
“You scared the hell out of me.”
She glanced over at Connor. His gaze wasn’t on the stars or the moon. It was totally on her.
“I thought I’d lost you.” He closed the distance between them. Reached out to touch her, but then stopped. “I was terrified.”
Chloe shook her head. “No, not you, you don’t fear anything.”
“I can’t lose you.” Then he leaned forward. He pressed a light kiss to the curve of her neck.
Her heart gave a little jump.
“I’ve lost too much in my life. Some things I can’t ever get back.” He kissed her neck again. “I don’t want to lose you.” He eased back and stared into her eyes. “I’m not your jailer, Chloe. I’m here, with you now, because I want to do everything within my power to keep you safe.”
“Connor—”
“It felt like my heart had been ripped out,” he confessed gruffly. “And, baby, I didn’t even know I still had one. Figured I’d lost it years ago when my old man was cutting into me.”
Her gaze searched his.
“You got to me, Chloe,” he said. “You’re making me feel things that I shouldn’t.”
Her lips pressed together, then she made a confession of her own, saying, “I’ve wanted you from the beginning.” But she shook her head. What she felt for Connor was more than just desire. So much more, and she didn’t fully understand it. Or him. “What’s happening between us?”
“Do you know how mating works for werewolves?”
She shook her head. Not really. She knew where the mating bite was given, but…not much else.
“We can mate with those who are a match for us. Genetically. Physically. We can scent the connection there, and we know that we can have children with potential mates.”
Children? No, she couldn’t think that far ahead. She couldn’t—
“I’ve never wanted to mate with anyone before. When I was with you, I couldn’t stop myself from marking you. I did that, and I should’ve had control. I should’ve held back.”