by A. D. Ryan
Not only were the specifics of the transformations different, but their appearances were too. Nick and I had already seen Cordelia’s hybrid transformation on the DVD we’d stumbled upon, but we were in the dark about what a vampire-based hybrid might look like. There had never been a documented case, as far as we could tell, anyway. As we read a little further, Cordelia’s two wolf forms were also explained: on the night of a full moon, a hybrid was at its strongest, meaning it would retain physical attributes of both races. She would be forced to shift, growing in size, her strength would increase far surpassing ours or even a vampires, and she would be more feral and harder to control. Every other time she shifted, she would take on wolf form, but be impervious to silver, and her speed would rival even the fastest vampire’s.
Research mode coupled with tonight’s impending full moon made me antsy, so Nick and I headed down to the basement. With the knowledge we now held about Cordelia’s strengths, I wasn’t sure the cage would hold her once she shifted, and if she did get out, would we be able to stop her? There was only an hour left until sundown, and I was going to dread every minute of it, when only a month ago, I looked forward to it.
We were just outside the door to the pit. My skin crawled with every ear-piercing shriek Cordelia released. It took me back to the way she’d scream when they removed her from her cell, my body reacting viscerally and wanting to rip something apart…
Until I forced myself to realize that it had all been an elaborate act. She’d played me back then, used me to see how far we could get—to get her into the manor under the guise of having been rescued. I came to realize that, with how calculated and precise their research notes were, that they didn’t make a lot of silly mistakes…like killing a key-holding vampire in their prisoner’s cell and then “forget” that there were keys that were left behind. No. I knew, without a shadow of doubt, that the keys were left on purpose. Bobby knew I would find them and try to escape after Cordelia had gained my trust and manipulated me into thinking she needed to be saved.
Yes, there had been a solid plan in place. One that tracked all the way back to Arizona.
Violent tremors rocked through my body as I reached for the door and ripped it open. It flew so hard and fast that it connected with the plaster wall with a solid thwack, cracking the pristine white finish.
“Brooke?” Nick called after me as I descended the stairs. “What are you doing?”
“Shutting her up, with any luck,” I muttered.
We’d just reached the bottom of the stairs when Nick grabbed me by the arm and stopped me. I caught a glimpse of Cordelia in my periphery, eyes narrowed and hair wild.
“You can’t kill her, and you know she’s not going to tell us anything.” Nick kept his voice low, trying to keep the conversation between us.
“He’s not wrong,” Cordelia practically sang.
I looked back at her, seeing a completely different person than the girl I thought I’d gotten to know when we were both held captive. She smirked, and I turned back to Nick. “Can you just…give me a few minutes alone with her?” Nick’s uncertainty was obvious in the way he looked at me and the waves of emotions that were rolling off him. “Just a few minutes. You don’t have to go far, and I don’t plan to let her out. I just…I need to be alone with her.”
With a despondent sigh, Nick kissed my forehead and went back upstairs. I waited until the heavy door closed behind him and had to take a moment before facing Cordelia, reminding myself that she wasn’t the sweet little girl who’d been in trouble; she was a ruthless killing machine who’d tricked me.
My anger slid back into place.
Cordelia was sitting on the bed as I approached, her hands placed delicately in her lap, and her face instantly transformed to the one I remembered had looked up to me like I was some kind of hero.
Her big hazel eyes stared up at me in an attempt to appear innocent and scared. That persona had been shattered the minute I watched her rip another werewolf apart on video.
I’d tried to deny it, but it was finally clear that she had used me to get back into the Pack so she could destroy us from the inside. I had no doubts that the girl she used to be was sweet and genuine, but the monster she had become only wore her face and used her memories to gain our trust. She wasn’t Cordelia anymore; she was Bobby’s protégé.
I knew she wouldn’t respond to me if I asked her about their plans; I had to find another way to get information out of her, had to find a way to get her to talk without realizing she was feeding me the information I sought…
Then it struck me like a bolt of a lightning: She might have been a hybrid, bound by her connection to Gianna and Bobby to keep their secrets, but she was still a teenager.
By nature, most teenagers typically only cared about one thing, and that was themselves. Given the opportunity, they would talk about themselves all day and night just to feed their narcissistic tendencies.
“How are you?” I asked, slipping into the guise of someone who actually cared.
Cordelia regarded me carefully, eyes narrowing as she gauged my mood. She must have realized that I couldn’t be fooled any longer, so she decided not to toy with me. “Feeling a bit trapped in this cage,” she finally replied.
I leaned on the table in the middle of the room and out of reach of the cage—I’d learned my lesson after what happened down here with Karl not too long ago, and I didn’t care to repeat that day. “I do apologize, but I hope you understand why I had to do it.”
Cordelia was now confused; I could sense it thickening the air.
“You know,” I began. “I’ve been thinking a lot about what Bobby said before we escaped.” Cordelia’s eyes locked on mine. “About turning me into one of you?”
“Good for you,” she snapped.
“What’s it like?” I asked. “The change…does it still hurt? I have to say that’s the worst part about this life…” I wasn’t lying; the pain one endured when changing was extremely difficult to deal with, but it was only a small price to pay in the big picture, and I was now at a place where I welcomed it…but she didn’t have to know that.
As I suspected, Cordelia’s expression brightened, and she stood up. She reached for the bars of the cage, only to be zapped by an invisible electric current that glowed blue when touched—another of Alistair’s barrier spells to keep Cordelia from trying to escape. I only hoped it would hold up once the sun went down.
“It’s incredible,” she said wistfully. “There’s this sense of freedom from it all—the pain is nonexistent, and you get all the benefits of the coven. The speed, agility…”
I tried to contain my revulsion as she carried on; the floodgates had officially been opened, and she spewed her words like vomit.
“The way Bobby tells it, Gianna was deeply fascinated by the idea of using twins as her test subjects. After years of failed attempts, she had figured out that the blood types just weren’t cohesive. That was when she started looking for subjects who were related to one another. You and your brother intrigued her, but sadly you got away that first night.”
I had to fight back my surprise at learning that my parents could have lost both of their children that night, and I was thankful, for the first time, for how that night turned out.
“How long have you been…free?” I asked carefully.
Cordelia smiled genuinely. “Just about four months. They had planned to wait until I was a little older, but when Bobby returned to tell me that Gianna had met her end, he was so blind with grief that he just couldn’t wait any longer.” Cordelia’s eyes went blank as though she were reliving the memory. “I remember being scared when he injected me with Gianna’s blood, and then I felt nothing…and it was glorious. For the first time in years of captivity, I finally felt free.
“When the transformation was a success, Bobby was elated. He knew he had to find you and bring you here so you could be a part of our coven.” I cringed as she recognized the coven over her pack. “Then he found out you were pr
egnant…that was a game changer. To be able to change the pup from birth and raise it to be the perfect little soldier…”
My hands flew to my belly, and I stood up off the table, suddenly fiercely protective of my unborn child. Cordelia caught a glimpse of my defiance, and she balked, instantly shutting down. It was like a large metal door slammed down between us.
Before either one of us could say another word, sirens started going off, the sound so shrill it almost deafened me. Cordelia didn’t seem too fazed by the sound, though, only smiling at me as she stood in place. “Cavalry’s here,” she sneered. “Better make your choice, Brooke. You can either be on the winning team…or die with the rest of your worthless pack.” She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, nose turning up toward the ceiling. “Sun’s almost down. Tick tock…”
Without thinking, I snatched the gun up off the table and pointed it at Cordelia, firing off one shot. Her body bent inward slightly with the impact, but she soon righted herself and laughed. “You idiot. Bullets can’t kill me.”
It was my turn to smile as I fired one more shot into her abdomen and set the gun down. “Maybe not, but the one thing I’ve learned from the files we took from the lab, was that because you’re still half wolf, blood continues to flow through your veins…” Cordelia’s eyebrows pulled together as she looked down at her belly, her balance a little off as she plucked out the flowery pink darts. “Which means you can still be tranquilized.”
“You biii—” Her words were slurred as her eyes rolled back into her head, and she slumped to the floor in a heap. I waited a fraction of a second to make sure she was out before running back up the stairs to prepare for battle.
Chapter35 | over
I hadn’t even made it to the top of the stairs before the door was violently ripped off its hinges. Startled, I gripped the banister to keep myself from falling backward and down into the pit. When I looked up, I saw Bobby staring down at me, a sinister smirk on his lips.
Two levels up, windows shattered. Feral growls and battle cries soon followed, along with the smell of charring flesh that polluted the air. My Alpha instincts told me to fight my way past Bobby and help my Pack, but his body blocked the entryway completely. I could try, but I definitely didn’t have the upperhand from my position on the stairs.
“Hey, sis,” Bobby drawled as a crooked grin spread across his smug face. “I see you’ve got company up there.”
Crossing my arms, I shrugged. “Sorry most of them are going to have to split,” I tossed back, hearing the telltale signs of an all-out war going on above us. The Alpha in me ached to push past him and assist my pack.
Bobby didn’t seem too bothered by the high probability of his army being picked off by my Pack. “Whatever happens, they’ve served their purpose. I’m really only here to collect what’s mine. Cordelia, you”—his eyes dropped to my stomach, and he flashed his canines—“and the whelp. And to do that, I knew I couldn’t afford for our time to be interrupted.”
The wolf reacted, and I ran forward, arms outstretched and ready to tear him to shreds. Every part of me wanted to end his miserable existence. His reflexes were fast—faster than I remembered. He pushed against my chest, throwing me backward with such force that I stumbled down the stairs and crashed onto the floor, my back cracking when it hit the leg of the heavy wooden table. Even though I was seeing spots as my vision darkened, I recognized just how much his strength had increased, likely from the mixed bloodlines. This revelation made me momentarily nervous, but I couldn’t let him see it. It was a weakness, and his new wolf side would prey on it and use it to its advantage. It’s what I would do in his position.
With a whimper, I pushed myself to my feet, struggling for a moment with my balance. Bobby seemed pleased with himself as he slowly descended the stairs, eyes constantly on me as he brushed his hands against each other.
“This doesn’t have to be difficult,” he told me, backing me against the cage where Cordelia was passed out on the floor.
I recoiled the minute my back met the silver-infused bars, feeling the heat seep into my skin instantly. Bobby smirked. “You know, I could take that away. Silver wouldn’t bother you any longer.”
“Small price to pay to keep my soul intact,” I snarled up at him. Even from inches away, I could feel the heat from the cage, but I refused to let Bobby see the effect it—or he—was having on me in that moment.
Closing his eyes, Bobby inhaled deeply. “God, I love that feeling.” When his eyes met mine again, they were red with a thin yellow ring around his pupils. The red was intense—almost glowing—and he leaned forward, pressing his hands against the bars on either side of my head, effectively pinning me in place. “I never realized just how powerful a full moon was.”
For the first time since our initial reunion, I could relate to him; the moon’s energy coursed through my veins as the minutes ticked by. The wolf wanted out, but I kept her restrained. With the manor under attack, I didn’t have time to go through the change. I’d been working on channeling the wolf’s power in my human form, so I could only hope for continued success on that front.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about, Brookie.” Bobby leaned in close, his nose brushing my cheek and his vile breath slithering over my skin. “I can sense it running through you.” One of his hands left the bars, but the half-second opportunity I had to escape was thwarted when his hand ensnared my hip, his thumb working its way beneath my shirt until it stroked the swell of my lower belly.
Bile churned in my stomach at the inappropriate gesture, and I snapped. I brought my hands up and shoved, but Bobby barely budged an inch, and soon I felt a searing pain as heat blistered up my spine. It took a few seconds of blind panic for me to realize that Bobby was standing over a foot away from me, smile wide and expression cocky. His arms were crossed and nowhere near my body, yet I couldn’t pull myself away from the cage.
Craning my neck, I noticed the thick, black fur that covered the arm that was wrapped across my chest, and I felt the sharp claws that pierced my left hipbone. Hot, putrid breath poured over my neck, accompanied by a low growl. With the bars pressed against my back, there was only one explanation: Cordelia was awake…and she’d shifted.
She was strong, and Alistair’s barrier had failed against her full-strength hybrid nature. I struggled in her grip, my air supply running out and my shirt embedding itself into my burned flesh with every move. Even though she was just a child, I knew I had to free myself. I didn’t want to hurt her—I still thought maybe she could be saved somehow—but I couldn’t do that if I let her kill me.
I focused on shifting my hands, letting my claws cut through my fingers, and once they were, I reached up and dug them into the side of her neck and shoulder. Cordelia howled in pain, releasing me. I stumbled to the side, away from the cage and my demented brother, gasping for air and trying to ignore the constant sting in my back. I could smell the burned flesh and my blood, and it clouded my head. As the wolf begged to surface, the scent was all I could focus on.
A feral snarl ripped through the room, snapping me back to reality and drawing my attention to its source. Bobby looked shocked, but he soon recovered and was just about to come after me when the cage door exploded off its hinges and Cordelia rushed toward me.
I was rendered speechless when I looked up to find a large beast on two legs. Black fur covered her entire body, and she towered over me. Her yellow-red eyes were locked on me and saliva dripped from her canines. Even though it wasn’t the best time, I found myself wondering how she was awake; those tranquilizers should have taken down someone twice her size…well, someone twice her human size. In her hybrid form, she looked like the Wolfman on steroids. Even though I’d seen her transformation on the surveillance recording, there was something even more terrifying about her up close, and there was no way I could mask that.
Breathing heavily, Cordelia advanced on me again, eyes glassy from the tranquilizer still coursing through her veins, but before sh
e could reach me, Nick came barreling down the stairs with a murderous look in his eyes, Colby and Zach on his heels. They’d returned from the city, which meant my parents had boarded their plane, and I could let that one worry go for now.
Before Nick could reach my brother, Bobby reacted. They collided, both growling and trying to rip each other apart. Cordelia turned to defend Bobby, but Colby and Zach threw themselves into her line of attack while I stood frozen, unsure what to do first.
It wasn’t my finest moment.
The two of them moved too quickly for my eyes to register at first, and at one point, it appeared that Nick might have the upperhand. My optimism was soon crushed when I caught the glint in Bobby’s eyes as he snaked an arm between him and Nick and wrapped a massive hand around my mate’s neck. My eyes widened as I watched Bobby’s hand change form. Claws broke through the ends, like our transformations, and his fingers extended like thick, gnarled tree branches, though giant and mutated.
Panic flashed across Nick’s face as his feet left the ground—something I didn’t think possible since Bobby was of slighter build and always a few inches shorter…or, he used to be. Looking at him now, he’d almost doubled in size right before my eyes. He was going through his own transition, shifting into his hybrid form, and if it was anything like Cordelia’s, I knew we would be in trouble. We didn’t have a good enough idea what we were up against, and we saw what Cordelia had become and how easily she’d bested one of our own on that recording.
I acted without thinking, running forward as I ignored the pain still pulsing through my body. I leapt onto Bobby’s back, wrapping my right arm around his neck and bracing my left behind his head, holding it in place with my right hand. He choked and gagged, and I really hoped that his lungs functioned like ours and he might pass out. He dropped Nick and stumbled back a few steps, slamming me into the wall behind us. The weapons that hung on the walls clattered to the concrete floor as the air was forced from my lungs, pain shooting up my back as he whipped around and tried clawing at me.