by Kim Faulks
Zadoc jerked and shuddered. He never fought, never screamed…as though he knew this was coming. A warped chuckle slipped from his lips as he shook his head. He opened his arms as they swarmed the cell.
Something was very wrong.
The way he was acting… I shuffled along the bars as they reached for his hands. “Zadoc…Zadoc!”
He never answered, only watched the bitch enter.
“This is funny to you?” A merciless edge filled her tone. She lifted her hand and pointed at the center of his chest. “Make this lying sonofabitch yield.”
The demon lifted its head and shrieked. The sound pierced my head. Fragments of rock rained from the stony ceiling above. I slapped my hands over my ears as Zadoc stumbled and then fell.
Two wolves rushed in, grabbing his arms. One drew back his foot and drove it into the back of Zadoc’s knee, bringing the Dragon to his knees.
She circled him like a predator. “Who is it? Who is giving away our secrets?”
Zadoc raised his head and held her gaze.
“You won’t talk? You won’t tell me who’s betraying us?” She stilled, waiting for him to answer.
But his response was in the curved corner of his mouth. She flinched as a viciousness settled in her gaze. “Get him to his feet and strip him.”
The demon clenched its bony fist. Zadoc’s skin paled, he dropped his head, long, sodden clumps of hair covered his face.
“Don’t you dare touch him!” I threw myself at the bars. “Get your filthy fucking hands off him. Get off him!”
One wolf gripped the edge of his thin cotton pants. I had a second to wonder where his jeans had gone…until I remembered the house. They were shredded, leaving him with these thin hospital pants, just like mine.
His body was thin…too thin. His skin covered hard bones like a thin shroud. The sight was a blow to my chest. The image of him hunkered in the bushes filled my mind. Why didn’t I just take his hand? Why didn’t I just trust?
The hard edges of his bones threw shadows across his skin. He looked gaunt and filthy, battered and bruised. How many bones had been broken? How many bones had to mend?
The Huntress dropped her gaze, taking in his chest, his stomach, and then lower. Something inside me clenched in horror. “Get your fucking eyes off what’s mine, you two-face sallow cunt.”
The words spewed from my mouth, vile and vicious. I’d fucking kill her. I’d tear her apart. I’d claw and bite. I’d burn…oh yes, I’d fucking burn. My baby kicked and the throb of butterfly wings followed. I wanted to set fire to this entire fucking world and burn them all. I’d do it all with my Dragon by my side.
“Someone’s been here,” the Huntress growled, breathing in the filth of this place. “And recently. Who were they, Dragon?”
She reached for him, brushing her fingers across his shoulder. I flinched and revulsion twisted my stomach.
“Who were they, Dragon? Someone powerful…someone able to slip into this world without so much as a trace?”
He never moved, letting her run her fingers over his chest. She mapped the same scars I had, touched the same skin I loved—but there was no kindness in her touch—only dominance.
“Open your mind,” she trailed her hands lower, skirting the outside of his hip. “Open your mind and let me in.”
His jaw tightened, body shuddered. I was torn from looking at the demon and them. I swallowed acid as her hand dropped lower, skimming the top of his thigh. I wanted to scream at him to tell her. I’d do anything…say anything for her not to…
The soldier reared in my mind. I could still feel his hands on my breast, still feel the loss of control…still feel like a victim. That feeling grew warped….a victim. I looked across the cell to where X stood silently. I understood her coldness now, understood there was no name, for there was no connection and no power.
And that’s what this was all about…power. This bitch wanted to take—by force if she had to. But he still had a choice—he still had his power. A second ago, I wanted him to tell her. I wanted this atrocity to stop. But now…now, I was filled with vengeance and burning with hate.
“Fuck her!” I spat. “Don’t tell her. Don't tell her a damn thing. I hope it eats at you. I hope it tears you up inside always wanting to know. But you never will.”
I threw my arms wide, letting her see the immortal child I carried. An immortal within a mortal.
Zadoc wrenched his head toward me. His red eyes glowed with a fire I now understood.
“I’m here. I’m right here, right now. Fuck the future. Fuck the past. What we do right now is the only thing we can control. So you don’t tell her a damn thing and let her slink back into the fucking hole she came from.”
I saw it then, saw what gave him strength, and it wasn't from his immortal soul and the ability to heal. It was the fire…the same damn fire I now shared. It was the fight. The battle.
I kept his gaze, even as her hand moved to clasp his cock. I gave him everything, every ounce of my strength, every lash of the fire I felt inside me. This was where power lay—this was the one thing she would never have.
She pumped her hand up and down, never stopped moving—never stopped touching. “Are you a man? Are you a fucking man, Dragon? You don’t feel like one. You don’t act like one.”
The fire dulled in his eyes, red darkened to black as she clenched and rubbed, then with a scream of frustration stepped back. Her hand whipped through the air and I was caught on the arc—tethered by his stony gaze.
Her palm hit his cheek with a crack. The sound rebounded from the walls. Her sudden inhale followed. She wasn't winning…she wouldn’t win…but at what cost?
And what would happen to the man when this was all over?
“Demon.” Vipers came alive in her tone. “Come to me.”
The hungering black shape moved, gliding across the floor toward her.
“I wonder what would happen to the man, if the Dragon changed? If the Dragon, became something else?”
I flinched at her words and broke Zadoc’s gaze.
“Hold him still,” she commanded, “and get that camera.”
She lifted the Demon’s wrist high in the air. “Open the Dragon’s mouth.”
Zadoc’s eyes widened as she dug into her jeans and withdrew a small blade. The cell was filled with a flurry of movement as one wolf after another surrounded him.
“Open,” she hissed and drew the blade along the demon’s wrist.
Drops of inky blood hit the ground.
“No!” Zadoc roared.
He charged, throwing the wolves from his back. But more came, and when the demon moved close and raised his hand—I knew in my heart it was over.
Skeletal bones shone white against Zadoc’s pale skin as the demon gripped him. Veins bulged along Zadoc’s neck, tendons strained. A sickening sound tore from his lips as his knees buckled.
X stood wide-eyed against the far side, unable to move.
I gripped the bars as my senses shut down, one after another. “X…”
Her haunted eyes found mine. She stepped close and curled her fingers around the bars. There was nothing we could do, no words we could say that would stop her…all we had was each other.
Zadoc screamed and our child kicked. I pressed one hand against my stomach and felt the life within. I would end it all…if I could. Every hurt…every tear…I would take it all away…just the three of us.
“Get that camera ready.”
A harsh gurgle filled the room. I kept X’s gaze as they fed the man I loved demon’s blood.
“They say you can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl… I wonder if that’s true for someone like you?”
X growled at the words, low and predatory.
“What do you think? Hmm?” she asked standing over him.
Demon blood smeared black against his face as he fought.
“I’m going to kill you…” I gripped the bars and rocked. “I’m going to
kill you all.”
“Do you think I can take the Dragon out of you?” She never missed a fucking beat. “What would that make you, I wonder? Half a man? An immortal with no real purpose? I think I like that idea and I think we’re about to find out.”
15
Zadoc
A sickness bit into my brain. Savaging with razored teeth.
I’d protected the Wretched. I’d kept him safe in the quiet of my mind where man and God became one. Now there was no protecting. Now there was…no…God.
There was only…this disease.
This stain that spread through my organs and stuck to my nerves…
Changing the primal—exposing the dark.
The Wretched howled, and thrashed. Burning the blackness that stuck to his skin and shattered his wings. He was half a beast now…and less of a man. One horn sat flat on the back of his neck…the other, gone. Sawn with bloodied blade and taken from me.
He fought not just for my life…but for hers.
The inferno in my veins raged…but there was no heat…there was no fire—only an icy sting and a savaging cold, leaving orange embers to turn black and carve an ebony river across my soul.
And as the old bones crumbled, deep within the rumble…there was a voice.
Something slick and slimy…a death’s rattle that called not just to me.
Kill them… the infection whispered. Kill them all.
You’re stronger than this, my Dragon screamed. Fight…fight for her…
“We’re never getting out of here, are we?”
I cracked my eyes open at the sound of a voice. Her voice. The woman…I knew her…Joslyn.
The sharp scent of blood invaded. She dragged me closer to the surface.
I kept my breaths even, tasting the mold on my tongue, and the blood in the air.
Different, the sickness roared inside me cold and merciless, like I had slipped this sheath of lies…and this was the real me.
No…not real…not honest…not true…not someone who defends…not someone who protects. Not someone she could love.
“You give up now, Joslyn, and we’ve lost,” X growled. “But more important, they’ve won. Is that what you want?”
“No.”
Silence lingered. Joslyn’s tortured voice filled my ears. “Why are we still here, why hasn’t someone come to get us by now?”
“Because they've only just found out you're down here,” snapped a male.
I opened my eyes as he came closer, heaving pails to dump at the door to my cell.
The woman, Joslyn moved, heaving her round body from the ground. “How? We’ve been here for months…look at us…”
The male wolf shook his head. “Time moves different…months down here is weeks up there. They’re comin’ just hold on to that baby of yours a little longer.”
The male fixed on me. One white eye flinched. I dragged in the smell of him…this same darkness lingered on his clothes and stained his air. But inside he was different. Inside he was…clean.
“What have they done to you, Dragon?” he murmured and reached for his packet. “What the Hell have they done—”
“Don’t go in there,” the tiny wolf in the cell snapped. “Not if you want to end up like them.”
I punched one wing out, stabbing the soft things at my feet and dragging them close.
A fetid smell bloomed. Something rotten, festering. I dragged one of those soft things into the air. It hung, punctured on the end of my spike.
“Jesus,” the pale-eyed wolf whispered.
I shoved that soft thing into my mouth and bit. Bones shattered, crunching like gravel in my teeth.
“Who are they?” the white-eyed wolf whispered.
“Wolves. Those who came for their daily dose of pain. I guess it didn’t turn out like they expected.”
“Can you let me in there?”
I flinched at those words and swung my head toward the sound. The human…Joslyn…her name is Joslyn…remember Zadoc. Remember her.
Images surfaced in my mind. The taste of her lips, her skin…her love. This is your child, she whispered and placed my hand on the tiny bump. She was bigger now, well-rounded and ripe. Filled with potential, filled with hope.
She gripped the steel bars and raised her head, looking…up and up…all the way to meet my gaze.
Your child, Zadoc, she murmured in my mind. Your son…that’s what we’re having—a son.
“You can hear me, can’t you? You can understand what I’m saying,” Joslyn whispered. She shoved her swollen belly into the bars and slipped her hand through. “Are you in there, Zadoc?”
“Joslyn, don’t…he’s not the same,” the female wolf warned on the other side of the cells.
“He’s in there. I have to believe he’s in there somewhere. Fight, Zadoc. Please keep fighting—for me.” She waited, and then dropped her hand and turned to the pale-eyed wolf. “You said they’re coming, right? Whoever they are.”
I could see the cogs turning inside her head. She bit her bottom lip and the sight of that sent a shiver along my spine. I curled my tail, dragging it closer to my body.
“I need you to get a message to someone. Can you do that, Mack? Can you do that for him? My brother’s a Deputy in Nyx County. I need you to tell him where they’re taking us. He’ll find us…he’ll come for us. I know he will.”
The old wolf shook his head. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with, do you? You think all this is the best these people can do? They have politicians in their pockets and a whole army at their disposal. They take whoever they want—and they can also kill.”
“We have to keep fighting,” she snapped. “I refuse to give up, not on him, and not on getting out of this alive.”
Terror contorted his mouth. “The last time I tried to protect the Dragon, I lost my eye, and couldn’t walk for a damn month.”
“I know, and I’m sorry, Mack. I’m so fucking sorry, and if I could fix your eye, I would. You want out of this, right? You want out of this place and to be rid of these people? We can help you. Zadoc’s family can help you. They have a pack and an Alpha that’s kind. They can protect you. They can keep us safe.”
His pale eye weeped a thick, mucousy tear that ran down his cheek. He swiped it away with the back of his hand and pulled the key from the lock. “Can’t make no promises. But I’ll see what I can do. Now I have water…he might be immortal, but you aren’t. Step back in that cell now, step back so I can bring you some food and blankets too. I guess the Dragon won’t be hungry, so you can have his food too. Made it myself.”
Joslyn dropped her hand from the bar and moved back. “Thank you, Mack. Thank you so much.”
He shoved the key into the lock and twisted. He was in and out in a second and moved to the female wolf. She complied, mirroring Joslyn’s movements, and then the pale-eyed wolf was gone, leaving us alone with the stench of death in the air and the faint trace of hope.
16
Joslyn
The echo of boots tore through the cavern. I stilled the constant brush of my fingers against the tip of the Dagon’s tail and straightened.
Just a play of my mind…a memory of the past. Still the march continued, climbing louder with every heartbeat.
The Dragon swung his head toward me, and stared with those soulless black eyes. The man I loved was in there somewhere, fighting this disease.
The cavern floor shuddered, sending vibrations through my thighs. I pressed my hand against the stony ground and felt the tremble.
Something was coming…no, something was here.
“X,” I whispered, but she was already standing, turning to face the front of her cell.
“Get to the back of the cell, Joslyn.”
It’d been days since Mack’s visit…and months since they infected my Dragon with demon’s blood. Months sitting here, waiting…hoping to God this baby didn’t come. Months hoping we’d get out of here…and months terrified of where they were taking us to.
Nick
strode through the opening to the cavern. His chin out, blue eyes glinting with a taste of power. He lifted a hand and pointed to X. “That one stays. The other two are to be loaded with the female wolves.” He lifted his head as he stopped outside my cell. “I’ll take care of this one myself.”
I wrenched my head toward X as one by one the soldiers filled the space in two rows. The back team raised their weapons.
Red lights danced in the center of my chest. I shook my head and took a step forward. “X comes with us. She comes with us.”
A sickening grin curled the edges of Nick’s mouth. White fangs peeked out underneath. I clenched my fist and took a step. Agony flared in the small of my back and ran down the length of my thigh. “She comes with us, Nick. If you’ve got a problem, then you take it up with me.”
A grating sound was followed by a heavy thump. The red laser sight tilted upward, following the center of its target as Zadoc climbed to his feet. Nick wrenched his head toward the movement.
One of the soldiers gagged with the stench. Another winced, followed with another and another. Hate burned inside me. I wanted to scream at them, Don’t you dare look at him. Don’t you dare judge!
I spun back to Nick and swallowed my outrage. I had to try to find some common ground, beg if I had to. I wouldn’t leave her…not without a fight—and this was me fighting. “Would you like to feel the baby move?”
He flinched and wrenched his head back to me. Those savage eyes dropped lower. I tried to remember what I’d found so attractive. The same cocky stance was there, the same hard body…but he was nothing more than a cardboard cut-out, a washed out version of a real man—of someone like Zadoc.
His skin turned ashen. “What?”
“The baby…he is yours, biologically speaking.”
“He?”
“Yes, he. I believe I’m having a son.” I took a slow step closer. Those red lights blinked moving with me.
“That’s far enough,” one of the soldiers warned.
Nick wrenched his head left to look over his shoulder and snapped. “She’s a pregnant human for fucks sake. I think I can handle it.”