“Brute force? You think you can beat us in a fight?” Edgar laughed, then took a step closer to Marcus. “Brother, you don’t even know the battlefield you’re standing on.”
“Us”?
Edgar looked over Marcus’s shoulder as Vaughn muttered an expletive.
Tessa’s scent strengthened in the room. Why had she come back?
When she whimpered, Marcus wheeled around. A man was holding her in the doorway—one arm tight around her waist and her neck pinched in his other hand.
A man who looked exactly like Edgar, even down to the suit.
The new Edgar smiled in a mirror expression to the first. He nuzzled the side of Tessa’s head. “We’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time. Did you really think we’d leave anything to chance?”
Marcus turned, slashing at the first Edgar, claws raking over the Hive Father’s face. Dozens of his white maggoty dwellers fell to the ground, then crawled back to his shoes and merged into his body. The claw marks sealed as Marcus watched. He hadn’t even managed to wipe the smile off the bastard’s face.
“Try that again, and we’ll break her neck.” The first Edgar nodded at the second.
“I thought you wanted her,” Porter said.
The first Edgar gave a half-shrug and his smile deepened. “We want a lot of things right now. And we never said we needed her alive.”
Many dwellers transformed corpses. Marcus’s skin felt electrified from the adrenaline in his system, his fur standing on end. He didn’t know how to protect Tessa—or anyone.
“Marcus, stand down.” Dexter was back. Who the hell knew where Brock had gone.
Marcus would always be able to tell them apart now, though. And he didn’t need the fucking pronouns to do know when Brock was somehow occupying one of his replicants’ bodies. Just like he’d be able to know if Edgar was in more than one place by how the Hive Father spoke.
“We said stand down,” Dexter said again.
Marcus growled and stepped back, positioning himself closer to Tessa.
“Well done,” The second Edgar said. “Commanding an alpha werewolf.”
“But then, we’d expect nothing less from you.” The first Edgar actually sounded moved as he finished his statement. “Our son.”
Dexter’s perpetual smirk had turned into a snarl. His lip was twitching, as if he wanted to kill Edgar as much as Marcus did. Maybe more.
“We have a father,” Dexter said. “His name is Eli.”
Tessa let out a sound like a strangled moan.
Eli was her father? The head of the Blades’ medical division?
Marcus had met Eli before. He was a good man.
They had to get through this. Marcus had to get them to safety—to reunite Tessa’s family.
“Still clinging to the humans who raised you?” The second Edgar’s smile turned to a hard, cold line. “They weren’t a father and mother. They were a kidnapper and a murderer.”
Disgust clouded Dexter’s features. “You might have seduced our biological mother into marrying you, but if she’d known what you were—”
“Those humans you’re so fond of didn’t give her a chance,” the first Edgar snapped. “If she hadn’t run, we could have been a family. Instead, your ‘parents’ killed her and took you from us. And now you’ve made this perverse organization.”
“Coming from you, that’s rich,” Dexter said.
“Dwellers don’t fight amongst ourselves,” the first Edgar said. “We help each other or ignore each other. We don’t turn on each other.”
Maybe that was why Marcus’s dweller was being so quiet around Edgar. Dexter had no problem speaking up, though.
“The Blades don’t exist to kill dwellers,” Dexter said. “We’re working toward peace.”
“Peace with this primitive species?” The first Edgar snorted. “Humans haven’t even forged peace among their own kind.”
The second Edgar stepped closer to Dexter, bringing Tessa along. “There are thousands of dweller species on this planet, all coexisting in harmony. Until you.”
“Thousands of species?” Porter’s face lit with curiosity.
Marcus didn’t like it. He did like how everyone’s attention was diverted, allowing him to inch closer to Tessa.
“If we had been able to raise you, we would have taught you your true origins,” the second Edgar said. “We could have shown you what you are.”
“And what’s that?”
“A hydra.” The first Edgar smiled. His voice became a little breathless as he went on. “We had no idea what would happen when we mingled our genes with your human mother. This is better than anything we’d imagined.”
“A hydra? Like in Greek mythology?” Porter stepped closer.
The first Edgar nodded. “They’re very rare. We’ve never met one in person. Human legends about dwellers always have some basis in truth. They say that when you chop off one of a hydra’s many heads, two more sprout up in its place. How does that manifest with you?”
Porter let out a tiny huff of breath. “Unpleasantly.”
The first Edgar’s smile grew.
“We always wondered where hydra came from,” the second Edgar said. “Now that we know, we’ll be sure to make more. After we take care of business here.”
Marcus growled, his hands curling as he waited for an opening. He would grab the second Edgar’s arms and crush them into maggots, letting Tessa escape. He just needed a chance…
But the second Edgar wasn’t looking at Tessa. She seemed almost forgotten in his grip. He was looking at Vaughn instead.
“You really have gathered an odd assortment of beings around you, son,” the second Edgar said. “An alpha werewolf without a pack, a proto-Hive Mother managing to keep her infection at bay, and most interestingly...”
The first Edgar took a step closer to Vaughn. Dexter drew his sword and brought it to Edgar’s neck in a graceful move that took a fraction of a second.
“It might not kill you, but it’ll slow you down,” Dexter said.
The first Edgar laughed. “You have no idea, do you? The danger lurking in your midst.”
Marcus had always considered himself the hidden danger among the Blades. The one werewolf operating as a Guard. But both Edgars were still looking at Vaughn.
“What…me?” Vaughn said. “I’m just the IT guy.”
“Hmm.” The first Edgar nodded. “You designed the prison? And all the technology we’ve seen so far?”
“I have a knack for engineering. So what?” Vaughn shrugged, backing toward the fridge as the second Edgar took a step forward, Tessa held tight in his grip.
“Not a knack,” the second Edgar said. “We tasted it in your genes. The purest sample we’ve come across in centuries. You’re a curator.”
“Shit.”
Marcus was stunned at his dweller’s response—and at the visceral fear that shot through his body. For the first time, it fed him images of killing Vaughn. A quick snap of the neck. A clean ending, not like the ones it constantly fed Marcus about Dexter.
“Kill him,” it thought. “Kill him now, or your planet is doomed.”
“We are done.” Marcus yelled the words in his mind. There was no way—no fucking way—he was going to hurt Vaughn. And he wasn’t about to let the Edgars near his beta.
“What’s a curator?” Porter said.
“Something much more dangerous than any dweller you’ve encountered,” the second Edgar said. “Killing him is more important than anything else. Not just for dwellers, but for all life on this planet. If you want to protect everyone, as you say, you’ll kill him immediately.”
“I’m just the IT guy…” Vaughn said again.
“You aren’t just anything.” The first Edgar’s smile turned to a grimace, all of his teeth showing as his lips peeled back further than any human’s could. He pressed against Dexter’s sword, the metal easily parting the Hive Father’s flesh—which sealed itself on the other side.
The second Edgar
took another step forward, pushing Tessa along with him, then finally did what Marcus was waiting for. He relaxed his grip on Tessa’s throat.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The instant the version of Edgar holding Tessa lightened his chokehold on her, Marcus was on him. She knew it would happen and had been readying herself. She didn’t know Marcus was going to grab that Edgar’s arm and…rip it off.
Lines of white-hot pain streaked across her neck as the Hive Father’s nails dug through her flesh. She would survive—as long as she kept it together. And as long as the Edgar holding on to her did as well.
Edgar maintaining a semblance of human form meant she had something to gain leverage against. Tessa rammed her elbow hard into the Edgar’s gut, twisting out of his grip.
The arm in Marcus’s hand exploded into a shower of tiny maggot-things. At the same time, the rest of that Edgar’s body dropped its form, dwellers raining down on the floor around where he had stood.
“Don’t let any of them touch you.” Tessa’s throat felt raw as she shouted her warning.
She grabbed Vaughn’s arm and pushed him behind the kitchen island, picking up the closest weapon—Vaughn’s carving knife. Vaughn grabbed a fire extinguisher, and started spraying down the dwellers writhing on the floor. The cold seemed to be slowing them down.
Genius.
The first Edgar swiveled around with Dexter’s sword still buried in his throat. He smacked Dexter’s arm hard enough to make him lose his grip. Dexter leapt back out of reach.
The maggots on the ground were slowly crawling toward Edgar, merging with his into one body. If they could break him down into those tiny pieces, they still couldn’t crush every single dweller. She didn’t think they could even keep track of them all. But if he stayed together, maybe they had a chance…to escape, at least.
“Children.” Edgar pulled the sword from his neck and let it clatter to the ground. “We’re going to be a family, one way or another. Tessa’s even picked out a pet.”
Marcus let out a low growl, then stomped his foot down in the mass of dwellers on the floor. Edgar just laughed, teeth still bared in a skeleton’s grin.
“How petty. And futile. But by all means, continue if it makes you feel better.” Edgar took a deep breath through his nose, then pointed at the fridge. “There’s plenty of biomatter in there to create more of me.”
Tessa wished he would revert to his human appearance. He normally only wore his grimace when he was about to feed.
She stepped in front of Vaughn, pointing the knife at Edgar. “Put away your teeth. Vaughn isn’t on the menu.”
Edgar hissed in a breath. “Eat a curator? Disgusting. I just want to kill him.”
“Over my dead body,” she said.
“Darling, your death has been on the agenda since before you were born.” Edgar laughed. “Your mother saw to that. Once you die, my dwellers can spread without any resistance.”
“You lied to me,” she said. “You told me you killed my family.”
“No, I said your family was dead.” He shrugged. “I figured they probably were. I was only trying to protect you.”
She let out an incredulous breath. “From what?”
“Hope. The absolute worst human emotion. The most dangerous. It makes humans do stupid things. Dangerous things. Like hope making you think you can protect Vaughn from me. You can’t.”
“You’ll have to go through all of us to get to him.” Dexter pulled out a larger version of Vaughn’s stingray.
“So dramatic.” Edgar shook his head. “But I don’t have to get past you. I’m already right where I want to be.”
He stared at Tessa, and suddenly her right arm started to spasm. Pain radiated up from her forearm.
Her dwellers were awake.
The knife clattered onto the kitchen island as she staggered forward, grabbing onto her arm and squeezing, trying to keep the dwellers from spreading. She could see lumps forming under her wristband as they wriggled around, could feel sharp spikes of agony as they ate her flesh.
“Porter!” Marcus slashed his claws across Edgar’s chest, spilling out more dwellers, and forcing the Hive Father back a few paces.
Porter ran to Tessa’s side. “He’s activated them. We can’t make them go dormant again.”
“Don’t touch me,” Tessa ground out. “They’ll try to infect you, too.”
The wounds on Edgar’s body were already healing. His voice had lost even a façade of warmth. “You seem to think you have a choice about how this will go. You don’t.”
“Says you.” Tessa picked up Vaughn’s knife with her left hand and flicked it to the highest setting. She brought it down on her right arm just below her elbow.
“Tessa!” Vaughn grabbed her shoulders and pulled her away from the counter.
Her arm stayed where it was.
Blood poured from the stump. Plain, human blood. No wriggling dwellers.
She was free.
She started to laugh, but then the pain hit her again—worse than the dwellers eating her alive. Screaming wasn’t an option. She was starting to hyperventilate.
Porter grabbed a towel and wrapped it around the wound, holding her arm tight. “We have to get her out of here.”
“Marcus,” Dexter yelled. “Use a bigger shoe.”
Marcus let out a devastating roar, then grabbed the kitchen island and tore it from its moorings. He picked it up and crushed Edgar with it.
“Help Vaughn,” Marcus yelled. He grabbed Tessa and pulled her against his chest, then ran.
Shapes and colors blurred together. One moment, they were in the house. Then there was a crash of glass and the world turned gray and green. Drops of cold water pattered on her face. She was shivering and couldn’t stop. The pain in her arm had become a dull throbbing beat that kept time with her heart.
It was slowing down.
Nothing felt as urgent as it should. Marcus was saying things, but he seemed far away.
A wave of dizziness hit her as he set her on the ground, hovering over her. Faces swam in and out of view above her. She felt someone jiggling her arm, pressure pinching her right bicep. She struggled to understand the shouting around her. Everyone’s voices were strangely muffled.
“She’s bleeding out,” one of the twins said.
“Don’t get too close.” The other twin this time. “Some of the Hive Father’s dwellers might have made it into her body.”
“Fuck you! That’s my sister.”
Brock was there? Tessa felt another set of hands on her, smoothing her hair away from her face. Tears filled her eyes. She didn’t want him to have to watch her die. It wasn’t right.
Edgar was right about hope. She’d been ready to die until she met the Blades. Until she met Marcus. She had started hoping for another life. Dying now… It hurt so much more.
And Brock must be feeling the same thing. Her father, too. God, her father was going to lose his daughter all over again.
She felt tears roll down her cheeks—only slightly warmer than the rain hitting her face.
“I’m sorry.” Speaking exhausted her. She just wanted to rest.
Someone pulled her face to his neck. No fur. Must be Brock. She could still feel the warmth of Marcus’s pelt. He was holding her against his chest.
“Tessa,” Brock said.
Marcus started to growl. Someone pulled Brock away.
“He’s about to lose it. Edgar is probably en route. We have to get you out of here.”
“I’m your goddamned progenitor. You do as I say and I say we stay.”
She hadn’t heard anything from Vaughn. Not a quip, not a laugh, nothing. Panic surged through her strong enough to make her feel again, to think with a little bit of clarity.
“Vaughn?”
“Yeah, I’m here, Tessa.”
She heard a splash as he knelt next to her, felt his hand on her shoulder, and forced herself to focus on him.
Vaughn was a wreck. His eyes were red and his nose was runnin
g. He was rocking back and forth. The rain had plastered his hair to his pale face. There was still blood soaking his neck and shoulder. He looked like he was about to pass out.
“Thanks for convincing me not to run,” she said.
“You should have run.” His voice shook. “I’m so sorry.”
“No. This was inevitable.” Her eyes drifted shut again. She was too tired to stop it. “I’m glad I got to be part of something first. A family.”
Marcus growled louder. “Vaughn, can you hold yourself together?”
“Are you kidding? Being outside isn’t nearly as scary as what’s in our house right now.”
Marcus leaned forward, his warmth vanishing as Vaughn slid behind her to hold her up.
“Look at me, Tessa,” Marcus said.
She forced her eyes open again, wanting to see Marcus one more time—human or not.
Definitely not.
His gray fur had darkened from the rain. His eyes glowed so brightly, she could barely stand to look into them.
“You told me you were done running,” he said.
“I guess I am.”
He let out another low growl. “Are you done fighting?”
She was so tired. Why wouldn’t he just let her go? There was nothing left to do. She was out of options.
“Tessa, are you done fighting?” Marcus was holding onto her shoulders so hard. It probably would have hurt if she could still feel.
Of course she was done. It would take a miracle to save her. A miracle…
Her heart seemed to stutter as she realized what he was saying, what he was asking.
She didn’t need a miracle to live. She just needed Marcus.
She reached out with her left hand and grabbed the side of his face, burying her fingers in the thick pelt. In a stronger voice than she thought she could manage, she said, “I’m not.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Every cell in his body was thrumming. Marcus was going to turn someone. Someone who was willing to change.
He was turning Tessa.
The only possible obstacles stood a few feet away. Dexter was still holding onto Brock. They were both staring at Marcus.
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