Victor slowly opened his eyes. He looked at her with sleepy contentment and smiled. “Mine.” He brushed a hand across her cheek and down her chest, settling it on her waist. The chain rattled between them, dragging on the floor. Then his expression fell away and the human side of him was looking back at her. “Did I hurt you?”
“Yes,” she admitted, “but in a good way.”
His frown deepened. “It wasn’t too much?”
Back to this again. She cupped his cheek. “I know you think you lost control, but it wasn’t enough for me to want to stop. It was rough, but it was good.” So good. Her pussy tingled. If they had more time and if she wasn’t so sore, she would go for another round.
“Are you sure?” He slid his hand down to her hip.
She nodded. “I knew you wouldn’t hurt me.” She hadn’t been a hundred percent sure, but she’d been sure enough.
“I should stop doubting you. You keep being right.”
Claire smiled. “Nice to see you’ve learned something.”
Victor chuckled. “I do learn eventually.” He turned serious again. “You didn’t have to take such a risk to prove it to me.”
“It wasn’t just about you.” Her stomach fluttered.
He watched her, one hand gently rubbing her hip.
She drew in a breath as she gathered her courage. She didn’t even want to admit this to herself, but she wanted to be honest with him. “I had to prove it to myself too, because if you can’t control yourself, if there’s not enough human left in you, then I’m just…”
“In love with a monster.”
She blinked at him. “That’s a…strong word.” Too strong and too soon.
“It’s the right word.” He looked into her eyes, the way he’d looked at her that first day, as if he was trying to look inside her. No, it wasn’t exactly the same. It was…deeper. “At least for me.” He slid a hand up to her face, fingers gently caressing her cheek. “I love you, Claire.”
She swallowed past a sudden lump in her throat. “I’ve known you for a week.” It sounded hollow and she wanted to take it back, to find something better to say.
“Long enough for me. It’s still night, so I’m still honest. Imagine that, a guy who tells you exactly what he’s thinking.”
“What a novelty.” She tried to turn it into a joke but it fell flat. She was too bothered by his confession and her own confusion. She had some feelings for him beyond weird kinky lust, but love? That was jumping the gun. “It’s too soon.” As long as he was being honest with her, she would try to do the same.
“Not a marriage proposal. You don’t have to say yes or no.” He kept touching her cheek. “Just telling you how I feel. As long as you stick around I’m happy.”
In that case, she had a better response. Claire smiled a little and told him, “I’m your partner. I don’t plan on going anywhere.”
He kissed her, sweet and gentle. Not at all what she expected when his wild side was still out. “Want to go for another round?” He slipped his hand down to her shoulder.
It was so, so tempting. Claire sighed. “No, we should check in and get going. Maybe we’ll get back on time today.” Victor grumbled and wiggled closer. She sat. “Really, we should go.”
His gaze drifted to the roof. “I think I’ll stay back here. Sunrise in less than an hour.” He sat up with eerie grace, chains rattling.
“Okay, but we need to take the chains off first.” She looked over at the storage box. “I hope there’s a key in there because I really don’t want to explain this situation.”
When they got back to base, one of the lieutenants gave them a brief report on Patterson and let them know his first night out had been a success. Major Alston came by just before they were dismissed and let them know he was quite pleased by the success of both teams. Now that two pairs had completed a night in the field, the whole program was starting to look viable. He didn’t outright say it, but Victor could tell the other faction in the lab was having a hard time backing up their arguments. Victor and Patterson were buying time for the others.
Claire went with him to his cell, and he considered asking her to stay. Neither the scientists nor the soldiers were likely to allow it, and considering what was inevitable if he had Claire in bed with him, it was probably best not to. As adventurous as Claire was, he didn’t think she was an exhibitionist, especially when her commanding officer would be one of the people watching. Even Victor was embarrassed by the idea of a room full of scientists and soldiers watching him and Claire go at it. Not that it didn’t also turn him on, but still.
So he watched her go with an aching heart. Were stolen moments in an AV all they were going to have? He wanted more. He wanted a fucking house and a real bed and some goddamn privacy. Most of all, he wanted out of this underground cell. He looked around at the three white walls and one clear observation window. Am I gonna spend the rest of my life in this fucking place? He hoped not, because the idea made him want to run off in the night and never come back.
But only if Claire comes with me.
For all the complications being altered caused, it did make a few things simple. He wanted Claire, he loved Claire, and that was that. There was no doubting his feelings even now with his more logical daytime mind.
He got an armed escort to the shower room then went back to his cell to sleep. When he got up that evening, he tried to read one of the battered books they let him keep in the corner of his cell. As usual, he could only concentrate for a few pages before his mind wandered or he got restless and had to pace for a while. Pace for two minutes, read three pages, get fixated on a smell drifting from the hall or the vents, read four pages, think about the nasties he’d killed last night, read another page, think about Claire…
She showed up just before sunset, like she had yesterday. Victor sighed. “Again?”
“It’ll be easier this time.” Berkstrom opened the door for her.
“But you proved your point yesterday.”
She shrugged as she stepped in. “We can make it part of our routine.”
“Why?”
“Because I think it’ll do you good.” Berkstrom closed the door behind her.
Victor stared at her. She stared back. It had been easier last night after the monster woke up. The hard part had been the fear that he was going to hurt her. Now he knew he would never hurt her, not even the thing that lived inside him. It knew her, even loved her in its own way. “You’re probably right.” He went to the bed and sat.
She snorted. “Of course I’m right.”
He smiled as she walked over to join him. She sat close enough that their shoulders touched. Too close. “Give me a little space when nightfall comes.” She opened her mouth to argue and he held up a hand. “Please. It’s…intense. Having you this close on top of all that is too much.”
She studied him for a long moment and then nodded. “How far away should I be?”
He looked across the cell. “Sit in the chair. Just for a few minutes, right when it happens.”
Claire didn’t look happy about it, but she sighed and nodded again.
He put a hand on her thigh, flashing back to last night. The feel of her straddling him. The feel of her under him. Maybe tonight he’d be brave enough—crazy enough?—to try it without the chains. He drew a deep breath as the rim of the sun hovered on the horizon. The thing that had been born with the injection stirred, so close to the surface. “Now,” he said. “Over there.”
For once Claire didn’t argue. She got up and backed toward the chair, watching him. Seconds after she sat, full dark rushed through him. As he often did, he put his arms up and spread them wide, the creature inside him welcoming the night. Oh, it felt so good. Freedom humming in his blood. When the sensation faded a little, he opened his eyes and looked at Claire. He took a deep breath, drawing in her scent.
“Are you done?” she asked.
Victor laughed. “Mmm, just getting started.” He crossed the room in the space of a second and
smiled at the way she flinched. She glared at him and he laughed again, running a hand down her arm. Claire stood, pushing him out of the way. “Do I have to remind you we have work to do?” Her face was set, but there was a glint in her eyes. Her scent spoke of desire and strength.
“I know. But we have fifteen minutes.” He buried his nose her hair.
“Victor—”
Then the alarms went off.
Claire’s heart jumped into her throat and she stumbled away from Victor. “What is it?” she asked as she turned to Berkstrom.
From the other side of the glass, his wide eyes looked back at her. “I don’t know.”
She fumbled for the earpiece to her com and put it in. Silence. Then she remembered she hadn’t turned it on yet. It was one of the last things she did before leaving base. She flicked it on.
“Escaping! I repeat, the alts are escaping. All guards to the holding cells. All scientists evacuate to the first floor. Use of deadly force is authorized.”
Berkstrom had a hand radio held to his ear, his eyes even wider as he looked at Claire. Then his gaze shifted past her. Claire turned to face Victor. He had his hands held to his ears, his face scrunched up in pain. The whooping alarm had to be hell on his sensitive ears.
“They’re escaping,” she shouted.
He looked like he hadn’t heard her, and he crouched down, backing toward the bed. Victor didn’t seem interested in escaping unless it was to get away from that sound. What had happened? How had one of the alts escaped, let alone several of them? Every time they left their cells they were escorted by guards and they didn’t move more than one at a time.
Then she heard noises over the alarm. Gunshots from out in the hall. “Holy shit,” Berkstrom said. “How am I supposed to get out of here? They’re coming this way.”
“Just stay calm,” she told him without taking her eyes off Victor. She went toward him as he kept backing away. “Victor, you need to calm down.”
The outer door opened and more sound rushed in. Gunfire, shouting, the inhuman sounds of nasties. She turned, wondering if the alts had gotten inside. Instead, she saw three guards rush in, guns ready. They closed and locked the door behind them. Berkstrom quickly shifted out of their way. The lead guard said, “Number Five is still in his cell. Proceeding with termination.”
Termination? That one word terrified her more than the other alts running amuck in the building. Claire had left her rifle upstairs, but she still had her handgun. She wasn’t thinking with her head now, but with her gut, and her gut said she had to do everything she could to protect Victor. The guards opened the door and she pointed the gun at the first guard’s head. “Leave him alone.” In the back of her mind, a voice whispered that she was being irrational. She was risking her future, jail time, even her life.
“Stand down, Lieutenant. He’s a threat and he need to be eliminated.”
She kept herself between the guards and Victor. “Does he look like a threat?” She could almost feel him still crouching there, hands over his ears.
All three guards shifted their gaze higher as a deep rumble cut through the noise of the alarm. Oh shit. This wasn’t going to help their case at all. “Lower your guns. He thinks you’re threatening me. Victor, shut up and sit.”
“Step away from the creature, Lieutenant. We have our orders.”
One of the guards tried to flank her and she shifted her gun to him. “I’m not letting you kill him.” The alarm cut out in the middle of her sentence, her voice loud in the sudden silence.
“Claire,” Victor said through a growl. “Get out. It’s okay.”
“Fuck you. Don’t you dare try to pull a martyr routine on me.”
“Lieutenant, if you refuse to get out of the way, we’re authorized to use deadly force.” All three of the guards were as close to the door as they could get. They looked focused, but she bet they smelled like fear.
“Victor isn’t a threat unless you try to attack us. Go help out there. It sounds like they could use you.” The sounds of chaos were much louder without the alarm whooping.
“This is your final warning, Lieutenant. I’m going to count to three…”
She felt the beginning of panic and tried to shove it down. Panicking wouldn’t help anything, especially when she was facing down three guards with rifles. She actually considered what her chances were of killing one or two of them before they killed her. Am I really going to die for Victor? Would I really kill my fellow soldiers? An idea occurred to her. She didn’t like the risk, but it was better than watching them gun down Victor or getting herself killed trying to stop them.
“I want to talk to Major Alston.”
“We don’t have time for this.”
“He’s a little busy at the moment,” one of the other guards added.
“I bet there’s people dying out there. Why don’t you get out, seal the floor. Victor could kill the others for you.” The words tried to stick in her throat. She might be sending him to his death.
“Lieutenant, I’m not in a position to make such a decision, and even if I was—”
Someone pounded on the outer door. Berkstrom jumped and looked at Claire as if asking her permission.
“See who it is,” the lead guard shouted.
Berkstrom went to the door and opened it a crack before flinging it wide. Major Alston staggered in, bleeding from his left arm. “Quick, they’re after me!” Berkstrom closed and locked the door. Claire watched them with one eye and kept the other on the guards.
“Sir, is that you?” The lead guard asked.
“Yes it’s—what the hell is going on in here?”
“We’ve got a bit of a problem, sir.”
“They want to kill Victor and I won’t let them.”
“The order went out to kill all the alts,” the major said.
“But Victor can help,” she insisted.
Her gaze kept flicking between the guards and Alston. He held his left arm, blood trickling through his fingers as he studied the situation in the cell. “How?”
“I don’t know what happened to the others, but he’s fine. Well…you know what I mean. We can send him after them instead of risking the guards.”
“Sir, we have our orders,” the guard said.
“Stand down,” the major told them. “Lower your guns and get out of there. I want to consider this.”
They backed out of the cell, weapons still raised. When the door was closed and locked behind them, they pointed their guns at the floor. Claire lowered hers as well and some of the tension left her shoulders. They weren’t safe yet, but at least they didn’t have weapons pointed at them. “Thank you, sir.”
“So you want me to send Victor after them?”
No. “Yes,” she said. “What happened out there, sir?”
“Patterson went nuts. Killed his escort and almost got me. Probably killed his partner too. He started opening the other cells to let the others out. I don’t know how many are out there. I saw a few nasties when I tried to get down the hall, so someone must have gotten to the pens.” He shook his head. “Fuck. It’s all gone to hell.”
“Not all. You still have me,” Victor said.
Claire turned to look at him and saw the tension running through his body. He was trying to stay calm.
“Do you think you stand a chance against them?” she asked quietly, feeling guilty for offering him up. But she hadn’t known what else to do.
He grinned, showing teeth. “Oh yeah.”
“Monroe, how do I know you’re not going to go batshit like the rest of them if I let you out?” the major asked.
“I know, don’t know how to prove it except show you.” He flexed his fingers and shifted his feet.
Claire moved closer so she could put a hand on his arm. “Let him out. Let him prove this experiment isn’t a total failure. He’s too useful to waste just because the others are defective.”
“He is the most stable of the alts,” Berkstrom piped up.
“We thoug
ht Patterson was stable too.”
“I’m not him,” Victor said with a slight growl.
“Damn straight,” she muttered.
“Look, Scarlotti, I don’t want to do this, but it’s gonna take a hell of a lot to convince the brass this isn’t a failure. Doctor Lathell is probably reporting to them right now, telling them he was right the whole time. Jesus, listen to it out there.” It sounded like a battle, made all the louder with sounds bouncing off the walls.
“They’re out there, and we’re stuck in here,” Claire pointed out. “And you’re bleeding. That’s going to draw a lot of attention. How about the guards go first and me and Victor take up the rear. We can get you and Berkstrom out of here. Then me and Victor can go back in and clean up this mess.” Just like that, she was including herself. She thought about it for half a second, but no, she couldn’t let him take on the other alts by himself.
The major looked at his wounded arm and gave her a considering look. “I want both of you to come back alive.”
She fought against a smile. “Yes, sir.” This was it, her moment to do something great, to make a difference.
“Let them out, Berkstrom, and let’s get out of here.”
She wasn’t looking forward to going out in the hall, but at least now they had a fighting chance.
Victor nudged her. “Let’s go kill something.”
This time she did smile.
Chapter Nine
Three seconds after the first guard entered the hallway, one of them yelled and they all started firing. The scents filling Victor’s nose made him a little dizzy—blood, gunpowder, lead, rage, fear, humans, nasties and the strange scent of the alts. Victor pushed Berkstrom aside and the scientist stumbled back as far as the small space would allow him.
“Wait, we’re supposed to take up the rear,” Claire said, grabbing his arm.
Taming the Darkness: Love & Monsters, Book 2 Page 8