Captive of the Beast

by Lisa Renee Jones

  “You opened the door and invited me in, Walch,” Rinehart said. “Made my job easy.” He smiled. “Face it. You screwed up and the consequences are coming.” He pointed his blade at the ground. “Why don’t you drop to your knees and give me your head. Spare yourself the torture headed your way.”

  Laura watched in horror as Walch’s face shifted, as he became a Beast, his big, red eye fixed on her. “You will bring everyone back to me.”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “Never.”

  “We’ve marked them,” he said. “We own them now.”

  “Only Kresley bears a mark,” Rinehart countered.

  Walch arched a brow. “Are you sure? Are you one hundred percent sure it’s only Kresley?”

  “He’s lying,” Laura said, sensing the lies within him. “I can tell you are lying. Only Kresley is marked.”

  He narrowed his eyes on Laura for a mere moment and then he waved a dismissive hand. “More important, here is the power those marks bestow upon me. They allow me to order her a fate far worse than death. Hallucinations that will make her go insane. Think of this, my dear doctor. Your patient, little Kresley, in the corner, screaming because she thinks snakes are crawling all over her. That is what awaits your little darling. And only I can stop it. Only I can remove the marks.”

  Laura felt the sting of tears; the fear for those she cared about, almost more than she could bear. “Take me instead,” she said, taking a step forward. “I can be everything you need.”

  Rinehart’s hand was instantly on her arm, pulling her back. “No,” he spit out. “No.”

  She looked up at him, the darkness of his expression something she’d never seen in him. There was anger, pain, fierce determination. He would fight her, but she would fight hard. “I have to. I cannot let the others suffer for me.”

  “You will not do this,” he said, his grip tightening on her arm as he faced Walch. “She doesn’t have the ability to clone these people anyway, Walch. None of us do. We never did.”

  “Since she has used herself to create control in the others, she can figure it out,” Walch snarled, and fixed his attention on Laura. “You probably already know how.”

  Instant denial came to Laura. “I don’t! It could take years to discover, but I’ll try. Free everyone but me. I’ll stay and I will find a way to do it. You can clone my abilities.”

  “Oh, you are staying,” he said, and motioned to Rinehart. “And he can bring back the others. You will both work faster with incentives.”

  “They won’t come back without Laura’s influence,” Rinehart said. “She has to come with us. Send Carol to watch over us.”

  Walch laughed. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? A chance to save her, too? Not possible, and that’s a no anyway. Laura stays.”

  “Take me in her place,” Rock said, stepping forward; he dropped his weapons at his feet.

  “No,” Laura said. “No.” She looked at Rinehart. “No one else sacrifices for me.”

  “I’ve told you, Laura,” he said, his voice low, pain lancing his words. “You are dangerous in their hands. You cannot go with them.”

  “I would never do anything to hurt anyone,” she rasped back. “This is my responsibility. I have to stay. I have to make this all right.”

  Walch smiled. “A Knight of White in my possession. I quite like that. Yes. It serves me well.” He motioned to his soldiers. “Take him.”

  Two Beasts charged forward and shackled Rock. Dampness clung to Laura’s cheeks as she watched them take him away. He’d given himself up for people he didn’t even know. Sacrificed himself. It wasn’t right.

  “You have twelve hours,” Walch said.

  “Can’t do it,” Rinehart said. “We cut off communications with the rest of the group until our ride gets here. That’s seventy-two hours from now.”

  Walch growled, anger raging off of him. “I will not wait three days. You have one.”

  “Three days,” Rinehart said, leading Walch astray from the true plan. “And then we trade. The patients for Rock.”

  Walch seethed. “It behooves you to get her sooner than later. Every second he is here will be painful. A moment over three days and he is dead.” With that, he turned on his heels and stormed away.

  Carol reappeared as the line of Beasts disappeared. She stayed her position long enough to glare at Laura, hatred shining in her eyes for several moments before she followed Walch and the soldiers in their departure.

  Laura wanted to scream, to run after Rock, to demand Rinehart make this right. “It should have been me,” she said. “Walch needs me. He wouldn’t have hurt me. Get him back.” She grabbed his arm. “Please.”

  Rinehart’s expression was grim. “I’ll come back for him when everyone else is off this island.”

  “No,” she said. Then stronger, “No. I have to bring Kresley back and make them undo whatever they did to her.”

  He strapped the sword onto his belt with some sort of leather strap Des tossed him, his tone cool, calm. Expression almost cold. “You’re not thinking straight right now. You’re emotional and upset. Walch will not help Kresley. He’ll turn her into one of them. Just like he will you.”

  “What of the torture he promised Kresley?” she demanded. “What of that?”

  His eyes flashed with anger. “Kresley has all of us to help her and we will find a way to free her. Rock is on his own in there, and he, too, has been promised torture.”

  She regretted the words once spoken, more so after hearing his response. Rock was his friend, his family. “I’m sorry.” And he was right, she was emotional. Out-of-character emotional. Her common logic gone, eaten alive by panic and fear. “I’m sorry,” she repeated.

  He didn’t respond, abruptly cutting his gaze away from her and speaking to Des. “This was your vision. Rock knew he was going to do that when he came here.”

  He nodded. “Yes. We knew it was one of us or Laura. He is without a mate. He insisted it be him.”

  Laura listened to the exchange without understanding the talk of vision any more than she understood how man could become Beast. Nor did she dare ask. She’d hurt him. She didn’t want to hurt him. She didn’t want to hurt anyone. So why did it keep happening?

  Chapter 18

  Standing outside a flaming fire ring, Tezi watched the two Beasts inside it battle to the death. Both were seasoned soldiers who’d survived centuries of immortality. Both wanted their place in the Dark Knights. The one who lived could have that spot, and their first duty would be killing Walch.

  Tezi had received the news of Walch’s failures only hours before. The guardians had faced the Knights of White, men known to Carol as Walch’s hired researchers, in battle. The idiot had invited Knights into his operation, offered himself and their plans up as prizes.

  The guardians had fled when Tezi’s anger had erupted; they were hiding in the Underworld until he regained a semblance of tolerance. Since then, Tezi had killed dozens of Beasts, enraged by the decision he had to make: to cut his losses, take what he could from the island and move on. Build his army one by one. Seek out those with gifts and convert them. Use the best of the Beasts until they could be replaced.

  But in the end, one simple truth prevailed. Tezi would not be stopped.

  A warming sensation on his wrists disengaged his interest in the battle; his bracelets were returning to arms, with a plea from the guardians to be heard whispered in the air.

  “Show yourselves,” he demanded of the guardians.

  They appeared at his feet, bowing down to him. He was their master, their leader; Adrian had given them to him, and they were indebted to Adrian for some unknown reason that mattered not to him. All he cared about was how they served his purpose. And their purpose had reached beyond simply marking the patients. They had been there to test Walch’s loyalty, to report his actions, which they had done well.

  “What say you?” he asked, allowing them to rise with a motion of his hands.

  “All is not lost
, Tezi,” Litha said, rising to her feet.

  Lithe took a position next to Litha. “The firestarter was marked. We can track her, and she can be yours. And where she goes, so does the doctor. The doctor is said to be brilliant. She could be useful, as well. We can still make them yours.”

  “Would this please you, master?” Litha said.

  One Dark Knight at a time. “Yes. It pleases me.”

  He turned to the scene behind him, snuffed the fire with the rush of his hand, instantly stilling the battle underway. “Both of you, come here.” The two Beasts snarled at each other before obeying.

  “There is one more thing,” Lithe warned. “The twin boys. They are Healers, undiscovered. They must be slain.”

  Tezi arched a brow. “You are certain of this?”

  “Certain,” the guardians confirmed together. “We tasted their blood.”

  The blood of a Healer was deadly to a Demon. “Yet you survived?”

  “They have not come into their full powers yet. Still, they weakened us,” Lithe explained.

  Litha was quick to add, “We barely had the magic to mark the firestarter.”

  “We were almost destroyed by her fire,” Lithe said. “We must return to the Underworld to recover.”

  “How much time do you need?” Tezi demanded, impatient to get on with this.

  “Not long,” they said together.

  “Already we feel the threads of Carol’s mind again, but she is more tightly bound to us,” Lithe reassured him. “Soon we will be able to reach for the firestarter, as well.”

  He turned to the two warrior Beasts and gave his orders. They were to go back in that ring and fight, but for more now than merely a place in his army. Whoever survived would lead his mission: hand Walch over to the guardians; kill the twins; convert the firestarter and the boy; and bring the doctor to him.

  The guardians owned Walch now.

  He waved his hands and willed them back to the Underworld. Satisfaction began to expand in his chest. All was definitely not lost.

  They’d been walking a good hour.

  Rinehart treaded a light path through the woods with Laura by his side; he cautiously avoided leaving a trail. But there was nothing light about his mood. She’d begged to go to Kresley’s side, and he’d shut her down. He had nothing to say to her until they were in the shelter. Then, he’d have plenty to say. It was time she understood who and what he was. Time she understood there was more at stake than a facade of normalcy.

  With his sharp denial of her requests, she had gone from apologetic over what had happened with Walch and Rock to angry, and it had happened in a snap of fingers. Well, welcome to his world. He was angry, too. Damn angry. He said the words in his head and let the roughness of them rasp through his chest, fill him up, drive him onward. Let it remind him why he couldn’t comfort Laura, why now was the time to be tough. Comfort wouldn’t keep her alive. A strong dose of reality just might, though.

  He glanced at the sky, the natural light fading as clouds encroached on the stars. Darkness made him nervous and he didn’t get nervous. But then, in all his long life, he had never had an assignment quite like this one—an assignment that could require him to destroy Laura before she could become a destroyer herself. Nor had he forgotten the malice they’d felt in these woods, thankful now that it had not surfaced again. The sound of a river indicated they were nearing their destination. He angled to the right, cut through the trees and found the waterside. Clouds scattered across the sky, brushing the stars, and then wiped out the moon. Instantly, the ground went pitch-black, a pit that seemed to swallow them.

  Rinehart grabbed Laura’s hand, steeling himself for the impact of her touch. With her soft palm against his, awareness jolted his body, but he shoved it aside, frustrated at his lack of control. He paced out the steps his men had mapped out until he found what he sought—an obscure rocky formation, its foliage overlay making it damn near impossible to find in the dark. Hopefully the daylight would leave it hidden, as well.

  Stepping cautiously, he led Laura to the far right of the foliage and lifted. Sure enough, there was a hole, an opening to what should be shelter, with supplies waiting for them inside.

  “Stay here while I make sure it’s safe,” he said to Laura, confident enough in her ability to protect herself to leave her for a few moments.

  She clung to his hand. “Be careful.” He couldn’t see her face, but he felt her concern. Felt her like he shouldn’t. Felt her damn emotions when he didn’t want to. She was still angry, but also worried for his safety. His heart squeezed and he couldn’t say why. He shoved aside the softness. Of course she was worried, he reasoned. This wasn’t about him. Laura worried about everyone. She probably worried about that Demon bastard Walch. That bit him in the backside, and he yanked his hand from hers.

  “Stay alert,” he warned.

  He inched behind the wall of vines and squatted down, unable to stand to full height in the small space. Taking a moment to ensure he sensed no danger, he crawled to the back of the space and felt around for another rock formation, finding it and reaching behind it. Sure enough, a stash of supplies, compliments of his men. First things first: the lantern. He turned it on low, to offer them just enough light to function, fearful more would be visible to someone passing. A quick survey showed rock and dirt and not much more. No hidden dangers.

  Crawling back to the entrance, he motioned Laura forward. “I don’t believe you have a lantern,” she said, sliding past the entrance.

  He didn’t speak. He was fuming, madder now than before. He unrolled a sleeping bag, the only one they had. She could have it. He’d sleep on the ground. Wouldn’t be the first time, wouldn’t be the last. That is, unless he died. The way things were going, that seemed to be an upcoming event. Laura would resent him if they mated, if he stole her opportunity to fit in with the rest of the world. He couldn’t spend eternity seeing that in her eyes. Couldn’t believe that was what was in his destiny. Death would be a better choice. Dying in battle, dying fighting, just as he’d lived fighting.

  He patted the bag and she sat down. He took a spot directly across from her and reached into the supply bag, retrieving a bottle of water, offering it to her.

  “Thank you,” she said, accepting it. But she didn’t open it. She sat there, staring at him, as if she knew he wanted to say something.

  “Say what you want to say to me so we can put it behind us.”

  Right to the point. Good. He wanted to get right to it himself. “You have to stop hiding. Stand up and fight like you did back there with Walch.”

  The water was disposed of instantly, her response whipping back at him. “Hiding? I have never hidden from anything.”

  “You’ve spent your entire life hiding your abilities, and that’s what you are teaching your patients to do, too.”

  Even in the dim light, he could see the flush of her cheeks. “I am teaching them to protect themselves.”

  “There are better ways.”

  “So easy for you to say,” she said. “You don’t have to fear being a lab rat. Or to have your own family act as if you are a freak to be hidden away.”

  “Yet you teach them to hide.”

  She threw her hands up in the air. “What are they to do? What? Maybe they should be circus acts.” A frustrated sound slipped from her lips. “What’s wrong with wanting a normal life?”

  “Normal is relative, Laura. What is normal for a professional ballplayer is not normal for a stockbroker on Wall Street. The only normal we get is our own normal. Our destiny, our place in this world. What we choose to do with that is up to us.”

  “I don’t know what you want from me here,” she said, confusion and frustration in her voice. “What would you have me do?”

  For all the turmoil he’d been through, he knew who he was and what he was supposed to do. He was supposed to fight for those who couldn’t. He’d questioned that once in his life over a woman. He didn’t question it now. In fact, it drove him onward. “
You tell your kids that their abilities are gifts, but you see your own as a curse. They feel that, Laura.” She glared at him and then abruptly cut her gaze away, pulling her legs to her chest and hugging them. He pressed onward—he had to. “Giving them control was something I believe you were meant to do. Just as I believe all of you are meant to use your gifts for a greater purpose.”

  She turned back around. “To fight. To become soldiers. That’s what you want from us, isn’t it? That’s why you came here.”

  Damn it. He ground his teeth. She wasn’t listening, and he had to make her. There was no time for words, or secrets. “I came here because I was ordered to save you or destroy you. I choose to save you and I am begging you, Laura—Let me save you.”

  She rotated to her knees, facing him, with her attack lashing through in her words. “Save me to be some sort of soldier? No! I can’t be that. I won’t.”

  “War isn’t always about death. It’s about life.”

  “I’m a doctor. I heal people. Yet you tell me what you want from me is necessary and right. Bloodshed is not right. War is never about life.”

  “You’re wrong.”

  “Of course. What else would my would-be executioner say? Kill me now. Get it over with. I will not join anyone’s army.”

  “Damn it, Laura. I am not suggesting you throw on some armor and go to war. This isn’t about staying off the radar anymore. You’re on it and that won’t change. The Beasts will keep coming. They will never stop. Either fight or run. You have to choose.”

  “Only a military man would call avoiding a war running away.”

  He drew a calming breath that didn’t work. “It’s time for a wake-up call, Laura. No one can see what you saw out there today and not know the truth. You’re in denial and I don’t know why. You are hunted. Your patients are hunted. Not by men. Not by a cult. By Demons. Those snakes—Demons. Walch—human turned Demon, which is what they plan to do to you. You will become one of them, and you won’t even care. They’ll rip your soul out and leave you with nothing but evil. You don’t hide from the Underworld. They will find you.”