by Dakota Rebel
“Reagan, you’ve fought a hell of a fight. You’ve tracked me across continents. You even almost caught me a few times. That’s better than anyone has been able to do in a hundred years. I think your practice with crossbreeds probably aided you more than you realized. Of course, even with all your brains and all your balls, you never guessed, did you?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I moaned. The longer I kept him talking the better chance I had of coming up with a backup plan. Unfortunately, I had no idea how many other men he had in the building, and the blood loss was starting to affect my vision and my thought processes. I couldn’t follow his conversation at all.
“You and those military morons have been chasing a human for months. The reason you’ve never been able to catch me is because I’m a crossbreed.”
“You can’t be,” I said, shaking my head and instantly regretting the action as dots appeared behind my eyelids. “I’ve chased you during the day. You can’t be a vampire.”
“No dear, you thought you were chasing me during the day. Most of those raids happened when I was miles away from you. You spooks are all the same. So predictable. That’s how I got you here tonight. Although I have to say, you figured this out much faster than I gave you credit for. So congratulations on that. I thought I’d have to be here at least three nights before you came for me.”
I couldn’t believe what he was telling me. There was no way he could be a crossbreed. The military had years of intel on him. I’d been chasing him for months. If he were really a monster, I would have known.
“Well, I suppose a little demonstration couldn’t hurt now,” he said with a sigh. “You’ll have no choice but to accept it once I’m eating your organs anyway.”
I choked back a whimper as his head reared back and fangs elongated in his mouth. Fear was replaced with pain as his claws sank into my shoulders, and I couldn’t hold back the scream as it tore from my throat.
In all of the fights I’d been in, I’d never actually seen my death. Now, I felt it in every bone of my body. I was going to die. The only hope for me was to piss him off so he’d make it as quick as possible. If I allowed him to toy with me much longer, it would just drag on as long as he could make it, and I refused to go out that way.
“Big fucking deal,” I spat, hoping my voice sounded stronger to him than it did to myself. “So you’re a crossbreed. I killed one at eighteen. You’re no different than any other monster I’ve taken out over the years. No stronger, no scarier.”
“Nice try,” he growled. “I can smell your fear, Reagan. You talk a good game, but you’re about to wet yourself from terror. You know I’m better, more frightening, than anything you’ve faced. You know I’m going to murder you as slowly and painfully as possible.”
“Hold on love.”
My body jerked in surprise at the sound of Crystal’s voice in my head. She couldn’t be here. Was I starting to lose my mind, as well?
“The boys are coming. Just keep him talking.”
Tears welled up in my eyes at the thought of Cyrus and Ash. Of Mitch. The three men I loved most in the world, and I had gotten them killed. The guilt was so strong it was making me hear voices now. Why couldn’t Duran just kill me? Just end it?
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s rude to play with your food?” I shot at him.
“But dogs are very playful, Reagan. Surely your pet wolf has taught you that. He probably played with you a lot, didn’t he? His hands toying with your breasts, his mouth lapping at your—”
“Stop,” I whispered as a tear slipped down my cheek. “Please, just kill me.”
“Reagan,” Crystal’s voice shouted. “Don’t do this. Ash and Cyrus are coming. Just hold on.”
“I’m so sorry,” I sobbed aloud. “I should have listened to you.”
“Listened about what, Reagan?” Duran sneered. His hands pressed down, bringing on a new wave of anguish as his claws deepened their hold on me.
My stomach turned, and I heaved, my head lolling to the side as bile climbed up my throat and spewed onto the stage. Having just spent the evening vomiting before we left, there wasn’t much left to come up, but it was sufficiently disgusting to make Duran rear back from me.
The gap between us was small, but with every ounce of energy I had left, I managed to get my leg up to connect with his crotch.
“You little bitch,” he moaned as his claws retracted and he rolled off of me. Blood poured from the open wounds in my arms, and my vision was so cloudy I couldn’t see any details, just the shape of him bent over next to me.
I shifted to my side and struggled to get to my knees. I had no plan, just panic forcing me to try to escape. Unfortunately, Duran had recovered enough to crawl back to me. He threw his body atop mine. We fell back to the floor, my head bouncing off the hardwood, and everything went dark.
Voices shouted throughout the room. I was too rattled to hear what they said, and my sight was completely gone. In fact, I wasn’t even sure if my eyes were open or closed.
“I can’t get a clean shot!” The sound of Ashim screaming broke through my haze.
Could they really be alive?
“Just take the shot!” Mitch yelled back.
“I’m going to hit her, too,” Ash sounded terrified.
I didn’t understand what was going on. Was I imagining the sound of them? Were they really all right? My throat was raw from screaming, and Duran pinned me down so I couldn’t move. With every last ounce of energy and willpower I could muster, I shouted out, hoping like hell that they were all really there, really armed, and really listening.
“Just fucking shoot him!”
Gunfire blasted through the air as my face was sprayed with warm, viscous fluid—presumably blood—as the body atop me jerked and struggled. Pops of pain hit my chest, stomach and my left leg as silver bullets ripped through Duran’s body to land in mine.
Suddenly, the weight of the corpse was gone from my chest, and my lungs filled with liquid air. I blinked against the gore on my face and tried to focus on the three shapes that now hovered over me.
“Is he dead?” I asked, my voice hoarse and soft.
“Yeah, baby,” Cyrus said. His voice sounded thick with tears. “He’s gone.”
“You were so brave, Reagan,” Mitch added, his tone also heavy. “You really are a bad ass.”
“Badder than you,” I said with a chuckle that left me coughing.
“Every damn day,” he agreed.
“I Scooby-Doo’d him for you,” I explained, gripping a hand that I assumed to be my brother’s.
Mitch laughed, and the fingers around mine squeezed then let me go.
“What does that mean?” Cyrus asked softly, the feel of his hand in mine instantly recognizable.
“I got Duran to kill time explaining himself. Like in the cartoons.” I tried to shrug, but my body wasn’t responding to my wishes anymore.
“You sure did, Sis. You did a hell of a job tonight.”
“Thanks.” That was high fucking praise coming from Mitch. Even in my semi-conscious haze I knew that.
“Reagan, sweetie,” Ash said from my left side. I tried to turn to look at him but couldn’t. His fingers tangled with my free ones and pulsed softly against my skin. “It’s okay, love. Just stay still. There’s an ambulance on the way.”
“Where’s Crystal?” I asked, darkness swimming over me again.
“We’ll find her,” Cyrus said with a sniff.
“Good. She saved my ass,” I whispered, closing my eyes. I was exhausted and freezing, and I really just wanted to take a nap. “I love you.”
“We love you, too,” Ash said as he placed a kiss on my temple.
I fell asleep to the feel of both hands being squeezed tight by the men who’d stolen my heart. If I had to die, I couldn’t think of a better way to go. I’d helped make the world a little safer. My family and my lovers were safe and would have each other. It was more closure than most people were able to get at the end.<
br />
Chapter Fifteen
I sat at Mike and Crystal’s kitchen table with a hot cup of tea in my hands and my best friend smiling at me.
“You did it,” she said proudly.
“I didn’t do anything,” I argued. “The guys killed him. I just laid there, useless.”
“You kept Maxwell distracted long enough for help to come,” she said with a grinned. “That was a hell of a lot braver than putting a bullet in his head.”
“So what happens now?” I asked, wrapping my hands tighter around the steaming cup in front of me as I attempted to warm my fingers.
“Well, dear, that’s up to you. Right now, the men are doing everything they can to bring you back. Mitch is even fighting to infect you. Ashim is doing his Reiki stuff, and Cyrus is trying to pull bullets from your chest with his claws. It’s quite a show. I’m not sure what’s going to happen when the ambulance gets there.”
“Wait, if you’re home how do you know that?” I asked suspiciously.
“Because we’re connected, love. You let me in, and for the moment, I know what you would know if you could open your eyes.”
“Am I dead then?”
“Not yet,” she said slowly. “But you’re teetering. You’re very badly hurt. You’ve been infected by lycanthropy and you’ve been shot repeatedly, not to mention the wounds caused in the fight by Duran. I’m doing what I can to help Ash’s magic, but really, the rest lies with you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, if you’re ready to go…then go. I won’t fight you. I understand your willingness to pass on. You’ve spent your life fighting, and I’d imagine you’re quite exhausted by now. However, if you want to stay, I need you to help us.”
“How?” I whispered.
“You need to open your eyes,” she said simply.
“Open your eyes!” Cyrus screamed. “Reagan, damn it, just open your eyes. Please.”
“She’s seizing again,” a man, whose voice I didn’t recognize, shouted over the sound of a monitor going crazy.
“She’s not,” Ash argued. “She’s waking up.”
“Sir,” the stranger said cautiously. “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
“Reagan. Soldier! Can you hear me?” Cyrus barked close to my ear.
My body jerked in surprise at the volume, and my eyelids fluttered, flashes of agonizingly bright light filtering through my lashes.
“Shut up,” I croaked, the sound gagging on a tube they’d put down my throat. “Ugh.”
I reached up, and yanked the tubes off my face, choking a little as the one in my chest cleared my esophagus on the way out. I blinked again and tried to focus but couldn’t manage it for more than a moment.
“Ma’am,” the startled man shrieked. “You really need to leave those in.”
“I can’t,” I whispered with sigh, opening my eyes again. I wasn’t surprised to see that my vision had improved. “I’m healing around them.”
“Already?” Cyrus asked in a whisper.
I should have known fighting to stay alive would mean living infected. Duran had not only sunk claws into me, but I’d probably received a hell of a dose of his blood between sharing bullets and having his face sprayed all over mine.
“He’s gone, right?” I asked, reaching out to take Ash’s hand. “All gone?”
“All gone, babe.” Ashim smiled down at me.
“You always have to be such a bad ass,” Cyrus said, taking my other hand in his.
“Yeah,” I agreed, shrugging with my newly healed shoulders. The combination of the lycanthropy and Ash’s healing had actually left me feeling pretty well. “Hey, dude?”
The medic moved closer to me and stared down at me, his eyes wide with an almost panicked shock. “Ma’am?”
“I’m afraid we’re not going to be needing your services after all. Could you please have the driver stop the truck?”
“I can’t do that,” he said, but he looked as if he was terrified of me.
I ran a tongue over my teeth and felt that fangs had sprouted too. “Well, shit,” I groaned crossly. “Yeah, you need to let us out now.”
I sat up, part of me happy to be healing so quickly and part of me terrified of what I was about to turn into.
“I can’t—”
“Look,” I growled, “you are currently in an ambulance with two werewolves. It’s frighteningly close to a full moon, and I’ve already almost died tonight. I’d really like to get out of here. All right?”
“Sam, stop the truck,” the man called, his eyes never leaving mine.
The ambulance slowed to a stop, and the guys helped me climb out the back. When our feet hit the pavement, Cyrus scooped me into his arms and he started running with Ash close behind.
“Where am I going?” he asked as he grinned down at me.
“We need to find Mitch and let him know I’m okay,” I said.
“You could call him,” Ash suggested.
“Right.” I rolled my eyes. As if my brother would ever accept a phone call as proof that I was okay. “I think we’ll need to stay with him tonight. The sun will be up soon, and I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. And by the way, I can walk.”
Cyrus put me on my feet, and I was relieved to see I’d been correct in the assumption. However, I was walking around half-naked, covered in dried blood and sporting shiny new fangs. The sooner we got to my brother’s the better.
I looked around and was glad to see we were only a block from Mitch’s apartment. It was late, but that didn’t mean there weren’t people who could be out. I didn’t want to be seen by anyone else at the moment, and it would be incredibly difficult to explain my condition to say…a police officer.
Luckily, we made it to Mitch’s without interaction with others. Since I didn’t have keys, I buzzed his apartment and waited for him to let us up.
“Who is it?” a gruff voice called through the speaker.
“Jarrod?” I asked in surprise. “It’s Reagan. Let me up.”
The lock clicked open, and we trooped up the stairs to my brother’s door that stood open for us. Ash started to walk inside, but Cyrus and I each grabbed an arm and pulled him back.
With a nod, Cyrus handed me a gun, and we pushed the darker man behind us as we crouched low against the wall.
“What—” Ash started, but after a glare from Cyrus and me, he shut up and knelt to the ground also.
“Mitch,” I called out and flinched when a bullet shot through the wall just above my head. “Stop it! It’s me, and I don’t want to have shoot each other to prove it. I’ve had enough for one night, thanks. The sun is coming up, and I’m tired, hungry and pretty sure that fucker made me a cross breed to boot. I want a shower and a steak and a bottle of whiskey. I think I earned it.”
“Let her in, Mitch,” Jarrod said from the other side of the doorway.
“It doesn’t smell like Reagan,” my brother growled back.
“That’s because I’m turning, you moron,” I shot back.
“Reagan, come in,” Jarrod called back. “Slowly, please.”
“Okay,” I said, getting to my feet but keeping my gun at my side just in case. “The guys are with me.”
Cyrus and Ashim pushed their way in front of me and walked through the door with their hands up, Cyrus still holding his pistol but showing the men inside that he wasn’t threatening.
Since subtle wasn’t really my strong suit I sauntered in after them, gun clearly ready to aim if anyone made a move on me. I glared at my brother, but the look softened as I noticed the mask of fear on his face.
It made sense. I probably looked a mess. I hadn’t really thought of what my appearance would do to him. He hadn’t seen me since I’d pretty much died on the stage of a strip club, so he had no idea how to perceive me at this point.
“Mitch, I’m sorry.”
He stalked forward and pulled me into his arms, his body shaking as he held me close and stroked fingers over my matted hair. He pressed a
kiss to the top of my head, and tears stung my eyes.
“I thought you were dead,” he whispered against me.
“I kind of am,” I said with a shrug.
“You are not funny,” he growled. “How many times do I have to tell you that?”
“Fuck you,” I said, sniffing slightly. “I’m hilarious.”
* * * *
Jarrod found me some clean clothes while I got in the shower. I watched the floor of the tub as blood and bits of…whatever swirled down the drain. I hadn’t had the stomach to even glance in the mirror when I’d gone in the bathroom. Figuring I was better off not knowing what I looked like, I’d just dropped my clothes on the floor and climbed under the scalding-hot spray of water.
When everything was finally rinsing clear, I reluctantly got back out and wrapped myself in a towel. Jarrod had put a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt on the counter for me. After drying off, I slid on the clothes, thankful for their warmth. I wondered briefly if I’d always be cold from now on then shook the thought from my head. I wasn’t even a hundred percent sure what was going on yet. It wouldn’t do me any good to ponder things I couldn’t control for the moment.
Opening the door of the bathroom, I stepped out but paused as I heard raised voices coming from the living room.
“I’ve never seen a shift happen so fast,” Jarrod was saying. “She shouldn’t be already showing signs of infection.”
“She was infected by a crossbreed though,” Cyrus said.
“So was I,” Mitch responded. “And I only caught the lycanthropy. I managed to get to Jarrod and have him infect me early enough that the sanguine poison overrode the wolf. Reagan shouldn’t have been able to catch both.”
“If she was infected with both and it took effect this fast, maybe there wasn’t time for the poisons to fight it out. Instead, they’re…I don’t know, sharing her cells.”
“It was Ash,” I said quietly as I walked out to see them.
They were sitting around the room, Cyrus leaning against Ashim on the floor, Mitch in a chair with Jarrod on the rug beside him, his head resting on my brother’s knee.