Logan made a sound of disgust in the back of his throat. “Donor. Is that what we’re calling them now?”
Jace glared at him. “Yes, that’s what we’re calling them.”
“Whatever.” Logan looked away. “Continue.” He flicked his fingers in a get-on-with-it gesture. “You tell it so well.”
Logan leaned against a desktop, his spine curved, his arms crossed as he studied his brother with a dark, unfathomable gaze.
Jace cleared his throat. “Noah tried to fight his urges, but they were getting stronger. The bloodlust was becoming everything. Noah was afraid he’d lose himself to it. The discovery of this bunker came at just the right time.”
“It saved him,” Logan said, his lip curling. “But the path here is paved in the blood of many donors.”
There was no mistaking the sarcasm in his tone. Noah had managed to get his bloodlust under control. It explained why he hadn’t wanted to draw my blood. It explained his controlled demeanor, his patience, his calm. It was his way of coping, and I’d set him off. I’d made him snap.
I looked to Jace. “You should have told me about this. You should have warned me.”
“I know,” Jace said. “We should have.”
My hand went to my neck, the spot where Noah had buried his fangs. It was smooth and unmarred now, thanks to Ash. “He tried to stop, you know. He told me to run. I’d be dead otherwise.” This time my attention was on Logan, not sure why, but it felt wrong for the blame to be solely on Noah. They needed to know that he’d tried.
Jace exhaled heavily and exchanged looks with Logan, who pressed his lips together. Ash signed something.
I looked to Jace. “What did he say?”
“He said that we can’t give up on him.”
He was right. “Noah didn’t ask to be created. None of you did.” I made a point to look at each of them. “We had a deal, and if we’re going to be successful, I need you all.”
“Eva, it will be at least a day before Noah is feeling like himself again,” Jace said.
“There has to be a way to speed things up. To make him feel … better?”
“Pfft,” Logan said. “You think we need to make him feel better?” He strolled toward me, sucking the air from the room. I held my ground. “Noah is feeling fucking fantastic. Noah is fucking high right now.”
And there was the cocky bastard I’d come to expect. He was too close, in my personal space, suffocating me with his vanilla aroma, an aroma that was a contradiction to his personality. My nose was in line with his pectorals, and I tilted my head to meet his eyes, alight with a twisted glee.
“You’re grateful he allowed you to run?” Logan sneered. “You think he’s a beast from a fairy tale, battling a curse? He’s not. He’s a monster.” His face was close now, his minty fresh breath warm on my skin. “And next time he snaps, he’ll probably kill you.”
I looked him straight in the eyes. “I’m not a fool, Logan. I know what you are. I know what you all are, and I know a monster when I see one. I’ve battled my fair share of them. But as dangerous as you all may be, as dangerous as Noah may be, and as much as I’d like to believe it, you’re not monsters.”
“Really? Is that what you think? Do you want to see what you’ve done to him, Eva?” His tone was sultry and seductive, like fingers massaging my scalp. “Then let me taste you, let me have a sip, and I’ll take you to him.”
My body was suddenly warm and lethargic and swaying toward him.
“Stop it!” Jace snapped.
But it was Ash who pulled me away from Logan. I inhaled, shaking my head to clear it. What the hell had just happened? Was this the incubus power Noah had told me about? Ash’s hands were reassuring brands on my upper arms, grounding me and giving me back control.
When I spoke, my voice was lethal-soft and deadly sincere. “Keep your fucking fey mojo to yourself, Logan. Use it on me again and I’ll rip your balls off.”
Logan threw back his head and laughed. “So, Noah filled you in on what we are. Oh, this is going to be so much fun.” He looked to Gina. “No offense, love, you’ve been great, but you were always a little too eager. Not much of a challenge really.”
Gina’s face flushed, and her eyes filled with tears.
“You’re a bastard, you know that, Logan,” Jace said.
“No, I’m realistic. Take her to see him,” Logan said firmly. “She needs to see the other side of our enigmatic leader.”
Jace’s jaw clenched. “You know Noah doesn’t like to be seen like that. He’ll be in transition phase now.”
Logan’s lip curled. “You think I give a fuck what he wants right now? Let her see him. Let her know what lurks under his pretty skin. You want her to live, then show her what she has the potential to unleash. Maybe the perfect, controlled Noah doesn’t like being seen with his hair down, so what? Maybe this will force him to acknowledge that you can only ignore your intrinsic primal needs for so long before they take over. He thought he’d found the solution with the vials. I guess he was wrong. It doesn’t matter how much vial blood he drinks, the lust will rise if presented with fresh blood, especially hers.”
He was looking at my neck again, and I resisted the urge to cover it with my hand. Instead, I stared back at him, defiant, until he shifted his gaze.
“It’s fucking delicious,” Logan said, as if I’d asked for elaboration. “Even from a vial.”
It was obvious he was wondering how much better it would taste from the vein, and yeah, that wasn’t a thought that needed to be circling my brain right now, but he was right about Noah. I needed to know what I was dealing with.
I turned to Jace. “I need to know what I’m going to be living with.”
Ash signed rapidly, and the desire to be able to read what he was saying was a knot in my belly. I was going to be with them for a while, I’d need to learn the basics to be able to communicate with him.
Jace nodded at Ash and then turned to me. “Okay. I’ll take you to him.”
“And then we head out,” Logan said. “Get this mission out of the way so I can have a fucking proper drink.”
This time, he didn’t avert his gaze from mine, and the shiver that rippled across my skin was totally unwelcome.
* * *
Jace led me down to the floor below the cell level. The air was chillier here, as if we were surrounded by ice. A locked gray metal door greeted us. There was a panel in the wall, dark and rectangular. Jace pressed his palm to it to gain access.
They seemed to have an abundance of electrical power, which made sense if this was a government facility, but I was curious. “How do you power this place?”
“There’s a hydroelectric generator running,” Jace said, pushing open the door. “But Noah has set up a failsafe in the event the generator malfunctions. He’s rigged things so we can power the facility by using exercise bikes. Just an hour each a day will keep it running. It shouldn’t come to that, though.”
We stepped through the door and several lights flickered on. This corridor was stark white and blinding. Jace strode down it, toward another gray metal door.
“When’s the last time Noah went all … grrrr?”
“It used to be during every feeding before we found the bunker. The bunker saved him—with the equipment to draw blood, he found a new way to live. Before that, he’d go without feeding for weeks, just to avoid the fallout.” Jace tucked in his chin. “I should have realized you might be a problem for him.”
I glanced across at him. “Because of my super delicious blood?”
“It’s not a joke, Eva. Blood isn’t just O neg or A positive, the flavor is as varied as the human it comes from. Gina is … was bland, like tap water for Fangs, and that was good. It stopped indulgence. We fed for sustenance, not for pleasure, but you …” He met my gaze, his startling blue eyes suddenly intense, and then he lowered his lids and blew out a breath. “You’re intoxicating.”
“Yeah, so I’ve heard.”
My hands curled into fist
We were at the door, and Jace used his palm on this panel too. There was a beep and the door clicked open. Beyond was a large white-washed room containing several cells made of some kind of reinforced glass or plastic.
My eyes were drawn to the only cell that was occupied, to the creature that prowled back and forth within. It was at least seven feet tall, bipedal, but neither man nor beast. It was covered in black hair, its snout slightly elongated, hands curled into claws tipped with talons, and its long, slender feet ended in claws.
It stopped as I entered, lifted its hairy chin and sniffed the air, and then it turned its awful head to look directly at me. There was at least four meters between us, but in that moment, it felt as if there was no divide. It felt as if the thing was breathing on my face, looking into my soul. It felt as if—
Noah slammed into the glass, his roar of outrage swallowed by the soundproof cell. He hammered at the barrier, his head whipping back and forth in a frenzy. Frothy drool dribbled from his mouth and spattered the glass.
“Fucking hell.” Jace took a step back. “I’ve never seen him this bad. This is new.”
“What do you mean? He doesn’t normally look like this?”
Jace puffed out his cheeks and shook his head slowly. “We’ve never seen this form before, just bits and pieces. I guess we’ve always calmed him down enough to stop this transformation. He’s usually coherent by now, if not back to himself. But this … He’s gone full beast.” He made a sound of exasperation. “Logan was right. Maybe denying him fresh blood has made things worse.” He rubbed his mouth with his hand. “We’ll need to come up with some other strategy and soon.”
Noah slammed into the glass once more then stepped away, suddenly composed and calm.
My heart beat in my throat as if mimicking Noah, as if trying to escape. I took a step toward the cell, and Noah’s body rippled as his muscles and sinew tensed, preparing for goodness knew what.
“Um, Eva …” Jace gripped my elbow.
I had to do this. Show no fear and let him know we were okay. “Is that cell secure?”
“Of course it is.”
“Then it’s fine. Can you make it so he can hear me?”
Jace walked over to a panel in the wall and flipped a couple of switches. “You’re set,” he said.
Noah’s head jerked up. He’d heard that. But his eyes were back on me. Tawny, human eyes in a monster’s face. Noah’s eyes. Noah trapped beneath the beast. Shit, I was getting all fanciful just as Logan had predicted. The arsehole was right, though, it was impossible not to stand here and look into those eyes and not think it. But Noah wasn’t in control right now, the bloodlust was. It didn’t mean he wasn’t listening, though.
“Hello, Noah.” I walked closer to the cell. “I’m sorry this happened to you. I’m sorry you lost control and you’re stuck here. I’m sorry you won’t be with us on the mission today. But I want you to know I forgive you. I want to thank you for warning me, for giving me the chance to run. It must have been hard for you.”
He blinked slowly. His chest rose and fell evenly.
“I hope you come back to us soon, Noah.”
He walked up to the glass, and for a moment I thought I saw a glimpse of the brilliant man beneath the feral skin, but then he was rushing toward me, slamming into the glass between us and tearing a scream from my throat.
I stumbled back, knees trembling. “Let’s go. I’ve seen enough.”
Back in the corridor with the door locked firmly behind us, I finally let out a shaky breath.
“It will be okay,” Jace said. But he didn’t sound too convinced.
“Yeah, you keep saying. Logan’s the skeptic, I suppose.”
“He has every right to be,” Jace said.
“What does that mean?”
He sighed and led me up the stairs to the upper floors. “It doesn’t matter. We should get suited up and get to the roost. It’s almost ten a.m., and we need as much light as we can get to search the warehouse where your friends are probably being held.”
Up until now I hadn’t considered the possibility that Tobias and Emily could have been taken somewhere else. I hadn’t considered the possibility that maybe the Feral Fangs had drained them and left their bodies somewhere. Feral Fangs hoarded, which meant my friends had to be alive. It was something I needed to believe.
I followed him back onto my floor and toward the computer lab, purposely not thinking about what he’d been about to reveal about Logan. Knowledge was power, but right now we had a mission to complete. Once this was over, I’d find out all I needed to about my new protectors.
Chapter Sixteen
The sun was high in its noon position as we crouched in the bushes surrounding the warehouse.
Ash had gone ahead to scope it out properly, slipping from sliver of shadow to sliver of shadow to get close. He was sporting a pair of wraparound sunglasses to protect his sensitive eyes from the sun. It was strange not being able to look into his pale gray eyes and see the emotions they portrayed.
I nudged Jace. “Can he manage with all the daylight. Will he be okay?”
Jace nodded. “Ash will be good. The glasses help, and his other senses are super heightened in daylight, so he’ll hear if anything moves around in the building.”
“He can probably hear every heartbeat,” Logan said softly. “The guy’s a life-sign detector.”
He’d also moved out of sight. Where was he? What was taking so long? I gnawed on my bottom lip, watching for any signs of the Fang that had healed me. The sun blazed down on the cracked earth. When had we last had rain? The errant thought filtered into my mind and was quickly pushed away. Where was Ash?
Jace let out a yelp as Ash appeared beside us. My pulse kicked up sharply at his arrival. Where the heck had he come from?
“Told you he’d be fine,” Logan said dryly.
Ash arched a questioning brow.
Logan smirked. “Eva was getting worried about you,” he said in a singsong voice.
Ash turned his head to look at me, but with the dark glasses in the way, and not being able to see his beautiful silver eyes, it was disconcerting being the object of his scrutiny.
I kept my expression neutral. “What did you find out?”
Ash signed and Jace spoke for him. “There are three entrances. One round the back, one at the front, and one round the side. The front door seems to be barricaded and so are most of the lower floor windows. The side door is jammed but the back is open. They probably use that as an entrance and exit. Easier to keep a lookout on one entry point, which means we’ll need to find another way in. That door will be guarded.”
“Are they intelligent enough to do that?” I was skeptical. Feral were just Feral.
Logan shook his head in despair. “You have a lot to learn about the Feral. They may have devolved to primitive status, but even wild animals know how to protect what they perceive as belonging to them. In fact, they work ten times harder to survive, as it’s their sole focus.”
My eyes were on the building, though, on the windows that dotted the second and third floors of the factory like a multitude of dark eyes. “So, we use one of the upper-floor windows. We just need a way to get up there.”
“We climb,” Logan said. He held out a hand and talons slid out from his fingertips. “We’re built for climbing.” He grinned.
I held up my hands, sans talons. “Yeah, but I’m not.”
“I’ll carry you,” Logan said with a lopsided smile. His brown eyes surrounded by inky black lashes were suddenly warm and inviting, almost hazel in the sunlight. Yeah, that would be nice. To be pressed up against him, to have my legs wrapped around his waist, to—
Ash’s chest rumbled, and Jace cleared his throat. “Ash says he’ll carry you, Eva.”
I tore my gaze from Logan’s, and he released me with a knowing smile.
My cheeks heated, and anger flared in my chest. He’d used his incubus mojo on me. “I warned you about using your mojo on me.”
“Mojo?” He raised innocent brows. “I didn’t do anything.”
There was no way of accusing him without laying out exactly what he’d made me think, or how he’d just made me feel. I narrowed my eyes at him and then looked away. The impotency of my situation grated, but there had to be something I could do about it. A way to shield myself? I’d have to speak to Jace about it later.
“Let’s get going,” Jace said.
Ash broke cover first. He led the way, zigzagging toward the building, keeping low, silent, swift. Despite their size and bulk, the guys moved like silk, and we were pressed up against the back of the building in no time. The brickwork, which had once been whitewashed, was peeling and cracked, and a faint musty smell hung in the air. Urine? Had they marked their territory? Ew.
Logan was the first to leap up onto the building and begin to climb.
Ash crouched, and I clambered onto his back and wrapped my legs and arms around him. He straightened, solid against me, and then we were scaling the wall. His muscles rippled against my torso as he gripped and hauled himself up the wall. His biceps bulged as he carried his own weight and mine. And then we were at the open window. It was just big enough for Ash to climb in, with me still clinging to his back like a rhesus monkey. Logan was at the door, his finger pressed to his lips, eye whites gleaming in the gloom. Ash crouched to set me down and I slipped from his back, boots kissing ground. Yeah, this room hadn’t been disturbed in a while. Our boots made neat tracks in the thick layer of dust that had settled on the wooden floor. Jace climbed into the room, and we stood still, listening to the sounds of the building around us.
There were boxes piled up against one wall, and an overturned desk to the left with a broken chair lying next to it. This had been an office once. Did warehouses have offices? Or maybe this wasn’t a warehouse. We’d assumed from the location, parking lot, and size of the building that it was used to hold goods. Maybe we’d been wrong?
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