Charming the Beast
Page 20

There was one more barred door up ahead, and Chloe could swear that she smelled the scent of fresh air.
I’m going to be free.
Finally.
She just…why hadn’t Connor come with her?
Chloe shoved that thought into the recesses of her mind, straightened her shoulders, and walked forward.
She was less than three feet away from that second barred door when she heard the screams. The guard jerked to attention and his gun came down, pointing toward her.
“No, wait, I—” Chloe began.
But he ran right past her. He headed back into the base because the screams were coming from inside. Long, loud, terrible screams. Screams filled with pain and fear.
Chloe swiped the keycard over the next pad.
The bars on that door slid back. Fresh air slid over her face.
And the screams continued.
Her eyes squeezed shut. “Dammit.”
***
“What in the hell is that?” Shane demanded.
The screams were loud, piercing.
Eric whirled for the door. “We shouldn’t be hearing screams. The prisoners are all in containment. We shouldn’t—”
“Not the prisoners…” Keegan muttered. “Try…again…”
Connor pointed at Duncan. “Stay here. Make sure he doesn’t get loose.”
Duncan nodded. Connor already knew his brother would kill in an instant, if it meant keeping Holly safe.
Connor rushed for the door, with Olivia and Shane right at his side. Eric was a few steps ahead of them. Eric opened the door and when they raced into the hallway, Connor saw a dark-haired agent running toward him.
Blood streamed down the man’s neck.
“H-he said he needed help…” More screams echoed from the hallway. “It was...H-Harris…he needed…help…I…opened his…collar…”
“Fuck.” Eric yanked out a radio. “Lock down the facility. No one gets in or out, understand? And be on alert for Agent Harris Grey. He is to be considered a hostile right now. Arm all guns with silver and fire on contact.”
Eric took out his own gun. Connor didn’t have a gun, but his claws were at the ready. Olivia and Shane both had their fangs bared. They all advanced fast through the facility. They found more wounded agents. Some were on the ground, some were slumped against the walls.
Olivia rushed to help them.
Shane and Eric hurried into the containment area. When they opened the door, Connor could hear the sound of the werewolves howling in there.
He hurried inside after them. The werewolves were clawing at their glowing collars and slamming into the silver cell bars again and again. Their flesh was burning, and they were howling with the pain. But they weren’t stopping.
“What in the hell is wrong with them?” Eric yelled as he pulled out a remote—a small box that Connor knew would control the silver collars. “Let’s amp up the power there.”
The wolves howled louder as more silver was pumped into their blood. Connor had once worn one of those collars. He knew exactly how painful the collar could be. The collars were filled with small needles, and those needles injected silver directly into the werewolves’ blood.
The silver should have controlled them.
It wasn’t.
“They’re out of control,” Shane said. “Look at them! They’re maddened, they’re—”
More flesh was burning and the wolves were howling in pain, but they still weren’t stopping their attacks on the cells. They were fighting frantically for a freedom they couldn’t win.
Understanding settled heavily over Connor. “They’re compelled,” Connor said as he backed away. “Sonofabitch! He was two steps ahead of you, Eric! He bit all of his wolves, in case you captured them! This way, they can never turn on him.” He whirled for the door. “And he must be compelling Harris! That’s why the guy is attacking the other agents!”
But…where was Harris?
“Chloe,” Connor whispered. Fear tore into him and he ran, moving faster than he’d ever moved in his entire life. He raced through the base, whipped up the stairs and threw open the door to her room.
Only…Chloe wasn’t in that room.
***
She needed a weapon, and she needed it right then.
Chloe had slipped back inside the base just in time to see Harris Gray attack the guard. The man had rushed at Harris with his gun, but the guard hadn’t fired.
“Harris…is that you?”
Instead of answering, Harris had clawed the gun right out of the guard’s hands.
Chloe was now ducked behind a pile of boxes and Harris…
“This is your fault,” he yelled, his voice shaking. “I wouldn’t be like this…if you’d just followed orders. It goes back to that first night, when you slipped away. You led them to me. They kidnapped me, they tortured me…because of you!”
She wasn’t going to call out to him. If she did, that would be a dead giveaway to her location. But…if he’s turning into a werewolf, then aren’t all of his senses enhanced? Maybe he can hear my heart beat. Smell my fear.
She seriously needed a weapon. Serious-freaking-ly. She crawled forward. That looked like a silver knife up ahead. Had it fallen from the guard’s belt when Harris attacked him? If she could just get to it…
Hard fingers curled around her ankle.
“I don’t want to kill you,” Harris told her, voice gravelly, “but I don’t have a choice.”
***
“He’s going to die…out there,” Keegan whispered. “You were…supposed to protect him…before…but you didn’t.”
The agent he knew to be Duncan McGuire glared at Keegan.
“I know…” Talking was hard, but Keegan pushed through the pain. The vampiress kept shoving her needles into him. Later, he’d be sure to shove his fangs into her. Again and again, until she had no blood left. “I know…you didn’t keep him…in that closet with you…let your father…take him…he hates you for…that…”
“Duncan, how does he know about that?” The vampiress asked, worry making her voice sharp.
I know everything.
“He was…a sick freak…right?” Keegan had to push those words out. The drugs were still doing a number on him. “You…stayed quiet because…you were older…”
Duncan’s hand locked around Keegan’s jaw, and the guy made Keegan look at him. “Who told you this?”
“You…didn’t make a sound…Connor screamed. He was…young…”
“Who told you?”
“Bet…Connor will scream again…” Soon, as soon as Connor found Chloe’s broken body.
Then everyone would run to find Connor and Chloe. When that happened, Keegan would have the chance to get free. He just needed a little help. A little blood.
And to get the hell out of the restraints that bound him.
“Who. Told. You?”
The vampiress had already finished with her blood work. She’d know the truth soon, but why wait for her analysis? They could learn this part right now.
“Our…father told me…” How else did they think he’d become like them? It was all in the blood…though not their father’s blood.
Their mother’s.
Did Duncan and Connor even realize that she’d been a natural-born wolf? Not turned, but born?
“He killed…her…but it was her…her blood…that helped you…change.” Helped us change.
“You’re a damn liar,” Duncan said. “My mother was human!” Rage and shock battled on the guy’s face.
He shook his head. “Her…family…raised me…” She’d intended to send all of her boys to her family, but their mother hadn’t been given that chance.
He’d grown up, always knowing exactly what he was. Always seeing it in the eyes of that bloody Marrok pack.
A bastard’s twisted son. The son of the man who’d killed their precious girl.
Instead of being sheltered, the family had hated him.
And he’d hated them…right up to the moment when he’d killed them all.
Keegan had another small tidbit to share. “He’s…killing Chloe.”
“Connor would never—” The vampiress began.
He couldn’t shake his head. Not with Duncan holding him so tightly and with the drugs pumping through his blood. “H-Harris,” he rasped. “Let’s see…if she can…come back… again…”
Because no one could get away with cheating death. Not that bitch. Not his brothers.
Duncan swore and reached for a radio that had been strapped to his hip.
***
Chloe screamed and kicked out at Harris, catching him in the face. She heard the crunch of bones, and she hated that sound but…he’s trying to kill me! Her fingers had closed around the knife and she brought it up, putting that silver blade between her and Harris. “Stay back!” Chloe yelled at him.
Harris clamped his hands over his ears. “I hear him…again and again…can’t stop him… ‘Get Chloe. Kill her. Get Chloe. Kill her. Get Chloe’—”
“Kill me. Yes, right, I get the idea.” What she got was that the guy was being compelled. That had to be it, right? “I really don’t want to hurt you anymore. You seemed like a decent guy before you changed, and I know it can suck when wolves bite you and your life goes to hell and—”
“You know nothing!” Harris roared.
“Really? Try telling that to a sixteen year old girl who gets attacked by a pack of wolves. I was bitten seven times. I don’t think they wanted me to live, they sure didn’t want me to transform.” But she’d survived. And I’m going to survive now. Chloe knew Harris was going to follow the compulsion he was under. She would have done anything for Connor when he’d been compelling her.
So Chloe figured there were two ways out of this mess.
Option one: Kill Harris.
Not so good for Harris.
Option two: Knock him out. Because if the guy was unconscious, then he couldn’t follow any compulsions.
Now, to just find a way to knock out the guy.
“I don’t want to stab you,” she told him.
“‘Get Chloe. Kill’—”
She sliced him across the stomach. He yelled and stumbled back and Chloe leapt to her feet. Her gaze flew to the left, then the right. She grabbed a lamp from the guard’s desk and held it like a baseball bat. She’d hit Harris and knock the guy out. She swung out—
He just yanked the lamp from her fingers.
“Silver hurts.”
“Newsflash,” she told him as she backed up. “It’s going to hurt a whole lot worse once the full moon rises and your change is complete. You’re still in the honeymoon phase, buddy.” Which meant he didn’t have full werewolf strength.
But…but Connor had told me that I had more strength. He said I threw a man across Eclipse after I did my rising-from-the-dead routine.
Of course, she didn’t remember that particular act but…
Her hands fisted and she punched at Harris, as hard as she could.
He didn’t fly across the room. He tried to look down at his now bleeding lip, then back up at her.
The knife—
His fingers locked around her neck. “Got you,” he said.
No, no, not again. Please, no, not this.
His hands were tightening around her neck. He wasn’t breaking her neck. He was choking her!
“Seriously, Harris,” Connor roared, “I’m kicking your ass.”
And, just like that, she was free because Connor had jerked Harris away from her. Connor spun the guy around to face him as Chloe fought to suck in some desperately needed air.
“You don’t mess with her,” Connor shouted. “You…never hurt her…” He drove his fist into the guy’s face.
Harris’s nose broke.
“He’s…under a compulsion,” Chloe managed to say. “I think…Keegan is controlling him…”
“That so?” Connor shoved the guy against the nearest wall and sank his teeth into Harris’s throat. The move was so fast and so brutal that Chloe stood there, shocked.
This was different from when Connor drank from her. It was savage. Designed for pain. It was—
Connor pulled back and blood dripped down his chin. “Now I can control you.” He glared at Harris. “You never hurt, Chloe, understand? You protect her at all costs. You never hurt any of the Para Agents. We’re on your side.”
Harris’s eyes still had that glassy look.
But he wasn’t attacking, so that was good, right?
“Now come back to the land of the living,” Connor snarled at him. “Shake Keegan’s orders and get your ass in gear.”
Harris shook his head. “C-Connor?”
Surprise rolled through Chloe.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Connor said. “That shit worked.” He glanced over at Chloe. “One compulsion can cancel out another.” He swiped away the blood on his cheek. “Good to know.” But she noticed that he didn’t back away from Harris, not yet. “Are you in control?” Connor demanded of the other agent. “Or do I need to knock you out?”
Harris was tentatively touching his nose. And wincing. “I’m…in control. But I’m a little sketchy on how…I wound up here.” His hand dropped and he glared at Connor. “You broke my nose, didn’t you?”