“Oho, I’m second choice then, am I?”
She didn’t reply, looking toward the door as it opened. Darce grunted, cast a glance over his shoulder and the blood drained from his body. They had Steele, yeah, but behind him two guards had Toni and the other woman, the one they’d thrown in with Steele. But they weren’t dragging them this time. Instead, both women were walking. Just. Toni was almost bent double, being helped by the other woman, gripping her stomach with agony written all over her face.
“Shit.”
He was across the cage the instant the door opened and they shoved the two women in. He got his arms around Toni before she hit the floor and cradled her in his lap while he checked her over. Paler than a corpse, her skin was waxy and sweat beaded to roll down her skin. She shivered, but when he put his hand to her forehead it was like touching a radiator. Another convulsion hit her, a moan slipping from her. He held her tight until it passed, and she opened her eyes. They were dark, unfocused. Her gaze skittered over his face and onto the cage around them before returning to him. He doubted she knew where they were.
“What’s the matter with her? How long has she been like this?” he demanded, looking up at the woman hovering next to him. Her scent said human, almost. Steele’s scent was all over her, but there was something else— something wild and feral, buried deep down. Not fully human, but he didn’t have time to work out what else she was. Not when his mate looked like death warmed over.
“I d-don’t know. He…” She jerked her head toward where Steele was arguing with one of the technicians. Unlike the two women, he was bound hand and foot, just a short chain between his wrists and ankles allowing him to move. “He said she was ill. Tried to get help, but then they came for us.”
Darce nodded, and froze when one of the doctors plunged a needle in Steele’s arm. The Hybrid roared and swiped at the needle, tearing it away and backhanding the technician into a cluster of equipment.
“Quick. Get him inside!” Fitzgerald ordered, but the guards were already moving. With their taser batons sparking, the guards herded the big man into the cage and slammed the door shut.
Steele stumbled, went to one knee with his head down. His shoulders shook, his fist opening and closing in a reflex action. Instinct plucked at Darce, all his wolfy-senses going batshit as he eased Toni to the ground behind him.
“Look after her,” he shot to the woman hovering next to him and stood. “Steele, man…you okay?”
At his question, the Hybrid’s head snapped up. Darce swore.
His eyes were totally red.
Her blood was on fire.
Toni groaned and rolled over, grinding her forehead into the sand beneath. It hurt so she did it again, anything to distract her from the pain in her guts. The scent of blood and sweat—other less pleasant aromas—rose to clog up her nostrils when she disturbed the grains. The heated blackness rolled back, and her hearing returned. The sounds of battle filled her ears, along with terrified sobs.
Where was she? What the hell was going on?
Another wave of fire stole her breath but she rode it out, eyes pressed tightly shut. When it receded she gathered herself, and—arms clutched tightly around her middle—got her knees under her. The sand abraded her forehead but she didn’t care. That was pain, a normal pain, not like the agony that attacked her through her own blood.
“Oh god, please… He’s going to kill him. You have to get up!”
Hands pulled at her arms, trying to yank her up from her forehead-down, ass-up crouch. Toni hissed in reply and concentrated on not hurling. Crawling around on the floor and rubbing her forehead across what amounted to sandpaper wasn’t the most dignified thing but she didn’t care. Pain was good, pain was her friend. It cleared her mind and helped her think.
She slammed her hand into the sand by her head. Hard. Agony stampeded up her arm, fighting back the fire in her blood. She hit again and again, until the skin on her knuckles split and the scent of her own blood filled her nostrils. A roar left her lips and she pushed herself up, grinding the open wounds into the floor. To the knees—knees were good. Now if she could just up that to being on her feet, she’d be cooking with gas.
Her head rocked back on her neck and she opened her eyes, trying to focus on what was going on around her. The cage. This time from the inside. Crap, that wasn’t good. The mesh panels zoomed in and out as her vision tried to get with the program. Myriad snarls and the sound of fists on flesh brought her head around and she frowned, trying to bring the combatants into view. Someone was getting a pasting—that was for sure.
The fighters were out of focus but she could make out a bigger man pounding on a smaller one. Animalistic snarls clued her in. Two Lycans for a guess. The bigger one knocked the other off his feet with a brutal elbow and backhand combination that made him stagger into the mesh with a clatter. Her vision cleared in time to see Darce slide down the mesh into a crumpled heap.
“Shit…no…”
Toni lurched to the side, hooking her fingers into the mesh and hauling herself upright. The metal burned and bit when she touched it. She gasped and used the pain to fend off the fire blasting through her. She wanted to curl up into a little ball and sob, to give up and let the agony overwhelm her but she wouldn’t. Not with Darce in danger. No way would the f**king Project win, not while she had breath left in her body.
Darce staggered back to his feet as she managed to reach hers. The aide was right next to her, sliding in under Toni’s arm to keep her upright.
“Thank God. I thought you were a goner for sure. How are you feel—oh…”
Toni clung to the other woman, using the stranger’s strength to stay upright while Darce launched himself into the attack again. As he ran, he changed and another form exploded from his body. The snarl rolling from his lips deepened and transformed as his chest expanded. A muzzle punched out of his human face, filled with sharp fangs, and fur flowed from his nose outward like an oil slick covering his skin. Bones snapped sharply, grew and reformed in an instant. The structure of his legs shifted mid-run. The claws already present at the ends of his fingers lengthened, his hands changing shape to become more like claws but he wasn’t wolf—not fully. Instead, he was something else. Humanoid…a wolf-man.
“Yes! I knew it!” Fitz’s voice rang with triumph from somewhere the other side of the cage but Toni paid it no mind. That bastard would get his comeuppance even if she had to come back from the dead to send him to the afterlife.
The two women caught their breath as Darce charged across the sand. He changed direction, angling himself at the mesh, and then ran up it. In mid-air, he twisted his body and lashed out with a foot. Claws sliced through the air and across Steele’s face. Blood splattered across the sand. The bigger man spun around and went down.
“Holy shit.”
Toni wasn’t sure whether she or the aide had spoken, but it didn’t matter. That had finished the fight. No way could even Steele get back up after such a blow. No way could anyone get up after something like that.
Darce dropped back to his feet, dancing lightly while he studied the prone body on the sands. His eyes were the full amber of his wolf, but sparkled with a human intelligence that was disconcerting.
Pride filled Toni. She straightened, ignoring the claws of fire in her gut. Somehow Darce had found a way to retain to combine the most powerful elements of his two natures into one lethal form. Love blossomed, warming her from the middle of her chest outward and fighting the pain that wanted to tie her in knots.
And he was her man.
She pushed off, needing to get to him. To wrap her arms around him and reassure herself he was actually there, living and breathing in front of her. Before she could take a step, Steele groaned. She paused, unable to believe her eyes. The Hybrid moved, the muscles in his big shoulders and arms popping into high relief as he pushed up, then got to his knees before climbing to his feet. A snarl rolled from Darce’s lips. He flexed his hands, making his claws flash in the lights trained on the ring.
Steele threw back his head and roared, the sound rebounding off the walls. Darce’s claws had opened his face from ear to jaw in three vicious slices. But as the two women watched, the skin knitted and turned black. A darkness that spread out over his skin to flow over the rest of his body. His nose and lips changed, pushing out like Darce’s but then scrunching up. Becoming something else…not lupine, even though he had Lycan blood.
His ears elongated and became bat-like. A series of cracks like gunshots echoed through the silence. With each sharp sound, Steele’s body jerked like a marionette. Bones snapped and reformed within his skin. His hands changed, broader and longer, like paws tipped with vicious talons. Not Lycan and not Blood, but something in between. His legs cracked and changed shape, the movement sickening and painful looking as his lower limbs reformed with the backwards “knee”, like a wolf.
Darce backed up, wariness written in every line of his body. Silence fell and anticipation drew the air taut. Everyone in the room held their breath. Waited to see what Steele had become, what he would do.
That question was answered when he lifted his head, eyes glowing red. He looked around. Spotted Darce. The hiss which emanated from his throat was low and full of malevolence as he launched himself at the Lycan. Darce had no time to block. He tried, but barely managed to stop every second blow. Toni screamed. More and more holes from Steele’s claws appeared in Darce’s skin, bright trails of scarlet staining the fur.
He howled in pain, lashing out with claws and teeth as Steele circled him, but it was easy to see he was outmatched. For every blow Darce tried, Steele came back with three, pinning the Lycan into the corner until there was no escape. An audible wince went through the crowd outside the mesh when Steele hissed, claws flashing before he drove them deep into Darce’s abdomen. Darce stiffened, head thrown back as Steele let go and he slowly slid to the sand.
“Nononono!”
Toni didn’t stop to think. Ignoring the pain curling through her gut, she launched herself across the cage. Something inside her broke, shattering into a million pieces and releasing the blackness in her soul. It flooded through her veins, extinguishing the fires that had raged there and filling every inch and every cell of her body with icy darkness.
Three running steps took her halfway over the sand. On the forth she bunched her legs under her and launched herself into the air. She left the ground and her body changed. Bones popped and snapped, reformed at the speed of thought. She reached out in front of her, redness filtering over her vision as she homed in on her target.
Steele.
One thought filled her mind.
She wouldn’t let him kill the man she loved.
She accepted the thought finally. That she was in love with Darce. In love with the irritating, cocky, sexy-as-hell Lycan who’d told her she was his the first time that they’d met. She was his, she always had been—she just hadn’t known it. He was a Lycan, sure, and no match for a Blood. That side of her rebelled against the thought, even while the other half, the half that was whatever the f**k was wrong with her right now, accepted it immediately. It felt right. Perfect. Meant to be. Which meant she wasn’t going to let this piece of shit Hybrid kill him. Just like in chess, the queen protected the king.