"Hunter," Corinne cried, weeping now. "Please, just let him go. Do it for me ..."
Her fear clawed at him, but he couldn't stop now. "This is the only way. It's his only chance, Corinne."
Nathan obeyed, silent, uncertain. When the tank top was in place, Hunter told him, "Lie down on your stomach."
Slowly, the boy got into position on the floor. Hunter wound the tail of the cotton shirt around his hand then took a firmer hold of the collar, the liquid nitro hose in the other. He exhaled a low curse, then brought the hose toward the back of Nathan's head and held the plume of freezing chemicals directly onto the collar.
Clouds of white steam frothed up into the air. Even through the layers of fabric protecting his hand, his skin burned from the intense cold blasting the impenetrable casing and circuitry of Dragos's cruel invention.
Beneath him, Corinne's son was utterly still. He panted quickly, quietly, just a terrified kid who was giving all he had to hold himself together in what could very well be the final seconds of his life.
All too soon, the liquid nitrogen began to thin and sputter from the hose. Hunter would have liked to freeze the damned collar for a lot longer, but the tank was petering out. He'd have to take his shot right now and hope for the best.
"What's happening?" Corinne asked. "Is it working?"
"We're going to have to find out." He threw down the hose and reached for one of the daggers sheathed on his thigh. He took it out and turned the hilt around in his hand, ready to bring the butt down on the frozen collar.
Corinne's hands took hold of his arm. "Wait." She shook her head, her face stricken with fear. "Don't do this. Please, you will kill him."
He might end up killing the boy and himself, if his gamble failed and the device went off in that next moment. With Corinne weeping, pleading futilely for him to stop - the vision playing out just as Mira had predicted - Hunter pulled his arm out of her grasp. Then he brought his fist down on the collar.
It shattered.
The pieces broke away, crumbling down around Nathan's shirt-covered head as the device disintegrated. Hunter got up and stood back from the boy. Corinne threw her arms around him.
"Oh, my God," she breathed, clinging to Hunter, sobbing and laughing at once. "Oh, my God ... I can't believe it. Hunter, it really worked!"
Nathan was motionless for a moment, still lying prone on the floor. Then he reached up and pulled the tank top from around his head. He stood, turning to face them. His fingers shook a bit as they climbed up to trace the bare skin of his neck.
Nothing but a white-tinged ring where the chemicals had burned him. The skin would heal in a short time. The miracle was, he was free.
"Wh-what have you done to me?" he asked, the first words he'd uttered to them. His voice was deep but carried the rough scrape of fading adolescence.
"You are free," Hunter told him. "No one can control you anymore. Thanks to your mother's love, her determination to find you, you are finally free to live as you choose."
Corinne stepped away from Hunter's side and held her hands out to her son in welcome.
"I want to bring you home with me, Nathan. We can be a family now."
He swung a look on her as she approached him. Guarded, mistrusting, he frowned and gave a faint shake of his shaved head.
Before Hunter could register the change in the boy, from caution to cornered, Nathan was moving. In a flash of Breed motion, he had grabbed one of the broken shards of his collar and held it tight against Corinne's throat. She gasped, totally unprepared for the assault. Hunter growled, his eyes trained on the jagged, makeshift blade that was poised at his Breedmate's carotid. Whether this boy was her flesh and blood or not, he had just declared himself an enemy.
Chapter Thirty-two
And Hunter would not hesitate to kill him if the threat escalated even so much as a fraction.
Even as Nathan backed her with him toward the open doors of the truck, Corinne's eyes pleaded with Hunter for mercy. "Nathan," she said, trying once more to reach her son's humanity. "You don't have to be afraid. Let us be your friends now. Let us be your family. Just give me a chance to be the mother I should have been for you."
He moved closer to the doors, saying nothing. That damnable bit of sharp material still riding near her vein. "Nathan," Corinne said. "Please, just let me love you - "
He shoved her forward, a violent rejection of all she'd said and all she'd done for him. Then he bolted out of the truck, escaping into the woods as the first light of dawn was already beginning to glow on the horizon.
Chase hadn't actually expected to wake up. His last conscious memory had been running in a blind tear through the city, losing too much blood from the gunshot wound in the artery of his right leg and the lesser hit to his shoulder. He'd taken worse injuries in combat before, but that was then. This was now, when his body was shuddering and weak, his nearly indestructible Breed genetics hobbled by the disease that roused him awake on a pained groan. He tried to sit up but didn't get very far. Metal restraints clamped his wrists and ankles to an infirmary bed. Another wide band of steel and leather lashed him around his middle. He cursed through his gritted teeth and gave the manacles a good hard rattle. As his vision slowly came into better focus, he saw a dark head peering in from the hallway at him through the small window in the door.
It took Dante a minute before he finally strode inside. As the door closed shut behind him, he stared at Chase from across the room and shook his head. "You're a f**king idiot, you know that, Harvard?"
Chase scoffed. "Thanks for the concern. I hope you didn't come all the way down here just to tell me that."