Chapter 17

How she had acted calmly as she hugged Kresley goodbye, Laura didn’t know. Perhaps it had been the absoluteness she’d felt in Lucan’s promise to protect Kresley. Or perhaps it was the man now walking by her side across the parking lot toward the lab—Rinehart. The quiet strength he offered had done more for her than a million words. He’d been there by her side as she talked the kids through their fears, helping her stay strong for them.

They paused at the bottom of the stairs. “You’re sure Walch doesn’t know anything is wrong yet?” Rinehart asked. She looked at the building and reached out to it, feeling the life within it, the emotions.

“I’m sure,” she said bringing Rinehart back into focus.

“All right then,” he said. “We’ll get in and get out, and leave this place behind forever.”

“Just walk in like nothing is wrong,” she said, reminding herself of his instructions.

“That’s right,” he said, his hand brushing her lower back as he urged her to start making their way inside. “Simple as baking a cake.”

She laughed. “Since I’ve never baked a cake in my life, that’s not the best comparison.”

“Really?” he asked. “Never?”

“What?” she challenged. “I’m a woman, so you think I have to bake?”

“Never known a woman that baked,” he said. “I was hoping you might be the first.”

Unbelievably, she was laughing as he held the door open for her. A good thing considering that two soldiers exited at the same time. She punched the elevator button. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

“You are many things,” he said softly. “But a disappointment is not one of them.”

Warmth climbed through her body as she allowed herself to fall into the depths of his eyes, melting into a place where the danger of their present circumstances didn’t seem to exist. Why that was, how he delivered her there, she didn’t know. Nor was it relevant. It simply helped—he helped.

The elevator dinged, the sound of reality calling her back into action. Together they faced forward and stepped inside. Together they hoped and prayed it wouldn’t be the last ride of their lives.

 

Thirty minutes later, Laura pulled the flash drive from her computer and slipped the drive’s lanyard around her neck, tucking it beneath her dress. And then, heart racing, she punched the key to destroy all remaining data on the computer.

It was done. The only documented record of her work was hanging around her neck. Legs more than a little wobbly, she pushed to her feet and grabbed the bag on her desk. Rinehart sat a few feet away at the lab table, pretending to look at samples under a microscope. He looked up from what he was doing and smiled. “Do I finally get you to myself now?” he asked, referring to the facade of a dinner date they’d started talking about in the elevator for anyone who might be watching on the monitors.

“I feel guilty for leaving,” she said, playing along. “You’re sure Lucan can look in on the patients?”

“Absolutely,” he promised, stretching languidly as he rose—the facade of being in no rush whatsoever. But he was in a rush. Laura could feel the urgency beating at him, pressing him to grab her and run. They both knew that at any moment, Walch could discover her patients weren’t even in the building. He studied her a moment, his hot inspection sliding down her body with such precision, she was almost certain he wasn’t in a hurry after all. His attention lingered on her feet and lifted to her face. “Let’s stop by your room and get you into something a little more comfortable.”

Translation—shoes she could run in without injury. Check. She was eager to get out of here, but equally as eager to survive. A thought that had her anxiety spiking, as she remembered the menace she’d sensed in those woods. She’d just sent her patients, the closest thing she had to family, out into those very same woods. The woods that she and Rinehart were about to travel, as well. The only safe place seemed to be no place at all.

 

Walch walked into his apartment to find Carol sitting at the head of his dining table, a wineglass in her hand. With supreme effort he shut the door with an easy, unaffected nudge, restraining the anger that the audacity of her actions created. He’d made her; her soul had been claimed by him.

“So glad you’re home, darling,” she purred, as if she were his woman, as if she belonged anywhere but beneath him in bed.

He took a step toward her, his gaze brushing her throat, his hand touching the knot of his tie. He loosened it, and contemplated wrapping it around her neck and torturing her. But then, she was the pet to Lithe and Litha, and facing them again gave him pause.

“I take it by your presence that you’ve completed your duty?” Another step and he hesitated, sniffed. The air was filled with the scent of fear instead of the arrogance she’d acquired from the guardians. She was without their protection. This realization would have pleased him if not for the formidable message that scent disclosed. Something had gone wrong and he would pay the price, not her.

Her response came slowly, her actions proof she was in avoidance mode. She sipped her wine and painted on a smile. Her lips quivered. “I can’t wait to see Laura panic over her darling Kresley’s meltdown.”

Skeptical in light of her nervousness, he pressed her. “So then, Kresley has been marked?”

“Oh, yes,” she confirmed, perking up with pleasure lighting the evil in her soulless eyes.

“And the others?” he asked, closing the distance between them, one slow step at a time. “What of them?”

Her chin lifted with uneasy defiance. “Why are they necessary?” she challenged. “Kresley is the only one Laura truly cares about. If you have her, you have Laura. If you have Laura, they will all follow.”

“You fool!” Walch blasted. “They will run.”

He charged across the room to the kitchen and turned on the monitors while already dialing his phone. “Lock down the building,” he said, flipping through the channels. In a matter of seconds he quickly verified that the patients were absent from their rooms. He dialed the phone again, gave orders to hunt down Laura and Rinehart and everyone associated with the two of them, and bring them to him.

“You’re upset over nothing,” Carol said from behind him.

Rage shifted him from man to Beast as he whirled around to find her in the doorway. “Do not think Tezi will not hear of this. And do not think I will not ensure he knows it is the guardians that failed.”

Her eyes suddenly flashed with anger; whatever fear she had been harboring slipped away. “You do not want the guardians as enemies any more than you want Tezi as one.” She hissed the threat, standing taller now, confident again. “As for the patients, in case you forget, this is an island. If they were stupid enough to run, they cannot go far. We will find them through Kresley’s mark.”

Walch knew the empty rooms confirmed they had, indeed, run. “Then do it,” he challenged, thinking of the human survival instinct. He’d once seen a man cut off his own leg to save his life. Leaving behind medication was nothing in comparison. “Call Lithe and Litha to you. Have them find Kresley.”

Her bravado melted instantly, and he realized that the source of her fear came back to this moment. “Lithe and Litha were forced to go underground to replenish. Lithe was injured while marking Kresley.”

Interesting. So fire was the weapon to use against the guardians. Stupid woman was full of useful information. He schooled his face into a blank expression. “What of Litha?”

“They function as two parts of one existence.”

“So they can do nothing to aid our efforts,” he said flatly, his mind processing.

“They can,” she insisted.

“When?”

She swallowed hard. “Soon.”

He turned away from her, processing, planning. The guardians were manipulative. They offered him aid, but he knew it was all part of the game they played. They’d help him if they received a favor in return, but only if it cost them nothing with Tezi. And soon, they would all face Tezi, and someone would fall. That someone would not be him.

He turned back to Carol. “If you want to live,” he said, “come with me.”

 

Rinehart wasn’t sure which one of them reacted first, but as he and Laura stepped out of the building, warnings rushed though his head, and his nerves tingled with the threat of Beasts ready to attack. One quick look at Laura confirmed she felt it, too. In silent agreement, they launched into a run, down the stairs, only a second before shouts came from behind them.

Soldiers charged at them from the left and right, at least five or six from each direction. “Damn!” he yelled, with no option but to keep running. He had no weapons, and hand-to-hand with Laura to protect wasn’t going to work.

“Over here!”

Rinehart looked up at the same moment that Des tossed him a sheathed sword and Max stepped from the woods, already matching blades with another Beast. With a fast cut of his blade, Max beheaded a Beast. The head fell to the ground. A second later, the Beast burst into flames.

Laura gasped, but Rinehart didn’t have time to respond, rotating to catch the weapon Des had thrown his way—and not a second too soon, as a Beast charged at him, a sword in hand.

Rinehart shoved Laura behind him as Rock and Des fell into a line with him, creating a wall protecting Laura from the ongoing attacks. He could only pray no one came from behind. “You aren’t supposed to be here,” he yelled at Des, who stood to his left.

Des sliced his blade through the air in an attempt to disarm one of his attackers, casting Rinehart a sideways grin as his efforts paid off. “You thought you could have a party and not invite me?” He ripped his blade through the air and took the Beast’s head.

“He had another vision,” Rock said, from the right.

As even more Beasts charged their way, Rinehart wasn’t complaining about the help.

“Want to tell me what happens next?” he asked Des.

“Nothing you’re gonna like,” Des said. “So just keep on fighting.”

 

Stunned by what she had just seen, Laura found herself shoved behind Rinehart and two of his men. She was living a nightmare in some sort of alternate universe. There was no other explanation for saber-toothed monsters and chopped-off heads that turned to fire and ash.

But the evil was all around her, oozing from all directions, seeping into her pores, through her mind, into her senses—screaming with how very real this was. Fight. She had to fight the monsters. No one was coming at them from behind, so she whirled around to face forward, then sidestepped to get a good view. Her heart raced like a pounding drum, chased a rhythm straight to her throat. She was out of practice, afraid she would fail. She watched as one of the creatures cut Rinehart’s arm, and she gasped; fear for his safety driving her to act. Her hand lifted and sliced through the air. The attacker’s weapon flew to the ground.

Relief over Rinehart’s safety filled her with the will to continue.

Five more Beasts were charging in their direction. Laura raised her hand again. Their weapons ripped from their hands. Confidence filled her.

“Laura!” Rinehart yelled in warning, as an attacker charged at her, obviously trying to take her captive rather than killing her. She whipped her hand in his direction, and imagined a great force. He flew through the air and hit a tree. The Beasts began to retreat.

Rinehart grabbed her arm. “Let’s go.”

She glanced up at him for only a moment, but still saw the shock in his expression at all she had done, felt it in the others—Des, Rock and Max.

Laura prepared to run, stilled by the familiar voice that lashed through the air.

“Laura!”

“Carol,” Laura whispered, turning to see her approaching. Walch was by her side and he looked human, but the two soldiers with them were beastly and horrid, like the soldiers Rinehart and his men had killed. One side of their face was human, the other, animal, each with a huge eye and ragged features. Fangs snarled over their lips. Laura couldn’t look at them, didn’t want to. Instead, she focused on Carol—her patient, her friend, part of her family—trying to find something human beneath the taint. Her eyes were darker, her skin whiter. Clothes tighter, more revealing. Hair, wild.

“This isn’t the Carol you once knew,” Rinehart warned her, eyeing the speed at which Carol and the others approached. “We have to go while we can.”

“I know,” Laura said, not taking her eyes off of Carol, noting the two long blades in her hands. “But I have to try and find her again.” Somewhere inside of this Carol was the gentle woman Laura had once known.

“You can’t. Think of the others. Think of the research in our possession that is at risk.”

Carol stopped abruptly, and, to Laura’s horror, the blades the other woman held flew through the air, not thrown by her hands but launched with her mental abilities. The steel rocketed toward Des and Max.

Laura raised her hands, and the blades fell to the ground. There was a moment of shocked silence, all eyes on Laura. The hatred in Carol’s eyes sent chills down Laura’s spine. Walch shoved Carol behind him, as if he feared Laura would connect with her.

“If you think your grand abilities surprise or frighten me,” he drawled, “they don’t. I’ve always known you were more capable than any of your subjects.” He eyed Rinehart. “I know who you are now. I’ve heard stories of the Knights with their grand swords. But hear this, Knight. Know this.” Anger lashed through his words. “You picked the wrong enemy. Your deceit has done nothing but seal my will to see every one of your kind destroyed.”

“You opened the door and invited me in, Walch,” Rinehart said. “Made my job easy.” He smiled. “Face it. You screwed up and the consequences are coming.” He pointed his blade at the ground. “Why don’t you drop to your knees and give me your head. Spare yourself the torture headed your way.”

Laura watched in horror as Walch’s face shifted, as he became a Beast, his big, red eye fixed on her. “You will bring everyone back to me.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Never.”

“We’ve marked them,” he said. “We own them now.”

“Only Kresley bears a mark,” Rinehart countered.

Walch arched a brow. “Are you sure? Are you one hundred percent sure it’s only Kresley?”

“He’s lying,” Laura said, sensing the lies within him. “I can tell you are lying. Only Kresley is marked.”

He narrowed his eyes on Laura for a mere moment and then he waved a dismissive hand. “More important, here is the power those marks bestow upon me. They allow me to order her a fate far worse than death. Hallucinations that will make her go insane. Think of this, my dear doctor. Your patient, little Kresley, in the corner, screaming because she thinks snakes are crawling all over her. That is what awaits your little darling. And only I can stop it. Only I can remove the marks.”

Laura felt the sting of tears; the fear for those she cared about, almost more than she could bear. “Take me instead,” she said, taking a step forward. “I can be everything you need.”

Rinehart’s hand was instantly on her arm, pulling her back. “No,” he spit out. “No.”

She looked up at him, the darkness of his expression something she’d never seen in him. There was anger, pain, fierce determination. He would fight her, but she would fight hard. “I have to. I cannot let the others suffer for me.”

“You will not do this,” he said, his grip tightening on her arm as he faced Walch. “She doesn’t have the ability to clone these people anyway, Walch. None of us do. We never did.”

“Since she has used herself to create control in the others, she can figure it out,” Walch snarled, and fixed his attention on Laura. “You probably already know how.”

Instant denial came to Laura. “I don’t! It could take years to discover, but I’ll try. Free everyone but me. I’ll stay and I will find a way to do it. You can clone my abilities.”

“Oh, you are staying,” he said, and motioned to Rinehart. “And he can bring back the others. You will both work faster with incentives.”

“They won’t come back without Laura’s influence,” Rinehart said. “She has to come with us. Send Carol to watch over us.”

Walch laughed. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? A chance to save her, too? Not possible, and that’s a no anyway. Laura stays.”

“Take me in her place,” Rock said, stepping forward; he dropped his weapons at his feet.

“No,” Laura said. “No.” She looked at Rinehart. “No one else sacrifices for me.”

“I’ve told you, Laura,” he said, his voice low, pain lancing his words. “You are dangerous in their hands. You cannot go with them.”

“I would never do anything to hurt anyone,” she rasped back. “This is my responsibility. I have to stay. I have to make this all right.”

Walch smiled. “A Knight of White in my possession. I quite like that. Yes. It serves me well.” He motioned to his soldiers. “Take him.”

Two Beasts charged forward and shackled Rock. Dampness clung to Laura’s cheeks as she watched them take him away. He’d given himself up for people he didn’t even know. Sacrificed himself. It wasn’t right.

“You have twelve hours,” Walch said.

“Can’t do it,” Rinehart said. “We cut off communications with the rest of the group until our ride gets here. That’s seventy-two hours from now.”

Walch growled, anger raging off of him. “I will not wait three days. You have one.”

“Three days,” Rinehart said, leading Walch astray from the true plan. “And then we trade. The patients for Rock.”

Walch seethed. “It behooves you to get her sooner than later. Every second he is here will be painful. A moment over three days and he is dead.” With that, he turned on his heels and stormed away.

Carol reappeared as the line of Beasts disappeared. She stayed her position long enough to glare at Laura, hatred shining in her eyes for several moments before she followed Walch and the soldiers in their departure.

Laura wanted to scream, to run after Rock, to demand Rinehart make this right. “It should have been me,” she said. “Walch needs me. He wouldn’t have hurt me. Get him back.” She grabbed his arm. “Please.”

Rinehart’s expression was grim. “I’ll come back for him when everyone else is off this island.”

“No,” she said. Then stronger, “No. I have to bring Kresley back and make them undo whatever they did to her.”

He strapped the sword onto his belt with some sort of leather strap Des tossed him, his tone cool, calm. Expression almost cold. “You’re not thinking straight right now. You’re emotional and upset. Walch will not help Kresley. He’ll turn her into one of them. Just like he will you.”

“What of the torture he promised Kresley?” she demanded. “What of that?”

His eyes flashed with anger. “Kresley has all of us to help her and we will find a way to free her. Rock is on his own in there, and he, too, has been promised torture.”

She regretted the words once spoken, more so after hearing his response. Rock was his friend, his family. “I’m sorry.” And he was right, she was emotional. Out-of-character emotional. Her common logic gone, eaten alive by panic and fear. “I’m sorry,” she repeated.

He didn’t respond, abruptly cutting his gaze away from her and speaking to Des. “This was your vision. Rock knew he was going to do that when he came here.”

He nodded. “Yes. We knew it was one of us or Laura. He is without a mate. He insisted it be him.”

Laura listened to the exchange without understanding the talk of vision any more than she understood how man could become Beast. Nor did she dare ask. She’d hurt him. She didn’t want to hurt him. She didn’t want to hurt anyone. So why did it keep happening?