Hyde, an Urban Fantasy (48 page)

The driver yelled, “You want any change?”

“Keep it!”

The door was unlocked so she didn’t slow down, stumbling up the stairs, screaming Mitch’s name. The door was closed. No sound from the other side. Eden took a deep breath before turning the knob. Shoot, she should have gotten a weapon or something. What the heck was she doing?
Be smart, Eden!
Eyes darting around the hallway, she saw a glass vase on a table, wilted flowers sagging out of it. She ripped the sling off her arm, ignoring the pain in her shoulder as she dumped the flowers onto the floor. Splashing brownish water onto the ornate rug and her pants, she tested the vase’s weight. Heavy. But she could wield it. It might not do a lick of good against Hyde, but what would?

A yelp came from inside the room—Jolie. Eden had to move, had to try to help. She needed Jolie alive. So she could beat information out of her.

She cradled the vase in her arm and opened the door. The first thing she saw was Hyde, definitely Hyde. He was bigger than Mitch, courser features, not as refined or as beautiful. His muscles bulging, his chest heaving, his face furious. His growl shattered any sense of adequacy Eden might have felt before she opened the door. His hands clenched the bars, two fitting into each palm.

She stepped into the room, her hands tight around the vase, eyes sweeping the room. She blinked. Hyde was still in the cage. Pissed off as hell to be there, but he was definitely still in the cage. The padlock was still closed. Yet another lie. Jolie didn’t know Eden had spoken to Jolie’s boss. So what was the game-plan? Eden couldn’t get Mitch away from Jolie, couldn’t let him out, when he was Hyde.

She ignored the grunts coming from the cage. She could have sworn the yelp had sounded feminine. But Jolie wasn’t there. Not unless . . . S
tupid.
Behind the door.

A second too late, she flipped around and saw something moving fast, swinging toward her head. She jumped sideways. The cane clipped her bad shoulder, sending pain shooting into her hand and chest.

“Damn it, stay still!” Jolie slammed the door with her foot and stood in front of it, barring Eden’s escape.

“What are you doing?” Eden screamed.

Jolie’s eyes were wild, uncontrolled and angry. “Should’ve used this.” She looked down to what she held in her hand along with the cane. A syringe.

Eden backed away, gripping the vase with one hand but unsure she could risk getting close enough to use it. “Why are you doing this?”

Jolie smiled. “You’re bleeding.” Her tone sounded as if she’d just complimented Eden on what she was wearing.

Eden glanced to her shoulder. Yep, she was bleeding. Hand-to-hand combat with only one untrained hand.
We’re off to a great start.

“Hyde likes blood, don’t you, hon? It excites him. Makes him even meaner.” She took slow steps, swinging her hips as she approached Eden. Like a stroll through the freaking park.

Eden stepped backwards, keeping space between them, wondering how long she’d have until she hit the wall. “What is wrong with you?”

Jolie flinched, confused, and stopped. “There’s nothing wrong with
me
. You two? Yeah, there’s all sorts of wrong with you two.”

“With me?” She shook her head. “No, I wasn’t the one who hurt Carter, was I? Or the others?”

“Nope. To each. But I’m not a murderer. Self-defense isn’t murder.” She looked peaceful—hypocrisy and self-righteousness leaving no lines on her face.

“Self-defense? This is self-defense?” Adrenaline, fear and anger filled her veins, pumped by a heart that felt as if it was about to combust.

Hyde shook the bars of the cage. “Let me out, bitch!”

Oh my God, I’m going to die. I’m going to die now.
Eden couldn’t focus. Couldn’t think of a way out of this. Couldn’t slow her breath. Her pounding heart. Sweat making her grip on the vase slip.

“Why are you self-defencing people to death, Jolie?”

She blinked. “For him. I’m doing this for him. So Mitchell doesn’t go to jail. Shelly was an accident, Eden, it really was. She was my friend.” Her eyes pleaded for understanding. “I didn’t mean to. She would have told him what I was doing while he was Hyde, and he would have been so mad at me.
So
mad at me.”

“What were you doing, Jolie?”

“He liked it. I made him feel good. Nobody else could make him feel good.” Her crazy was spilling out all over the place. “But, when Mitchell saw her body, he felt so guilty that he called the police. So I had to give him an alibi. And then, I had to give him another. Because The Clinic wasn’t doing anything to help.” She switched direction and walked over to the cage, teasing the beast inside, but not getting too close. “I’m sorry about Carter though, Eden. I’m really sorry about that. He was a good guy.”

Is
. He
is
a good guy. No, that’s not quite right. “How long has he been drugging me, Jolie?”

She jerked her head to the side. “How did you know that? Did he tell you? Did he wake up?”

Eden just stared at her. “Why did he do it?”

“Are you sad, Eden?” she mocked. “Would it make you feel better if I told you I had to coerce him into it? That I had to force him?” She smiled. “Bummer. It’s too bad I’m not going to tell you.”

Eden decided then and there that it didn’t matter whether she lived through this or not. She was taking Jolie out with her.

“So what’s the plan, Jolie? The same thing you did with Shelly—kill me and make Mitch think he did it?”

“No. He and I need closure. I thought it would be more poetic if he actually did the dirty work this time. And I really hate lying to him, you know.” She leaned the cane against the side of the cage and fished the key out of her pocket. “You want to hurt her, don’t you, big boy?” she said to Hyde. His huge hands gripped the bars. She petted his finger, keeping her body out of reach. “But not me. Nope, you and I understand each other.” She was more delusional than Eden imagined if she thought the look on Hyde’s face was that of understanding. He was studying Jolie, biding his time, waiting until she unlocked the cage. If he’d had a tail, it would have been twitching.

Eden inched toward the woman, terrified that meant nearing Hyde and getting farther away from the door as well. Jolie glanced back. And Eden froze in place. No need to feign terror, it had etched itself across her face all by itself.

Steady, Eden. You can do this. No, you
have
to do this.

Her expression seemed to bring pleasure to Jolie. She smiled and put the key in the lock. Eden was out of time. She ran at Jolie, the vase raised above her head, her shoulder screaming at her to stop.

Jolie’s eyes widened. She stepped back from the bars, just as Hyde’s hand swiped at her throat.

Jolie’s heels skidded across the floor, fleeing Eden’s pursuit. She tripped and fell, sprawling out on the floor. Eden lifted the vase even higher and slammed it down, aiming for Jolie’s head. Jolie flipped over onto her back, the glass shattering next to her ear. She covered her face from the shards and kicked at Eden’s feet.

Eden’s weight came out from under her. She hit the floor, pieces of glass piercing her legs and back. She refused to stop now. Jolie tried to scramble away. Eden grabbed her leg and pulled.

Jolie twisted around, the syringe in her fingers. Eden let go and scooted backwards, sliding through the glass, feeling it puncture her palms.

“I spoke to your boss, Jolie. He called.”

She stopped crawling. “You what?”

“He thought I was you.”

Jolie shook her head. “That’s impossible. He doesn’t call. He never calls.”

The look on Jolie’s face gave Eden confidence. “Well, he did. He seemed pretty pissed that you hadn’t emailed him about my ‘handler’ being out of commission.”

Her eyes were wild, scared. “What did you tell him?”

Think, Eden. Think.
“He said something about ‘playtime’ being over. You should run for it, Jolie. Right now. He knows about Carter, and he’s going to come for you. Run. Go into hiding.”

Jolie started forward again, slower this time as if her fear and her stubbornness were fighting each other with each movement. “I can’t leave. They’ll find me. I know they will.” Jolie held the syringe out, grimacing from pain and fear. “No, I can explain it to them. It was all your fault.
You
killed Carter. And Hyde killed you.”

Eden shook her head. “They’ll figure it out.” She ignored the pain in her hands and slid further away.

Jolie’s eyes darted up above Eden. Her face turned into a mask of horror as if seeing the approach of her own demise.

Eden heard a growl from behind her. He was there. She felt it. Hyde was out of his cage and standing right behind her.

Hyde.
Eden felt him, looming somewhere right behind her. No one moved. Eden didn’t turn, didn’t flee. She knew enough about wild animals to know running just encouraged them. If she dared move, she would have strangled Jolie. The woman in front of Eden, the one with a full view of the beast, was terrified—blinking like crazy, mouth an inch open. A few minutes ago, she’d been so sure he would never hurt her because they ‘understood each other’.

A strange thought passed quickly through Eden’s mind:
He’d better not just kill me. He’d better kill her, too.

He hissed. No words. Just a hiss.

Eden saw Jolie’s plan a second before she bolted. “Don’t move,” she mouthed to Jolie. Her warning came too late.

Jolie scrambled to her feet and ran for the door, heels slipping on the glass.

Hyde pounced.

“No!” Eden screamed.

He flew right over her and tackled Jolie just as she turned to look, her face seemingly visualizing the death that was coming at her. He hit her hard, crushing her under his bulk. Jolie’s scream was cut off by her grunt as their bodies smacked onto the floor.

Eden didn’t want to see. She turned her head from Jolie’s cries and saw, a few feet away, the syringe that Jolie had dropped. She jumped up and grabbed it, her feet slipping on the glass and her own blood. She saw the cage, knew she’d be safe inside of it. She could wait it out until Hyde was gone and Mitch came back. And Jolie was dead. Oh God, what was she thinking of doing?

She held her hand steady, placing her thumb on the plunger. Ignoring Hyde’s guttural laughter and Jolie’s horrible begging, Eden sunk to her knees. She had one shot. One chance to puncture his skin and push the drug into his body. No drug would be fast enough. She might very well die before it took effect.
If
it was enough.
Big frigging ‘if’, Eden.
What the hell was she thinking? She called out to Chastity for strength, some sort of last ditch plea for help from a side of her she didn’t know, but someone she trusted had the strength to do what needed to be done.

Jolie was crying, covering her face with one hand and beating Hyde with the other. Her strikes had no effect on him. He looked like a cat playing with a bug, tossing her back and forth with easy slaps—nothing to him, but everything to his victim.

Eden crept closer on her knees, keeping her movements as small as possible. As if the smaller they were, the less likely he’d be to notice her. As if Jolie’s pleas would fill his ears and her fear would keep him satisfied until Eden could get close enough. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and lunged forward toward his leg. As soon as she felt the needle enter flesh, she pushed down on the plunger and scrambled backwards.

Waiting for the arm that would strike her and throw her across the room. The one that would end all of this, at least for her. She couldn’t look.

“What’d you do that for?” Hyde’s gruff bass sounded muted, not angry, just confused. “I wasn’t done.”

Eden peered through one eye, not wanting to see her end coming.

Hyde was still sitting on top of Jolie. He batted her face as if trying to wake her up instead of kill her. But it didn’t matter—Jolie was limp, lifeless. The syringe stuck out of Jolie’s thigh, dangling to the side, bouncing slightly each time Hyde jostled the body beneath him.

“Oh, God,” Eden moaned.