He looked down over the women below with a sigh. “It’s unfortunate how this has developed, but we have to do what is best for the greater good. The future of the Arcane depends on us.”
Brit was shaking, she was so furious. She’d often sympathized with the Rebels, but if this was how they planned to fight, then they were no better than the Triumvirate. She motioned to the women below. “They are the future of the Arcane, you fool.” Her voice carried, and she could feel the rousing interest of the women. To her left, two men pulled their weapons from their backs to focus on the women three stories below them.
“That is why we need you to figure out how to reverse it. It’s the only hope these women have,” he said reasonably. He shook his head as though he was speaking of his favorite sitcom being cancelled.
Brit was appalled. “Are you saying if I can’t find out how to reverse it, you will have them killed?” Her throat ached with the effort it took not to scream, and she wanted to. She burned with it.
“Take it easy, love. Breathe deep. If you roar, you may hurt some of those innocent women. The Drakes are assembling a force. If what you believe is true, those women could be mates to many of my people. We will not let them be harmed.”
Roar? She remembered Raife had explained the way Drachon could manipulate sound frequency enough to cause severe bodily damage. Brit swallowed repeatedly to ease the tension in her throat and glanced at Meghann. Her sister was watching her with narrowed eyes.
Brit projected her thoughts to Meghann.
“They intend to kill all these women because of what the Triumvirate did to them.”
And Brit realized it was true. The Triumvirate did this to these women, not her. Not her and not Vin.
Meghann watched her for another long moment, and then she gave a nearly imperceptible nod. She hopped up to sit on the railing, swinging her leg, but Brit could see she was tracking the movements of the guards.
Meghann shook her head and clicked her tongue at the man. “If you’d have consulted me before you decided to nab my smarty-pants sister, I would have warned you she was difficult.”
The man seemed irritated by Meghann’s antics. He flexed his hands, and Brit saw the faint flash of claws before they retreated. Definitely a Guardian, and he had little love for her sister. He smiled sadly at Brit. “Let us hope that it won’t have to come to such a point. Now if you’ll follow me, I’ll show you to our lab.”
Brit cast a glance at Meghann, focusing on the bright glow of her mind. She wanted to let her sister know help was coming, but she was afraid she would project it to everyone.
“The Drachon are coming. We need to protect these women until then.”
Meghann turned her head to smile at her, but the look in her eyes was calculated. “It’s been great visiting, sis, but I gotta fly.” Then she launched off the railing.
Brit ran to the edge and looked down in time to see Meghann land in a crouch. She pushed up to her feet and blew kisses to the guards on the catwalk before skipping away to jump up on a nearby sofa with two other women.
“I hate to say it, but I believe too many years in a Triumvirate research center has affected your sister’s mind.”
As Brit turned away, she wasn’t entirely sure the man was wrong. Meghann had always been impulsive and reckless, but this Meghann seemed like she flirted with the very edge. Just as they opened the door to return to the hall, warning lights began to flash. The guards drew their weapons up and trained them on the women below. The man next to her cursed. He grabbed Brit by the arm and pulled a radio off his belt.
“Do we know what the threat is, sir?”
“Triumvirate Guardians have breached the perimeter on the south side. I’m determining the threat level now.” There was a pause, then, “I’m ordering an evacuation. Give the order to exterminate the subjects.”
Brit screamed out to Vin and Tag in her mind.
“The Triumvirate Guardians are attacking, and the Rebels are going to kill the women.”
Both of them surrounded her with their strength, and she could almost taste the bitter edge of desperation. “
Hang in there, baby. We’re coming to you.”
The world around her faded into shades of fire and ice. She could see the bodies of the guards leaning over the rails as flaming silhouettes. Below, the women grouped together, their confusion rising off them like mist. Clearly, through the burn of their body heat signatures, she could see the glowing essence of their minds.
“Into the cells, get out of the range of their guns.”
Brit sent the words into the crowd of women. They turned and scattered before the man couldn’t even give the order to open fire.
“You won’t be allowed to destroy us!” The man growled. He released her and pulled his firearm from his hip. The fury that had been building in her chest and tearing at her throat, funneled out of her. A Drachon’s roar. The man’s eyes widened moments before she saw blood fill the whites of his eyes, purpling under his skin. It sprayed from his mouth across her face and hair as he collapsed to the ground.
Another guttural roar burst past her lips, so loud and full of fury that a part of her recoiled in horror. Immediately the sound was returned with the force of fierce thunder. Above her, the domed ceiling shattered, and men rained down with the shards of glass. Brit dropped to her knees and covered her head. The screams of women rose up, and a blast rocked the building.
Her sister! Her sister was down there. She crawled to the railing and looked into the chaos. There was an opening blown into the wall below, and the smoke was too thick to tell if the good guys were coming from the ceiling or the floor.
Bodies writhed and spun in around each other through the smoke in a macabre dance, some fighting, some fleeing, their faces eerily lit from the blue light emanating from her sister. Flames danced up her arms as she stood vigilant in front of the hole in the wall, protecting the fleeing women as they poured out into the night. Bodies of both women and men were sprawled across the ground, blood pooling out from their bodies like gruesome wings. She had never seen anything so horrific in her life.
The metal catwalk vibrated under her. Brit gripped the railing and pulled herself to her feet as gunfire blasted around her. The roars of Drachon reverberated up and through the steel like electric currents, and the metal framework squealed and lurched beneath her. The hazy blue glow of her sister was just visible, and Brit could hear the eerie scream as Meghann set a Guardian on fire when he attempted to grab one of the women. And there were Drachon, their bodies so much bigger than any others around them. They provided cover for the women as they escaped, but it was the sight of two Drachon in particular, their soot-stained faces rising through the smoke and flames, that drew Brit’s attention and made her heart leap.
“Tag! Vin!” Brit screamed down to them. Their beautiful eyes turned up to her as one, the look of horror mirrored on both faces. Brit realized they weren’t looking at her; they were looking off to her right. She turned, and her breath caught at the sight of the weapon leveled on her.
Gideon bled into existence from the empty space in front of her, his dark eyes sad as he wrapped an arm around her and brought her to his chest. It felt like she jumped from a plane—the sound of gunfire and screaming, the feel of energy around her, her very breath was ripped away from her with a hissing rush of air. His deep voice filled her ears in the absence. “I’m sorry, little doctor, this was the only way.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Vin could see her through the smoke, high up on the catwalk overhead. Her beautiful face lit up when she saw them, her screams echoing in his head. His heart stalled. The most debilitating sense of helplessness pressed down on him like a flood of churning water, stealing his ability to breathe. Three floors above him, he saw the gun being aimed at her, could feel the absolute determination of the Guardian to take her out. He’d never reach her in time. Beside him he could feel the shattering roar of pain from his brother.
Time slowed as the Guardian’s finger squeezed, and fire belched from the muzzle. Vin dropped to his knees, the fight around him fading away as he watched the path of the bullet. He closed his eyes, preparing to feel the rending of her from his very soul, but the shattering he expected never came. He looked up at the catwalk, and she was gone. Then her scent exploded around him, and she was there standing before him. Behind her he could just make out the fading shadow of Gideon, his dark gaze hard as he disappeared.
Tag touched Vin’s arm, his eyes focused up on the catwalk where the Guardian that attempted to kill their mate was searching the crowd through the sight of his weapon.
“He’s mine.”
Tag cast one glance at Brit, tucked his weapon in the waistband of his jeans, and leaped for the edge of the catwalk. Tag caught the bottom rail with hand and ripped out the metal beneath the Guardian with his other.
Brit’s fingers dug into Vin’s arm, and he could hear her silent cry for his brother. The man dropped through the hole in the metal grating, flailing, unable to get his bearings before he landed on his back. Tag dropped down, his boots landing on the Guardian’s chest. Watching over his shoulder with satisfaction, Vin turned to shelter her from the sight of Tag finishing off the bastard. His dragon roared in unison with his brother’s when the man’s life left. No one threatened their mate and lived.
“Take good care of my sister, dragon,” Meghann warned him in a deadly tone. He turned, and she stood behind them, encased in a flickering electric flame, eyes bled completely to a cerulean blue. There was no pupil, no whites of her eyes, just that blue that seemed to seethe with the flames that encased her entire body. “Both of you.”
Tag flanked Brit on the other side.
“Meghann?”
Vin could feel his mate trying to battle the confusion and shock to reach out to her sister. He pulled her against him when she would have reached out to her.
“No, little love, you can’t touch her now.”
The seemingly sightless blue orbs of Meghann’s eyes turned to Brit, and for just a moment the flames around her dimmed and the sapphire fury in her gaze retreated. “Live happy, sis.”
Then she burned brighter as a rush of new Guardians bled through the hole in the wall, eyes black, claws slashing. He watched for a long moment as she spun and dipped, more graceful than a dancer, more destructive than any weapon, incinerating those in her path. She seemed like a fairy next to the brutal fury of the Drachon around her.
Brim landed next to them and yelled, “Get your mate out of here!” The light of battle was bright in the man’s eyes as well as something else as he tracked Meghann’s path through the battle. “My guys have got it from here.” He looked down at Brit. “Don’t worry, little sister, I’ll bring her back.” A small smile curled his lips, his pupils elongating before he charged back into the fighting with a roar.
“Let’s take our mate home,”
Tag rumbled, the residual fury of his dragon adding an edge to his words.
“Meghann!” Brit screamed and tried to follow.
“I’m sorry, love.”
Lifting a struggling Brit into his arms, Vin followed his brother through the flames and blood. Dragon seething too close to the surface, he clung to her through the entire flight home, not even letting her go when he climbed into the helicopter. Tag must have sensed his desperation, because he didn’t try to take her from him. He just sat next to them and stroked her legs, her hair as though he too needed the touch to reassure him.
Brit was silent, still, as he carried her to their apartment. He was too much of a coward to even attempt to breach her thoughts. He wouldn’t be able to take her revulsion, her rejection of him. All of this, all of those women, some of whom hadn’t survived, was because of him. She’d read the evidence of his depravity, the depths his research had led him to. Even her sister had suffered because of him. How could she ever forgive that? Forgive what she’d seen tonight?
Tag started the shower and stripped, stepping into the basin when steam rose from the dual streams. Vin carefully undressed her and handed her into the shower with his brother so Tag could care for her. Wanting to get rid of the evidence of this night, Vin reached down to pick up their clothes and winced when he noticed her once-white lab coat. It was small in his hands, torn at the shoulder, and heavily stained with dried blood. She was always smoothing and straightening her lab jackets, so white and pristine. It felt as though it were a violation of who she was. His chest clenched. He’d brought her to this. Vin turned to leave the room.
A small wet hand wrapped around his wrist, and he looked up into her deep blue eyes, the thick lashes beaded with water. “I need you.”
BRIT EXHALED, A lightness infusing her as she realized how true it was. She did need him, as much as she needed Tag. As much as they needed her. “Stay with us.”
He stared at her, his eyes darkening to a deep green. She stepped from the shower, water dripping from her, and reached for the buttons of his shirt. She pushed it over his wide shoulders, the stains and tears telling of what he’d endured to reach her. The shirt fell to the damp floor. She traced the four longs scratches on his chest and knelt in front of him, removing his shoes, pulling his socks from his wide masculine feet. From her knees she unbuckled his pants and pushed them down his hips with the soft cloth of his boxer briefs. He watched her, and she could feel his fear, fear of not being what she needed, fear of hurting her, fear of disappointing her. They gnawed at her.
He was such a big man. She laid her hands around the tops of his thighs, and the thick muscles bunched beneath her palms. Her hands looked small against his dark skin, and he was hard under her fingers. Strong. And yet vulnerable. Had she pushed him away so much that he was finally giving her the space she thought she needed? Now, when she realized what she really needed was them?
Brit looked up into his eyes, such a beautiful green. “Don’t give up on me.”
That deep crease she loved so much trenched between his eyes, and he reached down for her hands, drawing her to her feet. “Never.”