Page 30 of Possessed

Braggs opened the top drawer of the dissection table, and Raef took the opportunity to glance back at Lauren saying, “Honey, you go on back to the car and the kids. I’ll get Dr. Braggs’s info and meet you—”

“Raef! Watch out!” Lauren screamed, eyes wide and terrified.

Raef lunged to the side, reaching for the concealed Glock he kept in his side holster, but Braggs was already over the table and on him, striking with superhuman speed at his arm with a dissection blade that was so sharp it slit through Raef’s sweater and sliced a long, deep path down his arm from bicep to wrist, causing him to drop the gun. It skittered across the slick floor as if it had been paved with ice.

“Lauren, go! Now!” Raef couldn’t even look at her. All of his attention was focused on Braggs, who had suddenly morphed from average Joe Blow to a slashing, cutting machine.

Raef grunted with effort as he dodged the guy’s blows. His body was taking too damn long to respond.No, it’s not me. It’s Braggs. He’s abnormally fast—abnormally strong.Braggs struck again. Raef couldn’t be quick enough. This time the blade sliced a red line across his chest, but Raef’s adrenaline was pumping so hard he only felt the warm wetness of his blood. The pain would come later—if he lived until later.Gotta buy Lauren time to get out of here—to get help.

Braggs slashed again, ripping a line of blooming scarlet down the inside of Raef’s thigh. As Raef staggered, Braggs rushed around him.

“No!” Raef snarled, reaching out and catching the edge of his lab coat and pulling him back. “You’re not getting her unless you go through me.”

Braggs laughed. Raef thought it was the most terrible sound he’d ever heard. “She’s as dead as you are.” His words were filled with venom. His face was twisted with anger. “I won’t go after her until you bleed out. She can run as far as she wants. I’ll find her. I’ll kill her. I’ll drain her. Just like I did her sister.”

Raef didn’t see her coming. Neither did Braggs. But suddenly Lauren was there, behind the professor. She swung the long metal pipe she was holding in both hands like a baseball bat, connecting with the back of Braggs’s head as she yelled, “Like hell you will!”

Braggs dropped to the floor where he lay utterly motionless.

Lauren was actually descending on him, pipe raised, to hit him again when Raef caught her in his arms. “Stop—he’s unconscious. We got him. We got him.”

Lauren hugged him hard and then abruptly pushed away from him, her trembling hands hovering over his bleeding knife wounds. “He cut you. Oh, God, Raef. You’re bleeding so much.”

“I’m gonna be okay.” He wanted to touch her face—to hold and reassure her—but she was right. He was bleeding. A lot. “Lauren, I’m going to cuff Braggs. You call 9-1-1.” Stifling a painful groan, Raef crouched over Braggs and took out his handcuffs.

“I can’t. I tried, but there’s no reception up here. At all.” Lauren’s breath caught on a sob. “Raef, God, the blood!”

“I’m okay,” Raef repeated, trying to sound calm even though he could already feel that he was getting light-headed. He managed to roll Braggs over and cuff him. “Here’s what you need to do. Go outside. Call 9-1-1. Get help.” He staggered over to where his Glock had slid to a stop against the classroom wall. When he bent to retrieve it his legs gave way so he sat beside the gun, and started to unbuckle the belt to his jeans.

“I’m not going without you.” Lauren rushed to his side and was trying to take his hand, obviously thinking she could tug him to his feet.

“Lauren,” he said, speaking as quickly and clearly as possible as he cinched the belt around his thigh. “I’m six foot four. I weigh two hundred and thirty-five pounds. You can’t even drag me out of here. I’ve got a tourniquet on this leg wound. The rest will wait.Ifyou get your very shapely little butt outside and call 9-1-1. Understand?”

“Yes. Sorry.” She wiped tears from her face, leaving bloody smears across her cheeks. “I’m going right now.” She hesitated only long enough to lean down and kiss his forehead. “Don’t you dare die on me.”

“Not planning on it,” he muttered as she turned and started to hurry away.

It was then that Braggs sat up.

His entire face had changed. His eyes were larger, darker and sunken into his head. Blood flowed freely from the cut in the back of his scalp—it ran down his neck and seemed to cloak him in crimson. Raef had no idea how it could be, but the professor looked as if he’d lost half his body weight in a matter of minutes. He’d become almost skeletal and looked more reptilian than human.

“You have both been very inconvenient. I will take particular pleasure in draining you.” Braggs drew a deep breath, and with that inhalation Raef could feel the surge of siphoned violence and hatred that filled him, and as it did Lauren dropped to her knees with a terrible moan of agony.

“Lauren!” Raef shouted.

Lauren’s gaze met Raef’s. “He’s draining Aubrey now!” she gasped.

“I’ve never had twins before,” Braggs said. “It’s like a two-for-one special.” He lifted his arms and snapped the handcuffs as if they were a child’s plastic toy, spread his arms and embraced the flood of terror and pain that cascaded into him.

The raw sound of agony that escaped from Lauren sliced through Raef. “He’s killing us,” she sobbed.

“No, he fucking is not.” Raef lifted his Glock and, in one smooth, quick movement, shot Braggs between his eyes, blowing away the entire top of his head.

Even though the world was going oddly gray around the edges, Raef could hear Lauren whimpering not far away from him. “Hey, it’s okay. The bastard’s dead. It’s over. Just don’t look at him—it’s not a pretty sight.”

When Lauren didn’t respond, Raef dragged himself over to her, thinking she must be in shock. “Lauren, honey, you gotta pull it together and get me some help. I know I look indestructible, but—” His words cut off as he reached her. She was in a fetal position, her arms wrapped around herself. Her face was absolutely colorless, her eyes blank, open and staring. “Lauren!” With a trembling hand he felt for a pulse. It was weak, but there. “Lauren, damn it! Don’t do this! He’s dead. He can’t hurt you or Aubrey anymore.”

The air above Lauren shimmered as Aubrey tried to materialize. Raef could only catch fleeting glimpses of her silhouette.