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I don't dare move toward the door. I remain where I am, my heart fluttering in my chest like a trapped bird.
Crulden stalks in front of the windows, flinging himself once at the glass, as if he wants desperately to crash through and tear the scientist apart. The other man on the far side looks alarmed, typing frantically into his pad as another siren blares through cellblock C. Crulden snarls at him, then turns away, his gaze falling on me.
Shit. Shit shit shit.
I remain very still, my eyes wide. Do I play this brave or do I try to look soft and vulnerable? In the time it takes for me to decide, he approaches, looming over me again from where I'm huddled on the floor. Those long, wicked claws hover over my head and I squeeze my eyes shut.
A hand touches my hair…and then strokes it lightly. He makes a gentle noise in his throat. "Mina."
I open my eyes a fraction, and some of the red has bled out of his eyes. I think that's a good sign. He looks calmer now, petting my hair. His nostrils flare and he studies me with that intense gaze, looking me over in what can only be a protective manner. One wrist has an odd angle to it, I notice, and there's something white sticking out from his skin.
"You're hurt," I whisper. "You should let them patch you up."
"No one is taking you from me," he snarls, the sound low and dangerous even as he oh-so gently pets my hair. "Mine. All mine."
I'd love to argue with that, but I'm getting far too used to aliens calling me their property. Let him think what he wants as long as he doesn't snap me like he did that collar. I offer a tremulous smile, wondering how the fuck I'm getting out of this room alive. The answer comes a short time later, when Lord Sir’s guards enter the antechamber, armed with shock-sticks. There's four of them, and the moment Crulden notices them, his eyes flood with red again. He turns and stands protectively in front of me.
Oh, this isn't going to go well at all.
He launches himself at them the moment they enter the cell. As I watch in horror, one guard raises his shock-stick and slams it into Crulden's chest. It barely fazes the big guy. If anything, it makes him angrier. He growls low in his throat, and spikes burst through the skin of his back and stud along his arms. Holy shit.
Crulden grabs the shock-stick and uses it to drag the guard forward. He leans in, bites down on the man, and rips his throat out with his teeth. Blood sprays everywhere.
The other guards pile on, slamming their shock-sticks into him, but I think he's too charged up to notice. Limbs go flying as he tears another guard apart, ripping him into pieces as if he's made of paper. A third one goes down in a pool of blood and the fourth one abandons his actions, pressing against the wall and hammering the release. Crulden stalks after him, a predator sensing an easy kill.
"Wait," I cry out. "Don't."
Crulden turns and looks at me, his eyes bright red.
Hot terror shoots through me as his focus turns to where I'm standing. He's covered in blood, and I've never seen a more deadly creature. I freeze, pressing against the wall as he takes one step toward me. Then another. A gas fills the chamber, and I watch as he stalks toward me, limbs slowing. The gas slides into my lungs, cool as frost, and my vision blackens at the corners.
As I pass out, I see him looming over me, covered in blood, his eyes that hypnotic red…and I hope my throat isn't the next one to get ripped out.
10
CRULDEN
It takes seven deaths before they stop sending men in after me.
I don't kill the one Mina asks me not to. I remember that, even though she sprawls unconscious in the corner. The first round of gasses doesn't work, so they send in more men, attempting to separate her from me. When that doesn't work and I rip out more throats, they try a new tactic. My room is sealed and all the air is removed, making it impossible for me to breathe. I could hold my breath and wait them out, but I don't know if Mina will survive that. I don't know anything about the human species, other than they look impossibly fragile. So I pretend to collapse, because I don't want them to kill my female now that I have her.
She's mine. It doesn't matter that they lied now. I can get them to bend. She'll be mine if they want anything—anything at all—out of me.
When I collapse, they send in a bot that shoots me full of drugs, and then I really do go under.
