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CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Zane
My esophagus burned like someone had just shoved a hot poker down my throat. My tongue was a blistering coal, thick, hard, and unbearably hot. I stifled down the groan of pain and bolted straight up to sitting from where we’d all passed out on the living room floor in a heap of blankets.
Just as predicted, it had rained hard all day, so we spent the entire morning, afternoon, and evening inside the cabin making Haina come as much as we could, her cries of pleasure a sweet song I never wanted to get out of my head.
I’d felt the effects of the serum wearing off sometime shortly after midnight and could tell Rix and Jorik were experiencing it, too. But I pushed those feelings away and dove back in between Haina’s thighs, using her mewls and whimpers of ecstasy as a distraction from the pain in my chest and belly.
It’d worked … for a while.
We’d all passed out, exhausted and depleted. And thankfully, she seemed to have been too tired to remember the inevitable chaos stalking us.
That was how I wanted it. She shouldn’t have to worry.
It was our burden. Our cross to bear. She just needed to survive while we were gone and unable to protect her. That was her one and only job. Survive.
And we just needed to survive so that when it was all over, we could get back to her. To the woman we loved because, fuck, as hard as I tried to fight it, I loved that stubborn, sexy, infuriating Hellcat.
And I trusted her, too.
As much as I could.
And that scared the ever-loving shit out of me.
I blinked a few times, allowing my eyes to adjust to the lack of light in the cabin, and when they finally did, I saw one of my biggest fears come true.
Rix, my little brother, was sitting up against the farthest wall of the cabin, naked, hugging his knees and staring wide-eyed and terrified at Haina as she lay asleep beside me.
I knew that look. I remembered that look.
That look haunted my nights and my days.
I’d seen that look on Chance. Hell, I’d experienced it myself.
The fear of what you were becoming, of the itching and scratching feelings in the back of your mind that were trying to break through into your consciousness. The cravings. The lust for blood. For the fix.
It was like two parts of himself were at war, and right now, the real Rix,the personwas winning, keeping the animalistic addict side of him in a cage, behind a door, with heavy-duty bolts locking him away.
But that animal wouldn’t stay there forever. Eventually, the beast would break free. Then it would be Rix in the cage watching as the animal took over his life, his body, and his mind, while Rix was unable to do anything but scream out from the depths of his subconscious, demanding the beast show even a shred of humanity.
But the beast wouldn’t.
He never did.
I didn’t even know where Jorik was, but I could feel his thundering heart rate still in the house. It pounded just like Rix’s did. Just like mine did. He was probably feeling exactly what Rix was feeling.
When the serum finally wore off completely, I wouldn’t be able to sense their heart rates anymore. We’d be as normal and weak as Amlins.
I found our pants and tugged on mine, then brought Rix his. I knew from experience that it was taking every last ounce of his energy and focus to keep the beast in his cage, so I had to help him get on his pants.
When I glanced back up at him after zipping up his khakis, dread sank like an anvil in my belly. He was staring at Haina, licking his lips while his nostrils flared like a wild animal’s, and his eyes were growing hungrier by the second.
Fuck. I needed to get him out of the house fast and away from her. Before he went for her neck.
I helped him up, took his arm, and went to the bedroom, where I was sure Jorik was.
I was right, and his state was identical to Rix’s. I got Jorik dressed, too, pulling shirts over all of our heads, then shoes onto our feet.
