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I sniffle and blubber some other things and Peate looks down at me with his warm brown, maybe hazel eyes and nods politely at everything I say while readying the needle.
The back doors to the SUV open andSierra’s face appears alongside Vi’s and a plethora of black-masked Alphas whose names I don’t know.
“Peate. Dragnovic’s wounds.” She shakes her head. “You need to see this.”
Dragnovic. That’s his last name. I knew that already, but I never called him by it. What if he dies before I ever get to call him by that dumb last name? What if I die? What if he dies and leaves me here all alone?
Peate starts to climb out of the back of the van while Alphas I don’t know start to move in, crowding me. Fear claps her hands in the front seat, drawing my attention to the sight of her face flashing in the rearview mirror.
I close my eyes and fight against the delirium that grabs me and pulls me under, like the earth pulled those zombie Alphas under earlier. What were they?Dragnovic. What happened to him?Adam. Is he okay? Am I?When did Peate stab me with that needle?Will either of us be? I ask Peate and Sierra all these questions, but no one can hear me because I’m no longer awake.
15 | Adam
Dragnovic Manor
Dark City Highlands
Dark City
“Ward! I’m gonna rip your arms off.Come here.” I jerk against the chains wrapped around my arms from wrist to fuckin’ shoulder, locks the size of bricks holdin’ ‘em together and anchoring me to the edges of the damn bed.
Peate’s walkin’ fast as he reenters the room with more med tape. He’s holdin’ it high above his head, shakin’ it like he’s comin’ to the damn rescue when all I want arefeweradhesives holdin’ me back.
“Ward!” I roar at the female scientist in charge a’ this damn operation. The only Beta in charge a’ anything in my city, right now Penelope Ward’s about three moves away from becomin’ past tense.
“You’d have chained you down, too, if you’d been the one tryna operate,” Ward huffs, layin’ down another thick sheet a’ gauze over my right ribs and gesturin’ at Peate to apply the tape.
Peate is out of breath as he rushes to obey her. “You were movin’ all around, callin’ out for her, even in your sleep…”
“Look like I give a fuck about the goddamn wounds, Peate? Ward!” I pull against my bindings. The metal and plastic bedframe’s only got a few more moments of life left in it. “Ward, you unlock these chains or I’m tearin’ this bed apart!” I can feel her in my lungs — the only her in the goddamn world — weighin’ ‘em down, weighin’medown, poisonin’ the air and seepin’ into my blood.She’s hurtin’. Need to get to her fuckin’ now.
The golden beads in Ward’s hair clatter softly against one another like chimes as she shakes her head. “Dragnovic, she’s fine. I don’t know how many times I have to say it, she’s with Loveless and Rogers and she’s safe. Her injuries are being treated and she’s going to make a full recovery. Her fever broke last night…”
“Then why the fuck is she scared?”
“How would you…” Ward’s eyes get huge. She blinks. “How do you know?”
I pull up in one swift movement and the rails of the hospital bed tear off like the bandages being placed over my wounds with such care. I surge off of the mattress and my left knee buckles the moment my feet hit the floor. I lock it, straighten, grunt, breathe enough to calm my spinning thoughts, then I move forward and I don’t stop, not even as IV needles tear free of my arms and doctors shout at me, tellin’ me shit I really don’t care about.
“Your blood,” Peate shouts as if I’m not aware a’ the fact that I’m leaking. I feel it. Blood spatter drips onto the marble floor and it’s the wrong color. It’s blacker than it should be.
Ward’s shoutin’ at me about stayin’ still, processin’ shit, testing — that she needs me in her lab to do all a’ that — but I don’t give a fuck. I know where I need to be.
I throw open the double doors, heavy wood swingin’ wildly at my back as I stagger out of the white sterile lab-converted-into-a-hospital-room into the black oak hall. Peate, the fuck, is followin’ me. Doesn’t seem to know when to stop because I’m about to kick in his fuckin’ teeth.
“You’re still bleeding, Dragnovic! The wounds aren’t healing like they’re supposed to. Ward’s been running tests but she can’t figure out how to get the poison outta your blood…”
“Not poison. Venom,” I mutter, rounding the next corner and swiping my palm over the vein scanner. The unassuming wooden doors that no one would know are armored and armed swing open in front of me, but I don’t make it ten feet into my open living room, draped in dark carpets and heavy oak furniture, before I sense it — a sharp and crushing emptiness.Any room I enterfeels emptier without her in it.
I swing my gaze around, still not believin’ it. “She isn’t fuckin’ here. Why isn’t she in my house? Where is she?”
“Venom? The fuck are you talkin’ about, Dragnovic?”
I spin to face him and latch onto his neck, squeezing hard enough for my claws to bite into his skin. Dark red blood wells beneath my claws, therightcolor, a reminder of Echo and what we went through together. I lift until his feet nearly clear the floor while pain ripples through my core. The whole thing probably hurts me more than it hurts him.
“Where is my Omega?” I throw him and he canters back into the wall, knocking over a painting of my Berserker beast and sending it to the floor. Rage is a painful thing to hold onto when it’s coupled with fear and desperation. And it’s worse when those sensations don’t belong to me alone because for the first time since I bit her against her will, I can actuallyfeelthe bond echoing between us. Like a current, like a poison, like a drug, it spirals through my skin and clouds my thoughts with magical things.With flowers. With the acrid scent of her filth and the unbearably sweet scent of her cunt.
“Jesus, Dragnovic… I mean, Berserker. Dragnovic, I just…” His his cheeks turn ruddy. His hand massages his throat and he swallows hard as he blinks down at the blood staining his fingertips. “Yeah. Shit. Sorry. We didn’t bring her to your private flat, we put her in the main house. She was talkin’ some shit about you hating her and wanting her in the dungeons. We didn’t know what to think, so we figured it was a better spot to put her, for now…”
