Page 53 of Eternally Yours

I’d never known real fear until we’d become bloodmates. Because to lose him had been the most horrifying and debilitating experience in my entire life.

The instant Nic saw me shackled in chains, I felt his despair. It was the same agony I felt now knowing they’d poisoned him.

And it was all my fault. I’d been given forever, only to have it torn from me in a breath.

These men had no idea what they’d unleashed in me. I’d tear them apart piece by piece.

“Fucking bitch gave us quite the struggle,” Yellow-teeth said, shoving a boot into my back as the van seemed to roll onto a flatter, smoother road.

I snarled. “You’re going to pay for what you did to Nic.”

The man cackled, his menacing laugh making my insides boil. “Maybe we’ll have a little fun with you before we get to the lab. Doc never said anything about not touching you,” he said as he leaned closer to my face. He ran his tongue up the side of my cheek, the stench of cheap cigars coating his breath nauseating.

My fangs descended and I snapped my chops at him, almost tearing into his flesh as he fell backward from the shock. Luckily for him, I was drugged and moved at half my speed, or he would’ve been squirming in pain, missing half his face.

His fist collided against my face, but the cracking sound came from the bones in his hand. I barely felt the blow. “Stupid bitch,” he yowled, cradling his injured hand. “We’ll see how brave you are once we get to the lab.”

“Fuck you,” I gritted.

His lips curled into a cynical smile. “Hand me the collar,” he said to Flat-nose, his cold, black eyes fixed on mine. The sound of digital beeps followed by a case hissing open and then clicking shut made my ears prickle, dread spider-walking on my skin.

Taking a circular metal device from his partner, Yellow-teeth unclasped a collar-looking thing and fastened it to my neck. I had no time to react before I felt a pulse of energy shoot down my back. The surge made my spine arch, all my nerve endings flaring with searing heat. I convulsed uncontrollably, the shocks so violent it felt like my bones were breaking.

“Fuck me?” he asked, staring down at my quaking body. “I don’t think so. You’re property of the Order. And I can’t wait until Doc is done with you so I can show you what a true monster is.”

Just when I thought the blinding pain had subsided, another jolt of electricity shot down my spine and this time some vertebrae fractured. My screams shattered the glass of the small windows at the back of the van. Flat-nose and Yellow-teeth cursed as they were hit with broken shards.

Regardless of my regeneration capabilities, pain was pain. I laid motionless as my body worked hard to mend the splintered bones, silent tears welling in my eyes. No one said anything as the van raced us to our destination.

Further away from the cave. From Nic.

I closed my eyes and reached through our bond, hoping to sense him, but I was met with silence. Either we were too far away for the connection to work or he was dead.

My chest clenched, a different type of pain coiling around my heart. This agony would destroy me.

I’d killed him. The Order would’ve never found us if I hadn’t pressed Nic to make love to me. We wouldn’t have fallen asleep. We wouldn’t have been caught off guard.

Cutting off my thoughts, Yellow-teeth said, “That was a fraction of what that collar can unleash. Better not fuck around, or I’ll rev it up to full power.”

Summoning my inner beast, I felt the transformation tingling right below my skin, but nothing happened. My muscles didn’t contract, my gums burned from my fangs trying to descend, but the harder I tried to change, the more I felt a force push it back under. A strange vibration spread from the collar.

What had they done to me?

“You’re quite the feisty one,” he went on. “For years Doc tried to create one like you in the lab and always failed.”

“One like me?” I asked, my voice strained.

“A hybrid,” he said as if I was some lab experiment. “A perverse manipulation of wolf and vampire DNA engineered for a more efficient way to hunt those fucking leeches.” He swept a lock of hair from my eyes as he peered down at me. “For all the fuss, in the end, you’re nothing but another dog. That hum you’re feeling, that’s the collar suppressing your abilities. Makes you… trainable,” he sneered.

Alarm fired off in my brain.

Whatever plan these psychopaths had for me, they were clearly sinister. I couldn’t allow them to take me to that lab. I needed to find a way to escape and get to Nic. Maybe if I reached him in time I could heal him with my blood.

I had to get back. There was no other option. I couldn’t leave him in that cave.

“I see that wild look in your eyes. Don’t be getting any crazy ideas. There’s a kill switch in that collar.”

My eyes narrowed over his.

---