Page 34 of Visions, Paws, and Claws

“Of what?”

Seth shivered. “Impending doom.”

The door opened, and a guard poked his head into the room. “What are you doing in here? Get your asses outside.”

Seth glared at him. “I’m recovering, that’s whatI’mdoing. I’ve just spent a couple of hours in the experimentation block.”

The guard stared at him for a moment; then his eyes widened. “Oh. It’s you.” He straightened. “Well, I guess I can let you sleep a while.” He withdrew quickly.

Jake chuckled. “You’re getting bolder. Good man.”

“I’m getting pissed, more like.”

Jake inclined his head toward the door. “Magnanimous bastard, wasn’t he? He only said that because he knows they’ll have his ass if he messes with the prize guinea pigs.”

Seth gazed at the door. “No, it’s more than that. Haven’t you noticed? The guards leave us alone.” He grinned. “They’re afraid of us.”

“That might prove useful in the future,” Jake acknowledged.

Seth didn’t dare utter the words that wereright thereat the tip of his tongue. To do so felt like tempting fate. But he could still think them.

That assumes we have a future.

ARIC OPENEDhis eyes… and knew he was in a dream. It could only be that because he was standing in the middle of the compound at the Bozeman camp. What made it eerie was the lack of inmates, or guards for that matter. The wind whistled through the fences, and the sound only added to the spookiness of the dream.

Then he heard it, a low-pitched wail. Someone in pain.

Never mindsomeone—that’s Brick.

But was Brick in Aric’s dream, or was Aric in his?

Aric raced toward the mournful sobbing that grew louder with each step, the sound pulling him,tugginghim to it. Behind the block where he and Seth had once slept, Brick stood over a guard lying on the ground, his face bloody, his body beaten to a pulp. There was blood smeared on Brick’s face, his hands too.

“Where is he?” Brick hollered at the dying man.

Aric walked over to him and touched Brick’s arm. “Brick, you need to stop this.”

Brick shrugged off Aric’s hand. He whirled around, his eyes huge. “What the…? How can you be here?”

Aric gaped at him. “You’re askingme?Ihave no idea how this works.” He gestured to the guard. “Why did you do this?” He knew it was only a dream, but he also knew what Brick was capable of.

“Get out of my head, Aric. It’s not a place you should be right now.”

As if Aric was going to listen to that. He stood his ground.

“It’s the place Ihaveto be. You’re our protector—mine and Seth’s—and that means you need to keep calm. What good would it do any of us if you died?” He touched Brick’s arm once more, but this time, Brick didn’t shy away from it. “Use your head for something, would you? This anger isn’t doing Seth a damn bit of good.”

“He wouldn’t tell me where Seth is!”

Aric forced himself to speak calmly. “Look where you are. It’s the camp where you found me. Seth isn’t here. Seth was gone before you even arrived to save me.”

Brick let out a growl that made Aric’s blood curdle. “I want to kill every last Geran. I want to make them suffer the way they made you and Seth suffer. Except I want to make them suffer even more.” He gripped Aric’s shoulders. “They killed my parents, and I was helpless to stop them. They tortured you and Seth, and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. All I have left is this rage. It’s the only thing keeping me going.”

Aric reached up and caressed Brick’s cheek. “You have me,” he said in a gentle voice. “And wewillget Seth back, but only if you calm down. Being angry all the time might make it harder to find him, and that helps neither of us.” He pointed to the now-dead guard. “Okay, so what if he isn’t real? So what if you’ve just killed a figment of your imagination? How does it make you feel right now?”

Brick gazed at the body. “Guilty for not controlling my emotions. I could’ve interrogated him instead of biting his face off.”

“What youshouldfeel is remorse.” Aric pressed his finger to Brick’s lips. “I know you find that difficult, and I totally get that, but this guy was still a person, and you killed him. This wasn’t in battle, was it?”

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