Page 21 of Gluttony
Bailey hadn’t thought it was Sloan either.
The moment his thoughts went to his mate, his body reacted, doing the thinking for him. Heat zipped up his spine and the drum beat in his blood grew to a percussion, thrumming incessantly. Phosphorescent blue light pulsed in his veins. Heat came in waves until a prickling sensation ran over his feverish skin. Suddenly, Tony didn’t feel so good. He swayed.
“What the hell is that?” Liza asked, shrewd gaze on his forearms.
“Special effects.” With the blue light from his arms to guide him through the shadowed garage, he strode toward the door leading to the headquarters. He shouldered through the heavy door, hardly hearing the warbled sound of Liza’s voice calling behind him.
Everything felt dark, despite the light escaping his body. He pushed the urge to release down and wouldn’t let it out. Only one directive rang clear in his mind—get home. Get to his apartment. Shut the door. Lock it.
The faster he walked through the dark underground corridor, the more he suppressed, and the darker his vision became.
He had to get to the elevator leading up to his room. Get there. Get in the lift. Go up to the safety of his apartment. But as he rushed through the Deadly Seven operations room, passed a surprised Parker and Flint working on technical adjustments to a Deadly suit, he couldn’t see straight. It was all shadows and delirious blue patterns in front of him.
“Bro!” Liza shouted, jogging after him.
“Leave me alone,” he growled.
He kept going. One foot in front of the other until he’d passed the medical room, the gym, and the weapon’s room. He hit the “up” button next to the elevator and braced himself against the wall, breathing deep. The power inside wasn’t listening to him, it had a mind of its own and it wanted out.Keep it down. Keep it down.He exhaled slowly through his mouth and waited for the car.
“Stop,” Liza ordered.
Her authoritative tone had Tony lifting his head only to be confused by what he saw. His sister had her state-issued firearm aimed at him. She stood, feet slightly apart, arms braced, and with a determined scowl across her face.
“I won’t say it again,” she warned.
“Are you shitting me?” he snapped, anger rising.
“You’re behaving erratic, Tony.”
“Get lost.” He hit the “up” button again.
“Goddamn it, Tony, talk to me.”
“You won’t shoot.”
“You’ve met your mate, haven’t you, and you’re trying to hide it.”
He tensed and his world came crashing down. She knew. They all knew. He shook his head and grit his teeth.
She continued, “Step away from the elevator and let’s talk about this.”
“Get that gun out of my face.”
“No can do, bro. You’ve got this look in your eye. The last time one of us was separated from our mate and became out of balance, an innocent almost died. I won’t let that happen.”
She referred to when Sloan accidentally sent a room full of them to sleep with her power, and then tried to kill Barry Pinkerton, the ex-Syndicate geneticist. Sloan had snapped out of her berserker state just in time to avoid strangling the man to death. Everything flashed cold in Tony and he leveled his glare at his sister. “You think I’m out of balance?”
She widened her eyes in accusation. “You’re always out of balance.”
“Screw you. I’ve been sober for months.”
“Show me.”
He shouldn’t have to, but he did. He held out his wrist tattoo out. It told her jack about his sobriety, but it was a clear indicator to whether gluttony saturated his system. Shaped in a Yin-Yang symbol, the black bio-indicator ink would darken to cover the entire symbol if he had too much gluttony present in his blood. If he held not enough gluttony, the ink would fade to leave a white, empty symbol. Both unbalanced states were equally dangerous and conducive to a berserker rage. Except, since his time with his mate today, it was still virtually balanced.
The elevator door pinged open to reveal two more of his siblings, Wyatt and Sloan. From the look of their battle-ready faces, they’d been called down the moment he’d entered the basement.
Great. Just fucking great. Everyone was here to watch the show.
