Humans were the selfish, arrogant, greedy ones who robbed the earth of its resources and splendor for their own personal gain, believing it was owed to them.
“Of course, you would be on their side now. You are one of them.” Dr. Karl’s lip rose, yanking out the syringe from my arm, the barrel full of my blood. “I knew the moment you came back to HDF something was amiss with you. That you weren’t right. All the tests I did were correct from the beginning. You came back wrong.”
“It’s sad someone such as you, sworn to help and heal, is so closed-minded and unaccepting. You are a fraud, doctor.” I spat out the title with disgust, leaning in closer, my emotions getting the better of me. “And guess what? I didn’t come back wrong... I was always this way.” The moment the words came out, dread dropped in my stomach.
Slamming my mouth shut, I kept any emotion from my face. I hadn’t meant to let it slip. I didn’t want Istvan or Dr. Karl to know I had always been different, that the very thing they were hunting for was me. Let them believe it was the pills that changed me, because if they found out the truth and tapped into it, somehow used me... I couldn’t even contemplate it.
Karl’s lids narrowed, trying to work out my meaning. After a few beats, he shook his head and retreated from my cell, the sentries following, locking the door behind. They’d rather believe I was corrupted now than consider I had been fae all along. They watched me grow up, cared for me, and witnessed I was no different from human children. If they were wrong about me, that meant they were wrong about fae.
He turned and faced me. “General Markos thinks you are the key to what we’ve been looking for. The perfect formula resides in your veins.” He lifted the syringe, examining it as if it would give him the answers. “If he’s right, you will never leave this building again.” He paused. “And if he’s wrong, you will end up like your father.” He stepped away, leaving me staring at the empty spot.
Chapter 10
“Warwick?” I whispered hoarsely, standing in the corner closest to him. Dr. Karl and his little gang had just left his cage. By the speed they were in and out, Warwick gave them no fight. “Warwick?” I called again. He was pulling back. The link was coming back, but slowly. A hint of his shadow, a buzz of energy, but something I could still chalk up to my imagination if I didn’t know it was real.
“I’m here.” His deep voice was low and gravelly, climbing up my legs, throbbing at my core. I could tell he was sitting on the ground against the adjacent wall we shared.
“You okay?” I lowered myself, flattening my spine against the same concrete, wanting to feel him through it.
“You’re worried because they took some blood?” He snorted. “Princess, I’ve bled enough to fill oceans. Mosquitos have taken more from me.”
“I was talking about the other stuff.” The torture. The hole. The Games. We had yet to have a moment to connect since he was taken from me in the shower room.
He scoffed. “Been through worse.”
I turned to peer out the bars. Even if I couldn’t see him, I knew we were only feet apart.
Warwick didn’t expand on his response, and I didn’t really need him to. We weren’t the type to speak our feelings out loud. We didn’t have to. Our connection was deeper and stronger than any words spoken.
“I felt them in the pit—they killed for you,” he finally said after several moments, meaning the ghosts.
Sighing, I tipped my head back on the cement, pulling my legs to my chest. “They came for…”
“The Grey.” He rumbled back to me, forcing a wheeze from my lungs. The power of the title skating over my bones was terrifying and familiar at the same time.
“How... how did you know that name?” I jerked my head toward his cell.
“I don’t know,” he replied, his voice displaying no real emotion. “I could feel it wrapping around me, feeding off and strengthening me. Like we’re each other’s fuckin’ charging station.”
I twisted toward the corner, taking in his meaning. I had felt it too. Each time we shared energy or helped the other heal, we took and gave. My power was tied to him from the very beginning, as he was to mine. And it only strengthened and bound us closer together.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen to us here,” I said quietly, not speaking my true fears of what was ahead. “The hole might be a holiday in comparison.”
He exhaled, and I could gather he was thinking the same thing. Without our link to help each other through, one of us might not survive.
“You know what seems to spark that connection back to life...” he tapered off; his voice filled with innuendo.
I let out a small chuckle. “Kinda hard from this distance, Farkas.”
“You underestimate my hardness and size once again, Kovacs.”
I groaned out a laugh, my hand rubbing my face, though heat danced down my thighs, making my nipples tighten. He could turn me on in the most demented and terrifying conditions.
The man was gifted. In more ways than one.
“Am I wrong?” I heard something slide over the ground, my gaze catching his hand trying to reach me through the bars. “We fuck, princess, and the world thanks us.”
Another snort vaulted from my mouth and nose, my head shaking. “Can’t disagree with you.” I pulled myself closer to the corner, pushing my hand through the bars as far as I could.
The tips of our fingers grazed, and I felt the electricity spark down my arm, going straight to my pussy, forcing my breath to hitch. Our skin was barely in contact, but feeling him, touching him, gave me life. It filled my lungs with more than air.
“You feel like fucking life. Air in my lungs.” Warwick’s sentiment rushed back to me, filling me up and forcing me to chew each syllable like it was food.
Warwick grunted, straining until he wrapped two fingers around mine. The simple act heaved emotion from my gut. My eyes watered, a little whimper escaping from my lips as I held on for dear life, not caring the bars were cutting into my arm.
I had no doubt what I felt for him, what I always had but had been too scared to face. I still was. He wasn’t someone you just loved, simple, sweet, as I had Caden. Warwick demolished and consumed. A love that razed you to the ground, taking the world with you.
His fingers squeezed firmer around mine. And I knew in my gut he felt the same in return. We might not speak it out loud yet, but it was there, sparking between us, tying a firm knot on our survival together or our death.
“Kovacs...” I heard a whisper of breath in my ear.
I let out a quiet cry. Relief. Happiness. It was barely there, but it was enough to know it was coming back. I pushed my shadow toward him with all my strength. It was only a second, but I was with him.
He leaned against the wall, his head tipped back exactly like mine, his eyes shut, a hint of a smile shadowing his mouth.
His eyes popped open as if he could sense me.
“Anytime you want to start on those I.O.U. blowjobs.” He lifted his brow.
A blink and I was back in my cell, the link not strong enough to hold for long yet.
“Or are you hoping for a threesome?” he rasped out, his finger stroking mine.
“So, you’re open to me bringing Scorpion in then?” I pushed up my voice with a hopeful glee, a grin riding over my mouth.
He pinched my hand painfully.
I laughed.
He held onto my fingers before I could jerk them out of his grip. “Think you’re funny, Kovacs?”
“No, I was being perfectly serious. The man is really hot.”
A growl came from the legend, his hand clamping down harder. It was all bullshit. We both knew there would be no one else.
“All your boyfriends combined couldn’t even come close to me.”
Wasn’t that the truth.
“And all the tree fairies, sirens, and snake shifters in the world couldn’t even try to compete with me.”
“Don’t I know it,” he huffed. “You have a fucking leash around my neck, and I not only want it and like it... I need it.”
I frowned. “You don’t have a leash. You freely walk by my side, Wolf.”
The moment the final word came out of my mouth, I felt my body seize, a flash in my head of us together, blood and carnage around us.
The Grey.
The Wolf.
His fingers strangled mine as if he experienced the same thing.
“Kovacs.” A tingle started up my thigh, the lightest touch sliding through my folds.
“Fuck.” My back arched, oxygen catching, my hands rolling into balls, my nails digging into his knuckles.
A noise came from Warwick, filled with dark desire. Carnal.
The invisible ghost of his hands palmed my thighs ever so lightly, pushing them apart, his mouth skimming lightly through me. Even the hint of his touch and my body reacted, pulsing hotly, feeling it spread through my veins. I held onto his actual hand, my lids slamming shut, my nipples hardening, my skin crackling with energy.