Madeline slapped her hands over her ears and sank to the floor.
Six black-clad agents ran from behind Garrick. They didn’t run to surround Mina, though. Instead, they went right for Julian. He swiped out at them with his claws, fighting them, punching. The guards lifted their guns.
“Stop!” Mina yelled as she surged toward Julian. “Don’t hurt him—”
Hard arms grabbed her. Garrick yanked her back against his body. “They can’t hear your voice. Not over that alarm. It was one of the safety precautions that I had in place. As soon as you entered this area, there was a thirty-second timer in place. It counted down…and then your time was up.”
She’d thought the alarm had sounded because Julian hit the cell, but…it had all been part of Garrick’s plan? She drove her elbow back into his ribs. He grunted at the impact, but didn’t let her go. So she head-butted him. She kicked back with her heels. She clawed at him and—
Bam. Bam.
The bullets blasted into Julian. He stopped fighting.
His body fell.
“No!” Mina screamed. She twisted in Garrick’s hold. “No!”
The agents came at her then. They swarmed her and she found herself being thrown into the cell right next to Eli’s. They tossed her onto the floor, throwing her down hard, then running out. She leapt to her feet and raced toward the door, but Garrick shut that glass door in her face and, staring at her, he engaged the lock.
“Let me out!” Mina screamed. She could see Julian, still slumped on the floor. Don’t be dead. Don’t be dead.
Garrick cupped his hand around his ear. “What is that? Come again?’ He smiled at her. “Sorry, my dear, but I can’t hear a word you’re saying. No one can.”
She slammed her fist into the glass, again and again—but the glass didn’t give.
Garrick laughed. “You can hear us—I’ve got the speaker feed going into the cell I prepared for you—but no one can hear your beautiful voice. And that means…you’re helpless.”
No, this couldn’t be happening.
She kept pounding on the glass.
“It won’t break,” Garrick assured her. “It won’t shatter. It is a special material the guys at NASA actually came up with to use in space but, hey, we recognized just how useful the material would be right here on earth. With people like…you.” A faint smile still curved his lips. “I told you, Mina, you wouldn’t get away again. I just had to use the right bait to pull you back in to me.” His gaze slid to Eli. The guy hadn’t moved from his position on the floor. A pool of congealed blood surrounded his prone form. “Though I don’t think that bait will last much longer. He put up more of a fight than we expected and he seems very weak now.”
She screamed—and the sound just echoed back to her.
“Don’t worry. Eli’s not dead…yet.” Garrick motioned to the guards. They picked up Julian and his head sagged. “And neither is your new friend. I find I am quite curious about him. I do believe I saw claws spring from his fingertips.”
Damn him. “You’re going to regret this.” But he couldn’t hear her. He wasn’t even looking at her. Garrick had turned away. He was following the guards who were carrying Julian out of there. They were leaving her in the cell. “No!”
Garrick glanced back at her. “Where’s Thorne?”
I have no idea.
“Did you trade him in for the guy with the claws? Did you think that was the smarter choice?” He gave a sad shake of his head. “You just bring everyone down to hell with you, don’t you, Mina? I guess it’s a talent you have.”
He walked out, taking Julian, leaving her there and—
Madeline stepped in front of Mina’s cell. A Madeline who had a face contorted with rage. “You bitch,” Madeline snarled.
Mina’s chin lifted.
“I’m going to enjoy watching you suffer. We will break you, and I will make sure that it hurts.”
Hardly the words of a kind, caring federal agent.
More like the words of a killer.
But then, Mina knew Garrick and Madeline were exactly that—cold-blooded killers. And they’d tried to make her into the same type of monster. She’d escaped from them before, stopping their plans.
This time…would she be so lucky?
***
Luke touched down at the dock. He landed as a man, fully dressed, as the old magic flowed easily through him. He wasn’t like other shifters, after all. They bowed to him.
He looked around, but the agents who’d been there before were gone. There wasn’t even blood on the ground any longer. Someone had done one hell of a fast clean-up job.
A growl rumbled in his throat. His head tilted back as he pulled in the scents around him.
You can run, but you can’t hide. Not from me. Not ever from me. He inhaled again. No blood on the ground, but I can still catch that coppery scent in the air.
He heard the fast thud of footsteps, and Luke whirled.
Rayce was there, breathing heavily, glaring at him. “Do you know…” he panted, “how fucking hard it is…to track you…when you fly?”