“Take her,” he snarled as he kept his eyes only on Alice. He feared if he looked at anyone else in the room, he would forget his momentary bout of sanity and kill someone. “Now. Before I change my mind.” His words were harsh and snapped like a whip through the air. “You tell Alice that I let her leave. That it wasIwho gave in.”
Cain’s chest felt hollow as he watched Maxim gather Alice so tenderly in his arms. Even unconscious, she turned toward the wolf as if sensing safety and home in his embrace. Something dark and ugly twisted in Cain’s gut. Jealousy, he realized. He had no right to it, and yet the emotion persisted. He should feel relief at relinquishing Alice. It was the only way to save her life, which had come to mean more to him than he wanted to admit. But instead, bitterness coated his tongue, a desperate sense of loss welling up.
Perizada wasted no time holding her arms out for the others to touch her so they would flash with her. Finn scooped up Lizzy into his arms as if he was worried she’d somehow get left behind. She clung to him like a lifeline. Another love Cain had callously tried to twist to serve his ambitions.
“Let’s get the hell out of this nuthouse,” Lizzy gritted out, glaring at Cain with undisguised loathing. He supposed he deserved that.
Peri’s smile held a cutting edge. “Couldn’t agree more.” She met Cain’s gaze. “Whatever you’re doing with these dormants, not all of them are like Lizzy. They’ve gone mad. Fane and his pack are taking out the ones that are feral. You need to shut this crap down like yesterday.”
“You worry about fae business,” Cain told her. “I’ll worry about my own.”
In a swirl of magic, the group vanished, leaving the large room gaping and empty. Alice was gone from him forever. Cain’s hands fisted at his sides, emotion threatening to choke him. He had brought this loss upon himself with his selfishness and lies. Alice deserved a mate who could shelter her with honesty and devotion, instead of continuing to fail and disappoint her as he had.
Still, letting her go shredded the neglected human heart Cain had believed long dead. She had sparked something in him, made him believe in impossible things like redemption and second chances. Futile dreams, but for a time he’d dared indulge them. Now she was lost to him. The thought carved out a hollow space beneath his breastbone that ached with emptiness. His brief glimpse of light had been extinguished, leaving him in a cold shadow once more.
Jaw clenched against the pain, Cain turned on his heel, striding from the room without looking back. The part of him that was still a man wanted to rage and grieve. But the vampire’s calculating mind was already moving forward to his next maneuver, unfettered by regret.
He had allowed them to take her so she could live. The honorable man she briefly awakened would keep that vow, no matter the cost. But the monster inside him was not so easily silenced. It howled and clawed against its cage of flesh, desperate to reclaim what was his. To punish those who took it. The battle raged silently within Cain just as much as the physical battle was still underway in the compound. He picked up his pace, running for the same exit through which the feral hybrids had escaped. As soon as his feet hit the dirt of the desert, he saw Fane, the alpha of alphas. He stood with a group of warriors from various supernatural species. One of them held up some sort of boundary that kept the insane hybrids from reaching their group.
Fane turned in Cain’s direction. “They have to be put down,” the alpha told him.
Cain walked closer, drawing the attention of a couple of the hybrids. They lunged for him. Cain caught them both by the throat, one in each hand. He twisted his wrists, snapping their necks, and then dropped them unceremoniously to the ground. “Not all of them are mad. I will tell you the same thing I told Perizada.” Cain’s chin was lifted high. “You worry about your business, and I will worry about mine. The hybrids aremine.”
“Tell that to the couple dozen that have fled already,” Fane snarled. “I sent some of my wolves after them, but we will have to send more. So now,itismy business. You have unleashed something that never should have been created into the human population. Who knows what the hell they will do?”
Cain understood Fane’s concerns. There was no telling what the hybrids were capable of. Their bites might be lethal, or they might be able to sire more hybrids. There was too much he didn’t know. He considered what he’d tell his military contacts and quickly tossed that thought out. He simply couldnottell them.
“You have my blessing to kill any who need killing. Meanwhile, I’ll work on perfecting the change so that we prevent the madness.”
Fane looked ready to rip Cain’s head off. It might have been humorous if there weren’t still hybrids around trying to get to Fane’s group. They were mindless with bloodlust. Even worse than baby vampires.
“You need to shut this down,” Fane told him. “If you don’t, I will.” In a blink, they were gone, the fae with them no doubt flashing them away.
Cain reached out and caught another feral hybrid, snapping his neck just as he had the other two. As he turned back toward the doors of the compound, he looked around at what was left. Bodies strewn over the group. Hybrids that evidently hadn’t lost their mind were wandering aimlessly.
“Listen!” He raised his voice, and all eyes turned to him. “You are my soldiers, and you will obey my commands.” His voice carried as he continued to speak so that everyone would hear him. “Those of you who are sane, kill the ones that are not. Then come back inside the compound.” He motioned to the door. “And go into the large presentation room filled with chairs. Take a seat there and wait for me.”
He started again toward the door, then added, “Any who choose not to obey will die. It is that simple.”
When he turned his gaze back to the waiting dormants. The man was banished deep behind the vampire’s dark hunger.
Back inside, Cain found Willis in his lab. The large glass window showed the room full of chairs, which were currently beginning to fill up with the sane hybrids. “Grab a dead hybrid and study their blood, DNA, or whatever you need to in order to figure outwhythey went mad,” he ordered Willis brusquely. “That was a cluster that will not be repeated.”
“You got it, boss.” Willis headed for the door.
Compassion was weakness. Desire made one vulnerable. He had forgotten that crucial truth, but no longer. Only the mission mattered now. Cain ignored the pang of regret and the Alice-shaped hole inside him. They were necessary sacrifices on the path forward he had chosen, the only path he knew. He set aside dreams of salvation and light. Cain buried the futile longing, and ruthlessly drove onward. He would let the darkness embrace him again with its cold, familiar comfort.
* * *
Celise stepped into the room,the bag holding her precious cargo clasped tightly to her chest. Her eyes took in the various people present. There was at least one, if not two, representative from every supernatural race. That’s how powerful the pull of the book was. She’d only told a handful of people—those few she trusted to keep the news to themselves. Those few who weren’t faithful to Fane and his self-righteous pack. Those few were all it had taken to spread the news throughout the supernatural communities.
She stepped farther into the room and waited until everyone else had taken seats. Celise remained standing. “You all have come because you’ve lost someone special to you. And you lost them at the hands of Vasile and Alina.”
There were murmurs of agreement around the room.
“I cannot get you revenge on them because they are dead.” Celise was pretty sureeveryonein the supernatural world knew of the alpha pair. “Take whatever comfort you can from that fact. But I can help you get your loved ones back.”
“Show us the book.” An elf male leaned forward, resting his arms on the table in front of him.
