Beckham’s eyes were black and depthless. His hardened mask was in place. And for the first time since she’d found Brian, she delved into Beckham’s emotions. He was practically projecting them into her. She could feel the hardened exterior, the savage beast within. She could almost taste the ferocity on her tongue. Feel the thing he had to become to handle this.
And feel that he didn’t want her to become it. He was doing this to protect her. As much as he worried for her fragility, he didn’t want this to ruin her fragile human heart. He’d promised to break it. But only him. Not this. Never this.
She swallowed and nodded. No words needed to be spoken. They were on the same page.
She stepped through the door and tried to close herself off to the sounds coming from the room down the hall.
…
It was hours before the others finally returned. Reyna hadretreated to the farthest corner of the house. She was sure she could still hear Brian’s screams. Or maybe that was just in her head.
“Hey,” Jodie said, skipping into the room. “We had the best day. Wait, what’s wrong?”
Reyna shook her head. She didn’t want to repeat the words. She’d been trying to forget them all day. Despite the screams.
And there was another one.
Jodie’s head snapped up to the staircase. “What the fuck? What the hell happened while we were gone?”
Reyna sighed and stood. She straightened her back. She could do this. She could survive it. “Brian.”
“Brian? You found him?” Jodie’s eyes lit up.
“Yeah.”
“That’s amazing. How did that happen?” Then she scrunched up her nose. “Is he okay? Why the screaming?”
“He’s…he’s not okay.”
Meghan and Tye rushed into the room, followed closely by Zoya and Katarina, who had her swords drawn.
“It’s okay,” Reyna said. She held her hands up to keep them from charging forward to put out the fire. “Everything’s under control.”
Katarina whirled on her. “Where is the screaming coming from?”
“Upstairs. Beckham has…he has Brian up there.” A flicker of recognition lit up in Meghan and Tye’s eyes, but the expressions on the faces of Beckham’s circle remained questioning. “My brother. My brother is upstairs.”
“You found him?” Tye asked in relief. “How the hell did that happen?”
She didn’t want to deliver this news. Not to the people in front of her. Not to Drew or Laura. Not to anyone. But she had to.
“He was turned,” she whispered.
All the air was sucked out of the room.
“No,” Meghan whispered.
Katarina slid her blades back into their holsters behind her shoulders. “Newborn?”
Reyna nodded. “And starving.”
“Someone has gone out for blood?” Zoya asked.
“Yes.”
“The boss has him chained up?” Katarina asked.
“Yeah. They…Harrington purposely starved him. We’re not sure if he’s going to come back from the point of brutality. He went so long without blood, Beckham is concerned that even the blood type cure might not bring him back to what he was.”
