Page 17

Parasite.

Jess lunged at the bars and swiped a paw out as far as she could. She barely missed Tawk, but only because he flinched out of the way last second.

“Stop!” he barked out.

Fuck you. Jess paced the cage, eyes on him…eyes always on him.

“I’m not the one who did this to you. I was trying to help!” The room was heavy with his anger, and it made her fury grow in response. She lashed out again, trying to reach him. The sound of her powerful body colliding with the metal bars filled the room.

She missed Kade. God, she missed him so badly. A wave of emotion overcame her, and she roared and backed away from the bars, shaking her head.

“I brought you something,” Tawk said. “Release my animal, and I’ll give it to you.”

She pulled her lips away from her sharp teeth in a smile. Oh, she knew what she could do now. All the shifters of Sister’s Edge were without their animals right now. Just like she had been all this time. All the times they had made fun of her, and taken shots at her, and pointed out her weakness. All the times they’d treated her like the bottom of the Crew…Now they were all helpless.

She didn’t know how far she could stretch this power that was emanating from her in bitter, dark, foggy tendrils, but it was far enough to take the shifter abilities from the whole of Sister’s Edge. She bet if she caught Tawk with a claw right now, he wouldn’t be able to instantly heal himself. She bet she could hurt him.

She bet she could draw blood on a dragon.

“Stop,” he gritted out, staggering to a seat in the corner of Derek’s basement, too far away from her.

Tawk sagged forward on his elbows and lifted a glare to her. The locket fell from his grasp and dangled from his fist on the broken chain. He must’ve picked it up when she’d Changed yesterday.

To her horror, she noticed the pulsing blue color was much darker than before. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum.

The rhythm was faster now, filling her head.

No. If she left Kade, the curse would go away. If she wasn’t around him, falling for him deeper, then the locket would go colorless again, and stop pulsing power. Right?

But had anything in her heart changed? When it came down to it, did she love Kade less now that she was away from him?

No. She’d revisited memories of how kind and understanding he had been, and how much more she respected him than any of the males in Sister’s Edge. She was doing this wrong. She loved him more now. Being back in the cage of Sister’s Edge made her brief time with Kade mean more.

She was strengthening the curse.

For the first time in her life, she truly hated who she was. She hated who she’d been born to be. She hated that her mother had continued the Heichman line and then left her to figure everything out for herself.

She hated that no one in her lineage had figured out a way to break this curse, and she hated that she would be the reason for the demise of the best man she’d ever known.

It wasn’t fair.

It wasn’t fair.

It wasn’t fucking fair.

The door to the basement swung open, and as if her thoughts had conjured him, Kade stood there, glowing blue eyes locked on her.

Emotions warred within her—relief, horror, joy, agony.

He was here for her. He was here. He’d come for her.

Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum.

I’m so sorry. She wanted to tell him how sorry she was. How she regretted that she was ruining his life. She wanted to make him understand, but she couldn’t speak in this form. Some shifters could, but it wasn’t a power she possessed.

“She’s going to kill you,” Tawk said low to Kade.

“I’ll be all right,” Kade said flippantly.

“No, you don’t get it, man,” Tawk said, lifting the locket higher. “This is your death sentence.”

“I’ll take that,” he said, approaching him. “I’m taking her home. She’ll want the locket.”

“Home,” Tawk said over the sound of Jess’s snarling as she paced the cage.

Tawk! Get him to leave!

Tawk didn’t do his job though. He didn’t get Kade to leave. Instead, he stood and handed Kade the locket. The broken chain necklace dangled from Kade’s closed fist.

Kade was touching his death, and the thought of it made Jess sick to her stomach. She had to Change! She had to explain to him! She had to make him do something unforgiveable. Something awful. Sleep with another woman, or tell his Crew her secrets, or slap her or something! She needed to fall out of love with him right now, not be saved by him again.

He was making it worse. The locket was calling to her. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Was it humming faster? She thought so.

Kade, you have to go away!

Shit, she needed to Change, but when she closed her eyes and tried, nothing happened. Nothing at all. When Jess opened her eyes, Kade was crouched near the bars, and Tawk was nowhere to be found.

“It’s going to be okay,” Kade said, but he didn’t understand. He didn’t understand any of this!

Jess charged but stopped just short of the bars. She didn’t want to hurt him. She just wanted him to know she needed to talk to him and make him understand.

“Hey,” he said, eyebrows lifting as he leveled her with a look. “You have to trust me. Everything is going to be okay.” There was steel somberness to his tone that she didn’t understand.

Kade was wrong. Nothing was going to be okay.

“I’m going to take you to Wreck’s Mountains. Can you Change? If not, it’s okay, I have a trailer, but if you can Change, it’s easier. I can hug you.”

And God, the temptation. If she could Change, she would. So much had happened in such a short amount of time, and the idea of melting into his embrace felt like everything. She wanted to cry and roar at the same time.

She closed her eyes again and tried. She tried and tried until she was panting. She sauntered to the back of the cage, agitated. She tried again. And again.

“Okay. It’s okay,” Kade murmured. “Can you stop putting my animal to sleep?” he asked softly. “I have to be able to get us out of here in one piece. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

She hadn’t even realized she was putting his animal to sleep though, and she definitely didn’t know how to turn it off. He wanted to be able to protect them with his rhino if it came to that, and she got it. Tawk would be telling the entirety of Sister’s Edge that Kade was here right now to take her away.

Who knew what Derek would do, or hell, even Connor. One-handed or no, he had rage and vengeance behind him now.

She tried to focus on pulling the tendrils of power back into herself, but just like her inability to Change back to her human form, she couldn’t control herself. Frustrated, she paced the cage, needing to move. There was no tingle in her skin of an imminent Change, no compromise from the animal, but that was to be expected. She’d been trapped for a very long time. Was it her fault? Jess had blamed the loss of her animal on the car accident, but was it? Or was her animal put to sleep with her own powers, and she hadn’t even realized what was happening?

Another wave of anger at her mother washed through her. She hadn’t taught her anything about herself, or her powers, or her lineage.

“It’s no good,” Kade whispered, watching her. His eyes held a somberness that she interpreted as disappointment, and it made her even angrier with herself.

Bum, bum, bum, bum.

That damn locket was pulsing in his clenched fist, calling to her, pointing out the mistakes her ancestors made, and Kade would be the one to pay.

She paced and paced, not knowing what to do.

It was Kade’s whispered words that halted her. “I’m sorry,” he said, and the look in his eyes held a hundred ghosts.

Pain stung through her hind end, and she jumped to the side in surprise, then looked around for danger, but all she found was Cash, kneeling by the basement door, a tranquilizer gun aimed at her.

Shocked, and betrayed, she glanced back at her tingling right leg. There was a dart with red feathers on the end. Jess roared and tried to reach it with a tight circle, and when she couldn’t, she scraped it off on the bars.

“I’m sorry,” Kade said again.

No, no, no, he didn’t get it. She hadn’t figured out a way to tell him about the depth of the curse yet. She couldn’t go to sleep! She had to tell him so they could come up with a plan together!

Kade, please . She couldn’t talk. She couldn’t tell him.

Jess tried to stay upright, but her hind end had gone numb, and she hit the ground in a sitting position. She dragged herself toward him. Kade, Kade, Kade. Bum, bum, bum, bum…

Her ribs were numb now, and her shoulders were tingling, and her eyelids were getting heavy.

Kade, please! Make it stop!

She hit the cement floor and blinked slowly, trying so hard to keep her eyes open.

Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Faster. It was going faster now, filling her entire head with that damn throbbing vibration. Each beat ticked off the seconds of Kade’s remaining life, and she wasn’t done. She hadn’t figured out a way to save him yet.

Kade… an animalistic moan escaped her throat, but it was so soft, and her eyelids weighed a thousand pounds.

Kade…please…

And she thought the forbidden words. She didn’t know why she betrayed herself like this, but she thought the forbidden words, because she was so damn scared that she would never see him again. She wished he could understand her heart.

I love you.

Kade flinched and dropped the locket, as if it had burned his hand, and she could see it there on the floor on the other side of the cage bars.

The sky blue had turned to a deep indigo hue.

Kade…

She understood her mother at this moment. Jess understood why she’d spent her life trying to escape her own mind after what she’d done to Jess’s father with her love. She hadn’t been able to find a way to save her mate. This same thing had happened to her parents, and Jess knew she wouldn’t be okay either.

She would never be okay again.

Bum, bum, bum, bum.

Bum, bum…

Bum…