Chapter 15
Hawke stood outside Kohl’s old room, hard as a fucking rock, and telling himself all of the reasons he shouldn’t—couldn’t—go back in there.
Everly’s scent was all over him, and not one of them made a fucking bit of sense at the moment.
His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he yanked it out, both grateful and irritated with the distraction.
It was Kohl. Devon had finally managed to crack the code and infiltrate the computer system at the lab where Everly’s brother was being held.
Hawke touched the screen and tapped out that he’d be there as soon as he ran for some of Everly’s things, then he shoved his phone back into his pocket.
He looked at the door, the only thing keeping him from Everly, and closed his eyes for a moment, fighting down the ache in his gut.
Then he set off through the cavern and went above ground.
He managed to avoid getting sucked into any issues Andrew was having with the stock behind the bar by shoving Devon’s friend at him. Frank was more than happy to help out the “cute” bartender by making a run to the nearest liquor store.
Awesome.
Before anyone else could flag him down, Hawke made a beeline to his car. Halfway to Everly’s apartment, he realized he’d forgotten to ask her for her key. He’d either have to turn around and go back, get a spare from the landlord, or break in. He weighed the pros and cons of his choices.
Break in it was, then.
Inside her apartment, he quickly deactivated the alarm system. It was entirely too easy. He would have to set her up with a different system before she came back to this apartment.
A low growl rumbled deep in his throat at the thought of her here, unprotected and alone.
If she came back to this apartment.
Hawke gave himself an internal shake. Everly was a grown female, and one of the most dangerous shifters out there. She had no need for a male to protect her. And yet, he knew he would do just that. Always. Whether it be from near or afar, he would watch out for her.
Closing the front door, he turned and glanced around.
The first thing to come to him was her scent.
Sweet and warm and wild and fucking everywhere.
Hawke breathed deep and let her essence soak into him.
His body reacted immediately—muscles tensing as his fangs tasted the air, eyes dashing around the room, searching out the woman it belonged to.
But then his head caught up, and he sheathed his fangs, knowing the one he wanted wasn’t here.
He headed quickly to the back of the apartment. Kohl and Devon were waiting for him to get back, he had no time to fuck around here smelling her underwear like some kind of pervert.
Finding another suitcase in the back of her closet, he threw as many clothes as could fit into it, then went into her bathroom and gathered up her shower supplies and cleaned off her sink, putting it all in a plastic trash bag.
He thought about bringing what she had in her fridge, but they had nowhere to keep it cold in the caverns, so he searched her cabinets for stuff that didn’t need to be kept cold, then he emptied her refrigerator and took it all out to the trash bin so she wouldn’t come home to a stinky apartment.
On his way out, he grabbed a patchwork blanket she had thrown over the back of her couch.
He stopped at the door, his eyes wandering over to her telephone, but he decided to leave it there.
He couldn’t take the chance she would accidentally, or purposefully, tell anyone where she was.
Besides, if Parasupe was onto her, they could very well have it tapped.
Out at his car, he threw her stuff into the backseat before getting behind the wheel. He sat for a few seconds, searching for signs he was being watched, but not so much as a curtain twitched in the other apartments.
Back at The Caves, he grabbed Everly’s stuff from the back seat and went to the office to check in with Kohl and Devon before he took them down to her.
The normally empty desk was now covered in two large computer monitors and a keyboard, and Devon sat in front of them with Kohl standing behind her, his arms crossed over his chest and a worried expression on his face as he watched over her shoulder as she typed.
They both looked up as Hawke entered, set down the stuff in his arms and closed the door behind him.
“Sorry I took so long. I went to get Everly some things.”
“Everything okay at her place?” Kohl asked.
Hawke lifted one shoulder. “Far as I can tell.” He made his way around the desk to stand over Devon’s other shoulder. “How are things going here?”
Devon’s fingers flew over the keyboard. “I’ve managed to hack into the camera system where her brother is being held and I’ve been watching all afternoon.”
“What about the sound? Can you hear what they’re saying?”
She shook her head. “Not yet. I’m working on it now.” She glanced over her shoulder at Hawke. “But I don’t know that we really need it to see what’s going on there.”
“What do you mean?”
Kohl answered for her. “We think they’re experimenting on him.”
“Every couple of hours they do something that affects his muscles or his nerves. He becomes completely immobile while the lab techs go in there and either shoot him up with something or take his vitals. Then they leave, and about an hour later, whatever they did to immobilize him wears off. Once that happens and they’re safely out of the cell, they use different methods to rile him up then—hurt him in different ways—until he starts to shift into his dragon form.
” She hit a key and turned her chair a little to face him.
“I think they’re trying to find a way to overpower his shifter side, so he can’t shift. ”
A red-hot poker went through this stomach. “Have they succeeded?”
“Not yet.” Kohl met his eyes.
Hawke held his stare. They both knew what this meant.
Earlier, Devon had told him she’d discovered via some intercepted emails that Parasupe was starting to catch shit from the people who funded them for the brutal way they’ve been “handling” the supernatural community.
Namely, taking them out. Normally, they wouldn’t have a problem with it, however, humans have been getting caught in the crossfire lately, so they now needed a better way to control them.
And they were starting with who they considered the most dangerous—dragon shifters.
Which put the two people he cared about most in this world smack in the middle of their radar.
“What about him?” Hawke pointed at the screen, where Everly’s brother was pacing back and forth in all his naked glory, scratching at his face with dirty nails until rivulets of blood dripped to the floor. “Can he be saved?”
Kohl and Devon shared a look, and then Kohl paced away, rubbing the back of his neck. “I don’t think so. I don’t know what they’re doing to him, but I’ve been watching with Dev for a couple of hours now. I don’t think he’s…sane anymore. If he ever was.”
“According to Everly he was. She said she’d just found him a few months ago, and they’d been talking.
” He crossed his arms over his chest and chewed the inside of his cheek as he contemplated the computer monitor with the camera feed on it.
“At least, she didn’t say anything about him having any sort of mental illness. ”
“I think we need to ask her,” Devon said. “Why don’t you bring her up?”
Hawke exchanged glances with Kohl. “Do you think it’s safe? I don’t want to upset her. There are people here,” he added when Kohl raised an eyebrow at him.
Kohl rubbed the back of his neck, looking off in the distance as though he expected to find the answer in the dusty corner. Finally, he sighed. “I don’t know.”
Devon looked back and forth between the two of them. “Are you kidding me, you guys?” She shoved her chair back and stood up. “What the hell are you going to do? Keep her locked away underground until you decide otherwise? She’s not a prisoner here.”
Hawke met her eyes and quickly looked away.
She turned to Kohl. “Is she?”
He stared at her for long moments. Hawke waited for what he would say. Kohl was the coven master, after all. If he told him he thought it was safe to let her roam free, then that’s what would happen.
Even if Hawke thought it was a really bad fucking idea for reasons he didn’t care to explore right now.
Kohl turned to Hawke with obvious reluctance. “Go get Everly and bring her up here.”
Hawke gave him a nod and went to pick up her things to take them down to her. He had one hand on the doorknob when Kohl stopped him.
“And Hawke?”
He glanced back at his friend and leader.
“Keep your fucking hands off her. I’m trusting you. Everly is not yours.”
The vampire inside of him hissed a warning, but Hawke managed to keep his voice level as he said, “Threatening me is not fucking necessary.” Nor would they deter him, as he’d proven just a couple of hours ago.
“Guys.” Devon put her hands up, as if to ward off the sudden tension in the room.
Kohl grabbed one and kissed the inside of her wrist without taking his eyes from Hawke. “It’s not a threat, man. It’s just a reminder.”
Hawke’s shoulders relaxed as he remembered Kohl’s self-hatred from earlier. “You don’t have to remind me. I’ve got things under control.”
Kohl stared at him for a moment, the tension slowly leaving his jaw. “Thank you.”
With a wink at Devon, Hawke left.
Down in the caverns, Kohl’s words echoed over and over in his head.
Everly is not yours.
Everly is not yours.
Fucking funny, because she sure as hell felt like his.
But there was a reason for the old laws.
A good reason. Unlike Kohl’s mother—who was a very kind female, but weak-willed and easily controlled—once Everly shifted the first time, she would become someone else.
Someone who wouldn’t like being under the rule of a male who was half her kind.
Someone who wouldn’t want to be with a male she would see as the weaker of the two species.
When Everly discovered who she truly was, it wouldn’t take her long to figure out she was no longer the poor, little, deaf girl.
She could rule them all.