Chapter 21
Hawke winced as the screech of a dragon ripped through his sensitive eardrums. Gritting his teeth, ignoring the taste of his own blood when his fangs sliced through the inside of his mouth, he ripped the entry gate to the Parasupe labs from its locking mechanism and entered the compound.
Stealth wasn’t necessary this time. No guards were there to stop him.
By the sounds of it, they were otherwise occupied.
He’d come alone. There was no reason to ask Kohl to leave the coven when he could easily catch up to Everly and bring her back. But she’d manage to send him on quite a chase, and when he’d found the rental car parked down the road, he’d figured out how.
Had she planned this all along? And didn’t tell him?
As he neared the lab at the center of the grounds, he fell into step with the fifty or so humans who had come running from other buildings.
Some guards, some just humans in white coats who were working late.
None of them paid the vampire in the hot pink shirt more than a passing glance.
They had bigger things to worry about. Way bigger things.
Inside, the building shuddered around them, and some of the humans stopped and looked at each other while a few others wasted no time in turning around and hightailing it back outside.
Even a few of the guards. Cowards. Hawke ignored them all, shoving bodies out of his way as he jogged toward the center of the building where they were holding Everly’s brother.
She was in there. And he didn’t need the abandoned car to tell him that.
Her blood called to him as soon as he’d gotten within a few miles of the place, long before he’d found the rental.
Guards were trying to bust in the door when he reached the interior of the lab. The building shuddered again, and he heard glass shattering and a woman screaming. Fear shot through him for a split second. But, wait. Not Everly. Someone else.
With little effort, he tossed bodies away from the door and ripped it from its hinges.
As soon as it was gone, two humans in lab coats ran past him.
Hawke let them go. He had little interest in them or the destruction of their lab.
Which was exactly what was happening. Inside, Everly’s shifter brother was in full dragon form, and using one wing to bust through the special glass between bouts of angry shrieks and gusts of fire.
Another woman with bright red hair in a lab coat was near the hole the dragon was breaking. She wasn’t trying to stop it. She was helping him break out.
“Everly! Stop!” She didn’t hear him, of course.
But she must’ve noticed something, felt something, because she stopped mid-swing and looked right at him.
Hawke held his hands out in front of him, palms out.
“Honey, please. Stop. You can’t let him out of there.
” Pointing to the dragon, he shook his head to emphasize what he was saying.
She gave him a sad smile and went back to breaking glass without bothering to answer him.
She wasn’t nearly as effective as the dragon was, even with only one bloody wing, but that didn’t matter.
Judging by the size of that hole, Hawke knew he only had a matter of a minute or two before the dragon broke free.
Repetitive popping noises broke out around him before he could get to her, and he felt the red-hot heat of newly fired bullets streak by him as the guards finally shut their gaping jaws and started doing something about the situation.
By firing at bulletproof glass.
Without thought, Hawke launched himself at Everly and knocked her down onto the floor. Fire slammed into his chest, shoulder, and neck as some of the bullets found him. Bullets that would’ve went through Everly. The rest of them bounced off the glass or peppered the walls.
Rage flared inside of Hawke, burning so hot he wouldn’t have been surprised if fire started shooting from his mouth like the dragon.
These idiots were acting on panic, shooting everywhere, without a care that others might get hurt.
He gave Everly a push between her shoulder blades to tell her to stay down, and then he rose up with a roar and rushed the nearest guard.
Another wave of bullets pelted his side before he grabbed the gun and flung it so hard into the wall it broke into pieces and slid to the floor.
The human yanked a handgun from his waist, but before he could fire it, Hawke reached out with one hand and secured his wrist. Twisting it down and back bones splintered and popped as he sank his fangs into his neck. The gun slid from the human’s hand.
He was on the other three before they saw him coming, all of their attention on the beast in the cell. Once he had them disarmed and either dead or unconscious, he turned to get Everly and get her the hell out of there.
And saw he was too late.
Everly had gotten under one of the metal tables along the side of the wall after the shooting had broken out.
She curled up into the corner as the dragon, with one last, furious charge, broke through the glass and rammed into the cell bars.
Two of them bent under the pressure of its weight.
The dragon backed up, his sides inflating on a deep inhale.
“Everly!” Hawke’s shout was lost in the flames as it heated the bars, then charged them again. A surge of relief made him lightheaded when he saw her still in the corner and apparently unharmed.
The dragon backed off again, preparing to send another round of fire.
Hawke moved fast. He knew he stood no chance against the shifter. It would burn him alive with hardly a thought. His only chance was to get Everly the hell out of there and either wait it out until her brother changed back or call Kohl.
Appearing in front of her, Hawke dragged her from under the table and lifted her into his arms, preparing to run. But as soon as he turned around, he found himself impaled by a pair of crazed reptilian eyes. The dragon looked at Hawke, and then to the woman struggling in his arms.
“Motherfucker.” He tightened his hold on Everly, and then he ran like he’d never run before, a trail of fire heating his back as he escaped the room and took off down the corridor.
“Let me down!” Everly twisted in his arms, trying to break his hold, but Hawke only held her tighter until they got outside. Emergency lighting flickered and dimmed, before it surged bright again, lighting up the grounds and destroying his hope of hiding in the shadows of the night.
Setting her on her feet, he grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her until she looked at him. “You cannot go back in there!”
Her eyes widened, and he saw a trace of fear in the gray depths that sent a spear of guilt through him. Hawke could only imagine what he looked like, all vamped out and bloody with the death of at least two of the guards on his hands.
“Everly—”
Her eyes fell to his throat. “Were you shot?” she asked. Her shaking hands pulled at his shirt, buttons popping everywhere as she separated the material to see the flesh beneath. “Hawke! You’re shot!”
The building behind her rocked on its foundation, and a few bricks fell to the ground.
“Motherfucker,” Hawke muttered again as he watched it.
Everly spun around to see.
Hawke grabbed her arm and began to pull her away.
He hadn’t made it two steps when he stuttered to a halt and swayed on his feet.
He was losing too much blood too fast before his body had a chance to heal itself.
He needed to feed, but other than Everly, there was no one around to fulfill that need, and he couldn’t take from her when she would need all of her strength to escape this place.
The humans had fled the scene. Hawke couldn’t blame them.
He had no desire to be burned alive, either.
He realized Everly was holding him up. Hawke took her face between his hands and tried to focus on her. “Run.”
She shook her head. “No. I’m not leaving you.” Her jaw tightened. “Or him. That’s my brother.”
“That’s not your brother right now, honey.” He took a ragged breath. “You have to run. Get the hell out of here before he kills us both. Fucking run, Everly!” He shouted the words right in her face.
Tears filled her eyes, but she stood her ground. “No!”
Fuck. Hawke dropped his head, too exhausted to argue with her. He’d have to get her out of there himself.
Everly grabbed his arms and shook him. “Hawke!”
He raised his head, but she was looking behind him. Not wanting to see, but knowing he needed to, Hawke twisted around.
The building was collapsing, piece by piece, as the dragon fought its way out.
Its shrieks of rage filled the air, the roar of flames following each one busting out windows, black smoke billowing into the sky.
As they watched, something exploded, the back half of the building began to crumble, and the dragon came bursting out of the thick cloud of smoke.
It stretched its wings wide, blood dripping from the injured one, then gave them a hard flap, and rose high above the smoke as it released another shriek. This time of freedom.
Hawke realized they were standing out in the open and began edging his way over to the side of the closest building, one eye on the beast as he pushed Everly in front of him. For once, she didn’t resist, stumbling backwards as she stared in awe at the creature hovering in the air above them.
“He’s beautiful,” she whispered.
Dragging her into the shadows, Hawke pressed her back against the wall, protecting her with his body, and grabbed her face to get her attention. “He’s not in his right mind, Everly. Not even for a dragon. He won’t know you.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could say anything, Hawke heard an ominous clicking sound and a rush of hot air. Before he could react, nerve endings screamed and then went dead as fire licked along his back. An involuntary roar of pain and anger ripped from his throat.
As his body slammed into Everly’s, Hawke wondered if this was how he was going to go out.
If, after all the years he’d been alive and all the things he’d survived, this was the end.
And the only regret he had was that he hadn’t had time to make things right with this amazing female.
She’d probably be better off. Hell, he couldn’t even fucking protect her properly.
Suddenly, he was flat on the ground on his back and Everly was on top of him, swatting at the flames on his shoulders and sides with her bare hands before ripping off her lab coat and covering him with it.
A second stream of dragon’s fire seared the top of her head.
The smell of burnt hair filled his nostrils.
When it stopped, she sat up, and her own fire burned behind her eyes.
“I think I love you,” Hawke whispered, knowing she wouldn’t hear him, but needing to say it before death took him.
Everly stilled on top of him. Tears dropped from her chin to his face. And then she rose to her feet and was standing over him, staring up at her brother, screaming words Hawke couldn’t comprehend through the rush of blood in his ears.
Smoke drifted around her, blurring his vision.
Or, maybe it was his body shutting down.
Vampires could take a lot of pain. He knew that firsthand.
Over the long years of his life, Hawke had been chopped into with swords and axes.
He’d been strung up from a tree with rope so coarse it cut into his throat before they even pulled it taut.
And he’d taken more bullets than this night a few times over.
None of it was pleasant; however, he always healed within hours.
But this time felt different. He had no way of knowing how deep the fire had burned through him, but it was possible it had burned through to his heart. And if that were the case, he may not heal this time.
Everly’s form flickered above him. Her tears fell cold upon his face and neck. Or was that rain? She was still screaming, fist raised and red curls blowing in the wind.
There was a flash of light as she bent over Hawke, voice leaving her mid-scream, her body disjointed, bones breaking through skin that rippled with shades of red.
And then there was nothing.