“Wasn’t … always …” Wyatt’s eyes squeezed closed. “Like … this …”
She heard screams from outside.
Wyatt’s breath whispered out. “They’re … free …”
Who was? The supernaturals he’d caged and then played God with?
“Father … changed … me …”
Eve had to lean close to hear his words. But she wasn’t stupid. She kept that gun pressed to his temple.
“Only … six. He made me …”
More burns and blisters faded. The savaged skin lightened.
She realized that Wyatt was part of the Genesis experiments, too. Another lab rat, one who’d been brought into the program by his own father.
“I hope that bastard’s rotting in a grave somewhere.” The words burst from her. To experiment on his own child? Talk about being a monster.
“He’s … not. Wants the world to think so … just pulling the damn strings …”
Eve’s blood iced.
Wyatt’s cracked lips formed a twisted smile. “Who do you … think … funded … Genesis?” Blood bubbled from his lips.
Eve frowned at him. His skin might be healing, but the guy sure seemed to be close to death.
“Need … injection!” His body shuddered. “Give it … to me …” He tried to point behind her, to his desk, but his hand fell back limply to the floor.
“I’m supposed to help you?” Eve asked, throat desert dry. But the truth was … hadn’t she already? She’d stopped Cain. “After everything you’ve done?”
Wyatt couldn’t talk any longer. It looked like he was having a seizure. Blood dripped from his lips. His eyes had rolled back into his head, and he shuddered, jerking convulsively.
“Dammit!” Eve jumped to her feet. “If I do this, you’d better tell me how to save Trace, got that? You’d better—”
She spun away and started searching through the desk drawers. Just paperwork in the top drawers. Files in the second. In the third …
Two syringes. One with a green label. One with a red. “Which one?” she demanded.
Eve swung back around and saw that Wyatt was on his feet. Not convulsing any longer. Not bleeding from the mouth.
An act. A very, very good one.
She dropped the syringes and lifted her gun. “Nice try, asshole.”
A roar echoed through the room. Eve tensed. There were more screams. More yells.
“Sounds like Trace is here,” Wyatt said with a little nod. Was he weaving on his feet? Maybe he hadn’t been acting after all. “Now we’ll have a real bloodbath.”
“Is that what you want?” she demanded. “More death? For more people to suffer?”
He stared back at her.
“Weren’t you ever human?” Eve threw at him.
He shook his head. “That part of me died a long time ago … when a boy was tossed into a pit of vampires and left alone in the dark.”
He’d been tossed into that pit? The same way he’d dropped her and Cain into that hell? Her fingers wanted to tremble, but she tried to keep her grip steady on the gun. “Yeah, well, every part of you is about to die unless you tell me how to fix Trace.” Fire hadn’t worked—but it had sure come close to killing Wyatt. Another few minutes, and the guy would have been ash. The bullets had made him bleed when they’d hit his chest. He’d just healed too fast for the bullet wounds to slow him down. But maybe if she just aimed somewhere else, a more vulnerable spot …
Eve lifted the gun and aimed at his forehead. Wyatt tensed, and she saw the fear flash across his face. “Tell me how to fix him.”
More roars. Eve swallowed. “Tell me!”
“There is no fixing him. He’s only beast now. Not man. He knows only hunting and killing. There’s nothing more for him. To him. He’s a failed experiment.”
“So are you,” she whispered.
His body stiffened. “I’m not a failure. I’m the best experiment my father ever created.”
Did the guy even hear what he was saying?
Wyatt kept talking. “I’m human, with the strength of a shifter, the healing ability of a demon, and the speed”—he moved in a blur, coming right in front of her—“of a fucking vampire.”
He reached for her. But Eve had her gun dead center against his forehead. “Unfortunately for you,” she whispered, “I know how to kill them all.”
He grabbed for the gun.
I’m sorry, Trace.
Eve pulled the trigger.
The thunder of the gun froze Cain. He tossed the werewolf aside and raced back down the hallway. “Eve!”
He couldn’t hear anything from Wyatt’s office. Just silence. Thick and dark and total.
He shoved aside the remains of the door. Saw Eve and breathed again. She was standing near Wyatt’s desk, holding a gun. Wyatt was on the ground with a giant hole in his forehead. A pool of blood was forming around his body.
“Want to hand me a piece of that wood?” Eve asked, inclining her head toward Cain and the smashed chair near his feet. “As a precaution, I really think we need to stake this bastard.”
He grabbed the wood and tossed it lightly in his hand. Rushing forward, he shoved the stake into Wyatt’s chest. The not-so-good doctor didn’t move.
“And that’s how you die,” Eve whispered as she pushed back her hair. “Even if you are the best experiment out there.”
Cain grabbed her hand. “Time to go.” The mad scientist was dead, and they needed to get to safety.
But Eve shook her head. “It doesn’t end with him, don’t you see that? More scientists will just come along. They’ll use his research. Genesis will continue.”
He knew that. There were always monsters out there. Some of those monsters just happened to wear the bodies of men and white lab coats.
Eve pulled away from him. “I’m taking proof.” She snatched up what looked like syringes from the desk and grabbed a black briefcase. She shoved the syringes in the case and yanked files from Wyatt’s desk. “I am blowing this story wide open.” She grabbed for a flash drive—
The howl from the hallway froze them both. Eve’s shoulders stiffened. “Trace,” she whispered.
What was left of him.
“Stay here,” Cain told her. He actually thought Trace was trying to get to Eve. The beast had been fighting viciously to get down that hallway.
To Eve?
Not on his watch.
He ran back into the hallway. Trace was facing off against the other phoenix. His claws were up. He leaped forward.
Ryder grabbed his feet and sent the werewolf tumbling to the ground.
The phoenix let her fire out. Ryder jumped back and the flames circled Trace, closing in. He howled and swiped out, seeming to be confused. Lost.
“No,” Eve’s shout came from beside Cain. “You can’t do this to him!”
She tried to shove by Cain, but he grabbed her arm, holding her back. “It’s not my fire.”
Trace’s head jerked toward them. His face was human, but the eyes that locked on them were pure beast. He snarled and charged at the fire.
Leaped over the fire.
The werewolf was coming right at them.
Ryder screamed for the other female—the phoenix—to get out of the way. Trace kept charging, rushing with his claws up and his fangs bared.
Cain shoved Eve behind his back, then put up a wall of flames in front of them. He hadn’t wanted to do this, not with Eve watching, but there wasn’t a choice… .
The werewolf wasn’t stopping, so Cain had to stop him. He pushed out with his fire. The flames bit into Trace’s arm. Another howl. More cries and … the werewolf turned away. He ran toward the far end of the hallway and jumped through the window. Glass shattered.
Eve shoved Cain aside as she tried to race toward that window. But Cain was with her every step of the way. He knew they’d find the werewolf ’s broken body below, and he hated for her to witness that sight.