“What have I done?” he whispered.
He struggled to get up and collapsed to the ground again. Eli rushed forward to help him, but Ian shrugged him off as he fought desperately to get to his brother.
“Ian, he’s alive. I’m not even sure he’s hurt.”
Still, Ian pulled himself to his brother, and Eli knelt beside them both.
Braden blinked with glazed eyes. His muscles twitched and spasmed, and a heavy sweat bathed his entire body.
“Braden,” Ian croaked. “Are you okay? Talk to me, man.”
“I’m good. I think,” Braden whispered, his voice hoarse and laced with pain.
Eli felt Tyana walk up behind him. “Back off,” he growled.
The two brothers looked up at Tyana in confusion.
Eli stood and whirled around, anger and his need to protect his men uppermost in his mind. “I said, back away.”
She stared past him, not even absorbing his demand. Confusion simmered in her eyes as she stared at the brothers in a mixture of sympathy and horror.
“What’s wrong with them?” she asked. “Why didn’t they just shift back?”
“Because they can’t. You should know this, Tyana. You said Damiano was the same. They’re as unstable as he is.”
She shook her head, tears swimming in her eyes. “But you’re stable. You can control it. I thought…I thought they would be able to as well.”
And then Eli knew. That was what she wanted. It was why she’d risked her ass to chase him across the globe. She thought he had answers that would help her brother. How could he tell her that there was no answer? That he was the freak, not Damiano. Not Ian and Braden.
Ian rose unsteadily to his feet, pulling Braden up with him. Eli gave them his attention then shot Tyana a sharp glance. “Help me get them back to the house.”
She didn’t hesitate to wrap an arm around a naked Braden as he leaned heavily on her. He didn’t seem to care that a complete stranger was hauling him toward the house. He looked too washed out and exhausted to process much of anything.
Eli grabbed on to Ian and slung Ian’s arm across his shoulders. Then he started forward, dragging Ian’s weight with him.
As he watched Tyana struggle with Braden’s much larger form, he wondered if she’d make it back, but she didn’t complain, nor did she let go of Braden.
Eli cursed when he realized she was taking the brunt of Braden’s weight on her wounded shoulder.
Several long minutes later, Tyana and Eli hauled the brothers into the house and toward their bedrooms.
“Hold up right here,” Eli instructed Tyana as he reached over and leaned Braden away from Tyana and against the wall. “Sit tight a second and I’ll come back to help you get him into his room.”
Tyana nodded wearily.
Eli grunted as he heaved and tugged at Ian. He finally got him muscled over to the bed and leaned him down. Ian sagged against the pillow and his eyes opened, dull and shadowed.
“Did I hurt Braden, Eli? Tell me the truth. Did I attack my own brother?”
“No, man. I wouldn’t lie to you. You know that. You were protecting him. From us. He was out of it from the shift. You watched over him.”
Ian closed his eyes in relief. “Tired,” he murmured.
“Rest, dude. You’ll be hungry as hell when you get up. I’ll try to make sure there’s something to eat.”
Ian cracked a half smile. “Won’t you be too busy with your lady friend?”
Eli rolled his eyes. “Noticed her did you.”
“I’m not dead,” Ian said dryly. “Nice ass. I got a good view on the way back. Think she’d hold the fact that Braden and I are cats against us?”
Eli gave a disgusted snort. “She’s not here to be your kinky plaything. You two get your own damn woman to sandwich.”
Ian smiled faintly. “Yeah, I know. You don’t share.”
“And don’t you forget it,” Eli warned.
Ian struggled to keep his eyes open, and Eli put his hand on his shoulder. “Get some rest, bro. This was a bad one.”
Ian nodded and closed his eyes.
Eli hurried back out to the hallway where Braden was still propped against the doorframe to his bedroom. Naked as a damn jaybird. He glanced over at Tyana but she seemed oblivious to Braden’s nudity.
“I’ll take it from here,” he told her. “Go wait for me in my office. You remember the way?”
She nodded, her eyes subdued. To his surprise, she didn’t give him any lip. No defiance. She just turned around and walked back down the hallway, a defeated slump to her shoulders.
Chapter Fifteen
When Eli walked into his office, he found Tyana gathering the weapons he’d tossed onto one of the couches. Her torn jacket was back on, and she was shoving her knives into place.
Her back was rigid, her movements mechanical, as though she were hanging on to control by a thread.
“What are you doing?” he asked softly.
She turned, casting her gaze briefly over him before returning to what she was doing.
“Leaving,” she said shortly.
He moved closer to her but was careful to keep some distance between them.
“You just got here.”
She slung the rifle over her shoulder and turned around again, her stance defensive and impenetrable as hell.
“I found out what I needed to know. You can’t help me.” She paused for a long second then stared hard at him. “Why you?”
He lifted his brow in confusion. “Why me what?”
She sighed with impatience. “Why are you stable? How is it you can control your shifts, even conjure clothing when you shift back? You’re in complete control of your abilities. The inhibitor I used on you was ineffective.”
“Dumb luck?”
“Until now, I assumed you’d found a cure, that you and your team had found a way to fight what happened. I wanted that for Damiano. I’ve killed for it. I would kill again. I’d do anything to save him from what I fear will happen if he doesn’t get help soon.”
“Join the club,” Eli murmured.
“I was hired by Esteban to kill Ian and Braden and to bring you in alive. Any idea why he’d want you alive?”
“Sweetheart, I don’t even know who the fuck Esteban Morales is, so how the hell would I know why he wants my team dead and me alive?”
Realization lit fire in her eyes. “Because he’s the bastard who unleashed the chemical agent on you. You’re stable. The others aren’t. He wants to know why. You’re the one thing in his experiment that didn’t go wrong.”
Eli held his hands up. “Whoa. Slow down. Back up and tell me what the fuck you mean by he’s the one who unleashed the chemical on us.”
Her shoulders sagged and fatigue blew over her. She looked like a sapling swaying in the wind. He moved into her space, took her by the arm and pulled her toward the door.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Fixing you something to eat. You’ll eat. Then we’ll talk. You’re no good to me unconscious. You look like you’re about to fall over.”
Her quiet acquiescence was starting to bug the shit out him. He was much more comfortable when she was threatening to kick his ass, kicking his ass or pulling a weapon on him.
He shoved her toward the kitchen, parked her butt in a chair by the table and went to rummage in the fridge for leftovers he could warm up.
Through it all she never said a word. Her gaze was focused across the room, unseeing, like she was a million miles away. Plotting her next move? Who knew with this woman.
He was beginning to understand her motivation a lot more now. Her loyalty to her brother mirrored his own toward his team. If he thought Falcon Mercenary Group held the answers to helping Ian and Braden, he would have been after their asses just like she’d latched onto his.