“Holly!” Horror tore through Olivia as she grabbed for the other woman. Holly was convulsing on the floor. Smoke rising from her body. “She needs help!” Olivia cried even as her fingers flew over Holly’s body in an attempt to find out what was happening. “Help—”
The door flew open. Shane and Pate rushed inside. Pate immediately fell to his knees beside Holly. His gaze flew over her, assessing, then he grabbed Olivia in a grip that hurt. “What did you do?”
She shook her head. “Nothing—”
“Pate, get your fucking hands off her,” Shane warned.
Holly gasped, struggling to breathe.
“What did you do?”
“I-I said I wished I could stop them!” Those had been the last words she’d spoken before Holly collapsed on the floor.
Pate’s eyes widened. “Un-fucking-wish that.” He shook her. “Un—”
Shane yanked him back.
Holly’s skin was ghostly pale. “I take it back,” Olivia whispered. Had she truly done this?
“Rescind it!” Pate barked. “Say you rescind the damn wish!”
“I-I rescind the wish.”
Holly sucked in a deep gulp of air. The smoke stopped rising from her skin. Light color slowly filled her cheeks.
Olivia’s shoulders slumped.
“Told you…” Holly gasped out as her fingers caught Pate’s. “She’d…do the right thing.”
Olivia’s gaze jumped between Holly and Pate. Then to Shane. Only…Shane wasn’t looking her in the eyes.
She slid back as Pate helped Holly rise to her feet.
“It was too risky,” Pate snapped back to Holly. “And the plan was for her to focus that power on me, not you.”
Olivia’s hand flew out and she steadied herself on the bed. “You set me up?”
Holly took a few more, deep breaths.
Shane still hadn’t moved. What was up with that?
“A test,” Pate explained. “After the way you, um, rather impressively walked through fire before, we realized that your dormant powers must have been activated.” His hand rubbed Holly’s shoulder. “Blood and fire…guess they can kill djinns and bring them to life.”
Her stomach was in knots. “I thought I was hurting her!”
“You were,” Holly said with a quick wince. “Burning me alive.” She glanced at Pate. “The part about the djinn’s wishes being twisted up is true, too. She said she wished she could stop all the monsters, and the next thing I know, I’m tasting fire.”
“Yeah…” Pate drawled out the word as he focused on Olivia. “How about you do us all a big favor and don’t make any wishes for a while? At least not until we can learn more about just what you can and can’t do.”
Her hands wrapped around her stomach. They’d just experimented on her. She’d thought—Olivia shook her head and focused on Shane. “Why did you let them do this to me?”
A muscle flexed along the hard line of his jaw.
“Why?”
He didn’t answer her. Rage pumped through Olivia. “Dammit, I wish—”
Shane was in front of her in an instant, and his hand was over her mouth. “No more wishes.” His voice was low, gruff. “No more.”
“Ah…I think we should give them some privacy,” Holly murmured.
Olivia didn’t look away from Shane.
“Don’t kill him,” Pate called as he turned to leave. “We need him alive.” Then the door closed behind him and Holly with a squeak.
Shane’s hand was still over her mouth. His eyes glinting at her. Betrayal burned within Olivia. She’d thought he was on her side, but—
She yanked away from him. “Don’t touch me.”
His hands fisted at his sides. “That’s not really an option for me.”
She noticed his pallor then. He was almost as pale as Holly had been moments before. And his eyes…dark shadows surrounded his eyes and the faint lines on his face seemed deeper.
“Just to warn you, my control is razor fucking thin.”
A shiver slid over her. Hell, was it any wonder she was shivering? She was dressed in a paper-thin hospital gown. Olivia saw a bag near the door. She opened it. Found jeans, a shirt, shoes—all the clothing she’d need inside. Turning her back on Shane, she changed as quickly as she could, but she felt his stare on her. Every second.
“I thought you died,” he said when she turned back to face him. “I thought I let you die. The flames were everywhere, and I couldn’t get to you.”
Her breath slid out in a fast rush. Some of her fury eased because she could feel his pain in the room around them.
“Something broke then.”
She didn’t understand.
“In me…” And he stalked toward her. “I think the darkness got out. Pate should have seen it, but he didn’t.” He caught her wrist. Lifted it to his mouth. Pressed a hot kiss to her racing pulse. “The darkness got out.”
His teeth sank into her wrist.
She tried to pull away from him, even as pleasure pulsed through her body. Pleasure that came in long, drugging waves.
He was drinking from her. Licking her skin with his tongue. Pulling her against the hot, hard cradle of his body.
Desire, lust, built within her. She should have shoved him away. Instead, Olivia rubbed against him as the pleasure surged and surged and her climax—
“No!” Olivia ripped her wrist from him and stumbled away from Shane.
His lips were dark—her blood was on his lips. His fangs were out. His eyes blazed with a wild passion.
“You’re trying to control me.” Her heartbeat wouldn’t slow. “Another test, just like what they did.” She couldn’t trust him. Couldn’t trust anyone.
But Shane shook his head. “This is no test.” His eyes were filled with a dark tangle of emotions. Need. Anger. A hard edge of possession. “I need you…to survive.”
Okay, now that scared the crap out of her. “I want to leave this room. I want you to move out of my way.” Her wrist was throbbing, but it wasn’t a painful throb. Pleasure seemed to vibrate through her in time with each little pulse.
Shane inclined his head, and he backed away. She hurried past him and pulled open the door. Olivia wasn’t quite sure what she expected to find outside of that room—maybe another prison-like facility, but the bright lights and gleaming floor just appeared strangely…normal.
She hurried down the hallway, far too conscious of Shane’s footsteps behind her. She passed offices. Saw desks, phones. But no people.
She stilled in the middle of that hallway and turned to face Shane. “Where is everyone?”
His face was tense. “This facility hasn’t been used in a while. It’s a back-up location.” He hesitated, then said, “It’s a place that the senator doesn’t know about. It wasn’t officially on the Para Unit’s books.”
“Stop it,” she whispered as she stared into his eyes and took a step away from him.
He advanced toward her. “Stop what?”
“Staring at me as if—”
“As if I want to eat you alive?” Another slow, gliding step. “But that’s exactly what I want to do.”
Her wrist throbbed again, and the pleasure seemed to roll right through her whole body. It shouldn’t happen. She shouldn’t be so attuned to him.
He’d said they could be mates. She didn’t want his words to be true, did she?
“You realize that the senator was the one setting you up. Pulling the strings.”
She shook her head. “Donald has been my friend for years.” Her mother had worked as one of his aides. Donald’s daughter had been her best friend when she was a kid. But that had been before…
Before Chloe changed.