The Wolf Within (Purgatory #1)(62)

“I remember hearing my mother scream. She was begging for you to stop.”

Ian laughed. She hated his laugh.

“I remember the sound of my brother’s voice, asking me to help him.”

Ian was still laughing.

“I was too afraid to move then. Too afraid to speak. My mother had told me to stay quiet. No matter what happened…stay quiet.”

Connor was lifting Holly’s hand toward his mouth. His claws sliced her skin, but she bit her lip, refusing to cry out. She knew what he wanted.

What Duncan wanted.

She was trying to help them both.

“I’m not going to be quiet any longer.” Duncan smiled at Ian, and the sight was chilling.

Her blood dripped into Connor’s mouth.

“The first time I saw Connor, I knew he looked familiar. But it was your face that I was really starting to remember.” Then Duncan jumped forward. His claws wrapped around Ian’s throat. “You took my life away.”

Ian didn’t look scared. Didn’t act scared either. He drove his claws into Duncan’s throat.

Holly screamed and jerked away from Connor.

But Duncan didn’t so much as flinch from the attack. “I’m not some little whelp that you can kick around any longer.” His fangs were lengthening. “I’m the alpha now, and you’re just the killer that needs to be stopped.”

A low hiss filled the air then. And Ian’s chilling laughter sounded once more. “You think I’m alone in this?”

The gas drifting from the vents was just like the backup security system that Pate had installed at the containment center in Seattle. Was this where he’d gotten the idea? Or had he taken steps to have his system also installed here?

She covered her mouth, but the gas didn’t seem to be doing anything to her. It wasn’t even stinging her throat.

Connor was motionless on the gurney.

“The gas is the first wave. Only it’s not taking out the paranormals. It’s gonna knock out all the humans. Then it won’t matter who has the controls to the f*cking collars. It won’t matter who has the silver bullets. The guards who aren’t already paid off will fall, because the others—the ones working with me—they’ll be the ones in gas masks running for the doors.”

Holly’s gaze flew around the room. There were no controls to the collars in there. There were more surgical instruments though, against that back wall. She could rush over there and get more silver to help Duncan.

“Who set this up?” Duncan gritted.

But Ian wasn’t looking at him any longer. Ian’s bright blue gaze had come to rest on Holly. “What did you make him?”

She wouldn’t, couldn’t, speak.

“I tried to get a vampire to convert me once, but the bitch wouldn’t do it.”

Good for her.

“So I cut off her head.”

Not so good.

“If you cut off her head, Connor, I’ll take you back.”

What?

Then she felt the hand on her shoulder. Connor, not so still anymore. Standing right behind her. She could feel the press of his claws on her skin.

“Kill her,” Ian ordered, “and you can walk out of here with me. All will be forgiven. We can start fresh.” His gaze darted to Duncan. “My two sons. We’ll f*cking rule this new world.”

“The new world?” Duncan repeated. “You mean the world where you start attacking the humans.”

“We’ve lived in the shadows long enough!”

“No, you’ve just lived long enough.”

Connor wasn’t attacking her. Whatever he’d done, she didn’t believe he was like his father.

Neither was Duncan.

She broke away from Connor. Grabbed for the scalpel on the back table. I can’t let his father’s death be on him.

Some sins shouldn’t be carried.

Duncan yelled her name, but she didn’t stop. Her fingers were tight on the scalpel, and she moved as fast as she could. What good was being a vamp if you never used your power? So she amped up her power and moved faster than she’d ever moved before.

It seemed like everyone around her was moving in slow motion. Connor was lunging for his father with bared fangs.

Duncan was reaching for her.

Ian was smiling.

Smiling…

And lifting a weapon she’d never seen. A wooden stake that had been tucked in his prison overalls.

So even as she stabbed down with her knife—slicing over the bastard’s throat—he shoved that stake into her heart.

“Told me…be ready.” Blood spurted down the front of Ian’s throat. She hadn’t cut the bastard deep enough. “Vamps…coming…”

And the slow motion ended for her. She sank to her knees and stared at the stake hanging from her chest.

She felt the cold whisper of death on her skin. The same whisper she’d felt in that alley, a year ago. Goosebumps rose on her even as a strange numbness filled her extremities.

Duncan was shouting for her, and she wanted to answer him, but she couldn’t.

The gas kept filling the room. The stake—it had sank into her heart.

She knew it had found the mark because her heart had stopped beating.

I’m sorry, Duncan.

She’d just wanted to protect him, but now, it looked like she’d just left him to face his nightmare without her.