Ecstasy Untamed (Feral Warriors #6)(82)

The red haze pulsed into his vision, turning the sand to blood. Fury consumed him, the hawk jerking away the last of his control. He was losing it!

Through the roar of the blasting sand and the yelling, he heard Kougar shout, "Get us out of here!"

Once more he tumbled through nothingness, then found himself on his knees in the predawn gray of the backyard of Feral House, retching his guts out.

"Faith?" Hawke called when he was able.

"She's here." Kougar's voice.

Lightning bolted through his head, a fiery pain that radiated to all corners of his skull followed, as always, by the hawk's cry. Talons tore into his brain with a ferocity that, if real, would have left his brain leaking out his ears as a bloody pulp. The agony . . .

He couldn't breathe, couldn't think as his mind went momentarily blank but for the white-hot pain. Tearing, ripping, bleeding, misery. He forgot to count, couldn't think, could only survive.

"Easy, buddy." Kougar gripped his shoulder. "What's happening?"

Finally, finally, the talons eased off, the searing pain slowly receding until he could think again. Until he could breathe. "Nothing."

"Right." Kougar didn't believe him.

Hawke struggled to his feet, searching for Faith. Between the motion sickness and his bird's attack, he felt beaten and bruised, but he hadn't shifted. A hell of a way to stop an unintended shift, but he wasn't complaining.

Around the yard, others rose unsteadily, Faith in the middle of them. But even as he found her, she leaped to her feet and took off running, faster than any human . . . or immortal, for that matter . . . should be able to run.

"We'll get her," a soft Ilina voice murmured, and, moments later, Faith was once more on her knees, retching beside him.

Lyon joined him. "We have no choice but to lock her up."

"No."

"Give me another option."

Hawke wished he had one. At least a good one. "Handcuff her to me. She won't go anywhere."

"And if you shift?"

They'd both be gone. No cuffs would hold him in his animal. And he couldn't use the Mage wristbands they now had on Faith. They'd tried that when they first realized his problem, but he'd gone berserk, crazed with a fury that wasn't his. It had taken three of his brothers to take him down.

If he shifted, Faith would run. He knew that, now. And his control was too precarious at the moment. In truth, someone else needed to be guarding her. His animal screeched in fury at the thought of others manhandling her as she fought them. Or defending themselves from her, for that matter.

Faith started to rise, and Hawke grabbed her by the upper arms before she could get away from him again, igniting a storm of kicking feet and slashing claws. He turned her away from him, then bear-hugged her, pinning her arms against her sides so she couldn't continue the attack.

This wasn't going to work. "All right," he told Lyon. "She stays in the prison until we cure her." He turned to Kougar. "What in the hell happened out there?"

"The Mage erected some kind of barrier around the cave, or maybe that entire portion of the Sahara. The moment the Ilinas hit the barrier, they turned corporeal. We all fell out of the sky, right into a Mage ambush. Fortunately, the Ilinas recovered quickly and were able to get us back out of there before we suffered any casualties." He lifted an eyebrow. "The same can't be said for the Mage."

Hawke didn't feel an ounce of remorse for his part in that. "They were trying to capture Faith."

"How did the Mage know about the cave?" Lyon demanded. "How did they know you were on your way there?"

Kougar stroked his beard. "I'm wondering if the infection might be acting as some kind of tracking system for the new Ferals."

Lyon looked at Faith. "Then the sooner we get her cured, the better."

Kougar nodded. "Ariana and the Shaman are working on a way to bypass or destroy the Mage barrier. Meanwhile . . ." He turned to Hawke. "I'll help you get her downstairs."

It took both of them to drag a fighting, kicking Faith down the long stairs and through the basement to the prisons without hurting her.

"She's strong," Kougar murmured, righting himself from one of Faith's leg swipes that nearly knocked him off balance. "Not unexpected - we all get stronger with the animal. But Vhyper's right. She really could be a secret weapon. No enemy is going to expect strength like this from a 125-pound female. Of any race."

They reached the prisons and shoved her into one of the cells, slamming the door closed before she could whirl on them and try to fight her way out.

Feral and snarling, her claws clicking against the steel bars, she growled, shaking the bars. "Let me go!"

Hawke hated seeing her like this, locked up. Crazed. And yet . . . there was something . . . arousing . . . about the unadulterated wildness in her.

"Where, Faith?" Hawke asked quietly. "Where do you want to go?"

"To Maxim! I belong to him."

"Maxim hurt you!"

"Let me go!"

"He hurt you, Faith. You have to remember. What did he do to you? Did he rape you? Did he cut you? Did he use those fangs . . ."

Something flared in her eyes. Pain.

Ah, goddess. "He hurt you with those saber teeth, didn't he?"