Obsession Untamed (Feral Warriors #2)(23)

“Get out, brown eyes.”

“What are we doing here?”

“My twin’s here.”

Her jaw dropped as he pushed from the car. She joined him, her mind scrambling and coming up with nothing that made any sense.

“How do you know he’s here?”

He grabbed her hand. “Come on.”

She ran to keep up with him as he headed toward the steps of the memorial, but they were still ten yards away when Tighe emitted another of those jungle growls, released her hand, and pulled out two wicked-looking switchblades in a single, quick move.

Delaney leaped back, watching with disbelief as he began stabbing the air. He was crazy. Completely and certifiably mad.

But as she stared, cuts began to appear on his cheeks and tears in his clothing as if from invisible claws.

Goose bumps rose on her skin as her head shook back and forth. She wasn’t seeing this. It wasn’t real. It was the drugs. She had to be hallucinating.

A dark shape above had her looking up as a huge bird of prey, a hawk, dropped out of the sky. For a terrible moment, she thought Tighe was going to turn those deadly knives on the bird, but he barely glanced at him. Instead, the bird began clawing at the air with talons and beak as if he, too, were battling an invisible enemy.

A moment later, a huge cat, a cougar, joined the fight, and she knew she had to be caught in one giant hallucinogen-induced dream.

God. Delaney backed away. She had to get out of there. But Tighe’s words came back to her. My twin’s here. If there was a chance she hadn’t dreamed that, too, she had to at least look for him.

She ran for the steps to the memorial and started up, as desperate to get away from the impossible battle as she was to find the murderer who’d nearly killed her.

With each step the question pounded in her brain.

What if I’m the only crazy one?

Tighe stabbed at the draden, tearing them off him as he tore out their hearts by the dozen.

Dammit, I’ve got to get behind cover and shift. Hawke’s voice sounded in his head. Through the vicious swarm, Tighe could just make out the hawk, nearly covered in the ferocious little beasts. My wings are being shredded faster than I can heal.

Since when do they attack animals? Kougar growled mentally. The draden were all over him, too, going for his eyes. Unlike Tighe, the cougar had no hands with which to stab and swat them away. I’m going to have to shift, too, but it’s too well lit here.

The Lincoln Memorial was a glowing beacon on the D.C. nightscape, and even in the middle of the night, people were known to roam the National Mall.

Do it, Tighe said. What in the hell’s going on, Hawke? Care to take a guess?

I think your clone’s behind this. He was made from a draden. I’m guessing he can communicate with them.

Tighe groaned inwardly. His own private army.

Your human’s on the run, Kougar said.

Tighe turned. Delaney was running, all right. Straight up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. She finally had a shot at freedom, and she was throwing it away to try to catch a murderer. Exactly what he was coming to expect from her, but the reality made his blood run cold.

He took off after her, a swarm of draden at his back, fear stabbing through his chest like a twelve-inch blade.

If that draden spawn of a clone of his was still up there, she’d be dead before he ever reached her.

Chapter Eight

“Delaney, wait!” Tighe’s voice echoed up from the base of the stairs.

Trust him, the angel wings whispered in her head.

Why she listened to either of them, she didn’t know, but she was too rattled to fight the instinct to stop. Three-quarters of the way up the steps, Delaney doubled over to catch her breath as Tighe climbed to join her.

As he drew near, she saw he was a bloody mess again. Ghostly fingers crawled over her scalp as, deep in her head, the clanging bells of disbelief rang and rang and rang.

“Don’t ever go after him alone, brown eyes. He’s too dangerous, in case you didn’t learn that the first time.”

“You seemed a little…preoccupied.” But, jeez, she wasn’t even armed. Either the whole situation had her badly shaken, or she really was losing her mind.

Tighe took her hand and kept climbing, all the while stabbing the air with the knife in his free hand. That didn’t bother her nearly as much as the blood that was beginning to trickle down his cheek and neck from wounds that shouldn’t be there.

Don’t look. Just don’t look.

Sweat was rolling down her temples, her breathing labored by the time she reached the top step of the memorial. As her gaze scanned the area, out of habit her hand went for her gun and closed around nothing. Blast it.

Something caught her eye. A bare foot, facedown, poking out from behind one of the mammoth marble columns that framed the memorial.

“There,” she told Tighe.

Together they ran, Delaney taking the path outside the pillars, Tighe running inside. They converged on another murder scene. She closed her eyes against the sight, then opened them again to study the bodies of a young couple, each partially undressed as if caught in the act of sex, now lying side by side, identical ovals of teeth marks on their necks.

Not far from them lay a female police officer. Had she heard the screams and come to investigate, only to meet with the same fate? It seemed probable. A wedding ring gleamed on her finger in the bright light of the memorial. She was married. Probably with kids, who would never see their mother again. Dammit.