Blood Lands (Savage Lands #5)(51)

“Go!” Istvan ordered Warwick, pressing the gun into my head harder. “Don’t think for a moment I won’t do it.” Everything in Istvan screamed he would indeed kill me if it came down to it.

Warwick’s shoulders rose and fell, his expression a deadly mask portraying the underlying threat—someday he would gut him like a pig if he had the chance. But he took in another breath and turned for the table Dr. Karl had moved to Caden’s tank.

The doctor was locked in on doing his duties as sweat dripped off him, his nerves bouncing off the walls, probably feeling it was his life on the line too.

Warwick’s eyes met mine while getting up on the table. I wanted to scream, to cry, to destroy this whole room, to stop this from happening, but my mouth wouldn’t even open. He was only here because of me. Volunteering himself to Istvan to be by my side. Subjecting himself to torture and going to the hole... for me.

He laid down, his muscles flexing, his jaw rolling when the guards cuffed him down again. This went against his nature. His very being. He didn’t submit. He didn’t lie down. The Wolf wanted to fight. To kill. To rip everyone apart. His darkness wanted to take... to feel blood under his nails.

But I was the one who kept him from falling in.

Staying in the gray.

“Sir, once again, let me say we have never tried it this way. Taking fae essence straight from the donor into the patient directly. I don’t know what the outcome will be.”

“Wouldn’t it be better if the essence came straight from the source instead of a machine?” Istvan moved us closer.

“Possibly...”

“So, shut up and do it.”

Dr. Karl nodded, licking his lip, his Adam’s apple bobbing. He stuck monitors to Warrick’s temples and inserted strange-looking IV pumps into his body and up his nose. I recalled seeing them on all those fae victims they were sucking life from. That little girl forced to shift over and over.

This was how they took a fae’s essence. Anger flicked in my stomach, my chest clenching, my hand slowly rolling into a ball.

Dr. Karl rechecked everything, then turned to Istvan with a nod.

Istvan peered up at his son, my gaze following. Caden floated in the thick substance, air going in and out of his mouthpiece. Unconscious, but his eyes fluttered under his lids like he was trying to wake up, as if he knew something was about to happen.

A shot of fear sizzled up my spine at the notion of anything happening to him. I couldn’t watch my best friend or the man I loved die right in front of me.

“Turn it on.” Istvan nodded his head at Karl.

Taking a deep breath, Karl’s hand hovered over the button.

In a blink, he flicked the machine on.





Chapter 14





Warwick’s body would have jackknifed off the table if he wasn’t strapped down. His teeth cracked together, keeping the grunt trapped inside his chest, though it still hummed over the sound of the machine.

It was only a moment before Caden’s body convulsed inside the tank. The horror of what I was seeing, what Istvan was willing to do to his own son, almost paralyzed me more than any sedative could.

This was a trial for Istvan. If this worked out for Caden, he would do it too. At least then he’d have the power of a legend until he could find the nectar.

He would take all of Warwick.

We were both dead.

Hiss, pump, hiss, pump.

Warwick jolted, spit flinging from his mouth, trying to lock down his reflex to pain. His nose flaring, each breath was a struggle as they ripped his soul from him.

From me.

Fury whipped through my lungs. The sensation of him being sliced from my own soul seared venom down into the pit in my stomach.

Forging. Building.

It burned through the drug clouding my mind like a war party, set to burn down everything it crossed.

A snarl was torn from Warwick, his head going back, knocking brutally against the hard surface he was on before a long bellow howled from him.

Suddenly, Caden’s eyes burst open, forcing Istvan to gasp. “It’s working, isn’t it?” he shouted at Dr. Karl. “It’s really working!”

I loved two men, but only for one I would obliterate the world.

I could feel the power inside me. The source that hid under the surface, simmering deep at the edges of my soul. My fear of it, of what the power could do, what a light Seelie queen and a dark Druid were capable of when mixed together.

The Grey.

All I understood was they were taking what was mine. Hurting him. Destroying the bind linking us. Bringing him back to life weaved our lives together forever. I gave him life on that field, a part of me. They were not going to take it away.

“Nooooo!” A current of wind gushed through the room similar to a squall, twisting and coiling my hair up into the air. Istvan let go, his head darting around, then landing on me, realizing it was me who was doing it. Fear danced in his eyes. Lightning cracked, the pop of electricity zapping across the room.

“Stop!” Istvan’s voice was lost as my rage kept climbing, a boiling pot of water hitting the rim and bubbling over.

The lights burst, spraying glass across the room, forcing everyone to duck, trying to cover from the shards, leaving us in mostly darkness.

I could feel the souls of the dead coming to me. Their energy zipped around the room, ready to do my bidding.