Dire Desires: A Novel of the Eternal Wolf Clan (5 page)

“Don’t bullshit me, Vice. I’m not the only one keeping secrets around this place,” Rogue said, stared at him for a long moment and Vice fought the urge not to meet his gaze because suddenly it was like Rogue had these mind-bending—or at least reading—abilities and he didn’t want anyone in his noggin. Especially not now.

G
illian dragged herself up through the water into the light, drew a deep gasping breath and sat up, hearing the familiar rip of the restraints as she did so. Lights danced in front of her eyes and she blinked to clear them, shook her head as the now familiar rustling clogged her ears.

When everything finally settled, she took in the cinder-block walls, the soft lighting, the nonantiseptic smell.

She remembered Jinx, but she knew instinctively he was no longer here.

It was only then she realized she was surrounded by giant males. She stilled, letting her eyes wander over all of them, one by one. Warriors, yes, but none of them were
her
warrior, and she felt the nag of disappointment under the urge to fight.

She would play possum, the way she always had at the hospital. If they thought she was weak, they would let their guard down, and that’s when she would escape. Here, she would have to strike, to fight.

She had no idea where these urges came from, but she did know she would fight them all.

“She ripped those restraints like they were paper,” she heard one of them murmur in a language she shouldn’t have understood. She glanced down at the metal cuffs that were attached to the table.

“She understands,” another one said.

“Gillian, I’m Gwen. We’re Jinx’s family, and you’re safe here.” The tall blond woman didn’t seem particularly afraid of her, smiled kindly.

“You’re a doctor?” she asked and the blonde didn’t seem to know what to say to that.

“She is,” the tall, dark male said in a gruff voice.

“Really. The IV is just to get the drugs out of your system.”

It took Gillian several tense moments to believe her. She ripped the needle out of her arm, even as Gwen explained about drug withdrawal and the like.

“That’s never happened,” she assured the tall, cool blonde. “I need a weapon.”

“No, you don’t. These . . . men . . . they’re all part of Jinx’s family too. They just . . . wanted to meet you. But they’ll leave now,” Gwen said and they all did as she asked.

“You have power over them,” Gillian noted.

Gwen laughed a little. “Some, I guess.”

Gwen had pointed to the pile of clothing and Gillian didn’t argue, slipped into the comfortable T-shirt and leggings reluctantly. As always, the clothing chafed her skin.

She thought about the big man they called Rifter, the one who told Gwen to keep her in the basement. The cinder blocks and lack of windows blocked the moon but she could sense it, and walked around the room as if she could somehow find a way outside.

She always found a way.

“I think I like this place,” Gillian murmured in spite of her need to escape, the contrast maddeningly odd, more to herself than to Gwen as she moved around.

“It’s nice here,” Gwen agreed. “You’re safe—I meant that. No one’s going to drug you.”

“But I can’t go outside.”

“For now, it’s better for you to stay here. I promise you’ll understand why soon enough.”

“Where’s the warrior?”

“Do you mean . . . Jinx?”

“Yes.”

“He had to go to work. I could ask him to come back.”

Gillian didn’t answer that, instead asked, “Does anyone else know I’m here?”

“No one from the hospital.”

“My parents?”

“We don’t know who they are.”

“At this point, neither do I,” she murmured. Maybe she’d never really known them. There were always others taking care of her because they traveled a lot. Thinking back, there were always a lot of doctors and tests and she wondered if they’d always known she would need to go into some kind of hospital, if they were testing her early so they’d know.

But know what? That she liked to run naked through the woods? Other than that, she seemed to be able to function normally in society. She was polite, didn’t eat with her hands, was well read. She’d finished all her schooling, graduating early. And she would’ve moved on to college if she hadn’t been forced into the hospital.

How much had Jinx told them about her past? How much did he actually know? They’d barely had time to talk before she’d been sedated.

Rescued. Safe,
the rustling told her. It never steered her wrong.

Her back ached. It had been hurting, as if she’d bruised it, for the past several weeks. She lifted the shirt and turned to look over her shoulder in the mirror at her naked skin, noted that Gwen was watching her too.

“I must’ve bumped it the last time I”—she was about to say
escaped
—“exercised.”

Gwen moved closer and her tone was a little off when she said, “It looks like it’s going to be just fine.”

“You’re the doctor.” She tugged at the neck of the T-shirt. The clothing was soft, but it still chafed. And Gwen hadn’t seemed bothered by her nudity, but still, she knew walking around the house with all the men wasn’t appropriate.

“Are you hungry?”

“Actually, starving,” she said. Gwen went out the door and pulled in a table on wheels with a big tray of covered food dishes.

“That smells great.”

“Here—sit and get started. I’ll be right back, okay?”

Gillian couldn’t think of anything but food at that moment. At first, it was only that way after they’d sedated her and lately it was that way all the time. There was never enough food, except on the days she ran. Then, it was like her body shut down to everything but the air and the moon.

It was all delicious—lots of stew meat and potatoes and bread. She sat and ate for what seemed like hours. Finally, when her stomach stopped complaining, she looked around and noted that there didn’t appear to be any cameras in this room, although they could be well hidden. She took a few more bites and couldn’t shake the fact that she was alone.

They trusted her, just like they made the mistake of doing time and time again at the hospital. Gillian always took full advantage of their mistake and she’d do it here.

Really, she had to. The moon, the air, Jinx—all called to her as surely as they felt her pain of being held captive.

Her bare feet padded across the cold floor, but her blood ran hot. Her fingers nestled in the seams of the cinder-block wall, looking for any kind of weakness, a secret passage.

Nothing.

She went into the small bathroom and looked up at the vent. It was small, but it had to lead outside. She lifted the cover and smelled earth. But she’d never liked enclosed places, so she was torn.

Jinx had left her. She’d ask him why when she saw him again.

She went to the door and found it opened easily. She went to the next door and found herself inside a maze of cars and motorcycles. There was a big window about seven feet up and she climbed onto the roof of a truck and pushed it open and looked down.

You can do this.

She balanced in her bare feet on the window’s ledge. Hesitated and then jumped as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Landed solidly on her two feet and broke into a dead run toward the woods, her smile wide. The wind tore through her hair, the T-shirt billowed out around her and she heard her own laughter echo in her ears.

She was free—and this was no dream.

•   •   •

“Your brother
looks good for being a prisoner of hell. The biker look works for him,” Jez said, trying to keep conversation going as Jinx brooded in the passenger’s seat. “A bold choice of tattoos, though. The women are going to love them, I’m betting.”

“Do you ever shut up?” Jinx growled.

“Finally. I was beginning to think I’d lost you in your broody bad-boy mood for the night, and we have work to do. Are you ever going to ask what I found back at the psych facility?” Jez asked. “I realize you were busy being all growly over your mate—”

Jinx wanted to say
she’s not my mate
but the words wouldn’t come out, dammit. Instead, he managed, “I talked to a ghost who mentioned a monster.”

“Most of the patients saw it,” Jez confirmed. “Several nurses mentioned that over the past four days, they used a lot more drugs than normal to keep everyone calm. One of them said that, and I quote, ‘It was like all the freaks freaked out at once.’”

“Nice nurse,” Jinx muttered.

“All the patients I spoke to—”

“You spoke to patients?”

“They won’t remember me, wolf,” Jez told him with a sigh. “You sure you want to talk about monsters rather than the fact that your brother woke up and you just found your mate?”

“You are not my therapist, deadhead. And we’re not supposed to have mates.”

“Did the Elders tell you that?”

“Centuries.” Jinx slammed his hands along the dash. “We had no one forever. And now we’re allowed to fall like dominoes?”

“I didn’t say the PTB made sense. Ever.” Jez took a corner on two wheels. Jinx hadn’t realized how fast they’d been going.

The vamp was possibly more on edge than Jinx. “What’s wrong, Billy Idol?”

“Fuck you, wolf.” Jez yanked the car to the side of the road. “I realize you’re all wrapped up in you. But I’m involved in this shit too.”

“Is this about your brothers?”

“I don’t like psych wards,” Jez muttered.

“Why didn’t you say that hours ago?”

“I didn’t think I’d have that kind of reaction.”

Jez didn’t elaborate and Jinx figured he’d share when ready. At the moment, they were facing something bigger, because they were back outside the original scene of the crime, as it were. Beyond these iron gates that stood shakily was once the opening to purgatory.

It was shut now, but would it always be there? Could Jinx be tricked into opening it a second time? Was he somehow purgatory’s bitch?

“You think the monsters would come back here?” he asked to distract himself. “I think they’d stay far away.”

“Got to cross it off the list,” Jez said firmly, his stiff-upper-lip composure back. The long leather coat whipped around his thighs as Jinx followed him reluctantly.

The ghosts clung to him. They were all still freaked about the recent events and too damned needy for his state of mind.

Needy ghosts were the fucking worst.

“Are you going to talk to them?”

“I’m not their therapist.” But even as he spoke, they dissipated like smoke in the wind. He felt naked being ghostless. “I think I was wrong about the monsters not coming back here.”

Jez circled around slowly, his fangs elongated.

“What exactly do these monsters do in purgatory?” he asked quietly.

“All they do is fight each other. Over and over.”

“I’m guessing they learned a lot about stalking their prey,” Jinx said. “And I’ve never felt more like it in my life.”

“I think we should go.”

“Way too late. Good thing we can’t die.” But it was for sure going to hurt. “What did they look like?”

“That’s the odd thing—each person described them differently. It appears that the monsters morph into whatever your greatest fear is,” Jez told him. “They feed off humans and wolves alike. Vamps too, I’m guessing. Equal opportunity monsters.”

“You didn’t think to mention this before?”

“You didn’t ask.”

A low growl emanated from the trees. “Jez, what’s your big fear?”

“I don’t really like hellhounds much,” the deadhead admitted. As he spoke, a giant black beast with red eyes darted out of the woods, making a beeline for the vamp. Jez stood stock-still, muttering some kind of prayer—if vamps even prayed.

Jinx wanted to remind him that prayers didn’t work so well for them the last time, since that’s what opened purgatory in the first place, but he refrained, if only because his heart was in his throat.

“Jez, man, what the hell?”

There was no way to outrun this thing. Fighting would be their best option. And what a fight it would be.

The hellhound bounded on a straight course toward Jez, who pulled a silver knife and prepared to slice at whatever he could. Jinx called out and the hellhound skidded to a stop as the vamp and wolf stood close to one another.

“What the hell?” Jinx repeated softly.

“Good puppy,” Jez muttered and it advanced. Jinx took a step closer to it and it backed up.

Okay, this was definitely all kinds of weird.

“What’s your big fear, wolf?” Jez asked.

Oddly enough, Jinx appeared to have none, since he was looking downwind at a hellhound, and he didn’t much fear those necessarily, although it was a big motherfucker and Brother was straining at the bit, pushing for a shift.

“Not now, Brother,” he hissed.

The monster hellhound stared him down. Snorted. But it was confused.

And then it bowed.

“It thinks you’re its master.”

“I don’t want to be in charge of it,” Jinx hissed.

“I’m not minding it,” Jez said. “Now tell the nice hellhound that the vampire isn’t a chew toy.”

“Maybe. Or maybe I’ll take him home with us. We wouldn’t need a security system then.”

The hellhound moved toward Jez and Jinx stifled a laugh. “Back off the vamp. He’s with me.”

The giant hound backed up.

“Yeah, down boy,” Jez told it. “I bet if you followed him, he’d take you to the others.”

“I’m not ready for that—what am I going to do?”

“This is like that book,
Where the Wild Things Are
. You’re that five-year-old kid who wears the white suit with the horns. Kinky.”

“I am not five,” Jinx said coldly.

“You’ve created quite a wild rumpus,” Jez persisted.

“I could still make you puppy chow.”

“Point taken.” Jez cleared his throat. “You do realize you’re like their king now.”

“I’m definitely not the king of goddamned purgatory,” Jinx said, but the beast sent up a mournful bark that said otherwise.

“Cheer up. Things could be worse,” Jez noted.

“How so?”

“You could be the king of purgatory and be inside purgatory.”

“I hate it when you’re logical.”

Jez stilled then, murmured, “Hey Jinx, we’ve got company.”

But Jinx already felt her presence like the soft brush of a hand on the back of his neck, a warm caress of sun. He felt her before he saw her, like there was a silken tie that stretched between them but remained unbroken. He felt tangled up. Confused. And grateful as hell.