The Breed Casstiel's Vow (27 page)

~

“Memphis I need to go with you!” Nora screamed as he
forcefully pulled her down the hallways.

Silently Tessa shuffled along next to them dragging her
feet. She could have been a prison inmate walking to the electric chair, with
her head hung low and tears silently pouring down her face.

“No you need to get your ass in this room and stay
there,” he argued back as he strained to heave her up the stairs while she
kicked and struggled.

“You don’t understand! He’s not here to hurt us!” she
screamed.

Nora tugged, bit and struggled all the way to her
doorway to no
avail,
she couldn’t break out of his
iron hold.

Quietly Tessa opened the door and as she passed her,
Nora saw a shell of what used to be her best friend. Her face ghostly white,
her shoulders slumped as all the energy that had been in her body was used up
in crying, her eyes so swollen with tears they barely opened.

“You know why I can help you,” she pleaded as Tessa
disappeared somewhere inside.

“That’s exactly why you’re staying here, the bond makes
people weak, I’m not gonna let you throw yourself in front of a bullet,” he
replied, his eyes wide in fear.

“I can talk to him, he’ll listen to me, Cass and the
others are going into defense mode, they’re going to shoot him if he blinks too
quickly, and if he dies, you may as well kill Tessa along with him,” she rushed
to say as she fought back the tidal wave of her own emotions and tried to keep
her mind clear.

No matter what Casstiel said, if Quinn even twitched
with that gun in his hand Kain was going to light his ass up like Christmas.

“You’re really testing my patience,” he growled, but she
knew she had gotten to him.

“Just let me talk to him, I won’t go near him,” she
pleaded desperately, “you know I’m the only hope of this situation going down
without him getting killed.”

 “Fuck, alright let’s go,” he vaulted past her and
ran full speed down the hallway.

The weight of Quinn's life was literally on her
shoulders, she had to save him. Every fiber of her being screamed out for him.

           
“Cass what are we doing here?” Kain demanded from his post on the roof of the
medical building.

“Just hold steady, we need to avoid killing him if we
can,” he growled into his headset, as he watched Quinn struggling to free his
arm, which had gotten stuck in the barbed wire around the top of the building,
“Ghost did you rally the medical team?”

“They’re ready, Remy has also volunteered,” he replied,
not taking his eyes off of the screen monitoring the intruder.

“Look Cass, I know this is your girls’ brother, but he’s
not exactly waving the peace flag,” Kain argued back, ready to take down the
threat immediately.

He was right, if it wasn’t Tessa’s brother out there
they would have shot him down before he even reached the top of the gate, but
it
was
her brother and he knew it would destroy her.

A crippling pain hit his heart, causing it to spasm and
beat erratically for a moment, and he knew she was sobbing. Her heart was
breaking for the loss she felt certain she was going to have to endure.

“Have you seen how loaded down this guy is?” Jax asked
half astonished, breaking into his thoughts, “he’s got enough guns on him to
bring down a small army.”

“Yes I fucking see them, I have eyes,” he snapped, his
blood pressure rising as the pain gripping his heart worsened, “just do what I
tell you to do.”

“Where is Memphis?” Sebastian demanded.

 Seconds later they heard heavy footsteps thudding
down the hall.

“Look, he’s not coming in as a friendly, but I need him
alive if we can,” Cass shouted as Memphis thundered towards them, “You’re gonna
have to go out there, it’s still daylight or I would do it.”

“Nora’s coming, she’s going to go out and talk him
down,” he replied quickly, his long
dreds
bouncing as
he slowed to a stop, “they bonded in the subway, that’s what she’s been keeping
from us … she’s our only shot.”

His patience was slipping, not only was he endangering
the lives of his men, but now he was endangering the life of an innocent girl.

“We can’t-”

“I don’t want this either,” Memphis growled, “but we
don’t have time to think of another plan. It’s either send her out there to
convince him to come in peacefully, or kill him now and deal with what that’s
going to do to our girls.”

He clutched at his heart as another twisting pain ripped
through him. The echo of her agony was enough to have him forsake his usual
protocol.

Shame and anger bit at him, but he nodded his head in
agreement.

 “Quinn Roberts,” he spoke into the intercom system
so that his voice was magnified ten times its usual volume, “drop your weapons
and surrender or we will be forced to shoot.”

~

As Nora raced after Memphis a sickening feeling crept
over her and she knew Quinn was in serious trouble.

He was hurt badly, bleeding out and close to death.

A scream of frustration escaped her lips as she pushed
her muscles harder than she had ever pushed them before.

She didn’t know him, had only met him once, but her
heart was ripping out of her chest for him. She couldn’t lose him; the thought
terrified her as much as the thought of losing Memphis or Tessa.

 “You can’t shoot him!” she screamed, her feet
frantically smacking the pavement.

“I don’t want to shoot him, but if he won’t lower his
weapons I’ll have to,” Cass growled back as he watched the camera monitors.

There was no reaction. Quinn didn’t lower his weapons,
didn’t slow down,
didn’t
even seem to hear that he was
being talked to.

“Cass he’s not stopping man,” Jax’ voice came in over
the headset.

“Don’t shoot him, let me talk to him, he’s hurt badly…
Cass he’s dying, we need to get him inside quickly,” panic made her feel
hysterical.

“Get out there and stop him then,” he shouted at her,
clearly coming to the end of his patience, “Kain, fire a warning shot.”

Closing her eyes Nora put on a burst of speed and rushed
the door. She knew Cass had just made things worse with his warning shot, but
it was too late to stop it; Quinn was so wounded, she knew in her heart he was
going to react wildly to any threat of attack.

She rushed outside as the sound of a bullet cracked
through the air; her heart stopped as the dirt six inches in front of his foot
exploded from the impact.

Confused and disoriented he looked around, seeming like
a wounded animal that had been backed into a corner.

Which was exactly how he reacted.

He let out a roar so loud and deep it would have
shattered his lungs were he still a human.

Quickly he began to change into his werewolf form.

As the clothes ripped from his body with the force of
the change, all his wounds became evident. He had at least a dozen bullet holes
splattered around his body, his left arm hung limply, and the way he stood
gingerly on his foot suggested that some part of his leg was broken as well,
underneath all the Kevlar he had been wearing blood covered almost every inch
of his skin.

What he changed into was like no werewolf Nora had ever
seen before.

He grew to at least seven feet tall, and the amount of
muscle that was bulging from his body now was astonishing. No one ever changed
that drastically, but he was now almost twice the size of his human form.

The change that over took him was both awe inspiring and
terrifying.

“Nora get the fuck out of here, we have to take him
down!” Memphis suddenly grabbed her hand and tried pulling her back.

 “No!” she screamed and fought with all her heart
to break free. She couldn’t let it end this way, no matter what he turned into,
she couldn’t leave him to die out here.

“We’ll have the boys give him two leg shots, it’ll be
enough to take him down, and with how wounded he is he might pass out so we can
bring him inside,” he tried to bargain with her.

Quinn reared his head at them and roared, and Nora saw
that his eyes were no longer his own.

Instead of the deep green she had seen in the subways,
they were now bright glowing red, with black cat like slits, making him look
demonic.

She should be terrified and ready to run; but she
wasn’t. More now than ever she knew she had to
stay,
knew that he needed her.

“That thing,” Memphis pointed towards him, “that thing
is not normal, we don’t even know if he can control himself!”

“Please,” she begged, and for the first time in seventy
years a tear slid down her face that she didn’t brush away, “please let me help
him. I can’t… I can’t let him die.”

She didn’t care that Quinn looked beyond saving, or that
Memphis was scared for her life, she didn’t care about the repercussions, or
what might happen down the road, her soul felt like it was tearing into pieces
with the idea of his death.

Memphis’ grip loosened as his eyes looked over her
sadly.

She pulled his fingers off of her arm and backed away
from him and the pained expression on his face.

“Thank you,” she whispered, and turned to face her
destiny.

He was watching them suspiciously, trying to determine
her motives for moving closer to him.

His head cocked to the side as she approached him. He
didn’t growl, but he still stood defensively, ready to strike at any moment.
His teeth were long, razor sharp, and jutting out of his gums. His arms were
bound with heavy muscle and ended in two inch claws that would easily rip into
her body.

She refused to think about it. She had to do this; there
was no other way, no other option.

“Quinn… if you can hear me in there, its Nora…” she
stumbled over her words as she tried to figure out just what exactly to say,
“we… we met in the subway a few days ago, I’m the one who gave you the address
to come here.”

His lip lifted into a snarl and a quiet growl left his
lips.

He either didn’t remember her, or wasn’t as happy with
her as she had hoped.

“I need you to calm
down,
if
you relax and change back they’ll take you inside and heal your wounds. I know
you’re hurt badly, I know you came here for help, so please let us help you,”
she said, refusing to look away from his terrifying eyes. She wanted him to
know that she was genuine, and not afraid of him.

His looked on questioningly and studied her face. She
wasn’t sure he could recognize her anymore, but she had to push it, had to
force him to remember her.

“Do you remember me?” she dared to take another step
closer to him, “you kissed me in the subway.”

The snarl left his features as he continued to study her
face, but he still didn’t relax his posture, still didn’t try to change out of
his wolf form.

There was no way she could know if she was actually
getting through to him, no way to know if his mind was still intact, but she
would keep going with every breath in her lungs.

“You kissed me so softly, so gently, it was like a
whisper on my lips. I want you to be able to do it again Quinn, I want to be
able to kiss you again, but to do that you have to calm down, you have to relax
and change back,” she whispered as she took another step closer to him, her eyes
pleading with him to listen to her.

She was now too close to save herself if he attacked,
but she didn’t care. In her heart she knew he wasn’t going to hurt her; no
matter how monstrous he looked, somewhere in there was the man she had bonded
with.

“Please,” she stretched out her hand to him, “please
come with me,
let
me help you. Let me be with you.”

As another tear freely slid down her face, she waited
for him to decide life or death.

Slowly he extended his long, gnarled hand towards hers,
the thick dark brown hair gleaming in the sunlight as recognition finally
seeped in.

Before their hands connected however, his eyes rolled
back and his body collapsed.

~

Cass watched on as a vice clamped around his heart. Was
this how powerful the bond was? Even two people who had met for mere minutes
could have a connection so strong she would risk her life for his.

After seeing him transform there was no doubt in his
mind that Quinn had been experimented on, things like that were not evolution.
The only question left now was, had it been by choice?

What could they have done to him to make his eyes so
frightening?

 “The only genetic defects I’ve ever seen were hair
and eyes being black or white,” Ghost muttered, shocked.

On the edge of the camera they could see Memphis beside
himself with fear, nerves, and anger. The last thing in the world he would ever
want to do was let Nora go after Quinn, but for the greater good he knew it had
to be done.

Finally the beast seemed to be calming down, his face
and features relaxing. Cass couldn’t hear them, but whatever she was saying
seemed to be working on him.

Just as it seemed the beast would relax and come with
her willingly, he collapsed, his body going boneless.

Memphis rushed forward, first checking Nora, then
throwing Quinn’s lifeless body over his shoulder and sprinting towards the
medical building.

Everyone raced to meet them, without the slightest idea
as to what would await them there.

Tessa would have to wait to see him. It was bad enough
he had taken the risk of letting him into the embassy at all, he could not let
him go unchecked as well.

When they arrived Quinn had already been taken inside
and was being seen by Remy. Nora and Memphis sat in the plastic waiting room
chairs holding hands, neither of them speaking.

“Nora, you alright?”
Jax asked
gently as he took in the confused and helpless look on her face.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she stared straight ahead, her voice
sounding far off, “I just... did you see what they did to him? I just can’t … I
don’t…”

Her voice broke off and for a moment Cass thought she
was going to break down, but she recovered, locked it up tight.

“Can you do something for me?” he asked, knowing she
would want to get some air and clear her head, “I can’t leave here until I’ve questioned
him, can you tell Tessa he’s fine?”

Another sharp twist of grief and hopelessness tore
through him, making him close his eyes and shackle his reaction to it. Feeling
someone else’s emotions was a blessing and a curse.

“Tessa…” she replied slowly, her eyes swimming with
thoughts he couldn’t see, “of course I will, but you have to do something for
me, something important.”

“What is it?”

“Keep the bond between us,” she demanded, “no one tells
Tessa or Quinn about it.”