She hadn’t been able to see the syringe. The illusion keeping her firmly in the spell of my new conjuring. I hadn’t been able to see the injection either, but I could feel it in my unsensored hands. I uncapped the needle and punctured her arm, plunging the sedative into her veins.
In the fantasy, my claw was what pierced her.
Her shock at my causing her yet more pain made my stomach seize. Her rapid unconsciousness did its best to cleave me out of Tritec’s icy control.
I’d taken a gamble.
I’d used a sedative that I’d thought would be used for my failing heart and shielded hers instead. Sleep was the only gift I could give her.
It has to work…please.
She turned into a ragdoll.
No longer haunted by elixir. No longer at my brother’s mercy or mine.
She’s free.
It was the only solution I could think of to protect her.
Take her mind out of the fantasy and that solved one deadly consequence. Put her to sleep, and elixir could no longer play havoc with her heart.
But my theory hadn’t been tested…
Yet again, I’d put her in grave danger just like I had since we’d first met.
I’m so sorry, Eleanor…for everything.
Cradling her gently, I placed her on the forest floor. Her gorgeous hair swept over her face as she sprawled at my feet. Her lips parted, her features utterly serene, her eyelashes thick stencils on her cheeks.
Was her mind free?
Was her heart calm?
Had I saved her or killed her?
I wanted to stand vigil. I needed to ensure I’d done the right thing by knocking her out. But I didn’t have the luxury to stand guard.
I’d entered this hallucination for two reasons.
One, to save Eleanor from being raped by my sibling.
And two…to kill that sibling motherfucking dead.
Sweeping her hair away from her face with savage gleaming claws, I stood. The bat wings spread from my spine, heavy and pulling on muscles already fatigued. The sensation of being ten feet tall and controlling a frankensteined creation of reptile, carnivore, and chimera made my body throb within its new skin.
My eyes remained on Eleanor, flinching as she suddenly disappeared.
Her mental awareness of the fantasy completely shut off in sleep, extracting her from all the lies I’d coded. She was gone simply because her mind was no longer reachable.
I stared at the empty dirt, missing her. I would give fucking anything to be beside her in the lounge of my parents’ estate. To collect her from the floor and carry her to a soft bed. To lie down beside her and keep her safe.
But…for now, I was locked in this mirage until it ended.
Time to play.
Balling my fists, feeling the sharpness of my talons embedding into my palms, I cricked my neck and turned away from Eleanor and love, and focused on my brother and hate.
He stood on the opposite side of the fire, his face illuminated by flickering flames, darkness thick behind him, a ring of wolves penning him in a trap made of teeth.
So that was why he hadn’t approached me. Why he hadn’t been a nuisance after I’d thrown him off Eleanor.
He can’t move.
My lips spread over fangs as sharp as scalpels. “Seems I have allies holding you at bay.”
Drake straightened, his hastily tied pants hanging low on his hips, his avatar of a burly redheaded lumberjack not fooling me. Drake had always been sick in his proclivities of hurting those more vulnerable than himself, but when the tables were turned on him…his fear stunk in an instant.
His armpits released an aroma reeking of sour stress. His muslin shirt soaked with sweat, and moisture glistened in the dip of his throat. “Who the fuck are you?”
I laughed, awed at the hastily created creature I’d typed. The creature I now lived within. When I’d altered the text and coding, I’d thrown everything into the mix. Every predator, pain, and poison I could think of. I’d followed no boundaries or common-sense.
I’d embraced the nonsensical and whatever beast I’d conjured now chuckled with dread and death, its chest purring with feral blood thirst. “Don’t pretend you don’t know me, brother. You and I are well acquainted.”
Drake blanched, the redheaded complexion flushing grey. “Sullivan…?”
“Unless we have another relation I am unaware of.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“Assumptions will get you killed.” I cocked my head, complete with gilded horns. “And I’ll happily deliver.”
He gulped. “What the fuck did you do?” His pompous arrogance returned, dragged around him like tatty armour. “Sick of being the fool so fashioned a monster?” He sneered. “It’s just fake. Just like this whole piece of shit fantasy is fake. Do you honestly think you can scare me? That I’d cower before you?” He stepped toward me, earning the terrifying snarls of timber wolves. He stopped but continued sneering, “You’re just the same old cocksucker as before. A laughing stock. A nerd who somehow convinced himself he’s powerful. Newsflash, you cunt, you’re not powerful. You and your computer games can take a flying leap, Sullivan, because unlike you, I don’t wet my fucking pants over something that can’t hurt me—”