The Wolf Within (Purgatory 1)

Holly inhaled. There was more blood. So much more. Coming from all around them. Her fangs were out, fully extended, and her body was held on a razor’s edge of tension.

“Pate…” Her whisper. Duncan was heading after his brother, and she was worried about her own.

“The man knows how to take care of himself,” Shane said from behind her.

Pate was strong, resourceful, but he was still just a man. In a building full of howling werewolves and at least two vampires.

“We’ll find him,” Shane told her, “just follow your werewolf first, okay? I don’t think he can hold it together much longer.”

Duncan’s hold had tightened around her fingers. He was pretty much dragging her behind him. She rushed to keep up. As they headed through the darkness, the howls began to die away. One. A second. A third.

At first, those howls had chilled her, but for them to just stop…are the wolves dead?

Then Duncan was snarling and breaking away from her. He ran forward into the darkness. “Duncan!” She yelled after him and blindly raced straight ahead.

Metal shrieked. Bent.

Shane swore.

Then—then there was a faint glint of light. A hum broke the air and the generator finally switched on.

The backup lights were fainter as the power ran low, but Holly was so happy to be able to see again that she wasn’t about to complain. Her legs pumped faster as she ran.

The door to Containment Area Five had been busted down, courtesy of Duncan. He was inside that room now. She could hear his snarls and also hear—

“Stop!”

That voice—Elias?

She hurried into the room. Saw that Connor was still in his cell, but he was on the floor, lying facedown. He didn’t even seem to be breathing.

Duncan was on the other side of the area, and he had knocked Elias off his feet. As she stared in horror, Holly saw Duncan’s hands—his claws—go for Elias’s throat.

“Stop!” Elias yelled. “Dammit, Duncan, it’s me! Don’t!”

But those claws were inches away from the agent’s throat. Holly leapt across the room and tried to wrench him away from Elias. “Don’t attack him!”

Too late. His claws slashed across Elias’s neck even as Holly and Shane yanked Duncan back.

The scent of the blood flooded through Holly’s nostrils.

“Kill…” Duncan growled and he fought against her and Shane. Duncan slung Shane across the room, and the vampire rammed into the side of Connor’s cell.

Then Duncan’s hands wrapped around Holly’s shoulders. Her eyes widened as she stared up at him. His gaze glowed so brightly that the sight of it stole her breath.

“Duncan?” Holly whispered. “That’s Elias you’re attacking. He’s on our side.” Elias wasn’t armed. Didn’t have any weapon at all that she could see.

He wasn’t trying to fight back. He just huddled on the floor, with his hand over his throat. His eyes were on Duncan, and, there was no mistaking the horror in his gaze.

“Kill…” Duncan snarled again, and he tried to toss her aside.

She wasn’t in the mood to be tossed. So she stared right back into his too-bright eyes. Stared as hard as she could and said, “Stop.” She was using her vampire control, the power that she’d never wanted to exert over him, but she couldn’t let him kill another agent. This wasn’t Duncan.

This was the beast.

The glow of his eyes burned even brighter as he stiffened. But he didn’t move. Didn’t try to rush toward Elias.

“Wh-what’s happening?” Elias demanded.

The claws hadn’t sliced him too deeply or he wouldn’t be speaking then. Good. They were lucky. If she and Shane hadn’t both been pulling Duncan back, he could have slashed the agent’s throat wide open.

“Someone took over the controls on the collars.” Someone got into our computer system. Disabled the power, generator, and monitors. And that someone tried to kill the wolves.

Duncan’s hands were still wrapped around her wrists. She could feel the edge of his claws. “Is your control back?” Holly asked him carefully.

He just stared at her. Glared at her.

“I’ll take that as a no.” Crap. An alarm started to sound then, a high-pitched wail. But the wolves didn’t start howling again.

Connor wasn’t moving at all, but above the scent of Elias’s blood, Holly could smell the acrid odor of…burned flesh.

“Stay here,” Holly whispered to Duncan, pushing with her compulsion, then she eased away from him. Shane was at her side instantly, shadowing her.

She pointed toward Elias. “Can you help him?” Without taking a bite?

His lips tightened. “Newborn,” he whispered for her ears alone, “I know how to stay in control.”

She hoped so.

Holly made short work of opening Connor’s cell. She glanced over at Duncan. He watched her with his wild gaze, but he didn’t move.

Couldn’t move?

The power of compulsion was a dangerous thing. It would be so easy to misuse. She knew plenty of vampires had misused their power to torture and kill, that was why many of them were housed in Purgatory.

“Wh-why isn’t Duncan attacking?” Elias asked. Holly glanced over and saw him pushing to his feet.

“Because she’s not letting him,” Shane said without looking away from Duncan. Ah, he knew exactly where the threat was. Like her, he must wonder just how long that control would last over Duncan.

She crept into the cell.

“That’s a bad idea,” Shane called out. “Don’t get too close to the beast!”

“I’m a doctor.” Holly took another tentative step forward. “I can’t just let someone die in front of me.” She knew that with every passing second, the moon was rising higher in the sky. When the moon reached its zenith, that was when the wolf would be at his strongest.

Connor didn’t move as she eased toward him. The silver had definitely burned him. She could see the faint tendrils of smoke still rising from the collar. Unlike Duncan, Connor hadn’t been strong enough to break the collar.

“Who did this?” Holly whispered. Then, louder, “Shane, you need to check the other wolves!”

“Th-that’s why I came in…” Elias said, voice breaking. “I heard his…howls…”

She could hear no sounds at all coming from Connor. He didn’t seem to be breathing. Holly’s fingers slipped toward the silver collar, toward his neck—