The Wolf Within (Purgatory 1)

Duncan moved to stand in front of Holly. “Then take your best shot, and while you’re doing that…” Duncan raised his claws and said, “I’ll take mine.”

This wasn’t happening.

“You’ve been playing some kind of game with us all, Pate,” Duncan said, the words snapping. “I thought we were supposed to be making the world a better place, but it seems like you were just using us all, even the monsters.”

The men behind Pate were looking nervous.

“What are you?” Duncan asked him as he inhaled. “Because I’ve noticed that you sure don’t smell human.”

Pate shook his head—then lunged across the room in a move so fast that he looked like a blur. Holly gasped because in less than a second’s time, Pate stood with one hand wrapped around Duncan’s throat and with his other hand holding a gun right against Duncan’s heart.

“You’re screwing things up for me,” Pate bit out. “Why the hell couldn’t you have stayed controlled?”

Duncan bared his fangs. “Fuck control.”

And she knew, she knew what Pate would do even before his fingers tightened on the gun.

“No!” Holly screamed.

The gun fired.

She shoved into Duncan, knocking him aside, but the move was too little, too late.

The bullet had driven into his chest. Blood was pumping everywhere, and a sharp, acidic odor rose from the gaping hole near Duncan’s heart.

She grabbed for Duncan, sinking to the floor beside him and lifting his head into her lap. Her own chest burned as if she’d taken the hit. She didn’t care that her sheet had fallen away, she only cared about him.

“Don’t,” she whispered. Begged. “Don’t leave me.”

But he was. His eyes were wide, shocked, staring up at her with the glow already fading from his gaze.

She wouldn’t let him go.

“Holly…” Pate’s voice was sharp. He wrapped his fingers around her arm.

She stared at him with hatred. “Get the hell away from me.” She didn’t know him anymore. Didn’t care to know him.

A muscle jerked in Pate’s jaw. “You’re making a mistake.” He glanced over his shoulders at the men who still stood there, armed and ready to fire. “Let me help you.”

The way he’d helped her before? When he’d made her become a vampire?

Become a vampire…

Her gaze flew back to Duncan. Could a werewolf even become a vampire? Was it possible?

“Holly…”

She used her teeth to rip open her wrist. Duncan had lost a ton of blood. Just like she had in that alley. She’d been given vampire blood when she was close to death. It had saved her.

I’ll save him.

Pate’s hand yanked at her shoulder. “Don’t make me hurt you,” he warned her.

“You already have.” Because it seemed like he’d shot her. Her heart was breaking as Duncan lay dying.

The blue of his eyes was so weak now. His breath rattled in his chest. And he was just staring at her.

“I can’t let you go,” she said, staring at Duncan and knowing this was wrong but not able to stop herself. She’d just found him. Losing him wasn’t fair. She didn’t want to be without him.

Duncan’s eyes closed.

“I’m sorry…” She put her wrist over his mouth even as she felt the press of a gun at her temple.

Pate.

“Don’t make me do this.” His words seemed torn from him. “Stop, Holly.”

She wasn’t stopping. If she had to, she’d trade her life for Duncan’s because she wasn’t just sitting there while he slipped away from the world. She needed him.

Loved him?

Dammit, she wanted a chance to find out.

“Pull your wrist away from him,” Pate told her, voice tight and hard. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

“I’m saving him.” And Pate wasn’t shooting because maybe, deep down, past whatever twisted mess he’d become when she wasn’t looking, he couldn’t kill his sister.

“No,” Pate was definite. “You’re not. You’re just making a walking nightmare.”

Duncan’s eyes opened. Her breath caught. She started to smile. He was coming back to her. Her blood had worked. He was—

His hands flew up and clenched around her wrist. His mouth hardened on her, and he started to suck and drink more. Harder. Harder.

“D-Duncan…”

His eyes stared up at her, and all she saw in that gaze was a ferocious hunger.

“We are so f**ked,” Pate muttered. Then the gun was moved to Duncan’s temple. “Let her go.”

Duncan kept drinking. Taking so much that Holly began to feel weak. His hold on her wrist was too tight.

“Let. Her. Go.” The gun dug into Duncan.

Duncan didn’t let go.

Holly shook her head. “Pate, give me time, I can—”

He fired.

Holly screamed as her world ended.

Ended.

Chapter Eleven

She had her own set of guards. Guards who watched her with careful eyes and made sure that they didn’t come too close to her.

They were probably scared that she’d bite them. Considering the way she felt, Holly realized that she just might.

“Where did Pate take Duncan?” Holly asked the question for what had to be the hundredth time.

But Brent just shook his dark head. “You know I can’t tell you that, ma’am.”

Right. Because he had his orders. Orders that had come from her brother, right after Pate had shot Duncan and dragged him out of her home.

Even as she’d screamed after them.

Pate had stopped at the broken door. Glanced back at her as his men had held their guns on her. “Trust me, Holly.”

How was she supposed to do that?

So her guards stayed. They kept their guns. While Pate had gone who the hell knew where with Duncan.

But he was alive. She knew that. He’d already become a vampire before Pate had taken that second shot. She’d been afraid that the transformation hadn’t completed, but then she’d noticed that his wounds had been trying to heal.

She glanced down at her wrist. It had healed, too. Duncan had bit her, drank her blood, just like a vampire.

How did he feel now? Did he hate what she’d done to him? Being a werewolf had been bad for him, and now, well, she had no idea how he’d react to being a vampire.

“Did he go to Purgatory?” Holly asked.

Brent’s eyelashes flickered, and the other guy, Henry Wells, glanced away from them.