The Wolf Within (Purgatory 1)

Purgatory.

It was what she’d feared. But where else could Pate take Duncan? With the containment facility in Seattle shutting down, they’d have to take him somewhere else.

Purgatory was the perfect prison.

She straightened her shoulders and knew what she’d have to do. “You’ll take me to him.”

Brent shook his head. “Our orders are to keep you here, to keep you safe, until—”

“Until Pate comes to fetch me?” Like she was some kind of dog? Now Holly shook her head. “That’s not happening.” Because she wasn’t going to sit back and let Duncan be punished for crimes he hadn’t committed. “You’ll take me to him,” she said again as she pulled in a steadying breath.

She had to stop thinking and acting like she was human. She was more. Time to be more.

Brent was the weak link. He’d stared at her with pity in his eyes a few times. She’d use that pity. Because of his weakness, she knew he’d be the one to hesitate on actually firing his weapon at her.

So she went for Henry first. Holly leapt toward him and slammed his head into the nearest wall. He went down with a groan.

Brent swore and lunged toward her. Still not firing, just as she’d suspected. She grabbed him. Yanked his weapon away from him. “Sorry,” she said, right before she sank her teeth into his throat.

He tasted good, but not as good as Duncan. No one was as good as Duncan. She only took a few drops of his blood, just enough to control him.

Then she eased back so that she could stare up at him. “You’ll take me to Duncan.” She pushed her compulsion in the words.

With slightly unfocused eyes, Brent nodded.

***

“Sunlight is supposed to make vampires weaker, but it won’t have any impact on you.”

The quiet voice penetrated through the darkness that seemed to surround Duncan.

“Silver won’t burn you. No matter how pure, you’ll be immune to it.”

That voice was familiar. Pate.

“From what I can tell, you don’t have any weaknesses. Lucky bastard.”

Lucky? A surge of rage pushed through him, and Duncan’s eyes flew open.

He discovered that silver bars separated him from Pate.

Pate stared at him, with his arms crossed over his chest. “You’ll need blood to survive, but you aren’t supposed to eat the other inmates. That’s frowned upon here.”

The other inmates?

Duncan shook his head, then stopped, remembering…Holly’s screams. Pain. Blood.

Fangs were in his mouth and claws erupted from his fingertips. “What did you do?”

“Not me. You can thank my sister for what you are now.”

“Where is she?”

“Don’t you want to know where you are?” Pate asked him instead.

Duncan could only glare at him.

“This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be,” Pate said, and damn if those words didn’t sound like a broken record from the guy. “I wanted to make you strong enough, but not this way.”

He wanted to rip the man apart.

Pate glanced over his shoulder, then back at Duncan. “I knew that there was a certain…power within the FBI that wasn’t thrilled with the development of the Para Units. This power sent plants in to destroy us from the inside. To make it look like the monsters were taking over.”

Duncan wanted to lunge forward, but he didn’t move.

“Elias was a plant. I didn’t know it was him at first. Hell, I thought you were the one that had been sent in, but then you got bitten, and Elias shot a bullet into my chest.”

“And you shot one into my head.”

Pate frowned at him. “You were pretty f**king bullet proof by then, so don’t bitch and moan. We had to make the scene look real.”

What?

“Others were watching, so even if I had to rip out my sister’s heart in order to do it, I still had to put on the show.”

No one rips out her heart.

“Elias set us all up. He followed his orders from above like a good little soldier. Those claw marks on the agents? Elias used one of the prisoners—he was working with the ass**le. He got the werewolf to carve up the others for him, and that fool wolf probably thought he’d get his freedom in return.” Pate’s mouth tightened. “Instead, he got roasted by silver.”

“How do you know—”

“We found the blood under the werewolf’s claws. Elias put the guy back in his cell, all nice and tidy, but sometimes, there’s blood you just can’t get rid of.” Pate fired another fast glance over his shoulder.

“If you know this…” Duncan’s back teeth ground together. “If you know I’m clear of everything that happened, why the hell am I in this cell?”

“Because it’s not over.” Flat. “We have to find out who is trying to jeopardize the program. In order to do that, we needed an agent who was strong enough to survive anything that came his way.” Pate’s stare drifted over him. “You’re the strongest thing I’ve seen. Even Shane can’t compete against you.”

“Shane’s dead.”

“Is he?” Pate murmured. “I’m sure that’s what the villagers all thought a few centuries back, too.”

What?

“An escape is going down. A damn big one. The monsters are going to be let loose, and when that happens, everyone will know what’s happening here. There will be no more denials. No more secrets. Just out of control werewolves and vampires that want to feed and drain their prey dry.” He sucked in a deep breath. “They’ve been starving the vamps, did you know that? They were supposed to be contained here, but not tortured because we can be f**king humane, or at least, we should be.”

Duncan didn’t speak.

“But someone wants it all to fall apart. Someone wants the Para Units to look like failures, and that same someone—that power that is in the FBI—wants the monsters loose so the humans can see them all at their worst.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m thinking he—or she—wants a war. An all-out battle. An annihilation. When humans find out about the monsters, how do you think they’ll react? Will they stop to see who is good, who’s bad?” Pate shook his head. “No, they’ll see fangs. They’ll see claws. And they’ll attack. The paranormals can’t compete with the humans, not in numbers, and they’ll all die.”

But it would be bloody. A massacre of both humans and paranormals.