Charming the Beast (Purgatory #3)(16)
Author: Cynthia Eden

I wish the beast would be a man.

And just like that, the werewolf inside of David Vincent had died. Only his human part had survived her wish.

Later, Olivia had made another wish…when Chloe’s own father had attacked her, when Senator Donald Quick had been holding his daughter captive with a knife too near Chloe’s heart, Olivia had wished…

I wish you’d let her go.

Chloe’s father had immediately complied. Only, since it was a djinn’s wish—and those wishes could go so very wrong—he’d let Chloe go by killing her. He’d immediately plunged his knife into her heart.

Then, according to the stories Connor had heard, Olivia had wished for Chloe to live.

She had. She’d come back from the dead. He’d arrived in time to see her rising—breathing—and so he’d been there when, moments later, Chloe fired a silver bullet right into her father’s heart and killed him.

“My father’s experiments made me worse,” Chloe said now. “I never shifted fully and I…I felt like I was losing more of my humanity with each day that passed.”

“Like humanity matters.” David’s lips curled in disgust. “He gave you enhancements that you don’t even know about. Lucky bitch. You got the best one right at the end.”

Eric leaned in closer to the mirror. “Now things are finally getting interesting.”

Chloe stood. Connor saw her body tremble a bit. “What enhancements?”

David laughed. “Noticed anything…different…about yourself lately?”

“Other than the fact that I’m not rotting in a grave some place, you mean?”

His laughter faded. “I was supposed to get you.”

Connor spun for the door. “I’m going in there. Now.”

“No!” Eric grabbed his arm. “Just wait, okay? She’s safe. David Vincent can’t hurt her. And this is the first time the guy has actually started talking. Hell, even when we used vamps, they couldn’t break through to him. Probably some kind of damn alpha shit stopping them or maybe some enhancement crap that the senator worked. Either way, no compulsions have worked on the guy.”

Connor didn’t want to wait. He wanted to get Chloe out of there, right then.

But he looked back through that observation window.

“You don’t…get…me,” Chloe said haltingly. “I don’t care what my father promised you.” Her laughter was bitter. “And in case you didn’t notice, he wasn’t exactly the most trustworthy guy, despite what he said in his political commercials. He was probably planning to turn on you as soon as he got what he wanted.”

Fury darkened David’s face.

Chloe glared right back at him. “What are you going to do?” Chloe suddenly demanded, with her fists clenched. “We’re both locked up here! You can’t hurt me! You can’t—”

“You don’t have to worry about me. Your scent doesn’t work on me, not anymore. It’s the others you need to be thinking about…”

Chloe lunged toward the bars. She reached out—as if she’d touch them—but she yanked her hands back before they could make contact. “You know why they like my scent, don’t you?”

“Oh, sweet thing, they like it because your father made them like it. He wanted you to be safe from the big, bad wolves out there. So every time you get afraid, that scent of yours is supposed to call on the beasts. You see, he thought they’d want to protect you. That the scent would mark you as one of us…so the pack would be there to keep harm from ever coming your way.”

Chloe shook her head. “He…wanted to protect me?”

“Remembering that last injection he gave you now, aren’t you? That’s where the new scent comes from. But things didn’t work out the way he planned, did they? Now when you get scared, you smell like prey. Sweet, delicious prey…and that scent of yours drives wolves into a frenzy. They don’t want to protect you. They want to take you. To take and take and take until nothing is left.”

Chloe clamped her hands over her ears, as if she could block out his words.

“Take and take!” David shouted at her. “That’s what they’ll do! I bet that new scent of yours really kicked in once you died. Because I’m sure nothing has ever scared you more than that. And that scent won’t stop, not now that it’s activated. The wolves will catch that scent. They’ll follow it. They’ll find you. They’ll break you and nothing will be left—nothing—”

Yeah, screw going through the proper channels to get into containment. Connor’s beast was clawing at his insides, fighting and demanding that he attack. So he just leapt right for that observation window. Eric’s yell followed him as Connor shot through the glass. It broke, shattered, and rained down as he landed on the floor.

Chloe whirled toward him. There were tear tracks on her face.

And David Vincent—the bastard finally stopped his taunts.

That wasn’t good enough.

Connor stalked toward David’s cell. David smirked at him. “Did her scent pull you in, too? Like a bitch in heat, right? Want to break her, want to—”

Connor’s hand flew through the bars. His fingers wrapped around David’s throat and he yanked the guy forward, slamming David’s head into the silver bars. “You’re the one I want to break,” Connor said softly. “You’re the one I want to kill.”

David was clawing at Connor’s fingers, trying to get free. But David didn’t have a werewolf’s strength any longer, and he was no match for Connor. No match at all.

“I just need to snap your neck,” Connor told him, “and you’re done.” So easy. One. Little. Snap.

“No, Connor.”

Chloe’s voice. Pushing through the rage that surrounded him.

“Don’t kill him. Not like this, please.”

David’s face was starting to turn purple. Connor shoved the guy away. He turned to look at Chloe. She was near the bars of her cell, watching him with wide, desperate eyes. “You’re not like him,” she said softly to Connor. “You don’t have to—”

David was laughing. “You’re right…” He gasped out. “He’s…even worse…”

The sonofabitch. Connor whirled back to him.

David scuttled out of his reach. “You think…I don’t know…about you?” His words heaved out, as if speaking hurt him…probably because Connor had come far too close to crushing the guy’s throat. “Word travels…in packs…know what your father did…know what you did…Purgatory…”