CHAPTER 5
Talon shifted sideways, his eyes locked with the tiger’s, circling with it as it stalked him. She bared fangs on a hiss and he bared his own back at her, showing her that he wasn’t going to back down. She had to stop this madness.
He had to stop it.
He glanced off to his left, barely taking his eyes off her, not giving her a chance to attack him. They were watching on the other side of all the mirror glass and bars that protected it.
Bastards.
What cocktail of drugs had they given her this time?
They had dragged him to the cage and he had noticed on the way past that her cell in the stark white block had been empty. He had asked them where they had taken her, had demanded to know what they had done to her.
He had been given his answer when they had tossed him into the cage, a huge white room with a thick solid glass divide down the middle of it.
On the other side of that barrier had been the tiger he had been looking for.
But at the same time, it hadn’t been her.
She had been brutally attacking the barrels and logs in her cat form, pouncing on anything she spotted and savagely biting and clawing at it. It wasn’t like her. He had only known her a short time, but it had been long enough for him to learn she had a gentle soul.
Not a violent one.
Archangel had given her something to awaken her aggressive nature, setting it free and unleashing the primal side of her in the process.
She had lifted her head when she had scented him, and the moment they had raised the barrier, she had attacked him.
He had taken her blows, blocking as many of them as he could, defending and never attacking her, hoping beyond hope that the drug would wear off if he withstood her assault for long enough and she would come to her senses.
“Listen to my voice, Jayna,” he murmured softly, coaxing her to come back to him.
She bared huge canines again and launched at him.
Talon caught her and twisted with her, slammed her into the bloodstained floor and tried to pin her. She hissed and snarled, writhed and kicked at him, and he barely reared back in time to avoid her fangs as she snapped at his head.
“Dammit,” he barked and fought harder, because he wasn’t going to give up on her.
He was going to bring her back.
“Jayna.” He wrestled with her, managed to get hold of her thick front legs and stop her from clawing him.
She wasn’t listening, was too deep in her animal side to hear and recognise him. It was in control now.
She wriggled her back legs free of his hold and he didn’t stand a chance.
Before he could spring away from her, she kicked at his stomach.
He sucked it in and arched backwards, but one claw caught him and he grunted and growled through clenched teeth as it cut through his flesh and fire followed in its wake.
“Fuck!” He shoved off her and staggered backwards, agony rolling through him as he clutched his left side and hot blood pumped over his hand and down his leg, sticking his standard-issue black cotton trousers to his thigh. “Jayna, stop this!”
Because it wasn’t like her. It wasn’t her.
And if she didn’t stop soon, he wasn’t sure he would be able to bring her back. The more she hurt him, the stronger the hold her tiger side had on her would become, until she wouldn’t want to come back.
He had to stop her, before her mind cracked.
He eyed her warily as she rolled onto her paws and paced away from him, and stopped near the mirrored window. Sickness washed through him again when she paused to lick at wounds on her own belly, cleaning blood away from her soft pale golden fur.
If the bastards hadn’t cracked her mind already.
She’d had new wounds tonight, low on her stomach.
The thought they might have been probing around down there, hurting her body and her mind with their twisted study of her, sickened him.
He would never forgive himself if anything happened to her.
Jayna suddenly sprang at the bars protecting the window.
The sizzle of electricity filled the room together with the stench of burning flesh as the defence system built into them fired. It didn’t stop Jayna from biting at the bars and clawing them.
“No.” He was across the room in the blink of an eye and hauling her off the bars and shoving her away.
She flashed her fangs on a growl and tried to pass him, but he countered her every move, blocking her way to the bars.
Jayna roared and launched straight at him, tackling him to the ground. He screamed as she sank her fangs into his right side, a bite meant to weaken him, and kicked off. He tried to grab her, but he was too slow to stop her.
By the time he had rolled onto his front, she was at the bars again, attacking them despite the charge they were pumping into her. She whimpered and hissed, drew back and attacked again, unrelenting in her assault.
“Stop,” he croaked but she ignored him and kept biting the bars, clawing and scratching at them with her front paws.
The scent of burning flesh and singeing fur swamped him and he choked back a cry as he pushed onto his feet and grabbed her tail, tugged hard on it and pulled her away from the bars.
She whimpered as she convulsed violently on the floor, and her fur rippled and washed away, leaving pink skin behind.
Jayna curled up and held herself, tears streaking her face as she shook. Blood covered her belly and thighs, and splattered across her breasts and shoulders. It streaked her face and surrounded her mouth.
“Jayna,” he whispered and she looked at him, her amber eyes dull and overflowing with sorrow and pain.
Talon shook his head and held his hand out to her.
She screamed like a banshee and in a lightning fast move was on her feet and clutching the bars with her hands again. Her body quaked as electricity poured through it and she threw her head back and shrieked.
He grabbed her around the waist and hauled her away from them. She growled and kicked at his legs, her hands clawing at his arms where he wrapped them around her waist. He locked them tight. Refused to let her go.
The blood on her made it hard to keep his grip on her though, and she slid down his body, her cries of pain haunting his ears as he struggled to keep hold of her and awareness crept in, cold and numbing.
He knew what she wanted to do.
He couldn’t let it happen. He would never forgive himself if anything happened to her. He had vowed to protect her.
“Don’t,” he whispered, broken and hoarse, silently pleading her to listen to him.
She was still a moment.
And then she pressed her left foot into his thigh, twisted in his arms and shoved her hands against his chest, pushing free of his grip. He staggered back a step and then sprang forwards, grabbed her arm and pulled her back to him. She grunted as she slammed into his bare chest and he growled as she clawed and bit him, and then threw his head back and cried out as she shoved her fingers into the wound on his side and tore at it.
He stumbled backwards as she kicked off again, and clutched his side. Warm blood rolled from between his fingers and the edges of his vision went dark. Dammit.
No.
Jayna stopped and stood before him, her face soft, amber eyes shining at him even though there was so much pain in her.
Talon reached his right hand out to her.
A flash of regret crossed her face.
“Don’t do this,” he pleaded. “Don’t.”
She pivoted on her heel and launched at the bars, grabbed hold of them and didn’t let go this time.
His stomach sank, his heart breaking as he realised he couldn’t stop her.
As he realised she wanted death.
Archangel had already broken her—mind, body and soul.
He had failed.
“No,” he whispered, and moved a step towards her.
She hissed at him, her eyes begging him to let her do this.
For him.
It was the way of their kind, but that didn’t mean he was alright with it. It was a stupid tradition. The weaker protecting the stronger.
He couldn’t bear it.
He didn’t want her to sacrifice herself so he could live.
She screamed and fur rippled over her naked body, but she kept holding the bars, somehow finding the strength and the courage to not let go.
Talon couldn’t watch.
He didn’t deserve this.
His pride would never forgive him for failing her.
His family would never forgive him.
And he would never forgive himself.
He would never forgive Archangel.
She collapsed and he rushed to her, gathered her limp form into his arms and cleared the black hair from her face. She breathed shallowly, panted gasps that rasped in his ears and tore at his heart. He should have stopped her. Her eyelids fluttered and then lifted, and she looked up at him, the gentle and beautiful female he had known her to be.
A smile tilted her lips.
Her eyes dulled and her breath left her on a soft sigh, and she sank in his arms.
Slipped through his hands and into the eternal forest where her ancestors waited for her.
Talon threw his head back and roared.
“Jayna!”