Chapter Twenty-Six

Rosie

She stared in shock as the gryphon responded to his offer. The majestic creature closed its eyes, and then rapidly began to shrink, and change.

“WHAT? WHAT IS THIS? WHAT’S GOING ON?” Director Burnatawiz was shaking, tugging nervously on his ponytail. “Why is he not killing you?”

The figure that resolved itself from the gryphon stood up at last, facing the Institute leader. Rosie was stunned as she looked on.

“But…” she began.

“I know,” Kassian said softly. “I told you to trust me.”

“I did. I do,” she corrected. “But…how is this possible?”

“It’s a long story,” he replied. Then he looked at the gryphon shifter. “Could you grab Maximus please, Andrew, while I deal with Burnatawiz here?”

“Sure thing,” said the same tall, long-faced, brown-haired man who Rosie had talked to when she went to Cloud Lake for help.

“But you’re supposed to be a bear shifter,” she muttered, looking over her shoulder at where the others had come closer once again. They’d all shifted back, and as she looked, none of them looked like the same shifter. Which meant it had to be the same guy.

“I never said I was a bear shifter,” he told her. “You just assumed that.”

“I…I guess. But why didn’t you tell me?”

“Secrecy,” he said. “If they knew I was coming along to spoil the party, the director might have brought in some additional insurance, just in case. He would have definitely thought something was up when I came back in my animal form, and not in the car with Kassian.” The tall man shrugged. “But, he’s old and settled into his ways, unable to think deviously anymore. So it wasn’t too hard to pull a fast one on him.” He gestured to the downed Maximus. “Sorry, but I need to get him out of the way now.”

Rosie just nodded, too stunned to speak. “I can’t believe this,” she said.

“What is going on?!” The director was still screeching. “Kill them, I said! Why won’t you kill them?” He was still looking at Andrew, while pointing at Kassian and Rosie.

“Because,” Andrew said, “I’m not your servant, and I really, really do not believe in what you’re doing, you crazy bastard. Just be glad that your death was promised to Kassian, and not me. Because I’m a mean sonofabitch compared to him,” he snarled, turning his back on the director and walking across the field.

Rosie watched as he scooped up the limp form of Maximus into his arms with casual ease, and strode away, putting distance between them. Her head turned slowly back around, to look at the director. He no longer looked like the evil villain, but instead like an old man who’d just found out he had lost his memory and didn’t know where he was.

“Now, now,” he tried to say as Kassian advanced on him, his fingers curling up into fists.

“Wait,” she said, tugging at his hand. “Kassian, you don’t have to do this.”

The director fell back toward the helicopter. At one point he tripped over something, falling to the ground. He continued to scuttle backward as Kassian strode closer.

“Yes, I do,” he said.

Rosie barely recognized his voice. It had changed, deepening and becoming rougher, more frayed around the edges.

“No,” she said, moving to stand in front of him. “You can’t do this. This is just like what he wanted you to do to someone else. You can’t kill him in cold blood.”

Kassian’s eyes darkened, but he refused to look at her, instead staring past her at the frail figure of the doomed human.

“Maybe if I were someone else, I’d believe you,” he said heavily. “But I’m not, Rosie. My brothers may be better than me. Perhaps they wouldn’t do this. But this is what I am. I am not perfect, and this man deserves to die. I can’t let him escape. If he gets away, who knows what he’ll do. He needs to die. Here and now. I won’t let anyone else do it. This is my duty.”

He started forward again, gently pushing her out of the way.

“Too late!”

She spun at the shrill cry of victory. While she’d been trying ineffectually to dissuade Kassian, the director had made it to the helicopter, pulling on the tinted door, which had closed at some point. He finally managed to get it open. Kassian surged forward, and she found herself running alongside him. Maybe she could still stop him. Maybe they could prevent—

BANG. BANG.

The two shots rang out in quick succession. The director staggered back, his eyes wide, already going glassy with shock. It took Rosie a moment to locate the two holes in his shirt, but a moment later the blood flowed down over his brown pants, staining them, even as he fell slowly to the ground.

She froze, as did Kassian. Nobody moved. The door slid open even more, and a figure she didn’t recognize showed his head. He was middle-aged, with perfectly coiffed brown hair and a face that modeling agencies would kill for, all angular features and near-perfect symmetry. His bright blue eyes blazed, not in anger, but in irritation. She immediately knew that this was a dangerous, dangerous man.

“Stay back!” he shouted over her head. The huge pistol in his hand pointed unwaveringly in their direction.

Rosie looked behind her to see Andrew coming to a halt. He’d been charging at them. Now though he was paused out of range.

“Who are you?” she asked, trying not to appear afraid. After all that had already happened that day, it was easier than expected to maintain a calm demeanor.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“So are you going to kill us?”

“Nonsense. I’m not stupid enough to try that. You are impressively skilled and resourceful, not to mention lucky. I underestimated you.” His blue eyes glittered like hardened sapphires. “But I shall not make that mistake again.”

“Why did you kill him?” Kassian asked, speaking at last.

“Who? The director?” The gunman looked at the corpse of the man he’d killed. “Brandon was but a pawn. A figurehead. He wanted to do things his way. Now that he is out of my way though, I won’t be holding back. Thank you for that.”

Kassian growled and took a step forward.

“Stay there, or I’ll kill the woman.” He pointed the gun at her.

Kassian stepped in front of her as the blades began to spin up. The man in the door of the helicopter simply rolled his eyes, steadied the barrel, and pulled the trigger. Kassian staggered back into her, and she barely avoided being crushed by his huge frame as they both fell to the ground.

“KASSIAN!” It took her a moment to realize the cry had been hers.

Overhead the rotor blades battered her down with air as they rotated faster and faster, preparing the craft to liftoff. She rolled over onto her stomach and got to her knees, ignoring the craft as she desperately tried to turn Kassian onto his back. She screamed with effort, and he suddenly rolled over. His body began to convulse, and his eyes shot open.

“Kassian?!” she asked frantically. “Kassian are you okay?”

He began to nod, then stopped. “The fucker shot me,” he complained. “He actually shot me.”

“Where?” she said, searching him. It was tough. The air was being walloped by the rotors of the helicopter as it lifted off. Her hair was bouncing around crazily and she had to keep her eyes in slits against the gusts of wind. Her clothing was pulled at and tugged downward, creating a general sense of mayhem that made it hard for her to see where he was hurt.

“Where is it?”

“Stomach,” he grunted. “Hurts.”

Rosie located the bullet hole. It had actually been covered up by his pants once he fell. It was much more his upper groin, or perhaps very low in his abdominal area. She ripped his shirt out of the way and frantically unbuckled his pants, to pull it all away from the wound.

“Okay, we’re going to need to get the bullet out of there,” she said. “Right? That’s what they always do in the movies. So...so I need to like, reach in there, I guess?”

Above, the helicopter lifted into the afternoon sky and headed east, toward Longhorne City and what she supposed would be sanctuary for them. Right then though, Rosie didn’t have time to contemplate what had just happened. She needed to concentrate on saving Kassian. Nothing else mattered right then.

She poised two fingers over the wound, eyes closed, taking one last breath. That was all she was going to allow herself. She was unwilling to let herself hesitate long enough to fully consider the fact that she was about to go digging around inside another person’s body. If she did, it would likely be enough for her to empty her stomach contents everywhere, and there simply wasn’t time for that.

“Rosie,” Kassian said softly, trying to get through to her.

“I can do this,” she said, shaking her head.

A huge, warm hand closed around her fingers, holding them still.

“Rosie, it’s okay,” Kassian said, grunting through what she knew must be incredible pain, even for him.

“No, no it’s not. You have a bullet inside of you!” she said angrily, opening her eyes at last. “It needs to come out!”

“It did,” he told her, laughing gently, and immediately looking like he regretted it.

“What do you mean?”

He reached his right arm under him, and when he removed it, his fingers were covered in blood. “Exit hole,” he told her.

Rosie frowned. “But weren’t you in front of me? How did it not hit me after?” In a panic she immediately began to pat herself down, searching for any sort of wound she hadn’t known she had.

Kassian shook his head. “It was an angle shot. Plus I’m wider than you. At that angle, and hitting me so far to the side, it would have passed by you.” He smiled, a weak, pained-looking thing, but a smile nonetheless.

“So what can I do? What do I do now then?” she asked, not bothering to disguise her relief at not having to go digging through his body.

“You could start by kissing me. Gently,” he added.

“Pig,” she muttered, but she did as he suggested.

A kiss had never felt so good as it did then. Her lips burned with fire from the heat of their desire, and she knew that she would have to have him sooner rather than later. It wasn’t a matter of want, it was a matter of need. The moment he was healed enough, she would be all over him…if not sooner. It was an urge, a calling almost, that filled her entire body.

“What the hell is that?” she asked, breaking away from him, eyes wide at the powerful reaction storming through her body. It didn’t die away as they broke. Instead, it only got more powerful.

“I don’t know,” he replied, eyes wide, but focused upon her. “But I like it.”

“Me too,” she said hurriedly, leaning down to kiss him again.

The feeling didn’t leave, it just stayed with her, infused in her body. It was such an intense arousal that it threatened to make her strip then and there, so that she could straddle Kassian, feeling him slide deep inside her, taking her for his own.

Rosie’s eyes flew open as that last thought echoed through her mind. She was still kissing Kassian, but she quickly pulled back. “I am yours,” she said softly, her face an inch away from his.

“And I yours,” he whispered, just loud enough for her to hear. “From now and until forever.”

A shiver coursed through her body, bringing goose bumps to the surface of her skin at his words. They weren’t empty platitudes. When he said that, she could tell he meant it. Rosie would never have to worry about him. He would be hers, completely, and unflinchingly. It amazed her to believe in such thoughts, to know them with such an utter certainty, after the life she’d been living. To go from something so full of lies and deceit, where cheating on, and cheating someone of something was such a common way of life. It almost made her want to cry.

“Hey,” Kassian said, his voice soft. “Rosie, it’s okay.”

His fingers rose to wipe away tears she hadn’t realized she’d been crying. With her cheeks dry, he went to withdraw her hand, but she shook her head, pulling his hand close to her cheek.

Then she leaned down until her lips were against his ear. “You need to hurry up and get better, so that I can fuck your brains out.”

Kassian’s eyes went wide, and he nodded fervently. “Hopefully not long,” he said with a grin. “But truth be told, I’ve never been shot by something so big before. That thing hurt.”

Rosie nodded. “I promise, I’ll kiss you better. Everywhere.”

The huge bear shifter went rigid, his entire body seeming to lock down at her suggestive comment. “Understood,” he squeaked. “Will heal pronto.”

“Good.” Rosie tossed him a wink as the others finally approached. She turned to look at them. “Come on, help me get this idiot to a bed. And someone, please look up how much a bulletproof vest big enough for him will cost.”

There was laughter all around, mixed with some cursing from Kassian as he aggravated his wound.

It was going to be okay.

“So,” she asked, standing up and looking around at the assembled group. “Anyone know who the fuck that was?”