"Oh my God, you're crazy. You're fucking crazy!"
"Hey!" he yelled, the tone of his voice making her jump even before his hand gripped her jaw and turned her face to his. He paused then and she could see the struggle behind his eyes. But it was the evil there that won. "You have no idea what it's like to have this disease steal everything from you. Everything. Make you an old man in the prime of your life," he spat, releasing her face with a rough shove.
She touched her jaw, knowing she'd be bruised where his fingers had dug into her. But wondering if that would even matter, if she'd live long enough.
"There has to be another way," she began, but he ignored her, turning off the main road and onto a quiet side street. "Lance?" she asked softly. "I know you don't want to do this. You don't want to hurt me," she said as he pulled into a deserted parking lot.
His look told her otherwise.
"Marcus will come for me. He'll kill you."
Rachel.
It was Elijah. She looked out her window but saw nothing.
Where are you? Tell me where you are.
At a lab. We turned left off Sanchez.
Lance turned to her then and studied her face before answering her question. "I don't think so," he said. "I'm sorry, but you understand, don't you?" he asked, this time touching her face softly with the back of one hand. She shrunk away, his touch revolting.
He's crazy. You have to hurry. Elijah's voice was fading, fear distracted her concentration and this communication required too much energy.
"Don't you?" he asked, this time his voice and his touch harder.
She stared at him and he seemed to grow angrier. He squeezed his eyes shut, his hand closing over her shoulder. He made a noise and squeezed so hard she had to cry out. When he opened his eyes, they were darker, less human.
"Lance?" she asked.
He stared at her as if trying to remember who she was, why she was saying his name. It was another moment before he shook his head and stepped out of the car, pulling her out with him, dragging her from her side to his with one hand on her arm. She noticed how rapidly his left hand shook once they stepped out.
He tugged on her arm when he saw her staring, trying to tuck his hand into his pocket, only succeeding after several tries. He went around to a side entrance and kicked it in. She jumped at the sound, at his incredible strength, as the door broke open. He pulled her through, moving fast, knowing exactly where he was going. They climbed one set of stairs and walked to a room at the end of the hall. He broke that door too and she screamed this time when the glass of the door shattered all around her. She tried to cover her face with her free arm but felt splinters of glass cut into her exposed flesh. When she pulled her arm back and looked at Lance as he dragged her inside, she saw the cuts on his face, one big one over his left eye, heal and close, the skin forming perfectly once more to cover any sign of injury. She knew of the shifter's ability to heal quickly, but this seemed amplified, faster than even Elijah or Marcus healed.
Once inside, he switched on the lights. He looked around, his energy frantic, almost panicked, the shaking of his hand seeming to grow worse by the moment.
"Please, Lance," she begged as he pulled her through to another door at the back, this one unlocked. "Please let me go," she begged, her resistance futile against his strength. "Please! I'll give you what you want, just not like this. I promise I'll give you what you want."
But he ignored her.
This room was smaller, quite a bit smaller. The walls and floors were tiled and every surface of the space shone stainless steel, immaculately clean, almost surgically so. There was one other door at the opposite end of the room but not a single window.
"Let me go!" she screamed when he lifted her onto the table at the middle of the space.
She heard Elijah then. They were near but she was too afraid to send any sort of message back, her concentration was wholly absorbed by the crazy man who now pushed her down onto the table.
"Rachel!" she heard Marcus call out. He was running, he was in human form. Lance fisted the gun and looked at her accusingly, fuming.
"He has a gun!" she yelled just as the back of Lance's hand slapped her so hard across the face she fell from the table, her cheek throbbing with pain.
"Rachel!" Marcus burst into the room and Lance shot his gun, missing but giving himself that momentary advantage to pick Rachel up and hold her to him, his one arm wrapped tight around her neck.
Marcus righted himself as a low growl came from the outer room.
"I'll kill her. I swear, I'll snap her neck. Back off!"
Marcus looked from one to the next, and Elijah's golden eyes shone as he stalked into the room in wolf form, his growl becoming fiercer as he stood, taking in the situation, ready to strike.
The sound of cars pulling into the parking lot fast, screeching breaks, doors slamming shut, a lot of doors, made them all stop and turn to the door.
That was when the pressure of his arm tightened against her throat and Lance brought his other hand to his own head.
"He's changing," Rachel managed, trying desperately to pull his arm from her.
Marcus and Elijah attacked at the same moment, Elijah sinking his teeth into Lance's thigh, forcing him to loosen his hold on Rachel as Marcus took his arm and dragged Rachel free. But it wasn't without injury as Lance's body began to shift and he was able to shoot one bullet, hitting Elijah, taking him down.
"Elijah!" Rachel screamed.
Footsteps came from the hallway, running fast.
Elijah climbed slowly back up, limping. The shot had just grazed his skin.
"We have to get out of here," Marcus said, watching Lance shift slowly into the enormous creature.
Just before the final changes took place, Lance slumped backward, dropping the gun.
"Go," he said, forcing the word.
Tears filled Rachel's eyes as she watched his pain, his bones stretching, extending, his face contorting.
"Take her and go!" he yelled this time.
Marcus didn't hesitate, pulling the door at the back of the room open.
"Elijah!" Rachel called out, knowing Elijah would stay, would try to fight.
"Elijah!" Marcus repeated. "This is not our fight anymore."
Lance's change completed as the men filled the outer room, and Elijah, after one final glance behind him, followed behind Rachel and Marcus just as the terrible screams began.
Chapter Nineteen
Rachel, Elijah, and Marcus drove in silence the next day. The news reports had been gruesome, the deaths of over twenty men, including Dr. John Dennison and Professor Lance Weston, were reported on every news channel.
"He saved our lives," Rachel said, still in shock at the events.
"He knew it would be over for all of us if Dennison and his men would have captured us. He did the right thing," Marcus added, squeezing her hand.
"He must have shifted back to his human form when they killed him." None of the news reports mentioned any creature. "Christ, the size of the animal he became!"
"I feel sorry for him," Rachel said. "I know he would have done terrible things to me, but I still feel sorry for him."
Marcus smiled over at her.
"At least it's over," Marcus said. "You're safe now. We all are. Dennison is dead. Lance Weston is dead. There isn't more serum and there aren't any more samples left. We're free. Finally."
Elijah's phone rang. "Kayla … " he began.
Marcus and Rachel smiled at one another, holding hands while he drove, both of them turning to look forward.
Epilogue
Rachel and Marcus had spent the last two days babysitting little Clarissa while Elijah had taken Kayla out of town for a romantic weekend getaway. It had been eight months since the events at the lab, and things had come to a sort of normal. At least normal for a family of shifters. Marcus had moved in with Rachel and they had just slipped into the relationship they knew they were always meant to have.
Marcus had fallen in love with his niece and she with him the moment they'd first met. He spoiled her rotten and Rachel just watched him with her, watched how she trusted him from day one. Watched how much he enjoyed spending time with the little girl. She saw how excited he had been when Kayla had announced she was pregnant again.
They talked about having babies themselves but neither was ready yet. They would first spend time together, making up for the lost years.
Elijah pulled out onto the street and honked the horn. They waved and closed the door when the car disappeared from sight. Both of them leaned against the door and exhaled.
"That was so much fun and so completely exhausting!" Rachel said, giggling.
Marcus tucked her hand into his and shook his head. "She's got too much energy for as little sleep as she gets at night!" he said.