Page 80 of Meeting Her Mate
“You have been a pain in our collective asses ever since you set foot in Fiddler’s Green. What was otherwise a veritable paradise for us, you came and turned into a hellscape with your fucking idealism and your old values!” Maurice said. “It was all working perfectly, Will. You should have died in that prison. Well, it’s not too late. Death comes for all of us. Remember this.”
“And why should we rob ourselves of the gratuitous sight of you two squirming in pain as your souls leave your bodies? Writhe for us, if you will,” Ralph said. “I always like it when my victims squeal.”
I cast a look at Alexis, hating myself for bringing her here, getting her caught in this trap, feeling remorseful that I had risked her life, all for nothing.
“I am sorry,” I said. “I have made your life more challenging ever since I stepped foot in it.”
“This is not on you, Will,” Alexis said, holding my hands in her hands. She brought them up to her chest, allowing me to feel her rapidly beating heart.
“Oy! Hey! Lovebirds! Now’s not the time to get fucking sappy with each other. Don’t ignore the larger threat present in the room!” Ralph said, kicking the glass walls.
“What does it matter if we’re dying anyways?” Alexis said. “Wouldn’t I rather spend my last moments with him than be all resentful for something that’s not within my control? You’ve got us. You won. What more do you want?”
“Well, I wanted to gloat and rub it in your faces,” Blair said. “But seeing as how you two would rather talk it out amongst yourselves, I can be benevolent enough to grant you that wish. Go ahead. Take your time. Both of you only have a minute anyway. If you don’t pass out from the gas, we’ve got the real Wolf’s Bane with us to do the job.”
Blair took out a syringe with blue fluid in it and swung it in the air.
“Will,” Alexis whispered. “If we make it out of here alive by some longshot…. get that syringe from him!”
“I have waded in darkness for the longest time, Alexis,” I said, unable to hold my breath any longer. The fumes were beginning to make their way down my throat and were suffocating me. “If I am going towards the light, I am glad that it is with you.”
Unable to breathe any longer, I staggered and crashed down.
“There he goes!” Ralph yelled. I wasn’t sure. At this point, all the sounds—the blaring alarms, the panicked noises coming from Alexis, and the mockery issuing from the three men—were jumbled up into nonsense.
“Hey! You do not get the mercy of dying while you’re passed out!” Blair kicked on the glass again, bringing me back to painful consciousness for a second. “Look me in the eyes as you die. Know that I’ve done what my father set out to do. This is revenge, motherfucker, served as cold as it gets.”
“Enough!” Alexis yelled, slamming hard against the glass. “You wouldn’t be so brave if those walls weren’t between you and me.”
By now, it was impossible to see outside of the room. The gas had completely filled the tiny container-sized room, turning its walls opaque and murky green. It stung me as it permeated my lungs and burned me as the fumes became part of my bloodstream.
The next thing I knew, amidst the pain and anguish, Alexis had collapsed beside me.
The laboratory rang with the jeers of Ralph the vampire, Maurice the betrayer, and Blair, heir to a madman.
Chapter 29: Alexis
This was not how my death was fated. I could feel it in my bones even as the fumes worked against me, paralyzing my body in a state of spasmodic agony. Despite the writhing and convulsing, I was unable to come to terms with the fact that my mate and I were to die like caged animals in a glass prison.
Caged animals.
It was odd how timely the analogy struck me. Weren’t we, in truth, caged animals? Didn’t each and every werewolf walk this earth with a beast caged within their human form? A beast of fearful proportions, remarkable strength?
A carnal roar escaped me as I shifted, exhaling the billowing fumes from my body and colliding against the glass walls. At first, they did not budge, but the more I collided, the more the walls began to sway. Upon my first strike, they just moved, but even that was enough to warrant worry on the faces of the three devious men standing on the other side of the glass.
Will! Shift! This glass does not stand a chance against us in our wolf forms!I called out to him in my mind, where I could see his spirit fleeing as his body tossed around in near-death convulsions. Even as I crashed against the walls, I sent out some of my strength to him through our sacred bond. My strength waned, but not before I tackled the glass one last time, sending cracks all across the surface.
Will got to his feet, shifting immediately, and then threw his wolf form into the glass with brute force, shattering it completely. Had it been my siphoned strength that had allowed him to wield such power?
I could feel myself returning to normal as the air cleared inside the little glass chamber. The foremost wall that we had shattered had provided a channel for the fumes to escape, allowing us both to breathe.
The plan, as we had devised it, had gone completely to shit, but this did not mean that there wasn’t room to improvise. For whatever it was worth, our goal was right in front of us, across the room. The three men, and in their possession, the glass vial of Wolf’s Bane.
Will growled loud enough to startle me and pounced forward, crashing through the less thick glass walls, breaking past barrier after barrier till he stood face to face with the men who had thought that they had vanquished him.
I leaped behind him, coming to his side, letting fear settle in the hearts and faces of the fickle vampire, the cowardly werewolf, and the trickster businessman.
Their expressions had contorted instantaneously from that of smug satisfaction to those of unbarred horror. Their worst fear had broken past their defenses and was now staring at them, claws unfurled, fangs snarled, eyes glaring. They were gazing at death.