Ryan stiffened. Cara pushed past Tyrez and his raised sword, stepping to the entrance of the third alcove.
A small form huddled in the corner. A chain much finer than the one restraining the creature extended from the wall to an ankle that appeared very human.
Cara didn’t hesitate—she wrapped a hand around the barred gate and sent a pulse of pure energy into it. It clicked open.
Tyrez put an arm to block her. “We don’t know who or what that is.”
“That chain won’t hold a beast. If Rindek wasn’t worried about her, neither am I.” Cara pointed to the sink. “Water. Get her some water.”
When Tyrez glowered at her and didn’t move, Ryan pushed forward. “I’ve got this, dude.” He shoved Cara aside with his shaggy head. “Let me go firrst.”
Tyrez hissed but withdrew his arm, so Cara gestured for Ryan to precede her.
Eyes on the huddled form appeared through a tangle of hair and widened as the Sabre approached.
“Get away from me.” The voice was weak, but clear.
Ryan stopped.
Cara fought past the chaotic energy of the creature next door to reach for the woman’s. After a moment, she got the read on her—not human, but Cryptid, and without the distinct dual nature of a shifter. Cara put a hand on Ryan’s shoulder. “It’s okay. She’s humanoid.” She glanced down at the manacled ankle. The pants were in tatters, revealing wasted flesh beneath. “And half-starved.”
Ryan backed away, and Cara crouched beside the woman. “We’ll get you out of here.”
“Beast, too?” The voice trembled.
“Beast?” Cara asked.
“It’s what I call him.”
Cara’s heart twisted as she thought of the creature in the other cell. “I’m Cara. What is your name?”
“Abigail. Abby.”
“How long have you been down here?”
Abby shook her head. “I don’t know. At first I tried keeping track. But I stopped.”
Cara considered. If she could determine the length of time that the hybrid shifter had been under the influence of the poison . . . “Has Beast been here the same amount of time?”
“He was here when they brought me.”
Not good. “Was he always like this? Has he ever spoken?”
The girl hesitated. “He doesn’t speak like we do.”
While Cara puzzled on that, Tyrez arrived with a beaker filled with water. “Couldn’t find any glasses.”
Cara examined the beaker. “Was it clean?”
The Dragon drew himself up tall. “I am not an idiot.”
Abby was staring at Tyrez with huge, frightened eyes. “Why don’t you and Ryan try to get the shifter some water,” Cara suggested. “I’m fine here.”
Tyrez stared at Cara, his thoughts on the topic apparent. Then he glanced at Abby, and nodded. “Very well.”
Abby noticeably relaxed when both shapeshifters disappeared. The crashes and snarls from the alcove next door indicated their efforts would be tricky at best.
Abby broke off gulping her water to gasp, “Beast can’t help it. They made him like this.”
“When you said he doesn’t talk like I do, what did you mean?”
Abby pulled her legs up tight to her body. “They injected me with something. Now I know what people think.”
Telepathy? “Can you read people?”
Abby shrugged. “I always was good at guessing people’s thoughts. He said it was a sign of a talent inside me. Said the stuff he injected into me would strengthen it.”
Cara’s heart accelerated. Strengthen it? “Do you know what they injected into you?”
Abby squirmed. She’d drained the beaker, and now put it down on the cold stone. “Beast’s blood.” She shot Cara a glare. “Beast doesn’t deserve to die. They not only used his blood on me, they used it to create something else. Drugged him, and hooked him up. Drained him like vampires.”
Cara’s mind spun. They injected her with the shifter’s blood? Most of the month, it was inert. But during the full moon, the virus was active. If she’d been given active virus, she should have changed form.
“Did you stay human over this last full moon?”
The confused look Abby shot Cara gave her the answer. She hadn’t transformed. But an injection may not be the same as a bite. It was something Cara would have to research once they got Abby looked after.
Much about this was confusing as hell. “Did they say what they were using Beast’s blood for?”
Abby eyed her. “They injected him with things, too. Lots of things. And every time, he got worse. His mind—it’s awful. Then they stopped injecting him and started pulling blood. Yesterday, they strapped him down and sucked him almost dry. I thought they’d killed him because he was out for hours.”
“He’s the living antidote to the poison.” Ryan had come up behind them.
His assessment didn’t surprise Cara, the Sabre was no slouch in the science department. “Yes, it would seem so.”
Tyrez spoke from the main room. “The shelves have been ransacked. Rindek stripped them before he fled.” His gaze met Cara’s and his next words revealed that he’d overheard. No surprise, Dragon hearing was sharp. “But he abandoned the antidote. Can Aphostra hold the creature long term? I doubt he will fully recover. He will always be a danger to himself, and others.”
Cara considered. The Gryphon likely offered Beast’s only chance.
“If the council hearrs about him, they might not carre about the antidote. They could insist he be put down,” Ryan added.
“No!” Abby pushed herself to her feet. “I can talk to him. I’m in his mind. You don’t have to kill him.”
Cara held up a hand to her as she straightened to address Tyrez. “Did you find the key to her manacle?”
In answer, the Dragon strode forward. Abby shrank against the wall. He swung the sword. The crystalline blade sang and pulsed as it hit the stone, neatly severing the chain.
Cara offered the girl her arm.
Instead of taking it, Abby bolted past her. As she skirted the scaled shapeshifter, Ryan guessed her intent and stepped into her path.
“If you get close to him, he will kill you.”
Abby vigorously shook her head. “No. He won’t kill me. I can talk to him.”
Cara took her arm. “Let’s just go see him, shall we? Stay out of reach of the chains.”
When Ryan appeared at the entrance to the second alcove, Beast growled, a low, warning rumble. But the moment Abby stepped out from behind the Sabre, the growl ceased.
Abby’s brows lowered as she stared at him. The creature backed up until it touched the wall, and sat down.
Then Abby bent to pick up a water-filled container from the floor.
“Not surre that’s a good idea.” Ryan advanced, and Beast rose, his lips peeled back in a snarl.
Cara debated, trying to read the creature’s energy. It had calmed with Abby’s presence. “Let her try,” she said, before adding to Abby. “Stay at the edge of where he can reach. He can kill you with a single swipe.”
“He won’t,” Abby assured.
“He might,” Cara corrected. “I won’t let you do this unless you promise to do it safely.”
Abby met Cara’s gaze, and then nodded. She advanced slowly toward Beast.
The outer reach of the chains was obvious by the marks clawed in the stone. Abby walked to a point just outside them and carefully pushed the water within the zone.
Beast moved toward her, but each step was careful and measured. Was he also afraid of what he might do? Beside Cara, Ryan relaxed, ever so slightly. The Sabre had been braced for a full-scale attack, but the creature’s posture softened, his ears held out to the side. Every inch of him shook with the effort of it, but Beast had himself under control.
Was he trying to keep the wildness at bay? For Abby?
Before anyone could stop her, Abby reached out with a trembling hand. And stroked along the vicious muzzle. Beast leaned into it and rumbled, tenderly.
Tears rolled down Abby’s face. “I-I’ve never touched him,” she whispered.
It was Tyrez who nailed it. “They’re bonded,” he said.
“Yes, I think so.” Cara sighed as Beast lowered his muzzle to the water, and drank. “She’s also telepathic, so she can speak to him. How much did you overhear?”
“All of it. Can injections be enough to bind them together?”
Cara shook her head. “I have no idea. Of greater concern is why Rindek injected her at all.”
“The ‘it will make her talent stronger’ concept is very disturbing.” Tyrez didn’t sound disturbed, but his brows had lowered until his eyes gleamed out from the shadows. “Do you suppose it is true?”
Cara considered. “My references suggest that latent traits can appear and strengthen in response to stress. Hard to imagine a situation more stressful than this. It might have just been that.”
“The tall man said there were others.” Abby was now crouched in front of Beast, whose gaze was locked on her. Her hand rested on his bare, bruised arm.
Tyrez pounced on it. “Others?”
Abby flinched, and Beast growled at the Dragon. “Well, he said there might be others. But he seemed pretty sure.”
“What is that bastarrd up to?” Ryan growled.
“I don’t know.” Cara rubbed her forehead. “We need to gate these two to Aphostra. She has the holding facility she used for Kade.”
“He might never regain his humanity,” Tyrez warned. “The containment may have to be permanent.”
Ryan shook his shaggy head. “We can’t give him the antidote, he is it.”
“Likely, the reason he hasn’t completely lost it, is that his body fought the worst of the poison off,” Cara theorized. “But I agree that he may be stuck as a creature. It’s been too long, now.”
“He’s there,” Abby protested. “But he’s locked inside, and can’t break through.”
Cara’s heart went out to her. If she was bound to this Beast, her future was permanently tied to his. “My Gryphon friend can heal minds,” she said. “She will help him. And where she lives—it may be possible that he can live comfortably, if you can speak to him and keep him calm.”
Abby scanned Cara’s face. “Please. We have to try.”
Cara nodded to her and clapped her hands together. “Okay, Tyrez. Is there enough power left in your sword to tackle these chains?”
“We’rre cutting his chains?” Ryan looked at her, doubt written all over him.
Abby glared at him. “He’ll be good. I’ve told him he has to be.”
Cara waved to Ryan. “You saying a Dragon and a Sabre can’t handle a half-starved shifter?” She turned to Tyrez. “First, we’ll get them settled with Aphostra. They both require medical care and food. She can provide that. Bess has done more work on that poison; I will consult with her to see if anything she’d learned will help Beast regain control. And I’ll dig through my references again, too. Building a living antidote wasn’t something I’ve ever come across in textbooks.”
Tyrez’s brow couldn’t get any lower as he glanced around the main room. “We’ll comb this lab in case Rindek left any clues to what the hell he’s up to.”
Cara pushed her hair from her face with a tinkle of crystal beads. “Yes. We must figure that out. And then you, my friend, need to find him.”
Tyrez’s eyes blazed turquoise fire. “I will find him,” he said. “And then I will kill him.”
“Well, dude, leave me a tasty bit,” Ryan snarled. “You’re not the only one that has a score to settle with that bastard.”
Tyrez moved toward Beast, hefting his sword. “I can cut him free,” he told Abby. “But you have to control him, or things might not go as we’d like them to.”
Abby took a step toward Beast. It brought her within his reach, and Ryan stiffened. But Beast only huffed and pressed his head against Abby’s chest. Her hand rose to rest on each side of his broad head.
She looked up at Tyrez, and nodded. “He’s ready.”
With a series of graceful yet powerful slashes, Tyrez severed the chains with the glowing sword. Sparks flew as the links parted, and zaps crackled at the severing of metal, and power.
The Warlock had infused the chains with his own energy. “I will have to unlock the cuffs and collar when we reach Aphostra,” Cara mused. “I might need Bess’s help with them.” She glanced at Abby. “We will need to work in close with him, and in his condition, I would rather not sedate him.”
Abby nodded. “He’ll be fine.”
Cara waved Ryan and Tyrez out of the alcove. The two big shifters left reluctantly, bodies stiff.
“Trust has to start somewhere,” she coached them. “This is either going to work, or it’s not.”
Brave words that she recited to herself as she turned her back on Beast and Abby, and left.
They walked into the main area and turned to watch.
Abby wound her fingers into the scruffy fur around Beast’s head. And then she walked with him past the barred door.
Beast trembled all over, and the chaos in both his green gaze and the energy emitting from him twisted Cara’s heart into knots. But the connection between them thrummed. To someone who knew energy as she did, there was no mistaking the power of the bond between them.
When Abby had said she could control Beast, she’d been right.
“She really can talk to him,” Ryan said. The Sabre stared at the two of them with a slightly bemused expression. “Impressive.” A small spark of hope germinated within Cara. Both for the girl and her tormented shifter, and for the rest of them.
Hope was much needed. Because out there was a powerful madman bent, it seemed, on using shifter and Cryptid talents for his own twisted purposes.
Purposes which were, as yet, unknown.