Page 51 of Twisted Desire

She pulls it out and presses it back against my throat. Blood drips from the blade, rolling down my neck and staining the front of my shirt.

Marni and Derek eyes are wide with panic. They’re thinking what I’m thinking.We’re running out of time. Well, technicallyI’mrunning out of time, but my dying doesn’t bode well for them, either.

My eyes meet Nikolai’s. His face is calm, focused, and he’s keeping his emotions hidden from me.Shit.This isn’t looking good. He can’t get close enough to compel this bitch. I’d try, but the knife against my throat would make it almost impossible to pull off.

The room is silent, and then glass shatters around us, and fae infiltrate the space, taking out guards with no restraint. Some fall to the floor unconscious and others dead. I don’t have time to feel bad about the deaths. It wasn’t part of the plan, but neither was this. It’s time to improvise.

With the last bit of strength I have, I pull away from the woman, gritting my teeth as the blade against my neck slices deeper into my skin in the process. Nikolai is right there, pulling me away from her.

She screams, dropping the knife and reaching for her gun.

The fight between the remaining guards and the fae is over in a blur, and then it’s only Michaela left.

Her arm shakes as she holds the gun pointed at me.

“Really?” I ask with a wince, fighting the dizziness washing over me in waves.

“You’re monsters,” she cries, “all of you.”

“What does that make you?”

She doesn’t answer. Her eyes quickly flit around the room. She moves her gun, aiming it at a group of fae, and starts firing as she tries to flee. Some of her shots meet their marks, taking out members of our team, and anger fills everything in me.

Before Michaela can get far, I spin her around, and without a moment of hesitation, I steal the gun out of her grip and put a bullet between her eyes.

For me, for Nikolai and Aaron, for Tristan and Aurora, and for Max.

No one tries to stop me. They just stare at me as if they’re afraid to move. For a moment, fear ripples through me at the thought of Nikolai being upset at what I’ve just done, but he doesn’t look mad or sad, even. He looks relieved.

“What are you all looking at?” I glance between them, swaying slightly on my feet. “It’s over. Come on. We’ve got a fire to start.”

We make it back to the main floor. Nikolai has to lift me up half of the stairs, but we manage. A couple of the groups are making their way to us, while the others help the fae who were trapped get out safely. We also decide to take the newly human fae back to Rockdale with us. We’ll help them adjust to human life and make sure they have everything they need to succeed. It’s not their fault we didn’t make it in time to save them from the transition.

Teams three and four are assigned to memory wiping. Once their minds are clean, The Experiment members are taken outside, and groups of fae shift them back to the city where they’ll be set up with lives—as much as they don’t deserve it. It’s the humane thing to do.

By the end, I’m running on scraps of energy and adrenaline. During the chaos of rounding everyone up, I almost forgot about the gash on my throat and the wound in my side. Luckily, Michaela didn’t hit anything major, so while my fae healing isn’t working very well because of the iron weapon she used, I haven’t bled out yet.

There’s only one thing I want more than sleep once we get out of here and that’s a shower. Fine, and a good, long feed. Everything hurts. If I weren’t immortal, I might go so far as to say that I feel as if I’m dying. My head is pounding so hard it’s making my eyes hurt and my vision blur. There are too many blisters on my feet to count, and my body is caked in blood—both mine and that of the people I fought... and those I killed.

We’re waiting for the rest of the fae to meet us on the main floor when I fall against the wall and slide to the ground, gritting my teeth against the razor-sharp pain exploding through my entire body. My eyes are closing, and the last thing I see is Nikolai’s broad form rushing to me, shouting my name. The sound is muffled, and before I can answer him, the darkness pulls me away.

When my eyes fight their way open, I immediately snap them shut against the light, groaning weakly.

Nikolai is at my side in an instant. “You’re okay,” he murmurs, sliding his fingers through mine.

“Turn them off,” I force out, the dryness in my throat making my voice crack.

After a few seconds, the light is extinguished, and I cautiously open my eyes, blinking a few times until Nikolai’s face comes into view.

He grins. “Hey, kitten.”

My eyes bounce around an unfamiliar hotel room. “What the fuck happened?”

Biting his lip as if he’s trying to conceal his grin now, he says, “You passed out. We won... and then you passed out.”

I scowl, cringing when it burns my throat. “I did not.”

His brows lift, and he waits.

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