Page 43 of Sharpen Your Claws

“Don’t refer to him as a pet.” He opened a window to step upon the beams. “And yes, the patients are frightened by me, let alone the two of us. We shouldn’t make the sick uncomfortable.”

“As if that has ever stopped you before.” Evera leaned over the beam. Any other would think she was about to fall, teetering on the edge. “Imagine if I dropped right now. How many do you think would croak?”

“Five.” He bit his tongue. “We are not discussing this.”

“I think seven, that one is hardly breathing already.”

He ignored her and set his path to the office. The office blinds were open. Inside, a handsome man stood at William’s back, slender fingers laid upon his shoulder. He wore lavish attire, bright and perfectly fitted. When he spoke, he wore a confident smile, eyes gleaming. William listened intently, nodding along to whatever the man said, then smiled.

Nicholas’ stomach knotted. His throat tightened. His steps carried him over the rafters. The stranger leaned over William, too close. Clenching his jaw, blood filled the gaps between his teeth. He fell upon the stairs and threw open the door. The rattling of the windows brought the stranger and William’s gaze to him, both paling at the sight.

“Nicholas,” William hardly spoke before he lunged across the room.

Papers scattered. William fell out of his chair. Nicholas’ claws wrapped around the stranger’s neck. They fell to the floor together, Nicholas on top of him. The man released a strangled noise, suppressed by the tightening of Nicholas’ fingers. His nails pierced the skin of his neck, staining his collar red.

16

Nicholas

EverathrewNicholasoffthe man. All he saw was red. All he wanted to see was red. He lurched at Evera, the new obstacle in his path. Fire spread over his fingertips, vicious in their violet light. Evera shrieked from the flames breaking over her skin. She retreated, dousing the flames with a wave of her arm.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” William bellowed, panicked and breathless.

That fueled his anger, that William was all over the stranger, desperate to ease him. He directed most of that anger toward Evera, who wore far too smug a smile even as her arm flared red from the burn.

“Why are you interfering?” He intended to finish the job.

Evera blocked his path. “You should be thanking me. I stopped you from making a terrible mistake.”

“There is no mistake. That bastard—”

“Richard, my brother,” William interrupted, his voice full of rage that made Nicholas’ blood curdle. The doctor stood, eyes blistering cold and bloody, hands clenching a blade he grabbed from beneath his desk. “Put your hands on him again and I will cut yours off.”

The reality of what he had nearly done sent him into a spiral. His thoughts drowned him, cursed him for putting such terror and anger on William’s face.

Shaking, Richard held a hand over his heart. William fell beside him. He kept the blade in one hand and laid his other on Richard’s neck. Thanks to William, the wounds upon his nape healed, but for whatever reason, he struggled to catch his breath. William pressed their foreheads together, instructing Richard to breathe in tune with him. Each of his breaths sounded painful, causing Nicholas to shrink further.

He hurt William’s family, the people he loved most, and Nicholas admitted to wanting to join. How could he ever do that when he reacted in such a way? He had been a fool. Laurent was right.

Laurent was always right.

Richard stood with William’s help. When he spoke, his voice came out hoarse and cracked. “I’m alright.”

William watched him a moment longer, then set his angered eyes on Nicholas.

“Get out,” he growled, knife raised, though he couldn’t hide the tremor in his hand.

Nicholas stepped forward. “I didn’t know. I thought—”

“It doesn’t matter what you thought,” William interrupted.

“Please, let me speak.” Any good will he received over the days had vanished in the face of his mistake. William looked at him with fear, like the next monster to fight and when he next opened his mouth, Nicholas blurted out the first words he thought would silence whatever cruelty William might share. “I found a shadowed disciple today.”

It was like they returned to the Deadlands, traveling the woods together with William, never giving him attention unless it pertained to information.

He knew to keep going, otherwise William would push him out the door. “Another patient has been taken. If we made ourselves known, the shadowed disciples would have realized they’ve been discovered.”

“They’d go underground,” Richard said hoarsely. “And they may go elsewhere. You could lose them entirely.”

---