Once more ignoring the instincts screaming at him to go to Samantha, Trey leaped, putting himself between his friend and the pale creature. Nadia hissed and came at him. They met in a fury of snarls and growls, fangs and claws.
The vita threw herself on Trey’s back, trying to latch her hands around his thick neck. He felt the slight tremor as she tried to pull the life out of him like she’d done back in his apartment, but his thick fur kept the creature from getting close enough to his skin to do it right. He slung her off his back, lunging forward to close his jaws around her forearm, crushing down until he heard the crunch of bones. The flavor of her blood was bitter and nasty, making him want to gag. She slashed his face open, freeing herself, then taking a quick step back.
They circled each other, the vicious wound on her arm healing within seconds. Fire was eating into the ceiling beam and planks like a living thing, smoke quickly filling the basement. As he and the vita danced around each other, he heard Samantha and Shaylee coughing and calling out for Kyson to help them. A quick glance in his friend’s direction showed that was a useless hope. Kyson was hunkered down against the nearest wall, eyes wide with terror and locked on the flames around him.
Trey knew he didn’t have much time. If it were just him, he could have handled the smoke and flames for a while. Kyson probably could have, too. But Samantha and Shaylee? No way.
He was about to launch himself at the vita again when the creature let out a shriek that practically shook the walls of the basement. A second later, Nadia spread her arms wide and the space around her was filled with an enormous pair of frigging wings. Pale gray and leathery, they were wide enough to nearly touch each wall and had sharp, curved claws at the very tips and another set midway along the upper side.
Vitas had wings. Like a frigging bat! Why hadn’t that “expert” at STAT known that? Of all the things to leave out, it had to be the wings?
The creature charged him, wings buffeting the air like a hurricane, roiling the smoke, flames, and loose pieces of lab equipment into a swirling storm of chaos. Heat scorched some of his fur away, blistering his skin. Then she was on him, wings and claws working together to savage him, slicing into him and ripping hunks of fur and flesh right off his bones.
He howled but ignored the pain, fire, and smoke—even the fear that his soul mate would die any second if he didn’t get her out of here—and attacked. He lunged forward and latched his jaws on the vita’s throat, twisting and jerking as savagely as he could. The inky fluid pouring out of the wound nearly drowned him, but he didn’t let go, continuing to yank and tear at the screeching creature. They rolled around on the floor, Nadia trying to yank him off her and Trey doing his best to rip out her throat.
She got her hands on his blistered skin, where the fur had been burned off and the agony of his life being ripped out of him felt worse than the electricity the doctor had dumped into him earlier. He felt himself weakening even as the vita began to get stronger. Trey swore he could feel the creature’s throat healing under his fangs even as he continued to twist his head back and forth, digging them in deeper and deeper.
Trey’s vision began to blur, and he knew he was close to passing out.
Suddenly, there was a loud roar above him, followed by a bloodcurdling scream. The vita fought to get away, apparently unconcerned about the fangs Trey had buried into her neck. He chomped down as hard as he could, figuring he’d do as much damage as possible in his last few seconds. The vita only struggled harder then, until one last savage yank pulled her away from Trey’s hold, leaving most of her throat behind.
The life-sucking sensation disappeared immediately, and Trey shoved himself upright, woozy but ready to attack again. Then he saw the vita lying dead on the concrete floor, head almost completely separated from its body, and Kyson holding a bloody pair of floppy leathery wings in his trembling hands. Kyson didn’t seem bothered by the smoke that was scorching Trey’s lungs. Instead, he stood there staring at Trey in his wolf form.
Trey had no idea how long he and Kyson stood there, but it felt like forever as his friend gazed down at him with one emotion after the next crossing his features. Confusion, fear, suspicious—they were all there. But the one that worried Trey the most was the anger. It was bubbling right there below the surface, waiting for the slightest provocation to come roaring out.
Trey would have said something to calm his friend, but that clearly wasn’t an option at the moment. And he sure as hell couldn’t attempt a shift back into his human shape, not until he knew whether Kyson was done ripping things apart.
It was the sound of screaming and coughing that shattered the stalemate, and Trey looked over to see Samantha and Shaylee kneeling close to the floor, trying to find breathable air as they attempted to get either of their attention.
Trey ran to the door of the cage, avoiding the pieces of burning wood falling from the ceiling, reaching for the hasp only to discover yet again that he didn’t have frigging hands. He considered tearing at the hasp with his jaws or physically smashing his way through the metal grating with his claws and the weight of his body. But at the last second, he turned and looked at Kyson, with eyes that he prayed communicated what he needed his friend to do.
Kyson hadn’t moved at all since Trey had turned away, his attention locked now on the fire raging all around them, his whole body shaking in fear. Seeing the terror in those eyes and knowing where it came from tore Trey’s heart out. And there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to help the man.
Then a soft voice intruded into the madness.
At first, Trey thought he was the only one who could possibly have heard those words in the cacophony of raging fire, creaking wood, and exploding medical equipment. But Kyson’s head immediately snapped away from the fire over his head, coming to rest on the young woman in the cage.
“Ky, I need your help,” Shaylee said softly, calmly, like she was talking to a wounded animal. “I need you to open the door.”
Kyson stared at Shaylee, his features relaxing and his gaze softening. But then a plank cracked above them, showering them all with flaming embers and a rush of heat, and the terror came roaring right back as Kyson’s whole body tensed. His friend was seconds from losing it.
“Ky,” Shaylee called out, a little louder this time. “I know you’re scared of the fire and that, right now, all you want to do is run and hide. But I need you. Your friends need you.”
Trey realized he was holding his breath as Kyson began to look back and forth between him, Samantha, and Shaylee, clearly unsure of what to do in the face of so much fear and confusion. But then his gaze locked on Shaylee’s and he was moving, heading straight for the cage. Trey had almost forgotten how fast the man could move. He was almost a blur as he closed the distance between him and the cage.
Samantha and Shaylee pointed desperately at the hasp on the outside of their prison, but Kyson ignored them, reaching out and wrapping his fingers in the framework of the door itself. With a single heave and a screech of tearing metal, the whole side of the cage gave way. He kept yanking until the grating came loose, then he was slinging the whole section of metal across the basement. Shaylee was up off the floor in a flash, rushing into Kyson’s arms, murmuring calming words to him even as she began to cough violently in the thick acrid smoke.