Circe's Recruits 3: Derrick (16 page)

Knowing to trust his instincts, he’d prepared for the worst. Conversations with Doc during the past two weeks had told him to expect something like this once Sabrina changed.

Well, she’d finally found her inner beast. And in doing so, she’d found that other creature as well. Doc hadn’t wanted to mention his worries to Sabrina, and Derrick agreed.

She didn’t need to know how bad it might get. He knew, and it scared the shit out of him.

But he trusted Doc to find a way to help her.

She hadn’t responded to his lovemaking the way she normally did. A clear sign something wasn’t right. But it was the red haze in her pupils and the black streaks in her skin that told him to prepare for it. Ace had been attacked a few months ago, and the creature he’d described was one of Pearl’s mutant Circs. Since Sabrina had looked like a normal Circ once she’d changed, no one had thought she might turn mutant so quickly. But when he’d seen those tar black streaks in her flesh, Derrick had known for sure.

Fuck, he wanted her to be okay. Everything inside him cried out for her to remain with him. To be Sabrina, not that damned freak show that wore her face. While a part of him got off on the pain, most of his arousal had been Sabrina’s scent, the feel of her skin against his. He hated that he’d been so brutal, but he’d known instinctively how to help her push the thing away.

“Derrick, I’m so sorry,” she mumbled against his chest. “I didn’t want to hurt you. I hate that I hurt you.” She cried harder.

“Shh. Honey, I’m okay. Look, I’m a tough bastard. No scars.” He said jokingly.

She stared at the spot where she’d bitten him. The kiss she placed over the spot was so soft, so tender, it broke something inside him. That barrier holding him apart, the weight of past disappointments, crumbled and disappeared.

“Sabrina,” he said on a sigh. He wanted to say so much. To tell her how he felt, that he knew this was love, no matter that he didn’t want it to be. He wanted to confess his fears, to show her that they had a future here as soon as she beat the mutation affecting her. But he didn’t want to add to her burden when she was already going through so much.

“You knew it wasn’t really me?” she asked.

He nodded.

“How? I felt uneasy earlier, but I didn’t think it would affect me so much. I lost control.

I tried, but I couldn’t fight it.”

“I had a feeling,” Derrick said, not wanting to detail how much he and Doc had discussed of possible solutions to this crisis. Since sex had bonded the Circs before, Doc had reasoned that sex might help him deal with Sabrina if she wigged out. His beast had told him the same when he’d seen that bloodred glint in her gaze.

“A Circ thing, huh?” She sniffed, looking beautiful despite her red-rimmed eyes and stuffed-up nose.

“Sabrina, you have to let Doc run more tests,” he blurted, not able to keep all his fears at bay. “He’s close to a solution. I know it. Doc’s the best. You can trust him.”

“I do. I trust all of you.” She paused. “Well, maybe not Ace, and Zack’s a little iffy.” Derrick grinned. “Tell me about it. But you know they’ve only given you a hard time because of what Pearl did to Kelly.”

Which made him wonder how he was going to explain Kelly’s and Caitlyn’s sudden disappearance from the house. After dinner, Roane and Zack planned to take them away.

Caitlyn, Roane, Zack, and Kelly would lodge in another of Doc’s properties, one of the many Circ safe houses that existed in the Northeast.

Derrick agreed. He didn’t want the females around Sabrina when she lost it again. The guys would be okay, but if anything happened to their women, they might instinctively try to destroy the threat, which would totally fuck things up. Because if Derrick had to choose between the guys and Sabrina -- even as a monster -- he’d side with her, mutant and all.

“But that’s just it, Derrick. I can’t stay here. Not now. I’m a danger to Caitlyn and Kelly.”

Shit.

“What if I accidentally change and hurt one of them?” She stared at him, wide-eyed with fear. “What if I end up killing them?”

“Relax, princess. I’m not about to let that happen.” She studied him, and he wondered if she was aware she stroked his chest, petting him like a cat. “Why aren’t you more worried about what just happened between us?” Derrick rolled onto his back, not wanting to face her when he lied outright. “I am. I’m just trying to keep it together for you.”

“No. You knew this might happen. What about that bag?” she asked, looking at the bag he kept his toys in.

Derrick grinned and turned to face her. “Princess, that’s standard gear. I was saving that for a special surprise. Every now and then, getting tied up can be a ton of fun.” She shook her head. “And the clamps?”

He hardened, despite coming hard enough to blow his head clean off. “I love the way they make your nipples red. And wait until you feel them on your softer skin.” He rubbed her breast, pleased when her nipple puckered. “It hurts at first, but it’s a soft hurt.” Silence fell between them. “So you like pain with sex?”

“A little. But nothing like what we just did.” He cleared his throat, bothered she might be turned off by this quirk. “Hey, I don’t have to hurt you or anything. We’ve made love a ton of times before now, and I was more than fine.” She blinked in surprise, and he wondered what that meant. Did she not believe him?

“Oh, yeah, we did.” She smiled. “It’s okay, Derrick. Some of that was nice.” She flushed.

He couldn’t believe she could still blush, considering what they’d done. “Like what?”

“The, um, the clamps were okay.”

“Really?” So maybe there was a small pain freak buried under Sabrina’s brainy exterior after all.

“And I didn’t mind being tied up. It was kind of sexy.” Her smiled faded. “But I hated that I wanted to feel so much pain. Derrick, I enjoyed biting you. Not because I thought you’d like it, but because I thought you wouldn’t.”

He wondered about that. “You could feel everything that beast felt?”

“Not beast. My inner beast wasn’t there. It was a monster. The entities are separate, and I think it’s important to note the distinction,” she said, sounding like Doc.

“Okay. Your ‘inner monster,’” he mocked, pleased that she looked annoyed instead of worried. “Semantics.”

“Big word, genius. Semantics has three whole syllables.” There she was. His Sabrina. His heart swelled.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

He answered her with a kiss that turned carnal in seconds. Without thinking about it, he put her flat on her back and made slow, sweet love to her. He sucked her nipples, kissed his way down her body, and loved her with his mouth and hands. Entering her before she could come, he made sure they found their bliss together. Joining hands, he found his joy with her, inside of her, and prayed he’d have the strength to stop her the next time her “inner monster” broke free. Because he knew, without knowing how exactly, that she was only going to grow stronger.

Five more days passed without incident. Sabrina and Derrick had filled Doc in on everything, and he’d taken it all in stride. Sabrina wasn’t stupid. She knew it was only a matter of time before she lost it again.

She didn’t wait for anyone to ask her. She’d confined herself to Doc’s basement lab, keenly aware of the differences and similarities between her situation here and at Pearson Labs. Here she was in a clean, respectable scientific laboratory with a doctor -- and a lover -- who wanted only to save her. At Pearson Labs, she’d been in a less than sanitary place for monstrous beasts. She’d turned down several unflattering come-ons from Dunn and a few others and had felt nothing but pity for the mutations Pearl created. But here, in Doc’s lab, she didn’t pity herself so much as she regretted her situation.

She was, in essence, a victim. Sabrina hadn’t volunteered to become a Circ. But to think of herself as a victim took away her power. She’d been strong enough to escape Pearl once.

Who was to say she couldn’t escape his machinations again? Having Derrick by her side helped.

They made love constantly, which surprised her. She’d have thought Derrick would want to keep his distance after the first time she’d turned crazy, but he hadn’t. He treated her with gentleness, so much so that she’d been tempted to ask him to rough it up a little.

But afraid that might stir the monster inside, she instead accepted what he gave her.

Dummy that she was, she couldn’t stop herself from loving him. Every minute around him she fell harder. His deep voice, large, sexy frame, and beautiful brown eyes remained with her, even when they were physically apart. She could still taste him, that cinnamon spice that was even present in his blood.

Wishing she could forget that part of their history, she dwelled on his blood more than she liked. For some reason, the taste of his blood intrigued her. Circs weren’t vampiric. They didn’t drink blood. Even the mutants Pearl had created killed for pleasure, not to find an alternate food source. Yet instinct propelled her to linger on memories of Derrick’s taste. To her surprise, she felt calmer when she did.

“Sabrina?” Doc called through the intercom on the wall.

Funny that just a few weeks ago, she’d wanted out of this room. Now she didn’t want to be anywhere but inside, safe from harming the others.

“Yeah, Doc?”

“I’m coming in. Ace is with me.”

She tensed. “Where’s Derrick?”

“He had to see Harry about something for me.” Harry, a homeless man who made a living by gathering and disseminating information for Sabrina, and apparently Circe’s Recruits, had been a godsend when Pearson Labs had relocated to that barren area in New Jersey. She wondered how he and Derrick had first met.

Then she wondered what Derrick was doing for Doc so near Pearson Labs.

“Doc, what’s going on?”

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with.”

“Where are the others?” she asked, uncomfortable at the thought of being near Ace.

Though Roane had said he doubted she’d need to bond with him, Sabrina didn’t like the handsome Circ. Something about him rubbed her the wrong way. Thinking about having sex with him to ease their relationship didn’t sit right. At all.

Her inner beast growled a warning, but she hurried to stifle it. She’d gone five days without changing. She reasoned that if that monstrous Circ inside her had shown the last time she changed, she simply wouldn’t change again until Doc found a way to fix her. If he found a way.

“Sabrina? I need access to the lab. I think I might have found something.” Doc sounded excited.

Shaking off her misgivings, she said, “Okay, Doc. I was just curious as to where Derrick had gone. You and Ace are more than welcome.” Sabrina refused to consent to be near Doc without another Circ present. Even though he said he could handle her, his trusty syringe in hand, she doubted he could react quickly enough to use that syringe before she changed. And if the monster was there, it would kill him in a heartbeat. No question, no hesitation.

She waited a few minutes, working to will away her tension. Her inner beast responded to stress, so she resolved to keep calm.

The door pinged, and Doc followed Ace into the room. The Circ shot her a sharp look.

He must have noticed Derrick’s T-shirt, which fit her like a dress, but he said nothing about it, or the jeans she wore underneath. She might as well have worn a sign that said DORKS-R-US.

“You look well,” Doc said, his eyes warm. “I think you’re doing better, in fact. The last series of tests I ran on your blood shows foreign cells building, cells I think might be antibodies to the mutation condensing near your neural pathways. Some of my antiserum is working.”

Sabrina nodded. “I feel better.” At least, she did when she inhaled Derrick’s scent -- hence the T-shirt next to her skin. She jerked when she caught Ace’s scent. It was strong, a blend of Zack, Ace, and Kelly -- a pregnant female. Her eyes widened.

“Doc, have you considered Kelly’s afterbirth?”

“What?” Ace growled.

Doc’s gaze sharpened. “Sabrina?”

“You know how important fetal tissue can be when dealing with stem-cell research.

Why not use the cord blood and placenta to do some real testing? Especially if her pregnancy hormones are as unique as I think they’ll be.”

“A wonderful idea. That would be ideal for helping you… Well, it won’t help right now, of course. But I’m sure we’ll come up with something in the meantime.” Some of his excitement faded, in direct proportion to the anger building in Ace.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” he demanded, the threat clear in his voice.

Just like that, Sabrina’s skin itched with the need to change. “Ace, I think you should take Doc out of --”

“Are you threatening my baby? You want to use him like a fucking experiment?” Ace changed in seconds and flew at her. He pinned her to the wall, his large hand palming her throat with ease. “God, that feels good,” he growled. “Hurry up, Doc.” Sabrina didn’t understand what was going on, but she didn’t like Ace so near. He smelled like another female, one with young in her womb. Young that might try to supplant Sabrina, the dominant female. With Caitlyn’s scent gone, it was as if she no longer existed.

But to be reminded of Kelly…

She glared at Ace, wanting to watch him bleed.

“Fuck. Now, Doc.”

She didn’t feel the sting in her neck until Doc pushed the plunger all the way down.

Then her body burned like crazy. Shocked and furious that Doc had turned on her, she erupted.

Her inner beast faded in comparison to the monster growing inside her. She grew until her clothes painfully restrained her, but with a flick of her wrist she tore through the fabric.

And she continued to grow. She reached Ace’s height, her size forcing him to add another hand to encircle her throat.

“I never did like you,” she growled and punched him in the solar plexus. Though at a disadvantage in position, too close to land a hard-enough punch, she managed to free herself from his grasp as he stumbled back.

Without waiting, she struck him hard and fast in the neck, severing the flow of oxygen to his brain. Circ or not, he couldn’t function if he couldn’t breathe. The blow knocked him out long enough to strap him down on the table built to handle a Circ.