Colton's Dilemma (Shadow Breeds) (15 page)

Tess put his arm over her shoulder, wrapped one arm around his waist and began to move
them slowly Colton groaned and hissed with each hop that he had to make.  A loud crash somewhere down the hall made Colton’s head whip around.  “Hurry, Tess,” he whispered.  They increased their pace and finally reached the corner.  Tess pressed her back into it as Colton moved his body in front of hers.  He was able to use the wall next to him to slightly compensate for his broken leg.  Tess watched, fascinated, as, despite the incredible amount of pain he must be in, every muscle in his body tensed as he prepared to do battle to protect her.  “Wrap your arms around me and pull me in tight,” he said.

“But your ribs, they’re broken.”

“Don’t care.  Just do it, Tess.  Now.”

She did, trying to ignore the
grunts of pain that Colton tried to hide.  Their naked flesh was fused tightly, her breasts smashed against his back, his butt pressed into her belly, as the noises from the hall grew louder.  Tess squeezed her eyes shut as she pressed her forehead into the back of his neck.  “Whatever you do, don’t move and don’t make a sound,” he whispered.  A moment later there was a loud crash as the door to their room flew off of its hinges.

Chapter
6

             
Tess inhaled a deep breath and squeezed her eyes tighter as she felt, yes,
felt
, the evil presence enter the room.  What she felt from this thing (Hansen, she had to remind herself) was more frightening than anything that she’d ever felt in her entire life.  A loud growl erupted from the front of the room.

“State your duties, Hansen,” Colton shouted.

She heard nothing but more growls and snarling.

“Duties, state your duties,” Colton shouted again.  Tess chanced a peek and saw a black-eyed, snarling Hansen, with claws for hands, hesitate in the center of the room.  Hansen took one look at Tess and started to move his foot forward.

“Take another step closer and you will be relieved of your duties, permanently!”

Hansen again hesitated.  His head tilted to the side, as if what Colton was saying was leaking into the part of his brain that was still Hansen.  He took a deep breath, clenched his hands/claws and shook his head.  Nothing changed.  Another deep breath and a stronger shake of the head and Tess watched as his claws morphed back into hands.
  Hansen crouched down to the floor and grabbed both sides of his head.  His head shook back and forth as he started to mumble, “Can’t stop, can’t stop, have to stop, can’t stop.”  He got louder and louder until he finally jumped back up and shouted, “I. Can’t. Stop!” Then he started moving towards Colton and Tess again.

“State.
Your. Damn. Duties, Now!” Colton growled.

Hansen stopped and jerked into attention.  He appeared to force his words out of his mouth as he said, “To serve and protect
Master Colton Renner at all costs,” he said in a rush of air through clenched teeth.

“And why do you do this?” Colton said.

“Because he keeps me from killing, from being a monster,” Hansen said.  He blinked his eyes a few times.  On the third blink, they changed back to his normal eyes.  He scanned Colton’s naked body one time, “You’re injured sir, very badly.  We need to get you home.”

“I know
.  I need to feed, Hansen.  Did you leave anyone alive in this house?”

“I don’t know, sir.  I’ll have to check,” he said as his eyes swept towards the door.  When they came back and settled on Colton, he spotted Tess hiding behind him, “What the hell is
she
doing here?” he growled.

Tess watched every muscle in Colton’s back tense, but outwardly he remained totally calm, “Hansen, you will not harm her.  She was a victim in this just as much as I was.”

“You must be delirious or brain-washed, Sir.  We both saw what she did, I watched the playback from our security footage.  She used you, lured you in.  And I don’t see her beaten to a bloody pulp like you are, Sir.”

“She was hit with a magic spell that was cast by her sister
.  She didn’t know what she was doing, Hansen.  It wasn’t her fault.”

“That’s my point, Sir.  She didn’t know what she was doing so nothing that happened between the two of you was real.  None of the feelings were real,” Hansen said.

“The feelings that developed between the two of us were, Hansen.  The love that I feel for her and that she feels for me is very real.  You have to trust me on this.”

“Apologies, Sir, but I don’t think you’re thinking clearly.  None of us are.  You’re starving and injured, so I know you’re not thinking right.  She may have convinced you that she loves you, and of course she would – why wouldn’t she?  She’s trying to protect herself from me so she came to you with some lame story about how she was put under a spell but that she really does love you.  But she hasn’t convinced me.  And my job is to protect you.  So I say she goes.”

“She came to me days ago, Hansen, not just now.  She came to me and fed me – risking her own life to do so.  I almost killed her then and I’m dangerously close to killing her right now, yet she stayed then and she’s here now not to save her ass but to save mine – because she loves me.  So I need you to swear to me that you will not harm her.  Swear to it right now or I won’t let you help me.”

Hansen clenched his jaw and his hands squeezed tight, but he mumbled, “Fine, Sir.  I swear I won’t hurt her.  I won’t trust her, but I won’t hurt her either.”

“Good.  Now will you please go check to see if anyone is still alive for me to feed on, and please bring both of us some clothes?”

Hansen’s eyes traveled up and down Colton’s naked body, almost as if he was noticing for the first time that he was naked.
  “Really, Sir?  Was now really the best time to have sex?”

“We weren’t having sex, Hansen, not that it’s any of your business.  They were trying to get me to kill her and they knew that throwing her in here naked with me would make it that much harder to resist her.  It’s killing me right now with her so close to me.  It
hurts
.  I need you to get her away from me.  And I need to feed, now,”  Colton said.  The desperation was clear in his pain-filled voice. The knee on the one leg that Colt could stand on started to give out.  Tess tried to hold him up, but with her arms squeezed around his broken ribs, she knew she was hurting him.  Hansen jumped forward and put Colton’s arm around his shoulder.  “You can step out now, Miss.  I’ve got him.”

Embarrassed by her nudity, Tess hesitated.

“No time for modesty now, Miss.  I will do my best not to look.  But please move quickly.  He’s dying and I’ve got to work fast to save him.”

Tess bolted to the far side of the room, “What can I do to help?” she said.

“Take me through the house.  I need you to confirm identities of the dead.  We need to make sure no one is missing who might come after us later,” Hansen said as he helped Colton to the floor, sitting with his back against the wall, “You’ll be okay here for a moment, Sir?”

Colton nodded his head then closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall.

Hansen did his best to avert his eyes downward as he turned towards Tess.  He politely walked out of the door first so that she would be behind him which would allow her some dignity until they could find her some clothes.   “My room is at the end of the hall on the left,” she said.

“Then that’s our first stop,” Hansen mumbled.

Hansen stopped in front of her door, pushed it open, did a quick sweep of the room to confirm that it was empty then ushered her inside – all while keeping his back to her.  “Thank you, Hansen,” she whispered as she walked inside.  She quickly pulled on a pair of yoga pants and a t-shirt then slid some flip flops onto her feet.  “Where to now?” she said as she faced him in the door way.

“We check the rest of the house, starting with the body in the room across the hall from yours.  But I should probably warn you – people who have been killed by what I do, by having their life ripped out of them, well, they don’t look like regular dead bodies.”

“Wh,  what do you mean they don’t look like
normal
dead bodies?”

“What I do to them is a horrible, violent assault to their core – and it shows on their faces afterwards.
  There’s really no way for me to describe it so that you can prepare yourself for it.  Just know that you are about to see probably the worst thing you’ve ever seen or ever will see.”

Tess stared at Hansen for a moment before she said, “They haunt you, don’t they?  Their faces, you see them in your dreams.”

“Every single one of them,” he said as he slowly pushed open the door.

Tess hesitated as she stepped inside.  She could see the body of a man on the floor but his back was towards her.  Hansen walked over and placed a hand on the man’s shoulder.  Tess tried to brace herself for what she was about to see, but when Hansen rolled him onto his back and his head flopped to the side until his face was looking at Tess, well nothing she could have done could have prepared her for the horror facing her.  Tess tried to tear her eyes away from the complete agony that was staring at her – mouth frozen in a scream, cheeks sunken in, eyes turned completely black – but she was transfixed, frozen, unable to move anything but her lips – which began softly at first and then louder,  “no, no, no, NO, NO, NO, NO!”  Just as she was finally able to squeeze her eyes shut and take a deep breath to let out the scream that was demanding to come out, Hansen leapt to her side and clamped his hand over her mouth.  “You can’t scream.  Master Colton will think something is wrong with you and he will try to get up.  He needs to stay where he is.  I know it’s horrible and I know you need to scream, but you just can’t.”

A few sobs hitched in Tess’ chest as she looked at Hansen and nodded her head.  He slowly pulled his hand away.

“Can I throw up?” Tess whispered.

“If you must,” Hansen said as he nodded.  Not a split second later Tess was doubled over trying not to let vomit splatter on her feet.  A few heaves later, Tess spit a few times then slowly stood up.  Her entire body was shaking.  She was on the edge of a full-blown panic attack with her mind screaming at her to run – run as far and as fast as she could.  But her heart was telling her that she had to stay.  She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and said, “What do you need me to do?

“I need you to check each face and tell me if it’s that bastard, Shane.  I couldn’t see his face clearly in the monitors when I
checked our security feeds once I knew Master Colton had been taken – he kept himself hidden in the shadows.  I need to know if that prick is dead or if I have to worry about him retaliating later.”

“
Oh God,” Tess moaned, “You need me to Look. At. Each. Face?” she whispered, emphasizing the words with as much dread as she truly felt.

Hansen’s face was tight as he held his tongue, “Only if you want to help Master Colton,” he finally whispered.

Tess nodded her head and tried to resign herself to the task at hand, “That’s not Shane,” she said as she nodded towards the body on the floor.

“Okay,” Hansen said as he moved past her and out the door.  He waited for her in the hall.  They made their way to the stairs at the end of the hall where two bodies lay in a heap on floor.  Hansen roughly rolled over the first one.  The terrified, frozen face seemed to stare at her with its dead eyes.  Tess swallowed a few times to keep from heaving again then shook her head at Hansen.  She squeezed her eyes shut as she listened to him toss that body to the side then roll over the one underneath.  Tess was surprised when she heard a groan. Her eyes flew open.  Hansen was kneeling next to the body with his fingers on the pulse point at his neck.  “This one’s still alive,” he said as he lifted the body into his arms
then ran down the hall to the room that Colton was still in.  Tess followed close behind, gasping when she turned into the room and saw Colton lying on the floor, apparently (hopefully) passed out again.  “Is he, is he, he’s sleeping, right?  Please tell me he’s sleeping.”

Hansen ignored her as he placed the body on the floor, putting the ne
ck right near Colton’s mouth.  Tess was a little surprised and slightly pissed when Hansen didn’t make any effort to check Colton or wake him up.  She opened her mouth to say something but Hansen stopped her by holding up his hand, “His instinct needs to tell him the blood is near, it needs to wake him up to feed.”

Tess began repeating silently in her head, “Please wake up and feed, please
wake up and feed, please wake up and feed, please wake up and,” until she stopped – Colton’s eyes had opened.  In less than a second his fangs buried themselves in the neck in front of him.  Tess watched, both fascinated and, strangely, jealous as he greedily pulled the blood and swallowed it down his throat.  She wanted it to be her blood that he was feeding on.  Hers and only hers.  She was surprised when Hansen turned to her and said, “Please stop growling, he needs to feed.”

“Sorry, I didn’t realize that I was.”

“You have his blood in you,  don’t you?” Hansen asked.

Tess nodded her head, “He had to, because I forced him to feed off of me….and he took too much.”

“That’s why you’re feeling so possessive right now.”