Page 82 of Beast

Two men. One woman. Amanda. I think the name with asneer.

Dante seems to get the message. His next thoughts arehesitant. Um, I can explain about her, love. You see…

I growl.

I love you, Kaj.

I will see about that. For now, I have a job to do. I’min a small cage. I can smell three others, but they are outside the door.

And then I forget to breathe, the pain is so great. It comesup from my paws and radiates through my body, sending fire through my veins. Mylungs feel tight, and breath is impossible. I howl with the ache that goes onand on and on.

“It doesn’t seem to be doing anything,” the man in the whitecoat says. I watch as he takes his hand off some form of button.

My body sags as the pain stops. My legs shake. I have nocontrol.

There is a kick to my cage that sends the whole thingrattling. The man in the suit stares down, disgust apparent on his face. “Hey,dummy, change. We want to see your human form. Do you think it has a brain whenit’s like this?”

White Coat frowns. “I believe so. That was only a mediumsetting though. Perhaps we should try one higher. I don’t want to push it, Mr.Palgrave. The higher settings tend to kill off the subject or at least fry itsbrains.”

Kaja, what the fuck was that? What are they doing toyou?

Dante’s panicked voice screams in my head. It is too much.They want me to change, but I cannot risk it. I can handle more in this form.If I change and they turn on the machine, there is a chance that I can die. Ineed time. Dante will come. He will come, and I need to be alive when he getshere.

I will take the pain.

Kaja! You talk to me right now. I felt that. What arethey doing?

He caught my pain? That will not do. I will have to shutdown our connection. I am loathe to do it. Feeling Dante is the only thing thatkeeps me going.

That is why I was afraid. I was afraid of loving him. I wasunwilling to fight for him because when I could not directly feel him, I didnot trust him. It is time to move past that. It is time to believe.

They are killing me. Come quickly. I love you, my Dante.

I close the connection between us as the pain begins again.This time I am alone, with no physical sense of my husband. As the shakingbegins, I realized he is still with me. No matter what. I do not need to feelhim to know he is coming.

He will always come.

I howl and hold on to the pain. As long as I hurt, I amstill alive.

ChapterThirty

Dante

The hovercar stops in midair.

My brain feels numb. Oh, every nerve in my body feels like alive wire. My heart is beating so fast, I’m surprised the fucker doesn’t setoff some alarm. My senses seem far sharper than ever before. I can see farther,smell more. Even my hearing seems to be on some type of steroids. I noticed itas we left The Club. I’m able to hear whispered conversations from yards away.My every sense has come to full life, but there’s a hole at my center. A deadspace.

She cut our connection. I can’t feel her anymore. I’m numbso the pain and panic don’t take over.

I strain to see through the thick fog that coats the air,making it hard to see anything, even with my enhanced vision. I manage to makeout the name on the building. Palgrave. Palgrave Industries owns all the upperspace. I check the side of the building. Twenty-three. Damn. We’re into thelower quarter. No wonder I can’t see much. Visibility is extremely poor belowthe fiftieth floor. And under twenty is nothing but tenements. It’s where mypeople stuff the poor so we don’t have to look at them.

My people have more in common with Kaja’s than I like tothink about.

“This is it.” Meg points to a small ventilation shaft. Sheseems excited to see the grubby thing. “It has sensors, but they don’t work.The pollution level here is off the charts. The building next door manufacturessomething that screws with the sensors. Heavy metals, I think. I’ve been ableto get into the building, no trouble.”

“And where is the lab?” Roan asks.

“Thirty floors up,” Meg says without a pause. “We have toget to the fifty-fourth floor and go across. The first air duct you come todrops directly into the medical lab. If your consort and her captors are inthere, you’ll be able to hear them.”