Dark Lies: Chapter 33

Savannah

I reeled backward as the alien presence rammed into me, sending a bone-cold chill through my body. My lungs ached, and I shivered as the shockwave dissipated, leaving my skin cold and tingly.

What the hell happened?

I looked down at Grayling’s body, then up at Jaxson.

With a burst of pain, my claws ripped out of my fingers, and I slammed my hand into Jaxson’s face, tearing at his mask.

Oh, fuck! my wolf shouted in my mind. He’s in us!

Jaxson blocked my wild blows and shoved me back.

However, Dragan, laughing in my mind, seized control of my legs. I leapt to my feet and darted into the smoke.

A gravestone caught my foot, and I tumbled to the ground. Jaxson was on me instantly.

As horror filled my mind, my leg shot out and rammed into his knee. He grunted and stumbled, and I rolled to the side.

This can’t be happening!

Oh, but it is, honey, Dragan whispered in my mind.

That fucker.

Dragan forced me to my feet even as I fought against his control. Jaxson grabbed my arm, but I spun and slammed my forearm into his skull.

His grip loosened for a second, and I ran.

Wolfie! I screamed in my mind. Help time!

We can fight this! Take control of one leg together! Left!

My wolf and I focused our will on my left leg, willing it to seize up. But I kept running.

We strained, and suddenly, my knees locked. My body twisted out of control, and I tumbled headfirst into the grass.

Eat that, Dragan!

“You think you can stop me?” he said in my voice as he fought for control of my legs.

Fear iced my skin. Oh, hell, no. I would not let the bastard take my voice.

My will rose like a burning torrent of power, and fighting for every syllable, I seized control of my vocal cords. “Fuck you, asshole. I’ll never submit.”

I felt him try to speak again, but I wouldn’t allow it.

Dragan forced me to my feet as Jaxson barreled out of the clouds of gas.

With a swift motion, Dragan thrust the claws of my left hand against my jugular, and his voice croaked from my mouth. “Don’t move, Laurent. You need her alive more than I do, and her claws are razor sharp. One more step, and I’ll tear her throat out.”

Jaxson froze midstride. “Fight him, Savannah!”

Fight him, Savannah, Dragan mocked in my mind as he took a cautious step backward.

You’re a fucking monster! I shouted at him, the words echoing though the caverns of my mind.

Yes. A monster. But you see, we’re the same, Savannah. Two murderous monsters. That is what this corrupt world has taught us to be. Forced us to be.

Even as Dragan made me walk into the mist, I bared my teeth and took control of my voice once again. “I’m nothing like you.”

You’re exactly like me. Two souls sharing one body. An aberration. A monster. If they knew what you truly were, they’d kill you where you stand, Savannah Caine. They’d kill you without a second’s hesitation.

My wolf’s voice cut into my thoughts. Sorry, asshole. This is already a duplex, and you’re the odd freak out!

Her strength poured into me, and we stumbled as the whole left side of my body came back under my control.

Dragan gave a bestial roar as he pushed back, leaving us as three souls vying for control of one body.

Fool! Dragan bellowed as his strength began to return. Together, our power would be unimaginable. The Dark Wolf God will grant us each our own form, but we could have the strength of all of us combined!

Our grip started slipping.

Suddenly, Jaxson was there, pinning my arms to my sides. His strength poured into me and cleared my thoughts, like plunging into the icy waters of the lake, like a sunrise on a cold winter morning.

I gasped and spoke. “I’m the one Dragan wants, Jax. Pull off my mask. Now!”

“What?”

“Trust me! Do it before he takes control!”

Growling with desperate fury, Jaxson reached for my mask. The second he let go, I kneed him straight in the nuts, and my traitorous right arm shot out to tear his mask off instead.

Jaxson seized my right wrist with both hands and pulled it free of his face, leaving my left arm—the one I still had control over—uninhibited. It was all I needed.

My wolf and I galvanized our will and grabbed the buckles of my gas mask with my left arm. I began to pull. Mindfuck someone else, asshole.

No! Dragan roared in my mind as he struggled against us all. He tore my arm out of Jaxson’s grip, but it was too late.

I ripped my mask free and took a deep breath of the sleeping gas. “You’re not going to control me!”

Dragan released his power over my arms and tried to take my legs. In resistance, I pivoted my waist and used my body weight to tip myself over and drop into the strange, lichen-infested grass. Then I crawled forward, hand over hand, like a zombie toward one of the smoking gas bombs, my legs jerking and dragging behind me.

Stretching with all my length, I snagged the spewing potion and brought it close to my face. Nighty-night, asshole.

I breathed in deeply as Jaxson dropped down to my side.

The gas tasted like bubblegum and smelled like marshmallows. A soothing sense of freedom washed over me like warm rain on a summer’s day. Every muscle in my body began to relax.

I didn’t have control anymore. But neither did Dragan, and that was all that mattered.

His rage and fury strained against the limits of my soul, and then, with a sudden release of tension, he was gone, and I was at peace.

I rolled onto my back as darkness closed in around my vision.

All I could see was Jaxson’s mask bending over me and tree branches swimming in a sea of clouds. I clumsily reached up and brushed my fingers along the edge of his mask, and laughed.

“Savannah, are you okay?”

I frowned as my vision spun. “I was just thinking that you kind of look like Darth Vader in that thing…but in a sexy way…Darth Jaxson. Hot Vader. I’ll workshop it…”

“What?” he asked, confusion dancing in his voice like the waves of darkness that danced in my eyes.

I felt my arm drop to the ground. The strange grass was soft, like an old linen comforter. I realized my eyes were closed. An absolutely crucial thought ran through my mind, and even though my lips felt leaden, I forced the words out. “You know, I’ve only ever watched the original…”

Darkness took me.