Beastly Beautiful Read online

  “Let me guess. You’ve fallen in love with me.” He looked like if he hadn’t been suffering he would have laughed. “A bit late to go down that road, honey. I won’t be hanging on long enough to add you to my will.”

  “I don’t care about the money!”

  “Since when?”

  The question pulled her up short. He was right. When had she cared about anything but gaining advantages in life however she could? “People can change,” she offered weakly.

  He looked at her and, for the first time, seemed to register her emotions. He coughed again. “You’re serious?”

  “Of course I am. Dr. Green is dead and you’re not much better off. Why would I be playing games at such a time?”

  He seemed to consider her words for an instant. Then a sudden, sharp pain must have washed over him, for clinching his jaw, he fell silent, apparently concentrating all his strength on the inward agony.

  Teagan didn’t know how much longer she could stand this. “What’s taking so long?” she wailed. “Help should’ve been here by now.” She slipped her scarf from around her neck.

  “Help?” he gritted. “Don’t tell me you were silly enough to call in the police? Of all the fluff brained—Ow!” His lecture was interrupted by a howl as Teagan pressed the wadded scarf over the bleeding wound on his chest.

  “No one called any police,” she told him. “I left a message for your grandfather yesterday. He should be catching up to us anytime now, and when he does, hopefully, he’ll have brought a little help. I didn’t think I could do this on my own. Now keep still,” she added, because a firm tone seemed to be the only way of getting through to him. “You’re as stubborn in your death throes as you are in good health.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” he snorted, through gritted teeth. “Nobody’s dying.”

  “That’s not what you said a minute ago.”

  “A minute ago I was ready to give up. Now that I’ve wrung some sincerity out of you, I might have a reason to hang around awhile yet.”

  Teagan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Do you mean that? That you believe me? That I’m forgiven?”

  The corner of his mouth twitched upward for a second. “Maybe…”

  She sensed he was fading.

  His next words confirmed it. “No more time for talk…I need…I just…” His voice trailed off and his eyes rolled closed. He was losing his battle to hang onto consciousness.

  “Just need what?” Teagan asked urgently. “If there’s something that can help, tell me what it is. Quickly.”

  His eyelids fluttered. “What I came for.” He coughed. “Dr. Green invented a reversal serum. He told me but refused to give it to me. That’s when—”

  “That’s when he transformed and you fought him. I know,” she said. “What happened to the serum?”

  “Desk.” He pointed vaguely toward the metal counter beneath the window. “Still there.”

  Teagan reluctantly left his side and scrambled to the desk. There was an array of tubes and implements scattered across the workspace. But right away her eye fell on a long silver needle lying amid the clutter. It looked just like the ones they used in the doctor’s office to draw blood, only, rather than blood, this one was filled with a clear, bubbly liquid.

  “You’re sure this is what you need?” she asked, kneeling, syringe in hand, at Sir’s side.

  “That’s the one. He taunted me with the cure so close, and yet—”

  “And yet he wouldn’t give it to you,” she finished. “What an evil man.” Her thoughts were interrupted as outside, she heard the roar of a car’s engine. Maybe several cars.

  She wasn’t the only one to have heard. “My grandfather,” Sir observed. “Quick. Give me the shot before he gets here. He doesn’t need to know all the details.”

  “Okay.” Against her better judgment, Teagan complied, moving the needle to hover over his bicep, where the doctors always did it.

  He shook his head, grabbing her wrist. “No,” he gritted. “Heart. Faster that way.” He weakly guided her hand to his chest.

  Teagan poised the needle just over the skin. And then she hesitated, a sudden thought striking her. “What if this reversal serum saps the last life out of you? What if the strength of the cat is all that keeps you holding on?”

  The corner of his mouth tugged up in a half smile. “Don’t worry. I’ve got something much more powerful than that to hold me up.” His dark eyes were unexpectedly soft. “I’ve got you, haven’t I?” He lifted a tender hand to stroke her cheek.

  Despite the uncertainty of their situation, a ray of warmth and hope shot through Teagan. “You meant what you said in your note, didn’t you?” she asked quietly. “About us? A life together and all that.”

  He raised a brow. “I see I wrote too much of my heart into that letter. I should’ve saved it for a more romantic moment. A man doesn’t like to make such proposals lying on his back in a pool of his own blood.”

  “You couldn’t have chosen a better time or place,” Teagan said truthfully, knowing that until this very instant, she would have been unprepared.

  “I guess that says something about our strange relationship to date, doesn’t it?” He tried to laugh and, instead, gave a groan at the pain the effort cost him.

  “Oh no.” Teagan bent over him. “Is it growing worse?”

  He looked up into her eyes. “Much worse,” he said softly. And then he raised a hand to the back of her head and pulled her face gently down to his. It was a slow kiss, a tender one. This was a touch Teagan could respond to with her whole heart.

  “I think I like you this way,” she said softly when it was over.

  “What way? Bleeding to death?”

  She gasped, starting upright. “Oh my gosh! You almost made me forget! We’ve got to get help in here and do something about these wounds.”

  “All in good time. The shot first,” he reminded her.

  “All right then.” With shaking hands, Teagan raised the needle and poised it above his chest. She wasn’t sure if she could do this.

  In the distance she heard a sharp bang, the sound of one of the metal doors to the warehouse being thrown open. Instantly, the ring of several pairs of footsteps echoed hollowly through the building.

  “Javen?” someone called loudly. “Answer me, boy. I’m here to help.” Teagan recognized the worried voice of the elder Mr. Rotham. Still, she didn’t move.

  “Come on,” Sir whispered soothingly. “You’re a strong woman. Do this for me, Teagan.”

  And she did.

  Sir flinched a little when the long needle punctured his skin, but Teagan’s resolve held and she didn’t remove the syringe until the last of the serum had been injected. Then she cast the empty needle aside. Pressing a palm to his chest, she found his heart still beat strongly. His breathing stayed steady. All this while, his eyes had followed her movements, and there was a light in them that said he was feeling stronger already.

  The echoing voices and footsteps were coming closer to their little room.

  Teagan ignored the intrusion on their privacy. “What happens now?” she asked, hovering anxiously by Sir’s side.

  “Now?” He smiled. “Now we keep no more secrets.”