More Than Life (Arcane Crossbreeds) Read Online Free

pale lab assistant and extended his hand. “Give me the sedative, and get those samples to Dr. Rupple.”
    She jumped and handed the syringe over before darting from the room, the samples clutched to her chest. Irial watched her retreat with disgust. The redheaded female smelled sterile, like the lab she spent all her time in. He would be well rid of the damn place and the smell if this played out like he wanted it to. This whole place sickened him. The depths to which the ruling council would go for power sickened him. The depths he himself had gone to for success sickened him. It left a stain on his soul that would never be cleansed.
    The metal straps holding the now enraged Drachon surrendered another fraction of space, and Irial considered the ominous whine of bending metal a sufficient motivation to focus on the task ahead. He pulled energy to himself, shrouding himself in it as he stepped forward with the syringe. If the weakened Drachon did manage to tear himself free of the restraints, he wasn’t about to face down the half-crazed beast with his fists alone. But he didn’t want to kill the man. Without him, all of his work these last years, every piece of his soul he’d sold along the way, would be for naught.
    No, Irial needed the Drachon alive and well. Whole and strong. He removed the cap and pressed the plunger enough that some liquid dripped from the tip before inserting it into the open end of the catheter of the IV still in the Drachon’s arm.
    Irial slowly depressed the plunger and waited until those strange glittering eyes with the elongated pupils began to glaze. Now the final stroke to push the poor bastard over the edge. He himself always found impending death a fine motivator. He leaned in close, until his lips nearly brushed the Drachon’s ear. “Your mate will die in here, Agent Merrick. That I can promise you.”
    Despite the calculated intent of his words, he wasn’t sure the taunt was that far off. The girl was in deplorable shape, and this Drachon was her only chance of survival.
    A drawn-out rumble rattled through Agent Merrick’s large body, even as it went slack in the restraints, and those eyes held his. In their depths was a promise of death.
    A death he knew he deserved after what he had done.
    But not yet.
    This final battle had only just begun.
     
     

Chapter Two
     
    Katya Schaffer lay on her back, eyes staring up into the ebony nothingness that blanketed her room, and decided death could be no worse than this.
    Dark. Silent.
    The cool blackness pressed down on her like six feet of earth. She wasn’t a fool. Not anymore. She knew her sanity hung by one straining thread. She didn’t dare move. Didn’t dare close her eyes. Instead, she lay in the silence and focused on her breathing, allowing the sound of her slow breaths to soothe her. She couldn’t open her mouth. She was afraid if she did, she would lose control and start screaming.
    And then she would never stop.
    No, she lay with hands still and folded over her belly, concentrating on the steady rise and fall. Just a little bit longer. Then she would have what she wanted. In the meantime, she was comforted by the occasional rumble of the hunger that meant she was alive.
    For now.
    How long had she been in here? Hours? Days? She didn’t know, but it hardly mattered. It may as well be years, because she wasn’t going to give them what they wanted. She would never curl up and beg to be released. Would never cry for light or for food. And she would never again meekly submit to their testing.
    They could all go to hell.
    She wasn’t broken yet, and she still had a secret left to play.
    A couple of them actually.
    Besides, it wasn’t the first time they’d thrown her in here. That had been the worst. She’d curled into a ball and cried to be released. Begged. She’d even suffered their tests in silence for a while. That was when she realized this was worse than this sensory deprivation, worse than anything they could throw