Kim continued to thrash, bashing his head against the concrete with enough violence to cave in the right side of his skull. His legs snapped, his shoulders dislocated, his arms twisted, each event crunching bone and shredding muscle with a wet sticky sound.
Blood and flesh smeared on the ground, pooling where Kim’s skin split, shedding in clumps, exposing muscle, bone, and filaments of black.
Subconjunctival hemorrhaging colored the whites of his eyes, then blackened with the tiny threads ravaging his body.
Johnathan moved back because holding Kim put him in firing range of the next step. The point where Mah lost any semblance to humans.
Lee and Bennet watched with more composure than Matt, who had his eyes on Kim.
“Pay attention, you idiot.” Jonathan couldn’t risk another look back to see if Matt obeyed.
Kim was too close.
A wave of black poured from Kim’s broken form, devouring it in lightless threads, weaving together, rebuilding the body it invaded into the form of the black wolf.
The Sarvari.
Since Jonathan had seen Sarvari in the flesh: long, lean body, wedge-shaped head, wide-set eyes, tall ears, prehensile toes, and big enough to look a six-foot man in the eye, he’d wondered how anyone could have ever mistaken them for wolves.
The green of the Sarvari’s eyes brightened, then dulled thanks to the suppression drugs.
Bennet screamed, seizing Jonathan’s attention.
All in a matter of seconds, a violent surge split his sternum, releasing black filaments. Crimson droplets splattered the walls. His legs followed, the bones jerking, puncturing the skin, only to be drowned in darkness.
A sledgehammer struck Jonathan in the chest. Thunder rattled the observation window. Ripples folded puddles of light.
Jonathan hit the ground. The Sarvari that had once been Kim sank its teeth into Jonathan’s shoulder.
Black spun down Johnathan’s arms, transforming them into claws, and up to his neck, covering the wound, and his bones morphed with an ear-splitting groan as he tossed Kim off. Jonathan Phased faster than most but barely quick enough to avoid having his head removed by gnashing teeth.
He seized the other Sarvari and rolled, smashing it into the wall. Concrete buckled, raining down bits of rock.
Keens ricocheted through the room mixed with the pain-filled cries of a dying man. Jonathan didn’t have to look to know who it was.
Even a piece of shit like Matt didn’t deserve to die.
But Jonathan had his own hands full.
Kim twisted in Jonathan’s grip, turning enough to plunge his razor-tipped fingers into Jonathan’s side. Another inch, he would reach Jonathan’s spine. Severing it wouldn’t kill him, but it would render him immobile long enough for Kim to chew out his throat.
It was now or never.
Jonathan locked his rear claws onto Kim’s hips, sank his teeth into his shoulder, and tumbled back, putting Kim under him. Jonathan shook his head, tearing out chunks of meat. Bone splintered, piercing the roof of Jonathan’s mouth, slicing through two glandular veins, releasing pockets of ichor.
Old stories and documents had described the event, but the process had never been studied. Even with all the blood ties forged in the pit, most of it was speculation because the gland was only present when the Sarvari dominated.
And then it was too dangerous to get close.
But the results were always the same. The bite recipient formed a pack bond with the one who delivered it. Instituting the connection at the moment the VrK took hold prevented an extended battle of wills between the cognitive mind and the thought process of the Sarvari.
It kept men who went into Phase from phasing out and never returning to a bipedal form.
The Sarvari in Jonathan’s hold shuddered. Black threads unraveled in perfect synchronization from their bodies and disappeared under their skin. Jonathan bit harder, and Kim arched his spine, shooting his load all over his stomach.
It wouldn’t be the last time. Pleasure was a side effect of Phasing.
The creature was designed to kill and had no gender or reproductive organs. Taking on the bipedal form of what passed for human, it could experience pleasure from a whole new direction. Not just once from ending a life, but repeatedly through stimulation from sound, taste, and touch.