Then the table moved. It jerked and jolted, causing me to be pushed up. I opened my eyes, but through the tears, I couldn’t see much. Thick wrath suffused the air, so heavily that I couldn’t breathe. The floor quaked, and I was shoved back and forth on the table, the straps cutting my skin. Cracks splintered the walls as the whole room started to quiver. An earthquake? Not possible. A deafening noise, like a combination of ten bombs going off, cracked the walls. My ears buzzed. Lukas said something else, but I couldn’t hear him.
Roy was shaking hard enough to break his chair into splinters. Black fur was growing on his skin. His body was swelling with bulging muscles that ripped fabric and broke the chains blocking him. He was transforming into his panther, but there was a raw energy in the air that caused the hairs on my nape to stand out. Even my beast cowered in front of that savage fury.
And then it happened. A blast tossed me to the other side of the room, cutting the chains that held the shackles and the belt around my waist to the table. Even Lukas was thrown away and hit his back against the wall. There was a loud smack as he dropped to the floor, head hanging over his chest. The two officers collapsed in a pile of limbs. I wiped my eyes to clear my vision. In front of me, there wasn’t Roy’s panther, but a twelve-foot-tall beast with reptilian scales on the front, a flat muzzle, and claws like spears. A creature that didn’t look like anything I’d ever seen. The body was human-like, with an impossibly broad chest, thick arms and legs. Even his face looked more like Roy’s than his panther’s, with slitted amber eyes and a strong jaw. But at the same time, there wasn’t anything human about him. He was a monster.
A duce. And he was terrifying.
He was so animalistic, without a trace of humanity, that I wasn’t even sure he would recognise me. Footsteps thudded. SS officers stormed inside and pointed their guns at Roy. I caught a glimpse of Nathan yelling something. A roar of sheer fury came out of Roy when the bullets bounced off his scaly chest, barely touching him. Uncoiling his powerful body, he grabbed one of the men by the neck and twisted.
I screamed as the man’s body fell limply to the floor, and shut my eyes, covering my head with my arms. The sickening noise of flesh being torn apart and bones being broken sounded. The rusty smell of blood filled my nostrils. I put my hands on my ears and curled into a ball in a corner, the metal shackles cold against my skin.
The floor quaked again, but the bangs of the gunshots and the yells of the men died down. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed. Maybe a few minutes, maybe longer. I opened my eyes and recoiled. Roy’s stare was locked on me. His mouth was open, showing sharp, pointed teeth. Snake-like nostrils flared, and vertical pupils dilated. Fear lodged in my throat, preventing me from screaming. He stepped closer. I scurried away from him, shuffling my feet on the floor, but he picked me up with one clawed hand and threw me over his shoulder.
“Ro-Roy?” I slurred, not sure I could trust him.
He raced up the stairs with those massive legs the size of tree trunks. His claws left deep scars on the floor and walls as he went up unchallenged. The breadth of his shoulders barely fit the narrow passage, but he didn’t seem to care as he pushed onward. A low rumble echoed from his chest. If he was trying to communicate with me, I couldn’t tell.
Bright lights glared at me when we reached the hallway. Gunshots hissed above my head. I buried my face into Roy’s thick neck where a mix of fur and scales covered his skin. He shielded me with his body. The bullets didn’t even scratch his hide; they bounced back without causing him to flinch.
My beast was too scared to come out, but when Roy pushed me hard against his body and merged with me, she didn’t have a choice. I sank into Roy’s body, wincing as the bullets hit him. It was like being locked in a bulletproof capsule that was being bombarded by gunshots. He was fury covered in fur, scales, and steely muscles, his wrath wild and primal. Without mercy, he slaughtered his way out of the building, killing everything that moved and spoke German. I didn’t even lift a finger despite the fact that we were merged. He was doing everything alone. And it was a bloodbath. The more blood he spilled, the more he wanted to kill, a frenzy setting in. With horror, I inhaled deeply, my own beast tickled by the carnage.
He kept going, smashing doors, walls, soldiers, and cars with a single punch until we were running through the woods, maiming and killing every guard and officer who dared block his path. It was too much. I couldn’t look. I wished I could stop feeling the wrath coming out of him.
Holy smoke. Roy’s duce had slaughtered an entire garrison of Nazis without gaining so much as a scratch. Yes, they were the same people who had killed and beaten German Jews during Kristallnacht, but watching them being slaughtered wasn’t easy. The carnage would haunt me forever. He ran across the woods, venting his fury on boulders and rocks, smashing them while crying out his outrage at the moon. If he kept this up, the whole of Germany would hear him.
“Roy,” I said after he’d left a path of destruction behind. “Roy.”
He didn’t slow or answer me. When we merged, I could hear his thoughts. But in this duce form, he remained distant, as if he weren’t there at all, as if he were too far gone to hear me. He must stop. The beast was too big, too loud, and too strong to not attract attention. We’d have hordes of Nazis streaming down on us at any moment if he didn’t calm down.
“Roy, enough. We’re safe. Come back to me.”
Grunts were his reply.
“Roy, curse you. I need you to stop.”
He paused, chest heaving and blood thumping in his veins. A few delicious moments of silence passed. “Kristin,” he whispered inside my head.
I sagged in relief. “Yes, it’s me. Please, come back.”
Energy coursed through us like an overflowing stream. The duce was retreating, an inhuman energy that had the same quality as a volcanic eruption or a tsunami. Roy’s muscles contracted and shrank until we split. I dropped to the coarse ground of the woods, quivering and exhausted. Blood stained my clothes, but it wasn’t mine. Roy collapsed next to me. His breathing came out in hard pants. His shirt and trousers were missing. Not even his hallowed silk suit had resisted the transformation to a duce, and cuts covered his body from the beating. A tidal wave of emotions overwhelmed me. He was alive. He’d come for me. And he hadn’t killed Lukas.
“Roy.” I wrapped my arms around him and held him close.
He returned the hug, coiling his arm around my waist and burying his face in my hair. “I found you.” Pure fear shuddered through those few whispered words, as he shivered.
Tears streaming down my cheeks, I kissed his face right where a cut marred his skin. With a few strokes of my tongue, I sealed the wound, closing my eyes at the pleasure flooding me. I needed it. I needed to replace the dread and horror with something beautiful and positive. Even though it was at odds with the horror I’d witnessed. He tilted his head to the side to give me better access to his strong neck and another wound slashing the skin below his jaw.
“I lost control,” he said while I healed a cut on his chin.
I paused, breathing in his scent. “You did. You turned into a duce. Not a myth, then.”
A shudder went through him. “I don’t know how it happened.” His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down when I ran my tongue over a cut on his throat. “I killed them all. All those men. I couldn’t stop.” Another shiver shook him.
“Roy.” I stroked his face. “You’ll learn to control your duce. But tonight, there was nothing you could do.”
His chest was falling and rising quickly. “You must be shocked. You must think I’m—”
I pressed a finger against his lips, silencing him. Was I shocked and horrified by the carnage? Hell, yes. But I didn’t think it was his fault. Lukas had provoked him. “I have to apologise for having believed you killed your brother. I’m happy you found me. I think you’re the bravest, kindest person I’ve ever met.”