Affliction (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) - Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,105

touched his face, got him to look at me, and said, ‘Medic needs to check you. You gotta let him do that, okay?’

His eyes rolled with the pain, but he said, ‘Okay.’

I turned and motioned to Lawrence. I started to let go of Ares’ hand, but he held on tight, as if he were afraid for me to let go, so I kept hold of him, just moving his arm back with me. It also meant he couldn’t accidentally hit Lawrence with it again. If Lawrence needed me to sit down and give him more room, I would, but if it helped calm Ares and I could stay where I was, I’d do it.

Lawrence worked around me, but he’d barely touched him when Ares’ body convulsed so violently that if I hadn’t had his hand in mine his arm would have swung out again. I held on tighter and yelled next to his face, ‘Ares, it’s okay. He’s helping you.’

‘I just need to check you, no needles, nothing bad,’ Lawrence said in a voice raised over the noise.

‘No,’ Ares said in a strangled voice.

‘Let him do his job, Ares,’ I said, bending over his face. From inches away I watched his eyes turn to hyena gold. The energy of his beast crawled up our joined hands and down my spine. ‘No, don’t you dare shift in here!’

‘Can’t help it … he wants me to shift.’

‘Who wants you to?’

‘Vampire, her master, it’s … he can control my … beast.’

‘Not through a bite he can’t,’ I said.

‘Land,’ he said, ‘land, I can’t hold on. He’s … it’s … calling me.’

‘Not possible, not like this.’

‘It’s like the bite, the rot … it carries a piece of him with it. It’s not just a disease, it’s him … it’s him.’

‘Who?’

He screamed full-throated, wordless, and then he found his voice again. ‘Hurts, God, it hurts!’

‘Ares! Don’t …’

He used our joined hands to pull me close and I was left looking at his face from inches away, upside down, as if I’d put his head in my lap. His hand was almost crushing mine. ‘I won’t be me when I shift. Do you understand? I won’t be … me. He … will control. He will control … me.’

‘Shit.’ I whispered it, but my face must have let him know that I understood, because some tension went out of him. He trusted I’d take care of it. I only hoped I could.

Lawrence said, ‘Does he mean what I think he means?’

‘We land now,’ I said.

Lawrence shook his head. ‘We can’t.’

‘We have to get Ares out of here before he shifts.’

He hit the microphone and said, ‘Is there any place to land now?’

The pilot’s voice came over the headset. ‘That’s a negative.’

Ares convulsed again, and the energy of his beast raised the hair on my body. He growled, and the sound vibrated loud enough that Lawrence could hear it over all the other noises. He gave me wide eyes and got back on the headset. ‘We’ve got a problem and we need to be on the ground ASAP.’

The copilot turned in his seat just in front of us and asked, ‘What the hell was that?’

‘Shapeshifter,’ Lawrence said.

‘Landing would be good,’ I yelled.

‘Negative, repeat negative, there is nowhere to bring us down safely,’ the pilot said.

I got on the headset. ‘Shapeshifter is about to lose his shit, we need him out of here before that.’

‘We were assured the shapeshifter had control of himself, or we wouldn’t have let him on our bird,’ the copilot said.

‘Normally he does, but trust me. You want him out of here before it happens.’

‘We got no landing site for at least the next ten minutes. Can he hold it together for that long?’

‘Ares,’ I said.

He looked at me with his hyena eyes. His body convulsed and I almost had to cry uncle. He was going to crush my hand if he didn’t stop.

‘Ares, can you hear me?’

‘Yes,’ but his voice had that edge of growl to it.

‘Ten minutes, hold on for ten minutes and then they’ll land.’

‘I don’t think … not sure.’

‘Hold on, we’ll get you out of here, but you gotta hold on.’

He writhed again, and I had to pry my hand out of his, or he was going to break me. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, and then he screamed again, but the scream ended in a gibbering howl.

Lawrence backed up and had only his little seat to go to. The pilot looked behind at us but spoke through the headset, because of