Van

Luca watched Gabriella leave, an inferno blazing in his eyes, but the moment she was out of sight, he turned his attention back to Van and the others. All signs of fire were gone and only cold indifference remained.

It almost broke Van to see what the collar was doing to him. How it had erased everything they meant to each other. The icy tendrils of the void beckoned, promising relief from the pain if she would return, but she pushed it away. Luca was her remedy, and right now he needed her to be strong to save him.

"We're not fighting you, Luca," Hailey said.

"Thank you." Van flinched. How could he sound so much like himself and not at all at the same time? "I would prefer to give you quick, painless deaths."

Synchronized growls rumbled near Van's feet, and she glanced down to see Livy and Bane crouched and ready to spring, the tips of their tails twitching back and forth. Clearly, they had no objections to engaging in a fight with Luca, and with the image of that kiss still lingering in her brain, she wouldn't mind landing a hit or two just to release a little of the rage boiling in her blood.

Hailey snorted. "It's four against one. You're good, Luca, but you're not that good."

Van winced. Hailey should know better. She'd been in Slayer school far longer than Van had. The first lesson on shifters had focused on Alphas. Designed to protect the pack, they had to be able to take on the pack. The only reason they even stood a chance against him was because he hadn't come into his power completely and because Livy was half Protean.

Luca cracked his neck and stepped toward them. He shifted, but not completely. Nails and teeth lengthened to lethal points, eyes flashed gold, and black fur rippled down his arms. Van stepped between him and her friends, her power buzzing below the surface, begging to be used while she denied its release. With her luck, she would shift into a tree or mouse and be useless to the others.

"Do you think I won't go through you to get to them?" Luca demanded.

"Gabby–"|

"Gabriella," he snapped through gritted teeth.

Van grinned. God, how she must hate that nickname if she'd taught him to correct her. "Gabs said you couldn't kill me."

His grimace morphed to a smirk. "You're right. I can't kill you, but she didn't say anything about hurting you, which I will do if you don't get out of my way."

Hailey touched Van's arm and held up her phone. She'd typed out a message on the screen. Smart, because Luca could hear whispers a hundred feet away.

I'm the only one who can take that collar off him. That's all we need to do to get him back.

Floorboards creaked beneath Luca's boots as he shifted his weight, watching them through narrowed eyes. Van studied the collar. Dark as sin, it seemed to swallow the sunlight pouring through the window over the kitchen sink. Disgust rippled over her skin as she remembered the night he told her what they were made of and why they were used. The skin of her people fashioned into a tool to control Luca's people.

That's all.

Hailey wrote the message as if this task was going to be simple, but nothing was ever that easy. They'd been so focused on finding Luca that they hadn't really given a lot of thought about what to do when they did, and it was clear now that the despicable magic in that leather band had done its work. As long as it was around his neck, Luca didn't exist.

Fear gripped her. He had to still be in there... somewhere, right? Was he trapped behind a wall or in a place of despair like she had been? Was he in a waking coma, and would he be as broken as she was when they pulled him out?

No. She shook her head, aware of everyone watching her as she warred internally with herself. Her hell had lasted for weeks. Luca's would only last for a day. He would come back to her.

A high-pitched keening filled the room, and Luca grabbed his head, nearly falling to his knees. Hailey lunged toward him. Determination hardened her features, but before she could reach him, he was back on his feet, his skin pale and eyes feverishly bright.

Like the night in the Helsing crypt, Van's vision split into two. The ghostly white echo clinging to Luca moved at triple speed, revealing what he would do next. Her chest squeezed tight as she watched the future unfold–a future that, if it came true, would take so much joy from the world. Tears dropped from her lashes as reality and maybes snapped back together.

"Enough," Luca shouted, grabbing a gun from the holster at his hips. If not for the vision, Van wouldn't have known it was there. It blended in so completely with his outfit.. "As much as I would have loved to do this the honorable way, we're out of time."

Luca swung his arm toward Hailey and pulled the trigger.

The roaring of the big cats behind Van turned to anguished screams as Bane and Livy shifted into their human forms, their arms outstretched as if they could catch the bullet. They would be too late. She'd seen it.

Hailey would be struck first and be dead before she hit the floor. Two more gunshots in rapid succession. Snuffing out two more lives.

They would be too late, but Van wouldn't be. Power surging through her, her arm unraveled and reformed into the first thing that came to her mind. A shield. Metal pinged against metal, sending the bullets ricocheting around the room and forcing Luca to take cover.

"Run," she shouted at her friends crouched behind her shield.

Bane gaped at her. He had one hand on Hailey's shoulder, squeezing so tightly his knuckles were white, and his other hand gripped Livy's. "How?"

"Go!"

They bolted for the door. Van looked over her shoulder in time to see Luca take aim. She threw herself at his knees, forcing his shot to go wide. Arm returning to normal, she kicked out at him, hating how he grunted in pain when her foot collided with his ribs.

Pain burst along her scalp as he grabbed her hair and pulled, stopping her from getting away. Red strands fluttered to the floor as his panther claws cut through her hair. Every single instinct screamed at her to keep struggling as he dragged her toward him, but the involuntary haircut sparked an idea. Her hands going just below where he gripped her hair, she shifted one hand into scissors and, with a grimace, snipped.

Luca reeled back at the sudden shift in weight, and Van turned to face him, her uneven strands of hair swinging around her chin. He roared, raised his hand, and then went motionless, the gold flickering in his eyes until it extinguished entirely, leaving behind only warm brown with cinnamon flecks.

"Luca?" she whispered.

He groaned and shook his head. "Y-you're hurt."

"It's just hair." She touched the ragged ends, then winced. Glancing down, she spied red seeping through my shirt. "Guess I didn't shift all the way."

The gun clattered to the ground, and then Luca's hands were on her, tearing away what was left of that sleeve to expose the wound in the soft flesh of her underarm. His touch was gentle as he rotated the arm, and he exhaled in relief when he spied a clean exit wound.

"Looks like it's already healing," he said.

"Protean plus." She swallowed and looked up, holding her breath when she realized they were close enough that their noses brushed. Close enough, she could change the angle of her head and touch his lips with her own.

"Y-you feel familiar." His eyes danced across my face, taking in every feature, freckle, and scar, and bit by bit, the walls fell and Luca returned.

"Luca," she said, hand going to the back of his neck to draw him closer. Only instead of skin, she touched the collar.

Agony and nausea rolled through Van, and distantly she heard shouting–her own, or Luca's, or both. She fell to her knees and retched. The room spun and pulsed around, making the nausea worse. Someone drew her hair out of her face and rubbed her back. Small soothing circles that drew away the worst until at last she could sit up, wipe her mouth, and look around.

"You touched the collar," Hailey said, helping Van to her feet. It wasn't a question. Livy and Bane hovered in the door, both thankfully fully clothed.

"Yeah. I didn't mean to." Van hadn't even been thinking about it. "Where's Luca?"

The three shared a look. Livy sighed. "We heard you scream. Both of you. But when we got back to the house, he was gone."

"That's okay." She sagged against Hailey. "He's still in there. That's what matters, and we're going to get him back."