Beast Within (Altered States, Book Two)

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An Excerpt From: BEAST WITHIN

Copyright © BETTY HANAWA, 2009

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.

With sheer will, he overrode his blind third eye and forced blood to his brain. He needed to think. Yeah, he needed to fuck too, but it had to come later. But not much later, not with his mate within reach.

"I asked you a question. Who are you? ¿Quién son usted?" Her Spanish held the accent of classroom lessons, unlike Dylan whose bilingual skills came with his mother´s milk.

Her voice had strengthened and Dylan knew he had to coax her to release him from this cage. He cleared his throat. "Water? Please?" The gun and the pretty hands disappeared from Dylan´s view.

The cage sat near the edge of the back of a van. An aluminum ramp extended downward. Its bright metal reflected the sun with the heat of summer into the van and through the mesh wire cage. In deep south Texas, it didn´t matter the calendar said mid-May. At least, he thought it was still May. It had been before this last blackout.

Dylan checked his internal clock. Yes, he realized, this blackout had lasted barely two days.

Hell Hospital had put him through sleep deprivation and tried to mess up his concept of days and nights by keeping him in windowless rooms with lights and meals at odd intervals. They had even placed him in complete sensory deprivation. Despite their best efforts, his internal clock took the licking and kept on ticking. His shaman uncle, who practiced holistic medicine, told him it was because he was in tune with Mother Earth. He was grateful for it. Because he always knew when he was, he always kept a kernel of who he was. His clock kept him sane.

He cringed away from the jumbled memories and dreams that haunted him since the last time he´d been fully aware of himself. This waking up naked and with no idea where he was had to stop and stop soon. He wanted to go back to being a state trooper since his military service was now kaput. The damn blackouts got him invalided out of his military duty and Special Forces, despite his protests.

The lovely hands came back into view, set a bottle of water and a pile of solid-colored material beside the cage. When he spotted sleeves, he realized the material was a jumpsuit. He found it touching that despite being frightened, she had the kindness to bring clothes for a stranger. On top of the jumpsuit she placed a digital camera, then efficiently unsnapped the clasp on the cage. Damn, he hadn´t realized it wasn´t locked. Of course, he didn´t exactly have the strength to cut and run, even if he had opened the cage. Plus he had no room to maneuver around to undo the clasp anyway.

The click of a double-barrel rifle being cocked into ready position had him looking at her again.