Bonds That Break (The Havoc Chronicles Book 3) (18 page)

I looked around stupidly, completely at a loss as to what to do. "Rhys," I said, and shook him, hoping to somehow wake him up. "Don't do this."

Rhys' breathing eased and his eyes returned to their normal position of looking outward.

"What happened?" he asked. His voice was soft and faint.

"That's the same question I was going to ask you," I said. "I was using a snare tendril to look down the ice worm hole and when I got done you collapsed to the ground like you were having a seizure." I hugged him tight. "Don't ever do that again."

Rhys pushed himself up to a sitting position. "Trust me," he said. "I don't plan on it." He took a deep breath and shook his head. "That was the strangest thing. One minute I was watching you as you said you wanted to try something, the next minute I felt a piercing pain in my head." Rhys paused and took several more deep breaths. "I had just enough time to wonder what had attacked me before I lost consciousness."

I stood up and looked around. All I could see was ice and rocks. This valley was relatively flat so it wasn't like there were many places to hide. As far as I could tell we were the only people within a hundred miles if not more.

I jumped when I felt Rhys' touch on my shoulder. "You shouldn't be standing up yet," I said. "We need to make sure you're ok before we go on."

Rhys gave my shoulder a squeeze. "I appreciate the concern," he said, "but even Berserkers shouldn't hang out in these temperatures any longer than necessary. We need to find the ice worm and get back to the boat."

I wanted to protest. He hadn't seen himself fall to the ground and watched his eyes roll back. That was
so
not normal, and I was really worried about him. But I also recognized that he had a point. We needed to get our business done and get out of here as quickly as possible.

"Ok, fine," I said. "What do we do now?"

Rhys smiled. "Don't worry. I came prepared." He reached into a coat pocket and pulled out a chocolate bar.

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you serious?" I asked.

"Completely."

I looked at the candy in Rhys' hand and was reminded by just how much I had changed over the past year. Before I would have wanted nothing more than to eat the chocolate, savoring each delicious, sugary bite. Now, I felt kind of nauseated at the thought of it. "So, what is that for?" I asked.

"Bait," Rhys said.

"Bait?" I asked, the disbelief clearly audible in my voice.
"We're going to catch an ice worm with chocolate?"

"That's right," said Rhys. "Look, I know it seems ridiculous, but ice worms are attracted to candy. We discovered it by accident while here last time. The ice worms kept raiding our supplies while we were out hunting them. We finally realized that they were attracted to the sugar in our food and used that to lure them out of their underground tunnels."

Rhys unwrapped the chocolate bar and split it in half. He placed one of the halves by the mouth of the ice worm hole and the second half he tossed into the hole itself.

"What's next?" I asked.

"We wait," said Rhys. "With any luck there's still one in the tunnels below. If there is, it will smell the chocolate and come investigate. After having sampled the goods, it shouldn't take too long before it comes to the surface. And when it does, we’ll be here waiting. With this."

Rhys opened his backpack and pulled out a plastic jar. He removed the lid, revealing a layer of latex stretched over the jar’s mouth.

Just when I thought this day couldn't possibly get any weirder. "What's that for?" I asked. "Let me guess. It's a special drum that summons them to a dance party?"

Rhys didn't even bother to reply. He just smiled and shook his head good-naturedly. "It's for milking the ice worms," he said. "You have them bite down on the latex and the fangs pass through. The latex then presses against the venom gland and squeezes out the liquid. It’s how they do it with snakes. Same principle, just a much larger scale for the ice worm."

It sounded simple enough. The trick was to do it with a monster-sized worm two feet in diameter, not a snake you can hold in one hand. With the two of us here we should be able to handle it, but the prospect was still kind of daunting.

The next few hours passed by rather slowly. We talked at first, but after about fifteen minutes we realized that we were likely scaring the ice worms off so we were forced to terminate the conversation.

Instead, I watched Rhys as he watched the ice worm hole. Seeing him collapse again had really unnerved me. Something was seriously wrong and that scared me. Rhys had been with me from almost the beginning of my Berserker journey. I had spent more time with him than anyone else over the past year. Between school, training, the play, going on secret dates, and chasing down Havocs, we had spent the majority of our waking hours together. I honestly loved Rhys. If anything happened to him, I didn't know what I would do.

A scraping noise interrupted my pondering – or was that obsessing? – over Rhys. Rhys stood up, and I followed his lead. Together we slowly made our way closer to the hole where the chocolate had been left.

The ice worm poked its head out of the hole. Squirming white tentacles ringed a circular mouth filled with large teeth set at angles, like a massive drill bit turned inside out. Four fangs stood out on two sets of mandibles each at least six inches long. The tentacles writhed in the air searching for something – I couldn't tell if the tentacles were for smelling or feeling something else in the air.

The worm slid out of the hole, massive and strong. It sucked down the chocolate bar and probed the air with its tentacles, searching for more. Rhys unwrapped another one and held it out in his hand. The worm slithered toward Rhys, more and more of it pulling out of the hole. Five feet. Ten feet. Fifteen feet. Finally a barbed tail emerged, marking the end of a twenty-foot monstrosity.

Rhys continued backing up, luring the worm farther away from the hole. He tossed the chocolate a few feet away and the worm changed direction, following the sweet.

In a flash, Rhys 'zerked and jumped on the worm, wrapping his arms around it near the head. The creature thrashed wildly, doing its best to dislodge Rhys, but he held on with the strength only a Berserker had.

I rushed over and grabbed the tail before it could strike Rhys. I braced myself as best I could, but the ground was slippery, and I didn't have good traction. I quickly discovered that although I was far stronger than the creature, it really didn't matter when it was strong enough to lift me off my feet. I squeezed my arms and held on, but I didn't have enough mass to stop the creature from thrashing about and lifting me off the ground.

Rhys was having better luck near the head where he had more leverage. He grabbed two of the worm's mandibles and twisted its head so that it was turned at an awkward angle toward the ground. The worm let out a harsh rasp of pain and tried to burrow back down into the ground. Rhys pulled back on the creature's head, keeping its jaws from digging into the ice.

"It's going to slip away!" Rhys yelled. "I need the milking jar!"

I was in a dilemma. If I let go, the worm would be able to thrash more and possibly dislodge Rhys. If I didn't, it looked like the worm was soon going to slip out of Rhys' grasp and we might lose it forever.

Instead of letting go, I reached out with a snare tendril and grabbed the jar, bringing it to Rhys.

Who, in the five seconds between his request and my bringing him the jar, had passed out.

Now free from Rhys' grasp, the worm reared back, ready to attack. I threw out another binding cable and wrapped it around the worm's neck, pulling it away from Rhys. There was no way I was going to let my boyfriend be killed by a giant ice worm in the Antarctic.

Maintaining the pressure on the binding to keep the ice worm away, I used another cable to lift Rhys up and bring him to me. I set his limp body down and checked to be sure he was still alive. I could feel a pulse and see his chest rising and falling, but he was completely unconscious and didn't show any signs of waking up as he had the other times he had passed out.

I needed to get him out of here quickly.

I used another snare to pick up the milking jar. I lifted it up to the worm's massive head and poked one of the fangs thorough the layer of latex covering the mouth of the jar. I pushed the jar up so that the latex pressed against the venom gland and liquid squirted into the jar.

I had no idea how much of the venom we might need to cure my dad, so I milked a second fang, just in case. By the time I was done, the jar was half full, and I set it out of the way so the worm couldn't knock it over.

I used more cables to wrap up the worm and lift it into the air. As I did so, Rhys began to move. I felt intensely relived that he was finally waking up.

That sense of relief quickly disappeared as I watched Rhys more closely. His movements started out slowly, as if he were simply waking up from a deep sleep, but soon those movements grew more urgent and violent until it looked as if he were having a seizure.

Keeping the worm wrapped up so it couldn't attack while my attention was elsewhere, I bent down to check on Rhys. He thrashed around, his limbs flailing all over.

"Rhys," I shouted. "Rhys, it's me, Madison. Wake up!" I grabbed him by the shoulders and tried to hold him still, as if somehow I could make his convulsions stop if I could just hold him still long enough.

He continued to thrash against me, and his mouth opened in a soundless scream of pain.

I pulled him into my arms and tried to sooth him. "Shhh. It's going to be all right. Everything will be all right. Come back to me."

As if a switch had been flipped, Rhys stropped struggling and lay completely still.

My heart froze, colder than the Antarctic air around us. Was he dead?

I had my answer an instant later when his eyes snapped open.

But instead of the beautiful blue eyes I loved to gaze into, bright red orbs stared back at me, filled with malevolence and hatred. Never before had I seen something like this, but I had heard about it in my Berserker training.

Rhys had gone feral.

Chapter 11

Going Feral

"No," I said. It wasn't possible. I refused to believe it. Berserkers didn't just go feral for no reason. Something had to trigger it – anger, rage, hurt... something. Wasn't that what they had told me? Wasn't that what happened to Eric?

There was no reason for this. It didn't make sense. It couldn't be true. I wouldn't
let
it be true.

And then the pain hit me. Mental anguish stronger than I had ever felt assaulted my mind, overwhelming it with feelings of hate and anger. A fierce rage and hunger consumed me. I wanted to kill and destroy... everything. The very existence of the world offended me. It pained me, angered me. I wanted to destroy simply to make the pain stop. Deep in my bones I knew that as long as anything existed, my pain would continue and grow worse.

At some level, I knew these weren't my thoughts. They were Rhys' thoughts, screamed at me through our bond as Berserker and Binder. These feelings were so powerful, so overwhelming, that they broke down the barrier between our thoughts and bled into my consciousness.

I pushed back, struggling to regain control of who I was. To be Madison again. I did my best, but Rhys' emotions continued to wash over me, threatening to drown me with their intensity. It was like trying to stand still in the ocean. No matter how big or strong you are, the tidal force takes you where it will.

While I struggled with separating my mind from his anger, Rhys reached up with both hands and grabbed my throat, squeezing tight. While it was impossible to choke a Berserker, I could still feel pain.

Surprisingly, the pain had the effect of clearing my mind from Rhys' onslaught of emotions. I was able to mentally pull back and put up just enough of a barrier to separate myself from him. I still felt his emotions, but I was at least able to tell what came from Rhys and what emotions were my own.

I rolled to the side and used my legs to kick Rhys away. He flew back a dozen feet and glared at me, his baleful red eyes like glowing coals in the dark Antarctic night.

Then he rushed me again. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't use my varé because I didn't want to kill him, but I had to defend myself.

I just wanted my Rhys back.

I wanted his tender embrace, his kind eyes, his unconditional love, and the strength that gave me. I wanted that all back.

I needed to give Rhys my full attention, so I dropped my snare and let the ice worm go. Still enraged, it lunged for Rhys, jaws gaping wide.

Rhys grabbed two of the worm's mandibles and ripped them off. The ice worm let out a loud keen of pain and attempted to pull back. Rhys then began stabbing the worm with its own fangs. Over and over he slammed the fangs into the beast's head and body. Bright red blood spurted from the wounds and flew off the fangs in a spray as he attacked.

In a matter of seconds the worm was dead, savaged by its own fangs. Rhys looked down at the blood covering his hands, dropped the fangs, and let out a howl of rage.

He turned his attention from the mutilated worm back to me. He sprinted toward me with his arms out wide, a deranged look of hatred twisting his features. There was no subtlety here. No planning, no strategy. This was pure rage channeled through the man I loved.

If this had been the Rhys I knew and loved, I wouldn't have stood a chance. He was skillful enough to kill me if he put his mind to it. But this wasn't Rhys. Not really. Not in the ways that mattered. Yes, it was his body, but the Rhys I knew was not in it – or was buried deep and not in control. He had been replaced by a killing machine, fueled by anger and hate.

I pivoted my body as Rhys charged and tripped him. He flew past me and slid across the ice, stopping only when his body hit a rock.

He let out a howl of rage and stood up again. He shook off snow and ice like a wild animal and charged me again.