Taming the Darkness: Love & Monsters, Book 2 by Devin Harnois Page A

now, but with her gut, and her gut said she had to do everything she could to protect Victor. The guards opened the door and she pointed the gun at the first guard’s head. “Leave him alone.” In the back of her mind, a voice whispered that she was being irrational. She was risking her future, jail time, even her life.
    “Stand down, Lieutenant. He’s a threat and he need to be eliminated.”
    She kept herself between the guards and Victor. “Does he look like a threat?” She could almost feel him still crouching there, hands over his ears.
    All three guards shifted their gaze higher as a deep rumble cut through the noise of the alarm. Oh shit. This wasn’t going to help their case at all. “Lower your guns. He thinks you’re threatening me. Victor, shut up and sit.”
    “Step away from the creature, Lieutenant. We have our orders.”
    One of the guards tried to flank her and she shifted her gun to him. “I’m not letting you kill him.” The alarm cut out in the middle of her sentence, her voice loud in the sudden silence.
    “Claire,” Victor said through a growl. “Get out. It’s okay.”
    “Fuck you. Don’t you dare try to pull a martyr routine on me.”
    “Lieutenant, if you refuse to get out of the way, we’re authorized to use deadly force.” All three of the guards were as close to the door as they could get. They looked focused, but she bet they smelled like fear.
    “Victor isn’t a threat unless you try to attack us. Go help out there. It sounds like they could use you.” The sounds of chaos were much louder without the alarm whooping.
    “This is your final warning, Lieutenant. I’m going to count to three…”
    She felt the beginning of panic and tried to shove it down. Panicking wouldn’t help anything, especially when she was facing down three guards with rifles. She actually considered what her chances were of killing one or two of them before they killed her. Am I really going to die for Victor? Would I really kill my fellow soldiers? An idea occurred to her. She didn’t like the risk, but it was better than watching them gun down Victor or getting herself killed trying to stop them.
    “I want to talk to Major Alston.”
    “We don’t have time for this.”
    “He’s a little busy at the moment,” one of the other guards added.
    “I bet there’s people dying out there. Why don’t you get out, seal the floor. Victor could kill the others for you.” The words tried to stick in her throat. She might be sending him to his death.
    “Lieutenant, I’m not in a position to make such a decision, and even if I was—”
    Someone pounded on the outer door. Berkstrom jumped and looked at Claire as if asking her permission.
    “See who it is,” the lead guard shouted.
    Berkstrom went to the door and opened it a crack before flinging it wide. Major Alston staggered in, bleeding from his left arm. “Quick, they’re after me!” Berkstrom closed and locked the door. Claire watched them with one eye and kept the other on the guards.
    “Sir, is that you?” The lead guard asked.
    “Yes it’s—what the hell is going on in here?”
    “We’ve got a bit of a problem, sir.”
    “They want to kill Victor and I won’t let them.”
    “The order went out to kill all the alts,” the major said.
    “But Victor can help ,” she insisted.
    Her gaze kept flicking between the guards and Alston. He held his left arm, blood trickling through his fingers as he studied the situation in the cell. “How?”
    “I don’t know what happened to the others, but he’s fine. Well…you know what I mean. We can send him after them instead of risking the guards.”
    “Sir, we have our orders,” the guard said.
    “Stand down,” the major told them. “Lower your guns and get out of there. I want to consider this.”
    They backed out of the cell, weapons still raised. When the door was closed and locked behind them, they pointed their guns at the floor. Claire lowered hers as well and some of the