Monster
I stood in the shadows of the forest, before the hidden turnoff to the Academy, shrouded in darkness. I was waiting.
I had seen Flint’s face when he realized it was Rook that had hurt Mouse so badly, and I knew his expression. It was fear.
Which meant he was doing something noble, but stupid. I wasn’t going to stop him, but I was going to use him as bait. And then I would save him and give him back to my mate as proof of my seriousness. Proof that I had the ability to protect her and our Pack.
I was rewarded when Flint walked down the middle of the road, uncaring if he was hurt, unseeing to the threats around him. He was a man walking to death row, and something had twinged in my chest. The headlights speeding down the winding mountains toward him had barely stopped before he was being kicked in the face and stuffed in the back of a car.
I’d followed along behind them, knowing that conceited fuck would lead me right where I needed to go. Oh sure, he trailed us around the damn city for an hour first, but I could be invisible when I needed to be. When he’d finally pulled into the underground parking lot of a warehouse downtown, I knew I was in the right place. The Wendigo had screamed for his heart, and I was going to give it to us both.
He had hurt my mate. Tortured and almost killed her. I would exact my revenge in the most bloody, painful way imaginable. I crept up to the front entrance, shrouded in shadows. I was death, and tonight I would feast.
“His death is mine,” a voice said softly from the darkness, sending shivers down my spine. I turned to see the vampire Lucius, his lips pulled back over his fangs in a gruesome snarl.
I shook my head, even though my Wendigo sensed a predator far greater than any we’d ever encountered. They say love is blind, but then again, so is vengeance. And it made me either brave or stupid, because I whirled on him. “She is my mate. I will kill him and present his dead heart on a plate to her as a courting gift.”
Lucius tilted his head to the side. “That is a good gift. But she is my child, they are all my children, and it would have broken my mate’s heart if one of them had perished due to that dead man.”
Now it was my turn to frown. “Rock, paper, scissors?”
Lucius snorted. “First person to touch him gets to kill him. But I’ll leave you the heart. My child deserves hearts and roses.”
I frowned. I don’t think that was what it meant to give someone hearts and roses, but it kind of worked.
This asshole is insane, Hew chimed in, and he wasn’t wrong.
I nodded. “Thank you.”
I pulled the little Omega’s phone out of my pocket, and dialled Bobby, telling him where we were, as per Lucius’ bizarre instructions. If the near impossible happened and someone ended my long, cursed life, I didn’t want to take Flint down with me. That kid deserved a little happiness, far more than I did.
Hanging up, I prowled to an outside window, sticking to the shadows yet again. I smashed the window, uncaring if they heard. Let them hear. Let them know that death and pain stalked their halls, and it was coming for every single one of them.
I climbed through the shattered glass window, ignoring the cuts that scraped along my body. I dropped down into the hallway at the back of the factory, in what I assumed was some kind of storeroom.
I took the moment to shift into my Wendigo, and for the first time in a century, I was happy to have it. This time, I didn’t try to halt the change halfway. I let it consume me until it was stretching my body long, the antlers growing and my face elongating into that of a buck.
I couldn’t talk in this form, but that didn’t matter. I wasn’t here to chat. I was here to kill.
In this form, the spirits I shared my body with were quiet, as we were all consumed with the hunt.
It wasn’t long until I found my first feast. I scraped my long nail along the metal railing, moving softly to stand behind my victim in the darkness. The guard spun on his heel, and the look on his face was comical. He didn’t even lift his gun as I grabbed his face between my hands and broke his neck.
The Wendigo wanted to eat his heart, but no matter how hungry I was—and I was always starving to the point of delirium in this form—both the Wendigo and I knew that we were here to defend our mate, and there was only one heart we wanted.
I threw down the body of the guard like a broken toy and continued prowling further and further into the building. I wanted to get there before that crazy vamp, but logically, I knew that was almost impossible. They didn’t look like they were carrying weapons that could cut down an enraged ancient vampire; in reality there were very few things that could do that, and he would be like a whirlwind of pain and suffering.
I could hear the steady thud of flesh on flesh, and knew that it was Flint being beaten. I growled, pushing down my need for vengeance, instead choosing to save my Packmate. Mouse didn’t want a heart. She wanted her mate.
I could do that. And if the two actions overlapped and I got to kill Rook at the same time, so be it. I moved toward that sound, and the stench of fear that hung heavily in the air. There was less protection than I thought there would be, but it made sense. Rook wasn’t the head of an underground crime family or anything like that. No, he was a businessman who bought flesh and then made it fight until it was broken. He didn’t need to worry about people attacking him. He only had to worry about his toys escaping.
Until today.
Today he was going to wish he had more men. Or that he was dead. Only time would tell which it would be first. I stood in the darkness of the doorway, blending into the shadows like a ghost. The room beyond me made my stomach turn. It appeared to be a holding area of some kind, and there were cages along one side holding people.
None of them were crying or screaming, so they were probably not new acquisitions. They just seemed… dead. At least on the inside.
The beast in me rebelled at the idea of being chained and caged like some junkyard dog, and for once, I had to agree with the Wendigo. I would rather be dead than be some psychopath’s pet.
In the middle of the room, they had Flint chained to the ceiling, his body black and blue from the heavy fists of the large man hitting him. It wasn’t Rook though. No, he was sitting a little away on a folding chair like it was a throne.
I wanted him to be rodent-faced, but he wasn’t. He was a big guy, and if I didn’t miss my mark, a former fighter. But I knew his type. He was in it for the pain. The type you inflicted on others, and the type you received. He didn’t care about his opponents, they were just useless commodities standing in the way of him and his high.
The big guy laid his fist into Flint’s stomach again, and Flint just hung there like a side of beef. I remembered what everyone said about Rook’s abilities to paralyze you, and I wondered if he could do it from a distance. Or maybe all the fight had just gone out of Flint.
I moved into the room, killing the first guard by stepping up behind him, covering his mouth with one hand and punching my claw through his eye with the other. He died silently and pitifully in the shadows. No one noticed, except a man in the cages. He was crammed in there and I knew his muscles must ache with excruciating pain at being folded up like that.
He watched me as I moved to the next guard and twisted his head around like a demented barn owl, without the flexibility. Unfortunately, despite what Hollywood would tell you, that isn’t a quiet way to kill people. I had seconds to make it to the man throwing punches at the already battered body of Flint before there was a gun out and pointed at my future Packmate.
I pressed my claws to the throat of the torturer. “Drop it or I’ll kill him,” I growled from a mouth that wasn’t made for words. It was made for rending and tearing and howling at the moon.
Rook laughed, a cold, humorless sound. “Do it. I couldn’t give a fuck.”
The guy in my arms was dead already, we all knew it. Still, he made a half-decent shield so I’d keep him alive for now. I edged closer to Flint, and Rook shot at the ground by his feet, mak
ing the bullet ricochet wildly off the concrete.
Rook sneered, and I decided I was going to tear his head clean off his body, just for fun. “I’ll tell you what, Wendigo. I’ll exchange you for him. He can go back to the little bitch, and I get myself a Wendigo. Seems like a fair trade.”
I mean, I considered it for half a second. There was no doubt in my mind that Flint’s life was more valuable than mine. If I was a selfless person, I would take Rook up on his offer and send Flint back to Mouse. Would travelling around being Rook’s pet sideshow freak really be that different to the life I was already living?
But I wasn’t a selfless person; we’d already established that. I selfishly wanted both Carmen and her happiness. And that meant getting this Djinn back to our Pack, and getting back there too, to enjoy the look on her face.
I saw a shadow across the room, so I grinned. Well, kind of. Wendigo had no flesh on their face to grin, so basically I just bared my teeth even more. “Never.”
Rook raised his gun and pointed it at Flint. He had been quiet up until now, but when he turned his battered face to me with such desolation on his face and wheezed, “Run”, I realized they’d done some kind of internal damage. I spared him a quick look, then I snapped the neck of the guard I was absently holding and flung him toward Rook, moving across to put my body in front of Flint’s. Mine could take some damage, but looking at Flint and not knowing how well he healed, I was unsure he’d survive a bullet wound.
The gun went off, and everything slowed down as it usually did in those monumental moments in your life. The bullet hit my chest, and I roared, but then Lucius appeared from the darkness like the specter of death, doing something complicated around Rook’s neck and then dropping him to the ground.
I sucked in a breath, though it was hard to breathe around the pain in my chest, and I watched Rook open and close his mouth like a fish on the floor. I looked at Lucius. “You’re not going to kill him?”
The look the ancient vampire sent back at me was so terrifying, even the Wendigo shivered. “He will wish he died this quickly. I shall send you his heart.”
With that, he hefted Rook into his arms and disappeared. I roared, the Wendigo upset at the loss of its prey, but I knew that I would have obliterated him with a level of ferocity that I couldn’t come back from. Blood poured from my chest, and I wondered if he’d hit something vital as I gasped for air.
I turned to Flint, unhooking him from the chain, and recognizing the cuffs on his wrists. Slave cuffs. I’d heard the story from Mouse, how he’d been wearing a pair when he’d been rescued and they had them removed. These things were meant to be destroyed, how did a petty criminal like Rook have so many pairs lying around?
I held Flint close to my body as I released him from the chains, not wanting to worsen any of his injuries. I was gasping for air too now, so I laid him on the concrete beneath the chains. I shifted my face back to human enough that I could speak without the hissing grunts. “Your Packmates are here somewhere. They will save you soon. But I must feed.” I waved a hand in the general vicinity of my bullet wound.
Flint’s hand gripped my wrist. “You are my Packmate,” he gasped.
I felt like I’d been hit in the chest with another bullet, the force of the emotions I thought long dead consuming me. I laid my hand on his chest, and nodded. “Close your eyes, I do not wish you to see this.”
Flint closed his eyes, either from his injuries or because I asked, and I went to the guard I had killed and cracked open his chest.
I was a monster, and even monsters must eat.
43
Bobby
I drove carefully through the back roads that climbed the mountains toward Eden. Flint was laid out between us, his head on Sammie’s lap and his feet on mine. He was in rough shape, but he was alive. The rest of the Eden crew had arrived just as we were loading Flint into the truck, and we’d insisted, well I’d insisted, that we be the ones to take him back to Eden. I couldn’t let him out of my sight again.
When we’d stumbled into that hellhole and found a brutally beaten Flint and a giant fucking Wendigo moving around the room eating hearts, my stomach had dropped to my ass. There was something about the Wendigo that just created a primal fear response, which aggravated the Alpha in me. But when Monster had seen us, he’d shifted back to his human form, and I could see the perfectly round hole of where he’d been shot.
He’d given us the quick version, insisted that he was fine and we should take Flint. Then he’d disappeared, but not before telling us he’d be back with Rook’s heart. It was some medieval Dark Ages shit, but I could appreciate the visceral nature of that kind of revenge. Flint groaned as I eased into the driveway of the Academy, driving my truck right up to the doors. It was still the middle of the night, but the first light of dawn was touching the horizon.
As soon as the car was stopped, the door was wrenched open. Stacey began checking Flint’s vitals right there on Sammie’s lap. “What are his injuries?” she said in that no-nonsense way she had.
“Severely beaten. I think there might be a rib or two broken, and probably some internal damage.”
She nodded, a stethoscope in her ears as she listened to his chest and then his abdomen. She frowned, but I didn’t really know if that was a good or bad thing.
“Get him on the stretcher.”
Sammie slid from the truck, and two seniors pulled Flint as gently as they could from the front of the truck. They lifted him straight onto the stretcher, but still, Flint moaned raggedly. “Move,” Stacey barked at them, and the guys moved towards the door of the Academy as quick as they confidently could.
She stopped, looking over at Sammie. “What are your injuries?”
“I’m fine. Go help Flint,” Sammie growled, and she put her hands on her hips and glared. She didn’t ask again.
Sammie grunted. “One of the kids bit me.”
Stacey stomped over, pulling his shirt to the side. There was a small, bloody bite mark on his shoulder, and I cursed myself for not noticing. I stared at Sammie now, noting he was a little pale and shaky.
I’d been so focused on Flint that I hadn’t noticed the signs. “He’s been bitten by a panther.” I glared at Sammie. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I growled at him, the Alpha in my voice finally affecting him.
He let out a shuddering breath. “We were busy. It was just a tiny bite.”
I wanted to shake him. It was never just a bite with a shifter. Stacey pointed a finger at my chest. “Get him down to the isolation ward and coax him through it. I have enough on my plate. A fucking Angel popped in from nowhere and dropped off like twenty kids.”
Sammie huffed. “Not an Angel. The Devil himself.”
That shook Stacey’s normally stoic demeanor, but it only lasted a second as she shook her head and started jogging back into the building.
I jammed my shoulder under Sammie’s arm and helped him into the building. “I’m so sorry, man. This is my fault.”
Sammie’s knees shook. “Not sorry. Can spend longer with Mouse and Flint.” He gave me a half smile. “You.”
I shook my head. He didn’t understand. Being turned wasn’t a guarantee. There was also the chance of just straight up dying. I needed to find that kid. Work out if he was Alpha or not. The bite of an Alpha was more likely to result in a turned shifter. I also needed to find an Alpha to feed him their blood to finish the change. Again, an Alpha’s blood was better. I was a shapeshifter. Our DNA wasn’t the same or I’d do it myself.
I knew who. I just had to get Sammie situated first. The change was rough, even for the strongest of humans.
We took the elevator down to the medical wing, and by the time we hit the right floor, Sammie was beginning to sweat.
I needed to check on Flint. Find Monster, and make sure that the bullet wound was healing. I needed to check on the love of my fucking life before I went insane. But first I had to find Bohdie and ask him to essentially tie himself to Sammie forever.
Fo
r the first time in my life, I wished I was a two-natured shifter. I could take care of my Pack properly then. I half carried, half dragged him to the isolation ward, and laid him down on the bed.
“Jesus, you weigh a fucking ton for a human,” I groaned as I lifted him onto the bed.
He moaned as he curled into a ball. Yeah, here came the muscle cramps. I didn’t know much about the process of turning humans into two-natured shifters, but I’d heard about the muscle cramps.
“Not human for much longer,” he gasped out.
I stroked his curly brown hair back from his forehead. I leaned forward and kissed it softly. “No. I swear to you, as your Packmate, that I will get you through this. You’re going to live a long and happy life with our mate.”
His eyes went wide with panic. “What if she isn’t my fated mate? What if someone comes along and steals me from her? I love her, I can’t…”
I petted his hand. “Don’t stress it. Turned shifters don’t get fated mates, and even if they did, Carmen is the perfect woman for you. The ancestors or the Moon Goddess wouldn’t be that cruel, I promise. Now stay here. I have to go find a kitty cat to make you feel better.”
Once I was out of sight of the isolation room, I sprinted. The sooner I got him an Alpha, the better his chances of changing painlessly. I had a feeling I knew where Bohdie would be. I stopped the front of the ICU room, and my chest felt tight at the sight of Enit hooked up to so many machines. I’d known her forever, and we’d been friends just as long. Seeing her like that hurt my heart.
And as I’d guessed, Bohdie was by her bedside. I knocked on the glass and waved him out. He frowned, standing but not before kissing Enit’s cheek. She didn’t even stir, and I panicked. What if she never woke up?
I shook my head. Enit was tougher than anyone gave her credit for. Bohdie pushed through the door. “Did you get that fucker?” he snarled, and I nodded.
“Lucius has him. And if he isn’t already dead, he was definitely wishing he was at this point.”
Rebels and Runaways: Eden Academy Book One Page 27