I found my father, John called. He’s on the floor in the study. The window’s also smashed. Those damn daggers are in his chest.
I’m coming around the back. You will have to throw him through the window, John, I said.
I can’t. That half of the damn study is on fire—
We will go and break the back door, May told him. Wet some towels and place them over you and your father’s head and shoulders. If you run straight out, it might stop your fur from catching fire.
Solomon? Concern soaked Dabria’s voice. Are you all right? Have you found a way in?
I’m all right, baby. We’re in. We’ve got Owen. We will follow John out the back.
Dabria and May ran past me, heading to the other end of the house.
Brendan?
I’m under his window, Scott. I stopped beneath Joseph’s broken bedroom window, standing as close as I could get.
He’s out of it. His breathing is steady—
He will be okay, I said.
I’ve wrapped him in his blanket. I have to throw him out, Brendan, like a goddamn dart.
I’m here, Scott. I’m here.
Please catch him. Please catch my son.
I will catch your boy, I swear. Just throw him so you can find your wife.
Here he comes.
The air caught in my throat at the sight of a bundled Joseph flying out of the high window. The flames grabbed hold of his blanket as he fell downward. My heart clenched as I stumbled backward. I held my arms wide, took a deep breath, and caught the burning bundle.
I’ve got him. I gasped as the flames licked my fur.
I ran down the dip in the lawn and fell to my knees, rolling the burning blanket across the grass. A tall, slender, dark-haired boy rolled out onto the grass before me, unconscious. I grabbed the blanket and tossed it to one side, growling as the fire began eating my flesh. The smell of burnt fur and skin filled my nostrils, and I tried my best not to scream as the small flames grew and began heading down south. I fell face forward onto the grass and began rolling like some crazy animal, in the hope of putting my own fire out. I didn’t have time for this, I needed to check Joey. I needed to know he was okay; that everyone was okay.
A foot pushed at my right rib, causing me to roll onto my back.
May threw a soaking towel onto my chest and dropped down beside me. You okay?
I gave her a small nod and tried to ignore the sizzling pain of my blistered skin as she gently patted out the flames.
I have to check Joey, she said after a moment.
I nodded and took the wet towel from her.
The glow of the fire and its thick black smoke filled the sky above me, cancelling out the stars.... Cancelling out the night sky itself.
I sat up slowly, clamping my teeth together as the scream threatened to tear from my throat.
This shouldn’t have happened.
I took quick, shallow, breaths and looked over at the others. Is everyone okay?
Dante and Owen are out cold.
Joey’s breathing, but we need to get Graham. The smoke could have— May stopped as the sound of whining wood echoed around us.
Scott, you need to get out, now, I ordered.
I can’t find Eve. I can’t find her.
Maybe she isn’t in there, May said. Maybe—
If she isn’t here, then they have taken her.
You don’t know that, May said as reassuringly as she possibly could.
The pain that boiled and sliced through my flesh was nothing compared to the shared anxiety and fear of my Pack. Where was our Alpha? Eve, Phil, and Flynn? Someone had been taken. I had seen the blood myself. Scott rummaged hopelessly through a house that could collapse on him at any minute. If I was in his position, I would do the same, but if Scott couldn’t find Eve, then it looked like the blood on the doorstep belonged....
Carter? I found Carter.
Where is he? I stood up, hissing as the movement caused my blistered skin to stretch.
In his room.
Thank God.
I threw the towel on the ground. You need to get out before the rest of the roof caves in.
I need to get him downstairs.
The structure screamed.
Scott, hurry.
We will clear the doorway for you, Thomas said.
Solomon snarled. How exactly are we supposed to do that?
Thomas snarled in return. I suggest we find out.
May, will you stay with Joey?
Sure.
Brendan, Owen is waking up, Dabria said.
I walked across the garden to where Owen lay in the grass. The dagger embedded in the left side of his neck glistened as the reflection of the flames played across its surface. I looked down to see the other dagger lodged under his left ribcage. My chest tightened as I dropped to my knees and laid my left hand gently on Owens’s torso. His eyelids flickered. Metallic eyes gazed at me.
“Looks like we all got a little action tonight,” he said, with a faint smile. “They’ve got Phil and Flynn. We had been playing poker in the dining room. Someone knocked on the door, Phil went to get it.... One, two, three daggers in his chest.”
He coughed again, his hands fisting by his side as his body grew tense. “Flynn and I ran toward him as he fell forward. They grabbed Phil. Flynn went to pull him back in, but he got yanked out with him. Shit,” he growled. “You know, these things really hurt.”
I nodded. I know.
“The window smashed and something sharp got me in the neck. I thought it was glass, I tried to pull it out and it’s these pieces of shit. I got the other in my side,” he coughed. “Is my father okay?”
I nodded. Solomon, Thomas, have you got them?
Fucking door collapsed. We threw the patio set through the window, he’s going to run and jump, Solomon replied.
“Dante okay?”
I cocked my head to the side. Owen looked at his uncle lying nearby.
His eyes widened slightly and he looked back at me. “Shit. Joey? Joey’s in bed.”
May walked up beside me, Joey snug in her arms.
“What about Eve?”
I shook my head.
Owen growled and grabbed hold of my hand. “They’ve got my sister? Brendan, we’ve got to—” His eyes went even wider as his focus slipped to the house. His grip tightened, the bones of his face began to shift, the skin stretching. A growl ripped from his throat as he pushed his body to change. “Fuckers.” His breathing became shallow. “We’ve got to go and get them. Right now. Why the fuck are you all standing here? What the fuck are you doing—”
I punched him in the face. His head rolled to the side.
The daggers stop you from changing. Forcing it to happen, like he’s trying to, would have caused him more pain, I explained, before someone kicked up a fuss about me knocking out our Second.
We need to get them out. I stood up and turned to May. May, as soon as Scott gets out, you give Joey to him, then go to my truck and change. There is a large hoodie and two pairs of jogging pants in a duffle bag under the front seat. Phone Richard and then phone Graham. Let him know what’s happened, don’t mention Flynn just yet—
He needs to know.
I know, but it needs to be Carter who tells him. Just tell him to be ready for when Carter calls.
She nodded.
“Brendan?” Carter wheezed.
I looked past May to see Carter staggering toward me, his left arm flung over Solomon’s shoulder, and the right over Thomas’ as they helped him forward. Scott stood right behind him, his focus distant, eyes watery.
“They’ve taken Eve,” Carter said.
I nodded and looked at the daggers lodged in the centre of his chest.
“We were talking in my room, and she had her back to the window, leaning against the windowsill. They broke the glass and pulled her out. I went to grab her, but they threw these things in my chest. I stumbled back and they couldn’t reach me.” He looked at Owen and Dante on the grass.
“They’ve got Flynn and Phil?”
I nodded.
Carter’s jaw tensed. His anger exploded throughout my body.
I clenched my teeth together and took shallow breaths, watching as May handed Joey to Scott, then ran around the side of the building, followed by John.
Scott—a broad black wolf, with mounds of thick fur—sank to his knees cradling his twelve-year-old close to his chest. I felt like I had a fist of iron holding my heart as grief I’d thought was long forgotten hit me in the gut. No man should ever know the agony of having his wife taken from him.
Those Leeches will pay for this. I will damn make sure of it.
Scott’s broad shoulders shook as his head flew back and a blood-curdling howl tore from his throat.
The others joined him. The pain in his voice was so hauntingly familiar that my gut churned. I stood by Carter’s side and watched as the flames continued to taunt the dark sky, casting their orange and red light onto the grass and trees that surrounded us. Black smoke weaved between us, spreading thickly across the lawn, drowning everything that stood before it.
“Grandpa?” Joey’s tired voice sounded.
I looked over to see his tired dark eyes peeping over his father’s shoulder. He coughed.
Scott, May is calling Graham, I told him.
“You’re safe. Go back to sleep, lad,” Carter said gently. “Dream something good for me.”
Joey nodded with another cough and rested his head on his father’s thick fur. His eyes closed and he drifted back to sleep.
Carter’s jaw tensed as he looked back at his house. The sound of breaking wood and metal screamed within the roar of the flames. We stood watching as the rest of the roof caved in. As the old bricks turned black....
“They will pay,” Carter said, his voice as rough as gravel.
Yes, they will. I nodded.
“Brendan?”
I looked at him.
“Did they take—” Carter’s voice cracked. “Did they take Heather again?”
Heather. Shit.
I ran past him, around the house, and straight to my truck.
~ Heather ~
I had run out of arrows and daggers, and no matter how hard I pushed my legs to run faster, they just wouldn’t go fast enough. The third van swayed from side to side, which meant I wasn’t going crazier. I had punctured both the back wheels, but for some reason, I just couldn’t keep up. My muscles burned with sheer exhaustion and my ribcage throbbed like a bitch. Each intake of breath hurt; like I was breathing in blades. My throat felt dry, and the thirst had decided to bug the shit out of me, but I just couldn’t stop. I needed to catch them. Stop them. They had someone. They had one of the Pack. I hadn’t missed the trail of blood marking the stones of the house’s walkway. If I stopped running, they would escape; they would use that damn research on one of the Pack. I couldn’t let that happen. I wouldn’t.
This is all my fault.
They had burnt Carter’s home. They had almost killed him and most of the Pack—twice. My Grandmother had dragged Carter into this, so he dragged his Pack into it, all because she wanted me to be safe. Did the safety of others not matter to her? If she had just told me what she had seen, then maybe none of this would have happened.
“You must stay on this path and face everything head on,” she had said.
The taillights of the third van looked like red eyes glowing at me in the distance, and I knew the only way I would catch them was if I could fly. Somehow, I doubted my luck would change so miraculously.
I slowed, scuffing my boots against the rough road. I pulled air into my lungs, ignoring the pain as the sharp intakes burned my throat and chest. My knees hit the ground before I even knew I headed down. My crossbow fell out of my left hand and landed beside me with a clunk. Anger licked along my veins, pain circulated in my body, and my legs began to throb due to being allowed to relax.
My arms lay limply at my side as I looked at the open fields around me, at the dark, glittering sky. The cool air brushed against my skin as I knelt on the dirty road. A small trail of tears crept down my right cheek. My nails bit into my palms as my hands turned to fists.
“Damn you, Grandma,” I said out loud. “God damn you!” My voice echoed across the empty land. “How the hell could you let any of this happen? ‘You can change what you see.’ You told me that. You told me it was possible to stop the bad things from happening.”
I pushed myself up, my focus on the clear, starry sky. “We’re supposed to help people, for God’s sake, not get them killed. Not ruin their already complicated lives. Damn you for doing this! I thought you knew these people! Well, I hope you saw me doing this. I hope you saw how pissed I am?”
“What are you doing?”
I jumped at the sound of Brendan’s voice. “Don’t sneak up on me! And what the hell does it look like I’m doing?”
“It looks like you are shouting at the sky.” His voice had gone low, expressionless.
“Ding, ding, he got it in one.” My anger subsided at the sight of him. “What happened to you?”
I walked over to him. His chest looked shiny and pink—almost like a healing scar—and he stood in nothing but a pair of black jogging pants.
“Got burnt. It’s nothing,” he said, looking down at me. “Any fresh wounds I should know about?”
“No new wounds.”
Gold specks danced around his irises. “Good, because we still need to get the one on your head cleaned up, which you wouldn’t have got if you hadn’t been in that damn room in the first place.”
“Seriously? You’re bringing this up now?”
“You shouldn’t have wandered off, Heather.”
“Well, I did.” I picked my crossbow off the road.
“If I hadn’t got to you in time, those things could have killed you.”
“Do we really have to talk about this right now? More important things have just happened—”
“Yes, they have, but I couldn’t talk about this at the time, could I?”
“It isn’t even important—”
“Yes, it is. I asked you to stick by my side—”
“No, you told me to go in the store room and look for my—” I made a sword action, “—sword.”
“Yes, but I wanted you to stay with John and May.”
“I did stay with John and May. I let them push me all the way to the closed door of the elevator.”
“Oh, well, that is okay, then.”
“Brendan—”
“So you let them push you all the way there, then what?” He folded his arms gently across his chest. “You decided to go exploring?”
“I had to go and see the patients,” I replied, throwing the strap of my crossbow over my head.
“You had to—”
“I needed to.” I turned around and started walking. “I can’t explain—”
“Try.”
Why are we even discussing this?
“I just had to go and find the room.”
He grabbed my right wrist and pulled me round to face him. “Why?”
“I needed to see.” I took a deep breath. “I wanted to see what he had done to them.”
“The plan was that we—”
“The plan didn’t go how we thought it would.” I pulled my wrist from his grasp and backed away.
“The place was on fire, Heather,” he said through gritted teeth. “Did you even think about what could have happened if you got trapped in there with them? Or what would have happened if I didn’t find you? It wasn’t the time to get lost in a burning—”
“In my defence, I didn’t know the place was on fire until I got dragged into the corridor.”
He rubbed his hands across his face and growled. “You have to be the most idiotic female I have ever known.”
“You’re no genius yourself.”
A sharp laugh broke from his lips. “I’m smarter than you, darlin’. I mean, you wander off into a room with bloodthirsty freaks and then you decide t
o run after three vans full of Leeches! Then what? Oh wait, you don’t make plans—”
I walked over to him. “Are you purposely picking an argument with me?”
“You don’t think! You’ve been trained to do a job yet you dick around all the damn time—”
My fist flew into his left cheek.
“Fuck you. What the fuck do you know?” I pushed his chest, happy that he hissed as my hands hit his tender, healing flesh. “When you need to kill someone, or when you need to help someone, you don’t fucking think, Brendan. You just do whatever has to be done.”
I pushed him again. His eyes flooded gold. “I had to see the patients. I had to see what had been done to them, to remind myself of how lucky I am to be walking around, fighting to put an end to that shite. If I have to run after three vans full of Vampires, in the hope of delaying them long enough for their hostages to get free, and help or run, I will damn well do it.”
I growled and pushed him again. “So don’t you dare accuse me of ‘dicking’ around, Wolf Man. You do what you’re told whereas I do what is right—” His right hand grabbed the back of my head. Pain splintered through my skull at his grip, but shock drowned the blistering throb as he pulled me into a hard kiss.
His lips felt surprisingly soft as they pressed firmly to mine. The scent of him invaded my senses, cancelling everything else out, until nothing existed but him. The steady beat of his heart drummed in my temples as he wound his left arm around my waist and pressed me closer to him. For some strange reason, I couldn’t move, but every reason I had to push away and kick him left me as his tongue swept across the seal of my lips, sending a jolt of heat rolling down my spine.
My heart hammered against my ribcage and, before I knew what I was doing, my hands had slid up his arms and clasped around his neck. The overwhelming awareness of him caused my throat to burn. He was too real, too hot, and I couldn’t think as my fingertips brushed over his quickened pulse. His tongue parted my lips and the fact that I wanted to taste him shocked the hell out of me. I really wanted to taste him. I really had to be crazy, or possibly desperate. It had been such a long time since anyone had kissed me and now really wasn’t the time or the place, but for some reason, the urge seemed too strong to ignore. I just had to let him in, then I would know if he tasted as delicious as he smelled, because although I would never admit it, he really did smell delicious.
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