As Olivia breathed a sigh of relief and Aiden moved swiftly back to his feet, a man stepped casually from between two nearby trees. He was still in the form of his human host, rangy and tall, with chiseled features and shaggy mahogany-colored hair that whipped against the sides of his face, but she could tell without any doubt that he was Casus. A cruel smile curved his thin mouth as he looked out over the violent scene, his pale eyes smoldering with anticipation, as though he couldn’t wait to see what happened next.
Tilting his head back, he drew in a deep breath, then smacked his lips, his ice-blue gaze sliding toward Olivia with a hungry, sexual look that made her skin crawl.
“Josef,” she whispered, knowing she was right. “Aiden!” she called out, raising her voice to be heard over the rough sounds of fighting. “It’s Josef! The one I told you about. The one who’s hunting Jamie!”
Quickly finishing off the Casus he’d been grappling with, Aiden turned and followed the direction of her terrified gaze.
Looking for all the world as if he was out for a Sunday stroll, the Casus came closer, his smile widening as Aiden moved nearer to Olivia and spread his arms out from his sides in a protective stance. “Well, well, well. Look who we have here,” Josef drawled, sliding his gaze toward Jamie. “Do you know who I am, sweetheart?”
Jamie tightened her arms around Olivia’s neck as he bared his teeth in a grin and said, “I’m the monster who ate your mama.”
Gasping, Olivia pressed Jamie’s head against her shoulder, then covered her other ear so she couldn’t hear. It terrified her how silent and still Jamie had become since the fighting had begun, and she silently prayed that the little girl was okay.
“Mmm, she is sweet-looking, isn’t she?” Josef said with a low, husky rumble of laughter. “She’s meant to be saved for Calder, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted to do both the runt and the aunt.”
“Shut your damn mouth,” Aiden snarled, flexing his claws at his sides.
“Or what?” Josef asked, lifting one brow in an arrogant arch as he slid his icy gaze toward Aiden. “You’re going to kill me, shifter?”
Aiden’s amber eyes narrowed to menacing slits. “You’ll die no matter what you say. The only question is how much I make it hurt before you go.”
“Ooh, you are a cocky one, aren’t you?” Josef said thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. “I wonder how cocky you’ll be when I’m covered in Olivia’s blood, shoved deep in her broken little body.”
The dark, visceral sound that tore out of Aiden’s throat was that of a deadly predator protecting its territory. He launched himself at the Casus with his claws and fangs fully extended, and Olivia could only watch in horror as they tore at each other, Josef’s fingers transformed into gnarled, claw-tipped weapons. Aiden was magnificent in his fury, his skill far superior to that of his rival, but Josef wasn’t looking for a fair fight. Almost immediately he screamed for backup, singling out two of his fully shifted brethren for the job. The massive creatures raced across the clearing and joined the fight just as Aiden and Josef disappeared into the trees—and Olivia knew she had to do something. It didn’t matter how good a fighter Aiden was, he was desperately outnumbered, and his friends were all too busy with their own battles to come to his aid.
Which meant that it was up to her. She might have lost her hope for a future with the stubborn, bitter shape-shifter, but that hadn’t changed the fact that she was madly in love with him.
Looking around, she spotted Molly standing close by, the blonde’s terrified gaze focused on Ian as he fought off two Casus at the same time, his body shifted into its lethally powerful Merrick form. Grabbing Molly’s arm, she quickly said, “I need you to take care of Jamie for me.”
“Why?” Molly asked, dragging her attention away from Ian to send a worried look toward Olivia. “What are you going to do?”
“Please,” Olivia begged. “I don’t have time to explain, but Aiden’s in trouble with the Casus. I need your help.”
Molly hesitated, her troubled gaze going from Olivia’s face to the battle that raged a few feet away.
“Molly, please,” Olivia pleaded. “If it was Ian, you wouldn’t just stand by and watch.”
“Okay,” Molly answered swiftly, slipping the Marker she was wearing over her head and handing it to Olivia. “On one condition. You take this with you.”
“But I already have one,” she argued.
Molly’s brows drew together, her brown eyes steely as she reached for Jamie and pulled her against her chest. “Which means they won’t think that you have another one, will they? You can use that against them.”
“Right,” Olivia whispered, slipping the second Marker into her pocket. “Wish me luck.”
As Molly squeezed her hand and told her to be careful, Olivia pressed a hard, quick kiss to Jamie’s cold cheek, whispering that she loved her and would be right back. Then she turned and made her way through the swirling battle as quickly as she could, heading toward the trees where she’d last seen Aiden. Following the sounds of their grunts and snarls, Olivia reached them just as the two fully shifted Casus got hold of Aiden’s arms and trapped them behind his back.
“Kill him,” Josef spat out, wiping his bleeding mouth with the back of his hand.
“No!” Olivia shouted, and all four heads whipped toward her, their faces revealing various levels of surprise.
“How sweet,” Josef murmured, his mouth twisting with a snide smile. “The little human’s come to watch you die.”
“She has a Marker,” Aiden snarled, his muscles bulging as he strained to break free from the two monsters holding him. “You won’t be able to hurt her.”
Josef shrugged. “I can still take her prisoner. Sooner or later I’ll find a way to get the Marker off her. And then she’ll be mine.”
She could see that Aiden was seething with fury, the tendons in his neck sticking out in stark relief as he growled, “You stay the fuck away from her!”
Returning his attention to the Casus, Josef said, “What are you waiting for? Gut the bastard.”
“No! Wait! Don’t hurt him!” Olivia screamed, rushing forward and falling to her knees. “Please! I’ll go with you. Do whatever you want. Just…just don’t hurt him!”
“Get the hell out of here, Olivia!” It was clear from the savage sound of Aiden’s voice that he was beyond furious with her.
Taking the Marker from around her neck, Olivia held it out to the Casus on her open palm, offering it up to him. “Here, you can take this,” she whispered, shaking so hard that her teeth were chattering. “You can have it. Just…let him go. Please!”
“What are you doing?” Aiden roared, and though she wasn’t looking at him, her watery gaze focused purposefully on Josef, Olivia could hear him struggling to free himself. “Put that bloody Marker back on!”
Watching her carefully, Josef walked toward her. “You’re playing a dangerous game,” he murmured.
“No game,” she told him, her voice breaking from the tears that were pouring down her face. “I swear. Here, take it. Just…just let him go.”
Josef came closer, and a low snarl rumbled deep in Aiden’s throat. “I’m warning you,” he growled. “Touch her and you’re going to pay for it.”
Ignoring the guttural threat, Josef took the Marker from Olivia’s hand, his eyes glowing as he reached down and stroked his gnarled, claw-tipped fingers against the side of her face. “You’re not very clever, are you, sweetheart? Still, I didn’t travel all this way because I’m interested in your intellect, now, did I?”
With tears pouring from her eyes, Olivia forced herself to hold his stare, the terrified look on her face one she didn’t have to fake. Turning his back on her, he began walking toward Aiden, and she could hear the smile in his voice as he said, “I can’t decide whether I should kill you now, shifter, or keep you alive long to enough to watch the fun your little human and I are going to have together. Do you have a preference?”
“Go fuck yourself,” Aid
en grunted, and Olivia could hear Josef chuckling softly under his breath as she moved slowly to her feet. She was careful to keep her head down, lest the monsters holding Aiden looked up and saw her intentions written all over her face. Josef was still talking, his voice low and taunting as he began to describe in vile detail all the things he was planning to do to her. Reaching into her front pocket, she curled her hand around the cross that Molly had given her, pressing it against her palm in the way that Kellan explained it had to be done in order to release the Marker’s power. The pain was instantaneous, the blistering sensation radiating from her hand into her entire arm so excruciating, it was as if she’d reached into the heart of a fire. She ground her teeth together to keep from screaming, and knew she had to act quickly, before the others noticed what she was doing.
Only a handful of steps separated her from Josef, and as she pulled her hand from her pocket, Olivia sprinted toward him, aiming for the base of his neck, just as Kellan had described. A sizzling, crackling noise filled the air, accompanied by Aiden’s roar of shock…as well as Josef’s outraged cry of pain. He tried to twist away from her, but a scorching ball of flame engulfed her arm, and in the next instant her hand sank deep into the son of a bitch’s body, locking her into him. His skin instantly began to blister, a hot, molten glow of crimson and orange burning beneath its surface, and Olivia turned her head away from the gruesome sight, her agonized screams blending with the horrific sounds tearing from Josef’s throat as the pain in her arm intensified. His tall body jolted and shook with violent spasms, wrenching her shoulder as she fought to keep her balance, and she was thankful that he was in his human form, since she never would have been able to reach her target if he had fully shifted.
Praying that it was going to be over soon, Olivia struggled to breathe as the flames grew hotter, the stark sound of the Casus’s cries echoing painfully through her skull. Just when she was sure she was going to lose consciousness, his body finally exploded in a powerful, bone-cracking blast, the force of it knocking her clear off her feet.
She could feel the air rushing past her body as she soared over the ground.
Could hear Aiden’s choked cry of horror.
And then there was nothing but a blessed, silent darkness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
AS OLIVIA SLOWLY CAME TO, she realized the blast had knocked her a long way from where she’d been standing. She also realized that the roaring in her ears was actually Aiden shouting at her as he crouched over her body, checking for injuries.
“What were you thinking?” he demanded in a rough voice the instant she lifted her swimming gaze to his grim, blood-spattered face.
She shook her head, wincing as she tried to sit up. “I don’t know. It was the only thing I could think of.”
“Here,” he grunted, offering her his hand, so that he could pull her to her feet. He gripped her shoulders, waiting for her dizziness to pass, then let go of her, shoving his fingers back through his hair so hard that she winced for his poor scalp. “Is your arm okay?”
Olivia nodded, surprised to find that there wasn’t any lingering pain, considering how badly it had hurt when the Marker had gone into weapon mode, creating its Arm of Fire. Somehow she’d retained her hold on the cross, and she slipped it over her head.
“How did you even know how to use the Marker like that?” he asked, forcing the words out through gritted teeth.
Looking around at the smoldering piles of ashes that littered the ground, she coughed, then managed to say, “Kellan explained it all to me during the drive today. At first, I was worried Jamie might accidentally hold her cross against her palm, but Kell said her hands are too small to make it work.”
He let out a sharp, explosive sigh. “Olivia, look at me.”
“Yeah?” she said, lifting her gaze back to his beautiful, angry face.
“I can’t believe you took that kind of risk.” The words were hoarse, thick, his eyes burning with a look of pure, savage fury.
“I had to do something, Aiden. They were going to kill you.”
He stiffened, his narrowed gaze boring deep into her eyes, as if he was trying to read her mind. “And why the hell would that matter?” he rasped.
“You’ll have to figure that out for yourself.” She sighed, looking around again. “What happened to the other Casus? The ones who were holding you?”
Scrubbing his hands down his face, he said, “The blast knocked us all to the ground, and they weren’t so lucky against me when it was just the two of them.”
“Where are their bodies?” she asked, noticing that fresh claw marks were torn across his arms and chest, his shirt completely shredded.
“I hid them,” he muttered, jerking his chin toward a thick cluster of trees.
Olivia shivered, glad the monsters’ bloodied corpses were hidden from her view. God only knew she’d already seen enough blood that evening to last her a lifetime.
“We need to get back to Jamie,” she whispered, filled with a sudden sense of urgency as her thoughts finally began to clear. “I had to leave her with Molly when I came after you.”
Walking over to the spot where Josef had been standing, Aiden quickly reached down, snatched up the Marker that the Casus had taken from her and slipped it into his pocket. Then they rushed through the trees, back toward the path, and found Aiden’s friends fighting what looked to be a losing battle. Though there were Casus bodies littering the ground, all of them slowly transforming back into the shape of their human hosts, too many of the creatures still stood, more bloodthirsty than ever.
“Stay close to me,” Aiden commanded, taking her hand as they began working their way through the surging press of bodies. Olivia nearly wept with relief when she spotted Jamie crouched against the craggy outcropping of rock, flanked by Molly and Hope, who were both holding guns and firing bullets at any Casus who tried to come near them. Jamie’s beautiful little face was completely blank, like a doll’s, until she spotted Olivia and Aiden coming toward her. The little girl blinked, and then her lower lip began to tremble, just as her small body was suddenly racked by violent tremors, and even with her human senses, Olivia could tell that something was wrong.
“What’s happening to her?” she gasped.
“I have no idea,” Aiden grunted. “But she’s throwing off power like crazy.”
They wove their way through the battle as quickly as they could, trying to reach her, but when they were no more than ten yards away from Jamie, one of the two Casus who’d been fighting Kierland caught sight of them. With his bloodied jaws gaping, the monster turned suddenly and began to charge. Aiden shouted for Olivia to run as he released his claws and turned to face the quickly approaching Casus, its open mouth revealing rows of sharp, jagged fangs. Knowing Aiden could handle the monster on his own, Olivia was trying to make her way around Kellan and the two Casus he was fighting when one of the bastards slammed into her as he reared away from a lethal slash of the Watchman’s claws. Losing her balance, Olivia hit the ground. Hard. Her head spun from the impact, until a high-pitched cry suddenly filled the air, jarring her back to awareness, the sound so sharp she wanted to cover her ears. For an instant everyone stopped fighting, while the strange cry filled the air, becoming louder, sharper. And then it stopped.
Everything was silent. Still. And then the most bizarre thing began to happen.
“What the hell is going on?” she asked Aiden, unable to believe what she was seeing as he quickly pulled her to her feet. The Casus had turned on one another, their heavy gray bodies rolling over the ground as they tore at their brothers with their muzzled mouths, ripping their gnarled claws through tough, leathery flesh. And it wasn’t just the Casus. Even the Death-Walkers were fighting amongst themselves up in the sky, slashing and biting at one another, the sounds they made reminding Olivia of screeching alley cats. “Why are they doing that?”
“I don’t know,” Aiden muttered, looking around, his gut cramping with a fresh surge of worry when he realized what wa
s happening. “Oh, shit,” he rasped. “I think it’s Jamie. She’s doing it. Somehow she’s making it happen.”
“What?” Olivia gasped. “That’s not poss…” Her denial died as quickly as it had started when she turned and saw the same thing that had snagged Aiden’s attention. Jamie was standing on her feet, her small face deathly white, while her dark eyes shone like twin beams of blinding light. And some kind of strange, fiery blue glow seemed to be burning from inside her body, radiating out through her skin. Hope and Molly were both trying to reach for her, but it was as if they were going up against an opposing force that was pushing them back, keeping them away.
“Everyone get across the bridge and up to the house! Now!” Aiden shouted, knowing they needed to get out of there while they still could. Grabbing Olivia’s hand, he ran toward Jamie, the power emanating from the child nearly knocking him to the ground. Gritting his teeth, he refused to go down. He snatched Jamie’s glowing body up into his arms and crushed her against his chest. She trembled against him, then threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tight as he started running, pulling Olivia along behind him as they all raced across the pedestrian bridge.
Jamie’s body was no longer glowing, the power pulling back inside her, which meant that any surviving Casus or Death-Walkers might very well start coming after them again. Pounding up the path toward the house, the group finally made it to the sprawling lawn that wrapped around the building’s wide, circular moat. Ian was up ahead, shouting for everyone to hurry, and their whoops of triumph blended with groans of pain as everyone made their way across the ancient drawbridge that spanned the moat.
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