Kill them and be done with it.
Another more rational side of me screamed, “No!” I could just as easily incapacitate and leave them hogtied on Richard’s doorstep alongside a bag of flaming shit.
These men were human, bigots sure, but were they to blame for how they’d been raised?
Rip out their fucking throats.
The moral part, the one I clung to with both hands, told me their deaths would be murder.
“Why should I die?” I said after a long beat of silence. “What gives you the right to be my judge, jury and executioner?”
As a single unit, they blinked as if they hadn’t expected me to protest. I’d once been as ignorant as them. Not once had I ever stopped to think of an alternative to death. My temper, already aflame, burned brighter. My heart kicked up a notch, adrenaline prepping me for battle. My senses traveled through the darkness until I could taste their fear and hatred.
No one else lurked in the woods, only these four agency hunters who’d decided to take matters into their own hands. After Micah and I were fired, Jared had taken the lead. He always dropped his shoulder before he struck. I’d beaten vampires and demons, these four were child’s play.
“You’re an evil, blood-sucking bitch, that’s why. Ever since you took over, the number of human fatalities has tripled. When you’ve got a problem, you start at the top and work your way down,” Jared stated.
I crouched, sank my fingers into Ja-air’s silky soft hair and positioned the head so the hunters could see his face. He’d been a submissive in the pack, or so Eli had told me, fierce in battle but gentle and meek in his human form. And while I’m sure he’d committed a great many sins during his time with the pack, I didn’t think he deserved to die like this.
“Was he at the top?” I asked.
Jared sneered. “He was a fucking dog.”
I swallowed back the red-hot rage and took control of my emotions before I did something stupid—or something incredibly cool, depending on which bipolar part of me you asked.
“You want to play? Fine.” As I rose, I pulled my blade free from its wrist sheath. Silver glinted in the night. Adrenaline rushed through me and I forgot how much I missed the freedom to let me be myself.
In sync, the men lifted their guns and pulled the triggers. I concentrated on the space behind the biggest guy next to Jared whose hair was shaved close enough for moonlight to reflect off his shiny bald head. I closed my eyes and vanished. Bullets thudded into the brick house and bounced off the windows as I reemerged behind my chosen hunter.
The jerk-off hardly knew what hit him. I hooked an arm around his neck, squeezed hard enough to cut off his blood supply. For a second, maybe two, I imagined twisting. I fought my instincts. He gurgled and kicked before he passed out, his limbs going completely limp. I dropped his body to the ground with a gross thud as the other three hunters realized where I was and what I’d done.
They were slow and sloppy, a disgrace to both the agency and humankind in general.
They rushed me. “You killed him, you soulless cunt!”
Too close for guns and not well enough trained to think through their anger—the soldiers dropped their weapons next to their fallen comrade and pulled out wooden stakes.
Lucky for me, their aim was shit. The first oversized splinter hit my arm and pierced flesh. I gritted my teeth through the pain. The second, as I ducked out of the way, glanced off my shoulder and ripped through fabric and flesh. I twisted and kicked out, easily evading Jared’s killing blow.
The front door burst open and Eiven met my gaze before he took in the situation. His attention landed on his fallen wolves—what remained of them. Pure, honest anguish twisted his features. He’d loved them. He curled his lip and an inhuman growl ripped from his throat.
Dread sank in. Vision of blood and flying body parts took hold. This wasn’t going to end well.
“Whatever you do,” I shouted at him, “don’t kill them, they’re human—they work for the Shadow Agency.”
For my efforts, I got an elbow to the gut and a fist to the side of my head. Pain bloomed, sent stars dancing in front of my face, but I kept upright. Eiven, two big-ass burly wolves at his sides, rushed into the fray, their movements lithe and seamless in a way I might have admired if I wasn’t so worried about what they were about to do.
A large part of me didn’t want to care, wanted to let them extract their revenge. The other part of me couldn’t let it go. Couldn’t separate myself from the knowledge I’d been like Jared a few months ago.
Eiven let out an ear-piercing war cry, grabbed one man by his blond, shaggy hair and ripped. It all happened so fast—too quickly for me to do more than stare. Blood arced into the air, spraying me in a fine mist of hot liquid. Hunger ripped through me, made it hard to concentrate, to keep from licking the blood from my lips.
The other two wolves, fur gleaming in the night, leapt. They were all teeth and claws. Flesh split open, a slick ripping sound. Their quarry screamed in pain as they tore him apart and devoured.
Holy shit.
I stood there, speechless, looking on in a sick combination of horror and admiration. Jared took advantage of my distraction and launched himself at me. The air shifted seconds before impact. I kicked, swept my leg out and tripped him. I followed him down to the cold, bloodstained ground and pressed my elbow to his neck. I leaned in enough for our noses to touch.
Blood dripped off my face and hit his cheek in a fat, splattering drops. I met his wild gaze and barely had to put forth any effort to keep him pinned beneath me. How had they thought they could defeat me? What felt like bands around my soul pulsed, some strange restriction I hadn’t noticed until now that held me back.
“You did this, Jared. You brought on their deaths when you killed those wolves. You live with that, not me.”
He gasped for air and dug his nails into my forearms. Blood welled, skin ripped, but I hung on tight, determined to make my point. The old Ella surfaced, the snarky girl who didn’t give a fuck about anything except ridding the world of those who hurt others.
“Richard,” he sputtered, “was right. You all”—I pressed down harder on his windpipe—“deserve to die.”
His eyes rolled back into his head and he went still beneath me. The thud, thud, thud of his heart was a steady reassurance—proof I was better than this asshole.
I stood and wiped my hands on my pants. I had a present for Richard. I wondered if they made greeting cards that said “You’re a fucking asshole, I hope you choke on your own dick”.
If this queen business didn’t work out, I was going to start writing greeting cards, the ones that conveyed what people really wanted to say.
“Rope,” I ordered. “We need to tie him up.”
Blinding light eclipsed the darkness and I turned my head away from the skin-crawling energy as the wolves shifted forms. Two naked men circled the downed hunter at my feet. They licked their lips, their eyes still holding the amber sheen of their beasts. Blood dripped from their mouths, down their muscular chests.
“Move aside,” Eiven growled, the same murderous glints shining in his eyes.
I shook my head and pressed a hand to my throbbing cheek. Now that the fight was over, my head ached. The rich, salty scent of my blood filled the air, mixed with the stench of death.
“I’m not letting you kill any more of them. You’ve got your pound of flesh. Three for two. You won.”
The packmaster curled his lip and stepped over the mess of bodies at his feet. Every instinct I possessed told me to back off. I never had been good at listening to that little voice.
He walked a circle around me. “You are nothing but a weak, sniveling child.”
His words were the last ones I’d expected to hear. My mouth dropped open and I whipped my head around to keep him in my sights. He stopped in front of me and stepped close, the tips of his shoes hitting mine. His nostrils flared and his hot, roiling energy cocooned me.
“You will kill vampire
s and demons.” He motioned to Jared with his chin. “But this pathetic creature earns your mercy? Why? Because he’s human? Bullshit. I suggest you choose a side, your majesty, before it’s too late.”
He grabbed the knife I’d tucked into its sheath. My heart hammered at the challenge in his eyes. He held out the blade to me, hilt first. He was asking me to kill this man, to prove my loyalty to the vampires, to the wolves, to the creatures who’d taken to the darkness.
I stared at him, my stillness a silent protest. I wasn’t a murderer. Liar. Sickness rose and I pushed it down where it belonged, tucked in some shadowed corner of my psyche. Doubt surfaced and try as hard as I might, I couldn’t push it away. I’d killed demons and vampires, not all of them the red-eyed homicidal kind, without batting an eye. Had they had friends? Family? How many demons at the Vault had I orphaned? I didn’t, couldn’t, add to that list.
“Pathetic,” Eiven said.
I flinched at the truth I saw in his words—at how they mocked what I knew was fact.
He dropped to his knee and shoved the blade directly between Jared’s eyes with a sickening thwack. Eiven pulled out the blade and rose, wiping the excess blood and other matter on my sleeve. Moisture seeped through the fabric and onto my skin.
I had a strange flashback to seeing my mother’s bloody body. I’d touched cold, thick blood, rubbed it between my fingers until my father had pulled me from the carnage.
Jesus. Jared had a little girl. Would she grow up with an uncle instead of a father, as I had? For that matter, did Hellix and Ja-air have kids somewhere? I’d never asked, never invested the time in getting to know any of the Fenrir.
Headlights flashed through the trees and cut the darkness, illuminating the grisly scene. I knew the sound of Micah’s car, felt the knot of tension easing inside my gut.
Eiven drew the point of my blade down my cheek as if it were his finger, light and caressing. I sucked in a breath that tasted of blood and death. I lifted my head to meet his ice-cold gaze.
He curled his lip, exposing the tips of elongated teeth. The tip of the knife pressed harder, cutting skin. “I might owe you my allegiance, but not my respect. That’s a right you haven’t earned.”
As much as I wanted to disagree, to pull away from the bite of his blade, I couldn’t. Staring into Eiven’s gaze, I realized he was right. I’d done nothing to earn the respect from anyone around me.
I’d been weak. Emotional. Plagued with doubt and indecision.
I’d lived the last seven years of my life fighting for esteem from the agency before discovering I didn’t agree with what they were about. Now I was among people who had one priority—protecting me and mine.
It was time to pull me head from my ass and start acting instead of reacting.
Chapter Six
The car’s headlights cut through the darkness, the beams reflecting off a silver blade before exposing the rest of the scene. Bodies littered the driveway—blood darkened the snow. Ella stood, back straight, chin high, the tip of a knife pressed to her cheek. Her dark hair whipped furiously around her, dancing in the drifts of wind. Toe to toe, she and Eiven stared at each other. The white puffs their breaths made mingled.
What the fuck?
The packmaster drew the blade down the curve of Ella’s cheek, a line of red appearing in its wake. My girl stood there without flinching, without blinking. Why the hell wasn’t she fighting back?
Heat uncurled from the depth of my soul and I pressed harder on the accelerator, the car’s motor a loud vibration over the chaotic sounds of Slayer blaring through the speakers. I stopped inches away from the carnage and barely had the car in park before I was out the door.
My every step was a loud crunching of heavy soles melting through gravel-covered snow. I was far beyond stealth and didn’t give a fuck.
“What the hell?” I growled, grabbing Ella by the arm and ripping her away from the blade cutting into her skin.
The line of red I’d seen from several feet away now dripped down her face. I curled my hand into a fist and swung out, connecting with the solid surface of Eiven’s cheek. Crunch. The wolf’s head jerked back. His growl ripped through the air and he came at me swinging. I leaned back, the blow missing me and swung in from the side, landing another solid hit that filled me with vindication and made me crave more.
The blow knocked Eiven forward and I took the opportunity to shove my knee into his gut with a satisfying grunt. He looked up at me and snarled, blood dripping from his mouth.
His packmates circled close and I spared only the briefest of glances at Ella. She stood, hands loose at her side, staring at the dead body on the ground.
Eiven’s voice drew my attention to the fight. “You cripple her, demon.”
I lunged, ready to inflict more pain. I needed to hurt him with a ferocity that scared me. We came together in a clash of fists. I felt nothing except the red-hot burn smoldering in my gut.
Between hits, I grunted, “You’re supposed to be protecting her.”
I threw him off me and swiped my bleeding nose on the sleeve of my jacket as we circled each other, both looking for an opening. By some unspoken rule, the wolves at his command held back, waiting until they were invited into the fray to try to kick my ass.
Eiven rolled his neck. “I did my duty.”
“Yeah, that really looked like duty, your fucking knife pressed to her face.”
“It was her knife and I had it because she was too weak to do what needed to be done.”
I stopped and looked at the corpse on the ground. It took me a few seconds before recognition took hold. Jared. He was an agency hunter, a douche if I remembered correctly. I swept the grounds, taking in the severed heads and other limbs from two other bodies. Blood drenched the snow.
“What happened?” I asked, forcing the heat inside.
Eiven spat on the body at his feet and kicked the corpse. Disgust and fury radiated, mixing with the neck-ruffling press of his wolf straining for freedom. His eyes shimmered with the barely restrained beast. “Your agency happened. These assholes slaughtered two of my wolves and then came after Ella.”
Disgust filled me. Richard. I should have known the Shadow Agency hadn’t planned on playing fair. “It’s not my agency, not any longer.”
Eiven jerked his head as if nodding. “You want to protect her? Wake her the fuck up. Playtime’s over. This isn’t a game.”
I glared at the packmaster, hungry for the taste of his blood.
“I’ll get right on that, asshole.” I cracked my knuckles and tilted my head to one side, then the other, readying for more brutality. “Touch her again, and I swear to God I’ll make you pay.”
Eiven sneered. “Noted.” He turned to his wolves. “Get rid of these bodies.”
With one last disgust-filled glare aimed in Ella’s direction—as if the he blamed her for the death of his wolves—the packmaster strode in the direction of the woods. Mid-step, amidst a burst of light, he shifted forms and sprinted into the darkness.
Where the fuck was he going?
I turned to Ella and cupped her cheek, pulling her gaze from the dead to me. Had she even heard the fight?
I thumbed the blood on her cheek and found the wound beneath healed. Her gaze was far away, in a place I didn’t know if I could reach.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head but said nothing. The two Fenrir worked silently, not sparing Ella or me a glance as they followed orders. They stacked bodies, throwing dismembered limbs on top of the pile as if they were firewood. Were they going to burn the evidence?
Jesus.
I cupped her face harder, squeezing until life surfaced in her eyes. “Tell me what happened, babe.”
She shook her head and looked up at me with hatred. “Agency hunters. They came for me—killed two of the Fenrir. Eiven and his boys,” she swallowed, “they did the rest…I didn’t kill him but I should have. I didn’t…” Her voice trailed off.
“Shit.” I grabbed her arm
and drew her along behind me, into the house.
I pulled her up the stairs, down one hallway then another, navigating the maze with ease. In the safety of our room, I closed and locked the door behind me.
Ella strode for the connected bathroom and toed off her shoes without bothering with light switches. Her guilt whipped through me. Tears rolled down her cheeks, cutting through the splattering of dried blood that painted her skin. She stepped into the large glass shower stall fully clothed and twisted the faucet to the coldest setting. After weeks of holding everything inside, had my girl finally lost it?
Wake her the fuck up.
“Babe.” I grabbed her arm to pull her out of the way before the full blast of water came, but she yanked free of my hold.
The full force of the icy water hit her, the echoing din eclipsing her gasp of shock. She sputtered under the torrential spray drenching her from the dual front and back showerheads. She pressed both hands against the slick mosaic wall and arched her back, tipping her face up and inviting more water to hit her.
“Ella.” I tried again, the ice-cold water soaking through my shirt and making the fabric stick to my skin.
“Don’t,” she whispered and shook off my touch.
Pink water dripped from her face and clothes, swirling down the small brass grate in the center of the shower’s floor. Ella leaned forward and rested her forehead against the wall to stare at it.
“There’s so much blood.” Her voice cracked with such a confused jumble of emotion it broke my heart. “They’re all dead, all because of me. Everything I touch dies.”
“No, it doesn’t.” Fully clothed, I stepped under the spray and gathered her close.
“The darkness inside me is growing and I can’t see what’s right anymore.”
Didn’t she know I’d always be her light? “You aren’t alone.”
She was limp in my arms, so unlike the fierce huntress I’d grown to love. I cupped the back of her head and forced her nose to my throat. In my arms she was tiny and delicate. Under her small packaging lay a strength I couldn’t comprehend. I felt like an asshole for the way I’d talked to her at the hospital, but it needed to be said. I needed my Ella back.
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