by C. M. Owens
“No, but apparently you have.” He wipes his mouth that somehow got a little bloody, and he picks at the gashes she left on his side.
“She’s one of them now. It’s like a declaration of war if you kill her. What the hell are you doing?”
He narrows his eyes while pulling his shirt over his head, revealing all the scars and tattoos that mar his body, and he tosses it aside.
“She’s not one of them. They’re just fucking stupid enough to think she is. Who do you fucking think you are?”
“I’m the one keeping you on track. This isn’t our mission. We’re after revenge. Not chasing suicidal missions with no reward. This is about her, right? The fucking princess you can’t stay away from?”
He growls and his silver eyes shift into an array of different colors before finally turning silver once again.
“This is revenge, Kya. Don’t forget your fucking place. If you want your blood, you gotta let me have mine.”
He takes a step toward me, but she steps in front of me, blocking his path. I can’t see his face now, but I can still hear that thunderous growl.
“Don’t fuck with me. You know damn well you can’t take me.”
“No, but I can beat some sense into you,” she snarls. “Don’t underestimate me, Slade.”
He curses, and I see red blaze from her hands again, but it’s too hard to see beyond her. Suddenly, she drops to the ground beside me, and he rolls his eyes before waving his hand over her. She disappears from sight, and he turns his eyes back on me.
I stagger back to my feet, swaying on unsteady legs as my mind searches for answers to what he just did.
“You just made my most loyal follower turn on me. You’re fucking toxic.”
“You killed her?” I croak, launching myself at him.
My knife slashes through his arm, but he slings me off him, and I roll on the ground, climbing back up to my feet a little slower. Blood oozes from his arm from my cut, and faint black lines of poison slowly fade away, but he doesn’t even seem to notice it.
If I could get the knife to stick in him, it would be like a poisonous, paralyzing stab. I could kill the bastard. I’m possibly the only one who can.
“She’s alive. But she won’t be if she holds a grudge. Because you’re not making it out of here today.”
When his foot kicks my stomach, I land against the wall, and he crashes against me with his knife pressed to my throat. I try to stab him in the side, but he catches my hand with his free one, and a garbled cry escapes me when he breaks my wrist and forces me to drop the knife. It clanks to the floor like a promise of shattered hope, and I bite back another cry when he squeezes my wrist.
“Who do you think the hexer was that placed the curse?” he asks in a rasp, almost breathless whisper.
There’s a pain in his voice that I don’t care about or understand. I’m barely staying vertical and practically choking on my own blood, and it’s clear Zee isn’t going to crash through the wall and save me this time.
Everything hurts, but my adrenaline is pumping so fast and so hard that it’s almost numbing me as the will to survive overpowers everything else.
I struggle, pushing against him with both hands, including the one attached to the broken wrist, and ignore the shooting, hot pain that surges up my arm and into my neck.
“I told her not to do it,” he goes on, getting right in my face and giving me a much better view of one scar that travels from his eyebrow down his cheek and touches the corner of his mouth. “I told her to cast something that would destroy all of you. But she wouldn’t. She was too compassionate. Weak. She should have been ruthless, and they never would have been able to kill her. The worst she did was hope you’d hate every second of being with one of us. Turns out you get off on it, which means it was all for nothing.”
I try to swallow, but the blade nicks my neck, reminding me it’s there.
“The Aquarius started this. He went in, and he never came out. They stole him. They crucified him. They tortured him. Everything they learned and documented became the tools the other ones used against us… To find us… To hunt us… To capture us and torture us. To use us for their own sick, sadistic pleasure. And all she did was give you a curse that tied you to us forever. Be glad hexes are built from passion and righteousness. Otherwise, you’d be fucked, because I’d leave the nastiest fucking hex there was to make this long and painful.”
He? She? Who are these people he’s talking about? He acts like I should know.
“Who?” I ask, but it sounds muffled and more blood spits from my mouth as I slowly die against the wall.
He eyes me with nothing but cold emptiness behind those silvery orbs, and he leans in. “This will hurt. This will go slowly. You’ll bleed out for a long time, because your blood takes longer to drain. Just like mine. Just like theirs. You’ll still have more mercy than they were shown.”
A cry escapes me when the blade slices across my throat, and he backs away. It burns and aches, and it feels like there’s something fiery pressed against me. I gasp and gargle, unable to speak, as I clutch my throat and try to keep the blood from pouring out.
Nothing on me wants to move, and Slade walks over to squat next to my head, looking into my eyes as I remain mute, other than the sounds of choking escaping me.
“This is for my father,” he says while touching my hand. He smears something on my head with his index finger, and he dips his finger in my blood again. “This is for my mother.” He writes something else on my forehead, then once again dips his finger in my blood. “This is for everything I lost.”
He writes something on both of my cheeks, and then he stands while wiping my blood off his hand and onto his jeans like it’s nothing more than dirt.
“Be glad this is the worst I did. At least you get to die in peace instead of hearing the cries of others for centuries.”
He disappears from the room, and I flip over onto my belly, trying to crawl, but it takes more energy and strength than I have.
Zee…
Chapter 21
ZEE
Blood pools under Sylvia. Dead. Gone. Murdered.
I expected to have some mixed feelings, but there’s nothing more than peace. I feel like I can breathe for the first time since that bitch destroyed my life.
Silan walks out, laughing as he claps me on the shoulder. He killed her. He destroyed the fucking bitch. I envy him, because I wish it had been me.
“Where are we going?” I ask as we top the stairs.
“Everywhere. Anywhere. Sylvia can no longer haunt us. We can start our own coven now, Zee. You and me.”
Our own coven… The thought makes me snort. I was a high school quarterback. A college legend. And now I’m in a night stalker coven. Unbelievable.
“This will be so epic,” Silan goes on.
I jog at his side until we reach the car he drove, and a girl steps out. Her dreamy gaze, and perma-grin has my own smile faltering as she looks over at Silan like she’s awaiting orders.
“Get in the back. Zee will be riding up front,” Silan commands.
The girl smiles at me before ducking into the back seat like she can’t obey fast enough. My eyes move over to Silan as the last of my smile slips, and he winks at me.
“Ready?”
My eyes move back and forth between him and the girl, and I take a step back.
“You sired her?” I ask in disbelief.
He shrugs. “Of course. Look at her. She’s perfect for our world. Once the new wears off and she gets that dreamy look out of her dazed self, she’ll be great.”
I… I thought he and I were alike. When he managed to escape, he acted like me. He wanted what I wanted.
To be out.
To be free.
“Zee, get in the car!” he prompts, looking over his shoulder. “Sylvia’s other toys will be coming after us if we don’t hurry.
I step away from the car, and he slams his hand on the hood. “Damn it, Zee. Don’t act like that. She a
greed to it.”
I don’t trust him. I don’t believe him.
There’s no way in hell I would ever turn someone, even if they were begging for it. I’d never push this curse on someone else. I’d never rob someone from their family the way I was stolen from mine.
My sister… I’ll never see her again.
Turning away, I ignore Silan and I start running toward the nearest town. I may wander around for eternity on my own, or live until someone kills me, but I won’t be a part of a coven.
I won’t be the monster.
As soon as we walk into the house, Roslyn is rushing by us in wolf form, running so fast that I barely see anything but a white blur of fur.
Ella rushes out with Kimber and Karma on her heels, and all three girls leap over the deck railing, chasing Roslyn.
“The fuck?” Dice asks, watching as they run.
Without even knowing what the hell is going on, I dematerialize, thankful no one is on the lake beach to witness it. I land behind Ella, and try to stop her, but she keeps running, brushing me off as she barrels through the forest like she’s on a mission. She’s pale and her eyes are wide with terror, and Roslyn is running so damn fast that we keep having to dematerialize in spurts to gain ground faster.
“The hell is going on?!” I yell as Roslyn bursts out of the woods and runs straight into Pine Shore traffic.
Like that won’t arouse some fucking suspicion. A damn white wolf loose in the streets while we chase.
Horns blare, tires screech, and screams arise, but Roslyn leaps over two cars and sails in the air before pounding the other side of the street, still running as fast as her wolf legs will allow.
Ella jumps and slides over the hood of a car before jumping a fence and staying on Roslyn’s ass.
Fuck!
I jump over a group of teens that are hanging out, and they all gasp as I clear their heads, pounding the ground with a thud, before continuing the fucking ridiculous pace. This is too damn public!
“What the hell, Ella?” I snap, catching back up with her.
Karma appears in front of her, and more screams arise from behind us, letting us know that shit was just seen, but it’s like no one gives a damn about exposing us all of the sudden.
Even cautious Kimber suddenly leaps out of a portal, landing right beside Roslyn as the wolf continues to lead the unknown charge.
“He took her!” Kimber yells over her shoulder, running harder to keep Roslyn’s ungodly pace.
My brow furrows in confusion, but then all the blood in my veins turns frigid, feeling like hot ice coursing through me, freezing me and burning me at the same damn time.
Leah… Slade.
Motherfucker!
Something inside me snaps, and a black fog closes down around me. Nothing and no one matters in that instant. No one other than her.
Someone will fucking die tonight.
Death and mayhem swarm my thoughts, taking over, and everything I’ve been holding back bursts through the dam with a vengeance I don’t even want to control.
Chapter 22
ELLA
A feral roar escapes Zee, and I silently curse Kimber for fucking telling him what’s going on. The sky crackles and thunders, and nausea sweeps over me as Roslyn continues her hellacious pace.
Zee has been battling a dark war I can relate to, and now…
The wind stirs violently around us, and a that feral roar sounds out once again. Roslyn sniffs the air, turning toward me, but the look in her eyes turns to terror as we both turn to see Zee’s eyes…
Solid black eyes meet mine, and a shiver runs down my spine as Zee moves his eyes toward the sky. Lightning crashes, thunder barks, and the wind swirls like a bad omen. The ground around him starts turning to Ash, and I glance over just as Gage appears and grabs Kimber around the waist, pushing her behind him.
“What happened?” Gage yells, trying to make his voice reach us over the massive storm.
“Slade took Leah!” Kimber says, talking as loud as possible.
His lips move, but the storm is just too loud to hear him. All I can make out is motherfucker and son of a bitch.
“When?” he yells, making it easier to hear that.
“Just a few minutes ago. They couldn’t have gone far. Roslyn shifted immediately and started tracking, but this is a dead end. She stopped here, but Slade isn’t here!” I yell back.
“Fuck,” Gage growls, turning to look over at Zee as the black spreads to cover his whole eyes.
I swallow hard as I take a step back, hoping I don’t have to fight one of my best friends. Now I know what it’s like to be on this side of the crazy.
Roslyn howls, and we all turn to face her. She sniffs the air and howls again before racing off.
“What about Zee?” I yell as we start running behind her.
“Leave him. I don’t know what Gavin did to him, so we sure as fuck don’t need to mess with him right now,” Gage yells back, dragging Kimber with him as we all try to keep up with the wickedly fast wolf.
She howls again, and she cuts her eyes toward a house in the distance. Gage dematerializes, and I follow suit, vanishing and reappearing right in front of the house.
“It’s spelled!” Gage says, cursing as we get held back by the barrier.
Taking a deep breath, I step up, and with one hard punch, the barrier shatters. The urge to taste pain rises, but I push it down, knowing they can’t deal with two psychos at once right now. I’m not sure who would be more lethal at the moment.
Karma jumps through the hole I made, and I follow as she kicks the door down.
Roslyn growls and snarls as she takes the lead once again, sniffing and seeking. Her hackles rise as she starts clawing at the floor. Gage waves his hand and part of the floor disappears, revealing a hidden staircase that spirals down several secret stories.
He drops in first, bypassing the stairs and leaping through the middle. Thad rushes in, gasping for breath.
“Zee’s fucking losing it bad out there.”
I just nod, tightening my lips before dropping down the hole as well. Darkness and light pass me in wafts, and my shirt rides up under my arms, flapping against the rapid descent as the wind seems to rush in reverse.
I land hard, and the floor cracks beneath me as I crouch and leap out of the way. Wide eyes turn toward me and Gage—who entered quieter than I did—and three guys disappear as another guy struggles to snap out of his shock.
Gage grabs him just before he dematerializes, anchoring him to the breathing plane, and he slams the guy against the wall.
“Where the fuck are they?” he demands, pulling the guy forward and slamming him against the wall again as if to punctuate his seriousness.
Slade isn’t here, but Roslyn apparently tracked someone else whose blood she’s tasted. They have to know Slade. She wouldn’t have brought us here for nothing.
The guy struggles uselessly against the stronger dark user, and his eyes light up with fire.
“Fuck you,” he growls.
“Wrong answer,” Gage says with a cold smile.
He slams his fist into the guy’s face, and blood sprays, painting parts of the wall beside him.
“Where the fuck are they?”
The guy just laughs while spitting to the side. “I’m more scared of Slade than I ever will be of you. You’re a pussy by comparison, dark user.”
Some wild, bone-chilling roar runs down the house, and goosebumps pebble on my skin as Roslyn whimpers and backs away. I never even saw or heard her come in.
“The hell is that?” the guy in Gage’s grip whispers.
“That,” Gage says with a long, regretful sigh, “is someone you’ve pissed off.”
Zee suddenly appears in the room with black smoke spiraling around him like death on a leash. The devil himself would shudder in fear.
Gage drops the guy and jerks me away. Zee stalks toward the guy, whose eyes widen as his lips part in disbelief. He tries to dematerialize, but Zee grabs him ju
st like Gage did, and his dark, black eyes glisten with a deadly promise.
“Where is she?” Zee asks, but it doesn’t even sound like him.
It sounds unnatural, gravelly… fucking terrifying.
Gage holds his hand up when the others try to come in, and Thad pulls Kimber and Roslyn back as Roslyn shifts into human form again.
“I… I don’t know,” the guy stammers.
Zee’s dark smile could scare the dead into deeper graves.
A bloodcurdling scream sounds out, and red starts pouring from the guy’s eyes as Zee keeps him against the wall, doing who the hell knows what. Blood runs like tears down his face, and he sobs as Zee tilts his head to the right.
“Try again,” he says with an edge of danger like I’ve never heard.
The guy starts turning an angry shade of red, suffocating, and Zee smirks like he’s getting off on the pain he’s inflicting. It makes me hungry, wishing it was me, and Gage actually has to pull me back before I go to take over.
I swallow down the knot in my throat as the guy gasps, catching air.
“I don’t know,” he whimpers in a rush.
More screams pierce the room as blood starts oozing from his ears, and Zee leans in close, whispering something to the guy as one eye explodes. Karma retches, turning away, and Gage curses while pulling me farther back.
The screams are so pretty, so tempting…
“Where are they?” Zee asks again.
“They’re in an underground facility… two miles… north from here,” the guy says through his garbled, muffled strain. He rattles off exact coordinates that I can barely understand, and Gage starts to go to Zee. Zee snaps the guy’s neck, and he backs away as the guy falls to the ground.
“You shouldn’t have killed him,” Gage barks.
Zee turns his black eyes on Gage, and the dark user tightens his lips and steps away like he forgot Zee isn’t Zee right now.
“I’m going to kill every fucking one of them.”
He disappears from the room, and I barely manage to dematerialize fast enough to tail him. He lands in front of me, and he stalks over to a seemingly innocuous piece of ground, but I can feel the spell barrier from here.