by Sofia Daniel
A low, guttural snarl echoed through the tunnel. It was joined by another and then another.
I grabbed Gates’ arm and whispered, “What’s that?”
He deflated. “My alpha is here. And she’s furious.”
Chapter 18
The snarls grew in volume, making the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I stood at Gates’ side in the dark, my third eye focused on the patch of darkness that was Ponytail’s missing soul and clenched my teeth. It was daytime. They weren’t werewolves. And even if they had transformed, they were still people beneath all that fur and fangs.
“We have to go,” Gates murmured.
“Where?”
“Pack headquarters.”
“But what about—”
“She’s not going anywhere,” he muttered. “At least not for several hours.”
I knelt on the damp ground and groped around with my eyes still closed for Ponytail’s pockets.
“What are you doing?” Gates hissed.
“There’s something in her blazer jacket that could get me into a lot of trouble. I have to get it.”
“Hurry,” he whispered. “The alpha’s bite isn’t anything I’d want to experience more than once.”
After checking her pockets and stuffing their contents in mine, I straightened and rubbed a trembling hand over my face.
Gates was in trouble, and I couldn’t let him get punished, which meant I had to accompany him to where the pack lived. But what if they sent me back to the castle and I couldn’t leave until after Ponytail woke? I shook off those thoughts. With my activated third eye, I could see the gap in any ward.
Gates transformed and nudged my hand with his damp nose. His moist breath warmed through my jacket, and I gave him what I hoped was a reassuring pat on the snout.
After I settled myself on his back and gripped fistfuls of fur, he darted to the left and raced through the tunnels.
His powerful body expanded and flexed underneath me, and I tried to memorize his path, but it was futile. There were too many twists and turns, and even if I could remember them all backward, I had no sense of distance because he bolted through some sections and walked through others.
A shaft of light streamed ahead, reminding me of how I’d seen sunlight through the castle door’s secret panel.
I patted his shoulder and said, “Careful, Gates, there’s—”
He leaped into the stream of light, and I opened my eyes to find us flying into a forest clearing. The mingled scents of pine and eucalyptus swirled through the cold breeze, blowing strands of hair off my face. As soon as his paws hit the ground, he lowered himself onto his belly and let me climb off.
I turned around to find a log cabin with a pair of rough-looking, bearded men lounging by the door. They wore the same type of denim jacket and jeans Gates had discarded outside the castle.
“Who’s that, boy?” said the taller man who had braided his dirty blond hair into his beard. “Alpha won’t like you messing with a girl.”
The sound of paws hitting the ground made me whirl around. A white dire wolf with startling, teal eyes sprang out from the hole and landed in front of us on its front paws.
In the blink of an eye, the wolf transformed into a tall, white-haired woman with full lips, high breasts, and long, tightly muscled limbs. The morning sun made the ends of her hair glow like candle flames.
Gates fell to his knees. “Alpha.”
My mouth dropped open. This was the alpha werewolf? I’d imagined a huge, hairy guy with massive sideburns, not this pale, Amazonian beauty. I stepped back with my hand on my chest, gaping at the woman advancing toward us.
Amber flashed in her eyes, and she bared teeth too sharp to be human. “Why are you using one of my boys to hunt down an injured vampire?”
My stomach dropped at the accusation, and I raised both palms in a semblance of innocence. “She fell out of a window in the sunlight, and I ran out to pull her back into the shadows. I asked Gates to help me find her so that she wouldn’t burn to ash.”
The alpha curled her lip. “Do you think I’m deaf and stupid, girl? I heard both of you talk about killing that vampire.”
Two huge, black wolves leaped out of the hole in the clearing and transformed into ebony-skinned men with shaved heads and hairless bodies. Despite the murderous-looking she-wolf snarling in my face, I couldn’t help sweeping my gazes down to their long, supernatural dicks.
“Keep your eyes off my pack!” growled the alpha.
I snatched my gaze away from the men and focused on the alpha’s flashing eyes.
She turned to the two bearded men standing behind me in front of the hut. “Take the frumosi to the storeroom and keep her there until sunset. When Tanar rises, he’ll tell us what to do.”
My heart jumped into my throat. “No, wait—”
Lacing her fingers into Gates’ hair, she strode past me and dragged him up onto his hands and knees. “Get inside and face your punishment, boy!”
Gates groaned and crawled after the alpha. I didn’t have time to protest because the two bearded werewolves strutted toward me with wide grins stretching their hairy faces.
They both wrapped meaty hands around my biceps and marched me through the woods, past a wall of boulders, and into a cooler part of the forest with taller trees that blocked out the sun.
I closed my eyes and tried to attack, but nothing happened. My shoulders sagged with defeat as they lifted me off my feet to pass a gurgling stream. After a short walk through rows of blueberry bushes, we reached a windowless stone building that looked more like a mausoleum than a storeroom.
Lightning bolts of panic struck my chest, and alarm tingled across my skin. I tried jerking out of their grips, but they were too strong.
“Can’t I wait for Captain Tanar in Pack Headquarters?” I asked.
“You can if you suck our cocks,” said the smaller of the pair, a russet-haired brute with bushy eyebrows.
“And swallow,” his companion added.
“Never mind.” I stopped cringing and braced myself for several cold, dark hours.
“Suit yourself.” The werewolf flung open the door, revealing a space that stretched twelve by twelve feet. A wooden table and chair stood in the corner of the room with little else.
One of the brutes shoved me into the cold, stone room, plunging me in semi-darkness. I stumbled to the end and lowered myself onto the chair. With a creak, one of its legs snapped in half, and I landed on my ass.
“What is this?” I muttered. “Goldilocks and the werewolves?”
The brutes snickered behind the door. “See you after sundown, blood-whore!”
I pulled myself to my feet, not bothering to dignify their mockery with a reply.
After several minutes of standing around and making sure they had left the area, I rushed to the door and felt around its surface. There were no handles, and it had swung inward, indicating that jamming my shoulder against it would be a futile waste of energy.
Instead, I stood in a corner, closed my eyes, and practiced making myself invisible. First, I poured white magic from my soul star chakra into my crown, which glowed violet. When that was fully opened, I moved the magic down to my third eye and filled my vision with indigo light. Those were the most difficult to activate, and the rest lit up in quick succession.
My heart glowed green, then my solar plexus lit up in a flare of yellow. After that, my sacral chakra turned orange, and my root chakra at my tailbone became red.
The colors swirled around my body, forming a sheath of iridescent light that settled mere inches away from my skin. I took a step forward, and the invisibility popped. With a snarl, I started again.
Several minutes later, the door opened, and the two werewolves from before stepped into the storeroom, holding a body wrapped in a blanket. Sunlight flooded my eyes, making me squint.
“Where the fuck is the girl?” snarled the one with the dirty blond hair and beard.
My heart flip-flopped. Th
e invisibility spell was still working. Every fiber of my being urged me to run to the door and slip out, but I held still. The moment I moved, the enchantment would pop, and the werewolves would know I could do invisibility magic. Worse, they would tell Captain Tanar at sunset. A shudder ran down my spine at the thought of the blood-thirsty vampire knowing more about my capabilities.
“Did you lock the door?” asked the redhead.
His companion paused. “Yes.”
The redhead bumped his companion on the shoulder. “You don’t sound too sure!”
“I did!”
The red-headed werewolf shook his head. “We’d better tell the alpha she escaped.”
They deposited the body in the middle of the room, and a delicate hand flopped out from the blanket. It reddened in the sunlight, and I swallowed hard. That could only be Ponytail. With a muttered curse, the werewolves shoved the blanket over the vampire and slammed the door shut.
Hot, angry breaths heaved from my lungs. What on earth were these werewolves thinking? They’d trapped me with an injured and possibly hungry vampire. I cursed myself for not having learned to maintain my invisibility while on the move.
I sat in the corner, watching the still figure beneath the blanket. Cold from the earth floor seeped into my ass, and I drew my legs into my chest and wrapped my arms around my legs to stay warm. I released the invisibility spell and waited. There was no point in wasting magic hiding from a sleeping vampire.
Long, tedious hours passed, and I rocked back and forth, waiting for sunset and waiting for the boys to come and search for me. My gaze fixed on the tiny streams of light coming through the gaps in the stone, my only indication of the passage of time. I hoped they would find Gates’ clothes and work out what had happened.
More hours passed, and my legs and ass became stiff with cold. The light dimmed, and I made myself invisible.
The body under the blanket groaned and shifted. I closed my eyes and checked on my invisibility spell. It was still intact.
Ponytail sat up, rubbed her eyes, and stared up at the dim spots of light in the ceiling. She brought her hand up to her head, touched a spot on the back and hissed.
“Shit!”
Her voice sent a spike of adrenaline through my heart, making it pound like a war drum—loud and fast. I slowed my breaths, hoping that my magic would conceal the sound and smell of my fear. She didn’t look in my direction, which was a good sign.
Ponytail stood on shaky legs and walked to the door. She drew back her fist and punched through the wood. Dim, orange light streamed through the hole she made, and she flinched to the side.
I bit down on my lip. With her pale skin, she was probably more susceptible to the sun than other vampires. After checking my invisibility spell and finding it still intact, I rested my head on my knees and waited for the sun to set so that she would leave.
A gust of wind swirled through the hole in the door and blew my hair off my face. I shuddered at the cold but held still.
Ponytail stiffened. She turned around, nostrils flaring, and fixed her eyes on me.
I stared back. Surely, the wind hadn’t affected my spell—
A heartbeat later, thin arms wrapped around my neck and waist, pulling me into a female body about my size. Panic exploded through my chest. Had she known I was in the storeroom all along?
“Which one of you killed my sister?”
“How should I know?” I said through clenched teeth.
“Listen, you stupid bitch,” she snarled into my ear. “Right now, the only thing keeping you alive is the knowledge you hold in your thick skull. Each time you lie or pretend you don’t know who murdered Kush, your heartbeat accelerates, and your scent turns rancid.”
“Please… I don’t want to hurt you,” I whisper.
Her harsh chuckle made me cringe. “A blood whore without her vampire protectors is a glorified goblet of sangria. Zarah’s notes say that you snuck out during the day to roam the castle. Is that how you killed Kush?”
“I didn’t kill your sister.”
“Truth.” She gave me a gentle squeeze. “But you know who did.”
I clamped my jaws together and sent out a silent prayer that the boys would arrive and help me decide what to do about Ponytail.
“Answer me,” she threaded her fingers in my hair and yanked my head back, exposing my neck.
Pain burned through my scalp, and I cried out, “No!”
“Lie. Thanks for confirming you know the identity of my sister’s murderer. It will save me from getting the wrong person executed.”
Ponytail threw me, and I landed hard against a stone wall. The impact of my fall made me flop down to the earthen floor with a painful thud. I squeezed my eyes shut and activated my third eye. One spot in the darkness of my imagination appeared blacker than the rest—her empty soul star chakra.
“Was it Dante?” she snarled. “Answer me, or I’ll snap your neck.”
I pushed my magic into the dark patch, and it surged through the other chakras and stopped at her heart, filling it with a flame as bright as the midday sun.
Ponytail screamed. With an almighty thud, she crashed on the ground, wailing and thrashing. “Stop that. Please!”
I clenched my teeth, hoping the werewolves thought it was me being tortured by the vampire and not the other way around.
Her cries for mercy rang through my eardrums, but I kept up a steady stream of power. By now, the boys would be awake. The sounds of her screaming would attract at least one of them to this accursed hut, and we could decide together what to do about her.
My power dimmed, and I pulled it back to my body so she wouldn’t realize I’d run out. Folding my arms across my chest, I pulled my shoulders back and tried to look defiant. “I told you not to mess with me.”
“Wh-what was that?” she said through panting breaths.
“It’s what will happen to you if you continue spreading Zarah’s lies. She made up a bunch of half-truths to blackmail me into helping her.”
“You helped her escape.” She stumbled to her feet.
I didn’t answer.
“Dante killed my sister.” Ponytail leaned against the wall and panted. “He’s the most hotheaded of the brothers. Nero could have done it, but he’s more likely to blackmail a person or twist things around into a situation to his advantage.”
She was right, but I kept my features even.
Still breathing hard, Ponytail doubled over and braced her arms on her thighs. “Raph had the biggest motive, but he was too sick to leave the infirmary.”
Without meaning to, my heart skipped a beat.
Her head snapped up, the whites of her eyes shining in the dim light. “It was Raphael.”
Panic exploded across my chest. I clamped my lips together and held myself still. I didn’t dare shake my head in case my body betrayed my desire to protect Raphael.
Ponytail’s eyes filled with tears. “After you burned through Raphael’s insides and nearly killed him, I visited him in the infirmary. He couldn’t move or speak, and bones protruded through his skin.”
I backed away, breathing hard. If this was the other twin, I would have attacked, but Ponytail hadn’t been particularly cruel or vicious.
“When I told him—” her voice broke. “When I told him it was my fault he was in this state, his eyes opened, and he looked at me as if I was a liar.” A sob tore from her throat. “Raph knew I wouldn’t have trapped you with a werewolf. It was the kind of thing Kush would do.”
My mouth opened and closed. I wanted to tell her that Raphael was innocent, but she would smell the lie on my lips. Instead, I leaned against the wall, closed my eyes, and kept the barest trace of power over her heart chakra.
“Kush could never help herself,” she sobbed. “It was like that ever since we were little. She’d pull the wings off birds to see them hop about and struggle. She once killed a human woman in front of her small children to make them scream. Then she kept the children as pets.”
&
nbsp; “Lava.” My tongue darted out to lick my dry lips. “I’m—”
She rushed across the stone hut and gave me a hard shove. “Don’t say a word! If you had listened to Micalla and kept away from the Stryx brothers, you wouldn’t have ended up in a dungeon with a werewolf!”
My teeth clicked shut. There was no point in telling her that someone had mesmerized me into seeing vampire bats and that I’d only gone with Raphael because I thought he’d teach me to protect my mind.
A crash filled the air, and the door flew off its hinges and clanged against the stone wall. Raphael stood in the doorway, his copper hair glowing like fire in the setting sun. His pale skin reddened with sunburn, but his green eyes blazed with indignation.
“Lava.” Raphael snarled. “What are you doing with Alicia?”
“You killed Kush!”
He stepped into the hut. “I did.”
I rushed toward him, but Ponytail grabbed me from behind and wrapped her slender hand around my neck.
She pulled me into her body and said, “Now you’re going to watch me kill your pet.”
Raphael stepped further into the room with his palms raised. “We won’t let you get away with this.”
“I’m past caring.”
“You should because we’ll draw out your death and make it excruciating.”
I pushed my magic into the other girl, but it fizzled around her heart chakra and didn’t burn. Cold fear fell through my gut like a boulder of ice picking up speed in an avalanche. It turned my blood to sludge and made my skin pucker into goosebumps.
We were screwed. At any time, she could snap my neck, and Raphael would be too late to save my life.
“Lava,” he said. “Don’t take your anger out an Alicia. You and I both know Micalla had put her in an impossible situation. The more she walked away from us, the more interested we became. Don’t punish her for our faults.”
A harsh laugh reverberated against my neck. “What are you saying, Raph? Will you die in the place of a blood whore?”
He gave her a sharp nod. “If it will save her life, I will.”
“I accept.” She tightened her grip around my waist.