by K. C. Hamby
Chapter 16
Edelina
Wait, what am I doing?
I stop in my tracks, glancing around. Nothing really seems familiar. There are so many people in here, it’s confusing me. They all smell sweaty and too much like alcohol.
I sniff myself. Ach. I suppose I do, too.
I’m at a bar, right?
That must be where the smell of alcohol is coming from and the music is so fucking loud.
Goddammit, I need to get away from all the chaos and drunk fools running into me, smiling like we are pals. I don’t get a glance of a single familiar face from the people around me. It’s driving me mental, and I can’t even think about thinking straight.
When I turn in a circle to find a way out of this bullshite, I lock eyes with Raven.
I may be confused as all fuck, but I will never forget that face. It quickens my heartbeat and has my feet moving.
Her smirk is terrifying.
Get away. Must get away.
I frantically stumble around, needing a way to get the fuck away from her and find a door that may take me outside. And suddenly, getting out of the building seems like the best idea I’ve ever had.
Magic. Fresh air will do me good.
I walk to the front door, but the floor keeps moving beneath my feet.
“Stay still, you fuckin’ bastart!” I yell at it and laugh at myself for talking to the floor. Maybe I’ve already gone mental.
I stumble around people and push myself outside.
When I blink, I’m somehow in an alley leaned against the brick wall.
How the fuck did I get here?
My mouth waters as the world tilts. I’m going to be sick with the way my stomach is a twirling, cracked-out ballerina.
“Oh, goddess,” I gag and slide to the ground. I groan quietly and wipe away sweat beading on my forehead. My jeans rip even more when they rub against the cement. This makes me groan louder.
“Ah, for fuck’s sake. Now I havetae get more trousers.”
Or it’s at least what I try to say. But it only comes out in a scrambled mess of syllables and incomprehensible garble as if I’m wanting to speak in cursive.
Something slaps against the concrete not too far from me. It’s sharp and metallic, awfully heavy from the sounds of it.
Everything in my being flinches, seemingly recognizing the sound before my mind does.
“What…”
I don’t know where I am when I look around again. I thought I at least knew a general idea a minute ago, but I can’t remember.
Am I outside? A look at the sky confirms as much.
How the hell did I get here?
My hands shake, panic gripping my heart tight enough to hurt. I’m alone and something is wrong with me.
This can’t be the alcohol. I didn’t drink enough. I haven’t been drunk in a long time.
Where is everyone?
“Ashy?” I ask to the empty alley.
I am in an alley, I think. My voice echoes lonely and terrified against the brick of the walls, scraping my heart as if I were rubbing it against the rough stone.
Wait, the alley isn’t empty. Someone walks toward me from the other end. I swallow and blink, striving to clear my blurry vision so I can see who the person is, but to no avail. They are just a shadow, a silhouette against the light of the streetlamp behind them.
“Wha..the..fuh..” I grumble and lean my head against the wall. Everything is spinning beneath me and cold sweat sticks to my skin.
“Eddie the Executioner,” is chirped from the walloper walking closer to me. Whatever the noise was earlier slaps against the ground again and I scramble to back away.
My stomach threatens me with a roll of nausea that crawls up my throat.
I know that sound now.
My mind has finally caught up with the rest of me and the scars on my wrists throb.
Chains.
What am I supposed to do? A test of weight on my legs tells me I can’t stand. I don’t even think I can crawl like a wee bairn out of this shite. I can’t scream for help because I’m so breathless. My mouth won’t work for me.
My breaths are short and bring more sickness than before. It’s fueling whatever the poison is in my system while my heart kicks into overdrive, making sure every part of me feels the disease raging through my blood.
I know what’s happened to me. I’ve felt this before.
I’ve been drugged.
I need my Mate.
I reach out with my soul, begging for my Mannie to hear my thoughts. Cool, wet panic slides from my eyes as I squeeze them shut.
Ash. Please. I need you.
Chapter 17
Ash
“Have you guys seen Eddie?” I ask Fal and Nina still sitting at the bar and talking to each other.
My stomach is in knots.
“No, I thought she was with you,” Nina replies with her deep dimples emphasizing her confusion and Fal scans the people in the club.
Colored lights flash over our faces in time with the dance music busting out of the speakers, warping my growing anxiety into a beating rainbow of trepidation.
“She was but she said she had to go to the bathroom. She sped off and hasn’t come back, and she was acting very…drunk.” The distress pushes my heart to beat faster.
My wolf is pacing in my chest, asking me Where is our Mate? Is she safe? She should be at our side.
Goddess, I hope Eddie’s okay and not passed out with her face in the toilet.
“Eddie drunk? I didn’t think she could get drunk,” Nina mutters, playful envy in her worried eyes.
Fal hops off the barstool and fixes her leather jacket. “We’ll go ask Lilith and Corin. You look around the people in the crowd,” she commands, grabbing Nina’s hand. “She couldn’t have gone far.”
“Right, okay.” I take off into the mass of bodies and search frantically, glad to have a task. I have to find Eddie, but I don’t even smell her.
Where is our Mate? Where is she? She’s in trouble. Protect her.
My wolf’s growing fury has my hands shaking. I run them both through my hair and grit my teeth against the anger.
“Ashy?”
I stop dead at the sound tickling my ears. It’s small and terrified. Where did it come from?
Our Mate is in trouble, my wolf snarls, pushing me to act.
“Wha..the..fuh..”
Where the hell is Eddie’s voice coming from? I get closer to the wall and listen as hard as I can, blocking out the thumping of the bass and people’s loud chatter, willing, begging Eddie to say something else.
“Eddie the Executioner.”
A golden thread pushes to get into my chest and my wolf grabs it with eager teeth. There is a resounding snap in my soul, locking something into place.
Ash. Please. I need you.
“Fuck,” I roar, pushing and shoving through people in my pursuit of the door.
Eddie is in trouble.
My Mate is in danger.
“Fal! Outside!”
Fal will hear me and come running. I know she will.
Eddie! I’m coming! I scream back to her in my head and shove my way into her mind. Her eyes become mine long enough for me to know exactly where she is.
The alley.
I snarl when people try to stand in my way, and they move like the place is on fire. My wolf is pushing through, angry and terrified.
Protect our Mate.
I run outside and fly into the oppressive darkness of the alley.
I skid to a halt.
Eddie’s wrists are in chains as she tries to pull away from them, but she’s so sloppy. She’s falling all over the place, barely able to keep her head up. Her knees are bloodied through the bigger rips in her pants as she fails to get away.
The guy holding the chains is dragging her with a sinister grin on his face, watching her struggle to no avail like he’s getting off on it; he’s salivating as if he already knows what he wants to do with her.
Others wait at the end of the alley for him, all with eyes of malicious hunger.
I shift.
Protect our Mate.
I sprint down the alley and launch myself at the guy and land on his chest, knocking him to the ground. His hands lose their grip on the chains when he hits the cement, cracking the back of his skull. My teeth sink into the fragile flesh around his neck, and I yank my head back and forth.
Blood flies as a gory explosion, on the walls, on the ground…I shift back to my person, grab the shackle keys out of his pocket, and run to Eddie.
“Eddie, baby,” I breathe and slide onto the ground beside her.
She’s trembling as her head struggles to balance on her neck and she’s still weakly pulling at the chains. Her eyes won’t focus on anything when they are open and she’s making terrifying gasping sounds from her mouth.
The rest of the group runs down the alley toward us.
“Oh, goddess,” I whisper.
What do I do?
I can’t just leave Eddie here and fight them. I’m only one person. Someone could easily snatch her while I’m distracted. I’m strong, but it takes a lot to fight this many Poachers with guns—they gave up on their ‘no firearms’ rule altogether—and protect Eddie. I could heal her, but I don’t think I could get whatever is happening out of her fast enough.
One person sprints out in front of the rest, getting closer and closer. Rage burns in his eyes. His gunned hand raises and points at us.
“Ashy,” Eddie whispers, dropping her head onto my shoulder.
“I’ve got you,” I coo, pulling her closer, chains and all. “You’re okay.”
The guy’s finger moves to pull the trigger.
I forgot one option.
I could run.
Whirring finds my ears and a blade sinks into the Poacher’s forehead before I can take off. He drops face first onto the cement, gun clattering away.
Fal Pal.
Fal sprints over to him and pulls her knife from his head with a foot on his neck and a sickening squelch.
“Get her out of here!” she yells as Corin, Lilith, and Nina run past her. “We’ve got this. Go!”
I haul Eddie into my arms and sprint in the opposite direction.
Chapter 18
Falen
Lilith slices the throat of the Poacher in front of her with a roar, smiling when the blood dots her face as a rain of slaughter. She twirls her daggers and shoves them over her shoulders, stabbing the Poacher about to grab her from behind in both sides of their throat.
Corin dropkicks a guy who doesn’t look older than sixteen. His young, flawless face hits the brick wall, leaving blood spattered over the red stone in his wake. He crumples to the ground and gasps once before going still.
I drop low and swipe the legs out from under the Poacher advancing on me like a moron. She’s blonde and older with wrinkles and scars littering her dark face. She hits her head on the ground with a crack and I shove my knee into her chest when she foolishly tries to rise and fight again.
She’s resilient, I’ll give her that.
My knife slices across her throat without a second thought.
I stand and turn to a guy running up on me. Leaping, I kick him with both of my feet in his chest, land and roll on my back on the cement. I recoil and kick myself back to standing. I flip forward and land with my thighs around his neck and twist my body around him. He flips with me and lands face first, his nose breaking beautifully. Before he can think about trying to get up again, I grab his head and break his neck.
White light flashes and Nina throws three Poachers into the wall with popping energy, not touching them even once. When they hit the ground, they don’t move again. One runs up behind her, but she spinning heel kicks the shit out of his face and finishes him with her fiery energy.
You’re hot when you’re kicking ass, I send to her as I kick in the face of a wide-eyed brunette.
She doesn’t reply with words, but I can sense the bashful turn in her energy.
We kill and kill as we were born to do. Blood pours onto the ground like a flood until there is only one Poacher left. I grab him by the throat and slam him against the wall, letting my canines lengthen before roaring in his face.
“What do you want with Eddie?”
He laughs, blood coating his teeth. “Hello, Reaper.”
My fingernails dig into his neck, cutting into his skin. All the Poachers in Greece know my nickname now.
The chillingly familiar cackle of laugher echoes across my mind when I open my mouth to speak.
No. Not again. Not now.
When I decidedly close my mouth and lean back and out of his face to sneer in annoyance because he didn’t answer my fucking question, I blink a few times, not totally believing my eyes as I glance beside him.
She leans against the wall, a smirk on her terrifying face as she glares at me. The Monster.
“You should just go ahead and kill him,” she gripes, regarding her nails in absolute apathy. “Who cares about Eddie? I’m honestly tired of hearing about her. Scottish whore.”
I swallow hard and ignore the bitch. I pull the Poacher off the wall and slam his head back into the brick. “Tell me now or you’ll wish you died along with your piece of shit friends.”
“What? You gonna torture me?” He cackles, but I smirk at his trembling, poorly acted bravado. He’s maybe eighteen, probably fresh out of their school for moronic asshats.
The Monster laughs, reaching for my attention with the sound. “You should, you know. I know you would love that. Make him nothing but a host of pure, bloody pain.”
“You’re young. I don’t like killing kids,” I tell him and the Monster.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Who gives a shit?” The Monster snaps.
“I’m old enough to know you’re going to burn in hell, you mutt,” the kid yells, trying to spit in my face.
My grip on his throat is too tight for him to be successful.
I sigh. “I’m not going to torture you.”
He seems relieved, sagging against my grip.
“But I can’t speak for her,” I continue with a smirk, gesturing over my shoulder at an advancing Lilith.
Lilith drags her daggers together like she’s ready to carve a ham and leans against the wall right beside the kid. Her brows jump up and down as she shows elongated canines with eyes of pure insanity. She lightly and seductively drags the tip of one of her daggers along his cheek. “Do you like your genitals?” she whispers.
His face pales.
“It would be a shame if you lost them to a meat grinder.” Her laugh is pure evil.
The Monster guffaws and leans her dark head back against the brick. “Oh, I like this one.”
And just like that, when I blink my eyes, she’s gone.
The Poacher looks at me with wide, sunken eyes and I almost ask if he saw her too. “We will get Eddie. One way or another, Reaper. Keep hiding on your little island.”
His hand whips up to his mouth before I have a chance to grab it. He drops something inside his lips and bites down on a capsule.
Son of a bitch.
Foam floods from his lips as his muscles uncontrollably convulse. I drop him with disgusted contempt in my groan.
“Goddammit.”
“No fun,” Lilith pouts and sheaths her daggers into her boots. Her black lips are the dark picture of disappointment.
“You are truly demented,” Corin chuckles, jogging up to Lilith.
“You love it, though,” she replies, making him snort another laugh as he herds her into his arms.
Corin winks at me over the ginger’s head and I roll my eyes at their PDA.
“So, what do we do?” Nina asks, stepping up beside me. Her eyes are still glowing from using her energy. She pulls her hair up and winds an elastic through the waves and two dreaded braids until it is a messy knot on her head.
I wipe the blood from my blade on the Poacher’s shirt and swallow hard. “Th
at’s the third Poacher I’ve heard say something about Olympia. The other two were on missions and growled something about our island before my foot accidentally smashed into their faces.”
Lilith cackles, her freckled face full of glee.
“They must be planning something. It’s not a coincidence,” I add.
“One of the Poachers that attacked me and Ash yesterday mentioned Olympia by name,” Nina says, twisting her nose in thought.
“I say we find out where they are hiding and take them out,” Lilith offers with a smirk.
“You know, that’s not a bad idea,” Corin agrees, straightening his jacket and thumbing drops of blood from his cheeks.
“The rest of the Council would never go for it,” Nina groans.
“We’ll see about that,” I swear, and shove my knife back into my boot.
Chapter 19
Edelina
Warmth flows through my chest, pulling me from a dense fog suffocating my consciousness. My eyes flutter open and the first thing I see is...
“Ashy?” I croak and lift my hands to touch his lips.
He smiles, relief covering his handsome face.
Cold metal rattles around my wrists, heavy and piercing. I freeze and dare a glance.
“No,” I whisper as I look to my hands. I choke on my own breath. Heat flames in my chest as I yank at the chains. “No. Get them off,” rasps out of my mouth.
I can’t do this again.
But we’re not there. We are with Ash. Our Mate, my wolf argues.
My stomach rolls as my heart speeds up its thumping against my sternum.
“Get them off!” I screech, yanking and tearing skin on my wrists.
“Eddie,” Ash tries, reaching for the chains.
Stop screaming. We are safe. Don’t make a scene. My wolf is trying to reach me, too.
Hot tears fall down my cheeks. I know I’m outside, but there are still walls closing in, a roof trying to fall on my head as the earth quakes beneath me. I’m choking while I shake my hands frantically, yelling like mad while I pull and pull at the chains.
“Eddie!”
Listen to our Mannie. He wants to help us. We are making a fool of ourselves.
