There was no way to listen to the message, but the comm transcribed them. I opened it.
Hey, Fee, it’s Lucas. I need to speak with you urgently. I’m at the house. Please, meet me.
Fuck him. He could stand outside the house all night for all I cared. The train pulled into the platform. The doors opened, and people began to board.
Gah. Fuck my life.
I turned and legged it up the stairs to the opposite platform. Lucas had acted horribly, but he’d been my best friend. I owed it not to him but to myself to hear him out. Maybe fix what was broken and be friends again?
The train ride took ten minutes and another ten to get to the house. I kept checking my comm for more voicemails, but nothing came through. There was no way for me to contact him. Maybe he’d get fed up and leave?
Shit, it was almost seven. Uri would be waiting.
I dropped him a quick message.
Running a little late, please wait for me.
He replied immediately.
More cake for me.
Hah. He was starting to loosen up with me. I turned onto my street and broke into a jog. No idea why? I mean, Lucas could wait for all I cared, but there was a frisson of urgency in my veins I couldn’t explain. My house came into view. The porch was empty. Wait, the door was open. What the fuck?
My neck heated with anger. Had he broken in? I barreled up the path, but instinct had me slowing down as I approached the front door. Something was wrong …
I drew my dagger from the sheath under my jacket. “Lucas?”
Silence greeted me. An ominous, pregnant silence that had the hairs on the back of my neck standing to attention. My heartbeat quickened, and adrenaline heated my veins.
Something was off. Don’t go in. Don’t be an idiot. Call for backup.
I tapped a group message into my comm to the guys.
Break-in at the house. Something not right. Need backup.
Yeah, I’d wait and—
“Fee. Oh, God!” Lucas’s voice was a pained gurgle. “Help me!”
I didn’t think, I reacted by rushing into the hallway, dagger at the ready. The distinctive scent of blood hit me.
There was blood on the air.
I swung into the lounge, eyes scanning the gloom. A dark shape huddled on the floor in the center of the room.
“Fee …” Lucas looked up at me with a frightened eye; the other was swollen shut. His lip was busted and bleeding, and his hands were bound. His good eye widened. “Behind you …”
I felt the presence a second later and swung around to face several intruders in hooded cloaks. Their faces were in shadow.
Oh, fuck. I held my dagger up, anger heating my veins. “You killed Peiter.”
“And now it’s your turn,” one of the figures said.
Silver slashed through the air, and I leaped back, avoiding the stab of the dagger. The dagger that could kill a Dominus.
Lucas screamed as the other three figures rushed me. I stopped thinking and fought on instinct, dodging and punching and slashing. The guys would be here soon. Backup would be here soon. All I needed to do was—
My foot snagged on the edge of the rug, and I went down. My back hit the ground, and my head slammed against the stone slab around the fireplace. The world dimmed.
No. I rolled out of the way just in time to avoid the pointy end of the deadly dagger. It clinked against stone. And then a boot met my face. The world was filled with stars as a weight settled on my chest.
Pale purple eyes looked down at me from the shadow of a hood. “It’s nothing personal,” the figure said. “You simply need to die.”
And then fire shot under my breastbone and into my chest. My breath rushed out of my lungs in a silent scream, but Lucas screamed for me—loud, shrill, and long.
Someone would hear. Someone would come. But the world was fading, and my body was numb. I was drifting far away. Was this death? Was I dying? Heat unfurled low in my belly, and something stirred in the back of my mind. It opened its eyes and growled.
“You killed her. You fucking killed her.” Lucas’s sobs filled the room.
“What do you want me to do about him?” a male voice asked.
The heat from my solar plexus bloomed outward, eating away at the dead ice filling my veins. The thing in the back of my mind took a step forward, almost exploratory. I sensed curiosity and then concern and finally rage. The gentle heat flared into a burn that tore a reedy scream from my numb lips. Fire in my chest. Burning, tainting.
“No. This isn’t possible. It can’t be possible,” a male voice said.
The pain decreased in increments. I reached up to touch my chest. It was wet with blood but whole. There was no wound.
Sit up, the voice inside me said. Female, alert, and in control.
“She’s alive. How is she alive?” one of the hooded figures said.
The world was brighter. The figures were highlighted in silver. Lucas’s tear-stained face was almost glowing. I was seeing the world with new eyes.
I pulled myself to my feet, bringing the alien presence with me. She watched from the backseat. She was there but not there, and suddenly, I knew what she was. She was the part of me that had been asleep for too long. The part I hadn’t known was there. She was the beast, and she’d just saved my fucking life.
I raised my dagger. “Looks like your dagger doesn’t work on Loups.”
The hooded figures took a step back, and for a moment, I thought they were going to make a run for it, but then they raised their arms in the air.
“You will die,” the main one said. “If not by the dagger, then by the claw.”
My chest rumbled in a growl, and I lunged, slamming into an invisible barrier.
“Fee, what the fuck. Please, Fee,” Lucas cried.
I slammed into the barrier again and again, and the chanting grew louder and louder. It burrowed under my skin and seeped into my blood. The door in the back of my mind opened wider and wider. The beast was coming. She was coming, and she was hungry. The beast was coming, and I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t—
A roar filled my head and then there was nothing but darkness.
* * *
My mouth tasted funny. My stomach hurt. I opened my eyes and stared at the rug. I was on my front on the ground. Why were my hands bloody?
Lucas? I looked up and locked gazes with one glassy eye. The other was swollen shut and … Oh, God, where was the rest of his face? A bloody stump reached for me as if imploring me to do something, and sausage-like entrails trailed across the floor toward me. My body began to shake, and nausea roiled in my belly. No. Please, no.
I reached up to touch my bloody mouth and slipped my fingers past my lips to extract the meaty masticated parts of my ex-best friend.
I’d eaten him.
I’d fucking eaten Lucas.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Mal
I can sense death as soon as my boots hit the pavement. Conah’s right on my tail as we rush into the house, scythes at the ready.
I skid to a halt in the lounge, and my scythe dies.
Fee looks up at me from the floor. Her mouth and hands are bloody. Is she hurt? But then she looks to the left, and I follow her gaze to the torn-up body. A male … Fuck, is that the guy Lucas? Not much of him left. Oh, Fee. Fucking hell.
I guess we don’t need the results of those DNA tests after all.
She’s shaking so hard I can hear her teeth rattle. I want nothing more than to gather her into my arms and carry her away from here.
“Don’t touch her,” Conah says calmly. “If you touch her, you’ll contaminate the scene.”
The scene. Fuck, this is a scene now. An outlier crime scene. My stomach drops.
The Magiguard will be on their way,” Conah says.
And they’ll arrest her. She’ll be at the mercy of outlier law. A rogue Loup. Oh, fuck. “Then we need to grab her and go.”
His jaw ticks, and for a moment, I think he’s going to stand his ground, but then he strides
With a final look at the remains of the dead male, we head out of the house. If we can get far enough before the Magiguard arrives, we’ll be okay. No one will know.
We step out of the house and freeze.
Four Magiguard fan out around us. The air crackles with their power. Their amulets gleam as glamour surrounds us, hiding us from human eyes. How they know an outlier has killed a human is something I’ve never understood, but they always do, and they always come.
“Ursula,” Conah says evenly. “Let me explain.” He holds Fee tighter as if he can keep her when we both know that’s now impossible.
My insides crawl with the need to act, to fight, to do something, even as my mind counsels me to hold still and not lash out, because there is no out now, not unless they give it to us.
“Ursula.” Conah’s tone draws upon their friendship. “It isn’t what you think. She was dormant. Something woke her, violently.”
“I’m sorry, Conah,” Ursula says. “But you know the law.”
She flicks her wrist, and Fee is gone, and in the next instant, so are the Magiguard.
I exhale sharply. “Con, what the fuck are we going to do? They’ll hand her to the Loups, and if that happens, execution will be a mercy.”
Conah takes a deep breath. “Then we give her the best chance we can. We give her to Grayson.”
* * *
Fee
Don’t think. Don’t think.
It’s cold here. It’s so cold. My body shakes with it.
“Never seen anything like it,” a male voice says. “The Loups are going to have a field day.” Boot falls recede, but the woman is still here. Watching me. Waiting.
I won’t move. Won’t speak. If I stay really still, then it won’t have happened. It will all go away. Lucas’s face fills my mind, not as he was but as I left him, with half his face missing. The other half is inside me. Bile climbs my throat, and I swallow it. Swallow him. Digest him.
Oh, God.
“I’m sorry,” the woman says softly. “I’m sorry for what’s to come.”
She leaves, taking her rose scent with her, and the beast inside me unfurls its huge body, filling my mind with its presence.
Oh, God. Go away. Please, go away.
No, Fee. No more sleep. It’s time to wake up. We’re going to have so much fun.
To be continued …
Fee’s journey continues in Reaper Untamed.
Grab it HERE now!
Other books by Debbie Cassidy
The Gatekeeper Chronicles
Coauthored with Jasmine Walt
Marked by Sin
Hunted by Sin
Claimed by Sin
The Witch Blood Chronicles
(Spin-off to the Gatekeeper Chronicles)
Binding Magick
Defying Magick
Embracing Magick
Unleashing Magick
The Fearless Destiny Series
Beyond Everlight
Into Evernight
Under Twilight
The Chronicles of Midnight
Protector of Midnight
Champion of Midnight
Secrets of Midnight
Shades of Midnight
Savior of Midnight
Chronicles of Arcana
City of Demons
City of the Lost
City of Everdark
City of War
For the Blood
For the Blood
For the Power
For the Reign
For the Hunt (novella)
Heart of Darkness
Captive of Darkness
Bane of Winter
Fate’s Destiny
Deadworld
Deadworld
Dead City
Dead Sea
Dead End
The Nightwatch Academy
Shadow Caster
Shadow Weaver
Shadow Warrior
Shadow Master
The Nightwatch Series
Ghost of a Chance
Give up the Ghost
Ghost at the Feast
Lay the Ghost
Nightwatch World Stories
For the Love of Justice
Deadside Reaper
Reaper Unexpected
Reaper Uninvited
Reaper Untamed
Iron Fae
Taste My Wrath
Dragon Guard
Dragon Trial
Survivor’s Heart (Planet Athion world)
Novellas
Rogue
Rebel
Survivor
Standalone Novellas
Blood Blade
About the Author
Debbie Cassidy lives in England, Bedfordshire, with her three kids and very supportive husband. Coffee and chocolate biscuits are her writing fuels of choice, and she is still working on getting that perfect tower of solitude built in her back garden. Obsessed with building new worlds and reading about them, she spends her spare time daydreaming and conversing with the characters in her head – in a totally non psychotic way of course. She writes High Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Space Fantasy, and Reverse Harem. Connect with Debbie via her website at debbiecassidyauthor.com or twitter @authordcassidy. Join her Facebook Reader Group, or sign up to her Newsletter to stay on top of the new releases.
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