by Gaja J. Kos
Magic crashed into the vehicle, sending it rocking sideways.
“Fuck.” I exploded into a sprint and cleared the car just as it toppled over.
Where the fuck was ICRA? My perception of time might have been somewhat warped, but surely they should have arrived by now.
Unless…
Doubt knotted my stomach.
Unless Milton had smashed the phone before the SOS signal went through.
Maybe one of the residents who’d stirred earlier would call ICRA. Or at least the police. Anyone with any kind of sensitivity to magic would know what Shelby was throwing out was some messed up, dangerous shit.
But if I remained on my own…
I glanced around. Nothing. There was nothing for me to use against Shelby. Even if I somehow maneuvered myself into a position that would allow me to run and get my ass to safety, the bitch would disappear. Unacceptable. I had to contain her somehow. Knock her the fuck out.
Knowing I had to get out of this dead-end street before I could do anything else, I edged toward the intersection. Briefly, I considered shifting into a wolf, but that would neither protect me nor make it easier to capture the curse-spewing bitch. Making myself into as small of a target as possible and implementing strategic sprints would have to do—regardless of how much my body hated me for it.
Move after move, I led Shelby on, all the while the main street grew nearer. I leaped behind a larger car, sucked in two ragged breaths, then ran across the open space to the next.
Magic sparked overhead as it screeched across the vehicle.
Not giving myself even a moment to hesitate, I shot for the street.
The charge built up behind me, and I plastered myself against the wall just around the corner right as a gale of power poured into the intersection.
As soon as the scorching heat of it lessened, I aimed for the mailbox and ducked behind it, then peeked around the edge.
Shelby strolled out, her long hair dancing on phantom wind, and scanned her surroundings. Headlights illuminated the street, the lone rumble of an engine growing louder.
A smile pulled on Shelby’s lips.
She brought her magic to her hands in a visible display, then positioned herself to fire at the taxi.
Fuck, I couldn’t let her do that.
And she damn well knew it.
Although I was in no position to attack, I sure as shit gave it my best. I darted from behind the mailbox and came at Shelby like a tank. She fired, and I careened to the side, but before I could make my next move, the witch followed up with a second attack. Her magic grazed my arm and sent me spinning into a storefront.
I crashed through the glass into the dark shop.
My skin bled from a thousand cuts, and more than a generous measure of shards remained embedded in my flesh, but when I looked up, a laugh rattled my chest. A music store.
She’d thrown me into a fucking music store.
Wincing, I got to my feet, then pushed deeper into the shop. I grabbed two pairs of drumsticks, ripped them from their packages, then skirted around the counter to get to the strings.
Glass crunched as Shelby stepped through the broken front. I ducked behind the sturdy, solid wood of the counter, testing the weight of the drumstick. I tried to stick two of them into the waist of my pants before I remembered I was not only in a godsdamned dress, but also without fucking panties.
Suppressing a frustrated growl, I stashed them behind the band of my bra instead and quickly positioned them so they wouldn’t interfere with my movement, then readjusted my grip on the remaining pair. If I hit the bitch just right—
A snarl ripped through the air.
Though it went against all common sense, I peeked over the counter to see what the fuck was going on.
Shelby backtracked, her arms lashing out at the air around her as if she got stuck in some sort of invisible webbing. I sucked in a deep breath—
Magic.
The place was warded. It had to be some sort of spell to counter ill intent because it sure as fuck had no effect on me, but I wasn’t about to dwell on the particulars. I threw one stick as hard and as fast as I could, followed by the other.
Both struck home.
Shelby flung out her magic, but the second she did, that webbing seemed to tighten around her. Fury blazed in her eyes, and she propelled herself out the window with a growl that would give even the meanest wolf a run for their money.
I swiped some bass strings from the shelf behind the counter and, ripping them open, ran after Shelby. Right before I jumped through the broken storefront, I snagged a hard-shell guitar case and held it before me like a shield.
It wouldn’t last long, but I didn’t need long either.
Because the second I was out, I rushed straight at the bitch.
She took a second longer to fire, and by the time she did, I was almost on her. Her magic bit into the case, and I slammed into her with it, sending her sprawling across the sidewalk.
Clutching the others between my palm and pinky, I unrolled one of the bass strings and held it like a garrote—
“Me or your vampire,” Shelby yelled, scooting backward.
I hesitated.
She smelled weak, spent—which kind of explained why she wasn’t frying me with her magic. But what I didn’t sense in the meld of scents she was pouring out was a lie.
Shelby’s gaze flicked to the string in my hands. She licked her lips, then returned her gaze to mine. “Capturing me won’t save Aric.”
“What did you do?” I growled, advancing on her.
Shelby scurried to her feet and put more distance between us, but there was no mistaking the terrifying, sick gleam in her eyes.
“Oh, I might have hexed your vampire with an improved case of bloodlust.” She kept walking backward, never taking her gaze off mine. A smirk touched her lips. “And cured him of those pesky morals that always get in the way of an upstanding vampire and a full-out draining spree.”
Chapter 27
“Stop me or stop Sutter.” Shelby smiled, her own blood gleaming on her picture-perfect teeth. “Your choice.”
Capture the bitch and help my brother.
Or save Aric before he murders innocents.
I swore.
Shelby retreated a step, her smile growing. “Mm-hmm, thought so.”
She winked and, as I stood there, my whole body trembling with rage and restraint to not rip her to shreds, Shelby took off.
The second she cut across the street and dipped into an alley, disappearing from my sight, a vicious snarl ripped from my lips. I dropped the bass strings, then ran in the opposite direction.
My two remaining drumsticks dug into my side with every pump of my hands. I yanked them from behind the band of my bra, then cast them aside without breaking my stride as I cut the straightest line possible back toward the club.
My body abhorred the punishing pace I’d set, but there was no slowing down for me. Every fucking second counted.
There was an afterparty full of people I’d asked Aric and Pascal to detain. I had no way of knowing if the hex would work instantaneously or bide its time like the curse set on Dominik and Emilia did. Because if it was the former…
Faintly, I caught the echoes of Roth’s scent on the wind, but he was too far away for me to detour through his location and get him up to speed. The only thing that mattered right now was getting to Aric.
Pumping my arms, I pushed myself harder. Faster. The club’s front entered my line of sight, and I rushed for the back entrance, barely catching myself on the corner as I made the sharp turn, then busted into the building.
No screams grazed my ears, no smell of blood beyond that which came from bottles, with the remnants of Aric’s old injuries lingering underneath. It seemed like a lifetime ago that I found him bleeding beneath Milton on that stage. A lifetime ago that we’d parted, believing he’d be safe here.
I latched on to Aric’s scent and sprinted for the door that would take me to the after
party.
Guilt ricocheted through my mind. I should have learned from my mistakes. Instead, I’d let Aric out of my sight for the second fucking time in a single day.
As I barreled across the final stretch of corridor, the door swung open, just narrowly missing my nose. I jerked but couldn’t stop the momentum that sent me crashing full-on into Pascal’s chest.
“Whoa, Gina, fuck.” He steadied me, then frowned when he got a look at my bedraggled state, his autumn gaze searching. “What’s wrong?”
“Where’s Aric?” I asked, breathless.
Pascal’s frown deepened. “Dressing room. He wanted a moment alone.”
“Fuck.”
I spun on my heel and ran back, Pascal keeping close on my heels.
“Gina, what’s happening?”
I reached for the dressing room’s handle and slammed the door open.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
The only thing of Aric’s were his stage clothes and, discarded on the table, his phone. My thoughts flashed back to my own smashed phone lying on the street. Shit, had Aric tried calling me?
“Gina—”
I blocked out Pascal as he repeated his question, but the worry in his voice leaked into his scent. I shut that out, too, focusing only on the unique blend that was Aric.
My blinders on and senses sharpened, wholly locked on the scent as if it were the only thing that existed in this entire world, I tracked it out of the dressing room and into the corridor. Silently, I cursed myself. This was the same scent I’d picked up earlier, only back then, in my hurry to reach the afterparty, I hadn’t noticed a trail—a fresher trail—of it veered toward the stage.
A foreboding chill iced across my gut.
“How long did you leave him alone for?” I asked Pascal and shouldered through the door.
“Shit, I’m not sure. I popped out to get him some booze, but then a few people started complaining about us keeping them there…” His footsteps pounded alongside mine as we crossed onto the stage. “Gina, what’s going on? Is it Milton?”
Aric’s scent pulled me toward the main doors like a tether. “Milton’s dead.”
“That’s…” I could hear him wanting to say good, but if Milton’s demise would have solved all of our problems, Pascal knew I wouldn’t be in the state I was in.
I jumped off the stage and onto the floor.
“Call Finn,” I threw over my shoulder when Pascal wanted to follow. “Aric’s been hexed.”
The half-Fae’s curses lit up the space, but the next second I could hear him pulling his phone from his pocket. Although I was well aware that unless the hex had left a magic residue for him to trace, there wasn’t all that much Finn could do, he needed to know what was going on.
And, hopefully, pull in another werewolf to track me—and Aric—down.
I sprinted forward.
The main doors opened without me having to force them. A part of me wanted to yell at someone for the blatant lack of security, a part of me was grateful for the seconds spared. The night whisked around me, and I halted for a second as the meld of outdoor scents swirled, then settled. I turned left, then followed Aric’s scent at the fastest pace I could afford without risking missing out on any important cues pertaining to his whereabouts.
I might have repeated certain mistakes already this night, but I had no intention of continuing with the streak any longer.
As I prowled under the streetlights into an area where fewer fragrances occupied the air, I examined Aric’s more closely. The distress written in its undertones suggested he’d been fighting the hex. Had been for enough time to imply it had all started back at the club.
That had to have been the reason why he ran away.
A room filled to the brim with people there for him to drink would have been too much of a dark temptation.
Now that the pieces fell together, I had no difficulties imagining how it had all gone down.
Whether Shelby had slipped into the club while Aric was alone or if she’d hexed him even before the concert and somehow tweaked the vile magic to lie low, I couldn’t say for sure, though instinct pointed toward the former rather than the latter. Not that the hows made it any less of an elaborate plan.
Besides, if Milton and Shelby had a detailed course of action set up for tonight, and Milton had stepped out of line somehow when he went after Aric…
It would make sense why Shelby had yanked back the threads controlling Dominik and Emilia’s curse and went after Aric herself. Fixing Milton’s mistakes.
There was no doubt left in my mind that the vampire had gone rogue for his stint at the club. Shelby had said Milton’s ego had gotten in the way. Had killed him for it.
Because Milton would have killed Aric if I hadn’t shown up when I had.
Right now, though, I wasn’t so sure if I was grateful for Milton’s impulsive actions that had forced Shelby to improvise or if the turn of events was even worse than what they’d originally had in store.
I waited for a car to drive by, then darted to the other side of the street. Aric’s scent here was marred by the aroma of the twenty-four-seven fast-food restaurant sitting across the next intersection but strong enough for me to assertively follow while my thoughts ran free.
And the more I let them, the more I felt my interpretation of events wasn’t off the mark.
Shelby clearly had an agenda she wouldn’t let anyone fuck with. And, as loath as I was to admit it, she’d been clever with the course corrections after Milton’s soloing had wrecked her plan.
She hexed Aric while I’d been busy hunting down Milton, then got rid of that particular problem, too.
And Aric…
I didn’t think he saw the hex coming.
Why wouldn’t he have reached out to someone from the band otherwise?
Given that he’d used the stage to get out instead of the back door—the closer exit in relation to the dressing room—he’d probably caught himself headed toward the afterparty.
Caught himself walking there with an intent that was far from innocent.
So, he ran. Away from people. Away from the lively thrum of blood coursing through their veins.
Out here, at least, he stood a chance at fending off the hunger.
Guided by Aric’s scent, I veered well away from the fast-food joint, then slunk down several empty sidewalks. Although the path wasn’t exactly clear-cut, I realized where Aric was headed.
Home.
Not for the first time, I wished my phone didn’t lay smashed in an alley beside Milton’s corpse.
Even if Aric managed to get himself inside his apartment, he wouldn’t be able to hold off the hex indefinitely. I just fucking hoped he was in the right mind to call ICRA the second he got near a damn phone. He needed witches. And he needed them fast.
His scent led me down another street, and with growing horror, I realized that while the direction was still aligned with him heading home, the route…
Shit.
Unlike before, the route Aric had chosen now led toward a more lively area.
The whispers of supernatural and human fragrances tinted the air, along with a hint of alcohol and cigarette smoke. I ran faster, dread ramping up my pulse.
Between one step and the next, Aric’s scent changed, twisted into one of tormented hunger—
Then spilled into pure ravenousness.
My stomach cramped when I saw the illuminated sign ahead, precisely where Aric’s trail pointed to.
A nightclub.
Driving my legs forward, I sprinted for the entrance, but at the last moment, the scent turned me away. Could Aric still be fighting the hex?
I rushed down the sidewalk, then ducked into the alley alongside the club that opened into a small L-shaped employee parking lot pooling around the building.
Anguished, frightened sounds of a woman struggling hit me the same time as the terror that pulsed in an outward wave.
I turned one last bend, bracing myself, but when my gaze lan
ded on the scene unfolding before the high, concrete fence blocking off the lot, the blood in my veins chilled.
A woman lay immobile by Aric’s feet.
And another struggled in his arms, thrashing to break free of the crimson-stained fangs descending toward her forcefully exposed neck.
Chapter 28
“Aric, don’t!” I yelled.
But Aric didn’t care.
He was every vampire nightmare come to life.
A creature consumed by hunger.
No morals. No judgment. No reason.
Just a vessel for the primal drive to consume his victims’ blood down to the very last drop.
His dark eyes locked on mine, and he sank his fangs into the struggling woman with a viciousness that, for a heart-wrenching moment, pinned the soles of my feet to the weather-worn asphalt.
Everything inside me locked up and shattered all at once.
Memories of Dominik’s shifts that ripped away his control over and over crashed into me. Then Emilia, huddling and crying in that dim basement corner before the curse claimed her again. And Aric—
I couldn’t fucking lose Aric.
My throat tightened, the world around me suddenly so far away, I felt as if I were floating in some isolated bubble in which not even my body was my own. On the other side, the reality I didn’t want to accept as the truth unfurled without mercy.
It paralyzed me.
Turned my helplessness from a numbing weakness into unbreakable chains.
I had to set myself straight, I knew. Neither of us would come back from this otherwise.
Yet the seconds continued to tumble by, seconds in which Aric was draining—
The woman in his arms let out a garbled cry.
The sound pierced through the barrier and, with a pop that was wholly energetic yet sounded audible to my ears, a rush of oxygen expanded my lungs. It circled through my veins, awakening the Gina that didn’t bend beneath the weight of circumstances but shaped them.
This wasn’t my reality.
I wouldn’t let it be.
I darted across the small lot.
My mind wasn’t entirely my own yet, but the wolf within, the protective predator I was at my core, knew what to do. I shot for Aric.
