by Holly Hook
“Brett!” Karina shouts.
Artemis steps aside, robes sweeping, to give the shooter room to aim.
Strength flows into my limbs as the protective urge comes over me. It’s my job to protect the Haydes. They’re our people now. I leap and grab Karina’s sleeve, yanking her back, and Brett’s, too. With a heave, I make the two crash into me as the gun fires. The bullet whistles through the air, seeking its mark, only to spark off a light post where Karina stood.
The bullet lands and rolls down the sidewalk. It’s silver, all right.
“Get inside!” Cayden shouts, shoving me towards the hotel entrance.
Darkness swirls as Brett crashes into the door beside us. The cult members shout at each other, but Cayden, back to me, forces me back into the hotel doors before I can listen to their orders.
“Get inside,” Brett shouts, opening the one beside me. I’ve lost grip of him and his sister. He shoves Karina, whose eyes are widened in shock and fear—into the empty lobby.
Cayden and I follow. There’s no time to shift and attack the cult. We can’t outrun bullets. Outside and out of sight, the man reloads his gun and I hear the click of another bullet snapping into place.
“What’s happening?” Karina asks.
“She tried to kill you,” I say. Yeah, blunt, but she needs that.
Karina glares at me and shakes her head. It's not sinking in yet. But there’s no time to smack my head on the wall.
“The elevator,” Cayden says, pointing to some lavish metal doors on the other side of the water fountain. He grips my hand, squeezing so tight I can't feel my pulse there.
“Do not go in the elevator,” Brett shouts.
Yeah. That could be bad with the cult being able to use dark magic. Outside, footfalls approach the glass doors. Three cult members are coming and I hear a finger curling around a trigger.
“Stairs!” I shout. We’re still faster than them.
“They didn’t just try to kill me!” Karina shouts.
“They want us both dead, sis,” Brett shouts, pulling her around a corner and into a stairwell.
Cayden and I bolt around the corner after them just as the glass doors swing open, pushed by rushing bodies. I let the Haydes go up the steps first. The cult doesn’t want me dead. Just the people they know they can't take back. I’ll go last. They won’t shoot me, but they might Cayden.
“Go!” I shout, waving him ahead.
Cayden hesitates. He still wants to be the protector, and losing him will send me into darkness. So I shove him forward and he storms up the stairs without looking back.
I follow. The stairs form a metal spiral, making me dizzy as I run. And worse, I can see the lobby below between steps. Three cult men run past the water fountain. Air whooshes as the first stops and raises his gun at the stairwell.
“Brianna. Give yourself up and we won’t hurt your pack members.”
It’s a lie. I inhale and continue. The air reeks of metal and terror. Even the cult members give it off.
We pass the first floor landing. The building must have four levels, and I fear we’re going to have to go to the top. I hear people shifting in their rooms as we continue to climb. One man snores. A woman’s taking a late night shower. Someone else speaks on a phone in a language I don’t understand. Most of these people are tourists, and for a horrible moment I wonder if the cult will hurt them to get to us.
My best hope is that they don’t want to draw attention to themselves in a major city.
“To the top,” Brett whispers from above. He continues to climb, and though he’s out of sight, I can hear that he’s still holding his sister’s shirt sleeve. And despite what she says, she’s not trying to pull away anymore.
The cult members downstairs have stopped moving, maybe wondering what to do. They’ll have a plan, I’m sure.
“Can we survive a jump off the roof?” I ask Cayden.
He stops just after the third floor and lets me catch up to him. I grab his shoulder as a tingle of excitement briefly washes over me.
“I don't know," he says, hazel eyes wide and dilated.
Downstairs, a single cult member—probably the one with the gun—approaches the stairwell. His steps, though quiet for a human’s, are as calculated as any predator’s.
“That’s our best option,” I hiss.
And then I hear the other two cult members leaving the building. The whoosh of the glass door follows.
“Maybe not,” Cayden says. He lifts and eyebrow, telling me he’s heard it, too. Above us, Brett and Karina continue to climb without a word. “They’re setting a trap for us. Let me go down there and slow them down so you can get out of here.”
No. Not this now. “We’re leaving together,” I order, as much as I know Cayden will hate it. I can’t bear to separate again. This time, it might be permanent. If the silver bullets don’t kill him, the curse might. The cult will make sure of that.
The connection between us stretches with tension. I feel Cayden’s darkness flowing into me, his urge to be the Noble protector he is. “Brie, I know how to hold the curse off. Trust me.”
I can’t. I just can’t. “Come on." I shove him onto the next step.
The hurt that fills Cayden’s godlike eyes slams into my chest, making a ripple of darkness spread through my body. The pressure starts within, threatening to open the gates for the Savage King, but I take a breath, trying to focus on the time Cayden and I sang together on stage. Anything but this mess we’ve gotten into. He turns away from me, hiking up his shoulders, as we finish the climb to the fourth floor of the Portrait hotel.
Brett and Karina wait in the hallway among closed doors and red carpet. Cayden speaks before I can. “The assassin’s at the bottom of the steps and the rest of the cult is outside. They want to make sure we have to leave through the stairwell or by jumping off the building. Either way, they’ll have some bad news for us.”
He speaks like I don’t exist. My muscles tense as I step in front of him. We'll argue about this later. “We’re safe for now because the guy’s not coming up the stairs. I’d hear him. And the cult outside is waiting. We have time to figure out what to do.”
“I doubt we have time to wait for the others to get here,” Brett says. He pulls Karina closer to him, though I don’t think she’s going to run at this point. She’s gone quiet again, biting her lip.
“What can they do from down there?” I ask. I think of fire, but the outside of the hotel is mostly brick and not easy to light. Buildings are different here than they are in Breck. But the cult has the dark spirits at its disposal, with six cult members against two former members. Not good odds, unless Karina suddenly decides to cooperate.
“I smelled those horrible herbs, so I’m guessing they’re going to smoke out the area around the hotel,” Brett says. “And those dark spirits find ways to get to people. They're hard to predict."
“And we left them down there to plan,” I say, regretting it right away.
“Brie, remember when I distracted Earl when he was shooting at us?” Cayden asks, blocking my view of Brett. Uh, oh.
“This is the cult and there are six of them." I should be the one going out there to distract the cult. They aren’t aiming to kill me—just make it so Romulus can take over. Everyone else is on their hit list, and I’m willing to bet the number one target is the man standing in front of me. Take him out, and I’ll go dark for sure. The sun will set permanently.
“I'll distract them,” Cayden says. “I’ll shift. Jump. The one with the gun is inside, so if I jump out a window—“
“No,” I demand, shaking. I seize Cayden's arms, hoping he'll stay with me and stay alive. He can't do this alone. Behind him, Brett and Karina shrink back.
“What other options do we have?” Cayden asks. I sense my own authority pushing back on me. Cayden is the beta, after all, and almost as powerful as me.
“Just let him do it,” Brett says. “I could, but I’m not leaving Karina, and besides, I’ve never do
ne this shifting thing before.” He reeks of fear. Brett’s legit terrified.
Karina cringes at the reminder of their changes. The hallway goes quiet. There aren’t many people up here—two who are sleeping in separate rooms—and a small window at the end of the hall. Cayden seriously wants to fall four stories and distract the cult. “You'll get hurt. Please don't do this." I kiss him on the lips, but he shoves me away. "Cayden!"
“I'll be fine," he says, softening.
"Come on," Brett says.
My heart races with the thought of what might happen. Everyone stares at me, waiting to make a decision. I’ve just lost Aunt May in a way and now I might lose my mate, too. An ocean of terror swirls through me and my heart pounds, trying not to drown. No matter what we do, Cayden—and possibly the Haydes—could die.
I swallow. “We need to leave together. I’ll jump out that window and—“
Cayden turns away, growling and pulling off his jacket. Our connection screams and I flinch. Throwing his jacket on the ground with rage, he crouches, letting the transformation sweep over him. Black fur sprouts and hackles rise. Before I can stop him, the black wolf steps out of his now-ripped jeans, leaving his shoes behind, and bolts towards the window. For a moment, his red highlights shine under the hallway lights.
And this might be the last time I see him alive.
Cayden leaps, crashing into the window at the end of the hall. The black wolf, leaving me with nothing but that screaming tension between us, falls into the night.
Chapter Eight
The air whistles as Cayden falls. Time stretches to eternity as I stand there next to Brett and Karina, unable to scream his name. Shock and terror paralyze my limbs.
But at last, Cayden lands with a distant thump.
I break my trance, bolting to the window at the end of the hall in less than a second.
“What’s going on out there?” an occupant asks from a room to my left.
I ignore him and reach the busted window.
The wind whistles against the building as the city of Rome stretches out under us. A black wolf lies in the alley below, just feet from the main street, panting and flexing his limbs. I hear a bone creaking as it sets. Cayden’s broken a leg but it’s healing, and I see no sign of the cult in the alley below. Just dark cars are parked both ways. Cayden takes a gasping breath and pushes himself up on shaky legs just as Brett and Karina join me at the window, looking down.
I want to shout to him, but I don’t dare. My throat dries as I take ragged breaths. The cult would hear me. My heart races and hurts.
Cayden gets up.
And then I hear the cult members down below—three of them from the front of the hotel—running to meet him at the mouth of the alley. At that fall, Cayden couldn’t mask the sound of impact. They heard him with their human ears.
“I had nothing to do with this,” Brett says.
“Shut up,” I say. "Cayden! Run!"
The black wolf circles, searching for an escape. But footfalls echo from both directions. Some of the cult have gone to the back of the hotel. He’s entered a trap. But he looks up at me and growls a warning. Get back.
I can’t leave. They'll kill him even without bullets. The air is thick with darkness that mixes with the night.
“We should go," Brett says.
“They’re going to kill him,” I say as Cayden turns away from me again.
The black wolf bolts towards the back alley, where two cult members seem to be standing. I watch the dark wolf blend with the night and leap over the parked cars of the alley. A man screams and shuffles as Cayden collides with him, and at the same time, a lighter flicks and something catches. The shadowy forms of a Wolf and a wrestling man come into full view.
As does greenish smoke.
The wind blows just right, bringing the stench of the poison right up to the window. The dark spirits are working, all right. I cough and backpedal, as do Brett and Karina.
“I never realized how bad that stuff really was,” Brett says between fits of gagging. “Even before your mate bit me it was horrible, but not this bad.”
“We have to get to Cayden," I say just as a door to our left opens. An older man in slippers and a fuzzy robe stands there, smelling musty like sleep.
“What is going on here?”
“You’re having a nightmare?” I ask, bolting away from him. I don’t have time for this. The only way I’m going to get down to Cayden is if I find another way out, and that might be through the guy with the gun.
We leave the guy behind us as the air thickens, not just with the poison that’s conveniently blowing through the window but that invisible dread. There’s no window on this side of the hallway so I’m forced to descend the steps.
“What are you doing?” Karina asks.
“We need another way out. We’ll suffocate if we go down in that alley.” Cayden’s down there and from the stairwell, even I can’t hear what’s happening.
The stench manages to follow us down the steps. My eyes water and my lungs ache with the toxic air. The stairwell’s funneling the poison down it, and I pick up my pace, trying to run ahead of it. The cult and the dark spirits are working together to smoke us out.
“Karina, try to hold this back,” Brett says just behind me.
“I’m trying!” She coughs, probably alerting the warlock at the bottom that we’re coming.
And he’s still there, waiting for his prey to come to him. I stay in the lead, because that urge to protect Brett and Karina is still there. That, and logic. They must be valuable if the cult wants to murder them.
I glimpse the robed man at the bottom, right through the spaces between steps. And he’s looking right up at us. His scar looks like someone slashed him over the nose once, and a mean look in his eyes makes me stop in my tracks. My shoulder burns with the old silver injury. He could shoot me somewhere not vital and slow me down and then take out Brett and Karina.
“This way,” I hiss, waving Brett and Karina onto the second floor. That’s not far enough from the warlock but it beats facing him head on.
We stagger out of the poison and I take a breath of clean air. But my relief lasts half a second. As Brett and Karina step onto the level ground behind me, the warlock on the ground floor starts climbing the steps.
“A room,” I whisper.
Brett nods. Karina's a zombie again. It's the only way out, but I can hear from the here that no one's at the front of the hotel right now. So I yank open the closest door, which has an empty room behind it, and wave Brett and Karina inside.
The warlock's heard us. He bolts up the stairs. And before I can vanish into the empty room, he makes it to the landing, raising his pistol. Then he sees who he's aiming it, pauses, and lowers the gun to point at one of my legs.
So maiming me will work.
I dart into the room as he fires.
The deafening sound of the gun going off, and the bullet splintering the door I'm closing, fills the hallway. Splinters fly into the room. Karina screams. Brief, shocked silence falls as I close the door, now unlocked and useless with a hole on the bottom. Brett's already across the dark hotel room, which reeks of antiseptic and laundry detergent, and opening the window.
"I can't jump," Karina says, racing over to her brother.
For the first time in a while, she's scared. Adrenaline fills the space. This is a different Karina, a vulnerable one I didn't know existed.
"You can," Brett says. "You'll only feel it for a little bit and then you'll be fine. Now jump!"
Karina scrambles out the window, whimpering, as I face down the door. The warlock's approaching the hotel room. I hear his finger curling around the trigger again. His shadow stretches across the light coming underneath the door. For a moment I wonder if it's the dark spirits, but for now, they've backed off. They aren't needed.
He shoves open the door, which bangs into the bathroom door and rains more splinters.
Instinct takes over and I charge the scarred man without a t
hought. He lifts his pistol but it's too late. I crash into him and throw him back into the hall as he fires off a shot, missing my face by inches. The bullet bounces off the ceiling and strikes the television, shattering glass. He goes down on his back and I land on top of him under the lights of the hallway. People shout from other rooms. The man growls at me like he's trying to do a Wolf impression. I stare right into his deep brown, stony eyes, and I know this guy has seen some crap.
"Let go of me!" he shouts.
Someone down the hall asks a question in what might be Spanish, and another in what could be Arabic. Doors open. One slams shut again as someone must see the gun. Someone will call the authorities. The guy punches me on the arm, but I slug him across the face, making him drop his weapon. A woman down the hall gasps. Behind me, Brett and Karina scramble out the window, and I hear them land, one after the other, on the sidewalk outside.
I slug the guy again. "Don't touch my pack members and don't touch my mate!" Cayden. He's out there and I've lost track of him. So I slug the guy again across the side of his skull, aiming just above the temple and scraping greasy hair. His eyes roll into his head and the pressure threatens to surge into my chest. No. I can't kill him. Even if he's a cult member, he's a human, and if I repeat what I did to Mr. Hayde now, Romulus takes over and kills these bystanders.
But I do grab the pistol, which feels cold and deadly in my grasp, and rise. Three people peek out of their rooms at me, two men and one woman, and three jaws fall as I stand there with the deadly weapon. "Hi?" So I smile and wave before ducking back into the hotel room, leaving the stunned cult member on the floor of the hallway.
Brett and Karina have already gone. I bolt for the window, fleeing from the pressure within, and gun in hand, I exit feet first. The ground swirls below, and two dark shapes--the Hayde siblings--wait.
Chapter Nine
"Where's Cayden?"
Though I stand there with a gun in hand on the sidewalk of the Portrait hotel, staring at the Hayde siblings, he's my first thought. I feel for our connection, but not much is there, which tells me Cayden's nowhere near now. The sidewalk's empty and I don't smell the cult, either. All of them except for the guy on the second floor have fled the area, and Rome has so many other scents that they mask the burning herbs and smoke smells the magic users give off. It doesn't help that a breeze now blows through the city, making it hard to pin anything down.
