by Holly Hook
Brett's eyebrows rise as Karina crosses her arms and backs away. She's had enough of this and I fear she's about to take off on her own.
"Exactly," I say, heart pounding.
Almost with anger, he grips the door knob and turns it, meeting a lock. With a sigh, Brett turns harder and breaks it. He lets go of the knob.
And with a faint, ominous squeak, the door creeps open on its own.
"Yikes," I say, backing away. An awful feeling, like we're standing next to a heartless, empty void, makes every hair on my body rise. My skin tightens in response to the black pulses coming out. The apartment itself is physically dark inside, but I spot no normal furniture--just an open space without any carpet and a large design drawn on the floor. Melted candles stick to the concrete. The whole place begs me to run.
"And you said it was nothing?" I ask Brett.
"It sounded like nothing."
"An eerie nothing." This place feels even worse than the dark spirits guarding the Savage territory. It smells like the depths of a frigid cave, whatever that's supposed to smell like, and there's a board nailed onto the small window near the ceiling of the room. And as I stand there, the whole universe seems to turn into a ballroom of silence. I should hear the buses from here, but I don't.
"This place is well protected," Karina says with authority. "It's clear they don't want us to enter. Can we go?"
"The dark spirits might not know we're enemies," Brett says. "Keep those thoughts out of your head and maybe they won't attack us. If they think we're still in the cult, then they'll let us in. Maybe we can use them somehow. You with me?"
Karina furrows her brows. "You moron. They'll attack you."
Brett hikes up her shoulders and inches towards the open door. Every instinct tells me to run, but I remain and watch the Hayde siblings do a silent debate with each other. "Would you like to go first?" he asks, wrists shaking.
Karina darts inside the apartment, leaving us behind. I detect hope in her gait like she believes one of the last parts of her old life will take her back. Like there's something she can still make sense of. Brett shakes his head at me like he can't believe her, and follows.
I'm left alone in the hallway. The awful feeling leaks out the door so badly I want to close it just to keep the other residents of this building safe. Brett and Karina shuffle around inside, opening doors and peeking into rooms, and at last I hear something that catches my attention: they're rattling chains.
I can't hold back anymore. Entering, I suck in a cold breath and wrap my arms around myself, trying to keep out the darkness. It still pulses under my skin as I step over the magical circle drawn on the floor. It's full of symbols that look like twisted monsters from a Lovecraftian novel and other alien zigzags, lines, and circles that make me shudder. I kick a melted candle, sending the blob across the room to hit the wall. Breaking the circle does nothing to alleviate the darkness.
"Well, your mate's not here. Can we go?" Brett emerges from a side room with Karina behind him. And he throws down a manacle to land beside the symbol.
I sniff but smell nothing. The cold metal has to be silver. It has that glint that sends fear through my gut. Behind Brett, more of the same fill a large closet. The cult has a stockpile of equipment here to restrain Wolves.
"Let me see that." I push past Brett and eye the equipment. Why would the cult have so many chains here? I haven't detected a Savage pack they'd have to defend themselves against in the city. Or Nobles, for that matter.
"I don't get it either," Brett says.
"Can we just go? I'm trying to hold these spirits off and they're not going to listen to me much longer," Karina says. Our gazes meet. More shock and sadness have filled her eyes. The spirits don't want her here any more than they do me, and she's just realized that. "Things will get worse if we stay here. I feel it. They're not even liking me." She takes a single step back to the door, shaking. Karina's about to run not just from this room, but from us.
"Brett," I say, hoping my tone carries all the meaning he needs.
Then I sniff, and a faint scent, separate from the cold void, wafts out of the closet.
Brett seizes Karina's arm and says nothing, standing aside to let me investigate. I step closer to the closet. It's a human scent, a mixture of burning leaves and what might be incense. A magic user's scent. Someone was here not too long ago, someone who quickly came into this room, grabbed some chains, and got out as if they didn't want to leave their scent here. The trace smell tells me that and I realize why Brett and Karina have missed it. I can barely smell it. In fact, whoever came in here might have worn gloves.
"One of the cult members came in here and grabbed some chains, maybe even less than an hour before we did," I say, stepping out of the room. "Why would they need them if they weren't holding Cayden hostage?" My heart races with the bad news. He's not here but they have him, and I have no idea what to do next or which lead we need to follow. Brett and I look at each other. To my shock, he frowns.
Then he returns to form. "Great. You're going to waste more time searching the city for him. Maybe they took him to the victory site and they're planning to do something to him while you're there. If I were them, I'd lure you there."
"Why?" I ask, throat going dry. A painful lump forms and I'm sure I won't be able to breathe. The cult knows my weakness. That us mates are together until the end.
"Because Romulus's presence is strong there," Brett says. "It's the place where he defeated his brother. They might want to goad you into letting them complete the rite that will let him possess you completely. And the best way to do that is by threatening your mate. He's no good to them dead right now."
The vision flashes back to me, of Remus's mate, and I fear Brett's right. "We need to go."
But upstairs, footsteps approach the steps and someone starts to descend them. A man. I don't know why my stomach turns and a bad taste rises in my mouth at first, but then the scent hits me and I understand. Rotten wood. A Savage Wolf. One's just entered the basement from above and he's heading straight towards us with those predatory, almost-silent footsteps. Somehow, I can hear that this is a well-built, tough man, maybe even a descendant of Romulus, and it's not his intent to let us out of here alive.
Chapter Eleven
"Someone's coming," Karina says, pulling against her brother's grasp.
I eye the board covering the tiny window near the ceiling. The darkness in the apartment and the lack of any drafts tells me there's no way out other than the hallway.
The Savage Wolf, no doubt an alpha judging from his horrible reek and strength, has made it halfway to the apartment. The animal stirs within me, begging me to fight as I linger in the doorway to the chain room. And then another idea creeps into my mind. He must work with the cult. He might know where Cayden is.
I throw off my jacket, preparing for a fight while Karina backs to the other side of the ritual room. Brett joins her, still holding her arm. I can't count on them to shift and help me--there's no way Brett or Karina will want to face what we've done to them--so I'm on my own unless they can twist the dark spirits to their bidding.
The man shoves the door open, which hits the wall with a bang.
He's as frightening as I feared. Dark-haired, with bushy eyebrows that make him look as if he's already partially shifted, he glares at me with eyes that have the tiniest hint of red in them. He's a Romulus descendant, all right, and the shine in his eyes and the way he bares his teeth tells me he's well on the way to going pure beast.
"Get back," I order.
"What are you doing in my building?" he asks with a heavy accent. So he's the manager. I fear for the normal tenants. Then terrifying details pop out at me. This man has scars on his forearm that match the ones in the circle on the floor. Though he's a Savage Wolf, and a powerful one, the cult must have used silver daggers to etch them into his flesh. Otherwise they would have completely healed. He's a slave of the cult. They've messed with people in other parts of the world.
&
nbsp; "Where is my mate?" I ask. "Tell us and we'll leave. And what did the cult do to you? You were human once. You had to have been."
My last line gets to the guy. He furrows his eyebrows as a growl emerges from his throat. Then he grabs the door frame, shaking as if trying to control himself. The air thickens with anger as he bares his teeth. He wants to take out his rage on someone and it's going to be us. But pain sparkles in his eyes and I know he hates this, hates what he's become. The darkness in the room intensifies, swirling around us like a silent, invisible storm. I'm not the only one with a curse on me.
"You were normal not too long ago," I say. "A Savage bit you and then the cult did this to you. Work with us and we'll get them back."
"There's no helping Wolves like him," Brett says. His terror molds with my own.
"Get out!" the man shouts loud enough to collapse the walls. "Get out now!"
"You're blocking the door!" I have to act. Tossing my jacket on the floor, I prepare for the fight. If Brett's right, this man is better off dead than losing his whole being. I hope Brett and Karina can reduce this guy's curse, because if we can get him to talk, he could help us. I know it.
"You want to fight to the death?" the man asks, doing the same with his own jacket. He throws it down as the most savage growl I've heard, second to the Savage King, rips out of his throat. He spreads his arms, blocking the door and looking like the stereotypical movie werewolf. Fur's already sprouting on his arms, brownish black fur, and the rotting wood stench fills the room so much I'm about to gag.
It's a fight, then.
My sense of smell sharpens and pain explodes throughout my body. The dark room swirls. The animal's already taking over, urging me to clean this beast from the world.
Two seconds later, I stand on all fours, wiggling out of my clothes and facing down a huge dark Wolf that takes up the entire doorway. The world snaps into sharper clarity. Now I smell the rotting wood smell seeping out of the walls of the room. I smell the Savage Wolf's vile saliva, which drips from his lower jaw to the floor. The red glow in his eyes promises a painful death. This is a creature that doesn't care about the cult's plan and wants to take out his pain and rage on anything that moves.
And he's also twice my size. I may be a Royal, but he's the Savage equivalent.
The huge Wolf takes a step towards me, sniffing and flaring his nostrils. Karina's terrified breaths fill the air. She won't be any help. But Brett mutters low words as me and the disgusting Wolf circle. I bare my teeth, growling and stepping over my jeans, but the horrible feeling of being small washes over me. I have to look up at this Wolf as his hackles rise, and I know I won't have the strength to overtake this Wolf. And he won't be able to resist killing me.
"Back up," Brett says to me.
I can't. I won't.
The dark Wolf leaps at me.
I roll out of the way as he lands inches from me, claws scraping the dark circle. Chalk flies, invading my nostrils, and I gag on the dust. The Savage Wolf doesn't stop. He charges me, butting me so hard I fly into the wall. Spots explode from the impact and I land at the edge of the room, blinking them away only to see the hulking shape close in.
I'm going to die. My heart races and I reach out to Cayden, hoping to hear his voice one last time, but I still can't sense him. It's all a void and I'm about to sink into death.
"Get up!" Karina shouts.
Her voice snaps me out of it and I push myself off the floor, charging the Savage. His eyes widen with shock just before we collide. He shuffles back as I climb onto his back, biting into the thick flesh between his shoulder blades. Blood leaks into my mouth, staining my face, but no guilt washes over me. He might be a victim, but he's still a Savage. An enemy of good. I dig my teeth in harder, drawing a yelp of pain from the monster.
But then he bucks me off in a single motion, and I somersault through the air, landing once again. I roll and the whole room spins.
"Screw this," Brett shouts.
I've barely stopped rolling when the Wolf, full of rage, charges me. The monster eyes my throat, opening his jaw wide. My ears ring, blocking out everything else, and I struggle to get up, but my body's stunned and numb. Karina shouts Brett's name, which I barely hear over the storm in my head.
Cayden should be shouting my name, exploding in my mind, but he's not. That's the thought I'm going to die with.
A growl rips over the buzzing, and the big Savage looks to the side just in time for a well-built, dark brown Wolf to ram into him.
The shock throws him back, and both Wolves turn into a ball of hackles and growling as the sound dies and I'm able to get up. Karina still presses against the wall, open-mouthed, but Brett's clothes lie torn just outside the circle.
I bolt towards the fighting Wolves and join the fray. Brett's got his jaws around the bigger Wolf's ear, trying to rip it clean off, and the Savage growls and lifts his head, trying to tear it out of Brett's grasp. His throat's exposed. Brett's giving me a chance.
The bigger Wolf, as if realizing what I'm about to do, swipes my muzzle with his huge paw. Pain flares and I backpedal while he turns his full aggression on Brett. The Savage rams Brett like a bull, shoving him into the wall and turning his back end on me. Nothing vulnerable is exposed. I snap at his tail, biting down so hard that bones crack.
The Savage yelps again and turns to face me, and just behind him, Brett peels himself from the wall. His brown eyes calculate, and I realize what he's about to do.
He lunges at the Wolf's throat and locks his jaws around the soft flesh, biting down.
A disgusting squishing sound fills the air and Karina screams like she's never seen Wolves fight before. Brett bites down harder, as if unleashing all his hurt on this Wolf. I back away, watching as blood flows around Brett's muzzle and drips to the floor to join the chalk circle. The air fills with iron as I watch, transfixed, as the Savage Wolf stills limb by limb. He sucks in a few gurgling breaths as the life flees from his eyes. The redness within dies, leaving just a soft darkness. The monster settles, falling onto his side as Brett continues to bite. The Savage gives one last breath and goes still. I have the strange sense it's a sigh of relief.
Brett lets go.
We stare at each other as blood flows down his lower jaw and onto the floor. Karina takes gasping breaths as she presses further into the wall. The dead Savage Wolf twitches one last time and goes completely still, and I smell the first signs of real decay coming from the body. And like every Wolf who dies in battle, he's starting to revert back to human form. A paw slowly extends into a human hand like a strange flower blooming.
Brett backs away and looks right at me.
There goes that idea, I think. We need to leave.
Now I get to hear you in my head? Brett thinks in shock.
Change back. Now. I don't know how to feel about Brett disobeying me, but if he hadn't, I would have died. But I can't let that responsibility go, and I fear it's going to kill me.
Chapter Twelve
"I don't want to see you naked!" Karina shouts right after Brett changes back. Her disgust fills the room as I pull on my clothes, shaking. There's blood around my mouth still. And even though I'm looking at the wall, I'm sure Brett looks like some kind of scary clown with the blood he must have on his face.
Thankfully, only my shirt has taken damage and my jacket covers the rip in the sleeve once I have it on. I don't watch Brett get his clothes on, but I say, "That's part of this, Karina. You'll care less about nakedness than you did before."
"I still don't want to see my brother naked," she says.
"I'm clothed now, sis," Brett says. "Believe me, I didn't want to give you...or Brie...that display. I'm just too hot for her."
Karina sighs in real disgust.
"I wasn't even looking," I say, checking the still-open door. No one's come to investigate despite the loud noise from this room. And I remember why. The dark magic in this place masks everything. It's how the cult's managed to work here, undetected.
B
rett and I finally look at each other. We stand on either side of the body on the floor. His feet have turned back into that of a human. "We can't bury this guy," I say. "I was hoping we could ask him where Cayden is."
"The cult did a number on him. If he went against them, a curse would probably have killed him," Brett says. Yes, he has a bloody mouth like a horror movie zombie. As if realizing I'm staring at it, he reaches up and rubs his sleeve across the drying blood. "I can't believe I did that. But why did you tell us to stand aside when we should have been helping you fight? Do you have a death wish?"
"I don't want to see pack members die," I say. "And that's final." Had we lost Brett, the whole plan would have ended. But he's being such a jerk I don't want to admit that.
"I can't take this. I'm leaving," Karina says, diverting her gaze from the body and crossing the room.
I grab her arm, stopping her. "Your brother defended you," I say. "We don't like killing people. Trust me."
She slugs me on the arm, and it really does hurt. "That's not what I saw. Even you Nobles are no better than the cult or--" She coughs.
"Or what?" Brett asks, full of suspicion.
"Shut up," she tells him.
"Look, I wasn't going to let that monster touch you," Brett says. "That's all. And that's why I didn't listen to alpha's stupid command."
We don't have time for this. "We need to go up to the manager's apartment and shower," I say. "We'll smell the way there. Let's close the door behind us and hope we don't run into anybody." The decay in this room is getting to me. I hate to leave this guy lying here, but the cult can deal with cleaning this up. They deserve it.
So we leave the room and I close the door behind me once sure no one's about to emerge from any apartments. Instantly, the rot vanishes from my nostrils like there's literally nothing on the other side of the door. Pure silence falls on the other side of it. It's as if we've crossed a portal.
