by Maya Daniels
Zoltan snarls and turns into a killing machine.
My jaw drops as I watch him move graceful as a dancer, twisting and turning, his arms and legs executing perfect kicks and punches without missing a target. From one breath to the next, he stands in the middle of a pile of bodies, their necks in unnatural angles and their eyes open as they stare unseeing in different directions. Baring his fangs, the vampire snarls again, his enraged gaze searching for more people to kill. Soren snickers from behind me, and that earns him a scowl.
“How very interesting.” The Fae’s calculating stare moves from Zoltan, to me, and back.
“Whatever.” Ignoring his dumb ass, I look expectantly at Leo. “This shit is getting old. Can’t the three of you remove the urge to remove any threat to humanity? Or, I don’t know, maybe you can switch it to something else. Awe don’t have time to fight we humans now.” Flicking my wrist around, I lift both eyebrows in question. “Plus, it can be used against us if Roberti knows about it. And with that jerk Casius in his pocket, trust me, he knows.”
“I haven’t thought of it.” The Alpha exchanges looks with Astara and Daren but both of them shrug.
My mouth opens to tell them to start thinking fast, but more hoots and screams come from across the four-lane road. I flinch when something slams into glass and shatters it like a waterfall of tinkling sounds. For the first time since we walked out of the alley that protects our portal, I look around the human city.
Really look.
The bright colors from the storefronts I grew accustomed to seeing are dimmed and boards are placed over most of the doors. The glare of the streetlights casts shadows across the street where cars drive faster than usual, the humans operating the vehicles clutching the steering wheels in a death grip. Releasing my magic just enough to shift my perception, I lift my face and sniff the air.
The cloying odors of terror and rage burn my nostrils, and the breath I take is like a punch to the gut making me stumble back. Frantic, I turn to Zoltan only to find him clawing at the bodies at his feet since there is no one else around him to kill. Astara’s fangs are out as well, her gaze burning with hunger and locked on her brother. Daren is turning into a firework’s show, and Leo’s face starts contouring to announce he’s about to shift.
“Soren?” Inching closer to the Fae, I don’t take my eyes off them. Even the people that came with us start shifting, and the ones without a second form are becoming more aggressive. “What the fuck is happening?”
“I do not know, young dragon, but it does not feel right.” A line puckering his brows is the only sign of his distress, but I feel it.
Zoltan’s fury is scratching the insides of my ribs through our bond, becoming more difficult to ignore. My connection to Soren is brimming with worry unlike anything I’ve felt from the old Dragon Blood before. That more than anything else freaks me out, and I have to fight to stay in my right mind. Ancient old magic is trying to take control over my actions, the horrid whispers coming with it chilling my blood.
This is bad.
Really bad.
“Can you stop it?” Pushing the words through clenched teeth, I eye Tenebris, who is becoming more agitated. “Like now would be the perfect time, Soren.”
“I can create a shield clearing the air around some of them, but not all.” The Fae is still watching everything as if it doesn’t faze him.
“Do it!” Shoving him in front of me, I stab a finger at Zoltan and my friends. “Shield them. They are most dangerous. I can deal with the others in the meantime. I’ll just knock their asses out.”
Just as Soren starts murmuring in a lyrical language I don’t understand, a large SUV screeches around the corner, the back of it fishtailing before it jerks to a stop in front of me. The driver door swings open and Myst jumps out of it, her grin so wide it’s scarier than Zoltan when he is pissed off.
“Hey Chicca, nice company you’ve got there.” Swinging her hips, her metal six-inch heels click on the pavement when she comes around. “Get their asses in the car and get out of here. It’s not as bad in the outskirts of the city, so they’ll be fine.”
“Where is Fenrir?” There is something different about her, but I can’t put my finger on it.
“He’ll be here in no time, so don’t worry your pretty head.” Giggling, she ignores Soren like he doesn’t exist. “Last time I escaped him, he caught up in three minutes on foot. I was in my car.” Shrugging and shaking her head like she can’t believe he even dared, she points at the car again. “Go, it’ll only get worse and I can’t linger long either. Eventually it’ll get to me too, and no one wants this crazy girl to lose it. Trust me.” Shuddering, she removes the thumb she was pointing at herself with.
“Soren, help me put them in the car.”
Myst and her crazy behavior can wait until later. If she’s saying it’s bad, that means shit has hit the fan. I watch the Fae push the five of them toward the SUV and they listen only because they look dazed.
“What’s going on, Myst?” Watching her for any indication that she’s brushing me off, my heart stops when all humor leaves her face.
“I have no idea, but it started yesterday. The oppressive feeling dropped over the city like a fog out of nowhere. The humans are losing their shit.”
“What about them?” Pointing at the people we brought with us, I cringe when I find them fighting each other. What a fucking mess.
“I got them. You drive outside the city and I’ll meet you there.” Shoving me towards the car, she moves to the center of the sidewalk. “Shoo, go!”
Holding the door open after I take her place in the driver’s seat, I wait to see what she is going to do.
Fenrir comes running from the same corner the SUV arrived from, his face scrunched in anger. Myst laughs happily before placing two fingers on her lips, and a piercing whistle stops the fight. Every eye turns her way and she grins.
“This way ladies and gentleman.” Slapping a hand on her hip, she scratches her arm and a horse-sized hellhound materializes out of nowhere, a long thick chain leashing him to her wrist. “If you assholes want to fight, how about picking on someone your size,” said the female who is five feet two inches without her heels.
Spinning on her heels, she bolts down the street, her hound ahead of her. Everyone darts after her as if she’s a willing prey.
“What in all the fucks was that?” I ask no one in particular as I slam the door closed.
“The Fates giving me another slap across the face,” Soren answers glumly just as I gun it, following Myst, too.
Chapter Seventeen
Taking turns left and right to avoid all the drivers that want to play chicken, who are heading right at me instead of keeping to their own lane, I clutch the steering wheel so hard it starts groaning. Eyes darting left and right, I’m doing my best to stay focused on reaching the outskirts of the city, but the nagging feeling in my gut makes it difficult to concentrate. The frosty bite in the air when we crossed the portal was very subtle, and I didn’t think anything of it until we came across the group of hostile humans. None of the others made a comment about it either. Zoltan, who is cunningly alert and observant when it comes to things like this, being quiet left us all open for whatever stupidity this turns out to be.
“Is everyone good back there?” Keeping my eyes on the road, my voice echoes in the silent car.
“They can’t hear you,” Soren chirps absentmindedly from the passenger seat. “I made the protection thick enough to hold the clean air inside and not let anything in from the outside.” Twisting around, he leans back to check on them. “They all look well, although … I believe Zoltan is unhappy.”
In other words, the vampire is pissed as all hell and ready to bite heads off. Soren, I’ve noticed, likes to downplay situations however it suits him. With a noncommittal hum, I yank on the steering wheel to avoid a pothole on the road as deep as a crater. Deep down I know Roberti has something to do with this, but the problem is I can’t tell what. Did he release
a poison to make all the humans go nuts? That’s definitely something he is capable of. Especially if it’ll further his plans.
“Your magic is changing.” I see Soren wrinkling his nose as he shifts uncomfortably in his seat.
There is a painful thump against my ribs.
“Changing how?” Keeping my voice level to keep him talking, I clear my throat. “Whatever is going on didn’t affect me like it did the rest. I felt the chill and the difference in the air, but I mostly reacted from Zoltan’s rage through the bond.” Giving him a side glance, I figure I better just get everything out while I’m at it. “And your worry and confusion came out loud and clear … through the blood bond.”
My body jerks forward when the four in the backseat shuffle, but I tighten my hold and don’t look in the rearview mirror. Last time my eyes darted there, Zoltan’s blue gaze locked on me burning with anger. I know it’s not aimed at me because I feel it through our bond, but if you’ve never looked into the face of a furious vampire, you’ll never understand how unsettling it is. It brings all your survival instincts to the forefront of your mind and you can’t think. All you want to do is run.
“I am not sure.” Soren’s elegant fingers caress the top of the helmet sitting in his lap, which he hasn’t let out of his sight. “It’s not from the magic in the air.” Twirling his wrist, he indicates the outside through his window.
“So it’s not a poison.” Slumping in the seat, air gushes out of me in a whoosh, deflating my lungs. “Okay, good. This is good. Magic I can work with.”
“Poison?” Soren snorts like that’s the stupidest thing he has ever heard. “That out there, young dragon, is much, much worse.”
“You know what it is?”
I look at him sharply but have to turn away when sirens blare and I almost crash into a pickup truck. The back of the SUV fishtails as I jerk the steering wheel left and right, tapping my foot to press and release the breaks without flipping us over. Cold sweat drenches the back of my shirt as I remember the last time I was in this same car flipping over with hunters dead set on killing us.
“Control this contraption,” Soren snaps.
It takes me long moments but all four tires finally hit the road with a bouncy jump, and I straighten the car to move it the way it should move. When I look at Soren, I wish I wasn’t stressed so much, otherwise I’d laugh in his face. Arms outstretched, he has one hand gripping the door handle hard enough to bend the plastic. The other hand is pressed to the dashboard, and the damn helmet is shoved over his left knee, which he holds up so he does not to lose the protection of his powers. Face blanched and golden eyes too wide, it looks like he is trying to keep the car from collapsing in on itself.
“Welcome to the twenty first century in the human world, old fart.”
Mocking him, I bark out a hysterical laugh and slow when I come to an intersection. Familiar buildings come into view, and for some reason I take a sharp left, gunning the car in the direction of the forest shielding the other portal.
It feels as if we should be there.
As we near the woods, I can already feel the lessening of whatever magic surrounds the city. Clenching my jaw, I don’t mention it to Soren in case he decides to release the protection and I have to listen to Zoltan yelling. He might not be angry at me, but he won’t be too pleased to be kept in a bubble. Literally.
When we reach as far as we can get in a vehicle, I hit the brakes and stare ahead without saying a word. My hands feel glued to the steering wheel and I force my fingers open one by one. Uncomfortable tingles spread through my palms and up my arms like they’ve been numb for hours. Puffing my cheeks, I blow out a breath and finally turn in my seat to face the Fae.
“Release the protection.” When he doesn’t move, I keep him pinned under my gaze. “Release them and you can get out of the car if you want.”
The door is open and he is jumping outside before I’m done talking. The helmet drops to the ground, but he spins mid-jump and scoops it up as graceful as a ballerina, bouncing on his toes a couple of times before he straightens. The frosty glare he sends my way doesn’t have the affect he expects when the four people in the car start talking at the same time. Out of everything I hear, one thing is like a nail to my head.
“Francesca, we will have words about this,” Zoltan growls from the back seat.
“Really?” Twisting around to look at him, I give the vampire a cloyingly sweet smile. “No ‘thank you, Franky? You stopped us from making assess of ourselves.’ Or, better yet, ‘thank you, Francesca.’” Mimicking his deep voice, I scowl at him. “That was fast thinking and now that we have control of our minds we can fix this shit. No? Nothing? Oh well, I did try!”
Jumping out of the car, I slam the door hard enough to dent it and stop on the other side where Soren is still keeping a narrowed gaze on me. Tough crowd, this bunch. No matter what you do, they’re never happy. Before I reach the Fae, my feet leave the ground and I’m flipped around to face Zoltan, my boots hanging a foot of the floor.
“What were you thinking?” the vampire roars at my face, shaking me hard enough to rattle my teeth.
My foot swings and I nail him his in his family jewels. He drops me when he doubles over. My body keeps reacting on its own no matter what I do. Next, my knee connects with his face and throws him on his back. Blood spills down his mouth and chin, and I gasp as I take a step back.
“This is your fault.” Stabbing a finger at his bloodied, pissed-off face is not very smart because my hand is trembling, and that only kills my badass vibe. “I have kneejerk reactions when I’m startled, which is a fact you know all too well.”
At least Soren finds it funny because he’s giggling like a little girl behind me.
“It wasn’t Drake’s doing,” Leo says to no one in particular, leaning a shoulder on the back door of the SUV. “It felt like it was coming from her, but that back there was not her power.”
“What are you talking about?” Confused, I glance at the Alpha but keep Zoltan in view at all times. The jerk is about jump me and take me home to lock me up. I can feel it.
“I thought it was either Franky or Soren, as well.” Daren watches me with both brows lowered over his eyes. Dark smudges under them make the green of his irises stand out as if his eyes are glowing. “It felt old … ancient.”
“Wait a second?” Slapping both hands on my hips, I glare at them. “You thought I did that? Why in the worlds would I do something so stupid?”
“The stench of it was like nothing I’ve smelled before.” Leo’s face twists in a grimace. Shuddering, he rubs a hand up and down his pebbled arm. “Decay smells like roses compared to that.”
“The seals have been broken.,” Soren tells us with a thoughtful look plastered all over his face. “The question is, how. And are they open or merely just cracked enough to let magic seep into this world.”
“The seals of what?” I know the answer because its squeezing my lungs like a fist, but I have to ask.
Zoltan lifts on an elbow and starts getting up, so I shuffle away from him and step closer to Tenebris. At least the panther hasn’t accused me of trying to turn everyone into killers. It could be because he can’t talk, but I don’t care.
“The deepest pits of the underworld.” The tone of Soren’s voice makes it seem like he is telling us the grass is a nice shade of green.
Numbness makes the back of my skull tingle.
“The Titans.” Silence falls over us like a heavy blanket pressing onto our shoulders. I can’t feel the words passing my lips. “How? We got the book back.” Remembering the redhead and how much she hated me, I wouldn’t put it past her to trick me just as a fuck you from her grave. “Did anyone check if the book was intact?”
“Intact?” Astara frowns, her lips mushed together in a thin, white line.
“The pages. Did it have all the pages?” Every set of eyes turn on me like I just sprouted a second head. “She had half of her body on our side of the portal, and that was the hal
f holding the book. If that was me, I’d switch hands so it made it to where it was intended to go. Especially if I was going to die anyway.”
“That’s easy to check.” Leo looks over my shoulder at the forest hiding the portal from view. “I can be there and back in thirty minutes tops.”
“Go,” Daren encourages the Alpha, his gaze moving over the trees as if searching for something. “We should know what we are up against before rushing blindly into this.”
“We will wait here.” Zoltan makes a decision for all of us as he swipes the back of his hand under his nose, smudging the blood across his cheek. “The city is not safe if we can’t control ourselves there. Whatever the humans are doing under the influence of the magic doesn’t faze anything, not when we can do damage a hundred times worse than that.”
Leo gives him a nod, magic engulfing his body before Zoltan is finished talking. His body contours and twists, and in no time at all a large wolf shakes his fur before baring his teeth. No matter how many times I’ve seen the Alpha in his animal form, it never ceases to amaze me that animal and male exist together as one. I can see both of them peering at me through his eyes.
A kindling warms my gut for a second, but it disappears so fast I think I imagine it.
I wish I can feel as one with the monstrosity inside me as the shifters do their animals.
The wolf pounces off his hind legs and blends with the trees so fast it’s like he is just a streak through the air. Tenebris grumbles a frustrated sound, almost as if calling the Alpha a show off. We look at each other before turning to see Soren staring toward the city with a troubled look on his androgynous face. My eyes travel down his stiffened shoulders, watching the tense muscles of his arm and the white0knuckled grip he has on the football helmet.
“Soren?” My voice is barely above a whisper.
He doesn’t look at me. Staying as he is, he sighs, and I follow his gaze to see lights twinkling before us. From up the hill where I parked the car, I can see most of the human city spreading across the valley. It’s unfair how calm and beautiful it looks from here, especially because of the situation we are in.
