Nine Lives: The Caelum Academy Trilogy: Part THREE

by Akeroyd, Serena

  “Time to stop fighting it, brother,” Stefan murmured softly, his words quiet but still ramming into me with the force of a vehicle traveling at Mach Five.

  “Easier said than done,” I rasped, shooting him a look over my shoulder.

  He shrugged. “We’ll be a thousand times stronger if we’re a unit, and that means you being Claimed by her.”

  “I’m not going to fuck her because you order it,” I ground out, then, I heard the words and groaned. “Jesus, I sound like a woman.”

  Stefan began snickering. “You said it. Not me.” He shoved me in the shoulder, and I let him, because, fuck, when had I turned into such a pussy?

  Because the dick was being a dick, I cold-shouldered him and sank my head back against the glass. The journey to Mexico City wasn’t a long one, but I was tired and closing my eyes would prepare me for whatever faced us when we made it back.

  An hour later, it came as a huge surprise to wake up and be at the Hilton in the capital.

  I squinted up at the façade of a hotel I’d never imagined being able to afford as we waited on Reed and tried reconciling that this was my life now was just beyond strange.

  “The rooms are booked,” Reed stated when he returned to the vehicle.

  The SUV jerked as the door closed behind him, and I realized he’d been the one to arrange the rooms.

  “We have a space in the garage.” He handed Frazer a kind of keycard. “That’s to access the garage, which is around the lot.”

  Frazer, who never let anyone behind the wheel of any vehicle we were in, set off and we traveled around the building to where the signs were designated. As we approached the scanner, he drew to a halt and slotted the card into the glowing machine.

  When the mechanical arm soared high, he drove us deep into the underground, but when he did, the minute he did, I sensed them.

  Maybe because the window was still open, and the air conditioning wasn’t totally blanketing the entire space. Maybe because my senses were a little more in gear after a quick nap.

  But they were there.

  And there was a dozen of them.

  Minimum.

  “Ghouls,” I growled, my head twisting to the side so I could peer out into the dim as fuck parking lot.

  “Shit,” Eren whispered. “I can sense them too.”

  “Fifteen of them,” Frazer ground out.

  “For us?” Samuel asked, his voice cool, as though shit like this happened in luxury hotels every day.

  “Nah,” I reasoned. “Doubt it. They must be freaking out. Their numbers are perishing, and you’ve seen the news. The humans are staying inside as much as they can, unless they’re desperate for cash and need to work.”

  “So they’re hungry?” Stefan countered with a snort. “I guess that’s as good a reason as any. Jesus.”

  I opened my side window and let the hot, dank air from the parking lot seep into the cab. Opening my senses, I let the bear out to play, using his more attuned abilities to zone in on the predators that were on the hunt for some ‘fast food.’

  All I could say to that was…

  Not on our watch.

  7

  Reed

  My Hell Hound was pissed as fuck at the temerity of the Ghouls to be hiding within the parking lot of a prestigious hotel such as this one.

  It might have sounded horrible, but the fact they were here, waiting on richer clientele to feed upon, was a testament to their desperation. They didn’t care who they hurt, didn’t care where their next meal came from, and that was dangerous.

  If the humans learned of them, then the world would be in deeper shit than it already was. Especially if we didn’t get to the final Original.

  Our societies worked on secrecy, and that shielded us all. Without that to cloak us… I didn’t want to think about what that could mean.

  As Frazer braked to a halt by the entrance to the hotel, all of us clambered out of the SUV. I didn’t like the prospect of leaving Eve behind, but we were in danger here too. Ghouls could and would attack her, leaving us without our mate, and the world without its savior… To be frank, I didn’t give a fuck about the savior shit, but I knew that would still leave a massive problem for creatures to handle if there was just one line of Ghouls still alive and kicking.

  Frazer locked the door behind him, leaving Eve snuggled in the back seat in a relative kind of safety. She was no longer using Dre as a pillow, but she hadn’t stirred, and I’d be relieved when she awoke because the prospect of her sleeping for days like she had on the yacht was more terrifying to me than the dead men hovering, waiting to attack us.

  I shoved those thoughts aside, shoved them back in the depths of my subconscious where fears belonged, and allowed my beast to leap to the fore.

  I’d never shifted, and it was ironic that I’d only just discussed that with Dre, because now my beast was allowed to reign supreme and the joy that surged through me was like nothing I could have anticipated.

  Yes, there was pain from the huge spikes that formed, surging out of my leathery black skin, making every part of me a weapon, but it was a glorious feeling to know that I was walking death for these bastards who’d thought to feed upon us this day.

  In this other form, the world was different. Completely unlike the one I’d just viewed in my human skin. It was shaped differently, and my perception was odd. The Ghouls, for example, were closer to me than they had been, and now I was walking on four legs, I couldn’t see anything other than them. These eyes felt like they had crosshairs on them, crosshairs that narrowed their target upon enemies and those the beast considered a threat.

  Around me in the dank, damp air beneath the hotel, I felt the air ripple and as I tilted my head, I came face to face with brothers that, until Eve, had been enemies but were now Pack.

  At my side, I had a gouille and a bear.

  At my side, there was a Lorelei and an Incubus oozing their potent pheromones that could and would trap any and all in their net.

  At my side, the Sin Eater and the Vampire, the brothers who’d been with me since I’d been a teenager, flung themselves into the fray, and I knew I’d never been more surrounded by family than I was at this moment.

  The seven of us rushed toward the Ghouls, the promise of death inherent in every step as we leaped into the battle that they believed we’d die in. But they were wrong.

  Today was their last day on Earth, and they’d just wasted the little time they had remaining before we killed the final Original, the one who’d take all these fuckers to their end.

  I sliced into one Ghoul, scenting blood on him that was definitely human. The quantity and the sheer amount on him told me that a corpse was rotting in the vicinity. Maybe more than one. I tore into his throat, ripping it away with a ferocity that came from my anger as his claws dug into me, trying to tear at my own skin.

  I narrowed my eyes at the next one and leaped onto a Ghoul that Samuel was battling. The Shifters of the bunch were the true soldiers. Each creature had their role, and ones like Vampires and Loreleis, though strong, weren’t made to battle. They were made to entice. Incubi and Sin Eaters were there to finish the fuckers off and send them straight to hell.

  Dre, Nestor, and I made mincemeat of the Ghouls who were, beyond a doubt, pecus. Low ranking scum that shouldn’t have been allowed out without someone higher on the scale to make sure they didn’t fuck shit up the way they had.

  It made me wonder what was going down in the inner circles of the remaining nests, if they were being so stupid as to allow meatheads like this to hunt out in the open.

  Eren and Samuel valiantly held off the Ghouls, keeping them busy until the three Shifters in our Pack could get to them and bring them to their knees. Eren kept on singing, but there was so much fucking noise down here as we tackled the small flock that his voice was barely heard over the screams and whimpers.

  There’d been fifteen when we started, but another twenty more surged from out of nowhere—I spun around to check on our SUV, and see
ing that it was well, realized the Ghouls had come from one of the doors that connected the hotel to the basement parking lot itself.

  Wondering what kind of devastation they’d left behind, I forced myself to focus on the battle. We were outnumbered, and though I didn’t have a doubt in my mind that we couldn’t win, what concerned me most was the prospect of another flock of Ghouls appearing from out of nowhere and heading for our SUV.

  As I tore a male to shreds, then sliced into a female from throat to belly, my greatest fear manifested itself.

  Another cluster of Ghouls appeared, rushing into us like a broken funnel wave that would have even the most experienced of surfers dunking into the big blue.

  I focused on killing, maiming, hurting whatever and whoever I could, and then I heard it.

  It was louder than Eren’s voice, sweeter, purer, so tantalizing that even my Hell Hound, so furious at being trapped by these bastards when we were so close to the finish line, listened, his ears pricking up and pausing in the removal of a Ghoul’s intestines.

  As one, we all turned toward the voice that we were hearing for the second time that day, and as we stared, dumbstruck, I saw Eve, standing on the roof of the SUV, with her hair flowing around her like she belonged in some kind of anime movie. The sound waves themselves seemed to cause a disturbance on a visceral level, one that enticed us toward her, one that urged us forward.

  I tried to fight it, but I couldn’t, and then, Eren sang, and his voice countered Eve’s. It was only then I realized only the other Lorelei among us hadn’t been affected by her song, and as he chimed in, my senses returned to me. He sang to us on a wavelength unique to our Pack, while her melody had the Ghouls mindlessly stepping toward our mate, their brains overtaken by the gentle harmony that urged them into action.

  With Eren taking part, our Pack merged into the killing machine it was. We took the dumbstruck Ghouls down in minutes, leaving them torn apart in shreds, waiting on mercy from Frazer and Stefan as they returned them to their Maker.

  The second the last one was down, I ran as fast as my four legs would carry me, desperate to reach my mate.

  She’d taken a seat now on the roof of the vehicle, and I saw the tremor in her limbs as she fought to remain conscious.

  I shifted the second I was close enough and reached up to haul her down into my arms. She clung to me and I to her, desperate for the connection, desperate for proof. I turned her face away from the warzone that had taken place amid the white lines of allotted parking, and the dim overhead lighting that flickered in and out intermittently.

  Eren, Samuel, and Dre had approached us, circling us as Nestor, his skin a shiny gray leather that spoke of his gouille, watched over the mass of decimated creatures, while Frazer and Stefan took care of the last part of the battle.

  I felt her tears dampen my throat, knew they were for us, born out of fear, terror that she’d lose us, and my heart felt full from the all-encompassing love that oozed from her.

  “Can I?” Dre questioned, his hands outstretched, and the desperation and urgency in his voice reminded me of earlier that day when he’d hauled her away from the temple in his bear form.

  I didn’t want to let her go, and my Hell Hound wanted it even less, but I recognized need when I saw it and reluctantly complied.

  It was hard though, fucking hard, and I gently passed her over, touched when his arms tightened around her in a hug so fierce she squeaked before squeezing him back just as hard.

  Why the hell he was fighting this stuff was just beyond me.

  “You were supposed to stay locked in the car, dammit,” he ground out, his lips close to her ear, his eyes so tightly clenched I could see the tiny muscles in the lids flickering in response.

  “What, and let you guys get your asses whooped?”

  Eren snorted. “We had it handled.” The look he shot me said we didn’t.

  And yeah, that was the truth.

  Fuck, we truly were a Pack. This wasn’t about us just protecting Eve, we protected each other. As a unit. As a family. With one of us down, we were weaker, and that was just how it was meant to be.

  The thought settled deep inside me, calming me in a way I could never have anticipated. The Hound, still thrashing around in its endless fury at being contained, ceased its struggle, content in the knowledge that it was home.

  At long fucking last.

  ❖

  Eve

  Over Dre’s shoulder, I peered at Stefan and Frazer. I was curious, I wasn’t about to lie about that, and watching as they killed the Ghouls who’d attacked us was enough to make me glad that once we erased the final Original, neither of them would have to do this stuff anymore.

  Frazer’s method was the worst. He seemed to have to hover over them, his jaw almost dislocating as he did something weird that took the Ghouls’ souls away from them. There was no visual, nothing that made this scene make sense. I just saw his jaw get wider, his mouth twisting somehow before it closed up moments later and he moved on to the next.

  Stefan’s was grosser, but he didn’t have to get as close. He squished both thumbs into the Ghouls’ eyes, did something that made those thumbs glow, and soot appeared, poofing out of the eye sockets and making the Ghouls instantly turn slack.

  It was kind of cool if you liked horror movies. In fact, Nestor had made me watch a movie called Plunkett and Maclean, which I’d really enjoyed until it had gotten to the part where the ‘baddy’ had gone around squishing people’s eyeballs.

  It made perfect sense why the guys had started chuckling when I’d made mock-vomiting noises and had covered my eyes.

  Sheesh, couldn’t they have warned me?

  Jerks.

  Still, everything felt better because I was in Dre’s arms. Any of my mates would have made me happy, but with Dre? Because he seemed to have the biggest issue with me? It just made this all the sweeter. Even if I was one big ache from having fallen down the side of a temple.

  Gosh, talk about going big or going home.

  In fact, Dre’s embrace even stopped me from complaining when he hefted me up until my legs had no alternative but to either swing down or cling to his hips, and he walked me out of the lot, away from the group of corpses and straight toward the hotel door.

  “W-We can’t just leave them,” I stuttered, wincing when he didn’t even falter at my statement.

  “They can handle it,” he growled, his anger so strong that I reared back. When I cried out when the move put pressure on a bruise, he glowered at me, and spat, “Stay still.”

  God, what was it with his moods? I felt like his words were a slap in the face sometimes. He’d said so much worse to me since I’d known him, had insulted me in ways that made this seem trite, and yet, I hurt more from his sharpness now because of the softness he’d just shown me.

  Why was he doing this?

  Why was he carrying me?

  It was like whiplash, and I was too weak, too hurt to endure it.

  “I meant the bodies,” I whispered, the pain from his verbal slap, as well as the ache in my bones, echoing in my voice.

  He released a shaky breath, his eyes softening with an apology I knew he’d never utter. “Oh. Don’t worry. They’ll turn to ash soon.”

  They would?

  How had I not known that?

  Clenching my eyes shut, I tried to refrain from snapping that they could have warned me… In fact— “Then why did we set fire to the bodies in London?”

  “Because of the humans. Not the Ghouls,” he replied, his tone calmer now that we were approaching an elevator that would take us out of the parking lot.

  Dre, Samuel, and Reed were at his back, and as we headed into the elevator, Nestor remained with Stefan and Frazer.

  I carried on watching them slaughter the masses, and though I didn’t want them to, I couldn’t stop the images of what I’d just seen from flashing before my eyes.

  Reed’s Hell Hound—a furious monster, all black leathery skin with long spikes down his spine, a
nd glowing red eyes. Dre’s bear—massive, covered in blood as his enormous claws raked at the Ghouls, and his maw drenched red as he bit the attackers. Nestor—his skin gray, his body moving like he was dancing, but his arms and legs whirling in ways that had meant the end for any Ghoul he’d come into contact with.

  The others had fought too, but in a more ‘humane’ manner, and they’d have died if I hadn’t saved them. When I’d seen the wave of Ghouls surging into the lot from the hotel, the urge to sing had overtaken me—

  Wait!

  “What if more Ghouls come?” They’d poured in from a door that had to lead to the hotel.

  “They won’t,” Reed assured me. “Even if there are still some in the hotel, they’ll scent death and avoid the scene. They’re ruthless and selfish bastards. They won’t wade into any war that isn’t of their own making.”

  My throat felt tight with emotion as I contemplated that. Pondered just how close I’d come to potentially losing my mates to an unexpected battle in a parking lot.

  Burrowing my face in Dre’s hair, I tried not to think about it, but, how couldn’t I? Only an insistent buzzing in my body had made me awaken, and if I hadn’t in time, they’d have been Ghoul stew for dinner.

  The buzz had been unusual. Almost like I was being zapped by an electric shock above my chest and knees, on my arm, and palms. It had disturbed me from my slumber, and when I’d heard the carnage outside the car, I’d had no choice but to wade into the fight.

  Scared wasn’t the word, but that was nothing compared to the terror that had flooded me when I thought about losing my men.

  “You got the keys?” Dre asked.

  “Yeah,” Samuel stated. “Fourth floor.”

  The elevator buzzed into life, and silence fell among us. It was uneasy, loaded with ‘what-ifs’ and concern, as well as a real fear for the next few days.

  If this second loss of life amid the global population triggered a destructive wave among humans, then how the heck were we supposed to get to wherever we were supposed to go to find the next Original?