by Naomi Martin
“Raven?”
The voice is weak and thready, and when I turn around, I see Elliot staring back at me from one of the cages. Stifling a gasp, I rush to the cage and fall to my knees before it, grasping Elliot’s hands through the bars. One eye is swollen shut and there’s a long, ragged gash down his cheek. His face is a mess of cuts and bruises, misshapen and lumpy—he barely looks like the boy I love anymore.
“You did it,” he says.
I nod. “I did.”
“Knew you would.”
“Not without your help,” I say. “Or your love.”
He smiles, then winces. “That was the easy part,” he says.
“My God, Elliot,” I cry as I lay my hand against his cheek. “What have they done to you?”
His chuckle turns into a fit of wet coughs that rack his body. “Wolf shifter,” he says. “I managed to fry him to a crisp before he tore my throat out.”
“I’m getting you out of here,” I say. “Where are Zane and Gray?”
“In the pit,” he says.
I nod and get to my feet. Before I do anything, I weave threads of spirit and wrap Elliot in them. They wind around his body and I can see him gasp in pain for a moment before his face grows still. Calm. Peaceful. Then, his cuts begin to mend, and his bruises start to fade. It’s only another moment or two before he’s back on his feet, smiling at me from behind the bars.
“How do you feel?” I ask.
“Good as new,” he replies. “In fact, better than new.”
I smile and nod at him as I step into the middle of the room and look around at the cages. From behind the bars, I see eyes in faces that have been savaged, many of them dull and lifeless. Many resigned to their fate. These men have all been beaten down and had the hope ripped from their bodies. I’m going to change that.
Drawing my power in, I fire threads of spirit into their collars and listen as they pop and fall to the floor of their cells with a loud clank. The men in the cages all touch their necks and look at the collars before looking up at me in awe. And in those eyes that were so dull and lifeless a moment ago, I now see hope flare anew.
I turn in a circle, taking in the entire room, making sure they’re watching and listening to me closely.
“Beyond those doors are the people who’ve made your life a living hell for however long you’ve been stuck here,” I say. “That ends tonight. I am going to set you free and you can have your vengeance.”
The men in the cages bang on the bars in approval, all of them nodding at me. This is a hard-looking bunch. Mean. Vicious. And angry. Eager to spill blood.
Which means they’re perfect.
“Are you ready?” I call.
The men shout their readiness and agreement, their voices gruff and deep, blending into a cacophony worthy of demons crowding the gates of hell, itching to get out. Drawing in my power, I raise my hands and release it. The locks on all the cell doors open with a loud pop and the men all come streaming out. As they run past me, they give me nods of thanks and pats on the back hard enough that they nearly knock me over. But Elliot is there to catch me, to keep me from falling.
Beyond the doors, the cheering has turned to screams of shock and agony as the wave of death I just released cuts through the crowd. I turn to Elliot soberly.
“We’d better get out there,” I tell him. “We need to get to Gray and Zane.”
Elliot nods. “Agreed.”
We dash down the short hallway and burst through the swinging doors. The small arena is in chaos as people push toward the exit doors while others are being torn to shreds. Blood sprays high on the walls and windows, and it flows across the floor like a wave. And all around us are bodies—or, at least, pieces of bodies.
I look to the cage on the raised platform in the center of the arena. It’s warded to the nth degree, but I know I can blow it open. In the cage, I see Zane with a bear that’s at least twice his size. Gray is massive in his bear form, and vicious. He swipes a paw at Zane, which the vampire deftly dodges. It’s obvious Zane is trying to avoid engaging with Gray in this form and is doing what he can to not hurt him. I don’t know if they gave Gray something to drive him mad or if he just has no sense of himself in his bear form.
As I make my way toward the cage, my eyes are drawn to a small platform to the side of it. Sherman is standing there, a rifle to his shoulder as he shoots at the shifters cutting through his crowd of high rollers, turning them to pulp. I watch as the head of a tiger is snapped backward, a thick spray of red chunky matter blowing through his back. As the tiger falls, it shifts back into the young man he was, before he even hits the ground. The hole in his head is massive, the damage final. He’s dead and there is, unfortunately, no coming back from that.
“Silver bullets?” I ask.
“Probably.”
From the corner of my eye, I catch sight of Villa. I turn and draw my power, but he slips through a side door with a crush of people fighting to get away from the bloodbath. He’s gone and I can’t get him. The urge to follow him out of the hall so I can try to kill him anyway is strong, though. It’s almost overwhelming. But when I take a step to go after him, Elliot lays a hand on my arm and turns me to face him.
“There will be time to get him later,” he says. “As long as we’re alive, we’ll track him down. And we’ll kill him. Together. All four of us.”
He’s right. I can’t leave the boys in that cage. Not even to settle my own personal vendetta, tempting though it may be. I want Villa dead more than I want most anything. It just so happens, though, I want my boys free and alive more. With a growled curse, I turn back and continue pushing my way toward the cage, using the pandemonium of the crowd to cover our approach.
It’s only when we’re within ten yards of the platform that I release a burst of air, knocking everybody out of the way and clearing the crowd from around us. Sherman turns and I see the surprise on his face. He narrows his eyes, though, and an expression of rage twists his features as he swings his gun around. I reach out with my power and grab hold of it, but I’m too late and he squeezes the trigger.
I manage to wrench the weapon from his grasp and watch it sail across the arena before I let out a loud cry, feeling like I’ve been hit in the belly with a truck. The wind is blown out of my lungs and I feel myself falling backward. A fiery pain erupts in my stomach and radiates through my body. I feel like I’m burning from the inside out, and I realize warm, sticky blood is flowing from my wound.
“Raven!”
Elliot drops to his knees beside me, looking around frantically as he tries to figure out what to do. My breath is quick and labored, and even over the cries of the crowd, I can hear my own wheezing. I start to grow numb and cold as a feeling like I’m being encased in ice starts to spread over me.
“Oh, God, no,” Elliot cries.
His tears splash onto my cheeks and I suddenly feel dizzy. Darkness begins creeping in at the edges of my vision and I know I’m in real trouble. I look up and see Zane pressed to the cage, his eyes locked onto mine, an expression of absolute terror on his face. But Gray grabs him from behind in his massive paws and throws him like a ragdoll across the cage. Gray roars, his thunderous voice cutting through the panicked shouting of the rapidly thinning crowd.
I lay with my head in Elliot’s lap, watching the shifters I released from their cages chasing the last dregs of people out of the arena, some of them rending the flesh of the fallen, chunks of ragged, bloody meat dangling from their jaws. And then I see Sherman standing over me, a smile on his face and his sidearm pointed at my head.
A wet cough bursts from my throat and I feel the blood splatter down upon my cheeks. The pain is excruciating. There is not one part of my body that doesn’t hurt right now, and I feel my life spilling out of the hole in my stomach. Elliot remains kneeling with my head in his lap, stroking my hair and sobbing. I don’t even know if he’s aware that Sherman is looming over us.
It’s all fallen apart. The plan failed. I failed. A
nd I’m going to die on the bloody floor of this godforsaken pit. Worse than that, all of my boys are going to die because I failed them. I hear Gray roar, followed by an agonized wail from Zane. It’s all over. I feel myself growing weaker as the flame inside of me gutters and stands on the verge of flickering out of existence.
“This here’s a waste,” Sherman chuckles. “I sure woulda liked a piece of you before you died. Damn shame.”
“Fuck you,” I croak.
“Still with that mouth. Right to the very end,” he says, then frowns. “How’d you get here? Where’s your collar?”
“It’s going to be up your ass in a minute,” I reply. “Step a little closer.”
He laughs loudly, staring at me for a long moment, and I can see the light of glee in his eyes. He’s enjoying this. Not that it surprises me, but I hate it all the same. I hate that he’s going to win and I’m going to lose. Elliot focuses on me, seemingly intent on ignoring Sherman and accepting his fate. He continues to stroke my hair and whisper to me. I don’t know if he’s praying or what, I can’t quite make out his words, but his full attention remains on me.
“We’re human beings,” I say.
“No, you ain’t,” Sherman replies. “You’re things. Creatures. Animals. You saw what that pack of beasts did to the good people in this place.”
“And you? You’re about to kill me. How are you any different?” I say. “As far as I can see, you’re every bit the animal you say we are.”
His smile fades and a hardness enters his eyes. In that moment, I can see exactly how cruel and callous this man is. How unfeeling and uncaring. There really is no limit to this man’s evil. And, to me, that makes him more of an animal than anything. He’s certainly more of an animal than any of us are.
“Know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna kill your little boyfriends. One by one,” he says. “And I’m gonna make you watch me do it. And only after you done watched me blow all their heads off will I let you die.”
“L-leave them alone,” I say. “You won. Be satisfied with that.”
He shakes his head. “I ain’t gonna be satisfied ‘til all your kind is dead,” he says. “Doc Fry had that part right, and it’s what Keene couldn’t understand. This world is a better place without your kind.”
“My kind will be around a lot longer than yours,” I gasp, finding it harder to catch my breath. “Far longer.”
“Not if I have a say in it.” He grins. “But I’ll tell you what. To show you what a nice guy I am, I’m gonna let you pick which of your boyfriends I kill first.”
“How about you kill yourself?”
He chuckles and raises the gun, training it directly at Elliot’s head. A bolt of fear shoots through me and I hold a hand up, appalled to see how much it’s trembling.
“Wait,” I say, and he lowers the gun. “Just fucking wait.”
The numbness continues to spread through me and I’m growing colder by the second. I know I’m about done here but even still, I’m racking my brain, trying to find some way out of it for them. I want my boys to survive. To live.
Is that all you want? Really?
My shadow-self has picked an absolutely awesome time to be a snarky bitch.
Physician, heal thyself.
I can’t. I wish I could. But the pain—
It’s all in your head. Pain is fleeting. It’s mind over matter. But then, if you don’t mind dying, then I guess it doesn’t matter. But what about them? They’re going to die without you. All of them.
Closing my eyes, I focus on the small, dying flame that’s still barely flickering inside of me. I concentrate on it. Hard.
“Well?” Sherman presses. “Who’s it gonna be? Who’s gettin’ a bullet first?”
I pour what little energy seems to remain in my body into that flame and it bursts to life. The chilling cold that’s enveloping me begins to ebb slowly, but the pain is still tearing me apart. I focus harder, trying to will away that sensation, trying to close my mind off to the pain. And, ever so slowly, bit by bit, that white-hot throb starts to dull.
“Wait,” I tell Sherman. “Let me think.”
“Hurry up, girl,” he says. “Ain’t got all night. Gotta go hunt down your friends and kill ‘em when I’m done here.”
I nurture the flame inside of me. Build it up. Let it grow into a bonfire. Then into a raging inferno. Soon, it engulfs me, and my skin grows warm. I pull power from the fire and weave threads of spirit into me, let it begin knitting my wound.
“Five seconds, girl,” Sherman spits. “And then I’ll make the choice for you.”
As the fire inside of me grows, so does the power. A shining white light runs straight through the center of my body and I open my eyes again, my head clear, my focus sharp, and my rage burning out of control.
“Two seconds.”
I draw my power and wrap it around Sherman’s arm. He looks down at it, shocked and uncomprehending for a moment. But when I turn my hand and twist his arm, the snapping is loud enough to make even Elliot look up. Sherman howls in pain and his gun hits the ground with a hard thump. He looks at me with wide, scared eyes as I get to my feet.
I wrap a tendril of power around both of his legs and twist. The bones snap and he falls backward, landing hard on his back, his screams of agony nearly deafening. I glance at the cage and see that Gray has thankfully returned to his human form, but both he and Zane are in bad shape, both bloody and ragged. Still, they’re alive. And that’s all that matters right now.
Tears are spilling down his cheeks as I loom over Sherman and he’s looking at me with the wild-eyed stare of an animal caught in a trap. The sense of peace and calm descending over me is unlike anything I’ve felt before. I am tranquil. Serene. And powerful as fuck. I can literally feel it crackling along my skin.
I raise my shirt and look at the wound his bullet had made. As if by magic, the slug is expelled from my body and falls, bouncing off his chest before it hits the ground with a metallic ping.
“I believe that was yours,” I say.
He watches in horror as my flesh knits itself back together, the shock of seeing it cutting off his agonized wailing. Thank God. I stare at him, letting the hatred I feel for this man flow through me. But then, like a puff of smoke on a breeze, it evaporates. Gone, like it had never existed.
“Kill me already,” he growls. “Just fucking kill me, you bitch.”
Elliot gets to his feet and comes to me, taking my hand in his. He looks down at Sherman and spits on him.
“Kill him,” he sneers.
Even sweet, gentle Elliot, who has a hard time killing insects, wants this man dead. But wouldn’t killing him prove that he’s right about me? That I am just an animal? I’m more than that. Far more. And definitely more than Sherman will ever be. I give Elliot a quick kiss on the lips then turn back to Sherman.
“You’re not worthy of my hatred,” I tell him. “I’m not going to kill you, but I’m certainly going to make sure you never hurt another of my kind again.”
I wrap him in threads of energy, lifting him off the ground. He howls and writhes, struggling to break free. I stare at him, a cruel smile touching my lips as I twist my hands around. Sherman’s shriek is more animal than human as I drop him to the floor in a boneless heap. He cries and howls in the purest agony I’ve ever heard.
“Wh-what did you do to him?” Elliot asks.
“Every bone in his body is broken,” I say. “He’s never going to work for Villa again. He’ll never hurt our kind again.”
Elliot grins. “Sounds fair.”
I turn and throw spirit into the cage the boys are in, and it bursts with a loud pop and a shower of sparks. The sides of the cage fall away, hitting the ground with a loud clang. Zane and Gray—both looking better, healed presumably by the vampire’s blood—climb down and come to me. We all exchange hugs, though Zane and Elliot settle for a pat on the back with a very naked Gray.
We ransack what’s left of the place and find some clothes that are su
itable for now. Once we’ve dressed in our mismatched attire, we gather together again and stand in a circle, all of us linking hands. Almost immediately, I feel the energy that flows between us all because we are Joined growing stronger. I don’t know if this will work, it’s just a theory at this point, but I have a good feeling about it. I look at each of them in turn.
“Are you ready to get out of here?” I ask.
“More than ready,” they all say, nearly in unison, and laugh.
I close my eyes and picture a place in my head. I fix it firmly in my mind and smile as I pour my energy into it, taking us away from this living nightmare.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Raven
“Really?” Gray asks as he looks around. “Out of all the places on Earth, you choose to bring us here? To an amusement park?”
Zane and Elliot laugh as I look around and nod. “Yeah,” I say. “I have a lot of great childhood memories of this place.”
“But why bring us here?” Elliot asks. “It’s the middle of the night and it’s not even open.”
I shrug. “Nostalgia, I suppose.”
“You saved us,” Zane says, his tone somber. “You saved all our lives.”
“No more so than you’ve saved mine,” I tell them.
“I knew you could do it,” Zane says. “I knew you were stronger than you let yourself believe.”
Elliot nods. “Me too.”
Gray joins them. “Absolutely. We all knew that you would figure it out,” he says. “What we didn’t know was what a sadistic little badass you are. I mean, breaking all of Sherman’s bones?”
“Seemed better than giving him cancer.” I shrug.
They all fall silent and turn to me, their expressions serious. Gray swallows hard as he looks at me.
“You can do that?” he asks. “You can actually give somebody cancer?”
I hold onto it for another moment, but then my laughter escapes me. “No, you idiot, I can’t give somebody cancer,” I say. “My God, are you really that gullible?
We all laugh until there are tears in our eyes and we’re out of breath. It feels incredible to just enjoy a moment with them. I honestly can’t remember the last time I had a good laugh this hard. It’s been a long while, and this release of pent-up tension, fear, and anxiousness feels amazing.
