Looking around, the entire place is a trap, and my mates and daughter are the bait. Orion lets out a breath, looking around for another point of entry.
“And that’s why you’re not going in there,” I tell him. He looks back at me just as I snap his neck, his body falls limp against me as I catch him, sinking my teeth into his neck and draining his blood. I won’t risk him; there is already enough on the line.
Ryland
The first flicker of life is the twitching of her fingers. Her lacerations slowly close as our blood moves through her veins, closing and sealing every wound. I look around the room, trying to find something to free myself but only see concrete walls and a chain hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room. The steel door is the only way out besides the grate in the ground that is much too small.
When I hear a predatory growl, my eyes are drawn to Evelyn on the floor, and I hear her heartbeat thump. Her body is trying to kickstart itself as I hear it again. It becomes steady, thumping in her chest as every cell in her body is awoken.
“That’s it, baby. Wake up,” I tell her, trying to nudge her with my foot.
She growls, the sound of a predator about to attack as her senses take over. I hear her sniff the air and see claws slip from her nail beds, tearing off her nails as she stretches her fingers. Yet, I don’t hear bones snapping, don’t hear agonized screams, nor does she smell like a vampire or Lycan, but something else, something close to her old scent, but slightly different. She isn’t either, but both, and that becomes startlingly clear when her head snaps in my direction.
Her amber eyes stare back at me. Her lips curl over her top lip as fangs protrude, bloodlust takes over as her eyes scan the room and land on me. She sniffs the air, and I notice the crazed look on her face. I am the perfect prey, completely defenseless and at her mercy.
The bond reforms with renewed strength as she suddenly looks down, and I know she can feel it; feel it coming back. But it still isn’t enough as she lunges at me. Her fangs sink into my necks and tear through my flesh. I let out a gurgled scream.
“Evie,” I choke, struggling against my restraints as she starts draining me.
Footsteps outside make her pull her face away; her face snaps toward the door. “Focus on the noises,” I tell her, trying to get her attention off me.
When the door opens suddenly, I see the man in armor race in, gun drawn. Shock registers on his gaunt face; his human blood is appealing to her more than mine as her attention goes solely to him, her head tilting to the side as she watches him.
His shock is wearing off as fight or flight kicks in; seeing her covered in my blood and her own, he tries to slam the door shut, but she is quicker as she lunges at him. Her legs wrap around him as he turns to run, her claws sink into his chest as he lets out a bloodcurdling scream, his blood sprays across the walls as she sinks her teeth into him, her hands go through his chest as he staggers backward, back into the room as she drains him. The man goes limp underneath her as she continues to rip him apart until he is left completely drained and in pieces.
Her eyes are clear of the haze as she realizes what she has done. His limbs rip from his body as it falls to pieces in her hands and she looks at them in pure horror. Evelyn kicks his body away from herself frantically, and I can hear the erratic beating of her heart.
“Look at me, love,” I call to her.
Her head snaps up so quickly; if she were human, she would have snapped her own neck. I watch the recognition register in her mind, her hands go to her belly before she starts clawing at herself, looking for our baby and the bump that is no longer there.
“Where is she? Where is she, Ryland?” Her voice breaks as she realizes she is no longer carrying our child.
“I don’t know, but you need to get these braces off,” I tell her.
Her eyes dart back to me as she gets up; within a blink of an eye, she has ripped them from the wall, the sound of metal hitting concrete sounds loud in this empty room. She hauls me to my feet, putting my arm over her shoulder as I lean heavily against her. The entire building starts to shake, the ground ripples under our feet, and we hear gunfire from outside.
“We need to find her before this building comes down,” I tell her, as she half drags me toward the door, my breathing wheezing from the movement and the bullets lodged in my chest. She places me on the ground. “We need to move,” I tell her when she suddenly holds her breath, tearing the front of my shirt.
I hiss as she digs her claws into my chest, pulling the razor-like bullets out. Green liquid oozes from the holes, down my chest, her fingertips sizzle as if acid was tipped on them. She grits her teeth, removing all five, her fingertips mutilated as the silver burns her flesh.
“We won’t be getting anywhere with you like this,” she says, and I realize she has been holding her breath the entire time as she draws a breath through her parted lips.
I can feel the wounds healing extremely slowly and can’t heal around the wolfsbane that floods my system. She pulls me to my feet just as we are knocked to the ground when the building shakes again. Chunks of concrete fall from the roof around us, the lights flicker and swing as we make our way down the corridor to a door that leads to stairs, a green neon sign flickers above it saying exit.
Grabbing the railing, we make our way up, and I realize we are in some sort of basement. The entire place suddenly comes down around us. I feel my strength come back slowly but not fast enough, my wounds heal at an agonizingly slow pace. Evelyn’s anxiety levels are peaking, and I can feel her mind is completely consumed with finding our daughter. When we reach a door, she lets go of me, hitting the door so hard it blows off the hinges, shattering to the ground as she starts going from door to door. I hear screams of people as she moves quickly from room to room; I stagger after her when a hole is blown in the side of the building, dust pours in, making the corridor fill with debris.
Reaching the first room, I notice the blood bath left in Evelyn’s wake as she continues from room to room. I collapse as I feel the wolfsbane spread toward my heart, the bullets stopped its lethal spread, yet my body isn’t healing fast enough to get rid of it now that they have been removed.
The loud bang of a gun going off makes me look in Evelyn’s direction. Her body is flung against the wall when suddenly Amara appears in the corridor in front of me. Evelyn coughs, getting to her feet and spewing blood onto the floor.
Amara gasps as she vaporizes in front of me and appears next to Evelyn when we hear the faintest of cries. A woman steps out from behind a man coming out of the door behind him, our daughter clutched tightly in her arms. Evelyn lunges for her just as Amara touches her shoulder, and they disappear into thin air.
The man in the lab coat raises the shotgun, his eyes not leaving me as he uses the lip along the wall to walk across the hole in the floor, the floor breaking off under his weight as he presses his back close. The woman behind him looks at the gaping hole and looks to the room that is blown apart, trying to figure out how to get across, just as I hear the click and a bang sounds out.
My chest explodes in pain, sending me flying into the wall and along the floor. He reloads the gun as I try to get to my hands and feet, when I hear him scream for her to hurry up; the woman places my daughter on the ground and jumps across the gap, her foot slips on the loose rubble as she tumbles through the hole in the floor to the floor below. Her terrified scream echoes off the cracked rendered walls and then I hear a thud.
Blood is pouring from my mouth as I try to breathe while I drown in my own blood, when Thaddeus appears, jumping to the ledge from outside. His eyes go to our daughter next to his feet as he nearly steps on her; a menacing growl sounds throughout the entire building.
The walls shake and come down around us as the darkness consumes him. I watch the man fumble, falling on his ass as he takes a step back toward me. Thaddeus picks up the bundle of fabric covering our daughter when I hear the man laugh hysterically. Thaddeus’ fingers zap with electricity when the man pulls a device from his lab coat.
“Either way, I win.” He chuckles, looking toward the ceiling where I see cables running along the one side of the intact roof.
“Run!” I scream. Adrenaline pulses through me as I lunge toward the man; his deep, booming laugh reverberates loudly in my ears as Thaddeus registers what I said. He turns, jumps from the ledge and disappears out the hole in the wall. Everything moves slowly as I land on the man. His head is smashing against the concrete but not hard enough to knock him out when he speaks.
“My backup plan,” he gasps out as he squeezes his hand into a fist, and I hear the click.
The entire building vibrates like an earthquake, deafening noise echoes as the entire building detonates, sounding like a freight train as I watch in horror as flames consume everything.
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