Chapter 10
CHAPTER
TEN
SAMANTHA
This was my fault.
All my fault.
I’d messed up, and now I had to fix it. I had no clue how, but I’d find a way.
I heard people calling out to me, but it all sounded so far away. I was focused. I had a goal. I knew what I needed to do.
I raced down the porch steps and into the middle of the dirt road. Tiny pebbles stabbed at my bare feet, but I tried not to pay attention to it. It was too quiet. Way too quiet. No owls. No frogs. No wind. No cicadas.
The spiritual realm was awake and overpowering the whole neighborhood. Maybe a normal human wouldn’t feel it, but the supernaturals might. And me and the animal kingdom? Yeah, we felt it.
My breaths came in short pants as I ran. I didn’t need to see a clock to know it was close to 3:00 AM. I could feel it around me. I could see it in the spiritual realm—it was brighter, stronger, weaving through, around, on top of our realm, nearly overpowering it. Pack bonds ran through the neighborhood this way and that—bright golden ropes. Some thin wisps. Some thick enough to hold a cable car. And every size in between.
And running through them were veins of red.
Blood red demon ties.
What had I done?
“Chris!” I yelled as I ran down the road because I was going to need help. But I didn’t stop. I could feel the pack coming toward me, and I knew that energy. The red among the ties started to brighten, deepen, drip with blood.
That wasn’t good.
It was seriously not good.
I’d never seen a possessed werewolf, and I never wanted to. Ever. I could wrestle a demon-ridden human. But a werewolf? No. Hard pass. They would kill me.
And yet, I was running toward them.
The Sanctuary wasn’t supposed to have demonic ties like that. They shouldn’t have been able to exist on this land. It had been sanctified by angels. The houses were literally formed by them. It was built to always be a safe place for traumatized supernaturals, but it wasn’t. Not anymore.
I’d broken that covenant.
I’d desecrated the land.
Feral growls broke through the silence of the night, and I knew that I wasn’t in control of what might happen next.
God, help me. Make me strong. Help me help them.
Then, I saw them racing down the street. I couldn’t tell how many there were, but it felt like a lot. They were running faster than I could, which meant even if I turned now, they’d be on me before I got inside the house.
I wanted to laugh at that. They’d tear through the door like it was cheese. I had to hold my ground.
I took a breath and let go of the mental chain I kept wrapped around myself and my power. I felt the energy pull in, and then flow out of my body, encasing me in fire.
I didn’t like to show this side of myself. It was something my father could do, and using it—being like him —felt wrong. But sometimes—every once in a while—I needed something a little more.
Fire wouldn’t kill a werewolf. They healed so fast. I wasn’t sure it’d be enough to stop them, but I needed it to be.
I didn’t want to hurt any of the wolves here. This wasn’t their fault.
This was my fault. Completely and totally my fault.
I’d broken my own rule, and now, I was going to pay for it.
I studied them as they approached. If I could cut any demonic ties before they reached me, then I might be able to?—
Phoenix stopped beside me. “What’s happening? Why do those wolves sound like that?
Oh no. I couldn’t let him get hurt. They’d kill him. “Go inside. They’ve gone feral. Let me deal with them.” I didn’t dare look at him. Not with the wolves coming.
“Why are they feral? What’s happened to them?”
“Because I opened a doorway to the spiritual realm. I wasn’t supposed to do that. Not here.” Stupid, stupid amateur move on my part.
“How do we stop them?”
I glanced at him—jeans, a hoodie with the sleeves pulled up, gaze on me.
It was in that moment I knew I wanted him to stick around. Probably forever. He’d seen me struggle, seen me fight evil, seen me pass out I don’t know how many times, but he never left.
Standing there in the middle of the night with a pack of feral wolves racing toward me, I realized I was in love with this man.
Which seemed obvious, but I’d never loved someone. Not like this. Not even my ex.
“Samantha? You okay?”
I shook my head and forced my gaze away. “They need their Alpha.” I didn’t dare look behind me. “ Hurry up, Chris! ” I screamed as loud as I could. “ I need your help! Right now! The pack has gone feral!”
They were coming. I had five seconds, and no clue what to do. I didn’t want to die, but I didn’t want to hurt any of them either.
“Go inside,” I told Phoenix as I tried to step in front of him. “This could get?—”
Cosette came out of nowhere, sprinting in front of me, holding out her hands. “ Stop! ” She yelled the command to the wolves, and they all slid, skidding out of control to follow her command. A few of the wolves flipped over their front legs. One hit her legs, and she pushed him away with her foot. “What in the world is your problem? You do not attack Samantha.” She paused. “Wait. Is that Axel? What is happening?”
I took a breath, willing my heart to slow down. “It’s not their fault.” Not even a little bit. The wolves were all laying there, submitting to Cosette’s will, but would it last? “How long can you hold them like that?” I needed to get closer to help them, but I couldn’t help them if they ripped out my throat.
“Don’t insult me. I’m a princess of the Lunar Court.” Her voice was full and haughty. “They will stay where I command them to stay until I tell them they’re allowed to get up.” Cosette stood as if she were wearing a big gown and a crown, but she was in pajama pants with dragons on them and a black tank. Her long blonde hair was pulled into a knot on top of her head, and yet she looked fierce. Although, that might have something to do with the flaming sword pointed at the ground in her right hand.
Chris came strolling up behind her in a pair of black sweatpants and nothing else. His wavy blond hair stuck out at all angles, and I knew I’d for sure woken them up.
“You’re not going to obey her?” Phoenix asked Chris.
“Me? No. I went through a lot to cut my lunar tie. I don’t have to obey her.”
Cosette cleared her throat. “Excuse me.”
“But I love making her happy.” He gave her a sweet smile and batted his eyelashes at her.
She barked out a laugh. “You do.” Her shoulders relaxed, and she somehow turned from princess to the Cosette I was used to.
“What is going on with the fire?” Cosette asked, waving her non-sword hand at me. “Could you always do that?”
I sighed. I hadn’t ever shown any of them this. “Yeah.”
“Feels like you’ve been holding out on us, Sam,” Chris said. “This could come in handy in a fight.”
“I know.” I hung my head. “I know. It’s just…this side of me is complicated.” I looked at Chris. “I didn’t mean to hold out. I just like to pretend I’m not this much—” I held out my fire-coated hands. “—of my father’s daughter. Usually, it’s the kind of fire that only burns in the spiritual realm, but if I push it hard, it can be real fire.” I took a breath and relaxed, letting go of the fire. “It’s a last resort. The kind I only use if a pack of feral wolves comes running at me, and opening a portal seems overkill.”
“I can get that, but we should talk about incorporating it if you need to. You can’t hold back in a fight. Even if it means accessing a part of yourself you don’t like.” Chris moved to stand next to me, looking at the wolves in the middle of the Sanctuary’s main road, just two houses down from mine. “Axel is in this group. He’s too alpha and part bruja . He shouldn’t have been susceptible to going feral. What the hell happened to my pack?”
Cosette had said Axel was in the group, but I’d hoped she was wrong. It was honestly really hard for me to tell the wolves apart. Especially when they were all in a group together. I didn’t spend a ton of time with them in their wolf forms, and there were a few that were so identical they should’ve been twins in human form, too. But they looked nothing alike.
“Hey. Lucas heard you screaming and woke me up.” Claudia came walking around the corner. “What’s going on?” She was in sleep shorts and a sweatshirt. Lucas, her very taciturn mate, stalked behind her in sweatpants.
“Sorry, everyone. I made a mistake.” I rubbed my hands down my face, trying to calm down. The adrenaline was pumping, and now that the wolves had settled, I had a second to sort this out.
“What’s the mistake?” Phoenix asked.
“She left her body here,” Mom called out to us from the porch. “She usually wouldn’t do anything in the spiritual realm in our home. We had to move a lot of times before we figured it out and made that rule.”
“Actually, I remember that. That’s why we met you in that crystal shop,” Claudia said. “You wouldn’t do stuff at your apartment.”
“Wow. I honestly can’t believe you remembered that.”
“Steel trap,” she said as she tapped her head. “So, you did something here, and now what?”
“And now my father can find me here, and he’s clearly going to make life interesting if we can’t find a way to fix it.” And I had no clue how to even start fixing this. If I did, I wouldn’t have moved so much as a kid. “I was in such a rush that I went for Van and left my body here. I broke my own rule. I was just so confident that the Sanctuary was safe, I didn’t even think about it. But my father was able to destroy my room, which means I opened something here.”
I knew better. Or I should’ve known better.
And now Phoenix was tied to me.
And my father was ruining the Sanctuary.
And I had no idea where to go from here.
“We need Eli. We need to—” Cosette cut off at the sound of a ring tone.
“Excuse me,” Lucas said, pulling his phone from his pocket. “ Hola, qué ? —”
I heard someone yelling on the other side in Spanish, but then another phone rang.
Cosette turned to her mate. “Answer it.”
Chris sighed. “We’re a little busy right now.” But he did it anyways, pulling his phone from his pocket. “It’s Dastien.” He stepped away from the group. “What’s up?”
I let them deal with whatever was going on and focused on the wolves. “Can I go near them?”
“Of course you can. They won’t disobey me.” Cosette gave them a look, and they whimpered and writhed on the ground. “I’m in control of the wolves. Do what needs to be done.” She’d gone full princess mode again, and usually, I’d tease her for it. She didn’t do it often, but every once in a while, she would get it in her head that she was right about something, and that was it. She was Supreme Ruler Cosette.
But tonight was different. I needed her to be in control. I needed the princess of the Lunar Court to keep the werewolves in check. If she let them slip, even a little bit, I’d be as good as dead.
“What’s wrong with them?” Phoenix asked.
“They’ve got demonic ties. I’m going to free them, and then I’ll need to cleanse this whole place.” But I wasn’t sure I could. “The Sanctuary was sanctified by Eli?”
“No,” Cosette said. “By my father.” She paused. “Well, by a few of the archons—and Eli was present—but also my father.”
“Can we get him here?”
She let out a small snort. “Sure. Let me get right on that.”
“Alright, Princess Sarcasm.” Whatever. I’d deal with that later. First, I had to fix the wolves.
I walked up to them, my hands still on fire. I’d use it before I put it away.
I knelt beside each wolf, reached for their demonic tie, and burned it before moving on to the next. I worked quickly, quietly.
I could hear Phoenix talking to Cosette, but I ignored them. Mom had joined them, and if I was younger, I’d probably be due for a lecture.
Actually, I was still probably due for a lecture.
Another thing for me to deal with later.
I had so many fun things to look forward to.
Focus, Sam.
One by one, I freed the wolves. They lay relaxed on the ground. A few of them shifted into their human skin and asked what had happened, but I asked them to wait. Mom brought them clothes to change into, and that was fine. I wasn’t worried about anything but clearing everything from the wolves.
Axel was the last one. “Hey,” I said as I knelt by his wolf form. “I’m sorry.”
He whimpered.
“I know. I’m sorry.” I shook my head and reached for the tie that was wrapped around his neck, strangling his soul. One touch, and it was gone.
At least the ties weren’t strong. There hadn’t been enough time for them to hook into their souls. It’d only been a few days since I saved Van, which meant that even if they got them the same night, they hadn’t had them for long.
When it was finished, Axel hopped up on all four paws and ran his rough tongue along the side of my face. I tried to shove the three-hundred-pound wolf off of me—I didn’t know why he weighed that much as a wolf when his human weight wasn’t anything close to that—but there was no moving him. “Stop it. That’s so gross.” His tongue was rough and slimy. He did it again, and I started to laugh. “You jerk!” But then I looked at him, and he was sitting on his butt, tongue hanging from his mouth, and looking happy with himself.
“Fine. You made me laugh when I was feeling pretty down. Gold star for you.” He let out a howl—this time, a happy one—and darted off into the neighborhood. I had a feeling he’d come back in human form, preferably with clothes.
I sat back on my heels, facing the wolves that hadn’t run off yet. “I’m sorry this happened to you. As you know, I saved Van a few days ago, and I must’ve left a gateway open—not a full portal, but a spiritual path. You had demonic ties. None of you were possessed, which is good. You were just driven feral and out of control through the tie. They’re gone now. You’re fine. Get some rest, and if any of you feel the least bit antsy, come see me. I’ll make sure it hasn’t come back.”
Once I was done, some of the wolves got up and left on their own. Some of them stayed in wolf form and went off together, probably to sleep in a big puddle like puppies. Whatever had happened clearly rattled them. But none of them had the spunk that they usually did. They all moved a little slower.
They were werewolves. They’d recover quickly. But that didn’t make me feel that much better about the whole thing.
“What’s next?” Mom asked from beside me.
I looked up from where I was kneeling and shrugged. “I don’t know. Honestly. I don’t want to move. I really, really like it here.” I was feeling so… defeated .
“You’re not moving.” Chris’s deep, raspy voice was firm, leaving no room for argument. “We’ll fix what needs fixing. Between you and Claudia?—”
“No, she should call for Eli,” Phoenix said. “If I’m following correctly, then he needs to know. He could fix this.”
He was right. I knew he was right, but I also knew Eli was busy. Still… “ Eli! I need help! ” I yelled through both realms. “ I need you now !”
Please, let him be able to fix this.