Eighteen
“Maddox!”
I scream as the three chimeras shove him against the cage, pinning the door shut so I can’t get out. Blood sprays in the air and across the bars as they slash him to pieces with their claws.
“Fucking shift!”
I snap, my body buzzing with a need for violence I can’t release. The bars are big enough for me to push my arms through, but the only person I can reach is Maddox. The three men are on the other side of him, slicing his back open, taking turns, having fucking fun.
He didn’t even manage to turn around, so he’s facing me, his eyes glossy with pain, blood trickling out of his mouth. His right hand twitches with magic, and hope flares through me that he is about to defend himself. He only has a few seconds before he passes out from blood loss or they just rip his head off, but maybe that’ll be enough.
Maybe he can force them off him and –
“Don’t!”
I scream, my heart plummeting as he presses his hand to the cage.
And that defensive spell I was praying he was forming never sees the light.
Instead, he’s taken those few precious seconds to seal the door of the cage with magic. Trapping me in. Protecting me from their reach.
“Brother!”
I scream in desperation, hoping that fucking demon can hear me. But Maddox’s circle didn’t contain him, which means none of the words were binding. The Prince of Pride could’ve fucked off, using his time of being untethered on Earth to find my sister.
So he can drag her down to Halzaja’s Underground, to his kingdom of Sin.
So she can have his baby.
Oh my gods, I’m going to kill her.
“Shift, you little piece of shit,”
I cry as I squeeze his other hand. “I need to kick your ass for giving stupid advice to my sister.”
He half-chuckles, half-gives a dying breath. “Don’t cry…” he says.
But his words can’t stop the tears from falling down my face.
I squeeze his hand harder. “Don’t you dare fucking die on me.”
He tries to squeeze me back, but his grip is so weak.
“Shift, Maddox, please.”
His fingers start to loosen.
His eyes glaze.
And then he’s gone, sagging against the cage as his legs give out.
A foot slams into his lower back, keeping him up before he can drop far. The kick rattled the bars enough to make me jump. My gaze jerks from Maddox’s face and over his shoulder, landing on eyes that I know too fucking well.
Hourglass.
The bitch I stabbed with my bone knives. The one I didn’t get a chance to kill because some fucker tackled me from the back.
I won’t be stopped the next time I come for him.
Smiling cruelly, he holds my furious gaze, my promise of revenge as he reaches a hand inside Maddox’s back.
The sound of blood squelching around as he digs inside his body makes my stomach twist.
Squeezing Maddox’s limp hand, I shake with rage.
With helplessness.
There’s nothing I can do to stop them from desecrating his body.
The other two wolves start to howl, throwing their heads to the sky as Hourglass starts to pull. Maddox’s body arches back, and I know the fucker has hold of his spine.
My grip on him tightens.
My fury rages.
He pulls hard, and Maddox’s spine rips free with a loud squelch. Blood sprays all over Hourglass, painting him for death. Intestines and organs pour from the hole in Maddox’s back, splattering across his feet.
Werewolves can’t speak in their animal forms, but the rage in Hourglass’ eyes is there. He’s doing all this because I fucking stabbed him. What a tantrum-throwing pussy.
Dropping his foot to the ground, squelching through the mess, Hourglass raises the spine in the air. Bloody nerves and tendons dangle off it.
Maddox slides down the cage.
His hand slips from mine.
“I’m going to kill –”
I start, only to immediately jump back as his entire body slams into the cage. I didn’t even see the pride demon enter the gym, but he’s here now, his wings spread out, his dark-blue fur covered in blood and bits of brain matter. He pins Hourglass to the cage with one meaty paw on the back of his head. The two werewolves that were howling in celebration now stop short and try to rush him.
Pride’s wings flick almost lazily, and his feathers, the beautiful midnight-blue, golden-tipped feathers, slice across their necks like knives, decapitating them so quickly, they still take a few steps before they fall to the ground. He keeps his eyes on me, and I stare at him in shock, wondering what the fuck Lou was thinking when she called this demon forth for a booty call.
I’m so going to kill her.
Hourglass snarls as he tries to turn around, his frothing fury snapping my attention back to him.
“Let me out of here,”
I growl at the prince. “I get to kill him.”
“I do not take orders.”
He yanks Maddox’s spine out of the wolf’s hand, then he wraps it around Hourglass’ throat and pulls back hard, his thick biceps flexing, his eyes never leaving mine.
My jaw drops free as Hourglass thrashes around, gasping like a fish, his eyes bugging out of his skull. He reaches around him to try to scratch his way free, to cut out Pride’s eyes, but the demon doesn’t release him.
I’ve seen a lot of shit as an assassin.
A lot of imaginative deaths, but this…
My eyes tear up.
This is so fitting for Maddox.
He would’ve loved this so much.
“Okay, well that was worth the pain to see.”
I scream as Maddox’s voice comes from behind me.
I spin around, my heart thumping wildly. I swing for his face, wanting to both check he’s real and to just hit him for being a fucking little shit if he is.
“Ow!”
he yelps as he throws up his hands.
“I held your hand as you died!”
“I said don’t cry! I had a plan!”
I throw my arms around him as my emotions run wild. The amount of stress in my system right now is making me shake hard. He shoves me away.
“If you give me a boner, Vay Vay is going to kill me.”
I slug him in the arm, the circulation in my limbs having come back.
“Nice touch with calling the demon back,”
Maddox says as we watch the werewolf get strangled. He gestures to him. “Cullen Rogers is a fucking cunt,” he says, giving the pride demon his name. A token of thanks, a payment owed. “Did you know he used to bully me as a kid because this one time I pretended to be his crush, took him on a date, convinced him to let me tie him up, blindfolded him, and covered him in chocolate sauce, then released a bunch of fire ants onto the bed?”
Okay… Maybe he didn’t desecrate Maddox’s body to get back at me…
Varius’ youngest brother takes a step forward, his dark eyes blazing bright as he stares into the werewolf’s bulging, bloodshot, desperate eyes. “Die while reliving that memory, you steaming pile of shit.”
He turns to me, his face serious. “He used my fabric scissors on paper.”
I open my mouth, then do a half-shrug and light shake of my head. “Yeah, okay. I mean that’s fair.”
“Right? He deserves this every day of his life.”
I roll my lips in, wanting to laugh despite the pain of it all. But if I laugh, it’s going to turn hysterical. Then I’m going to break down and cry.
His eyes softening, Maddox squeezes me on the shoulder. “You’re going to be okay.”
Hourglass finally stops struggling. He hangs limp, his neck bleeding from Maddox’s spine having cut into him.
“You survived,”
he continues. “Now you’re going home.”
I survived…
My throat closes as I stare at him. Did he see the video too?
Desperate to change the subject, I gesture to his dead body. “How are you… Is that even you?”
“Uh huh. Hurt like a bitch too.”
“What?”
I shake my head, so fucking lost. Shapeshifters can’t make duplicates of themselves. “How?”
“You know how there’s a snake that pretends to have a spider on its tail? Well, I did that but in reverse.”
That does not clear anything up at all. “What –”
My head jerks at the sudden blur of motion streaking towards the demon prince. It barrels into Pride, tackling him off Hourglass and slamming him into the floor.
I fully expected it to be Antonio, but this thing’s fur is as white as paper, with dark-red veins running through it. His muscles are even bigger than the prince’s. He looks like a gorilla on steroids and has a crown of horns atop his head. He throws a fist into Pride’s face, and the ground shakes.
“You fucked my mate!” he roars.
“You didn’t claim her,”
Pride snaps as they roll across the body-littered floor, trading blows.
“She’s had my mark on her since she was three!”
“Then you should’ve made it bigger.”
“What the fuck is going on?”
I shout at Maddox, unable to make out what they’re saying.
“Fuck if I know,”
he says. “I don’t speak Eknor. That’s a rage demon though, so could be an assassination attempt. Or they could be the best of friends.”
I notice the cuff melded into the newcomer’s arm. They are moving too fast for me to make out the image, but I do not need to see it to know who he is. There’s one prince for every type of eknor demon, and they all rule Sin together. “He’s the Prince of Rage,” I say.
“Assassination attempt then?”
“Hopefully,”
I reply just as they roll into the circle of runes and disappear back to Halzaja. If the rage prince kills him, then that would solve one half of my Lou problem. There’s still the baby to figure out, but –
My thoughts die under a crashing wave of guilt and envy.
My little sister is going to have a baby when I lost mine…
I press one hand to my stomach, the other to my mouth as a little sob escapes me.
Maddox opens his mouth to say something, but I shake my head, so he turns towards the cage door. He’s about to unlock it and step out when a dozen more werewolves run in.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,”
he groans. “Leno’s never going to let me live this down if he has to rescue me out of a fucking cage.”