Chapter 38
Thirty-Eight
HAVEN
I run blindly through the forest, dodging trees and slipping in the snow as my lungs burn and my legs scream in protest. Branches claw at my face and arms, and I barely feel it.
I never made it to the SUV. There were too many vampires swarming the front of the cabin, dragging their injured from the blaze.
Behind me, the cabin is fully engulfed, fire devouring the last shred of safety I had. There was no choice left but this: to run on foot and pray the demon can’t find me.
I don’t know what happened to Ensley, but I cling to the hope that she’s all right.
Stumbling, I catch myself on a tree trunk, then force my legs to move again.
My heart slams against my ribs. And not just because of what’s hunting me, but because I can feel it now: the pull, the pressure, the thing inside me stirring awake. Whatever I locked away long ago is rattling the cage I built to contain it, pounding harder with every frantic step.
For the first time in my life, I actually consider letting it out.
I risk a glance up through a break in the branches. The moon hangs low and nearly red, and I know with terrifying certainty that my time is almost up.
My momentary distraction is a mistake. I miss the ground sloping away beneath my feet.
My next step lands on nothing.
The world tilts violently, my stomach lurching as I pitch forward. Snow gives way to loose dirt and rock and I go down hard. My scream rips free before I can stop it, torn straight from my chest as I slide, then tumble, then lose all sense of direction.
I slam into something solid—stone, maybe a tree—pain exploding through my shoulder. My legs twist uselessly as I roll again, branches and rocks battering me from every side. The cold burns, the air punches from my lungs, and I can’t tell up from down anymore.
I try to grab on to something, anything, but my fingers find only snow and bark and empty air.
Then I hit hard enough that the forest goes dark around the edges.
For a moment, there’s nothing.
Slowly, sensation creeps back in.
Cold. Pain. The rough bite of earth and snow beneath my palms.
I suck in a shallow breath, then another, and blink until the darkness recedes.
When my vision clears, I realize I’m no longer tumbling. I’m sprawled on my back in a small clearing, limbs splayed and chest heaving as I stare straight up at the sky. Trees ring the clearing like silent witnesses, their bare branches clawing at the edges of the night.
Above them, the moon hangs full and terrible.
Red.
Not shadowed. Not stained by cloud. Fully blooded, glowing with a violent intensity that makes my pulse thud in my ears.
Dread settles deep in my bones.
It’s time.
With effort, I shove myself to my feet, stumbling the first step. Something warm is running down the side of my face and I reach up to realize I’m bleeding. A cut high on my forehead. Drops of blood drip from my fingertips, sinking into the pristine white snow at my feet.
It doesn’t matter. My legs work, so I can still run.
Before I can take another step, though, I hear my name. It reaches me like a hiss through the trees, coming from all directions.
Fear like I’ve never experienced before descends on me, making my muscles quiver and icy numbness creep through my fingers and toes.
I spin in a circle, searching the darkness, knowing that the demon’s out there somewhere.
Stalking me.
It says my name again. This time it’s a guttural sound that makes the earth beneath my feet shake.
I want to slap my hands over my ears and curl into a ball, to pretend this is nothing more than a nightmare, but I can’t give up like that.
More is at stake than my life, or even the fate of the human world. If this monster takes me, I’ll be exiled to a living hell for eternity, bound inside the demon forever.
The clearing blurs as my eyes sweep it, hunting for anything I can use, before my magic stirs and reminds me I have access to something more powerful than a makeshift weapon.
The familiar pull tightens and my magic rises. Power floods my veins, coating my hands in magenta and purple flames. I peer into the darkness, searching, not quite ready for what’s about to happen, but at least standing firm, not willing to go down without a fight.
Movement in the trees draws my attention, though it takes me a moment to understand what I’m seeing. Dark mist is coiling along the ground, writhing toward me like snakes.
My breath comes out in short bursts, panic trying to swallow me.
A roar sounds from the sky, and I snap my gaze up to see the blood moon obscured by a descending body full of teal scales and huge leathery wings.
Gasping, I reel back just as the beast lands in front of me.
Familiar green eyes, now slitted in their reptilian form, stare down at me.
My mouth drops open. Even though I’ve never seen Becks in his dragon form, I instantly know it’s him.
He’s here. It’s going to be okay.
The thought barely registers before a deep growl ripples through the forest, loud enough to resonate in my chest and drag my attention back to the darkness slithering toward me.
Becks snorts, his breath fogging in front of his face and scenting the air with smoke and ash. He drops to his haunches and jerks his head. I think he’s telling me to climb on.
I’m not going to wait to be asked twice.
With effort, I scramble up onto his back, finding a place to sit between the spiky ridges running down his spine.
With a powerful surge of muscle, Becks launches us into the air.
The ground drops away too fast, my stomach lurching as icy wind slams into me. I clutch at the ridges along his spine, fingers numb and burning as I struggle to hold on. His wings beat hard, each stroke a thunderous effort as the forest shrinks beneath us.
Below us, a furious shriek rips through the forest, but we’re high above. Safe.
Relief crashes through me. He came. He saved me.
The moment shatters as dark smoke boils up from the ground. It surges upward like a living thing, coiling and stretching.
A warning shout rips from my throat, but it’s too late. A thick cord of darkness lashes around Becks’ neck like a whip.
Becks’ thunderous roar is cut short when the cord jerks taut, as if something on the ground has grabbed the other end and hauled it down.
Becks jerks sideways, almost folding with the force of the pull. The world tilts; the sky and forest blur together. The sudden lurch throws me off balance. My stomach heaves, my fingers claw for purchase along the ridges of his spine, but the force is too strong.
I scream as gravity yanks me free and I tumble out into empty space.
I’m falling.
Becks roars, twisting midair above me as he rips himself free of the writhing smoke and dives after me. His claws catch me mid-fall, massive fingers locking around my body as he yanks me back against his chest.
Spreading his wings, he tries to slow our descent, but a heartbeat later the dark smoke strikes again. Black tendrils lash out, coiling around us both and hauling us down.
Becks spins mid-fall and folds his body around mine instinctively, shielding me as we crash through branches and leaves.
The forest explodes around us. Pain detonates as we slam into the ground, the force driving the air from my lungs.
Becks hits hard, taking the impact on his side. One wing bends at a sickening angle beneath him. I hear the crack, feel it, and his roar of pain shakes the trees. With a strained grunt, he twists to rise, wings scrambling uselessly against the earth, but he can’t lift off again.
His grip tightens for a heartbeat, then loosens. Carefully, he lowers me, taloned hands releasing me as he sets me down. He dips his head just enough for our eyes to meet, his gaze fierce and intent.
“I’m all right.”
He huffs before he presses in close, positioning his massive frame over me.
I glance around. We’re stuck. Trapped.
The forest goes eerily still. The only sound is Becks’ labored pants, creating plumes of fog on every exhale.
The back of my neck prickles with awareness, and with the blood moon hanging in the sky above us, the demon steps from the darkness.
Becks told me the demon was able to take shape now—not fully corporeal but no longer needing a vessel. Even so, no description could have prepared me for the reality of seeing it with my own eyes.
The demon has legs and arms like a human, but that’s where the similarities end.
The moonlight feels like it’s being absorbed into its scaly black skin rather than reflecting off of it.
Its appendages are longer than they should be, seeming to have an extra joint in the arms that lead down to elongated twig-like fingers.
Each end in a lethal point, no doubt sharp enough to pierce through skin and maybe even bone.
Most terrifying of all is its head.
If it has eyes, I can’t find them. Instead, a mouth stretches impossibly wide across its face, as if it were brutally slashed open at the corners and pulled too far. When it opens in a twisted mockery of a smile, it reveals row after row of black, serrated teeth.
A true monster of nightmares, waiting to attack and devour me whole.
It releases a sound that I believe is supposed to be a chuckle but sounds like glass grinding against bone.
Becks shifts before I realize what’s happening, scooping me up and dropping me behind him, positioning himself between me and the demon so I can’t even see it anymore.
“Becks, no,” I snap, trying to get around him, but he shifts so I can’t, going so far as to slap his thick tail in my path so I’m unable to pass.
“That’ll do you no good,” the demon says, its guttural voice echoing in the night and causing my stomach to clench. “I’ll simply shred you to get to her. And enjoy every second of it.”
Fear clamps down on my heart and squeezes.
I can’t let anything happen to Becks. If it were only my life at stake, I’d give myself to the demon without hesitation. But it’s more than that. It’s the fate of the entire world, and an eternity of torture for me.
Letting myself be taken isn’t an option. Neither is living with Becks dying for me.
Becks swishes his tail, nudging me back toward the tree cover. When I don’t move, he swings his head around, green eyes blazing as he gives a quick nod toward the darkness behind us.
He clearly wants me to flee, but I’m not going.
“Do you wonder how I found her?” the demon asks, and Becks jerks his attention back to the monster that I can now see is taking slow, unhurried steps forward.
A low rumble begins in Becks’ chest, a warning growl, one the demon doesn’t heed.
Even though it doesn’t have eyes, I feel the monster’s gaze land on me.
“That taste of you was more than just delicious,” it says, and my stomach roils in revulsion. “Now that I’ve taken in a part of you, I’ll always know where you are. There’s nowhere you could hide that I wouldn’t find you in this world or the other.”
Shock freezes my limbs and causes my heart to stumble.
If what it’s saying is true, if I somehow manage to live through this night, I’ll never be free. This monster will stalk me to the ends of the Earth, and maybe even into the other.
Becks stomps his feet in aggression, his low rumblings turning into a full growl. He rears back, chest expanding, and a blast of fire erupts from his jaws, lighting up the demon and the forest in front of him in searing orange and teal.
I gasp in surprise, stumbling back.
Becks doesn’t wait. He charges straight through the smoke and embers, claws out, teeth bared.
This isn’t strategy. It’s instinct. Protect. Destroy.
The smoke thins just enough for me to see them collide . . . or try to. Becks barrels straight through the demon’s form, his claws slicing through mist and smoke as if the thing is barely there. The demon’s body ripples and distorts, momentarily unraveling before reforming a few feet away.
My stomach drops.
Becks wheels around and strikes again, jaws snapping shut on nothing. His claws rake through darkness, fire pouring from his mouth in a blistering torrent that lights the clearing like day.
The flames pass through the demon, warping its shape, shredding it into smoke, but it doesn’t scream.
It laughs. An insidious noise that coils through the forest.
And then it strikes back.
A mass of dark smoke hardens mid-swing and slams into Becks’ side with brutal force. His roar splits the night as he stumbles, scales sparking where the blow lands. Another tendril lashes out, raking across his chest and carving deep gouges into his teal scales.
I stare in horror.
It can hurt him, but Becks can’t hurt it back.
The demon flickers again, its form briefly unraveling, then snapping back together as if it’s being held together by sheer will.
Becks charges once more, slamming into it, trying to pin something that won’t stay solid. Every time he strikes, the demon dissipates—smoke, mist, nothing—and every time it retaliates, its blows land with terrifying precision.
Understanding hits me like a punch to the chest.
It doesn’t have a body yet.
It hasn’t killed me.
This isn’t its final form.
“Becks!” I scream, my magic surging in answer.
I thrust my hands forward, magenta flames bursting from my palms and tearing into the demon’s side. The flames land, and the darkness recoils, its form distorting violently, scattering like vapor in a strong wind.
For a heartbeat, it almost looks hurt.
Then its attention snaps to me.
Darkness detonates outward. I’m lifted off my feet and hurled aside, my scream ripped away as I slam into the ground hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs.
Pain explodes through me as I skid to a stop, the world spinning.
Becks roars.
The demon reforms instantly, its fury palpable now.
Dark smoke surges, not striking this time, but swarming, forming black ropes that coil around Becks’ legs, his torso, his injured wing, dragging him down.
He fights it, claws tearing through the black substance, fire spilling uselessly through smoke, but the tendrils just keep coming, binding him like chains.
Becks crashes to the ground, roaring, thrashing, helpless as the darkness tightens.
The demon looms over him, its laughter deep and satisfied.
Then it turns.
Toward me.
I scramble backward, terror freezing my limbs as its eyeless face tilts, that ruined mouth stretching wider.
Becks roars again, the sound raw with both fury and fear.
We both know the truth. He can’t reach me.
I’m going to die.