Chapter 25
Chapter twenty-five
Istep toward Roxi and this monster I’ve never seen, but Avyanna grabs my arm. “Addie, don’t get too close.”
“What is it?” I ask as Roxi screams and writhes against the monster, nearly ripping out my heart.
A tremor runs through Avyanna. “It’s a Wendigo. They’re extremely uncommon, but very dangerous. He seems to have lost—“
The monster snarls again, taking a step back. “Leave, or I slit her throat while you all watch.”
Avyanna’s hand on my arm changes suddenly, the skin rippling. “That would be the last thing you ever do, Merric. I will kill you where you stand.”
“You’re going to kill me anyway because of what I’ve done. I may as well go out with a bang, am I right?” the monster says with a sinister smile, his mouth inching toward Roxi’s neck.
As he gets closer, Roxi’s eyes widen, and she stills. Then, some sort of knife flies out from Avyanna’s direction, striking the Wendigo directly in the eye. He releases Roxi and claws at the knife. Vaelyn rushes forward, scoops up Roxi, and then takes off, getting our beautiful gorgon out of here.
The Wendigo roars, drawing my attention back to him. He’s managed to dislodge the knife along with his eye, leaving only the oozing, sizzling socket behind. That’s got to hurt like hell.
“You bitch!” the Wendigo screams at Avyanna. “You’ll pay for that.”
Avyanna laughs. “And how will that be? You’ll be dead as soon as you confirm what I think you’ve done.”
I look back and forth between the two, but stay rooted where I am. Avyanna is the expert monster hunter; I’m just here for back-up at this point.
But the Wendigo fucks up my plans when he lunges for me.
Avyanna and I both spring into action, but she gets to him first. In a flash of movement, she’s plunged the same kind of knife—if not the same one that was in his eye—into the Wendigo’s spinal column.
He falls to the ground, paralyzed from the waist down, unless that knife is removed.
He snarls again, hands flailing to reach for his back. Avyanna stomps down on one of his arms, and I follow her lead, doing the same with the other. His claws catch my attention, so I stare at them for a moment.
“Thank you,” she says to me. Then, she puts more pressure on his arm and leans forward. “You killed those women in the courtyards over the last few days, didn’t you?”
My brows furrow, still staring at his claws. From what I can tell, they’re at least of a similar distance to the ones on the women. Could this really be our unsub?
With a menacing laugh, he confirms her suspicions. “What can I say? He needed to feed me to keep me at bay. Then, when he gave me a taste of her, she became the one I wanted. But you took her from me that night and then again when my men brought her back to me.”
I step down harder on his arm, and he screams. A bone cracks, causing his hand to fall limp. “You’re disgusting, and you deserve to die.”
“He couldn’t handle it anymore. She was just too good to pass up. Once we tasted her pussy, it was all over, and I had to have her. Fuck, that one taste was delectable, though. I’m sure her flesh would’ve been far better,” he says, sealing his fate because if Avyanna doesn’t kill him soon, I will.
As if she can read my mind, she says, “Not yet, Addie. He deserves to be tortured for what he’s done.”
A growl rumbles in my chest. “He does, but we need to check on Roxi, too.”
“She’s safe with Vaelyn,” Avyanna assures me.
“Fine,” I huff. “Where are we taking him?”
“Back to where this all started,” she says, a Cheshire grin spreading across her face.
Once we finally have the Wendigo back at the mansion, we drag him down to the basement and string him up from the ceiling.
The knife is still in his spinal cord, so he hasn’t been able to fight, but trust me when I say that I’ve been worried about it falling out since we started back because it’s been sizzling like his eye socket had.
We’re finishing up the last knots on his ankles when metal clanks against the cement.
The knife finally fell out. I’m barely able to step back before he’s thrashing in his restraints.
Avyanna rolls her eyes and steps forward, pressing a finger to each restraint with a few mumbled words.
As her hands leave each one, they start to glow.
She’s blessing them.
When she finishes with the last one, she comes to stand beside me and crosses her arms. “Every basic demon has the possibility of becoming a Wendigo when it consumes flesh. It’s not something they need to survive—it’s a luxury.
The more they lean into that craving, the harder it gets to resist. Once it starts, there’s no stopping it, though.
When they get this far, they tend to latch onto specific targets and will do everything in their power to have them. ”
My lip curls as I stare at the Wendigo. He stops thrashing and flashes me an unsettling grin. I shake my head. “You realize this is the end for you, right?”
He snarls and snaps at me, showing off his jagged teeth. “It’s not over until it’s over.”
Avyanna snaps her fingers at him. “Over here, Merric. You will die by my hand today, but I have questions first.”
“I’m not answering shit,” he hisses.
A smile crests Avyanna’s lips as her hand rounds her back.
In the blink of an eye, she’s retrieved a knife and flings it at the Wendigo.
It lands in the meatiest part of his shoulder, which has him howling in pain.
The sizzling starts shortly after. Whatever metal the knife is made from is literally dissolving his skin and everything underneath it.
Bile rises in my throat, but I take a deep breath to settle myself.
“You’d better get used to this blessed iron then,” Avyanna says, her face devoid of emotion.
“Fucking bitch. That fucking hurts,” the Wendigo hisses.
Avyanna laughs. “That’s the fucking point.”
“Fine. What do you want to know?” he asks.
“Where are your men?” Avyanna asks.
The Wendigo’s eyes glint as he stares her down. “Not here, clearly.”
Another knife whizzes from Avyanna’s hand into the Wendigo’s other shoulder. “No shit, Sherlock.”
The Wendigo hisses in pain, his flesh beginning to dissolve from the new knife. “They’re on another assignment.”
“See,” Avyanna coos, “that wasn’t so hard now, was it?”
“Fuck you,” he hisses.
Avyanna tuts. “Now, now. If you continue to act like that, you’re going to get further acquainted with my knives.” He huffs out a breath, but stays silent, so she continues, “What kind of assignment?”
“Protecting another high-profile client,” he says.
“Why have you guys continued to protect Roxi after her father died?” she asks.
“Per her father’s request. He paid us for the next hundred or so years,” he explains.
Avyanna grinds her teeth hard enough that I can hear it from where I stand. “Will they continue to come after Roxi?”
The Wendigo laughs. “They could give a shit less at this point. After you killed my men last night, they want nothing to do with the bitch. We have better, less dangerous, and more willing clients to attend to.”
Avyanna’s jaw ticks hard. “Are your men also Wendigos?”
“I don’t fucking know!” he yells.
Lifting an eyebrow, Avyanna reaches behind her. “Attitude.”
The Wendigo rolls his eyes. “Some of them are demons, but I’m not sure if they’ve partaken of flesh or not. It’s not exactly something I ask on their fucking application.”
Avyanna’s hand whips around her, and another knife embeds itself into the Wendigo’s chest, just above his heart. He howls out in pain, thrashing in the chains again. “For fuck’s sake! Just fucking kill me already.”
“You don’t deserve a quick death,” she hisses, skin rippling as she steps toward him. “You didn’t give any of the women you murdered quick deaths, did you?” His heated gaze bores into her while he shakes his head. “Exactly. You will suffer just as they fucking did.”
“Get it over with then!” the Wendigo screams.
Reaching behind her, Avyanna withdraws two smaller blades made of the same material as all the others from her belt. I swear, all these blades make me think she’s some sort of Mary Poppins because they’re coming out of nowhere.
She gets in his face with those blades at her sides, and the Wendigo snaps at her. I start to jump forward, but her hand swings up, plunging one of the blades under his chin. His eyes flare as blood pours from his mouth.
Then she rips it out and hisses, “That’s for trying to take what is mine. Everything else I do will be for the women you hurt.”
The Wendigo tries to snarl again, but all the blood in his mouth makes it sound like a weird gargle. Satisfaction surges through me because I know he’s nearing his end. After my mimic does her thing, he’ll never hurt another again.
I watch as she takes her time with him, running the blades across his arms, just deep enough that it has blood bubbling to the surface, but not enough that blood flows freely from the cuts.
When she gets to his shoulders, she jams the blades already there deeper.
The Wendigo hisses in pain, but he’s near the point of losing consciousness.
Avyanna must know because she plunges one of the small blades into his side.
Adrenaline rushes through his body again, and he jerks upright.
She laughs and leaves the blade there. Her now-free hand wraps around the knife in his chest while her lips tip into an evil smile.
She yanks it out, and then her smile widens.
In one swift movement, she sinks the knife into his belly and rips it up to his sternum.
His organs spill out onto the floor, and his mouth opens as if he wants to speak, but blood pours out.
“We all know this isn’t enough to kill you, but you won’t heal because you haven’t been fed,” Avyanna hisses in his face.
A wet breath leaves his mouth, but my mimic isn’t done yet. She takes the other small blade and slowly pushes it into the Wendigo’s chest, right where his heart is. His skin sizzles as he looks down at it.
“This blade will be the only mercy you find from me. As it dissolves your skin and flesh, it’ll get closer and closer to your heart. Once it reaches your heart, that’s when you will die. Until then, you will suffer,” Avyanna whispers.
My jaw drops all the way to the floor. She’s even more ruthless than I thought she would be.
When she turns to face me, I school my features, but I see that prideful gleam in her eyes. “Let’s go check on our girls.”