Chapter 51
CRESCENT
Sin turned into an angel right before my eyes—a real-life angel.
I didn't know how or where it had come from, but he was the most beautiful creature I'd ever seen. His eyes glowed dully in the dim cell, pinpricks of red.
The Ascendants had their Chosen, those who were so holy that their actions forged the law instead of being bound by it.
The idea of it had always frightened me, but now, I think I understood. Not in those they chose, but him. There was something… right about him.
Not just blind rage or fury—Sin was of nature.
A right to a million wrongs. The danger of crimson eyes that we had read about—but it wasn’t something I needed to fear.
Sin reached Holden first. He tore him back before his fist collided with his stomach.
The movement was so fast it felt unreal—one second Holden was lunging away, the next his spine bent at a grossly unnatural angle.
The sound of tendons snapping echoed in my ears before I understood what I was hearing.
Holden’s scream cut off as Sin’s hand closed around his throat.
He clawed at Sin, eyes bulging out of his head as he let out choked sounds, his boots scraping desperately against stone, and aura flaring wildly.
Sin’s fingers tightened, and I jumped at the wet, internal collapse—cartilage giving way as bone cracked like it was made of dry bark.
Holden’s body spasmed a few times before going still, then Sin flung him aside like trash. He hit the wall with a sickening crack, sliding down and leaving a thick red smear upon graffiti.
The others tried to run.
Wyatt made it three steps before Sin caught him by the back of the skull, pressing his head against the wall.
“Don’t—!” His hands flew up, the plea shaky as it escaped his mouth, but Sin’s palm pressed in. Slowly, this time. Deliberately.
Maybe I should be disgusted or scared, but I could feel his aura, and the way, in the bond, his instincts drove him as if these actions were a gift from nature.
I couldn’t drag my eyes away, and I didn’t want to.
Half of the pack was gone, but I watched as one stumbled over another, shoving him back as he tried to get out first.
Sin caught them easily.
Torn apart… necks snapped… until he was out of the cell, beyond my vision, and all I could hear were the violent sounds and screams.
It was over almost as quickly as it had begun, and he was back, his hands soaked with glistening blood.
He was here, but not here. My Sin, yet... something more than an omega.
I think it was at this moment that I could see the lies.
Every sermon, every prayer I'd been told to recite, every line I'd memorized—all falling away in the face of the truth I could see and touch for myself.
He was mine.
My protector.
Sin, my beautiful, crimson, angel of death.
I didn’t know how long passed, but amidst the sea of blood, he returned to me, stopping at what was left of Holden’s body first. He dug in crimson fabric for a second before pulling something out.
Then his hand brushed my cheek, and I melted against his touch. The pain of my heat returned in full force, and I whined as I reached up to cup his cheeks.
I'd never in my life felt more safe than I was here, in his arms.
He was mine—he'd keep me safe.
I knew it with more certainty than I ever had in my life.
He shifted one of my palms to press something into my hands. I looked at it through the strange halo of pain and heat that was settling over my already poor vision.
A silver key, smeared with blood.
I smiled weakly, clutching it and holding it against my chest.
“Let’s go and get them,” he told me.
His aura was still out as he lifted me, and it was so massive it was almost hard to feel, as if it shifted the fabric of the world itself.
PHANTOM
Above me, I heard the faint buzz of the intercom. “Karma Thomas. Your appeal has arrived. Proceed to the waiting room with your pack.”
I stared up at the ceiling from where the voice came. “That’s…”
“Third call.” Karma muttered.
My pulse thundered in my ears.
I looked over at Karma, numbly noticing he’d stopped throwing himself into the metal like it might get us somewhere.
I stared at the old analog clock that was fixed to the wall above the doors, reminding me of an old school gym. We had ten minutes left before the doors shut.
A strange silence passed between us, each second feeling too long.
Five minutes passed…
Six…
The terror from both the omegas in my pack had been crippling for a time in this cage, keeping us from them. Only…
Past tense.
Had been crippling.
The fear had vanished…
Were they okay?
“Do you…?” I frowned, trying to hone in on it.
Karma nodded. “Something happened.”
I looked at Vandle. He was slumped at my side, eyes unfocused as he tried desperately to stay conscious.
Both the new silk boxers I’d stolen, and my shirt, were torn to shreds and tied on the wounds down his side.
They shouldn’t be deadly, but they would be if the bleeding didn’t stop.
They were soaked, but it seemed the flow had halted or become just a trickle.
His distant eyes met mine, finally a flicker of hope in them as if he felt it, too.
I looked back to the clock.
Eight minutes had gone by.
Two left?
Could we even reach the waiting room from here in two minutes?
I watched in horrified silence as the second hand ticked down.
Twenty seconds.
Ten.
And then—“Fuck!”
Karma kicked the cage bar as our time officially ran out.
“We can—” But I cut off as I felt an aura ripple through the air like static. It was something so huge, so overwhelming, that it drew everything else to a halt.
My instincts reacted too, as I searched for the threat.
Something other.
Enemy or... or something new.
Karma prowled to the front of the cage, staring out toward the light of the open door that led into the room.
It was pure dominance, and not something I was used to feeling as an alpha.
A figure turned the corner. The owner of this aura, which was magnitudes larger than any alpha aura I'd felt, was carrying a shape in his arms.
It only took me half a moment to process what—or who—I was looking at. Sin was stepping down the hallway toward us, Crescent in his arms, hers wrapped around his neck as she hugged him close.
I don’t think I’d ever felt a flood of relief like I did then, getting to my feet and staggering toward Karma.
The truth we’d known in the periphery became so obvious now.
He was not an omega.
Her scent hit me then—roses and cocoa, saturated by the charred edge of unmanaged heat. I crossed toward the door, fists closing around the bars desperately as they approached.
She needed me.
Sin was covered in blood. It coated his cheek and hair, dripping from his fingers, which gripped her tight in his arms. A few blots were stark in her snowy hair and smeared on her cheek.
I reached for her, but Sin let out a low growl, wild eyes snapping to me in a moment, though he cut off as he took in my face. I paused, not a single instinct in my body inclined to challenge him.
The terror earlier hadn't been a joke.
They’d been attacked.
“Is Vandle…?” Sin asked.
“He’ll live. We need to get to the waiting room now, though,” I said as Sin set Crescent down before him, still supporting her.
I reached through the bars of the cage on instinct to brush her hair back.
That was when I saw the blossoming purple bruise that was blooming across the side of her face, obscured half by her hair.
A whine of distress rose in my throat as I cupped her neck.
She was safe and alive—here with us. I had to remind myself of that. And we needed to hurry.
She was unfurling a shaking fist, revealing the key that she tried to slip into the cage lock quickly, missing a few times, which set me on edge. Behind me, Karma already had Vandle in his arms and was helping him to his feet.
While the two of them limped out, I slipped through the doors and around the cage. I’d heard a sharp clink at some point in the night, my mind tuned into my omegas nest.
Sure enough the keys, that had been in Vandle’s pocket, were resting on the stone floor beside the cage. I grabbed them and returned in seconds.
Sin picked Crescent up again. I wanted to, but there was a very unsettling glow in Sin’s eyes right now, so I didn’t dare.
But we had to cross Anarchy and pray the doors were still unlocked, and there was no alpha living that would dare cross this man before we got there.
CRESCENT
I was in Sin’s arms, flooded with my pack's scents.
They’d been in a cage… I remembered letting them out, but now things were getting hazy.
I loosened my grip on Sin's neck, inhaling deeply, only to cough, a sharp pain shooting through my chest and nose.
“Almost there, firefly,” Sin told me.
“You… saved me. Sin… my angel,” I whispered.
I peered up in time to see the faintest trace of a smile curving his lips.
I could feel, from the others, an uncomfortable urgency, but Sin was still calm, so I sank into his presence in the bond, not wanting to shoulder anything else going wrong today.
We were… together.
That should be enough.
Vandle was weak, still. I knew he’d been hurt earlier. I craned my neck to see Karma helping him along.
That was good…
“Fuck!” I heard Phantom’s curse, and it was enough to startle me up a little.
“Potty mouth,” I muttered. I thought I’d told him.
But I realized it was relief that was flooding down the bond from him despite the curse.
I adjusted my head, watching at an odd angle as his form sprinted away down the hall. I almost giggled as it went blurry the further it got from me, like a strange Phantom blob, going all funny shapes as he—I guessed—spread his arms out. Or something like that.
I was dazed, pulled between the agony of heat and delirium.
“Is that…?” Karma asked.
“Bug,” Sin said from above me.
“Huh. Rumours weren’t wrong—though I think you’re a bit more than a ‘super alpha’...” Bug’s voice trailed off. “But I can’t hold this door open forever. Get on with it.”
“Why?” Phantom asked.
Bug snorted. “We have integrity. What made you doubt us?”
“We didn’t even trust our Redgrave deal,” Phantom said. “Fucking Wakefields lied to us.”
I was close enough now to see Bug frown at that. “The Redgraves are good for their deals, man. Would fuck up their reputation if—”
“We got that,” Phantom said dryly. “It’s why Holden did this at night—locked us out. Guess they couldn’t have gotten around Dominic’s guys otherwise."
Bug’s mouth made an ‘O’ shape in surprise and I giggled.
Phantom spun to look at me. “We need to go. We’re…” He trailed off, looking helplessly at the rest of the pack.
“Here…” There was a moment, and I heard the familiar clink of my nest. “Firefly.” Sin’s voice was gentle in my ear. “Mind if we give them this?”
It was a key.
“Is that for the contraband room?” Bug asked, audibly startled.
My pulse raced.
“We got another one on the way,” Sin said to me.
Okay… we had. In fact, the key that had unlocked the cage to my alphas was still clutched in my fist.
And this one I’d actually got to use.
I nodded. I think I could manage it.
“Thanks…” Bug sounded stunned.
“Good luck.” That was Phantom, and then Sin was stepping forward.
I squinted, but I didn’t recognize the room around us. It was small and dim, and not like I was used to in the rest of Anarchy.
I jumped at the loud, metal clang of huge doors just like the ones that had closed behind me when I’d first been pushed into this place.
I peered up at Sin.
“What’s happening?” I whispered. His eyes were still glowing a dull red, and every muscle pressed against me was tense. His aura was still out, though I only noticed now when I focused on it.
My heat pains were lesser, too. My skin was pressed to his, and though it wasn't enough on its own, it was an absolute promise of protection—a promise that they would take care of me. It was like the pangs in my stomach were listening to the promise too and behaving themselves.
“Sin.” Vandle’s voice was distant, though there was something urgent in it. “The contacts?”
Someone touched my skin, and I welcomed the contact. My breath caught as I caught Karma's eyes fixed on me. But Sin let out a growl of distress.
We all froze, however, as the floor shuddered and the creak of old metal sounded around us.
We were in an elevator, and it was going up.
“Got them,” Sin said. “In my waistband.”
“Put them on,” Vandle said, his voice was weak, but I could feel him waking up through the bond. “And the aura has to go.”
Karma was drawing me into his arms, freeing Sin up to get ready.
I was pressed against Karma’s chest, inhaling his amazing ocean scent as another pang of heat pain shot through my body. “I’m here, Moonlight. Never leaving you.” He held me closer, chin resting on my head, a purr vibrating from him as if to settle me.
I felt something brush my hair and looked up to see Phantom at my side.
My alpha.
“Take a breath, Sin.” Phantom was saying. “We’re safe now.”
That, at last, seemed to get through to him, and finally his impossible aura was gone. I felt empty without it, as if reality was a lot more frightening, though there was relief from Vandle and the others in the bond.
It vanished just in time, as the floor stopped moving, and I heard the rumble of the doors opening.
Somehow, we had survived to our appeal.