Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
CADEN
Our group tore through the dark streets of Savage Lands, getting as far away from our enemy and the base as possible before we spoke.
Birdie was back on her feet, though moving a bit slower.
Most of us were injured in some way, but we didn’t stop, following the one who seemed to take lead without even wanting to.
Hate coursed through me as I watched the back of this head, inches above everyone else, weaving us toward a destination.
Even Killian didn’t fight when Warwick started moving us through the streets.
Though, if we followed or not, I’m not sure he cared.
He was set on his location, and we either kept up or fucked off.
What had happened earlier was growing louder and louder in my head.
My instinct and actions. What it felt like when I was battling.
Killing. I had always been a good fighter.
Top of my class. But this was different.
This was like it thrummed through my veins, pounded my heart, and took over my body and mind.
The need for revenge. The desire to destroy every enemy I had and burn this world to ash.
Anger was never a trait of mine. I had been a very happy-go-lucky kid.
My frustration with my father or vexation with Brexley’s antics fizzled out in moments.
Now that rage was what filled my lungs and fed my appetite.
Well, it was one of the things.
Killing and fucking. Those were the only things on my mind now.
I’d had my fair share of sex, but I can’t say I was aggressive. It wasn’t really my style. It just happened, the girl usually pushing it more than I wanted because most of the time, I secretly wanted to crawl into bed with Brexley.
Whatever essence Warwick gave me, it was a craving I could barely breathe around. It dominated and controlled. And it wasn’t slow and tender. It was brutal and bloodthirsty. Denying it was pointless, but accepting it felt even worse.
What my father wanted, what he thought was a failure . . . had worked. I carried some of Warwick’s essence.
The Legend. The Wolf. The killer.
Merited or not, I fucking hated Warwick for it.
I detested the man before, but now I had this tie to him, a connection that was unrelenting.
A need to protect him when all I wanted to do was kill him myself.
It could be quiet, or it could roar like thunder, but it was always there. And I felt no peace now.
“Szar.” Ash puffed next to Warwick as we rounded another corner, jogging down an alley that smelled of dead carcasses, piss, and trash.
Everywhere you looked it was even more rundown—garbage, bullet holes, and burnt-out buildings.
I had never been much outside the walls of Leopold before I was taken by Sarkis’s army, but even I knew this area within Savage Lands was the most dangerous.
“Haven’t been back here in a long time.”
“Like you’d remember anyway.” Warwick scoffed, stopping in front of an unmarked door. He peered around before knocking. After a moment, he knocked again. A scraping sound jolted me to a peephole being opened at the top.
Warwick’s mouth didn’t even open before it slammed shut.
“Hey, asshole.” He banged on the wood again. “Open up.”
“Kurwa.” Fuck! A Polish accent hissed through the door.
There were a few beats before the locks unbolted and the door swung open.
A big, burly man with a reddish-brown beard wearing a stained apron waved us in.
His scowl lined his forehead and bald head, his meaty hands appearing like they could snap all of us in half.
He was about my height, but the man had an aura that said do not fuck with me.
“Hurry the hell up,” he growled, his head popping out and checking the alley before he slammed and locked the door behind us.
“What am I, a fuckin’ halfway house now?
” He motioned to all of us, landing on Warwick, peering around as if he was searching for someone.
“Already moved on from the girl? Knew you couldn’t stick with one pussy.
” He folded his arms, taking my attention to the gore-covered apron.
The odor of blood and meat wafted through my nose with sharp intensity.
“You think I would be here unless it was an urgent situation?” Warwick grunted, stepping into the man’s face. Though he was shorter than Warwick, I had a feeling this guy could hold his own. “And I warned you, Gawel, if you spoke like that again about her . . .” Warwick reached for his throat.
“Whoa!” Ash leaped between the two men. “Step back,” he ordered Warwick; his green eyes locked on his buddy without an ounce of fear. “Take a breath.” He was probably one of the only people who could get away with telling Farkas what to do.
“Ash.” The man, Gawel, addressed the tree fairy. “Shouldn’t be surprised to see you still running around with this asshole.”
“Good to see you too, Gawel,” Ash replied evenly. I couldn’t tell if he meant it or not.
Warwick finally let him go, inhaling deeply, but his glare still burned into Gawel.
“We need assistance,” Warwick replied through his teeth.
“There is no way I’m letting you guys downstairs. Things are precarious enough right now. There are spies fucking everywhere. We’ve heard the bombings from here, and rumor is that the fae side has taken over, though some say it’s HDF.”
“It’s both,” Ash replied. “Sort of.”
“Both?” Gawel’s eyes squinted, bouncing between him and Farkas, searching for the lie.
“We don’t have time to explain.” Ash glanced back quickly at Lukas. “But just know Savage Lands has been claimed by an Aneira disciple.”
Gawel’s nose flared, anger flickering in his eyes when that name was mentioned. I didn’t know much about the old Seelie queen, except she had been a tyrant. Wanted humans to be killed or enslaved. She also hated the Unseelie, thinking them lesser than Seelie fae.
“We need a place to hide tonight.” Warwick’s lack of patience leaped over Ash. “We will also need transportation to get us out of this city by dawn.”
“For all of you? By dawn?” Gawel scanned all eleven of us, his head wagging. “Impossible.”
“Figure it out.” A snarl rose up Warwick’s throat, and I could feel his anger trigger mine, tightening up my shoulders. His energy bounced around me like a ball, as my body absorbed it, my muscles twitching to fight again.
As if she could sense the tiny shift in me, feel the potency coming off me, Birdie peered over her shoulder.
A graze of her eyes glided down my frame, accelerating the verve of my fury.
She drove me crazy. Always fucking there, always taunting me, challenging me, and I wanted it to go away.
Her to go away. Stop making me feel things I was ashamed to feel.
She was fae, and even if I no longer completely saw them the way I once had, it didn’t mean my principles changed about who I’d be with.
Humans—that was who I was supposed to be attracted to.
But with just a glimpse of her heated gaze, the way she teased me, my dick had other ideas. It wanted nothing more than to slide deep into her, pounding the fuck out of her. I had jerked off to that fantasy a dozen times, but I always felt disgusted with myself. Dirty. Wrong.
“You will have your cut, Gawel.” Ash once again stepped between him and Warwick. “We just need it for six.”
“You will get more for each one you can get,” Warwick rumbled, sounding more like a threat than a barter.
Gawel’s jaw clamped down; eventually he nodded.
“Follow me.” He turned for a dark hallway, the scent of dead animal carcasses sharp in the air.
Knives, saws, and hooks lined the passage he took us down.
This place was a butcher’s shop, but I had a feeling it wasn’t just animal meat he hacked up in here.
Gawel led us to another door which was hacked out from the neighboring wall and had expanded his space into the building next door.
He swung it open and ushered us into the pungent, noisy room.
We were surrounded by the stench of manure and musty straw, the sound of snorting pigs and bleating lambs.
Gawel lit a lantern, the space glowing with dim light.
It was much larger than I thought. Once a storefront, most likely with flats above, it had since been burned out.
The windows were boarded up, the ground layered with straw as a few pigs and sheep inside wood pens paced around, not realizing this was their final stop before death.
“You can stay in here. There is an upstairs, but the only heat will be near the animals.” My father had us study old history books from long ago, when people would put animals on the ground level and build their homes above to warm the main room of their home.
It stunk, but better than freezing to death.
“I don’t think I have to tell you to stay fucking put.
” He hooked the lamp onto a post. “I’ll get you some food and drink. ”
“And some bandages and rubbing alcohol,” Scorpion piped up, looking at Hanna briefly, her hip barely bleeding anymore.
“And clothes if you can.” Ash signaled to the lot of us, probably already heading toward hypothermia. “Thank you, Gawel.”
“Yeah.” The grumpy man huffed before turning back for the main building, shutting the door and leaving us alone. It was the first moment we had to breathe. The first chance to process what had happened tonight.
All I felt was rage. My emotions were balanced on a blade’s edge, and when I slid off, it would get bloody.
Warwick paced, his hand running over his tied-up hair over and over. When his agitation grew, so did mine. A sound I had never made before, a sort of growl, hummed in my lungs, rattling my vocals, my eyes going back and forth over the spot he walked.
“Now that we have a moment, we need to go over what happened this evening.” Killian took the lead. “What we learned inside HDF.”
My head jerked to Killian. Rosie was at his side, pulling off the damp backpack and unzipping the pouch.