Chapter 14
Kade
The streetlights flicker out behind us and the Librarian stiffens, smelling of fear. She’s noticed it now. The beast is trailing us, has been for a while. I know when I’m being stalked.
My gut twists with self-recrimination. I knew the Warden library would make her happy. So I let her go too soon, before she was ready. She used too much magic, lost control with that vision. Even through the mansion’s wards, she was a blazing beacon. But it’s not her fault. It’s mine. I did this.
Now the creature is coming. And I can already tell it’s faster this time. Stronger. Hungrier.
Alanna’s knuckles are white where she clutches them into tight fists in her lap, as though she can squeeze the terror from herself through sheer force of will.
“Hey, you’ll be okay,” I say, trying to sound reassuring. “I’ll make sure of it.”
I mean every word. That thing has to come through me to get to her. And that’s not going to happen. Inside, my instincts are raging, raising my hackles, preparing for a fight. Not just a fight for survival, but to defend what is mine.
But I can’t let instinct take over, and I can’t let this goddamn mate bond overrule my sense. That’s what got us here in the first place. I have to keep my head, go in with a plan.
“The warehouse is warded. When we get there, run inside.” I take my eyes off the road for a moment to capture Alanna’s wide hazel eyes, make sure she’s really listening. “Don’t wait. Don’t stop. Run.”
She nods grimly, and I catch a glimpse of steel beneath her fear. “What about you?”
“I’ll be right behind you.”
The bravery shining through her terror sends a surge of pride through me. She may be a human, may have lived most of her life in a mundane, predictable existence; but she is anything but commonplace.
“Hold on,” I say, pressing the accelerator.
The tires squeal as I take the turn onto the abandoned industrial street, too fast. The road ahead is still lit, and we’re almost there.
I can see the familiar, unassuming facade of the building, covered in graffiti and looking abandoned.
From this side, it appears dilapidated and crumbling, a perfect cover for one of the most secure locations in the city.
The reinforced steel door is the only feature that hints there’s something more than meets the eye.
And it’s that door I need to get the Librarian through—now.
We’re half a block away when I hear a sickening pop from the rear. The truck swerves violently. Thump-thump-thump. My hands tighten on the wheel, fighting for control as the vehicle fishtails. A sharp, tearing sound. Like metal ripping.
“What was that?” Alanna yells, her voice strained.
“Tire,” I bite out, wrestling the wheel. It’s not just a flat. I feel the cold presence of the echo-beast, a focused burst of its energy. That thing shredded the rubber to ribbons. The bastard.
The truck slides, grinding against the curb. Fuck. We’re too far to make a clean dash to the den. There goes my plan.
Before I can open my mouth to give the Librarian new instructions, we’re plunged into darkness. It’s here.
I’m already out of the truck, sliding across the hood to Alanna’s side. I wrench her door open and she gives a start, sending a surprised glance behind her to where I was seated an instant ago.
“Out. Go!” I pull her from the vehicle.
To her credit, she’s up and moving immediately. Running. But she’s too slow. Compared to me, compared to it, she’s a startled fawn in the path of a hunter. The temperature drops twenty degrees in seconds.
No time for discussion. I sweep her into my arms, eliciting a startled yelp.
“I’m faster,” I say, and then I’m sprinting, covering the distance in a fraction of the time.
I’ve almost convinced myself we’ll make it, when a liquid shadow pools onto the path in front of me, blocking us from the warehouse.
Its metallic smell spikes, overwhelming my shifter senses.
The whole street feels silent, dead. And not the usual deadness of the foreclosed industrial area, but a deeper, unnatural stillness that chills me just as much as the creature’s cold. The hum of the city is gone.
The shadow solidifies, bleeding upward into the night sky, thin and towering.
It’s a skeletal mockery of something alive, all jagged edges and coiling darkness, with two pinpricks of bottomless purple for eyes.
It’s grown. Thicker, more substantial. And it’s directly between us and the den, a gaping maw that seems to suck in the very light from the stars above.
“Oh god,” Alanna breathes, her magic flaring intuitively in response to the threat.
The echo-beast doesn’t hesitate. It lunges, its mass of shadowy tendrils shooting out toward us. No, not us. Her.
“No!” I roar, twisting before it can snatch her from my arms. My body hunches instinctively to shield her as the tendrils whip through the air.
A sickening cold rips through my left arm—frigid pain that bites deep, like concentrated frostbite.
It’s worse than when the thing tore up my back in the park, deeper and more invasive.
“Kade!” Alanna gasps in horror, no doubt feeling the reverberation of the hit.
Then her eyes lose focus. She’s trying to help, trying to control her magic. But I can feel her magical signature—it’s wild and untamed, her terror like a whip to a spooked stallion.
“Alanna, pull it back!” I shout, but it’s too late. An iridescent surge pulses out from her like a supernova, too much, too fast. Not a gentle wave but a fucking tsunami. The echo-beast, which had momentarily paused, shudders. Not in fear, but in something akin to perverse pleasure. It drinks.
The shadow writhes, growing denser, taller, its form solidifying into a hulking, malformed imitation of a predator, twice its previous size.
Something that must be its jaw unhinges, starving, sucking in Alanna’s magic.
Panic flares in my chest. Every instinct screams at me to intervene, to rip her away, but her eyes are still unfocused, lost in the outpouring of power.
The glow around her flares, then dims, then surges again, driven by the beast’s ravenous consumption.
“Alanna, you have to stop!” I yell raggedly, but she doesn’t hear me. Light continues swirling from her into the beast. She’s being drained dry.
Savage, protective fury rips through me as the beast feeds.
Mine. The word reverberates in my blood, fanning the flames of my rage.
A vicious howl builds in my chest. This creature dares to touch her, to take from her.
I’ll shift, become the wolf, and then I’ll tear it apart, shredding its shadowy form until it’s nothing but dust.
I’m on the verge of a rage-fueled change, but then Alanna moves in my arms and lets out a soft moan of pain. It’s enough to free me from the chokehold my instincts have over me. I can’t give in to them right now. The priority is getting her to safety, not destroying the beast.
I draw my hunting knife from inside my jacket, falling back on my weapons training.
Shifting Alanna’s weight to my good arm, I lash out recklessly with my left hand, ignoring the searing pain that shoots through the wound.
It’s a stupid, futile gesture—trying to stab shadows—but I can’t just stand here and watch it drain her.
The steel slices through nothing, the echo-beast dissolving like smoke only to reform instantly, its icy presence pressing in.
It doesn’t care about fighting me; it just wants to feed.
And feed it does. The echo-beast bloats, its shadowy form gaining mass and grotesque definition. A low sound rumbles from its depths. It’s a sound of satisfaction.
I need to break this. Now.
“I’m going to rush it,” I tell her, though I don’t know if she can hear me. “Stay with me.”
With a desperate surge of strength, I throw myself forward, not at the beast but through it, through the edges of the solidifying figure.
It’s a brutal gamble, risking deeper contact, but I don’t have any other options.
I don’t know what will happen if it keeps draining Alanna, and I’m not going to fucking find out. I promised her I would protect her.
We plunge into the darkness. The cold bites deeper, infusing my wound with searing ice that makes me groan through gritted teeth.
But I keep my good arm locked around my Librarian, powering through the oppressive shadow.
The echo-beast lets out a surprised shriek as I disrupt its feeding with my bull-headed charge.
As quickly as it started, we’re on the other side of the thing. The light around Alanna dims dramatically, flickering, guttering out.
“Almost there,” I pant, putting on a last burst of speed, pushing every ounce of my strength into reaching the threshold of my den. Her body is growing limp in my arms. Too limp.
Out of the corner of my eye as I rush through the door, I see the echo-beast melt away into the alley, bloated and too large to be entirely contained by the darkness. But I know it’s not gone. It’s just full. For now.
Inside the den, with the door safely sealed and warded behind us, I turn my full attention to the courageous, brilliant woman in my arms. She’s trembling, her skin pale and cold to the touch.
Her breathing is shallow, rapid. The scent of her fear, mingled with the lingering iron tang of the echo-beast, invades my senses.
It’s almost physically painful, to hold my mate in my arms and know she is suffering.
Not just suffering, but suffering because of me.
Because of my idiotic desire to please her, to make her happy.
I nearly lost her.