Chapter 40 Grayson
"Any left alive?" I ask. Orion shakes his head. Kendrick is staring at the carnage with his hands on his hips. He's unassuming. Wearing tan cargo pants and a checkered button-up. His brown hair is a little floppy.
If he weren't covered in blood—if I hadn't just witnessed him slaughter three witches in one blow, as though he were simply wiping dust off a shelf, a feat I'd have trouble with considering they were casting against him at the time, and he brushed their magic off like a gnat—I might think he was harmless.
Kendrick looks up at the sky. I follow. It's about twenty past full. The magic is waning. Strong, still, but their entire circle is dead.
"Deidre," I say.
Kendrick looks at the house, not at me. "Let's go."
I nod and follow. One of Kendrick's wolves goes ahead of us, Orion at our backs. "Stay out here," I tell him. "Yell if there's trouble."
He nods in agreement. We enter through the greenhouse at the back.
And then…
Silas.
I smell him instantly.
The relief of it is short-lived when I find the bloody mess on the floor. What was once a man. Now… nothing but a pile of viscera and bone. I can smell Silas in the mess.
My brother did that.
It's… overkill.
Is it too late? Have we lost him forever? To the witches or his own sanity?
This isn't normal.
Kendrick steps around the blood. He doesn't look as appalled as I feel.
"I don't hear him. Or smell him anymore. He was here," I say, looking around.
"There's no one here, but—" Kendrick's words cut off. He freezes. An expression I've never seen on his face washes over him, through him. Panic, horror. And then he's off, and I'm following, toward the single heartbeat left in this house.
It's faint. But I recognize the scent.
She smells of Silent Peak.
Chills break out across my arms. "Lily!" I shout. "Lily!"
There, in the back of the house.
And then Kendrick is cradling her. Rocking her back and forth in his lap, prayers clawing out of his raspy throat.
"Holy shit," I whisper.
"She's okay. She's alive. It's the silver—" he feels around her neck, frantic. Then his lips wrap around the wound and he sucks.
It won't work like that—it's in her bloodstream, she has to work it out herself. He knows that. But he keeps trying to heal her faster.
"Kendrick. Kendrick!" I pull at his arm, gesturing to Lily. He snarls, all teeth and vulnerable rage.
"Jesus. She's yours, isn't she? Lily's your mate?"
Having just learned the name of his Moon Goddess blessed fated, tears well in the ancient wolf's eyes. He buries his face in her neck and whispers her name, like a chant.
"She'll be okay. Come on, we need to get her back. We'll fly her home to Doc. Silent Peak is closest."
It's the quickest argument I can think of to get him out of here faster. His clan is farther away, and while there are other clans closer to us, I don't trust anyone at the moment. Plus, her family needs to see she's okay. Or will be. She's alive, at least.
It takes some coaxing, but eventually Kendrick must find himself. Like the strangely aloof wolf he typically is, he lifts Lily and begins instructing his other wolves, back to business. We search the place, but it's empty. Signs of Silas… they're everywhere.
In the basement, in the silver cage. Shelves full of his blood.
Other places, too.
He was tortured here.
He's been gone for years.
I feel nauseous.
Shame washes over me, crashing like a tidal wave, threatening to pull me under. My fucking brother was here, and I was—I suck in a sharp breath. I wasn't here, and I thought he was just off being an asshole, not, not—
Not this!
I can barely breathe, but we go through everything.
And because witches rely on herbs for magic, and with so much of my brother's blood everywhere, we set fire to the place.
Kendrick carries Lily's limp body, and when we step outside, ready to gather Orion and run back to the car, another fucking anvil drops.
Orion is on the phone. He's gone pale. He hangs up the phone, and it drops to the ground.
"They took her. They have Mona."
And though it's been building—since we met, since her first attack, further still, since we got here and I scented my brother—a tsunami of rage pulses out of me. I open my mouth and my alpha lets out an unholy roar.