Page 44 of A Token of Blood and Betrayal (Kennedy Rain #4)

The world came back in pieces—damp grass beneath my cheek, the smell of scorched copper in my lungs, a dark light swirling behind my eyes. Voices drifted to me, low and urgent, but the words slid through my fogged brain before I could catch them.

Something important was happening. Something I needed to understand. I pushed one palm against the ground, testing my strength. My arm trembled but held.

I put my other hand down. Opened my eyes.

My stomach lurched at the blurred bodies sprawled across the clearing.

Panic hooked its claws into my chest, and the scene wavered, overlaid by another.

I wasn’t in a field with Astrid’s coven.

I was with Lehr, with his pack, and we were surrounded by Shelli’s slaughtered coven.

I could feel the knife in my hand, could see Shelli’s hatred-filled eyes.

I could hear her singsong I know something you don’t know.

No.

I blinked hard, then forced myself to look closer, to anchor myself here. There were no slashed-open bodies. No blood.

I focused on the closest witch, saw his chest rise and fall. Alive.

My next breath came easier. The magic had blasted through all of us, knocking us off our feet. Knocking us unconscious.

Not all of us, a voice reminded me.

“Check on them,” Christian grated out. An instant later, his hand was on my shoulder. “Don’t move yet.”

Blake’s phone call. His words of warning. His demand that I get the hell away from Melissa.

A delayed shot of adrenaline cleared my mind. My gaze swept the clearing and landed on Melissa. She stood with her hands clenched a step away from Garion’s token.

Shakily I rose to my feet. Christian steadied me with a hand on my elbow.

“Did it work?” I asked him. If it did, I didn’t have to worry about Melissa grabbing the token.

“I think something went wrong.” He scanned me from head to toe. “The magic didn’t look… right. Your nose is bleeding and the coven…” His gaze swept over them.

“We shouldn’t have been knocked off our feet.” The witches were moving now, thank God, probably as dazed as I was. Most were smarter than me, taking time to regain their equilibrium. They didn’t have a potential crisis to handle though.

My nose twitched. I wiped my arm across my face, streaking blood across my skin. I’d smelled copper before. Now I tasted it.

“Here.” Christian took off his long-sleeved Henley and handed it to me. My nosebleed was more of a waterfall than a trickle, so I appreciated the gesture and tried not to stare at him too much. He was a good guy. I didn’t need to be suspicious. He wasn’t diverting me from Melissa.

Keeping the shirt pressed against my nose, I walked toward the vampire. Blake could be wrong. I shouldn’t sling around accusations just yet.

“Hey,” I said, no urgency in my voice. “Are you okay?”

Melissa scooped up the token.

I froze a step away.

“Did it work?” Her question was terse. She’d never held the token before. She wouldn’t know its weight and feel, but wouldn’t she sense the magic?

“Let me see it.” I kept my tone light and didn’t look directly at the black disk. My peripheral vision didn’t pick up a glow. That was a good sign, right?

Her eyes narrowed. Was she suspicious of my suspicion? I thought I was hiding it pretty damn well.

“She had everything she needed.” Melissa’s words were harsh and accusatory. “The spell should have worked.”

“I’ll be able to tell.” I held out my hand.

“Did you do something to it?” she demanded.

“Yeah,” I snapped. “I placed it in the center of a coven’s circle to null it. That’s the whole point of this.”

She tightened her hand around it. “The ground should be nulled. It’s not.”

“Just give me the token.” Out of patience, I stopped stanching my nose with Christian’s shirt and attempted to grab it.

She easily kept the token away.

“Mel,” Christian said. “We’ll figure this out. Just calm down.”

Melissa whirled on her brother. “That’s easy for you to say. You get to see the sun rise whenever you want. You’re not the weakest of your kind! Your time isn’t running out!”

What? I was the one running out of time. Melissa could wait for another midnight or two or ten as long as the coven was willing to try the spell again.

Astrid was sitting up a few paces behind Melissa. She looked okay but confused.

“Let’s talk to Astrid. It looks like she’s waking up.” I nodded toward my friend, hoping Melissa would glance that way so I could make another attempt to take the token.

She didn’t.

“We’re using this,” she said.

“You don’t even know if it works.” Blake had to be right about her. She wasn’t reacting like an ally.

“Just give it to Kennedy.” Christian was starting to sound frustrated.

She shook her head. “The fey knows a way around the consequences. We’ll find him and make him talk.”

The word “we” was being thrown around a hell of a lot. I didn’t like it, and I was done letting her control this conversation.

I lunged for the token, managed to get my hand almost around it, but Melissa shoved me hard.

My ass hit the ground, jarring my teeth together.

“Hey!” Christian yelled.

She rolled her eyes. “Sorry. But she doesn’t get this. It’s ours.”

“Melissa.” He said her name slowly this time, like he was losing his patience. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Plan C. Taking control for real this time. We don’t need the Rains anymore. We’ll take the djinn and…”

An odd note entered her tone. Christian had offered his hand to help me up, but he was staring at his sister too.

We watched her lift her hand and frown at the blood on her fingers.

She wasn’t hurt. Neither was Christian, and I was pretty sure she hadn’t touched any of the witches.

Not that they were bleeding. I was the only one…

Melissa’s head tilted. She brought her fingers to her mouth. Licked.

Gross.

She licked again.

And rude.

After a third taste, her anger was completely replaced with pleasure, and my body turned cold.

Run, run, run, my mind screamed, but I couldn’t make myself move. Someone had ripped my spine from my body. They’d dipped it into an ice-cold lake.

“Now you’re special,” she said.

Terror finally shattered my paralysis. My body jolted into motion. She was so fascinated by the blood on her hand that I took a chance and grabbed the token. Then I ran.

I wasn’t faster than a vampire. I shouldn’t have made it, but I managed to reach the woods. Branches slapped my arms and snagged my clothes. My breaths became ragged and too loud, hammering in my ears until they nearly drowned out the sound of Christian bellowing my name.

I pushed harder, lungs burning, ears straining to hear sounds of pursuit. There—a rustle to my right. Another to my left. Both Melissa and Christian?

No. The steps were wrong. Too quick. Too low to the ground. And too many.

Melissa wasn’t pursuing me. Her cohorts were.

She’s organizing the stray wolves, Blake had said. The wolves were here. They were stalking me.

The forest seemed to close in around me. I dodged between tree trunks, leaped over roots, and crashed through a curtain of hanging moss that scraped across my face. Branches snapped all around me. The wolves were everywhere.

I ran harder, tasting blood, sweat, and panic, until the trees thinned and my boots skidded across loose dirt. The ground dropped to a muddy bank and a fast-moving creek. I had no time to think or slow down. No other way forward.

The current clawed at my legs when I splashed in. Icy water soaked through my jeans.

Something moved on the opposite bank, a hulking shadow stepping away from a tree. Golden eyes. Massive shoulders. Saliva dripping from sharp teeth.

I froze. The wolf from my apartment. The one who’d bitten me. Who’d tried to turn me.

Monsters behind me. An enemy bastard in front. They would not take me down again.

My hand tightened around the token—and I finally noticed it. It weighed the same as it had in The Rain, just a regular rock with carvings. No glow. No magic.

The spell had nulled it just like it had nulled my blood.

I celebrated that little victory for half a second, then I hurled it at the wolf on the bank with everything I had in me.

The token hit his muzzle, and the wolf snarled, more in anger than pain. I reached into the creek to search for more ammo. Found a good-sized rock just as he leaped into the creek.

Water sprayed into the air, temporarily obscuring him. The moment I saw his head again, I slung the rock at him.

Another hit, just above his right eye this time.

He kept coming, but the bulk of his body was in the water. The current slowed him more than it did me. I widened my stance. Waited.

His flank angled downriver until his paws met the rocky bottom.

I stepped to my left and watched him struggle, vaguely aware that wolves were closing in behind me.

I wouldn’t be able to escape that way. I wouldn’t be able to dart past the bastard splashing before me. But I would take him down with me.

He made another leap through the water, lost his purchase again, and I shot forward, throwing my body on top of his.

I weighed just enough to send him under. He tried to spring back up, but I wrapped my legs around him. Claws pierced through my jeans, my skin. He twisted his head to bite. Stupid. He inhaled water. Then he truly began to panic.

He clawed and rolled and slammed my back into a rock. I stole an extra breath of air and held on, letting the current drag us away.

His teeth clipped my arm. I ignored the sharp, stinging pain and threw my weight to the side. My boot dragged across the creek bottom, and I was able to pivot us, able to get his head facing downriver. Gripping his fur tight, I searched for a killing boulder. Saw the perfect one just ahead.

I pushed off the creek bed again.

Perfect.

His head hit the rock straight on. Hit it hard.

Too hard. His shoulder slammed into my jaw, and I gasped in a mouthful of water. I shoved away from the wolf to find my footing and drag some much-needed air into my lungs.

My boots found the silt-covered bottom. I started to stand.

But the wolf’s body slammed into my knees. I went down, pitching sideways, hands reaching out to protect myself. The creek flowed too quickly though. I was going to hit—

Someone pulled me from the creek. I coughed up water until we reached the bank. The man’s arms didn’t loosen.

I moved my shoulders, a signal saying I was okay and needed some breathing room.

The man tightened his arms. I finally focused on his unfamiliar face, on his gold-rimmed eyes, on the fact that he wore no clothing. He was one of the stray werewolves.

The growls of his companions surrounded me as they closed in.