Page 109 of A Token of Blood and Betrayal

“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.

“Nowyou’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 wouldnottake me down again.