Page 82 of Caelum

TWENTY-THREE

REED

My Hell Hound was pissed as fuck at the temerity of the Ghouls to be hiding within the parking lot of a prestigious hotel such as this one.

It might have sounded horrible, but the fact they were here, waiting on richer clientele to feed upon, was a testament to their desperation. They didn’t care who they hurt, didn’t care where their next meal came from, and that was dangerous.

If the humans learned of them, then the world would be in deeper shit than it already was. Especially if we didn’t get to the final Original.

Our societies worked on secrecy, and that shielded us all. Without that to cloak us… I didn’t want to think about what that could mean.

As Frazer braked to a halt by the entrance to the hotel, all of us clambered out of the SUV. I didn’t like the prospect of leaving Eve behind, but we were in danger here too. Ghouls could and would attack her, leaving us without our mate and the world without its savior… To be frank, I didn’t give a fuck about the savior shit, but I knew that would still leave a massive problem for creatures to handle if there was just one line of Ghouls still alive and kicking.

Frazer locked the door behind him, leaving Eve snuggled in the back seat in a relative kind of safety. She was no longer using Dre as a pillow, but she hadn’t stirred, and I’d be relieved when she awoke because the prospect of her sleeping for days like she had on the yacht was more terrifying to me than the dead men hovering, waiting to attack us.

I shoved those thoughts aside, shoved them back in the depths of my subconscious where fears belonged, and allowed my beast to leap to the fore.

I’d never shifted, and it was ironic that I’d only just discussed that with Dre because now my beast was allowed to reign supreme, and the joy that surged through me was like nothing I could have anticipated.

Yes, there was pain from the huge spikes that formed, surging out of my leathery black skin, making every part of me a weapon, but it was a glorious feeling to know that I was walking death for these bastards who’d thought to feed upon us this day.

In this other form, the world was different. Completely unlike the one I’d just viewed in my human skin. It was shaped differently, and my perception was odd. The Ghouls, for example, were closer to me than they had been, and now I was walking on four legs, I couldn’t see anything other than them. These eyes felt like they had crosshairs on them, crosshairs that narrowed their target upon enemies and those the beast considered a threat.

Around me in the dank, damp air beneath the hotel, I felt the air ripple, and as I tilted my head, I came face to face with brothers that, until Eve, had been enemies but were now Pack.

At my side, I had a gouille and a bear.

At my side, there was a Lorelei and an Incubus oozing their potent pheromones that could and would trap any and all in their net.

At my side, the Sin Eater and the Vampire, the brothers who’d been with me since I’d been a teenager, flung themselves into the fray, and I knew I’d never been more surrounded by family than I was at this moment.

The seven of us rushed toward the Ghouls, the promise of death inherent in every step as we leaped into the battle that they believed we’d die in. But they were wrong.

Today was their last day on Earth, and they’d just wasted the little time they had remaining before we killed the final Original, the one who’d take all these fuckers to their end.

I sliced into one Ghoul, scenting blood on him that was definitely human. The quantity and the sheer amount on him told me that a corpse was rotting in the vicinity. Maybe more than one. I tore into his throat, ripping it away with a ferocity that came from my anger as his claws dug into me, trying to tear at my own skin.

I narrowed my eyes at the next one and leaped onto a Ghoul that Samuel was battling. The Shifters of the bunch were the true soldiers. Each creature had their role, and ones like Vampires and Loreleis, though strong, weren’t made to battle. They were made to entice. Incubi and Sin Eaters were there to finish the fuckers off and send them straight to hell .

Dre, Nestor, and I made mincemeat of the Ghouls who were, beyond a doubt, pecus . Low ranking scum that shouldn’t have been allowed out without someone higher on the scale to make sure they didn’t fuck shit up the way they had.

It made me wonder what was going down in the inner circles of the remaining nests, if they were being so stupid as to allow meatheads like this to hunt out in the open.

Eren and Samuel valiantly held off the Ghouls, keeping them busy until the three Shifters in our Pack could get to them and bring them to their knees. Eren kept on singing, but there was so much fucking noise down here as we tackled the small flock that his voice was barely heard over the screams and whimpers.

There’d been fifteen when we started, but another twenty more surged from out of nowhere—I spun around to check on our SUV, and seeing that it was well, realized the Ghouls had come from one of the doors that connected the hotel to the basement parking lot itself.

Wondering what kind of devastation they’d left behind, I forced myself to focus on the battle. We were outnumbered, and though I didn’t have a doubt in my mind that we couldn’t win, what concerned me most was the prospect of another flock of Ghouls appearing from out of nowhere and heading for our SUV.

As I tore a male to shreds, then sliced into a female from throat to belly, my greatest fear manifested itself.

Another cluster of Ghouls appeared, rushing into us like a broken funnel wave that would have even the most experienced of surfers dunking into the big blue.

I focused on killing, maiming, hurting whatever and whomever I could, and then I heard it.

It was louder than Eren’s voice, sweeter, purer, so tantalizing that even my Hell Hound, so furious at being trapped by these bastards when we were so close to the finish line, listened, his ears pricking up and pausing in the removal of a Ghoul’s intestines.

As one, we all turned toward the voice that we were hearing for the second time that day, and as we stared, dumbstruck, I saw Eve, standing on the roof of the SUV, with her hair flowing around her like she belonged in some kind of anime movie. The sound waves themselves seemed to cause a disturbance on a visceral level, one that enticed us toward her, one that urged us forward.

I tried to fight it, but I couldn’t, and then, Eren sang, and his voice countered Eve’s. It was only then I realized only the other Lorelei among us hadn’t been affected by her song, and as he chimed in, my senses returned to me. He sang to us on a wavelength unique to our Pack, while her melody had the Ghouls mindlessly stepping toward our mate, their brains overtaken by the gentle harmony that urged them into action.

With Eren taking part, our Pack merged into the killing machine it was. We took the dumbstruck Ghouls down in minutes, leaving them torn apart in shreds, waiting on mercy from Frazer and Stefan as they returned them to their Maker.

The second the last one was down, I ran as fast as my four legs would carry me, desperate to reach my mate.

She’d taken a seat now on the roof of the vehicle, and I saw the tremor in her limbs as she fought to remain conscious.

I shifted the second I was close enough and reached up to haul her down into my arms. She clung to me and I to her, desperate for the connection, desperate for proof. I turned her face away from the warzone that had taken place amid the white lines of allotted parking and the dim overhead lighting that flickered in and out intermittently.

Eren, Samuel, and Dre had approached us, circling us as Nestor, his skin a shiny gray leather that spoke of his gouille , watched over the mass of decimated creatures, while Frazer and Stefan took care of the last part of the battle.

I felt her tears dampen my throat, knew they were for us, born out of fear, terror that she’d lose us, and my heart felt full from the all-encompassing love that oozed from her.

“Can I?” Dre questioned, his hands outstretched, and the desperation and urgency in his voice reminded me of earlier that day when he’d hauled her away from the temple in his bear form.

I didn’t want to let her go, and my Hell Hound wanted it even less, but I recognized need when I saw it and reluctantly complied.

It was hard though, fucking hard, and I gently passed her over, touched when his arms tightened around her in a hug so fierce she squeaked before squeezing him back just as hard.

Why the hell he was fighting this stuff was just beyond me.

“You were supposed to stay locked in the car, dammit,” he ground out, his lips close to her ear, his eyes so tightly clenched I could see the tiny muscles in the lids flickering in response.

“What, and let you guys get your asses whooped?”

Eren snorted. “We had it handled.” The look he shot me said we didn’t.

And yeah, that was the truth.

Fuck, we truly were a Pack. This wasn’t about us just protecting Eve, we protected each other . As a unit. As a family. With one of us down, we were weaker, and that was just how it was meant to be.

The thought settled deep inside me, calming me in a way I could never have anticipated. The Hound, still thrashing around in its endless fury at being contained, ceased its struggle, content in the knowledge that it was home.

At long fucking last.