Page 147 of Change

Chapter Twenty-Four

Bianca

Red

The scene shattered—as did any resistance—and I fell back. There was a loud sound to my right—metal grinding against metal—and the wind was knocked out of me as my back hit the prison floor.

“Stop her!” someone shouted, echoing loudly in my ears. Then, “Forget it! Just close the gate!”

It was then my vision cleared, and Gloria’s stiff figure came into focus. She was still sitting on her knees, palms open over her thighs, and her eyes wide as she stared blankly in front of her.

My stomach sank in disappointment. Didn’t it work?

Then, as a screeching of closing gates rang through the room, and the moment I thought we’d failed, something changed in the older woman.

Gloria blinked, gasping just once, before she fell forward resting her head over her knees.

My heart sank.

Not only had I failed, but I’d also hurt her with my inexperience. She was clutching at her chest, gasping, as her fingers dug into her flowery blouse.

Dear God, I’d forgotten her age throughout all this. If she went into cardiac arrest because of me, Uncle Gregory would be extremely displeased.

But my panic was cut short as an explosion of orange-red rippled over her skin, and her features twisted, before, an instant later, a massive wolf stood in her place.

She had a flawless coat, a black nose, and piercing gold eyes. She looked directly at me, and a shiver shot up my spine at the familiarity of the canine form haunted my thoughts and, for an instant, caused my breath to seize in terror.

But then her focus lifted from me, causing the weight against my chest to lesson. She growled at something over my shoulder. I barely noticed her agile lunge before she was already leaping through the air.

She’d shifted.

Dizziness passed over me as the remnants of my panic faded, and the tension relaxed from my shoulders.

Now, everything would be okay.

Gloria crossed the cell within a breath, slamming into the bottom opening of the closing door and rushing out into freedom before our captors could sound the alarm. One man lingered at the bottom of the small stairwell, and she crossed the distance between them with three giant bounds and landed on his chest.

He crashed to the floor, his head banging off the top stair—and distantly, I could hear Ada and Maria whooping in excitement—before Gloria flashed her teeth and ripped out the man’s throat with one elegant movement.

Someone screamed, begging for mercy, but she jumped the rest of the way up the stairs, dragging another man through the open doorway by the ankle and tossing him onto the floor. She glanced at him only once, her tail twitching, before jumping to the wall and pressing her blood-soaked muzzle over the button that controlled the cells.

Blood and gore notwithstanding, I was glad my plan worked. Maria and I did make a good team after all.

With the doors released, Ada and Maria wasted no time in shifting themselves and joining Gloria as the three wreaked havoc. And, as my focus lingered on the two men I’d already killed, I couldn’t find it in my heart to feel bad for them.

That was even scarier than everything else that had happened, because, without a moral compass or regret for taking these lives, what did that make me?

“Bianca.” The world around me felt foreign and distant, and something slapped against my face, trying to gather my attention. “Come on, we have to go.”

I was still cold and uncomfortable, but as I blinked my eyes open, at least my pounding headache had begun to recede.

“Bianca.” Maria’s warm voice fell over me. “It’s okay now—they’re gone.”

Maria was bent next to me, face haloed by her loose blond hair, while Gloria—still a wolf—and Ada paced in the background. The lioness’s features were light and comforting, but even her upbeat expression couldn’t cover the tension from the other two women.

She was lying—it wasn’t okay at all. We still weren’t safe.

And here I was, holding everyone up.