Page 24
Chapter 23
There’s fire
CHARLIE
I narrow my eyes at Edie, hating everything about her triumphant smile. I train my gun on her face. “How are we going to do this, Edie?”
Though I try to keep my mind calm, Lennox knows something is wrong. My shock at Officer Bates’s death was broadcast to him. Now he’s banging around in my head, demanding I tell him what’s happening. I push him out as best I can so I can concentrate. I still have Roscoe to think about.
When Edie speaks, her voice is different from the other times I spoke with her. It’s richer, more vibrant, less dull. In fact, everything about her is vibrant from her hair to her toes. She’s almost shining with fervent energy. “I’ve waited so many years for this moment. I thought it would never come.” She’s speaking to herself more than to me, but her eyes are fixed on my face with the gaze of a hungry predator. “I didn’t believe my eyes when I first met you. Thought maybe my century-long wait for revenge was conjured up by my own imagination. But you’re here and you’re real. I can touch you.”
A shudder runs through me as she reaches out, her hand closing around nothing as she squeezes her fingers into a fist.
“I don’t understand,” I stammer. “Why do you hate me so much?”
“I don’t hate you,” she sneers. “I hate Lennox. He killed my mate 140 years ago. Your death will be my revenge.”
Everything becomes clear. She waited not for me, but for Lennox’s mate. She wants him to suffer the way she suffered after he killed her mate. In her mind, my death is justice. There’s no way to crack this kind of madness, but I have to try. “Edie, listen to me. Killing me won’t bring your mate back.”
“Obviously.” She makes a face as though lamenting how far beneath her I am. “But it might bring me peace. After all these years, don’t I deserve a little peace?”
“Yes, you do,” I say, trying to keep the tremble from my voice.
“Shut up, you stupid human bitch!” She spits each word like cracks of gunfire. “I don’t care what you think. You’re nothing to me, just a means to rip out his heart.”
There’s nothing I can say to stop her. My thoughts go to Luke and I take solace in his image. It’ll destroy him to lose his mother, but he’ll have my parents, my siblings, his cousins. Eventually, he’ll be okay.
I’m coming! Lennox’s shout echoes through my mind and I feel him shift. He won’t make it in time.
I love you , I tell him as Edie leaps toward me.
Fear strangles me and I struggle to hold my ground as my legs tremble. All I want to do is turtle, but I tell myself I’ve never given up before and I’m not going to start now.
The pep talk clears my mind and I steady my gun, take aim and squeeze the trigger.
Edie shifts before the bullet can hit her. In the tiny basement hallway, she covers the distance in a split second. I face death wide-eyed but before she can deal the blow, Roscoe picks me up. “Sorry!” he mutters and flings me through a wall.
I go straight through the drywall, my vest and helmet taking the brunt of my fall as I hit the floor on the other side. I lay stunned for several seconds before a deep roar has me rolling onto my hands and knees.
Seconds later, what’s left of the drywall disintegrates as a wolf’s body is flung into the room.
I scramble backwards, huddling in a corner as a huge brown bear climbs through the hole, his head swinging from side to side as he searches for his prey.
I stare up at Roscoe, my mouth hanging open as I momentarily forget the woman trying to kill me. He is utterly monstrous, taller and wider by far than he was as a human. His thunderous roar shakes the room and he flings himself at the wolf who’s picking herself up off the floor.
He slams into her, shoving her into the wall behind them, this one made of concrete. Despite that, it shudders under the force and Edie’s wolf lets out a high-pitched yelp before she sinks her teeth into the bear’s shoulder.
Roscoe fights back, swiping a giant paw down her face, ripping it with his claws, but he’s still weak from his previous beating and slower than the wolf. Heedless of her injury, Edie attacks in a flurry of teeth and claws, slicing away at him a piece at a time.
“Stop!” I scream at her, searching the floor for my gun.
Roscoe swings his head around, pinning me with pain-filled golden eyes. I know what he’s telling me: Run!
I return his gaze with sorrow in my own, then crawl through the hole in the wall. I search the floor with my hands until my fingers touch the metal of the gun. I grab it just as Edie gains the upper hand, burying her teeth deep into Roscoe where his neck meets his shoulder.
She’s going to tear out his throat.
I take aim, steadying the gun before sending a bullet into her skull.
She flies backwards, her body striking the wall before sliding to the floor.
I lunge at Roscoe who’s fallen to the floor and is dragging himself away from Edie.
“It’s okay, I shot her!” I wrap my arms around his furry shoulders hugging him to me, but he shakes his head and tries to push me away, his giant paws surprisingly gentle.
His body shrinks under my hands and he becomes human again, his injuries now much worse. “Run!” he croaks, his eyes on Edie’s fallen form.
I follow his gaze and gasp. She’s alive! Clearly injured but pushing herself up to her paws. Slowly, she turns to face us. Lifting the gun, I empty the chamber, each bullet hitting her. It doesn’t stop her.
I feel the floor beneath me vibrate just as Edie leaps.
At the same time, Lennox bursts through the hole in the wall, sinking his teeth into her neck and flinging her away. His panicked eyes asses me for injury before he turns back to Edie, stalking toward her, vengeance clear in his every step.
He sinks his teeth into her neck and lifts her, but before he can finish her, the other team members burst into the room.
“You are not the only one she’s injured,” Talon snarls sharply at Lennox. “Justice belongs to all of us.”
Lennox is more wolf than man, his thoughts a jumbled mix of rage, fear and the desire to kill. Every instinct inside him is screaming to destroy the threat against his mate.
I’m inside his head, I know the heroic effort it takes for him to drop Edie.
He does, fixing his gaze on me. Walking toward me, he shifts to human and crouches in front of me.
I release Roscoe from my death grip and Little John quickly scoops him up and rushes him out, presumably to the ambulance waiting for him.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “Officer Bates, he… he’s dead, I think.”
Lennox pulls me into his chest. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I should’ve realized Edie was setting us up. I shouldn’t have underestimated her – ”
“Stop,” I say. “We can’t blame ourselves and Edie hid her true feelings toward you.”
He picks me up and carries me from the room, through the debris and past an army of police officers rushing in to arrest Edie. “Won’t they need you?” I ask anxiously. After what I saw her do to Officer Bates and Roscoe, I know mere humans won’t stand a chance of subduing her.
“Talon will help, and she’s heavily injured. You’re a good shot.”
“She was barely fazed by my bullets.” I shudder as he carries me up the stairs and out the main door of the building.
A young officer hurries toward us holding Lennox’s clothes. He takes them and as he gets dressed, he explains, “Shifters heal at a rapid rate, but those bullets should’ve stopped her. She must be on something to enhance her stamina and strength.”
“Or maybe her hatred toward you is so strong she was able to will herself to keep going.”
“I’ll ask her in interrogation,” he says, unbuckling my helmet, pulling it off my head, and tossing it aside. He runs his fingers through my hair, searching my head for injuries. “We need to get you to the hospital. C’mon, there might be room in the ambulance for two.”
“I’m fine, Lennox.” When he tries to argue, I add, “I was part of this bust and I want to be here for the rest of it.”
My eyes drift to the door of the building as ASHRA members are led out, their hands cuffed behind their backs. Officers load them into vans.
“Did you find out what the explosion was?” My eyes search the prisoners being brought out. Six of them so far. I wonder what brought each of them here. How they came to have such hatred toward shifters yet allowed one into their mix.
“The other team tripped a wire, but they had enough time to put distance between them and the explosion. No one was injured, but it messed with our communications.”
So only one person died in the bust. My chest hollows as I think of Officer Bates. Does he have a family? Whose job is it to tell them what happened? Will they know he died protecting me and Roscoe?
Lennox wraps his arm around me, holding me to his chest, infusing me with warmth. “They’ll know he died a hero.”
A sob escapes me and I bury my face against Lennox, crying silently as the New York ASHRA organization is dismantled around us.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
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- Page 3
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- Page 19
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- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24 (Reading here)
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
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- Page 41