Page 18 of Savage Blood (Den of Shadows #6)

Chapter

Twelve

My heart drummed a thunderous beat as my sweatshirt and leggings stuck to my clammy skin. At least a dozen creatures surrounded us, and the thick shadows hid everything but their smoldering eyes. Some were gold or amber while others burned through the shadows with a vibrant crimson hue.

We’d just escaped hell only to find another obstacle standing between us and freedom.

“Can’t you do something, Ruin?” Alicia hissed. “You’re a powerful high demon. Sub-demons should, I dunno, heed your command.”

“Sub-demons aren’t innately loyal to anyone except their own species. They have to be influenced or enchanted with magic.” Ruin rolled his shoulders, the ebony tattoo inking his pale complexion shifting with every move. “Of course, I could attempt to sway them to my side.”

One beast leaped to a lower roofline, revealing an enormous figure on all fours with grotesque yellow scales mixed among sparse patches of tawny fur. His curved ears twitched, and his long snout, tusks protruding from each side, rose to sniff the air.

A shudder rippled down my back as the moon cast a faint silvery glow across the left side of his face where decay ate away the flesh to reveal white bone.

What kind of sub-demon was he? He resembled a brown bear—one that was raised from the depths of hell.

Enid wiped sweat from her forehead. “So start swaying, then, Lord Ruin.”

Ruin cut his eyes at her. “There’s just one problem.”

Icy dread enveloped my muscles, filling them with concrete. “What’s that?”

Another creature emerged from the shadows between two crooked buildings across the street, scales and patches of gray fur wrapping his lean form.

Instead of a huge burly beast, this one had a slender frame, muscles rippling with every step, and a triangular head with small spikes running across his jawbone.

“Those aren’t sub-demons.”

My head jerked in Ruin’s direction. “Then what the hell are they?”

I raised my nose into the air and inhaled, bringing their scents into my nostrils. Frost sank through my bloodstream, and my stomach roiled.

“Shifters.” My voice came out in a hushed whisper, like saying the word too loudly would make the moment too real.

Enid’s mouth curved into a snarl. “The Collective Nosterium.”

Not one of the members had shifted in front of us in the manor. I could see why.

Alicia cursed. “What happened to them?”

“The Infernal Sol and all of those demon rituals distorted them,” Ruin said as more slinked closer, revealing their warped animal forms.

Their monstrous transformations unveiled twisted abominations, their very essence corrupted.

Thick fur shed in ragged clumps, exposing glistening, armor-like scales.

Bony spikes protruded from the shifters’ bent, elongated spines.

Their paws swelled, talons and spikes curving like obsidian blades that scraped the cobblestone with each step.

Some of them, especially the wolves, resembled revolting versions of Fane’s demon wolf.

A tawny shifter jumped from a low roof onto the cobblestones in front of an abandoned shop, his gleaming irises changing from bright yellow to a deep, blood-red orange. He had lupine features—definitely a wolf—and as he shook his lean body, brown fur shed off his skin to uncover more scales.

Acid oozed up my throat, and the four of us tightened our formation. As the gray shifter prowled forward, my shoulders stiffened. I’d fought that wolf before, when he attacked me in the mystical forest in Silver Ridge.

“Torin.”

He licked his jagged teeth with a forked tongue as another monster, pulsating with the same arrogant energy, sidled up next to him.

Burning rage slid down my back and leaked through my muscles once I recognized his father, Wes. The psychotic duo would thoroughly enjoy sinking their teeth and claws into us.

They wouldn’t kill me.

But were the others fair game?

“What are we waiting for?” Alicia’s lengthening canines distorted her voice. “If we run, they’ll chase us. We have to fight.”

Without no weapons but my teeth and claws, I’d have to shift. My lack of experience in my wolf form could lead to my capture.

Fuck it.

“Let’s fight,” I said.

The odds were usually stacked against me, and most of the time, I came out on top. Why should this be any different?

As the mutated shifters crept forward from all sides, I called on my inner wolf.

The transformation took seconds, and by the time my hands hit the cobblestone, red and black paws had replaced them.

My onyx sickle claws and the spikes protruding from each knuckle gleamed under the dim moonlight and the few scarlet lights that still worked.

“Well, that’s impressive,” Alicia muttered as her spine popped and she jerked forward, still in the midst of her transformation.

A series of horrifying howls circled the square as The Collective Nosterium salivated for battle. There were only four of us, but we’d still give them hell. Staying out of that dungeon was excellent motivation.

Ruin turned his attention to me as pure black eclipsed his gaze. “Don’t show them mercy, Tate, because they won’t show us any. They’ll keep you alive for sure, but your imprisonment will be much worse the next go-around.”

I dipped my head in a nod. He was right, of course. After trying to escape, Barric would probably keep me under constant supervision until he needed me for his ritual.

A vicious roar erupted through the town square, puckering the flesh beneath my fur as anticipation choked the atmosphere. Without wasting another second, I bolted for Torin, my talons tearing into the cobblestones.

As we collided, his sharp claws slashed at my side, and warmth leaked down my torso. A snarl slithered from my mouth when he tried to bite my neck. I swiped my paw at him, scratching his snout. The metallic hint of blood perfumed the air.

Other battles unfolded in the square as Enid, Alicia, and Ruin faced off with The Collective Nosterium. Adrenaline pumped through my veins, and rage consumed me while Torin and I fought. My moves were quick and certain, not giving a moment’s hesitation.

If I hesitated, I’d fall.

And I wouldn’t let Torin take me down.

After minutes of relentless assaults on him, I finally had Torin pinned against the broken fountain in the center of the square.

The shallow cuts and bites he’d given me barely registered, just a distant throb.

Saliva dripped from my jaws, and his blood already coated my tongue.

For all his bluster, he wasn’t a particularly good fighter.

Or maybe I was just better than I thought in this form.

You’re fucking toast, douchebag.

He couldn’t hear my thoughts, but he got the message loud and clear. The fear in his citrine irises made that obvious. My talons dug into the ground, and my muscles coiled, poised to deliver one more attack where I’d sink my teeth into his neck to finish him.

Searing electricity struck me, and my back paws rose off the ground as something yanked my body backward.

Purple magic wrapped around my legs, and a string of curses flooded my mind.

Vulcrum cords.

Roman, standing across the street near a row of broken iron lampposts, clutched luminescent strands of his magic and dragged me closer. Beyond the purple sheen in his stare, regret radiated .

He had to play the part, and that meant he had no choice but to try to capture me.

Ruin darted between us and grabbed the Vulcrum cords, his teeth gritting as he ripped them apart, freeing me. The pain etched in his expression had my insides knotting. Screwing with witch magic like that wasn’t without consequences.

“Save yourself, Tate,” he demanded, black blood coating his bare torso from gashes in the pale flesh. “It’s you they want.”

I scrambled to my paws and yelped at the high demon, shaking my head. No way in hell was I leaving any of them, even him.

“Damn it, Tate!” He jerked his chin toward the left. “Get out of here. This is your chance?—”

His words sheared off, and heat descended over my back moments before a female coyote tackled me.

My spine hit the ground, and my skull rattled, my vision flashing red. Dirt and rocks dug into my back as she pinned me, her teeth snapping in my face and spit dripping onto my fur.

Was she trying to kill me?

A high-pitched whine sliced the night as a gigantic shifter, so distorted I couldn’t even tell what kind, sank his teeth into Alicia’s flank. Red bloomed across her golden-brown coat.

Dread unfurled in my chest as I tried to keep the coyote shifter at bay. Alicia needed help, or that mutated beast would rip her to pieces.

Another dose of adrenaline hit my bloodstream, and as if the coyote shifter pinning me could feel it, her muscles tensed moments before I kicked her off.

Without giving her a chance to counter my attack, I dove forward. My teeth sank into her neck, and briny, metallic blood exploded into my mouth. Her ragged cry of anguish broke as I ripped her throat out.

Icky, slimy feelings of guilt flowed through my veins as she collapsed.

Show them no mercy.

Blood, a mixture of hers and mine, dripped across the ground beneath me, and I spat out a chunk of her flesh, gagging on the rotten-meat taste.

The grotesque monster with sallow green scales, ruby irises, and horns protruding from his head and spine pinned Alicia, and he raised his claws to rip into her neck.

Saving her became my sole focus, and I dashed toward Alicia as my heart slammed against my ribs. But before I made it, a sharp, electric bolt rippled through my neck, and a giant ebony beast shot through the square, ramming into the shifter above her.

A gasp burst from my mouth.

It can’t be.

Chills cascaded over me, and goose bumps puckered my skin as that magnificent and terrifying creature decapitated The Collective Nosterium member with one powerful shake of his head.

My beautiful beast.

Blood dripped from Fane Maverick’s mouth, his burning scarlet gaze meeting mine across the square.

“Fiera mika.”