Page 5 of Savage Blood (Den of Shadows #6)

Chapter

Four

My heart hammered against my rib cage, and my muscles contracted, longing to attack the two assholes holding Enid between them. Wes and Torin wore identical grins as they forced the female shifter across the slick tiles.

“Let her go,” I hissed, attempting to jerk out of Jax’s grip, but his fingers dug in. “She has nothing to do with this. You don’t need her.”

Barric’s laughter grated on my ears, and he tucked the amulet back into his shirt as he crossed the room toward Enid. “Obviously, I do need her.”

Enid flinched as he stroked her cheek with his thick fingers and then yanked the cloth gag to her neck.

“You can’t hide in the Underworld forever.” She jerked her head back, and he released the gag. “When did The Collective become such cowards?”

The alpha slapped her, the sound ricocheting like a gunshot through the cavernous room. “You always had a smart mouth, Enid. We should have finished you the first time we hunted you down, but you got lucky. ”

Saint’s mother wasn’t some delicate flower. He obviously got his strength from both his parents.

“It’s good to have you back, lovely.” Wes jerked her toward him, suggestively licking his lips.

My wolf stirred inside, but I couldn’t connect with her, even though my fury had reached a fever pitch. Could Fane feel it? Was he going out of his mind, unable to get to me?

“Do you always force yourself on women, Wes?” I snorted. “I guess you’d have to when there are no willing partners.”

He released Enid and darted toward me, but Barric stepped in his way, a low growl vibrating the alpha’s chest.

“What did I say, Wes?” All the humor had evaporated from Barric’s tone. “Tate is not to be harmed—unless I give the order.”

The tendons in Wes’s neck protruded, and the scars riddling his flesh shone white under the ornate crystal chandelier and the iron sconces along the walls. “You let Roxie torture her. Why can’t I?”

“Because Roxie knows when to stop,” Barric said. “You don’t.”

A shiver rolled down my spine at the thought of Wes torturing me. He would use methods Roxie wouldn’t dare. So would his son.

Barric rubbed the thick beard covering his jaw. “So, dear daughter, what will it be? Donate your blood and save your fated mate’s mother, or let her be my next sacrifice?”

“What about the cure?” I asked, propping my hands on my hips.

“Oh, sweetheart, that’s off the table this time.” He strode across the room, grabbed a chair from the table, and placed it in a corner. “You had your chance. You’ll have another opportunity to play for the cure again. ”

Bastard.

“Don’t do it, Tate,” Enid shouted, her chains rattling as she struggled in Torin’s grip. “Forget about me. My life isn’t worth whatever he wants your blood for.”

She was wrong. I couldn’t stand by and watch them kill her. Not only would that eat me alive, but Saint would hate me.

And I couldn’t stand him hating me.

I gritted my teeth against the slew of insults I longed to shout at Barric. “One day, I’m going to tear your throat out. I promise.”

He tsked, a smirk crossing his lips. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Tate.”

“Let’s get this over with.”

“Here.” Jax handed me the ornate gold and onyx dagger, not the least bit afraid I’d stab him. “Cut your palm and let your blood drain into the bowl.”

The sting of the blade barely registered against my palm as I dragged it over my flesh, and then Jax snatched the knife out of my hand. Warm blood oozed from the wound and into the bowl, filling the air with a metallic tang.

Roman appeared beside me, took my palm, and wrapped a cloth around it. “That’s enough.”

Jax arched an eyebrow as he examined the small pool of blood glistening under the enormous chandelier in the middle of the room. “Are you sure?”

“Only a small amount is needed.” Roman pulled me toward the chair Barric had placed in the corner. “Please just cooperate, Tate,” he muttered under his breath as he gently forced me to sit, the crescent moon piercing his ear swaying as he spoke.

“Unchain Enid, and I will.”

“I can’t do that, but Barric won’t hurt her. She’s too valuable to him.” The circles beneath his eyes seemed even darker now. “He’ll use her again to force your hand. Be prepared.”

My jaw clenched so hard my teeth ached. “Why are they doing these rituals?”

The doors on the other side of the room opened, and a gaunt man with a slender build—thinner than I’d ever seen on a shifter—strode across the floor, wheeling a cart with a stack of folded black material and white masks.

Knots fisted in my stomach at the sight of those cloaks and garish masks. The newcomer stopped the cart and pulled a bundle of candles off the second shelf. No one acknowledged him as he set the red wax cylinders around the room at equal distances from the center.

More Collective members filed in, and I recognized a few from Silver Ridge. When Amelia glowered in my direction, I couldn’t resist flipping her off. The sharp scent of rage wafting from her brought a smile to my lips.

The bitch couldn’t touch me.

But she could get to Enid. Barric wouldn’t be half as mad if Amelia killed her just to hurt me. The way Amelia’s hard stare lingered on Saint’s mother made it clear she realized that too.

As The Collective members plucked their robes and masks from the cart, Roxie and two male shifters led Ruin into the room. Chains dangled from his wrists, and his wet hair dried in waves around his face while water saturated his clothes and stuck to his lean body. Roxie’s hair was also wet.

If they’d had sex, the shifters could smell it on them. Roxie must have showered quickly and drenched Ruin to cover the scent.

Either she was smart, or Ruin instructed her to do it.

Probably the latter .

When the high demon caught my eye, a cocky grin pulled his lips apart.

Did they really screw each other?

“Oh, look.” Ruin jerked his chin toward the members as they dressed. “Still wearing the Nosterium’s old ceremonial garb. They’re unnecessary, but they give a dramatic flair to the whole event, don’t they, Barry?” He winked at the alpha.

Disgust crinkled Barric’s expression as Roxie and the pair of shifters led Ruin toward the center of the room. “Why isn’t he gagged?”

Roman pinched the bridge of his nose while he walked to the table and then tapped an ancient leather tome. “He has to say the chant, Barric. He can’t be gagged for this.”

Barric rolled his shoulders to loosen the tension stiffening them. “You could have shut him up until the very moment we needed his mouth.”

“I do have a special mouth, don’t I?” When Ruin blew Roxie a kiss, she averted her gaze to her black boots.

“Get the hook, Ben,” Jax called out, and the lanky shifter who’d wheeled in the cart turned a crank on the wall, lowering a huge hook that looked like something right out of a slaughterhouse.

The foreboding metal grinding of gears and rattle of chains echoed through the grand room. Roxie lifted Ruin’s bound hands and stuck them on the hook.

“Behave and I promise not to torture Tate for the rest of the day,” she said with a strained smile. “I know you still have a soft spot for her.”

Ruin smirked. “Deal.”

I hated that he cared if they tortured me. It made me feel sympathy for him when I shouldn’t.

No sympathy for the devil .

“Raise him,” Jax ordered, and Ben turned the crank again, lifting Ruin by his bound hands until his bare feet dragged on the floor.

My throat tightened as the scene resembled the one Fane and I had walked in on at Ruin’s house when Princess Venna used him to set a trap for us.

Roman snapped his fingers, and the candles placed along the floor flared to life, their flames dancing across the walls. “Everyone in place. Let’s get started.”

Ice crawled over my nape as the shifters gathered in a circle around Ruin, donning those creepy masks. Barric joined them, and when he pulled the amulet out of his shirt and dropped it against the robe, sharp tingles radiated over my body.

The memory of that menacing power flowing through my veins engulfed me, and I bit my lip to keep from groaning.

My muscles tensed, and every stitch of my clothing rubbed my skin raw.

Barric’s voice boomed through the grand room, making me flinch, but the words coming out of his mouth beyond the mask weren’t English.

They weren’t even human.

He spoke a demon tongue.

Even though I couldn’t understand him, the Infernal Sol still embedded in me recognized the language. Ominous chanting erupted from the other Collective members, and when Enid met my gaze, trepidation darkened hers.

Could she see the amulet’s effect on me? Did she realize how familiar I was with the power leaking into the atmosphere?

Goose bumps puckered my flesh as a cold sweat beaded my forehead. The candle flames danced higher, flickering in the crimson stone that dangled from Barric’s neck as if it were alive .

It was alive.

The sentient stone knew exactly what it was doing.

But I couldn’t say the same for The Collective.

“Collective Nosterium, join hands and call forth the power,” Barric commanded.

Collective Nosterium?

Frost crystallized through my veins. Barric—or the Infernal Sol controlling him—was transforming his racist pack of shifters into this psychotic band of demons.

There were plenty of other Collective Hunt members around the world, but his inner circle had become a twisted mashup of the shifter group and the demon coven Ruin once led.

The two dozen shifters tightened the circle and gripped hands while Barric slinked into the middle near Ruin.

“Is this my part now?” The high demon chuckled, but a bitter tone encircled each word. He dramatically cleared his throat. “ Nosterium, damine est tu tenebrum .”

Barric raised the same dagger I’d cut my palm with and sliced into Ruin’s already marred torso, spilling blood. “Don’t screw with me, demon. Say it correctly.”

“Pardon me. It’s been so long. I forgot.” Ruin rolled his head and continued in the demon tongue, the blue in his eyes fading to impenetrable black.

Roman moved toward the center of the circle with the bowl of my blood, his violet irises blazing bright as his own magic joined the odd combination of shifter and demon essence. He opened his mouth and shouted an incantation.

“Darkness unchained and power aflame. Bring forth the might and grant them flight. Grasp the shadows, twist them round, wisdom asunder, and senses unbound.”

The witch’s enchantment sent frosty air over my scalp. Darkness unchained? Wisdom asunder ?

Barric took the bowl, lifted it, and gulped some of the contents.

My stomach churned at the sight of my own father drinking my blood. It was wrong on so many levels.

He then held the bowl to Ruin’s mouth, but the high demon refused to part his lips.

Barric growled. “Drink it, or I’ll put you in a tiny hole of a cell, far from Tate but not far enough to drown out her cries when I let Wes and Torin torture her.”

Bile shot up my esophagus at his threat, and I nearly hurled on my boots. The son of a bitch hated me enough to let those creeps do whatever they pleased except kill me.

Ruin finally opened his mouth, and Barric forced the rest of my blood down his throat. Chills raked my spine as The Collective chanted while Ruin’s voice rose over them, each word a jagged, slashing note.

As the amulet around Barric’s neck glowed, shadowy ropes slithered out of Ruin, snaking across the ground and coiling around the members.

A gasp burst from my mouth. What the actual fuck was going on?

“They’re taking his power.”

I flinched as Torin stood beside my chair, his fingers curling around the back and brushing my shoulder. He wore a black robe, but he lifted his mask and revealed his leer.

“Why aren’t you part of the circle jerk?” I hissed, sitting forward to escape his touch.

He gave a noncommittal shrug. “Barric asked us to remain on the outside this time to keep watch over you and Enid.”

Wes still stood next to Saint’s mother, gripping her arm and gazing at the circle with thinned lips. While he clearly wanted to partake in the demonic fun, his son didn’t seem to mind remaining out of the action this time.

“What do you mean they’re taking his power?” I asked, Torin’s words finally sinking in.

Torin leaned forward, hovering so close his overpowering sandalwood and rum scent clogged my nostrils. “Barric’s been using Ruin, since he was the former leader of the Nosterium, to bolster the group’s power.”

“Why?”

“To prime us for…” He slowly licked his lips and then bit the bottom one, doing a terrible job of hiding the sadistic grin attempting to break through. “Something big.”

“Like what?”

Torin cocked his head. “You sure ask a lot of questions, Tate.”

“Well, you keep answering them, Torin.” My gaze slid to Ruin as he hung helplessly from the hook, his flesh paling with each chant he uttered.

Ruin’s eyes rolled in the back of his head, and the amulet pulsated around Barric’s neck. Another dose of its sinister power infiltrated the air, bringing forth manic laughter from The Collective Nosterium.

How many times had they forced Ruin to do this? Was this the reason he went in and out of madness?

“Why did Barric want my blood?”

“Because it’s powerful.” Torin twisted a lock of my long raspberry-red hair around his finger. “Fane Maverick turned you, you came from an alpha, and the Infernal Sol was inside of you. A tiny piece of it still is. Like us, you can probably see beyond the amulet’s shield hiding the manor.”

So I might be able to access the manor once I left.

Thanks for the info, idiot .

I yanked my hair out of his grasp. “Touch me again, and you might experience some of that power.”

Torin gripped my throat. “Barric’s too focused on the ritual to notice what’s happening to you. I could pin you to the ground and?—”

A broken scream burst out of Ruin, and his back arched, black blood dripping from his eyes and nose.

“That’s new.” Torin chuckled. “Must be your blood.”

The Collective Nosterium released hands and were now writhing in the circle, laughing and chanting, lapping up the black shadows still leaking from Ruin. Barric stood in the center, caressing the amulet and watching the mayhem unfold.

My heart plunged to the bottom of my gut as Ruin continued to twist in agony, his feet flailing in the air.

I couldn’t sit by and watch him suffer. He might deserve punishment for his crimes, but he was being used and abused to protect me now.

Before I realized what I was doing and how utterly stupid and reckless it was, I crushed my elbow into Torin’s neck and bolted out of the chair toward the ritual circle.

Ruin’s howls and The Collective Nosterium’s chanting reached a crescendo when I darted toward the ritual circle to do something, anything, to stop the horrific sight.

As my boot crossed the threshold and I tried to slip between two dancing shifters, an invisible blast of power hit me.

Oh shit.