“Where is he?” I was not letting that fucker, Garath, get away a second time. Not after he betrayed us. The slimy fuck was going to pay in blood.
The weasel shifter below my boot grunts out a reply, but I’m pressing into his throat, cutting off his air supply. Oops.
I release the pressure slightly. He starts coughing and gasping.
I roll my eyes at the pathetic weakling. “I said, where is he? If I find out you’re keeping anything from me, you’re going to find out what it’s like to live without arms and legs.” I give him a vicious smile. “And if that’s not enough of a reason to heed to my warning, then we’ll see what my shadow wolf has to say.”
My wolf pushes forward, and I know from the frightened look in his eyes that he sees him.
I drag the weasel up by his throat, holding him against the wall by his neck.
“Now. Where were we? Oh, yes. You were about to tell me where that slimy fuck, Garath, is.”
He coughs before wheezing out an answer. “He’s dead.”
My grip tightens, and the fucker starts to turn purple. But I don’t care. I only see the violence as it suffocates me, demanding I take his life as payment instead.
“Well then, I guess you get to join him.”
The weasel’s eye widens, my threat finally hitting home.
Tightening my hold, I’m about to snap the fucker’s neck when Luka walks in, making me pause. “Jax.”
“Yes, brother?” I turn to look at him, my smile dropping when I see the blank look on his face.
“Never mind.” He sighs, leaning against the wall and staring off into space.
“You don’t care if I kill him? Gut him where he stands?”
The little shit starts getting desperate, pulling at my hand. I give him a bored look before focusing back on my twin.
Luka lifts his head up and looks me dead in the eye. “No.”
I narrow my eyes on him, noticing the black circles around his eyes, the clothes he has been wearing since last night, and the way he holds himself. It’s as if he has given up.
Damn it. He looks like he’s barely holding on.
How did I miss that?
We’re all lost without Kiarra, but I should’ve been keeping an eye on him after everything he’s been through.
I mentally kick myself for being so damn selfish.
When Kiarra was taken by that sadistic prick again, I couldn’t focus on anything but my pain and decided to rip apart the city so they could feel it too. But I forgot about my brother. I let him chase me around while he suffered in silence.
I drop the weasel, my priorities starting to shift. “Go, before I change my mind.”
He scurries out of there like the little rodent he is.
I walk over to Luka. “What’s up with you? You’re usually calling me out on my shit.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore. Do what you want.” He pushes off the wall and heads out.
I follow him. “Luka.”
“What?” His voice is cold, detached, like he’s already given up.
“We’ll get her back,” I tell him, knowing that this will not be the end for us. I’ll make damn sure of it.
He stops, his shadows appearing, but the minute he sees them, he pulls them back. I spot the tremor in his hands before he pockets them.
“You don’t know that.” I see a spark of agitation in his eyes.
“Well, I’m sure as hell not going to roll over and not even try.”
His head whips up to me, looking like he wants to strangle me.
Good. It’s better than the blank look he had a minute ago. He needs to focus on something more than the pain he feels right now.
“That’s not what I’m doing.” The spark lights up, and I get what I’ve been looking for. Luka fighting back.
“Then what are you doing?” I push him, wanting more. He didn’t get to lie down and roll over. Not now. Not fucking ever.
“Well, I’m not running around destroying the city and killing whoever gets in my way.”
If he thought that was a hit, he was losing his edge. I didn’t give a shit what people thought about me and knew that whatever I did go through with, my brothers would always have my back, him included.
“Maybe you should give it a go. Let off some steam.”
Luka opens his mouth to reply when something behind me distracts him. I turn around, my eyes widening at the scene in front of me.
“What the fuck is that?” My eyes are glued to the large beast wreaking havoc in the middle of the vacant street where Luka and I stand.
Two large horns curve from its head, its face a mix between a minotaur and demon.
Basically, an ugly motherfucker.
The demon Minotaur slams its hoof on the ground, causing a ripple effect. It cracks the road open, moving down the entire street and stopping just short a couple of feet in front of us.
“Where the hell did that come from?” Luka asks, but I’m as clueless as he is. That thing wasn’t there a minute ago.
We move towards the beast instead of away because why the hell not? My wolf is itching to get out and play. Even with its towering height, I know our chances are good.
The closer we get to the demon minotaur, the more I realize how slightly off my description of it was.
It’s even uglier up close.
Black slime drips and oozes from its snout and onto the ground in front of it. It sizzles, burning through the ground like acid. Drooped curved ears sit under its large horns, looking like sacks of extra hanging skin.
Its eyes are blood red and rimmed with black, the same shade as the matted fur that runs down its chest and surrounds its wrists and ankles. The rest of its body is covered in a dark leathery skin, making it look like it had been out in the sun for far too long.
The demon minotaur spots us as we make our way towards it, pausing its destruction. Its nostrils flare. Tilting its mammoth head, it raises it and sniffs.
“Mmorrttemm.” Its deep voice growls, echoing around us.
Luka raises a brow, giving me a look.
“What the hell is it saying?” My wolf pushes forward, wanting blood. I hold it back a moment, seeing if we can get any information on this thing before we take it down.
“Morrrteeemm.” It repeats itself again, this time dragging out the word like it’s trying to sound more intimidating.
If it is trying to scare us, it picked the wrong people. All I feel right now is pissed. Pissed that this fucker is wasting our time when we could be searching for our mate.
“Either go back from where you came from, or let’s get on with this. We’ve got somewhere to be.”
It growls, lifting an arm up like it’s reaching out to us. Instead, its hand merges and expands, curving upward and transforming into a thick blade the same color of its skin.
Stomping forward, it swings its weapon at our heads. We both duck in time, rolling out of the way.
The shift comes over me, sliding down my back and across my body with ease. My body expands, becoming larger than it was before, becoming a beast that’s also far more vicious.
Blue flames coat my form like a second skin. Together, my wolf and I feel powerful, untouchable, all thanks to our mate.
Landing on all fours, I become part of the shadows, slipping into them and appearing behind the demon minotaur’s trunk of a leg. I latch on.
The taste of rotten eggs and ash invades my senses as my teeth puncture its leathery skin. The demon doesn’t make a sound or cry out in pain as it raises its weapon and slams it down towards my head.
I release its leg and move out of the way just as the blade hits the ground, cracking the concrete with the force behind it.
It doesn’t feel pain, my wolf says, noticing the same thing. Guess we have to get a bit more creative.
The demon transforms its weapon back into its hand and stalks forward.
Black slime drips from the puncture wounds on its leg, leaving behind a trail of small holes where it drops.
Standing still, I wait for it to come to me, unleashing my fire the second it’s close enough. A blaze of blue and white flames engulfs its meaty arm as it reaches forward.
It pauses, examining its arm as it slowly melts before its red eyes.
The fuck?
It drops its arms as it melts away, leaving only a black bone like substance behind. Its eyes now turn to examine me once more.
“Morrtteeemmm.” Its deep voice vibrates through my sensitive wolf’s ears, making us cringe.
This thing is obviously missing a few screws. It is time to end this.
As if it has the same thought, it takes a step forward, only to pause and tilt its head.
My wolf picks up their scent before we see them. Dozens of rodent shifters with backup appear, looking ready to fight, but with Luka and me as the targets.
I knew I shouldn’t have let that slimy weasel go.
I glance around for Luka, but he’s still in his human form. His eyes glow as he fists his hands, concentrating on pushing the shift back.
Dark shadows slide over his face, appearing like thick tendrils around him.
Damn it. He’s suppressing his wolf again. Normally, he can work with him long enough to get the job done, but he must be too close to the edge if he’s not even trying to shift.
Another thing I missed and need to fucking kick myself for.
The rodents shift into their animals. Porcupines, weasels, and a couple of foxes all move forward to attack, but they’re not what has my attention, it’s their backup.
The leopards, hyenas, and damn bears.
The demon, no longer intrigued by their presence, moves forward.
I crouch, getting ready. My flames come to life as I watch the shifters and beast head towards us.
Luka glances up, his eyes widening at the scene before narrowing on the shifters. I see him make the decision, a determined look in his eyes, right before he lets go. He manages to stay in his human form but partially shifts to use his abilities.
His dark tendrils of shadows emerge from his body and whip out at the shifters, who are trying to cage me in with the demon.
My chest turns tight every time I see those shredded shadows. They should be whole, wrapping around his whole body when he shifts, they should be a bright orange, not dark and grey like they were now, but thanks to our fucked-up family, Luka will never have the same bond as I do with my beast nor the ease of the shift that goes with it.
The shadows coil around their necks, snapping them with a flick in a matter of seconds.
And they call me vicious… They’ve never met Luka when he decides to come out and play.
He moves beside me just as the demon reaches out to grab us.
Luka expands his coils to wrap around the beast, holding it in place.
Slipping into the shadows, I become a part of the shadow itself. Moving forward, I travel through the demon, lighting my flames as I slip through its body.
Coming out on the other side, I watch as the blazing blue and white engulfs its body. Luka holds it in place until it falls to the ground, unmoving.
Most of its black skin has melted, leaving a disfigured outline of a cross between a large animal and human.
Shifting back into my human form, I move closer to get a better look. Luka does the same, standing beside me.
He checks me over before focusing on the demon.
Looking down at the disintegrating demon, the smell of sulfur leaks out around it, permeating the air. “Smell that?”
“Sulfur?” Luka confirms, leaning down closer.
Black slime starts to seep from its body, leaving holes where it hits the ground.
“Any ideas?” I ask him.
If anyone would know, it would be him. He always has his head in a book. I can’t complain. It’s come in handy more than once and saved our asses a few times.
Luka shakes his head, “We should let the guys know about this, but…”
Kiarra. We all should be focusing on her, not this… demon. It’s just another obstacle in the way. One we didn’t fucking need right now.
He stands, staring straight at me, but he’s lost in his thoughts, so I know he doesn’t even see me.
Luka sighs. “We need to find more information on this thing, and fast. Then we can focus on Kiarra. She’s our main priority.”
“Agreed.”
Luka frowns, his stare becoming more focused as he tries to come up with a way that we can find some information on this demon quickly.
I let him do his thing, knowing I’m useless at this point unless he needs some physical back up.
“We can see if the demons in Staten Island know anything?” he says, but we both know that’s not much of an option.
“You know better than me. They want nothing to do with us.”
The dicks like to think it’s better to be apart from the rest of us, keeping their so-called dark gene pool pure. A shitty excuse to segregate their kind from the rest of the supes, was all it was.
“We’ll need to figure this out somehow and we’re gonna need help,” he says.
“Well, think of something else, because that’s not an option.”
Luka would like nothing more than us all to join hands and talk it out, but people with power—especially supes who already have a shit ton—like to keep it to themselves. Horde it and hold it over others to use as leverage to gain more.
The demons won’t help us unless we have something to offer them, and as new alphas trying to find their mate and run a city, we have nothing but extra problems for them.
“We can check out some books we have back home.” He doesn’t sound convinced. “We might find something.”
More like, he might find something. I’d rather claw my eyes out than sit down and read old dusty books. My wolf agrees. Our joined energies always need to be on the move, the bond we shared in sync, sharing the same goal.
Luka gives me a look, toying with his phone. I narrow my eyes on my shifty twin, knowing he’s come up with something but doesn’t want to tell me.
“Spit it out. I know you enough to know when you want to do something I don’t like.”
Luka narrows his eyes but tells me, anyway. “You know who might have some information on this? Cillian.”
I snarl at the fucker’s name, my wolf rising at the mere mention of the sick and twisted excuse for a supe.
“No. Not happening. That sick fuck isn’t coming anywhere near us.”
Luka releases a harsh breath, frowning. After what he did to us, especially him, he shouldn’t even be thinking about that… demented psycho.
“He might know what type of demon that is. He’s the maven of the family.”
That man—if you could even call him that—broke us. Luka more so than me. So Luka even mentioning his name surprises the hell out of me.
“First of all, that psycho is not our family. In fact, apart from Luna, neither are any of the rest of them. It’s the five of us and Kiarra, that’s all the family we need. We’ll figure the rest out ourselves.”
“If anyone knows anything about this, it will be him. I don’t know about you, but I want to focus on finding Kiarra, not running around chasing after demon minotaurs that appear from nowhere.”
I clench my jaw and fists, needing a target for my rising temper. Looking away, I focus on the sounds around me, trying to calm the chaos running through my veins.
Cillian is the maven of all the wolves in Manhattan and those stupid enough to listen to him outside it. They all fucking respect him because of his expertise and knowledge in the supernatural community. And it’s because of that, he’s gotten away with what he did to us and more.
He’d already be dead if I had my way, but he got his claws in Luka a long time ago, spewing his cult nonsense about how neither of us should exist. And those claws are so fucking deep that I can’t even get to them.
I hate this. I know he is right, that he is the one who would know about this, but I fucking hate it.
Even when it fucking broke him, Luka was always thinking logically and shit. But that was Luka, always thinking of others, even if it put himself in danger or, in this case, dragged up dark memories.
What Cillian did to him was unforgivable. I promised myself if we ever saw him again, I would rip his throat out and laugh while the fucker choked on his own blood. Then I’d dig him a grave myself just so I could dance and piss on it.
Luka didn’t need another thing to add to his nightmares. I’d have to deal with the fucker myself.
“I’ll call him.” Taking out my phone, I swallow back the bile, trying to rein in my temper before I speak to the asshole.
“I’ve got it.” Luka has his phone out and to his ear before I get the chance to stop him.
I go to grab it, but he sidesteps me. “We both know you’ll lose your temper and we’ll be back to square one. Leave it to me.”
I fist my hands, needing to punch something as soon as I hear his voice. I see nothing but violence and bloodshed. Cillian’s blood as I carve pieces of him out, just like he did with Luka.
The sick fuck deserves to be bled out and broken until there’s nothing left of the piece of shit. I clench my teeth hard, nearly breaking my jaw.
“Never thought I’d see the day.” His grumbling laugh grates on my ears, making me want to cut them off.
Luka ignores him, getting straight to the point. “We need—”
But the miserable bastard cuts him off, making my blood boil. Cillian’s laughter gets louder. My wolf pushes through, wanting to hunt him down and go through with my earlier promise, but also add a few torture tools and get way more creative, so the fucker dies much slower.
Taking deep breaths, I focus on all the things I can do to make him pay in the most painful ways. My bloodthirsty nature revels in the thought alone, calming my rising temper.
“Of course you do. I always knew you’d call asking for something, but just like the rest of the family, I want nothing to do with you.”
“This is bigger than us and our fucked-up past,” Luka tells him.
“Isn’t it always. But anything to do with you and that brother of yours doesn’t concern me.”
“Well, it fucking should,” I tell him, no longer attempting to rein my anger in. Luka gives me a look like he wants to strangle me.
“Ah, there’s the other mongrel. Knew you wouldn’t be too far from your brother. You know… if it weren’t for you, he might have had a chance to be normal.”
“We are fucking normal, you twisted fuck. It’s you who’s a piece of shit.”
“And here I thought you called me wanting help.”
“We do—” Luka starts, but the ignorant fuck ignores him, again.
“I’m not listening to a filthy mutt who has no restraint.”
“I’m going to—” I start, but Luka gives me a sharp look, cutting me off.
“Look, we called to ask if you know of a beast that looks like a mix between a Minotaur and demon.”
The end of the line goes quiet, making me think the dick has hung up on him for a minute.
Luka continues, probably still hoping he’ll help. “He bleeds black tar-like blood that burns through the ground like acid.”
Cillian sighs. “I might have an idea, but I’ll have to get a look to make sure.”
Damn. The fucker would have to come here.
“I’ll make my way over to you, but after this, lose my number. Our debt for Luna is paid.”
I go to grab the phone and tell the miserable fuck where he can shove his help when Luka sidesteps me again.
“Agreed. We’ll see you soon.” Luka hangs up and puts his phone away before I get the chance to move.
“Luka.” I rein in my temper, keeping it for Cillian but wanting to slap Luka upside his head. Maybe knock some sense into the idiot while I’m at it.
Luka gives me an innocent look. “Yes, brother?”
“Don’t give me that look. You know damn well we can’t work with him. You, especially.”
“We have no choice. He knows something. The quicker he tells us, the quicker he can leave, then we can focus on Kiarra.”
“I don’t like this.”
“Noted. But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s still going ahead.”
I glance around at the dead shifters, eyeing any that might have survived for round two, but none of the idiots are alive, leaving me to stir in my irritation.
“I’ll grab a sample of the beast.” Luka heads over and looks for a piece of the demon to bring back. He takes off his jacket and wraps it around the blackened chunk of meat before heading back to me.
“Let’s head back to contact the others and update them. Hopefully, they had better luck than us.”
Here’s hoping.
Kiarra… Where the fuck are you?
Back at the penthouse apartment, we find a comfortable spot and close our eyes. Focusing on the guys and the separate bond we have as brothers; I push myself into the link. A place where our bodies and minds can subconsciously travel to and communicate in. More than communicate.
The link is a room we created and built on a bond none of us realized we had until Kiarra left.
After she was taken six years ago, we fell apart. In more ways than one. We didn’t realize at the time she was our mate, but looking back now, it made sense. Not having her around anymore destroyed us.
Our so-called families saw this and tried to widen the gap between us further by keeping us apart. We were no longer a family, just a group of lost boys who were too broken to fix.
We were all going through our own types of hell, nearly giving into the dark when we all showed up inside the link one day.
We were shocked as hell, thinking we had teleported somehow. The room we were in felt as real as any other. The furniture and floor all as solid as the actual things.
Over the years, we’ve tested out just how real it is and have used it to our advantage when training. Although a slice of a blade feels just as real inside the link, once we leave, it’s as if it never happened and disappears.
The room can be malleable but takes a while to create and secure so other supes can’t listen in or overhear us. We could be overthinking it, but Rion thought it might be a possibility.
The link isn’t something that any other shifters can normally do either, though none of us are normal by any means, but nothing we’ve found out about it over the years leads us to believe there’s anyone else out there with the same ability.
My body forms in the new room. The large white sofa set and wide-open spaces is a mirror image of the lounge in the penthouse. The kitchen has a long marble island table surrounded with gray chairs.
A nice change from the dingy room we somehow conjured up as kids.
After being restricted by King’s spells in the Cardinal Three, it feels like coming home. Rion would never have let us test its limits while King was near, should he or someone find out. Though we didn’t really need it with all of us being together.
The room is set up to sense when one of us arrives, so I know it won’t be long before the others show up. They’ll also be waiting for an update.
Luka appears beside me, looking carefree and relaxed, but I know it’s an act. Talking to Cillian has dragged up old scars we both want to keep buried. I know I’ll have to keep a closer eye on him and his wolf for the next while.
Kai arrives with Axel and Rion. All wearing somber expressions.
“Anything?” I ask, but he shakes his head.
Damn.
Kai releases a sigh, looking a lot older than he is at this moment. The stress of everything weighs heavily on us, but more so on him, since he thinks it’s his fault that Kiarra is missing.
The simple idiot that he is should know that we all fucked up. We all should have tried harder to stop her somehow.
We need to stay positive, even if I feel anything but.
“We hit a dead end.” Kai drags his hand down his face. “The vampire hadn’t a clue what we were talking about.”
“He thought we were part of an undercover rival crew hunting for intel to carry back,” Kai says.
Axel huffs. “The idiot wasted our time.”
Rion gives him a bland look. “But you made sure he knew that.”
Axel shrugs his shoulders. “Turns out, vamps are highly flammable. Who’d have thought?” He smirks, a glint of mischief in his eyes. The same fucking glint I recognize from my own face when I went off to cause a bit of mayhem.
A low chuckle works its way up my chest.
Rion sighs. “We’ve been trying to chase the information back to the lead we thought we had but ended up nowhere.”
My amusement dries up, realizing we’re nowhere closer to where we were yesterday or the day before that. We’re going in circles each time, getting further from where we needed to be.
“Find anything on that slime ball, Garath?” Kai asks us, a glint of wrath in his eyes.
Luka gives me a look before answering him. “He’s dead.”
“Fucking great.” Axel turns and kicks one of the lounge chairs over. It fixes itself immediately as he huffs to the side.
Kai’s eyes narrow on us. “Is there something else?”
How the fuck does he do that? Always knows when we have more shit to tell him. It annoys the hell out of me.
Luka tilts his head at me. “We ran into a… complication.”
“What kind of complication?” Kai raises a brow.
“The ugly kind that was a mix between a minotaur and a demon,” I mumble, but with their shifter hearing, they hear me.
“What?” The guys look between me and Luka, probably wondering if this was some sort of prank. It wouldn’t be the first time.
“A… demon appeared when we were looking into that lead.”
“How did it just appear? From where?” Axel asks, looking confused as hell.
“Literally fucking nowhere,” I tell them.
“We’ll look into it once we find Kiarra,” Kai says.
I give Luka a look, telling him that he’s the one who can tell them. This will be his shit show about to go down.
“We contacted Cillian.”
The guys get near whiplash from how quick they turn to look at us.
Axel loses his temper, a look of shock and disgust across his face. “Why the fuck would you contact that dick?”
Luka keeps a stoic face, but I see the slight tremor in his hands as he fists them. “We needed information on the demon, fast. He’s the best option to finding out more about it, and that’s all that should matter.”
“The fuck it should,” Axel grinds out. “We can deal with this ourselves.”
“We still haven’t found Kiarra,” he tells them. That shuts everyone up pretty quickly.
We already know we’re running out of time. The clock is ticking over our heads like a timed bomb.
“He’ll be here and gone before you know it,” Luka says.
“He shouldn’t be going anywhere near either of you, and I’m not making any promises that I won’t end up killing the fucker.” Axel growls.
“Well, try to contain yourself. At least until he leaves,” Luka tells him.
“If we let him leave.” Axel clenches his jaw, turning to break some more furniture.
Luka sighs. “Look, Kiarra needs to be our priority.”
“She is,” Axel grits out, whipping his head around to glare at him.
“Then this conversation is pointless,” Luka tells him. “Cillian will give us the information his has, and then we can tick this off our list and focus on her.”
Kai opens his mouth to speak up when he pauses. “One sec.” He disappears, leaving Luka and Axel in a stare off. Rion is doing his usual, seeing more than he does shit, so I ignore them all and think of ways I can release my anger before the twisted psycho shows up. If I don’t, Axel won’t have to worry about hurting him. I’ll do it myself.
Kai returns a couple minutes later, a frown on his face. He looks from me to Luka. “This conversation isn’t over, and we’ll be discussing why you made decisions like this without us later.”
“Yes, sir.” I salute Kai, giving him a smirk.
Kai shakes his head at me before continuing. “That was Draven.”
“The demon leader of Staten Island? What does he want?” It couldn’t be anything good if he was calling.
“To meet.”
I choke out a laugh.
“What the hell?” Axel asks, but I cut him off. This has to be a trap. “Why now? They’ve never wanted to meet before.”
“He said he has information on Kiarra,” Kai says.
That shuts us up.
“How does he even know about Kiarra, let alone that she’s missing?” Axel asks.
“It’s not like we’ve been quiet on the whole, ‘Tell me what you know about my missing mate, or I’ll string you up and torture you slowly,’ spiel we’ve got going on.”
Axel narrows his eyes on me, looking for a fight. I give him a smirk, ready to challenge the hot-headed fool, still needing some outlet for the storm growing inside me.
“Not now.” Kai gives me a warning look not to push it.
I nod, knowing I’ll now have to head out later to hunt to release this built-up energy. My wolf perks up immediately, liking the idea.
“It could be a trap,” Luka tells him.
“It could be, but I’m not willing to take the chance in case it’s not,” Kai answers before looking at Luka and me.
“You two will stay here and keep an eye on the city. Axel, Rion, and I will head to Staten Island and see if he has anything.”
“Did he say what type of information he had?” I ask him, wondering if there are any clues to this being legitimate.
Kai shakes his head. “He said he might be able to help us find her, but only if we help them.”
I share a frown with Luka. “What could they possibly need our help with?”
Kai sighs. “Guess we’ll find out.”
