By the time Gabriel appears behind me again, Luis’ corpse is nothing more than a visceral portrait of blood and guts.
There are no defining features left, nothing to indicate that this was a human. Just gore.
Good.
Fuck drug dealers. He wasn’t human anyway.
“What the fuck…” Gabriel mumbles, stopping at my side to gaze over at my artwork.
“He deserved it,” I remind him, adrenaline still racing through my veins.
“He’s going to be a lot harder to bury now.”
“He doesn’t deserve a burial.”
My gun is still smoking when Gabriel grabs my wrist and turns me to face him.
“What’s gotten into you?” he asks, his hazel-green eyes squinting.
“Nothing’s gotten into me,” I say, biting my bottom lip. “I’m the one who’s been putting shit into other people. Luis’ is filled with my lead…”
“Luis is long gone,” Gabriel notes. “You’ve been shooting a corpse. There are more important matters at hand.”
My body twitches against the strength of the dark wolf’s grip. There’s a pressure in my core that needs to be addressed; a wetness dripping from my cunt that needs to be lapped up.
Dropping my gun, I use my free hand to cup Gabriel’s ever-present bulge.
“Like what?” I ask, my voice full of suggestion.
But, to my surprise, Gabriel ignores that suggestion.
“Never drop your gun, myszko. Who knows who could be hiding in these woods, waiting to attack.”
“Could they be any more fearsome than my big bad wolf?” I ask, not giving up.
I press my body into his and I feel his cock surge.
“No, but they could be more fearsome than you,” he growls.
Taking my jaw in his hand, he stares at me like I deserve a particularly savage kiss.
But that kiss never comes.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, my arousal slowly fading as a prick of dread pierces the pressure in my core.
“Nothing’s wrong,” Gabriel assures me.
“It sounds like something is wrong.”
Before he can confirm or deny my suspicion, something pulls our attention off each other.
Through the peaceful evening air, I can hear what sounds like sticks cracking beneath something heavy. It comes from behind the wall of trees surrounded us.
Gabriel obviously hears it too.
Then, we both spot the approaching light. It seeps through the trees like a false dawn, before quickly disappearing.
“Pick up your gun,” Gabriel orders, his hackles rising as he steps in front of me.
I do as I’m told. The metal is still hot.
A pinprick of arousal returns through the dread and the fear. It keeps my hand steady as we creep forward.
“What is it?” I ask.
“I’m not sure. Go inside. Wait for me there.”
“I can fight,” I insist, perhaps a little too loudly.
Whipping around, Gabriel grabs me around the wrist and squeezes.
“Go. Inside.”
Before I can fight back any more, he rips the gun from my hand.
“Hey, that’s mine!”
“You’ll get it back after you’ve listen to me,” my dark wolf growls. “Now do as your told.”
My heart drops a little as all of the fun of my shooting practice is swatted away.
“I can help.”
“Shooting a living thing is different than eviscerating a dead body,” Gabriel reminds me.
The crunch coming from the dark forest is quickly becoming a whole lot louder.
“Go,” Gabriel barks, before turning back around and raising my gun.
For a moment, I just freeze and watch as he crouches forward. But when another wave of light flashes through the thick rows of trunks ahead, I know that I don’t have any other choice.
If I stay out here, I’ll only be a distraction. And that could put Gabriel in danger.
“Good luck,” I whisper. Then, I turn and run back into the cabin.
But when I get inside, I don’t go looking for some closet to hide in. No. I’m convinced that I can still help Gabriel, if even only as backup. Hell, I know what it’s like to shoot a body; I know what it’s like to kill a person.
Immediately, I start pillaging the drawers in the foyer. A drug lord lived here. There’s got to be some weapons and ammo hidden somewhere.
“Who is it?”
Outside, I hear Gabriel’s muffled voice shout into the growing darkness.
I don’t hear anyone shout back.
My chest tightens as I search for anything that I could use to help.
When I whip open one of the closet doors near the far wall, I find the motherload.
The space is lined from top to bottom with guns and ammo. But there are no pistols or Glocks.
This shit looks like hunting equipment. Like the kind of weapons someone might use to kill the beasts mounted up on the bedroom walls.
They will have to do.
Stepping up on my tip toes, I reach for the nearest rifle. It has a long scope and a heavy base, but I manage to corral it.
The second I get it down, though, I realize I have no fucking clue how to work the thing. Is it loaded? If not, how the fuck do I load it?
Once more, I hear Gabriel call out into the darkness.
Once again, he gets no response.
Fuck it.
Slinging the rifle over my shoulder, I find the stairs and race up them.
When I was outside, I noticed that the strange light was coming from in front of us, which means I should be able to get a good view of the approaching threat from the bedroom window.
Sure enough, a pulsing wave of light washes through the bedroom the second I push myself inside. Immediately, I go to pry open one of the rounded windows.
I can help, Gabriel. Why won’t you just let me help? Isn’t this what you trained me for.
After I’ve managed to prop open one of the windows, I set the long barrel down on the window sill.
With the heavy stock resting on my shoulder, I can’t push myself up enough to see over my own weapon. So, I have to peer through the scope to see what’s happening below.
It doesn’t take long before another wave of light laps through the woods. That’s when I finally realize what it must be from.
A car.
Maybe multiple cars.
Fuck.
My nerves tighten, and I have to take a deep breath just to try and untangle them.
You can do this, Bianca, I tell myself, all the while trying to figure out exactly how to shoot this thing, if it comes to that.
But this rifle isn’t the same beast as the gun I was using for target practice earlier. I’m in over my head, and I know it.
Strangely, though, I’m not scared. Just anxious, and worried for Gabriel.
My finger wraps around the trigger as I search for danger. I doubt this thing is loaded, but I can’t just sit back and hide. Gabriel’s made sure I’m not that type of girl anymore.
If shit hits the fan, I’m going to start shooting. Hopefully it won’t just be blanks.
Heart in my throat, I continue to scan the dark forest.
Then, finally, I spot the source of the light—at least, one of the sources.
A single black van creeps out of a small opening in the forest, before coming to a stop under a long shadow.
Even through the powerful scope, the windows are too tinted to see through. All I can do is hold my breath and wait for something to happen.
Luckily, I don’t have to wait long before the driver’s door is opened.
My skin crawls as a hulking figure steps out. In the darkness of his long shadow, he appears as nothing more than a towering silhouette, but as he begins to move forward, I spot the gun in his hand.
It rests innocently by his side. But I don’t take my hand off my own trigger. Because as the figure steps out of the shadows and into the light, I’m hit with an oddly visceral reaction.
… That face.
I’ve seen it somewhere before. Broad and chiseled like a surrealist statue, it stands atop a thick neck choked in black tattoos.
Why does he look so familiar?
It’s like I can vaguely remember him from some hazy dream… or nightmare. But that’s as far as my recollection goes.
I’m transfixed as the monster continues his entrance. Then, out of the corner of my scope, a new figure appears.
There’s no mistaking who that is.
Gabriel.
The two beasts stop some odd five feet from each other, guns still in hand, but rested at their hips.
The sight calms me a little.
Neither of them look particularly tense.
This could be a friend.
Still, I watch intently through the scope of this oversized rifle, desperately trying to remember where I’ve seen this new face before…
I don’t get to look much longer.
I don’t know if my finger twitches involuntarily, or if I relax so much it slips down the trigger, but suddenly, a deafening roar erupts from the barrel.
The recoil flings the scope right into my eye, and I’m knocked onto my ass.
But even through the shock of what just happened, I have enough sense to curse myself to hell and back.
No. No. No.
This thing was fucking loaded. And I just shot at someone who might be on our side.
Battling through the dread, I push myself onto my knees and look back out of the window.
The second my head pops through the frame, I meet eyes with the monster I just fired at.
His gun lifts towards me.
But before he can shoot, Gabriel lunges forward, tackling the beast of a man to the ground.
Someone curses in an unknown language. The two men exchange muffled shouts. Then I hear Gabriel’s voice.
“Bianca, get the hell down here! And don’t you dare bring a fucking gun with you!”
His roar is so deep and angry that it rattles my bones.
Fuck. I’m in trouble.
The dread sitting in my gut twists into a whole new form… but it’s also joined by the familiar heat of arousal.
I try to ignore the pressure growing in my core as I leave the gun to scurry out of the bedroom and down the stairs.
I’ll be punished again.
When I burst out of the front door, I see Gabriel helping the stranger back onto his feet.
“Come here!” he bellows, spotting me.
“I’m sorry,” I mutter, keeping my eyes downcast as I make my way towards them.
The closer I get, the more intimidated I become. The stranger is even bigger than Gabriel, and at least half a foot wider. Combined, their presence is nearly suffocating, but I still force myself to look up at them.
That’s when I see the blood. There’s a gash in the stranger’s massive arm. Thankfully, it only seems to be bleeding a little bit.
I only grazed him.
“What the hell were you doing?’ Gabriel demands to know.
“I… I thought we might be under attack. I was trying to help.”
“I told you to go inside.”
“I was inside!”
“You need to work on your shot, little lady,” a new voice interrupts.
It’s the stranger.
Up close, I can see the brutally handsome undercurrent of his monstrous appearance. His features are sharp and chiselled and dangerous, but I find no hate in his captivating eyes—at least, not any that seems to be directed towards me.
He must be one of Gabriel’s friends.
“I… I’m sorry about that…” I shamefully apologize, gesturing towards his shallow wound. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Oh, we’ve met before,” the man nods. “I helped Gabriel get you away from that ambush. That feels like a lifetime ago now, though, doesn’t it?”
The ambush.
That must be where I recognize him from. Did I see his face while I slipped in an out of consciousness?
“This is Tytus,” Gabriel says. “He’s on our side… at least, he was until you shot him.”
“Still am,” Tytus chuckles. “She only grazed me, but it was my fault for showing up without warning you.”
“You weren’t supposed to arrive until tomorrow,” Gabriel sternly agrees.
“I drove a little faster than usual,” Tytus shrugs. “Roz told me about your call with Drago, and I wanted to get this over with before he could get a chance to come find us.”
“He won’t,” Gabriel snarls.
“But you’ll shoot him if he does show up, ain’t that right, princess?” Tytus jokes, looking my way.
“Don’t call her princess,” Gabriel responds for me, before moving on. “Are the priests alright?”
“Let’s go find out.”
My chest tightens as I follow Gabriel and Tytus to the back of the van.
The priests. They’re here.
This is really happening.
It’s not until Tytus rips the doors open that I realize I’ve been holding my breath. It all comes rushing out in a loud gasp as I see what’s waiting for us inside.
“Wszystko w porzadku?”
That’s Gabriel’s voice. It’s strange to hear him speak more than a word of Polish. But also strangely comforting.
Not that the comfort lasts long.
Ahead, two incredibly long, pale men sit deathly still. Their gaunt faces stare back at us, unmoving. Strange square black hats sit upon their bald heads. Their bodies are draped in black robes.
Neither of them respond to Gabriel’s question with anything more than a subtle nod.
Then, they sit up.
All three of us step aside as the black priests crawl out of the back of the van.
They’re disturbingly tall.
Behind them, piles of gothic accoutrements rattle and shake.
“Bianca, go upstairs and wait for me in the bedroom,” Gabriel quietly orders. “I’ll be up soon.”
“Try to stay away from the guns,” Tytus adds.
“I… I…” I’m not sure what to say. The sudden arrival of the terrifying priests has hit me like an unexpected slap.
It’s a ruthless reminder of what awaits.
A cold wind wraps around me as the giant trees at my back start to creak and sway.
Then, Gabriel confirms what I already suspect.
“Go, myszko. Prepare yourself. The wedding happens tonight.”
