Chapter Forty
Echo
Three words.
What. The. Fuck.
They’d made chicken and rice for everyone that unsurprisingly still sat on my and Rose’s plate, completely untouched. A weird, super late-night dinner had happened, and that wasn’t even the strangest part.
Robert had been a patient of Nathan’s before he met Sarah and became pastor of the church, having been inspired by Nathan’s past and how he overcame his shadows.
And when I say shadows, I meant a black abyss that consumed every ounce of his sanity.
Nathan was raised in a heavily religious home. His mother used to blood-let him every night to free him from sin. Then to make matters worse, when he turned sixteen, his powers came into fruition. Yeah. Nathan was a freak like the ones he despised so much. But he didn’t embrace it, and in return, it turned on him, the powers of divination so intense they bordered on madness. His mother ended up dying, and I knew deep down she was the reason he stuck to killing women. The men just happened to be there when he went after their wives. He believed the voices in his head were whispers from God, telling him to do his bidding and set the gifted free. He worked with what he knew, the bloodletting.
In the hospital, he met many of his patients who thought they were going crazy and then hunted them down through his religious aspects.
The church daycare Beth brought her kids to, and the others, were all connected too. He’d been there, talking to these women and become trustworthy. It was the link I knew had been there but hadn’t been disclosed in any of the old case work.
Robert looked at him like a brother, with adoration in his eyes.
Sarah, at least, had the decency to look sick beyond belief while Nathan told his story.
Rose wasn’t much better. As a psychology major, I could tell she was reading into his story as much as I was. Mine was strictly from a criminal background, hers was academic. My eyes met with hers, and I willed her to see that I would handle everything. Crazy people or not, they were no match for me.
“You’re the boy that told my parents about me.” I’d guessed it when he talked about his family traveling around to spread the truth about Christianity.
“Sometimes the whispers are more like shouting. I can’t keep them in, and your mother was the most beautiful angel I’d ever seen. I was disappointed to learn about your future gifts and that she had some, as well. I see so much of her in you.”
The way he said that made my stomach churn.
“I need to finish what I started that night, Echo; the voices have been relentless ever since—a never-ending need to use the tarot cards to channel my divination to see you. I promise that Rose will not die tonight, if you let me set you free, free to fly with your mother and fight on heaven’s side in the eternal war.” Nathan stood and wiped his mouth with a napkin.
“Let her go first,” I told him with complete confidence.
He shook his head in refusal, and Robert chuckled.
“We let her go, you’ll turn into some beast and slaughter us all. You first, then I swear she will be free. My pet Rosalie will escort her back to Seahill. She can find her way after that.”
Rosalie?
The poor girl from the hospital stepped into the room from around the corner. What the hell was she doing here?
Nathan held out his hand for hers, and like the good submissive she was, she came to him and placed her hand in his.
“So, let me guess, you had him kill Amanda to get her out of your way, since he was fucking her?” I was sort of pissed that she was helping this psycho. Nathan looked at his—for lack of better word in my head—dog. She turned to face me.
“We were both fucking her. Taking her innocence while she screamed soothed his voices. I would do anything for him. She tried to use her powers on us, but she was not equal to us. His power and my magic together are unstoppable. She outlived her purpose when she started lying there without any fight in her.” Her voice was steady and without remorse. She moved her free hand around, showing me the air swirling inside her palm. She was an energy wielder, like Asher. Maybe even part of his ignored coven.
“You raped her! You sick son of a bitch.” My voice was low, and my hands were shaking. All thoughts of leaving these in jail to rot went out the window with her words.
“Let’s get on with this. Sarah and I would like to celebrate the New Year right this year.” Robert yawned and went to touch Sarah’s cheek. She didn’t flinch, but tears started to gather in her eyes. Over my dead body. Sarah was an innocent in this. No way in hell was she leaving with these people.
I looked over to Rose, and she nodded subtly at me. We would protect Sarah and get out of here alive. Together. She’d been trained by warriors of old and new. She could handle herself without getting stabbed by the drug, and I could take care of the others.
Time to act.
“Let’s get this over with.” I repeated the pastor’s words, and Nathan’s creepy smile grew.
Faster than they could react, I grasped one of the knives behind my back and threw it at Rosalie, impaling her in the stomach so hard from the close proximity that she flew back into the wall. She would recover soon, like Asher would, so we only had a minute, tops, before her magic would become something to reckon with.
Nathan went to shoot Rose with the drug, but she kneed him in the torso and grabbed his head, bringing it down to the table with a loud thud. Robert wrapped his arms around my neck, and with his positioning, I could tell he was planning to snap it.
I changed into a black mamba and fell to the floor by his legs. He tried to stomp on me, but I was faster. One strike to his leg, and he stumbled to his chair. The venom in my fangs would most likely kill him, and I had no regrets about that. Not after everything I’d heard tonight, and not after he’d turned my city against me.
Nathan recovered himself and shoved Rose to the floor with his strength. She grunted in pain but otherwise seemed okay.
“Maybe I was wrong about your spirit. You’re a fucking demon who needs to be put down like a rabid animal.” Nathan cursed and came at me with a sharp knife.
I lunged for him, and he moved out of the way at the last minute.
My body started to change without my say-so, and then I was there, a bear staring down the man who murdered my parents.
His eyes were wide, but he came at me with the knife again. My powerful paws smacked his arm, and the knife clattered to the ground.
He fucked up, and he knew it. He shouldn’t have rambled on, instead of killing me as soon as I walked in the door.
A very sharp pain cut into my side, making me roar so hard the house shook.
I looked down to see Rosalie had stabbed me with the knife that had been in her stomach. She used her magic to lift Nathan’s abandoned knife and sent it flying at my throat. Not tonight, bitch. I shifted to a panther and went straight for her jugular.
Her magic flowed out with her blood, and the knife clattered against the wall behind me.
“He’s on the run. I’ll get Sarah out of here.” Rose started to rise and move toward a very pale Sarah.
“Take my car. I’ll meet you back at HQ. Keys are in the ignition,” I said in human form then ran for the door Nathan had just run through. I leaped into the air and changed into a wolf. Unlike that night long ago when I was the prey, running for my life, I was the wolf on the hunt now.