We took a few more steps, and Azazel sucked in a sharp breath.

There was an underground station up ahead, but Azazel needed to get home now.

I slowed my pace, forcing us to a standstill. “Nox, can you take Azazel back to the Dominus quarters.”

“No,” Azazel said. “I can fly fine.”

“No, you can’t.” I gave him my sternest look. “Nox will take you back and then come pick me up from Lumiers.” I looked to Nox for confirmation. “I have a meeting with Uri, I can take the train there.”

“No problem,” Nox said.

Azazel looked torn, but he wasn’t a fool. He knew he needed the assist. He nodded. “Fine. We can talk when you get back.” His gaze was intense. “We need to talk.”

I wanted to hug him, to bury my face in the crook of his shoulder and sniff him, but instead, I slipped out from under his arm and allowed Nox to take the weight.

“I’ll see you soon.”

“Soon,” he promised.

The platform trembled, signaling the arrival of the train just as my comm beeped. It was a voicemail message forwarded from my mobile phone. The phone I rarely used now that I had the comm, but Conah had diverted calls to my comm. It was depressing how few people actually contacted me, though. Conah had dealt with Soul Savers, terminating my employment with them, but no one had contacted me. Heh, I guess I hadn’t been as popular as I’d thought.

There was no way to listen to the message, but the comm transcribed them. I opened it.

Hey, Fee, it’s Lucas. I need to speak with you urgently. I’m at the house. Please, meet me.

Fuck him. He could stand outside the house all night for all I cared. The train pulled into the platform. The doors opened, and people began to board.

Gah. Fuck my life.

I turned and legged it up the stairs to the opposite platform. Lucas had acted horribly, but he’d been my best friend. I owed it not to him but to myself to hear him out. Maybe fix what was broken and be friends again?

The train ride took ten minutes and another ten to get to the house. I kept checking my comm for more voicemails, but nothing came through. There was no way for me to contact him. Maybe he’d get fed up and leave?

Shit, it was almost seven. Uri would be waiting.

I dropped him a quick message.

Running a little late, please wait for me.

He replied immediately.

More cake for me.

Hah. He was starting to loosen up with me. I turned onto my street and broke into a jog. No idea why? I mean, Lucas could wait for all I cared, but there was a frisson of urgency in my veins I couldn’t explain. My house came into view. The porch was empty. Wait, the door was open. What the fuck?

My neck heated with anger. Had he broken in? I barreled up the path, but instinct had me slowing down as I approached the front door. Something was wrong …

I drew my dagger from the sheath under my jacket. “Lucas?”

Silence greeted me. An ominous, pregnant silence that had the hairs on the back of my neck standing to attention. My heartbeat quickened, and adrenaline heated my veins.

Something was off. Don’t go in. Don’t be an idiot. Call for backup.

I tapped a group message into my comm to the guys.

Break-in at the house. Something not right. Need backup.

Yeah, I’d wait and—

“Fee. Oh, God!” Lucas’s voice was a pained gurgle. “Help me!”

I didn’t think, I reacted by rushing into the hallway, dagger at the ready. The distinctive scent of blood hit me.

There was blood on the air.

I swung into the lounge, eyes scanning the gloom. A dark shape huddled on the floor in the center of the room.

“Fee …” Lucas looked up at me with a frightened eye; the other was swollen shut. His lip was busted and bleeding, and his hands were bound. His good eye widened. “Behind you …”

I felt the presence a second later and swung around to face several intruders in hooded cloaks. Their faces were in shadow.

Oh, fuck. I held my dagger up, anger heating my veins. “You killed Peiter.”

“And now it’s your turn,” one of the figures said.

Silver slashed through the air, and I leaped back, avoiding the stab of the dagger. The dagger that could kill a Dominus.

Lucas screamed as the other three figures rushed me. I stopped thinking and fought on instinct, dodging and punching and slashing. The guys would be here soon. Backup would be here soon. All I needed to do was—

My foot snagged on the edge of the rug, and I went down. My back hit the ground, and my head slammed against the stone slab around the fireplace. The world dimmed.

No. I rolled out of the way just in time to avoid the pointy end of the deadly dagger. It clinked against stone. And then a boot met my face. The world was filled with stars as a weight settled on my chest.

Pale purple eyes looked down at me from the shadow of a hood. “It’s nothing personal,” the figure said. “You simply need to die.”

And then fire shot under my breastbone and into my chest. My breath rushed out of my lungs in a silent scream, but Lucas screamed for me—loud, shrill, and long.

Someone would hear. Someone would come. But the world was fading, and my body was numb. I was drifting far away. Was this death? Was I dying? Heat unfurled low in my belly, and something stirred in the back of my mind. It opened its eyes and growled.

“You killed her. You fucking killed her.” Lucas’s sobs filled the room.

“What do you want me to do about him?” a male voice asked.

The heat from my solar plexus bloomed outward, eating away at the dead ice filling my veins. The thing in the back of my mind took a step forward, almost exploratory. I sensed curiosity and then concern and finally rage. The gentle heat flared into a burn that tore a reedy scream from my numb lips. Fire in my chest. Burning, tainting.

“No. This isn’t possible. It can’t be possible,” a male voice said.

The pain decreased in increments. I reached up to touch my chest. It was wet with blood but whole. There was no wound.

Sit up, the voice inside me said. Female, alert, and in control.

“She’s alive. How is she alive?” one of the hooded figures said.

The world was brighter. The figures were highlighted in silver. Lucas’s tear-stained face was almost glowing. I was seeing the world with new eyes.

I pulled myself to my feet, bringing the alien presence with me. She watched from the backseat. She was there but not there, and suddenly, I knew what she was. She was the part of me that had been asleep for too long. The part I hadn’t known was there. She was the beast, and she’d just saved my fucking life.

I raised my dagger. “Looks like your dagger doesn’t work on Loups.”

The hooded figures took a step back, and for a moment, I thought they were going to make a run for it, but then they raised their arms in the air.

“You will die,” the main one said. “If not by the dagger, then by the claw.”

My chest rumbled in a growl, and I lunged, slamming into an invisible barrier.

“Fee, what the fuck. Please, Fee,” Lucas cried.

I slammed into the barrier again and again, and the chanting grew louder and louder. It burrowed under my skin and seeped into my blood. The door in the back of my mind opened wider and wider. The beast was coming. She was coming, and she was hungry. The beast was coming, and I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t—

A roar filled my head and then there was nothing but darkness.

My mouth tasted funny. My stomach hurt. I opened my eyes and stared at the rug. I was on my front on the ground. Why were my hands bloody?

Lucas? I looked up and locked gazes with one glassy eye. The other was swollen shut and … Oh, God, where was the rest of his face? A bloody stump reached for me as if imploring me to do something, and sausage-like entrails trailed across the floor toward me. My body began to shake, and nausea roiled in my belly. No. Please, no.

I reached up to touch my bloody mouth and slipped my fingers past my lips to extract the meaty masticated parts of my ex-best friend.

I’d eaten him.

I’d fucking eaten Lucas.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Mal

I can sense death as soon as my boots hit the pavement. Conah’s right on my tail as we rush into the house, scythes at the ready.

I skid to a halt in the lounge, and my scythe dies.

Fee looks up at me from the floor. Her mouth and hands are bloody. Is she hurt? But then she looks to the left, and I follow her gaze to the torn-up body. A male … Fuck, is that the guy Lucas? Not much of him left. Oh, Fee. Fucking hell.

I guess we don’t need the results of those DNA tests after all.

She’s shaking so hard I can hear her teeth rattle. I want nothing more than to gather her into my arms and carry her away from here.

“Don’t touch her,” Conah says calmly. “If you touch her, you’ll contaminate the scene.”

The scene. Fuck, this is a scene now. An outlier crime scene. My stomach drops.

The Magiguard will be on their way,” Conah says.

And they’ll arrest her. She’ll be at the mercy of outlier law. A rogue Loup. Oh, fuck. “Then we need to grab her and go.”

His jaw ticks, and for a moment, I think he’s going to stand his ground, but then he strides forward and scoops Fee into his arms. She curls into him, making herself smaller, and I can see he’s thinking exactly the same thing. That we need to save her, that we need to keep her out of Magiguard clutches.

With a final look at the remains of the dead male, we head out of the house. If we can get far enough before the Magiguard arrives, we’ll be okay. No one will know.

We step out of the house and freeze.

Four Magiguard fan out around us. The air crackles with their power. Their amulets gleam as glamour surrounds us, hiding us from human eyes. How they know an outlier has killed a human is something I’ve never understood, but they always do, and they always come.

“Ursula,” Conah says evenly. “Let me explain.” He holds Fee tighter as if he can keep her when we both know that’s now impossible.