34
DAMIEN
I’d taken only a dozen steps outside the citadel, and one thing was certain: I was being followed.
Followed in the sense of stalked, really. But I knew my brood. My clan. I knew who was on me even before they knew I’d made them. But none of that mattered. Not once I realized what was really going on.
Karessa was many things, but a loser wasn’t one of them. She didn’t know what it was like to be on the short end of the stick. In all the years I’d known and loved her, she’d never tasted defeat. Which was why it wasn’t like her to just let me go… especially after all the trouble she went through to catch me.
Unless, of course, it wasn’t me she wanted to begin with.
Dammit Karessa.
I’d been foolish, leaving the hotel. And now that foolishness was going to cost me, or possibly Broderick, or even Serena.
For that, I had no one to blame but myself.
I entered the forest then looped back, forcing my pursuers upwind so I could catch their smell. It didn’t take long to pick out the two distinct scents. Lionel was the closest… and most dangerous.
Of the three who opposed us, I trusted him the least. The others might hold back a bit. In a fight, they might have reservations about ripping my throat open and letting me bleed out on the forest floor.
But not Lionel.
Wherever he’d come from, making him had been a big mistake. Where most of us loved the thrill of the hunt, for Lionel it was all about the kill. The scent of blood drove him into a frenzy, and I’d seen him gorge himself on the entrails of fresh prey long after his hunger had been sated.
As a wolf, he was gluttonous. Savage. Deadly.
In human terms, he was an asshole. And a giant one at that.
I circled back and re-entered the citadel while they were still in the woods. It wouldn’t throw them off completely, but it would buy me time. From there I drove deeper into the Underhalls, where I could sense Broderick…
And beyond him yes, Serena too.
I descended the stairs two at a time, working my way downward into the rough-hewn chambers I never really liked. The biggest one — the one I was in now — we called the ‘chasm’. Because, well… one side of the room ended in a big fucking chasm.
A cold wind wafted up from the big opening as I skirted past it, moving toward the opposite exit. Serena was closer than Broderick, I could sense that now. I’d head to her first. But the others…
The other were coming on quickly. As in four-legged quickly.
I could change. It would be faster, easier… and I’d see better in the dark. But I wasn’t ready yet. Not until—
“Damien!”
I froze. Behind me, something shifted in the shadows.
“That’s as far as you go.”
I turned and saw Boone. He was standing between me and the chasm, blocking the exit.
“Step aside,” I told him. “And we can forget you were ever here.”
Boone’s ponytail shook as he laughed. “Oh, really?”
He drew something from behind him that I recognized right away — a long dark stick. More of a sawed-off baseball bat really, but he carried it with him practically everywhere he went.
“I’m telling you now,” I warned. “I’m not in the mood.”
“No one ever is.”
He stepped in, swinging the bat in the air before him. Making some weird figure-eight, helicopter motion that he’d practiced hundreds of times. I picked up a rock. Threw it at him. He sidestepped, and the rock flew over his shoulder.
“You should’ve never come back,” Boone told me. “You made her so fucking angry.”
I picked up another rock. “You know why we’re here.”
He shrugged. Slapped the bat with his opposite hand.
“She’s petty,” I told him. “Vengeful. The worst kind of person.” I threw the rock, and he stepped to the same side. We were circling each other now, rotating positions. He watched absently as the rock skidded up against a wall.
“But you know all this already,” I said. “You learned it the moment you stepped in and tried to fill my shoes.”
“Your shoes?” he laughed derisively. “I’m filling much more than your shoes.”
“Maybe,” I smirked. “I hope you like following Christophe’s lead, though. She’s all about him now. You’re secondary, Boone. And that’ll never change.”
His mouth went tight, and I knew I’d hit the right nerve. I scooped up another rock.
“You’ll never be the alpha,” I told him. “You’ll try to please her in everything you do… but you and Lionel?”
I chucked the rock and almost hit him. This time it deflected off the edge of his bat.
“You’ll always be last choice.”
Boone’s upper lip curled in a sneer. He opened mouth and almost said something, but I quickly interrupted him.
“Have fun with all that,” I laughed. “In fact—”
He lowered his head and charged. But before he took a step, I whipped my arm forward and threw again…
I had no rock this time — it was only a bluff. But the motion was convincing enough that he halted, awkwardly, mid-stride. Throwing his arms over his head for protection, he didn’t see me rushing up to meet him. I collided with him before he could swing the bat, just as he realized he’d been deceived.
“UNGHH!”
My entire weight struck him right below center mass. It set him off balance. Sent him sprawling backwards…
Backwards and into the chasm.
I hadn’t realized he was so close! With all my rock-throwing I’d somehow circled him around. Repositioned him so that he had nowhere to retreat. His left foot missed the lip of the canyon, and at the very last second his eyes went wide, realizing what was going to happen.
So did mine.
He grabbed at me as he fell… and I reached out for him too. Our hands missed. For a heart-stopping moment his fingers swept through my hair… but they never caught.
“AHHHHHHHH!”
His scream was disturbing. Especially since it decreased in volume for a very long time and just sort of faded away, not even ending in a crash or thud.
Holy… Holy shit…
My limbs were shaking. My heart, pounding so hard I thought my chest would explode. I took a step backward, away from the chasm’s cold, dark edge. Then another…
“MURDERER!”
The word was Lionel’s. His hulking form took up most of the chamber’s entrance. Christophe stood next to him, his face twisted in horror.
For a second we just stood there staring at each other, realizing the magnitude of what just happened.
Then they began to morph… and I grabbed Boone’s club and fled faster than my two legs have ever carried me in my life.