Chapter 49 Why Me?
Brea's POV
Drake carried me through the rain-soaked alleys without slowing down. Elias followed close behind, still unsteady on his feet.
“We can’t stay on the surface,” Drake said. “Too open.”
He kicked open a rusted grate and descended into the underbelly of the Low-Sector. The moment we dropped down, the smell hit me a thick, damp, and rotten. We were in the sewers, a dark labyrinth of tunnels where the Dreadborns made their home.
Drake directed us through the twisting passages as if he’d lived down here his whole life. The only light came from faint, flickering emergency strips along the walls.
We didn’t get far. A low, guttural growl echoed through the tunnel ahead. Then another. And another.
A pack of feral Dreadborns emerged from the darkness , pale creatures with too-long limbs and glowing blue veins. They had been sent by Isadora. I could feel it. They were following the pull in my chest.
Drake stopped. He shifted me higher in his arms, one hand supporting my back.
“Stay close,” he told Elias. The creatures lunged.
Drake didn’t put me down. He didn’t even draw a weapon. Instead, he extended his free hand and let the dark energy of the Dreadbones pour out of him.
Two of the Dreadborns suddenly froze mid-leap. Their bodies jerked violently as Drake’s power took hold.
With a cold, emotionless expression, he forced them to turn on each other.
They tore into their flesh. Jaws snapped. Blood sprayed across the tunnel walls as the two creatures ripped each other apart in a frenzy, screaming the entire time.
The remaining Dreadborns hesitated, confused and terrified by the betrayal.
Drake kept walking straight through the carnage, stepping over twitching limbs and pools of dark blood while still carrying me securely. Elias followed, eyes wide with a mix of horror and reluctant respect.
Drake glanced down at me, his black eyes unreadable. I tried to speak, but only a weak breath came out. Drake tightened his grip on me.
“Hold on,” he murmured. “I will protect you" Elias reached for Drake’s shoulder.
Drake stopped instantly. The shadows on the tunnel walls sharpened into obsidian blades.
“If I were you, I would take that hand back while you still have the nerves to feel it, Sorcerer,” Drake said, his voice low and dangerous.
“My shadows don’t recognize your high-floor diplomacy. Touch me again, and I’ll let them show you what decay feels like from the inside out.”
Elias pulled his hand back, fingers tingling with frost.
I leaned heavily against the damp brick wall, forcing my voice to work.
“How, Drake?” I asked. “You aren’t a Dreadborn. You aren’t a vampire. How are you commanding them?”
"I didn't know I could do that," he said. "Not until I was tracking you." I kept moving. "What do you mean."
"After you left with Elias." His footsteps were steady ahead of mine. "I was following the signal on my phone. You went through the east district and there were Dreadborns moving through the same streets." A pause. "I got too close to one. Should have been dead in seconds."
"But it didn't touch you," I said. "It stopped," he said. "Just froze. And I realized I wasn't afraid of it the way I should have been.
Something felt different. Like a pull in my chest toward it instead of away." He ducked under a low section of ceiling. "So I pushed that feeling. Pointed it at the Dreadborn like a direction."
"And it followed."
"It followed?" I paused. "That was the second time. The square was the first except that time I did it without thinking. The moment I saw them coming toward you it just happened."
I watched the back of his head. "You still don't know where it comes from," I said.
"No," he said. "But I know it started the night you left."
“Brea,” Elais said, “we go to Rayne.” The world seemed to still.
Then, Drake moved. He crossed the distance in a blink, slamming Elais hard against the wall, the stone cracking under the impact.
“Say that again.” It wasn’t a question, but it was a threat.
Darkness tore loose from him, spilling across the floor, climbing the walls, swallowing the light whole.
Elais’s breath hitched, but he didn’t look away.
“To Rayne,” he forced out. “It’s the only place Seraphine can’t reach”
Drake’s hand tightened. “His name,” Drake said, tilting his head downwards in anger “does not leave your mouth again.”
The shadows sharpened. “I dragged her out frok those scavengers,” he went on, each word shaking with contained violence. “I kept her breathing while the whole damn city wanted her blood.”
His eyes burned. “And you stand here..” his grip jerked Elais higher against the wall “and tell me to hand her to him?”
“To keep her alive,” Elais shot back, strained but unyielding. “Or would you rather the border tear her apart instead?”
For a second, Drake looked like he might actually kill him.
“For once,” Elais choked, fingers digging into Drake’s wrist, “think.”
Drake didn’t loosen his grip. “Go on,” Elais said hoarsely. “Kill me. But you’ll still take her there.”
The shadows snapped, tightening. “Because it’s the only place she lives.”
Drake’s hand flexed dangerously close. “Say I’m wrong.”
“Stop.” My voice cut in, unsteady but clear.
They both stilled. “I’m not going,” I said. No buildup. No speech. Just that.
Drake’s gaze snapped to me. “You can’t ask me to walk back to him after that,” I added, quieter now, but firm. “I won’t do it.”
Elais dragged in a breath, still against the wall. “It’s not about asking.”
“I know,” I said. “Still no.”
That landed harder than shouting.
Drake slowly released Elais, but his posture stayed coiled, like he hadn’t decided anything yet.
“If we don’t go,” he said, eyes still on me, “she finds us.”
I swallowed. “Then we move.”
“That won’t be enough.”
“Maybe not,” I said. “But I’m not going there.”
Elais straightened, watching us both. “Then choose fast,” he said quietly. “Because standing here isn’t an option.”
No one argued again as we reached the edge of the Low-Sector just as the hour of Drake’s shadow protection began to fade.
A black SUV tore through the fog and screeched to a halt. The door opened, and Rayne stepped out, his expression cold and unreadable.
He didn’t look summoned. He simply looked like he had come to take what belonged to him.
The moment Rayne’s eyes landed on Drake holding me, Drake exploded with hatred.
“You’ve got some fucking nerve,” Drake snarled, shadows writhing violently around him.
“Elias wants to deliver her straight to you after she put a knife in your chest? I should kill that bastard for even suggesting this. She’s not yours to take!”
Drake’s grip on me tightened painfully as he tried to pull me back into the shadows.
Rayne didn’t speak a single word. He simply walked forward, completely nonchalant, as if the fresh burn flaring across the old scar on his chest didn’t affect him at all.
Without hesitation, he reached out and took my hand in his, his grip firm and unyielding.
Drake immediately lunged to stop him, shadows lashing out.
In one fluid motion, Rayne lifted his free hand. Dark gold energy flared briefly as he seized Drake by the throat and hoisted him clean off the ground, holding him suspended in the air with terrifying ease.
Drake’s eyes widened scrabbling uselessly at Rayne’s wrist as his shadows flickered wildly.
Rayne still said nothing. He simply stared at Drake for a cold, silent second a clear warning before tossing him aside like he weighed nothing.
Then, without looking back, Rayne pulled me toward the SUV, his hold on my hand steady and possessive.
“Get in the car,” he finally said, voice low and flat, as he opened the door.