56

56

“You should have died with the rest of your pathetic pack,” David snarled.

“I’m not going to let you get away with this,” I countered. Furious fire roared within me. This man had orchestrated the slaughter of my pack and now he thought he could take everything else from me. “The Mythguard will see you dead.”

“I don’t give a shit what the Mythguard thinks they can do. Once I have that unicorn horn, nobody will be able to stop me,” spat David.

“You’re a monster.”

“All shifters eventually are, in some way or another!”

At this, David laughed. He sharply wrenched the knife down. The blade caught the base of my neck, searing pain lighting up across my collar bone. Clenching my teeth, I cupped the fresh wound with one hand and grabbed his wrist with the other. We struggled again until he pressed my spine against the broken window, shards of jagged glass biting into my back. David forced me backward until I had to use my hands to brace myself on either side of the window, trying to stop him from pushing me out. He reeled the knife back, prepared to drive it into my chest.

A lamp cracked over his head. David grunted, staggering sideways before turning his wrathful gaze onto Muriel. The unicorn held the lamp with its battered lampshade in warning, breathing heavily.

A hellish shriek cut through the room. With Lothair’s transformation complete, the dragon rose from the other side of the bed, nearly occupying the entire room with his massive size. His lips peeled back over his teeth in a vicious snarl, eyes a piercing, predatory yellow locked on me. The dragon threw itself toward me and I lunged out of the way, just barely avoiding him. Its body slammed into the wall where the broken window sat, forming cracks in the plaster, tearing down the silky curtain as it whirled around on me. With its gnashing teeth, it tried to bite me, while its long tail ensnared Muriel’s leg and jerked her away. David grabbed Muriel’s arm and clutched one of the spines sticking out from Lothair’s back. I scrambled away from the dragon’s mouth over the bed while Gavin and Billie tried to reclaim Muriel. Lothair used his hind feet to kick the wall in until it crumbled, and snapping its teeth wildly at everyone closing in around him, fended everyone off before twisting around and breaking through the wall and out into the yard. Sitting on the dragon’s back, David gripped Muriel and held her close as they made their escape.

“No!” Gavin roared, hovering by the massive hole punched out of the wall.

There was nothing we could do but watch the dragon slink away into the night, half running and half flying, David and Muriel on his back.

With me in one corner of the room, and Gavin and Billie near the battered wall, we all turned our eyes to Colt who’d been left behind. He stood by the door, pointing the gun between the three of us. His jaw clenched tight.

“Don’t,” warned Gavin.

“Colt, please don’t shoot,” said Billie.

His eyes crinkled in anger. “I should just kill all three of you.”

“You wouldn’t be able to fire more than once before one of us knocked your teeth out,” I said, panting heavily.

He aimed at all of us, but something kept him from firing. I thought out of all of us, I was the most deserving of his anger since I’d taken Aislin. Then again, Gavin had killed his sister. If he tried to kill either of us, the other one would surely make him pay for it. Maybe that was why Colt ultimately backed away, retreating from the room and out of the hallway. I followed him, watching from the top of the stairs as he stumbled over Aislin and Oslo. For just a moment, he paused and caught Aislin’s teary eyes, and I swelled with fury. “Colt!”

The Hexen glanced up at me and fired. I flinched, narrowly avoiding a bullet in the brain while Aislin yelped. Colt fled down the stairs and disappeared into the thick smoke.

My wolf inside me raged. I wanted to run after him, catch him and punish him for what he’d taken part in, but seeing Aislin there on the landing convinced me otherwise. She needed me. I crashed down the stairs and pulled her to her feet. “We have to get out of here.”

“I can’t leave my dad,” she said weakly.

“Here.” I slid my arm under his and around his shoulder. Aislin helped me lift him.

“Gretel’s in the living room,” said Gavin. “We have to get her out too.”

With a sidelong glance at the living room, my stomach dropped with dread. Fire was eating away the room and creeping into the hallway. The thick smoke made it hard to breathe and see anything, but from outside, intense bursts of water were already starting to douse the inferno. Aislin and I dragged Oslo through the kitchen and out of the back door. A moment later, Gavin and Billie followed with Gretel in their arms.

Once we laid Oslo in the grass, Aislin went to her mother’s side. Terrible burns scorched the side of her face and body that had been exposed to the fire. She was unconscious, but it looked like she was still alive. “Mom! I’m so sorry, I should have been here,” Aislin cried.

I wondered what the difference would have been, had Aislin been with Grandbay instead of me. It shook me to think that she might have been among the casualties tallied tonight.

There was nobody left in the Mundy house. Police surrounded the home and firefighters flooded the blaze. Those of my packmates and the Mythguard who were still alive had already fled, along with the dragons and Dalesbloom wolves. Even Gavin and Billie had gone, per my suggestion to avoid any police questioning. But I stayed with Aislin and her parents. She needed as much support from me as she could get, and I wanted to provide it.

After everything that happened tonight, I didn’t know what would come next. I didn’t know how Grandbay and Eastpeak would recover, or if we even could. Both of our packs had been torn asunder by the attack. Even the town and its human inhabitants had faced David’s wrath. Worst of all… we had lost Muriel.

Now, the Lycan ritual was inevitable.