The ruby lifted off the ground, floating into the air, and a yelp escaped me as I fell backward onto my butt.
“Stupid witch. Not many of our sacrifices like toexpeditetheir demise and give their life force to my stone.” Rita shook her head as if we were the biggest idiots ever. “You didn’t even indulge. A pity, as this will be your last night on this earth.” She raised her hands.
The candles flared, and the bones began to glow an eerie red that matched the stone.
I gulped as what was happening—what had likely happened to all those tourists who disappeared—crashed over me.
“You’ve been siphoning life-force from visitors.” My voice came out in a terrified croak.
Rita cackled. “Yes, yes. We started with the omegas of our pack, but had to put an end to that. The children kept growing weaker. It wasn’t sustainable. But visitors, especially other magicals, are theperfecttarget.”
“Why?” Phoebe asked, her hands still extended defensively.
“Have you ever been destitute?” Rita snapped. “This town wasnothing. A decrepit mining town that survived on social services. I was sick to death of being the joke of the entire state. So I made a deal to change my fate, and soon realized I could elevate the status of my home too.”
I shuddered at the implication. Rita had made a deal with a demon for power. And now all she had to do was spill a bit of blood to maintain it.
“The government knows,” I said. “Give us the stone, and maybe they’ll go easy on you.”
“Spellcasters.” Rita’s eyes narrowed, and as if the shock of discovering who we were was too much, she reverted to a woman. “I always thought they’d send other shifters . . .” She threw her head back and laughed. “The Furies were right! We’re the most powerful of our kind! I love it!”
The shifter extended her hand and squeezed her fingers inward. The demon stone, which had been hovering in front of me, soared toward her.
I jumped forward to stop it, my hands reaching outward. Fuchsia magic burst from them, and the stone stopped in mid-air as my magic fought Rita’s power for control.
Rita gasped, and her magic—the power she’d gotten from the stone—faltered momentarily as the shifter thrust a finger at me.
“Fuchsia . . . It’s you!”
My stomach dropped as I realized my mistake.
The leaders of this pack had made a deal with the Furies, a three-in-one aspect of a royal princess of Hell. Which meant they knew about me, and that the royals wanted me for their own purposes.
“By order of our masters, capture them!” Rita screamed, confirming my worst fear.
The wolves burst into the room.
I moved to grab Phoebe and get us out of there, but the crazy girl leapt away from me, toward the jaws of ten wolves.
My blood skittered in my veins, and a shield flew from my hands, weaving together as it traveled, and wrapped itself around Phoebe with only seconds to spare.
Two of the wolves rammed straight into the protection and fell to the ground.
“Hurry!” I screamed as I manipulated a second shield around myself and prepared to open a warphole.
Phoebe was there in a second, snatching the stone out of the air and running back toward me. I pictured where we parked the car, and a warphole opened up between us. I dropped our shields, which were protections that warpholes did not allow for, and dove through.
Heat and then chilling cold engulfed us, reassuring me. No matter where we ended up, we’d no longer be in Rita’s mansion. That was—
I released a scream as teeth snapped down on my foot seconds before I crashed onto cement.
“Close it, Odette! A wolf is coming through!”
I squeezed my eyes shut in pain, and following Phoebe’s instructions, released the warphole. The sickening sound of ripping flesh and liquid dripping onto the ground hit my ears. The sensation of teeth piercing my skin disappeared.
“Oh my God,” Phoebe said, and even though I knew the horrors I would see, I couldn’t stop myself from looking.
A hand flew to my mouth as vomit climbed up my throat. Half a wolf lay in the middle of the road, glassy-eyed, with its intestines smeared on the ground.I’d closed the warphole around him and sliced his body in half.My stomach heaved, and I wanted to fall apart right then and there.
