With my fangs still buried in his shoulder, I shook my head, tearing deeper. Using my back claws, I raked down his spine until his roars became gurgles, until the cave smelled only of blood and victory.
He howled, knees slamming into the dirt before his hand closed around one of my legs and flung me off him. I twisted in the air and landed on all fours, skidding as grit bit into the pads of my paws, eyes locked on the moving threat.
His hand clutched his bleeding throat, and the wound knit together faster than a normal supe’s would, given the damage I inflicted.
“I can do this all night,” he spat, his voice raw. “I can spill buckets and buckets of blood and still have the strength to take on a silver-spooned thug of the Syndicate!”
I shifted back into my human shape, planted a hand on my hip, and let a grin crawl across my face. “Is that supposed to be an insult? Cute.” I threw my hands up like a showman. “TheSilver-Spooned Thughas a nice ring. You’ve picked the wrong racket, bub. You should be in marketing.”
His whole frame trembled, teeth grinding so hard that his jaw had to ache. Green fire burned behind his eyes. “We. Will. Ruin. You. All of you.”
My fingers morphed into claws at my sides, and my body buzzed, ready for anything. “Plenty have said that before, yet all of them ended the same.” Putting my claws over my heart, I pretended to tear it out. “With their heart ripped out and stomped into the dirt. Where you belong.”
He bellowed, arms sweeping wide. The cave shuddered at the sound. Dust rattled down, and a thin, hairline crack webbed across the stone above us. Rocks began to tumble.
He didn’t seem to care. The moment my attention wasn’t on him, he seized the opportunity by slamming me into the wall. Jagged stone bit into my skin as his bulk ground against me.
Air left me, my chest caving in from the weight. I twisted my head and gasped for air, tasting dust and the rank, sour burn of his breath on my cheek. He laughed, the sound filthy. “Under all this muscle is just a woman.” With a sneer, he raked his hands up my thigh. “Might be nice to fuck you before I kill you. Last chance to taste you, right?”
Something in me snapped, and a laugh, sharp and bitter, came out. It made his jaw clench. “Please. Your little pecker wouldn’t compare to my mates’. You’ll just make me miss them more while I laugh at your pathetic dick.”
He shook, his anger taking over his mind for a second, and I took advantage. Circling my arms around his, I locked them against me as I thrust my claws into his ribs, slicing along muscle and fat, digging deeper and deeper. He howled as my claws rearranged his insides, the savage in me savoring the pain twisting up his face.
He spat out threats, venomous despite his stammer. “I-I’ll ruin you. I-I’ll kill you and—” His voice broke, mouth open in a silent scream, unable to finish.
Using that rage, he tried to swing his head down to crush mine, but I let go of him and shifted. My back slid down the rock, tearing it to shreds, and when I looked up, his head smashed into the rock wall with a massive thud. The wall groaned underneath his head, splintering into a web of cracks.
The big bastard staggered back, disoriented, as he pressed his palm to his dented skull with a groan. Dust and small stones rattled from above. The cracks in the wall spread wider, crawling up the wall and overhead, so I knew my time was up. I had minutes, maybe less. I needed to finish this.
I shifted back into my human form and lunged at him, pressing my thumb into his warm, slippery eye socket. There was a wet, fatal pop, and he screamed—a high, animal sound that bounced off the cave. I jumped away from him just as his hands came up to his face, blood slick between his fingers as he tried to catch his dangling right eye, but it was too late for that one. It was already squished like a grape.
In his panicked state, he froze when I leaned closer to his ear. His breathing was ragged and terrified. “If you don’t want to lose the other eye,” I said, my voice cold as the stone around us shook, “you’ll tell me about this doctor. Who is he, and what are you doing here?”
Choppy breaths stuttered out like he was trying to think of what to say, but he hesitated too long. I drove my claws into his chest and felt ribs splinter under my strikes. On the second plunge, I caught a rib between my fingers and slowly twisted it untilI heard a sickening snap. His screams finally collapsed into a hoarse, broken croak. “Stop. N-no more.”
“Don’t make me ask again,” I growled.
“H-he’s… lake… b-bank,” he spat, each syllable a wet, useless thing. My mind ricocheted through possibilities like bullets.
“Lake? What lake?” I pressed. The room began to shake.Fuck!
His body trembled. The swollen muscle that had towered over me before slackened, deflating at a rapid pace. His remaining eye flicked down, going wide before he glared up at me.
“They’re coming,” he rasped. “You won't… survive.”
Blood foamed at his mouth. His pupil rolled back, body violently shaking, and I let him go. A wave of red heat shimmered across his chest, settling right above his heart. A sharp crack split through the air. His chest ballooned, then caved in right before my eyes. His body folded to the ground, now lifeless.
What the fuck?
Curiosity took over, so I dug my claws into the warm mess in his chest, tearing through fistfuls of blood-slick tissue until I got to the spot where his heart was.
The inside looked blackened, almost charred, as if something had detonated beneath the sternum. Smoke-scented ash clung to the edges. His heart was nowhere to be found.
The dome above us rumbled, shaking the whole room. A slab of stone separated right above me, and I jumped out of the way. A loud thud sounded right behind me, shaking the ground. Dust choked the air, and stones fell from the ceiling like gravel sprinkles.
Looking up, I saw the knife in the wall, a shining glow rippling across the blade. I wanted that knife, needed to understand what kind of magic it held. Quick on my feet, I bolted for the wall, dodging the speared rocks falling from the ceiling.
Wrapping my fingers around the handle, I heaved with everything in me, but the metal resisted, clinging to the rock for dear life.
