Cole Evans spat in my face then punched me so hard everything went black.
‘Next time you kill a wolf, you’d better make sure he stays dead.’
Chapter Forty-Three
As he pulled back his hand to hit me again, someone caught his wrist to stop him.
‘Do you want to make it so easy?’ Astrid hissed. ‘She doesn’t deserve a quick death.’
‘You’re dead,’ I managed to say through a throbbing jaw. ‘I killed you.’
‘You wish,’ Cole said with a snarl.
‘If I hadn’t been there to pull him out the water, you might’ve come close,’ Astrid added. ‘Sloppy work. Very sloppy work, Emily.’
She ran her hand down his forearm, stopping at his bicep to squeeze it lovingly. It was too intimate a gesture, almost tender, and clashed with the violence in their posture. They were together, that much was obvious, but when he glanced over at her, I didn’t know if I could call the connection between them love. Whatever she returned in her unnatural violet eyes wasn’t quite the same.
‘It was good of the pack to organize this for us,’ she said, lightly flicking her wrist to gesture around the park. ‘I like the silver cages, they’re a nice touch.’
‘And this way we get you and the pack in one fell swoop,’ Cole added. ‘Two birds, one stone.’
Astrid chuckled and crooked her finger under his chin. ‘He loves efficiency, this one. Such a practical man.’
Her English was heavily accented but flawless. Her hair hung stick straight down her back and I wondered if the blood staining her hands belonged to Ileen Stovell, Wyn, or someone else altogether.
‘Emily?’
A few feet away, Lydia roused, pressing at a spot on her left temple where a trickle of blood ran down her cheek.
‘We don’t have much time to chat,’ Astrid said regretfully. ‘My spells aren’t strong enough, not yet, and I don’t know how long I can keep these whelps asleep. If they wake up, I’ll have to kill them all and that would be messy.’
‘But we are going to kill them, right?’ Cole sounded concerned. ‘You said I could.’
‘You want all your vengeance at once?’ his girlfriend admonished. ‘Efficient but greedy. Yes, Cole, we are going to kill them, but not tonight. Five, six bodies, I can deal with. A hundred wolves at once? Be sensible. Pack leader now, the rest of them later.’
The pack leader. His own mother. Who were their other intended victims?
When Cole dropped me back down to the ground, I reached into the pocket stuffed with spearmint and rue. Clarity and self-belief. I needed both, desperately. Scattered around the park were the bodies of six unconscious Weres, two of them already phased into wolves, four still in human form, one of them Pamela Evans. Behind Astrid, who was crouched over an open suitcase, were two large cages. The bars sparkled brighter than any iron or steel. Solid silver. In the cage closest to me, Jackson crouched in a corner, duct tape over his mouth, yellingwordlessly when our eyes met. Behind him was an enormous, unconscious wolf, its laboured breathing confirming it was alive. In the next, was Wyn, slumped and barely alive, his entire body painted with his own blood. Behind him was another gagged and bound body.
Alex Powell.
‘What is she doing here?’ I asked, half-crawling and half-dragging myself over to the terrified woman, huddled in a tight ball in the back of the cage. She didn’t look up when she heard my voice, and when I got close enough, I saw her skin had been smeared with a mix of herbs and plants, cayenne pepper blended with stinging nettles and fresh aloe. A spell to ward off magic and stop me or Lydia sensing her presence. The mixture had to sting like hell but she seemed too out of it to feel much of anything.
‘Don’t ask me.’ Cole booted the cage until a groan rattled out of his brother. ‘She was in there when we found them. Had to make room for little brother though. Makes me sick. Didn’t even put up a fight.’
I was so focused on Jackson, Alex and Wyn, I didn’t see the dead body behind the cage until Cole kicked the corpse. A young man, maybe twenty, sprawled out on the grass, his neck crooked and open eyes unseeing. Another death on my conscience. Another face I would never forget.
‘How did you get into Bell House?’ I demanded, filling the question with indignation, refusing to show I was afraid. Grief and blame would have to wait.
‘Your precious house is not very pet friendly,’ Astrid replied, still busy with the suitcase. ‘We only came for him, not you. It took a little finessing, but once the house was certain we meant no harm to any witch and blood or legal relative of the Bell family, we were able to force our way inside. Too trusting. Like you.’
She limped over to me, favouring the side where she’d been burned at Hilton Head, her hands slick with a foul-smelling green paste. ‘If you hadn’t complicated everything by attacking Cole in the cemetery that night, everything would be as it should be by now. Your boy wouldn’t be a part of this, none of your friends would have to die.’
‘I was defending myself.’ Every word I spoke scratched at my throat like a rusty nail. ‘I didn’t know Cole was a Were.’
The scent of the concoction on her hands made me gag, and I knew, whatever it was, that it would not be pleasant for me.
‘Wyn said the wolves don’t use magic.’ I tried to push myself backwards but there was nowhere to go. My head was still fuzzy and both Astrid and Cole seemed to tower over me, both giants as I sat up with my back to the cage.
