Only Mine.
Currently, she’s being dragged away from the burning cabin while another robed man leads them, and I don’t hesitate to give chase. The sound of the gunfire mutes my footsteps so I’m able to get the drop on them before they get too far.
The one in the rear twists at the last moment and his eyes flare behind the mask, but it’s too late. I already have my hands around his neck and with a vicious twist and a sickening crack, he drops to the ground. I step over him to eliminate the other threats to Mine when I’m suddenly grabbed from behind. I don’t falter and drop my weight, becoming a tree rooted to the groundwhile my prey grunts in his desperate attempts to lift me. I thrust the back of my skull into his nose and ignore the signals that tell me to feel pain as I roll out of his hold before he can recover.
Sweeping his foot out from under him, I pounce and grip his hair in my hands as I lift his head. His scream is cut off when I slam it down onto the ground but I don’t stop even when the snow and charred ground is covered in his blood and occipital lobe. I can feel the flames from the cabin licking at my sweat-slicked skin, but I can’t stop making more red.
Zeke’s hands are covered in it.
My hands are covered in it.
We’re all covered in it. All of us.
Khalil, Thorin, Zeke, Seth…and Mine. She’s covered in it too, but she doesn’t have to be. She’s got me.
I rise slowly as I seek out my next prey. The two remaining disciples that have Aurelia are no longer rushing to escape. They’re standing with her between them, their hands that I plan to remove from their bodies clutching her arms as the four of them watch me. My chest burns with fury as I move toward them. “Mine.”
I don’t hear the word leave my lips until the leader reaches up to remove his mask and I’m greeted with the scarred face of the Savior. I growl and the Zeke’s brother smiles at the sound. “Interesting. Bane, was it?” My gaze narrows on the man responsible for causing Zeke so much pain. I’ll kill him first. “You must be one of Zeke’s, which means you must want to protect him. Something tells me you’re the only one who can. I have no doubt that you can kill me, Bane. Because I’m not the real threat, am I?” The bloodlust thickens as the Savior’s words feed the fervor. “There’s another predator trying to take what’s yours and you know who he is.”
My gaze flicks toward the men doing their best to kill each other in my peripheral vision.
“Don’t you dare listen to this whack job,” Mine says with a furious growl. “Khalil is safe. Khalil is part of the group. He’s Zeke’s friend. He’s your friend.”
I frown at that as a hot bolt of confusion twists through me.
Friend? No. Competition…yes.
The Savior returns calmly, “You have to kill him now, Bane. You’ll never get the chance again and they’ll never let you near her.” Something inside me reacts violently to those words. “All you have to do is pick up one of those rifles and pull the trigger. Kill him, Bane, and this pretty little thing is yours. All yours.”
As if the Savior’s promise was a release, I suddenly turn to find Khalil on the offense this time. Every part of me—the part that Zeke’s afraid of—urges me to go in for the kill now that he’s distracted. Mine wouldn’t approve. She and Zeke would never forgive me, but I can’t turn away from the bloodlust.
As I move away from Mine and closer to Khalil’s unsuspecting back, my gaze snags on one of the rifles. I kneel to wrestle it free from the lifeless hand still clutching it. The gun feels foreign in my hands.
“That’s it, Bane,” the Savior praises. “Now aim and pull that lever in the middle.”
I raise the gun.
“Bane.” Mine gasps when she realizes my intent. “Bane, no!” And then she yells in a panic, “Chrysalis! Chrysalis, Chrysalis, Chrysalis!” But the trigger word fails to penetrate the bloodlust.
Not when it means I can keep her and Zeke safe.
“KHALIIIIL!” Mine screams again when she comes to the same conclusion. He finally has the throat of a disciple trapped inside the crook of his elbow, but he looks over in the direction of Aurelia’s voice. “Ruuuuun!”
Khalil’s gaze immediately searches for the threat and finds me holding the rifle pointed at him. My finger curls around the trigger at the same time he curses and drops the disciple. My shoulder smarts from the recoil as bullets spray from the muzzle in an uncontrolled spread.
Khalil makes a break for the trees.
I can’t see much beyond the spark from the rifle, but I shoot until there’s nothing left. I’m distantly aware of Aurelia fighting off the disciples’ hold and breaking free. In my peripheral vision, I see her run down the secret path and the disciples giving chase.
CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.
I drop the rifle immediately when it ceases to fire and I turn away from the trees where Khalil disappeared to go after Mine instead, but I’m suddenly brought to my knees by invisible chains coiling around my wrists and ankles. Throwing my head back, I roar my fury into the night sky and then I am no more.
EZEKIEL
I’m yelling when I come to. My ravaged throat quakes with a hoarse gasp when I stop abruptly to look around. My vision is blurry, and there’s ringing in my ears, but that’s nothing new with a switch. What I don’t expect is to find myself surrounded by flames. The first thing I notice is that the cabin is gone. It’s nothing more than charred wood and ash as the last of the fire consumes what remains. The second thing I notice is that I’m alone.
My gaze moves around, and my stomach sinks at the dead bodies everywhere. All of them robed, all of them except—
