With cuffs, a bag of salt and a gun.
My eyes widened. “Joshua, are you crazy?”
“Yeah, Asher, what the fuck?” Kayden held me, protectively now.
“Get back inside, Isabella,” he ordered.
I shrugged out of Kayden’s embrace and arched a brow at Joshua in a challenge. “And if I don’t?”
He opened the bag of salt and dropped some at the doorway, forming a line. “Then I’ll make you.”
I snorted. “You think that will stop me?”
“It’ll stop your demon.”
“Maybe. What about the other beasts?”
He jiggled the cuffs at me, and I could smell the silver and iridium from here—the twins, too, as they were hissing behind me. “And the gun has rock salt and Vetala bullets.”
My skin tingled, every cell in my body, every instinct flaring. “You’re gonna use them on me, Joshua?”
“I never want to hurt you, my love. But I can’t lose you, not to that sick bastard, not to anything or anyone.” His voice trembled. “The question is, are you going to make me have to use them?”
My nostrils flared as Wolf rumbled inside me, clawing at me to set her free. “Get out of my way, Joshua,” I snarled. “I don’t want to hurt you either.”
“Then stay in the house until we figure it all out.”
I howled, half-shifting.
Kayden held the back of my furry neck in an alpha subduing move, looking me straight in the eyes. “No, Belle, calm down. Listen, if you want to see Damien, it’s fine, but we can’t let you do it alone. We’ll lure him out of Hell somehow and make him talk while we’re all with you.”
“You can’t hold me captive. Damien is my mate, too, and I’m free to see him whenever I like,” I roared, more fur jutting up my skin.
“Yes. Just not there. We’ll bring him to you. You just have to trust us like you always have.”
“Trust you? When you’re threatening me with cuffs and bullets?” Not waiting for an answer, I let Wolf out. Then I wagged my tail, hunkering back, and jumped for the window.
“Belle!”
Alec’s holler died with the shatter of the glass. The shards and freezing air lashed at me, but the snow soothed me a little when I landed on the ground. Without looking back, I started to run. Then my howl met the sound of the bullet that hit me right in the belly.
Shit. They did shoot me.
I struggled to my feet. The rock salt and Vetala only weakened my vamp and demon, but not my wolf. I was bleeding but fuck it. I’d heal in no time. I just needed to get going. Struggling to my paws, I staggered in the snow.
But the silver eyes caught me before I took one step.
“I’m sorry, love, but it’s for your own good.” The click of cuffs was the last thing I heard before silver and iridium seared my flesh, forcing me to be human again and pass out.
Chapter 18
Kayden
Asher took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, his face paler than ever, as if that was possible. He glanced once more at Belle’s room, where we cuffed her to the bed and boarded the windows, a sigh shaking out of his mouth. “I’ll go continue the research. We must find the rest of it and translate it as fast as possible.”
“And I’ll go back to the Blood Demons,” Alec said. “Maybe I’ll convince Inferno to help us lure Damien out of Hell.”
Asher nodded, but then he stared at me warily. “Can you take care of her alone?”
