On my hands and knees, I crawl forward to check on Dane. “Are you okay?”
He’s rubbing at his chest with a scowl. “I think you cracked my sternum, fucking hell.”
“Better than shot,” I fire back. “Here, let me-”
He smacks my hand away with a scowl. “Don’t fucking touch me! I came out here to find you, to save you from that prick that was keeping you locked away, only to find out you’re happy to suck some mage dick if it comes with a payout?” He tries to shove me away from him, but there’s only so much room under the shield. “That while I’ve been thinking you were dead, you were too busy fucking anyone that gave you the time of day to pick up a goddamn phone?”
His words are a slap to the face. “Yeah, because you were going to react so well to the news,” I snap. “I thought it’d be nicer to let you move on since you thought I died in that alley.”
“You should have.” His words seem to echo within the confines of the dome we’re trapped beneath and when he leans in to get in my face, I can’t bring myself to back away; there isn’t anywhere I can even go to escape him. “You aren’t Scarlett. You’re an abomination that shouldn’t exist.” Something presses into my chest as I stare at him, searching for any trace of the brother I know and love, but finding only disgust in his amber eyes. And I realize... Dane’s the same person he’s always been, and I just hoped that because it was me, it’d be different.
But the gun pressed above my heart makes his stance perfectly clear.
“Kasen... tell Malcolm to drop the shield.”
“He's fine, he can hold it and still fi-”
“Dane’s in on it. He brought them here.”
It's clear the moment he catches sight of the gun, a low growling resonating inside of my skull as the shield falls away. Dane’s fingers dig into my bicep as he hauls us both to his feet. I’m fairly certain that I could break free without catching a bullet to the heart if I could shut my racing mind down again, but I’m internally screaming too loud to confidently attempt it. In fury, at the injustice of it all, and the awareness as the shield drops how many more people surround us than before.
Sensing the direction of my thoughts, Kasen explains,“The mage. Blocked the scents and sounds behind shields so we didn’t know they were surrounding the house until he dropped them when he was shot.”
“The money,” Dane demands, not taking his hate-filled eyes off of me, pressing the barrel of the gun harder into my skin. “Make it happen; you owe me.”
Hatred and betrayal burn in my chest until I’m vibrating with fury. “Owe you? For what!?”
“Scar, baby, don’t push him too hard,”Kasen warns, though he’s clearly struggling not to launch himself at Dane.“He’s more likely to shoot than walk away from this.”
Dane’s lip curls in distaste. “Do you have any idea what you’ve put me through? The embarrassment I have to deal with now that word’s spreading that I’m related to a feral fucking rat? If you’re willing to whore yourself out to the monsters for some quick cash, the least you can do is pass some my way so I can start over and deny any connection to you.”
My anger surges, curling my hand into a fist and until my nails puncture my palm to restrain myself. As the men he showed up realize they have the upper hand again, my men and the triplets afraid to do anything to set Dane off and pull the trigger, they retreat to flank Dane and I grit my teeth.
“You’re seriously going to stand here surrounded by mages and shifters and not see that you’re a fucking hypocrite?”
He raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t comment, and I turn to the closest shifter. “You do realize that he's just going to stab you all in the back the second he gets an opportunity. If he would sacrifice his own sister for turning into a supe, you really think you’re any better off?”
Dark eyes meet mine as he pins me with a withering stare like I’m the biggest idiot he’s ever met. “I know.”
I barely have time to blink before he moves, tearing out Dane’s throat with his claws. The gun goes off, fire exploding in my shoulder as he’s thrown off balance from the unexpected attack. His blood sprays across my face, and the shock has me paralyzed.
The shifter wipes his hand on his jeans like he didn’t just murder someone, talking over my shoulder to speak with the men at my back. “I knew this was a dumb idea from the getgo, but there was enough weight behind it you’d appreciate an inside man.”
I can’t breathe.
There’s a ringing in my ears as chaos explodes around me. But despite the grunts and sounds of flesh slamming into flesh, the snarls as a few shift, my eyes are rooted to the ground, watching my brother feebly claw at his ravaged throat as the light slowly fades from his traitorous eyes. A scream has me jerking my head up, seeing the small crowd that’s gathered on the sidewalk from the few neighboring houses, several phones held up as they record everything happening.
As they take pictures of the vampire Malcolm swore wasn’t a threat covered in blood and a dead body lying at her feet.
“Take her and go!” Malcolm shouts, shoving me into someone’s waiting arms, snapping me out of the numbed state I found myself in amidst the fighting.
My hand is crushed in Beck’s as he starts running in the opposite direction towards the sparse trees at the end of the street and I have no choice but to force my limbs into motion, following his lead. Everything comes rushing back in an explosive mass of overwhelming chaos. My ears ringing from flesh hitting flesh, savage, feral sounds before blood saturates the air. The pain in my throbbing shoulder, growing worse with every subsequent heartbeat now that the shock is wearing off. And the bones in my hand, threatening to shatter under Beck’s merciless grip as he sprints with me in tow.
“We can’t just leave them,” I pant, starting to dig my heels in, but the furious glare he shoots me over his shoulder has me stumbling back into motion.
“We can and we will, you suicidal martyr,” he growls.
I jolt as a gunshot rings out, torn between the survival instincts making me want to duck, and the terrified ones making me want to turn around to assure myself Kasen and Malcolm are okay. The choice is torn away from me as Beck weaves us between the increasingly dense trees, the ocean to our right crashing against the cliffside below and combating the sounds of our shoes slapping against the hard, dry dirt.
