Authors: Cynthia Eden
They’d tried to stop them for months. And Devon, he’d been the asshole to bring those monsters into the world.
She twisted to the left. Snaked down the tunnel to the right. The scent of blood hit her. Fresh blood.
Dammit, what had he done now?
A heavy metal door waited in front of her, open by a few precious inches. Open just enough to let the scent of blood spill out.
“Devon!” She called out as she shoved at the door. “What are you—”
Inside, a pool of blood soaked the floor. And in the middle of that pool…the broken body of the werewolf who’d attacked Jace at Howling Moon.
Footsteps thudded behind her. “Morgan!”
Jace’s rumbling voice. She swallowed and glanced around the room. Blood-stained footprints led to the left, to an escape tunnel. One that opened in the heart of the swamp.
“Fuck!” Jace’s shoulders brushed hers.
Paul came in behind him and scanned the room. Disgust tightened his face. “Looks like Devon was still
experimenting.”
Right below them. Right damn below them. The other Council members had forbidden his work long ago. But the bastard must have liked his blood and pain too much. Jace’s nostrils flared. “He fucking slaughtered a wolf.” And that’s what it was—a slaughter. The wolf’s flesh was a pale white, and Morgan knew that Devon had drained Mike’s blood. A fresh kill. While they’d been upstairs, this wolf had been dying. Jace’s dark eyes locked on her.
She swallowed back the bile that rose in her throat.
“
Jace, I-I didn’t know.”
Like that would make it better. She should have known. Her nest. Her responsibility. It was all…
on me.
“Look, I was coming to kill Devon, okay? He’s the one who opened the doorway for the demons. When I drank that demon’s blood, I saw him!”
Jace stared at the footprints, following them with his eyes. His shoulders were tense, and she could nearly feel the fury roiling from him. “The vampires summoned the demons.”
Jace’s claws burst out. “The vampires have been capturing wolves…what other little secrets haven’t you told me,
mate?
”
Oh, this wasn’t going to be good.
“Jace, let me explain, I—”
“Too late.” He grabbed her and put his claws at her throat. “
Too late, princess.
”
Morgan knew she was staring at death.
“I want every single one of you bloodsucking assholes to get in that cage.” His head jerked toward the left. Toward the heavily barred cell that Devon had used to house vampire prisoners over the years.
Those bars were reinforced. Able to hold demons, wolves, and, yes, even vamps.
We won’t be able to get out.
“Move,” he ordered, “or I slice open her throat.”
Her blood chilled at that threat.
Paul raised his chin. “You wouldn’t.”
Jace held her gaze. His stare seemed so cold. So…empty.
Would he?
“Get in the cell, Paul,” she told him quietly.
Jace’s jaw tensed.
Footsteps shuffled and snarls filled the air as the vamps went into their prison.
“They’re in!” Louis called out.
Jace didn’t let her go. “What are you going to do?” She asked. “I’m the one who knows where the doorway is. You need me to—”
“Devon knows where the doorway is. I bet that bastard is running there right now. How did you put it?
High on wolf blood.
He’ll think he’s fucking invincible, and he’ll go back.”
Maybe. Maybe not.
“Either way, I’ve got his scent.” Jace brought his head close to hers and those wicked claws didn’t move from her flesh. “I’m going to track him down and rip him apart.”
Because Devon had killed a wolf.
“He
risked
you. Tried to kill you.” His claws fell away. “The vamp will burn by dawn.”
Wha—
Jace lifted her up, moved too fast—damn him—and put her in the cell. Then he swung the door shut and locked her inside.
She grabbed the bars. “You can’t leave us like this.”
His brows rose. “Watch me.” He paused, staring down at Mike’s lifeless form. “Take care of him,” he ordered two of his men, and they immediately bent to pick up the body. Then Jace followed the bloody trail of footprints.
“
Jace! Dammit, I wasn’t going to betray you.”
He didn’t stop, but she caught his growled, “I know.”
What? “Then why are you doing this?
Why?”
One-by-one, the wolves exited the containment area. Jace was the last to leave. His broad shoulders scraped the arching sides of the doorway. “I’ll be back, Morgan.”
Her breath heaved in her chest.
“We’re not ending.” He spared her a glittering stare. “I’m not risking you, and I’m damn sure not taking the chance that the fire will get to you.”
“Jace—”
But he was gone, and Morgan was trapped with an angry cell of vampires. Her knuckles whitened around the bars. Alpha asshole. He thought he could go out and take all the risks? While she what—stayed there and worried about him?
She wasn’t the kind of girl who stayed behind. Mostly because she wasn’t a girl.
“I knew he wouldn’t hurt you.” Paul’s cocky voice.
She’d known it, too. His claws had trembled and never so much as nicked her flesh.
“We really going to let those wolves get all the glory?” He continued. “Because I’ve been wanting to give Devon a beating since I turned.”
She pulled at the bars. Yes, they’d been reinforced, and normally, she’d never be able to break them.
High on wolf blood.
The bars began to bend.
“Don’t worry,” she told Paul and the others. “Jace isn’t getting away from me.” And he sure wasn’t going into hell without her being there to pull her wolf right back out of the fire.
Jace and his pack chased Devon into the center of the Glades. The vamp had escaped by car, but instead of going back into the city, the guy had headed down the long, winding roads that led deeper into the growing darkness.
When the road ended, they found his car. Lights on. Doors open. Jace stared out at the night. The insects had stopped chirping when the wolves approached. They knew when danger stalked.
He inhaled, catching all the scents. Those that belonged, those that didn’t. Blood. Brimstone.
Fuck.
“Your vamp’s gonna be real pissed at you once she gets out of that cage,” Louis warned him.
Tell me something I don’t know.
But better her alive and pissed than dead and burned to ash.
He caught the whisper of sound in the air. His head tilted back as he stared at the rising moon. He could see the shapes before the blood moon. So many.
Too many.
Outnumbered. The demons were coming.
“
Shift!”
They’d have to change quickly. “Take their heads—take out as many of them as you can.”
Then he leapt forward. The demons were coming because they were close to the doorway. Fuck that. Jace was slamming that door. Devon had run right back to this hole, and now Jace would kill him and stop the demons.
Endgame.
He shoved through the brush as the howls behind him filled the night.
***
Morgan had seen the doorway, the great gaping hole in the middle of the blackened earth. Devon had opened the door to hell—opened it on vampire land, and she hadn’t even realized it.
The vamps spread out when they arrived at the battle. The snarls and growls of the wolves blended with the vicious cries of the demons. Blood bathed the ground.
“Don’t get any of their blood in you,” she warned, still tasting ash. “And make sure you cover the wolves.”
Because the dead were already on the ground, and she didn’t want to lose anyone else. Demons flew from the air at her. “Go!” She shouted to the vampires. She lifted her gun. The vamps had taken the time to load up before they’d gone hunting. She aimed. Fired. The closest demon hit the ground. A wolf jumped on him and bit into his neck.More shots fired. The vamps knew what to do. Take the demons down. Make them weak. Let the wolves finish the kill.
She fired as she ran through the heaving bodies. No sense calling for Jace. She didn’t see him there. Didn’t see Devon either.
The twist in her gut told her where she’d find them both.
Deeper, deeper into the dark she went.
Her enhanced vision allowed her to see easily as she leapt over fallen trees and darted into the thick brush.
The crackle and hiss of fire reached her ears.
So close.
The grass disappeared. The ground hardened beneath her feet.
Then she saw the broken skeletons. The remains of the sacrifices. So many. Far more than she’d ever imagined. Hundreds of skulls and spines. Broken bones tossed aside like garbage. She stared at the stark white graveyard as rage filled her.
Devon.
She leapt over the bones. There—
there.
A sunken, sloping entrance on the ground. Smoke trickled from the thick hole and…she could hear the faintest echo of screams emanating from within the pit.
“You always did let emotion rule you,” came Devon’s voice from the darkness. Morgan spun around, and took a few quick steps away from the pit. “You did this.”
He shrugged.
“They’ve been attacking
us,
Devon! Killing us! You were the Council leader, you had—”
“Fuck the Council.” He smiled, showing off his bloody fangs. “And fuck you.”
Her hands fisted.
“Vampires were always so busy hiding. Oh, no, mustn’t let the humans know we’re here.” He smirked at her. “Wrong. It’s time for them to know. Time for us to show the humans that their only purpose is to feed us. They’re prey. We’re fucking gods.”
She could only shake her head. “You bargained with the devil, you opened a doorway because—”
“Because I wanted a war. Because the vampires needed to learn…it’s kill or be killed. We weren’t meant to hide. We’re meant to dominate.”
Bastard. “And so you sent the demons after your own kind? How is that us dominating?”
“I sent the demons after the
weak.
Those vampires who can’t survive don’t belong in this world.” His lips still twisted in that sick grin as he said, “And it’s not like I can’t make
more
of our kind.”
More like him? No way. “You won’t be changing anyone. You won’t be killing anyone else.” Where was Jace? “This ends tonight.”
He laughed. “Funny. That’s exactly what your wolf said…”
A fist squeezed her heart.
“Right before I kicked his ass into hell.”
The screams behind her seemed louder. Like more demons were fighting to get out.
“Sounds like they’re enjoying their new meal.” His fangs flashed in the dark. “That’s how it works, you see. For them to come out, I offer a trade. A life.”
That’s why there were so many bones. A skeleton for each demon he’d brought forth.
“They devour the flesh, then toss out the parts that are too hard.”
Not Jace. He wasn’t in that pit.
“We’re closing that hole.”
Devon took a step toward her. “You don’t have that kind of power. You think you’re so fucking special.” Another step. “Just because you were born pureblood. You always thought you were better than me.”
“No, I didn’t.”
But I do now. I’m not a psychotic asshole, so yes, that makes me better.
“Do you know why I wanted you to marry the wolf?”
Well, saving the vamp nest obviously wasn’t the reason. Morgan held her ground. Hell waited behind her, and this bastard caged her in front.
“I needed you to get close to him,” Devon said. “I needed you to take his blood…because I wanted to give the demons a special tribute.” He inclined his head. “You see, now that they’ve been killing, they’re developed a taste for wolf blood.”
“They’re not taking his blood!”
“But in order to close the deal with them, I had to prove how much I’d be willing to sacrifice.” His eyes narrowed. “With demons, it’s all about the sacrifice. You have to offer them something, or the lazy assholes won’t do a thing.”
“You’ve offered them humans—”
“
Because I’m fucking tired of hiding in the shadows.
The vampires wouldn’t take control, they were too scared of humans finding out the truth. But my demons—
they’re not afraid of
anything.”
The screams from the pit almost drowned out his words. “What are you sacrificing?”
Because, shit, this was a trap. For the wolves. For Jace. For—
“
You.”
Then he lunged at her.
But Morgan was ready. She grabbed his arms, twisted, and tossed the traitor right over her shoulder. He hit the ground just feet away from the pit, and smoke billowed out in a heavy burst.
He flew back to his feet. Smiled. “This will be fun.” He licked his lips, tasting the blood that stained his mouth. “You’re the only pureblood around here. You’re the best sacrifice I can give them. I bet you’ll be worth ten demons…”
He’d lost it. “And I bet it will hurt when you fall into hell.”
That wiped the smile off his face. “Your wolf sure screamed when the demons took him.”
Dammit, that was the second time he’d said—her gaze darted to the pit. “
Jace!”
Devon slammed into her, and they hit the earth. “Bitch, I’ve got wolf blood in me. More than you. I drained that mutt.”
And he’d left Mike’s broken body behind. Another casualty.
Morgan kicked up, slamming her knee into his balls. He jerked back. “You’ve got wolf blood,” she said, “but now you also have balls in your throat.”
She jumped to her feet.
“Jace!”
Her scream broke through the night. He couldn’t be in that pit, he couldn’t…
Devon’s arms wrapped around her from behind. He squeezed so tight she lost her breath and her ribs burned…burned.
Snap.
Pain beat through her as her ribs broke.
“So tired of you…” Devon lifted her and carried her toward the pit. “Fucking a wolf…
blending with humans…crying when you lost the light…”
She slammed her head back and heard the sweet crunch of bones when she broke his nose. Morgan clawed at his arms, slicing open his flesh as she fought him. His blood littered the ground as he took her to the pit.