Nathan held out his hand for hers, and like the good submissive she was, she came to him and placed her hand in his.
“So, let me guess, you had him kill Amanda to get her out of your way, since he was fucking her?” I was sort of pissed that she was helping this psycho. Nathan looked at his—for lack of better word in my head—dog. She turned to face me.
“We were both fucking her. Taking her innocence while she screamed soothed his voices. I would do anything for him. She tried to use her powers on us, but she was not equal to us. His power and my magic together are unstoppable. She outlived her purpose when she started lying there without any fight in her.” Her voice was steady and without remorse. She moved her free hand around, showing me the air swirling inside her palm. She was an energy wielder, like Asher. Maybe even part of his ignored coven.
“You raped her! You sick son of a bitch.” My voice was low, and my hands were shaking. All thoughts of leaving these in jail to rot went out the window with her words.
“Let’s get on with this. Sarah and I would like to celebrate the New Year right this year.” Robert yawned and went to touch Sarah’s cheek. She didn’t flinch, but tears started to gather in her eyes. Over my dead body. Sarah was an innocent in this. No way in hell was she leaving with these people.
I looked over to Rose, and she nodded subtly at me. We would protect Sarah and get out of here alive. Together. She’d been trained by warriors of old and new. She could handle herself without getting stabbed by the drug, and I could take care of the others.
Time to act.
“Let’s get this over with.” I repeated the pastor’s words, and Nathan’s creepy smile grew.
Faster than they could react, I grasped one of the knives behind my back and threw it at Rosalie, impaling her in the stomach so hard from the close proximity that she flew back into the wall. She would recover soon, like Asher would, so we only had a minute, tops, before her magic would become something to reckon with.
Nathan went to shoot Rose with the drug, but she kneed him in the torso and grabbed his head, bringing it down to the table with a loud thud. Robert wrapped his arms around my neck, and with his positioning, I could tell he was planning to snap it.
I changed into a black mamba and fell to the floor by his legs. He tried to stomp on me, but I was faster. One strike to his leg, and he stumbled to his chair. The venom in my fangs would most likely kill him, and I had no regrets about that. Not after everything I’d heard tonight, and not after he’d turned my city against me.
Nathan recovered himself and shoved Rose to the floor with his strength. She grunted in pain but otherwise seemed okay.
“Maybe I was wrong about your spirit. You’re a fucking demon who needs to be put down like a rabid animal.” Nathan cursed and came at me with a sharp knife.
I lunged for him, and he moved out of the way at the last minute.
My body started to change without my say-so, and then I was there, a bear staring down the man who murdered my parents.
His eyes were wide, but he came at me with the knife again. My powerful paws smacked his arm, and the knife clattered to the ground.
He fucked up, and he knew it. He shouldn’t have rambled on, instead of killing me as soon as I walked in the door.
A very sharp pain cut into my side, making me roar so hard the house shook.
I looked down to see Rosalie had stabbed me with the knife that had been in her stomach. She used her magic to lift Nathan’s abandoned knife and sent it flying at my throat. Not tonight, bitch. I shifted to a panther and went straight for her jugular.
Her magic flowed out with her blood, and the knife clattered against the wall behind me.
“He’s on the run. I’ll get Sarah out of here.” Rose started to rise and move toward a very pale Sarah.
“Take my car. I’ll meet you back at HQ. Keys are in the ignition,” I said in human form then ran for the door Nathan had just run through. I leaped into the air and changed into a wolf. Unlike that night long ago when I was the prey, running for my life, I was the wolf on the hunt now.
Chapter Forty-One
Echo
He should have spent all of these years getting fit for the day that we would be playing this game again. His overweight body came into view quickly, and I lunged, taking him to the ground with my powerful jaws clamped around his leg. Instinct made me shake him like a rag doll, but I pulled back and bared my blood-stained teeth.
He knew his time was over, and part of him looked relieved for it.
“A final gift from my angel,” he whispered through his strained breaths.
“Chaos of the mind, my only solace from a hell created in paradise.” He laughed sinisterly, like he’d succeeded in his life’s mission by relaying that strange quote and was now content to die.
He craved death, and I wanted to give it to him more than anything. I desired revenge for my parents, and for the many other lives this man had destroyed. Good people he ruined, all because he couldn’t accept what he was, and it drove him mad.
That realization hit me, and I knew what I had to do. One more shift and I became a rattlesnake. One bite to his leg was all I needed to keep him where he was until I could get him to the police station. Living was a more potent punishment than death.
He closed his eyes in relief, thinking I was going to let him die.
Quickly, I changed back to my human form and squatted before him.
“You will not die tonight, and you will forever replay the voices in your head until you rot in prison. I’ll make sure they put you in a nice padded cell, all to yourself.” His eyes snapped open, and he began to thrash toward me, furious that I was refusing to end his pathetic life.
“The venom will keep you complacent like your victims, but instead of the painful death, you’ll be at a hospital in cuffs.”
I changed back into a wolf and left him on the cold ground. He wouldn’t be going anywhere. I made it back to my old house and saw Rose had left like with Sarah as I instructed.
They were safe, and it was over. I’d caught the killer and brought justice to those who had been wronged.
I walked back into the house, ignoring the two dead people in the dining room, and went to my mother’s closet for some clothes.
The reservation police and ambulance I’d called after I changed into warm gear showed up within ten minutes.
They took my statements and came back from the woods shortly thereafter with Nathan in handcuffs on a stretcher.
It was hard to explain how Rosalie died from a large cat bite, but we did have mountain lions around here, so it wasn’t one hundred percent unbelievable. The black mamba bite I knew they’d find odd. But Greg the police officer on duty, an old classmate, gave me a wink and told me he’d take care of it.
I was free to go and would be called if they needed me. Nathan would be taken to the local hospital then transferred to the Seahill Police Department after he’d been treated for the snake bite and large gash in his leg. They had a tow come get the white Lexus, and despite knowing I could use my powers to get home, I really didn’t want to transform again, so I hitched a ride with Greg back to Seahill, but as we came to the end of my childhood home’s driveaway I spied my car sitting there, with Rose standing outside the opened door.
They waited for me.
I smiled and told Greg my ride was there. He bid me farewell, and expressed remorse for how he and others treated me after my parents died. It was nice to hear that the people in the area were sorry, but this wasn’t my home anymore. My home was back in the city and wrapped up in a leather jacket with a stupid grin on his face.