“I don’t answer to you!” Eamon screamed, his emotions ragged and raw. He moved to the precipice, still holding his sister. Feelings were clearly not something he was used to dealing with. “I will never help you.”
Selene rose to a sitting position, her face almost completely healed. “That’s right, my darling,” she purred, her head swiveling toward Eamon. “You won’t help her, but you will help me. I was foolish before, remiss in not rewarding you for bringing your sister to me, mon chéri, please forgive me.” She stood easily, her black leather corset flapping open where I’d slashed it with my claws. “Come here and remind me of our love. It’s been too long and I have forgotten. Come, Eamon, remind me of our wedded bliss, the love we once shared together.”
Wedded?
Eamon paused, confused once again, his face considering. His expression betrayed how badly he wanted what she was saying to be true. Pain and stark need etched across his features in a tide of longing. I so didn’t want to feel any pity for him. Shit. He never had a chance. “Eamon, you have to be kidding me. Wake up!” I snarled. “She’s going to eat you up and spit you out. Are you really that stupid?” He didn’t so much as blink in my direction. I pushed more power into the chain, my wolf snapping and growling, flooding us with more adrenaline. She was laser-focused on the task of freeing our mate.
Eamon made his decision, glaring at me from across the cavern. The candlelight made his bone-white face flicker in the shadows ominously. Naomi hadn’t twitched so much as a pinky finger. I prayed she’d wake up soon. I didn’t think she was dead. Selene would want to play with her, making sure she endured multiple tortures, before she finally gave her true death. He turned and gently set Naomi down behind him, tucked into the corner.
Once he turned back, he stared at Selene, waiting for his orders. He’d made up his mind. Selene knew it too. He was hers. He’d always been hers in a twisted, tormented way. “That’s right, mon chéri,” she purred. “Come fight with me and I will reward you. We will go back to the beautiful place we had before, just you and I.”
She was good.
And I was disgusted.
The chains quivered. My power had wrapped itself around the spell, smothering and choking it. We’re almost there. My wolf barked. “Eamon!” I yelled, trying to snap his attention back to me. “You’re a fool and I’m going to make sure you regret your choices. All of them.”
Selene stalked across the floor, her fingers dancing with red. “Sic the bad wolf, Eamon,” she said. “Do it for me and we will be lovers again.”
Eamon lofted himself from the ledge, right at the same time the spell holding the chain snapped.
Rourke fell, but I was already in motion, one step ahead.
A split second before my mate landed in my arms, a voice hit my consciousness.
Jess, we’re here. Sorry we took so long. My brother’s voice flooded my mind like a Welcome Day parade. We ran into complications getting though this maze and I had to change back to human. One of the boulders near the far side of the room lurched forward as I wrapped my arms around my mate, the force pummeling me to the ground.
Then another voice rang through the room, loud and angry.
“What the hell is going on in here, Hannon? Looks like you could use a little help.”
24
What’s Ray doing here? My brain boggled as I gently laid Rourke down. But before I had a chance to do anything more, Eamon rammed into me at high speed, the two of us smashing into the wall ten feet away with a booming crash.
Selene wheeled on her new intruder. “Human! How dare you come in here.”
All conscious thought left me as I shoved control fully to my wolf. I was done. She wasted no time launching us at Eamon, who had rolled away from the impact. Rourke was hurt and we were going to finish this. Everything else vanished. Rage bubbled inside me as we flew through the air.
The world slowed, almost as if Eamon’s movements came to a standstill.
He glanced up slowly, his faced vamped out and cruel. The hatred in his eyes was paired with a cold sneer of satisfaction. I adjusted my trajectory slightly and slammed into him, my arms locking around his throat. I twisted without thought. He was no match for my strength; his resistance felt childlike. But he wasn’t a child; he was a cruel, powerful supernatural who’d just made the wrong choice.
For the very last time.
His neck cracked and his body went limp beneath me. I dropped him like a bag of garbage.
“Jess.” Tyler ran to me. “Holy Christ, what happen to the cat?” He gestured to Rourke, who was on the ground ten feet away.
I raced back to Rourke, Tyler following. I swallowed. “She cut him open.”
There was a scuffle and then a thunk from the other side of the room. “Did you just hit me?” Selene’s rage tumbled around the cavern, making the rocks quake. “With a rock? What do you think I am? A fucking squirrel?”