Hotbloods 6: Allies

“We weren’t exactly… close. Romance is for the weak, and you’ve just strengthened our cause by taking Pandora out of the picture,” Ezra said. “At first, he was overwhelmed with grief, but now I think he’s ready to channel that ‘suffering’ into something more proactive. Honestly, I’m thrilled.”

“You’re a monster,” I whispered.

“Why, because I tell the truth?” He barked a cold laugh. “What were my sister’s final words? I’m dying to know.”

“I’m not telling you.”

“Ah, so you admit you were there?” he taunted. “I know it was you. The least you can do is tell me what she said.”

I grimaced, not wanting to relive it. “Pandora tried to beg for her life. She said she knew a secret about Earth, but I didn’t wait to hear her out before I sliced her throat.” Now, however, I was starting to think there might’ve been a morsel of truth in that secret she’d offered. Perhaps she’d known about the president’s involvement in an unknown deal.

“Ha, pathetic!”

I leveled my gaze at him. “Why were you meeting with an Earthen leader, all the way out here?”

He shrugged. “You know what they say about inferior species—they always have to find a way to compensate. To be honest, I’ve never known such hunger for power. I wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or repulsed.”

“You’re skirting around the question.”

“Tough. I don’t owe you an explanation. I don’t answer to you,” he replied coolly. “Now, I’ve had enough of this chitchat. You’re coming with me. Don’t be annoying.”

I positioned the flamethrower at the pages of Yorrek’s notebook.

“If you try anything, I’ll destroy the notebook,” I declared, taking a step back.

Ezra scowled. His eyes held nothing but malice, all amusement gone. However, we seemed to be at a stalemate. He couldn’t touch me without me setting off the flamethrower, but he couldn’t leave without me either.

He lunged for Navan. I pulled the trigger of the flamethrower, aiming it at his head. The fierce blast sent Ezra sprawling backward, his skin singed, patting flames from his hair. Trying to keep hold of the flamethrower and the notebook, I frantically scrabbled for the vial in my pocket. Ezra lashed out at the bottle in my hand, knocking it out of my grasp as I fought to keep hold of the notebook. The vial landed on the hard ground with a clunk, though nothing seemed to be broken.

I didn’t have time for a closer look as Ezra struck again, forcing me to shove the notebook down the belt of my pants, wedging it securely. I fired the flamethrower at him, trying to drive him away from Navan, but he was too fast. He kept dodging the blasts, gaining ground on me. A moment later, I felt his foot connect with my leg, the force of it buckling my knees. I sank to the dirt. I tried to get up, but he lashed at me again, his fist connecting with my face, my head snapping to the side with a jarring sensation.

Blasts of fire erupted from the end of the flamethrower, but Ezra’s eyes flitted between me and the barrel, apparently anticipating when I was about to pull the trigger. His fists connected with my body again and again, his punches leaving me bruised and breathless. I was losing, but the flamethrower was too awkward to let me properly use the skills I’d learned in training. I thought about dropping it and relying on hand-to-hand combat, but Ezra was way stronger than me, and his body language was giving nothing away.

Thinking fast, I yanked the notebook out of my belt and hurled it as far as I could, knowing I was taking an enormous risk. It did the job, distracting Ezra, who turned to see where it had gone. Catching the glint of glass on the ground, I snatched the vial of serum up from the dirt, took out the stopper, and drank the whole thing, dropping the vial back down to the ground once it was empty. I realized the danger I was putting myself in, downing a bottle of stimulant, but without it, I was dead. I just had to hope that Kaido had given me something that wouldn’t trigger the effects of the silver root.

Ezra had run to retrieve the notebook… and I felt nothing. I started to panic, worrying that it wasn’t going to do anything at all. Then, electricity shot through my every cell, my entire body bristling into renewed life. A strange heat—both freezing and fiercely hot at the same time—coursed through my veins. Everything around me became clearer, my ears twitching at the tiniest of sounds. I could have sworn I could hear Ezra’s heartbeat thumping erratically in his chest. My eyes could see in colors I didn’t know existed, my muscles practically thrumming with power. Although my body felt different, my limbs didn’t look much changed, aside from the dark veins threading across my pale skin, pulsing violently.

Strangest of all, I could feel the weird sensation of elongated fangs in my mouth and a dull ache in my shoulder blades, where wings ought to have been. Baring my new teeth and narrowing my eyes, I charged at Ezra. The speed was immense, and a cloud of dust kicked up behind me as I sprinted toward the coldblood, tackling him to the ground and wresting the book from his hands. I tossed it toward Navan, who was still unconscious, and the book skidded to a halt at his side.

I could process a million thoughts at once, my eyes looking at one thing while my newly sharpened claws raked at Ezra’s flesh. He tried to escape, but I was quicker than him, and stronger, too. I swiped at his head, and four welts sliced through his skin. Before he could even think to retaliate, I’d punched him hard in the gut, prompting him to double over in pain.

For the first time, Ezra looked genuinely terrified.

Desperately, he stretched out his wings and tried to make a break for his hovering ship, but I could jump higher than he expected, and my hands came down on his shoulders, hauling him back down to the ground.

“I’ll tear them off!” I yelled, gripping the root of one of his wings in my hand.

“Let go of me, you bitch!” he yelped, twisting around.

“Why should I?” I growled, my voice sounding alien. “You don’t show anyone the same mercy.”

Wrestling beneath my grip, Ezra gave a low, strange whistle. I glanced up at his ship, before remembering that his underlings had chased after the serrantium weapons. A knife cut my cheek, the blood trickling down my face as Ezra wielded a previously concealed blade. The serum had healed the bruising that Ezra had inflicted earlier, but it wasn’t doing anything for the cut. The effects were already fading. I had known it couldn’t last, but I’d thought it’d hold out longer than this.

My strength and focus continued as Ezra broke away from me and flew toward the ship once more. I couldn’t jump as high as I could a few minutes ago, but I still had my knives. Plucking the last four from the bandolier, I hurled them at Ezra, my skills heightened by the serum. They shot through the air in a blur, two slicing straight through the leathery membrane of his wings. The other two hit him in the root of his wings, and he collapsed to the ground.

This was the moment to take Ezra out of the equation for good. It wasn’t something I wanted to do, just as I hadn’t wanted to kill Pandora, but I knew it was a necessary evil. Ezra was Orion’s right-hand man.

I was about to lunge forward to pin him to the ground, when a rush of unwanted images pulsed through my brain. I grimaced, an intense pain thundering against the walls of my skull as I saw the ferocious king on his icy throne, wearing his crown of jagged icicles. I caught a glimpse of a gaunt Seraphina, huddled in the corner of a room, weeping silently. The images moved to Lauren and Angie, lying motionless on a battlefield, their eyes blank and unseeing.