Savage bite den of shado.., p.29
Savage Bite (Den of Shadows Book 1), page 29
The guard banged on the glossy wooden surface, and when it opened, my world came crashing down as if an atomic bomb had erupted, demolishing everything in one fell swoop. My worst nightmare materialized, drowning out Karn’s garish grand room and the spectators craving violence.
All the blood drained from my extremities, and I could barely hold myself up as two dux demons dragged in a bound, gagged, and bloodied Hawk.
Chapter Thirty-Six
My best friend stared with wide eyes, breathing heavily as the demon guards shoved him into the grand room. Silver duct tape covered his mouth, rips tore into his black raven attire, and bruises and lacerations streaked his visible flesh.
This was all my fault.
How long had Hawk been at the mercy of the demon lord?
“No!” I ran toward him, but heavily armed sentries blocked my path, forcing me back into the circle while others shoved Hawk toward Karn’s throne.
“Let him go.” My fists shook by my sides as blood thundered in my ears like a horrid soundtrack to this nightmare. “He has nothing to do with this.”
Karn casually shrugged. “Yet he’s here.” He tilted his head toward Hawk, and one of the guards snatched a knife from his pocket, putting the blade to my friend’s throat. “Mario will slaughter this young man if you don’t fight to the death.”
Hawk shook his head, and the guard ripped the tape from his mouth. “Tate, please! What’s going on?”
The confusion and fear in his voice sent sharp blades into my lungs, stealing my ability to breathe. All the air fled from the room. How did Karn capture Hawk? Did he have other ravens locked in here to force my hand?
What about Fane?
The sound of a knife scraping the ground caught my attention, and I pivoted as Arisa picked up a long dagger. “You don’t want to do this,” I said, lifting my hands. “There’s another way.”
She shook her head. “No, there isn’t.” And then she sprinted in my direction.
I spun and ducked her slashing blade, only to come face to face with Oliver as he stabbed my side. Pain pierced my abdomen, and a growl tore from my mouth. Karn nodded at the witch who gave a pleased smile. She must have used a spell to rouse him and pop his shoulder back into place. And he didn’t hesitate to attack.
Arisa’s sneakers squeaked on the polished stone tiles as she tried to approach me from behind. I twisted, ignoring the throbbing in my side, and kicked her ribs in the same spot I’d punched her.
“Don’t let them kill me, Tate!”
My heart squeezed into a tight ball at the sheer panic in Hawk’s words, something I’d never heard from him before.
I would not let him die. Not Hawk. I had no choice. If these two had to forfeit their lives, then so be it. They were as good as dead in Karn’s captivity anyway. And how would Hawk escape if they killed me?
Oliver slashed his knife through the air, and I ducked, rolling across the ground to the nearest weapon. As my fingers closed around the hilt, he kicked the stab wound on my abdomen.
Hot agony washed over my side as blood pooled on the ground. Ringing filled my ears while a fuzzy haze coated my vision.
I lifted my head and met Hawk’s eyes. For a moment, I wanted to go back to the day of our initiation and ask him to spend the night alone with me instead of going to Wrath & Ruin. I never would have crossed paths with Fane Maverick. Maybe I wouldn’t have agreed to this mission alone, and Hawk and I could have gone together. We would have gotten the Infernal Sol and returned to Savannah. Together.
Tiny fissures cracked over my heart because that wasn’t what happened. Instead, we were trapped in the Underworld, Death calling our names.
No. He would not come for Hawk.
As Oliver leaned over to spear my back, I angled around and swept his feet. He hit the ground hard, and I didn’t hesitate to slam my knife into his chest, twisting the blade to open the gash even more.
Him or Hawk. Him or Hawk. Him or Hawk.
I repeated the mantra in my head as I stabbed him again, making his death as quick as possible. He coughed, releasing a wet gurgling that sounded like my close call with death when Fane found me in the church. The knife slipped out of my bloody hand.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered as the life faded from Oliver.
The crowd's distant roar made me feel trapped in a tunnel. I pushed off the ground just as Arisa came for me, her face pale and irises too bright. Seeing me kill Oliver had made this so much more real.
Arisa slashed the dagger at me, and I held my arms up to take the brunt of the blade. My teeth clenched as my limbs stung from the shallow cuts tearing through my flesh. Blood splattered the floor, and the puddle under Oliver spread, nearly reaching my feet.
I shoved her back to avoid slipping on his blood and ducked a lethal hit from her, dropping to the ground to grab a knife. The closest blade was tiny compared to hers, and I wouldn’t be able to kill her with a single stab like I had Oliver.
“I am not dying here!” she screamed, tremors racing through her. “This is not the end for me.”
An apology dangled on the tip of my tongue but never dropped. That would only waste my energy, and my decision had been made the moment they threatened Hawk.
Arisa released a battle cry and sprinted forward, forcing me toward Oliver.
My pulse shot through the roof. As soon as my feet hit the puddle of blood, I slipped. I held onto Arisa, taking her down with me. My head bounced against the hard stone ground, stars popping in my vision.
She crawled on me, shrieking like a banshee as she raised the knife. I blocked her attack with my arm, wincing as the blade slashed another cut into my skin. My fingers curled around her wrist and twisted until the weapon fell from her grip.
Everything happened in slow motion. Her hand, coated with my blood, wrapped around my neck to choke the life from me. But she exposed her own throat, and I struck.
My dagger sliced across her so fast that it took her a moment to comprehend what had happened. Her warm blood splashed over my chest and face before she grabbed her neck to stop the bleeding.
She was too late. There was no stopping her death.
Her raven curls dangled over, and for a moment, Jayla was the one struggling above me, fighting to survive.
I may not have been the monster to tear that little girl’s life away, but her blood and my friends’ stained my hands regardless.
Within seconds, Arisa collapsed on top of me, bathing me in more warm, scarlet liquid.
I gagged at the suffocating metallic tang in the air and shoved her off. The crowd cheered while lifting their drinks at the bloodbath in the center of the room, and Karn’s grin turned my insides into a freezer. He looked like the Devil, proud at the destruction he’d forced on me.
The dagger fell from my hand, and I staggered up, slipping on the gleaming, ruby-red puddle until I regained my balance. “Let him go.” My voice twisted out low, and the beast that had consumed me earlier in the alley stirred. I’d wanted to kill and torture then.
But I’d been forced to do it now.
Even with the shouting crowd, Karn heard me loud and clear. “As you wish.” He lifted his palm to quiet his subjects. “Tatum fought to the death, and she earned her friend's life.”
A wicked glint in his eyes had weakness coiling around my knees. Something wasn’t right. Dread sank through every fiber of my being, and panic sliced gouges in my heart. Would he still kill Hawk?
But the guard lowered the knife from my friend’s neck and shoved him forward. “She saved you. Make all her hard work worthwhile.”
Hawk’s smile became a twisted version of his familiar grin, and the laugh he spewed, cold and cruel, sounded nothing like my friend. The air around him shimmered, and a blue-haired fae suddenly stood in his place. “Some glamours are even strong enough to fool ravens.”
I staggered back as the truth hit me with the force of a wrecking ball. Karn had never captured Hawk. He used a fae to fool me into killing two humans.
They were innocent. And I murdered them in cold blood to save someone who never needed saving.
Laughter filled the room, slamming into my skull like invisible hammers attempting to splatter my brain all over the bloody ground. My heart crashed against my ribs as shadows scuttled along my vision.
Karn tricked me.
Fury as hot as lava rocketed through my bloodstream, and red coated everything. Before I made a conscious decision, my feet moved toward the demon lord so fast no one noticed until it was too late.
My fist rammed into his face, and a crack resonated as black liquid spurted out of his nose. The crowd froze while the demon lord stared in shock.
And when that shock wore off, his appearance transformed into his true demonic visage. He wrapped his hand around my throat, and then I was airborne. The gothic decor zoomed by, and demons scattered as I braced for impact right before my back crashed into a wall on the other side of the room.
Pain erupted along my spine and skull, air fled my lungs, and stars popped in my eyes.
Son of a bitch.
Ringing filled my ears as I slid down the wall and spat a glob of blood on the floor. Fucking hell. Blood covered me—mine, Oliver’s, and Arisa’s. Cuts slashed my arms, and the stab wound in my side throbbed. Even the wound on my thigh from Karn’s knife had ripped open again, staining my jeans.
The demon lord’s shoes—like polished onyx—appeared, and he gripped my arms, dragging me up the wall until my feet skimmed the ground. “The only reason you’re still alive is because you have yet to reveal the location of the Infernal Sol. I’m a patient creature sometimes. I can still have a little fun with you yet.” His wings unleashed, and he curled them forward to pin me against the wall as he ran his fingers down my cheek, spawning a wave of goose bumps over me. “You will be my personal slave, attending to all my needs.”
Acid settled at the base of my throat as his meaning sank in. He would take me to that torture chamber bedroom and shatter me into a thousand pieces.
I pulled on the inner strength that had gotten me through all the pain and torment in my past. This demon could do whatever he wanted, but I would never give up. I would fight to my last breath to get out of this hell. “You’ll die before I break.”
The demons within hearing distance inched back, sensing an impending explosion from Karn, but he only laughed, the sound like arsenic hidden within chocolate syrup.
“You think because you killed a high demon when you were barely seventeen you can take me, a demon lord?” He nodded. “Oh yes, I saw that too, sweetheart. It does make me wonder why Fane, the brother of the demon you killed, would give you a shifter bite.”
“Maybe I’m just that lovable.” I bared my bloody teeth in a vicious smile.
He grabbed my chin. “Or maybe you just possess something he wants.” He scrutinized me with those eerie red eyes as if he could peel back my layers of flesh to discover the secrets still hiding within.
My pulse raced as Karn’s attention lowered to my stomach. He hadn’t seen the tattoo yet. Would he realize the demon amulet had been under his nose this entire time?
Karn reached forward, pinching my shirt between his thumb and forefinger. “What is—”
Boom!
An explosion shook the entire building. Screams echoed, and the balcony across the room collapsed as wood, metal, and demons crashed down, demolishing the black and white tiles.
The demon lord hissed and released my chin, but his wings still pinned me to the wall. “Mora, Riley, go find out what’s happening,” he yelled at the two closest guards. They dashed off, shoving away demons who scrambled for the exterior door beyond the foyer. Karn returned to me, a snarl pulling at his lips. “It’s back to the dungeon for you.”
Another blast ripped through the mansion, and the ground trembled so hard my teeth rattled. The stairs collapsed, and a large portion landed behind us, partially blocking us from view. Karn howled when dust and debris struck his outstretched wings as they unintentionally protected me from the broken shards.
I snorted. He definitely didn’t mean to do that.
“You think this is funny?” Murder shined in his blood-red gaze that perfectly matched the garish color of his suit.
As a tingle rippled through my neck tattoo, my hand automatically lifted to it. The demon lord tracked the movement, and fury crashed over his expression.
And then a roar so loud and ferocious—the same one I’d heard in the forest that night in Mohan Wilds—sliced through the chaos as a black streak crashed into Karn, tackling him to the cracked floor.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
My heart screeched to a stop as an ebony wolf with spikes down his spine and across his paws tore into the demon lord, shredding him apart like he was nothing more than soft, delicate silk. Ribbons of flesh flopped onto the ground, making me gag.
“Pathetic half breed,” Karn sputtered as his wings lifted to shove Fane off.
The demon shifter thwarted his attack and used the horns on his back to carve the leathery appendages. Karn shrieked and slashed his talons at Fane.
An invisible fist punched my gut, and I opened my mouth to warn him, but the demon’s hit barely fazed Fane. He darted forward, sinking his teeth into the lord’s neck. Karn’s red eyes widened as the wolf gave a few violent shakes, bones crunching and tendons tearing, spilling black blood across the ground.
The crimson flames in the demon’s irises faded to blue right before Fane gave one more violent shake, ripping Karn’s head off. He spat it from his mouth like a piece of trash, and it rolled across the cracked stone floor, leaving a thick, ebony trail behind.
I remained plastered against the wall as the demon shifter turned, those familiar mismatched eyes glowing like fiery embers ready to ravage everything in its path. He took a few steps, and tremors raced through him, muscles coiling and shifting. The fur and spikes disappeared, and he slowly rose on two feet as he transformed into a naked man covered in scars and tattoos. He used his hand to wipe Karn’s blood from his mouth.
“Fane.” Had he really visited me in my cell? “You found me.”
He tracked every injury marring my body, the muscles in his jaw feathering. “I find things.” Those words held much more than their simple meaning, and the way he looked at me had my pulse racing. “I told you I was coming. Did you doubt that I would?”
Even if I’d believed he was really in my cell, I’d been burned and let down too many time. Why would Fane be any different?
But he was different. He did come for me.
Another explosion rocked Karn’s mansion, spilling dust through the air, and Fane peeled me off the wall. “Let’s get out of here.”
He led me out of the deteriorating grand room, but instead of heading toward the exit, he pulled me to the right where I’d entered earlier.
“Do you know where you’re going?” I asked over the commotion. A few demons rushed by, barely sparing us a glance as they tried to get outside. “Was this your doing?”
“Of course I know where I’m going.” Fane turned down another hall. “And yes, some friends and I decided to blow up Karn’s mansion. They don’t like him any more than I do.”
My fingers tightened their grip on his, and I blinked back the stinging tears. Why was I getting so stupid and emotional? Fane had only come because he wanted the Infernal Sol. It had nothing to do with me personally.
A shudder ran through the building and groaning reverberated. Fane yanked me into another hall moments before the ceiling caved in. His arms shielded my head as dust and debris rained down a few feet away.
I buried my face in his bare chest and breathed him in, letting his heady scent calm the tremors racing through me.
“You okay?” Fane asked, his lips close to my ear.
I nodded against him. “I’m just ready to get the fuck out of here.”
He pulled back, staring at me for a prolonged moment before he continued down the hall with me in tow. “There’s a secret passageway that leads outside. No one knows about it except Karn and maybe Ziva, but she’s dead thanks to you.”
My gaze lowered to his bare ass. “Are you going to run around the Underworld naked?” Not that I was complaining or anything.
Fane stopped in front of a large painting. “As much as you’d like that, I did bring clothes.” He ran his finger around the gilded frame until a click echoed, and it swung open, revealing a dark tunnel. “Stay close.”
“Not a problem. I’d rather not get lost in a secret passage in the Underworld.”
The demon shifter peeked over his shoulder, the faintest hint of a grin pulling at his mouth. “If you got lost, I’d find you, remember?”
I had to be hallucinating that smile and flirtatious tone.
True to his word, after ten minutes of wandering through the gloomy tunnel, we exited at the east side of the mansion, far from the front door where most of the guards and guests had escaped. Fane grabbed a canvas bag of clothes hidden in the bushes and slipped into jeans, a gray t-shirt, and a pair of boots. More chaos spilled onto the cobbled street as curious demons emerged from buildings.
Fane scanned the perimeter. “We’ll head to Logan’s place. It’s too long of a walk, so I’ll find a bike to steal.”
I shook off the fatigue and shoved back the horrors of the last few hours, maybe days. “Please tell me you mean a motorcycle and not a bicycle, especially not one of those tandem contraptions we both have to pedal.”
Fane smirked. “I don’t think we’re the type that’s into tandem bikes. I’d rather walk and carry you—” A string of curses rumbled beneath his breath, and he tensed as three figures moved in the shadows. He used his arm to push me behind him.
“There you are, Mav. We were starting to worry.” A high demon stepped forward and gave a knowing smile, his silver hair tinted red in the streetlights. “I see you found your girl.”
Fane gave a curt nod as the high demon and two dux demons shortened the distance between us. “There were too many guards in the front. We had to find another way out.”
