Page 98 of Blood Oath
This is what I needed. Something dark to help me ignore the hurt. Something to remind me what my reality is. Not the daydream I let myself have for a day.
The women scream. It’s not the kind of screaming I enjoy because they’re innocents. But at least it gets them to listen to me as they grab their clothes and scramble from the room. The two shifters snarl and leap to their feet, now assessing me as a real threat instead of a minor annoyance.
“What the hell?” Lykoudis roars. “You’ll fucking pay for that!”
I should make this quick. I could have his heart and be out of here in a couple of minutes, but my anger needs to go somewhere, and right now. It’s been too long since I got to blow off steam by watching someone bleed and cry.
Which is why I don’t kill the other pack beta right away when he launches toward me. He shifts midair and bares his teeth at me, but I slide beneath the leaping wolf and stab another knife into his flank, exactly where his joint is. He howls and drops, unable to heal quickly thanks to the silver.
Lykoudis bares his teeth with a snarl he probably thinks is impressive. “Do you even know who I am? How dare you fucking attack me! I’m going to?—”
“Less talking. I’m getting bored.”
He finally shifts and attacks just as the beta rips the dagger from his flank and comes at me again. Fighting off two oversized wolves from the same pack should be tricky since they should communicate telepathically and work together to take me down. Instead, they fumble, bumping into each other, snarling, and going for my throat at the same time.
I plunge a second silver knife up into the beta’s neck as I roll to the side, and when Lykoudis leaps on top of me, I finally tap into the rush of new static in my veins. Dark tendrils of magic explode from my fingertips just as they make contact with his big furry frame, and a pained yelp knocks from his throat as he crashes against the wall of the darkened room.
The beta is already dead.
Sad. I wanted to see him cry. It might’ve made me feel a bit better.
I rip my second silver knife from his throat and stalk to where Lykoudis is writhing on the floor in agony, thanks to my unique type of magic. Slipping a tiny bottle from another hidden pocket, I uncork the potion and force the entire thing into the alpha wolf’s thrashing snout.
He chokes, and abruptly, the potent wolfsbane concoction forces him to shift back. I can’t help the sick smile that blooms over my face when he spits the bottle back out with wide, fearful eyes, his back against the wall. His nose is bleeding profusely, which is satisfying.
“S—stop! Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you!” he sputters, spittle flying. “Is it the location of my pack? They’re stationed right outside of?—“
“Shut up,” I sigh, jamming the silver knife into his thigh.
When I yank it back out, the spurt of blood goes everywhere, and he yelps again. He tries for a punch, which I easily dodge, and since his hand is already there, I whip out my adamantine dagger and sink it through his forearm. Immediately, he screams as it starts to turn his blood into acid, eating him up from the inside out.
“You’re really a pack alpha? Yikes. I thought this would be a fun fight. But I suppose any alpha who would willingly sell out the weaker in his pack is truly a coward at heart. Speaking of which…”
I trace the silver knife around his torso and down to his crotch, amused by the wet spot that’s soaking through his pants as he starts to twitch.
“I—I have money. Is that what you want?”
“If I wanted money, I would have it already.”
“Then what do you want?” he explodes hysterically.
I study the pathetic shifter, finally letting the pain and loss in my aching chest wash over me. The buzz from my kills was nice but not enough to push down the emotions still slicing through me.
“Dead men tell no tales, which means I can tell you anything, and it will go straight into a grave. So it won’t hurt to answer your question. You want to know what I want?” I lean over and whisper into his ear. “I wanted them. More than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life, which is a hell of a fucking lot, by the way. But now, I need to forget I ever wanted them. I need to forget I was ever stupid enough to fall for competitive, heartless legacies.”
He whimpers and clutches clumsily at his bleeding arm, which still has my dagger impaled through it. “The fuck are you talking about?”
“The fact that I should be immune to heartbreak, but here I am,” I mutter. Then I shrug. “But back to the matter at hand…I want nothing except what I came here for.”
“Then just take it! Stop terrorizing me and take whatever shit you want!”
“If you insist.”
I peel off my right glove, and darkness flares to life around my hand as I whisper the forbidden words. When my fingertips first breach his chest, the wolf shifter goes perfectly still and looks down, his jaw hanging open. The blood drains from his face as I wrap my hand around his beating heart and pull it straight from his body—slowly, to see the agony last a little longer.
But my spell works, and he’s still alive, choking in horror as I lift his heart with a triumphant grin. It pulses rapidly in my hand, reflecting his ongoing terror.
“I—I’m…still alive?” he whispers, limbs twitching uncontrollably as the adamantine starts to wreak havoc on his system.
