Page 51 of Beautiful Madness

Better rage than fear.

Abruptly, maybe because we weredrawing closer to Jared, something inside me began to grow. It started in mywolf, because I washiswolf, and it flowed outward until I wasthrobbing with it. Not pain, exactly, though there was pain, too. It was justhard to differentiate it from the silver pain.

There in the darkness of thetrunk, I reached out for my alpha, and I met him halfway.

He knew I was coming, that Iwas hurt, and that I was different.

I knew he was out of his mind.

For the alpha, rage was notbetter than fear. When he escaped his cage, he would kill the world. Wild and savage,he would not be controlled. There was so much going on in his mind—and he wasangriest at himself.

But he was alive.

He was still alive.

And finally, the car stopped.It was at least five minutes before they finally popped the trunk and Elidragged me out, and each second had seemed like a fucking eternity.

The spikes had cut deep, and Iwas slippery with blood. Eli released me to fall to my knees, probably becausehe liked me kneeling before him, but I ignored him as I ran my stare over the area.We were miles away from the riverbank upon which I’d fought the angel, andbehind me, in the deep woods, the caves waited.

I could feel them just as Icould feel the alpha. The caves were dark, wet, and cold, and inside them weredozens of daywalkers. Dozens and dozens, as though they’d been born here andwere simply waiting to release themselves upon the world.

I couldn’t have said why. Maybethey were too new to fight. Maybe they needed their “parents” to bring themfood, to feed them like baby birds, to grow their strength. Maybe the charge ofmagic, which would also be in those caves, was even now creating magic insidethem.

I also couldn’t imagine whythey hadn’t killed Jared.

So many questions, but I wasabout to get the answers I needed.

I scanned the rocky beach, thetrees, the water. There was blood on the rocks, dried and black, red andbright, and I could smell it drifting from the trees, the hillside, the ground.There had been a lot of death here.

There would be more.

At last Eli gestured at the carthat had followed us, and three wolves climbed out—Wyatt and two of his mosttrusted and powerful warriors.

One of those warriors was Sam.

They would have been giving ourlocation to everyone who would have a chance at helping them—and me. Not tofree Jared, really. I would do that on my own.

They were calling in people tohelp fight the daywalkers we were about to disturb, now that Lennon had takenus right to them.

Two birds, one stone.

Eli gestured at Wyatt and hiswarriors to take me. “And this time,” he told Wyatt, “don’t be a little bitch.If you fail me again, I will banish you.”

“Yes, alpha,” Wyatt said, andhe didn’t even stumble over the title. “It won’t happen again.”

I wanted to ask Lennon howshe’d known where the daywalkers were nesting, but I didn’t dare. She would getsuspicious if I started asking questions. But I knew it had to have hadsomething to do with Avis, back when they were best buds plotting a way to killme.

As soon as I had Jared’slocation, though, the witch was going to die, once and for all.

Jared’s presence was so strongI wanted to pull free from the warriors, kill Lennon and Eli, and free Jaredfrom the silver that held him—but I had to see him first. I had to make sure Iwasn’t going to need the two traitors.

I wasn’t going to take anychances. Not now. Not yet.

It felt to me like we walkedfor miles, and all uphill. I wasn’t as sick, agonized, and weak as I pretended,but I was having trouble. The longer we walked, the more I began to doubtmyself. What if by the time we finally reached him, the silver had kicked myass and I wasn’t able to do a damn thing? Even my eyeballs hurt. My heartbeatwas sluggish, my blood felt like thick sludge trying to work its way through myveins, and my lungs didn’t want to expand at all. My legs were heavy anduncooperative, and there wasn’t a part of my entire body that didn’t hurt. Badhurt, too. Not just an ache or a pain, but a sharp agony that demanded I giveit the attention it deserved.

Misery.

When I felt Lennon’s narrowedstare on me, I was no longer pretending when I moaned and slumped between thetwo wolves, leaving them to drag my aching body over the hard ground.