Page 52 of Beautiful Madness

I was in hell.

Jared, without any of the poweror strength I now possessed, would be suffering even more. I remembered what ithad felt like when I’d been silvered for Adam Thorne.

Jared had to bear it forlonger. I didn’t know how he yet lived. I only knew that he did.

And then, I did know. He was analpha.

Jared. I’m here.

I know,and I amready.

Alpha.

And finally, we arrived. “Gether up,” Lennon said. “I want to see her face when she sees what she has done.”And when she shoved my hair back and leaned down to look at me, smiling, I knewwith absolute certainty that I did not want to see what waited.

But the warriors dragged me up,and I looked.

Damn me, I looked.

ChapterTwenty-Seven

Jared was confined in acompartment of magic—that was the only way I could explain it. I saw the magicswirling around that small section in the huge cavern, pale and misty andpretty, but with a tinge of evil that could not be mistaken. And it wasn’t justLennon’s magic that danced around him. It was Frederick Axton’s, and it wasAvis Vine’s.

But most of all, it wasKaloni’s magic. Kaloni had been Axton’s seer, and I’d killed her. Somehow,though, a piece of her lived on—as the daywalkers’ magical charger.

I’d found the charger.

That piece of Kaloni had beendeliberately set into the ground of the cave floor, where it lit the air withan eerie green glow.

Light, unfortunately, to seeby.

And I saw my alpha.

He shouldn’t have been alive.He didn’t look alive. He hung in the power of that magic, his body a pincushionfor the many silver spikes protruding from him. No, he didn’t look alive, but Ifelt him. I felt his struggle. He was in there, and I was going to help himbreak free.

All that I saw and thought in amillisecond, and I saw what else was in the cavernous room.

Daywalkers. Dozens and dozensof them. As they couldn’t reach the alpha, they couldn’t reach the charger,either. Likely they would have accidentally destroyed it in their zeal toabsorb its power.

They’d shoved themselvesagainst the glowing wall of magic that protected the charger, their faces slackwith something close to ecstasy. I understood at once that without the charger,they would die. Not immediately and not all at once, but they would die, evenwithout a hunter staking them.

Eventually, they would becomeparticles of dust and magic to disappear into the ether, leaving the city toforever wonder where its missing people had gone. They’d be taking some ofBastien’s vampires with them as well.

Still, they would mostcertainly cause a lot more damage before they went. Not all the daywalkers weregathered in the cave, sucking up the energy to live. Some of them wandered thecity, eating. Killing. And I would find them all—after I broke the magic in thecavern, destroyed the charger, and killed the daywalkers surrounding us. Ineeded a fight. I needed a big fucking fight.

First things first.

“Sam,” I murmured.

The warrior crouched beside me.“Yeah?”

“Hold Eli and Lennon until Jaredis free, and then let them go.”

“You got it.”

He was a shapeshifter, and nomatter that Eli was a beta wolf, no matter that Lennon held the splinter of herwand, neither of them was more powerful than Sam. He would hold them, and hewould make sure they remained conscious to watch as I freed their alpha.

And then, they belonged toJared and me.