Page 53 of Beautiful Madness

Both Eli and Lennon realizedtheir circumstances had changed. Eli roared an order to his wolf—who wasactually Sam—even as Lennon lifted the splinter of her wand and began mutteringincantations.

They still weren’t afraid ofcapture—why should they fear a wolf full of liquid silver, too pierced withsilver spikes to move, much less fight? And why should they fear two wolves,warrior or not? They had no idea.

Lennon managed to cause Wyattsome trouble—he bent forward, moaning and clutching his stomach, even as bloodbegan to slide from his nose. But she couldn’t touch Sam, and she couldn’ttouch me.

I got to my feet, smilingthrough my pain, and didn’t take time to pull the spikes from my body before Islammed her to the ground. I pulled the splinter from her grip and flung itinto the wall of magic, where it exploded. With a hiss and a spark of silver,it was gone.

I heard Eli wrestling with Sam,roaring and cursing before he finally shifted into his wolf, thinking wronglythat with his shift would come the power to defeat the shapeshifter. I didn’tlook at them.

Wyatt was on his knees, waitingfor the effects of Lennon’s magic to leave his body. Now that her splinter wasgone and she was lying on the wet floor, writhing and struggling beneath myrage, he would be fine.

Iwantedto kill her. Sovery badly. But I forced myself to find control. I would gain more pleasurewatching the alpha finally end her miserable life.

There were more importantthings to do than the beta and his girlfriend.

I wrapped Lennon’s beautifulred hair around my fist and dragged her across the cavern where Eli and Sam’sfight had taken them, and over their growls and roars and rage, I yelled forSam to stand down.

He listened. As though he knewexactly what I was going to do—maybe even before I did because I wasn’t reallythinking about it when I slung Lennon at Eli, and as her delicate body collidedwith his with such force it stunned them both for a few seconds, I called arope of power and corralled the two of them together.

Just as the demon had done tothe idiot humans who’d tied Lucy to an altar and called him. I hadn’tconsciously known that power was inside me, really, not even seconds before Iused it. I wouldn’t have wanted to borrow a demon’s magic—at least not onceupon a time.

But now…now I would takeeverything given to me.

“I guess I won’t need to holdthem,” Sam murmured, as Eli, his naked body battered and bleeding, wrapped hisarms around a sobbing, screaming Lennon and pulled her close. Strangely enough,there was an obvious sort of peace in his eyes. He had Lennon in his arms, andthat was all he’d wanted all along.

Wyatt stared at his alpha,almost paralyzed with horror. “Is he dead?” He then looked only at me, not atEli. “I still can’t feel him. Have they killed him?”

“Calm your mind,” I told him.“The magic is fading. You will feel your alpha.”

“I feel only one alpha.” Hisvoice was strained but his stare was steady. “I feel only you.”

“That isn’t shocking,” Sam saidalmost absently, busy pulling silver spikes from my body. “How’s your painlevel, shapeshifter?”

He loved calling me that. Allcreatures needed what Sam had been deprived of his entire life. Someone likethem. A real family, and a connection. He’d been so alone.

“I’m good, shapeshifter,” I replied,and his eyes lit up like stars lived in the dark of his mind.

“But Jared,” Wyatt said. “Whatif he can’t come out of this, Kait?”

As the last of the silverspikes fell to the ground, I smiled at him. “He is going to come out of thisraging and full of death. Don’t worry about your alpha, Wyatt. He’s thestrongest man I know.” And then finally, ignoring the cavern of hungrydaywalkers who might soon get their fill of the charger and turn on us—and God,was I eager for that moment—I went to free the alpha.

If I’d have killed Lennon, themagic that muted him from his wolves would have dissolved immediately insteadof gradually weakening, and the entire pack would have felt him. But I wasn’t worriedabout that magic. I was worried about her magic only as it had combined withmagic much worse. Much stronger.

The magic of the vampires.Axton’s, Kaloni’s, and Avis Vine’s.

For the briefest of moments,doubt slid through me.Fearslid through me. But with fear came caution.I could not afford to fuck up. Not now, not at the end game.

But Jared was suspended in abubble of magic, behind a wall of power, and I knew in my heart it wasn’t goingto be as simple as pulling him out. Only something hugely powerful could havecontained him. Lennon had taken advantage of magic that already existed, addedto it, and trapped the alpha inside it.

And though I hadn’t wanted tothink about it, deep down I knew that blasting him out of there might kill usboth.

ChapterTwenty-Eight

I’d lied when I’d told Lennonshe’d never been powerful, only pathetic. She was powerful, but she’d let heremotions get in the way, and she’d ruined her life.

But there was no doubting shewas powerful.

No one weak could have done whatshe’d done. Not just because Jared was her alpha, but because he was powerfulas well. Yet she’d implemented a plan, devised a trap, long before she’d beenfrozen and trapped herself, and she had caught him.