Page 114 of Ravaged Devotion

The kitchen was empty when Rue burst into it, and there was no one in the dining hall either.

But there was a dead creature that hadn’t been there before.

The same one with only bone where the face should have been.

Rue’s breath hitched and a pathetic sound escaped him. There was more blood, but it was impossible to tell if it was from the creature and Ryker, or just the first.

He kept moving.

And found the Black Hart in the lobby.

Ryker was standing there, slightly out of breath, brow pinched. Crimson dripped down his right arm, the wound he’d gotten from Hollis having bled through the bandage. There were two deep claw marks across his left thigh, and he was favoring his other leg, but otherwise he appeared uninjured and intact.

“Ryk—”

“Don’t,” the Black Hart stopped him when he took a step closer. At Rue’s confusion, he lifted his bleeding arm, showing the tiny clear patch pinched between his pointer and thumb.

Rue’s eyes widened. “How—”

“I don’t know,” he interrupted. “I just found it. We still don’t know how long the effects take. I could be dangerous. Keep your distance.”

“You would never hurt me,” Rue argued, only for Ryker to grunt derisively at him.

“Fucking you in your sleep and shoving you out of the way in the halls at school isn’t causing harm?”

“What?” Bowie was there, a few paces behind Rue, of course arriving just in time to overhear that lovely comment. “You’re disgusting!”

“Shut up,” Rue growled. He would have felt guilty when the pained expression flashed across his best friend’s face, but he was still too angry over the fact he’d left Ryker behind and put him in danger.

“He’s—” Bowie pointed at Ryker, but Rue wasn’t finished.

“He’s my boyfriend,” he stated. “And you left him for dead.”

“Don’t hold it against him,” Ryker shocked them both by saying. He grinned, but was also still slightly out of breath and covered in a sheen a sweat. He didn’t look well, despite his caviler attitude. “He was just keeping you safe. Look at you, little brother, collecting us heartless bastards like we’re trading cards.”

“That isn’t funny.” But it did the trick and eased some of the tension. “At least sit down before you fall over.”

“I’m fine,” Ryker reassured. “It’s getting better.”

“What is?”

“The pain.” He motioned to the claw marks. “I haven’t felt anything from the drug yet.”

“Aren’t you angry, like, all the time?” Bowie remarked, clearly not willing to be as forgiving as Ryker was toward him.

The Black Hart chuckled, not denying it.

“That’s right,” Rue latched onto it. “There’s no way a drug could make you any angrier at me than you’ve been these past three years. Yet you never did anything to really hurt me. You won’t hurt me now. If you were drugged, we’ll—”

A crash came from the lounge and Ryker spun, gun raised.

“Help!” a man’s voice called a second before someone banged against the locked sliding doors. “Help!”

Bowie shot over there and undid the bolt, ignoring both Ryker and Rue who called out to him to stop. No sooner had he gotten the bottom one pulled up, then the doors burst open.

Rhys spilled out, practically stumbling into Bowie in the process. There was dirt smeared across his cheek and his hair was in disarray for the first time since Rue had known him. Over his shoulder, Vance could be seen scrambling between the couches, narrowly escaping a creature with a single antler.

The last one. If they could kill it, that would leave only the normal bears to contend with, who, with any luck, were already wandering off now that the fog was dissipating.