Page 30 of Fire Bird

“What happened?” The front door clatters open. Kole has been on the roof again, but now he’s standing there filling the doorframe. His eyes are ebony black. The smalls veins that appeared in the corners of his eyes when Eve spilled Nova’s blood are still there. They haven’t grown, but they haven’t disappeared either.

“We failed her.” He crosses Rev’s small apartment and squares up to her. “I failed her.”

“Stand down, Kole.” Luther is at his side, but Rev shakes her head at him.

She doesn’t look afraid or angry. “You did not fail her.” She moves as if she’s going to squeeze his arm but, instead, allows her palm to hover above his skin. “It’s not the end yet, Kole. We don’t know—”

“Yes, we do!” He turns and sweeps a collection of mugs and ornaments from the coffee table. “It happened. The King returned, and where is she?” His voice is a growl now. A loud, roaring, painful growl. Tanner and Luther grab his arms and wrestle him to the floor. Rev runs to the kitchen and fetches a small bottle of bright blue liquid.

When I reach the door, they are squeezing droplets onto Kole’s tongue as he howls in anguish.

Sarah follows me into the hall and down the stairs. At the bottom, in the empty stairwell, she pulls me into a firm embrace. “Please, be careful,” she whispers. “If you must go, be careful.”

I kiss her forehead. “I will.”

Outside, the cold hits me like a sheet of ice. It burns my skin. Funny; I always expected hell to be hot. Turns out, it’s the opposite. It scalds in a different way. The way the wind does when it’s below freezing.

I shift and stalk down the narrow alleyway between the buildings. The streets reek of sulfur and death. In human form, I can take it. As a wolf, it makes me want to vomit.

When I reach Main Street, I look in The Hollow’s direction. The sky there is darker, and redder, and lightning crackles above it even though there is no storm.

Every night, new beasts come. New hellish creatures that I never even dreamed existed. Their energy, and their darkness pulsates beneath the earth telling us there are still more to come.

What happened to Eve and Ragnor, we have no idea.

When he came, we ran. We ran as the ground broke, and the sky fell, and evil surged. We ran for the falls, but the split earth stopped us in our tracks.

Rev eventually found us. Everywhere, people were screaming, running, diving into their cars, and getting the fuck out of town. We ran for her place, and it was only when we got there, we realized Mack wasn’t with us.

I found his tracks a few days later and I’ve smelled him on the breeze since then. He’s still here in Phoenix Falls. He just doesn’t want to be with us.

But we need him.

We need him because none of us knows what the fuck to do next.

* * *

I’m in the woods near the tunnels that lead to Redrock. There was a time when that was the last place in the world I wanted to be. Right now, though, it seems like heaven. An untouchable paradise. Tantalizingly close, but out of reach.

They look enticing, the tunnels—dark, empty. Like it would be so easy to walk through and out the other side and be free.

But on the other side, men with guns, and S.D.B. agents with who-knows-what spells are waiting to take down anyone who dares try to pass the shield. To lock down a whole town, and seal us in, must have taken a truckload of magick. If only they’d listened to Mack and used that magick to help us instead of sitting back and letting us fight this whole fight alone.

I’ve caught Snow’s scent here several times before but, today, there is something else. I move deeper into the undergrowth. By the time I recognize the smell, it’s too late.

A Hellhound is in front of me.

Its red eyes blink slowly. Its head is dipped, its teeth showing even though its jaws are closed. I snarl loudly, scratching the ground, waiting for it to come for me.

But it doesn’t. It tilts its head and moves a little closer. It sniffs the air. It releases a low grumble in the back of its throat.

Brother…

The word floats through my head. The beast meets my eyes. Then it turns and runs.

18

MACK