Page 89 of Wicked Curses
A nervous murmur ran through the crowd as they shifted around him. These things had a twenty-four-hour killing pass. They could devour almost everyone in this town by then if they’d somehow figured out how to breach the library.
“Don’t worry,” Belda assured the others. “We’re safe in here. Something happened over there, but wewon’tlet it happen here.”
“At least, if they’ve already eaten, they’ll be gone in a day,” a vamp said.
Orin shot him a look as he rested his hand against the shutter and bowed his head to think. Cole wouldn’t be happy if he returned without Lexi’s aunt, nor would the queen of Dragonia.
He preferred to keep his ass firmly intact, something that might not happen if he went out there and tried to save the silly witch, but he couldn’t let Lexi and Cole down.
I think they’d understand, a small voice whispered in his head.
And maybe that was true, but wouldheunderstand? He’d never been a coward, but he’d also never given a rat’s ass about most immortals or people and had been perfectly content to watch countless numbers of them fall.
But the idea of leaving Sahira to this horrible fate made him pause. She was a strong, capable woman and a powerful witch; she could care for herself.
He pressed his eye to the hole again. The sky over the library was now so choked with beetles they blocked out the setting sun, turning it night over there.
And they were moving, flowing down the road as those inside sought to evade them.
Why did they leave that building?
But thewhydidn’t matter. They were already out and fighting to survive.Sahirawas fighting to survive.
“Shit,” he muttered as he tugged at his hair.
Stepping away from the hole, he rested his hands against the metal shutter as he tried to think past the emotions battering him. Was thatfeardeep down in his belly?
He’d experienced it a time or two before, when he’d watched his brothers fighting for their lives, and when that wendigo gored him and he’d been certain it was over. But never for someone who wasn’t blood or himself.
And why was he experiencing it for Sahira? Sure, she was almost family, and he sort of liked the woman, but she wasn’t his problem.
It would suck if she died before he fucked her, but he’d been disappointed before and would be disappointed again. Such was life.
But he still couldn’t walk away from this shutter and return to his seat to let fate unfold.
Damn witch, always getting herself into trouble.
Pushing away from the shutter, he met Belda’s curiosity-filled eyes. “I have to go out there.”
Her mouth pursed as her lips twitched toward a smile before compressing again. Orin had no idea what the lycan thought about his words, and he didn’t care. He couldn’t leave Sahira out there alone.
It might already be too late; Sahira’s skin was most likely being shredded, but he couldn’t leave her out there when there was a chance he could help her.
“Someone has to close the door behind me,” Orin said.
“What do you think you’re doing?” the berserker demanded.
“I have family out there, and I’m not leaving her to die. Most of the beetles are focused on the library; I can slip out while they’re distracted.”
His hand fell to the dagger strapped to his side before he shifted his attention to his room. He had a sword tucked under his mattress, and there were weapons below, but too much time had passed since the scarogs swarmed the library. He couldn’t waste any more by going upstairs to retrieve it.
He lifted the bar from the door as some immortals lunged forward to try to stop him. When hands grasped his arm, he spun to destroy those whodaredto touch him.
Most of them retreated with their hands in the air. There were certain immortals they could screw with and others they couldn’t. He was one of the ones they couldn’t, and they all knew it.
“Let him go,” Belda commanded, and more of them fell back.
She strode over to rest her hand on the metal bar barricading the door. “We might not be able to let you back in.”
