I stand up, shifting into my human form. I face the wall, not bothering to find clothes. For once, I don’t care about my nakedness. I just care about getting to them. About saving them.
“I’m the one you want! Me! Let me in! I’ll make a trade. I’ll do whatever you want. Just let my friends go,” I shout at the wall, knowing that the Moonfire witches can hear me.
I wait, holding my breath, begging my heart to beat slowly. But I get no response.
I frown, confusion wrapping around my face. I’m the one they want, and when I offer myself up to them, they don’t let me in. Something is happening. Something I don’t understand.
I place my hand against the invisible wall and close my eyes, listening closely.
I don’t understand magic, but I know that when I was a Moonlight pack member, I was granted some of Ambrose’s magic. When I denounced his pack, he took it back. But I’m his mate. He has magic. Maybe there is still a drop left. Enough to persuade the magic holding up the barrier to open enough to let one female through.
I calm my mind, focusing on the magic, trying to feel its essence, how it works, and if it has any free will of its own.
But I know nothing of how magic works, and the tiny amount of magic I had is gone. It took all of Ambrose’s magic to create an opening before.
I should never have agreed to stay here. Never agreed to let them go without me.
But I refuse to be helpless. Refuse to give up so easily. I will find a way in. I will find a way to them. I will not stop searching for them. If they are alive, I will save them.
If my will alone could break through the magic wall, it would.
Break, dammit, break.
The wall doesn’t bend, doesn’t break to my will, it doesn’t budge. The magic behind it is more powerful than anything I will ever understand. It tells me exactly what I’m up against. In rankings of power, it goes witches, then vampires, then wolf shifters. The shifters will never win this fight. Especially not now that our powers are beginning to fail us. Not against this power.
“Take me to him,” I say, I whisper against the wall, like it can help me. And then I’m sucked into a portal—darkness, and spinning tosses me around like an endless void, and then I’m spat out, hitting the ground hard.
Chapter 28
Nyx
“More blood,” I growl.
My body is coated in blood. There is still a mouthful of blood that I haven’t swallowed, and yet, I know it’s not enough. I need more. Desperate for more, more, more. I can’t stop. Not now. Not ever.
Another body is tossed into the cage. A male already dead, but I can scent the smell of warm blood—a fresh kill.
I grab the body, almost ripping his head off as I try to get to it’s neck. I sink my fangs into the thin skin and drink.
Ecstasy floods my body with each pull—intense, overwhelming, unlike anything I’ve felt before. I drink greedily, like I’ve been starving for this my entire existence and this is the sole thing I’ve needed this entire time.
And maybe I have.
For most of my life, I’ve treated blood like a curse—something to fear, avoid. A single mistake could be my end.
It’s too late now—now I’m going to die.
I’ve had too much this time.
Good, death will feel like a warm welcome to me.
Kill, kill, kill…
Die, die, die…
I hate that they tossed the body in already dead. I wanted to be the one to kill. I want to kill as many as I can before I die.
I drain the body too fast.