Embrace the Night

15

She was out of time.

Smith entered the room, and Chloe just stared at him, so mental y, physical y, and emotional y drained, she couldn’t even think beyond the dread that had become a living force inside her.

A smile graced his face, and she’d already learned to hate that look on his face. He left the door open behind him, and she got the feeling he did it just to taunt her. Probably to taunt the wolves he had trapped in here as wel . They’d begun to writhe and snap as dusk drew closer, salivating at the scent of a Normal in the room. Tess had huddled in her cage since she’d regained consciousness, silent, eyes glassy and vacant.

Chloe had wanted to comfort her friend, but she didn’t have the time or energy to spare, not for grief or kindness or even human decency.

Alex had worked with her in desperate tandem, telepathical y stuffing information he’d pul ed off his father’s computer into her overloaded mind. The awesome speed with which the boy could process data overwhelmed her, left her staggering, but she’d pushed through because she had no other choice.

Combined with her own theories, she’d refined Ivan’s version of the formula until she had something that might work. Might. Possibly.

Helpless anger wrenched inside her. It should be tested and retested before it was ever administered to a human subject, but that obviously had no bearing on a terrorist’s agenda.

Tremors shook her body as she drew a syringe of the potion from the large beaker she was working with.

She set it on the table and stepped back while Smith prowled forward. Revulsion crawled over her skin when his arm brushed hers. His glance told her he knew how he affected her. She gritted her teeth, but said nothing.

“I think the honor of giving the first dose should be yours, don’t you, Doctor? You should see the fruits of your labor.” Smith’s gesture went from the syringe to Alex.

The boy shuddered, his struggle with Change obvious. The moon would rise soon, and she’d seen the self-loathing fil his green eyes every time he’d glanced at Tess’s cage, the smel of a Normal as tempting to him as it was to the other wolves.

Smith’s smile widened, and it was even more horrifying than it had been before. His fangs bared, but that was the only sign that Change affected him at al . Only a very old wolf could have that level of control. “Let’s make this complete. Sasha, let the Normal out. We’l see how young Nemov does.”

A dazed Tess clambered out of her kennel, held upright by the Fae woman, who kept a weapon pointed at her, even though she just stood there and rocked in place. The wolves went wild, slamming against the doors to their cages, howling when they hit the silver bars. The din pounded on Chloe’s eardrums, and she wanted nothing more than to slap her hands over her ears and pretend this wasn’t happening.

Alex stood at soldierly attention, his gaze glued to a blank wal , but his fangs protruded over his bottom lip. His telepathic voice was as calm as ever. Just do it, Chloe. There’s nothing else we can do now except play his game. He’ll just kill us outright if we don’t.

He was going to kil them al anyway. They weren’t on his side, so they were just a liability that had exhausted its usefulness. It was bitterly ironic that for once Alex was the one with the most hope. Chloe couldn’t dredge up a shred of it. Not anymore. Swal owing down a huge lump in her throat, she picked up the syringe and approached her godson. “I’m sorry, Alex.”

Those green eyes moved over her face, his internal voice rough with emotion he didn’t let show. Don’t be sorry. The last month has been the best of my life, and I know how pathetic that sounds, but it’s true. If it has to end this way, I’m glad I had the time. Living with you and Merek. A family. People who stuck it out with me. He tugged his shirtsleeve up, baring his arm for her. His telepathic tone became matter of fact.

Smith’s going to have to shift for full moon, too, as well as any wolf he has working for him. I hacked the security system in this place, and you should have a twenty-minute window right when the moon goes up.

Get out if you can. I wish I could have done more to help you. He didn’t blink, didn’t flinch when the needle pierced his skin, though the trace amounts of silver in the potion would burn like lava in a wolf’s veins. Chloe clenched her jaw and refused to give in to the sobs building in her chest. Picking you as my godmother was the best thing my parents ever did for me. Don’t ever blame yourself for this. I love you.

“I love you, too,” she breathed and dropped the empty syringe to the table. Then she grabbed his hand, and waited for the inevitable with him, this boy who was neither her flesh nor her blood, but was stil hers.

His young body began to shake, and his grip tightened as he fel to his knees with a keen of animalistic pain. She went down beside him, steadying him with a hand on his shoulder. Trying to keep the panic out of her voice, she sucked in a breath. “Alex? Alex, tel me what’s going on. What do you feel? I can try some healing spel s if you talk to me.”

Never had she felt the inadequacy of her healing skil s as sharply as she did now. Treating his bul et wound was nothing compared to this—a poison she’d administered herself. Her heart hammered in her chest, guilt and nausea roiling in her until she wanted to scream.

“No. No!” A large form came hurtling through the open door, and gunfire rang hol owly in the wide lab.

Peyton. Chloe’s heart stopped as the man moved with stunning speed.

The Fae, Sasha, stumbled back as a bul et hit her. She screamed when she slammed into the wolf cages, and those who could reach her latched onto her limbs, her clothes, her hair. Spel s shot out from her in wild sparks as she made noises worthy of the trapped and terrified animals who grabbed her.

Gregor and Smith dove into action to try to tackle Peyton. Both wolves shifted midair, the crunch of bone barely audible over the clamor from Sasha. Blood sprayed from bul ets and teeth, talons and claws.

Peyton’s gaze met Chloe’s for a single instant, and his telepathic command pierced her mind. Run!

Alex was already standing, jerking and twitching as if he were having a seizure, but on his feet. That was enough to spur Chloe into action. She leaped for the tottering Tess, drew back her hand, and slapped her friend as hard as she could. “Tess, get it together. Let’s go! ”

The redhead blinked as if waking up from a deep slumber, but Chloe wasn’t about to lose this opportunity. She grabbed her friend’s arm and hauled her toward the door, shoving Alex along in front of her. He moved, not as fast as a werewolf should be able to, but they were out of the room without being hit by any stray bul ets or spel s.

They reached a door to an outside hal way, and it wouldn’t open. “No. Damn it.” Chloe slammed her fist against it, already feeling the pulsating waves of shielding magic that would be difficult to dismantle, even if she knew how to magical y disarm a door, which she didn’t.

A gurgle came from Alex’s mouth, spittle fal ing from his lips. My hack . . . should have . . .

The door clicked, the smal , lighted panel beside it flashing from red to green. “Yes.”

Hope she’d lost so recently came rocketing back, and Chloe prayed to whatever deity was paying attention that they made it out of here, that they could get help. Wrenching open the door, she gathered every scrap of magic she had and pushed against the shield spel s around the labs. The spel s became a visible blue force field, rippling every time Chloe rammed her power into it. Sweat coursed down her face, stuck her clothes to her skin. A shaky opening began to slice through the shield, and Alex shoved the smal er women through it.

“No, you are coming with us, young man. That. Is. Final.” Chloe latched on to his hand, drew on his energy, and used it to widen the opening just enough to yank him over to her side. She lurched forward, almost face-planted into the floor, and made Alex stumble, both of them shaking. They’d have gone down, but Tess latched on to her other wrist, held her up, and steadied the wolf.

“O-okay.” Tess’s voice was shaky, but her grip was firm as she held on to both of them. “How do we get out of here?”

Swiping the sweat from her brow, Chloe cast a frantic look around. A cacophony of roaring came from the lab behind them, fol owed by the sound of someone crashing into something solid. Or through something solid, like a wal . The thought made ice run through her veins. Whatever they did, getting away from this spot was imperative. There was no tel ing how long Peyton could or would keep fighting, or how long they had before someone came to investigate the breach in the spel shield. She moved to Alex’s other side and grabbed the boy’s arm. He stil swayed where he stood, shivering and panting through clenched fangs.

“Let’s just keep moving.” Chloe pushed them forward and Tess nodded, helping her prop the wolf up so they could shuffle into an ungainly trot. They ignored the elevators and fol owed the signs for the emergency staircase.

Spil ing out onto a cement landing, they faced a sign that said they were on the hundredth floor. Tess leaned over the rail to look down. “I have bad news.”

“I real y don’t want any bad news,” Chloe wheezed as she hefted more of Alex’s weight. The kid was pure muscle and getting heavier by the second. She hoped that was just her perception and that he wasn’t starting a half-shift. They’d never be able to carry him then. Panic made her heart trip, but she refused to give in now.

Tess glanced back over her shoulder. “Wel , suck it up, princess, because that’s what you’re getting. We have to go up, maybe use a door for a higher floor. There are people coming up these stairs at a run.

Listen.”

It was faint, but there was definitely the pounding of footsteps from further down, and moving at much faster speeds than a human could run. Since any sane werewolf was running on pack land or locked in for the ful moon, she had to assume that meant vampires. Or, worse, not sane werewolves. Neither option was one she wanted to deal with. “Al right. Up we go. Let’s get out of Smithvil e.”

Heaving Alex up the steps one at a time, her heart broke every time he tripped and stumbled. His breath came out at a pant, sweat pouring down his face. He didn’t even pause to wipe it away, just used one hand on the railing to help haul himself up the stairs. Filtering as much of her own healing energy to him as she could spare, she took a moment to be grateful he didn’t tel them to leave him, because they didn’t have time for that argument. The little genius had to know she wouldn’t do it. Neither would Tess, when she wasn’t damn near catatonic.

Al three of them staggered drunkenly up to the landing one floor above where they had started, only to find there was no going any further. They’d reached the roof. “Oh, fuck.”

“Better out there than sardined on a stairway,” Tess stated, shoving on the metal bar that opened the door.

A piercing alarm shrieked when it swung wide, and Chloe winced, but worked with Tess to jockey Alex through the opening.

“Can you use your magic woo-woo to booby trap the door?” Tess gave her a hopeful look, swatted the heavy metal door shut, and shrugged. “Because there went any element of surprise we had about where we got off the stairwel .”

“They can track us by scent anyway. They’re werewolves. And vampires. Both are coming after us, so they’l find us in the next minute or so.” Alex sucked in a deep breath of the cool air, untainted by the oppressive fear and human waste of the laboratory. “I can smel them.”

He pushed away from their support, managed a few steps on his own before he threw his head back to stare at the ful moon peeking out from between the clouds. Chloe used the free moment to press her hands against the door. Booby trap. She’d never tried to booby trap anything in her entire life. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on what she wanted, letting her ugly emotions feed the energy needed for the spel . Pain, agony, fire, corrosion, death for whoever opened the door. She twisted the words into an endless litany in her mind, building a shield around the door, a shield that sparked with red and orange and white-hot flames.

Heat radiated from the metal surface in front of her, and she gasped, jolting backward.

“Holy freaking shit,” Tess breathed.

No kidding. The door had expanded, warping, melting into its frame. The shield around it shimmered, smel ed of molten iron, and whispered of ominous things. Chloe shook out her hands, ridding herself of the dark energy the spel had generated.

A choking sound from Alex brought her around to face him, and a low sob from the boy made her hurry to his side. She cupped his cheeks between her palms. “Alex, honey. You can’t freak out on me now. I know it’s not good, but the other option was dying in a silver cage. We’l find a way out of this. I know we wil .”

“No.” He shook his head, a single tear streaking down his face, and he swiped it away, embarrassment reflecting in his eyes. “It’s ful moon, and I’m stil human. ” He flung his arms out, extending and retracting his claws. “Look. I can shift, but I don’t have to. We did it, Chloe. It worked. ”

“Gods.” She didn’t know what else to say. So many things spun through her mind, wild hope, crazy scientific possibilities, deathly terror because the danger was nowhere near past. She grabbed for something real, something sane. “The side effects aren’t good, because you weren’t doing so hot.”

He snorted. “A few minutes for the healing magic to kick in, but that’s nothing if it means wolves don’t have to worry about dying. Some tests, some tweaking. But look at me. I’m not even having to fight for it, and I’m human.”

Something enormous slammed into the door, making them both jolt back to ugly reality. Tess cal ed from where she was prowling around the edge of the building. “Could we hold off on the celebration until we’re out of here, please?”

Stumbling back from the door, they al gathered near the railing. Twinkling city lights stretched in a panorama around them, brightly lit high-rises and the Space Needle piercing the sky, with the Puget Sound a dark swath in the distance. Chloe was almost ashamed of the relief that rushed through her at being back in a metropolis, surrounded by mil ions of lights. “Wel , we’re downtown. As if that helps from up here.”

Wind rushed up, pushing them back from the edge of the building. This time, when whoever was at the door pounded on the metal, he or she got through it. Chloe groaned at the shock that punched through her with breath-stealing force as her shield gave way. Then a great explosion shook the very air around them when the door blew. They ducked, hitting the hard cement surface of the roof. Screams, flames, the putrid stink of burning flesh.

Chloe stared in stunned silence, unable to believe what she had wrought. Bodies on fire danced in grotesque patterns across the roof, some moving so fast they made streaks in the darkness. Slowly, they col apsed. Dead. She knew they were dead.

“Holy shit,” Tess gasped.

Even Alex turned to give Chloe an incredulous look. Shaking her head in mute silence, she clenched her quaking fingers. “I don’t know how I did that.”

A quiver ran through the wolf’s body, and his nostrils expanded as he pul ed in a deep breath. “Smith’s coming. Gregor and Sasha. A female wolf, too. Get ready.”

No Peyton. Had he survived the fight? Had he run as soon as he had the opportunity? Chloe stil associated the man with the burn of bronze against her skin, so she wasn’t ready to trust that he’d helped them for some altruistic reason. For al she knew, he was hoping to overthrow Smith and take over and they’d just provided a handy excuse. She wasn’t wil ing to trust much of anything anymore.

And then there was no more time for thinking.

The wolves are mine. Alex tensed beside her, his muscles twisting and flexing as he grew into a monstrous half-shift. His dark skin went pitch black, his facial bones stretching into a muzzle with massive, dripping fangs. The tal boy grew to a height of almost seven feet, and his ropy young muscles swel ed to a rippling sinew so huge he exploded from his baggy T-shirt. Parts of him shrank in and others thrust forward, making grotesque sucking and crackling sound effects.

It took place in a handful of seconds, but those terrifying moments stayed with a person forever. Tess choked and swayed, her eyes forming perfect circles as she stared at the transformed Alex. A deep roar ripped loose from the teen, answered when two other half-shifted wolves plunged through the smoking doorway. They leaped forward, dropping into crouches to survey their prey.

A noise that was almost a chuckle rippled from Alex before he launched himself toward them. Chloe grabbed for his arm, wanting to hold him back, but he was moving faster than her reflexes could keep up with. She missed, crying out as the three half-animals col ided with the crunch of shattering bones.

“Get down!” Red streaked through the night, and Tess dove to knock Chloe off her feet as a spel bomb exploded where she’d been standing.

Tess covered both of their heads with her arms, and Chloe automatical y threw up a shield around them.

The next bomb exploded like shooting fireworks against her warding spel , and she jerked when the dark magic ruptured her shield. It was a blow to the solar plexus that left her gasping, and before she’d managed to recover, Tess bounded off her, which gave Gregor the opportunity to drag her away from Chloe’s protection.

That left Sasha blasting another spel at Chloe, who threw up another shield to block it, but sprawled onto her backside when it struck.

Her heart pounded so loudly in her ears, al she could hear was the rush of blood. Magic hummed beneath her skin, waiting for her to direct it. She wracked her brain for any self-defense spel s she knew.

Merek’s teaching of Alex hadn’t included lessons in casting because wolves couldn’t cast wel . Chloe didn’t think she could do any of the physical moves they’d dril ed. The only magic she was proficient at was what she used at home and at work. Potion making, practical everyday magic. Merek would know the right spel s if he were here, and her heart cinched so hard thinking of him that she gasped with the pain. Tears pricked her eyes. There was another kind of spel she’d used recently, with Merek. Seduction spel s. She staggered under the weight of agony that threatened to crush her, and she desperately tried to shove it away, to remain numb.

The Fae woman’s face swam before her tear-glazed eyes.

That face had haunted her dreams for weeks. The woman who’d tortured her, ripped her already-fragile sense of safety away in a handful of moments. Rage exploded inside her, and she didn’t need the spel s.

Her magic simply reacted as she wanted it to; the simple magic she used with Merek turned dark and deadly.

Massive bolts of lightning shot from her fingertips, sizzling toward the other woman. Sasha tried to set a magical shield around herself, but the amount of fury behind Chloe’s spel meant some of it got through.

A cold smile of satisfaction curled Chloe’s lips as she watched utter shock widen the Fae’s eyes. Then her body began to writhe as the lightning hit her, arced around her, bit into her flesh. A harsh scream wrenched from her throat. The shield before her wavered, and Chloe used the momentary lapse to her advantage. A part of her was stunned at her own ruthlessness, while the rest of her simply reacted.

Another round of lightning forked from her hands, slamming into the Fae. The anger inside Chloe was nowhere near burning out, and she fed it into the spel . Flashes of memory erupted in her mind. Her own torture by this woman. Barely escaping the last ful moon with Alex. Tess’s betrayed, hurt expression when she’d found out they’d al lied to her. The stench of Luca’s flesh igniting in the morning sun. Blood covering Merek’s body, his beloved gray eyes going blank. A raw sob tore from Chloe, but she didn’t al ow herself to stop.

What remained of Sasha’s shield disintegrated in a shower of blue sparks, and Chloe hit the other woman again and again. The shrieks that came from the Fae were barely human, a wild sound of pain. The noise trailed off as she final y passed out, but her body kept jerking spasmodical y under the hits of lightning.

Chloe could kil the other woman. She wanted to kil her. For Merek, for Alex, for herself, for being part of an organization that had harmed so many she loved. She stood on the edge of a precipice she’d never faced before. Violence, rage . . . murder.

For Merek, she pul ed back, shut down the magic. For Alex and Tess, she didn’t al ow herself to look at what her hate had produced. It would fuel her nightmares for years to come.

She had won the fight, but no sense of victory stole through her as she turned away. She was numb, final y, and she welcomed it. Anything to keep from feeling, from coping with what she had seen and done.

She staggered only a step or two before she ran toward the sound of a scream in the night. High-pitched and terrified. Only a woman’s voice could make a noise like that. Tess.

The sound cut off so abruptly it sent chil s racing over Chloe’s flesh. She paused, staring blindly into the cloud-shadowed darkness. Gods, she fucking hated the dark. “Tess!”

Where had the sound come from? She didn’t know which way to go now. Shit. The glare from the city lights only made it harder to see.

“Tess!”

The scream came again, ending in a gurgling choke. Chloe’s heart hammered against her breastbone, and she shot forward, sprinting through the night and praying the roof stayed even underneath her.

The clouds parted, and moonlight gilded the gruesome scene before her. Gregor circled Tess, fangs bared and dripping pink foam. Blood poured from a series of bite marks around Tess’s throat, but she was stil on her feet, stil fighting. The vampire feigned left, darting right in a blur of speed, but Tess had already dived for the ground, both fists swinging in blind arcs.

She connected, hard.

The vampire staggered back maybe an inch, but Tess kicked out with her foot and swept him off his feet.

Damn impressive for a Normal to be holding her own against a ful -grown male vamp. Chloe shook herself, and torched the bloodsucker with her lightning. He jolted and spun, hunching forward in a hissing roar that made her heart stop. He came at her, fangs gleaming in the moonlight.

Chloe glanced around, frantic. A weapon. She needed a weapon. Spel s alone wouldn’t do much to a vampire. Only sunlight would, and it was nighttime. She sliced him with lightning again, concentrating hard on the glow of it. Sunshine. She needed it to be sunshine. Her magic answered her commands eagerly. The crackle of it lifted the hair on the back of her neck. A bal formed between her hands, so bril iant she had to turn her face away and close her eyes.

A hoarse shout from Gregor, and the stink of burnt flesh told her the spel was working. It was too much to maintain for long, but when she blinked her eyes open, there was no one near her. Not Gregor, not Tess.

The hol ow crash of metal sounded as the torched vampire ricocheted off the doorframe before streaking through the open door and into the bowels of the building, clearly deciding this wasn’t a fight he could win.

Good.

She didn’t have a moment for relief as Alex came tumbling by with Smith. The teen wolf’s flesh was shredded to ribbons, his face a barely recognizable mass of blood and broken bones.

The slightly smal er female wolf tackled a pursuing Tess. Lashing backward with her foot, Tess caught the she-wolf in the chest. The wolf grunted, but Tess didn’t have time to do more than rol over before the she-wolf was on her again. The Normal used the heel of her hand to snap the she-wolf’s muzzle back and up.

Both let out an agonized howl as Tess gripped her now broken wrist and the she-wolf tripped back.

Chloe didn’t know what to do, who to try to save. Alex punched al ten talons into Smith’s sides, and the bigger wolf howled in rage, pummeling the boy with fists that sounded like concrete impacting flesh.

Tess’s shriek spun Chloe back toward the other fight. The she-wolf had the Normal on her back, hunching over her body, a taloned hand around her friend’s throat. Tess thrashed for air, for life.

“Get off her, bitch.” Chloe drew back a hand, flung a firebal over the she-wolf’s head, searing her back, but not doing much damage. She had to get the wolf away from Tess. She had to.

Gods help her.

The she-wolf writhed in pain, her huge, half-shifted form crushing Tess. Chloe rushed forward, throwing al of her weight behind the push, but her strength was no match for any werewolf. The she-wolf whipped around and sank her fangs into Tess’s thigh, ripping through cloth and flesh.

“No!” Bitten. Tess had been bitten by a wolf on ful moon, the time of Change. Oh. Gods.

Silver. silver. SILVER. Find Silver. A chorus of whispers sounded off in Chloe’s head. Werewolves were al ergic to silver.

Tess. Tess had a silver necklace she wore al the time. It glinted in the moonlight. Chloe reached over, jerking it off her friend’s neck.

The wolf arched back, jaws gaping, Tess’s blood leaking from the side of her mouth, to howl her triumph at the moon. “Aaaa-oooh.”

Chloe cupped her friend’s necklace in her palm, thrust it into the she-wolf’s mouth, and lit up another firebal to force the melting silver to coat the inside of the wolf bitch’s throat.

The wolf’s jaw locked around Chloe’s wrist, and her fangs made screaming agony shoot up Chloe’s arm and directly into her brain. She stared into the female wolf’s eyes as the silver ripped into her bloodstream, kil ing her quickly and painful y. Her every breath and every heartbeat sped her demise. Her feral eyes glazed over with death in moments. The crunch and crackle of Change sounded as her body shriveled back into its human form. Chloe wrenched her injured arm out of the wolf’s mouth, whispering a few healing spel s to stop the bleeding, but Tess needed her energy far more.

Slamming her hand over Tess’s femoral artery, Chloe felt the pressure of each heartbeat pulsing blood between her fingers. She closed her mind to doing the same thing for Merek that morning. He was gone, but Tess could stil live. Even with Chloe’s ful weight pressing down on the bite, some blood escaped. She focused her magic on healing the wound. It didn’t matter if her friend had been bitten if she didn’t survive the initial injury.

Down. get down. DOWN.

The whispering echo of premonition hit Chloe so hard she swayed before she ducked. Just in time. A hulking half-shifted werewolf sailed over her head, skidding into the dark and out of sight. Smith. She heard him scrabble against the rooftop, leaping back for round two. She cast a shield so hard he ricocheted off and kept on flying to hit the railing, but he didn’t go over.

I regret that your death was always going to be necessary, but at least you were more useful than Dr.

Nemov. The wolf projected the thought as he righted himself and shook al over, like a wet dog. He stalked her slowly, his eyes looking for an opening.

“You’re ful of shit, Smith. If you real y regretted what you did, you would have stopped years ago. My only comfort is knowing that when my aunt finds out about this, she’l make sure you never use my formula to get what you want. If anyone has the power to stop you, she does.” Chloe’s energy levels were in the toilet, and she had very little magic left. This night had taken its tol . She swayed to her feet, tottering, planting her feet to keep from toppling as she watched him circle Tess and her. Easy prey. She lifted her chin and glared at him. “Just get on with it and quit playing with your food, you filthy animal. ”

Smith bayed at the ful moon and charged her. He bounced off her warding spel , and she sliced at him with red flames. Seared fur roiled and stank. Noxious fumes hit her in the face. He roared with pain and rage, letting out an unholy keen. The blood-chil ing sound froze her for a second too long. He crashed through her weakened shield, knocking her away from Tess.

They rol ed over and over until Chloe slammed hard onto her back, doubling over and gagging as her breath exploded out. His knee made hard contact with her ribs, and a few of them gave way. Hot pain tore through her torso, shooting through her in nauseating waves. He straddled her, pushing his crushing weight down on her waist, and she felt herself blacking out until he snaked out an arm and clawed her from shoulder to breast. His talons slashed through skin and muscle, making her scream, raw and high-pitched.

Thrusting the sound forward with magic, she made the shriek worthy of a banshee. Smith reared back, loosing an agonized howl, slamming his hands over his sensitive ears. She scrabbled back on the hard pavement, breaking nails and skinning palms in her effort to get out from under him.

She skidded into the corner of the rooftop. Trapped, but at the moment the railing was the only thing holding her upright. Blood spil ed, heavy and thick, from her chest. She pressed a hand over the wound, but it proved too large to cover. Her breathing hitched in torturously, every inhale and exhale a conscious effort.

She had never known real pain before this moment.

The moon went dark behind clouds, and she could barely see him in the remaining gloom. Only the reflection of his eyes showed, which looked demonic and horrifying. The night had never been more terrifying than at this moment. Her heart raced like that of the cornered prey she was. She fought to keep from blacking out, clamping her hand tighter over her shoulder.

Smith’s rancid breath blasted into her face as he closed in. She slammed her eyes shut and lit up a flare in his face. He staggered back, blinded by the light as she shot the sparks as high into the air as her waning magic could make them go. Maybe they’d bring help. Maybe Alex and Tess would be saved. She had no faith left for herself. What little energy she had went into sending up the flare.

Smith came back, of course. She knew he would. Werewolves were bigger, stronger, faster, and she had no more tricks up her sleeve. She sagged against the rail, consciousness fading in and out.

She wasn’t sure if what she saw was real or pure dream, but it made a weak smile curve her lips.

Ophelia, her suicidal escape artist familiar, came streaking through the dark. She leaped onto Smith and dug in with vicious precision, hooking claws into his eyes and sinking teeth into his left ear.

The massive wolf howled with rage, trying to buck her off. He spun and twisted like a maddened rodeo bul . She hung on, though. He backed into Chloe, tripping and crashing. Something in her knee gave way where he stepped on it. She tried to scream again, but went into a fit of hacking coughs, which increased the pain ripping across her chest. He and Ophelia flailed over the rail.

“Ophelia, ” she wheezed as loud as she could, which just made her cough harder.

“Meow,” the familiar returned, and Chloe started. Ophelia had gone over the rail. Chloe knew she had.

She’d seen her.

It was a dream. It had to be.

Because an enormous dark angel swooped from the sky and brought her Merek. He cradled her close, kissed her mouth, and she tasted honey. He said her name over and over again, but she couldn’t draw in enough air to speak.

The angel transformed into Luca, who sagged to his knees beside Tess. “Mia diletta?”

There was no response. Maybe Tess had died, too. If this was death, it hurt enough to steal Chloe’s breath away. She couldn’t see Alex. She hoped that meant he’d survived.

“No,” Luca choked out the word, then he screamed it. “No!”

A tear ran unchecked down his cheek, dripping off of his chin. He lifted Tess gently against his chest and rocked her, a deep sob racking his body as he buried his face against her long hair.

Chloe blinked slowly, aware that Merek was talking to her. Or maybe he was talking to Luca. She wasn’t sure. She was just glad she could see him. One last time.

The darkness she hated so much closed in and took her away from him.