Page 13 of A Killer Crescent Valentine

“You used magic; that’s cheating,” Dean retorted, eyes narrowing.

Hugh glanced back at us. “You say there’s no chance I can eat full…” He motioned a long spread with his hand.

“Banquet,” I supplied.

“Exactly!” he agreed. “But I ate it.”

Dean let out a long-suffering sigh.

I leaned my head onto his shoulder as we walked, eyes and ears open for noises, nostrils flaring for scents. As much as we bickered to pass the time, we all wanted to find the Cupid. Slasher had a long stick in his hand he kept poking into the underbrush and bushes—not the best search method, but it was all we could think of without getting scratched to hell by brambles.

I straightened when a rustling met my ears, and we all froze, angled towards the sound. Dean held his finger to his lips to quiet the rest of us, and spoke in the softest voice I’d heard from him.

“It’s safe to come out, we’re not going to hurt you.”

My heart ached as I pinpointed a tall bush as the origin of the rustling. The kid was hiding in a bush? I rubbed the hurting spot on my chest, and felt so lucky to have had Ana with me through childhood. I’d been through hell, but I’d never had to hide in a bush for safety.

I took a careful step—and jumped back when a black hare leapt out of the bush, its back legs looking inclined to kick all of us. When it bared its teeth, they were fangs.

“Vampire bunny!” Slasher cried in delight.

“Vampire bunny wants blood,” Hugh pointed out, edging in front of me, hands flexing at his sides, ready to catch the hare if it leapt at us.

“No!” Slasher hissed when the hare jumped closer. “Bad bunny!”

“Hey, isn’t that a guy? A rapper? I think I listen to one of his songs,” I mused, keeping a close eye on the fanged hare.

“Bach?” Slasher asked, giving me a surprised glance with hearts in his eyes. “I love Bach.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell him, so I just nodded rapidly. “Yeah, that’s what I meant. Bach.”

The hare jolted towards Hugh, and I tried to push him behind me, my protective instincts surging like a tidal wave, but he was immovable. Slasher launched forward with a loud, guttural hiss and the hare froze, realising it was prey and not the predator it had assumed.

“Shoo.” Slasher flapped a hand and the hare bolted, running as fast as its legs could carry it.

“False alarm then,” Edison murmured, giving Dean a look I didn’t like. Like they both knew this search was doomed but neither wanted to admit it. “Let’s keep moving.”

I chewed my bottom lip and hooked my arm around Hugh’s, trudging through the woods. Again. At first, the rich, loamy scent of the earth was comforting and exciting in equal measure. Now I was sick of smelling it and just… sad. There was a vulnerable kid in these woods, a wolf like me, and we wouldn’t be able to find them before one of the hungry monsters that lurked in the darkness did.

What if I’d run into woods like these after Anarchy was murdered? What if I’d been alone and easy prey for big, bad creatures like the ones I knew—

We all grounded to a halt, and a gasp shot up my throat when a snow-white shape bolted out of the trees ahead of us, four much bigger, humanoid shapes racing after it.

“What the fuck?” Dean yelled, rushing closer like an angry force of nature, a muscle in his jaw feathering.

The Cupid dashed into the trees and off the path, white wings trailing, and I froze at the size of the wolven body, at the gangly wings, the too-big paws.

“A cub,” I breathed, my stomach twisting.

“She’s terrified,” Hugh rumbled, so much rage in his voice that I jumped.

The four members of the search team raced after the Cupid, but Dean stepped directly into their path.

“Were you just hunting a child?” he asked, lethally soft. “Remind me where in my instructions I told you to chase the kid like they’re a rabbit in a fucking greyhound race!”

“I don’t agree with those,” I remarked absently, staring at the space the Cupid had vanished into, running for their life. Her life? I glanced at Hugh in question and sucked in a breath when I found him mid-shift, those painful moments before his wolf form took dominance.

He shook out his black fur, murderous eyes pinning the three witches and one vampire of the search team with a silent death threat before he let out a low, mournful call and walked carefully, slowly, towards where the Cupid had disappeared. I followed at the same pace, not chasing like it was a goddamn hunt. We ran after her yesterday, but that was when we thought she was an adult and a serial killer.

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