Page 36 of Wild Wolf

“You know I don’t,” he replied in a low growl.

“Then don’t go thinking a pair of fangs will put me off,” I snapped. “Besides – you know I like it rough. And I’ve never been averse to a little biting.”

Cain threw me a heated look over his shoulder and I gave him the hint of a smile before focusing on the task at hand and leading Roary after me into the dimly-lit passageway.

We made it to a fork in the rows of cages, the way to the right lit with the flickering glow of flames, the way to our left abandoned in darkness.

A burst of raucous laughter sounded in the distance and to our right and I recognised Sin’s voice.

“This way,” I said, indicating the opposite direction. “If they’d found it, we’d know already.”

Ethan had his orders to send me a signal in pain if he happened to find Roary first and I was certain he would have extended that to the discovery of his Lion – assuming he recognised it when he saw it. Either way, the moon was urging me to the left and my other men had their orders to keep the ruthless Fae in this place fully occupied while I worked.

Cain and Roary didn’t question me, both of them presumably so used to my judgement being correct in these kinds of scenarios that they were beyond doubting me anyway.

The cages got larger as we headed through the darkness, the scent of blood and rot mixing with the animal stench which ruled down here. I eyed a cage large enough to hold two elephants, wondering what the fuck had been inside it.

Ahead of us lay a door, illuminated around its edges by the glow of light from within. I didn’t fail to notice the corpse sprawled before it, the skin of the Fae’s face torn off entirely making it difficult to tell if they’d been male or female.

I tossed a silencing bubble up over us before inching closer to the door and asking the moon to hide me from sight once more.

Cain and Roary hung back a few steps as I approached, watching my flank, having my back.

I reached out with my power, feeling the magical ward which stood around the door, blocking the entrance.

Vines crept from my fingertips and spread out before me, trailing swiftly along the edges of the ward, brushing against it gently, testing, tasting, just enough to let me know where it stood but not enough to inform whoever had cast it of my presence.

A smile tightened my lips as I found the edges of the ward less than a foot around the door.

“My cousin Dante has a saying about fools who only guard the obvious entrance point,” I said, stepping to my right until I was looking at the wall beyond the outer edge of the ward. “They’re asking to have their back door blown open.”

Magic exploded from my palms, two pillars of solid stone crashing from me and into the wall before us. The thin skin of bricks were blasted apart, my magic taking hold of them and merging with them, ripping them aside and hurling them away over my head so that we were left standing before a wide hole, looking into a room where two men stood gawping at us in utter horror.

My eyes went straight to Vard who was gaping at us like a fish out of water – or rather gaping at Roary and Cain because he couldn’t even see me where I stood directly before him.

I took a step forward, ready to launch myself at him, but before I could do anything, a roar of utter agony broke from Cain’s lips and a rush of air swept past me as he launched himself at the huge blonde bastardo who I had barely spared a second glance for.

The two of them went crashing into a stack of crates and tumbling out of view and Vard blasted a ball of fire at us in the few seconds I lost to my shock.

Roary snarled ferociously, shooting after him as he turned tail and fled but he went crashing into the wall, seemingly unable to fully control himself at Vampire speed.

I broke into a run, not sparing any time on either of my men as I raced after Vard who had flung himself through a door at the back of the small room.

I hit the door, cursing as I found it reinforced with magic and coating my fists in iron as I began to pound on it to break through.

Roary joined me, using his newly heightened strength to attack the door too and we fell crashing through it as it finally gave way.

Vard was already at the far side of the cluttered space, a row of shelves between us that didn’t quite hide the glass jar in his arms which glowed with a bright, golden aura.

“There it is,” Roary gasped, shooting ahead again and slamming straight into the shelves, sending them crashing down on us and forcing me to throw a shield of dirt up over our heads to save us from being crushed.

“Come, Benjamin!” Vard bellowed and I cried out as what sounded like an explosion came from behind us where Cain had been engaged in his fight with the blonde bastardo.

I sucked in a sharp breath as Dragon fire bellowed from the jaws of a huge, bronze coloured beast which I had to assume was the bastardo in his shifted form.

Cain shot towards us and I threw my earth magic up again. This time my wall of dirt was joined by ice as Roary helped me, though even that was only just enough to shield us from the blast of Dragon fire which exploded over it.

I cursed in Faetalian, reappearing again in the midst of my men and gritting my teeth as the flames continued to blast over the top of us.

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