Page 7 of Revenge of the Blood Pack

I want to believe it’s all an exaggeration. That my pack wouldn’t really do those things. But the couple I’d gotten close to, well, they had done awful things.

I just don’t know anymore. If one of them coming to town brought such a dark omen, I can’t keep pretending that any of what I’ve heard is an exaggeration. Maybe my pack members really are as twisted as the Enforcers think.

But either way, I want to find them. I want this lead to bring me to them so badly that my soul aches at the thought.

“Then, the animals started disappearing,” she says it quietly, but it still feels loud in the woods. Too loud, because not a single creature’s sound stirs the silence. “A deer was found slaughtered in town. Then, a bear. People didn’t know what to think, but I did. Something evil had come to our town.”

She freezes up ahead of me, and I take a few steps to catch up to her, but the scent hits me even before I see it. In the trees, a bunny hangs from a few vines like a bug caught by a spiderweb. Only, fuck, someone shredded the damn thing.

Shredded. The. Bunny.What the hell can do that?

We keep going, but there are more and more animals hanging from the trees. Rabbits. Squirrels. Birds. Dogs. Cats.And their killings look… pointless. Nothing ate them. Nothing skinned them. Whoever, or whatever, the fuck did this did it for pleasure, that I know.

As my mind goes through the pack members who were tortured alongside me, I can’t imagine a single one of them who would do this. None of them were capable of doing something so awful. This has to be something else. A demon maybe.

Not someone I love.

The old woman stops and turns around to face me. “This is as far as I’ll go. I’m sorry, but the scent of dark magic is overwhelming.” I can’t smell the dark magic yet, but I believe her. Witches are more sensitive to magic, after all.

Those pale eyes of hers meet mine again. “Just get them out of my town. There are children here. Families here. My magic has made this a safe haven for all. There are no murders. No kidnappings. It’s protected. I’ve done this. Placed a blanket over all the humans, even though it’s against the rules. But fighting this? This is too powerful for me.”

Something softens in my heart.Is that her secret? That she’s used her powers to protect the humans here?As far as secrets go, it’s a pretty damn good one, even though she’s right that the Enforcers would have an issue with a witch interfering in the lives of humans in such a huge way.

“I’ll take care of it.” I don’t promise her, because I’m done with promises, but I mean what I say. No matter what I find in these woods.

She smiles, and then, her eyes widen. Her mouth opens and blood comes pouring out. Vines suddenly slam all the way through her chest, four big ones, and then she’s dragged back like a rubber band snapping. I don’t have time to think; I just start chasing after her. My feet pound on the ground beneath me. My heartbeat fills my ears.

I barely stop in time as I come to the edge of a massive blackened space in the middle of the woods. It curves down like a bowl, and animals hang from every space around it like sickening decorations. The witch has been brought to the center of the bowl where a woman stands. Not just any woman, but Abby.Abby, the shifter who taught our entire pack. She’s a woman in her early thirties with an easy smile, wild outfits, and dance moves that made the whole town laugh.

But she’s not standing in a bright orange outfit with Halloween cats on it now. Her auburn hair is darker, tangled, and falling about her shoulders like she hasn’t seen a brush in months. Her grey clothes are stained with blood and dirt, and she stands barefoot. She doesn’t seem to see me, just stands with her hand outstretched, bringing the witch closer to her by the vines that came from the center of the bowl.

My mouth feels dry as I breathe in the new coppery scent, but I swallow.Blood. Fuck.I didn’t mind the dried blood from the animals, but the witch is dripping with fresh blood. And now that I’m a fucking Blood Mage, I’m drawn to blood like any vampire. Not just that, but deep inside I know it’ll fuel the powerful magic within me.

Not that I would ever feed off of an unwilling person. Not that I’ve accepted that dark side of me yet.

But is that what this is all about? Abby is getting blood to fuel her magic?I can fix this. I can tell her that although wewantblood and need it for our magic to work, unlike with vampires, we don’t need it to survive. She can just stop. She can be free of all of this.

The vines draw the witch to Abby, and Abby reaches out, smears blood off of the old woman’s chest, and licks it off her fingers. Her expression is far away. Lost.

And the witch? Her head is rolled to the side, her eyes wide in shock.

“Stop!” I say, my voice shaking.

Abby jerks, and then turns to me. But instead of looking at two pools of green eyes that are always filled with laughter, they stare at me blankly. So blankly that it makes my stomach turn. She lifts a hand toward me, and more vines explode from the ground and barrel toward me.

I leap easily out of the way of them and hit the ground once more in a crouch. Before the vines can strike again, I’m running. I dive off the edge of the bowl and head right toward them.

But Abby isn’t watching me. Instead, she’s feeding on the witch’s throat, and I think I might vomit because this isn’t the way vampires feed. She’s feeding like a fucking wild animal. She’s torn out the woman’s throat, and I know without checking her pulse that the witch is dead.

Dead. Abbykilledher. Abby the schoolteacher. Abby who had the kind of laughter that was infectious. She killed a random, innocent woman.

“Abby!” I scream as I reach her.

She pulls back from the witch, staring at me, and there’s a flicker of intelligence in her eyes.

My heart aches. “Yes, Abby, it’s me. It’s Asha.”

Her head tilts. “A-sh-a?”

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