Page 56 of A Dawn Of Blood

I shake my head, my mind reeling. “Is he…” I start to ask my wolf.

It’s her stunned silence that confirms my doubts.

But the next thing I know, he’s regained control of his magic, the helmet is back on and he’s reaching for those damn swords again.

“Wait,” I mutter, and he stumbles a little, but then he lunges at me.

“Don’t,” I yell out as I avoid the attack, and it feels so stupid to say, but he’s obviously not getting it. “Don’t you see?” I duck again, the blade cutting the air right above my head. When I stand straight, I’ve captured it with a thunder whip. “You’re my mate, asshole,” I insist through gritted teeth, panting.

The words make him pull the sword back and tilt his head at me, making hope explode in my chest.

Then he gives a long, quiet laugh, the sound of his voice seeming to stoke the fire his blood lit in my veins. “You know what I see?” he asks softly. There’s a cutting hint of a smile with a flash of fangs. It’s in a whisper that he answers his own question. “A witch I’m about to capture.”

Then he raises his shadows again and attacks, so quickly and with such force that I find myself slamming into the wall behind me, feeling air leave my lungs and my ribs crack.

I watch him start stalking over to me, my eyebrows pulling down as I try to wrap my mind around the situation.

Is he really still going to attack me?

Yes, he is.

I scramble to my feet and move for the opening to my right, but the pain and the fatigue are making me so slow, while he seems as fresh as when we started fighting.

By the time I’m grabbing onto the edges, he’s almost right behind me.

My head snaps back to him when I sense his power start invading my blood. “Don’t,” I plead quietly.

But as soon as he starts using blood magic on me to stop me, he freezes. I watch his nostrils flare.

That’s right. He hasn’t actually smelledmeso far. He’s only smelled the fake scent I’ve been smearing all over myself.

Perfect, now he’ll see I was right.

Then I see his lip curl in disgust, and the reaction hurts, but I take the moment of confusion to hoist myself over the edge of the opening and fling myself down, shifting midair.

Chapter 42

Cain

For a moment, I stay frozen in place. Then the scent that’s now invading every atom of my being urges me forward.

I kick myself off the ground and leap over the rubble, my wings coming out midair to propel me where I need to go, after the scent that’s already growing weaker.

After all, she’s keeping it masked, so unless I’m using my power on her…

Fearing I’d lost her already, I’m rushing like never before, past the soldiers still fighting down on the ground, over the Wall, through the trees.

Then, somewhere ahead of me, I sense the energy blast of her using her powers, my body flooding with relief and a kind of excitement that’s entirely new to me.

That’s where I’ll find her. And this time, she’s not escaping me.

But once I land on the clearing in which I sensed her, I find one of my own hunched over some woman I’ve never seen before. She’s on her back on the ground, writhing in pain.

“Where?” the soldier is demanding through gritted teeth, obviously using Mind Magic to torture her. “Tell me or I swear to Lilith herself…”

“That way,” the woman rushes to say, “she went that way. Please, don’t kill me.”

It’s at that moment that the woman’s eyes snap to me, making the soldier throw a look over his shoulder, his eyes instantly rounding in fear.

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