Page 59 of Prey

“You won’t win this fight, girlie. Wewillbe taking you with us today and you will perform the Immmortalia spell,” he seethes at me in anger.

“Wait, is that what you all are calling it? You couldn’t come up with anything better than that? Geez, get a grip on yourselves. You look ridiculous by the way. Your skin is actually peeling away almost as if you actuallywerea mummy,” I say, pointing and laughing at him. Good, the angrier he gets, the more mistakes he will make.

I take a second to look behind me. Wrath MC is taking down the Society members like they’re paper dolls. Josiah and Emmett have both shifted and are ripping into them. All of them are wounded, but none of the wounds look serious. I turn back around. Magnus has made it halfway back to us, but he’s struggling. He’s also laughing. What the hell is so funny? I hear a noise and the next thing I know, Jessa and Grams are ripped away from me and thrown down the hallway as a creature steps from the meeting room.

I look up, and up, and up. This fucker has to be twelve feet tall because its head is touching the ceiling. It reaches out and grabs me by the throat and lifts me. I hear Ethan and Kadi roaring, trying to get to me. I point to Grams and Jess hoping someone will go after them as the creature squeezes my throat tighter and tighter.

My vision is going black. I’m seeing spots all around me and I can’t breathe. I hear a roaring sound, like a lion as I start blacking out.

Suddenly, a gentle hand grabs mine. Shiva.

“Oh hello, darling. Do you remember page twenty in the Grimoire?”

Why on Earth is he asking me that? Wait, golems. This…thing is a golem? I’m still struggling to breathe, to keep myself from blacking all the way out. He disappears just as quickly as he popped in. Getting rid of golems is as easy as taking a look and finding out where their word is. Usually on their forehead.

Well, I’m certainly close enough. I search quickly, finally finding it. Using the tip of my finger, I reach. This thing doesn’t have any eyes so he must have located me based solely on my magical signature. He can’t see me reaching for his face and I’m already close enough to it that he isn’t going to realize what I’m doing. I reach further.

There. I just manage to use my nail to wipe away the first symbol of the word on its forehead. He disintegrates immediately.

I fall.

Hard.

But I can breathe again. I take huge gulps of air and try to get my bearings. The guys land on either side of me. Both are in lion form and they are furious. Holy shit. I have never seen a lion like this except on TV, and those programs do not do an angry lion justice.

Ethan nudges me with his snout and I kiss it before getting to my feet. Magnus is staring at me in shock. “How the hell did you figure out that it was a golem so quickly? You should have passed out first.”

“Oh nothing, just a little help from a smurf.” I feel a phantom tug on my hair and then he’s gone for good this time.

I raise my arms out. Looking back at Kadi, I tell him to get Grams and Jessa. He shakes his mane and nods in that direction. The other witches are already over there taking care of Grams. Laken has his wrist pressed against Jessa’s mouth, forcing her to drink his blood. Oh Goddess, is she dying? I can’t think of any other reason he should be doing that. What the hell. I whip my head to Magnus, furious.

I throw a bolt of electricity at him hard and fast. It makes the ones I threw at Ethan look like static electricity. He falls to the ground in convulsions. I stalk over to him throwing bolt after bolt at him until his body is smoking. Everything in the hallway stops as he lies there shrieking in pain.

I throw an arm out and the other Society members in the hallway drop dead. Kadi and Ethan walk over to Magnus and both of them begin ripping into him until he is silent.

It’s over. Well, at least this part of it is. I do a quick count of Society members in the hallway. I count nineteen. Counting again, I slowly walk around in case I missed someone.

Fuck. Someone got away. My guess is it was one of the higher ups too. Kadi and Ethan walk back over to me wiping blood off their faces with their bandanas. They just ate a guy in front of me. Should I feel weird about it? Nah, but they aren’t kissing me until they brush their teeth, that’s for sure.

“I can’t find the last member. I think they got away in all the excitement. I imagine these bodies will be turning to goo soon. Should we stay and clean up?” I ask.

“Nope, Little Lioness, we need to leave immediately before the Enforcers get here. We suffered no casualties so all of us will be leaving.” He coughs after the word casualties and my eyes start to Jessa who is being helped up by a very angry Grams. Laken and Joaquin are nowhere to be found. Oh Goddess. She really did almost die.

“You better find them and bring them to me immediately,” I whisper. Ethan nods at Hank and he leaves.

We all go down the elevator in groups and walk to the SUV’s as fast as our wounds will allow. We can get healed at Grams’. I look around for Loki. I’m sure I saw him earlier but I can’t find him now. He won’t get caught, I’m not worried about that, but I don’t understand where he was during the fighting.

Driving away, I watch as several Enforcer vehicles pull up to the Hotel. They're going to get a hell of a surprise when they get there and find nothing but blood and smelly goo. I rest my head on the back of the seat and let sleep overtake me.

Chapter thirty-three

Wounds & Worry

SHASTA

We all got healed by various witches once we got back to the Coven. Grams was first and began immediately gettingeveryone healed and situated somewhere to rest. Jessa is laying on a table next to me. She’s very pale. I want to ask her what happened, but I think she’s pretending to be asleep so no one talks to her. I just squeeze her hand and whisper, “I’m here when you’re ready.”

A lone blood red tear slips down her cheek at my words.

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