Page 1 of Savage Fate

Chapter

One

My pulse thunderedin my ears, and I could hardly catch my breath, my lungs straining as I sprinted through the dimly lit alley. Jumping over a pile of broken pallets and slipping on unrecognizable sludge slowed me down.

The footsteps behind me gained ground.

Shit.

They were getting closer.

I bolted out of the alley, hoping to find someone, anyone, walking the streets, but darkness coated the town, and not a single light remained on in any of the storefronts. Never had I felt so utterly alone.

Frantic puffs of air steamed in front of my mouth as I stopped and tried one door and then another, my hands trembling and slick with sweat.

“Locked, of course,” I muttered.

This stupid mistake cost me another few seconds.

Ominous laughter curled from the shadows, and figures moved among the buildings like giant monsters poised to rip me to pieces.

“No!”

They couldn’t have me. I didn’t join this world just to be torn out of it.

My legs and arms pumped as I took off down another backstreet to escape. The swishing of fabric, like heavy cloaks fluttering, echoed behind me.

“What do you want? Why are you doing this?”

No answer came.

Instead, the lights winked out, one by one, and icy panic bled through my veins. My sneakers skidded on a puddle of oil, and I tumbled forward, catching myself on my hands before my face slammed into the asphalt.

Tiny bits of rock and glass sliced my palms, but the pain barely registered over the fear.

Could they smell it? Did it have them salivating?

The gold band on my ring finger caught my eye, as out of place as the black strands of hair dangling around my face.

What the hell? That isn’t my hand or my hair.

More sinister laughter drifted on the wind, and I scrambled up, resuming my race toward my car.

Wait. I don’t have a car.

Unshed tears blurred the tall brick buildings trapping me as their presence closed in. They had me surrounded. My chest ached, my ribs closing around my lungs.

“Is this really the end?”

My eyelids poppedopen as I sucked in ragged gulps of air. I blinked the haziness from my vision and tried to discern where the hell I was.

The tan leather interior of Alpha Camus’s SUV finally registered, the sun setting on the horizon and casting pinks and oranges across the winter sky. The trees and marshlands outside Savannah soaked up the last rays before darkness settled. Soon,the cooler air would make way for spring, and then another unbearable summer would emerge.

The hard pillow I leaned against moved, and a pair of mismatched eyes, one gold and the other vibrant blue, met mine.“Bad dream?”

Fane’s voice swirled into my mind like a soothing balm, washing away the remnants of the nightmare.

But the fear remained.

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