Page 71 of Veil of Shadows

No sign of Bexley anywhere.

I slowly turned around in a tree and gazed back toward the compound, noticing something else. The fires were gone. Thetwenty-feet flames that once threatened to burn us all to the ground had disappeared as if they were never there. The only evidence the fire left behind was a charred part of the forest and smoke that rose lazily into the starry night sky.

Just about everything around our compound was burned.

Except for our actual compound.

A show of strength,I thought to myself.

My mind swirled with all sorts of things as my wolf form took control once more. I jumped from branch to branch until I touched down against the ground, then I stood there. Unsure of what to do. Now, I’d met some strong-ass vampires in my lifetime. Hell, it took Delilah herself taking out my fucking father before that son of a bitch accepted death with his arms wide open. But, I’d never met a vampire that wielded the elements like that. The fires didn’t come from us, and there was no scent of gasoline, so they weren’t set. And fires didn’t rage out of control like that naturally unless there was some sort of solvent propelling it forward. So how in the fuck were those flames ignited? The entire forest should’ve smelled like fucking diesel fuel, and yet there was no scent at all. Just the smell of smoke and the scent of desperation as the thought of Bexley being in Delilah’s crutches filled me with white hot anger.

If that bitch laid a finger on my mate, her army of misfits would never stop finding pieces of her.

Ever.

Find my mate.

My soul cried out as I forced myself to turn back in the direction of the compound.

Go after that bitch.

My mind screamed out to me as I sprinted back toward the two vulnerable packs.

Go get Bexley. Go get Bexley. Go get Bexley.

My heart thumped with purpose. My soul shrieked with need. The more distance I put in between me and Bexley to get back to our packs, the more my heart shattered. But, I knew she wouldn’t want it any other way. If the tables were turned, I would have expected her to get back to the packs and keep them safe until we figured out what the fuck do to next. And Bexley was nothing, if not the most capable human I had ever come across.

She was trained. She was extraordinary. She was prolific.

And if there was anyone who could survive long enough until we got to her, it was my mate.

My Bexley. My darling. My purpose.

But even I knew that a human was no match for a vampire.

And that truth alone filled me with panic as I sprinted back toward the compound.

23

BEXLEY

The sound of my back slamming against the wall had nothing on the sound that fell from my mouth when I dropped to the hard floor beneath my feet. Darkness surrounded me as something yanked me up by my neck. I gasped for breath and clawed at the gooey substance, but every time my nails raked through it, the slime seemed to mold around me. As if it could anticipate my every move.

And as the slime wrapping around my neck and wrists dragged me back toward the wall that caught my initial fall, I heard her giggle in the distance.

“My, my, what a fighter,” Delilah’s voice said, echoing all around me.

My body shivered as the wall seemed to come alive, holding me against it with its gooey little tendrils. The more I fought, the more it tightened around me. My eyes scanned the room, clocking the darkness that seemed to sparkle and undulate. There was no light. No glimmer. No flickering sconce anywhere. Just me, my feet planted against a tiled surface, and this fucking wall.

Holding me hostage like a fucking prisoner.

“And so, we meet again,” Delilah said, emerging from the darkness.

Her red heels clicked across the shimmering black floor. The shadows finally released her, vomiting her in my general direction as her wispy blonde hair came into view. Those icy eyes of hers, glowing red like her dress, pinned me with a smile that didn’t quite reach them, and it took everything inside of me not to spit in her face.

She clasped her hands behind her back like the little prim and proper woman she thought she was.

God, what I wouldn’t have given to snap her neck with my bare hands.

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