Page 229 of Caelum

"I can smell your years," the female on the ground countered, with a simple quiver around her lips that told me she thought they had the upper hand. "Lucas is right. Youareyoung."

I should have appreciated that they thought they'd discerned a weakness, but I wasn't. My Sin Eater was irate. If they could sense how fucking old I was, why couldn't they scent that my one true soul was dominant? That I was a creature now and not just a child with too many souls in my body?

"Young I may be, but I'm still capable of biting your head off," Dre rasped, and a second before he shifted, I sensed his agitation, an agitation I shared, one that was formed from arrogance and annoyance at our enemies for not sensing our strengths.

The bear appeared out of nowhere, and when it roared and dove into the fray, we all took that as the moment to join in.

The only trouble?

Something stopped us.

Even as we rushed forward, each of us intent on tearing apart the three Ghouls, we couldn't. Our bodies were still, like we were encased in ice.

It wasn'tus, but the souls who refused to move, and when Eve stepped forward, I realized why.

She'd done that.

She'd frozen us in place.

I wanted to scream at her, wanted to rage at her for putting herself in danger, and when the Ghouls gaped at us, at our utter stillness, from Nestor who appeared to be hovering in midair thanks to the way he'd taken off at a run, and the bear whose arms were outstretched to grab at the Ghouls, the smirks were quick to follow. When they laughed? My Sin Eater began to rage, and the rebellion began. Whatever hold Eve had on us, I wanted it gone. Now. I wanted to tear through the cage she'd imprisoned me in again.

She'd been the one to liberate me, to free me from the prison that was my body. My Sin Eater had surged to the fore because of her, and now she was taking that right from me?

I couldn't stand it, and I knew the others wouldn't be able to either.

Even as I squirmed and railed against her hold, she was too strong, too powerful.

I was left wriggling around like a baby on a changing mat as she stepped forward, maneuvering around us and heading toward the three Ghouls whose eyes promised her demise.

I couldn't see her, couldn't sense the array of her facial expression, but what the Ghouls saw? It scared them.

I'd never thought I’d seen it before. Ghouls were too stupid to live at this age, and they'd been so cocksure, so certain that they held the upper hand thanks to Eve's meddling. But now? Whatever she was doing? They were scared.

Bone deep.

Was I surprised when she picked up one of the victim’s legs?

Yes.

I thought she'd be squeamish, thought she'd be reverent around the fallen's corpses. Instead, she used their broken forms as weapons, and even while I was kind of grossed out, I was also proud of her. Proud because these women had died unnecessarily and she was giving them a purpose once more.

The way she tossed that leg forward was worthy of a javelin thrower at the Olympics. I'd never seen anything like it in my life, and I kind of hoped I never did again.

The sight of the broken femur piercing Lucas's gut was something I'd never forget. He stared down at his torso, at the leg that was literally halfway through his belly, and then he dropped to his knees.

He wouldn't die, but he'd hurt. For a good long while, and that took him out of the game until either myself or Stefan were allowed to reign free and could quit him of this mortal coil.

The others began to back up, heading deeper down the alley now that they realized Eve wasn't an easy target.

When she approached Lucas, he whimpered, and though I sensed he wanted to raise his hands in a fighting stance, he didn't. Instead, he focused on trying to wrench the leg from his stomach—except he couldn't because Eve had somehow lodged it in so deep that it simply wasn't budging. What in the hell kind of strength had that taken, dammit?

She reached down to his side, where there was a knife glinting in the faint light from a streetlamp and gripped it in her hand. How she'd seen that, I wasn't sure, but what I was sure about was the way she began to stalk down the alley.

It was a dead end. I knew that because I could scent it. Before, whenwe'd approached the different mouths of the alleys we'd traveled down to find this scum, each opening had a scent of its own. Something unique that helped guide me farther.

Now? There was nothing. Which meant Eve was walking toward danger.

When a sharp scream sounded from the dark shadows, I flinched, and whatever hold she had on me disintegrated with my terror because that scream? It was female.

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