Page 13 of Shadow Bound

I make a vow that one day I will make Sterling and Nessa feel the kind of pain Alexandre felt—that I’ve felt all my life.

I watch as Winslow sobs over the dying shifter. She begs him to stay with her and I can sense her pain from here. I’ve found myself to be pretty numb to emotions, but I can physically feel her heart breaking. It’s clear he was shot trying to protect her, I can’t help but wonder what it’s like to have someone in your life that loves you so much they’d die for you.

Just like Alexandre’s heart, the shifter’s slows to a crawl in his chest and eventually it goes completely still. Winslow throws herself over his chest, the blood from his wound seeping into her clothes, but it’s clear she doesn’t mind. Her whole body shakes as she sobs.

Jax stands behind her, now holding the baby, begging her to leave before someone else finds them. They have no idea I’m the last one here that could stop them. Everyone else is dead or incapacitated. With no intentions to stop them, I stay put.

With a determined look in her bloodshot eyes, Winslow lifts her head from his chest. She lays her hands over his and closes her eyes, like she’s focusing hard on something. There is the slightest shift in the air, and with my overly sensitive senses, I feel the magic coming from her. It’s as if there’s an electrical charge in the air.

I watch closely, trying to figure out what she’s doing. When I hear the shifter’s heart start to beat again, it becomes clear.

Holy shit. She’s a necromancer.

She brought him back from the dead.

I only know of one living necromancer, the rest have long gone extinct, and she’s not him. Which begs the question, where the hell didshecome from?

I look on with fascination as they embrace each other and declare their love for one another. Jax’s words fill my head,‘there are good guys out there—they’re few and far between, but they’re there’.

And now, I think I believe him.

* * *

Present

I’ve learnedtonight that taking a life is so much easier than saving one.

Jax had to be lying a few months back when he said he liked the feeling of saving a life. I found the whole thing to be a fucking nuisance.

I was honest when I told Ransom it would have been a lot less tedious if I’d just killed his precious alpha. It wouldn’t have been any skin off my back. I don’t know her, and I certainly don’t owe her or her family a damn thing. But my sudden urge to be a better person meant I saved her instead. Well… I gave them the chance to save her. It’s up to them now to actually heed my warning. Hopefully Ransom believes what I said and relays the message because if he doesn’t, someone worse than me is coming for Pruitt.

For all of them.

A twinge of an unfamiliar emotion stabs my chest and I find myself rubbing the spot, trying to make it go away. Is this what it feels like to do the right thing? If so, I don’t like it.

I stalk through the night, the lingering taste of the wolf’s blood on my tongue.

Ransom.

I was right when I sensed the killer in him when I observed them from the ridge. Up close, the hunter in him is almost palpable. How he keeps is so well hidden and contained in front of his family is beyond me. I’m frequently having to tighten the chains that hold mine at bay, but I’ve watched the carefree smile on his face as he relaxes with his family.

I hadn’t gone there intending to be around him, I was going to go talk to Pruitt and her tattooed mate, Ryker, but somehow, he’d been able to sense me in the hallway. No one, not even Sterling or Alexandre, could sense me when I shadow walked around them. I’m simply just another shadow, moving around undetected, but for whatever reason thatwolfwas able to sense me lurking about.

And the scent of his blood was intoxicating.

I’ve never tasted shifter blood. As a general rule, I only feed off human blood. The second that small amount of Ransom’s blood hit my tongue, it zipped through my veins like lightning. I’ve never taken drugs, but I wonder if that’s what heroin addicts feel when they shoot up. If so, I understand their addictions and I sympathize with their struggle to combat them.

My gums burn as my fangs descend just from simply thinking about his blood again. I grind my molars, forcing myself to keep heading in the opposite direction of the little clinic I just left. That part of me that sometimes even scares me rears its ugly head and I take slow even breaths to keep it reined in. There would be catastrophic consequences if I lost control. No one that crossed my path would survive me.

I need to leave this small, backwoods Montana town Ransom’s pack calls home before Sterling sends his goons after me.

He lied on the phone earlier about me being easily replaceable. I am his perfect creation, the impeccable combination of two species. I’m the result he worked tirelessly for years to achieve.

Sterling isn’t experimenting on women and their embryos to just create as many hybrid babies as he can. No, he’s striving for perfection—the perfect killing machines that will do his bidding when the time is right. He’s killed countless to achieve results like Alexandre and me. Now that my brother is gone, I’m the only one left of my unique combination; fae and vampire.

It won’t be long before he realizes I’ve fled from him and he’ll sendherafter me.

I’m good—excellenteven—at what I do, but Nessa is better and has years more experience than me. But that’s the problem with sending the teacher after the student, I know all her tricks.

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