Page 114 of It All Started with a Bite

“Remind me never to piss you off,” Didi muttered.

Camilla barked an order to the vampire mercenaries. Half the group jumped off the dais and headed toward us.

I cracked my knuckles. “Time to get this show started.”

The curse washed over me like a wave when I stepped inside the ballroom. Bar tickling my skin, it did nothing to me.

I checked the others carefully as they joined me. Everyone seemed surprisingly okay. I furrowed my brow.

Was it the effect of being close to a white wolf?

There was no more time to think as the first wave of vampire mercenaries reached us.

I grabbed one of the men by the throat, spun, and hurled him into a wall. “Bo, head over to Pearl and the others!”

Bo fidgeted before making his way across the room with a slight limp.

Didi and Gavin engaged the mercenaries alongside me. Marcus transformed into a black wolf and lunged at his attackers with an angry snarl.

Priscilla’s eyes widened across the way when she saw her son. “Marcus!”

Lauren’s wolf snapped her head around. Relief brightened her eyes at the sight of Marcus.

A fireball struck the ground next to Didi’s left foot before I could make sense of what I was seeing.

“Hey, watch it!” the witch snapped as she blasted a mercenary in the face with her magic.

“Sorry!” Gavin said while merrily setting fire to a vampire’s clothes.

I was beginning to suspect the reason his and Didi’s last surveillance job had gone wrong was because the dragon newt was actually a pyromaniac.

“Can you guys handle the rest of the mercs?” I asked them.

“Leave it to us.” Didi’s broomstick hummed eagerly as she used it to assault a vampire somewhere no vampire should ever get assaulted.

Marcus’s wolf whimpered and looked at me beseechingly.

I punched another vampire’s lights out and sighed. “Alright, you can come with me.”

We made our way across the ballroom, Marcus staying in his wolf form to help me keep the other supernatural creatures at bay. Despite baring their teeth at us and growling, no one tried to attack.

I was wondering why when it dawned on me then that the eerie sensation I’d experienced at the Den was back. I hesitated before focusing on the feeling and staring the creatures we passed in the eye. Their glazed looks faded. Some of the werewolves shook their heads and looked around, confused.

My mouth went dry. Was my presence acting like an antidote to the skull’s curse?!

We finally came in sight of Samuel. I scowled, dragged the dragon newt attacking him away by the tail, and sent him flying into a champagne tower.

“Hands off my alpha, you damn lizard!”

Samuel gaped before recovering his composure and engulfing me in a bear hug. He pulled back and scanned me worriedly, his touch making my wolf whine.

“Are you okay?!”

I nodded then noticed the faint burns on his hands and face. They were already healing. Still, the fact that he’d gotten hurt set my rage level to the max.

“Marcus, go protect your mother,” I ground out. “Samuel and I will finish off that shrew.”

36

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