Page 66 of Hunted By Darkness

On guard, I stared at the absolute looney. “Are you taking the piss?”

He huffed an unamused laugh. “What, can’t imagine a bastard like me sacrificing myself for another person? Think you hold the monopoly on doing what’s right now that you’ve clung to the only good woman worth dying for?”

“Oi.” I started forward, but he closed the distance between us on his own.

His hair fell around his eyes as we squared off. “She loves you. I can’t figure out a single reason why, but she does. The thing is, she cares about me too, and she would’ve never chosen between us. She would’ve fought to the bitter end to save everyone she cares about. So I did the only thing I could think of. I took the choice away from her.”

He crossed his arms and waited for me to argue. But I wouldn’t. In the end, he was right. Nika wouldn’t have chosen either of us and put herself in danger to save us both. I’d been tying myself in knots trying to figure out how to help her, how to carry the burden for her, but I couldn’t.

I wasn’t an absolute sod. I’d never tell her to take the wolf bastard’s soul because I knew what it’d do to her. She had to make that decision for herself. And if it came down to me sacrificing my life to keep her alive and happy, I would. I’d give the gorgeous sister of Lilith leave to take my soul to send that bastard back, and I wouldn’t regret the time she’d shined her light on all this darkness living in my heart.

I just never imagined Bear Claw would be the one to do it before I could. I thought he’d cling to his second chance at life. I thought for sure he’d fight for her to stay with him instead of me. But for once, I’d called it wrong.

The wolf bastard proved to be a better man than the one I worked with all those years ago. He was as in love with her as I was, enough to offer his soul. I hadn’t expected to feel so conflicted and out of sorts. I didn’t like what it meant for this bastard to lovemywoman, but I respected the bloody hell out of it all the same.

Because it was as my little rebel said, Bear Claw had changed.

Scoffing and keeping my thoughts to myself, I folded my arms and mirrored his stance. “How?”

“I—” he started before his eyes shot over to the door.

Then he was gone.

Lev sent me a curious glance, but I was already heading outside. It wasn’t a lot that got my heart pounding, but the second I took in the empty garden without finding my bird, my heart was on a mission to break straight through my chest.

Bear Claw was in bear form, stalking across the grass around a bench under a tree, using his nose to track any leftover scent. When he morphed back to a naked man, his expression was grim. “She’s been taken.”

“Sorry?” I snarled.

“I can’t catch a tracking scent, but it was definitely Rilas. Those assholes thought it was you at first because they’d been preoccupied with Nika, but then he disappeared with her. Tometi and Ryker think they can find her.” The naked shifter had his hands fisted as he stormed into the house.

“Fucking shite!”

She’d been right. He’d come looking as me the way she’d seen in her dream, and I’d let her go off alone like a bloody cotton-headed numpty. My barriers were nothing to him if he had my blood and magic. I wouldn’t have felt him come inside. I could blame Bear Claw all I wanted, but I’d been the absolute fuckwit who watched her go. I was the arrogant bastard who gave the Devil access to my goddess knowing he had the means.

I dragged an angry hand through my hair. “How will those two invisible wankers find her?”

Bear Claw called out to them, then he shifted from one foot to the other, waiting. “They’re already gone.”

For fuck’s sake…

“Bloody brilliant, that is,” I grumbled sarcastically.

Fear clouded my judgment and paralyzed my body in ways it hadn’t since I watched that bastard appear in front of my bird that first time, wearing the face of someone I’d killed. I couldn’t let it. I wasn’t any good to her if I let fear terrorize my normally quick-witted actions.

Nika needed me at my best, so I would be.

I followed Bear Claw into the house after doing my own assessment of the bench and everything around it, but it was evident Rilas had used an enchanted item to take her. Tracking him would be next to impossible with the use of one, and he wasn’t likely to go back to the place we’d tracked down with the help of Bones. Knowing that gobshite, he’d been planning it for a while and used the Brotherhood attacks as a distraction.

It wasn’t clear how he’d gotten her to comply. I wasn’t sure what he’d used, magic or threat. I wasn’t even clear on what he could still do, but I’d need to be clever and quick if I wanted to find Nika before he did whatever he planned.

My guess was to sever the bond she and I had. It appeared to be the greatest obstacle in his way, and the longer I hummed and hawed, the greater danger she was in of falling prey to that bastard demon brother of mine.

The lad was in a fit when I returned, gathering weapons and everything he could. “We have to find her…” he mumbled to himself, packing more than he should. “Fuck. Silas, how do we track her? Are Ryker and Tometi going to be able to find her and tell us in time? They can’t exactly call us.”

Tracking…

Without explaining, I headed for our room to retrieve the item Dugan gave me the day we met in a field of flowers. I’d read the note briefly, but only the bit about how I’d know when to use it. Tearing the room to pieces, I finally found where my bird put it. She’d been clever to stow it out of sight, but I should’ve kept it with me.

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