Page 3 of Monsters of Midnight

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” I muttered under my nervous breath.

Chapter 2

RYDER

My body wasn’t made for the humid air of the Hawaiian tropics. It would’ve been easier to tear through this jungle in my monster form, but the heat lay heavily against my skin and made it difficult to shift into my more powerful form. Instead, I was crashing through the dense foliage with a machete, focused on trying to find the entrance to Cade’s lair, which had magically moved since we had been there the day before.

The day when Caroline had died.

I smash my fist into the trunk of a palm tree, ignoring the pain that shot up my arm.

The jungle gave me a powerful opposing force; something impossible to beat and to pit my wits against. There was no way you could just strike your way through the jungle. You had to know the dangers; where the ground was weak and where the ground was hard, where the vines were long and where the cliffs were high. I knew none of the terrain here. The landscape was a mystery to me. It was the perfect recipient of the rage that engulfed me and drove me to strike. I was pushing my way through the jungle as if I was a bulldozer set on destroying the rainforest itself.

Was it truly possible Caroline was gone?

Impossible to swallow the reality of that.

I had seen it with my own eyes; her hands slipping under the lava and disappearing into the burning flow of magma. I had seen her skin darken, then turn black as she screamed in agony.

That was how it ended.

My relationship with Caroline was always going to end like that; with Caroline dying. I had never expected it to be so horrific or so traumatizing. Now the only thing I wanted to do was die.

After I took out Cade and robbed him of his life, the way he had robbed me of my love. I was going to destroy him. He would be powerless against the crushing strength of my blows. Cade had taken from me the only thing I had ever truly loved.

Caroline.

I took care of my mother out of a sense of responsibility. I kept monsters off the earth out of a sense of honor; a way to right the wrongs of my father. The feeling that I should keep my own kind from doing their worst. I always struggled with the fact my father was a monster. He was the worst born of all of us, but I always tried to be his saving grace.

My efforts had failed me.

My love was dead.

Even Ratchet wasn’t able to keep up with my speed through the jungles. He had fallen behind.

The barking of the hell hound grated on my nerves, and I turned to shout at the beast. “Quit making so much noise,” I insisted. “We’re trying to get to Cade’s domain without everybody necessarily knowing about it.”

I knew it wasn’t the way hell hounds worked. They liked to go in blazing and loud. I had to get him to think a little more strategically if he was going to stay on this team. Although we still had the Albright witches, this team was really a party of me and the hellhound. A hell hound who had somehow sworn its life to Caroline. With her gone, it had attached its brindle ass to me.

I hated dogs.

They always reminded me how I was one step away from being a beast myself. Inside, I was a loyal, growling asshole.

Evidenced by the way I treated Caroline. I had lied to her for years. I had locked her up. It wasn’t hard to see how that could damage a relationship and make it difficult to build trust.

I had made my mistakes.

I swung the oversized machete I carried, cutting off a vine that was swinging in my face. I had been hacking through the jungle since dawn. The witches had figured out the only other entrance to Cade’s lair now was through a little-known cave at the steepest side of the mountain. It was daybreak when we started at the bottom of the trail, but by early mid-morning, the trail head tapered out and we were just trying to get to the general area where we thought the cave would be.

Me and Bales, the hound from hell.

“There’s nothing over here.” Ratchet flew down and landed next to me. I glanced over at him, narrowing my eyes. His gaze was unfocused; his eyes are bloodshot.

“Are you still eating those flowers?” I asked.

“They help with my anxiety,” Ratchet replied. “Clearly, bashing the hell out of the side of this mountain isn’t doing anything for yours. Come on.”

“I can’t fly.” Something happened when Cade pushed me out of the volcano. If my wings were out, anybody could see me. Not exactly the best look.

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