Page 129 of Grim

“Shit!” One screen went black. Then another and another.

The middle screen was Grim standing beside Locke, in front of them was a man sitting in an overly ornate velvet red chair. He had a ski mask on, and upon further inspection I recognized his…well, the mask anyway.

The black, worn ski mask only showed his eyes, which I could see were deep black. No soul was evident in his eyes as we tried to study his face, trying to find some sort of familiarity to him.

The rest of the screens were all black now, except for the camera pinned on the masked figure. And unfortunately no sound to detect what they were saying.

“Get them back up! We have no way to know if they need help! The earpiece is dead!” Bones roared and began picking up an old-fashioned corded black phone on the corner of the desk, dialing a number.

“I’m trying. Stressing me out isn’t helping!” Switch yelled in reply as he beat on the keyboard.

Panic rose inside me, bile reaching my throat when Grim stood in front of Locke with a snarl on his face. He was standing right in front of him, not three feet away from the enemy. That was when Grim pulled off his jacket, his body growing thick body hair and ripping through the rest of his clothes.

Grim’s eyes turned red, looking around the room until they settled back on the man in the chair.

“Fuck, he’s pissed off, he can’t control his wolf,” Bones muttered in horror. “That’s what the fucker wants. He wants chaos.”

Within seconds, Grim shifted faster than I have ever seen. His large red wolf breathed heavily and lunged forward to capture the male in front of him, only to hit an invisible wall.

Leif shook his head, ready to lunge again.

The long, elegant fingers of the man in the ski mask rose and peeled his mask away slowly. Once the mask was completely off, it showed not someone ugly or hideous but something ominously beautiful, but certainly deadly. Sharp features decorated his face. His cheekbones were pointed with black sparkles scattered over them. His lashes were long and thick enough to rival any woman, and his lips were the color of black onyx.

He smiled, fangs protruding from his lips.

“Holy mother Gaia,” Bones rasped.

“Hecate, save them,” Tajah cried, dropping to her knees.

“What the hell is going on?” I cried. I pulled my hair in frustration, watching every shifter on the screen.

My body grew hot, the suspense killing me.

Bones cleared his throat, not looking away from the screen. His hands shook as he ran them through his hair.

Why the hell would just one face strike fear into those around me? These same people that told me not to worry about these bikers going into an ambush, that they do this all the time, were trembling with fear.

They created their own world. They had survived. They had come this far, and now they feared the face of one man…being? What power could a being like him hold?

“It’s the Duke Idris, dark fae of the Stone Court,” Bones said.

Tajah rose to her feet, her head still bowed. “Former duke. He was banished from the Stone Court centuries ago. No one has seen or heard from him since.”

Everyone in the room was stunned into silence, while my heart rose into my throat. A bead of sweat fell from my brow and another wave of heat washed over my skin.

My body trembled. “And what was he banned for?”

My mouth had gone dry, my tongue feeling thick in my mouth. I needed water, I needed sustenance. I feared for my family, for Grim, but my body was also craving too many things at once. It craved blood; it craved to rip someone or something to pieces. Such violence had never come across my mind. The thought of blood being spilt by my own hands would have repulsed me before this moment.

Now, I wanted it. I wanted to feel the enemy’s blood beneath my fingernails, let it run between my fingers. I wanted to eat their heart.

Which enemy?

The one that was laughing hysterically at my mate, at my friend.

“He used forbidden magic to try and raise the dead, to torture, to humiliate, and to reverse time.”

“Reverse time?” I growled, then cleared my throat.

---