Page 80 of Shrouded in the Dark
Throwing my head back, I roared in victory as his body slowly stopped twitching.
Axel, take the head.
The bear stood in front of me. His paw smacked the rogue’s head off his body. It rolled several feet before stopping. The sneer on its face was unsettling. I would address it later. First we had to get to Becca.
I shifted. “Jasper, make sure his body burns. Keep the head. Axel will help you. Do it now. I need your help, Cody. Grab someone’s phone and call Gary.”
I strode down the hallway. We’d find clothes later. Becca’s doorway was shattered. The rogue had continued his destruction in this room. The smell of blood drew my eyes to the front of the bathroom door that had bars and a security screen. What made my heart ache in fear, was the amount of blood that was spattered and pooled in front of it.
“Cody?” My voice didn’t waver. I had to be strong for everyone. I was the Alpha.
“Here.” Cody’s voice was hollow as he passed me the phone. He, like the rest of us, was covered in wounds and bruises.
“Seth, what the hell is going on?” Gary demanded as soon as I grabbed the phone. “I had the alert that the safe room was activated. Where’s my daughter?”
“Can you deactivate the safe room? We need to get to her. We’ve taken out the rogue. I need to get to her.” My tone turned urgent even as I fought to keep control.
“I’ve done it. Give it thirty seconds. Keep me on the phone, kid. I need to know what’s going on. My friend is twelve hours away.” Sounds of something hitting a wall happened in the background.
“Right.” I put him on speaker.
The bars and security screen started to withdraw. Cody shifted on his feet as he waited until the gap was just large enough to fit through. He scrambled inside.
“Becca!” Her name sounded like it was wrenched from within him.
I was inside the room as soon as I could. What I saw made my blood go cold. Everything faded to black and white.
Cody had Becca in his arms where he knelt inside of the tub. He was covered in blood. Her blood. Her mouth was open slightly, her eyes were shut, and she had her shirt wrapped around her hand but it was soaked through with blood.
He looked up at me, his eyes desolate. “She’s freezing.” We both could hear no breath or heartbeat.
“Seth!” Gary shouted through the phone.
“She’s dead.” No. This was all wrong. No. She was our mate. We’d just found each other. She couldn’t be dead. It was a lie. I’d finally had hope. Hope for a future with a loving mate with my pack. One who accepted all of us.
Gary was silent except for a sob for several minutes as we stared at our beautiful Becca. Cody was rocking her back and forth.
“Was she bitten?” Gary spoke softly.
“Why does that matter?” Forcing myself to kneel next to the tub, I unwrapped her hand after setting the phone on the edge.
“Just see if she was.”
When the shirt fell with a splat inside the tub, my tiger whimpered. I wished I could. Her hand was barely recognizable. It looked more like the meat a butcher’s shop hung. Cody refused to look at it as he stroked Becca’s hair as he rocked.
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “Yeah, the teeth marks are clear.”
“The body is gone.” Jasper walked into the room before stopping in his tracks. “No.” He shook his head. “No! Becca!” His legs gave out. I reached out to catch him but Axel was right behind him, holding him up.
Axel’s face was blank. His eyes gave away that he was feeling the same loss as we all were. He held Jasper to his chest as he stared at her. Jasper wouldn’t stop muttering ‘no’ over and over again.
“Seth,” Gary’s voice was strained, “The rogue, he had magic. The tests we ran on him came back as something we’d never seen before. The higher ups wanted to replicate him, make him a perfect hunting machine. We tested him by having him bite some volunteers. The first volunteers all died. As did the second set.” Gary let out a shuddering breath. “I had an idea. When our last volunteer was bitten, I injected him with other blood from different shifters. He died, but after an hour, he came back. He was the only one who survived these. We tried it on others. He was the only successful test.”
I swung my head to look at the phone in disbelief. “What?” My mind reeled. “You knew that he had magic and you didn’t think it was important to tell us?”
“You can get mad at me later,” he snapped at me. “You all need to bite her. Your saliva is just as effective as the blood I used. Now. Don’t waste any more time. It’s the only chance we have. Even if it’s a slim chance.”
“We can’t change her without her consent. She can’t give that. She’s dead,” I snarled. “Women hardly ever survive.”
