Page 62 of Griffin Undone
I went still.
The warrior choked back any sound. I had to give it to him. He looked young, but he wasn’t pissing his pants like most sane shifters would.
I sneered at Maddox over the warrior’s head. “Still needing a safety blanket, I see. You haven’t changed.”
A second flash behind me, then a third signaled the end of two other males, Anigma or Archai, I couldn’t tell. The sudden appearance of Sun and another Archai warrior on his flanks suggested the former.
Maddox ignored my jibe, instead fixing his eyes on Sun. “Glad you could finally join us, Prince.”
“Wish I could say the same,” Sun said. “I never expected to see you again, Maddox.”
A shrug scraped the knife against the hostage’s throat. “That happens when someone’s dead.”
“Or you think they are,” I added. “Clever.”
“It was, wasn’t it?”
The massive warrior to my left hissed, the sound reptilian, full of fury and fear. “Let him go!”
Maddox backed up a step, keeping out of the shifter’s long reach. White teeth gleamed as he smiled. “Hmm, let’s see… No.” The tip of his knife sawed back up the line along the warrior’s neck. Blood spurted.
“Thomas!” The big guy lunged.
“Uh-uh-uh.” Maddox leaped back, taking his prisoner with him, the knife digging deeper at the retreat. The big Archai froze, desperate eyes locked on the male in Maddox’s grip.
The younger male held out a calming hand, struggling to speak. “It’s o-okay, Basile,” but his face said differently, showing the sick inevitability he must feel in his gut. That expression curdled my stomach, reminding me of everything Maddox had cost me.
My rage from earlier began to crack at the wall I’d built around it, dangerous in the midst of battle. My breath quickened, my eyes casting a gold shine in the dim alley as I stared my enemy down. The moans of my dead parents sounded once more in my ears, and I found myself unable to resist the chance, standing here face-to-face, to finally, finally ask the ultimate question.
“Why?” I bit out against my will.
Maddox understood immediately. “Why not?” The absence of emotion in his eyes, his voice, struck harder than his words. “The head of the Archai army and his helpless little wife. What good were they to me except as proof to the Anigma that I had what it would take to be a part of them?”
The wall inside me shattered. “They took you in! They sheltered you when your own family was dead, murdered by the very entity you now serve.” I leaned forward, hands fisted at my sides. “They deserved your gratitude, not your betrayal.”
“They deserved nothing!” Maddox roared, eyes flashing their red wolf glow. “You were their son, not me. And you never let me forget that.”
The statement hit me like a slap in the face. I rocked back, my confusion morphing into understanding, then fury. “Jealousy? This was all about you being jealous?” A bitter laugh drifted into the freezing night air. “You took two lives, to do what? Prove they didn’t matter? You rapedmy motherbecause she loved her son?”
Pleasure filled the single word Maddox uttered: “Yes.”
I leaped forward, knife in hand, aimed at the heart of my enemy.
“No!” Basile grabbed me, forcing me back, clearing the killing rage and reminding me of the current victim in Maddox’s hands.
Maddox grinned and trailed his tongue along the line of blood carved into Thomas’s neck, but the knife never moved and his gaze stayed on his opponents. “Somehow I expected more from you, Arik. Teaming up with the prince? Do you think I don’t know what they did after I left—after I set…you…up.” With every word, he twisted the point of the knife deeper into his prisoner’s neck. Thomas held his lean body still, silent, lips white with the pain he fought to hold back, eyes black with shadows. “They believed me, Arik, and here you are fighting right alongside them.”
“We did believe you.Ibelieved you.” Sun allowed one corner of his mouth to lift in what might have been a smile if not for the sharp, gleaming canine revealed, and took a step away from Basile and me, penning Maddox in. “You did your job well.”
“Oh-ho! A compliment from the future king.” Maddox bowed, forcing Thomas into the blade, and laughed again. “Should I be flattered?”
Several inches of the machete were buried in Thomas’s throat, and the male began to choke on his own blood. Desperation radiated from the shifter beside me, a low hiss escaping his mouth.
“Give it up, Maddox,” I growled. “You and I both know I don’t give a shit about him”—I jerked my chin at Sun—“him”—the male bleeding at the end of Maddox’s knife—“or him”—Basile. “All I care about is revenge. Drop the kid and face me like you should have nine hundred years ago.”
Maddox shrugged. “Okay.” Fast as a blink, Maddox shoved the blade in and back, straight into Thomas’s spine. A bright flash of light, an agonized roar, and the Archai male disintegrated before our eyes. I shot toward them, hitting Basile head-on as the male made a futile grab for Thomas’s disappearing body. By the time I rounded the big warrior, Maddox had leaped the drainpipe on the wall behind him and disappeared to the rooftops.
When I turned back, Sun was on his knees, chest covering Basile’s shaking form. The male lay, facedown, in Thomas’s ashes. “No!” Basile cried, over and over, the word warbling with pain and disbelief. The memory of my parents’ ashes scattered on the floor of their home seared through my brain, almost bringing me to my knees.
