Page 142 of White Raven
He palmed her blood-spattered face, smearing spots of it over her cheek. “Yes, you will. We’re not fucking dying today.”
“Fuck you, Stratford,” Wren bit, shoving him back, and kissing him hard. “I said I’m going with you. You’re not gonna make me fall for your bitch-boy shit, and then think you’re doing this without me. Move!”
She didn’t give him much choice as she plunked his back against the wall and left Leigh shaking with the gun in her hands. He could only think of the term ‘battle-cry’ as that spunky redhead screamed at the top of her lungs and raced into the fray, knives out, and swinging. Brent glanced at Leigh. “Point and shoot, Leigh!”
Then Brent pulled the butcher knife from the neck of the limp body next to the couch and went after his girl.
There was so much blood. So much, and yet…Rhaena’s heightened senses, especially in this form, didn’t make out any blood that was human. What the hell was Ryan Sykes capable of, for Poe to send this many vampires after her? It was like they kept coming in waves. An army sent to take on a single hybrid. It only pushed her to deliver more, ravenous for whatever potential she had now, that she didn’t before. Her razor-sharp claws ripped through flesh and bone. One right after the other, and she made sure to sink her teeth into them for good measure. So far, none of them had gotten back up.
Her stomach turned at the thought of how long it must have been by now, and how Brandon, and the others would be tiring soon from lack of experience. She didn’t haveany experience to account for either, but…she wasn’t human. Someone was going to lose their life if these fuckers didn’t stop getting into this apartment. She looked through the breakfast nook to see Wren viciously holding her own, Brent fighting like hell alongside her. They were both covered in dark blood. She swore she even saw Wren swing a toaster at one of them, while Brent nearly sawed a head off right after.
Where was Leigh?
Surely, they hadn’t gotten to Leigh, if the steady flow of fresh vampires was any indication. This was fucking madness. Brandon reloaded his weapon, and Rhaena covered him, shooting three rounds into an ambitious shit head that was trying to catch him off guard. She stabbed her claws into his chest, raising him with one arm, and tearing into his throat with her teeth before tossing him aside.
“Thanks babe,” Brandon huffed, utterly exhausted. One second, they’d locked eyes, the next, Brandon was emptying his gun into another vamp. Rhaena looked around with her sharp sight and focused her hearing to single Leigh out. She heard panicked whimpering near the hallway to her bedroom and darted towards the sound. Leigh was cowering behind the couch, the barrel of Wren’s gun sticking out from the edge of the blanket she was covered in.
“Leigh!” Rhaena called. Pink hair shuffled from beneath the blanket, and Leigh looked up at her. She couldn’t blame the girl for dropping her mouth open at her appearance. “I know it sucks but come to me! I’m locking you in my closet!”
Leigh’s head shook back and forth. The poor girl was terrified. “I—I can’t! What if they—”
“Rhaena!”
It was Brandon’s voice she heard, but the roar that accompanied it…
Rhaena turned abruptly, just in time to see Foley in his wolf form, taking a vampire’s neck in his maw, and shaking it like a squeak toy. The head rolled across the living room floor. Leigh screamed. A steady stream of gunshots followed behind, and Rachel Foster charged in behind her captain, both hands firing off a weapon in every direction. Her blonde ponytail flopped back and forth as she took one down after another, Brandon following the trail, along with Wren and Brent as they took the hearts from each one.
Leigh scrambled from behind the couch, and Rhaena locked eyes with the massive black werewolf. Something like a snarling smile stretched across his snout. She smiled back, nodding, and—
“No!” Rhaena screamed…but it was too late. A hulking vampire with carved muscle, and a disgusting man-bun latched onto Foley’s neck, tearing through flesh as his pained roar rattled the walls. Shots fired from behind her, and she turned to see Leigh unloading every bullet in that revolver into the vampire’s body. Rhaena leapt, slashing claws across his throat until they broke through the other side, and she grabbed the bun of bloody hair, and jerked the head from his beefy-ass body. “Cap!”
The sounds of war and bloodshed drowned out around her as she let Brandon finish off the brute and lowered her body to Foley’s side. He was panting, blood rushing from the wound on his neck, and his body trembling as his wolf form began to slowly disappear. He met her eyes, as his face—the face she knew best—showed itself little by little. She gripped a claw-tipped hand around his…it was then that she realized, it too was soaked with blood. Bright red. Warm. Rhaena looked down at his chest. One of Leigh’s bullets had gone rogue. Rhaena felt her body slowly changing, and hot tears pooled in her eyes as she placed a hand over his chest.
“Leave it, Gloves,” Foley rasped. It sounded wet and fevered. “I’m as much a monster as I ever wanna be.”
Tears spilled over her eyes, and raced down cheeks that no longer had the smoothness of dense fur. Her claws retracted, and she leaned over him, taking the side of his face in her other hand. “You’ve never been a monster, sir.”
He struggled for breath, tears filling his own eyes as he took in every inch of her face. “Looks like I’ll be retiring…after all,” he smiled, grimly.
Rhaena gripped his hand and shook her head. “No. You’re gonna be fine. You’re staying. We’re a pack.”
“You gotta take the torch, Gloves. This life was never meant for me. You’ve got a pack of your own. You’ve…always been a born leader. So, lead ‘em. Lead our pack.”
She didn’t think her heart could break this hard. A sob tore from her throat, and Brandon knelt next to her. “You can’t—you can’t go, Malcolm.”
“Kane…” he gurgled. “Let him go…I told you…I told you he ain’t the one.” He met eyes with Brandon, who smirked sadly when Foley pressed his thumb over the diamond on her finger. “You got the best, Jen—Jenkins…take care of our girl.”
“With my life, sir…” Brandon choked.
“Find your mo—mother…find Sykes. You’re an al—” his chest sputtered, and he coughed, blood spewing from his mouth. Rhaena cried softly, shushing him, as he struggled for one last shallow breath…
And the world went silent.
Her heart shattered.
His hand went slack in hers.
She couldn’t tear her eyes from her captain’s as he gazed up at the ceiling in this shitty apartment—lifeless and unseeing. It was a slap in his face. After war. After the endless trials of being a cop. A partner. A leader. A friend…
