Page 16 of Shadow Caster
All the fucking lessons that I’d allowed to wash over me. All the information that I’d been determined to ignore, and the answer bloomed in my mind like a slap to my will.
“We don’t.”
Harmon huffed as he came up beside me. “She’s right, you can’t subdue a delirium.”
No, there was only one course of action. “We have to kill them.”
Six
Every supernatural knew what a delirium was. It was the moonkissed equivalent of bloodlust, except there was no coming out of it. Once a wolf went into delirium, it stayed there. It killed and killed again. And that was where the Nightwatch came in.
They took them down.
Despite my determination not to pay attention, that lesson had stuck. There was no imprisoning a delirium, no subduing. The Watch opted for on-the-spot execution. It was a mercy for the moonkissed.
The worst thing was a moonkissed didn’t have to willingly eat human flesh to become a delirium. If a moonkissed was fed the meat unknowingly, it would still trigger the change in them, turning them into a monster trapped between human and wolf form forever.
And hungry. Always hungry.
“What’s the plan?” Minnie asked no one and everyone.
There was only one way to bring them down fast. “Go for the main arteries. They’re hyped up on adrenaline, heart’s pumping fast. They’ll bleed out quick.”
“Yeah, but that means getting close.” Thomas’s tone was tight.
“If you’re worried you can’t hack it, then hang back,” Oberon sneered. “We don’t want to lose this test because you freak out and get your throat ripped open.”
There was no time to dwell on strategy because we were barreling into a clearing to find a pack of wolves in half shift. Two of them stood under a tree to our far left, and three were hunkered down shoveling a red, gory mass into their snouted faces.
It wasn’t real, and yet my body reacted by going into high alert. My brain registered the scenario and immediately switched to fight mode.
“There, up the tree.” Minnie pointed at the same moment as all the delirium wolves swiveled their heads to look our way.
Shit.
A man was practically obscured by the foliage. The screamer no doubt. But we were now the new prey. Drool dripped from hairy jaws, and all-too-human eyes glared at us, rimmed red by the insanity that gripped their minds. Growls shook the clearing and fear bloomed in the back of my mind, not caring that this was part of a simulation or that these insane moonkissed couldn’t physically hurt me.
The wolfmen advanced.
The daggers strapped to our thighs now made sense.
It was time to get stabby.
Fighting came naturally to me. The moves, the evasion, and the attack. My body was in vigilant mode. One eye on Minnie to make sure she was okay, the other on my opponent, who slashed with his claws and snapped with his serrated maw. Shit, did he just spatter me with saliva? Yuck. I spun-kicked him, knocking him into a tree, and followed up with a sharp jab to his jugular before he could recover.
He grabbed the wound, gurgling indignantly. But instead of hitting dirt, he lunged at me. The tips of his talons grazed my shirt, and pain lanced across my skin.
What the fuck? Pain? For real?
Shit.
I dropped and punctured his femoral artery with the dagger before rolling out of his reach.
“Indie!”
Minnie?
There she was—pinned to the ground. Beast on top of her. I was already in motion, world rushing by as I hit the wolfman from the side, knocking him off and going with him. My dagger sank between his ribs, then into his neck, once, twice. I kicked out and leapt off him.
