Page 19 of Savage Blood
Curses rippled through the room as the group realized the situation was about to get much worse.
“Ruin is alive,” I blurted.
“Ruin?” A blood-red glow flashed over Fane’s eyes, and the atmosphere around him churned like the sea before a storm. “Is alive?”
Wrath bolted from his position against the wall as Fane’s words spilled through the room and the temperature seemed to drop a few degrees. “I fucking knew it. And he’s helping The Collective with all these demon rituals.”
“Not quite.” I ambled toward the pool table, realizing they’d been analyzing maps of the Underworld. “Ruin didn’t purposely fake his death. After disintegrating in the lab, he lost time and somehow ended up in the Underworld. Not long after, The Collective started hunting him.”
“Hunting him?” Fane drew closer, as if our bond wouldn’t let us be more than a few feet apart.
“He’s a prisoner just like me, maybe worse.” I choked back the acid seeping up my throat. “They chained him up and are forcing him to help with these rituals. The one happening right now is siphoning his power to strengthen them.”
A shudder rolled down my back at the memories of Ruin screaming and bucking in pain while those psychopath shiftersdanced around him. I explained the horrific details and how my consciousness ended up in Logan’s suit at Wrath’s house.
“And you’re sure Ruin’s being forced to assist?” Wrath asked after Fane communicated my words to everyone. “It couldn’t be a trick?”
“It’s not.” I examined an open book written in a demon language. “They’re torturing him and using me to coerce his cooperation.”
The tattoos on Fane’s arms and neck twitched as he tried to keep his demon wolf from bursting out, his aura darkening with every ragged breath. “I don’t care what Ruin is going through. He’s going to pay for what he did to my brother.”
“And to all the shifters he abducted and tormented,” Saint added, tugging on the roots of his black hair.
I rubbed the center of my forehead, knowing Ruin’s resurrection would be a sore subject. “We can figure out what to do with him later.”
Logan poured Skittles into his hand as he perched on the edge of the pool table, perusing the colorful candies. “So Barric’s zealots have adopted the Nosterium name, adding it to their little group. They’re certainly acting like the demonic cult Ruin used to lead.”
“They’ve completely lost?—”
An invisible string tugged at my center, and I stumbled back.
No!
“Tate, what’s wrong?” Fane’s long legs ate up the distance between us, and he grabbed my hand.
“My body is pulling me back.” I squeezed his fingers as panic erupted through our bond, ricocheting between us. “I can’t hold this form anymore.”
Fane stepped out of his body again. “Take me with you.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
Tears burned in my eyes. It was too soon. This time with him wasn’t long enough, and I had no idea when or if I could get back. It took a blast of power from a dark ritual to free my mind.
“Don’t let go.” Fane jerked me into him, trembling as he tried to keep us together.
But it didn’t matter how much we fought it. An invisible force wedged between us, prying us apart, and it yanked me away from him once again. His anguished howl followed me through time and space.
I crashed to the ground, rolled across the hard floor, and slammed into a leather couch.
My skull throbbed as I turned on my back and stared up at a coffered ceiling much lower than the one in Karn’s great room. Nearby voices permeated the space.
“I think you should take it off. Just for an hour.”
I sat up as Jax folded into a plush leather chair while Barric stood in front of a lit fireplace, caressing the Infernal Sol around his neck.
Clearly, I hadn’t gone back to my body.
As I examined the black and crimson décor, slick hardwoods, and gothic fireplace mantel, I recognized the room from previous visions. This was Barric’s private quarters somewhere in Karn’s manor.
