Page 74 of Savage Blood
Pain thundered in my skull, and stars spotted my vision while a briny taste coated the back of my mouth. When I blinked away the haze, the five remaining Collective Nosterium members loomed over me, their white masks hiding their expressions, but I sensed their glee pulsating through the air.
I was so screwed.
Chapter
Eighteen
Those creepy whitemasks hovered over me like sinister faces floating on a black backdrop while The Collective’s dark cloaks blended into the shadows.
“Can you imagine our luck?” The male’s laughter prickled my nape. “Alpha Barric sent us on a simple snatch mission, and we managed to grab the star of the show.”
I choked down the metallic blood coating my tongue. “You don’t have me yet.”
Hisses and laughter filled the alley, and a black boot stepped on my palm, crushing it into the concrete. Searing pain lashed my hand as sharp bits of dirt and debris ground into my skin.
“You’re going to pay for killing Hillary.”
The familiar cadence of Wes’s voice behind a mask sent ice trickling down every vertebra. He was the one crushing my hand.
“Sure,” I wheezed, trying to jerk my hand out from under his heavy boot. “Barric won’t let you do shit to me. Breaking afew little bones is all you’ll do, and even that might piss him off.”
The shifter finally removed his boot, and I snatched my hand, which I cradled to my chest. Unfortunately, my sword had fallen from my grip and tumbled onto a silver trash can, on the edge of which it now teetered.
“Let’s grab her already,” a woman demanded. “Her mate probably isn’t far, considering they can communicate with their minds, and I’d rather not get eviscerated tonight.”
Had Fane already sensed my panic or pain? Even if he fled to Mohan Wilds after our fight, he’d at least alert someone at Silver Ridge. Maybe Marcel had already made it to the compound and realized I wasn’t behind him.
The five members converged, grabbing my limbs to lift me off the ground. I struggled in their grip, slashing my talons as terror had me in a chokehold. When I left the compound, I didn’t expect to take center stage in one of my visions.
“Fane!”I yelled through our mental link.
Swallowing my pride and asking for help was nothing in the grand scheme of things. The bitten shifters depended on me to defeat Barric, and as much as I wanted to see Hawk, I couldn’t get locked up in that dungeon again.
I was an idiot for coming out here alone.
“Get off me!”
Wes raised his mask to his forehead, revealing that ominous grin as he brought his palm, gold dust glittering in it, to his mouth.
My heart jumped into my throat as he prepared to dose me with Malefic ash to knock me unconscious, or at the very least weaken me. I tried to rake my claws across his cheek, but another member grabbed my arm while a third pulled on my hair.
Tears welled up in my eyes from the pain searing my scalp. Wes’s grin broadened as he sucked in a breath, poised to dose me.
A sword suddenly penetrated a member’s torso, sticking out of his black robes and spilling blood on my foot. The glee in his expression morphed to surprise—and then terror.
“What the—” He dropped my leg with a wet gurgle and grabbed his torso.
As adrenaline burst through my veins, I swung my foot out and knocked another member off me. I hit the dirty pavement, pain shooting down my back.
Were the ravens here to help? Had they stumbled on the scene while patrolling?
Wes blew the Malefic ash, and the gold dust fell through the air just as I rolled out of the way and crashed into a pair of polished black military boots. When I followed the pressed pants all the way up to a familiar, harsh face, an arctic air swept over me and instantly froze the sweat on my flesh.
“You’re not usually on the ground for so long. Have you forgotten your training already?” Anna Coltrane stood over me, her sword clutched in her hand, the blade dripping crimson.
My heart thudded to a stop. She certainly didn’t waste time going after what she wanted.
Me, apparently.
