Page 102 of Shadows of the Soul

I released her and stepped back to examine the hole. I sighed. “That’s going to take some serious landscaping.”

Hudson nodded at someone behind me. I glanced over my shoulder, finding a small army of naked shifters spilling onto my land. They wordlessly began picking up the dead animals and carrying them away. How many had we lost because of my enemies? How many more would we lose?

Hudson scowled and stalked toward me. “Your enemies are now mine. Stop blaming yourself for the acts of evil perpetrated by another.”

It took less than fifteen minutes for the shifters to clear out their dead and leave me with the rubble of destruction. I pushed Maggie into the house to find some clothes. She poked her head out a little while later.

“Um, Cora?”

“Yes?”

“Rebecca is caught under a net with Bella. Is that something you can help with?”

Hudson and I shared a look and then ran toward the house. I beat him up the stairs, finding a pissed looking vampire princess and White Furry Menace eyeballing me with fury.

“You left me out of the fight?” Rebecca snapped.

“Actually, you got yourself knocked out courtesy of The Principal,” I said as I drew the power back into my body. The net shimmered, then shattered, leaving a cloud of gold dust behind. The White Furry Menace meowed her displeasure.

“We can discuss your alter ego later,” I told her. She stuck her tail in the air, then shot down the stairs.

Hudson helped Rebecca up. “Sorry I knocked you out,” he muttered with a flush of red on his cheeks.

“What did I miss?” Rebecca said, disappearing down the stairs. We followed her outside. “Fuck me.”

“Stephen Proctor opened a Hell mouth, then we fought him and Lucifer,” I explained, leaving some fundamental elements out.

She walked into the garden, studied the flattened stables, then spun and looked at the house. “Why is part of the roof missing?”

“There were dragons,” I answered. Hudson shot me a look. I shrugged. It was the truth— thereweredragons.

Rebecca raised a brow. Yup, I’d failed at that lie.

A car engine rumbled down the road. The sheriff’s vehicle pulled in through the gates and then paused. The engine cut out and Robert got out of the driver’s side. Ray the coroner climbed out the passenger side with a slack jaw.

“Bad time?” Robert asked.

I waved a hand. “We are having some work done on the property. Follow me, I’ll show you the body.”

The men edged around the gaping hole. “I told you there was something fucking off about her,” Ray muttered.

“Can I eat him?” Indigo asked.

I weighed up her request. “No, Indigo, he’s more trouble than he’s worth.”

She huffed in my mind. “Spoilsport.”

Cora Roberts—tamer of death and destruction.

Chapter 32

Chapter Thirty Two

Outmaneuvered once again…

Hammering echoed in my mind, like an ice pick seeking my weak spots. I rolled over in bed. Ugh, it couldn’t be time to get up yet. I peeked my eyes open. Sun was up, glorious. The hammering took up again. I sat straight up and frowned. What the hell was going on? It had been three days since Lucifer had scurried away with his tail between his legs and my secrets had been exposed to Hudson. He’d been busy burying his dead and smoothing over the agitation in the pack, whilst Dave was trying to weasel out who the traitor was amongst them. I hoped they were dead, so it was one less problem for Hudson to deal with.

My aunts had returned and Anita had replaced the earth, closing over the crater like it never existed. My grandmother had flown back to The Order’s headquarters after replacing the wards on Dayna’s house so she wasn’t witness to my destruction.

---