Page 70 of Beta Hybrid

Vale, Savannah and the three of us run to help Cai and Sarah. I know without looking that I’ve used all of Aldrich’s gift. But I still have Gaia’s. I have a sinking feeling Drusilla will wait for a dramatic moment to walk, barefoot, onto the bloody plain.

As a group, we fight back to back. Nice to see you, honey, Cai drawls affectionately.

Nice to see you too, I say, though he’s at my back. His fingertips are sharpened to claws, and I hear them whistle through the air as they slash toward the vampires’ throats.

It’s a little odd having two vampires in our circle, but the enemies don’t hesitate to attack them, too.

I watch Evelyn reach into one vampire’s stomach and rip all his insides out, her hand a bloody glove up to her wrist. She bends down to rip his head off with a wet crack, too. Callen seems to take joy in killing as many vampires as he can as quickly as he can. Three heads roll to the ground at his feet. He grins wickedly, and I’m very glad I happened to befriend two of the oldest vampires in Drusilla’s nest. The strongest.

We all exhale as our area is cleared.

Cai turns me and hugs me tight. ‘You okay?’

‘For now. You?’

He gives a grim nod, looking over my shoulder. ‘Shit.’ He pulls me behind him as Drusilla walks calmly toward us.

‘Hello, pets.’ She wears a bloody smile, wrapped in a thin white dress, bare at the shoulders, red at the hem where she trails it happily through pools of blood. ‘Now, doesn’t this look fun?’

Chapter Thirty

Mordecai

It takes all my alpha will not to stagger back. This is Drusilla. The Origin who tormented Zenna in the Tomb. I feel rather than see my mate step out from behind me to stand at my side. Every fibre of me wants to push her behind me again, but I won’t. I reach out and squeeze her hand through the vines curling at her fingertips.

‘Aw!’ Drusilla says. ‘How sweet! You must be Mordecai.’ My name rumbles from her cherry lips.

In wolf form, Vale growls low, snapping at her.

The vampire’s unnerving, almost childlike smile broadens. She looks like a kid in a candy store. ‘Hello, pet.’ Her gaze slides over our little group as the battles blazes on behind her. ‘Evelyn, Callen. I wish I could say I was surprised to see you here, fighting against me. But I’m not.’ Her gaze lingers on Callen. ‘You and I had so much fun together.’

Callen shrugs. ‘I’m still having fun.’

‘I’m sure you are, dear. But not with me.’ Drusilla raises her hand and clenches her fist. Callen cries out as he’s lifted off the ground and starts floating toward her, squirming.

Evelyn swears at my back. ‘I forgot she could do that. If a vampire has freely given her their blood, she has full power over their blood.’ She swears again. ‘It’s been centuries…’

‘No!’ Zenna cries.

Callen floats right into Drusilla’s outstretched hand. ‘I will miss you,’ Drusilla croons. Callen still floating mid-air, Drusilla reaches out and gouges one of his eyes from his head. The vampire screams as blood drips down his cheek.

‘Stop!’ Zenna cries. ‘Why are you doing that?’

For the first time, Drusilla’s smile slips, and is replaced by a curl of her upper lip. ‘For his betrayal, he will suffer.’

Savannah roars, shifting and leaps for Drusilla.

I gasp, wishing I could have stopped her.

With her bloodied hand, Drusilla gives a slight smile as she catches Savannah’s throat and gives a sharp twist, breaking the wolf’s neck.

Zenna gasps at my side as her body thuds to the ground.

She glances at me, eyes wide.

I shake my head. A broken neck is a broken neck. Anger heats my body, thrumming through my chest. One of ours, down. I take a step forward.

Drusilla raises her hand. ‘One moment, pet. I’m not done playing with Callen.’ She resumes torturing the vampire who is fighting on our side, sticking her nails into his face and tearing the other eye out with gruesome slowness.

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