Page 10 of Madness Behind the Mask
“Let her go, Vance. Take Siome and our pups home.”
A low whine comes from the white wolf as his claws dig deeper, making me cry. But then he’s releasing me and gingerly moving towards the half corpse and her babies, where he drops to his kneesas I scramble back as far as I can. The cracking of bones cuts through the quiet ofhisstare as the wolf shifts into a burly man withlongblondhair. A few jackets are shrugged off and offered to him, and he uses them to gather up the organs of the woman.
As Antonio rises to his feet and strides towards me, I glance up and down the alley but see no allies. My heart thunders inside of me as I realize I’m not going to survive this.
I’m going to die on the same day as Father.
Tears run down my cheeksas terror shakes me. I try to call on my magic, but a sharp pain explodes inside meand I scream. Father told me whatwould happen if I used magic while being too exhausted to control it – it would eat awayatmy organs, killing me rather than doing what I want.
Falling to my side, I curl up on thecobbledground, my eyes rolling back in my head as I spasm in sharp jerks,my jaw locking so I can’t scream. Voices shout around me, some familiar in the distance, but theycan’t pierce the agony rushing through my skull.
Heavy hands grab me.
And then I’m gone, lost to the world of the living…
I jerk awake, notdead but wishing it as I find myselfsitting up in a dark room full ofwolves. Their howls are what woke me, andI scrambleawayinstinctively,only to cry out at the sudden pain flaring through my hands.
Tears burning my eyes, I look at them stretched above my head,overlapping.Alarge spikewith abulkyheadhas beenhammered through my palms. I can’t control magic without my hands, and if I can’t control it, calling on it will kill me.
My breathscomein sharp gasps.My eyes fly around the room, only to realize Iamin the woodsand it’s long into the night. I’ve been nailed to a tree,and the wolves of the Death Hunt (for we all have trusted humans in our gangs) are in their animal forms, snarling and howling.They’re circling around something on the ground, but between theirrushing bodies, the sliver of the moon, and the tears blurring my vision, I can’t make out what it is.
Biting my cheekto try not to sob, I wiggle my thumbs and pinkies. The rest of my fingers are useless, severed by the metal stake pushed through them. Even if I can find the courage to shove my palms deeper onto the spike to reach the head, I won’t have the strength or movement to rip the thing out of the tree.
I am stuck and helpless.
A sob breaks through my bloody barrier of teeth and cheek, and then they’re rushing free of me as I start to suck in quicker and quicker breaths, struggling to get the air in against the flow of pain leaving my lips.
Don’t cry, Sau. Don’t cry.
I’m a Shadow, and we don’t…
We don’t…
Rolling my lips in, Istruggle to be the son my father wanted.But thenI finally catch a glimpse of what they’re doing,and a feminine scream ruptures from me, raw and with nothing to hold it back.
Antonio is in hiswerewolf form and is ripping apart the female who died in the alleywith his teeth.The white wolf is tearing chunks off her arm. My stomach churns, but I can’t take my eyes off them as the other wolves sit back and howl, their cries raising the hairs on my neck and arms.
Bile ruptures up my throat as herfacepullsfree, then disappearsdown Antonio’s throat.
They loved her, but they’re eatingher.
So what will they do totheir enemy?
Four
ANTONIO
8MAY1917
I have consumed many of our fallen, keeping their spirits alive inside of me, but the pain of eating my mate and children, having their blood all over my face, their bodies sitting heavily in my belly, it twists the purity of this ritual that is done to forever keep our loved ones with us. By consuming their flesh, we are granted their power, but I never should’ve outlived my children. Never should have tasted the flesh of their corpses.
Never should have let Sau fucking Shadow get to my mate.
My eyes snap to her as a tremor of rage rips through me. She sits with her skinny arms above her, her hands bleeding onto her dirtytorndress, her eyes frantically searching left and right for a savior that will never come. We are deep withinDeath Huntterritory, in the woods to the north of town. The witches chased us through the alleys of St.Augustine, too slow to catch useven in our grief, but they stopped as soon as we entered these woods.
They will not come for her.
They will only wait for us to dispose of her body, and it will be on the doorstep of their home. They might have theirentire streetprotected by magic to keep us out, but it won’t stop me from throwing the pieces of her corpse through the barrier.
