Page 9 of Madness Behind the Mask
She stays silent, and I cling to her, rubbing warmth into her cheek.
“Siome, Siome, listen to me, baby. You have to change back into your wolf. You’ll heal faster.”
It won’t work.
It will.
It has to.
“Siome, baby, change for me.” My voice cracks as I hold her, praying she listens.
But she doesn’t move. Doesn’t breathe. Just lies there in utter stillness as I desperately try to convince myself she isn’t gone.
“No…no, Siome… Please, baby.”
A broken howl screams from Vance’s lungs,and Ican no longerhide from the truth when it’s so clearly ringing in my ears. Cannot pretend she will wakebykeeping my eyes on her face instead of the rest of her body…The rest of her body…All gone. Taken by monsters in the shadows of a little girl.
My right hand tightens on Sau even as the left loosens on my mate’s cheek. I hesitate for a second, then reach up and close her eyes, her beautiful red eyes I will never see again.
Turning from Siome, I stare at the little girl.
A murderer.
A witch.
A monument of all my grief and anger.
I wanted peace.
I wanted peace…
My hand crushes hers.
But I will settle forrevenge.
Three
HER
8MAY1917
I can’t take my eyes off the babies resting in theirmom’sintestineseven though he’s hurting my hand. Only one of the three looks whole, their translucent body curled in tight, so small it would fit in the palm of my hand. The other two have been gnawed in half, their head and body crushed between teeth and pincers. Or maybe they were ripped apart by claws.
I’ve never entered the Plane of Monsters. I have no idea what the creatures look like. When my family travels as shadows, we flit on the edge of that place, not looking in, just opening it up to this world. Only strong witches can hold the portal open long enough for monsters to eat those who touch us in our shadows forms though, and excitement hits me that I’m one of them, momentarily overcoming my utter exhaustion and fear about being alone in the presence of wolves. Today was my first day using magic, and I can’twait to tell Father I –
My rising smile crumbles as the pain slams back into me. A burning cry lodges in my throat as Antonio turns to stare at me, and I remember his teeth around my father’s neck.
“I hope she suffered,” I say bitterly – suffered like my dad did, suffered like I am, and his face twists with a pain that spikes the pounding in my chest and between my ears.
Sucking in a sharp breath, I try to scoot away from him, but the white wolf grabs my shoulder, his claws stabbing into my flesh like knives. I scream as the agony hits me – so different to when Father beat me to trigger my ascension.Although thepain issimilar, the fear inside me isn’t. I always knew Father would stopwhen he beat me, knew the pain had a time of expiration and I would be healed immediately after.
But there is no knowledge of that in this moment.
No sign of the pain easing, no limitations to what thiswolfwill do now that the female wolf is dead.
“Get off her, Vance,” AntonioGarciasays, but those words don’t sound as protective as their meaning. They sound like a promise of his own pain that he’ll soon be inflicting on me.Don’t hurt what’s mine to break.
My heart knocks behind my teeth as I finally realize that I’m alone in an alley with over a dozen wolves. Only the white one is in his monster form, but the others all emit a power that says they’re not human.
