Page 102 of For Dear Life

“What the fuck?” stammers Dale as Trent’s lips swell and then recede, revealing large, sharp teeth. “That’s cheating.”

Grayson chokes. “Cheating? This isn’t a fucking game, you moron.”

Trent lunges, and again, I throw myself between the shifter and Kai.

“Run!” Rowan shouts at Dale. “Tell the cops exactly where we are. I called them.”

Trent’s transformation wipes away any bravado Dale still possesses, and he skitters away, sliding on the smooth floor as he rounds the corner.

Viggo’s back on his feet, propping himself up on the edge of a shelf with one hand.

“Can you trap Kai?” I ask Rowan as I lunge at and knock Viggo back to the ground. “Rune circle. Barrier. Something.”

A guttural yell pulls me right back to the night at the lodge and away from attempting to intervene between Kai and Viggo. Now shifted, Trent aims straight for Rowan. I yell and barrel forward but don’t reach Rowan before the bear pounces.

I feel the slash as if it were against my own skin and the raw, primal thing I promised I’d keep subdued roars to life as loudly as the bear. Someone drops from above and Grayson lands on the bear’s back, hooking his hands either side of the jaws and separating Trent’s teeth from their hold on Rowan’s shoulder.

“Don’t fucking kill him, Grayson,” rasps out Rowan, hand going to his ripped shirt. He presses a palm on a shoulder, and the hybrid Violet winds further around my calm and logic as blood seeps through Rowan’s fingers. I snarl, muscles coiling, teeth and claws ready to join Grayson’s hold on Trent. “You too, Violet.”

Grayson tussles with the thrashing bear, who’s now turning on him, and his hemia transformation comes quicker than at the lodge. Taunting Trent, Grayson dodges and springs onto a shelf, pausing for the shifter to catch up, before hopping to the next.

Rowan shuffles to lean against a shelf, hand still on his shoulder and I rush towards him, heart stuttering. He’s bleeding—but not as badly as Trent intended.

“Violet!” he shouts, eyes widening in his pale face as he looks behind. “Kai!”

I spin. Kai takes advantage of my distraction and, as he raises the can again, I’m too slow. The metal thuds against Viggo’s skull, the skin on his forehead splitting open. He yells and grabs a can of his own, before rolling away from Kai’s next attempted hit.

Viggo slings a can at Kai with an unnatural force, and this time, I catch the projectile. Momentarily, Viggo pauses and stares at my dexterous move before his attention switches to Kai again. I side-glance at the idiot human crouching to take a soup tin in each hand.

“Good grief!” My other arm shoots out and I circle one hand around Kai’s throat, lifting him from the ground.

He chokes out, fingers clawing at my hands instead. “What the fuck happened to your face?”

“I’m not as pretty when I’m pissed,” I growl out. “And someone hurt Rowan.”

“They did!” he rasps and attempts to point at Kai.

“Drop the tins, Kai.” He hesitates, and I keep one eye on Viggo, who’s concentrating on his opponent. “Death by soup can is not a noble way for either of you to die,” I shout at the pair.

“Put me down,” he chokes out.

The whack to the head might not have killed or knocked out Viggo, but he’s weakened enough to struggle with staying steady, body swaying as he clutches a can and figures out his next move.

At least that move doesn’t include attacking Rowan, who watches through pained eyes. “Don’t kill,” he says again. “I’m alright.”

Yes, but Rowan’s in pain, and gripped by terror. Not for himself—that I might lose myself to the fury and kill. That he would then lose me.

“Viggo,” I snarl. “Stop and leave.”

He hesitates as I attempt to capture his mind; Kai struggles against my tight grip and I can only hope that Grayson’s dance with Trent continues until I can subdue the bear too. Is Trent acting on Viggo’s suggestion or the witches’ influence?

“This has nothing to do with you,” rasps Kai.

A leather cord peeks from his neck, and I slice through with my fingernails, ripping the pendant from his throat. “Look at me,” I say through sharp, bared teeth. “I am pissed that I saved your life once, only for you to endanger yourself again because you’re as bone-headed as your rivals. Go.”

A noise like an earthquake rolling through the warehouse interrupts, and I glance at Rowan again. He shakes his head and I jerk mine around in confusion. The whole rack of boxes behind Viggo collapses forward as a bear leaps through the center, smashing the solid metal shelving as if breaking through sticks.

Time pauses as Viggo screams, tins cascading from the broken shelves like a waterfall of metal. Some bounce from him and I’m too slow to stop anything as the whole shelf collapses across the aisle, hitting one opposite, the boxes piling on and crushing the shifter.

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