13
ADDIE
Iwatched Maddox disappear into the night. He’d escaped Ryder’s claws right before my eyes. One moment, Maddox had been pinned. The next, he stood outside of Ryder’s grasp. It seemed that not even Maddox knew how he’d done it.
Ryder had been just as confused as Maddox, but my arcana showed me what’d really happened.
Maddox had opened a portal to the afterlife and slipped through it. At first sight, my heart had lurched in fear. I’d fumbled forward to stop him. Then the portal had opened again, and Maddox had reappeared.
What had he become? The question still lingered in the back of my mind. I couldn’t help but wonder if there was any precedent for undead shifters before. If Luca’s library hadn’t been buried under a ton of concrete rubble, then I would have asked Vi if she could get me in.
I wasn’t going to call Amaranth again, that was for sure.
Ryder shifted back to his human form. “Do I hunt him down?”
Maddox hadn’t attacked me, but his form hadn’t seemed stable, either. I couldn’t help but fear the possibility that this could backfire. While he’d seemed alright, there was a chance that his form could rot from the inside while we were standing around doing nothing. We wouldn’t know if he was alright unless we followed him.
It felt like a violation of privacy, but I couldn’t just sit around and wait for him to return. Whoever had sent Alvin after us could return to strike again at any moment. I didn’t want to get Ryder involved in this. He had a mate, one of my best friends.
And they were trying to start a family.
The realization smacked me like a hand across the face. My breath rushed out of me. I couldn’t get him involved. I had to do this on my own.
“Don’t worry about it,” I lied. “I’m going to go home and sleep while he blows off some steam.”
Ryder’s brows furrowed. He seemed displeased with the idea. I had to convince him that Maddox wouldn’t hurt anyone. That’s what was on Ryder’s mind. He wasn’t concerned for the man he didn’t know. Ryder was thinking about the fallout that the supernatural community would face if Maddox went on a rampage.
That wasn’t going to happen, though.
“He’s a murder detective. The man has dedicated his life to solving horrible crimes. He would never commit one. Even if he’s confused and enraged, there will always be a part of him that will pull back should things get hairy.”
I hoped Ryder believed me. For the most part, I believed my own words. I had a kind of faith in Maddox that was almost unreasonable. We didn’t know each other that well. Yet, I had no doubt that Maddox would know the difference between prey and person.
It wasn’t like I planned on leaving him alone, either. With my arcana, I would be able to track him. He left a cold trail in his wake. The cool smoke of death responded to my arcana and told me where he’d gone.
Ryder seemed to understand what I wasn’t saying. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “The last time I left you alone, an undead Alpha wolf broke into your house.”
“Yeah,” I said, summoning a bit of Vi’s cheeky nature. “That waslasttime. That probably won’t happen again.”
I really hoped that was the case. However, I knew that with a bit of focus, I could take control from the killer. Any zombie that the killer raised could be stolen.
All I had to do was trust my own power.
I shuddered at the thought. Never before had I ever consideredusingthat part of my power. Sure, I spoke to ghosts and helped them cross over into the afterlife. That was the better part of my arcana. This, however, scared the hell out of me.
While I didn’t feel ready in the least, I knew that there was no point at which I would ever really feel prepared. This power scared me, but I would have to face it at some point—especially if I wanted to keep going.
This killer couldn’t have me. I would make sure of that.
“Go home,” I told Ryder with more conviction than I’d felt in a long time.
He hesitated for a long moment. It stretched, but I remained unmoving. He wasn’t going to come with me. I would call his mate and have her command him to go home if I had to.
Ryder seemed to sense that. He groaned, rolled his eyes, and uttered a grumbling, “Fine.”
As soon as he promised he wouldn’t follow me, I ran after the rail of death. The arcana still floated in the air. If I pulled my own power up and let it reach my eyes, I could see the smoke floating ahead of me. It’d been a long while since I’d run, but the thought of Maddox at the end of this trail gave me the energy I needed to keep going.
“I’m on my way,” I promised though he couldn’t hear me.