Savannah
I charged after the orange-bearded Disciple who’d ducked out the back door.
The moment I stepped outside, pain lanced through my jaw as his fist connected with my face. My head cracked against the wall, and bricks dug into my skull.
I slumped to the ground as the world spun. The biker brought his boot down on my knee, and something popped.
My head flew back, and I screamed.
The sky above me whirled, a beautiful kaleidoscope of white and blue. The sight was interrupted by the silhouette of the bastard biker as he stepped over me. I tried to scoot back across the asphalt, but he drove his foot into my ribs. I gasped as the breath burst from my lungs.
“I can smell it on you! I’m gonna make you bleed Scarlet!” he growled.
Unable to breathe or speak, I gurgled and rolled to my side to face a couple cars parked on the old, degrading asphalt. It was just another parking lot, and just another werewolf trying to kill me. The first time I’d met one, I’d been terrified out of my mind.
But not this time. This time, I knew what was coming. I was ready for it, I needed it. And when my breath finally came back, I actually laughed.
The werewolf biker grabbed me by my jacket. “What the fuck are you laughing at, you crazy little bitch?”
Wiping the blood from my lip, I gave him a crimson smile. “How screwed you are.”
In a split second, I summoned the shadows around us and kicked out his feet. He shouted in surprise as he tumbled back against the wall. “What the hell did you do? I can’t see!”
I rolled away and stood.
While I’d made the world go pitch black around us, my power let me see. The bastard put his fists out in warning and looked left and right. “Who the hell are you?”
“I’m the wolf in the fucking darkness,” I snarled as I hammered my clenched fist into the back of his head.
He staggered forward, then spun and swung wildly, fighting blind. “I can smell you! I can hear you, and I’m going to beat you to a pulp!”
Someone was shouting beyond the darkness, but I didn’t care. I was focused on the asshole in front of me.
Fighting past the pain burning in my knee, I moved left. Unfortunately, my gimpy leg dragged on the asphalt. The biker turned his head and swung wildly in the direction of the noise.
Like Jaxson had taught me long ago, I stepped into the blow and deflected his arm to the right. My palm shot up and rammed into his chin with a deeply satisfying crack. I stood like a rock as he reeled back.
I attacked again before he could catch his balance, sweeping out his legs and dropping him onto his back. His head ricocheted off the asphalt just as hard as mine had hit the wall.
I was on him in seconds.
For a moment, he wasn’t just a seedy biker who’d struck and dehumanized me. He was the pair of werewolves in the back lot of the roadside Taphouse. He was the bastards who’d grabbed me at the motel, as well as the ones who’d thrown me in the white van. He was every one of those monsters who’d hunted me, terrified me, and used their power to hurt me.
My fists rammed down into his face, again and again. He struggled, but I was faster, stronger, and propelled by an unrelenting rage. He cried out in the darkness, but there was no one here who cared.
Or maybe there was. A woman was shouting loudly now, but I didn’t pay her any mind.
Savy, stop! We need him alive! my wolf commanded.
Fuck that. I called my claws, but they didn’t come.
No. I refuse to do this,Wolfie growled.
Fine,I snarled back. Have it your way.
I summoned my Soul Knife and dismissed the darkness so that the bastard could see what I was about to do to him.
The tingle of magic raced along my arm as the cold copper blade formed in my hand. I swung my arm back, ready to ram the blade into his heart.
But it stopped short as strong fingers wrapped around my wrist. Electricity surged through my body.
Jaxson.
I struggled against his grip, but he was iron.
A woman shouted, “Nobody fucking move! Savannah Caine, drop your weapon!”
My head whipped to the side. There was a woman in a jacket, potion bomb in hand and badge raised. I recognized her.
“Harlow?” What the hell?
I looked down at the biker. His face was pummeled and covered with blood, which matted his hair and pooled behind his head. He was barely breathing.
Oh, my God, what had I done?
My body began to tremble, and I dropped the cursed knife. Jaxson’s power poured through me. “Calm down, Savannah.”
“Back away from the biker,” Harlow snapped, kicking the blade away.
Jaxson helped me to my feet and pulled me close. I buried my face in his shoulder, but I could still see the biker’s bloodied face in my mind. He’d assaulted me, but somehow, somewhere along the way, I was the one who’d become the monster.
Again.