Francia and Francium looked at one another for a long, tense moment. They seemed to be sharing some sort of conversation before she vanished, dropping down to the ground in the form of a silver-furred wolf. She crept away and down the hall, away from where the vampire was coming. She stopped and nodded towards the direction she was heading, indicating that I should follow. “Francium, please say something? What’s going on?” “Everything is going to be fine,” Francium said. “Just stay calm.” Francium nodded away from the cell toward where Francia was going. I didn’t see what other choice I had. Maybe he hadn’t meant to get me caught here. Maybe I could trust him a little more, but I would have to find out if that was the case some other time. For now, I just needed to escape before the vampire found me. I followed Francia as quietly as I could, but I couldn’t go fast enough. “She’s… awake,” Francium said stiffly. “She’s just… irate.” The footsteps stopped near where Francium’s voic
Francium’s eyes flicked between the bottle of pills and back to the gun. He took the gun slowly, hesitantly. I could see his hands trembling as he looked at me. He looked down at the gun then back up at me. I could see him considering it.Then I heard something further away, down the hall, like the creak of a door or something. I didn’t know what that was, but my heart was pounding. How long would it take for Moon Shadow to find my body? Would they leave me here? Would Francium actually shoot me?It seemed like he would. He’d killed Claire. He may have howled in agony afterward, but he still killed her and they were mates. What hope did I have to get out of this alive?My spirit started to deflated and I thought about Candido. I wished the last thing I’d spoken about with Candido was something else. Anything else. I wish I had at least met his mate before going off on this spree to try and make him jealous.I felt stupid.“I can’t.”My eyes widened and I looked up.The vampire looked
We hit another long street as another group of people appeared, colliding with hissing people that seemed to fall from what seemed like the edge of town where the tree line was. Someone jumped out and Claire tumbled them away from us. We kept moving. Someone roared. A large wolf rushed across our path and collided with a snarling figure in mid-air. I heard them scratching a fighting as we kept going. I heard someone screech in pain then the sharp snap of bone or something rang out.“Keep going!” Francium said, moving a little further as I felt more and more dizzy and the surging power seemed to ebb and flow. My blood was burning in my body like I was on fire inside.We got into the woods, but the trees seemed to be moving around us. Claire stopped still, casting her gaze around as Francium grit his teeth.“Shit,” he cursed.“Backup,” I groaned. “Need back up.”My pocket buzzed. It was my Moon Shadow phone. I pulled it out, fumbling as my vision started to swim. What was happening to
Francium cursed. I dropped the phone, putting my hands up to stop her. I kneed her in the stomach and shoved her back. She snarled at me and lunged back at me. Her eyes were filled with light and maddened, glinting in the far. Francium was screaming at her. I couldn’t make out the words. I could smell him bleeding, but his blood smelled nothing like mine. Then I could barely smell my own blood. My senses were going haywire. She grabbed me, trying to force my head aside as she reached with her tongue towards the open wound in my shoulder. I shuddered as I felt her panting over the wound like a beast.This wasn’t Claire. This wasn’t my best friend, but she was in there somewhere, wasn’t she?I could barely hear Armageddon through the speaker. The car jumped again, bouncing her off me and me onto the floor. I was trapped in the small space, but it gave me enough space to kick Claire a little harder. She flew back and snarled as she landed against the door. I kicked again when she lunged
I swooned and the phone tumbled from my hand as I fell aside. Francium cursed again, swerving the car and bouncing us along as more shots were fired at the car. He zipped and zagged, sliding us around in the back seat as he tried to avoid the bullets.“Hold on!” Francium yelled, turning off the road.“What are you doing?” I asked, trying to hold on to the handle as he turned again.“Taking a short cut. It’s harder to shoot through the trees.”The wound burned like fire. I smelled it burning like silver. I felt it creeping through my shoulder. I looked at the wound and saw it starting to turn black. My stomach churned. Was I going to lose my arm because of that bullet?Was I going to lose my life in this chase?“Fucking silver bullets. They really want to kill us,” Francium cursed. “I don’t know what the hell Damian wants with you Hedy, but he wants it bad… Are you really, Pandora?”I didn’t answer and hoped that Armageddon hadn’t heard him. Instead, I fumbled with my safety beacon. I
There was nothing but pain for a long time. Pain and silence. My lungs were burning. I couldn’t move. Would Candido find me? Would Moon Shadow return my body to him? Would he bury me with care? Would he cry?I didn’t know.“Hedy!” I heard Claire cry. I tried to breath and felt the air and water gurgling in my chest. I choked and coughed, trying to expel it. I cried out in pain. My leg was thrumming with pain. I could keep my head above the water. I flailed and struggled. Metal creaked sharply then hands were on me, dragging me up and out. Pain dragged across my back and down my side as I coughed and sputtered.“She’s still breathing.”“Quick, get her onto the land. Can we use any of the supplies?”“I don’t think so. It’s all soaked.”“Fuck!”“Just give it to me.”I hear something rip, then something was wrapped around my shoulder and waist tightly. I opened my eyes seeing Claire and Francium looking at each other.“I’ve got this, see if you can pull anything out of the car.” Francium
When she was gone, I looked back at Candido, whose jaw was set in a firm line. He looked upset, but not angry.At least, I hoped he wasn’t that angry.“I’m sorry,” I said softly. “I shouldn’t have…. There’s so much that I—"“You endangered your life just to make me jealous,” Candido said. “Do you know what would have happened to me if you had died?”My lips twitched. I felt warm hearing him say that. His voice was tight with emotion like he was trying to hold himself back from crying. Maybe he really did care about me as much as I had hoped, even before then. Maybe without the whole mate thing, it wouldn’t have been so hard to get him to admit it, and all of this could have been avoided.“I know that now…”“When the car was crashing… when you called my name,” his voice trembled and wavered. “Have you any idea how terrified I was when I realized you were in so much danger and I wasn’t close enough to save you? Do you know?”I winced and nodded. “I understand. I’m sorry, Candido.”He li
“It’s so good to meet you formally,” she said, pulling her mask and hood down.She looked just like the woman who had been in that photo, Candida, except her eyes were a dark brown. They were probably twins, but I didn’t ask.Did that mean that twins ran in Candido’s family? My face heated at the thought of a pair of twins in my arms with his eyes and my hair. Would they be gold wolves too? I didn’t know, but the thought warmed me.Vanessa smiled and wrapped her arms around me. “Candida would have loved you.”She pulled back and cupped my face. “She’d have stuffed you full and probably ripped your father a new one, too, but she would have loved you.”I almost laughed at the thought because it would be exactly what he deserved. It was comforting to think that Candido’s mother would have liked me. I didn’t know much about her, but she sounded like quite the character.“If I can entrust you with one more mission?” Vanessa said with a wry smile and a glance at Candido. “Do not let ‘Dido g