The Devil In Disguise (Bad Things #1)(47)

She screamed—and the sound just echoed back to her.

“Don’t worry. Eli’s not dead…yet.” Garrick motioned to the guards. They picked up Julian and his head sagged. “And neither is your new friend. I find I am quite curious about him. I do believe I saw claws spring from his fingertips.”

Damn him. “You’re going to regret this.” But he couldn’t hear her. He wasn’t even looking at her. Garrick had turned away. He was following the guards who were carrying Julian out of there. They were leaving her in the cell. “No!”

Garrick glanced back at her. “Where’s Thorne?”

I have no idea.

“Did you trade him in for the guy with the claws? Did you think that was the smarter choice?” He gave a sad shake of his head. “You just bring everyone down to hell with you, don’t you, Mina? I guess it’s a talent you have.”

He walked out, taking Julian, leaving her there and—

Madeline stepped in front of Mina’s cell. A Madeline who had a face contorted with rage. “You bitch,” Madeline snarled.

Mina’s chin lifted.

“I’m going to enjoy watching you suffer. We will break you, and I will make sure that it hurts.”

Hardly the words of a kind, caring federal agent.

More like the words of a killer.

But then, Mina knew Garrick and Madeline were exactly that—cold-blooded killers. And they’d tried to make her into the same type of monster. She’d escaped from them before, stopping their plans.

This time…would she be so lucky?

***

Luke touched down at the dock. He landed as a man, fully dressed, as the old magic flowed easily through him. He wasn’t like other shifters, after all. They bowed to him.

He looked around, but the agents who’d been there before were gone. There wasn’t even blood on the ground any longer. Someone had done one hell of a fast clean-up job.

A growl rumbled in his throat. His head tilted back as he pulled in the scents around him.

You can run, but you can’t hide. Not from me. Not ever from me. He inhaled again. No blood on the ground, but I can still catch that coppery scent in the air.

He heard the fast thud of footsteps, and Luke whirled.

Rayce was there, breathing heavily, glaring at him. “Do you know…” he panted, “how f*cking hard it is…to track you…when you fly?”

The guy was naked, sweating, and obviously fresh from a shift. Luke waved his hand and clothes covered his friend.

“Thanks,” Rayce muttered. “Forgot how…freaky it is…when you do that…”

When he worked his magic? Or when he shifted?

Luke stalked toward Rayce. “You had a job to do.”

Rayce lifted his head. “Yeah…that job was to…protect my friend’s back. Your back.”

Luke shook his head. “You were to protect her.” And now Mina was gone. “You’d better know where she is…”

“Didn’t you hear me?” Rayce’s breathing had slowed. “You were my priority. For all I knew, your idiot brother was going to skin you.”

As if that hadn’t been done before. Good thing he regenerated so easily.

“Julian stayed with her,” Rayce added quickly. “I went after you. Not my fault I can’t fly.”

Luke glared at him a moment longer.

“What is the deal?” Real shock was in Rayce’s voice. “How are you so twisted up over her? Are you sure her voice isn’t still messing with your head?”

It wasn’t her voice. It was her.

Luke inhaled again, catching the scents around him. “They left us a blood trail to follow.”

“Yeah, I noticed that.” Rayce’s mutter definitely wasn’t thrilled. “Probably because it’s a trap. This whole thing has been a trap from the word go and you know it.”

Yes, he did. And he’d planned for the human’s tricks. After all, he’d known that Garrick McAdams would play dirty. Luke just hadn’t planned on his interfering ass of a brother. “They can’t cage me.” He rolled back his shoulders and felt the stretch of his wings. Why waste time? He’d fly and follow that blood scent.

“Oh, shit, here we go again…” Rayce swallowed. “Can you…try to slow down?”

He rose into the air. “No.”

Death wasn’t slow. Death was fast. He’d show the humans just what hell they’d unleashed. No one messed with his paranormals. No one touched those who belonged to him.

No one.

***

Julian groaned as he opened his eyes. His chest hurt but considering his last memory was of bullets blasting into him, that pain was hardly surprising.

The fact that he was still alive? That was a bit of good news.

But the fact that he was chained to a wall in a pitch black room? Not so much fun.

“Sonofabitch.” The curse slipped from him. Luke was going to kick his ass over this. He’d gotten caught. Worse, he’d let Mina get caught. And Luke didn’t exactly act all sane where she was concerned.

Julian rose, testing the length of the chains. They were thick, hard, and made of silver, but he wasn’t a freaking werewolf, so that silver didn’t burn him. Good thing they caught me and not Rayce.