The Damned (The Beautiful #2)(50)

I grab Arjun by the shoulder and whirl us in the opposite direction. He does not waver as we race through the deserted streets of the French Quarter. Snarling wolves nip at our heels, their fury splitting through the night air. A howl echoes to my right, and three more sets of paws join the first eight, racing toward us from a side street.

They intend to box us into a corner.

I veer left onto Rue Rampart, Arjun following close behind. I scan the eerily silent buildings around us, searching for a way to escape. There is no place to hide unless we smash open a locked door. I consider scaling a wall of brick toward an open rooftop. At least that would give us the advantage of higher ground.

But any misstep could see us worse off. And I will not save myself at Arjun’s expense. He is here because of me. Even if he is not a vampire, he is one of us. I will not leave my brother behind.

I leap across a set of streetcar tracks and blur toward the high walled entrance of the old cemetery on the outskirts of the Quarter. In a burst of speed, I kick through the iron gate, shouting for Arjun to join me. The second he crosses onto consecrated ground, I slam the gate shut and twist the iron bars around themselves so the wolves cannot follow.

My chest heaves from the wrath mounting in my blood. I am not designed to run from a fight. The muscles in my arms shake as my fists search for something to destroy. I turn toward the wall as the largest wolf crashes against the gate.

It holds, though its hinges whine.

In this moment I feel more like an animal than I do a man. The nauseating smell of the wolves spreads as they mass just outside the iron gate, pacing back and forth, their eyes glowing yellow in the darkness.

I want to tear them apart. Hear their bones break. Relish their dying whimpers.

Another howl punctures the night air. The next instant, the largest wolf—undoubtedly the leader of their pack—leaps onto the top of the whitewashed stone wall. He glares down at us.

I swear he is smiling.

Like a strike of lightning, I shove Arjun forward and bolt for the center of the cemetery, aiming for one of the largest tombs. One replete with intricate carvings and towering pillars difficult for four-legged creatures to climb.

“That one,” Arjun shouts, angling toward a recently completed marble monolith. A final resting place for forty of the city’s wealthiest Italian families.

We are less than ten feet away from the tomb’s base when the wolf attacks. It leaps from the shadows, knocking us both to the ground. I roll to my feet, my fangs bared. Arjun brandishes his silver claws and rakes one set of blades across the wolf’s immense jaw.

Three gashes appear, the blood like salted metal as it drips from beneath the wolf’s ear. Incensed, it takes only a second to decide which of us to attack first.

Arjun shouts when the wolf snaps its jaw around his forearm and hauls him backward, shaking him about like a rag doll until the claws fall from his hands.

I fire my revolver. The silver bullet grazes one of the wolf’s hind legs, but all it does is enrage the creature further. I ram the full force of my weight into the wolf’s injured side just as another member of its pack snaps at my feet. Before I have a chance to turn around, the second wolf yelps and vanishes from sight. The crunch of breaking bones resounds from between a row of crypts.

My smile is one of menace.

My brothers and sisters have arrived.

The hiss of stalking vampires blends with the growling of the wolves. In a burst of fluid motion, my vampire siblings flash between the granite and marble monuments, attacking and defending in equal measure. The wolves manage to hold their own. They are well organized. Well trained. Well led.

From my periphery, I watch Jae throw a grey-backed wolf into the air. It cries out when its spine shatters a stone obelisk. Another wolf tries to impale Hortense on the tines of a low iron fence, but she manages to twist away, a delighted gleam in her gaze. Another blur of movement, and the wolf in question is missing an eye.

Boone rasps through the darkness as he draws away two wolves from the pack.

I do not see Jae, but I hear the damage he wreaks. The snap of lupine limbs and the howls of pain. The deathly silence that follows.

I smell the wolf that attacks me before I see it. It moves faster than any of the others. It must be the leader of this pack, the one who first appeared from the shadows. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say I am facing a member of the Grimaldi family itself. I cannot be sure if it is Luca, but I do not have the luxury of worrying about what that might mean.

I smash my fist against the side of the wolf’s face, right where Arjun raked his silver claws. Unmitigated wrath blazes in the wolf’s bloodshot eyes. It thrashes, then closes its powerful jaws around my wrist and bites down hard enough to nearly sever my hand from my body.

Arjun jumps onto the wolf’s back and wraps his arms around the creature’s neck until it relinquishes hold of me. It does not miss a beat before it rolls across the stones and pins Arjun beneath its heavy body.

Then the wolf sinks its teeth into Arjun’s throat.

Without a second thought, I grip the wolf’s skull with my uninjured hand, then take my bloodied fingers to its muzzle and tear in the opposite direction. The animal’s jaw separates from its head with a sickening snap. Like the sound of a plate being smashed against stone.

The wolf collapses to the ground, lifeless.

Growls ripple through the pack. Teeth gnash together in fury. The sight of their vanquished leader has left them all the more crazed.