Page 51 of Echoes From the Void

The thing slams against Bishop’s barrier, its screams now a mixture of rage and despair. Children begging for release. For mercy.

“We can’t just leave them,” Finn protests, but I feel his understanding through our connection. Some things can’t be saved. But they can be freed.

“No,” I agree, watching the barrier start to crack. “But we can end their pain.”

Through our twin bond, I feel Finn’s resolve match mine. Through our pack bonds, I feel their strength flowing into us. We’re not victims anymore. We’re not Valerie’s experiments.

Our power explodes outward, but not in combat. In mercy. In rage. In understanding of what it means to be twisted into something you’re not.

The corrupted essence shrieks one last time—a sound of relief as much as pain. The gold veins shatter first, then the twisted shadows dissolve, leaving nothing but a faint echo of gratitude in our minds.

Thank you.

I sink to my knees, Finn mirroring my exhaustion. The pack surrounds us immediately—Matteo and Leo pressing close, Bishop’s hand in my hair, Dorian’s frost gently cooling our overheated skin.

We made it out. But this time, I’m not alone. Through our twin bond, through our pack bonds, I feel it—not just survival, but victory. We faced the nightmare and chose mercy. Chose freedom.

Valerie wanted weapons. Instead, she created something stronger: A pack that knows the difference between vengeance and mercy.

Let her run. Let her hide in her other facilities with her twisted experiments.

We’re coming for her.

And this time, we know exactly what we’re fighting for.

Chapter 18

Matteo

The corrupted twins’final scream still echoes in my head as we stand in the asylum’s shadow. Frankie and Finn lean against each other, drained from granting mercy to Valerie’s victims. But something else catches my attention—a sound at the edge of hearing, like claws on stone. Like something escaping.

“There’s more,” I growl, my fangs descending as I scent the air. Copper and chemicals, fear and corruption. A trail leading into the darkening forest. “Someone was watching. They’re running now.”

“Matteo—” Leo starts, but his words cut off as another screech tears through the twilight. Not the twins this time. Something else. Something alive.

“Go,” Frankie says, understanding in her dark eyes. Through our pack bonds, I feel her exhaustion warring with rage. “Hunt them down. Find out what else they’ve done.”

“I’ll set the charges,” Bishop adds, Guardian marks pulsing as he pulls demolition equipment from his car. “This place needs to burn.”

Dorian looks up from his temporal calculations. “The time stream shows multiple signatures fleeing north. At least four distinct entities.”

My shadows writhe with predatory anticipation. More prey. More answers.

“Together,” Leo says firmly, moving to my side. After seventeen years, he knows better than to try stopping me. “We hunt together.”

I bare my fangs in what might be a smile. Through our oldest bond, I feel his sunshine powers gathering, ready to balance my darkness like always.

“The blood will tell us everything,” I promise, already moving toward the forest’s edge. Already tracking the scent of Valerie’s fleeing assistants.

Behind us, Bishop begins laying charges that will erase this place of horrors. But some horror has already escaped into the shadows.

Time to hunt it down.

The child’s scent from the facility still clings to my skin as I track our prey through the darkening forest. Not the corrupted twins—something else. Something still alive. Still suffering. Three hours we’ve been hunting, following trails that reek of fear and something worse.

Leo moves like my shadow, perfectly in sync after years of friendship turned to more. His sunshine powers gather in his hands, ready to illuminate any darkness we find. Ready to balance my rage like always.

“Trail’s splitting,” I murmur, pausing at a fallen log. The copper-chemical scent branches—one path leading deeper into the woods, another curving back toward civilization.

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