Page 94 of Reaper Unhinged
Pain and the same slug to the chest, throwing me back.
I’m trapped.
Okay, this is okay. Uri will go back and tell the others, and they’ll come looking and…Fuck, they’ll fall into the same trap.
Focus, Cora. Think.
Jasper! “Jasper!” Come on, where are you? You always sense my distress. I’m distressed, damn you. “Jasper, I need you!”
That should do it. He’ll come get me so that he can gloat.
Seconds pass, the wind tears at my clothes, howling in laughter at my predicament.
No Jasper.
My blood goes cold in my veins as it hits me that maybe he can’t sense me. Maybe whatever’s stopping me from jumping out of here is interfering with our connection. I’ve wanted to get rid of the fucker ever since he latched on to me, but right now I’d give anything to have him here. His snide, cocky attitude and his I-own-you grip would be most welcome this moment. Anything to get the fuck off this rock.
But he isn’t coming, and so I need to get my shit together and deal. I’m here, and if there’s a way onto this rock, there’s a way off it. Another portal probably. Probably through the woodland and at whatever facility lies within. Okay, I may not be able to jump out of this place, but I can jump down from this rock.
I land on my ass, stunned and disorientated for a moment. Seriously? What the fuck? It looks like using that ability is totally off the table on this island.
Okay, no worries. I still have my legs.
I climb down the rise and head for the tree line. I’m beginning to hate forests just as much as Fee hates alleys. I’m almost under cover of the canopy when a sharp click has me stopping in my tracks.
I sense a presence behind me, and then a voice booms over the wind.
“Put your hands up, nice and slow.”
My hands, huh? I raise them slowly, prepared to blast whoever with a nice ball of lightning. I turn and fire.
Knives stab my palms, but no power shoots from my fingertips. The miasma that’s been accessible to me so easily is suddenly absent.
I’m fucking cut off. Totally and absolutely cut off from my power.
My stomach feels suddenly empty and hollow as the three humans dressed in black watch me down the barrels of their guns.
Oh, fuck.
* * *
Hunter
I can’t feel my Loup. I can’t connect with it. It’s pushed deep into slumber. The power of this place has finally subdued it. But we fought. We fought hard, and I succeeded in leaving a message for Fee and Grayson.
Have they found it?
I don’t understand how I can connect to them, but I can, and that’s the only hope I’ve had since I was captured.
Captured.
Me.
Fucking ridiculous.
Thinking about it makes my blood boil. I sensed something was off when the human teens showed me the flyer for blood donations. I should have made them drop the idea. Instead, I offered to fucking chaperone.
I should have taken backup.
