Page 34 of Cruel Revenge
“And as a warning to your mother and father, I’m going to leave you,” the witch said, reaching behind him with his free hand. He pulled a long metal spike from a quiver on his back. He had four of them, all about an inch thick. It floated up, controlled by his free hand.
In the blink of an eye, it went through me, pinning me to the wall. If I could breathe, I would have screamed. It wasn’t silver. That was the only good thing. It was still fatal, though. The idea that it wasn’t silver was a sad consolation prize. I would have accepted a death from anything if it meant Carey wasn’t being dragged into an SUV against her will.
“Sir, the werewolves are sedated and secured,” another witch said, running in from the back rooms of the restaurant. I tried to focus on the words, wondering if I would get the chance to tell anyone. Despair was my last companion as I listened to the witch. They weren’t just taking Carey. They took the kids. Stacy and Kody. Arlo and Benjamin. Carey. They were taking all of them.
“How many?”
“We were only able to secure the three males… the bitch put up too much of a fight once she realized the communications were down. She had to be put down before she killed one of ours.”
“Three of Heath’s youngest werewolves are now ours, and the female is dead…” he said, smiling, his eyes never leaving me. “Do you think he’ll bargain to save the werewolves or the daughter?”
The grip on my throat eased up.
“Fuck… you,” I growled weakly.
A second spike lifted from his quiver and went through me, going through my shoulder.
“Have fun dying, Jacky, daughter of Subira,” he said. The grip left my throat, and I sagged over the spikes. My head dropping let me see I was three feet off the ground.
As the witch walked away, they finally got Carey into the car with his help, a simple wave of his hand sending her into the car. He then kept walking, getting into the second SUV. It didn’t leave yet, though.
And I realized my chest was burning. Not from my emotions. Not from the pain of my injuries or my lungs finally having air again. It was like a flame was being held to my chest. Even dying, I tried to push off the spikes, holding them with my hands to pull myself off them by letting them finish running through me. I watched as Carey kicked at people, trying to finish pushing her in. She was screaming, fighting against all odds.
So, I was going to do the same.
I pulled myself, screaming weakly at the pain, the burning on my chest never abating. It was like something was clawing into me now as well, reaching deep into me and grabbing something.
My fingernails turned to claws as I roared, pulling again. This time, it was enough. Gravity helped. I fell off the spikes and hitthe floor. Blood greeted me, already enough to make everything slippery.
That was when the burning grew unbearable. The smell of magic was too strong, and this time, it was very familiar. Subira’s face flashed in my mind as it felt like claws grabbed some hidden part of my heart and yanked.
Ripping clothing and screaming pain were what came next as my Change raced to happen and finish as quickly as possible. A string broke somewhere around my neck. Stars danced in my eyes, but they didn’t blind me from seeing Subira’s charm, radiating heat, sitting in the blood. It was one simple grey pebble but now a charred black rock.
My mother’s magic had just saved my life. Once I had gotten to a spot to allow the Change, it had forced me to do it to make me heal.
Now, it was time for me to have my second chance at life to save my daughter.
14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Istood up on four paws, flexing them for only a second to test if everything worked. Only a second. It was the only time I was willing to spare. Things still hurt, but I launched across the room at lightning speed. With a roar, I crashed through the restaurant’s large floor-to-ceiling window and slammed into the SUV.
“Fuck, drive!” someone screamed as I reached the first witch I could, the one struggling to get in the vehicle because Carey kept kicking him. He couldn’t fully get into his seat, and that was now his fatal problem. I grabbed him in my mouth and yanked him out, my jaws closing hard on his thigh. When his scream reached my ears, I released him and bit his abdomen, severing things until my teeth cracked against themselves.
Wheels screeched, and both SUVs started rolling, the open door hitting me, shaking me from my kill. I spun and bit the door, holding on as the SUV tried to move, unable to really move as it dragged my over five hundred pounds of muscle form. I yanked, hearing metal warp and bend, and things snapped. Whoever was driving must have had the pedal pushed fully down because they nearly lost control as the SUV jumped intoaction after the door failed and ripped off, left in my mouth. I didn’t linger long. We were in Tyler, and there was traffic. They wouldn’t be able to go fast enough to lose me.
I raced after them as they went onto the road, swerving through traffic. I jumped over a small coup, the people inside screaming at the sight of me, a werecat covered in blood running down a massive vehicle without a door and driving on the wrong side of traffic as it swerved and dodged other vehicles.
The SUVs split off from each other, and I kept on the bumper of the one with my daughter. As it made a turn, slowing down far more than I had to, I tried to bite one of its wheels, hoping to disable it. People were screaming inside, and I recognized one voice as Carey. It was all I needed to hear, knowing she was still in there, still alive, and always fighting.
I missed the tire, snarling as I had to push my body hard to keep up as they sped up, leaving the turn. Sirens started up behind me, and the flashing lights of police cruisers lit up the now darkening evening. One tried to get to my side while another tried to get to the SUV. The local police knew of me, but I was more familiar to the police in Jacksonville, not Tyler.
Gods damn you! Get out of my way! I’m not the problem here!
I growled at the police cruiser trying to get to my side, drifting too close for comfort. I jumped as it nearly sideswiped me, landing on its hood hard enough that it bounced. As I hopped off in the same movement, that police officer lost control. I only looked back for a second to make sure that the accident wasn’t going to be too bad, and the officer smartly slowed and parked thanks to the damage instead. Horns honked at the parade I was now a part of, and I tried getting behind the SUV with Carey again, ignoring the officer trying to maneuver that vehicle. Without a doubt, someone was already talking to the BSA with all of this happening.
A problem for after I get Carey back.
