Page 42 of First Offense
She’d break beneath him.
And he’d enjoy watching her shatter.
Enough time had passed for them to finish eating, which meant he’d likely taken her elsewhere now. Perhaps even back to the cell, where they would be alone.
Fuck. I palmed the back of my neck and growled under my breath. Whatever the Reformer wanted to give me wasn’t worth the risk. I’d already waited for fuck knew how long. It wasn’t like those windows were real, and there wasn’t a damn clock anywhere in this damn prison.
“Fuck it,” I muttered, taking a step toward the door, only to find Novak leaning against the threshold with an arched brow. “What the fuck are you doing here?”No, better question.“Where the hell is Layla?”
“Safe,” he replied.
Both my eyebrows flew upward. “Unguarded is not safe, Novak.”
“Who says I left her unguarded?” he returned.
I didn’t afford him a reply, instead stalking forward with the intent of slamming my fist into his jaw. He had one job. One. Fucking. Job. And he couldn’t even do—
A whirring noise sounded behind me, causing me to pause midstep with a frown.What the hell is that?
Novak straightened, his amusement disappearing into a mask of stoicism as his focus went to the space over my shoulder. My feathers ruffled in response, and I turned to see a massive black hole forming on the wall.
“What the fuck is that?” I demanded.
“Portal,” Novak said, stepping up to my side.
“Portal to what?”
Something roared from the interior before Novak could reply, then a snout appeared that was the size of my head. My eyes widened as the thing snarled and leapt into the room, its head—no,heads—hitting the ceiling.
Three sets of jaws snapped at us, the metallic collars around its necks humming with furious energy.
My eyebrows flew upward as a Nora Guard appeared behind it. “Fuck,” he muttered, glancing around the room. When his gaze landed on me, his pupils flared. Then he glanced at Novak with a grunt. “Better run, Noir. Beast will think you’re a snack.”
The “beast” in question roared in agreement, but his beady black eyes seemed to fall on me, not Novak.
And then it lunged.
I jumped backward as an electric current ran through the air, zapping the thing into temporary submission. “Back through the portal,” the guard demanded.
But the creature had other ideas.
One of the three heads snapped backward, taking hold of the guard’s head and crushing his skull with a single bite.
My lips parted.
Then the three-headedthing—which I supposed resembled a hellhound, just much larger, and not nearly as obedient—trained his focus on me.
I jumped backward as one meaty paw swiped forward. Novak darted to the side as well, placing the beast between us.
“Neck!” Novak shouted.
I frowned at him, my dagger falling into my hand.
The portal behind this thing had closed, leaving the two of us alone with the beast and a doorway far too small for it to squeeze through. If we could get to the hall, we could shut the door and lock it inside.
But that required us to get around the damn thing now since it’d blocked our escape path.
Novak had a knife in his hand now, courtesy of the fallen guard, and he went for the throat of one head.
