Page 55 of Bold Mercy

“I’ve asked Lucy and Ash to stay here until you’ve handled the vampires.” Louis smiled at my relief. “Amy and I,” he told me, “are happy to do anything to help you, Kait.”

“Thank you, Louis,” I murmured.

I straightened after giving Ash one last pat and took a second to gaze at them all, just in case by some chance I didn’t make it back. In my life, not making it back was always a distinct possibility. Many of the mayor’s security detail—the ones who’d lived through the attack—stood quietly in the room, shellshocked but ready to act should they be needed. They’d be better against human attackers, and if a certain serial killer attempted to get his hands on Lucy, they would take him down. She was safe.

Five minutes later I’d ripped off my clothes, my lanyard, and my thin, protective vest, shoved the entire bundle against the exterior wall of a dark, silent house, and shifted. Honestly, there wasn’t much that felt better than becoming my wolf.

And she was ready to kill some vampires.

I sprinted away, gathering my legs beneath me, the wind whipping my face as I ran very nearly as fast as any vampire, eager to reach Alexandria and Avis Vine. I felt the alpha a few seconds before he burst from the darkness to run with me, and even my wolf’s feral heart softened. But only for a moment. It was not a night for a soft heart.

We were fast, the alpha and I. We kicked up great clods of earth and sent stones and debris flying as we ran faster than any animal should have been able to run, and we reached Alexandria faster than we would have in a car. The wolves who’d gone on ahead were already there, already fighting.

But that wasn’t what made me stand, my breath whooshing in and out, and stare in frozen silence.

Alexandria was a small town full of humans. They’d had no idea that vampires lived in a nice part of town in a cluster of homes that no fictional vampire would ever have lived in. The community where the county master lived with his many, many children looked like any other community one would find in any town. It blended, it was clean and quiet with well-manicured lawns and playsets and bikes and flowers and nicely tended trees.

None of that was real, of course. It was a glamour created by sorcery to fool the humans. The real cluster, the tiny community into which the county master’s main house spread like a grim disease, was the stuff of nightmares.

The glamour was not just fading, it was blinking in and out violently, black and red and flashing like explosions of blood against the dark sky, showing the humans more than they would ever have wanted to see about the reality that lived within their world.

The vampires were not just in danger of being exposed, they were exposed. By the time we got there, the street was lined with cop cars, flashing lights, and policemen standing behind their open vehicle doors with guns drawn.

News vans, screaming reporters, and terrified humans who wanted to run to safety but were unable to tear themselves away. And all that mattered to me, really, was catching Avis.

It mattered that the humans were seeing the wolves—Jared and I weren’t the only ones who had shifted—but I shoved the worry away. They weren’t going to know my wolf was me. I could still hide my shifter side.

It looked like the world was on fire. I shot through those fake flames and up the driveway, not even hesitating as I caught glimpses of wolves and vampires fighting. There were rogues, yes, but the wolves weren’t just trying to kill them. They’d lost their human commonsense in the fight, and all the wolves cared about was killing vampires. Any and all.

I knew how they felt. My natural instinct was to rip out the throats of the bloodsuckers as well, but I was single-minded in my need for Avis. If I caught her, all the bad stuff would stop. It wouldn’t really, of course—it was much too late for that—but that’s what I kept in my head. Everything would be okay if Avis were dead and held up like a gory trophy for the city to see.

The scents were overwhelming and hard to separate but finally, I caught Avis Vine’s scent—that particular smell of rot and magic and evil that had burrowed inside my brain and might never leave again. It was there, and it was strong.

The “house” was nothing like the vampires had spelled it to look to outsiders. It was massive, sprawling and dark and full of nooks and crannies and rooms, both up and down, that would take a person a very long time to explore. But I wasn’t there to explore. I concentrated solely on the smell, ignored the screaming, the growling, the huge, hot wolf bodies, the vampires, the fires, everything.

Until I saw Bastien. He flung himself at me, forcing me to stop, and I went for his throat before I realized he was simply trying to talk to me. Farrow was there, as well, trembling against the wall. I’d never seen her look so afraid.

Bastien took my face between his hands. “You should not be here. She is going to take you tonight, and she is going to kill you if she gets you. Go home, Wolf.”

“Bastien,” Farrow started, and then fell into a quaking silence when he snarled at her.

I understood suddenly the reason for his rage. He hadn’t sent for me at all. Farrow came to get me because she believed I could save Bastien, even if I had to be sacrificed. He wasn’t willing for me to die in his place. She was.

I didn’t care what either of them believed or wanted or feared. Avis was there—I could feel her. She was close. She was waiting for me, and I was going to get her. For as much as she wanted me, wanted to hurt me, wanted to kill me, I wanted to do those things to her a hundred times more. Because she was fueled by revenge. I was fueled by the need to save my people.

Would I sacrifice myself to end her?

Fuck yeah. In a heartbeat.

I shoved Bastien back against the wall with my big wolf’s body, then stared into his eyes. Finally, I pressed my nose against his throat, and then, when he sighed and whispered, “Kait. No,” I wheeled around and streaked toward where Avis’s scent was the strongest. I sped down a long, endless hallway until finally, there was an old stone staircase, heavy with decades of dirt, blood, and mold, and I bolted up stairs that seemed to go on forever, and waiting at the top, as I had known she would be, was Avis Vine.

The awful thing was…

She was not alone.