Page 105 of Hunted

Beck detoured on the way over, slashing through Spencer’s neck without an ounce of remorse before kneeling on the rug beside us. He leaned in, turning his head slightly to the side for a further three seconds, then yelled, “She’s not breathing, Van!”

“Fuck! The poison!” he yelled, the lightbulb finally going off. He reached into Beck’s back pocket and retrieved a small syringe, jamming it into my thigh.

All I could do was stare up at them—my three unlikely Romeos—waiting to find out if Van had solved the poison puzzle in time. And the whole time, all I could think was that I’d finally found a sliver of life worth living for—not just surviving through—and now I’d have to give it all up. I’d have to give them up… because the antidote had arrived too late.

[ 38 ]

BECK

JONAH KAGEN – GOD NEEDS THE DEVIL

“Van!” I roared, my lungs refusing to breathe unless hers were. “Do something!”

He spiralled for two full, agonising seconds, then launched into a round of CPR. After thirty compressions—I counted every single one without breathing—he whipped out a tiny device from his medpack, stuck two electrodes in two different locations on her scantily clad chest, yelled at us to get back, then pushed the only button on said device.

Addie’s body jolted in far too lifeless and disturbing a way—but then Van checked for a pulse again.

If Henry Lewis wasn’t already dead, I’d kill him myself. Fuck the Academy. Fuck Varco and his tests. The only things I cared about were in this room with a bunch of dead assholes—and one of those things was close to dead herself.

“She’s got a pulse!” Van cried, tears lining the rims of his pale blue eyes.

Dek clenched her right hand in both of his—so tiny and pale in comparison—unabashedly sobbing over her with a mixture of grief and relief. He wiped his face on his shoulder, meeting my gaze over her too-still body.

I looked between Evander, Deklan, and Adelaide, and realised three things.

One: that we were all in love with her. Not infatuated, not intrigued, but fully and undeniably in love.

Two: that none of us would be willing to give her up for the sake of our brothers—and that none of us would ask it of each other.

Three: that life going forward would look very different if she could accept those facts.

She just had to wake up first.

She had to live—or we wouldn’t be able to.

[ 39 ]

ADDIE

MATTEO DE GRANDIS – HEARTDUST

The world ended with a bang, after all—not a whimper.

Or maybe I did.

Every cell within me burned like wildfire, catching and spreading until it felt like my very soul was aflame. I tried to scream but no sound came out. Until eventually… eventually my eyes cracked open and tiny moans snuck through closed lips.

Maybe it ended with a whimper, after all.

Or maybe—just maybe—it was the beginning.

“You scared us for a second there, Deadly,” Dek said, his eyes suspiciously red-rimmed.

“Speak for yourself,” Beck grunted, rising smoothly to his feet and pulling a phone out of his back pocket. He started barking orders at someone on the receiving end and Dek exchanged a loaded look with Van as he helped me into a seated position.

I shivered, sucking air in through my teeth, mentally cataloguing all my injuries. Glancing down, I blushed profusely, realising exactly how vulnerable my mark had left me.

Van, of course, noticed my discomfort and shrugged out of his jacket. He draped it over me, murmuring, “It’s okay, pretty girl,” with the saddest of smiles. “I shook after my first kill, too.”