Werewolves Be Damned - By Stacey Kennedy Page 0,73
pressed her forehead against his, and his clammy skin connected with hers. “I’m so glad I met you. No matter how short our time together was. I don’t regret a moment of my life. Not then. Not now. Not ever.”
His gurgling weakened. His force to stay alive slowly exhausted away. She raised her head, searching his eyes, hoping to see some spark declaring he was still with her, but she suspected he only saw darkness now.
“I’m here…with you…I’m right here,” she whispered.
A long gasp sounded from Drake’s mouth before all the air escaped his body. She released his neck, sitting back on her legs, watching his chest. It no longer moved. She explored his eyes, but they were empty. She pressed against his pulse point, she felt no heartbeat, and she sobbed a breath.
Her hands trembled as she looked down at them, completely drenched in his blood. “No.” How could she have lost him? Her stomach tightened as she studied Drake, searching for breath—any trace of movement to confirm this untrue.
He had died.
A pain so intense ripped through her soul. An emptiness that was bottomless and profound filled her so that she couldn’t think, breath, or move. A cold sweat gathered along her skin as reality settled in. She closed her eyes, trying anything to wake up from this horrible nightmare—an endless nightmare that begun the night of her parents’ murder.
Time ceased to exist.
The world escaped her.
Nothing existed around her. Nothing, but the intense, unfathomable agony that broke her heart into pieces. She inhaled the wretched scent of death, which deepened her anguish, yet fueled her need to push on.
As much as she could have given in, wept until her tears ran dry and her suffering emptied away to exhaustion, this wasn’t the time to mourn. She needed to fulfill the reason they set out on this mission, or Drake’s death would be for nothing. She had to save Kyden and end this with Lazarus, once and for all.
Emptiness made her insides ache as she forced her eyes open and stared at her father’s lifeless body. Her stomach clenched with a horror she didn’t think she could survive. She stood, grabbed her sword from the ground with shaky hands, then pressed the tip into Drake’s stomach.
Within seconds, no evidence that Drake ever existed remained. His body vanished. His blood, gone from her hands.
Only she remained.
She, and the score she burned to settle.
Chapter Twenty
The moment Nexi teleported into in the Council’s Foyer, she wrapped her hand around the portal’s door and opened it, thinking of the one place that had always been special and safe. Right before the portal took her, she could’ve sworn she heard the sounds of fighting around her, but maybe she’d imagined that.
Revenge seethed inside of her. Anger burned, urging her on.
If Lazarus wanted a fight, she’d rip his damn fangs out.
Once the bright flash from the portal dimmed, and her feet touched hard ground, she opened her eyes, scanning the dark forest. Above her, in the night sky, stars twinkled, and her willow rested behind her. She drew in a deep breath, inhaling the warm air infused with the scents of nature.
She’d come to her willow for one reason: to look at her house from a distance. She knew the wolves at her home with Lazarus would scent her arrival, but the last thing she needed was to land directly in the center of trouble without a plan, or any idea where exactly her attackers were stationed.
After a final look at her willow—in its stunning beauty—she turned on her heel and jogged along the Tahoe Rim Trail, as she had so many times. Of course, that was back when life hadn’t been so complicated. The warm breeze raised goose bumps across her skin, as she pushed forward.
Within minutes she broke free from the path and positioned herself at the edge of the forest to look upon her family’s farm home. Drake had told her a couple weeks ago the farm hadn’t been sold yet because of Nexi’s missing status.
Right now, she was only too glad. The idea of another family being injured in this house was unthinkable, especially considering she knew that’s exactly what would’ve happened. To her happiness, she had found Lazarus’s location.
The two men—wolves—standing on her wraparound porch were evidence the bastard had brought Kyden to the place her old life ended and her new life began. Nexi watched as the wolves stared in her direction, their noses high, sniffing her out.