Wolf's Hunger (Mafia Monsters #5) - Atlas Rose Page 0,5
forbidding gaze dropped to the green glow in my chest. “And Phantom?”
“On the run, but we had to come back for the files. Then the bastards started shooting and we got separated from the pack.”
“And you thought this was the safest place to come?”
The way he said it…the way he lifted his gaze to mine, left me reeling. No, that panicked voice whispered inside my head. This wasn’t the safest place at all. “I heard a woman.” My voice trembled. “She called out to me.”
“There’s no woman here,” Shrike answered, those chilling black eyes glinting. “Must’ve been the wind.”
The wind, my ass…
“If Phantom’s in trouble, then we need to get back to him,” Arran answered, prodding.
He didn’t need to push any harder. I took one last glance around at the cracked concrete walls as the weighted darkness of the place grew heavy, then turned. Arran’s hand found mine as we stepped out of the building and back into the empty street. But there was something not right here, something about these abandoned buildings that felt wrong.
“What is this place?” I glanced at the Unseelie as he followed us out into the empty street and waited for him to answer.
“A place not meant for people like you,” he growled and motioned us ahead.
I opened my mouth to push the subject, until Arran gave my hand a gentle squeeze. Desperation flared in the Wolf’s eyes as he gave a tiny shake of his head. I swallowed that hunter in me and let the lie be what it was. These were Immortals, and right now, I was invading their world.
I needed to remember that…if I was going to stay here.
Stay here…with them…the Wolves.
The events of tonight made me more determined than ever. I squeezed Arran’s hand right back, reassuring him. It’s alright, I whispered inside my head. I’ve got your back.
The faint red and blue glow of police vehicles fought through the gloom in the distance.
“This way,” Shrike said, stepping behind me and heading not for the rear entrances of the clubs but to what looked like vacant lots as he pulled his phone from his pocket and made a call.
“It’s me. Phantom’s in trouble. Yeah, the pack. I’m with Arran and Carina. We’re coming out of the portal now…yes, all three of us. Send Ruin, to the valley…yeah, and tell him to bring the Explorer.”
Carina. The way he said my name made it feel so fucking intimate. I didn’t like that feeling…not at all. He was dangerous, this one, even more than the Vampires and the damn Wolves. He scared me and I didn’t scare, not easily anyway.
Headlights cut through the night up ahead in an instant as the sound of the racing engine of a four-wheel drive surged toward us. Jesus, that was fast.
“Ruin will take you to the safe house,” Shrike said as he slowed, then stopped. “The others will meet you there.”
“Is that it?” I shook my head and slowed my steps. “There’s at least ten different units out there. They’ll stop us in a heartbeat in that.”
“Not if I have anything to do with it,” Shrike muttered, and that same unhinged look of danger shone once more.
“Let’s go.” Arran yanked me forward, dragging me toward the waiting car.
The air seemed to throb and hum, standing the hairs on the nape of my neck. I turned my head as I reached the open door of the Explorer and looked at the looming Unseelie. He lifted his hands into the air, and the power lines that ran on poles from the back of the Hunting Ground to the front let out a zap, sending neon white sparks into the night sky.
“Holy shit,” I muttered, climbing into the car as Arran yanked open the passenger’s door in front of me and shoved mine closed.
“Damn right, holy shit,” the Wolf growled, and closed his door before turning to the male behind the wheel. “Get us the hell out of here, brother.”
The Unseelie shoved the four-wheel drive into gear as bright sparks detonated behind us in the night with a kaboom!
“Chaos,” Ruin murmured in a low growl. “Sometimes that’s all it takes.”
That green glow in my chest pulsed with the word. I felt that darkness, that seething, wretched thing. Chaos, Ruin called it. But not chaos like I knew it. This was a force, a kind of magic. A darkness I now felt in myself lingered in that abandoned concrete shell behind us. I looked through the window to the empty buildings behind