Bold Mercy by Laken Cane

Chapter Ten

Jared was pissed. I seemed to have that effect on him.

“Where are my wolves?” He pulled me into the little kitchen as his people went to retrieve the three humans, and though he kept his voice low, there was no mistaking his tone.

“They’re only half a block away,” I said, pulling my arm from his grip. “In my office. I slipped out to deal with this emergency.” Then I realized I was explaining myself to him, and that just made me mad. “I don’t need a boss, Jared.”

“I’m not trying to boss you. I’m trying to protect you.” He shoved his hand through his hair and blew out an exasperated breath. “Damn you, Kait. Why do you have to be so fucking stubborn?”

“I’m not stubborn. I’m a powerful adult woman.” I narrowed my eyes, understanding a little better why the detective had been so angry with me. I was treating him the way Jared was treating me—and neither one of us liked it. “I’m fully capable of taking care of myself and those around me.”

“It’s dark,” he said.

I stiffened immediately. “Lucy?”

“She will be fine if she stays with the pack.”

I turned around to head for the door. “Time to hunt.” But I came up hard against Rick’s chest, and caught between the alpha and the detective, I could only stand there as tension thickened and a wave of testosterone flooded the room.

“Who are you hunting?” Rick asked, his voice deceptively mild. He never took his stare off Jared.

He’d dealt with the surprisingly uninjured humans the demons had possessed—the magic of my demon blade, maybe combined with my own magic, was getting stronger. It extracted the demons without killing the human hosts. It barely even injured them. They “woke up” and remembered nothing, and though they felt their aches and pains and were dazed and a bit braindead, they were alive. They would be okay.

“A very bad woman,” I said tersely, fed up with everyone. The kitchen was so tiny I couldn’t squeeze by him, and I really, really didn’t want to shove him out of my way. “Let me by, Rick.”

He nodded, then shocked me by moving. “Be careful. If you need me, send me your location and I’ll get there as fast as I can.”

For a second I didn’t move. As I stared at him, he gave me a wink. “I know you’re a badass motherfucker, Kait Silver.”

I grinned, then shot a look at the alpha, who watched us both with a darkness that made me shiver.

“Go,” he growled. “I’ll be right behind you.” Then he gave a smile of triumph as the detective frowned.

I could only shake my head and sigh.

Before leaving, I slid my blade from its sheath. I handed it to Rick. “Take care of it for me?”

He hesitated before accepting the knife, and I couldn’t blame him. It had been forged in an evil fire and had tasted the blood of many. Its power would be felt by anyone who touched it, and not even the detective was immune to its influence. But he did take it, and I was secure in the belief that he would protect it. I trusted him.

And then there was only the hunt. I left the humans to Jared’s wolves and practically flew down the stairwell and from the building, and the alpha was at my back until we were outside—and then he was at my side.

The three wolves I’d left at my office were waiting, as was Zach, and every person in my little hunting party—including the alpha—waited for me to catch the scent I needed so they could follow where I led.

Zach had been born into a family of hunters, and I had no doubt he’d been a great one, but he was not a wolf. There was no way in hell he could keep up with us, but there was also no way in hell I was going to leave him behind. Tonight, we’d track like humans.

So as much as I wanted to free my wolf and run through the shadows to find and devour Avis Vine, I forced myself calm. “Who has the biggest car?”

“That’d be me,” Wyatt said, then, “We’re riding?”

I glanced at Zach. “Yes.”

He caught my stare and held it. “I’m not slowing you down,” he said, his shoulders square and his spine straight. “Run, Kait. I’ll drive. If I find her first, I’ll take her out and bring you her head.”

“I’m not leaving you right now,” I said. “And I’m not arguing about that. Come on, everybody. Let’s go find that bitch.”

But before I could get into Wyatt’s SUV and let down my window so I could catch any scent I wanted to catch, my cell rang. “Rick,” I answered. “I’ve been gone for ten minutes.”

“That was just long enough for someone to rush a restaurant full of diners and kill eighteen of them,” he said, his voice jerking as he ran. “They got them on camera, Kait, and they’re saying it was vampires. Vampires are showing themselves to the city. To the humans.”

I could barely breathe. “Which restaurant?” I whispered. Avis didn’t intend to hurt only me. She was slaughtering humans. She was imploding, and she was determined to cause as much damage as possible. She was bringing the vampires out of the shadows, and the world was not ready.

“The Golden Spice on Fifth. I’ll see you there.”

I lowered my phone slowly, staring at nothing.

“Kait,” Jared said gently. “What happened?”

I told him. No one spoke for several long seconds. We stared at each other, all of us shocked, horrified beyond words. Finally, “Eighteen people,” I whispered. “They killed eighteen humans.”

“On camera,” one of the others said. “The vampires won’t survive this.”

“We won’t survive this,” Wyatt said.

I could feel the world changing in that moment.

We sped to the restaurant, because now more than ever, I had to find Avis Vine. I couldn’t undo the massacre, but I could stop her from butchering more humans. The police wouldn’t let me near the restaurant, and I didn’t wait for Rick to get me in. I didn’t need to see the bodies.

I caught her scent there, and that was all I needed. I shoved away the grief and horror and fear, sank into my wolf brain, and I began to hunt. I even forgot Zach in my quest, because nothing mattered but catching Avis Vine.

She was now my purpose, and I would not rest until I ripped her heart from her chest and sliced her head from her body.