Lost Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 4)

In fact, everyone is starting to look at the doorway.

Slowly, I turn my head to find a doll there, standing thigh-high with red hair and animated eyes. Her gaze flicks to me, and a growl rumbles in my throat.

Really fucking hate the way I respond to her.

“Why the hell are you in doll form?” I ask, knowing it’s Kya.

“Your lycan has been taken by the master,” the doll says in the creepiest damn voice I’ve ever heard, ignoring my question.

“What?” Sierra demands as she shoots up to her feet.

It takes that reaction for me to process what Kya just said. Amy? The master took Amy? The fuck?!

“We think the master is trying to locate you,” the doll adds.

“It wouldn’t be hard to find us. We’re not hiding,” Thad says, cocking his head.

“We have reason to believe the master wants the princess, though the true reasons are uncertain and inconclusive at this time.”

“We’ve already assumed as much. Why are you in doll form?” I ask again.

She cuts those creepy glass eyes toward me. “I brought a gift for you. You should read up on who you are and see if you can locate your lycan before any information is tortured out of her that you don’t want shared.”

A red book appears at my feet, and the doll drops to the floor, lifeless, as Kya vacates it. Her body has to be close by, which is a distraction. Karma said their bodies can’t be too far from the person or thing they possess, otherwise they could get sucked into the spirit planes or hell. Seems to have happened to another demon human hybrid.

“We have to find Amy now!” Sierra roars, her body trembling as she fights to stay in her skin and not shift out of anger.

“I’ll find her,” I promise them, then disappear, heading to the woods where she was last seen.

As my vision shifts, looking only for Amy’s trail becomes simpler. I start moving, chasing the trail as quickly as my feet will carry me.

A dark howl echoes through the woods behind me, and I know Roslyn is following, already chasing after me. Thad is probably with her.

Miles and miles of woods hammer against my feet as I forge on, pushing myself to move faster and faster. My movements are so fast and light that I don’t make a sound. I’d be nothing more than a streak of motion to the human eye.

The stench of decay and death is strong around me from where the blood-starved raced through here. It makes Amy’s scent fainter and fainter, leaving the burden of tracking to my eyes only.

A roar

filling the silence around me lets me know Sierra has also joined the hunt. Silence descends after that, and I run harder. I’m sure they’re all trying to keep up as I follow the trail of—

My body jolts forward, and I have to stop breathing through my nose when the scent of a heavy, putrid rotting smell slams into me. I cough back the urge to vomit, but I taste the death as heavily as I smelled it.

Dizzy, I stagger around, finding it hard to stay upright as dark colors and wild scents wreak havoc on my senses. The forest around me seems to be moving, as though I’m on an acid trip from the eighties.

Bright colors replace the dark ones, and the ground looks as distorted as the bending trees and dancing flowers. I try to shake out of it, but the madness only gets worse as I stagger forward.

Something metal lands at my feet, and I look up to see a familiar set of scars on a partially covered face... A face wearing the same metal nose and mouth mask as the one at my feet.

“Put it on and turn off your senses. Now. Before you pass out.”

Cursing, I grab the damn mask and release my hold on my tracking abilities. Some of the nausea ebbs, but not enough. The second the mask is on, I can’t smell or taste anything, and the dizziness dissipates.

Slade taps the front of his mask. “Warded against our oversensitive senses. The others will be passed out before they make it this far. Please tell me you weren’t stupid enough to bring the princess on this quest.”

Silence is still behind me, proving he’s probably right.

“She’s currently pissed at me and possibly unaware of the situation at hand. An emotional Ella is a dangerous one,” I answer, shaking my head as the last of the disorientation fades.