“Roslyn!” Jenny screams from behind me.
I spin around just in time to see Roslyn drop to her knees. My heartbeat echoes in my ears, and my blood grows cold in my veins as a heavy, sinking feeling settles on my chest. Blood is flowing from her stomach where a knife is sticking out. I never knew she’d been stabbed.
In all the chaos, I never smelled the sweet scent of her blood amongst the fear, rage, and death that is tainting the air. All the beasts inside me rage, beating against my skin to be unleashed as I rush to her side.
Chapter 11
ROSLYN
It hurts so bad that it almost doesn’t hurt at all. I don’t know if that makes sense or if deliria has kicked in. But I know one second it felt like a slash of heat stole my breath, then I felt pain all over—hot, burning, suffocating pain.
“Gage! Fucking get here now! Roslyn’s house!”
Thad’s voice is barely audible, because all the sounds are so distorted. Is he on the phone?
A metallic tang gags me, and I cough, spitting out something warm that seems to be trying to drown me.
“Fuck!” Thad’s voice sounds tortured and panicked, and I force my eyes to open.
It’s blurry, like staring through a very unfocused camera lens, but I manage to make out the outline of his face, and I weakly reach up. Why can’t I talk? What’s that weird gargling noise coming from me?
“Shh, sweet girl,” he coos, smoothing my hair back, even though I can barely feel his touch.
I’m so damn cold right now.
“The fuck happened?” a guy demands, which has Jenny’s sobs reaching my ears. I wish she’d go away. She’s too loud, and it’s the one sound that is carrying too easily.
“Get her out of here,” Thad snaps. “Gage, get us to Dray. Now.”
I can’t tell if Thad is panicking or if he’s mad, but his voice breaks. I weakly squeeze his hand when he threads our fingers together, and my stomach lurches for some reason seconds before I feel something tingling me to my core.
Black fuzzy dots speckle my vision until they consume me. The fight inside me to stay awake ebbs as the need to sleep takes precedent. The last thing I hear is some bloodcurdling roar that seems to vibrate through me, a raw, desperate, and heart-wrenching sound that oddly enough seems to soothe me.
***
THAD
“You have to calm down!” Gage yells just as we materialize in his house.
Calm down? He’s fucking crazy!
“Wake up, love. Wake up!” I plead, desperate for her eyes to open.
Her skin is cold, her limbs are lifeless, but she’s still breathing. Gage works hard to put pressure on the wound, leaving the knife in place so the wound doesn’t open up even more.
“Sierra,” I growl, glaring at him, and he takes a deep breath before dematerializing from the room.
Ella is suddenly materializing across from the bed, her eyes wide in horror as she stares at Roslyn?
??s still body.
“What the hell happened?” she gasps, moving quickly to try and grab some towels from the adjoining bathroom.
“The anointed.” The broken whisper leaves my lips, sounding so foreign and nothing like me.
I just met her, but I can’t watch her die. For fuck’s sake, I wanted to change her. Now I hate that I let them talk me out of it. She’d already be healing if she was immortal.
“Oh shit.” Sierra’s voice finds me before I see her, and she rushes around to the side of the bed.