The staircase that leads upstairs gets jumped as well, and I crash into the bedroom. A table by the wall has been turned over; several things are broken; and it looks like there was a struggle.
“The hell?” Gage asks, eyeing the room in the same disbelief as me.
“I thought you had a protection spell on the place!” I snap, rushing to the window.
Locked. That means whatever came in here didn’t need it.
“I do. There’s no way in hell someone got in without an invite. Any chance she might have gotten pissed about you two fucking then you disappearing?”
A new sense of dread spreads throughout me, just as a snarl tears through the room. I really don’t need to deal with an overprotective dick dad right now on top of everything else.
“I shouldn’t have even come down there. I thought Reese would try to take her back to his pack. There was no reason for me to be in on that. I could have had it all recapped to me later. Fuck!”
Everyone moves away from me when I slam my fist through the wall, splitting a stud on impact. My fist comes out unscathed, but I’m a fucking mess. How the hell do I find her?
“I’ll grab the keys,” I hear Zee say.
“I’ll grab mine. Kimber—”
“I’ll meet you downstairs,” she says in interruption while I push open the window and look out. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. She’s never going to trust me to take care of her if I keep fucking up and losing her. No way did she hear any of our conversation, and no way did she leave without changing. This room is fucked up.
I hop out of the second floor window, and land with a thud just across from the Hummer. Reese is right behind me, landing with just as much force.
“I’ll head to the woods and shift. If she’s in shifted form, I might be able to get close enough to smell her.”
“I’m taking the sky,” I tell him while stepping behind the outdoor shower stall.
The flutter rises to my chest as my flesh moves over bones, feeling my body contort and shift. It feels good to finally unleash at least one of my animals, and I push off from the ground.
Before my feet even fully leave the ground, feathers have replaced flesh, and I’m climbing the air, getting higher and higher until I can see for miles around me. I just hope I find her before Slade does.
Chapter 24
ROSLYN
It hurts. It hurts so bad.
Hours and hours.
I’ve been ending up in so many places, and I don’t know how. I’ve seen brick walls, trees, stone walls, grass… I’ve seen the entire town and more. My head is pounding as more and more memories assault me.
It’s all so clear, but it hurts so damn much. So, so much.
Thad. Thad. Thad.
Just his name over and over seems to help. All I want to do is get back. I want him to make it stop. They have to stop. I can’t be alone. I can’t breathe. They only come to hit me.
It hurts. Why are they doing this? He has to make them stop.
“Check this shit out,” I hear a voice nearby saying, but it’s not inside my mind. Not like my voice that keeps playing over and over.
Beg. I begged so much. Begged them to speak. Begged them to feed me. Begged for blood. I begged for so much, but they denied me every time.
“Girl is wasted,” another male voice says.
They come to hurt. They come to play.
No more blood from me today.