Changing Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 2)

He shakes

his head, and a wave of relief washes through me.

“It was my daughter—Kimber. She’s been through this before as a child. I know I have no right to ask, but I need your help getting her back. I have a plan.”

I see the pain and tears in his eyes, and my own eyes water because it makes me think of how hurt my father would be if I was taken again.

“Obviously I hate this happened to your daughter,” my mother says. “But you can’t expect to trade my daughter for yours. Roslyn’s two years were two years of torture. And I consider us even, considering what was just done to me.”

Drackus tightens his lips as the sins of my past roll to the forefront of my mind, sins that need atoning for.

“I know what I’m asking is dangerous,” Drackus says on a weary sigh.

“It’s more than dangerous,” Dray interjects. “If they get ahold of her, they can track down anyone whose blood they have. There has to be a better way to retrieve Kimber.”

Drackus looks over his shoulder, then back at me. “I don’t have long before they catch up. Thad and the others don’t know I came. Thad will probably attempt to kill me when he figures it out. But I really do have a plan, and it can work if we stick to it.”

Mom bristles beside me as Liza steps out onto the porch.

“A plan isn’t good enough, Drackus,” Liza tells him. “There are too many things that can go wrong. Especially without one of the creature gods with us.”

“I can’t risk Ella, and Alyssa and Kane can’t be a part of this. Trust me. And then duck for cover when I use too much magic.”

“You’re willing to risk yourself?” Dray asks him. “Because if you lose it without someone to ice you, you could be in a world of pain and lost for a while. Where’s Calypso?”

“With Alyssa. You know why she’s there, and you know why I can’t ask her for help. Alyssa needs her more than I do.”

Dray starts says something else, but my decision has been made, and the words exchanged seem to drown amongst my own thoughts.

“I don’t know how to work this thing,” Drackus says to whatever Dray has said or asked.

“I do,” I whisper softly, taking a deep breath.

I swore I’d die before I went back. But I also knew this day would come.

“How?” Dray asks, taking the locator pendant from Drackus so he can study it.

My eyes meet my mother’s, and she knows without words what I’m about to do.

“No!” she barks, but’s it’s too late.

I dematerialize, grabbing the pendant on my way out, and I move too fast and too stealthily for her to keep up. I can travel farther distances in this state than she can. Than anyone can. Especially now.

I rematerialize close to Pine Shore, taking only a few minutes where it will take the others at least an hour to catch up, and I hold the pendant against my pulse in my wrist. It wanted me, and it has my heartbeat.

It lights up immediately, and my head is thrown back as images swirl in my mind. A map scrawls out behind my eyelids, and I pull it away once I see the destination.

My hunch to return to Pine Shore was right. They’ve been right under our noses the entire time.

There’s no plan. There’s no hope of escape. There’s no hope of survival. There’s just a sense of peace surrounding me, because I know I’m doing the right thing for the first time.

This time, I’ll go down in a fight. They’ll kill me before they break me again.

I make it to the edge where the woods start before the road stretches into Edgebrook, and I stand on the spot where the map told me to, still clutching the locator pendant in my hand.

“So Thad’s human girlfriend is the wolf?” a familiar voice asks, and I spin around to see the face that matches the voice.

Alex? The guy Jenny was taking home from the party the night Wendy… Oh damn. I forgot that was all real.