Claimed by the Pack

Broderick took a step forward, totally undaunted. He stood facing his ex lover, both of them defiant, both of them wholly without clothes.

“I’m human first,” said Broderick. “Always have been. Always will be.”

“Not for long,” smirked Karessa. “Not without your—”

Her sentence died as he held up a strange metal object. It was shiny in places. Dull in others. Twisted in all kinds of unnatural ways.

He was holding his totem… and deep in my heart, I knew what it was:

The piece of shrapnel that had almost killed him.

“Goodbye Karessa,” said Broderick. “And don’t—”

There was a rumble. A shift. The ceiling, already bowed out and holding an enormous, crushing weight, seemed to ripple and move.

“Karessa!” I shouted. “Get over here!” I waved her on. “Over on this side of the chamber!”

She curled her lip at me. Laughed.

“Don’t pretend this isn’t over,” she said cruelly. “Not by—”

The ceiling shifted again. Dust rained from above, heavy and thick.

“Karessa, now!” Damien jumped in. “She’s right! Listen to her!”

She stood stubbornly defiant, both hands resting casually on her shapely hips. But her indifference was laced with worry, too. I could see it in her eyes.

“The ceiling’s coming down over there,” I said quickly. “There’s too much damage! There’s too much—”

“DON’T EVER SPEAK TO ME YOU—”

KA-BOOOOOM!

With a horrendous rush of wind and noise, the entire center section of the vault’s ceiling came crashing down! I couldn’t tell if it happened on Karessa or just in front of her… whether it crushed her beneath hundreds of tons of rock, or whether it only separated us by a newly formed, impenetrable wall of instant concrete.

“Karessa!” shouted Broderick at the top of his lungs. “KARESSA!”

He and Damien rushed forward, choking on the rolling wave of dust. A minute went by. Two minutes. By the time the air cleared, there was nothing else to see but stone and gravel.

“She’s gone,” said Damien sadly.

“Maybe.”

They both looked at me, and I shrugged.

“You know how many tunnels criss-cross in and out of this place?” I said. “Especially here, at the vault. The Order would never have built this chamber without more than one exit. Trust me.”

They sighed in unison. Each of them looked only semi-hopeful.

“Besides,” I pointed, coughing. “That bitch is resourceful.”

38

SERENA

Xiomara was an all-too-close blur taking up my phone’s entire screen. I could see skin pores, the hairs on her chin. The arch of an ancient eyebrow.

“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”