Soul Avenged (Sons of Wrath, #1) (4 page)

Paralyzing.

Grunts rattled
deep inside his bones and panting bursts of heat fell on his
neck.

He opened his
eyes to blood marring the white snow that trailed behind
ghastly-deformed haunches.

Oh, God.

The beast in
the parking lot of the hospital. Wolves. It carried him in its
mouth like a mother tiger carried young.

Will they eat
me alive?

A spasm in his
chest seized his body. Eyes squinted, he willed his hand to reach
for his heart. It wouldn’t move.

He opened his
mouth, wanting to cry out for help—but he couldn’t breathe, his
body jerking in silent protest.

More jolts of
pain, unbearable, like a thousand spears had pierced his spine all
at once as the beast thrashed him.

He forced his
muscles to remain still beneath the fear of movement, sucking back
the agonizing sensation that tore through his flesh.

God please
…

The world
disappeared to blackness.

A soft glow
filtered into his consciousness and he opened his eyes to it.

A woman
hovered over him.

An angel? Am I
dead?

“
Help me,”
he rasped. “Please.”

Gold swallowed
the whites of her eyes, framed by long brown locks of hair that
tumbled around her shoulders.

So
beautiful.

Her face faded
to darkness.

Kane broke
from his reverie and glanced around the room again.

What is this
place? Heaven? Hell? Oh, God. Was I eaten alive? By what?

He ran his
bloody, trembling hand through his hair.

No.

His fists
balled at his temples.

Werewolves?

No, he didn’t
believe in any of that. No way.

When the first
few mutilations were discovered in remote areas of the city a few
years back, the news reported a possible serial killer on the
loose. Communities had panicked over the bodies that had been
carelessly dumped, ravaged by what appeared to be feral
animals.

Aside from the
gruesome remains, there seemed to be no pattern to the killings.
Homeless, prostitutes, suburbanites leaving work late at night—just
like Kane—from Detroit all the way up to Pontiac.

Investigators
couldn’t determine a common link between the victims – every one of
them had seemed to be random atrocities with no apparent motive. In
most cases, the news reported nothing but bones left behind with
the suspicion that animals had gotten to them in the night.
Sometimes, they’d been burned, the victims only identifiable by
dental records.

No single
serial killer could be in two places at once, and often the murders
happened simultaneously. Gangs? Perhaps. But why?

There had been
no good explanation for the murders—until the Jayne murder
investigation five years prior.

The first
attack in a suburban home.

Suddenly, all
the normal presumptions had gone to hell.

Saliva and
hairs had been analyzed by forensics.

Canine.

As if a pack
of wild dogs had slaughtered the entire family. The mother’s body
had never been found, but pools of what was believed to be her
blood lay all over the kitchen floor in the Jayne home. When the
news reported large wolves moving into the urban setting and
attacking in the night, the public overreacted—and stray dogs
became a target.

People who
owned guns shot first and asked questions later.

Kane had
treated the news reports like the tabloids. Experts agreed: wolves
didn’t mutilate humans or ransack households like the Jayne’s had
been—and they damn well couldn’t have been responsible for the
other murders, since a few of the bodies had been burned.

What other
explanation was there, though?

Some claimed
to have seen the beasts—but the sightings had been rare and the
sources … unreliable. So many suspicions emerged out of nowhere.
The ER had reported a few bite attacks but the victims either left
against medical advice or healed quickly, baffling the medical
staff.

Kane had sat
in on some of the meetings in the hospital where the cases had been
discussed.

The theory of
werewolves
had begun to infiltrate general conversation as
if a new trend was on the rise. Thankfully, most still frowned at
the idea of their existence. Those who did speak of them were
deemed conspiracy theorists—believing that the government wanted to
wipe out the homeless population in the city with a genetic
mutation of some sort, and that the Jayne’s were simply to throw
the public off.

Crazy.

The following
summer had arrived with a blockbuster movie starring the beasts
from the tabloids.

Lycans.

What the hell
was
a lycan, anyway?

Kane had seen
the movie trailers that portrayed them as wolves. Leave it to
Hollywood to get in on the action. Mysterious attacks by some kind
of animal and the world creates a monster for it.

Ridiculous.

But, damn,
here he was—and unless his eyes had failed him the previous night,
they
were
monsters. He’d be another unsuspecting victim
who’d show up on the news, presuming the cameras at the hospital
had actually picked something up.

What about
Bob, though?
Did they get him, too?

There had been
two of them in the parking lot. Surely one of them had gone after
the tired, old security guard?

Kane rested
his head on his palms, knees pulled up into his body.

Will I be on
the evening news?

It wouldn’t be
unusual for a staff member not to show up to work the next day,
even a director. Everyone was considered expendable at the
hospital. He’d seen it first-hand with the cuts. Kane was one of
few directors left. Would anyone bother to report him missing?

His head
perked up.

Hell or not, I
need to get out of here.

He kicked his
feet out and slid to the edge of the bed. As he rose to stand,
crackling—like a snapping bundle of twigs—reached his ears, and
Kane collapsed to the floor.

A split second
later, pain shot like lightening up into his thighs, smoldering
deep inside his bones—and Kane’s roar of agony reverberated off the
walls.

An abnormal
bump beneath the skin of his thighs almost turned his stomach
inside out.

“Ah,
fuck!”

As he
attempted a roll to his side for a better look, the bedroom door
burst open, exposing a massive figure, obscured by the
darkness.

It lurched
forward, and a haze clouded Kane’s eyes as he struggled to focus,
threatening to steal his consciousness.

Arms
trembling, he pulled himself along the cold marble floor, away from
the visitor, his useless legs dragging behind his body.

Cold laughter
filled him with dread.

“Well what
have we here?” The deep voice carried a harrowing tone of malice as
the stranger moved forward and crouched beside him, his elbows
resting on his knees.

His futile
attempt at escape only sapped Kane of energy, and he lowered his
head to the cold floor. Neck craned to the side, he took in the
sight of his amused spectator: a thick man with a shadow of
stubble. Brown eyes matched his cropped brown hair. He looked
young, maybe in his mid-twenties, dressed in a black t-shirt and
jeans.

Kane’s heart
seized again and he reached to grab his chest. Muscles tensed, he
held his breath as the jarring sensation wracked his body. Much as
he didn’t want to take his eyes off the stranger, he couldn’t help
but squeeze them shut as wave after wave shattered his
concentration. “God … damn …”

“Hurt?” the
stranger asked, his inflection laced with gratification.

As the pain
subsided, Kane exhaled, resting his crown on the chill marble and
sucked in long breaths. He turned onto his cheek and glanced up at
the man who seemed content to watch him suffer. “If you’re going to
kill me … get on with it.”

The guy
chuckled and leaned forward, his right arm jutting out as he
balanced on his knuckles. “Believe me, if you were
my
kill,
you’d be dead already.”

With shaky
breaths, Kane fought to keep his heavy eyelids open. “Then what do
you want with me?”

“You’re
Ayden’s kill.”

“What’s he
waiting for? I’m ready.” It was true. Kane had suffered enough pain
to last a lifetime and was in no position to fight his captors. If
death was coming for him? He wanted it over with.

“She—Ayden’s a
she
, dickwad—and she’ll deal with you soon enough.”

Ayden? The
wolf that attacked me was a female?
“What the hell’s she
waiting for?”

The stranger
leaned back to his crouch. “She’s busy at the moment. My brother
doesn’t take kindly to
uninvited
guests in our humble
abode.”

“Your brother?
What is this, some … some kind of pack?” Kane panted as he
spoke.

The stranger’s
jaw ticked and a growl rumbled in his chest. “Pack? Never compare
us to your kind. You
sicken
me. Like a fucking disease. All
you wolf bastards are going to burn.”

Wolf?
“My name is Kane Walker. I’m director at the Children’s Cancer
Institute at UD General. This is some kind of mistake. Please, I
just want to go home.”

A wicked grin
flashed across the man’s face. “Asshole, you ain’t never going
home. When Ayden finishes with you, you’ll be a pile of body parts
that my demon brothers and I will feast upon.”

Demons?
His words struck the pit of Kane’s stomach. Vomit spewed, sloshing
onto the gold speckled marble before splashing back into Kane’s
face. He strained to hold his head out of it, but the stranger
shoved Kane’s face into the milky fluids that held the remains of
his last meal, his tight grasp scorching the wound on Kane’s neck
as he smeared his mouth in the mess.

“That’s how
you teach a dog not to soil the floor.” He grunted through the
words.

Kane groaned
in agony as fingers pressed into his opened flesh then released
him. He lifted his head away from the floor, the slime stringing
from his lips. The smell made him retch again and he struggled
against the tugging sensation in his stomach.

“Look at this
shit. Your dirty fucking blood all over my fingers.” The stranger
grabbed Kane by his head and shoved his fingers beneath his face.
“Lick it off, dog.”

“I don’t know
what you think I am—” A choking fit cut off his words.

“I know
exactly
what you are. You slaughter innocent families for
sport. You
eat
children and tear unborn fetuses from their
mother’s wombs.” The demon’s hands trembled against Kane’s head,
crushing his skull.

“I’m … not—”
Kane winced as increased pressure threatened to crack his
bones.

“Logan!” The
new voice called from the doorway. “Leave him.”

The grip on
Kane’s head slackened. Kane coughed and drew in a breath through
his mouth to keep from smelling the vomit below his nose.

“Brother, do
you realize what she’s brought into our home?” the one identified
as Logan said.

“Yes. A
halfling. He’s not harmed anyone yet.”

Logan gave one
final thrust to Kane’s head, smacking it against the floor with a
sickening crack. “What does it matter, Calix? In a week, he’ll be
just like the others.”

Their words
aimlessly danced in Kane’s mind as he studied the demons’
outlines.

Fading.

The second
figure, Calix, hovered over his brother, his face only discernible
in Kane’s periphery.

Darkness
filtered in as Kane rested his head on his arms and willed his
lungs to breathe. He turned his head to the side, and beams of
light flickered and danced across the ceiling, capturing his focus,
making him nauseous. Still, his consciousness waned.

Stay awake,
stay awake.

Calix’s next
words rang as clear as the crystal chandelier that hung above
him.

“Then we have
seven days to kill him before he turns.”

Blackness
swarmed into silence.

***

Gavin’s hands
rested on his hips, like a pissed off father ready to chide his
daughter. “What the hell are you thinking, Ayden? You brought one
here
?”

Ayden sighed,
tipping her head back against the armrest of the chair she’d
sprawled out in. “Gavin, you don’t understand.”

“I saw the
fight. I knew you were going to back out, but I had no idea it was
to save one. Like some goddamn charity case.”

She kicked her
feet over the edge of the chair and sat upright. “Charity case? You
think I intend to
save
him? Are you insane?”

“I could ask
you the same thing.”

“If you’d stop
bitching at me for a minute, I might actually be able to explain my
reasons.”

Gavin crossed
his arms over his chest. A casual, yet intimidating, stance.
“Shoot, slayer.”

Her eyes
diverted away, glancing around the office until they finally
returned to his half-opened robe. No doubt, he’d be naked beneath
it. She focused on the black tattoo that snaked up the side of his
neck, intricate demon phrases, which, at a distance, looked like
nothing more than tribal flames—words her tongue had once traced.
Good God.

His eyebrow
arched, like he waited for her to begin her explanation.

“I … saw
something tonight, Gavin. It scared the hell out of me.”

“Slayer?
Scared? This should be interesting.” His arms shot out to the side,
resting atop the desk that he leaned against. The robe opened
wider.

She kept her
gaze on his. “I don’t know exactly
how
, but that halfling
showed me something.”

His lips
twitched. “This isn’t where the story takes a provocative twist, is
it?”

A roll of her
eyes accompanied the dull expression on her face. “Gimme a sec to
hold back the vomit that just rose into my mouth.”