BELLE
My thoughts were cut short by the sounds of growling and hissinging from somewhere behind me. It sounded like people were fighting a lot of people. Vampires and werewolves, if I had <b>to </b>
guess.
My stomach took a dramatic dive when I realized I recognized the owner of the growls. I would know that sound anywhere. It was Grayson’s wolf.
<b>I </b>sprinted in the direction of the noises<b>, </b>my heart racing as the sound of my mate’s distress only seemed to grow louder and more intense.
Even in the dark, what I found was worse than I could have ever imagined. There were two men, one with silver–gray hair <b>and </b>the other with pitch–ck hair<b>, </b>both looking <b>out </b>into a clearing of trees, their backs <b>to </b>me.
The bigger one was standing, dressed in all ck to match his hair, arms crossed over his chest in a casual manner. The other man was crouched down low, his long, brown, hooded trench coat. skimming the ground.
His arms were held out in front of him, and his fingers were syed out. It took me a moment to realize exactly what they were looking at.
There was a mountain of people piled on top of a fighting, snarling wolf. They were biting the wolf, tearing into him with ws while he howled and attempted to fight against them.
Grayson. The wolf was Grayson.
And the longer I looked, <b>the </b>sooner I started to realize that all of the people on top <b>of </b>him were the
same person.
They were all carbon copies of one of the men standing in front of me–same clothes, same ck. hair…and <i>red </i>eyes.
It was Azazel Mortar. Azazel Mortar was trying to kill <b>my </b>mate.
There was <b>a </b>lot about the situation that I didn’t understand.
I didn’t know how it was possible that there were so many versions of Azazel. <b>Or </b>what the older <b>man </b>crouched down on <b>the </b>ground with his arms out was doing.
But none of that mattered. All I knew was that I <b>needed </b>to <b>help</b>.
I acted on pure instinct. I ran forward with the knife from my kitchen still gripped tightly in my
hand.
Azazel turned, probably able to hear meing<b>, </b>and looked at me with a wide, familiar gaze.
<b>I </b>
knew those eyes. I had seen them back at Grayson’s pack house<b>, </b>staring down at me with an almost gleeful hatred.
I don’t know how I had ever thought Grayson was capable of the evil things that this man in front of me had done to me all of those months ago. And now he was trying to kill the love of my life.
So I was going to kill him.
Azazel didn’t have a chance to act on the shock I caused him when he saw meing because my
knife was plunged into his stomach a secondter.
He gasped, his arms falling to his sides, his mouth going ck.
I didn’t want to take any chances, so I pulled the knife out of his stomach and then drove it back in as hard as I could. Then, just for good measure, I did it once more.
Gotta make sure you hit those vital organs<b>, </b>right?
Blood poured from him and onto my hand. He coughed and the blood from his mouth sttered onto my white shirt and jeans.
He grabbed my wrist, ws digging in. The fury was evident in his eyes. “You bitch,” he spat.
His body began to slouch forward, and I was forced to release my hold, unable to hold up his massive form against my much smaller one.
<b>He </b>hit the forest <b>floor </b>on his stomach with a loud thump and took my knife down with <b>him</b>, still lodged deep in his stomach.
I watched as his blood began to form a puddle around his down<b>–</b>turned figure. His back rose and fell unevenly with his <b>final </b><b>raspy </b>breaths. And then he was <b>still</b>.
My pulse could be felt in my throat. Behind my eyes. Like a racehorse, pounding away rapidly in my chest. It dawned on me exactly what I had just done.
<b>I </b>had killed someone.
Evil vampire or not–a man was dead… because of me.
<b>His </b>blood was all over me. On my hands. Sttered across my face. It <b>was </b>pooling under my shoes.
<b>Chapter </b>57 of co- Abastar 27
No one tells you about how much blood there <b>is </b>after stabbing someone to death.
So. Much. <b>Blood</b>.
I was so engrossed by the horrors of what I had just done that I didn’t even take into consideration that there was another man until it was toote.
The much older man, who had obviously been trying to help Azazel take down my mate, was still crouched on the floor–but he was looking back at me now.
He had shoulder–<b>length </b>white hair streaked with gray and the strangest bone structure I had ever
seen.
It made me pause<b>–</b>somehow both <b>rmed </b>and captivated by <b>his </b><b>odd </b>features all at the same time.
He had an intense square jaw which was entuated by his short, blunt haircut<b>, </b><b>and </b>his sharp checkbones protruded from beneath his flesh, hollowing out his cheeks in a way that could only be described <b>as </b>morbid.
His skin, although most was covered <b>by </b>his clothing, what little I could <b>see </b>was wrinkled to the point of disturbance.
Tattoos covered nearly every inch of his <b>body</b><b>. </b>
They were faded <b>and </b>dpidated with old age, peeking out from beneath the sleeves of his brown leather coat and snaking up his bony fingers, climbing his neck and circling his face, and even disappearing into his hairline.
The dark ink was moving too, dark <b>swirls </b>dancing along his skin almost as if it were floating–alive, a part <b>of </b>him. It reeked of magic. <b>But </b><b>not </b>the type I was used to<b>.. </b>
The magic that I could sense this man was capable of was dark and powerful.
<b>But </b>that <b>wasn’t </b>the most disconcerting part of his appearance. No, that title belonged to his eyes.
They were purely white, his irises barely even visible<b>, </b>his pupils taken over by the snowstorm that was his gaze. And they glowed<i>, </i>bright and jarring in the darkness surrounding us.
The whole visual was like something out of a horror movie–a creature crouching, staring at me in the night<b>, </b>only his white eyes visible<b>. </b>
And the <b><i>way </i></b>he was looking at me<b>–</b>it made my <b>blood </b>run cold. His attention swung down to Azazel’s body, still lying at my <b>feet</b>, and then <b>back </b>up to me. And I instantly knew–this man meant to kill me.
I barely managed to shriek out my mate’s name before his bony fingers were wrapped around my neck and my body was pinned against a tree with enough force to make the world around me spin.
Shit, I just had to drop my knife, didn’t I?