Page 55 of Blood and Trouble

What the hell? How was she doing this? I let my instincts take over, allowing my wolf to surface if only so he could get the measure of her. He didn’t like what he saw. She wasn’t human, that was certain, but he couldn’t decide if she was a vampire. Maybe a witch? A siren? A fairy?

“You don’t need to worry about who I am,” she said, reaching out to take my arm. I gasped, the contact rattling through me, a crushing wave of energy coating my skin, holding me in place. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. Only stare at her.

My wolf bucked against my skull, slamming his body into my mental fortress until it cracked. The reception faded away. My agency dissolved into nothing. I was enthralled by the creature touching me, hers to do with what she would.

“Oh,” the woman said. “Oh, that’s terribly inconvenient. A half-formed bond. You knew it the first time you saw her.”

I tried to speak, but my lips wouldn’t move.

“You must know she’ll never want you like she wants him. He had you and left you all the same,” she said. “It would be better if you left them now, before you’re in too deep. Safer, too. Going down this road will only lead to blood and destruction.”

I gritted my teeth and pushed with every ounce of my magic, trying to rip her talons out of my brain.

“No one has ever been able to run from her,” the witch continued. “She always gets what she wants.”

Who? Evelyn?

“Leave the girl, and you can have the wolf.”

I forced myself to focus on breaking whatever hold she had on me. My body wasn’t my own, and my wolf growled as he tore his claws into her power.

“Stay, and she’ll make you watch.” Sweat beaded on the woman’s forehead, her voice now straining.

Images of Ava screaming projected in my mind’s eye. Her bloodstained face. Her blue eyes lifeless and dull. Her throat torn open and her body ripped to shreds. My heart twisted from the horror of it. My wolf roared with outrage.

“You have until the moon,” she said, seeming to sway and tighten her muscles to keep herself upright. “But make your choice quickly. If I can get to you in a room full of strangers, imagine what she can do in a hotel suite with only a handful of humans and a few measly shifters for protection.”

The woman sank her nails into my arm and pain lanced up my bicep, straight to my heart.

“The clock’s running out.”

“Hey—” A heavy hand landed on my shoulder, and the spell broke. I startled back to the room, turning to shove the foreign touch off me. But I focused on bright gray eyes and a familiar, striking blond.

Lycan.

I was at a royal reception. I was supposed to be searching for threats.

“Hey, it’s just me.” Lycan held up his hands. “Are you okay?”

When I turned back to where the woman had once stood, I found only an empty table. I looked around, trying to figure out where she’d gone, but I didn’t see her. It was like she’d never existed.

“Poe,” Ava said, coming to stand on the other side of me. “What happened?”

“You didn’t see her?” I asked, eyes darting around the ballroom. Was I imagining things? Had I hallucinated the entire conversation?

“See who?” Lycan asked.

“The woman. She was just standing here.” What the fuck happened? Who was she?

“There’s no one here,” Lycan said. “You were staring into space.”

“I can smell her.” Ava took a step closer and inhaled deeply. “Roses and rot and…” She shivered. “Magic.”

I rubbed my eyes, trying to get the memory of Ava’s disemboweled body out of my skull. “She told me…”

You must know she’ll never want you like she wants him. He had you and left you all the same.

My heart twisted, and I bit back the agony in how right she’d been about me.