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“What are you doing? What was that back there?” she asked.
His black eyes met hers. “It isn’t the shelter. I smell blood. Lots of it.”
He pulled her against his body as the shadows consumed them.
Dannika barely had time to catch her breath as the shadows expunged her from the darkness like a discarded toy. She put her hand against a white post to steady her as her stomach recovered.
The smell of rich iron made her eyes snap up from the grassy field. Fresh cut grass and chalk mixed with the odor of death as she took in the grizzly sight.
They stood at the end of a soccer field that held the bodies of blue-shirted men. The opposite end was littered with the dead wearing white jerseys. Red stained the chest of every player on the field, including the ones wearing black and white stripes.
“Dear God. What happened?” she asked.
Raine made his way to the closest body. “This man was drained. Fed on by a reaper.”
Dannika pointed to the hole in his chest. “Do reapers normally rip their hearts out?”
“No. There are over thirty men on this field. This is... new.”
“Why do this?”
Raine shook his head. “I don’t know, but there’s no way to cover this kind of massacre. Even the terrorism claim will fall short with this many dead. No animal could kill this many people in seconds. They didn’t have time to run. This kill was orchestrated by the entire reaper clan. It’s the only way they could kill so many.”
Dannika put her hand over her mouth. “Is this a message? If so, what does it mean?”
Raine turned his head toward the sound of sirens in the distance. “The last time the reapers made an overt kill like this, they were preparing for war.”
Goosebumps formed on her skin as she turned. It was a connection she didn’t understand and didn’t want to.
Killian stepped from the shadows of an evergreen across the field. A myriad of bodies stood between them, yet he smiled like a predator playing his prey. “It’s good to see you, Dannika.”
“Wish I could say the same about you,” she said with a snarl.
Raine put a restraining hand on her arm. “Why have you done this? There’s no way to hide a massacre of this magnitude.”
Killian took a deep breath, inhaling the sweet smell of death. “That’s the point. We are tired of hiding. It’s time the humans learned their place.”
Raine’s body went rigid. “What are you planning, Killian?”
Killian smiled, allowing a drop of venom to drip from his fangs. “A cow isn’t oblivious to the farmer. It understands its role in the food chain.”
Raine’s eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”
Killian rolled his shoulders, but his gaze remained on Dannika. “She’s more than I hoped for. A miracle, really.”
“You were once human yourself, Killian,” Raine said.
Killian’s jaw twitched. “An accident of birth; one I have rectified.”
Dark wisps of black mist rolled off Raine’s shoulders, his alpha barely leashed by its human confines. “By your own admission, you’re just a cow that became a farmer.”
Killian hissed. “You will die, begging me for mercy, but not before Dannika stands by my side.”
Raine glanced at Dannika before meeting Killian’s black pupils. “What is your interest in Dannika?”
Killian’s eyes softened when they looked at Dannika, though the red fire returned. “I waited for her. She is very special.”
Dannika shivered, recalling the note left on her when she was abandoned. “What’s special about me?”
