Blue Moon: Blood Moon Trilogy #3 (37 page)

Without thinking, I snatched the gun up off the table and pointed it at Cordelia, firing off one shot. Her body bent inward slightly with the impact, but she soon righted herself and laughed. “You idiot. Bullets can’t kill me.”

It was my turn to smile as I fired one more shot into her abdomen and set the gun down. “Maybe not, but the one thing I’ve learned from the files we took from the lab, was that because you’re still half wolf, blood continues to flow through your veins…” Cordelia’s eyebrows pulled together as she looked down at her belly, her balance a little off as she plucked out the flowery pink darts. “Which means
you
can still be tranquilized.”

“You biii—” Her words were slurred as her eyes rolled back into her head, and she slumped to the floor in a heap. I waited a fraction of a second to make sure she was out before running back up the stairs to prepare for battle.

I
hadn’t even made it to the top of the stairs before the door was violently ripped off its hinges. Startled, I gripped the banister to keep myself from falling backward and down into the pit. When I looked up, I saw Bobby staring down at me, a sinister smirk on his lips.

Two levels up, windows shattered. Feral growls and battle cries soon followed, along with the smell of charring flesh that polluted the air. My Alpha instincts told me to fight my way past Bobby and help my Pack, but his body blocked the entryway completely. I could try, but I definitely didn’t have the upperhand from my position on the stairs.

“Hey, sis,” Bobby drawled as a crooked grin spread across his smug face. “I see you’ve got company up there.”

Crossing my arms, I shrugged. “Sorry most of them are going to have to split,” I tossed back, hearing the telltale signs of an all-out war going on above us. The Alpha in me ached to push past him and assist my pack.

Bobby didn’t seem too bothered by the high probability of his army being picked off by my Pack. “Whatever happens, they’ve served their purpose. I’m really only here to collect what’s mine. Cordelia, you”—his eyes dropped to my stomach, and he flashed his canines—“and the whelp. And to do that, I knew I couldn’t afford for our time to be interrupted.”

The wolf reacted, and I ran forward, arms outstretched and ready to tear him to shreds. Every part of me wanted to end his miserable existence. His reflexes were fast—faster than I remembered. He pushed against my chest, throwing me backward with such force that I stumbled down the stairs and crashed onto the floor, my back cracking when it hit the leg of the heavy wooden table. Even though I was seeing spots as my vision darkened, I recognized just how much his strength had increased, likely from the mixed bloodlines. This revelation made me momentarily nervous, but I couldn’t let him see it. It was a weakness, and his new wolf side would prey on it and use it to its advantage. It’s what I would do in his position.

With a whimper, I pushed myself to my feet, struggling for a moment with my balance. Bobby seemed pleased with himself as he slowly descended the stairs, eyes constantly on me as he brushed his hands against each other.

“This doesn’t have to be difficult,” he told me, backing me against the cage where Cordelia was passed out on the floor.

I recoiled the minute my back met the silver-infused bars, feeling the heat seep into my skin instantly. Bobby smirked. “You know, I could take that away. Silver wouldn’t bother you any longer.”

“Small price to pay to keep my soul intact,” I snarled up at him. Even from inches away, I could feel the heat from the cage, but I refused to let Bobby see the effect it—or he—was having on me in that moment.

Closing his eyes, Bobby inhaled deeply. “God, I love that feeling.” When his eyes met mine again, they were red with a thin yellow ring around his pupils. The red was intense—almost glowing—and he leaned forward, pressing his hands against the bars on either side of my head, effectively pinning me in place. “I never realized just how powerful a full moon was.”

For the first time since our initial reunion, I could relate to him; the moon’s energy coursed through my veins as the minutes ticked by. The wolf wanted out, but I kept her restrained. With the manor under attack, I didn’t have time to go through the change. I’d been working on channeling the wolf’s power in my human form, so I could only hope for continued success on that front.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about, Brookie.” Bobby leaned in close, his nose brushing my cheek and his vile breath slithering over my skin. “I can sense it running through you.” One of his hands left the bars, but the half-second opportunity I had to escape was thwarted when his hand ensnared my hip, his thumb working its way beneath my shirt until it stroked the swell of my lower belly.

Bile churned in my stomach at the inappropriate gesture, and I snapped. I brought my hands up and shoved, but Bobby barely budged an inch, and soon I felt a searing pain as heat blistered up my spine. It took a few seconds of blind panic for me to realize that Bobby was standing over a foot away from me, smile wide and expression cocky. His arms were crossed and nowhere near my body, yet I couldn’t pull myself away from the cage.

Craning my neck, I noticed the thick, black fur that covered the arm that was wrapped across my chest, and I felt the sharp claws that pierced my left hipbone. Hot, putrid breath poured over my neck, accompanied by a low growl. With the bars pressed against my back, there was only one explanation: Cordelia was awake…and she’d shifted.

She was strong, and Alistair’s barrier had failed against her full-strength hybrid nature. I struggled in her grip, my air supply running out and my shirt embedding itself into my burned flesh with every move. Even though she was just a child, I knew I had to free myself. I didn’t want to hurt her—I still thought maybe she could be saved somehow—but I couldn’t do that if I let her kill me.

I focused on shifting my hands, letting my claws cut through my fingers, and once they were, I reached up and dug them into the side of her neck and shoulder. Cordelia howled in pain, releasing me. I stumbled to the side, away from the cage and my demented brother, gasping for air and trying to ignore the constant sting in my back. I could smell the burned flesh and my blood, and it clouded my head. As the wolf begged to surface, the scent was all I could focus on.

A feral snarl ripped through the room, snapping me back to reality and drawing my attention to its source. Bobby looked shocked, but he soon recovered and was just about to come after me when the cage door exploded off its hinges and Cordelia rushed toward me.

I was rendered speechless when I looked up to find a large beast on two legs. Black fur covered her entire body, and she towered over me. Her yellow-red eyes were locked on me and saliva dripped from her canines. Even though it wasn’t the best time, I found myself wondering how she was awake; those tranquilizers should have taken down someone twice her size…well, someone twice her human size. In her hybrid form, she looked like the Wolfman on steroids. Even though I’d seen her transformation on the surveillance recording, there was something even more terrifying about her up close, and there was no way I could mask that.

Breathing heavily, Cordelia advanced on me again, eyes glassy from the tranquilizer still coursing through her veins, but before she could reach me, Nick came barreling down the stairs with a murderous look in his eyes, Colby and Zach on his heels. They’d returned from the city, which meant my parents had boarded their plane, and I could let that one worry go for now.

Before Nick could reach my brother, Bobby reacted. They collided, both growling and trying to rip each other apart.  Cordelia turned to defend Bobby, but Colby and Zach threw themselves into her line of attack while I stood frozen, unsure what to do first.

It wasn’t my finest moment.

The two of them moved too quickly for my eyes to register at first, and at one point, it appeared that Nick might have the upperhand. My optimism was soon crushed when I caught the glint in Bobby’s eyes as he snaked an arm between him and Nick and wrapped a massive hand around my mate’s neck. My eyes widened as I watched Bobby’s hand change form. Claws broke through the ends, like our transformations, and his fingers extended like thick, gnarled tree branches, though giant and mutated.

Panic flashed across Nick’s face as his feet left the ground—something I didn’t think possible since Bobby was of slighter build and always a few inches shorter…or, he
used
to be. Looking at him now, he’d almost doubled in size right before my eyes. He was going through his own transition, shifting into his hybrid form, and if it was anything like Cordelia’s, I knew we would be in trouble. We didn’t have a good enough idea what we were up against, and we saw what Cordelia had become and how easily she’d bested one of our own on that recording.

I acted without thinking, running forward as I ignored the pain still pulsing through my body. I leapt onto Bobby’s back, wrapping my right arm around his neck and bracing my left behind his head, holding it in place with my right hand. He choked and gagged, and I really hoped that his lungs functioned like ours and he might pass out. He dropped Nick and stumbled back a few steps, slamming me into the wall behind us. The weapons that hung on the walls clattered to the concrete floor as the air was forced from my lungs, pain shooting up my back as he whipped around and tried clawing at me.

There was another loud crash just ahead as Cordelia discarded Colby and Zach like wet noodles. Zach groaned, eyes closing as he lost consciousness, and Cordelia grabbed the fallen cage door to brace herself as she stood, pulling away with an angry hiss when her skin sizzled.

“Don’t let her bite you, Colby!” I shouted before Bobby’s sharp claws pierced my burned back, digging in as the other hand gripped the back of my neck. He flipped me over his head, slamming me into the floor and leaving me winded again. I gasped for breath, each intake sharp and piercing, which left me feeling even more breathless.

Cordelia appeared above me, looking down at me. Her lips curled back off her fangs, wrinkling her furry snout, and her chest heaved with exertion. It was then, when her eyes met mine one last time, that I realized there was no bringing her back. Even if her soul were still a part of her, seven years in hell had likely brainwashed all of her compassion away.

Still unable to move without pain ripping its way through my body, I tried to prepare myself for Cordelia’s attack. I wasn’t sure what was coming—was she lucid enough to know Bobby wanted me alive, or had my insubordination from the very beginning suddenly made me exempt to his plans? They were both hybrids now, and if our research was right, they’d be able to build their army all on their own. They didn’t really need me anymore…

Cordelia’s mouth opened, a howl building, and she leaned down, shoulders tensed, fingers curled and ready to strike. She raised her thick arms and let out a feral sound as I tried to shield myself from her. Before her claws could connect with any part of my body, her victory howl died until it was nothing more than a gurgle. There was a heavy thud by my right shoulder followed by a wet
squish
before something bumped my bicep.

I slowly lowered my arms and looked up to find Colby standing where Cordelia had been moments before. Her hair was disheveled, and she was breathing heavily. There was blood spatter consistent with arterial spray covering her entire upper body, and as my eyes travelled down, I found her right hand gripped tightly around the hilt of a long sword, its silver blade soaked in dark red blood.

The tip of the sword was hidden behind a furry black mass that I instantly recognized as Cordelia, and I launched myself off the floor when I felt her warm blood against my arm. I stepped over the hybrid’s body and wrapped an arm around Colby’s trembling frame, both of us staring down at her sister’s headless corpse.

An agonizing roar jarred us back to everything that was still happening, and before I could even anticipate Bobby’s next move, he tossed Nick toward us and bolted for the staircase. He was still transitioning, but it didn’t seem to incapacitate him the way it sometimes did me. Was that another perk of being a hybrid?

As Bobby reached the top of the stairs, I found myself torn; was I supposed to go after him, or make sure Colby was okay?

“G-go,” Colby stammered, seeming to read my thoughts as she stared down at her sister’s fallen form, tears sliding down her cheeks. “You need to stop him before he can do…
this
to someone else’s family.”

She was right. Even in the face of such tragedy, her mind was clear enough to see that. She’d lost her parents and her younger sister…and as much as I hated to even think it, who knew how Corbin was faring in all of this. I could only hope he was okay. I couldn’t lose another member of this pack, and she couldn’t lose her only surviving blood relative.

Nick and I raced upstairs to the main level. Even with Alistair’s barrier spells on all the doors and windows, the coven had made their way into our home. The stench of their burned flesh as they crossed the thresholds grew thicker the closer we got to the living room.

The picture window in the living room had been broken, and Vince and Jackson were fighting a couple of the intruders, whose undead flesh was burned and smoking. The rest of the Pack was spread around the room, and even Alistair was there, his lips moving in a silent chant. Suddenly a large burst of energy emanated off him, pulsating outward and pushing the vampires back a few steps. I felt it go through me, but I was able to keep moving forward to secure our line of defense and go after Bobby who was tearing through the house and headed for the broken window. It was slightly off-putting to have this magical energy passing through my body, making the surface of my skin tingle, but it also loaned itself to my rush of adrenaline.