Fever (Blood Moon Rising, #1) (14 page)

He warred with himself. No, he
couldn’t do it. He couldn’t - wouldn’t - force them to do his
bidding as Malachite had. If anything was to change, then he needed
to set as good an example as possible, to show he was not
Malachite.

“
Let’s go,” Gage said at
last, walking purposefully toward the door.

“
Don’t we need backup?”
Jason said, striding after him with Nik at his side.

“
That’s what you’re for,”
Gage said with a wicked smile.

Jason gulped.

Nik just shook his head and muttered a
curse. “You should reconsider your stance, brother.”

“
No,” Gage said without
hesitation. “I knew their loyalties would have to be earned, and I
would be tested. I failed one test with the massacre that happened
with the wraiths. I’m not failing another by forcing them to do my
will.”

Nik let out a long breath. “Too good
for his own good,” he grumbled under his breath.

Gage looked at Jason, who’d gone pale
despite the determination burning in his eyes. “You don’t have to
do this. I’m not going to hold it against you.”

“
I want to go! I mean, I
never got to help with anything at home. No one trusted me. I want
to do this. Please?”

Gage softened, his respect for the kid
growing by the minute, and grunted a response.

He swallowed hard, praying he wasn’t
leading them all to their deaths.

Hold on, Danica. I’m
coming.

Chapter 15

“
Wakey, wakey, little
wolf.”

Sound, color, and smell swirled
together in Danica’s foggy mind. It felt like her brain had taken a
beating. The lights of the warehouse were way too bright, causing
her head to throb more.

As she slowly came to, she looked
around her. She sat in a chair, with her hands tied to the arms and
her ankles to the legs. The warehouse was empty and chilly, with
dirty concrete flooring and long, bright lights stretching across
the high ceiling.

There was something else about the
air, a tingling sensation along her skin she couldn’t quite place.
“Where are we?”

“
Somewhere your wolf won’t
be able to hurt me.” Onyx pulled out a dagger encrusted in
blood-red gems. The blade glowed with a pale blue light as shadowy
tendrils wrapped around it.

Danica swallowed, her eyes never
leaving the dagger as Onyx stalked toward her. “If you were going
to kill me, why didn’t you just do it back in the car? Or back at
the manor?”

“
Because I don’t want to
kill you. I was just bluffing to get you to cooperate.”

“
What about the parking
lot?”

He grinned. “I did want to kill you at
the time. It was the reason I was getting paid, after all. Then
once I saw what Gage was willing to do for you, I had another idea.
You were far more useful to me alive. With you, I can kill two
birds with one stone.” He forced her palm up and raked the sharp
edge of the blade across her skin.

She hissed at the sharp pain. The skin
puckered as it split, and blood welled between the edges of the
cut.

Onyx held up the blood-drenched blade,
his eyes wild. He closed his eyes, whispering fervently, “I trust
you, Mistress.” Grabbing the hilt of the blade with both hands, he
plunged the dagger into his heart.

Danica’s mouth dropped open in shock
as Onyx’s eyes widened and he fell to the floor on his knees,
staring at her. She was unable to look away as black ooze dripped
from his eyes and down his face, and from the wound in his chest.
The inky liquid spread all over his body, consuming him until he
was completely covered. He writhed, moaning as his body grew in
size and transformed into a familiar shape - a wolf, the biggest
she had ever seen. This one was more like the werewolves of old
Hollywood legends, with long legs and the height of a grizzly. Onyx
laughed in a deep voice as he rose to his full height. The dagger
shimmered with red light, becoming a pulsing crest along his bulky
chest.

Danica trembled as Onyx’s gold eyes
landed on her and he bared his fangs.

“
Do you fear me, girl?” he
said in a low voice, taking a step toward her.

“
What have you done?” she
whispered as his muzzle loomed near her face, taking a sniff. She
cringed, biting her lip to keep from yelping.

“
I have evolved,” Onyx
said, rising again with a wicked flash of his great fangs. “I am
what no wolf has been before - I am darkness! I am
death!”

He’s crazy.

Danica wriggled in an attempt to break
free, but she might as well have been cemented to the chair, as
tightly as Onyx had secured the binds.

“
This feels incredible,”
Onyx said, flexing his massive paws, which were tipped in black
claws the size of dinner knives. “I should have let my mistress
imbue me with darkness months ago.”

Danica looked up sharply. “Mistress
Black?”

Onyx wheeled about, gripping her hands
with his paws and growling in her face. The dark magic moved along
his body like ink, shifting and writhing with a life of its own.
Every fine hair along her body pricked at the proximity of the
darkness cloaking what was once Onyx. “How do you know of my
mistress?” Onyx demanded.

Danica swallowed hard, mind racing.
“Gage put out the word for any information leading to your
whereabouts. That name crept up.”

“
From whom?”

Danica’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know.
He didn’t say.”

“
You’re lying. I have ways
of making you talk.” A big black claw raked across her throat. She
could feel it cutting her skin, and panic started to creep
in.

***

Gage’s heart started pounding harder
as Jason, Nik, and he neared the secluded warehouse on the other
side of the county. As promised, Verika’s Trailing spell had led
them right to Onyx’s vehicle. Gage now owed that woman more than
ever for this favor, and he had every intention of repaying her
loyalty.

That is, if they survived.

Slamming on the brake, the car
squealed, the tires spinning on the gravel before the Dodge Charger
ground to a halt. Wolves were fast, but their speed couldn’t
compete with a four-hundred-and-seventy horsepower V8. The trio got
out and heading toward the building.

Jason looked ready to vomit but no
less determined for it. “What’s the plan?”

“
Not get killed?” Nik said
with a grin, shoving the pup.

“
I’ll enter first,” Gage
said in a more serious tone, “and you and Nik will flank me. If we
can get the element of surprise, we’ll take it. We just need to
find a door-”

Gunfire erupted from in front of them,
and the group split apart to narrowly avoid being hit. They dove
behind the car as the other side was pummeled by bullets. One
rolled by Nik’s foot and he stomped on it. “Silver,” he hissed,
holding it up. “Looks like our friend invited a few other guests to
the party.”

Gage loaded a clip into his handgun,
as did his packmates. “Just makes things more interesting. On
three, we run. One, two-”

Nik rolled along the ground and came
up firing, a gun in both hands. That bloodthirsty grin that
sometimes made Gage shiver was plastered over his brother’s face.
There never was a better shot than Nik.

“
Impatient show-off,” Gage
muttered, then motioned to Jason. The two wolves rose, following
Nik as he ran toward the back end of the building, the three
covering each other’s backs. The guards who’d been charging them
tried shifting, realizing too late they’d be faster in wolf form,
but Nik made quick work of them. Silver wasn’t deadly to humans as
it was wolves, but bullets sure as hell would finish off
anything.

Within minutes the first wave of
guards lay on the ground, dead, in varying stages of shifting.
“Amateurs,” Nik muttered, reloading both cartridges.

Gage’s chest tightened as he stared at
the carnage. It jarred memories of the bloodbaths his pack had
endured while under Malachite’s reign.

Did this make him no better than his
adversary, all this killing?

“
Heads up,” Jason said,
wiping sweat off his brow with his forearm. “We’ve got more
company.”

***

Gunfire outside diverted Onyx’s
attention from her. She took in a shaky breath as the humongous
were stalked to the front of the warehouse.

“
What’s going on?” Onyx
bellowed to the guards who now poured from the side
rooms.

“
Security footage picked up
on a Charger parking out front. It’s Gage Johnson, sir.”

“
Good,” Onyx purred. “Let
them come.”

The guard hesitated. “Do you not want
us to fight them off?”

“
Of course, you idiot! If
you get a killshot, take it!”

“
Sir!”

Killshot
.

Danica’s blood ran cold.
Focusing through her terror, she thought of Gage’s face.
Gage!
she shouted
telepathically.
It’s a trap! Onyx is using
me as bait! Don’t come in!

Danica!
came Gage’s reply.
Are you all right?
Has he hurt you?

I’m fine. He performed
some kind of ritual. He’s huge.

What do you
mean?

I mean, he’s a bigass
freaking werewolf! Were-zilla!

Stay calm. We’re coming
for you.

No, Gage-

An explosion rattled the front of the
building, blowing chunks of metal siding everywhere. Guards shouted
as bullets sailed out of the billowing smoke, killing them, and
Gage, Nik, and a teenage boy stepped into the room.

Nik spit out the grenade stub.
“Evening, bitches.” He stepped over the bodies of the fallen
guards, his eyes landing on Danica. “Gage, she’s over
there!”

Her heart filled with hope as her mate
stepped out of the smoke and his gaze found hers. He looked
haunted, like a man who thought he’d lost everything and was seeing
hope again for the first time in ages.

He took a step forward when a black
shape charged out of the smoke, pinning Gage to the
wall.

Nik’s eyes nearly bugged out of his
head. “Holy shit-”

“
It’s Onyx!” Danica
screamed. “He cast some sort of spell using that jewel on his
chest!”

Gage’s feet dangled in the air as the
oversized were choked him out. “You should have let me just killed
your mate. Now you all know too much, and my master won’t tolerate
that. The Order cannot let you live.”

Order? She remembered Gage telling her
about the witching mafias of the Order of the Sun. He was right –
Onyx was working for them.

Gunfire lit up the back of Onyx’s
hide, bouncing off him as if he were made of steel. Irritated, he
growled and lunged at Nik, dropping Gage in the process.

“
Jason,” Gage sputtered
from the floor as he stumbled to get back up, “get.
Danica.”

“
Right!” The kid shook his
head, as if clearing his thoughts, and bolted for her. “Hi,” he
said as he began untying her. “I’m Jason.”

She could barely mange to speak, she
was so shaken by all that had happened. “Danica.”

“
Hang on. I’m gonna get you
out.” Her wrists were free; now he was going for her legs. “There.
Can you stand?”

“
Yeah.” She winced as blood
rushed back into her extremities, and she rolled her ankles and
wrists to work out the kinks. “I’m fine.” She was lying through her
teeth. She was anything but fine. “Scared out of her mind,” maybe,
but she couldn’t focus on that now. She had to push through her
fear and find a way to help Gage and the others.

Snarls erupted from in front of them.
Gage and Nik were both in wolf form and were tackling Onyx to the
floor. The larger wolf might have had size and strength on its
side, but it didn’t possess the ruthlessness and brutality of the
two smaller wolves. They clung to Onyx like leeches, snapping and
clawing and biting. Black ooze spilled from the open wounds in
Onyx’s hide, making him more desperate as he began bucking and
running into the walls in an attempt to knock the other wolves
off.

Jason reloaded his gun and started
forward. “I need to help.”

“
Wait.” Danica clapped a
hand on his arm, staring at the wolf and the flashes of red she
caught when the gem hit the light. “That’s it. Shoot the
gemstone.”

“
What?”

“
Look.” She grabbed him by
both arms, forcing him to face her. “I don’t know anything about
Black Magic or whatever he used to get this way. But I’m guessing
since that gem is still there, he’s drawing his power from it. It’s
worth a try.”

Jason deliberated, shifting his
weight.

“
It might be our only
chance.”

Otherwise, we might all
die.

She couldn’t say that last part aloud,
though it was a very real possibility.