Before anyone was in park, my seatbelt was off, and I was climbing out of the truck, Nyx right behind me.
“Shit,” I muttered, taking in the condition of the girl’s body.
She was on her stomach, what remained of her pelvis nearly one with the ground, right leg turned in an almost complete one-eighty degree angle with tired marks on it, the bone protruding to the right.
She sounded like a dying cat. An inhuman like keening came from where she lay.
“I got it,” Nyx sighed.
She removed her scythe blade from beneath her leather jacket and engaged the curved blade, silently making her way over to the girl.
Standing above her, she reached down and grabbed a handful of wild curls, tilting the girls head back and exposed a freckled throat that she slit in one quick motion.
“Well, damn,” Luce said, approaching them with a lazy gait.
There was a faint popping sound as he used the toe of his boot to flip her over onto her back.
“She isn’t marked,” Nyx announced, wiping her bloodied blade off on the girl’s tattered nightgown.”
Cameron walked closer, cocking his head to the side for a better look. “Poor thang,” he commented after a minute, swooping down to grab both of her wrists, proceeding to drag her now lifeless body to the side of the road.
I let my eyes drift over the tree-lines on either side of us, trying to spot what she was running from. A plea for Satanas came from my left, followed by the snapping of twigs.
That one word let me know whoever was coming was one of ours. No other faction preached the devil’s name for their faith.
The six of us faced the general direction where it sounded she would come from. I pulled my Glock from its holster, expecting that whatever had her so terrified she called my father’s name, would be in close pursuit.
Makayla burst through the trees running at full speed, right past all of us. There were scratches on her skin and bits of twig in her hair.
“Hey!” I called after her.
She stopped abruptly, nearly tripping over her own two feet. Had I not said anything I wondered if she woul
d have simply kept going?
“Adelaide,” she managed to spit-out while trying to catch her breath, hands resting on her knees.
“Lucifuge!” she exclaimed a minute later, belatedly noticing him beside me.
She darted back in our direction doing something short of leaping into my brother’s arms.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Nyx muttered.
I fully agreed. Luce wasn’t anyone’s hero. If he saved you, then something would be given in return, and bargaining with Luce was making a deal with the prince of hell himself.
“What’s going on? Where is—?”
“They’re still there. He’s coming! she screamed, fear etched into her features.
“Who’s…?” Seeing she was solely focused on Luce and not paying me any attention, I rolled my eyes and looked at Annie and Nyx.
Understanding me without my having to say a word, they both gave a subtle nod, and then we began inching towards the tree-line, disappearing into the thicket before Luce or the twins could stop us.
Immediately the moon became obscured, ensnaring us in a tangled web of gnarled branches, uneven terrain, and darkness.
I heard Butcher curse, but that didn’t matter. Had we waited a minute longer it would have been the three of us left to wait and them going to check things out. At least this time I took Annie instead of just roaming off on my own like I usually tended to do, leaving her to catch up.
“We’re going downward,” I quietly warned, keeping the Glock slightly raised in front of me.