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25. To Hell and Back i
~ Shadows rained down on them, a swarm of soul-sucking black mist. Though they knew an attack was imminent, the abruptness of it caught them off guard. Vescovi stood in the lobby where the casualties were being bagged and taken away. Numbered in the single digits, the toll would have been greater if it weren’t for Sven’s—Daniel’s quick thinking. Because of him, the entire building was now shielded from a full-on assault from the shadows.
The men and women who were on the outside at the time were the ones who got their souls ripped from their bodies. For those who suffered injuries, Martha tended to them. Some needed bandages; others had injuries that required magical help. The woman was efficient; organized and collected during the turmoil. Ava made a good choice with her.
Ava’s other selection still gave Vescovi pause. He watched Daniel as he charmed th
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Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back ii
~Helick was on the roof of the yellow school bus. With him were five other men. They were providing cover for the protective detail on the ground while guarding the civilians below him inside the bus. Hana was keeping the panic down, using her voice to lull the passengers. This far away from Pentorium Helick’s comm, all of their comms, were useless outside of speaking to each other there on the outskirts of Chaise Point. He only hoped Yuri made it in range to signal the others that they needed additional support. Less than twenty feet away, one of the buses they were using for transport was wrapped around a pole. The shadows came for them, a black tide of death. They were out running before shadows got smart, going for the bus’s tires. The blowout had the driver losing control of the vehicle coming to a stop when it rammed headlong into a utility pole. The driver didn’t make it. He was the only casu
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back iii
~Getting to the portal was proving to be an impossible task. Kunz’s forces gave little ground no matter how hard Ava, Penny, and Marx pushed against them. With each life she took, each life she watched disintegrate into quick bursts of light at the hands of her allies, a gaping hole formed in her chest. She was supposed to be saving her people, not killing them. When did her plans come to this? When did it become her new home versus the old? Whom was she kidding? It was always like this. How was she to have one without losing hold on the other? “Listen to me,” she pleaded with the two shadows before her. “You don’t have to do this. Kunz is using you.” They came at her, ignoring her words. She kept them at bay, continuing to use reason. “You’re better than this.” “We are nothing,” one of them said. Its words sounded as if they were coming from insi
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back iv
~Marx helped Ava to her feet. Anger heated her skin, her eyes swirling in twin balls of mist. “How dare you,” she said, striding over to him. Penny could not kill the man, and he could not harm her with shadow magic. Malik was never the one for physical combat, so all he could do was dangle there inside of the human form he had taken. “It—was—too easy. When did you grow a heart?” “Release him.” Penny brought the man down to his feet, taking her time as she pulled her hand from inside of him. He gasped in pain. Penny released his throat. Malik staggered away from her. He raised his hand to form a rune in retaliation. The rune he formed boomeranged, knocking him to the ground, the force bruising the side of his face. “Catching me off guard is one thing, fac
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back v
~It wasn’t the first time Marx was losing a member of his pack. When Lochlan died, he felt a rift in his heart. When Dempsey died, the rift was more of a fissure. This new loss felt like a tear through his soul. It left his insides feeling raw, a numb echo spreading through him. He laid on the ground, his mind unable to wrap itself around the loss, rebelling against the reality of what had happened. There had to be a mistake. Was that possible? Logic and emotion waged war in his mind. No, there was no mistake. One of his own was dead. All around him, the others crowded in, asking what was wrong. He couldn’t tell them. He couldn’t find the words. Soon, all their voices fused into an indistinguishable hum. They grew further away, the world around him seeming to dim. Over him, a familiar face materialized. Celeste. She stood there in all her beauty beaming down at him, the smile not extinguishing the s
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back vi
~Penny’s eyes went obsidian black. Marx was sure he saw a smirk before she ran off to catch up with Daniel and the others. Whatever had gone wrong, there was only one casualty. Or only one that Marx could feel. His pack was not the only ones seeking refuge in the New Colony. There were humans, vampires, and Natives. All of them needed to be kept safe and alive. “What should we do?” Martha asked. “Whatever it is, we need to do it fast. I’m uncertain how much longer the shield can hold.” “Did we get everyone to the Mountain?” Marx asked. Not being able to communicate over long distances was a disadvantage for them. If it weren’t for his link—Marx held his side where another symbol used to be—he wouldn’t have known those in the Mountain needed help. Vescovi shook
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back vii
~ Penny hesitated. She knew what needed to happen, but she didn’t want to leave Marx’s side. Her reluctance was coming from a deep-seated fear Penny had of losing someone else she loved. After Lochlan died, the grief was enough to break a part of her, causing her to change into what she was. She was a werewolf, yet not. Penny knew it, and the others did too. She had already lost so much. If Marx were also to fall, the last bit of light inside of her would die with him. He was a good man. Even after she brought hell storming into his life, he accepted her as part of his family. She knew another member of her pack was dead. Marx didn’t say who. It had to be someone close. Shea? Helick? Garrick? She would find out once she reached the Mountain. Unable to communicate with Marx, she placed a hand over his heart. Through her eyes, she allowed him to see her, as he
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back viii
~Martha couldn’t breathe, her anxiety tightening her chest. Through her link with Nico, she could feel his growing distress. It urged her to move faster as she sprinted through the hidden tunnels leading down into the subway. Back at Anax Corp, Vescovi was assembling a team, a process that was taking longer than was comfortable with her. Nico and the others needed immediate help. Communications, already spotty, had gone dead. Not a single response, only the constant frying of static. Unable to stand around doing nothing while the man she loved probably laid gutted and dying, Martha snuck off when no one was looking. None of the others knew what she was planning to do. If they did, they would have tried to stop her. She was the passive one. The one who chose not to fight. For a werewolf, her reliance on that part of herself never went past her prim
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back ix
~Martha moved to run to Nico as a shadow took possession of his body. Four steps in his direction, she stopped. Nico faced her direction, his eyes twin pools of swirling mist. The thing inside of him had his lips turn up in a smirk. With hot tears streaming unchecked down her cheeks, Martha clutched her fingers into tight fists. The words came from the pits of her stomach. The ground under her feet undulated, rippling with energy as she spoke them. Nico charged in her direction, his face twisted in rage. Martha held up her hand, palm open, continuing the chant, repeating it with fervor and a new understanding. Death fueled shadow magic. Hate. Anger. All the dark things that sullied the world. The spell was the most powerful she had ever attempted since Ava infused the revenant soul with hers. She had to release control to it. Allow the magic to ru
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