A Shifter's Curse, Raven Steele [the top 100 crime novels of all time .TXT] 📗

Silas scurried to his feet, his back bumping against the wall. “Stay back! I order it!” He slid against the wall, edging toward the door. “Dominic will hear about this.”

“No. He won’t.”

He reached into his jacket pocket and yanked out a small blade, frantically waving it in front of him.

I kicked his hand, and the motion shattered his bone. The blade dropped to the ground and clanked against the hard floor. I expected him to cry out in pain, but instead he lifted his arm. His hand hung limp at the wrist.

“What did you do?” he cried, and tried to fix his hand by lifting it, but it flopped back down. He stared at it in wonder, the way one looks at an abstract painting. “You broke it.”

I kicked at him again, aiming for his thigh. This time, when the bone snapped, he screamed in pain and collapsed to the ground.

It was my turn to question him. "Does Dominic know about your obsession with body parts?"

"My obsession?" He carefully pressed his back against the wall, cradling his broken arm to his chest. “Do you really think I am the type of person who would keep dirty, smelly bottles around?”

“What?” I touched my head, thinking hard. Silas was meticulous in everything he did. I thought back to that room. How dirty it had been. How unorganized. So unlike the contents of the box I’d stolen.

My head snapped up. I’d gotten it all wrong.

"Tell me,” he said, his voice strained, “did you bother to look beyond the door at the back of that room?" He gritted his teeth. "You think a few jars of ears and eyeballs are grotesque? You don't know shit." He spat at me.

I wiped the spittle from my face. “So Dominic is the sick bastard?”

“He’s a visionary with a strange and sometimes messy hobby, but you haven’t seen nothing yet. He has a friend, someone important who’s taken a special interest in him. Once they find the ancient blood, those who stand against us will drown in their own blood.”

“His friend sounds like a real douche. I look forward to kicking his ass too.”

Coldness seeped into my veins.

He eyed me, looking me up and down, rage mottling his face. “I told Dominic we should’ve killed you that day, after questioning you, of course. It was dangerous to leave you alive, especially since you might know where your father kept the Abydos.”

“You’re right. He should’ve killed me.”

His mouth parted slightly. “You have it, don’t you?”

I said nothing.

He chuckled through a painful grimace. “You have no idea the shitstorm you’ve stepped in. Those in power know the blood is here. In Rouen. It’s only a matter of time until they trace it back to you.”

I crossed my arms, leaning down. “How do they know it’s here?”

“Because you moved it from its resting spot. Your father had it spelled so other supernaturals couldn’t sense it, but you disrupted all that. Good luck finding someone powerful enough to mask the relic’s magic again. The last warlock died protecting his spell and the blood’s location.”

“I make my own luck.” I crouched until I was at eye level with him and gripped his shirt. “You killed my whole family. Every single one of them! And you’ve been torturing and killing ever since.” I scrunched my face, feeling disgusted. “And you thought I was just like you. You thought you could train me to inflict pain and torture others? I was laughing at you behind your back. You’re nothing but a filthy disgusting dog, following Dominic’s orders like he’s the fucking sun god.”

I leaned closer, smelling his weird clean smell. “You don’t know how happy I am you brought me in here, where no one is around to hear you cry. No cameras to record your death. I’ve been waiting years for this moment.”

“You’ll never get away with it.”

“I’m not afraid of Dominic.” I punched him in the gut and air whistled through his mouth. He sucked in a breath, trying to suck oxygen back into his lungs.

“It’s not Dominic you have to worry about it.” He coughed. “He’s a saint compared to the real monster that will come for you as soon as it discovers you have the blood.”

He surged forward, startling me, as he shifted in a single beat of my heart. He knocked me back and sunk his teeth into my throat.

Blood sprayed from my neck and leaked onto the floor. I opened my mouth to cry out, but the crimson liquid bubbled in my throat, making me gag. His teeth sunk in deeper and crushed my wind pipe.

My wolf howled, the sound vibrating my mind. This isn’t how she was going down. I could already feel my neck beginning to heal. I just had to get him off me.

Bringing up my knees, I slammed into his chest with such force, his body flew through the air. His teeth ripped from my flesh, and he slammed against the wall. He bellowed, barking like an injured asshole as he scrambled to his feet. His claws scratched at the concrete as he limped for the door to get away from me.

A single burst of power flowed from my mind and my neck immediately healed. I jumped up, my blood burning at the sight of my prey running. It spurred me on with a hunger reserved only for the most powerful of predators. This bitch was mine.

My discarded bra was near my feet. I grabbed the knife from it and ran after him. I was much faster than him and appeared in front of the door blocking his escape. He yelped and stumbled back.

“You didn’t know I could move as fast as a vampire, did you?”

Cornered, he did the only thing he could do. He lunged for me again, his jaw reaching for my throat. Before he could make contact, I slammed the knife into his hairy gut, smiling at the feel of the silver blade sliding into his flesh. His body began to shimmer and take shape back into his human form.

I kept the blade in him as he gripped my shoulder, his eyes white. He forced a smile through the pain. “That won’t kill me.”

“I hoped it wouldn’t.” I grinned wildly as I circled the knife deeper, my knuckles disappearing into his stomach. “This is for my brothers.”

His blood coated my hand and dripped to the floor. I jerked my hand upward, severing his guts.

“This is for my parents.” Fire burned in my eyes.

He gaped at me, his mouth open. Blood filled the dark space and drained onto the floor. My wrist slipped into his stomach as I cut even higher with my small knife, wiggling it in every direction to cause the most pain.

“And that is for the sister I almost had.”

I yanked out my hand. A pile of bloody intestines came with it and slopped to the already red concrete.

I didn’t look away from his face, didn’t even blink, until that final moment when that last sliver of life faded from his eyes.

It was a strange feeling. I expected to feel some satisfaction, but instead I grew angrier. My breathing quickened, then hitched painfully in my