The flames died. Smoke drifted in the air. “Jess . . .” The name was a sigh that broke from Marley’s lips. “He and the coyotes . . . they killed him.”
“And what?” he whispered in her ear, not wanting Sarah to hear. “You just stood back and f**king watched?”
A tremble shook her. “It was watch or die myself.”
He knew Sarah heard the words because her eyes widened. “They were going to wait for her,” Marley said, and Lucas kept his claws near her throat. “But it took too long. You were due back . . .” She swallowed, and he felt the gulp against his hand.
He dropped his hold but didn’t step back. “Was it all a setup?” Fuck, how long had this plan been in motion? “They sent you in . . . just to set me up?”
Her chin lifted as blood dripped down her throat. “I’m a low-level demon. Barely a three on the power scale. All I can do is use the glamour. Cloak. Hide.” Her brittle laugh filled the air. “I might as well be human. A freaking rag doll for the paranormals out there.”
She’d looked like a rag doll the first time he’d seen her. A broken, bloody doll that had been thrown away. “They beat you, then they sent you to me?”
He caught the sad whisper of Sarah’s gasp.
“No.” Marley’s lips tightened. “They didn’t want their scents on me.” Her gaze darted to Michael. “They had the demons beat me, then they sent me to you.”
He knew she hadn’t lied about her attack when she’d first come to him. And he’d wanted her fire. Seemed like a fair exchange at the time.
His eyes collided with Sarah’s. Was any deal really fair these days?
“Why did you help them?” Because Marley had helped. Not just watched. Helped. Dammit. “Why?”
“Because they would have killed me if I didn’t!” Marley’s words came out, fast, tumbling. “And all I did was let them know when the charmer came. That’s all they wanted. I haven’t told them anything else, I swear.”
Because there’d been nothing else to tell. He’d never let Marley in on pack secrets.
Silence.
Then, “John was a good man,” Sarah’s voice drifted through the cabin. “Did you care about that at all? Did it matter to you who died?”
“No.” Marley’s voice was much softer. “Didn’t matter at all . . . as long as I was the one who got to keep breathing.”
She would have stood back and watched Sarah die, too.
“Did you tell them we were here tonight?” Lucas asked but he already knew the answer.
“S-sorry . . .” She whispered and her head fell forward, the long locks of her hair dropped to cover her face. “And they know it’s just you and Michael. That you don’t have the full strength of your pack.” A weak, bitter laugh. “Or even the strength of your four horsemen.”
Caleb. Dane. Piers. Michael. His own apocalypse that sent death to his enemies.
Her shoulders dipped. “Th-they’ll be here soon.”
To kill you. To take the girl.
“Oh, shit,” from Michael.
“I would have protected you,” Lucas said quietly as rage pumped through him. The change was coming. There would be no way to hold back the shift. The beast’s rage was too strong.
Her head whipped up, and she stared at him with wide eyes.
“Now, I’ll have to kill you.”
She stumbled away. “Lucas—”
A howl split the night. Not the harder, longer cry of a wolf. Shorter, higher. A coyote. But that howl was immediately followed by another. Another, another.
“Fuck.” He spun around. A trap. One he’d walked right into. He yanked out his cell. Piers answered on the second ring. “Get to Bryton Road. The dogs are out.” But he wasn’t going to wait for backup to arrive. That was time they didn’t have to waste.
“Where are they?” Sarah was at the window, peeking through the old blinds. “I can hear them, but I can’t see them.”
“They’re all around us.” Michael stood right behind her, his body a long, lethal shadow. His gaze shot to Lucas. “I see at least ten.”
Freaking coyotes.
The floorboard squeaked behind them. “Going somewhere?” he asked Marley quietly. It was a shame. Marley had always been weak, not just in terms of power scale, but—
“They know your weakness, wolf.” Marley’s words came out with more heat than he’d expected from her. “Why do you think they sent me?”
He glanced back at her. At the tilt of his head, Michael closed in on her. Sarah followed him.
Marley’s gaze jumped to Sarah. “They understand how to get beneath your skin. Know what makes you weak. Before you even realize it, you’ll—”
Sarah lunged forward and drove her fist right into the demon’s face. Marley went down, and she didn’t get up.
“Dammit!” Sarah shook her hand, and flexed her fingers. “That hurt!”
Probably hurt Marley more.
“I was scared she’d start another fire,” Sarah told him, turning her eyes to his. “We’ve got enough trouble without—”
More howls. So close. Those dogs would be on them soon.
“Not the worst odds we’ve ever faced,” Michael said, even as his bones began to snap and pop. He dropped to the floor, bracing his hands as his body stretched and his clothes ripped along his body.
“No.” Lucas watched him and let the fire burst through his skin. The shift was always red-hot, burning him from the inside out as the beast broke free.
He spared one last glance for Sarah. Her eyes were so wide as she stared at him. Normally, this would be the part where he told her not to be scared. No point in that, though. The woman knew wolves, and as for being scared . . .
Claws hit the outside of the door. Hmmm . . . Good thing Marley had used her power to slam it closed and seal the place. The locked door would buy them a little more time.
“Hide,” he managed to snarl the word to Sarah as he fell to the floor. His claws scraped over the wood.
“Lucas . . . ”
“Guess . . . you’re getting . . .” His spine arched. Fur broke through his skin. “In . . . my . . . mind . . .” Then a howl burst from his mouth as the beast took over.
“Guess I am,” her soft whisper seemed too loud in his ears, and when the wolf stared at her, there wasn’t just fear in her eyes. There was sadness.