67

Adrienne sat against the old wooden door, feeling the splinters and stray pieces of straw scratch at her exposed flesh. She shifted, trying to become comfortable as she waited for Damien to return.

The wooden slats had small cracks, allowing her to peek inside the barn at the captives.

'He isn't really going to hurt them,' she assured herself for the thousandth time.

As much as she adored Damien, there were lines she would not cross for his approval. Accomplice to murder was most definitely over that line. If she sat here and watched for him, or failed to free them, she would be just as guilty.

'He'll kill them either way,' her inner voice piped up. 'At least this way... he won't kill you too.'

The wind whistled through the cracks of the rickety old barn. It shook and rattled, threatening to collapse in on the three of them.

Fearing the harsh sun and Damien's wrath more than a cave-in, she decided it was better to remain inside, keeping a watchful eye over the sleeping prisoners. She was to alert Damien via text if they woke up, which he'd explained was unlikely.

Unlikely... but apparently... possible. Adrienne watched, mouth agape, as the douchebag guy from the party stirred, shook his head and sat up.

Their eyes met, his golden orbs boring into hers with the burning ferocity of a thousand suns.

Her hands shook as she fumbled to grab her phone.

"Don't move!" he growled. He literally growled—and the sound froze her on the spot.

Her bottom lip trembled.

"He's not what he says," the guy spoke more softly. "He will destroy every living thing on this planet if we can't stop him."

His words were so soft they almost rang like bells in her ears. Completely unaware she was under the effect of his 'Alpha voice,' she nodded and let her hand fall limp.

"Wha—what can we do?" she stammered.

The guy paused to think, breathing out heavily as his eyes misted over. Was there anything they could do?

"We don't have a lot of options," he said at last. "We will move as fast as we can and get as much distance as possible. Hope for a miracle."

He strained, pulling his hands apart, and tore the iron shackles from his wrists without much trouble before doing the same to Sienna's.

The poor girl coughed and rubbed at her eyes before drawing in raspy breaths. She seemed to be hyperventilating, panicked by waking in captivity.

"Where am I?" she asked.

"Come on," The guy said without answering her question. "I'm going to carry you. We'll run."

"What about me?" Adrienne asked. "He'll kill me for letting you go. You... you have to knock me out or something."

He raised his fist, looking as though he were about to smack her.

With a huge sigh, he shook his head.

"So I have this limited hypnotic ability. Nothing like what Damien can do but... it will put you in a daze for a while. You'll forget everything."

Adrienne nodded.

She didn't think the hypnosis would work. She had heard it didn't work when you knew it was coming, or that certain people could resist it. She liked to think her mind was strong--an impenetrable steel trap.

Then she experienced the most annoying of sensations... not being able to remember what she was just thinking about. She had a feeling it was something of deep importance, but surely it couldn't have been, or it wouldn't have slipped away into the deep recesses of her unconscious.

Damien rushed to fill the empty space in her mind. She spent most of her daydreaming time creating simulations in her brain, conjuring up scenarios where the two of them were entwined in varying degrees of intimacy.

As if by magic, he appeared in the doorway, outlined by light so bright it hurt her eyes.

It was Summer?

'But wasn't it just the Halloween party?' she thought, frowning, and squinting as she smiled up at her friend. Her crush. Her whole world.

"Damn it!" he cried.

He stormed over and slapped her face so hard her neck cracked. For a moment she couldn't move, convinced it was broken.

Then her memories returned.

The moment in her bedroom when he revealed he knew about her crush, his mindreading—her cheeks flushed at the recollection—and the mission.

She had let them go... but why?

"He has limited mind control. I didn't think he'd wake up so quickly." Damien's face screwed up in anger. "He's been hiding his true strength from me all these years, the crafty little Devil."

"Oh." Adrienne nodded with a weak smile; happy she wasn't to blame. She would never do anything to harm her beloved. He was everything to her.

"I don't like to do this, but I'm going to have to change forms in the daytime," he revealed.

Adrienne's heart did a double beat, picturing what his other form might look like.

"You don't have to be afraid," he assured her. "I'll still have complete control of my faculties, unlike those low-level shifters. I won't freak out and kill you."

Nodding slowly, Adrienne tried to keep the smile plastered to lips that now felt like rubber.

That wasn't what worried her.

She didn't want to see. To see what he truly was. She wanted to think of him as the awesome goth-aesthetic teen who listened to punk rock, hated authority and cared about animals. Not some ageless, scaled and winged monster.

As he shuffled from the barn and stretched, she soon found out that everything he thought she knew about dragons was... wrong. He wasn’t green and he didn't have scales.

His eyes were black holes piercing an inky blackness that stretched and flickered, almost as if he were made of tiny ink particles. It was like watching a holographic effect in an old movie as his form flickered and became bigger. And bigger still.

Wings with a span bigger than a Boeing 474 stretched and folded.

It would have been bearable had he not turned around. Had she not seen the face of him.

It was like staring into the darkness. Cold, empty, and terrifying. It chilled her to her bones. To her very soul.

There was no good in this creature.

Dust filled the air, blinding her as he took off. He was too high for her to see by the time the dust cleared.

“What have I done?”