Chapter 3 3

He clawed at the stone. I answered with my fist buried in his gut.

He wheezed, doubled  and finally my hands got to do real work.

Jaw. Nose. Ribs. Three hits, no gap between them, no mercy in any of them. My shield hit the floor somewhere behind me and I didn't care anymore  he was already losing ground.

Blood sprayed. He roared like something wounded and cornered.

"Stay down," I told him, throwing one more before he could think about recovering.

That last hit folded him. He hit the stone cursing.

"Crazy bitch," he spat as the vines wrapped tight around him. I laughed anyway, winning always did that to me.

"You have no idea," I said.

I tipped my head back and howled, spine curving, hair sweeping the floor. Levi answered from across the vault, and our voices bounced off stone until it sounded like an entire pack had crashed the party uninvited.

I left the guards where they lay and crossed to my cousin, still riding the high.

"Tell me we won."

He patted his pocket, smug. "We could leave right now. Skip the rest." Something almost hopeful crossed his face.

I laughed and crushed him into a hug hard enough to hurt. He hugged back just as hard  he already knew nothing tonight would change my mind.

"You'd better be there when it counts," I told him, stepping back.

"Eventually," he smirked, and we walked toward the stacked bills against the wall.

We didn't need the money. Our family had more than we'd spend in three lifetimes. But walking past free cash felt like an insult to the universe itself.

Then sirens. Close. My stomach dropped straight through the floor.

Planning a crime and living inside one turned out to be two very different feelings. I was built to run wild, to lead, to make bad decisions on repeat  cages that were never meant for something like me. This might be the worst call I'd ever made. But my word was already given, and debts don't pay themselves.

"Tell Skylar I'm sorry," I said quietly, watching Levi perch on the money pile like some kind of king.

"She's going to skin you alive the second you're free," he warned, already pinching stardust between two fingers.

"Beyond death." Our words. To death and back.

"Beyond death, Oliver." One breath of hesitation  then he threw the dust and vanished, cash and all.

I turned around laughing, ready for whatever came next.

What came next was a vampire with murder in his eyes and fire wrapped around his fist.

"Shit" I tried to move. Too slow. He was already on me.

His arms crushed around my ribs and the floor rushed up to meet us.

I hammered whatever I could reach  ribs, spine, skull  right up until his teeth found my shoulder. Everything in me shut off at once. My magic. My strength. Gone, like someone had pulled a plug.

He made a low sound against my skin, feeding.

I kicked at nothing, snarling threats I couldn't back anymore.

Then his hand moved. I heard the belt buckle before I understood what it meant, and whatever blood was left in me turned to ice.

"What are you doing?" I snarled, shoving with arms that wouldn't listen.

He laughed against my skin. For one sharp second, real fear cut through the numbness  right before he caught both wrists and cinched the belt tight around them.

Fingers twisted into my hair. His fangs finally left my shoulder, and before I could swing, he moved  vampire-fast, dragging me by the scalp, lashing me to the vault bars with his own belt.

He stood over me grinning like he'd already been handed a medal. Sirens screamed closer overhead.

"They'll call this a rescue," he sneered.

I laughed straight up in his face. "Joke's on you. Getting caught was always the plan." My cheeks ached from smiling. "What kind of hero loses the whole vault to my partner while he's too busy congratulating himself?"

Flame lit across his palms. "Shame the Bureau's arriving too late," he said, something sick gleaming behind his eyes.

"Too late for what?"

"Too late to stop me defending myself from your attack."

The fireball hit before I finished the thought. Wrists bound, I only half-turned  flame caught my side, ate through fabric, through skin. Pain unlike anything before tore a scream out of me, and somewhere underneath it, my Wolf started screaming too.

"Pathetic," I spat as he built another. "Fight me without the ropes if you've actually got the nerve."

"Why would I?" His grin split wider. "I already won. Hero who brought down a Carter."

Fire again. Worse this time. And I stopped holding my Wolf back.

The change ripped through me fast, tearing fabric off my skin as silver fur swallowed everything in seconds.

Teeth bared, I lunged.

He kept throwing flame and the stink of my own burning fur filled my skull as I tore straight through it anyway, growling low in my throat 

and that's when the belt around my wrists, the one he thought would hold, snapped clean in half.