Read Caught Forever Between for Free Online

palm into Helena’s face.
    Coughing, Helena wiped at her face. The dust sparkled like tears in moonlight, like blood in the dark, like gold in a sunlit stream. Her hands fell to her sides. Her eyelids drooped.
    Behind Gabrielle, the loup garou shifted, flowing like water from one form to another. Devlin howled, his voice full of anger, hurt, and hunger.
    “Let’s leave this place,” Gabrielle murmured. Grasping Helena’s good hand, the mambo led her from the kitchen.
    Cass pressed herself against the wall, breath caught in her throat, as she watched Devlin shape himself into a creature as much a part of the night as the moon. Gleaming fangs. Silver eyes. Black fur. Claws.
    She realized she was seeing his true form — the crouching hunter silhouetted by a swollen blood-red moon. Saw flames where his heart should be.
    Raleigh no longer scrabbled to get away from the loup garou. He stared, frozen, mouth open, as Devlin looked down on him, silver eyes moon-bright, lips wrinkling up on his muzzle as he snarled, saliva dripping from his fangs.
    The sharp smell of piss filled the room as Raleigh’s bladder let go. A dark stain spread across his jeans and down one leg.
    The loup garou ’s muzzle dipped and, at the same moment, Raleigh threw his right arm across his own throat. The wolf bit into Raleigh’s forearm, tearing into the flesh. Bone cracked beneath fangs. A high, ragged scream pierced the air. And for one heart-stopping second, Cass wasn’t sure who’d screamed — herself, lost in a nightmare replay of finding Alex on the stone-tiled floor, or his brother, caught in the werewolf’s jaws.
    Nosing past the damaged arm, the wolf’s muzzle closed on Raleigh’s throat. Blood sprayed onto the loup garou ’s face, into the air, and spattered hot against Cass’s throat and chest.
    Heart pounding, muscles coiled, Cass struggled to keep watching. Raleigh’s feet drummed against the floor as the loup garou ’s muzzle burrowed into and shredded his throat. Her stomach clenched, and she swallowed hard. Raleigh gurgled. Thrashed. She remembered Alex’s blood pooled and smeared on the floor. Remembered his closed eyes, the froth on his lips, his convulsing body. Tried to remember the warm feel of Alex’s hand; tried to remember the sun.
    But instead, the moon sucked her in, and the night swallowed her whole as she looked through the loup garou ’s eyes, the tang of blood in her/his mouth as she/he, no, they, abandoned Raleigh’s ruined throat. Their claws and bloodied muzzle tore into the man’s chest, snapping through bone. Their fangs sliced into the man’s quivering heart. Tasted it. Gulped it down. Blood spread dark across the stone tiles.
    The night suddenly released her, and Cass gasped for air, pulse racing. The reek of blood, piss, and animal musk saturated the air and left the scent of death upon her clothes and skin like a too-sweet perfume.
    Raleigh was still. His eyes, half-lidded, glazed. He seemed to shrink, to become smaller and thinner. Cass stared at him, the rich and raw taste of his heart still on her tongue.
    Her stomach lurched, and she looked away, her hands knotting into fists. What if she’d seen wrong? She’d been wrong about Helena, albeit not completely. Pain pierced Cass’s temple, doubled her vision for a moment. She felt something close within her, like shutters over a window.
    The loup garou looked at her, silver eyes unblinking. Cass met his gaze, then looked within and saw . . . nothing. The pain in her head faded, leaving a dull ache. A different kind of pain squeezed her heart and stole her breath. Her intuitive sight was gone. She remembered the mambo’s words: Justice ain’t never been free, girl.
    “Are we done walking the road?” Cass asked.
    The wolf circled Raleigh’s body, sniffing it, pushing at it with its muzzle. Pissed on it. After a few circuits, the wolf sat on its haunches and its body undulated, twisted in on itself.
    Unable to look away, Cass watched as