That’s when it hit me. Maybe I was the one being selfish. I didn’t think of how Kai would feel. How much was the Devi controlling me?

‘I’m sorry,’ was all I could say.

‘I’m going to find you. I told you we would end this together and I meant it. Together,’ he reminded me.

“You’re not talking to your mate, are you?” Prudence asked and all of a sudden a sharp object cracked the back of my skull and everything went black.

Water

I woke up to a dull, throbbing pain that pulsed behind my eyes. A groan escaped me as I was being hauled up to a standing position. From the quiet sound, I assumed the helicopter had landed as there were no more whirling of blades. I was exhausted; it was the dead of night and my hands were still tied behind my back, making my shoulders hurt. My wrists burned but a sharp scent pricked my nose. I inhaled.

‘She knocked me out. We have landed and I smell water. Not salty, maybe a lake. I don’t hear running water, so not a river.’

‘Jesus Christ, Aurora. You had me scared. Sylvia thinks the pouch is in Bend, Oregon. I will look up lakes. Your flying time was about fifty minutes.’

We both knew it was a long shot. Oregon, Washington, and California were full of lakes. I could be anywhere in the Pacific Northwest.

We were walking inside, if I could just get this hood off, I might be able to see some marker of where I was. I did a quick jump up and threw my weight forward tossing the hood off and forcing the vampires to let go of me.

Prudence quickly zoomed into my vision and saturated me with black magic, taking my sight. I stumbled in the complete darkness. I was blind! My eyes squinted, open and shut, in pure panic. They were burning.

“Don’t mess with me, child!” Prudence roared. I heard a loud metal scraping sound, like a door and then I was being hauled inside somewhere. It was now or never. I had to take Prudence out. I was assuming I had been led to the location of where Layla and the girls were and I couldn’t let Prudence live one second longer. Taking a deep breath, I readied myself for what was to come.

“Prudence Heather Sorensen!” I roared her full name and let the Devi fully come to the surface. It was like letting my wolf out. With one quick motion, I snapped the zip-tie holding my arms. I was strong; stronger than I should be.

I heard her gasp.

“You have no power over me!” I declared calling up my inner magic and immediately regaining my sight as her spell broke. Mist poured in thick clouds from me and surrounded Prudence. I was in a cement hallway in an underground structure somewhere. Prudence stood there frozen, her scraggly hair lifting on its ends. Raising my hands high over my head, I threw them forward, slamming Prudence against the wall with magical force.

The vampire who had walked me inside grabbed my arm but I pivoted quickly, bringing an elbow down hard on the back of his neck and he crumpled to the ground. I slowly stalked towards Prudence, she was pinned against the wall in a cocoon of white magical mist.

Standing before her, I saw her true self. Her magic had been stripped and she was an ugly shell of a human. A dark entity that had no place in this world.

“Darkness is the absence of light, so I shine my light on you until you disappear,” I whispered in her ear as she continued to stare at me in shock. Reaching up, I placed two hands on each side of her head.

“Balance,” the Devi whispered through my lips and quickly snapped her neck as she fell to the ground with a thud.  Staring down at her, I gasped as her face shrank until she looked 100 years old. The world was better off without her in it. She looked like a frail old human now.

Footsteps caught my attention and I turned to see Layla coming down the hall with four other vampires. Inhaling, I grinned. I could smell them now. With Prudence dead, her magic no longer worked. Time to kill Layla and be done with this! The Devi inside of me itched with anticipation.

“You’ll regret that!” Layla roared and held up a small LCD screen. It looked like a baby monitor.

The sound of Tara’s wail gave me goose bumps and stopped me dead in my tracks. I pushed the Devi down and thought of Max. That was his mate, my pack member, my friend. The mist I had conjured shrank away as I withdrew my magic.

“Should I kill her or just torture her? It’s up to you.” Layla held the screen up.

“Stop, please stop!” I begged.

But Tara wailed on. I threw my arms up to blast Layla with magic but Layla held a button on the monitor. “Kill her,” Layla said.

“No! I’m sorry.” I put my hands down and fell to my knees, head bowed. Oh God. What do I do? With the Devi, I was powerful enough to take out Layla, I could see that now. But I would not sacrifice one of my friends to do it.

“Stop,” Layla said into the monitor.

Two vampires came up behind me, surrounding me with their presence.

“Play nice and your friends live.” Layla narrowed her gaze at me.

I stood and glared at her as the vampires each firmly took hold of my arm.

“I don’t see why we can’t have a mutual arrangement. You play nice and supply me blood and female wolves. In turn, I will give you money beyond your wildest dreams.” Layla’s voice was musical, her eyes purple. She was trying to use compulsion on me. It didn’t work. White mist wrapped protectively around me.

I needed to be smart about this. She had Tara in some kind of torture room. I shouldn’t piss her off. I needed to learn the lay of the land and plan my attack and escape smartly. “I will think about it,” I told her.