5. Samuel

Chapter 5

Samuel

S amuel was shocked enough by the scene they'd stumbled on that he stood right where he was instead of interfering. The strange horror he could feel connecting them through the bond as they took in the bloodbath before them kept the three of them back and hidden as they tried to figure out what the fuck to do.

Damn Morgan for her cryptic bullshit.

Their mate wasn't just different, she was a fucking psychopath.

When Morgan had waltzed into his house, telling him their mate wasn't quite right, he'd thought she might be overreacting – that their mate being impossible for Morgan to see in the past or future was what had scared her.

Now he knew why that little witch had been hoping he wouldn't need her.

Well, it seemed the day he had to deal with that problem had come a lot sooner than anticipated.

He might even try to force himself to believe this wasn't who they were looking for, but Morgan's description of their mate was accurate down to the very last detail.

Blue eyes like ancient ice. Tangled hair as black as the endless void, sucking light in from all around it. Skin so pale he could see the blue vein in her cheek going down her neck. Black claws at the tips of her fingers and canines in her mouth. Wolf fur instead of her own.

A mysterious rune on the back of her right hand.

Morgan could only see this woman's now , and they'd had to run as fast as they could to get here in time, but if she'd told him this was what he'd find…

Samuel doubted he would have risked it.

This insane creature called to his monster, begging him to go join her, to play at torture and carnage once more. He'd been so good at it…his monster could teach her so many things – could learn from her. When was the last time they'd seen this kind of mastery?

Her movements were graceful, practiced. There was no hesitation despite the nauseating sight of a headless body trying to get free of the strange metal pinning it down.

Samuel tried not to remember how many bodies he'd done something similar to in a place just like this…covered in the aching cold of winter that always left him breathless and melancholy.

That wasn't his home anymore and this was a different nightmare.

All those old memories pounding against the silver wall made the roses in his mind tremble and actually had his hands shaking.

When was the last time he'd felt this level of bone-deep horror?

"He should give it back, don't you think?" the woman asked, like this was a normal way to have a conversation. She was covered in so much blood it was the only thing he could smell.

"Give what back, your sanity?" the creature demanded.

But Samuel could sense fear from him despite the attitude.

The woman holding that dismembered head by the hair didn't seem the least bit fazed and he couldn't help but study her instead of the goddamn nightmare staring him in the face.

Nothing on the wind told him what she was, but his eyes kept catching on the black claws at the tips of her fingers that looked like his, if a bit more delicate…almost frosted in color. The wolf furs she wore had intricate embroidery when he looked closer, telling him it was well cared for and handmade.

But it was the enchanted, white hunter boots covering her feet that made him pause. The fur pants she wore were tucked into those boots and for some reason, the only thing he could think about at that moment was how she'd gotten her hands on a pair of white ones.

At least until he noticed the skin on her hands looked red and chapped, but her rosy cheeks were disturbingly attractive.

His tiger didn't like how reckless she was to leave her hands bare in this weather even if she was some kind of shifter, but Samuel buried that voice down when Mylo twitched the moment she dropped her hand.

This woman glanced back at the body and the blade pinning it to the earth with a blank expression on her face. The sight of that metal alone had his heart pounding as he fought the urge to get his second and third as far from here as possible.

Considering the wings protruding from the body, it could only be one thing.

An angel blade.

That bloody rune on the forehead wasn't glowing anymore, but whatever magic was stitched into the ground did. A circle with unfamiliar runes glowed red thanks to all that blood, and Samuel really didn't like the way the magic felt as it pulsed in a rhythm that was both inherently familiar and yet more foreign than his mortal mind could grasp.

He'd finally forced himself to ask Morgan for their missing piece, and this was what he'd gotten.

Another psycho.

Fate wasn't done fucking him raw, it seemed.

They were far enough away from her she wouldn't notice them, especially when they were downwind.

Samuel decided then that they'd watch whatever this was. Regardless of what he decided to do, this was the kind of intel he made it his business to know. Once she was done, he would have to make a call.

Rune and Mylo were falling apart. If she really was their mate, then there wasn't much they could do about it. He would have to take the risk because this was their last chance.

But fuck him, the way she moved set his teeth on edge. It was too fast , too deadly. It was also infinitely graceful as she set the head on a nearby stump with both hands, letting go slowly like it might just topple over.

He watched as dark blood oozed down the stump, joining the ever-growing circle of blood seeping into the snow.

"He took everything," she said, finally breaking that awful silence as she crouched down and tilted her head. "Even my sanity. Should I take yours?"

"You're going to regret this," the head told her, eyes flashing with white flames just like Lucifer's did.

She tilted her head the other way then. "You know, it's been a while since I've felt like this."

The sudden lilt in her words concerned him, and Samuel shared a look with Rune. Whatever the fuck was going on here, it was obvious she wasn't all there.

But honestly…neither were they.

"He took me," the woman confessed, propping her chin on her fist. "Did you know that?"

"Who?"

"I still dream of it…" She smiled again, but it was a cruel, twisted thing. "Bet your precious brother didn't expect that."

"My brother?" The head frowned, completely lost just like the rest of them.

Then she flicked his forehead. It was so fast and sudden Samuel tensed. "The last head was more useful than you and he couldn't even talk."

Samuel tried not to wonder how many times she'd done this. It was honestly disturbing, and it took a lot to disturb him.

"At least your eyes aren't green," she murmured, reaching out like she might just gouge his eyes out with her thumbs.

"I have a lot of brothers," the angel said with a sneer, making her hands freeze mid-reach. "You're going to need to be a little more specific."

She sat back on her heels and considered that.

It felt like Samuel blinked and suddenly she was standing over the angel's body, one foot on his back between those gray wings. Seeing someone move that fast…there weren't many who could move through the world as if it were standing still.

She might even be faster than him.

Nothing on this earth could force him to blink again, not when she stood there like a wild thing made of vengeance and rage. Angel blood was smeared across her face like warpaint and the stench of it eradicated everything else.

He felt blind without the ability to scent her emotions, especially with such a blank expression on her face, but for the first time in a long time he could see .

This tableau before him felt like a prophetic vision when she gripped the base of the angel's wings protruding out of his shoulders, blood gushing from her hands.

A splinter of heaven had carved through this place in the gentle silence of winter.

" Wait ."

That wild creature smiled and it was savage— cruel .

It reminded him too much of Mylo.

She slid her gaze to the head, her vicious smile widening as she waited.

Blood oozed from her hands down the ridges of those wings, and Samuel couldn't help but wonder if she could feel any pain at all. Even the stab wound the angel had given her seemed to have barely registered.

Rune suddenly took a step forward like he planned to join her in ripping the angel limb from limb. Grabbing the back of his shirt, Samuel yanked his third back and wrapped his hand around the back of his neck, claws digging into skin as a silent warning.

He held on so tight he might just break bone and he'd already done enough of that the night before. Mylo pressed into Rune from the other side to keep him surrounded as the three of them watched the scene unfold before them, unable to look away from such horrific grace.

An angel was notoriously difficult to kill. No one even really knew how to do it per the archives, but this woman did…she knew exactly what she was doing. He just had no fucking idea why she was doing it.

Finally, the angel spoke. "What do you want?" he asked, his eyes on his wings like he was actually worried.

"Name and regiment," she demanded.

"Eliel, 73rd Regiment." That hateful gaze shifted from his wings to her face as if daring her.

Samuel had no fucking idea what that meant, but apparently she did because she sighed in disappointment and gripped the base of those wings tighter.

"Don't!"

Then she ripped them from the body – the strange sound of bone cracking and the suction from the flesh as it released was all too familiar, especially accompanied by the anguished screaming from the angel as if he could still feel what she was doing to him.

More blood gushed from her hands, but she still didn't let go, and Samuel nearly snapped Rune's neck when she winked at the head. "Finders keepers."

Another roar of rage, but this fucking woman didn't seem to hear it as she laid them on the ground before the head and started plucking the feathers from them, more blood gushing from her hands.

That was when he realized those feathers were cutting her.

Damn the Fates to hell and back for choosing her as their mate.

This was really their missing piece? What the actual fuck was he supposed to do with this?

"They can be fixed," the angel snarled, rage making the head quiver and it teetered precariously on the stump – forcing him to refocus. "All I have to do is reattach them."

The woman ignored him as she plucked one of the wings until it was nothing but flesh over bone.

Samuel felt his world tremble as he tried to remember everything he knew about angels. He was pretty fucking sure she shouldn't be able to do this, but what did he know? Morgan wouldn't tell him what the hell she was.

Fucking insanity stared at him in its rawest form, and it broke the rules of the universe with the kind of chaotic glee that made his claws and teeth slip from his control.

Rune was the one to hold him back this time, their eyes unable to look away from the woman plucking an angel's wing like it was a fucking chicken.

" Bitch ," the angel hissed when she picked up one of his feathers and twirled it, staring at the head without really seeing him.

It glinted with an edge so sharp it hurt his eyes when he tried to focus on it, and the last time he'd experienced that kind of fuckery was when he'd…

No, this was different.

Then the woman leaned forward to carve 73rd into the angel's cheek with his own feather, shaking her head with a disappointed sigh. "You never deserved these wings, did you?"

Her strange accent sliced through the winter air and Samuel flinched at the way it called to him like a siren's song.

She studied the head spitting curses at her in a language his enchanted ring refused to translate as she spun the feather around and around.

"How many do you think he'll send before he comes looking for me?" she asked, interrupting the angel's tirade as if he hadn't been speaking at all.

"Who the fuck are you even talking about?"

"You're so far below him, it's actually kind of embarrassing." She dropped the feather and stood, the frame of one wing in her hand. "The 73rd regiment? Talk about insulting. I'm ripping up all his toys, but he won't come down to save you. Tell me…how does that make you feel?"

She went back to stand over his body and waited for an answer.

"I feel nothing."

Crack .

The bone of that wing was now in two pieces.

How was she strong enough to break angel bone with her bare hands? How did she move so damn fast?

"You're a poor imitation of them," she murmured before slamming the two bones through the body with the kind of strength he'd have to be very careful of, muttering in the same language the angel had been cursing at her in.

This was bad. So very, very bad.

They should leave before she somehow sensed them, but Samuel couldn't force his body to take even a single step away from her. He tried and all it did was move him toward her, so he held as still as possible, not trusting himself at all.

When she pulled the blade from the angel's body, it started frantically thrashing around like a poor, desperate animal, but the bones of its wings kept it in place like the spikes in a pit.

"Now your blade and your wings are mine," she told the angel, prying the second blade from his fingers. Then one of them vanished and she used the one she'd taken to pry his mouth open. "Soon he will remember I exist and when that happens…"

Her hand was too fast to follow as she tore his tongue out and tossed it aside like it was nothing.

The smell of angel blood was so strong Samuel actually felt sick to his stomach.

Somehow… this was his mate.

This vicious, untamed creature with dark promises stitched into her very essence. Even if he couldn't scent it, Samuel could feel it fucking radiating off of her.

"I'm going to steal everything from him, just like he stole everything from me."

Her hand rested on the angel's forehead, lining up the rune on his forehead with the one on the back of her hand. She looked like a priest offering salvation, but that was damnation flickering in the angel's eyes when the runes started to glow.

Deadly instinct roared through him, and Samuel forced all three of them to the ground, burying their faces into the snow with his hands on the back of their heads.

Something blinding rippled over them, so cold it seared and blistered everything around it. The sudden frost on the back of his shirt was a warning and Samuel forced himself to look up when it finally ended to see charred caverns where those eyes used to be.

A vision of something wild and free and lethal stood before him as she looked up at the sky, blade dangling from her fingertips like that burning cold hadn't affected her at all.

"All he gave me was a name," she whispered – eyes focused on the sky like it would bring divine wrath down on her at any moment. "He stole everything else, you know."

This wasn't going to work.

Samuel tapped Mylo and Rune, giving the signal to retreat.

Except both of them were staring at her with a calmness that honestly terrified the living shit out of him. All they had to do was see her once, and it was enough? Even when this was what they'd found?

This kind of slaughter would normally have them both begging to join, but they watched her without a single hint of madness in their scents.

"A name has value ," she stressed as she spun around to face the body once more. "It gives one power, doesn't it?"

Samuel couldn't breathe as those words wove through his head as if she'd whispered them right into his mind, reminding him of things that were better left forgotten…words he'd heard Morgan speak just the other night.

Damn the whole fucking universe for this.

" Eliel ," she whispered, swinging the blade back and forth as she walked over to the body, staring down at it with unwavering focus. "Divine sacrifice."

That blade plunged into the angel's heart and she twisted, watching the body convulse before any bit of life left trickled away.

"I own you now," she crooned, pulling the blade out so very gently. "Do you think he'll even notice that I've stolen you from him?"

That blade disappeared just like the other.

One second it was dangling from her fingers, the next it was gone like it had never existed.

" My sacrifice," she purred, dipping her fingers into the hole she'd made before ripping the remnants of the blackened heart out of the body. "I will take all your names until he finally notices."

Then she licked the blood from her fingers and the heart turned to ash, falling to the ground like snowflakes.

Samuel almost lost control when he saw her eyes begin to glow as she licked her hand clean just like a cat would. Her delicate pink tongue flicked a drop of blood off her claw and then she smiled.

This woman's eyes were glowing gold .

"Soon my wings will be bigger than his," she said as she stood, waving her hand and making all those feathers swirl into a rising vortex before they too disappeared. "I wonder how angry he'll be when he sees that."

Then her eyes strayed back to the cloudy sky and Samuel would have sworn on his life he saw those clouds darken, roiling in warning as if they were forced to be an unwilling witness to this…carnage.

This was their missing piece.

If Mylo and Rune were this fucking obsessed already…it didn't matter how psychotic she was.

He would make it work, because Samuel refused to lose. Fate would not take his bond mates from him after everything else they'd taken from him.

Morgan would be punished for deceiving him, but right now he had to get his fucking mate before this whole thing got even more out of hand.

Instincts whispered, and he embraced his tiger – shifting silently before padding through the snow like a ghost. That wild creature was dangerous and the last thing he needed was to get them all killed by approaching her as a man.

Samuel refused to lose Mylo or Rune, and if that meant he had to tame this psychotic woman, he would.

But fuck him…

There was nothing he hated more than chaos.