Page 149 of A Wild Darkness

Another shot goes off.

My face is buried between Sebastian’s broad arms as he cranes his neck around the bookcase to see if he can spot another body. The pounding inside my chest is intense. It vibrates my rib cage, and I struggle to suck in a full breath. This fucking cloak is making me feel claustrophobic.

I need it off me. I need to move, to do something. It feels unnatural to just be standing here while gunshots go off around us.

“I’m going out there.” Sebastian rips off his mask and cloak. “I have to count the bodies to make sure two are dead.”

I grip his shirt. “No.”

He can’t leave me. Not with the members not knowing who’s trying to kill them.

“Stevie, I have to. You need to stay right here,” he tells me. “And take off the mask and robe, too.”

A cotton ball forms in my throat. “Sebastian. Are you sure?”

“Yes.” He dips down, grabs the back of my head, and pulls me in for a rough kiss.

My eyes close. I try to savor the moment, but he breaks our connection before I have the chance. “Do not move.”

I nod. I can’t change his mind.

Sebastian releases my hand and carefully steps out from behind the shelter of the bookcase. I watch with my stomach in knots as he approaches Dan’s body. He squats to check his neck to examine the fatal wound, then stands to scan the room.

Next, he quietly walks a few feet over to the podium and looks behind it. I can’t see what he’s staring at, but by the way he lowers to the ground once again, telling me it’s another body.

Sebastian looks over at me and mouths, Bob.

Suddenly, I see one member step into my view. My blood turns to ice as I spot a small black handgun in one hand. Without thinking, I jump out and rush the man from the side.

“Sebastian!”

Sebastian jerks his head around.

The man pushes me to the ground with a force that takes my breath away, but in time for Sebastian to tackle him. They slam into the marble like heavy statues, each one holding strength as my shoulder comes crashing into a massive concrete vase. My head jolts backward and bangs against the wall. The pain shoots through the side of my body into my skull. I reach up to my head, blinking a couple of times to focus my vision.

Another shot goes off.

My heart stops.

The man is now lying still on his back while Sebastian straddles him. He takes the gun and tucks it into the back of his waistband. “Harry,” he whispers.

Three down…one to go.

Once I realize Sebastian is okay, I have a minute to gather my wits, the pain inside my head intensifies. The ache is a ferocious pulse vibrating along my bones.

Sebastian almost got shot. Hayden and Christian were supposed to take the killers out, preventing them from running. What the hell happened?

“Are you okay?” Sebastian’s desperate words came out breathy from his sprint over here.

My ears ring from the sound of the gunshots. I want to answer him, but I can’t because I’m too focused on why it took Hayden and Christian so long to take the second shot, letting two members scatter.

If my calculations are correct, there is still one of them unaccounted for—Silas. Even though the night crew has the place surrounded and he isn’t getting out, he’s still running loose around the mansion.

“Why did it take them so long for the second shot?” My voice comes out high-pitched with panic.

Sebastian maneuvers me behind the bookcase. “I don’t know.”

“And one member had a gun!”