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I vaguely remember hearing Eli whimper, and I feel him lick my neck and face before I lose consciousness.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Eli

Cyrus’s broken Sam’s arm. His bloodcurdling scream echoes off the trees as he snaps the bone with blinding speed.

“Cyrus, you can’t kill him!” Pete yells, stepping out of the trees.

I can hear the chopper in the distance, so I know the cottage he’s mentioned can’t be far from our location, giving him a place to land.

“Like hell I can’t,” Cyrus snaps back, grabbing him by the throat, Sam clutching his hands as he struggles to breathe.

“He is property of the organization. Let him go, Cyrus! Let us deal with him,” Pete yells at him.

Four hunters step out behind him, guns trained on Cyrus. His chest lights up with red dots. I growl at them, and they glance in my direction but don’t lower their guns.

I feel Addie’s fingers slip from my fur, making me look down to find she has passed out and collapsed in a heap beneath me; her entire body is covered in blood and black and blue. His scent is so strong on her that it makes me feel sick to think of what this disgusting filth has done to her.

“Cyrus, let us deal with him, please,” Pete says desperately.

Cyrus growls at him before grabbing Sam’s head and twisting; at the same time, gunfire rings out. Cyrus gets shot in the chest, making him stumble, a menacing growl ripping from him, and I lunge at one man, tearing into his arm. His blood fills my mouth and sprays everywhere as I rip his arm off. I let go and see the two men that shot him lying dead on the ground, their throats ripped out.

“Enough, no more!” Pete screams, stepping between Cyrus and the two men left.

One is trying to stem the bleeding off his missing arm. The other is cowering behind Pete. Cyrus looks down at the two holes in his shirt before digging his fingers in his chest; the sound of skin tearing can be heard before he drops the two bullets on the ground one at a time.

“Problem solved,” Cyrus says, walking toward me.

“You bloody idiot, the problem isn’t solved. You just created a bigger one,” Pete says.

Cyrus shrugs and continues walking before we both freeze, hearing gasps. Looking over in the direction of the noise, I see the man whose arm I’ve torn off pick it up. The bleeding has already stopped, his arm healing though the arm can’t be reattached.

That isn’t what’s shocked us; it is the fact that the two men Cyrus killed and Sam are sitting up, dazed but very much alive.

Sam is the quickest to react, lunging for the bleeding man and sinking his fangs into his neck before Cyrus can kill him permanently. One drop of human blood is all it takes. Hunters are running out of the trees from every direction. They shoot the two new vampires before they can even get up while Sam puts up his hands in surrender and drops to his knees, a triumphant smile on his face. The two men are now dead forever without human or Lycan blood to finish the transformation. Sam, though, is now untouchable. He is immortal and no longer the hunters’ property but belongs to the supernatural council.

“You have been giving them vampire blood?” Cyrus bellows at Pete, grabbing the man by his throat.

He tries to speak, clawing at his hands as his feet leave the ground before Cyrus tosses him aside.

That’s why he doesn’t want him to kill Sam. This is against supernatural and hunters’ law. Feeding them vampire blood is illegal unless permitted by both parties.

“It was a backup plan. We have been losing too many men,” Pete chokes out.

Hunters surround Sam, guns on him.

“Can’t touch me now unless you want to spend the rest of your lives desiccating in a cell,” Sam taunts.

Cyrus steps toward him, and I see Sam’s eyes flick to Addie’s unconscious body on the ground with a smirk on his face. I walk back to her, standing over her, shielding her crumpled form from his eyes. Hunters step toward him, holding silver cuffs; I recognize by the symbols on them that they have been blessed by witches. They clamp them on him, and Sam hisses as his skin burns but doesn’t fight back, instead letting them haul him to his feet. He knows going with them is the only thing stopping Cyrus from getting to him.

“Tell Addie I will be seeing her soon,” Sam says as they drag him through the trees toward the chopper.

I growl at him. This can’t be fucking happening.

I shift back once he is gone. Pete puts up his hands as I approach him before punching him. His face is swelling, and he spits blood onto the ground.

“Do you have any idea what you have done? This could destroy our alliances, all because you wanted to cheat your way to the top. No wonder you get voted in every year, but not anymore. When the council gets their hands on you, I will gladly watch them rip you apart for what you have done.”