Bane of Tenebris (Wolfgods Book 2) by Blaise Ramsay (i love reading books txt) 📕

Steele and Magnus with a man in a black Italian suit on his knees with a bag over his head. Damien’s face scrunched up into a look of pure rage. He asked the vampires to remove the bag only to be stopped by Kain.

“Not here. We need to go.” Kain’s tone held no room for argument. The screeching of tires and the headlights of Gabriel’s Mustang illuminated the darkness.

Gabriel rolled down the window. “Kain, we have a problem. Get in, I’ll fill you in.” To the vampires he told them to put Stoker in the trunk after knocking him unconscious.

Zane gladly obliged, cracking his knuckles and knocking the shit out of Stoker. Laughing, Magnus and Steele threw the unconscious vampire into the trunk.

The whole ride home, Gabriel told Damien, Cade and Kain the bad news. Tala was missing and so was the talon.

When Kain demanded to know how it happened, Gabriel’s eyes met his friend’s. “We … we don’t know.”

Chapter Nineteen

Tala opened her eyes to find her hands bound above her head. Her heart sped, making her breathe faster. Sweat dripped down her face from her hairline. She looked down to see a pastel blue dress with a hemline that stopped in the middle of her thighs. Her cheeks heated when she found she wore no panties beneath the thin fabric.

Her head hurt when she tried to remember how she’d gotten there. One moment she was reading and talking to an old friend on her phone, waiting for Kain to return, the next she was here.

Wherever here was.

Terror gripped her.

Alex. She pleaded in her mind, trying to reach out but couldn’t due to her pain. The air smelled musty, like a mix of livestock, rust and old blood. All around her, darkness dominated save for the light in small windows high on the walls. It reminded her of the old saw mills her mom used to tell her about. She tried again to reach out to Kain, unable to focus.

“I don’t think so,” a dark voice echoed in the void.

Tala tried to look around but her limited movement made it hard.

From the corner of the room, the lycan responsible for killing her family emerged, a sick, twisted grin on his face. On his right arm, a vile claw writhed and wriggled as if it had a mind of its own.

“Why’re you doing this?” Tears started falling down Tala’s cheeks.

The lycan closed the distance between the two of them. He brushed the back of his knuckles over her cheeks. “Shh. None of this is personal, babe. You should’ve taken your brother’s advice and gotten away from Kain. He’s not the virtuous soldier you think he is.”

“What do you mean?” Tala’s voice trembled.

A deep scowl formed over the lycan’s face. “He’s a murderer, a liar and a sinner. A monster who hides behind arrogance and pride. He tore my forearm off and left me to die. Now, he’s going to face the demons he’s run from for centuries.”

Tala didn’t know what to think. She’d shared blood with Kain and didn’t see anything indicating him to be the man she was being told he was. She called the lycan a liar, refusing to believe him.

With a dark snicker, the lycan shrugged. “You can believe what you want. Truth is truth.” He moved close, attempting to kiss Tala. She bit down on his lip, drawing blood. “Bitch!” He howled and slapped her with the dark claw.

Pain like she’d never experienced surged through Tala’s body. She screamed as a dark voice filled her mind, greeting her and saying it was glad to finally meet her.

Tala found herself ripped from reality and plummeting through stinging red tendrils. Each touch sent renewed senses of flame through her body. She hit something solid, the impact stunning her.

Dazed, she pushed herself up with her hands, flinching when she touched one of the cuts made by the tendrils. The sound of wings resounded in the darkness.

“Finally.” A dual toned voice - the same she heard when the claw impacted with her face - invaded her ears.

Tala looked up to see one of the most terrifying creatures she’d ever seen. Its red eyes pierced her soul the longer she stared. The dripping fangs and horrifying talons paralyzed her. She stuttered when trying to ask who he was.

Barghast towered above her. “Am I to take it Alexander has yet to mention me? How insulting. We have had so many years together. Did you not wonder who gave him those beautiful scars?”

Too tired to move, Tala could do nothing but listen. Her strength had been sucked away with each touch of the tendrils. She wanted to know about the scars but never got around to it.

It felt too personal.

Something she wanted Kain to tell her when he was ready. He always seemed to have so much on his mind, Tala didn’t want to pressure him to tell her.

Barghast began circling Tala. “Ah, I see. He has kept secrets. That is so like him. Well, allow me the pleasure of introducing myself. I am Barghast, my soldier’s dark god.” Barghast tapped a claw on Tala’s shoulder, causing her to cry out in pain. “And you, my little half-breed, will be a god’s gift to his fallen angel.”

As he had when he lost Chase, Kain hit his knees upon seeing the empty room. He hadn’t waited for Gabriel to stop the car before throwing the door open and sprinting into the house to his room.

An overwhelming sense of loss flooded his heart, his pain threatening to tear his reserve away.

He threw back his head and let out a terrifying roar without bothering to shift into his lycan form. The force of it held such strength, it shook the house to its foundation.

When Damien tried to come in to calm him, Kain shoved past him and went out into the backyard.

He tore the rotted logs and stumps apart and threw them as far as he could.

Damien and Gabriel stood