Chapter 10 · The First-Blood Rule

The video was shaking. Vivian's face filled the screen, eyes red, makeup smeared down to her jaw.

"If you're watching this, I'm already gone." Her voice cracked. "Don't trust the contract. Don't trust him. And whatever you do—"

The screen went black.

I tapped it. Nothing. I pressed the side button. Dead battery. Of course.

My hands were shaking. The parking garage was too quiet. The kind of quiet that meant I wasn't alone.

I shoved the phone in my pocket and started walking. Fast. My heels echoed off concrete. I didn't run. Running meant prey.

But I could feel it. Something watching from the spaces between cars. Something that breathed wrong.

I made it to the stairwell door. Pulled. Locked.

"Shit."

Behind me, a low sound. Not a growl. Worse. Like air being pulled through a throat that didn't work right.

I turned.

It was crouched on top of a van. Long limbs, too many joints, skin stretched gray over bone. Its mouth hung open and I could see rows of teeth that didn't belong in anything human-shaped.

A hound. That's what Lucien called them. Wild-bloods who'd gone too far. Lost the human part.

It cocked its head. Sniffed.