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Jade woke screaming. Not that it did her any good. She
was strapped to a table, cold beneath her bare skin. It was
metal, by the feel, and she was naked. Freezing. Just like
the others. Frost stung her cheeks, framing her face where
her hair should be. Her teeth chattered so hard she could
barely hear past the rattling. And still, the darkness.
Always the darkness. Then she realized why she’d
regained consciousness.
He was cutting her tattoo.
“Y-you can’t take that, Challen.” She managed to
bite out the words. “I haven’t failed yet.” She screamed
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again as the blade dug deeper into her flesh, continuing on
its precise path.
“You were born a failure, Jade-Scarlet. So much
potential, wasting away in this impossible body. And even
if you weren’t, you will never be the one to capture me.
The Woodsman case will remain permanently unsolved.
Or at the very least, it will never make it to trial.” He
stayed so calm while he flayed her.
Tears choked her, fear and agony scattering her
thoughts. Her claws scraped on the metal with squalling
shrieks, but no matter how they dug in, there was no
purchase to be found.
“I left a gift for them, though. A reward for all their
hard work. They’ll have a name for their murderer. By the
time they find it, I’ll already be part of the Tribunal. Chris
Jorgensen will no longer exist. The Woodsman will have
served his purpose and now, so shall you.”
Finally, oh God, finally, he finished the gruesome
task, leaving her gasping. Relief from the digging, at least,
but the open wound sizzled with torment. She struggled to
make her lips form words either of them would
understand. “P-P-Pale will h-hunt us. H-he’ll find me.”
“I’m not worried about your Wolf.” His hand
caressed her throat. More correctly, her pulse. She
couldn’t even turn her face to snap at him with her teeth.
“I’ll pluck his soul right out of him before he has a chance
to blink.”
“No.” It wasn’t a sob, but an angry declaration. Pale
wouldn’t die because of this monster. Because she didn’t
have it in her to fight.
“It’s a much more merciful death than I wanted for
him. I wanted to take my time with him. Show him
exactly what it means to suffer. Teach him what respect
Dee Tenorio
Tempting the Enemy
for power truly is. He’s stubborn, though. It would have
taken time. Probably days.”
She raged against the bonds, but nothing gave. She
finally had to stop, dragging in deep breaths to calm
herself. Control. Control. She would achieve nothing
without control.
“But I have different plans for you, something your
Wolf doesn’t deserve. A swift death.”
“Why? Why me?” she asked, desperate to keep him
talking. Talking meant living. Time to think. “Why am I
so special?”
“You’re not, but the light trapped inside you is. To
get it, I’m not going to bleed you. I can’t.” His voice
lowered, became a rasping whisper she knew would haunt
her dreams…if she lived to have any. “I have to take it
right from the source.” A fingertip drew a circle between
her breasts. “From your heart.”
He knew about the empathy.
“The Order wanted you and feared you all at the
same time because of this gift. They lied to you to protect
themselves. Crippled you with blind dependence on the
moon of all things. In your pathetic weakness, you let
them. But the gift is here. Waiting for someone powerful
enough to control it. Waiting for me.”
“No!” She could feel her power, rising high and wild,
but in her fear, it was untouchable. Her focus scattered.
She tried. Desperately. But with every icy breath on her
skin, she shuddered and lost it.
She should have been thinking of how to fight, how
to stop this, but all she could think of was Pale. The smile
she’d never see again. The sense of safety she’d found in
his arms. Those eyes, by turns intense or strangely
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vulnerable. She wanted to know so many more things
about him. Everything about him and how she might fit
next to him. Wanted to experience again the light he’d
given her in a few stolen hours. For one day, she’d known
what it was to love. Just one.
It wasn’t enough.
Wolves live by Instinct, Pale had said. It’s kept us
alive when everything else has disappeared. Because we
accept what we are and we give ourselves over to it.
Accept. She sobbed, but clung to the memory of his
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