Wolf's Bane (Monstrous Hearts #2)

Chapter Four

Thousands of lights glittered through the fog that drifted past the windows. Alice blinked, realizing she was back in her apartment in the city. The white walls and geometric furniture looked as hard and cold as always, and fake logs crackled with fake flames in the gas-powered fireplace, too weak to generate any heat toward her place on the couch.

Across from her sat Magdalene, her dark dress and boots stark against the bone-colored upholstery of the chair. Her eyes looked honey gold as she tilted the glass of wine in her hand, swirling the garnet-colored liquid in a way that mimicked the twisting in Alice's stomach.

"It needs something," she said, her lipstick as vivid as a gash.

Alice swallowed hard, aware of how her fingers were curled into fists in her lap. "What?"

Magdalene gestured with her other hand, which held an unlit cigarette. "It's too bare in here. It throws off the balance."

Alice glanced around, feeling slightly dizzy from how the angles of the walls seemed to stretch and leer at her. "Maybe a rug?"

"I was thinking a pelt."

Alice's gaze shot back to Magdalene just in time to see the other woman smile.

"Yes, a wolf pelt. I think black would be perfect."

Then she drank from the glass and wine poured from her throat, for a gaping wound had suddenly appeared in it. Even as Alice gasped, the thin ruby of the wine thickened into a bright red. Magdalene kept smiling.

Rivers of blood ran from her neck and spread over the floor, greedily reaching for Alice's feet. Alice tried jerking back, but she seemed frozen in place, unable to do anything as it welled ever closer.

Magdalene watched while ducking her head to light a cigarette. Her wound gaped and breathed out smoke. "Is something wrong?"

Alice just shrieked, thrashing against whatever held her in place.

Then Magdalene stood, stretching like a cat. As she approached, blood continued to pour from her throat, soaking her dress until the points of her nipples showed through.

Her fingers felt like claws as she caught Alice's shoulders, pinning her back against the couch. The cigarette's cherry glowed orange, inches away from her mouth.

"You never mind blood on him. I think you're being fickle, Alice."

"You died," hissed Alice, trying to wrench free of Magdalene's grip. Every movement on her part drew a fresh gush of blood from the other woman's ruined throat, drenching them both. "You can't hurt me, anymore. You're dead."

At that, Magdalene paused, taking the cigarette from her mouth to flick away ash. The grey motes stun where they landed on Alice's cheek, and she flinched even as Magdalene's fingers dug in to keep her still, the cigarette now burning close to her neck. "Oh, Alice, you're smarter than that. Only fools believe that something dead is something gone."

Alice felt herself locking up, limbs heavy as though Magdalene's very touch turned her into stone, but the feeling of the other woman leaning in gave her a final, desperate lurch of energy, and she wrenched herself from head to toe.

Light plunged into dark, and for one wretched moment, she wasn't sure whether she fell or lunged upright. She felt herself panting, and then felt sheets crumpled around her. A mockingbird's nightsong reached her, and so did the smell of pine sap.

A dream. She'd only been dreaming. The haze of sleep cleared a little more, and she remembered how Colton had woken her up earlier, teasing her into enough consciousness for her to mumble a goodbye before he'd left on an early work shift.