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"Ambitious and fiercely original. Sondi Warner is the exciting new voice we've all been wai...
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September 12 | Before Daybreak
I had done this. I had turned Aurie Edison—in contempt of the law, undeterred by my lover's protestations, against my own best instincts—although the latter was least reliable. I was rapidly losing my mind, and I wondered if the change had only seemed like a good idea because I was going insane.
The she-wolf paced the length of the semi-reclined hospital bed and whimpered. Her tawny fur was sorrel and cocoa, and her eyes were terra-cotta. She had all four legs. She was a beautiful specimen, but an aberration. She circled the narrow cot with growing disquiet, foreclaws tearing at the bedding.
When she barked in distress, each sound caused Mys to flinch and glare at the hospital room door. I hurriedly donned my clothes, worried, too. Through the privacy window, I spotted our accomplice inconspicuously flirting up a nurse, even though it was well past visiting hours.
Kittie would signal if anyone headed our way, but we couldn't very well carry a wolf out. I skipped to the window overlooking the city. Jackpot. The bay window wasn't sealed. I got it wide enough for an oversized wolf to squeeze out. We could feasibly scale the building together.
However, the buffeting winds tried gamely to yank the window latch from my clutch. We were on the uppermost floor of the modest-height hospital. I fought the gusts until I had to accept we couldn't go outside in this weather.
Blinking against the rain, the smell of the storm made me crave expanses where I could run wild and free. As I receded into the private hospital room, closing the window behind me, I dug two fingers into my temples and rubbed at the pounding headache. I was deteriorating, but this wasn't about me.
My gaze flew to Haley. "Can you call it off?" I asked brusquely.
The teen shook her head. "The bad weather is to keep humans from seeing what we do tonight. When you explained the Overlay laws, I thought a storm could cloak our get-away. Now the hurricane is too close; it'll take hours to move it."
"Not to mention," Wallace said quietly, "she's too agitated to climb down." The dauntless angel approached the feral wolf on the bed. A menacing growl rumbled through the room, but he petted the canine, and his touch seemed to have a curative effect. The wolf hopped down and settled at his feet.
Mys pleaded with me, "You have to fix this."
"If I'm wrong about Cyprian being at the Ashivant sisters' estate in Ponchatoula, I don't know if I can." The words dropped from my mouth like lead. I hated to admit it. Inside every shifter was an animal spirit that was separate from us, but one with us. I had apparently freed the animal within Aurie while the woman was still without.
I jerked my head to fend off another flash of savagery that clawed and scraped in my skull. Aurie was a feral husk of what she should have been. Just like I was becoming. The flaky, briny redness drying on my lips was like a lover's kiss, and the call of the hunt was almost too loud to ignore. It had taken herculean effort to refrain from biting her more than once.
