I shared an excited look with Tory and we waited eagerly to be taught how to do that.
Queen Avalon smiled at us. “This will take some time to learn, but the power of your Phoenix fire cannot be fully unlocked until you are able to set it free like this.”
“We’re ready,” Tory said and I nodded, raising my hands in preparation.
The queen of old moved toward us and my heart hammered in anticipation of all we were about to learn. And I realised that within these walls, the grip of the curse barely seemed to have a hold on me at all. So perhaps when we were done here, I’d break free of it for good.
“I ’m gonna gut them,” Darius growled in my ear as he clung to my back and I shot around The Burrows at high speed, hunting for the murderer as we had been for the past couple of hours.
The asshole had run from the scene of the crime, but they couldn’t be far. They had to be somewhere close and the metallic scent in the air said they were still wet with the blood of their victim.
We’d been stalking these tunnels back and forth, checking every room but then the patter of footsteps up ahead had drawn me this way, and I was ready to finish the traitor who lived among us.
“You gut them after I rip their limbs off,” I suggested and Darius chuckled darkly.
We rounded into a large cavern which had been set up as a kitchen, stone worktops everywhere and metal utensils hanging on the wall.
The sound of running water made my head snap around and I spotted Justin Masters by the sink, cursing as he scrubbed red stains from his sweatshirt.
I slowed to a halt and Darius dropped down from my back as I set Justin in my sights. Justin looked up at us, yelping in alarm and splashing water everywhere as he fought to turn the tap off, but instead turned it on full blast.
“You scared the crap out of me,” he hissed, managing to shut the water off at last. “What are you doing down here?”
He grabbed a towel, drying his hands and folding his arms, covering up one of the larger red stains on his sweatshirt.
“Looking for a killer,” Darius purred.
“Well good luck with that.” Justin turned away from us, marching in the direction of the exit on the other side of the room.
I shot past him in a bolt of speed, stopping dead in front of him and tipping my head down as I exposed my fangs. He backed up a step in alarm and I glanced over his head as Darius closed in on him from behind.
“What do you want?” Justin demanded, trying not to look me in the eye. “I can’t believe they even let you walk around The Burrows with free reign,” he muttered. “It’s uncomfortable for everyone to look at you.”
I snarled and Darius released a growl that rumbled through the room, grabbing Justin’s shoulder and yanking hard enough to spin him around to face him.
“What’s with the stains?” he demanded and I leaned closer to sniff a dark blotch of red on Justin’s shoulder.
“It’s blood,” I confirmed and Justin jerked away from me, realising how close I was, but finding himself bumping into Darius’s chest instead. He was trapped between two predators and there was nowhere for him to run.
“I cut my hand, that’s all,” Justin insisted.
Darius grabbed his hands, examining them and Justin tried to yank them free.
“I’ve healed it now, obviously,” Justin said quickly. “I think I cut an artery because it spurted everywhere.”
“How convenient,” I drawled and he flinched, glancing back at me.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, but sweat was breaking out on his brow and I knew we had him.
“What’s your Order, Jacob?” Darius demanded.
“C-cerberus,” he stuttered, starting to sense we were the danger in the room. “And my name is Justin. Why are you asking that?”
“Because a large beast is going around killing people in The Burrows,” I said, fisting the back of his sweatshirt and tugging him towards me so I could speak in his ear. “Another victim has been found and now we’ve discovered you here covered in blood.”
“If I’d killed them in my Cerberus form, my clothes wouldn’t be bloody, would they?” he hissed.
“They might if you’d left them close by for your getaway,” Darius said, grabbing hold of Justin’s throat and squeezing.
I fisted my hand in his blonde hair, making him curse and Darius and I yanked him back and forth between us like lions with a bone as we both hankered for this kill.
“Stop!” he wailed in terror and a twisted satisfaction ran through me. “P-please, I didn’t kill anyone. You can’t prove it.”