Chapter Four:No turning back
1199 Words
Chapter 4: No Turning Back
Gunfire echoed behind us, sharp and close.
“Move!” Lucien’s hand locked around my wrist, dragging me through the service tunnel before I could think.
The air stank of rust and damp concrete. Water dripped from overhead pipes, each drop sounding like a gunshot in the tight space. Footsteps pounded behind us—Viktor’s men weren’t giving up.
A silver bullet whizzed past my ear and sparked against the wall.
“Down!” Lucien shoved me to the ground, covering me with his body as another round hit where I’d been standing.
My wolf snarled, ready to shift, ready to tear. But shifting here would kill us both.
“Can you run?” he asked, voice low, urgent.
I nodded, even though my ribs screamed. The bond flared between us, and suddenly I knew exactly where to put my feet to avoid the loose grate ahead. I hated that it felt natural.
We ran.
The tunnel split ahead—left went deeper underground, right sloped up toward a maintenance ladder.
“Up,” Lucien said, already heading right. “My car’s two blocks over.”
“No.” I yanked my arm free and pointed left. “My sister’s trail goes that way. If Viktor’s men are following her—”
“Emotion gets you killed,” Lucien cut in. His eyes were cold, calculating.
“Leaving her gets me killed inside,” I shot back.
For a second I thought he’d leave me. Then he pulled out his phone and typed fast.
“Marcus is moving to her location,” he said. “He’ll secure her. We stick to the plan.”
I didn’t trust it. But it was better than nothing.
“Fine,” I said. “But if anything happens to her—”
“It won’t,” Lucien said. “Not if we stay alive.”
We took the ladder up, bursting into an abandoned subway station. The place smelled like dust and old rain. Graffiti covered the walls, and the tracks below were silent.
“Hide,” Lucien whispered, pulling me behind a concrete pillar.
We pressed flat against it, breathing hard. Below, flashlights swept across the platform. Viktor’s men.
I could feel my wolf pacing, trapped. The bond wasn’t helping now—it was amplifying everything. Lucien’s tension, my fear, the need to fight or run.
“Why doesn’t it hurt?” I whispered.
“What?”
“The bond. Everyone says it’s supposed to be agony if you fight it. But I feel you, and it’s… not bad.”
Lucien’s jaw tightened. “It will be. If we keep ignoring it, the pain starts. For both of us. Then I lose control.”
I looked at him. “What happens when you lose control?”
“Bad things,” he said simply. “For you. For me. For everyone around us.”
I wanted to argue. I wanted to say I didn’t care. But the truth was, the idea of him losing control scared me more than Viktor did.
“What if I don’t want you?” I asked. The words came out harsher than I meant.
Lucien didn’t flinch. He didn’t give me some cheesy line about fate.
“Then we end up hating each other and still dying together,” he said. “Pick your poison, Ava.”
My name on his lips did something stupid to my chest.
I glanced down at my wrist. A faint silver line was starting to form there, like a scar that hadn’t finished healing. The first mark of the bond.
I touched it before I could stop myself.
It burned.
“Stop,” Lucien said quietly. “It’ll get worse if you keep touching it.”
I dropped my hand like I’d been burned.
We didn’t have time for more.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. Unknown number.
Viktor.
Lucien saw it and nodded. “Speaker.”
I answered.
“Ava Carter,” Viktor’s voice slithered through the speaker, smooth and amused. “Still running? I’m impressed.”
“What do you want?” I said.
“Simple,” he said. “Give me the ledger, and I’ll let your sister go. I’ll even end the war between your pack and the Ashfords. All it costs is one little book.”
Lucien’s hand found mine in the dark. His thumb brushed over my knuckles. A silent question.
I didn’t answer Viktor right away.
“And if I don’t?” I asked.
“Then she starts bleeding,” Viktor said. His tone didn’t change. That was worse. “Slowly. On camera. I’m sure you’ll enjoy watching.”
Rage hit me hot and fast. My wolf clawed at the surface.
“Don’t touch her,” I said, voice low.
“I’m waiting,” Viktor said. “You have an hour.”
The line went dead.
Lucien didn’t say anything. He was watching me, waiting to see what I’d do.
I hung up.
“Your sister’s life for the ledger,” he said. “That’s his offer.”
“I know what he said,” I snapped.
“And?”
“And I don’t trust him,” I said. “If I give him the ledger, he kills us both anyway.”
Lucien nodded. “Smart.”
“Don’t act like you’re proud of me,” I muttered.
I was about to say more when Lucien’s phone buzzed.
He read it, and his expression darkened.
“What?” I asked.
“Marcus,” he said. “We have her. But it’s a trap.”
Cold spread through my chest.
“A trap?” I said.
Viktor knew we’d go for her. Of course he did.
Lucien grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the exit. “We’re moving. Now.”
“Where?”
“Warehouse on 12th and D,” he said. “It’s where Marcus last pinged her phone.”
I stopped walking.
“If we walk into that warehouse, we die,” I said. “If we don’t, my sister dies. Pick one, Lucien.”
His jaw clenched. For the first time since I met him, he looked like he didn’t have an answer.
“Then we change the rules,” he said.
“How?”
“We don’t walk in,” he said. “We hit them before they expect it.”
Footsteps echoed from the tunnel behind us. They’d found us.
Lucien pulled me forward, running.
“Hold onto me,” he said.
I didn’t argue.
The bond flared, and the world tilted.
When it settled, we were outside, three blocks away. Vampire speed. My stomach lurched, but I didn’t throw up. Progress.
“Where’s the ledger?” Lucien asked as we ran.
“Safe,” I said.
“Good. Keep it that way.”
We stopped in an alley, both of us breathing hard.
“Plan,” I said.
Lucien’s eyes glowed faintly red in the dark.
“We draw Viktor out,” he said. “And we end this.”
Sirens wailed in the distance. Police. Or worse.
“Let’s move,” I said.
This time, I didn’t let go of his hand first.
- Writer
