Burn This! (A 300 Moons Book)(Bad Boy Alphas) by Tasha Black Page A

lock him up somewhere.
    Too many variables.
    He could stay in this room until he had an actual mental breakdown…
    He looked down at his arm. The tattoos were almost gone. In their place, the darkness clawed its way to the surface.
    Hell, what was he supposed to do?
    The moonlight through the window gleamed on Little Ruby’s satiny finish.
    Quick as a thought, he grabbed her off her stand and headed back out the door of his luxury suite.
    Vaguely, he knew it would not be a good idea to wander close to the cliffs at night, especially in this strange mood. Instead, he found himself heading for the courtyard.
    There was a huge woodpile there, it must have been set up for Friday’s bonfire and luau. Perfect.
    He kept to the shadows and went to the other side of it, so that no one inside would see him.
    The night air was bracing, more than fresh. It soothed him, but the only thing that would really soothe him was the medicine he was about to give himself.
    His fingers slid across Ruby’s strings, an exploration. She was the perfect companion - her hollow belly gave her the sound of an acoustic in spite of being electric.
    One thing was for sure - she sounded phenomenal out here, her clear, sure voice slightly forlorn in the face of the breeze.
    His fingers meandered over the frets, not really playing anything, just trying to figure out what they had to say tonight. He thought about the family back at Harkness Farms, about Mom, so fierce and proud and yet so prone to helpless laughing fits if you hit her up with the right joke at the right time.
    He thought about Derek, and his steady, older brother presence.
    He thought about Darcy, the brave and the loyal, so quick to skin a knee or interrogate a bully to be part of her brothers’ little pack.
    And Chance, little Chance, who was bigger than all of them but managed to make them smile with his innocent way of looking at the world.
    What would they say when he told them he’d turned his back on his animal?
    The outside lights went off in quick succession, like birthday candles being blown out.
    For a moment he was thrown, but then he realized they were likely on motion sensors.
    A second later he noticed the complete and utter silence. Even the constant whine of the ventilation system was off.
    The whole place must have lost power.
    A high-pitched shriek tore the air.
    Johnny’s heart dropped to his stomach at first, thinking it must be Neve. He relaxed when he realized that the only voice in the place capable of that note was Jocelyn’s.
    Someone had probably stepped on her pet’s tail in the dark.
    Still, the whole thing gave him the heebie-jeebies.
    He decided to head back in and join up with the others.
    Then he felt the cold.
    It was as sudden and shocking as when Derek used to stick a snowball down his shirt when they were kids. Bears weren’t really bothered much by the cold, so Derek and Chance had never understood why Johnny was so indignant about it.
    This was no cool breeze, no, this cold was… palpable.
    Something was out there.
    “Hello?” he said.
    The sound of his own voice made the bad thing more real.
    The mark on his arm buzzed with pain.
    He saw nothing, he heard absolutely nothing, yet he knew to his bones there was evil close by.
    His animal sniffed disdainfully at its mental cage.
    I can see it. You know I can.
    The last thing on earth he wanted to do was allow it close to the surface. It was the entire reason he’d come here in the first place. But he had a bad feeling he was in over his head. And that meant the others might be in trouble too. Neve might be in trouble.
    He relaxed his hold on the creature inside him the tiniest bit. Go ahead. Help if you can help.
    Say my name.
    I won’t.
    Then you and your playmates are on your own.
    Fine. Dragon.
    Very well.
    His vision slid into a kaleidoscope of gray. The world looked like a pencil drawing: gray wood on gray stones on gray sand.
    But there was no need for light. It was as if everything were