King Cave

Antonio let go of my shoulder. “He’s straight ahead. Follow the sounds of the pain.”

Abruptly, he disappeared.

I sat Bonnie high on a branch and ordered her to stay, before my head fell back and I howled my demand. I could hear there were too many Coms ahead. I needed reinforcements. The type with sharp, deadly teeth, and this was a damn forest.

They came.

Even more came.

Within a minute, I had over one hundred wolves of all shapes, sizes, and colors standing before me. I didn’t fear them. Not one bit. Every single one of their heads lowered in submission as my eyes glowed, and I growled, sending my will into them.

Kill, by means of anger and protection.

They all growled, peering past me. I didn’t worry for Ezra. He could run fast enough to escape them.

But the Coms couldn’t.

I grinned and turned, running full force toward the music of warfare, the wolves following behind. Coming out into a clearing, I saw what looked like a tiny town. The kind with only one street for its downtown, maybe four buildings long on each side, each two stories high, and a gravel road at the end leading through the thick tree growth. There were no houses surrounding the area, just the stone buildings. At the edge of the street, toward the gravel road in a large clearing where a picnic table sat, were at least two hundred Coms. Way too many for this little town with probably a population of fifty.

I sucked air, seeing a long line of bodies littering the main road. About fifty. Peering side-to-side, I took off behind the building on the left with the wolves following, my direction bypassing the carnage they might stop and snack on. I ran at the mass, knowing that Ezra was still in there as Coms screamed and gunshots fired.

There were two Vamps on the left of the circled clusterfuck, fighting the Coms, but I saw two others that lay dead, those bodies at their feet. They glanced my way, hearing me and the herd of wolves advancing. Even though my adrenaline and heart rate were too high from fear and fury, I could still appreciate the looks of shock that graced their features.

But they hadn’t stayed alive this long from stupidity. They shut their gaping jaws and went back to slaughtering. I, on the other hand, took off, speeding up for a few ticks before launching into the air. I stared down at the masses, scanning the crowd as quickly as I could.

I saw Ezra.

He was smack in the center, covered in blood, with a pile of bodies growing around him, Clyde darting in and out of Coms next to him and swiping at their ankles. And Ezra was hampered. He had only one arm to use because the other was holding a tiny Vampire girl, her face stuffed against his neck. Feeling gravity take hold, I tucked and flipped as I began to fall, automatically throwing my arms out, short swords extended, and began slicing into the Coms as I landed in a crouch to keep from breaking my bones, my training automatic.

Ezra was only a few feet away now, taller than the rest, so I focused on getting to him as I diced Coms, going for the direct kill by slicing their heads clean off. I didn’t call out to him and risk him being distracted, but I knew that he heard the screams of the Coms from the far end of the mass. The wolves had attacked.

He didn’t notice my prey fall.

No screams.

They fell silent.

Dead.

Breathing with the motion, I kept my ears open and pivoted anytime I heard a gun clicking over, my senses allowing me to be fast enough that the firing weapon would hit someone else. By the scent, they were all silver bullets. I sliced at an angle, my blades no longer shining but slinging blood and flesh.

I twirled and landed at my husband’s side.

He was starting to throw a Com male into the mass and glanced at me, fangs bared, but blinked and finished tossing the man, causing a line of them to stumble back. “Sweetheart?” His confusion was evident.

“Shut up and fight,” I muttered, jumping and spinning, slicing off four heads in a row before landing. “I’ll explain later.”

“Any back-up?”

I ducked as he threw a dead Com. “Wolves.”

He nodded then blurred, taking down five more before coming back to my side. “I’m loving your battle attire, although, it would be more erotic if your lingerie didn’t have dancing penguins on it.”

I grunted, kicking a f**ker that got too close, making him crumple and not get back up since his back was now bent in half. “Dammit, I like this set. It’ll be ruined now.”

“Shame, that,” Ezra chuckled before blurring again.

I twirled, slicing at three others.

Ezra and I quit yapping when they all advanced at once, seeing two of us. Ezra and I aimed for the road, pushing them to move while trying to find a break in their numbers, but they seemed to understand our plan, continually rotating in a circle so that when a portion went down more took their place.

That’s when Ezra grunted. He paused, standing still for too long, staring down at a silver arrow imbedded through his stomach, protruding all the way out through the small of his back.

I blinked.

Mine.

I reacted on pure instinct and sliced down onto the thick shaft, cutting off the head. He sucked in harshly at the motion, and I spun in front of him, on full protection mode, and carved into the vultures that were coming in for the kill. Even as their beheaded bodies were crumpling, I turned and grabbed the silver shaft at his stomach, shuddering at the touch, but yanked it out quickly. Ezra lurched, blood pouring from his stomach, but he moved back into motion, his blurring only slightly slower than before. The whole incident taking maybe five seconds.

While fighting, I began glancing into the trees, searching their depths for whoever had made that shot. That was when I grunted, a slicing pain screaming in my thigh. I stumbled, almost falling, and saw a duplicate silver arrow sticking out of my flesh. Ezra blurred back to my side and grabbed one of my swords from my hands, cutting the head off as I had his. Healed from his injury, he yanked the silver shaft out of the front of my leg.

Tossing it aside, he jerked, falling forward. “Fuck.” Blood blossomed on the back of the shirt I had designed for him right above the wolf’s head.

I caught him, stumbling with the motion when my leg wouldn’t support me. Someone had f**king shot what was mine. He jerked against me, cursing. Another blotch of blood appeared on his right shoulder. He arched back, a different stain of crimson blooming too close to his heart.

When he only stood as a target of blood loss, shock, and pain, I threw him and the girl to the blood-soaked grass beneath our feet, quickly throwing Com corpses over them and commanding the girl with my Shifter will to stay hidden when she peered up at me.