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I had no idea what he expected, but it didn’t matter. The wolf seemed to know. Whipping in a tight turn, the shadow creature raced toward the invisible attackers.
Screams came from behind us. I looked back, still running at Roan’s side.
People stumbled from behind the trees only to fall as Ruhl ripped them down into the undergrowth and their panicked cries cut short with vicious speed. Sunlight glinted dully from burnished metal chest plates and helmets. They were obviously soldiers of some kind, but I couldn’t tell what nation they were from or why the hell they were attacking us.
But for all his power, Ruhl couldn’t be everywhere. One of the soldiers swung his crossbow around, unleashing a bolt straight at us.
I shifted instantly and slammed into Roan, shoving him out of the way.
But I didn’t move far enough.
The bolt ripped through my shadowy form.
Pain screamed through me, blinding with its sheer agony. I tumbled down and crashed into the forest floor, my body instinctively shifting back to human form as if that would help something.
Gods, it didn’t. Agony throbbed through my middle, like the bolt had torn straight through my insides when it passed.
“Gwyneira!” Roan crouched before me, the icy look in his eyes becoming panic as he checked me over frantically.
“I’m okay. Get to the others.”
“Like fuck I’m leaving you.”
Past his shoulder, I saw another soldier take aim. I gasped. “Get down!”
The bolt sliced through the air. Roan grunted as it grazed his side, but still he tried to hold himself between me and the soldiers.
But more were coming.
“Shift,” I told him.
Horror joined the agony in his gaze.
“He won’t kill us.” I stared into his eyes, praying the demon could hear me—and that I was right. “Will you?”
Roan shuddered. But thread-thin fissures of flame cracked through the skin around his eyes.
And then he grinned.
The demon was back.
Shifting as he moved, Roan rose to his feet and spun. Crossbow bolts tore the air. With clawed hands, he batted them away. The soldiers drew their swords.
He lunged.
Screams rose. Blood splattered the undergrowth, and not a drop of it looked as if it came from Roan. Like a living nightmare, he took to the air and yanked soldier after soldier up with him, and his claws made short work of any who tried to stop his attack.
A dark blur shot through the forest to my right, and suddenly Ozias joined the fray. Snatching a soldier who’d started to aim his crossbow my direction, he flung the man through the air and paid no attention as he hit a tree at an angle so sharp, his neck snapped in an instant. Whirling, Ozias merely snagged another, and more blood splattered the ground as he tore the soldier’s throat out with his teeth.
I swallowed hard.
Shouts came from behind me, and suddenly, Dex and the twins arrived. Racing into the battle with their swords drawn, they swung at the soldiers, and the sounds of metal against metal filled the air.
“Well, hello, my little fucktoy,” Casimir said congenially, his tone utterly at odds with the chaos nearby. Crouching at my side, he flashed me a fanged grin. “Time to go, yes?”
Not waiting for my answer, the vampire scooped me up from the forest floor and took off running in the other direction. Several yards back, Byron was waiting behind a thick tree trunk. When we raced past, he followed, one eye on the battle behind us as if to gauge how close the soldiers were coming.
“What about the others?” I asked, wincing as my insides ached.
