“Stay close to me.” Kobal pushed me behind him. “Get in line behind us!” he shouted at the others as more gunfire echoed over the land.
Soldiers from the town were running up the hill to help, but the first wave of beasts had already reached us. More screams resonated as the creatures launched themselves into the air. I cried out when the first one slammed into Kobal, knocking him back a step. I leapt forward to try to help him, but he seized the four-foot-long creature and held it dangling in front of him. The stubby legs kicked in the air as awful, high-pitched squeals rang from it. The screams and gunshots filling the air echoed in my eardrums.
Still holding the madagan within his grasp, I watched as Kobal drove his hands inward, crushing the sides of the hideous creation. More of the monsters leapt forward, but the demons managed to keep them away from us.
Kobal tossed aside the crushed body of the madagan and turned to take on the next one. At least fifty of them had come over the top of the hill; it was only a matter of time before the demons fighting with us were outnumbered.
Morax fell back with a shout as one of the madagans drove its tusk through his leg and lifted him up. Verin grabbed hold of him, jerking upward and pulling him free of the tusk, but it had already become the first break in the line. Shax fell back next when one of the madagans lowered its head and barreled through him. His body flew upward, and he flipped head over heels through the air before crashing into the ground.
Some of the volunteers turned and raced down the hill. Others fell back but didn’t retreat entirely. I tried to see where the swords and other weapons were, but I couldn’t find the box of supplies through the chaos surrounding me. I didn’t know how much good a sword would do against one of these things, but it would be a lot more helpful than only my bare hands.
Kobal seized another one and flung away the two-hundred-pound monster as if it weighed no more than ten pounds. More creatures leapt forward, knocking back Corson and Bale. They stayed on their feet but more of the madagans broke through the line. I tried to remain close to Kobal, but I found myself being separated from him by people and madagans.
“Fall back!” Kobal shouted.
I took a stumbling step away as one of the monsters sprinted around Bale and raced toward me. The ground quaked beneath my feet; the vibrations rattled my teeth as large plumes of smoke burst from the top of its head.
“River, run!” Kobal bellowed.
All I wanted was to sprint away from here, but there would be no outrunning this thing. Adrenaline rushed through me, and my heart leapt into my throat as those beady red eyes latched onto me like I was waving a red flag at it. Screams resonated around me as the beast reeled back on its hind legs and flung itself into the air. I raised my hands to do I don’t know what, grab it, punch it, I had no idea, but the gesture had been instinctive.
The monster was almost on top of me when I felt a crackle of something surge through my body. Heat pooled into my hands, and before I realized what was happening, fire burst from my palms. A hideous squeal erupted from the madagan when it landed head first, ten feet back in the direction it had come from. Its stubby feet kicked in the air as flames licked over its body; its skin popped and its body blackened as the fire consumed its flesh.
Around me, I felt a current of shock, but it was nothing compared to the disbelief that went through me. Even knowing the odd things I was able to do, I had never truly believed that I’d been the one to set those curtains on fire all those years ago. I had thought it was a fluke. Apparently, I’d been completely wrong.
Turning my hands toward me, I gawked at the unmarred flesh of my palms. Where moments ago there had been flames, now there was nothing but smooth hands. I felt no heat coming from my skin and saw no signs they’d just set fire to that hideous monster, but the smoking pile of bones across from me proved they had.
“River, watch out!”
Kobal’s shout drew my attention away from my hands and back toward the chaos of the day. I spotted two more madagans coming at me. I didn’t have time to react before a pair of arms wrapped around my waist. The impact of Kobal’s body crashing into mine knocked us both backward. He turned as we fell to the ground, taking most of the impact with his shoulder as we bounced across the unyielding earth. The air was knocked out of my lungs and I gasped before taking a ragged breath.
I lay still, trying to catch my breath and staring up at the clear blue sky as the ground shook beneath me. I didn’t have time to get my bearings before he was rolling us rapidly over the grass, further away from the beasts. My head spun and my stomach lurched. I closed my eyes against the spinning to try to calm my growing nausea.
Finally, he stopped rolling across the earth. I was on the bottom now, pinned beneath his body. I’d often imagined this position with him over the past couple of weeks, but it had been a lot more fun then, and not a life-or-death situation while my stomach threatened to reveal what I’d eaten for breakfast.
Kobal loomed over me as he hastily brushed aside the strands of hair sticking to my face. The black fingernails that had extended into three-inch-long claws retracted as he touched me. I blinked at him, my heart lurching when I saw his eyes. They were no longer the color of night, but a vibrant, amber gold with a black pupil in the center of the golden iris. They were more like human eyes now with the pupil and whites surrounding the iris, but they reminded me more of awolf’seyes as they burned into mine.
“Are you injured?” he demanded.
I was so focused on those startling eyes and the four fangs I could now see when he spoke that I didn’t answer. Two long fangs had extended from his upper canines and another set had risen from his bottom canines. They were so extremely wolf-like that I found my gaze going to the intricate tattoo on his left arm.
“River!” he yelled, his voice harsher than I’d ever heard it before.
“Fine,” I finally muttered. “I’m fine.”
His hands stilled on my face as he stared at me. His fingers gently grasped hold of my chin. Those impossibly golden eyes were turbulent as they flickered over my face and his grip on my chin squeezed subtly.
Climbing off me, he took hold of my hand and helped me to my feet. I looked toward where the creatures had come from, but the ones who weren’t already dead were turning and running back up the hill. Bullets pummeled the earth behind them, kicking up grass and dirt.
Kobal stepped closer to my side, his chest pressing against my arm when Mac arrived, panting beside us. Mac’s gaze ran over me before going to the still smoldering body of the one I’d barbequed.
“It’s her, isn’t it?” Mac demanded.
The way he spoke about me, as if I wasn’t there, rankled, and I found myself glaring at the man I’d come to like during my time here.
Kobal’s hand folded possessively around my elbow. “She’ll be staying with us from now on.”
My head shot toward him. “What? Why?”
