My head shot up as I surveyed the horizon in search of more madagans or some other new threat. I saw nothing, but she’d seen something, and it was coming.
“Let’s go,” I commanded brusquely.
“It’s too late; they’re already here.”
I instinctively pulled her closer to me, determined to protect her from whatever she had seen. I didn’t care what happened to the humans surrounding us,nothingwas going to harm her. My fangs lengthened, and my fingers curled into her arm as the possessive instinct hit me with far more force than it ever had before.
Mine!This time there was no brushing off the thought, no denying the strength with which it rocked me. My gaze fell to her shoulder, the one I’d often sank my fangs into in our shared dreams. I’d never marked a woman in such a way, never had the compulsion before, but I would mark her. I would claim her because she wasmine, and now something was after her.
“Where?” I demanded.
Her hand pointed past me as something slithered free from the remains of a downed house. “Shit!” I hissed from between my teeth when the revenir rose to its feet and shuffled toward us.
Grabbing hold of her arms, I lifted her up and thrust her behind me. I steadied her when she wobbled for a second. “You stay behind me!” I commanded her.
“I’m supposed to fight these things, aren’t I?” she protested.
She was, but everything in me screamed against her going anywhere near abominations such as these. I knew what their presence here meant, but that was something I was going to have to deal with later. Right now, all that mattered was keeping River alive.
“Stay behind me!” Her chin tilted up at my harsh command, but I turned away from her before she could protest. “Revenirs!” I bellowed at the others.
Bale and Verin did a double take before leaping forward. The others moved toward the approaching revenir as my eyes scanned the large group of humans who had followed us here. Half of them had been on the training field and didn’t have guns; the other half had followed from the town and had weapons slung over their shoulders. I didn’t know if bullets would do anything against the revenirs. We were about to find out.
“Get your guns ready!” I shouted at the humans still unaware of the danger. “Mac, get them ready! And cover your ears!”
I turned toward River to make sure she was still behind me when an ear-piercing shriek rent the air. The humans recoiled; they screamed as they slapped their hands over their ears. A few of them hit their knees as the relentless shriek continued. I winced against the noise, but having heard it before, I was prepared for the revenirs’ cry.
River’s hands already covered her ears and I enclosed mine over hers for extra protection before pulling her against my chest. Her body quaked as the lenses of the glasses on three of the soldiers near us shattered. The humans’ screams couldn’t be heard over the continuous shriek of the dead rising around us.
More humans fell to their knees; River’s nose scrunched up, and her eyes squinted closed. I would have given anything to take her away from this, to keep her from hearing it, but I couldn’t get her away from here in time and these things would only follow us. Now that they knew there was life nearby, they would be ruthless in their pursuit to feed from it.
I would rend every one of these walking sacks of bone limb from limb for causing her this pain.
Then, as suddenly as it had started, the revenirs’ scream broke off. The shriek had done what it was intended to do, distracted their prey and left them weaker.
River blinked up at me when I released her hands. “Whatever you do, don’t let them kiss you.” I commanded. “River, do you hear me?”
“Yes, yes,” she managed to stammer out then winced at the sound of her own voice.
“None of you let them kiss you!” I shouted to be heard over the sobs and mewls from the humans surrounding us.
“That’s not something you had to tell me,” a man with an AK-47 muttered.
I spun to face the horde now coming at us as revenirs rose from beneath the remains of the homes. Around me, Bale, Verin, Morax, Shax, and Corson fanned out. Bale pulled two swords free from where she had them sheathed against her back.
“You know the best way to deal with them,” Corson said from beside me.
“I do.” The problem was there were some secrets I preferred to keep from the humans. They couldn’t know all that we were capable of, and if River had scared them with her burst of fire, I’d have them pissing themselves. “Keep yourself leashed unless it becomes necessary.”
“And you?”
I glanced back at River. With her hair stuck to her face and her eyes wide, she looked young and vulnerable. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do to keep her safe. She had nothing other than her hands and her fire with which to defend herself. The fire would be her best option against the revenirs, but there was no way to know how long she would be able to use it. Her shoulders continued to heave as she struggled to catch her breath. I never should have pushed her so far when we’d been fighting.
I never could have expected revenirs to arrive in this world though. The first seal of Hell had been broken. The dead now walked the earth.
River’s violet eyes were searching as more and more revenirs poured from beneath the homes, pushing the humans closer against us as they tried to avoid the dead.
“I’ll do what has to be done,” I told Corson.
