Page 90 of Blood and Trouble

“Get her out of here!” Locust stood to run back into the fray. “Go!”

Bow was in the middle of four vampires, and more dropped out of the trees behind us. But my vision narrowed on my girl, on her trembling body and the fresh scent of her blood filling my nose, mixed with something wrong…something hot and mineral.

Silver.

They’re using silver bullets.

“I’m okay,” she murmured. “It’s just a scratch. I’m okay. Give me a minute and I’ll—I’ll be up and walking. Just give me⁠—”

“Shhh,” I told her, grabbing her hand to put it over the wound. “Don’t talk. Hold your hand here.”

I had some medical training from a rotation I did with Morwyn, our pack healer. But I wasn’t magically gifted like that. I couldn’t siphon the poison out of her or use pack energy to heal her. I only had our bond. It was a bloody, gory mess, and in that split-second glance, I couldn’t tell if the bullet was lodged inside her or merely scratched her. I debated what to do. I could run with her. But there were too many of these shitheads, and they’d follow us. They’d catch up to us.

Or I could end it here.

Something snapped inside me like an old rope that had weathered too much. The human side faded away. The feral beast who had just watched his mate be gunned down stepped forward. I let him take over. I let him have it.

“Don’t move.” My voice wasn’t my own. It sounded like an animal, like some monster from a horror movie. Rising to my feet, I grabbed a steel root digger leaning up against the shed and stalked forward. I moved faster than I ever had before. I stabbed one vampire through the chest with it before yanking it out and swinging it full force into another’s head.

I ran through those Scorpion fuckers like they were in slow motion, and I’d hit double speed. I hit a home run with one’s head before thrusting the business end through another’s throat and twisting.

Again and again and again. I didn’t stop until they were done. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, until they were lying in pieces. It was a massacre, a foul-smelling chorus of destruction, and I was the conductor. I made poetry out of their entrails and wrote sonnets from their screams.

I got so lost in my vengeance that, at the end, I turned to swing at a moving object, only to realize it was Bow. He held his hands up and backed away.

“Whoa, brother,” he said. “It’s just me.”

I heaved a deep breath and lowered my weapon, my arms shaking, my pulse pounding.

“You got ’em,” he said. “It’s over.”

I didn’t wait for anything else. I ran over to Ava, who trembled and whined, her face pale from blood loss. Locust knelt over her, shirtless, pressing the fabric to the wound.

“She needs a healer,” Locust said. “But we’ve gotta go. There’ll be more.”

I still didn’t trust myself to speak. I scooped her up, one arm under her knees, the other under her shoulders.

“Where?” I managed to snarl.

“Inside,” Locust said, pushing the shed doors open to reveal four old motorcycles. “Bow, get our shit.”

He limped around the decrepit scene, gathering our backpacks and guns and whatever else had fallen in the chaos.

“Let’s go.” I carried Ava to the closest one and straddled it, situating her in my lap before wrapping her arms around my neck. “Hold on, baby. Just stay with me.”

“I’m with you,” she whimpered.

I kicked it to life and took off. I didn’t know where we were going or when we’d meet up with Lycan, but I had to get her out of there. Locust quickly took the lead, and I followed him down the back road. Ava closed her eyes and leaned her head against my chest, and I thanked the fucking Gods for the mating bond.

Her magic curled around my soul. Her heartbeat echoed through my own.

She’s alive.

She’s safe. She’s alive.

CHAPTER 20

Lycan