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I wave without turning around. As soon as I’m in the trees, I stop, ducking behind a tree and taking stock of my options. I could wait here and take out the hunters as soon as they enter the trees. But they’ll probably be spread out, so it’ll eat up some time. And I’d risk one of them finding the werewolf first and killing him.
My best bet is to find the werewolf first, get him to safety, make sure the other Slayers are safe, and then take out the hunters. Easy. All I have is several acres of forest to cover. Before three trained hunters do it. And an unknown number of Slayers to locate and manage. And a werewolf on a full moon.
“Uggggh.” I pick a direction and start running. My cell rings, and I startle, pulling it out. Von Alston never even checked for phones or weapons, the smug ass. “Cillian? Is something wrong?”
“I’m trying to think of a play on Lucille Ball. But I can’t figure out a way to make any cat puns with it. I wish you had consulted me on cat colors before. A ginger cat makes things so much more specific and complicated. I feel like you can’t overlook that detail.”
“Oh my gods, Cillian. I cannot talk to you about the cat right now.”
“Did you already name it? That’s not fair!”
“No, I can’t talk to you about the cat because I’m currently prowling through a forest hunting a werewolf who might also be hunting me in addition to three toxic masculinity poster boys who are definitely hunting me.”
“Nina. What is going on?”
I sense movement on either side. I can’t say how I do—I don’t see or hear anything. But I know there are two people closing in on me.
“Listen, I don’t like people names for animals. It makes it so awkward when you meet people with the same name. ‘Oh, Nina! We named our hedgehog Nina!’ Like, how am I supposed to respond to that? I can’t even …” I throw my phone hard to the side. Someone squeaks in pain as it connects with a face. I drop to the forest floor as a large stick swings through the air where my head would have been. I sweep my leg, tripping someone. She curses in Spanish as she goes down.
I hop to my feet and whirl to find myself face-to-face with the ice cream Slayer from my dreams.
“You!” I say.
“You!” she says. And then she punches me in the face.
“Ow! Gods, I actually prefer the ice cream.” I dodge another punch, then kick her in the stomach. She doubles over, stumbling back. “I don’t want to hurt you! Any of you! I’ve got to get to the werewolf.”
“We won’t let you hurt him!” The Slayer with the stick pushes herself up. In the darkness, she’s an indistinct mass of gorgeous curly dark hair and whirling kicks and fists. I dodge, jump up, grab a low branch, then swing a double kick into her chest. She flies backward, landing hard. The third one I hit with the phone is still on the ground, crying. It was a phone. I can’t have hurt her that bad.
The ice cream one has recovered. “He is our friend.”
“I’m not going to kill him! I’m trying to save him! And I’m trying to save you three, assuming you stop punching me.” I dodge a fist from the curly-haired Slayer. “Seriously! Stop. I’m on your side. I’m not going to kill the werewolf. I might have to knock him out so he doesn’t bite anyone, but that’s it.”
“It won’t be a …” There’s a whistling noise and we all throw ourselves down as a tranquilizer dart sings past us.
“Three hunters,” I hiss. “I promise I’m on your side. Let’s work together.”
“Taylor’s going to be useless,” the curly-haired Slayer whispers, gesturing at the crying Slayer. “And I—I don’t want to do any of this either.”
“Grab her and get her somewhere safe, then.” I look at the ice cream Slayer. “I’m Nina.”
“Chao-Ahn.” She frowns at me. Then she turns to the other Slayer. “Maricruz, get her out. Cling to the edges of the trees. We’ll find you when we’ve finished this.”
But Chao-Ahn’s hands are shaking, her full lips trembling. Come to think of it, all their attacks were clumsy, and their faces in the moonlight look terrified. Something’s happened that I don’t know about. Maybe Von Alston drugged them, or hurt them before releasing them as some sort of a handicap. My protective instinct flares, momentarily overpowering my punch-kick-kill instincts.
I shake my head. “No, you three should stay together. You’ll be stronger that way, and then I won’t have to worry about stumbling into one of you and attacking by accident again. I only have one job if you three are safe, and that’s getting the werewolf out alive. I can do it. I promise. Go to the edge of the tree line. I passed a huge dead oak on my way in. Climb it and wait.”
“For what?” Maricruz, the curly-haired one, asks. Taylor is wiping her face
and standing with Chao-Ahn’s help.
“My signal.”
Chao-Ahn hands me my phone. “What signal?”
“The bat signal. I don’t know. I’ll figure something out. You’ll know it’s me on account of I’m not a dude. Go!”
They hesitate for only a second, then take off running in the direction I came. I hope the hunter who shot at us doesn’t follow them. “Oh no,” I cry out, rolling my eyes. “I twisted my ankle. Don’t leave me behind! Wait for me!”
