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“What do you feel?”
“Like we’re being followed.”
“I’ve been feeling that since we left Vee’s. Since we left the school.”
“Yeah. Me too.” I looked around warily, peering closely at shadows. “I thought I was just paranoid and that it would pass. It hasn’t passed. It’s actually getting—”
I was going to say stronger, but before the word could pass my lips, an earth shattering roar from behind knocked me flat. I rolled over, turned around, and rose into a crouch as a beast charged out from behind a stone outcropping. All I could see was spiky black fur and vicious, sharp teeth before Xero knocked me out of the way.
“What is that thing?” I shouted.
Nobody answered. They had all shifted and were trying to fight it off. It had eyes like Kai’s when he was in his vampire mode, but they were bigger and more evil—like black pits that permitted no light to enter. Its teeth were like the vampire’s too, only longer and more abundant. The black fur covered a grotesquely elongated humanoid frame, and on its belly where the fur was thinner, black arteries and veins were visible through its deathly pale skin. It swiped at Kai, slicing his chest from shoulder to rib with vicious blood-red claws.
Blood rushed in my ears, the intensity of it almost making me lightheaded as fear filled me. I summoned my persuasion, trying to keep my tone calm even though all I wanted to do was scream.
“Stop.” My clear voice rang off of the mountains around us, echoing back at me. The monster didn’t even hesitate. “Fuck. You aren’t thinking. Can you think? Do you even have a brain?”
My powers were useless against a beast with no sex drive and no higher-level thought process. I had no idea what its mate would look like if it had one, and I was afraid to shift into an exact copy of the monster—it might think it had competition for the food supply and become even more deranged and aggressive. So far no one but Kai had been hurt, but the others weren’t having much luck wounding the thing. For as thin as its skin looked, it seemed to be impenetrable.
“Kingston, fire!”
Xero gave the order while yanking Kai and Jayce back several feet.
My dragon shifter mate blasted the thing, and it caught fire faster than dry grass. Shrieking in pain, it fell to the ground, flailing and rolling. As soon as the fire was out, it scrambled back to its feet, looking singed as fuck and royally pissed off. Patches of hair were missing, and its skin had gone from pearl white to a crackling gray, but it didn’t seem hurt.
Kai launched an attack at a crispy spot on the beast’s chest with—was that a stick?
“Stake it!” Xero bellowed.
Oh. Vampire rules? Maybe the principle was the same for everything in the vamp family.
Kai buried the sharp wood in the monster’s chest and pulled down, trying to slice the thing open. A fountain of noxious black blood spurted from the wound, soaking Kai’s torso. It shrieked and swung again, but it was clumsy in its pain and only knocked Kai down. It must have hit him hard though, because he stayed down. Jayce, Xero, and I attacked it with more stakes until its savage screams became pitiful whimpers, then Kingston finished it off with a blast of flame, scorching its entire body. We all stood panting, staring at the thing, for a long moment. Then my heart lurched as the adrenaline faded, and I ran to Kai, who still hadn’t moved.
“Kai. Oh, shit. Kai! Are you hurt?”
I touched his shoulder. It was soaked in blood, and I reflexively snatched my hand back again. Red and black blood smeared together on my palm, mingling into an almost purple color. I wiped it on the grass and rolled Kai over carefully.
He stared up at the sky with wide, slitted eyes. For one horrible, devastating second, I thought he was dead—but then he started to breathe. Fast, then faster.
“Hey! Kai, look at me. What’s wrong? How can I help?” I held his face in my hands and turned his head to face mine, trying to figure out where he was hurt. How he was hurt. His fangs sprang out over his lower lip as he growled.
“Piper.” Jayce’s voice was distant and utterly calm, the way it was when he was practicing that perfect neutrality thing his parents had taught him. “Get away from him.”
Jayce never, ever gave me orders. He’d always seemed to consider our relationship more of a partnership—probably something else he’d gotten from his parents—so issuing commands wasn’t really his style.
But that’s exactly what he’d just done.
I looked up at him sharply and saw fear burning in his eyes, a growing terror that belied his tone completely. The beginnings of a growl gurgled in Kai’s throat, and I jumped back just as he leapt toward me, claws out and mouth open.
“Kai, stop! What’s the matter with you?” I jerked back, stumbling away from him, but he was stalking me like a predator. His eyes were fixed on my throat, and he just kept coming, slowly at first, then faster. He caught up to me in a flash, swiping at me the way the other monster had swiped at him. I dodged and kept dodging, but I couldn’t find it in me to fight him. If we went toe-to-toe, the only way I’d survive would be to fight with everything I had, and I didn’t want to risk injuring or killing him.
But what the fuck is wrong with him?
“Hey, asshole! Pick on someone your own size!” Jayce punched Kai in the back of the head.
“Jayce!” My tone was scolding and pleading all at once.
The hellhound barely had time to shoot me an exasperated look before Kai whirled around to attack him. He’d found his footing now, I guessed, because he was flying around in a snarling blur of teeth and fangs, attacking whoever was nearest.
