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For the next five minutes,we stared at the water, watching for any sign that Zosime was alive. With each passing second, my anxiety was rising.
I tried to keep an eye on Lokene, not fully trusting that he wouldn’t dart into the encampment. The levels of fear and anger seeping from him were so high I was almost surprised I couldn’t see it wafting in the air.
“We could try to go around and behind the encampment and make our way to the water to see if we can locate her.” Even I heard the doubt in my voice. I wasn’t too keen to get near the murder water.
I glanced back at Lokene, and his heart was pounding hard enough that I could see it through his shirt. I understood the feeling, although Lokene would be experiencing it far worse since he and Zosi had completed their mating. I could only sit back and seethe with jealousy that she had claimed him and I was forced to watch from afar.
“If we head down there, it might alert them to our presence, which will just create more problems for Zosime. There is at least one more Ancient, the woman, but it’s possible there are more. I don’t want Zosi to get the wrong impression of our intentions. For now, we wait.” Lokene’s jaw was clamped tight enough to crack a tooth. “We need to trust Zosi knows what she’s doing. She’s already taken two of them out with terrifying ease.”
It was easier said than done. The instinct to protect her was insanely strong and not something I was used to feeling. But if we messed this up for her, it might be the last straw in her ability to forgive us.
Watching the water’s edge, we held our breath.
To our surprise, Zosime strode out from the rocky pathway behind the cabin. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun, and she was clad in her clothes from yesterday. She made her way onto the porch, pressing her back along the wall and pausing beside the doorframe.
Zosime’s hand shot out and gave three sharp knocks on the wood door.
I stopped breathing.
The woman pushed open the door and stepped out onto the porch.
Zosime sprung into action. Her leg moved faster than the speed of light, kicking the woman’s legs out from underneath her. Zosi leaped onto the Ancient woman, following her down on the porch.
Wasting no time, Zosime sank her fangs into the woman’s arm. The woman recovered quickly and slammed her head into Zosime’s skull. Even from this distance, I winced at the audible crack.
Zosi toppled off the Ancient, her movements unsteady as she staggered to her feet. Had she been able to inject the Ancient with enough of her lethal venom?
“We need to do something!” I couldn’t just sit here. I was an Ancient, but I’d never felt so useless in my life.
“Like what?” Lokene asked. “It’s not like we can hold the Ancient down for Zosime. That would still count as assisting in the murder and would break our oath. We can’t kill another Ancient.” His words were filled with bitterness and pain.
I understood his feelings. We were trapped between breaking our oath, unheard of for an Ancient, or standing by and watching history unfold without interfering… which was the Ancient way. It was fine to play with mortals and their worlds, but never to help or assist in any way that might change history. We were a powerful and utterly useless species.
The woman scooted away from Zosime, pushing to her feet only to slide back down to the floor.
Maybe Zosi had injected her. Hope soared in my chest. This might be over!
While visions had never been my strongest ability, I never saw what happened next coming. It wasn’t even one of the alternate futures.
Two new women ran around the front of the cabin and leaped onto the porch. The shorter red-haired woman wasted no time and launched herself at Zosime.
Lokene and I didn’t speak as we hurtled to our feet. It was three against one, and our girl needed help. We raced down the path, close enough to watch the horror play out in front of us, but too far to get there fast enough to intervene.
The second newcomer, a blonde-haired giant of a woman, slammed into Zosime with the force of a mountain lion, and they tumbled off the porch onto the soft sand. Kicks and punches were flying at an incredible speed. Zosi was an incredible fighter, but she had killed the others by catching them off guard; there wasn’t a chance on Earth she could take on three skilled and prepared Ancients at once.
My thoughts trailed off as the red-haired woman ran down the porch steps and wrapped her arms around Zosi’s neck in a chokehold. She tried pulling Zosime off her blonde friend, which was all the distraction Zosi needed.
Zosime’s fangs sank deep into the red-haired Ancient’s forearm. She ignored the woman’s shrill scream of pain. Wasting no time, Zosime rolled, flipping her body until the red-haired woman lay still as death beneath her.
Seeing that her attacker wasn’t a threat anymore, Zosi’s sharp eyes cut back to where the blonde lay in the sand. The woman she hadn’t bitten. But it was too late.
The moment that Zosime’s attention had turned toward the red-haired Ancient, the blonde woman had jumped into action. Shoving to her feet, she bent and grabbed something from her boot.
Time slowed as I watched the woman thrust a knife into Zosime’s stomach, quickly dragging it from belly button to rib and nearly gutting Zosime with that single move. Disbelieving horror numbed my body. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real.
Zosi never lost focus, not even when blood poured from her side in a crimson waterfall. It was a wound that no one but a full-blooded Ancient could survive. Zosime sprung forward, biting deep into the woman’s thigh, all the while her hands frantically tried to hold the gaping wound in her skin closed.
