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At least, that’s what Ithought…until I see the building erupt in flame.
My eyes go wide as I watch a massive explosion engulf the prison, and then hear the blare of strange sirens wailing across the lake. The water is crystalline pink, tinted by the Celestial Curtain, and shakes with the force of the explosions at the prison.
And then I hear them: howls, from a strange pack.
Lycanthropes.
“We need to run,” I tell her, and then grab Charlotte by the crook of her elbow to pull her along with me. We dodge around cars, Charlotte barely keeping up with me. The lake stretches on either side of us, and I realize with a glimmer of relief that the wolves are movingawayfrom us.
Another blast shakes us and I stumble forward, losing my grip on Charlotte. My heart races because I can tell that something evenworseis happening—the bridge is shaking, the cables ready to snap. There hasn’t been any maintenance on the bridge in ages; the Angels don’t need it, not when they have aircraft to get from place to place. And now, it’s bearing the brunt of all these cars, and the explosion seems to have finally done it in.
“Elijah!” Charlotte screams, her eyes going wide.
And the suspension bridgesnaps.
The metal cables zing and whir as they fly backward, and Charlotte falls back on her ass, drawn down by the weight of her backpack. Then she’s sliding as the bridge collapses in a mess of cars and debris and concrete, and I’m watching as Ilose her.
No.
I will not lose my mate.
The thought envelops me as I start to transform, my claws coming out and my knees bending and contorting. My teeth get longer, readying my body for battle, and for the second time in my entire life, I wolf out—just as Charlotte slips off of the bridge and into the muddy water beneath us.
I race on all fours toward the water and leap in, the debris rough against me but harmless against my tough hide. Charlotte is soft, though, and weighed down by that backpack, she’s sinking fast. I look around in the dirty, turbulent water for her, desperately searching, hoping that she hasn’t been killed on impact—
I don’t know what I’ll do, find her, find her!
Blood in the water. It sinks into my senses and I dive, straight toward the river’s muddy bottom. I can’t see for shit, the pink sun just barely streaming through the water’s surface, most of it blocked by debris. But I cansmellher, and I pursue that scent like a bloodhound, paddling until I realize I’m running out of air myself.
There!
I head straight toward her, finding her in a few seconds. Charlotte is floating beneath me, her head bleeding, her hair in a cloud of honey blonde around her. My heart thunders in my chest as I reach for her and grab her shirt in my teeth, yanking her upwards. The damn backpack is caught on something though, and I snarl as I duck beneath her to chew it off.
If I let her go now to take a breath, I’ll lose her. We have to get outnow.
The backpack sinks, leaving only the ruined fiddle case slung over Charlotte’s shoulder. She’s light enough that I can get us out, and I head for the light above, dodging the remaining debris. I can only hope that I can find east—that I won’t put us on the opposite side of the river, closer to where we started than where we’re going.
I heave a breath as I surface, dragging Charlotte along with me. But the beach is there, covered in muddy, wet sand and glistening with droplets of ruby red water. Charlotte’s body is limp as I place her on the beach, and I crouch over her to examine her wound, smelling her, listening to her weak heartbeats. She isn’t breathing,and she’s bleeding, holy fuck, what am I going to do…
Instincts take over. My beastly nature instructs me to mark her, to have her mark me, telling me that we’ll be stronger bonded and together. A weak voice whispers to me to stop, that she wouldn’t forgive me for this, but I’m certain she’ll die if I don’t. And my wolf is screaming at me that the only thing that can save her is the fusing of our two lifeforces, so she can borrow my strength and heal like I do.
Why try to stop the inevitable?
I brush my snout over her pulse, where it continues to beat weakly. She’s fading fast. She doesn’t even flinch as I bare my teeth, pressing my canines to the flesh on her shoulder…
She coughs and I rear back, watching as she cringes. I’m shifting before I realize it, kneeling over her and scooping my arm around her shoulders while she sits up and coughs a whole bunch of water onto the shore. Charlotte’s head isn’t bleeding as much anymore, but my heart is still thundering in my chest as I watch the blood trickle from her forehead.
“Elijah…” She frowns, her eyes bleary. “Why are you naked?”
If I were in my right mind, I might laugh—because she’s right. My clothes are in tatters around me, and we’ve just lost all our supplies in the river, so I can’t exactly change. But I’mnotin my right mind, I’m still partially shifted, and I reach out and grasp her to my chest, standing and holding her tight in my arms.
“Elijah, what are you doing!” she shouts, beating her fist weakly against my bare chest. “You’re…you’re naked!”
I get my bearings as I stand, gazing around. Yes—we’ve made it to the other side of the river, and if I follow it south, there should be a safehouse just down the way. Charlotte starts pounding her hands against me, wriggling to get away, and I growl at her, my eyes wild.
She stares up at me, terrified.
Ihatethat.
