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“You are easy to challenge, graceless wolf.”
Or maybe not.
“You are amazing, Diego,” Oscar chirped, already forgetting that the man’s clan had imprisoned him. The human beamed.
The rain didn’t let up, perhaps a blessing in disguise as it drowned out their marks. Relief lit up when he spotted the land ahead with even thicker trees over it. He stepped back and gestured for Riva to go first. She landed on all fours, sniffed the soil, and glanced up.
“Clear. Oscar, come on.”
Oscar was more hesitant but managed to jump successfully, too.
“I will go last,” Diego volunteered. “You should—”
The vampire broke into a hiss, fangs glinting, and was charging toward him. He ducked but was unable to avoid the attack altogether and braced himself for the impact. But none came, and Diego missed him completely. Charlie spun and felt his heart drop as two figures fell down into the water, with Diego unable to reach them in time.
The figures resurfaced, with Daria holding on to Sona for dear life. Sona’s eyes were closed and her face was pale. They both stayed still even while he called her name. Daria shook her head.
“Not yet.”
He wanted to protest, but it died on his lips when he spotted the water rippling again in slow, excruciating waves. His hair stood on end when it grew into vibrations, each one harder than the last until the water shook. Lines appeared, and the yellow returned, then disappeared. Daria’s body indicated no tension, but the furrow of her brows deepened and tightened at one point.
“Don’t do it,” he growled.
In the blink of an eye, she and Sona were gone, and the vibration disappeared into stillness. But the yellow orbs were still there, searching around, so dangerously close. He watched Riva step back into the water, ankle-deep, and flay herself around in a wild craze.
“Come and get me, you bastards!”
But the creatures maintained their distance as if they had already learned their lesson. He perked his ears, listening under all the noise…and then he heard it.
“Catch her on three, Diego.”
The vampire blurred as Sona appeared back into view, tossed up with enough force to send her flying. But Diego caught her. The impact of the push sent the water moving, and even with her temporary invisibility, he knew where she was—and so did the creatures. Charlie had a second to glimpse her coming into view, too, before colorful scales wrapped around her and took her down. He dove, plunging into the cold and dark, shifting and punching everywhere the slippery invasion came. He kept punching until nothing more came for him, but the darkness prevented him from seeing anything.
Desperation struck when he couldn’t find her and couldn’t swim up. Dizziness spread, fought hard as he reached out for anything to anchor him.
Fingers brushed. He grabbed on, clutched tight, and refused to let go, wrenching it towards him until he had a familiar body enveloped in his arms. They kicked up, were pushed down, and tried once more until they broke through the surface and could gulp down air again.
“Grab it! Hurry!”
The words were small against the buzzing in his head, but he saw the rope and grabbed it. So did Daria. Bafflement that they were no longer being attacked came until he realized that Diego wasn’t with them but dangling precariously on a lower branch with his body half-submerged—with Riva holding on to him as a precaution.
Charlie jerked when scales wrapped around him once more but stopped fighting when he realized it was Sona. She was still pale but wide awake. Her strength was like steel as she heaved them towards land in one go, then released them. They crashed on top of each other.
“Hey, showtime’s over. Get out of the water,” Riva called somewhere in the distance. The lack of screams ensured Diego was fine, too, but Charlie didn’t bother glancing.
He perused Daria from head to toe, feeling her up for bruises and sniffing for blood. He inhaled deeply when he found none and sat up, keeping her on his lap. He waited for her eyes to flutter open, then kept waiting for her to get out of her daze and stop shaking. When she did, he waited some more until awareness slid into her senses and her gaze snapped in his direction.
“You almost died on me,” he said, anger infused in his tone. He couldn’t help that. “Don’t do that again.”
“Don’t rescue a person in need of help?” she asked, confused.
“Not at the expense of your life.”
Daria stiffened. “Tell me, would you not have done the same if it was you?”
“I wouldn’t—”
“Don’t lie.”
