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I glared at him as he gagged and desperately tried to suck in a few breaths with his broken jaw. “What did you learn?”
“Ugh… ugh…”
“That’s what I thought. Be glad you’re still alive.” I went back to pulling the barricade apart.
Once the door was free, I tore through it. The hallway was in chaos. An assistant director I’d met once or twice was lying in a pool of blood down the corridor, a maddened vampire drinking greedily from his throat.
“Shit,” I muttered.
From elsewhere, more screams, growls, and snarls of beasts echoed through the mansion. Hell had descended on Reject Manor. I ran down the hall and grabbed the vampire by its neck, twisting my hips and slamming it to the ground. Dazed, it blinked up at me with its mad eyes. That gave me the chance to break off one of the heavy oak spindles on the handrail. I rammed it into its chest right as it was sitting up.
It twitched and died, and from the next level down, a voice called out in fear, feminine and familiar. Chelsey. Yanking my makeshift weapon from the dead vampire, I rushed downstairs. Chelsey was struggling with another bloodsucker. She had her hands around its neck, pushing it away. The creature was snapping at her with razor-sharp canines.
Taking the final seven steps in one massive leap, I slammed my shoulder into the vampire. When we both crashed to the ground, I dealt the killing blow as I stabbed the stake into its heart.
“Kira? Oh, gods, I thought I was dead.” Chelsey looked terrified.
Standing, I took her by the shoulder. “Stay with me. Wyatt’s nearby—we need to meet up with him. Come on.”
The two of us hurried down the next set of steps, coming to the landing on the second floor. A banshee at the far end of the corridor screamed in rage and burst through a door. From the room, screams of panic escalated as the monster rushed in, followed by the bloody sounds of torn flesh and the eardrum-bursting shrieks of the banshee. Whoever had been hiding there was gone. There was nothing we could do. I tugged Chelsey in the opposite direction.
It seemed that once the wards around the mansion had dropped, every terrifying thing on the island had converged here, drawn like moths to a flame.
As though it heard my thoughts, a ragged feral bear shifter came barreling down the hallway, bellowing in rage, eyes mad, with foam frothing at its massive teeth.
“Watch out!” I shoved Chelsey aside to take on the bear.
Waiting until it was almost right upon me, I jumped and spun in the air. As I landed on my back, I slid right beneath its gigantic head. The giant ran straight over me, my movement too fast for it to alter course. One huge paw came down on my shoulder, sending lancing pain down my arm, but with my free hand, I shoved the wooden spindle into its chest. It continued on for several feet, not realizing it was dying. Splatters of blood trailed after it as its life pumped out of its chest. It turned and glared at me, but then it fell over, finally dead.
“Wow,” Chelsey muttered. “That was… crazy.”
I stood, wincing as I moved the arm it had stepped on. It wasn’t broken, but I’d have a hell of a bruise to heal from, but even that would be gone in no time. All in all, I came out pretty good, especially compared to the bear.
This place was open territory, and nearly every creature on the island was territorial in some way. It was probably why they were converging on it. Each of them was ready to claim this area as their own.
We had to get out of here. This house had been a beacon of safety, but now it was the most dangerous place on the island. We had to find the others and head into the jungle. For once, the safest place would be out in the wilderness. Our only hope of survival was to find Haven.
I dragged Chelsey along behind me, trying to stay out of sight of monstrous, feral creatures. We saw a basilisk slithering up the stairs toward the top floor, a manticore devouring some poor woman, and a shadowy something that smelled like rotten meat and ammonia slipping into a room.
The second floor was devoid of any life that wasn’t intent on killing us. Chelsey and I went for the stairs to head for the ground floor when I heard Wyatt’s howl again. This time, it was accompanied by two more howls. Hope surged inside me when I realized how close he was.
“Move!” I shouted, hauling poor Chelsey’s arm.
She almost stumbled but regained her footing, following me to the rear stairwell. Behind us, an explosion of movement and noise drew our attention. Two feral tiger shifters came crashing through a door where we’d just been. They were too busy clawing and biting each other to bother with us. Chelsey and I hurried down the stairs toward the sound of another battle.
Coming to the ground floor, I almost sobbed with relief. Wyatt was there. In his wolf form, he and two other wolves that looked like J.D. and Gavin were fighting off a hulking minotaur. The monster swung its head side to side, trying to gore them with the huge sharp horns on its head. Gavin had his jaws clamped on the thing’s throat, the minotaur swinging him around like a rag doll.
As we watched, J.D. and Wyatt caught the beast by its hands and pulled it onto its back. The floor shuddered beneath me as it came crashing down. Wyatt rushed over and locked his teeth on a horn, pulling the head back to give Gavin more room to work. A moment later, the creature gurgled as Gavin’s teeth crushed its windpipe. For a moment, it flailed, and then it went still.
“Wyatt!” I called.
His wolf head snapped around. When our eyes met, I felt safe for the first time since waking up to chaos. The three men shifted back, and Wyatt ran to me, pulling me into his arms. J.D. limped toward us. His back leg was severely injured. It looked like the minotaur had managed to stab him. Gavin put his arm around his shoulders, helping him walk.
“Are you guys okay?” I asked.
Wyatt nodded, eyes darting around warily. “We have to get out of here.”
“We need to get to the jungle. Maybe we can find Haven.”
