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“Jake, no!” I snapped, forcing bite into my tone. The copper in the air was almost gone, but I worried about the lingering effects. Then again, the creature might attack, and holding hands wouldn’t save us from his teeth.
“Let go of me!” Jake thundered, and Patrick tightened his own grip as our friend thrashed. Jake’s golden cheeks were slicked with wetness, his eyes full of hope. “It’s you. It’s really you.” He kicked out at me, lost to his delirium. “I knew you’d find me again. You always did.”
My heart broke, shattered, and fell into the white clouds at our feet like broken glass.
“That isn’t him,” I repeated, but it didn’t matter. Jake managed to break free from me and Patrick, and he was bolting across the ground toward the undead Nic before I could reach out.
The creature smiled, his teeth yellowed, the gaps crusted with what looked like blood. Nic turned his glassy eyes to me.
Before Jake could throw his arms around him, Nic thrust his hand out, sending him flying through the air and onto his back. Only the top of Jake’s head remained visible. He didn’t move from where he lay, likely stunned beyond all belief.
Nic ambled my way, much like a predator. The sides of his mouth curled up further, revealing sharp, pointed canines. Red coated them.
“Ki,” Patrick warned, still grasping me.
“Pat, I see it.”It, not him. I had to keep reminding myself of that fact. His body wasn’t old enough to have decayed to the same extent as those of the other masked men, but there wasn’t a question that he wasn’t alive.
My blade was in my hand and flying through the air in the span of a blink.
Nic shifted at the last second, the tip of my dagger missing him by less than an inch.
“Shit.” Patrick finally released me, stepping back. “We need to get out of here.”
Jake hadn’t moved from where he’d been tossed, but I felt his hurt from across the distance. I’d become so attuned to my friends that his heartache felt like my own. And in a way, it was. When Nic had died, I’d finally permitted myself to love Patrick and Jake. I’d realized how quickly life could be stolen.
I reached for Patrick and yanked him to me, snatching his blade from his sheath before he could protest. I knew he had an extra blade at his ankle should he need to protect himself, and I’d not lose one more second. Neither would Jake. Patrick. Jude.
We’d live to see another day.
I’d raised the weapon high into the air, preparing to lunge at Nic, to kill him for the second time, when a flicker of recognition sharpened his eyes.
Against my will, I paused…
And that pause was my damnation. As quickly as it had appeared, that spark in his eyes vanished, and Nic dove, his teeth elongating into fine points aimed directly at me. At my throat.
There wasn’t time to shift out of the way.
We toppled to the ground, Nic’s body like a brick wall as he landed on top of me. He snapped his teeth, his jaw unhinging, and his jagged fingernails dug painfully into my skin.
“Nic!” Jake screamed from somewhere in the distance. “Fight this!”
He still held out hope that his friend was trapped somewhere in that shell of a body.
I couldn’t blame him; I’d probably feel the same way. Sometimes in order not to break, we saw only what we wanted. What weneeded.
Patrick yelled and cursed, trying his best to pull Nic off me, but it was no use. Pat’s dagger was pinned at my side, along with my arms. Still I bucked and kicked, but Nic lowered his head, undeterred, as he aimed for my throat.
Jake continued to call out to the monster atop me, though I barely registered much of anything, and my shadows were too stunned to make an appearance.
One moment of hesitation will get you killed.Micah’s old warning repeated in my head. Of course his voice would be the last one I ever heard.
Nic reared back and brought his teeth to my neck, the pointed canines poised above my artery—
He jerked, just as black blood oozed from his right eye. It dripped onto my face as he slumped forward, a choked noise bubbling from his throat.
I blinked, stunned to see the pointed end of a blade peeking through an eye that was once a warm shade of honey. Patrick appeared and shoved Nic to the side, off me, just as a final rush of air left his undead body.
Jake stood above me, his hands bloodied and dripping wet with that rotten black. He lifted his gaze from his unmoving friend and met my eyes. The light blue in them darkened, and his shoulders drooped before his knees gave out beneath him.
