The Elders moved into position, creating a protective circle, ready to defend their designated pairs. Winifred watched over Charlene and Michelle with Thomas and Emmitt. Jim stood nearby to help. Clay and Sam stood near Gabby. Grey stayed near Luke, Bethi, Isabelle, and me. Unlike the other three sisters, Isabelle and Bethi stepped toward the distant rumble.
I could see them on the horizon. A swarm of Urbat running in the darkness. Isabelle’s pulse leapt as she stared off in their direction. She rolled her shoulders and stepped forward, putting some distance between herself and the rest of our group. I moved with her, passing Bethi, whose scent soured with fear as she gripped her knife more tightly.
Isabelle glanced back, and her eyes swept the group. There was no fear or hesitation in her expression, only assessment.
Our gazes met and held a moment before she turned and faced the approaching mass. I’d watched her fight and bleed and had hated it. But, I knew I couldn’t stop her from fighting. Not now. Not this time. There were too many Urbat coming.
“Give me your fear,” she shouted, her only warning before she inhaled deeply. After days of traveling with her, the group had gotten better at closing themselves off. So when she pulled, a few of the oncoming horde staggered; none of our own did.
When she bent her knees slightly and brought up her fists, I was only a step behind her, my long reach ready to decapitate any mongrel who came too close.
The beasts crashed upon our group like a wave upon a shore.
Snarls, roars, and feminine cries filled the air as the tide surrounded the group. Before me, Isabelle moved with a speed no human should possess. She kicked out, catching a mutt in the face. Teeth and blood flew. I stopped two from charging her while she grabbed her opponent’s head and twisted him around for Bethi’s ready blade.
Beside me, Ethan used his knife to prevent any attack from behind. The Elder’s fought furiously, sending bloodied bodies up and over the press of Urbat, who didn’t pause at the sight of their fallen.
Again and again the mutts pushed closer to Isabelle and Bethi. They reached for them, catching an arm or a leg to try to pull them from the group. Ethan, Luke, Grey and I kept them free and fighting.
Gabby screamed, but I didn’t turn to look. My focus was Isabelle. Grey, however, went to help.
The mutts around us pressed harder to reach Isabelle, her red hair a beacon in the sea of dark fur and skin. She swung out, hitting a wolf hard enough that he staggered toward Bethi. He noticed the girl and started to shift, growing human arms to try to grab her. Another wolf lunged for Isabelle, pulling her attention from the wolf after Bethi. I yelled a warning to Luke as I continued to fight.
Bethi started yelling obscenities, and Isabelle inhaled deeply, pulling again. One of the mutts fighting me staggered and fell into Isabelle. I pulled him up and away from her by his neck.
“Back to back,” she yelled.
Ethan immediately stepped closer to her back, shielding her vulnerable spot.
“More coming!” Gabby yelled.
We’d been doing well, cutting down their numbers quickly. I growled and fought harder to eliminate more of the current group before the next arrived.
A wolf beyond the one Isabelle currently fought, crouched low, its hind legs bunching. It sprang in the air, sailing over its fellow monsters, right toward her. I jumped and intercepted it, breaking the mongrel’s neck before we landed.
“Walls!” Isabelle yelled, a moment before she pulled again, hard.
I could see she was growing more tired. Her swings were starting to slow. As were her blocks. I reached out and grabbed another mutt by the throat before it could get to her. But, in the second before I yanked him away, he lashed out and raked her side with his claws. She grunted in pain but didn’t stop moving.
Anger boiled dangerously behind the wall. Three mutts quickly fell victim to my deadly grip.
Then, the distant rumble gave those remaining new determination. Five more converged on me at once. Another chuffed a laugh and dove for Ethan. I could do nothing to help him as I struggled with the focused onslaught. Isabelle turned, caught Ethan’s would be attacker by the throat and threw him back. Ethan swiped out with his knife and caught another mutt’s forearm.
Ethan struggled under the weight of the pressing advance just as I did. However, he was tiring and those he faced knew it. I ripped my claws through the neck of a half-shifted mutt and grabbed the balls of another who’d reared up. He groaned and yowled as I squeezed and pulled hard.
Ethan grunted, and I looked up. The mutt he fought blocked the downward arc of Ethan’s swing and shoved his claw tipped hand into Ethan’s stomach. The boy froze, his mouth open in shock and pain.
Isabelle gasped and stopped fighting. She turned slowly. A mutt reached for her, grabbing her upper arm. She didn’t appear to feel his grip as she stared at Ethan.
A pain unlike any I’d ever felt, gripped me as I saw the stark devastation on her face.
The wall fractured, and I used everything spilling from it to keep the Urbat back as the boy fell to his knees. She took a step toward him, and I severed the hands from the mutt holding her. The one who’d killed Ethan fell to the ground, holding the spot where his esophagus used to be.
“You fucking idiots have no idea what you’ve done!” Bethi yelled. “Move!”
Isabelle dropped to her knees beside Ethan. He was still breathing, but the wet, ragged gurgle of each inhale meant he wouldn’t be for long.
I didn’t stop moving. The mutts around the pair knew she was vulnerable and were trying everything to get to her. Bethi and Luke helped me keep them at bay while Isabelle clung to Ethan.
“No, Ethan,” Isabelle said. “Stay with me. Come on.”
The raw pain in her words tore at me, and I made those around me bleed viciously.
“I love you.”
The scent of her pain intensified at his words.
“I love you, too.”
She breathed deeply. I felt a tug before blocking everything. Behind the wall, I felt old emotions stir, straining to answer her call.
She breathed again, and the mutts around me staggered. Beyond them, Bethi staggered, too. Her gaze met mine.
“She’ll kill us all,” she said. She turned, stabbed a mutt in the throat, then jumped over his body to face the next, trying to get to Isabelle.
Isabelle breathed again. Those I fought to keep from her, staggered and stumbled. I glanced at Isabelle and saw her nose was already bleeding. I moved faster, determined to eliminate the source of energy that would kill her.
“Stop, Z. Don’t take my pain,” the boy said. “It’ll keep me here just a little longer.”
A sob escaped her.
“I can’t do this without you,” she said. “Please. You just have to wait.”
“When I’m gone,” Ethan said, his raspy voice barely above a whisper, “fight her. Don’t let her keep the pain in; it’ll kill her. Keep her safe for me. Promise.”
“I swear,” I answered, knowing he was talking to me.
“No. You fight me. Stay, Ethan,” Isabelle begged.
She was breaking my heart in so many ways.
“She’ll need you and hate you for it,” he said.
I glanced at him and nodded before gutting the next mutt.
“I’ll love you even after I’m gone. Remember, without you, I would have died years ago. Thank you for saving me.”
His breath rattled out of him.
“No.” Isabelle shook him. “Ethan?”
The scent of her rage washed over me like a wave.
“No!”
As she screamed, she pulled harder than I’d ever felt before.
Those around her fell to their knees. The fighting slowed. Bethi stumbled and Luke caught her.
“Walls!” Bethi yelled.
Gabby made a sound and leaned heavily on Clay who swayed on his feet.
Isabelle screamed her fury and pulled again.
“Run!” Bethi yelled as she collapsed.
The Urbat were too slow to realize what was happening. While Winifred picked up Michelle and Grey took Charlene, a few determined Urbat staggered a few steps closer to Isabelle.
I didn’t hesitate to turn from her, pick up Bethi and Gabby, and run away. Sam stayed with Luke, Clay, Emmitt, Thomas, and Jim, who walked unsteadily in our wake.
“Here,” Bethi said when we were close to a half a mile from Isabelle.
I set her and Gabby down.
“Go back,” she slurred. “Stop her before she kills herself.”
I sprinted back, passing Sam who was carrying Clay and then Luke who’d collapsed halfway.
Isabelle stood in the middle of a pile of fallen males and screamed Ethan’s name.
“Isabelle, stop pulling and fight me.”
She didn’t acknowledge me. With her next inhale, fine red lines crossed her skin. Her skin was splitting.
“I will not lose you,” I said. I tapped the back of her head with my open palm. “You will not leave me. Not like this.”
She spun around with a kick that almost caught me in the head. I blocked and kept blocking as best I could as she flew at me with deadly force. Each move stretched and tore the fissures in her skin and spattered us both with her blood. She didn’t seem to notice. Instead, she moved faster and faster, her rage flooding the area.
“He was mine,” she yelled. “I was supposed to keep him alive.”
I let her vent everything on me and took every hit that snuck through my defense. My right eye started to swell and the taste of my own blood flooded my mouth from my split lip. Finally, she started to slow. Tears streamed down her face and turned into racking sobs. Her fists unfurled, and she clawed at my face, marking me just before she fell to her knees.
Panting, I watched her turn and crawl to Ethan. She laid her head on his bloody chest.
“Since I first saw you in the play yard, you were my friend. I loved you too much… but not enough. I should have let you go.”
She closed her eyes, and her breathing slowed.
For several moments, I stood there and stared at the devastation. The boy I’d resented and had wanted to kill at times was gone. She loved him in a way she would never love me. And losing him had almost destroyed her. It might still when she woke.
Son? Grey’s worried thought touched my mind, a balm to all the pain boiling behind the wall.
It’s okay. She’s empty and no longer pulling.
I’m coming.
A moment later, Grey was beside me. He laid a comforting hand on my shoulder.
“We can’t leave him,” I said. “When she wakes, she’ll want to know we took care of him.”
I bent and picked up Isabelle, gently cradling her in my arms. Blood still oozed from her many wounds.
Grey looked me over then picked up Ethan.
“Are you all right?” Grey asked as we moved toward the cars.
“I never liked him,” I said.
“But you never really wanted to hurt him. Not like this. You cared for her too much to hurt her that way.”
Yet, I hadn’t saved him. Grey sat in the back with Ethan, and I put Isabelle in the front seat.
The rest joined us after a few minutes. Winifred looked in at us.
“Are you all right to drive?” she asked.
“I can still see with my right eye. It’s limited, but not fully impaired.”
She nodded and walked off to pull clothes from the back of the SUV. As soon as she was dressed, we started driving again. When she put out a call asking for safe houses in the surrounding states, I knew we’d be driving for a while. I hoped that Isabelle would stay sleeping.