“Ugh,” Lyle grunted. When he bent low, clutching his abdomen, she brought her fist down again, this time on his back. He crumpled and she kicked hard with her boot.
Her toe landed in his groin and she smirked down at him as he rolled to the side, moaning and clutching his man-parts. Maybe she didn’t need polar bear strength after all.
Nearby, Jake let out a deafening roar. Delilah looked up to find out what had caused Jake to go crazy but she couldn’t see past the blur of white that was his bear. He’d shifted? In this tiny room?
A blast went off, ringing in her ears, and suddenly all sound dropped away as the bang echoed in her skull. She was driven backward and stumbled when her legs hit the mattress. She went down next to Lyle still writhing from her well-placed kick. She landed in a folded heap on the floor, her head propped on the bedside. A dull ache radiated from her chest just above her left breast and she looked down, frowning in confusion.
No one had been anywhere near her. How had she fallen?
She stared down at the red stain forming on her shirt, spreading steadily outward from the aching point in her chest. “What the…?” she couldn’t seem to form the right question.
Across the room, Jake tipped his head back and roared again. His eyes had gone wild, rounded and bulging as his mouth hung open with the intensity of his bellows. This time when he leveled his gaze, she saw what had him so upset.
Ray Donovan held a shiny, black gun pointed straight at Delilah. His mouth curved nastily into a satisfied smirk as he stared at where she lay in a heap on the floor. “You’re the reason I lost ten years of life, boy,” Ray said. “A life for a life seems fitting to me.”
The air in the room charged with pressure and tension. Delilah could feel it even through the pain now pulsing stronger with each breath. Jake’s entire frame shuddered and the air around him seemed to splinter. He surged forward, mouth open, sharp teeth aimed straight for Ray.
Ray whirled, eyes wide, and tried to raise the gun at Jake but the bear’s teeth closed on his wrist and his fingers went limp. He screamed and the gun fell. Delilah watched, not even a little sorry, as Jake released Ray’s wrist and went for his throat. Ray screamed and Jake dragged him backward out the motel door. The two of them disappeared, Ray’s screams drowning out Lyle’s labored breaths beside her.
Delilah’s chest pulsed, every heartbeat sending a wave of blood out of the wound. She tried taking shallow breaths but that only made the pain worse. God, it must have hit an artery or something.
Beside her on the floor, Lyle rolled and managed to get to his knees. He loomed over her, his pain-etched expression contorting to an evil sort of anticipation. He crawled closer, still wincing, but intent on her.
She debated whether or not to go for her knife.
“You’re going to pay for that,” he said.
Delilah wanted to tell him he was wrong. Jake was going to be back any second and make him pay. But she couldn’t make the words come out when she opened her mouth. Her lids drooped and she wondered if maybe Nash had been right. The vision. Her death. It wasn’t Jake’s fault though. He hadn’t killed her. He’d saved her in so many ways, no matter what happened next.
Without another word, her lids fell closed.