That was enough to get everyone hauling ass. Matteo took the position in front, Claude in the middle with the kids, and Viktor and me in the rear. Matteo switched on the flashlight and widened the beam so we could see.
“How could you bring us this danger?” Viktor said, scolding me.
“The lions aren’t with me. Remember General, the loan shark who tried to murder my father? He’s behind this, and he wants the kids. I’m not sure how he knew about them, but one of his brothers wound up in the jail. I did everything I could to catch up.”
I didn’t need to speak Russian to understand Viktor was cursing.
“Don’t worry,” I assured him. “Christian will keep them distracted. He can shadow walk and follow their sound.”
Viktor kept looking back, and I knew it had to do with leaving Blue.
“I’ll go back for her,” I promised him. “She’s probably tracking everyone from the treetops.”
That was a lie, but sometimes you need to tell yourself lies to get through a situation. And we were in a big fucking situation. We skidded down a hill, and Eve fell twice. Her brother clutched her to him after the second time.
I kept my eyes alert for any signs of movement.
When a lion roared in the distance behind us, Matteo shouted, “Move it!”
I glimpsed the lion darting between the trees.
I touched Viktor’s arm and fell back. “I’ll hold him off long enough for you to find shelter.”
Viktor gripped my shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze before catching up with the children.
I flashed toward the lion. The Shifters must have communicated their plans to their animals prior to shifting: follow the kids and kill the rest. But animals were also instinctual. Would they follow their human counterpart’s advice if a juicy little stray darted in front of them?
As I neared, I let out a shrill scream and veered left. I wanted him to think I was weak prey. I weaved around trees, charged through bushes, and finally skidded down a hill before stumbling into a shallow stream. The ice-cold water splashed my jeans, but the boots Matteo had given me were blissfully waterproof, so I felt light on my feet when I stepped out of the water.
Before I had a second to breathe, a roar filled my eardrums. The weight of the beast blindsided me, and before we hit the ground, I blasted him in the face with what little energy I had left. It knocked him out long enough for me to stand.
Warm blood trickled down my right arm from the tear in my sleeve. Incensed, I knelt down and blasted him again.
“Dammit! If I had my long dagger, I’d gut you from neck to navel.”
I pulled the push dagger from my belt and sliced his neck, but his skin was too thick. So much for learning anything useful about animal biology in school. He belly-crawled away and then shifted to human form. The gash on his neck healed, and I looked at his distinctly familiar face and shaved head. It wasn’t Major or any brother that I had met, but it was definitely someone from the same gene pool.
When I lunged forward to strike, he shifted back to animal form.
I reeled backward. With too much of my core light depleted, fighting him was a death wish. I climbed a steep ravine covered in decomposed leaves and roots. To keep from sliding down, I gripped slim trees, but my backpack was throwing me off-balance. The lion lunged, clawing his way up behind me, but his weight pulled him back down.
Halfway up, I rested behind a vertical tree with my feet anchored at the base. I needed a minute to think this through. I could drink a man dry in less than a minute, but this was a lion. I’d have to do some serious damage to his neck. My core energy was too low to continue fighting with light, not unless I wanted to end up as lion food. At least I was keeping him preoccupied. If he gave up on me, he might search for the kids again. Had the team reached safety by now?
The animal pounced at me and slid back down. The second time, his massive paws got too close for comfort. I caught my breath as blood continued to stream down my arm. There might have been exposed tendons for all I knew, and the thought of climbing again was agonizing.
“Hold still,” Christian said from above. “I’m coming for you.”
The lion tried a third time, and his claws snagged the bottom of my boot before he fell back down. He paced back and forth, huffing and growling with frustration.
The next thing I knew, Christian hooked his arm around me and dragged me the rest of the way up. Out of breath and dizzy, I sat there in a stupor.
“The scent of your blood will hold him here for a while,” Christian said. “Here.”
He didn’t offer his vein; he forced his wrist to my mouth. My fangs punched out and broke skin as I made holes large enough to drink from. When they retracted, I drank greedily. The searing pain in my arm turned to prickles and then disappeared, and while my Mage light was still depleted, I felt a different kind of power filling up my well.
Vampire power.
Christian remained kneeling, his eyes trained on the lion below. “I killed one and saw at least three others. Then I heard you up here, offering yourself as vittles. It’s not easy to shadow walk in the fecking wilderness,” he grumbled.
