"What the hell…?" I shout, kicking instinctively, though it’s pointless. I’m no match for alphas.
Cold fear shoots through me. One of them clamps a hand over my mouth, and in a quick motion they haul me between them, shielding me with their bodies as they head toward a van parked a little farther down the lot.
What the fuck?
I struggle and twist, the kind of fear rising in me that makes me want to throw up, and of course my asthma kicks in, so I start wheezing, my lungs seize up, I’m choking and everything spins in front of my eyes, as I can’t get a single breath in.
"This little idiot has asthma; he’s going to ruin all the fun," one of them mutters, and I feel his hands groping under my necromancer robe, digging through my pants, through my pockets until he finds the inhaler, then shoves it into my mouth so hard my teeth scrape against the plastic.
I suck in the air desperately, but I need at least three doses before the attack even begins to ease.
"Look at that," one of them says, and even though I can’t recognize their voices, I’m still sure it’s the Hansons. It feels like the ground is about to split open beneath me and swallow me straight into hell.
"Looks like his loverboy has a pretty good intuition. He’s looking for his little treasure, he ran out of the school like a maniac."
I turn my head as much as I can with that hand still clamped over my mouth, and I see Bay running down the stairs, his face twisted with panic, sprinting toward the parking lot with his wings dangling, scanning the space like he can sense something is happening to me, my dear Fate…
Then he leans down and picks up the necromancer's crown that has fallen from my head.
"Hey, maybe we can kill two birds with one stone," one of them says.
"Sure," another throws in, and I’m almost certain one is Matt and the other is Kit.
"Nee, Dee, go get him," the first one says, using nicknames. They’re being smart this time, they don’t want to be identified, but I’m not fooled. I’m sure the other two are Neville and Doug.
The two cousins jump out of the van, and Bay is already just a dozen feet away when they reach him.
They move with that tough swagger they always have, trying to grab him, one even tries to put him in a headlock, but it turns out to be not so simple.
Bay moves so much faster than they do. A few blows and the first cousin is on the ground. The second hesitates.
"Fuck," the one I’m sure is Matt, growls.
"We have to show him what this is all about, because those idiots clearly can’t take him down."
He grabs me around the waist and I hear the sharp metallic click of a knife flipping open in his hand, which he presses to my throat while Kit yanks the van door open.
Holding me in front of him, one arm hooked under my armpits and the other pressing the knife to my neck, he steps out of the van and yells,
"Try anything and this kid gets a knife in his throat."
Bay’s face goes pale, and the zombie makeup only makes it worse. I see his eyes in the dim light of the parking lot, wide and terrified.
I look around desperately, but of course Fate is cruel enough that no one else is out here, no one can help us.
"Get in the van or the kid gets a blade under his jaw," Matt snarls louder.
Bay trembles as he comes closer.
The other two alphas regroup and step behind him.
"Rip his wings off. Put the cuffs on him," Matt orders, pressing the knife harder into my throat until I feel the sting at the tip of the blade.
"Leave Alex alone!" Bay hisses.
"Shut up! Put the cuffs on him, now."
They become frantic.
