He dropped to his knees, his limbs like concrete.
“Eli!” Jamal was suddenly kneeling before him, face tight with anxiety. “We need to get out of here, mate. Must be a gas leak or something!”
Hands grabbed at him and he turned to see Phil and Adam.
His band carried him offstage, but even as they followed the venue staff out of an exit door, he couldn’t find his strength.
There was an explosion of panicked conversations in a mix of Dutch and English as Elijah tried to gain some control of himself. They were in an alley at the back of the building. People were on their phones. Sirens wailed in the distance.
Jamal knelt beside him as their bandmates talked with the staff, trying to figure out what was going on.
Gradually, Elijah started to feel somewhat better. Stronger.
“Jesus, fuck.” Phil strode over to him and Jamal, face pale, eyes haunted. “They’re saying people are dead in there.”
“Oh my God.” Jamal slumped beside him. “What the hell happened?”
Elijah reeled. It was true, then. Those witches and warlocks had killed people to draw their energy to use against him.
Oh fuck. The band. His boys. He had to get away from them. He couldn’t have them in the coven’s line of fire.
“Can you find me some water?” he asked Jamal.
Dazed, his friend nodded. Phil clamped Jamal on the shoulder, and the two of them wandered off. Elijah slowly stood, knees still shaking from the earlier assault.
Glancing around to make sure no one was watching him in the chaos, he drew up all his energy and fled at hyper speed from the alley.
He ran, a blur, mindlessly heading east. An old, red-brick bridge appeared before him, and Elijah flew through its tunnel. A highway, busy even at this time of night, was ahead, but he kept running, feeling the brush of a car against his leg, barely missing him. Then suddenly, he was shrouded in darkness.
Elijah stopped.
Sweat dripped down his back.
From fear?
Horror?
Shock?
All the above?
Trees surrounded him, their leafy smell filling his nose. The sounds of speeding traffic hovered on the edges of the woodland on either side. He was hidden in a section of greenbelt in the middle of the large motorway that cut through the city.
Taking a breath, Elijah slumped against the nearest tree.
He still wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened.
All he knew was that innocent people had died.
She was right, wasn’t she?
Echo.
She’d told him the truth.
Seething with rage, Echo followed Elijah’s energy on foot. Unfortunately, she couldn’t rid herself of Jack and Sajid. They hurried at her back as they moved quickly toward Elijah’s scent.
The wolves were skeptical that she could find Elijah like this, but Echo knew with a certainty she still didn’t understand that she was on the right track.
