However, one person smelled much better than the rest and it was the one I wanted to hurt the least. My stomach pinched as I picked out Ava’s scent. I wasn’t sure how I could discern her smell. Ever since the first bite of flesh tonight I felt something shifting inside me, changing,growing.
The cult members pulled her further away while others fanned out around me. My fingers shook and my mouth watered with her scent still caught in the air. I wanted to eat her. Without a doubt, I wanted to push past all these people just to get to her. Just to sink my teeth into her and drag my tongue across every part of her. It terrified the shit out of me.
I turned and ran. I was the biggest monster she had to worry about. Not her mates, not the cult members, but me. Saliva dripped from my skull’s jaw as I imagined the taste of her in my mouth.
The thing growing inside me growled in rage as I put distance between Ava and me. I ran faster.
* * *
Everything was in chaos.We were being held at gunpoint while the fight raged near the mouth of the cave. I honestly hadn’t expected Makwa to look like a mass of thriving blackness, tentacles in all directions. But hey, at least that meant I was still the best-looking monster—shifters didn’t count.
People grabbed us and pulled us up, trying to get a closer view of the fight in the woods as Makwa retreated in defeat. That wasn’t a good sign.
Death was pungent in the air. Even through my hat, my antennae could taste all the blood in the air. Not just the death at this moment but more coming. There was a storm brewing, cold and lifeless. Animals had already driven away from the area and the temperature kept dropping. Our breath came out in big puffs of white.
Brandon howled like an animal somewhere in the forest. The noise was a chill down my spine and all my instincts told me to evade this unnatural beast. But that unnatural beast was part of my Eclipse—I wouldn’t abandon him.
This was a fucking shitshow. The cult members were crazed and terrified, making them react in unpredictable ways. This was the best chance for Caspian and me to escape.
I flung my wings out suddenly, knocking the person near me to the ground. They toppled on their back, the gun falling from their grip.
I lunged forward and kicked him in the gut. The guy groaned and I kicked dirt in his eyes for good measure before grabbing the gun and looking over at Caspian. His babysitter had him on the ground, trying to keep him from biting his throat out. I lifted the gun and shot a bullet into the man’s skull before kicking him off Caspian’s back. Caspian scrambled up and immediately started pushing towards the fight in the woods.
We couldn’t get her right now. I knew that. We had seconds to make an escape and she was in the middle of all of them. There was so much gunfire going off and Ben wasn’t telling anyone to stop. Apparently, he didn’t actually care about hurting us, despite what he first said.
Caspian reached the tree line and I snatched him by his pants, jerking him off balance because I knew the fucker was going to fight me about leaving Ava behind. He fell backwards and I didn’t waste any time, pulling away from the fighting.
“What the fuck! Ava!” He cried out. Then a bullet blazed past us.
“No time,” I growled in his head, trying to lug his heavy ass further away. A bullet zoomed right past my head.Fuck. I looked at the sky, considering flying. Caspian was a hell of a lot heavier than Ava. It would be hard to manage and we’d make an easy target in the sky as I struggled to move us quickly.
Caspian finally got loose from my grip and scrambled up. Another bullet went past.
“They’re getting away!” A man called. I considered braining Caspian and throwing him over my shoulder but he pushed me forward, trying to get me to run. He took off and I blew out a breath of relief and went after him, passing him quickly.
We ran fast and hard. I could sense the cold death of Brandon’s new power and tried to lead us in the direction he was. It was hard to know exactly where he was though, his power leaked all over the place. We ran a while, dead leaves crunching underfoot as we ducked away from branches. My duster flared out behind me as my boots stomped into the earth. I heard the steady breath of Caspian behind me and looked back every once in a while to confirm he was keeping up. His long hair was plastered to his sweaty forehead.
“Stop!” Caspian finally called out after an hour. I stopped and looked behind me. He was bent over, catching his breath. He was capable of a lot of cardio but he was more honed for swimming whereas I could run endlessly with little effort. My light weight and the help of my wings made the task significantly easier. It had certainly helped when playing Bugs Bunny with the hunters over the past half-century.
“They aren’t close anymore. Let’s loop back around,” Caspian said, standing back upright.
“No.”
“No? What do you mean no? They still have Ava!”
“We find Brandon first,” I said. Caspian’s face went blank as he stared at me. I could feel his anger radiating under his skin, ready to break loose.
“We don’t want to fuck this up,” I said. He winced at my voice in his head.
“Fuck!” He snapped, looking around at the ground like he could figure this out. He paced back and forth, grabbing at his hair. He knew I was right. Going back for Ava right now was a death sentence. They’d be expecting us. We needed help.
“She isn’t alone,” I said. Which was the wrong thing to say.
“You mean that fucking aberration that’s possessing her? Makwa? Really, that's who we want to trust to keep her safe? I saw him,yousaw him.”
“Makwa needs Ava. He’ll protect her,” I said and Caspian shut up. His eyes lifted to the woods behind me, his gaze searching the area.
“No,” he finally said. “Ican’tleave her.”
