Out of the corner of his eye, Jake saw Jes peel away and chase after the man with the kid. Jake wanted to track her progress through the woods, but he couldn’t allow himself that luxury. Before the man he’d rammed had even hit the ground, Jake spun around, sure Damien would make his move.
He barely got halfway around before catching sight of the pistol aimed at his head. Jake absently wondered if it was pure chance or whether Damien actually knew a bullet to a werewolf’s head would kill him.
Either way, he brought his arm up, blocking Damien’s and knocking his aim off just as the asshole pulled the trigger. The gun went off so close to Jake’s head it felt like someone had driven a spike straight into his skull. His ears rang like crazy and his vision blurred, but it didn’t matter. Damien was already lining up his next shot. And the first guy Jake had knocked down would be getting up. As much as Jake wanted to cradle his head in his hands and drop to his knees until the pain faded away, there wasn’t time.
Grabbing Damien’s gun hand even as he shook his head to clear his blurry vision, Jake pushed the weapon to the side, then brought his knee up and smashed it into the man’s crotch hard enough to lift him off the ground. Before Damien could recover, Jake reached up with his free hand and grabbed a fistful of hair, dragging him close and headbutting him.
The crunch of breaking bone had Jake’s inner wolf growling in satisfaction. But a glimmer of movement to the side reminded him the other guy was still out there, so he settled for slashing his claws across Damien’s face before ripping the pistol out of his hand and tossing it on the ground, where it slid under the SUV. With a snarl, he shoved Damien aside, then turned to face the other guy, who was presently coming at him at a dead run.
Luckily, the guy hadn’t bothered to look for the assault rifle Jake had knocked out of his hand earlier. But just because he wasn’t carrying a gun didn’t mean he wasn’t armed. On the contrary, he had short, jagged claws like Damien. Even though Jake knew Darby and the men who worked for him were supernaturals of some type, it was still a little weird to see them sprouting claws. It seemed unfair that creatures other than werewolves got to have weapons like that.
At least the creature’s claws didn’t look as dangerous as his own. Although Jake had no doubt they could still do some serious damage if the guy got close.
Jake risked a quick glance toward the woods, catching sight of Jes about twenty feet in. She’d caught up to the third guy and had somehow gotten the Robinson kid out of his arms. As Jake watched, she put one shot after another into the guy, backing away with the boy at the same time. Knowing how ineffective bullets were against the creatures, Jake desperately wanted to help her, but at the flash of movement to his left, he knew he’d run out of time—again.
The man was even faster than Jake realized, closing the last few yards that had been between them before he could do more than take a breath. The guy slashed at him with both hands, claws whistling through the air. Jake was able to block most of the strikes, but no matter how fast he tried to counter, some got through. The sting of those jagged claws as they tore through his suit jacket and into his arms wasn’t too bad, and Jake couldn’t help but wonder why the guy wasn’t aiming for a more vulnerable target. Then he sensed someone behind him and realized the guy he was fighting had been a distraction.
Cursing, Jake tried to spin around, only to feel a stabbing pain as Damien’s claws dug into his lower back.
Shit, he’d been had.
Jake slammed an elbow into Damien’s already-messed-up face even as he felt his legs go numb. For a moment, his heart froze solid, fearing Damien’s claws had found his spine and that he was going to be momentarily paralyzed. But when his legs didn’t collapse, he allowed himself a fraction of a second to breathe a sigh of relief before forcing his stubborn, pain-racked body back around to the man he’d been fighting with before.
His inner wolf shouted a warning, and Jake immediately jerked back, barely avoiding getting his face taken off as the guy’s claws swept by mere millimeters from his nose. The man’s momentum took him stumbling past, and Jake gave him a shove from behind.
Jake knew how lucky he was even as Damien came at him again, eyes glowing yellow.
This two-against-one crap was getting old, and Jake knew he couldn’t keep it up much longer. Sooner or later, one of them would get in a shot that would slow him down long enough for them to gang up on him, then things would go downhill quickly. Worse, once he was out of the equation, there’d be nothing to keep them from going after Jes.
Jake couldn’t let that happen.
A growl rumbling deep in his chest, he turned and quickly closed the distance between him and Damien, drawing back his leg before kicking the big man as hard as he could in the center of his chest.
Damien flew backward, slamming into the hood of the trashed SUV, then tumbling over the far side. Knowing that would only give him a few seconds’ respite, Jake pulled his gun as he spun back the other way, to see that the second man had regained his balance and was coming at him again.
Jake put two quick shots through the man’s chest. He already knew it wouldn’t do much, but at least it slowed him down enough so when Jake raised the barrel of his weapon and aimed for the man’s head, the guy never saw it coming. The .40 caliber round caught Damien’s buddy right in the center of the forehead.
And bounced off.
The guy shook his head as if to clear it, a pissed-off scowl on his face, then came at Jake, claws out.
Jake started to aim for the man’s chest again, knowing it wouldn’t do much good but not having a better idea. But at the last second, he shifted his aim, unloading his weapon’s entire magazine into the man’s knees. The guy grunted in pain and stumbled to the grass.
Jake reloaded before the man slid to a stop, putting two more rounds into each of his shattered kneecaps. It was vicious, but there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do to stop these things and keep them away from Jes and that little boy. Doing a number on the man’s knees wouldn’t kill him, but it would keep him out of commission for a while.
That was when he realized he hadn’t heard the sound of Jes’s weapon going off in a while. He looked up to see that she was still in the woods. She’d shoved the Robinson kid into the bushes behind her, leaving her hands free. She must have run out of ammo because she was fighting off the third man by hand.Well, hand and foot actually, Jake thought, watching her spin in a tight circle and landing a powerful back kick to her opponent’s stomach, sending him stumbling back several feet, an expression of serious pain crossing his face.
But while the kick to the gut had obviously hurt, it didn’t slow the man down for long, and within seconds, he was advancing on Jes again. This time, he blocked her shots aimed at his midsection, relentlessly pushing her back at the same time. Jes was fast and strong, and she knew what she was doing when it came to hand-to-hand combat, but the man she was facing was way faster and strong enough to kill her with a single blow from those claws at the tips of his fingers.
Jake was already around the SUV and into the woods before he realized he was moving, crashing through the bushes to get to Jes and the kid. When he got close enough, he put a round into the man intent on killing Jes. When the man turned to see who was shooting at him, Jake put his next shot through the man’s left knee.
The moment the man went down, Jes scooped up the boy and ran toward Jake. She was still at least a dozen feet away when she suddenly froze, her eyes going wide in shock. Tingles of a warning raced up Jake’s spine at the same time. In his haste to get to Jes and the kid, he’d completely forgotten about Damien.
Fuck.
Jake tried to dart to the side, but pain slammed through him before he could even move. He stumbled forward under the impact, something tearing inside him. His gun slipped out of his nerveless hand and he fell to his knees. What the hell had Damien stabbed him with?
Somewhere in the distance, Jes screamed. He jerked his head up, expecting to see Damien savagely attacking her and the boy. But instead, she stood there, a horrified look on her face as she stared at him—or more precisely at his chest.
