They lunged toward us, leaping onto our backs and slamming us to the ground. I watched as one imp snapped the neck of one of the wolves just before a weight slammed onto my shoulders and forced me down. I was spared the same fate because Oz barreled into the creature. I forced myself to my feet, glancing around at the sea of demons.
We had to run. There were too many of them for us to fight. I hated it. We all did, but it was either run now and come back to fight another day, or stay and die and leave the packto fend for itself against what was about to come their way. As much as I despised it, there was nothing else we could do. Not right now, not without more of a plan.
Just as I thought this, Elias yowled a command, the order to fall back. We turned and ran. The imps chased after us for a long time, following us back to the oasis.
Finally, the remaining imps began to retreat. Some of them continued cackling even as they disappeared. We kept going for another quarter-mile before finally slowing to a stop.
Once we were certain we were safe and the imps weren’t lying in wait, we shifted back to human. Elias panted, wiping away the blood from the cut on his cheek with the back of his hand, smearing the crimson. More blood welled in the wound almost immediately. He stared back the way we had just come, eyes wide as if he couldn’t believe what he had just seen.
“Fuck,” he hissed.
“You know what we’re going to find if we go back,” I said, glancing where we had just run from. “That tunnel is going to be crawling with demons. We’re not going to be able to do anything. Not without a full-scale assault.”
Elias nodded, rage radiating off him as he glowered at the path that led to the spring, the lifeblood of the entire pack. The second we walked in there, we would come across more demons. More than we could handle with just a handful of us.
“I hate that they made us run,” he snarled, the words dripping with rage and venom.
“We had to do it,” I told him. I hated admitting it as much as he did.
Elias scowled, not responding. He didn’t have to. Nothing I said right now would change the reality of the situation or make it any easier to swallow.
The wraith had taken over the underground spring. After months of coveting it, it finally had what it wanted, and it wouldn’t take long until we were all run out of town.
Chapter 19 - Liv
The jolt of alarm that rippled through me shocked me out of my daze. I nearly leapt out of my seat. I blinked, trying to figure out where it was coming from. Drake, the mating bond. Had something happened? What? My own alarm and unease began rippling through me as my mind began to wander.
A moment later, the shock dissipated. I couldn’t tell if Drake was trying to temper the sensation through the bond to stop me from worrying, or if the situation had already resolved. I prodded at that feeling, trying to figure out one way or the other, plunging into the mating bond while trying to contain my own unease.
I was so lost in thought, exhausted from training with Rachel and Emma and not paying nearly as much attention at work as I probably should, that I almost didn’t notice when the front door opened and Annie, one of the parents, hurried in. I glanced up at the clock, wondering how on earth I could have lost that much time. There was no way it had been two hours already.
I blinked when I saw the time. I hadn’t lost that much time. It had only been forty-five minutes. She shouldn’t be here for another hour at least.
“Hi, Annie,” I said, taking note of her taut features. My smile ebbed the longer she stood in front of me, and the more her unease became palpable. “Um, how can I help you?”
“I’m here to pick up Ollie,” Annie said.
Frowning, I peered over at the computer, wondering if I had missed a note. “Ollie isn’t scheduled to leave early today. Is everything all right?”
Before Annie could answer, the door opened again, and another parent walked in, an almost identical expression of unease and panic on her face as she tapped her foot impatiently, fidgeting at being forced to wait in line.
“What’s going on?” I asked, glancing at the line.
“Something happened,” Annie said. “Looks like a lot of us had a similar idea.”
Unease prickled along my spine as I sucked in a breath. “What do you mean ‘something’s happened?’”
Annie’s face grew even more stricken as she took in a deep breath. “The waterfall stopped running.”
The air rushed from my lungs as I gaped, unwilling to believe what I was hearing. It couldn’t be true. It wasn’t possible. That would mean something had happened to the underground spring. Except then I remembered that jolt of alarm through the mating bond, and dread seeped into the marrow of my bones. I checked my phone, looking for notifications from Drake, or Rachel, or Emma, someone who would know what was happening.
“Anyway, I just want to get out of town for a while,” Annie said. “This feels like a horrible omen.”
The woman behind her nodded her agreement. I barely noticed, my mind spinning as I tried to grasp what Annie had just said.
The oasis was in trouble, the entire pack was in trouble. Something had happened. It churned my insides, the chill creeping up my spine as goosebumps ran along my arms, despite the heat.
I forced a smile on my face once more as I pushed myself away from the desk.
