Harris raised his gun, aiming at it without any trace of fear on his face.
The creature vanished, the air seeming to swallow it whole.
I wasn’t fooled. The thing wasinjured, not dead.
Harris stood there, breathing hard, his heart pounding in his chest. The expression he wore was cold and determined. There wasn’t even a hint of fear as he waited with his weapon at the ready, his gaze darting around the forest. He’d probably had the same realization: this thing was still out there somewhere.
A few moments later, he moved to my side.
I shifted back into human form. I could still feel the ice from the scratches leeching the heat from my body. Rather than banish the wounds, shifting seemed to make them worse. My body began shaking and cold sweat beaded on my brow.
“The wounds aren’t gone,” I said, forcing the words out. Speaking was harder than it should have been. “They should have healed when I shifted.”
“We need to get you to a hospital,” he replied, eyeing me with alarm.
It would be at least an hour down the mountain, if not more. By then, the creature’s venom would have probably finished doing whatever it was going to do to me. And even when we arrived, mundane doctors wouldn’t be able to help. They wouldn’t understand what had happened. Whatever it was, the toxin burning like icy fire in my veins wasn’t something they had ever studied in medical school.
“The commune,” I said weakly, the words costing me. My eyelids felt heavy and drooped shut of their own accord. “You need to get the others. Leave me here.”
He glared at me. “It’s a good thing I’m not one of your wolves, otherwise I might actually have to listen to what you have to say.”
My eyes snapped open and anger flashed through me again. This human was insufferable. “Don’t be foolish! It could come back!”
His tone went grim. “And I’ve got plenty of bullets locked and loaded for when it does.”
I injected as much menace into my words as I could. Given the situation, it wasn’t a lot. “You’re an idiot.”
“I know,” he said. “You can berate me later. But I’m an idiot who’s getting you to safety. I’m not leaving you. And you can either help me, or you can make me carry you—but without my weapon, we’llbothbe sitting ducks.” He glared down at me. “What’s it going to be?”
I glowered back at him, but I knew he was serious. And every moment that passed was a moment the monster was using to recover. I had no idea how Harris had managed to injure it, nor how quickly it could heal, but with so many unknowns, wasting time wasn’t an option. I let him pull me back to my feet.
Then I immediately stumbled, my legs giving out beneath me. Harris caught me around the shoulders before I could fall.
“A paralytic. Some kind of toxin in its claws,” I croaked out, my voice strangely rough. With effort, I slid an arm around Harris’s waist, clinging to him. “I’m going to have a hard time moving. It’s spreading. Before long, I’m going to be fully paralyzed.”
“Fuck.” He tightened his grip around me. “Okay, we need to go—now. Tell me where I’m heading.”
For the next half hour, I murmured directions, my grip on Harris getting weaker with every passing moment, my steps harder, until Harris was mostly carrying me anyway. It wasn’t like most paralytics. I could still feel everything, but I had no strength in my muscles anymore.
Harris kept his grip on his gun the entire time with his other hand.
The creature didn’t come back. He must have injured it badly.
At last, we were through the trees and back at the edge of the commune.
“My cabin,” I managed, my voice barely audible. “There’s an antidote in there. We need to get to it.”
Harris didn’t question me. He holstered his weapon, scooped me up with one arm under my shoulders and the other under my legs. Though I was a full-grown man, he handled me with less effort than I would have imagined—as if I were weightless.
I should have felt fear, rage, and humiliation at being so helpless. But it was hard to muster any of that. Because without his weapon, my human was in terrible danger. More so than before. That was the only thing that seemed to matter.
Moving quickly, he got us to the relative safety of the commune. Then he paused in front of the nearest cabin. Speaking quietly, he said, “Wait. Reed, which cabin is it?”
Making one more herculean effort, I rasped out, “The one next to yours.”
He paused, glancing down at me. His expression went softer, as though he’d understood that I hadn’t wanted to be far away from him.
“I’m going to have to set you down for a moment to open the door.” His voice was a low whisper.
