Nox sprayed down the rest of the grunts as well, but I knew there would be more elsewhere in the building. More females, their eggs, their spawn. It made meshiver.
“What about them?” Ronnie asked, just as another female came into the hallway, toward the back of the room andhissed.
Damn, we can’t catch abreak!
The ground shook then, and I knew the giant was near. “Leave them to be food forhim.”
Without waiting for confirmation, I grabbed the bottom of Maxine’s cot and started dragging her out the door, someone taking the other end and lightening the load, helping me move faster. Turning her slowly to fit through the doorway, we exited the building, and relief spread through me to see Damien shooting at the giant as he ran for us. Josephine was at his side with Jeremy handcuffed toher.
ThankGod.
“Run!” I shouted to Damien for the umpteenth time that night. My legs were going to be so sore by the time this was over. He looked over at me and I could see the relief spread across hisface.
I pumped my legs, holding onto the edge of Maxine’s cot for dear life as we slid around to the side of the building. One peek over my shoulder and I could see Damien, Jeremy and Josephine right behind us. The giant was about a hundred feet away, which was probably two steps tohim.
I wound around the back of the building just as a loud smashing noise tore into the night. The giant stepped on the brick building as if it was a small rock simply in his way. In doing so, he disturbed the nests. Holy hell, it was like he’d stepped on an ant hill. Eggs popped open, grunts tumbled out, and three big females ran scary fast right for the mountainous creature. They had no fear of the enormous ghoul before them. They raised their fists in the air, and the giant grabbed his long ropy hair, ripping it out inchunks.
Oh shit. Oh my God. Holyshit.
I’d finally put a name to the breeders’ gifts: compulsion. They were like vampires capable of compulsion. The giant was tearing into his own face now, ripping away chunks of flesh. The females were doing that—I knew it with every fiber of my being—standing like frontline soldiers with their fists raised in the air. It was the most terrifying thing I’d ever witnessed, and that was saying something because I’d seen alot.
Just then, Nox took Maxine’s cot from me and started running with Brisk as I stood there frozen and dumbfounded. A strong, warm hand grasped my arm, and then I was being pulled along, almost tripping over my own feet as I tried to keepup.
“Come on, freckles.” Damien’s deep voice finally broke me out of my fear-ladentrance.
He dragged me across the dirty stretch of land, and then we were going down a hill and into another expanse of alien forest with weird plants and glowingtrees.
‘Kit is in trouble?’Dawn’s voice suddenly blazed inside myhead.
‘Kind of. Yes. Kit could use some help,’I told her. We could go a lot faster without Maxine in her stretcher. If Dawn could fly Ronnie and Maxine into the air, we could run faster and maybe avoid the giant who was on our ass. I didn’t want to trust that the breeders had killedhim.
‘Dawn is coming. Bringing friends from skyhome.’
Dawn had told me about the tiny floating island in the sky where the Galadrias raised their young. They called it ‘sky home,’ but I had never been there. I assumed it was not a place any human or ghoul could go. It was a birthing and daycare center for baby Galadrias, and I wouldn’t let any foreign people with guns near my babieseither.
“Dawn’s coming! Bringing friends,” I shouted to thegroup.
Ronnie nodded. “I’ll take to the sky with Maxine. You’ll be faster withoutus.”
Sometimes it was like Ronnie and I shared amind.
“And if there’s room, Josephine can fly with Jeremy. He’ll calm down if he’s away from the danger, right?” I shouted to Josephine. She was dragging him kicking and screaming away from the danger. He was in full-blown panic attack mode, and it broke myheart.
She just nodded and continued to pull on hisarm.
We jogged in relative silence for a few minutes. “What was that back there? With the females?” Brisk spoke next to me. He was out of breath and so was I. I couldn’t see the giant now, and I was betting he was either dead or had stopped to snack on that breederden.
I signaled for everyone to stop and rest. Most of the group rested their hands on their knees, trying to catch theirbreath.
I flicked my eyes to Damien, who was looking curiously at us, clearly eavesdropping on what Brisk had said. Even Jeremy had stopped shrieking and seemed to belistening.
“I don’t know,” I croaked nervously. “They… they have mind control, compulsion or something. They tried to control me and our minds… linked, maybe. My gift amplified, or swapped with the female. I honestly don’tknow.”
Jeremy was peering at me with wide eyes, staring straight at my forehead. The closest he’d ever been to looking me in the eyes. He reached out then and started tracing a pattern on my head, from my forehead through my hair and around to the back of myskull.
“Jer, buddy, we don’t have time for this. Let’s go. We don’t want the bad man to catch us,” Damien told him in the calmest voice he couldmuster.
Jeremy leaned over and whispered in his brother’s ear, and Damien’s browfurrowed.
