He looked up at me.‘I can’t live without you too.’
‘I got this,’I told him, my heart breaking for his loss as I finally released my wolf. It had never been so easy. She’d been waiting just at the surface.
As the spectral wolf climbed out of my body, I heard a dozen gasps. My mother, my father, Mrs. Hudson, and anyone else who was looking at me. When my wolf solidified next to me, she looked up at me and I nodded once.
“Demon,” someone from the crowd hissed.
“Paladin,” another said.
I ignored them both and started to grab women and young ones and herd them to the corner of the room where the alpha had died. My mom and dad dragged Curt’s body to the back of the corner of the room, where my dad laid his jacket over his face.
“Women, children, and elderly, get to that corner of the room.” Eugene pointed to where I stood, and I felt electricity dance on my skin as the vampires moved toward the corner.
Not on your fucking life, blood suckers.
I needed to protect this corner so that all of our guards were freed up to help Sawyer. Something cold and hard slipped into my hand and I looked up to see Sage. Her face was tracked with tears, red hair pulled from its tight bun. Her uncle had just died, and I knew she was sad, but she looked pissed as all holy hell too.
“These blood suckers messed with the wrong family,” she growled.
I looked into my hand and grinned at the silver stake she’d placed in it. Women, children, and hobbling elders ran to our corner of the room as a bloody battle unfolded before us. My wolf held the front of the line, hackles raised.
“Honey…” My dad’s worried voice came from behind me. “Do you need my help?”
I shook my head. “Keep mom safe. We got this.”
The first wave of vampires came. Five at a time, and for a split second I was scared to fully give into my powers, scared to know what I was capable of and scared to show them off in front of everyone. But that moment passed and then I just wanted revenge.
Our alpha was dead, and they would pay dearly.
My wolf acted first, running out to meet the first blood sucker. She leapt into the air blindingly fast and attached herself to his shoulder, biting into it. My human half gripped the stake in my fingers and then fully let go of all of my powers. I let go of fear, my shame. Bolting forward so fast that everything blurred around me, I stabbed one of the vampires in the chest, killing him instantly before he could even track my movements. Then I moved to the next. Stab. Stab. I was a maniac, beating them at their game, using my speed against them. I took two more down when I heard Sage scream.
Spinning around, I realized I’d gotten too far away from the ones I was supposed to be protecting. A dozen vampires were descending on Sage and my father, who’d stepped out to help hold them back. My wolf was halfway to running back to be with them, but she wouldn’t make it in time. A dozen vampires against Sage and my dad were not odds I wanted.
Panic welled inside of me and I screamed, thrusting my hands out and unleashing wild unrestrained magic in the direction of the vampires’ backs.
A force shot out of me and they went down like bowling pins, like an unseen wave had completely knocked them forward. They tripped and fumbled, pinned to the floor by an unseen force.
My magic.
Holy mother. I did that…
Without overthinking it or worrying too much about the shocks and gasps around me and my freaky power, I lurched forward with my wolf and leapt in tandem over their bodies writhing on the floor, pulling against the power that held them down. When I hit the ground on the other side, I spun and held my staked fist out, as if this alone would keep them at bay.
My gaze flicked to the rest of the room, quickly taking in the scene. Sawyer and his guards were doing okay, but they had their hands full. This was all on me and Sage.
I wasn’t sure how to use my powers yet, so I didn’t even know how to replicate what I’d just done. I needed practice. So muchmore practice.
I also needed to get these people out of the room so they were out of harm’s way and I would be free to help Sawyer and his men fight. But they’d barred the doors…
Think. Think. Think.
It came to me in a vision.
Fire.
Flames flickered in my mind’s eye and I looked at Sage. “I need fire,” I told her.
She didn’t question it, just took off running to another corner of the room.
