And I will die for you! Give me the chance,she pleaded, but there was no one to hear her pleas.
Something inside her broke and clawed at her chest. And then she realized it was her own hands clawing at her chest. Was she trying to rip her heart out to ease her suffering or to kill herself?
She didn’t know the answer, but she couldn’t stop, and she needed this suffering to end. Then Mal was standing before her; he gripped her hands and yanked them away. His face swam before her. It took her a minute to realize it was because tears were streaming down her face, and the strange wails filling her ears were coming from her.
Her breath hitched as she lifted Dylan and cradled his lifeless body against her chest.
Chapter Forty
Jack pulledthe rifle from his back as three security members burst from the woods and charged at them. Unlike the last two vamps Jack encountered, these weren’t hunting; they were trying to escape. But that didn’t matter; if he could help it, Jack wasn’t going to let one Savage make it off this island alive.
Brian grabbed the first vamp and took it down; Jack fired at the next and struck it in the heart while Ethan pounced on the third and tore its head away. Jack was about to put the rifle away when four more Savages raced out of the trees and ran straight at them. Pulling the trigger, he struck one in the forehead, missed the second, and hit the third and fourth in the chest. The third shot was a killing blow, but none of the others were.
Jack went to fire again, but no bullets erupted from the gun. Tossing the rifle aside, he pulled Abby out of the way when the vamp he shot in the forehead staggered toward them. Jack grasped the vamp by the shirt and jerked it toward him as more Savages ran out of the woods.
“Shit,” he hissed as Stefan and Liam brought down two more, but five others remained.
He pulled out a stake as Abby did the same. Jack darted to the right of the vamp with a bullet in its head while Abby went to the left. Before the vamp could decide who to go for, Jack feinted toward him, drawing his attention. While the vamp was distracted, Abby bounded forward, leapt onto the vamp’s back, and locking her legs around its waist, she drove the stake into its back and through its heart.
The wrath twisting her face was something Jack recognized as he felt it too. These bastards may not have been the ones who killed Doug, but they were the reason he was dead.
Abby launched off the vamp before it hit the ground, and Jack ducked to the side as another Savage ran at him. Swinging upward, Jack plunged his stake into the vamp’s belly and sliced upward. Blood flowed free as he exposed the vamp’s insides, but it wasn’t a killing blow.
Jack twisted the stake in the monster’s belly before pulling his fist back and slamming it into the Savage’s chest. The vamp swung at Jack but couldn’t connect before Jack removed its heart.
Jack released the heart and pulled the stake free as Stefan and Isabelle dispensed the last vamp. Kneeling, Jack studied the forest as he wiped his bloody hands on the ground. The crackle of the fire and the crashing of the trees the flames were devouring was getting closer. They didn’t have much time before the fire overtook the entire island.
He slid the stake back into its holster and was turning to Liam when Charlie’s distress reverberated through the bond connecting them. Jack went still as her emotions battered him. She needed him.
“Charlie,” he breathed, and without waiting for the others, he ran into the woods after her.
* * *
“No!”Charlie croaked as the fading vision thrust her back into the current moment. Her fingers were digging into her chest; she couldn’t breathe as the horror of holding her son’s lifeless body followed her into the real world.
Is this real? What if this is fake and what I saw was real?
The disconcerting possibility left her more confused. She didn’t have visions about herself and Dylan, but then, Mike was the first one she saw fall. The vision was most likely about him, but it could save Dylan’s life too.
Dylan’s hand touched her arm, and she found herself gazing into his concerned eyes, which were so similar in hue to hers. She let out a strangled cry and gripped his hand in both of hers. She didn’t know when she let it go, but she wouldn’t do it again.
“Mom, are you okay?” he whispered.
She fought back the tears as she clutched his hand and pulled him toward her.It was a vision. Just a vision. And if you don’t get it together, it will become a reality.
When Mike turned toward her, she was still so caught up in the future that she saw him as having half his face missing though he remained uninjured.
“Stop!” she cried when she realized some of the others were still walking. “You have tostop!”
The others all halted and turned toward her with confused looks on their faces. She didn’t know how to explain or make them understand what she saw. They probably thought she was nuts, but she couldn’t let them keep going.
“What is it?” Maggie asked as she walked back to rest her hand on Charlie’s arm.
Charlie felt half wild with desperation, but she couldn’t shake the image of Dylan’s lifeless body from her mind. She shifted him to the other side of her and warily studied the woods. She didn’t know where the stakes came from. For all she knew, they could be standing in the fire zone, but at least she could protect him now.
“Mom, you’re hurting me,” Dylan whispered.
Charlie eased her grip on him. “Death,” she croaked. “If we keep going, we’re going to die.”
