From the corner of his eye, a Savage emerged from a building across the street and sprinted toward them. “Keep going,” he hissed at Willow when she started to turn toward it.
Willow’s instincts told her to face the approaching enemy; she didn’t run from a fight, but she pushed herself faster. The footsteps slapping against asphalt grew closer as the Savage’s stench permeated the air.
Declan waited until the Savage was almost on them before spinning toward it. He glimpsed red eyes as he grasped the Savage, lifted it over his head, and threw it into the brick building beside him.
He didn’t have time to finish the prick, and as headlights raced toward him, he turned and sprinted after Willow.
Chapter Forty-One
A splitsecond before the truck would have hit them, Declan grasped Willow’s arms and lifted her off the ground as he leapt up. Crushing her against his chest, he cradled her protectively as he landed on his back on the hood.
He pulled his legs up, and she jerked her legs into her chest a second before the truck crashed into a building. Metal screeched in protest as it bent and crumpled; smoke coiled out from the sides of the ruined hood as the engine made a strange clattering, roaring sound.
The impact jarred every bone in her body, and her teeth clacked together so hard, she was sure some of them cracked. Declan’s arms constricted around her. The hood had crumpled like an accordion, and she was sure his back was either against the windshield or inside it.
Chunks of brick broke free from the top of the building. They thudded off the hood and sidewalk; she bit back a yelp when one smashed onto her shin. It was bad enough when she hit her leg on something, having a brick land on it was like taking a nail and driving it into her bone.
Then, an ominous groan filled the air. Willow’s blood ran cold as she forgot all about her brutalized shin and lifted her gaze to the wall hovering precariously above them. The truck’s impact had knocked the lower half of the wall out from underneath it. And now, gravity was doing its thing.
Before the wall collapsed on top of them, Declan rolled to the side with her. When they hit the ground, she was on the bottom. Asphalt embedded in her knees and palms when they smacked off the pavement, but she scrambled to her feet.
Declan kept one arm around her waist as they staggered forward. A brick caught the back of his boot, tripping him as more tumbled around them. Pulling her forward, Declan shoved Willow ahead of him as the rest of the wall gave way and crashed around them.
The bricks crashing against his heels and knees shoved him to the ground. He managed to get one leg free, but the other remained buried beneath a pile of rubble. Cursing, he grasped his trapped leg and yanked as he twisted over and strained to pull himself free.
“Declan,” Willow breathed as she fell beside him.
Her blood dripped onto the bricks as her skin tore, but she clawed and yanked at them with a frenzy she’d never experienced before. He was trapped, and they were coming!
Feet slapped against the pavement as the driver’s side door of the truck creaked open. She watched as legs swung out of the vehicle; arms rose in the air as the bastard stretched leisurely. Her lips skimmed back to reveal her fangs as the fuckerstrolledaround the back of the truck.
“Run,” Declan said and pushed at her hands.
“Not without you.”
“They can’t catch us both.”
“I’mnotleaving you.”
Grasping Declan under his shoulders, she braced her feet against the ground and yanked with all her might. He kicked at the bricks with his free leg, and they gave an inch but no more. Gritting her teeth, Willow closed her eyes, braced her feet, and pulled.
She gasped when the building released its hold on him. Stumbling back, she dragged Declan with her until she tripped over another brick and fell on her ass. Declan fell on top of her, but he was already pulling from her arms as he turned to the side. He grasped her arm and lifted her as he rose before her.
Taking her hand, he pulled her toward the back of the still running truck as the Savage who hit them rounded the bed of the vehicle. The white-blue eyes of a turned hunter met Willow’s gaze before the asshole smiled at her.
“You,” Willow whispered.
It was the same hunter turned Savage she’d seen in the woods before she went over the waterfall.Hewasthe asshole who tracked them here; she did not doubt it. Something about the hunter’s smug smile unnerved Willow more than all the other Savages closing in on them; he was too confident.
Declan pulled Willow back a few feet, seized the passenger side door of the truck, and tore it from its hinges. Spinning back to the turned hunter, he whipped the door at his head before shoving Willow into the vehicle. The hunter ducked the door as Willow scrambled across the bench seat toward the open driver’s side door.
When the hunter’s eyes returned to him, Declan sensed the emotions churning beneath his surface. Rage, hatred, and cruelty festered inside the man like lava inside a volcano preparing to erupt.
And this was not the natural cruelty of the Savages; this was the cruelty of someone who relished watching others suffer. Declan itched to destroy him, but there were too many Savages descending on them, and he had to get Willow out of here.
He dove inside the truck and across the bench seat before leaping out the other side. He pulled one of his swords free before claiming Willow’s hand and running. The hunter and Savages followed as they sprinted toward the woods only a hundred feet away.
He nudged Willow in front of him, but the gunshots had stopped. There was no reason to keep shooting at them when the Savages were almost on them. And then, something pierced through his back and erupted out of his chest. The pain burning through his body set his veins on fire as his gaze fell to the wooden shaft jutting out of him.
