“Stupid,” I taunted.
Before he could move, something big and dark flew toward one of the beasts, knocking it into a tree. I didn’t take my eyes from the man in front of me, but it looked like another one of them, half transformed.
The attention of the one in front of me didn’t waver either. As soon as one of his own hit the tree, he immediately grabbed for me. I slashed out with the knife, taking him by surprise. The wild swing relieved him of a not quite human digit. He screamed as behind him another member of his pack flew at the new attacker.
The wolf before me ignored the blood dripping from his hand and crouched slightly, watching me closely. His injury had wiped his patronizingly amused expression from his face. Tense, he hesitated, unsure how to come at me.
I grinned at him. “Stupid and slow. A bad combination in a fight.”
His lip curled back in a silent snarl a moment before he lunged toward me. I swung the knife up and over in a diagonal slash that caught his chest and part of his face when he pulled back. My arm ached from the force I’d used. I knew I wouldn’t take him by surprise again. Or could I?
He lunged once more, but this time I did not swing for him. I brought the knife up to my own neck. Seeing the edge poised at my throat, he suddenly flew backwards, away from me. The move gave me a clear view of who’d joined the fight.
Luke, shifted to a mix of more wolf than man, held my tormentor by the throat. The man’s flesh bulged between Luke’s fingers. The man flailed but didn’t make a sound. He couldn’t. Luke spun, putting his back to me at the same time his arm twitched. A loud popping crack sounded. The man stilled.
In the silence, I caught a distant sound of drumming feet hitting the ground. My shoulders slumped and the unfurling hope within me quickly withered. Too many this time.
Luke tossed the dead man aside and pivoted toward the sound. His strong back shielded me from the horde racing toward us. For just a moment, I rested my forehead against the solid wall of him. I breathed deeply smelling his sweat and soap. He didn’t move. His focus remained on the oncoming pack. He would die for me. My chest tightened, and I struggled with my next inhale. I didn’t want that. But I knew he wouldn’t leave.
The drumming grew louder. Branches snapped as the wolves forced their way toward us. A howl rent the air.
How had I been so stubbornly stupid? In a way, I still was. Too afraid to admit, even to myself, how much I cared for the man standing in front of me. I’d squandered any chance for happiness—no matter how brief—in this life. I hoped the memory of Luke and how I felt for him would give me more courage in the next one. Courage to trust. Courage to see the truth. He wasn’t one of them.
“I will hold the memory of you in my heart forever,” I managed to say before a single tear rolled down my cheek. That’s all I had time for. I hoped he knew what he meant to me. Straightening, I flipped the knife so the handle was clasped in my hand, but the blade along my forearm angled outward. I hoped it would be harder to knock out of my hand that way.
As the first of them erupted from the underbrush, Luke spun out with his claws, slashing through the wolf’s soft underbelly. Its sharp cry pierced the air and signaled the start of madness.
I braced myself, ready for anything, but nothing broke through Luke’s guard with the first wave. He knocked body after body back, eviscerating those he could. Blood soaked the ground, but he held firm.
A movement away from the main attack caught my attention. I looked away from the carnage to see several sneaking around us. Turning, I stood with my back to Luke.
I stood in a bloodied field. Bodies littered the ground around me, but still more came. I moved like water, bending and flowing over the mass that would kill me, anger fueling me. I had no claws, but the knives struck them just as well.
The vision slammed into me, then left me as I blinked at the dogs who’d come several steps closer. The echo of that epic battle burrowed into my mind and wouldn’t let go. I couldfight. Loosening my stance, I slightly bent my knees, ready on the balls of my feet. I could do better than a lucky swing that might claim a finger. I couldkill. Adrenaline surged through me. I looked at the numbers around us and doubted it would be enough.
The first one crept toward me, and I felt Luke shift behind me.
“Focus on your side,” I said as I moved like water once again, but for the first time in this life. Wide stance...lean to the side and sweep the arm out as you move, I thought. The blade slid through flesh and bumped bone. I pulled the blade back and shifted my weight to the other side to kick out, knocking the shocked beast to the side.
I grinned.I got this! Using my muscles in ways they had never been used in this life time, I continued sweeping and slashing my blade. The sharp edge bit into the fur covered flesh of three of them before they partially shifted. They didn’t want to kill me so their fangs and claws had less use than opposable thumbs. Still, I had an advantage for a while. Then, I noticed some of the cuts I’d made starting to knit together. I needed to do more than wound. My mind knew the moves, but my untrained body often fell short on delivery.
Soon their anger over my continued slices had them striking harder. Aches formed where they’d managed to sneak through my guard and hit me. Those punishing blows were meant to wear me down. It worked. An attacker caught my arm and pulled me forward, off balancing me so I fell toward his chest.
Something bumped into me from behind. Face planted into the disgustingly wet furred chest of the man holding my arm, I felt a blow vibrate through his body. He jerked oddly. His grip loosened. I pulled back and looked up at his face as he let go. Bile rose to my throat at the sight of the bloody stump of his neck. He fell to the side. I swallowed heavily and looked for the next attacker. Fewer stood before me than there’d been a moment ago. And those still around me had shifted their attention from me to Luke. Risking a quick glance, I saw why.
Several jumped on him at once, weighing him down as they grappled with his swinging arms. The remaining men joined in, knowing as I did, that if they brought Luke down, they would have me. None of them paid me any attention, now.
Luke’s tendons stood out with strain as he continued to struggle. An attacker bit into Luke’s neck and held on. Luke didn’t have time to shake the man before another attacker flew at him. No one noticed that I had shifted my focus to the wolf still attached to him. I flipped the blade in my hand and threw it. It sank into the biter’s side. The man grunted but didn’t loosen his hold. Luke gripped another man’s head, twisted the man’s neck savagely, then turned to the next attacker before the body fell. But Luke’s movements were slow and sluggish because of the man whose teeth still pierced him.
I stepped forward and pulled the handle of my knife, now stuck in the man’s middle, up until the blade resisted. The man, screaming in pain, let go. Luke continued to fight. I stepped back, flowing into my ready stance, waiting. The sounds of Luke’s struggles faded to the background as I maintained my focus. Rage and retribution filled the man’s gaze. His claws elongated, his fingers receding to make room for their full length. With a snarl, he reached for me. But he didn’t move far. Luke sent his last attacker flying, then twisted to address the man I faced. He raked the man, gutting him in a spray of blood, from groin to throat.
Looking away, I scanned the area around us, the trees, the undergrowth, searching for more. The thud of the man’s body falling to the ground heralded a harsh kind of silence.
Luke’s ragged breaths blended with mine, the only noise filling the air. Nothing moved. The animals around us remained silent. Then, a single bird chirped. My eyes flew to Luke’s. He too remained partially crouched. But nothing happened.
We’d done it.
I slowly straightened, wincing at the various little pains that tingled into my awareness. My wounds didn’t concern me as much as Luke did. Blood painted his clothes and dotted his half-transformed face. I bent and grabbed a shirt from the bag. With each breath, his features settled back into the man I knew. Except his eyes. They stayed dilated, overly large and completely focused on me. I started shaking from too much adrenaline and nothing to use it on. Or maybe shock. Who knew?
