Page 81 of Bound By Danger
The coward released the blade, and Lucien seized the hilt as Yannis danced back. Gritting his teeth, Lucien ripped the sword from his shoulder. Blood spilled free as he twisted the blade in his grasp and aimed it at Yannis.
Callie stared at the hole inside the SUV, where the tip of a sword had sliced through the metal. Lucien’s blood ran down the inside of the vehicle. Helplessness filled her as she pressed her face to the window to watch while Lucien spun the blade and pointed it at the Savage.
The man Lucien faced could only be Yannis as they looked so much alike it was a little unnerving. Yannis danced back with a grin on his face and his hands held high.
She didn’t understand his smile until she spotted shadows moving through the trees lining the rest area. Even as Lucien turned his weapon against him, more of those creatures were spilling from the woods.
She recalled how they ran over each other in the tunnel as they chased them, but there was plenty of room for them here, and there weresomany.
The idea of crawling away from the window and hugging herself as she tried to shut out the image of those monsters coming for them was utterly appealing. However, she couldn’t do that.
There wasn’t much she could do, but she refused to cower. Going out there would only be a distraction, and she would most likely get herself killed within the first minute, but she couldn’t sit here and do nothing.
Scrambling over the front seats, she plopped into the driver seat and hit the lock button for the doors. She leaned over, opened the glovebox, and removed the stake and gun Lucien had stashed inside.
She had some experience with guns; her first boyfriend was an avid hunter and had shown her a few things. She wasn’t great with the weapon, but she could aim and fire. There were more weapons inside the vehicle, he’d shown her the location of them all, but she didn’t have time to dig them out.
She set the weapons on the passenger seat, turned the key, and started the vehicle. The headlights came to life to illuminate the Savages rushing toward the others. She didn’t stop to think about it before she shifted into drive and stomped on the gas.
For a second, the tires spun and debris pinged against the undercarriage. Then the tires caught, and she jerked the wheel to avoid hitting the SUV in front of her as the vehicle surged forward. Callie gripped the wheel as she shot across the hardpacked dirt.
Savages scrambled to get out of her way, but some of them weren’t fast enough, and she plowed into them. One of them came up over the grill and bounced off the window. Its impact created a spiderweb of broken glass before it sailed over the top of the SUV.
Another stuck to the front of the vehicle. Its hands clawed at the hood as it tried to gain purchase while more fell beneath the tires. The SUV crunched their bodies as it bounced over them.
That sickening crunch made her stomach churn, but she ignored her nausea and slammed on the brakes. The one clawing at the hood finally dislodged and flew backward to land in the middle of the road.
Callie stomped on the gas again and ran it over before it could recover. She turned the vehicle around, and her heart dropped when the headlights illuminated the spectacle before her.
Dozens of Savages were converging on the others. She spotted Simone and Killean in the middle of the fray, along with Asher and Logan. She didn’t see the others until a sudden burst of light lit the night, and a Savage exploded into ashes.
That was when she spotted Declan, Saber, and Willow closer to the wood line. She hadn’t seen the sword in action, but she’d heard about it. Seeing it was even more astonishing than hearing about it.
Savages fell back from Willow as she hacked her way through more of them. Every Savage the sword pierced erupted into ash until their remains were falling from the sky like rain.
Knowing she had to do something to help, Callie hit the gas again and aimed the SUV at more of the Savages.
Lucien spun the sword in his good hand as the bleeding from his wound gradually stopped. Yannis continued to grin at him while he backed away. Lucien would see his brother cleaved in two before this night was over.
Over Yannis’s shoulder, a burst of light caught his attention, and his mouth almost dropped when he saw Willow wielding her sword. This was the first time he’d witnessed the awesome might of the powerful weapon.
The rev of an engine drew his attention as Callie ran over a new group of Savages. He almost sprinted back to the SUV to tell her to hide, but it was too late for that. They already knew where she was, and they could scent her human blood as easily as him.
Yannis’s smile grew as his attention shifted to the SUV. “I’m going to enjoy killing her, brother.”
Yannis barely managed to avoid having the sword driven through his heart, but as he lunged to the side, Lucien brought the blade down across his brother’s arm. Yannis shifted in time to avoid losing his arm, but blood poured forth.
Lucien was about to go at him when a group of Savages swarmed him. He lost sight of his brother as the creatures spilled over the top of him. Staggered by the onslaught of their weight, he managed to keep himself standing by sticking the tip of his sword into the ground.
Callie watched in horror as the monsters piled on top of Lucien, but he wasn’t the only one they swarmed like a horde of pissed-off yellow jackets. Asher and Logan vanished beneath another wave, and Killean and Simone were barely fending off more of them.
The only ones who remained a little clear of the monsters were Declan, Willow, and Saber, and that was only because the Savages were afraid of the sword. She didn’t blame them.
Callie shifted into reverse as a Savage leapt onto the hood of the vehicle, pulled back its hand, and hammered it into the spiderwebbed glass. Callie kept her foot on the brake and lifted the gun from the passenger seat. She aimed at the Savage as its hand broke through the glass and pulled the trigger.
They were so close she couldn't miss, and the Savage’s head shot back as the bullet hit it in the forehead. The deafening sound of the shot made her ears ring to the point where she couldn’t hear anything else.
Still, she took her foot off the brake and hit the gas. More Savages fell beneath the onslaught of the vehicle, but others grabbed the doors and pounded against the glass. When she hit the brakes again, the containers slid forward in the back, and the Savages swarmed like bees over the vehicle until she couldn’t see anything beyond them.
