Page 76 of The Shade of Things
I clasped them back tightly. “Did you have the urge to—”
Daw jumped up, then landed on the ground cackling, her eyes wide open but not taking anything in.
“Jump…” I ran over to the woman and shook her, but she didn’t stop laughing.
There was a thud and a grunt.
Eli had knocked Okeyo to the ground, straining to keep him in place. “He was going to jump.”
“We have to wake the others up before we lose them to the madness. Emmett, grab Teresa.”
With a heavy heart, I left Daw. She was past saving, but Laurent wasn’t.
He thrashed, a wildness in his eyes proclaiming that his human side was leaving the building fast.
I grabbed the wolf from behind, wrapping my arms around him, heedless of his agitation. “Don’t you dare leave me, asshole. You owe me answers, got it? Plus, what? You’re going to let Boo starve? I won’t feed her. That poor little kitty will die, and it’ll be your fault. Is that what you want?”
I was babbling, but I hadn’t fully shaken off the paranoia from the club, never mind this whole experience. As clumsy as my attempt was, I had to keep him from leaving me.
“Incoming!” Emmett hollered.
Vamps and shifters poured out of the high school, an army of violence sent to decimate us at the last minute.
We weren’t going to survive the Human Race.
A curious sense of calm settled over me at the almost comical level of opponents gunning for us. I eyed the stars twinkling in the fake night sky. I’d worked through and discarded a lot of thoughts about my mazel, rejecting any notion of destiny.
Free will, baby. I wasn’t dying in some bullshit game.
The game makers might want to slaughter my team, but they wanted the Sapiens for something. “Drag everyone over the finish line. Emmett, get Daw.”
Okeyo and Teresa woke up once their feet passed the letters, dazed and shaking, but alive.
One problem down. An army of fast-moving others to deal with.
And no staff exit in sight.
I grabbed Teresa and jabbed my shadow scythe against her neck. “Stop or I’ll kill her. Eli.” I jerked my chin at Okeyo.
My ex picked up what I was putting down and hauled the other man against him, pressing the gun to his side.
The vamps and shifters stopped so suddenly that they barreled into each other, barely avoiding falling like bowling pins. It was funny, but more importantly, it confirmed that I was right about the Consortium wanting the Sapiens for something, which dampened any amusement.
Emmett wrestled the snarling, biting wolf behind the line, but it hadn’t helped Laurent come back from the edge of madness. Maybe I’d been expecting too much.
“Open the staff door,” I said. “We’re going. All of us.”
The vamp in the very front tilted her head like she was receiving communications. Then she smiled. “You can leave, but there’s only one way out.”
Our opponents stepped back, forming a path to a twisty red slide that was enclosed in a chute.
I eyed it nervously. Obviously, there was a final nasty surprise in store for us, but we had no choice, and I just wanted out.
I dragged Teresa with me through the wall of enemies, resisting the urge to hunch my shoulders protectively around my neck. One show of weakness and they’d descend like ravenous beasts.
The young woman was trembling and begging me not to hurt her. I blocked out her distress because I couldn’t clue her in that this was all an act to get us out of here. Her fear had to be real.
The game demanded that terror, and I was nothing if not obliging.
