To utterly hate them.
In the back of her mind, the pinging noises of metal hitting metal didn’t make a lot of sense, but she was too into her fury to care about anything. All of the built-up pressure from the previous six months came out until the magazine was empty—and when the clicking of the trigger was the only sound rising up from her spasming hand, she went still.
But not for long. With no more bullets at her disposal, she switched her grip and jumped forward. Landing with one knee on each side of the chest, she began pistol-whipping the soldier, beating his face and head, becoming even more unhinged.
Images of the most recent two weeks were fresh gasoline in her veins, especially those scans that had shown the tumor growth and new development. Her anger that it was all so unfair was the spark that started and kept her explosion going. She had endless reserves of strength and power, more than she’d ever had—
Someone was hauling her off the body. Someone was peeling her back.
She fought against them because she was outside of herself, beyond anything rational—
“Stop! Jesus Christ! It’s fucking dead! Not that it was ever alive!”
* * *
Xhex just kept hauling the female back, no matter how much she got a fight in return. And finally, the wolven’s energy started to fade, thank fuck. No one needed any more kicks to the shin.
“Lydia!” she barked. “Chill, just fucking chill!”
Saying the female’s name helped get the wolven’s attention, and all of a sudden, everything that had been engaged in the beatdown went limp: arms, legs, torso, the whole body turned into a noodle.
As Xhex held the female up off the ground, the wolven’s panting was hoarse and the ocean-breeze scent of her tears replaced all the pine tree fragrance.
“You cool,” Xhex muttered. “We fucking done with this?”
When a nod came back at her, she was careful as she lowered the female down to a soft patch of pine needles—and then it was a case of spoiled for choice when it came to focusing on something: She could pick either that apparent cyborg sonofabitch in a chewed-up uniform over there… the ring-around-the-dog-pound of wolves who were pacing the periphery… the female shapeshifter with the Rocky Balboa complex… or—
“Is he okay? Oh, God, is he dead?”
With a sudden surge, Lydia scrambled over to the gunshot victim, which was the last in the buffet of bullshit.
Blade, Xhex’s brother, lay on his back with blood all over his chest. But the fucker was alive. Of course he was. Talk about your nine lives.
“Thank God you’re here,” Lydia said as she looked up at Xhex. “I didn’t know who to call for help. Can we get a doctor—we need a doctor—or I can call Gus—”
Her brother’s robes. The wolven was draped… in Blade’s red robes.
Jesus Christ.
“I’ll handle everything,” Xhex heard herself say with an edge.
Lydia leaned over the fallen male, patting at his chest. “He’s still breathing. Quick, we need a—”
“I’ll take care of him. You need to go.”
“I can’t leave now.” Lydia shook her head. “I have to stay and make sure he’s all right—”
“No, you don’t.”
“It’s my fault he’s hurt. It’s too much to explain, but I think I was somehow being followed, and I came up here because you told me to. I brought that soldier with me. When this male here came out, and I spoke with him, I saw the blaze of light, just like you told me I would—and then—the shooting—and—”
“I’m going to take care of him—”
“I need to—”
“He’s my fucking brother, okay?” Xhex snapped. When the female froze, it was a case of babble, babble, babble. “As much as I hate him, and in spite of the fact that I would move heaven and earth to avoid being anywhere near the asshole, I will, out of a misplaced loyalty—which, trust me, he doesn’t deserve—make sure he is cared for. Now get the fuck out of here because that”—she jabbed a forefinger at the metallic mess who was torn apart and full of bullet holes—“isn’t a man, sweetheart. I don’t know what the fuck it is, but I know we’re both clear that you need to stay alive for that mate of yours.”
“Your… brother?”
Xhex rubbed one of her eyes—and made the speck of dirt that was irritating it somehow worse. “Look, if you really are being followed, and there are no bullets flying around you right now? Take this goddamn opportunity and leave.”
“But… he’s your brother?”
“I don’t like it any better than you do.” Xhex took out her cell phone. “And I’m going to get him help, I promise. But that’s because it would bother the shit out of you if he died up here and I already know how much you’re carrying on your plate. Now please, do us both a favor and get the fuck out of here.”
Lydia brushed at the red robe that covered her, and as she did, the bottom half fell open. She was naked, it seemed.
Oh… so it’s like that, Xhex thought.
“What the fuck are you doing now, Blade,” she muttered under her breath. Then more loudly, she said, “Go. He’s in good hands.”
At that point, there was a squeak—and the wolven froze as she stared over at the half-man, half-metal carcass.
“What is that.” She pointed at the remains. “What… the hell is that?”
“You were the one shooting at it—damned if I know. But I’m going to find out and I have the right people to help me.”
Lydia glanced around. Then she refocused on Blade. “Will you let me know what happens to him?”
“Only if you leave.”
The female took a deep breath. Then she unclasped the red robe and let it drop to the ground. A moment later, a wolf was in the place where she stood—and that lasted little longer than a blink. Finally, she was gone, disappearing into the pines on fleet paws that made absolutely no sound.
As wolf calls echoed in the distance, like the female’s kind were howling out for her, Xhex refocused on her motherfucking brother: Blade’s eyes were open and locked on her.
“I knew you were faking it,” she muttered. “And what the fuck are you doing.”
“Well,” he said in that annoyingly superior voice of his, “currently, I am about halfway to bleeding out. Thank you for the inquiry—”
“You leave that female alone. I don’t know what you’re playing at, but her stakes are way too high, and she does not deserve to be fucked with.”
Blade coughed weakly and closed his lids. “Are you calling for help, then, or is your cell phone some kind of fashion accessory.”
“I’m not saving you unless you leave her alone.”
“Why do you care so much about a stranger, sister mine.”
Because I was in her shoes the night before last, with a mate who was dying and nothing on the other side of that death.
And Christ knew Blade was no kind of lifeboat—and if that wolven thought he was the one she was sent up here to find, because of something Xhex had said? Even if it was a big misunderstanding, Xhex wanted no part of that fucking karma.