I connected, but it didn’t work. The knife stayed.
The momentum of the contact pushed us apart. I was lucky the blade hadn’t stabbed into my leg.
Sean recovered quickly, gunning himself at me, grinning like a sociopath, scaring both the fish and me in the process. It was safe to say this was the first time I’d fought a wolf in water, and I hoped it was my last. I was tired. I angled myself backward and brought my legs up again. I shot them out, this time connecting with his face as he swam straight for me. His head snapped back with satisfaction, and he howled underwater, bubbles erupting around him. Good. I hope you choke to death, asshole.
It didn’t slow him. I turned to face him right as he swiped the knife down again. He was closer to the surface than I was, above me, suspended in the water. I tried to block, bringing my arm around in what felt like slow motion as the viscosity of the water worked against me. The knife found its mark, plunking soundly into my big, heavy, soggy, bedraggled cast. Thank goodness for the goddamn cast. The small knife lodged in the wet plaster and, using the cast to my advantage, I flung my whole arm backward—meaning I sloshed it through the water—taking the knife with me and away from my attacker.
Then I swam upward.
Sean and I broke the surface at the same time. I ripped the knife out of the plaster with my other hand and threw it as far as I could before Sean could wrest it from me. It was a stupid liability to keep it; Sean could swipe it back from me and slash my throat. A tiny knife blade would do nothing against a wolf, anyway. It was better to get rid of it. “Oops…Sean,” I sputtered. “Looks like you’re…going to have to use your fists now.”
He lunged at me, tagging me around the neck and pulling me into a choke hold against his body. “My fists are stronger than yours,” he snarled in my ear. “Let’s see if you can break free now.”
I clawed at Sean’s arm with my good hand, drawing blood. My cast was in the way, unable to do any real damage—but it started to unravel. Inside, my hand was aching in earnest, but it was easy to ignore since I was in the middle of fighting for my life. I dipped the cast back under the water and started ramming the plaster against Sean’s side, aiming for his kidneys. The cast was either going to do some damage or get the fuck off my arm. I’d take either one. “What,” I sputtered between hits, “are you going to do…once I’m dead…huh…Sean? You’ll be so bored…with no one left to…harass. Wait, I take that back… You’ll be dead…remember? You won’t even get to revel in…your victory.”
Sean sneered in my ear. “When you’re gone, I will be celebrated. I’ll finally have peace, knowing you’re not going to taint our race with your filth and I was the one who stopped it. The wolves will cheer me.”
“You won’t have any peace…you stupid idiot…because, like I’ve said two hundred times already…you’ll be dead.” I gasped for a big breath and bucked myself backward, straining against his grasp. I used my legs in a burst of energy. I was so sick of this shit and everyone’s deluded views about me.
The motion was enough to rock us backward, and we both went under, thrashing against each other fiercely. My cast was almost fully unraveled now. I shook it harder as I moved, and was rewarded as the last of the plaster swirled off into the depths of the lake. With my fingers on that hand free, I went straight for Sean’s eyes. Always a favorite move of mine.
I shoved my nails in, ignoring the pain it caused me, and gouged as deeply as I could. Sean opened his mouth underwater and yelled, releasing me. I kicked upward, surfacing and sucking air before the next round. My lungs were exhausted—along with everything else—and half filled with lake water.
Sean came up next to me, his eye dripping blood, canines down fully, even longer than before. He was on the brink of changing.
Things were looking up.
I hacked and coughed, ejecting water from every available opening. Sean lashed out with his fist, connecting with my face. He tried to say something, but he couldn’t talk because his vocal chords were in process of morphing. He didn’t need any words; his eyes and face told me everything I needed to know.
I was going down.
The blow knocked me under the water again, my head ringing. Sean swam down and grabbed me, clawing his way up my body until he had me around the middle. Underwater had to take the cake for the oddest werewolf-fighting locale of all time. Ultimately, Sean’s goal was to drown me, but he needed to breathe as much as I did. Werewolves were supernatural, but they still had lungs. He wouldn’t die under here, like I would, but he would lose consciousness without oxygen. I rocked my head up, knocking my skull into his chin. He sputtered and kicked us both to the surface, not letting go of me.