“Headlights behind us,” Ezra rumbled over my sobs, lifting me against his chest in a bone-cracking hold, his heartbeat accelerated against my cheek.
Vaguely, I heard tires screeching, a car stopping next to us and, only a beat later, Pearl’s concerned voice through the open window. “Is everything alright?”
“No!” Jack bellowed, his voice stressed in bewilderment as I jerked against them, another whimper fleeing past my pinched lips. “We think Dominic was attacked, and something’s wrong with Lily!”
“Oh my God!” Pearl cried. A car door slamming. Heels swiftly clicking on blacktop.
“Wait!” Ezra hollered, his body predatory still against me. “Pearl, get back in your car!”
A gunshot echoed through the night, vibrating, heavy with implication. I knew the unmistakable, forbidding sound now after taking my weapons classes. Too bad I was in too much damn agony to feel any of the shocked anxiety weighing severely in the cab. I would gladly take that over this torture.
Pearl screamed instantaneously, profoundly suffering, echoing my own heaving cries.
“Fuck,” Ezra rumbled harshly, slipping farther down on the seat, taking me with him as at least five more rounds fired sharply, my truck wobbling to the right, then the left, jerking hard. Almost instantly, more shots erupted, sounding like they hit Pearl’s car. “They took our tires.” Ezra yanked me against him completely, lifting my legs off Jack and ordering him, “Get Pearl. She took a hit to the shoulder.”
I could still hear her crying outside my truck somewhere. Blinking my eyes open, I saw Jack’s eyes glow brown; my eyes stuck on his frightening expression. Power began swirling inside the cab, lifting my hair and taking from me the little bit of breath I could get. He threw the door open, jumping outside and, suddenly, a wall of blue water surrounded him in a tight circle from head to toe. The water moved like a waterfall, but in reverse, a constant rage of liquid rushing upward on the outside and possibly traveling downward on the inside, rotating, but I couldn’t see inside to tell; Jack was completely unseen inside the protection.
“Christ,” Ezra muttered, yanking the door closed as the circular wall of water raced around the front of my truck, a radiant, shiny aqua in my headlights. More shots fired, the noise louder than before, and Ezra smashed me on the seat, covering my body with his. He grabbed for his cell on the floor, and we both heard Pearl cry out in pain, hopefully just from Jack aiding her.
Ezra placed his cell to his ear without dialing out, King Venclaire obviously still on the line, and muttered, “We’re surrounded. Multiple gunshots coming from various locations. Pearl’s been hit, and something’s seriously wrong with Lily.” He paused, listening over Pearl’s and my cries, and the rapid gunfire, then stated quickly, “We’re about five miles out. I think we can make it if you take out the ones closest to your house.” He nodded, listening to King Venclaire as Jack opened the driver’s side door.
All I saw through my narrowed gaze was the wall of shimmering blue water, but I could hear Pearl’s groans from behind it and Jack’s soothing voice as he tried to calm her.
“We’re coming now.” Ezra pocketed his cell, telling the wall of water, “Five miles to the King’s house. We’ll have to run. Can you make it with Pearl?”
A masculine snort sounded. “I can make it, but we need to hurry. The shot was silver and it didn’t exit. Her power’s down.”
Ezra stilled with the news.
I moaned, “Dominic…I can’t…” I didn’t understand it. “I can’t feel him. Gone…and the power…” I sobbed, keeping my face against the heated flesh of Ezra’s neck. “I can’t feel him!”
Silence for a heartbeat, then another round of shots fired, reverberating harshly.
Jack murmured swiftly, “We need to move.”
“Go,” Ezra ordered. “We’ll be right behind you.”
The wall of water dashed out of sight with Pearl sobbing in pain within its depths.
“Hang on,” Ezra ordered softly. “Put your arms around my neck, and hold on tight.”
“I hurt,” I whimpered. “Too much…power.”
“I know you hurt, but my power is helping you right now. Just hang on to me,” he hushed softly, wrapping his arms around me tight and, abruptly, we were flying. At least, it felt like it. I cried out at the initial jarring, but I wrapped my arms around his neck as he blurred into the night in large, zigzagging patterns.
I squinted over his shoulder while he used his Vampire speed, which was infinitely faster than mine, allowing my eyes to glow. Men in hooded red robes were exiting out of the dark tree line on either side of the thin road, carrying shotguns and torches. It was the last thing I saw before Ezra really started running, little more than a blur, the pace dizzying.
Darkness finally took me.