Spotting the Vamp guards following him, but at a discreet distance so as to give the man space since his stalk told everyone to stay the hell away, as one, Pearl’s and Jack’s eyes met mine straight on. As if I hadn’t seen that coming. Send the one who had also lost her mate. But I got it. Got his pain.
Sighing, I nodded and jumped up, and ran after Ezra. I would have grabbed his hand, but that wasn’t what he needed right now. He needed actions that took his mind off his misery, not emotional pity, so I went the other route, as he had done for me when I was at my lowest when Dominic died.
I bumped him hard with my hip. That wouldn’t have been such a big deal if he hadn’t been wading in the ocean up to his ankles, jeans rolled up. My Shifter strength gave me the edge I had needed.
He hollered, falling to the side, right into the cold, unforgiving tide.
A deep chuckle rushed past my lips as his head poked up from under the water, the surf drawing back, showing his drenched body lying in the dark sand. With his mouth hanging open and eyes wide, I started jogging backward, grinning as I yelled, “Think you can catch me?”
Shaking his head like a dog, red and black hair spiked no longer, his eyes narrowed.
I took off, careful not to use my bit of Vampire speed. The chase was on. He would definitely catch me, but he no longer had god-awful sorrow etching his features. Job well done.
To hell with a job well done.
Grumbling curses, I dragged myself out of the ocean where I had been tossed only moments ago. He had caught me alright. Put me right where I had put him, too. Only, I had gone a whole lot farther through the air than he had.
Stupid, insufferable, powerful, egotistical Vampire.
He watched from dry sand, laughing his ass off while I waded through the water.
Wringing my hair out, I decided he was seriously going to eat sand.
My feet faltered as my brows furrowed, stopping dead in the water.
I sniffed the wind.
My wolf growled.
Coms.
Not just that, but I scented loads of gunpowder and silver.
Only one reason for that.
Instinct had my head thrown back, the surf knocking into me as I howled long and loud, the sound beautifully harsh. Ezra and I had come too far down the beach for Jack, Pearl, and Gideon to see us, but any of the Shifter guards not near us would hear my call, understand it.
We had company.
I bent, and then jumped high, using my Shifter strength.
Ezra had stopped laughing, curious in his regard, watching me land right next to him. His eyes flew wide as I started stripping. “Jack can dry us off. Our clothes, too.”
Tossing my shirt aside and unclipping my bra, I quickly stated, “Company’s coming. Not the good kind. From the North.” I could move faster as a wolf.
His attention flew to the side, and he stilled, cocking his head. I felt a pulse of his power as I stripped my jeans and underwear off. “Forty, maybe fifty, heartbeats.” God, his ability was astonishing if he could hear that. His eyes came back to me as I squatted, rolling up my clothes. I felt his gaze traveling over my exposed flesh as he lowered next to me. After a silent moment, he asked calmly, “You alerted the guards with your howl?”
I nodded, pushing my clothes into his hands. “Hold these for me. We need to get back to Jack and Pearl. Regroup. They’ve got guns,” my nostrils flared, scenting the air, “with silver bullets. Time to go.” He took his eyes off my lower extremities — men! — and glared toward the North, but I jerked his chin back around. “Look, Ezra. You’re scary. You can kill tons of them, but right now we’re seriously outnumbered. I know when to run, and that many Coms with silver bullets means get the hell out when we’re not prepared. We need Jack and Pearl.”
He didn’t like it, I could tell, but after a moment of thought, he nodded and stood. “Let’s go.” The crack of a gunshot erupted, and he ducked with Vampire speed.
I shifted.
We ran.
Shifting had been the right plan to try to keep up with Ezra as he made us run in zigzagging patterns, more bullets flying around us. The guards ran in a straight, tight line behind us, and I heard a few of them go down in our dash as bullets hit their mark. My wolf growled, not even winded, pissed that Mysticals were dying behind me and that I was unable to do anything about it right now. Scared, I was — most definitely — but I hated that Coms were picking us off. Like it was a fucking hunt.
We rounded a bend of rocks and sand, a safe zone, and almost ran smack into Jack, Pearl, Gideon, and their guards, who were racing toward the sounds of the gunfire, all of us stopping behind the sharp sand mound.
Pearl yelled, “What the hell’s going on?”
Absently, Jack bent, touching Ezra and I, and we were instantly dry, my fur fluffy and blowing in the breeze as Ezra explained the situation, his wide lips thin as he muttered rapidly over the sounds of incoming attackers, “We can take them.”
Everyone was silent.