Chapter 56
Lucas had taken out the girl opposite Evie first. An easy kill, one that had made him believe that they could win. Evie had shot her through the eye and he’d finished her off with a stabbing thrust through the back of the ribs that pierced her heart. The lighter was in his other hand. She’d been a ball of flames before the new Hunter with the flamethrower had even started smoking up the place.
Distracted by that, he’d lost sight of Evie for a split second, had whipped around just in time to see her, crouched beside Vero, firing an arrow at the Original advancing on them. It flew wide, hit him in the arm, only slowing him for a second. Lucas had reached him just as he closed in on Evie and had finished him off with a blade across the back of his neck, severing his spinal cord.
He’d meant to stay close to her and Vero after that, but the sound of Flic screaming had forced him back into the fight. Through a blanket of smoke he had caught sight of her weaving and darting out of the way as an Original came at her – fangs bared. Lucas sprinted towards her, leaping rivers of flame and scorched ground, ducking beneath Ash’s flying sword, sliding onto his knees and drawing his blade across the Original’s hamstrings, sending him crumpling to the ground.
Before he could finish him off an arrow went slashing past his head, just an inch from his ear, and drove straight through the Original’s neck.
Flic’s eyes fell on Lucas and she grinned at him before she finished it off with a final blade thrust through the neck. Then she turned and ran towards Ash, blade raised, screaming death. Lucas spun at the same time, searching for Evie.
His eyes fell on her instantly. She was standing frozen in the middle of the lawn, flames leaping around her and smoke billowing in curtains. She was staring at him as though she was seeing a dead person rising from the grave – her face alabaster pale, her lips parted, his name brushing the edge of them. The noise of the battle faded, time seemed to slow to microseconds, whole lifetimes lived in the space between them.
Flic’s scream pierced through it all, shattering the stillness and bringing the world stampeding back in. Lucas spun around. Flic had fallen – was lying on the ground – and an Original was kneeling over her, about to tear her throat out.
With a roar Lucas brought his blade up and charged towards them.