was banishing me. In this realm, the thing was unstoppable. I could feel my connection slipping. 'Earl! He's too strong. He's kicking me out!'
Harbinger nodded into the wind. 'I've seen weirder.' He turned to me, deadly serious. 'I'll hold out as long as I can, but if he wins here, then the beast might end up in control. If I start to change and anyone else is in danger, shoot me. You have to find Hood and kill him to stop this.'
I was sucked upward into the vortex.
Let the battle commence.
My hand burned as I took it from his chest. Earl was convulsing violently, icy sweat pouring from his face.
'What's going on?' somebody shouted in my ear.
'He's fighting… something,' I responded. My eyes had recovered from Milo's lights sufficiently that I could see who I was talking to. Esmeralda was at my side, holding a large syringe. She was using it to pull some liquid out of a vial. 'Wait, what're you doing?'
'Horse tranquilizer. If Earl transforms out here, we're all in danger.' Her forehead had been bandaged and she appeared absolutely exhausted. 'I've already lost too many kids tonight. We can't risk it. I have to knock him out.'
'You can't.' I put my bloody hand on hers. Esmeralda stared at me in disbelief, but she didn't plunge the needle in. 'He has to be focused if he's going to have any chance at all. We have to get him back to his cell.'
Esmeralda hesitated. She had ten times my experience. If I was wrong, and he started to turn, then we'd have to shoot him or risk all of our lives. 'You better be right, Z. Let's get him out of here fast.'
Hunters were scurrying in all directions, securing the compound. A hairy shape lumbered up to us, red eyes glowing. A giant red tongue flopped out as it panted. It was a warg. 'Need ride?' Skippy asked from the giant wolf's back. The orc's goggled face swiveled to indicate the others behind him. 'See dead things. Clan help.'
'We've got to get him back to his cell,' I said. Esmeralda and I lifted Earl's shaking body and put him over Skip's legs. The orc was fearless, despite the twitching man on his lap who might quickly turn into a ball of teeth, claws, and fury. 'Do you know where that is?' Skippy nodded. The warg immediately launched itself forward, moving with unbelievable speed for the main building.
More warg riders were arriving. Esmeralda turned to me. 'Owen, go with him. You need to get back right away.'
I didn't know what she was talking about. 'Why?'
'Julie was hurt during the attack.'
My heart lurched into my throat. 'How bad?' Oh no. Please no. I grabbed Esmeralda by the shoulders. I towered over the tiny woman. 'What happened?'
She hesitated, not wanting to answer. 'Just go. Hurry.'
A second warg and rider padded up to us and stopped. I had never ridden a giant wolf before. The orc extended his hand. The beast tilted its head and examined me quizzically. Hell, I didn't even know how to ride a horse, and this thing had jaws that could bite the head off a cow, but I needed to get to Julie fast. I grabbed the orc's gloved hand. With my other hand I got a handful of fur and pulled myself onto the wolf's back. It yipped as my weight settled and then immediately took off at a run. I hugged my arm around the orc so hard that I probably cracked his ribs, but I was frightened that I was going to bounce off.
She's going to be fine. She's going to be fine. I kept repeating that mantra to myself, too scared to think. The ride was surprisingly smooth as the warg ran across the compound. Shocked Newbies raised their guns as we passed but the more experienced Hunters shouted them down. I kept my face pressed against the warg's fur the whole time. It smelled like coconut shampoo. We reached the main building in a matter of seconds.
I slid off and landed, wincing, on my injured ankle. Skippy was already pulling Harbinger off his warg. 'Help Skip,' he grumbled at the Hunters that came running down the steps. I recognized the shortest one as the team lead, VanZant. Two Newbies were behind him, obviously frightened by the snorting warg. 'Take Harb Anger… safe place.'
Skip knew right where to go and the Newbies took Earl's convulsing arms and legs and followed. I grabbed VanZant by his sleeve. 'Where's Julie?'
He was a stocky man: the other team leads jokingly referred to him as the Hobbit. He was also a no- nonsense, former Army mortar man and a welterweight champion fighter. He seemed surprised to see me. 'How'd you get… Never mind. You better come with me, Z,' he responded, then hurried up the stairs. I followed him in a daze. The injured Hunters had been moved into the cafeteria. Those with medical training were tending to the worst hurt. Three female orcs had arrived and were lending their supernatural healing skills to the cause.
There were too many wounded, moaning… This was my fault, all my fault. 'Where is she?' I asked.
'She was right here.' He pointed at an empty spot on the floor. All that was there now was a bloody towel. 'We were on the roof when one of those flyers attacked. I was setting up an 81mm and she was directing fire and then it was right on top of us. It clawed through her armor.' He ran his fingers across his stomach quickly. 'She was hit… bad. I carried her down here myself.' He started to choke up. 'There's no way she walked off.'
I picked up the towel. It was sodden, dripping.
VanZant was an experienced Hunter. He knew a severe injury when he saw one. 'Julie!' I shouted, panicking. But everyone else down here had their own concerns right now. The nearest Newbies were utterly shell-shocked and didn't even look up to see who was yelling. This assault had cost us dearly.
There was a tap on my shoulder. I turned and stared down into Gretchen's reflective shades. Her manner was inscrutable as usual, but she jerked her head for me to follow. I did so. She led me to the nearest women's bathroom and held the door open. I was confused. She nodded that this was where I was supposed to go.
I entered to the sound of running water. Julie's green armor vest was discarded on the floor. It was soaked in blood and there were three vertical slash marks on the front, each one an inch wide, right through the Kevlar.
'Julie?' I asked hesitantly, knees weak, voice trembling, as I stumbled around the corner.
She's alive!
Julie was standing in front of the sink, back toward me. Her head was down, long dark hair covering her face, and her hands were flat on the tile, as if holding herself up. She had taken her shirt off and was only wearing her bra. The tile around her was stained pink with blood.
She was sobbing.
'Are you okay?'
She lifted her head slowly. 'I shouldn't be.' My fiancee turned, lifting her head and revealing her tear-stained face. 'Look.' She pointed at her stomach. Julie had abs of steel. Currently those abs were pink from half-washed blood. There were three dark horizontal lines down her stomach, but other than that, she looked fine. There was no wound at all.
'I don't get it.' I said quickly. 'Esmeralda made it sound like you were dying. VanZant was freaked out.'
'Look,' she ordered again. Puzzled, I bent down. The three lines were black, like a smudge from a piece of charcoal. The skin around the lines was healthy. The lines looked… familiar.
'No way!' I leapt back in shock. 'No way!'
She pulled her hair away from her neck. The line from last summer had more than doubled in size. Now it was a thick black streak. The tattooed man had saved her life with that gift but we didn't understand a thing about it. 'I should be dead. I never saw it coming. The claws went right through me.'
'This is impossible.'
'Impossible?' Julie screamed. 'I shoved my own guts back inside while they carried me away. Fifteen minutes ago I was disemboweled and now I'm fine.' I went to put my hands on her shoulders, but she jerked back. 'Don't touch me!'
'It's okay,' I said soothingly.
'I don't know what I am!' she cried. Julie turned away, unconsciously touching her neck, then realizing what she was doing, snapped her hand down in disgust. With a shout of pure anger she slammed her fist into the mirror, shattering it. She realized what she'd done and stepped back, quivering, blood tricking down her knuckles. She stared at the fresh cut in terror, waiting for something awful to happen.
I stood there, useless, helpless. The pain seemed to calm her down. The blood just kept trickling from her hand. Nothing happened. It was just a normal cut. She slowly unclenched her fist and sighed. Her fingers were shaking badly as blood dribbled down them to splatter the tile.
