My shoulder burnedwith an unholy pain. That reeking, fetidthinghad bitten me. I didn’t have the energy to even think about what kind of infections this would cause. Everything had been sucked out of me before that thing even leapt at me.
I’d been surprisingly slow putting myself between Addie and the beast. If I had even half my normal strength, I would have stood my ground. Where had it all gone? What was this weakness tugging at me out of nowhere?
Addie thrust her hand out and the beast flinched. I jammed my hand between myself and the beast. My fingers sank into the putrid flesh, but I didn’t stop. I shoved the thing away from us.
The air in the room went cold again. I shivered. The beast pushed back, and I lost all the ground I’d gotten. The thing snarled and lunged again.
“Stop.” Addie’s voice echoed endlessly.
The creature froze mid-lunge. Its body heaved with its quickened breath as it fought the command. I twisted to stare at Addie. She shook, but not from effort. Her hand trembled when our eyes met. The way her brows arched in the middle, sorrow filling her eyes, told me everything.
“I never meant for it to be this way.”
The beast tossed its head back and howled. Addie dropped her hand to cover her ears. Her attention wavered, dropping her control over the dead beast. Before it could lunge at us once again, a gray stream came out of nowhere. The little cat hissed and swiped at the wolfish monster.
The beast recoiled. The cat, standing its ground between us and the beast, hissed once more. The beast took one look at the both of us and turned tail, disappearing out the door before I could gather the energy to get up.
When Addie called me at her campsite, the field had been devoid of life and filled with all sorts of dead things. I’d chalked her reaction up to the trauma of seeing so many zombies in the light of day.
Body heavy, I realized that those creatures hadn’t belonged to the killer. They were Addie’s. She’d drained the life from the field the same way that she’d drained the life from me today.
I pressed my palm to the bleeding wound on my shoulder. “You didn’t tell me,” I hissed.
Addie scrambled to her knees and reached for me, her hand falling short. “I didn’t tell you for a reason! I knew you’d be afraid. Everyone is!”
“I’m not afraid.” My lip curled. “I’m pissed you used me.”
“I never wanted to!” Addie’s expression broke. Tears gathered in her eyes.
The temperature in the room dropped as a white film raced across her eyes again. Then, inexplicably, the room turned hot. My skin beaded with sweat. I opened my mouth to ask if the heat had turned on, but all that came out was a croak.
My vision darkened at the edges. A tearing pain flared within me. I hissed at the sensation of…claws? The talons struck again. I clutched my middle and bent double as the world went dark.
“Maddox!” Addie’s shout was distant.
What the hell was in that beast’s mouth?