Run, Savy.
I chucked the shotgun at him like a hatchet and sprinted down the road.
A low chuckle followed me. “Run, LaSalle. I’m coming for you.”
Nausea took root in my stomach, and the taste of bile burned my throat.
A truck rumbled to life behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder. Despite the damage it had suffered that night, Billy’s truck lurched out of the ditch and bounced onto the road, the headlights illuminating me.
This was bad. Really freaking bad.
I careened right down the embankment and ducked into the woods. I was wearing my magic boots, but if he shifted, I wouldn’t stand a chance.
The forest was dark, and a light mist began to fall. I tripped over a root and stumbled. With the thick vegetation, it was impossible to step lightly when I had supercharged boots. I had no idea where I was going, but I just had to keep moving and come up with a plan. Billy wasn’t going to give me the answers I needed, so I’d have to incapacitate him. Jaxson would get him to talk.
My stomach lurched as a blur shot through the trees on my left. I pivoted
right and slid down a gully, scraping my shin on a boulder. Bushes tangled around me, hooking on my clothes, but I clawed my way up the other side of the ravine. And that’s when I saw him.
A black wolf.
Terror pushed me faster, even though my body was so tired. My eyes finally started to adjust to the darkness, and the vegetation cleared once I reached the top of the gully.
I could almost feel Billy breathing down my neck, and goosebumps prickled my skin. I weaved around trees, and then stopped short as the inky expanse of the lake appeared ahead. I stood at the edge of a cliff.
Dead end.
A low growl erupted behind me, and I turned, meeting Billy’s wolf. I knew it was him. The scent, the signature, all of it filled with hate.
I stumbled back closer to the cliff as his body contorted—his shoulders and spine popped and realigned as he heaved upward in a macabre dance. Fur and fangs receded, leaving a stark-naked human standing before me. The true monster.
His eyes remained a wolfish yellow, and his face was cut with a crazed expression that made my skin crawl.
“You know what you are?” he growled.
I eased my breathing, trying to force down the panic. “And what’s that?”
He began circling me. “Dead.”
I flinched and started moving, so he couldn’t pin me against the water and cliffs. “That’s where you’re wrong. No matter how much you hate me, the sorcerer needs me alive. He needs my blood. So where the hell is he? Why did he send his lap dog?”
“You’ll meet him soon, if I don’t kill you.”
He smiled and lunged toward me. I turned, but he was too fast. He twisted my arm behind my back and gripped my hair with his other hand.
I gritted my teeth against the pain, hoping he wouldn’t twist my arm any further.
“You’ll be their undoing, you know?”—he leaned close, and his hot breath sent shudders in its wake—“We’ll slaughter them all.”
What the hell madness was he speaking?
He kicked my feet from under me and shoved me down, and I cried out as I landed hard on my stomach. Fear clenched my heart. “Get off me, you asshole!”
I kicked and clawed at the ground, grabbing a rock. Searing pain shot across my back, and my vision flashed as his claws cut through Sam’s leather jacket. Anger surged inside me.
Fight.
I flipped over and brought the rock in my fist down on Billy’s head. The crack reverberated through my hand.