A Glimmer of Hope (The Avalon Chronicles #1)(61)
Chloe turned the wheel sharply, taking the car out of the trees, and pulling the hand brake skidded the two-ton vehicle into the car park, ignoring the parking bays and signs to drive carefully. “Everyone out, we’re going through the woods.”
Layla and Harry jumped out and leaped over a small wooden fence. Chloe was next, just as a BMW X5 smashed into the passenger door of the Range Rover. The force flipped the Range Rover onto its side as Layla tried to use her power to lessen the impact, but the car was too big and moving too quickly for her power to grab hold of it.
Diana hadn’t gotten out of the car. “Diana!” Layla shouted.
“She’s fine,” Chloe assured her, as the windscreen exploded, fragments of glass bouncing across the car park.
The passenger door was torn free, and Layla gasped as what used to be Diana emerged with a low growl. Diana had the appearance of a monstrous grizzly bear, but with human proportions. It was as if someone had mixed a human with a bear, leaving a terrifying beast in its wake.
“Werebear,” Chloe told her. “That’s her beast form. We need to leave. She’ll be fine.” Several blood elves left the BMW as a second vehicle entered the clearing.
“Run,” Chloe snapped. “There’s a clearing a mile in that direction. Get to it. I’ll catch you up.”
Layla and Harry didn’t need telling again, and they fled through the woods as the sound of gunfire echoed around them.
After a few hundred feet, Layla risked a glance behind her. Neither Chloe nor Diana were there. She heard the growl of a predator, though, and saw several blood elves giving chase. She turned and ran again until her lungs were burning and her legs felt as if they had nothing left to give, but she continued on unabated. She wasn’t going back to Elias. Not now. Not ever.
A short time later Harry fell to the ground, rolling down a nearby hill. Layla stopped and ran down after him, trying not to trip, and managed to reach the bottom without incident. Harry was on his feet, a knife imbedded in the back of his thigh.
“This hurts,” he said through gritted teeth. “Probably not going to be doing a lot more running.”
Layla stood beside her friend and glanced up the hill, and saw five blood elves watching them and laughing. “Get your belt off. Wrap it around the top of the thigh to stop the bleeding.”
“What are you going to do?” he asked, wincing as he removed his belt.
“Come on, you bastards,” Layla said, and cracked her knuckles. “Let’s see what you can do up close.”
Layla smiled as the urge to fight filled her. She wasn’t going to allow herself to be taken. Not again. They would have to kill her first.
“Move back to the trees,” she said to Harry, and she heard him groan in pain as he did as she asked. She followed him, never taking her eyes off the enemies in front of her, and hoped the number of trees around them would make it harder for the elves to fight effectively as a team.
Four of the elves didn’t appear to be all that concerned as they jumped down the hill with abandon, drawing swords and knives.
“You come with us,” one of the elves said, “and we’ll kill him quick.”
“Or you don’t,” a second said, “and we eat him in front of you.”
“That’s a brilliant offer,” Layla said. “But I’m going to have to go with the third option of you all pissing off.”
The first elf swung a metal pole toward Layla. She raised her hand, and the elf’s movement stopped. A flick of her fingers and the bar melted, the liquid dropping to the grass before hardening again over the elf’s feet. A second later the metal changed again, this time to long spikes that skewered the elf to the ground, causing it to scream in pain.
The other elves paused, but Layla wasn’t going to give them an inch. She rushed toward the nearest one, taking control of the sword it wielded and pushing it away with everything she had. The elf hadn’t let go in time and sailed back into a nearby tree.
The remaining elves all dropped their metal weapons.
“That’s not going to help.”
The third and fourth elves tried to attack at the same time, but Layla blocked their blows, grabbed the third elf by the wrist, breaking it, then pushed the creature into the path of the fourth. The fourth elf shoved its comrade aside, but that moment’s distraction allowed Layla to connect with a kick to the side of its head. Both elves hit the ground hard, the third crying out again because of its broken wrist.
Before either of them could move, Layla was on them, raining down punches on the third elf, eventually knocking it out. She stood as the fourth elf got back to its feet and kicked out its knee, putting as much force into the blow as possible, and heard a satisfying pop as it dislocated. She didn’t need to worry about hurting these creatures; she only needed to worry about Harry and her surviving.
Despite the pain, the blood elf shot up from a kneeling position, grabbed hold of Layla, and took her off her feet. The air rushed out of her body as she slammed into the ground, the blood elf using its leverage to throw punch after punch. It was stronger than a human, and Layla gritted her teeth and bore the pain as she blocked the blows.
Finally, she managed to grab hold of the blood elf’s arm, locking her own arms around it. The joint broke a few seconds later. Bone protruded from the elbow and thick black blood began to pour over Layla, who shoved the elf off her and rolled aside. She turned the metal in the weapons around her into a fist-sized battering ram and smashed it into the side of the elf’s head as fast as she could. The elf was immediately knocked out cold.