Wild and Free (The Three #3)(190)

The woman smiled a very small smile, a weak stream of hope filling her heart where fear had taken hold.

“They even have the bunnies,” she whispered.

*

Delilah

“Holy shitoly,” I breathed, staring at a vampire who was trying to shake a dog off his leg as a cat was clawing his face.

“Down!” I heard Abel shout, and instinctively, I hit the deck, landing on bodies (and body parts).

I felt something whiz over me.

Then Abel whizzed over me. I lifted my head right when a body dropped in front of my eyes, neck first.

Blood gushing.

I didn’t even have time to gag before I was hauled up and twisted so I was front to Abel’s back.

“Jump on,” he ordered.

“Baby, you can’t fight with me—”

“Hold the f*ck on!” he thundered.

I wrapped my arms around him and held tight, swaying, jerking, jolting, as he kept fighting.

“Can you use mind-control?” I asked into his ear, keeping my hold tight.

“Too many,” he grunted, swinging. “Gotta focus.”

Shit.

A sword slashed through my shoulder, the pain so immense I almost dropped my arms.

But I held back my whimper. I didn’t want Abel to have to think about me.

It was then I heard a strangled, terrified, tortured, “Mom!”

Aurora.

This meant Barb.

Abel whirled and leaped over bodies, me looking around him, seeing Barb on her ass, one hand behind her holding her up, the other one outstretched. She was bloodied and cut, a weak ray of vermillion light sparking from her palm, a vampire over her, arm with a sword swung out to the side to take her head.

As he swung and Abel raced to him, the sword clashed against another one.

Gregor was there.

Abel had to stop to fight someone, whipping this way and that, taking me with him.

But he’d whipped back when it happened.

Even if it was a vampire blur, I saw it with total clarity.

In fact, it went in slow motion.

So I had every second. Every f*cking second of Gregor losing his head burned in my brain.

Burned in my memory.

For eternity.

*

In a Pub Somewhere in London

“No!” a girl cried out, her voice hoarse with despair.

But after the sound faded away, the room went silent.

And everyone kept their eyes to the screen.

Each one holding hope to their hearts.

By a thread.

*

Delilah

I let go of Abel, my feet hitting the ground, and the world stopped.

All action around me suspended.

Completely.

There was only Gregor’s headless body, slowly, so damned slowly, sinking to the ground.

Like the sound was muted, distorted, drawn out, and slowed down, I heard Yuri’s desolate, enraged howl.

My breath stopped, my heart stopped, my frame electrified as Gregor finally crashed to the Tarmac.

And it was then I tipped my head back, drove my arms straight down, and balled my fists.

I opened my mouth and cried my despair to the heavens.

The sound was foul.

It was wreathed in anguish.

And while I made it, unbeknownst to me, from the middle of my body, a ring of blue light flashed, sweeping out in a circle, growing wider, wider, wider, wider, cutting through the combatants, the houses, and beyond.

I dropped my head, saw my bloodied boots. Next to one, the arm of a golem; at the tip of the other, the head of a vampire.

I closed my eyes.

“Gregor,” I whispered, his name torn from me, and I felt every letter as they passed my lips ripping me to shreds.

*

In Front of an Electronics Store in New York City

On every screen in the window, dozens of them, was a shot of the mortal, bloodied, injured Delilah Johnson, head bowed, grief for a fallen vampire she liked and respected etched along every centimeter of her frame.

Scores of people stood on the sidewalk, the crowd arcing out into the street, having stopped traffic.

But the drivers honked no horns. Car doors were left open so they could get out, approach, and watch.

And from the throng who gazed at the television screens, there was nothing.

Nothing but silence united in heartache.

*

Delilah

“Bao bei,” Abel whispered, and I felt his hand on my back.

I stood unmoving.

“Lilah,” Abel said from closer, his lips to my ear, his hand pressing into my back.

I remained still.

“Baby, you did it.”

I opened my eyes to blink and lifted my head.

I looked around.

Standing were ours, the few of them we were, except Xun and Chen were bent over an immobile Wei.

Scattered in endless heaps were the bodies of the dead enemy.

Wandering around, aimless, sniffing, slithering, hopping, were the animals.

And on their knees, weirdly motionless, was our enemy.

“Told you, *cat, whatever you got, that shit is the shit,” Abel told me.

“Wh-what?” I stammered, my eyes drifting to him.

“That blue light?” he asked, and I nodded. “Went through them. All of a sudden, they quit fighting. It took them down to their knees. Left ’em there.”

“I…you’re joking,” I whispered.