Page 103 of Sweet Nightmare

It seemed like she had a really nice life planned there, and it guts me that she’ll never get to see the sun sparkle off the water like in the pictures she showed me.

Because she’s gone, just like Eva and Serena and Belinda and who knows how many others at this point.

It’s heartbreaking and terrifying, and I would give anything to wake up in my warm bed—even with a snake on top of me—and realize that this is all just a bad dream. That none of it is true. That everything in my life, in all our lives, hasn’t gone completely sideways.

But as I look at Jude’s face, I realize that’s just a fantasy. This is real. It’s happening right now, right this instant, to all of us. And it’s going to keep happening if we don’t figure out what’s going on.

“We have to stop this,” I tell Jude.

He nods grimly, the sharp planes of his face gone craggy with a pain I don’t understand. “I will,” he tells me, and it sounds like a vow.

“You? How can you—” I break off when I hear someone calling my name from behind us. I turn to find Luis staggering toward me, his shirt soaked with blood.

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

ALL THROUGH THE

NIGHT-MARES

Not Luis, too. Please, please, please, not Luis.

I sprint toward him, slipping and sliding on the slick, broken sidewalk. Jude passes me, catching my best friend just as he stumbles and starts to fall.

“What’s wrong with him?” I demand as Jude lowers him to the ground.

“I’m okay,” Luis says, but his eyes are glazed with pain, and he’s trembling despite the heat. “I just need a minute to…” He trails off in a coughing fit.

“We need to get his shirt off.” Jude’s face is bleak as he crouches down next to me. “See what we’re dealing with here.”

I nod, but the moment I try to ease Luis’s shirt over his head, he gasps in pain.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper as I try to pull his good arm through its armhole.

“It’s okay,” he bites out. But he’s gray and sweating, and he’s clearly anything but okay.

Before I can figure out what to do, Jude steps forward and grabs the neckline of Luis’s shirt.

“What are you—” Luis gasps out, right before Jude rips the shirt in half with one quick yank of his hands.

I blink at him, shocked, for a second, but he just gives an impatient nod toward my best friend.

And he’s right. Now is far from the time to marvel at just how easy that was for Jude. So I turn back to Luis. And try not to gasp at the gaping wound that covers his side, stretching from right under his armpit to his waist.

“Who did this to you?” I ask as I use his torn, sodden shirt to wipe away as much of the blood as I can. Thankfully, his shifter metabolism has already started to clot the wound, so it’s a lot easier than it normally would be.

As long as it’s not a life-threatening wound like the dragon we were just trying to help, most shifters can heal themselves pretty quickly. That ability is slowed down a little bit by the power dampening on the island but not completely decimated as it’s part of their normal body chemistry as opposed to their magic. The same goes for the coagulating properties in Izzy’s saliva and Simon’s ability to seduce anyone with a pulse.

“A wolf.” Luis’s voice is grumpy as he answers my question.

“Who?” I demand. No one should be able to shift right now, not while the power lock is still in place.

“Not a student,” he answers, trying—and failing—to sit up. “An actual wolf.”

What the hell? I shoot a baffled glance toward Jude, but he doesn’t look anywhere near as confused as I feel. Instead, he looks…devastated.

“We don’t have wolves on the island, Luis.”

“Tell that to the giant gray one that sliced me open,” he answers. Then he yelps, “Fuck, Clementine! Could you be a little more sadistic?”

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