Page 64 of Fastlander Fallen

Owen’s face transformed into something awful, and he hopped up to his feet and caught Ace’s charge.

“Shit,” Gunner murmured. “Don’t Change!” he roared as Owen’s face elongated. “God dammit, Owen! Don’t Change!”

Too late. Owen was thrown again, but he disappeared before he hit the ground. Just…no more Owen. A massive monster exploded from his skin, and then Hallie was there, yanking her arm. “We gotta go,” she murmured as the huge boar with enormous tusks kicked dust up with his front hoof as Ace sauntered toward him.

“He’s a…” Shock consumed her. She couldn’t be seeing this. That thing had been in Owen? It was as tall as a man, with raised black hair in a spiked mohawk down his back. His tusks alone had to be a foot long! And his eyes were bright blue!

“Corey, move!” Hallie ordered, bodily pulling her from the chair.

Gunner was already headed for them, bellowing threats at the top of his lungs. The trees rattled with the force of his orders, and the ground vibrated under her feet as she limped behind Hallie, who was dragging her toward the trailer.

She could see the exact moment Owen shifted his furious blue gaze toward them as they ran away. She couldn’t quit looking behind them. Owen’s boar dodged Gunner and Ace and charged toward them.

“Oh my gosh, run, Hallie!” she screamed, shoving her cousin forward. “Go!”

The chaos that ensued was terrifying. A massive grizzly ripped out of Gunner and tackled Owen, cutting off his charge, and Ace blurred to cut off her view of the fight. He stood between them, facing off with the boar and the bear who were a mess of violence and rage.

“Get inside!” Ace roared in a voice Corey didn’t even recognize. He sounded terrifying, like a demon. When he tossed her a look over his shoulder, his face was morphing into something horrifying. His bone structure was changing, sharpening, and his eyes were glowing an ice-blue. His canines were elongating. One moment she saw a glimpse of the animal peeking out, and then he disappeared into a cloud of dark purple smoke. The screeching of some kind of animal was deafening. A mass of movement consumed the cloud as it reappeared around the fighting animals.

“Oh my God,” Hallie whispered in horror.

“What is that?” Corey yelled over the deafening screeching noise. She clapped her hands over her ears as the cloud of smoke grew and grew, bigger and bigger until it consumed the entire clearing.

“We have to get inside!” Hallie yelled at the top of her lungs.

Corey could barely hear her, but she could read her lips. Yep. Right behind you. She bolted with Hallie to close the gap between them and the trailer. They took the stairs at a panicked pace, two at a time. Hallie yanked the door open and closed it as hard as she could behind them.

They both spun and pushed their hands against the rattling door to keep it closed.

“What is that?” Corey yelled. “A tornado?”

Hallie’s eyes were wide with horror as she panted beside her. She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

The wind died in an instant, as if it had never existed. The trailer stopped rattling, and the door stopped threatening to blow right off the porch. The clearing went still.

“Gunner,” Hallie whispered. She rushed to the window beside the door and looked outside. The lights flickered, went out, and then returned.

“They’re fine.”

With a gasp, Corey spun to find Ace sitting on one of the dining chairs, his elbows resting on his knees and the remnants of purple smoke dissipating around him.

His too-bright eyes lifted to Corey. He must’ve been able to see the fear etched into every facet of her face, because he put his hands out in a soothing motion and said, “I won’t hurt you.”

“Where’s Gunner?” Hallie demanded, heading for the door.

“Heading in here,” Ace assured her.

The door swung open and Gunner stood there—bare-ass naked, every muscle tensed, rage roiling off him. “Why didn’t you fucking tell me?” he roared at Ace.

“Tell you what?” Ace asked softly.

“You’re a fucking vampire?”

What the hell. Corey shrunk back into the corner of the living room with Hallie, who held her hand tightly.

Ace’s glowing gaze drifted to Corey, then back to Gunner. “Get away from her, and we can talk.”

Gunner paced in front of where Hallie and Corey cowered.

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