Page 32 of Fastlander Fealty

“Silver!” someone yelled in her ear. “Silver, wake up!”

Confused, she opened her eyes, and coughed water out of her lungs. She coughed and coughed, feeling like she would never be able to drag in the air she needed to survive. Gasping short breaths, she opened her eyes to find Owen holding her upright in neck deep water. The forest on either side of the river was on fire in a straight line, and thick smoke filled the air.

It felt like everything was delayed, in slow motion.

Corey and Hallie were human again and running through the waves toward them. Captain’s grizzly bear was pacing the bank with another massive grizzly, their eyes on the fire on the other side of the river, right over she and Owen’s heads. Ace was guiding humans out of the water upriver, and when his eyes landed on her, they were pitch black. His vampire side must be in control.

Owen dragged her to shallower water, and she could see it—the water was turning red.

“Owen?” she choked out.

“It’s okay.”

“The water—”

“It’s going to be okay.” But the truth was shaky in his voice like he didn’t really believe it.

Hallie reached them first and dragged Silver shallower, pushing her to get to the bank. “We need to go.”

“Will Damon come back to finish us?” she asked in terror, her skin blistering as it hit the air.

“That wasn’t Damon,” Owen ground out from behind them. “It’s worse.

“What?” she asked, voice trembling. “What could be worse than Damon?”

“Wreck,” he said simply.

“What’s a wreck?” she whispered.

“The last member of our Crew,” Owen gritted out.

Hallie and Corey were pushing her toward the bank. “Too many humans here,” Corey snarled.

Her legs weren’t working like they should. “I’m trying,” she said apologetically, but pitched forward, cut her hands and knees on the rocks of the shallows with a grunt.

Owen’s strong hand hooked under her arm, lifted her, and without a second of hesitation, he scooped her up, folded her into his arms like she weighed nothing, then strode out of the water onto the bank.

“Ace!” he called. “We need out of here.”

Ace trudged out of the shallows up river and strode for them. “It’ll hurt,” he called.

Owen was heading right for him, and behind him, Hallie and Corey were jogging to keep up. Behind them, Gunner and Captain had Changed back to their human forms. Everyone was bleeding. Everyone was burned. The air smelled like wet copper.

“We’re all hurt. No time to get a ride. Wreck is watching. I can feel him,” Gunner growled in an inhuman voice behind Owen. “Get us away from him.”

“Fuck. I hate this part,” Ace muttered. “Where?” he demanded as he picked up his pace toward them.

“Not the trailer park,” Corey said low.

“Silver’s cabin,” Owen growled as he slowed and braced himself.

Ace charged toward them and close the last ten yards, and his face transformed into something sharp and haunting…terrifying. He leapt at them and disappeared into a cloud of billowing purple smoke, and then Silver was ripped from her skin. That’s what it felt like. She screamed in agony as she was separated from herself. Owen’s hands gripped her so tight, and just as she thought she would die, she fell from the air and hit the ground hard.

She dragged in a long breath of air and looked around at the others in horror. They were laid out across the clearing in front of her rental cabin, and Ace was retching near the tree line, his body convulsing with it.

Corey clawed her way toward him as the remnants of the purple smoke dissipated into the woods.

“Oh my God, oh my God,” Silver chanted as she rolled from side to side, holding her stomach as her body slowly remembered how to be a body again.

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