Page 80 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part One

“Wait, what?”

“This isn’t a testing facility foranimals! It’s a testing facility forus!Shifters! Changelings. Sprites. Nymphs.” I listed everything I’d seen, and I was sure there were more I couldn’t identify by sight.

“What? I-I?—”

I didn’t get to hear whatever Ven was going to say because all the enemies who had been following me burst into the room, and suddenly, I was enveloped in another fight.

It wasn’t pretty, not by a long shot. Acid sprayed toward me as I leaped at my closest attacker. I managed to tackle them to the floor and sink my teeth into their head, but not before that liquid hit my coat and the entire room began to smell of melting fur.

Even though it was my fur, it still smelled horrendous. I couldn’t pay much attention to that because I had to move on to my next target, latching my jaws around one of their knees and shaking until I heard it crack.

It turned into a bloodbath, and it wasn’t until after maybe my third or fourth enemy, when I was blasted up into the ceiling by a surge of ice, that I glanced toward Ven’s face.

I didn’t mean to do it again, but I was doing everything that had scared her so much the last time. If I did make it out of here, would she ever be able to forgive me? Or had I just successfully sealed her perception that I was a monster?

25

VANESSA

“Leo!Fuck,Leo! Just hold on!”

I yanked at the door like it would do anything, pausing only to beat at it with my hands. My knuckles and the side of my palm were bleeding, but I didn’t care. Leo was right in front of me fighting for his life, and I couldn’t help him.

I’d never felt so helpless, and when our eyes locked, he looked sofuckingguilty. That was all my fault. I’d yelled at him for how he had handled himself at the estate, but this was different. There were no innocents in that room, only Leo and the assholes attacking him. I needed him to get out. I just needed him to be safe.

“Ricky!” I screamed, not caring that my voice cracked. “Open this fucking door!”

“Don’t you think I’m trying?”

“Try fucking harder!”

Was it the nicest thing to scream? No. But all I could think of was Leo. Of the fact that he was only a few feet from me, but I could do nothing. How had the night changed so quickly?

Leo was doing an incredible job fighting, but every time I saw him get hit, I wanted to vomit. It was all too much, and it felt like it was entirely my fault. How had I allowed us to get separated? I never should have let him wander into that other room alone.

Would I be good in a fight against so many magic users? I had no idea. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was that I would be with him, not stuck on the other side of the door only able to scream.

Just as I thought I was going to combust, the door finally,finally,let out a happy beep. I kicked it open, surging inside with zero survival instincts, but I didn’t care. I grabbed the closest batch of test vials to me and threw it at a one of the lab coats chanting something. It hit with a satisfying shatter of glass, but it had little effect other than that.

It had distracted him enough for Leo to jump on his back and begin ripping out his spine, though. Was it gruesome? Yes, but again, I didn’t care. There was a time and a place for violence, and I was pretty sure this was it.

I looked for my next target, intending to throw more, when another dozen figures barreled into the room. They were barely in when someone shot something toward me. I couldn’t make out what it was, but I had the good sense to throw myself backward.

I tumbled out of the room, caught by a half-transformed Ricky. He was just as ready to throw down as I was—no surprise there—but as we both stood and moved to join the battle again, Leo leaped toward us.

Oh, were we retreating? Risky, but I was fine with it. Or at least that’s what I thought was happening until Leo slammed into the door, closing it with a finality that thundered in my very soul.

“W-what did y-you just do?” I shrieked, feeling like I had just gone from a terrible nightmare to the worst one I’d ever had. The light was red again, meaning we were locked apart for the second time. But he’d done it so purposefully? I didn’t understand.

Leo didn’t answer me—he couldn’t in his wolf form. He looked at Ricky. The two of them seemed to have a silent conversation before a deluge of water washed Leo’s legs right out from under him.

I started toward the panel, determined to find a way to get that door open again, but the next thing I knew, I was being picked up.

“What the fuck?” I flailed. “Ricky, let me go!”

He didn’t. Ricky dragged me toward the narrow opening in the double doors. I screamed and I kicked, but wolf shifters were so goddamnstrong.Even when I threw my weight around with the full force I could muster, it barely made Rick stumble.

“Stop it! Why are you doing this? Let me go!Let me go, let me go, letmegoletmegoletmego!”

---