Page 89 of Court of Evil

“Sure,” she replies, her eyes wide and locked on the front window.

Reaching over, I lay my hand over hers. “It’s okay. You can ease up a little. Head somewhere deep into the forest. We need to lie low for a bit.”

She nods jerkily, and I make sure she is okay before I look at the others crowded in the back. “You guys okay?”

“You should have let us help,” Jarek snarls.

I shrug. “Nah, I had him.”

“Let me fix your arm,” Tem offers.

“It’s fine, honestly. Let’s just get somewhere safe,” I mutter.

“Is anywhere safe? What was that?” Addeus murmurs.

“That was your old team, no?” Zeev asks.

“It was.” I nod as I glance back at them and then into the darkness beyond the cracked windscreen. “You’re right. Nowhere will be safe.”

“Why?” Fang asks, glancing at me before looking back at the road.

“We are being hunted,” I inform them.

“What do you mean we are being hunted?” Fang asks, pacing before me as I set out what I have in my bags. It won’t beenough for whatever they are now. I need a fucking tank and an armoury, not just some guns, grenades, and wire.

Lifting my head, I watch her pace. The truck is idling, its lights splashing across us. The others sit next to us, their heads slowly tilting from side to side as they watch Fang before me.

“That was my old team. Clearly, they have become something else,” I admit, “and now are hunting us. They probably picked up my scent from HQ when they went back and followed it. Dumb. I was fucking dumb.”

“Well, it was fun to see the old gang,” Ronan remarks, and my anger flares at him . . . at everything. I leap to my feet and head towards him, getting right in his face as his eyes widen.

“You could have told me who it was!” I roar.

“I didn’t know!” Ronan snaps. “I couldn’t see their faces, and I panicked and had to warn you, okay? It was more important you were alive!”

“It is not your responsibility to keep me alive?—”

“Yes, it is! I have done it for years, watching your back and protecting you. I will not stop now. No matter what you think of me, everything I have ever done is for you!” he shouts, more serious than I’ve ever seen him.

I stare at him for a moment, unsure what to say. “They died, I saw them, so what were they?” I whisper.

“Ghouls,” Jarek says, and I step back from Ronan, breaking the tension between us. “They were ghouls.”

“Shit,” we all say at once as I rub my head.

“I’ve never hunted ghouls. They are really fucking rare,” I mutter. I don’t like not knowing things, and this is even worse. I cannot hunt what I do not understand. “I don’t even know how they are—” A noise has me spinning, raising a knife and a gun as I scan the area. I gesture for them to get down, then I crouch and wait.

“Anyone see anything?” I hiss.

“Movement in the trees, fifty feet ahead,” Addeus murmurs. “They are . . . wrong. Dead, whoever it is.”

“Great. Be prepared,” I mutter, and the next minute is filled with tension as I wait for another attack. The trees rustle, twigs snap loudly, and then a body emerges from the darkness. I fire automatically, and they jerk, falling to the ground. I head over, scanning the area, but I don’t see anyone else.

Suddenly, they lurch to their feet, and I still as their head lifts. I know that pale, innocent face—Eric, the baby of the group and the person I was closest to, the one who did nothing to stop what happened to me.

He’s weak, always has been, but not anymore as the bullet hole in his chest continues to leak black fluid.

“Please help me, Tate,” Eric pleads, his eyes wide as he falls to his knees. Blood coats his mouth and hands. “Something is wrong. I woke up like . . . this, and I’m just so hungry and lost. Please, Tate, please help me.” He collapses forward.

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