Page 110 of Wolf Touched

I placed my hand against my neck where the vampire had bitten me, and warm liquid slipped between my fingers.

Babe, I’m so sorry,Raffe whimpered, and a dark void of helplessness opened deep within him.

I spun around to see him pawing at the ground like he could go under the barrier, but then I felt a shift in the magic. My attention flicked to Priestess Caroline. Her eyes were glowing. I knew I couldn’t move forward without everyone, but I was desperate to reach my parents.

Then I remembered how I’d taken the barrier down before. I could help them, and maybe it’d be quicker.

I released my neck and placed my hand against the barrier. Just like when I’d slipped through, it passed through.

My heart skipped a beat. I could get out there with Raffe and help the coven.

As I stepped forward, something stabbed into my shoulder.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Pain exploded in my upper back and wrapped around the front of my shoulder as I stumbled forward. The static of the magical barrier chafed against my skin.

I got my feet underneath me, but then a gigantic wolfy body crashed into me, forcing me to my back. My body jarred, and vomit surged upward as the pain became worse than anything I’d ever experienced before.

Then I heard gunshots.

Get down and hide behind the trees. The coven members are using weapons,Raffe linked and pressed his entire weight on me. He then connected to only me,Babe, I’m sorry, but you’ve been shot.His body jerked, and sharp agony tore through him.

No. This wasn’t how we were going to die, unable to get through a barrier. Chaos rang around me. If I didn’t do something, wewereall going to die.

Every single one of us.

I yanked on my power, no longer worried about moderating it. It was now or never.

My body sang and allowed the power to pulse from me.I used the trick Priestess Caroline had shown me, closing my eyes and envisioning my power attacking everyone to my north and none of us here. I felt the entanglement of my magic with the barrier, the way my power pressed against the static, swallowing it whole, and how it seeped into the ground.

“The barrier’s down!” Priestess Caroline yelled. “Use your magic against them. If they win, nothing will ever be the same, and the arcane-born will die. Pass the message along to all. We need to act now.”

I gritted my teeth, shoving Raffe off me. We were in the open.Get behind a damn fir,I commanded as I crawled the two feet to the nearest tree. Each time I moved, my shoulder felt like it was ripping in two, but I pushed past the pain. At least I was still breathing, and my power was working. At the bare minimum, I needed to stay alive long enough to save my parents and protect the people who’d decided to stand with me.

The vampires I’d injured yelled, “Let us get out of the way before you continue shooting!”

But the gunfire didn’t halt.

The ground quaked, and I propped myself against a trunk and glanced up to see the branches swaying. I groaned, the pain pulsing almost in sync with my power. I kept a strong grasp on my power, making sure it didn’t stop.

The gunfire continued.

Two of the vampires that had attacked me lay dead on the ground from gunfire, while the two others had taken shelter like the rest of us.

Raffe limped over to me, blood trickling from his side. Some bastard had shot him. I’d figure out who it was and make them pay.

He lay at my feet, positioning himself so that the sizabletrunk protected him as well. He linked,Did the bullet come out?Then he raised his head to sniff my shoulder.

I swallowed my whimper, knowing he could feel my pain. Making noise would only put him more on edge, and he had a wound of his own. “I don’t think so.” Even speaking made the pain worse, but I didn’t have time to dwell on that. “I need to stop them long enough for us to get close and attack them.”

Suddenly, somethingyanked on my power—the animals of the woods answering my call.

I fought against the urge to hunch over from the agony. I hated asking for their help, especially since they were truly innocent in all this.

We’re on our way,the merged voice replied in my head just as Priestess Caroline and the other witches began to use their magic as weapons.

Keagan hunkered down and ran to our trunk, and bullets were fired at him. The trees blocked him, and he dropped next to Raffe, a bullet hitting the dirt just a millimeter away from him.

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