Page 76 of Warrior

There was no way he could have faced this alone.

I grabbed the next hellhound by the leg and swung it into the one charging behind it.

They collided midair, limbs tangling as they skidded across the cement floor.For a brief moment, they floundered against each other, snarling and snapping, before untangling and charging again.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw King take down another.

“They’re coming from this way!”Landan yelled from behind us.

King leapt over me, his massive form a blur, and took out the hellhound I’d been fighting.

“Not fair!”I shouted.

The last hound came in low, its jaws snapping, teeth dripping with foul saliva.

“Sorry, buddy, I don’t have time to play.”

I mirrored King’s earlier move, vaulting over the creature to slash its throat.I severed its head cleanly with one strike.More blood rained down.

I turned and sprinted toward the others.Skylar was on the floor, one hand pressed against Harris’s chest, the other clutching his fingers as if her grip alone would keep him tethered to life.She cried softly in the darkness, and my stomach twisted as I tuned my ears to Harris, trying to hear around the infernal humming.

He wasn’t breathing.

Skylar knew it too.Her tears told me everything.

“Come on, Skylar.He wanted you to live,” I said gently, taking her hand in mine.

“No, we can’t leave him,” she choked out, her voice breaking.

“We won’t,” I promised.

I scooped Harris into my arms and nodded to King, who placed Landan’s hand on his back.Landan reached out and found Mila.Skylar clutched Harris’s hand as she sobbed quietly.My heart broke for her.I couldn’t imagine losing King.

“Our Warriors just killed the hounds headed toward us that Landan heard,” King said a few seconds later.

Labyrinth and his men appeared, their shadows blending into the darkened tunnel.“Hellhounds are everywhere,” he said in greeting.

“We killed a dozen,” King replied, glancing back down the tunnel where we’d come from.

Labyrinth’s sharp eyes narrowed.“Our kill count was closer to fifty, but there were two times that further ahead.We had to turn back and come in behind you.You’ll run into them if you keep going in your current direction.”

“Get the humans between us, and we’ll head back the way we came,” King commanded.“Nokita should be coming from that direction with reinforcements.”

The Warriors moved into formation, which only allowed them to go two by two in the hallway.At King’s signal, one of them stepped forward and took Harris from my arms.

“No!”Skylar cried, her grip on her husband’s hand desperate.

“It’s okay,” I said gently, crouching down to meet her tear-filled eyes.“We’re not leaving him.I need my hands free to fight and keep everyone safe.”I turned to the Warrior holding Harris, a soldier I didn’t recognize.My voice dropped.“Leave him only if her life is in danger.”

The Warrior nodded; his eyes fixed on me, but I didn’t have time to decipher his stare.Skylar’s sobs continued, but she didn’t let go of Harris’s hand.

The thought of so many hellhounds would have terrified me before my transformation, but now, a wild, exhilarating sense of purpose coursed through me.This was what I was made for.

I leaped and came in high at the first hellhound that lunged at me.It met its end in a single swipe of my claws.Now that I’d mastered the technique, it wasn’t going to waste.Hot, metallic blood sprayed across my face, igniting my instincts as the next hellhound charged.Another quick strike ended it, and I roared as the Warriors around me raised their voices in our battle cry.

“Forward or die!”

I was one of them now.Fully and completely.I’d never felt more alive.

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