Page 96 of A Heart Of Bitter Poison
His gaze darts to Cole and Ediye. I know he doesn’t want to leave them, but he sheathes his sword and gives me a troubled smile. “Yeah. I can do that.”
“Then let’s get out of here. We won’t have much time. And whatever happens,” I say, holding Valentina’s gaze so there can’t be any doubt, “Semyon Abdulov is mine.”
Valentina nods and we file out the front door, sticking close to the house before crossing the snow-covered lawn to a small side entrance in the stone wall. The snow is thick and whipped into deep drifts where the wind has scraped across the land, but we keep a fast pace, running wherever we can. We barely make it to the treeline before a wretched howling drifts toward us from the forests on the far side of the house. It sounds more like a wraith than a wolf, like a soul being torn apart to make something new.
“Hybrids,” Valentina says when I glance at her with a questioning look. “They’re free of the catacombs.”
I take a deep breath and we surge ahead through the woods, climbing over rocks and fallen trees and pushing through deep drifts of snow. Sometimes there are clearings and sometimes the forest is so thick that we have to break the branches with our swords to keep moving forward. Though the blowing snow is quickly filling in our footprints, we’ll still be easy to follow.
Not that we need to worry about that.
The first attack comes from the werewolves that pour down the hill in front of us like a wave of fur and teeth. Their mist flows ahead of them through the trees, coating the landscape and obscuring the drifts of snow beneath our feet. I ready my sword and look for Semyon.
Valentina stalks ahead to meet them. She spins with her blades and cuts the first down with a sweep across the wolf’s neck. She’s already killed her second wolf by the time Ashen and Cole each slay their first.
“She’s great,” I say as Ediye steps to my side and we watch Valentina eviscerate another werewolf. She hisses into its face as she drags her blade through its abdomen, spilling steaming guts onto the snow.
Davina joins my other side and readies her pike as Ediye forms a ball of magic in her palm and fires it off into the pack. Two werewolves are knocked off course by the orb and only one gets up.
We press ahead and join the others in the fight, forming a loose circle as the wolves close in around us. The smell of blood and bile and piss and spilled guts and all the other scents of battle whip in the wind. I hiss and cut and stab. I steal glances at Ashen, his face stern with concentration as he swings his sword in graceful arcs. I look at Davina who’s surprisingly pretty handy with that pike. She’s got a great aim for eyeballs. Cole and Ediye fight together in their seamless, elegant dance, just like they did in the house. And normally, I’d be all over this shit. Killing werewolves, battling with my friends, hissing… but the unknown of the hybrids and the absence of Semyon and the whereabouts of the other Reapers are problems that have me too anxious to enjoy the fun.
Turns out, those become the least of my worries.
Another player is ready to enter the game.
CHAPTER37
The snow bursts from the ground to the left of our battlefield. A massive white shape sails into the air like a deadly whip. Smooth scales shift and glisten through the chaos of the storm.
Everyone scatters, no matter what side they’re on. No one wants to be caught beneath the body twisting and falling through the squall.
The snake strikes a wolf closing in on me with her fangs and he whines, dropping to the ground in a shaking heap of fur.
Zida lands on the bloodstained snow and locks her silver eyes on me.
A flash of metal catches my attention. A dagger strikes Zida in the side and she turns toward Ashen with a vicious hiss.
I meet Ashen’s eyes for just a moment, but I see his desperation. I feel it in my chest.
“Lu!Run!”
The serpent faces Ashen and he raises his sword to take her on, but there are more werewolves coming down the hill and the howl of hybrids closing the distance below us. He can’t fight them all and win. Not with her in this battle too.
I take off down the hill.
“Zida!” I call over my shoulder. I run as fast as I can. I’ve got to draw her away from him. “Come and get me!”
I hear Ediye’s magic blast snow and trees behind me, and I know that Zida is following.
I keep running. I don’t look back. There’s a game trail that veers to the left and I take that for a distance before I reach a wide clearing. Even though the trail ends, I don’t stop. I race across the open space and back into the cover of the trees. I pass through another two meadows before I can’t hear or feel her behind me anymore. Even then, I keep running down the hill, using gravity to propel me through the woods.
I reach a small clearing filled with deep snow and stop abruptly in the center.
I know this place.
The smell of pine needles. The sting of snow on my sweaty face. Woodsmoke and Ashen’s scent, clinging to my hair as it whips across my face.
The feeling that I’m not alone.
