Page 83 of Wolf Queen Ruin
With a menacing growl that seemed to vibrate through the very stones beneath our feet, Damien moved.The motion was so swift and fluid it barely registered before he had positioned himself right in front of Marcel.
In one lightning-fast motion, he grabbed Marcel’s gun away from him.
“You leave Luna to die in a collapsing tomb,” Damien growled, his voice full of violence, “then I leaveyouto die in a collapsing tomb.”
He clocked Marcel over the head with his gun, and Marcel crumbled into a boneless pile.
Then Damien turned, grabbed my elbow, and hauled me back down the narrow corridor we’d come through at a sprint.
“You’re not going to stick your straw in him?”I asked.
“Not when this place is coming down around us,” he shouted as a stronger tremor shook the chamber.
I darted into another passage with Damien close behind.The corridor was barely wide enough for us to move single file, its ceiling so low that Damien had to stoop.Unlike the main ceremonial passages, this tunnel appeared cruder, more utilitarian.
A violent shockwave rippled through the passage, strong enough to throw me against the wall.Sharp pain lanced through my shoulder at the impact.
Dust and small debris rained down around us.Damien steadied me with one hand while the other pressed against the ceiling.His arm tensed, his muscles straining against the fabric of his torn shirt as he braced the stone.A spiderweb of cracks spread above our heads.
“We need to move faster,” he said through clenched teeth.“Right after I remove my hand.Ready?”
I nodded and gulped loudly.We were fast, but were we fast enough to escape a ceiling cave-in?
Slowly, his wide gaze locked on mine, Damien removed his hand.In that brief moment before we ran, I caught something in his eyes I’d never seen before—genuine fear.Not for himself, but for me.
We hauled ass out of there.
The tunnel began to slope steeply upward, making our ascent difficult as the tremors intensified.My lungs burned with each breath, the air growing thick with dust that coated my throat and stung my eyes.Despite the adrenaline fueling me, I struggled to maintain our pace.
Damien noticed my faltering steps instantly.Without breaking stride, he gripped my waist with one arm and began pushing me up the incline.
Under normal circumstances, I might have objected to being manhandled, but survival trumped pride.I focused on moving my legs as quickly as possible, letting Damien’s supernatural strength, though drained, supplement my failing energy.
A violent tremor sent a section of the ceiling crashing down mere feet behind us, the impact reverberating through the narrow space.I glanced back to see that the passage was now completely blocked.No chance of Marcel’s mercs following, but also no retreat possible for us.
“Almost there,” Damien said.
Though I couldn’t see shit through the darkness and dust, the sound of his certainty gave me something to hold on to.
The Shadow Fang piece began to emit a strange warmth from its container in my hands, pulsing in what felt like a response to my racing heartbeat.With each pulse came a momentary surge of energy through my limbs, as if the artifact itself was lending me strength to escape with it.
“Do you feel that?”I panted out.
“The artifact’s resonance?Yes,” he said, not at all breathless like me.“It’s like it’s responding to your physical state, like a sympathetic energy connection.Try to channel it.”
I had no idea how to “channel” an ancient magical artifact, but I’d try anything once.Focusing on the warm pulses, I imagined the energy flowing more fully into my muscles, synchronizing with my movements.Whether through actual magic or the power of suggestion, my steps became surer, my breathing less labored.
“That’s it,” Damien said, his voice a low rumble against my back.“You’re doing it.”
Ahead, a faint glow of natural light penetrated the dusty air.An exit, tantalizingly close yet still too far.A massive tremor, stronger than any before, shook the entire passage.Larger stones began to fall around us as the structural integrity finally gave way.
“We’re not going to make it at this pace,” Damien said, a new intensity in his voice.“Luna, hold on tight.”
Without further warning, he swept me into his arms and launched forward with vampire speed, moving so fast that the world blurred around us.The sudden acceleration pressed me against his chest, his natural cedar and winter winds scent mingling with the earthy smell of the collapsing tunnel.
We burst through the exit just as the tunnel disintegrated behind us, emerging into the humid jungle air with such momentum that Damien couldn’t halt our forward trajectory.He twisted in mid-air, somehow managing to turn so that when we tumbled together down a short embankment covered in moss and ferns, he took the brunt of the impact, shielding me with his body until we came to rest in a small clearing.
The ground continued to tremble beneath us as the underground complex collapsed even more, sending up a massive plume of dust and debris through crevices in the jungle floor.Trees swayed dangerously, birds took flight in panicked flocks, and distant howls suggested other jungle residents were shaking their figurative fists at us.
