Page 85 of Claimed By Shadow and Blood
The cuts on my forelegs and shoulders pulsed, stinging and bleeding as if something in the wounds was rejecting my healing abilities. Blood spattered on the rocks in a constant reminder that I was still bleeding.
Arrow Assassin lay about thirty feet away with a large rock on his torso. His bow rested on the ground beside him, still strung. He groaned and shifted, his boots scraping against loose shale. His right arm was pinned at the elbow, but his left groped blindly, reaching for the bow.
I had to move quickly before he could shoot at me or the unicorn.
My lips peeled back, and I launched forward. Every muscle in my body screamed in discomfort, but I didn’t slow down.
That bastard was working with the people who had tortured me, hunted me, and destroyed my life. They’d sent him to finish me off.
I refused to go down without a fight.
“Fecking abyss,” he muttered as he wrenched his arm free.
I pushed myself harder, trying to reach him. But then he nocked an arrow to the bow, drew it, and released it right at me.
I dropped to the left of the coarse ridge for shelter, but the space was too shallow. Thewhooshof the arrow sounded like death’s hand reaching for me. White hot and agonizing pain sliced my side, then metalpinged behind me, and I twisted in time to see the arrow falling between two boulders.
Hot blood poured out of the new wound on my side, adding to my ongoing blood loss problem.
Bastard!
Rocks clattered, and clumsy, uneven footsteps sounded. I leaned to the left and saw him running in the opposite direction, up to higher ground and toward a protective rock.
I swallowed hard. He had to be getting into a better position to take me out.
I shoved my weight onto my back legs and almost stumbled from the pounding in my head. Heart racing, I tried to focus on the ground because, if I didn’t get my shit together, my likelihood of surviving would be reduced significantly.
Forcing myself forward, I dug my claws into rock and followed his blood trail. The wall curved ahead, obscuring my sight.
Not wanting to rush and do something stupid, I took a breath to survey the situation.
The rubble that circled the area had gaps I could see through and that he could probably shoot through. I edged a little to theright and peeked through a smaller opening and saw a stone path that dropped off into a steep embankment and led down into a basin of what looked like bubbling quicksand.
My stomach revolted. Death by quicksand was one of the worst ways to die, or that’s what Gage, one of my packmates, had once told me.
At the narrowest point, the basin was maybe eighteen feet across, but what I saw next shook my entire world.
The unicorn was up there near him.
He shot it in the flank, and the unicorn fell backward...and dropped into the quicksand.
I had to save it. I needed the assassin’s attention on me.
I moved past the small opening and poked my head around the curve of the wall.
Immediately, another arrow whipped toward me. I jerked my head back, and it hit the stone where I’d just been, sparking before dropping with a clatter.
Adrenaline spiked within me, making it easier to think clearly.
Moving back to the small gap, I scanned the area until I located the assassin sagging against a gray rock shelf, his lower half obscured as he whipped out another arrow and nocked it. Blood dripped from his right arm, and I noted the silver chain hanging around his neck. The pendant was under his shirt.
He stood, unsteady, and his hands shook. “You wanna save the unicorn, bitch? He doesn’t have much time before he goes under.” He pointed down the slanted wall to the quicksand.
I bared my teeth, but the burning in my paw and side surged again, bringing tears to my eyes. My heart was beating fast as it fought what I thought must be venom, pulsing in sync with the pain from the cut in my foreleg. My head swam, my vision blurred, and I was sodamnthirsty.
If I ran around the stone lip of the basin, I might lose my balance and slide down, and the assassin would see me coming.
The ground rumbled again, vibrating every single bone in my body. A chunk of the ridge Arrow Assassin was leaning against broke off and plunged down into the mire. He scrambled away, trying not to fall with it.
