Page 72 of Beta Hybrid

Pain lances through me, nearly blinding, but I get up, snapping at her legs.

Drusilla delivers two swift and brutal kicks to my face, bone and cartilage crunching. The world spins as my mate cries out. My vision blurs as I try to stand, but my front left leg—my left arm—is very, very broken. Even my alpha healing is too slow.

I look for Noah or Lexie to help. They’re both on the ground, still.

Even Evelyn is on her back, blood chugging from the wounds in her neck, not healing nearly as fast as her Origin. Siobhan has retreated to protect Will, refusing to let him over here to aid us. I would do the same for Zenna.

I can’t find Vale. Maybe he’s gone to get help.

My gaze lands on Zenna even as tears blur my vision. I open my mouth, but whatever Drusilla did has rendered me unable to speak. Barely able to breathe. Drusilla trains her gaze on my mate. Zenna, run!

Somewhere in the distance, I know others are still fighting. It scares me that my mother and Vale aren’t here. If they were alive to protect us, they would be here.

I watch, trying desperately to move closer to Zenna. I can feel down the bond that she’s frozen. Unable to run as Drusilla approaches her without haste, feeling the ground tremble.

Drusilla smiles at Zenna, but it’s tight. Angry. She reaches out and brushes a hand through my mate’s hair. ‘Silver pair, aren’t you?’ She glances at my eyes, and I hope she can feel the hate in them.

I watch the vines on Zenna’s arms rise to the surface, reaching for Drusilla. But the vampire catches one in her hand, the thorns ineffective on her cold, hard skin, and I watch as she rips the vine out of my mate’s skin.

Zenna screams, my own strangled, muffled shout lost in her cry.

Drusilla takes another, then another, until Zenna’s arms are awash in blood and veins and torn muscles.

I can’t save her. The thought thunders through me, tearing me up inside like knives. Zenna, baby, it’s okay. It’s going to be okay.

Two figures move in the distance, moving too quickly for me to follow. A vampire I’ve never seen, and Callen, his face a bloody mess where his eyes used to be. Together, they launch themselves at Drusilla.

But she backhands them, sending them skittering. ‘Not now, Godric,’ she hisses. She turns back to Zenna, who is trying so hard not to crumble to her knees.

It’s okay, baby. Alaric’s coming. Hold on. I’m here.

Pain pounds through the bond. I can’t tell where mine ends and Zenna’s begins. My healing is too slow. This will all be over before I can even open my mouth again.

Drusilla smiles as she continues ripping out Zenna’s vines. My girl shrieks, sending my blood boiling. I inhale, trying desperately to move. To do something. I try to shift. For the first time since I was a boy, it takes me more than one go, but on the second try, I manage it, breaking more of my already shattered bones. With a burning howl, I leap at Drusilla, and am rewarded with the flicker of surprise on her face.

My teeth meet her neck and I thrash, but her hand delivers an open-palmed hit to my throat. I stagger to the ground as something cracks. Blood wells inside me. Then I’m on the ground, and the world is sideways.

‘CAI!’ Zenna screams.

It takes me a moment to realise the wetness pooling around my face is blood pouring out of my eyes, my nose, my ears. Everywhere. Drusilla hit, broke, something vital.

The sunrise is lovely, I notice dimly.

A beautiful hue of blue, still edged with gold.

My vision blurs as I find my mate.

The sky is the same perfect hue as her eyes.

As Drusilla reaches out, grasps Zenna’s neck. And twists.

The loud crack is the last thing I hear as darkness washes over me.

Chapter Thirty-One

Zenna

Everything is dark and cold.

---