Out Of The Ashes (The Ending Series, #3) (19 page)

Sarah sucked in a
breath, likely for a scream, but I slapped my hand over her mouth before she
could actually propel the shrill sound into the night and alert any of the
other attackers as to our location. I should have been paying closer attention
to my own reaction.

A low rumble
started in my chest. A growl.
I
was growling, and it felt like the most
natural thing in the world. It merged with the vicious snarls coming from Jack
and Cooper as they circled Ben’s attacker, pushing him away from the wagon.

“Ben…” Ky’s voice
was low and pained. I could just make out his boots as he took slow steps along
the length of his brother’s body.

Ben was no longer
floundering; he wasn’t moving at all anymore. I refused to think about what
that meant.

“You killed my
brother.” Ky’s voice was rough, harsh. “You fucking piece of—”

There was a
gunshot, closely followed by another loud thud, another moment of groaning wood
over the three of us, then vicious grunts and snarls. It sounded like Ky was
grappling with a bear, though I knew, based on what I could sense
telepathically, that it was one of the like-me two-legs. And I couldn’t do a
damn thing from under the wagon. But I had other resources.

I handed my knife
to Zoe and closed my eyes, focusing on Jack. I slipped into his mind
completely, becoming a single, unified entity with him in seconds.

I was Jack.

My hackles
were raised, my lips retracted. I licked my teeth, eager to feel them sink into
flesh, eager to protect my pack.

“Help me, dog,”
the enemy two-legs ordered silently as he wrestled with one of my two-legs
pack-mates.
“Fight with
me
, dog.”

I snarled and
snapped my teeth at him. The desire to bite—tear—rend—was so deep. It was a
need. To protect. I had to protect my pack.

Beneath my
paws, I felt the ground shudder. One of my larger pack-mates. I raised my nose
high and inhaled deeply. Wings. She was coming. Good.

Thud-a-thump.

Thud-a-thump.
Closer.

Thud-a-thump.
Almost here…

I lunged for
the grappling two-legs. I sank my teeth into my enemy’s arm.

Thud-a-thump.
So close…

My enemy swung
his other arm, hitting the side of my head.

Darkness.

“Jack! No!”
Without thinking, I crawled out from under the wagon and lunged for my dog. My
lips retracted, and an inhuman snarl crawled up my throat as I wrapped my good
arm around his limp body.

Our attacker
paused, halfway to his feet, and cocked his head to the side.
“She-drifter…”
He watched me, but not for long.

The sound of
hooves pounding on earth drew his attention, and he snapped his head to the
side. My mind was linked with his, and I could hear him ordering the horse to
stop.

Wings trampled
him without hesitation. He fell, bones crunching under her hooves, and she
turned, rearing up and stomping on him a few more times for good measure. She
snorted and tossed her head, then met my eyes.
“Protect herd.”

I nodded.
“Protect
herd.”

I loved my
herd—my pack—humans, horses, dogs, goats, birds, and even the wild animals I
spent time with only fleetingly. But I’d never loved them as much as I did when
I saw them spread out in the dark field behind Wings.

There were still
several enemy two-legs, skulking in the cloak of darkness…laying wait. I could
sense them through the animals and could still feel the mind of one just beyond
the opposite side of camp. I’d heard a bevy of gunshots and shouting while I’d
been in Jack’s mind, but only a few had actually hit home. Our attackers’
tactics were too wild, too unpredictable, and it seemed it was far too dark for
my people to be very effective with their guns.

As the mountain
lion neared, I warned her to leave the horses alone while I let them know the
predator was a part of our herd, at least for a short time.

More gunfire.
Another shout. An inhuman, human snarl.

I dragged a limp
Jack closer to the wagon, where Ky was kneeling next to his brother’s body. I
swallowed roughly, forcing back a wail. Ben…was gone. But I had to focus.
Mourning could come later; we didn’t have time for that now.

“Zo!” I
whisper-shouted. “Keep Jack safe.”

She tried to hand
me my knife, but I pushed her hand, knife and all, back under the wagon.

“Protect
them,”
I told Cooper
before I stood and faced Wings.

She was prancing
nervously, eyeing the graceful, deadly creature slinking closer.

“Thank you for
coming to our aid,”
I
said to the mountain lion.

She was huge, far
larger than either Cooper or Jack. She sat on her haunches and opened her
mouth, emitting a soft, almost purr-like growl.
“Your enemy is my enemy.”

I nodded.
“Come,”
I said, both to her and to Wings. I turned and led them around the back end
of the wagon, toward the heart of our camp, picking my way across the uneven
ground carefully. “Don’t fire,” I called ahead as I touched the single enemy
mind I could sense.
“Which one of you is pack leader?”

“I am,
she-drifter.”
He was on
the opposite side of the ring of tents.

“Stop
attacking.”

“Your
pack-mates killed three of mine. Only one thing could make us stop.”

I assumed he
meant killing us all.
“And what’s that?”

“A female,
she-drifter. You.”

Surprised, I
blinked. And then I smiled. If he wanted me, then he could have me.
“Fine.
Deal. Gather your pack. I will come to you now.”
Of course, I never said I
would come alone. “Jason?”

“Yeah?” he said
from almost dead center inside our camp.

I continued
forward, shifting trajectory slightly and aiming for where I’d heard his voice.
“They’ve agreed to a ceasefire.” As I entered the circle of tents, Wings
remained outside, but the mountain lion trailed after me. I could sense my
other human pack-mates’ eyes on me, on
her
. Soon I was standing in front
of Jason, my hand resting on his forearm and my eyes scanning his moon-shadowed
face.

But he wasn’t
looking at me; he was staring at the mountain lion flanking me.

“Ben…he’s dead,”
I said softly. Pain and sorrow were overshadowed by the absolute need to
protect the rest of my herd—my pack. This had to end.

Jason’s eyes
shifted to me, grazing over my face before traveling lower, scanning the rest
of my body. “Zoe and Sarah?” His voice was barely a whisper.

“They’re fine.
Everyone else?” I glanced around at the shadowed forms of our other companions,
barely visible as they crouched within the circle of tents.

“Jake’s wounded.”
Jason nodded toward the ground, toward a smoking body.

I focused on the
man’s charred face, and for a moment, I feared that it was Jake’s.

“That one took a
chunk out of his arm when he dragged him in here, before Carlos got his hands
on him,” Jason said, and I exhaled in relief. “What’s going on?”

“I can speak to
their leader—telepathically,” I said as quietly as possible. I hesitated.
“They’re like me,” I told him, holding my head high and keeping my gaze steady.
“So is he.” My eyes flicked to our attackers’ prey, huddled in by the flameless
fire pit in the center of camp. “They agreed to stand down if I went with
them.”

“No.”

“Jason…this has
to end. Ben’s already dead. He’s
dead
.”

“There’s no
fucking way you’re—”

I dug my
fingernails into his arm, wishing they were claws. “I agreed to go with them,
but I didn’t say how long I would
stay
with them.”

Jason shook his
head. “I’m not letting you—”

Irritation
flared, and beside me the mountain lion stood, lashed her tail, and roared. I
offered him a small, sad smile. “You can’t stop me.”

Starlight glinted
in his eyes.

“I have a plan,
Jason. Trust me. Please.”

He didn’t
respond, so I released his arm and pushed past him, but he grabbed my wrist
before I’d taken two steps. “Don’t fucking die.”

I grinned. “I
wouldn’t think of it.”

Nobody else tried
to stop me while I moved through camp. I could hear Jason speaking to the
others behind me, too far away and his words too hushed for me to make out what
he was saying.

“Be ready,”
I told Wings.

“Protect
herd,”
she said.
“Protect you. Destroy enemy.”

When I reached
the leader of the enemy pack, he and his remaining companions stood, one by
one. There were four of them in total, and they were all male and of various
ages, as far as I could tell, and the leader appeared to be the youngest, a tall,
sturdy man in his prime.

I stopped a few
yards away from the leader, my feline guard still at my side me. “Here I am.”

“She-drifter,”
the leader said as he stepped forward. He moved closer, until he was standing
less than a foot away from me, and my blood turned into liquid nitrogen, then
lit on fire. His face, though shadowed, was one I would never forget. It was
the last thing Ray had seen before he’d snapped her neck.

Shock.
Recognition. Rage. “You.”
A sound started, a low rumble that was nowhere
near human. The growl was coming from me, from somewhere deep inside my chest,
born of a sudden, desperate hunger for vengeance. “You killed her.”

The man’s eyes
shone with awareness of what he’d done. “Had to get your attention. You belong
with us. With
me
.”

My growl ceased,
and a grin spread across my face. Anticipation melded with my hunger for
vengeance. With my lust for blood. “Do I? Then take me away from here.”

The pack leader
returned my grin and held his arm out for me to walk beside him…away from my old
pack. “We will worship you.” He touched his hand to my lower back, and I fought
the urge to twist around and tear his arm out of its socket. It didn’t matter
that I was far from strong enough to accomplish such a feat, the desire still
swelled.

I walked with
these strangers, this small pack of apparently wild men, for minutes. When we
were halfway to the tree line, when I was certain that we were far enough away
from camp that all of my people would be safe, I spoke to Wings.
“Now.”

Thunder filled
the air.

The earth quaked
under the beating of dozens of sets of hooves.

And as I slipped
out of my body, the mountain lion pounced on the pack leader.

I was Wings.

I led the
herd, racing through the night toward our enemy. Close.

So close.

There.

I skidded to a
halt while the rest of the herd stampeded onward. I guarded her body from the
horses trampling the rest of our enemies, guarded my predator-ally while it
tore into the enemy leader.

Rearing up
onto my hind legs, I screamed in triumph. The battle was done, and the enemy
was no more, nothing but lifeless flesh, bone, and blood under our hooves. We
won.

~~~~~

I made it back to
camp less than ten minutes after I’d left, feeling numb, both mentally and
emotionally. My feline companion had already gone her own way, returning to her
regular routine of nocturnal hunting.

The horses,
however, moved as a mass behind Wings and me, clingy in their post-fight
euphoria. They remained just beyond the ring of tents as I, alone, entered
camp.

I felt exhausted,
wrung dry of energy and emotion. “It’s done,” I said hollowly. “They’re dead.”

Jason strode
toward me, closing the distance between us in three steps. His arms wrapped
around me so tightly I could barely breathe, but at the moment, I didn’t really
care. I wanted him to hold me like that, suffocate me with the strength of his
relief, for all eternity. Possibly longer.

Seconds later, he
set me back on me feet. His mouth covered mine, his lips gentle, but demanding.

“Why couldn’t you
fucking warn us?” Ky shouted, and the kiss ended abruptly. Jason and I turned
our heads in time to see Ky stalking toward Becca. “My brother
is
dead
.
You see the fucking future. What the fuck is wrong with you? You should have
warned us! You should have fucking warned us!”

Jason and I
exchanged a wary look.

“Back off, Ky,”
Harper said, stepping in front of Becca and blocking her from Ky before the
irate man could reach her and do something
really
stupid. “It doesn’t
work like that.”