by Jo Holloway
“No. Not happening,” Rhys replied.
Cara turned to the three men. “If I go with you, you’ll leave them all alone? You’ll let them go?”
“We’re not here for a bunch of kids. But we also don’t care about hurting them if we have to.”
“You don’t have to. I’m going.”
The faces around her broke her heart in too many ways. Rhys’s eyes flashed their anger and desperation with a lightning bolt to the middle of her chest, but Wes’s disappointment drove it home and split her heart in two.
She stared back at Rhys and lost herself for a moment. Not that she’d needed any more reason to feel sure of her decision, but gazing into those eyes, she found all the certainty she could have hoped for.
“Get them to safety. For me . . . Please. You said once that you trust me. If you care about me, then trust me now that I know what I have to do.”
His shoulders caved as her words hit him. It took him a few seconds to move, but eventually, he swallowed and leaned down to the guy still looking stunned beside him. “Come on, Ben. Looks like you might have hit your head.”
Cara couldn’t look at Wes again, so she turned to the forest without another word. Footsteps followed behind her, but no one touched her until she passed between the trees into the cool shade, and the sounds of the school faded behind her.
A HAND SHOVED HER ROUGHLY between the shoulder blades, and she stumbled onto the path. Cara glanced across her shoulder before she was pushed forward again. It was the man with all the throwing knives, clearly the same one who had attacked them before. The other two must have stayed to keep her friends in line until they knew she was gone. They had better let them go now that she had surrendered. She tried to catch a glimpse between the trees, but there were too many people in the clearing to figure out what was going on.
The bitterness she’d felt from this Pyx at her race flowed through her without affecting her. It settled easily on the far side of the barrier in her mind, while the other side calmed. She’d be able to hear if panic broke out at the school. For now, the quiet woods wrapped her in hope.
The man grunted behind her when a branch she pushed past snapped back to hit him. Interesting that the Pyx wasn’t controlling his pain response as completely as Messoryx had controlled Lydia. Maybe it took practice to fully control a human. From his memories, she knew Messoryx had been doing it for a long time. Most of these others had to be more recent.
“How long have you been his errand boy?” she taunted.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Messoryx is a great leader. We have battles, not errands.”
“No, I meant the one in coveralls back there. You don’t even answer to the top dog, er, top Pyx, do you?”
“Wrong again. You’re bad at this. This is my team. I may have missed killing you at the range that day, but we still delivered our messenger who took care of the traitor. Messoryx trusts me to lead this mission.”
She hadn’t been sure who the leader was here. Now she had to keep him talking until she was sure the other Pyx had left their positions and followed them into the woods.
“A little further, Pyxsee. Unless you want everyone at your precious school to die, you don’t want them to hear you scream when I kill you.”
“Is that what this is? All you have to do is kill me?” Then why was she still alive? What was his hesitation?
“Finally got something right.”
Her thoughts raced back to her friends and everyone at the school. She’d done the only thing she could think of, and she hoped it would be enough. But surrendering to the outlaws didn’t mean she’d given up. Now if only she could figure out how to break away from him while ensuring the others left their posts. If she could escape, would they leave the school to chase her down? If she was really this important, they would. Hope flared in her chest.
Again, a strange sense of hesitation came from the Pyx behind her. It wormed in among the bitterness and cold hatred on the “them” side of the wall. With a deep breath, she spun around to face him.
“You don’t want to do this.”
“Of course I do.”
Influence. That was the word the Pyx had used up at the school. Messoryx thought she had influence. Josh thought the same thing, although he might have been thinking about a different kind. Jenner had snapped at her uncle when she was mad. Grawllyx had offered to threaten Rhys when she was upset with him. All those animal pyxides had shown up at the archery range amazingly quickly after the attack there, and again at the race. It was as if her fear had been a deafening cry for help through the area. Was it possible her empathy reached both ways?
Time to find out.
“No, you don’t. I feel your hesitation. You don’t want to kill me.” The bit of fear seeping in probably wouldn’t hurt anything, but she tried to push out a sense of calm acceptance. Sending out calm also meant she couldn’t expect help from friendly nearby Pyx either. It would be worth it if it worked.
For a second, the calm flickered back to her. Then the man snarled and the Pyx used his host’s human voice over the one she heard in her mind. “Nice try.”
He lunged forward with one of the knives in his outstretched hand. She jumped to the side. A flash of red streaked out of the brush and darted past her feet. The fox sank her teeth into the man’s ankle, and he stumbled with a shout. Cara cried out as the knife slashed across the arm she’d thrown up as a block. Burning pain grew as her body recognized the sharp cut, and her other hand clamped across it. Blood dripped between her fingers.
The man stepped forward, and she moved inside his reach before he could slash again. She stomped on the top of his foot and brought her elbow crashing into his nose. He fell to his knees, and the fox tore at the back of his ankle. He screamed. When she let go, the fox looked to Cara and then in the direction of the school.
“Not me. Him. Go help Wes,” she urged.
The fox streaked through the forest the way Cara had come. Blindingly quickly, the man reached for a knife from his belt and threw it after her. Cara knew a moment of panic before the lilting “missed me” sounded in her mind. Then Josh’s voice echoed the message he’d tried to drill into her.
Run if you can. Fight if you can’t. Don’t stop doing either.
She kicked at the man’s arm as he raised another knife and sent it spinning harmlessly into the foliage. Then she turned and sprinted. With her arms pumping, she couldn’t hold her wound closed anymore, and drops of blood flew in front of her as the arm swung forward with each step. She ran blindly up the path, expecting the bite of a knife in her back or legs with every stride, but she’d made the green team as a sophomore for a reason.
The knife didn’t come. She willed her legs to carry her faster. Much faster than any race she’d ever run. Still, the knife didn’t come. She chanced a look over her shoulder. The man hobbled after her, but he was falling farther behind. Seeing he couldn’t catch her, he reached for the knives.
The Pyx should be able to overcome any pain in the body he controlled and make the man run in spite of an injury, but he couldn’t fix something broken. The fox must have severed a tendon to make it so he physically couldn’t chase after her. She was far enough ahead by now to see the blade spinning through the air, and ducked.
She threw herself down a side path to put some trees between them. A shout reached her ears. To her horror, she realized the twisting path was leading her back toward the school. More precisely, it was leading her to the grotto where students were celebrating, completely unaware of the lethal chase going on around them. She crashed through the undergrowth to change direction, and came out on the broader trail, slamming straight into another man.
Her heart threw itself into her ribs. Then he turned around, and normal brown eyes instead of glowing green ones looked back at her.
“Mr. Meyers!”
“Cara? I heard a scream. Was that you?”
She grasped the teacher’s arms. “No, but you have to help. You know what’s been going o
n. They’re here now. They’re at the school. You have to get the kids from the grotto and take everyone up to the buildings. Help get everyone inside. Wes and Rhys should be doing that now, but go clear out the grotto.”
He blinked at her, and his mouth fell open. He made no effort to move.
“Owen.” He startled when she used his name. “You know what they are. You can help. Go.”
“But they’re invisible. They’re hidden.”
“Nothing is hidden. You just have to know how to see. These ones are people. They don’t belong here. They stand out in the forest. You’ll see them if you try. Pay attention to details. Watch for inconsistencies.”
He nodded and raced down the path to the right. Laughter from the students enjoying themselves drifted through the trees. A crashing sound in the bushes brought her back to herself. Her mouth went dry, and she turned to run again.
“Cara. What are you doing? Get to the school. Get to safety.” Grawlls had found her. The fear coursing through her must have reached out to the Pyx in the area after all.
“I can’t. I can’t lead them there.”
“Of course you can. We’re supposed to keep you safe. It’s not your job.” The bear hobbled forward.
“You’re hurt.”
His front paw was matted in blood. “Fortunately the human wasn’t a skilled hunter, but her knife was still sharp. Don’t worry, she’s alive and Pyx-free now, though the outlaw did escape.”
Cara checked all around her. There was no sign of the man with the throwing knives. She peeled off the thin shirt she wore over her tank top. “Here. Let me see.” Finding the top of the blood trail down Grawlls’s leg, she felt for the wound. “Don’t let him bite me, okay?” Grawlls flinched when her fingers found the gash, but Grawllyx held him under control. Warm, thick blood poured over her hand, mingling with hers. She wrapped her shirt above it and pulled it as tight as she could before tying it in a knot. She had to grit her teeth from the pain when her muscles tensed and the cut across her forearm opened. “There. Now go find help. Find a guardian to look after that for you. I assume they can do that.”
“Not until you’re safe. You’re hurt too.”
The thin shirt hadn’t offered any protection, but she felt oddly more vulnerable now in only her close-fitting tank top. Running back to school to hide was tempting, but she couldn’t. All of this, including the blood trickling down her arm, would be for nothing. People would probably die.
“You can’t run. I can. Now go.” She spun on her heel and took off. From the sounds, Grawlls tried to follow her, but his frustrated roar was all she needed to hear to know he’d been forced to give up.
Rays of sun filtered through the leaves above, casting green light across the trail and brightening the gold bands around the trees ahead.
With sudden clarity, she knew where she could go.
She knew the path well.
She surged ahead down the trail between the two gold-banded trees that marked the school boundaries. She made it a hundred feet down the path to the mansion before an ear-splitting crack shattered the air and her face kissed the dirt.
CHAPTER 30
CARA STRUGGLED TO PULL air back into her lungs after having it knocked out by hitting the ground. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess. When a couple shallow breaths made it through, she rolled over to look behind her. A pinch and weird pressure across the top of her shoulder made her look there first. Her brain fought to make sense of it.
Blood streamed down her front, staining her tank top with dark moisture. A hot, wet sensation ran down her back. The heat grew to a steady burn.
On the trail behind her stood the woman in jean shorts who’d been beside the path to the grotto earlier. Realization dawned as the woman raised the gun.
She’d been shot.
She was about to be shot again.
This time, she wouldn’t be a moving target.
With the realization, the pain set in. A burning hot poker seared through the top of her shoulder across the base of her neck. Bright spots exploded across her vision.
Her scream stuck in her throat as the gun leveled at her. She was almost grateful. At least the pain would end. The squeak that made it past her lips was lost in a deafening roar when Grawlls threw himself at the woman.
He hadn’t given up after all. He’d come for her.
The woman swiveled toward the sound and brought the gun around with her. Grawlls’s huge furry mass collided with her, and they both fell to the ground with a muffled bang.
“No!”
“Run,” Grawllyx pleaded with her.
Sorrow rang in his voice and through her mind when the bear didn’t try to rise. The sharp horror of it belonged on both sides of the wall, and her heart ached. But there was no time to cry. The man with the knives could still be coming, and she needed to draw the others this way too. Anything to take them and their weapons away from the people back at school. What if the woman had already shot someone at the grotto? What if her friends were still being held hostage, or worse?
“Over here,” she yelled to the trees, and then let out her pain and anguish in a true scream. She forced her limbs to move past the pain. Adrenaline added to the heat from her shoulder, and she half ran, half stumbled down the path with her body on fire.
She fell several times. Each time, it grew harder to force herself back to her feet, but she did. She fell again when she stumbled from the path into the meadow surrounding Whalton manor. The sight of the graceful stone walls warmed her soul, and she rose to her feet yet again.
She made it to the side door to the garage before a taunting voice grated in her mind.
“Ah, ah, ah.”
They’d finally caught up. Without much hope, she tried the knob.
Locked.
The workshop at the end of the garage had only been plan A, but she had no hope for plan B now that they were here. Plan B had been to break into the mansion and find somewhere to hide. The alarm would go off, and help would come eventually. Now, she’d never have enough time to hide where they couldn’t find her. In the state she was in, and with their control over their human hosts, she wouldn’t make it across the driveway before they caught her.
Slowly, she turned to face them.
There was only one, and it wasn’t who she’d expected. She’d been sure that mocking voice was the man with the throwing knives who’d called himself the leader, but this man wore different clothes.
Familiar clothes.
Her brain had turned a little foggy as she made her way here.
A little voice in the back of her mind told her it was blood loss. She couldn’t last much longer. She peered at the man. Hope brightened for a second when she placed him.
“Mr. Meyers?”
No, his eyes hadn’t glowed green before. Something was wrong.
“Not anymore. You really shouldn’t send pathetic humans to deal with creatures they can’t see coming.” Her math teacher’s face leered at her with an expression she’d never seen on him. “All it took was a little misplaced pity for a hurt, confused stranger in the middle of all those kids. Tragically easy to fool. Your tall friend played right into my hands.”
Her first thought was of Rhys. Then she remembered Mak’s long legs loping away toward the grotto. Her mouth went dry.
He reached a hand to his waist, to the belt he now wore with all the knives. The Pyx must have traded for a body that wasn’t broken after the fox bit his previous host. There was blood on his hand already. Far past anger now, all she felt was fear and horror for her teacher, and terror for what might have happened in the grotto.
“Mr. Meyers, it’s me. You know me. I know you can hear me. You have to fight.” She kept her eye on him and inched across the driveway.
The green in his eyes flickered, and another wiggle of doubt crept through the “them” side in her mind.
“Yes. Fight. This isn’t you. Come on, Owen.”
His brown eyes shone through, and she bolted for the sid
e of the mansion. She made it up the steps to the patio before a whistle tore by her ear and a knife buried itself in the oak door as she ran by. If she’d stopped to try the door, she’d be dead. Or maybe this new host wasn’t as skilled at knife-throwing as the last one had been. Either way, she rounded the corner with a glance over her shoulder to find the glowing green eyes firmly back in place, visible even from a distance. He seemed to be struggling to lurch after her.
“Don’t think a little fight will stop me. Not anymore. This isn’t my first hostile takeover.” He was out of sight now, but the voice taunted her. “Sure, it’s a little harder at first, but Messoryx taught me well.”
Down the side of the house, she stopped to pick up an empty flowerpot. Her right arm hung uselessly by her side, so she heaved it with her left as hard as she could. The pot smashed to pieces against the window—the same one she’d snuck through once with Wes and Jory. A giant crack snaked across the glass, but it held. She shook her foggy head and searched around her.
The day was falling into darkness faster than usual. Or was that her?
Rocks. She spotted a line of them in front of a low bush. She took a step toward them without thinking and fell off the edge of the patio. It wasn’t high, but it was enough that she fell to her hands and knees in the grass on the other side of the narrow flowerbed, only to have searing pain from her shoulder jolt her upright again. Scrambling into the shelter of one of the larger bushes, she picked up a rock from the row lining the bed.
With a peek over the bush to see if he’d reached the side of the house yet, she lobbed the rock. Left-handed throwing wasn’t something she’d practiced, and the rock hit the top corner of the window. The crack groaned and widened, but the glass stayed in place.
One more.
She threw again and hit the middle of the crack. Glass burst into the library with a crash. She dragged herself forward onto the low patio and reached inside to open the lock and yank the window open. A pinch where the glass cut her, and a little more blood trickling down her arm—the left one this time—was a small price to pay for the sweet music of the blaring alarm sounding inside.